Portal:United States
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The United States of America is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district and 14 territories. It is located mostly in central North America. The U.S. has three land borders, two with Canada and one with Mexico, and has sea borders with Cuba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Russia, and is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 50 states, only Alaska and Hawaii are not contiguous with any other state. The U.S. also has a collection of districts, territories, and possessions in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Each state has a high level of autonomy according to the system of federalism. The U.S. traces its national origin to the declaration by 13 British colonies in 1776 that they were one free and independent state. They were recognized as such by the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Since then, the nation has grown to become a superpower and exerts a high level of economic, political, military, and cultural influence.
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Two South Carolina-class battleships, also known as the Michigan class, were built for the United States Navy in the early twentieth century. Named South Carolina and Michigan, they were the first American dreadnoughts—powerful warships whose capabilities far outstripped those of the world's older battleships.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the prevailing theory of naval combat was that battles would continue to be fought at relatively close range using many small, fast-firing guns. As such, each of the ships in the United States' previous Connecticut-class battleships carried many medium-sized weapons alongside four large guns. This paradigm was soon to be subverted, as American naval theorists proposed that a ship mounting a homogeneous battery of large guns would be more effective in battle. (Full article...) -
Interstate 182 (I-182) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Washington. It serves as a connector from I-82 to the Tri-Cities region that crosses the Columbia River on the Interstate 182 Bridge between Richland and Pasco. I-182 is 15 miles (24 km) long and entirely concurrent with U.S. Route 12 (US 12); it also intersects State Route 240 (SR 240) and US 395.
Business leaders in the Tri-Cities began lobbying for a freeway in 1958 after early alignments for I-82 were routed away from the area. I-182 was created by the federal government in 1969 as a compromise to the routing dispute, which allowed for direct access to the Tri-Cities and a bypass for other traffic. The new freeway would also include construction of a bridge between Richland and Pasco, proposed since the 1940s at the site of an earlier cable ferry that ran until 1931. (Full article...) -
Troika is a 1969 American comedy art film written, directed, and produced by Charles Fredric Hobbs. It stars Hobbs, Richard Faun, Morgan Upton, Nate Thurmond, Gloria Rossi, and members of the San Francisco Art Institute. Its three parts are built around a fictional account of the director's attempt to gain financing for a film titled Troika.
Hobbs conceived the plot after working with the filmmakers Ron Bostwick and Robert Blaisdell on the short film Trojan Horse. Troika began as a "modern morality play"; the title comes from the Russian word for a set of three, reflecting the film's three segments. It was filmed in early to mid-1969 in locations in and around California. The score was a collaboration between Hobbs and the editor-co-director Gordon Mueller. (Full article...) -
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank J. Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chūichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondō north of Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare", while naval historian Craig Symonds called it "one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history, ranking alongside Salamis, Trafalgar, and Tsushima Strait, as both tactically decisive and strategically influential."
In response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo, the Japanese leadership planned a "barrier" strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter. They hoped to lure the American aircraft carriers into a trap, clearing the seas for Japanese attacks on Midway, Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii. The plan was undermined by faulty Japanese anticipations of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions. Crucially, U.S. cryptographers were able to determine the date and location of the planned attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to prepare its own ambush. (Full article...) -
Lake Estancia was a lake formed in the Estancia Valley, central New Mexico, which left various coastal landforms in the valley. The lake was mostly fed by creek and groundwater from the Manzano Mountains, and fluctuated between freshwater stages and saltier stages. The lake had a diverse fauna, including cutthroat trout; they may have reached it during a possible past stage where it was overflowing.
Lake Estancia appears to have formed between the Pliocene and Pleistocene, when a previous river system broke up. It reached a maximum water level ("highstand") presumably during the Illinoian glaciation and subsequently fluctuated between fuller stages and a desiccated basin. Around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) time interval, several highstands and a low water level state occurred during the "Big Dry" climate interval. Between 16,100 and 14,500 years ago the lake reached its highest stand of the last 30,000 years before drying up again during the Bølling-Allerød climate interval. The lake briefly returned during the Younger Dryas climate interval and eventually desiccated during the Holocene, after about 8,500 years ago. Wind-driven erosion has excavated depressions in the former lakebed that are in part filled with playas (dry lake beds). (Full article...) -
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 American science fiction film, written and produced by Harve Bennett, directed by Leonard Nimoy, and based on the television series Star Trek. It is the third film in the Star Trek franchise and is the second part of a three-film story arc that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and concludes with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). After the death of Spock (Nimoy), the crew of the USS Enterprise return to Earth. When James T. Kirk (William Shatner) learns that Spock's spirit, or katra, is held in the mind of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Kirk and company steal the decommissioned USS Enterprise to return Spock's body to his homeworld. The crew must also contend with hostile Klingons, led by Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), who are bent on stealing the secrets of the powerful terraforming device, Genesis.
Paramount Pictures commissioned the film after the positive critical and commercial reaction to The Wrath of Khan. Nimoy directed this film, becoming the first Star Trek cast member to do so. Producer Harve Bennett wrote the script, starting from the end and working back, and intended the destruction of the Enterprise to be a shocking development. (Full article...) -
A nickel is a five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint. Composed of cupronickel (75% copper and 25% nickel), the piece has been issued since 1866. Its diameter is 0.835 inches (21.21 mm) and its thickness is 0.077 inches (1.95 mm).
The silver half dime, equal to five cents, was issued from 1792 to 1873 before today's cupronickel version. The American Civil War caused economic hardship, driving gold and silver from circulation; in response, in place of low-value coins, the government at first issued paper currency. In 1865, Congress abolished the five-cent fractional currency note after Spencer M. Clark, head of the Currency Bureau (today the Bureau of Engraving and Printing), placed his own portrait on the denomination. After the successful introduction of two-cent and three-cent pieces without precious metal, Congress also authorized a five-cent piece consisting of base metal; the Mint began striking this version in 1866. The initial design of the Shield nickel was struck from 1866 until 1883, then was replaced by the Liberty Head nickel. The Buffalo nickel was introduced in 1913 as part of a drive to increase the beauty of American coinage. (Full article...) -
The orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. It is the only extant species in the genus Orcinus and is recognizable by its black-and-white patterned body. A cosmopolitan species, they are found in diverse marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas.
Orcas are apex predators with a diverse diet. Individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. This includes a variety of fish, sharks, rays, and marine mammals such as seals and other dolphins and whales. They are highly social; some populations are composed of highly stable matrilineal family groups (pods). Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, often specific to a particular group and passed along from generation to generation, are considered to be manifestations of animal culture. (Full article...) -
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a U.S. national monument and national preserve in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho. It is along US 20 (concurrent with US 93 and US 26), between the small towns of Arco and Carey, at an average elevation of 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level.
The Monument was established on May 2, 1924. In November 2000, a presidential proclamation by President Clinton greatly expanded the Monument area. The 410,000-acre National Park Service portions of the expanded Monument were designated as Craters of the Moon National Preserve in August 2002. It spreads across Blaine, Butte, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Power counties. The area is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). (Full article...) -
40 Wall Street (also the Trump Building; formerly the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building and Manhattan Company Building) is a 927-foot-tall (283 m) neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau and William streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Erected in 1929–1930 as the headquarters of the Manhattan Company, the building was designed by H. Craig Severance with Yasuo Matsui and Shreve & Lamb. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); it is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district.
The building is on an L-shaped site. While the lower section has a facade of limestone, the upper stories incorporate a buff-colored brick facade and contain numerous setbacks. The facade also includes spandrels between the windows on each story, which are recessed behind the vertical piers on the facade. At the top of the building is a pyramid with a spire at its pinnacle. Inside, the lower floors contained the Manhattan Company's double-height banking room, a board room, a trading floor, and two basements with vaults. The remaining stories were rented to tenants; there were private clubs on several floors, as well as an observation deck on the 69th and 70th floors. (Full article...) -
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American prison drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), and becomes instrumental in a money laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore appear in supporting roles.
Darabont purchased the film rights to King's story in 1987, but development did not begin until five years later, when he wrote the script over eight weeks. Two weeks after submitting his script to Castle Rock Entertainment, Darabont secured a $25 million budget to produce The Shawshank Redemption, which started pre-production in January 1993. While the film is set in Maine, principal photography took place from June to August 1993 almost entirely in Mansfield, Ohio, with the Ohio State Reformatory serving as the eponymous penitentiary. The project attracted many stars for the role of Andy, including Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Kevin Costner. Thomas Newman provided the film's score. (Full article...) -
On August 18, 1937, a lightning strike started the Blackwater Fire in Shoshone National Forest, approximately 35 miles (56 km) west of Cody, Wyoming, United States. Fifteen firefighters were killed by the forest fire when a dry weather front caused the winds to suddenly increase and change direction. The fire quickly spread into dense forest, creating spot fires that trapped some of the firefighters in a firestorm. Nine firefighters died during the fire and six more died shortly thereafter from severe burns and respiratory complications. Another 38 firefighters were injured. The fire killed more professional wildland firefighters in the U.S. than any other in the 103 years between the Great Fire of 1910 and the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013.
The Blackwater Fire consumed 1,700 acres (690 ha) of old-growth forest dominated by Douglas fir trees on the west slopes of Clayton Mountain. At the time the firestorm occurred, the temperatures were about 90 °F (32 °C) and the relative humidity was only 6 percent. Though most of the firefighters consisted of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employees, they were led by more experienced United States Forest Service (USFS) fire managers. Firefighters in the first half of the 20th century used mostly hand tools to suppress wildfires, and all gear was carried by the firefighters or by pack animals. Weather forecasting and radio communication were generally poor or nonexistent. (Full article...) -
Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors through her salon and also with her poetry, plays, and epigrams, often thematically tied to her lesbianism and feminism.
Barney was born into a wealthy family. She was partly educated in France, and expressed a desire from a young age to live openly as a lesbian. She moved to France with her first romantic partner, Eva Palmer. Inspired by the work of Sappho, Barney began publishing love poems to women under her own name as early as 1900. Writing in both French and English, she supported feminism and pacifism. She opposed monogamy and had many overlapping long and short-term relationships, including on-and-off romances with poet Renée Vivien and courtesan Liane de Pougy and longer relationships with writer Élisabeth de Gramont and painter Romaine Brooks. (Full article...) -
Charles Moss Duke Jr. (born October 3, 1935) is an American former astronaut, United States Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot. As Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at age 36 years and 201 days.
A 1957 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Duke joined the USAF and completed advanced flight training on the F-86 Sabre at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, where he was a distinguished graduate. After completion of this training, Duke served three years as a fighter pilot with the 526th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. After graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in September 1965, he stayed on as an instructor teaching control systems and flying in the F-101 Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, and T-33 Shooting Star. (Full article...) -
The Banker horse is a breed of semi-feral or feral horse (Equus ferus caballus) living on barrier islands in North Carolina's Outer Banks. It is small, hardy, and has a docile temperament, and is genetically related to the Carolina Marsh Tacky of South Carolina and Florida Cracker Horse breeds through their shared Colonial Spanish horse and Iberian horse descent. The current population of wild Banker horses is estimated to be about 400.
Bankers are allowed to remain on the islands due to their historical significance even though they can trample plants and ground-nesting animals and are not considered to be indigenous. They survive by grazing on marsh grasses, which supply them with water as well as food, supplemented by temporary freshwater pools. (Full article...) -
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress and producer. Lawrence is known for starring in both action film franchises and independent dramas, and her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. The world's highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016, she appeared in Time's 100 most influential people in the world list in 2013 and the Forbes Celebrity 100 list from 2013 to 2016.
Lawrence began her career as a teenager with guest roles on television. Her first major role was as a main cast member on the sitcom The Bill Engvall Show (2007–2009). She made her film debut with a supporting role in the drama Garden Party (2008) and had her breakthrough playing a poverty-stricken teenager in the independent film Winter's Bone (2010). Lawrence gained stardom portraying the mutant Mystique in the X-Men film series (2011–2019) and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015). The latter made her the highest-grossing action heroine. (Full article...) -
Alien vs. Predator (stylized as AVP: Alien vs. Predator) is a 2004 science fiction action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon, and Tommy Flanagan. It is the first film installment of the Alien vs. Predator franchise, the fifth film in the Alien franchise and third film of the Predator franchise, adapting a crossover bringing together the eponymous creatures of the Alien and Predator series, a concept which originated in a 1989 comic book written by Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. Anderson wrote the story, with the creators of the Alien franchise, Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett receiving additional story credit due to the incorporation of elements from the Alien series, and Anderson and Shane Salerno adapted the story into a screenplay. Their writing was influenced by Aztec mythology, the comic book series, and the writings of Erich von Däniken. In the film, scientists are caught in the crossfire of an ancient battle between Aliens and Predators as they attempt to escape a bygone pyramid.
Alien vs. Predator was theatrically released on 12 August 2004. It received generally negative reviews and grossed $177.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $60–70 million. A direct sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, was released in 2007. (Full article...) -
The cattle egret (formerly genus Bubulcus) is a cosmopolitan clade of heron (family Ardeidae) in the genus Ardea found in the tropics, subtropics, and warm-temperate zones. According to the IOC bird list, it contains two species, the western cattle egret and the eastern cattle egret, although some authorities regard them as a single species. Despite the similarities in plumage to the egrets of the genus Egretta, it actually belong to the genus Ardea. Originally native to parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, it has undergone a rapid expansion in its distribution and successfully colonised much of the rest of the world in the last century.
They are white birds adorned with buff plumes in the breeding season. They nest in colonies, usually near bodies of water and often with other wading birds. The nest is a platform of sticks in trees or shrubs. Cattle egrets exploit drier and open habitats more than other heron species. Their feeding habitats include seasonally inundated grasslands, pastures, farmlands, wetlands, and rice paddies. They often accompany cattle or other large mammals, catching insect and small vertebrate prey disturbed by these animals. Some populations are migratory and others show postbreeding dispersal. (Full article...) -
"Daisy", sometimes referred to as "Daisy Girl" or "Peace, Little Girl", is an American political advertisement that aired on television as part of Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign. Though aired only once, it is considered one of the most important factors in Johnson's landslide victory over the Republican Party's candidate, Barry Goldwater, and a turning point in political and advertising history. A partnership between the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency and Tony Schwartz, the "Daisy" advertisement was designed to broadcast Johnson's anti-war and anti-nuclear positions. Goldwater was against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and suggested the use of nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War, if necessary. The Johnson campaign used Goldwater's speeches to imply he would wage a nuclear war.
The commercial begins with three-year-old Monique Corzilius standing in a meadow, picking the petals of a daisy as she counts from one to ten incorrectly. After she reaches "nine", she pauses, and a booming male voice is heard counting the numbers backward from "ten", in a manner similar to the start of a missile launch countdown. A zoom of the video still concentrates on the girl's right eye until her pupil fills the screen, which is then replaced by the flash and sound of a nuclear explosion. A voice-over by Johnson states emphatically, "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." (Full article...) -
Bartholomew Jojo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional character in the American animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening created and designed Bart while waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip, Life in Hell, but instead decided to create a new set of characters. While the rest of the characters were named after Groening's family members, Bart's name is an anagram of the word brat. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for two years, the Simpson family received its own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. Bart has appeared in every Simpsons episode except "Four Great Women and a Manicure".
At ten years old, Bart is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent and popular character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness and disrespect for authority. Hallmarks of the character include his chalkboard gags in the opening sequence; his prank calls to Moe; and his catchphrases "Eat my shorts", "¡Ay, caramba!", "Don't have a cow, man!", and "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?". However, with the exception of "¡Ay, caramba!", these hallmarks have been retired or are not often used. Bart has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons – including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books – and inspired an entire line of merchandise. (Full article...) -
WBPX-TV (channel 68) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the Ion Television network. It is owned by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, which also owns Woburn-licensed Grit station WDPX-TV (channel 58); the two channels share the same TV spectrum. WBPX-TV and WDPX-TV are broadcast from a tower shared with WUNI and WWJE-DT on Parmenter Road in Hudson, Massachusetts.
WBPX-TV's programming is duplicated on WPXG-TV (channel 21) in Concord, New Hampshire, which shares its channel with Lowell, Massachusetts–licensed Daystar station WYDN (channel 48) and broadcasts from Fort Mountain near Epsom, New Hampshire. (Full article...) -
The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade was a marine brigade of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) that existed periodically from 1912 to 1950. It was an ad hoc unit formed for specific operations and not considered a "permanent" USMC unit.
The brigade saw five brief activations for service over a 40-year span. First created in 1912 for duty in Cuba following the Negro Rebellion, the brigade was not activated again until 1941 when it was hastily constructed from the 6th Marine Regiment to garrison Iceland after British forces occupied the country during World War II. The brigade saw service once more in the war during the Battle of Guam in the Pacific War, conducting an amphibious landing on that island's southern sector and subduing resistance from Japanese forces. It was activated once more in a brief organizational shift after the war. (Full article...) -
Stegosaurus (/ˌstɛɡəˈsɔːrəs/; lit. 'roof-lizard') is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been found in the western United States and in Portugal, where they are found in Kimmeridgian- to Tithonian-aged strata, dating to between 155 and 145 million years ago. Of the species that have been classified in the upper Morrison Formation of the western US, only three are universally recognized: S. stenops, S. ungulatus and S. sulcatus. The remains of over 80 individual animals of this genus have been found. Stegosaurus would have lived alongside dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Camarasaurus and Allosaurus, the latter of which may have preyed on it.
They were large, heavily built, herbivorous quadrupeds with rounded backs, short fore limbs, long hind limbs, and tails held high in the air. Due to their distinctive combination of broad, upright plates and tail tipped with spikes, Stegosaurus is one of the most recognizable kinds of dinosaurs. The function of this array of plates and spikes has been the subject of much speculation among scientists. Today, it is generally agreed that their spiked tails were most likely used for defense against predators, while their plates may have been used primarily for display, and secondarily for thermoregulatory functions. Stegosaurus had a relatively low brain-to-body mass ratio. It had a short neck and a small head, meaning it most likely ate low-lying bushes and shrubs. One species, Stegosaurus ungulatus, is one of the largest known of all the stegosaurians, with the largest known specimens measuring about 7.5 metres (25 ft) long and weighing over 5 metric tons (5.5 short tons). (Full article...) -
Timothy Theodore Duncan (born April 25, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent his entire 19-year career with the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Big Fundamental", he is widely regarded as the greatest power forward of all time and one of the greatest players in NBA history, and was a central contributor to the franchise's success during the 2000s and 2010s. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
Born and raised on Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Duncan initially aspired to be a competitive swimmer, but took up basketball at 14 after Hurricane Hugo destroyed the island's only Olympic-sized pool. In high school, he played basketball for St. Dunstan's Episcopal. In college, Duncan played for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and in his senior year, he received the John Wooden Award and was named the Naismith College Player of the Year and the USBWA College Player of the Year. (Full article...) -
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film, the fourth installment in the Star Trek film franchise based on the television series Star Trek. The second film directed by Leonard Nimoy, it completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). Intent on returning home to Earth to face consequences for their actions in the previous film, the crew of the USS Enterprise finds the planet in grave danger from an alien probe attempting to contact now-extinct humpback whales. The crew travel to Earth's past to find whales who can answer the probe's call.
After directing The Search for Spock, Nimoy was asked to direct the next feature, and given greater freedom regarding the film's content. Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett conceived a story with an environmental message and no clear-cut villain. Dissatisfied with the first screenplay produced by Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes, Paramount hired The Wrath of Khan writer and director Nicholas Meyer. Meyer and Bennett divided the story between them and wrote different parts of the script, requiring approval from Nimoy, lead actor William Shatner, and executives at Paramount Pictures. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that English-born actress Frances Brett Hodgkinson became the highest-paid theater actress in the United States in 1800?
- ... that research conducted in 2020 found that squirrels are "nearly ubiquitous" on college campuses in the United States and Canada?
- ... that the owner of the bus service connecting the two largest Vietnamese-American communities in the United States was the target of an assassination plot by a competitor?
- ... that Emily Spreeman, the all-time top scorer for the United States women's national deaf soccer team, debuted for the team at the age of 15?
- ... that Lisa Blatt, the first woman to argue 50 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, "elicits laughs and the occasional sharp response from the justices" for her witty delivery?
- ... that between 1899 and 1923 the United States government issued 3,604,239,600 one-dollar Black Eagle Silver Certificates?
- ... that the Circleville Pumpkin Show, the oldest pumpkin show in the United States, has been selecting a Miss Pumpkin since 1933?
- ... that Rachel Scott reported live during the January 6 United States Capitol attack in her first week as ABC News' White House correspondent?
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Frank Woodruff Buckles (born Wood Buckles, February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) was a United States Army corporal and the last surviving American military veteran of World War I. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 aged 16 and served with a detachment from Fort Riley, driving ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines in Europe.
During World War II, then aged 40, he was captured by Japanese forces while working in the shipping business, and spent three years in the Philippines as a civilian prisoner. After the war, Buckles married in San Francisco and moved to Gap View Farm near Charles Town, West Virginia. A widower at age 98, he worked on his farm until the age of 105.
In his last years, he was honorary chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation. As chairman, he advocated the establishment of a World War I memorial similar to other war memorials in Washington, D.C. Toward this end, Buckles campaigned for the District of Columbia War Memorial to be renamed the National World War I Memorial. He testified before Congress in support of this cause, and met with President George W. Bush at the White House. (Full article...)
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Photo credit: Alexander GardnerDavid Herold, one of the conspirators in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, photographed at the Washington Navy Yard after his arrest in 1865. Herold assisted John Wilkes Booth to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, where Booth's broken leg (sustained after jumping from the balcony of Ford's Theatre) was set. He remained with Booth and continually aided him until the authorities caught up with them. Herold surrendered to the police, but Booth refused to lay down his arms and was shot dead. Herold was later hanged for his role in the plot. -
Photograph: Unknown; Restoration: Chick BowenA pile of American bison skulls, waiting to be ground for fertilizer; a man stands atop the pile, with another in front of it. Bison, long a staple of Plains Indian tribal culture, were aggressively hunted by European settlers in the United States, nearly leading to the extinction of the species. -
Photograph: William Henry Jackson; Restoration: BammeskDenver is the capital and most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains, just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded in 1858, the city is named after James W. Denver, a governor of the Kansas Territory, and it is nicknamed the Mile High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5280 feet or 1609.3 meters) above sea level. Formerly part of Arapahoe County, Denver became a consolidated city-county in 1902.
This picture shows a panorama of Denver in around 1898, viewed from the top of the Colorado State Capitol, facing northwest and looking down 16th St. The domed building on the left is the former Arapahoe County Courthouse, demolished in 1933, and the Brown Palace Hotel is visible on the righthand side. -
Painting credit: Gilbert StuartThe Lansdowne portrait is an iconic life-size portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796. It depicts the 64-year-old president of the United States during his final year in office. The portrait was a gift to the former British prime minister William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, and spent more than 170 years in England. In 1968, it was loaned to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and purchased by the gallery in 2001. This copy of the Lansdowne portrait, also painted by Stuart, hangs in the East Room of the White House; it was rescued by First Lady Dolley Madison during the Burning of Washington in 1814. -
Artist: Daniel A. Jenks; Restoration: Papa Lima WhiskeyA drawing of travelers on the California Trail, one of the major emigrant trails across the Western United States used by over 250,000 people heading west during the California Gold Rush. This, combined with those coming from the east across the Isthmus of Panama or around Cape Horn, greatly increased the population of California, and spurred the movement to make it the 31st U.S. state. -
Photograph credit: Andre mThe California State Capitol, located in Sacramento, is the seat of the California government. The building houses the chambers of the California State Legislature, comprising the Assembly and the Senate, along with the office of the governor of California. The Neoclassical structure was designed by Reuben S. Clark and completed between 1861 and 1874. The California State Capitol Museum is housed on its grounds. -
Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew ShivaRutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) was an American soldier and politician who was elected the 19th President of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. The election, at the end of the Reconstruction Era, was highly contentious and he was declared the winner through the Compromise of 1877. As president he ended Army support for Republican state governments in the South, promoted civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction. -
Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew ShivaWilliam Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841. He died of typhoid, pneumonia or paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term, becoming the first president to die in office. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency. Vice President John Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to become the new president and took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of the presidency and its full powers when the previous president fails to complete the elected term. -
Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew ShivaAndrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He has been widely revered in the United States as an advocate for democracy and the common man, but many of his actions proved divisive, garnering both fervent support and strong opposition from different sectors of society. His reputation has suffered since the 1970s, largely due to his pivotal role in the forcible removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands; however, surveys of historians and scholars have ranked Jackson favorably among U.S. presidents. -
Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew ShivaJames Monroe (1758–1831) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fifth President of the United States from 1817 to 1825. Monroe was the last president of the Virginia dynasty, and his presidency ushered in what is known as the Era of Good Feelings. An anti-federalist, Monroe had opposed ratification of the United States Constitution, claiming it gave too much power to the central government. After time as a senator in the first United States Congress and as Governor of Virginia, Monroe was easily elected president in 1816, winning over 80 percent of the electoral vote and becoming the last president during the First Party System era of American politics. During his presidency, he sought to ease partisan tensions and extend the country's reach from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He also supported the founding of colonies in Africa for freed slaves, and his declaration of the Monroe Doctrine became a landmark in American foreign policy. -
Photograph credit: Edmonston; restored by Adam CuerdenLillian Ascough (1880–1974) was an American suffragist. She served as the Connecticut chair of the National Woman's Party (NWP) and the vice president of the Michigan branch of the NWP. She was a speaker in the Suffrage Special, an event created by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1916, which toured the "free states" which had already allowed women's suffrage in the United States. This formal photographic portrait of Ascough was taken around 1915 and published in the magazine The Suffragist. -
Map: Private Robert K. Sneden, mapmaker for Samuel P. Heintzelman's III CorpsThe Battle of Malvern Hill was fought on July 1, 1862, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac. It was the final battle of the Seven Days Battles during the American Civil War, taking place on Malvern Hill near the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Including inactive reserves, more than fifty thousand soldiers from each side took part, using more than two hundred pieces of artillery and three warships. The battle resulted in a tactical victory for the Union side, but the Confederates claimed a strategic victory as the Union failed to go on to capture Richmond.
This is a map of the night's march undertaken by the Union forces after the battle. -
Lithograph: Currier and Ives; Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn 1872 lithograph depicting seven early African Americans in the United States Congress, (from left to right) Senator Hiram Revels and Representatives Benjamin Turner, Robert DeLarge, Josiah Walls, Jefferson Long, Joseph Rainey, and Robert Elliott. During the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, some several hundred African-American officeholders were elected – all of whom were members of the Republican Party. -
Lithograph: Currier and Ives; Restoration: Lise BroerA Democratic campaign poster from the United States presidential election of 1864, showing presidential candidate George B. McClellan (left) and his running-mate George H. Pendleton. They lost to the Republican candidate, incumbent Abraham Lincoln, who became the first American president in 32 years to be reelected. -
Photograph: George C. Cox; restoration: Adam CuerdenWalt Whitman (1819–1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855, but continuously revised until Whitman's death), which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
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Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships and behavior, have generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the case was settled out of court and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury ruled him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his concert series This Is It, Jackson died on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. Before his death, Jackson had reportedly been administered drugs such as propofol and lorazepam. The Los Angeles County Coroner declared his death a homicide, and his personal physician pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and as many as one billion people around the world reportedly watched his public memorial service on live television. In March 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a US$250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings until 2017, and to release seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death.
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Located on the western banks of the Red River of the North in an extremely flat region known as the Red River Valley, the city is prone to flooding and was struck by the devastating Red River Flood of 1997. Grand Forks was founded in 1870 by steamboat captain Alexander Griggs and incorporated on February 22, 1881. Its location at the fork of the Red River and the Red Lake River gives the city its name.
Historically dependent on local agriculture, the city's economy now encompasses higher education, defense, health care, manufacturing, food processing, and scientific research. Grand Forks is served by Grand Forks International Airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base, while the city's University of North Dakota is the largest and oldest institution of higher education in the state. The Alerus Center host athletic and other events, while the North Dakota Museum of Art and Chester Fritz Auditorium are the city's largest cultural venues.
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Anniversaries for November 1
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Oysters Rockefeller is a dish consisting of oysters on the half-shell that have been topped with a rich sauce of butter, parsley and other green herbs, and bread crumbs, and then baked or broiled. Lemon wedges are the typical garnish. Many contemporary adaptations use diced oysters instead of whole. Also, diced bacon often appears as a non-traditional topping in addition to or in place of the sauce. (Full article...)
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The Willamette River as it passes through downtown Portland, Oregon.
More did you know? -
- ... that during his 1838 Lyceum address, Abraham Lincoln (pictured) warned of a tyrant overtaking the United States from within?
- ... that Perry Greeley Holden was the first professor of agronomy in the United States?
- ... that only 6% of Pacific hurricanes make landfall on the United States, and that the state of Arizona is affected by a tropical cyclone only about once every five years?
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