Portal:United States
Introduction
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- ... that Empire of Liberty was published twenty-seven years after its preceding volume in the Oxford History of the United States series?
- ... that New Zealand composer Maewa Kaihau sold her rights to the song "Now is the Hour" for £10, a decade before it became a hit in the United Kingdom and United States?
- ... that Adam Kincaid of the National Republican Redistricting Trust defended lowered competition in US House elections, arguing that the changes would save the party money?
- ... that according to Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. Supreme Court justice David J. Brewer had "a sweetbread for a brain" and was a "menace to the welfare of the Nation"?
- ... that when students spoke Vietnamese in a graduation speech in Louisiana, the school district proposed banning all non-English languages?
- ... that the only stained glass exported to the United States by Barton, Kinder and Alderson had to pay import duty, unlike much artwork in places of worship, because of its low cost-to-size ratio?
- ... that Ron Brown, the United States secretary of commerce, leased equipment to a TV station in Washington, D.C., whose owner turned out to be his lover?
- ... that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a United States regulatory agency, does not require workplaces to have employee break rooms?
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Born into a wealthy, established family in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. He attended Phillips Academy and served as a pilot in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II before graduating from Yale and moving to West Texas, where he established a successful oil company. Following an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate in 1964, he was elected to represent Texas's 7th congressional district in 1966. President Richard Nixon appointed Bush as the ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. President Gerald Ford appointed him as the chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and as the director of Central Intelligence in 1976. Bush ran for president in 1980 but was defeated in the Republican presidential primaries by Reagan, who then selected Bush as his vice presidential running mate. In the 1988 presidential election, Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis.
Foreign policy drove Bush's presidency as he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. He presided over the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. Though the agreement was not ratified until after he left office, Bush negotiated and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise by enacting legislation to raise taxes to justify reducing the budget deficit. He championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan legislation in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments. He also appointed David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession, his turnaround on his tax promise, and the decreased emphasis of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate. (Full article...)
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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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In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the American Revolution the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston all occurred within the city and surrounding areas. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now attracts 16.3 million visitors annually. The city was the site of America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and first college, Harvard College (1636), in neighboring Cambridge. Boston was also home to the first subway system in the United States.
Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. With many colleges and universities within the city and surrounding area, Boston is a center of higher education and a center for health care. The city's economy is also based on research, finance, and technology — principally biotechnology.
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Anniversaries for September 4
- 1781 – Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels) by 44 Spanish settlers. (skyline pictured)
- 1862 – American Civil War Maryland Campaign: General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North.
- 1882 – The Pearl Street Station in New York City becomes the first power plant to supply electricity to paying customers.
- 1923 – Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship, the USS Shenandoah.
- 1957 – American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: The governor of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School, resulting in the lawsuit Cooper v. Aaron the following year.
- 1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
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More did you know? -
- ... that the long-nosed god maskettes (pictured) found throughout the American Midwest are believed to have been used in the ritual adoption of visiting tribal leaders?
- ... that the first proper society page in the United States was the invention of James Gordon Bennett, Jr. for the New York Herald?
- ... that the report "Top Secret America" by The Washington Post revealed that over 850,000 people in the U.S. intelligence community have top-secret clearance?
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