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Al Unser Jr.

Al Unser Jr.

Al Unser, Jr. (born April 19, 1962 in Albuquerque, New Mexico), nicknamed "Little Al" is an American race car driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. Al Unser, Jr., the son of Al Unser and the nephew of Bobby Unser, both race car drivers, grew up surrounded by racing. By the age of 11, Al Unser, Jr. was racing sprint cars. After high school, he was already in the World of Outlaws series of sprint car racing. In 1982, Unser made his debut on the CART circuit, finishing fifth at the California 500. A year later, he competed in his first Indianapolis 500, finishing tenth. Unser continued racing on the CART circuit, becoming one of the series' rising stars. He began competing in the IROC championship in 1986, winning that championship with two victories in four races. At the age of 24, Unser was the youngest IROC champion ever (as of 2004). The same year, Unser also won the 24 Hours of Daytona. Unser continued to improve on the CART circuit, finishing fourth in the points standings in 1986, third in 1987, second in 1988 and finally winning the series for the first time in 1990. In 1989, Unser was on the verge of winning his first Indianapolis 500, but while battling with Emerson Fittipaldi for the lead, the two touched wheels and Unser spun out, hitting the wall and ending his chances. Unser would have his day at Indy in 1992, however, defeating Scott Goodyear by .043 of a second, the closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history (as of 2004). In 1994, Unser again won at Indy, this time with Penske Racing. His teammate was Emerson Fittipaldi, the man whom he battled with five years before. Unser turned in a dominant season-long performance, winning eight of 16 races on his way to his second CART championship. However, Unser would begin to fade in CART. He would finish second to Jacques Villeneuve in CART championship points in 1995, but after finishing fourth in 1996, 13th in 1997, 11th in 1998 and 21st in 1999, Unser would eventually leave CART to join the budding Indy Racing League for the 2000 campaign. He won his first IRL race that same season at Las Vegas. Unser would go on to win a total of three races in his IRL career, but after breaking his pelvis in an all-terrain vehicle accident in October of 2003, Unser had difficulty securing a ride for the 2004 season. He finally signed with Patrick Racing three races into the season, but after a 22nd-place finish in Richmond, Al Unser, Jr. finally announced his retirement from racing on June 30, 2004. Unser continues to remain involved in racing, however, outside of a racing capacity. He serves as an adviser for Patrick Racing and works as a mentor for his son, Alfred Unser, who is currently working his way through the lower ranks in open-wheel racing.

Champcar career results


- 1982 - Forsythe Racing - 30 points, 21st in championship, best finish: 5th
- 1983 - Galles Racing - 89 points (new system), 7th, best finish: 2nd (x2)
- 1984 - Galles Racing - 1 win, 103 points, 6th
- 1985 - Shierson Racing - 2 wins, 150 points, 2nd
- 1986 - Shierson Racing - 1 win, 137 points, 4th
- 1987 - Shierson Racing - 107 points 3rd, best finish: 2nd (x2)
- 1988 - Galles Racing - 4 wins, 149 points, 2nd
- 1989 - Galles Racing - 1 win, 136 points, 5th
- 1990 - Galles/Kraco Racing - 6 wins, 210 points, 1st
- 1991 - Galles/Kraco Racing - 2 wins, 197 points, 3rd
- 1992 - Galles/Kraco Racing - 1 win, 169 points, 3rd
- 1993 - Galles Racing - 1 win, 100 points, 7th
- 1994 - Penske Racing - 8 wins, 225 points, 1st
- 1995 - Penske Racing - 4 wins, 161 points, 2nd
- 1996 - Penske Racing - 125 points, 4th, best finish: 2nd (x2)
- 1997 - Penske Racing - 67 points, 13th, best finish: 3rd
- 1998 - Penske Racing - 72 points, 11th, best finish: 2nd
- 1999 - Penske Racing - 26 points, =21st, best finish: 5th 2 championships, 31 victories

Indianapolis 500 results


- 1983 - 10th (out of fuel)
- 1984 - 21st (water pump)
- 1985 - 25th (engine)
- 1986 - 5th
- 1987 - 4th
- 1988 - 13th
- 1989 - 2nd (crash)
- 1990 - 4th
- 1991 - 4th
- 1992 - 1st
- 1993 - 8th
- 1994 - 1st
- 1995 (did not qualify)
- 2000 - 29th (radiator)
- 2001 - 30th (crash)
- 2002 - 12th
- 2003 - 9th
- 2004 - 17th

External link


- [http://www.indyracing.com/drivers/driver_bios.php?driver_id=41 IRL Profile for Al Unser, Jr.] Unser, Al, Jr. Unser, Al, Jr. Unser, Al, Jr. Unser, Al, Jr. Unser, Al Unser, Al, Jr. ja:アル・アンサーJr.

1962

1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). In Chinese Zodiac, the "year" of the Ox ended on February 4, 1962 and the "year" of the Tiger began on February 5, 1962.

Events

January


- January 1 - Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand
- January 3 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro
- January 4 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board
- January 5 - The first record by The Beatles is released by Deutsche Grammophon
- January 8 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC)
- January 9 - Trade pact between Cuba and the Soviet Union
- January 10 - Avalanche on Nevado Huascarán in Peru; 4000 deaths
- January 11 - Volcano erupts in the Peruvian Andes and causes an avalanche that buries 3000
- January 12 - Indonesian army confirms that it has began operations in West Irian
- January 13 - Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China
- January 16 - Military coup in the Dominican Republic
- January 19 - Counter-coup in the Dominican Republic - old government returns except for the new president Rafael Bonnely
- January 22 - The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba's membership
- January 24 - East German goverment readopts conscription
- January 24 - OAS bomb in French foreign ministry
- January 26 - Mafioso Lucky Luciano dies at the Naples Airport
- January 26 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles
- January 27 - Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgi Malenkov
- January 30 - Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, Michigan

February


- February 2 - For the first time in 400 years Neptune and Pluto align
- February 3 - US announces its trade embargo with Cuba
- February 4 - The Sunday Times becomes the first paper to print a colour supplement
- February 4 - Latin American Gnostic master Samael Aun Weor declares the advent of the New Age of Aquarius
- February 5 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation
- February 7 - The United States Government bans all US-related Cuban imports and exports
- February 9 - Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation opens
- February 10 - February 10 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin
- February 12 - Six members of the Committee of 100 of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament are found guilty of a breach of the Official Secrets Act
- February 14 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House
- February 15 - Urho Kekkonen re-elected president of Finland
- February 16/February 17 - Heavy storm flood on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg, more than 300 people die, thousands losing their homes
- February 17 - Flooding in North Sea coasts
- February 20 - Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes becoming the first American to orbit the Earth
- February 23 - 12 European countries form European Space Agency

March-April


- March 1 - An American Airlines Boeing 707 crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport after its rudder separates from the tail, with loss of all life on board
- March 2 - Military coup in Burma
- March 8-12 - In Geneva, France and Algerian FLN begin negotiations
- March 15 - Katangan prime minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin Congo
- March 19 - Armistice begins in Algeria
- March 18 - France and Algeria sign an agreement in Evian ending the Algerian War. See Évian Accords.
- March 19 - Armistice in Algeria - however, Organisation de l'armée secrète continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians
- March 23 - Scandinavian States of Nordic Council sign Helsinki Convention on Nordic Co-operation
- March 24 - OAS leader Edmond Jouahud arrested in Oran
- March 26 - France shortens the term for military service from 26 months to 18
- April 3 - Nehru elected de facto prime minister of India
- April 4 - James Hanratty is hanged in Bedford Gaol for A6 murder - many believe he was innocent
- April 6 - Belgium reforms diplomatic relations with Congo
- April 7 - Author Milovan Djilas arrested in Yugoslavia
- April 8 - In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum with a majority of 90%.
- April 10 - In Los Angeles, the first game is played at Dodger Stadium.
- April 13 - OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud sentenced to death in France
- April 14 - Cuban military tribunal convicts 1179 Bay of Pigs attackers
- April 18 - Commonweath Immigration Bill in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the British Commonwealth
- April 20 - OAS leader Raoul Salan arrested in Algiers
- April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon

May-June


- May 2 - OAS bomb explodes in Algeria - this and other attacks kill 110 and injure 147
- May 31 - Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel
- May 5 - 12 East Germans escape via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall
- May 14 - Juan Carlos marries the Greek Princess Sophia in Athens
- May 14 - Milovan Djilas, former vice-president of Yugoslavia, is given further sentence for publishing Conversations with Stalin
- May 23 - Drilling for new Montreal, Quebec subway commences
- May 23 - Founder of the French terrorist Organisation de l'armée secrète, Raoul Salan, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France
- May 24 - In Olima, Peru, unpopular referee ruling in a Peru-Argentina soccer match leads to riot and panic - 300 dead, over 500 injured
- May 24 - Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule
- May 25 - Consecration of the new Coventry cathedral
- May 29 - Negotiations between OAS ja FLA lead to real armistice
- May 31 - Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel
- June 3 - An air crash at Orly Airport in Paris - 130 dead, two stewardesses survive
- June 11 - President John F. Kennedy, gives commencement address at Yale University.
- June 11 - Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to apparently successfully escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. There is no conclusive evidence that they survived the attempt.
- June 15 - Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement
- June 17 – OAS signs a truce with FLN in Algeria but a day later announces that it will continue the fight for French Algeria
- June 17 - Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 to win the 1962 World Cup
- June 25 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Engel v. Vitale that prayers in public schools are unconstitutional
- June 26 - Two-day steel strike begins in Italy in support of increased wages and 5-day working week
- June 30 - Last soldiers of the French Foreign Legion leave Algeria

July


- July 1 - Independence of Rwanda and Burundi
- July 1 – Supporters of Algerian independence win 99% majority in referendum
- July 1 - Another heavy smog over London
- July 2 - Charles De Gaulle accepts Algerian independence - France recognizes it the next day
- July 5 - Algeria becomes independent from France.
- July 6 - Irish broadcaster, Gay Byrne, presents his first edition of The Late Late Show. Byrne would go on to present the show for 37 years making it the longest running talk show in the world
- July 10 - AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit - it is activated the next day
- July 12 - The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, number 165 Oxford Street, opening for Long John Baldry
- July 13 - in what the press dubs "the Night of the Long Knives" United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third of his Cabinet
- July 17 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site
- July 20 - French and Tunisia reform diplomatic relations
- July 22 - Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed
- July 23 - Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal
- July 28 - Locust swarm threatens Delhi
- July 31 - Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President
- July 31 - Crowd assaults the rally of the right-wing Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley in London

August-September


- August 5 - Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills
- August 6 - Jamaica becomes independent
- August 5 - South African government arrests Nelson Mandela in Howick and charges him with incinement to rebellion
- August 15 - Netherlands recognizes that Irian Java is part of Indonesia
- August 16 - Algeria joins the Arab League
- August 17 - East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin
- August 22 - Failed assassination attempt against Charles De Gaulle
- August 23 - John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell
- August 24 - Group of armed Cuban refugee fire at hotel in Havana from a speedboat
- August 27 - NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe
- August 31 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent
- September 1 - Referendum in Singapore supports Malayan Federation
- September 1 - Typhoon Wanda strikes Hong Kong, at least 130 died and more than 600 were wounded.
- September 2 - Soviet Union agrees to send arms to Cuba
- September 8 - Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.
- September 12 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade
- September 16 - Malaysia formed with Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, and North Borneo
- September 21 - Border conflict between China and India erupts into fighting
- September 21 - New Musical Express, a British music magazine, publishes a story about two 13 year old schoolgirls, Sue and Mary, releasing a disc on Decca, adding, “A Liverpool group, The Beatles, have recorded 'Love Me Do' for Parlophone, set for October 5 release.”
- September 26 - Civil war erupts in Yemen
- September 27 - Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement
- September 28 - Prime minister Ahmed Ben Bella founds the first government in Algeria
- September 29 - The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg AFB in California

October

Vandenberg AFB
- October 1 - The first black student James Meredith registers in University of Mississippi escorted by Federal marshals
- October 5 - French National Assembly censures the proposed referendum to sanction presidential elections by popular mandate; prime minister Georges Pompidou resigns, but President de Gaulle asks him to stay in office
- October 8 - German Der Spiegel magazine publishes an article about Bundeswehr's bad preparedness - Spiegel scandal erupts
- October 8 - Algeria is accepted into United Nations
- October 9 - Uganda becomes independent within the British Commonwealth
- October 10 - Der Spiegel publishes an article on a NATO exercise criticizing the weakness of the West German army (the offices of the paper are occupied by the police on the 16th)
- October 11 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years
- October 12 - Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U. S. Pacific Northwest with wind gusts up to 170 mph (270 km/h); 46 dead, 11 billion board feet (26 million m³) of timber blown down, $230 million U.S. in damages
- October 13 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway.
- October 14 - Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed. A stand-off then ensues the next day between the United States and the Soviet Union, putting the entire world under threat of a nuclear war
- October 26 - Spiegel scandal - German police occupies Der Spiegel offices in Hamburg
- October 28 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba
- October 28 - a referendum in France favours the election of the president by universal suffrage
- October 31 - the UN General Assembly requests the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but the constitution comes into effect on November 1

November


- November 1 – Soviets begins dismantling their missiles in Cuba
- November 5 - Franz Josef Strauß, the West German defence minister, is relieved of his duties over the Spiegel affair because it is alleged that he was involved in police action against the magazine
- November 5 - Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic relations with Egypt following a period of unrest partly caused by the defection of several Saudi princes to Egypt
- November 5 - A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund kills 21 people. The Norwegian government is forced to resign in the aftermath of this accident in August, 1963
- November 6 - Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation
- November 7 - Richard M. Nixon loses the California governor's race. In his concession speech, he states that this is his "last press conference" and that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more"
- November 17 - In Washington, DC, US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport
- November 20 - Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, US President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
- November 26 - Spiegel scandal - German police ends its occupation of Der Spiegel offices
- November 27 - Charles De Gaulle tells Georges Pompidou to form a government
- November 29 - An agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner
- November 30 - The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General

December


- December 2 - Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress
- December 7 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his formerly autocratic power to several advisory and legislative councils.
- December 8 - Closing of first period of Second Vatican Council
- December 8 - In Brunei sheik Azaharin rebels - it lasts only one day
- December 8 - North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei – first stirrings of Indonesian Confrontation
- December 9 - Tanganyika (now Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president
- December 11 - Formation in West Germany of coalition government of Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Free Democrats
- December 14 - US spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet
- December 19 - Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation
- December 19 - The last foreign-occupied territory of India, Daman and Diu integrated into India
- December 22 - "Big Freeze" in Britain - no frost-free nights until March 5 1963
- December 24 - Cuba releases last of the 1113 participants of the Bay of Pigs Invasion to USA in exchange of food worth $53 million
- December 30 - United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia

Unknown dates


- Pantyhose becomes available for sale in U.S. department stores
- American ad man Martin K. Speckter invents the interrobang, a new English-language punctuation mark
- Sino-Indian War border dispute involving two of the world's largest nations (between India and the People's Republic of China)
- University of Szeged assumed the name of the great Hungarian poet, Attila József, who was a student here in the 1920s.

Births

January-February


- January 5 - Joe Monzo, American composer
- January 14 - Michael McCaul, American politician
- January 17 - Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
- January 18 - Jeff Yagher, American actor
- January 21 - Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
- February 1 - Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese guitarist
- February 4 - Clint Black, American musician
- February 5 - Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress
- February 6 - Axl Rose, American singer (Guns N'Roses)
- February 7 - Garth Brooks, American musician
- February 7 - Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
- February 8 - Malorie Blackman, Chilldrens' author
- February 10 - Bobby Czyz, American boxer
- February 10 - Cliff Burton, American bassist (Metallica) (d. 1986)
- February 11 - Sheryl Crow, American singer
- February 11 - Scott Kolden, actor
- February 12 - Jimmy Kirkwood, Irish-born field hockey player
- February 12 - Nana Ioseliani, Georgian chess player
- February 13 - Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, American politician
- February 17 - Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor
- February 21 - Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
- February 21 - Chuck Palahniuk, American author
- February 21 - David Foster Wallace, American writer
- February 22 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist and television personality
- February 24 - Michelle Shocked, American musician

March


- March 2 - Jon Bon Jovi, American singer, songwriter, and actor
- March 3 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American athlete
- March 3 - Herschel Walker, American football player
- March 8 - Michael Graham, American singer, entertainer
- March 7 - Taylor Dayne, American singer
- March 12 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player
- March 15 - Terence Trent D'Arby, American-born singer
- March 17 - Clare Grogan, Scottish actress and singer
- March 18 - Thomas Ian Griffith, American actor
- March 19 - Ivan Calderón, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (d. 2003)
- March 20 - Stephen Sommers, American film director
- March 21 - Matthew Broderick, American actor
- March 21 - Rosie O'Donnell, American comedian, actress, talk show host, and publisher
- March 23 - Steve Redgrave, English rower
- March 26 - John Stockton, American basketball player
- March 30 - MC Hammer, American rapper

April-May


- April 2 - Mark Shulman, American children's author
- April 9 - Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
- April 10 - Steve Tasker, American football player
- April 11 - Vincent Gallo, American actor
- April 12 - Art Alexakis, American singer and musician (Everclear)
- April 15 - Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan hurdler
- April 16 - Ian MacKaye, American musician
- April 19 - Al Unser, Jr., American race car driver
- April 23 - John Hannah, Scottish actor
- May 3 - Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
- May 9 - David Gahan, English singer (Depeche Mode)
- May 10 - David Fincher, American film director
- May 12 - Emilio Estevez, American actor
- May 13 - Eduardo Palomo, Mexican actor (d. 2003)
- May 17 - Lise Lyng Falkenberg, Danish writer
- May 20 - Mike Jeffries, American soccer coach
- May 24 - Gene Anthony Ray, American actor (d. 2003)
- May 26 - Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor and comedian
- May 27 - Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer

June-August


- June 2 - Clyde Drexler, American basketball player
- June 5 - Jeff Garlin, American comedian
- June 8 - Nick Rhodes, English musician (Duran Duran)
- June 10 - Gina Gershon, American actress
- June 13 - Ally Sheedy, American actress
- June 19 - Paula Abdul, American dancer, choreographer, and singer
- June 29 - Amanda Donohoe, English actress
- June 30 - Tony Fernandez, baseball player
- July 3 - Tom Cruise, American actor
- July 5 - Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Indonesian terrorist
- July 19 - Anthony Edwards, American actor
- July 31 - Wesley Snipes, American actor
- August 1 - Robert Clift, British field hockey player
- August 4 - Roger Clemens, baseball player
- August 5 - Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-born basketball player
- August 6 - Michelle Yeoh, Hong Kong actress
- August 9 - Kevin Mack, American football player
- August 20 - Sophie Aldred, British actress and television presenter
- August 24 - Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
- August 25 - David Packer, American actor
- August 29 - Rebecca De Mornay, American actress

September-October


- September 1 - Ruud Gullit, Dutch footballer
- September 5 - Peter Wingfield, Welsh actor
- September 11 - Elizabeth Daily, American actress
- September 15 - Earnest Byner, American football player
- September 17 - Baz Luhrmann, Australian film director
- September 24 - Jack Dee, British comedian
- September 25 - Aida Turturro, American actress
- September 26 - Melissa Sue Anderson, American actress
- September 26 - Tracey Thorn, British singer
- September 28 - Grant Fuhr, Canadian hockey player
- September 30 - Frank Rijkaard, Dutch football player and manager
- October 1 - Esai Morales, American actor
- October 11 - Joan Cusack, American actress and comedienne
- October 11 - Nicola Bryant, British actress
- October 13 - T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, American actress and comedian
- October 13 - Kelly Preston, American actress
- October 13 - Jerry Rice, American football player
- October 16 - Flea, Australian actor and bassist (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- October 16 - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian baritone
- October 19 - Evander Holyfield, American boxer
- October 23 - Doug Flutie, American football player
- October 23 - Mike Tomczak, American football player
- October 25 - Nick Hancock, British actor and television presenter
- October 26 - Cary Elwes, British actor
- October 27 - Ang Peng Siong, Singapore Sportsman
- October 30 - Courtney Walsh, Welsh cricketer

November-December


- November 1 - Magne Furuholmen, Norwegian keyboardist (a-ha)
- November 3 - Marilyn, British musician
- November 4 - Jeff Probst, American television personality
- November 11 - Demi Moore, American actress
- November 19 - Jodie Foster, American actress and director
- November 21 - Steven Curtis Chapman, American musician
- November 24 - John Kovalic, Anglo-American cartoonist
- November 27 - Samantha Bond, British actress
- November 28 - Jon Stewart, American actor and comedian
- November 29 - Andrew McCarthy, American actor
- November 30 - Bo Jackson, American football and baseball player
- November 30 - Daniel Keys Moran, American writer
- December 5 - José Cura, Argentine tenor
- December 8 -

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used