United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System and Private Forestry, Business Operations, the Research and Development branch. Managing 25% of federal lands, it is the only major national land agency, outside the U. S. Department of the Interior; the concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group and Crockett Club, due to concerns regarding Yellowstone National Park beginning as early as 1875. In 1876, Congress formed the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Franklin B. Hough was appointed the head of the office. In 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry; the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as "forest reserves," managed by the Department of the Interior.
In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry. The Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry, henceforth known as the United States Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Significant federal legislation affecting the Forest Service includes the Weeks Act of 1911, the Multiple Use – Sustained Yield Act of 1960, P. L. 86-517. L. 88-577. L. 94-588. L. 91-190. L. 95-313. L. 95-307. In February 2009, the Government Accountability Office evaluated whether the Forest Service should be moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, which includes the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, managing some 438,000,000 acres of public land; as of 2009, the Forest Service has a total budget authority of $5.5 billion, of which 42% is spent fighting fires.
The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters, 737 law enforcement personnel, 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is "To sustain the health and productivity of the Nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations." Its motto is "Caring for the land and serving people." As the lead federal agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection and use of the nation's forest and aquatic ecosystems. The agency's ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current and future needs. Through implementation of land and resource management plans, the agency ensures sustainable ecosystems by restoring and maintaining species diversity and ecological productivity that helps provide recreation, timber, fish, wildlife and aesthetic values for current and future generations of people.
The everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, providing recreation. The work includes managing 193,000,000 acres of national forest and grasslands, including 59,000,000 acres of roadless areas. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007; the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions; the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, an appointee of the President confirmed by the Senate; the Chief's staff provides broad policy and direction for the agency, works with the Administration to develop a budget to submit to Congress, provides information to Congress on accomplishments, monitors activities of the agency.
There are five deputy chiefs for the following areas: National Forest System and Private Forestry and Development, Business Operations, Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five research stations, the Forest Products Laboratory, the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, in Puerto Rico. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief. Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States. There are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908; the system provides places for long-term science and management studies in major vegetation types of the 195 million acres of public land administered by the Forest Service. Individual sites range from 47 to 22,500 ha in size. Operations of Experimental Forests and Ranges are directed by local research teams for the individual sites, by Research Stations for the regions in which they are located, at the level of the Forest Service.
Major themes in
New York City
The City of New York called either New York City or New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, exerts a significant impact upon commerce, research, education, tourism, art and sports; the city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of, a separate county of the State of New York. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898; the city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York City is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. In 2017, the New York metropolitan area produced a gross metropolitan product of US$1.73 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan.
The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, it has been the country's largest city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U. S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is an international symbol of the U. S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability, as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity. Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, with the city having three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013 and receiving a record 62.8 million tourists in 2017. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world. Times Square, iconic as the world's "heart" and its "Crossroads", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
The names of many of the city's landmarks and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. New York is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top universities in the world. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. In 1664, the city was named in honor of the Duke of York.
James's older brother, King Charles II, had appointed the Duke proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, which England had seized from the Dutch. During the Wisconsinan glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth; the erosive forward movement of the ice contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. In the precolonial era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape, whose homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island; the first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown. He named it Nouvelle Angoulême. A Spanish expedition led by captain Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio.
The Padrón Rea
Celebrity
Celebrity is the fame and public attention accorded by the mass media to individuals or groups or animals, but is applied to the persons or groups of people themselves who receive such a status of fame and attention. Celebrity status is associated with wealth, while fame provides opportunities to earn revenue. Successful careers in sports and entertainment are associated with celebrity status, while political leaders become celebrities. People may become celebrities due to media attention on their lifestyle, wealth, or controversial actions, or for their connection to a famous person. Athletes in Ancient Greece were welcomed home as heroes, had songs and poems written in their honor, received free food and gifts from those seeking celebrity endorsement. Ancient Rome lauded actors and notorious gladiators, Julius Caesar appeared on a coin in his own lifetime. In the early 12th century, Thomas Becket became famous following his murder, he was promoted by the Christian Church as a martyr and images of him and scenes from his life became widespread in just a few years.
In a pattern repeated, what started out as an explosion of popularity turned into long-lasting fame: pilgrimages to Canterbury Cathedral where he was killed became fashionable and the fascination with his life and death have inspired plays and films. The cult of personality can be traced back to the Romantics in the 18th century, whose livelihood as artists and poets depended on the currency of their reputation; the establishment of cultural hot-spots became an important factor in the process of generating fame: for example and Paris in the 18th and 19th centuries. Newspapers started including gossip columns and certain clubs and events became places to be seen in order to receive publicity; the movie industry spread around the globe in the first half of the 20th century and with it the now familiar concept of the recognizable faces of its superstars. Yet, celebrity was not always tied to actors in films when cinema was starting out as a medium; as Paul McDonald states in The Star System: Hollywood's Production of Popular Identities, "in the first decade of the twentieth century, American film production companies withheld the names of film performers, despite requests from audiences, fearing that public recognition would drive performers to demand higher salaries."
Public fascination went well beyond the on-screen exploits of movie stars and their private lives became headline news: for example, in Hollywood the marriages of Elizabeth Taylor and in Bollywood the affairs of Raj Kapoor in the 1950s. The second half of the century saw television and popular music bring new forms of celebrity, such as the rock star and the pop group, epitomised by Elvis Presley and the Beatles, respectively. John Lennon's controversial 1966 quote: "We're more popular than Jesus now," which he insisted was not a boast, that he was not in any way comparing himself with Christ, gives an insight into both the adulation and notoriety that fame can bring. Unlike movies, television created celebrities who were not actors. However, most of these are only famous within the regions reached by their particular broadcaster, only a few such as Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer, or David Frost could be said to have broken through into wider stardom. In the'60s and early'70s, the book publishing industry began to persuade major celebrities to put their names on autobiographies and other titles in a genre called celebrity publishing.
In most cases, the book was not written by the celebrity but by a ghost-writer, but the celebrity would be available for a book tour and appearances on talk shows. Cultures and regions with a significant population may have their own independent celebrity systems, with distinct hierarchies. For example, the Canadian province of Quebec, French-speaking, has its own system of French-speaking television and music celebrities. A person who garners a degree of fame in one culture may be considered less famous or obscure in another; some nationwide celebrities might command some attention outside their own nation. S. whereas the francophone Canadian singer Celine Dion is well known in both the French-speaking world and in the United States. Regions within a country, or cultural communities can have their own celebrity systems in linguistically or culturally distinct regions such as Quebec or Wales. Regional radio personalities, politicians or community leaders may be local or regional celebrities. In politics, certain politicians are recognizable to many people the head of state and the Prime Minister.
Yet only heads of state who play a major role in international politics have a good chance of becoming famous outside their country's borders, since they are featured in mass media. The President of the United States, for instance, is famous by name and face to millions of people around the world. Since World War II the U. S. Presidential elections are followed all across the globe, making the elected candidate world-famous as a result. In contrast, both the Pope and The Dalai Lama are far more famous under their official title than under their actual names; when politicians leave active politics their recognizability tends to diminish among general audiences, as
Truth or Consequences
Truth or Consequences is an American game show hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards and on television by Edwards, Jack Bailey, Bob Barker, Steve Dunne, Bob Hilton and Larry Anderson. The television show ran on CBS, NBC and in syndication; the premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts. The daily syndicated show was produced by Ralph Edwards Productions, in association with and distributed by Metromedia Producers Corporation and Lorimar-Telepictures. Current rights are owned by Ralph Edwards Productions and FremantleMedia. On the show, contestants received two seconds to answer a trivia question before "Beulah the Buzzer" sounded. If the contestant could not complete the "Truth" portion, there would be "Consequences," a zany and embarrassing stunt. From the start, most contestants preferred to answer the question wrong in order to perform the stunt. Said Edwards, "Most of the American people are darned good sports."A popular segment on many episodes of was an emotional surprise for a contestant, that being reunited with a long-lost relative or with an enlisted son or daughter returning from military duty overseas Vietnam.
Sometimes, if that military person was based in California, his or her spouse or parents were flown in for that reunion. During Barker's run as host, a side game, "Barker's Box", was played at the end of the show. Barker's Box had four drawers; the contestant won the money in each. The game ended. Barker traditionally ended each episode with the phrase, "Hoping all your consequences are happy ones." In one 1994 episode of The Price Is Right, he started to deliver that closing, but caught his mistake and covered it by saying "hoping all your...prices are right!", instead of his familiar "Have your pets spayed or neutered" line he was best known for using at the time. Ralph Edwards stated he got the idea for a new radio program from a favorite childhood parlor game, "Forfeits"; the show premiered on NBC Radio in March 23, 1940, was an instant hit with listeners. Truth or Consequences was the first game show to air on broadcast television, airing as a one-time experiment on the first day of New York station WNBT's commercial program schedule on July 1, 1941.
However, the series did not appear on TV again until 1950, when the medium had caught on commercially. In the late 1940s, Hot Springs, New Mexico agreed to host a T or C radio episode, resulting in the community renaming itself to Truth or Consequences; the program originated as a prime time series, airing on CBS from September 7, 1950, to May 31, 1951, hosted by Edwards. Three years it returned on NBC with Jack Bailey as host, this time running from May 18, 1954, to September 28, 1956. Only three months after its demise, NBC launched a new daytime version on December 20 of that year, with radio personality Bob Barker at the helm; this run not only marked the start of a hugely successful TV career for Barker, but became the longest-running incarnation of Truth or Consequences yet, airing until September 24, 1965. During Barker's run, another prime time version was attempted, this one with actor Steve Dunne emceeing, which ran on NBC from December 13, 1957, to June 6, 1958. Edwards pioneered several technologies for recording live television programs.
When Truth or Consequences established a permanent presence on TV in 1950, Edwards arranged to have it be recorded on 35mm film, using multiple cameras simultaneously—the first TV program recorded before a live audience to do so. A similar process was adapted by Desilu for I Love Lucy the following year. On January 22, 1957, the show, produced in Hollywood, became the first program to be broadcast in all time zones from a prerecorded videotape. In 1966, Truth or Consequences became the first successful daily game show in first-run syndication to not air on a network, having ended its NBC run one year earlier; this version continued through 1975. In the fall of 1977, a syndicated revival titled The New Consequences premiered. However, this version was cancelled after a single season. A decade Truth or Consequences returned in syndication for the 1987-88 season, this time with actor Larry Anderson as host, assisted by Murray Langston; this effort failed to attract audiences and was gone after one season.
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico is a setting featured in a two-part episode of the British science fiction series, Doctor Who, "The Zygon Invasion" and "The Zygon Inversion", first broadcast in 2015. In the storyline, the origin of the town's name is discussed, with the game show referenced, the concept of "tr
First Lady of the United States
The First Lady of the United States is the title held by the hostess of the White House the wife of the President of the United States, concurrent with the President's term in office. Although the First Lady's role has never been codified or defined, she figures prominently in the political and social life of the nation. Since the early 20th century, the First Lady has been assisted by official staff, now known as the Office of the First Lady and headquartered in the East Wing of the White House. Melania Trump is the current First Lady of the United States, as wife of 45th president, Donald Trump. While the title was not in general use until much Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington, the first U. S. President, is considered to be the inaugural First Lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was referred to as "Lady Washington". Since the 1790s, the role of First Lady has changed considerably, it has come to include involvement in political campaigns, management of the White House, championship of social causes, representation of the president at official and ceremonial occasions.
Because first ladies now publish their memoirs, which are viewed as potential sources of additional information about their husbands' administrations, because the public is interested in these independent women in their own right, first ladies remain a focus of attention long after their husbands' terms of office have ended. Additionally, over the years individual first ladies have held influence in a range of sectors, from fashion to public opinion on policy. Should a president be unmarried, or a widower, the president asks a relative or friend to act as White House hostess. There are four living former first ladies: wife of Jimmy Carter; as of 2019, the only former First Lady who has run for or held public office is Hillary Clinton. The use of the title First Lady to describe the spouse or hostess of an executive began in the United States. In the early days of the republic, there was not a accepted title for the wife of the president. Many early first ladies expressed their own preference for how they were addressed, including the use of such titles as "Lady", "Mrs. President" and "Mrs. Presidentress".
One of the earliest uses of the term "First Lady" was applied to her in an 1838 newspaper article that appeared in the St. Johnsbury Caledonian, the author, "Mrs. Sigourney", discussing how Martha Washington had not changed after her husband George became president, she wrote. Indulging in no indolence, she left the pillow at dawn, after breakfast, retired to her chamber for an hour for the study of the scriptures and devotion". Dolley Madison was referred to as "First Lady" in 1849 at her funeral in a eulogy delivered by President Zachary Taylor. Sometime after 1849, the title began being used in Washington, D. C. social circles. One of the earliest known written examples comes from November 3, 1863, diary entry of William Howard Russell, in which he referred to gossip about "the First Lady in the Land", referring to Mary Todd Lincoln; the title first gained nationwide recognition in 1877, when newspaper journalist Mary C. Ames referred to Lucy Webb Hayes as "the First Lady of the Land" while reporting on the inauguration of Rutherford B.
Hayes. The frequent reporting on Lucy Hayes' activities helped spread use of the title outside Washington. A popular 1911 comedic play about Dolley Madison by playwright Charles Nirdlinger, titled The First Lady in the Land, popularized the title further. By the 1930s, it was in wide use. Use of the title spread from the United States to other nations; when Edith Wilson took control of her husband's schedule in 1919 after he had a debilitating stroke, one Republican senator labeled her "the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of the suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man."The wife of the Vice President of the United States is sometimes referred to as the Second Lady of the United States, but this title is much less common. Several women who were not presidents' wives have served as First Lady, as when the president was a bachelor or widower, or when the wife of the president was unable to fulfill the duties of the First Lady herself. In these cases, the position has been filled by a female relative or friend of the president, such as Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph, Jackson's daughter-in-law Sarah Yorke Jackson and his wife's niece Emily Donelson, Taylor's daughter Mary Elizabeth Bliss, Benjamin Harrison's daughter Mary Harrison McKee, Buchanan's niece Harriet Lane, Cleveland's sister Rose Cleveland.
The position of the First Lady carries only ceremonial duties. Nonetheless, first ladies have held a visible position in American society; the role of the First Lady has evolved over the centuries. She is, the hostess of the White House, she organizes and attends official ceremonies and functions of state either along with, or in place of, the president. Lisa Burns identifies four successive main themes of the first ladyship: as public woman. Martha Washington hosted many affairs of state at the national capital. This
Signal Corps (United States Army)
The United States Army Signal Corps is a division of the Department of the Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Major Albert J. Myer, had an important role in the American Civil War. Over its history, it had the initial responsibility for portfolios and new technologies that were transferred to other U. S. government entities. Such responsibilities included military intelligence, weather forecasting, aviation. Support for the command and control of combined arms forces. Signal support includes network operations and management of the electromagnetic spectrum. Signal support encompasses all aspects of designing, data communications networks that employ single and multi-channel satellite, tropospheric scatter, terrestrial microwave, messaging, video-teleconferencing, visual information, other related systems, they integrate tactical and sustaining base communications, information processing and management systems into a seamless global information network that supports knowledge dominance for Army and coalition operations.
While serving as a medical officer in Texas in 1856, Albert James Myer proposed that the Army use his visual communications system, called aerial telegraphy. When the Army adopted his system on 21 June 1860, the Signal Corps was born with Myer as the first and only Signal Officer. Major Myer first used his visual signaling system on active service in New Mexico during the early 1860s Navajo expedition. Using flags for daytime signaling and a torch at night, wigwag was tested in Civil War combat in June 1861 to direct the fire of a harbor battery at Fort Wool against the Confederate positions opposite Fort Monroe. For nearly three years, Myer was forced to rely on detailed personnel, although he envisioned a separate, trained professional military signal service. Myer's vision came true on 3 March 1863, when Congress authorized a regular Signal Corps for the duration of the war; some 2,900 officers and enlisted men served, although not at any single time, in the Civil War Signal Corps. Myer's Civil War innovations included an unsuccessful balloon experiment at First Bull Run, and, in response to McClellan's desire for a Signal Corps field telegraph train, an electric telegraph in the form of the Beardslee magnetoelectric telegraph machine.
In the Civil War, the wigwag system, restricted to line-of-sight communications, was waning in the face of the electric telegraph. Myer used his office downtown in Washington, D. C. to house the Signal Corps School. When it was found to need additional space, he sought out other locations. First came Fort Greble, one of the Defenses of Washington during the Civil War, when that proved inadequate, Myer chose Fort Whipple, on Arlington Heights overlooking the national capital; the size and location were outstanding. The school remained there for over 20 years and was renamed Fort Myer. Signal Corps detachments participated in campaigns fighting Native Americans in the west, such as the Powder River Expedition of 1865; the electric telegraph, in addition to visual signaling, became a Signal Corps responsibility in 1867. Within 12 years, the corps had constructed, was maintaining and operating, some 4,000 miles of telegraph lines along the country's western frontier. In 1870, the Signal Corps established a congressionally mandated national weather service.
Within a decade, with the assistance of Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, Myer commanded a weather service of international acclaim. Myer died in 1880, having attained the rank of brigadier general and the title of Chief Signal Officer; the weather bureau became part of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1891, while the corps retained responsibility for military meteorology; the Signal Corps' role in the Spanish–American War of 1898 and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection was on a grander scale than it had been in the Civil War. In addition to visual signaling, including heliograph, the corps supplied telephone and telegraph wire lines and cable communications, fostered the use of telephones in combat, employed combat photography, renewed the use of balloons. Shortly after the war, the Signal Corps constructed the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System known as the Alaska Communications System, introducing the first wireless telegraph in the Western Hemisphere. For more details on this topic, see Aeronautical Division, U.
S. Signal Corps and Aviation Section, U. S. Signal Corps On 1 August 1907, an Aeronautical Division was established within the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. In 1908, on Fort Myer, the Wright brothers made test flights of the Army's first airplane built to Signal Corps' specifications. Reflecting the need for an official pilot rating, War Department Bulletin No. 2, released on 24 February 1911, established a "Military Aviator" rating. Army aviation remained within the Signal Corps until 1918. During World War I. Chief Signal Officer George Owen Squier worked with private industry to perfect radio tubes while creating a major signal laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail. Early radiotelephones developed by the Signal Corps were introduced into the European theater in 1918. While the new American voice radios were superior to the radiotelegraph sets and telegraph remained the major technology of World War I. A pioneer in radar, Colonel William Blair, director of the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, patented the first Army radar demonstrated in May 1937.
Before the United States entered World War II, mass
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private and statutory Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, from the theoretical to the applied; these ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's founding principle, a popular 1868 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."The university is broadly organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions at its main Ithaca campus, with each college and division defining its own admission standards and academic programs in near autonomy. The university administers two satellite medical campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City and Cornell Tech, a graduate program that incorporates technology and creative thinking; the program moved from Google's Chelsea Building in New York City to its permanent campus on Roosevelt Island in September 2017.
Cornell is one of ten private land grant universities in the United States and the only one in New York. Of its seven undergraduate colleges, three are state-supported statutory or contract colleges through the State University of New York system, including its agricultural and human ecology colleges as well as its industrial labor relations school. Of Cornell's graduate schools, only the veterinary college is state-supported; as a land grant college, Cornell operates a cooperative extension outreach program in every county of New York and receives annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions. The Cornell University Ithaca Campus comprises 745 acres, but is much larger when the Cornell Botanic Gardens and the numerous university-owned lands in New York City are considered; as of October 2018, 58 Nobel laureates, four Turing Award winners and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Cornell University. Since its founding, Cornell has been a co-educational, non-sectarian institution where admission has not been restricted by religion or race.
Cornell counts more than 245,000 living alumni, its former and present faculty and alumni include 34 Marshall Scholars, 30 Rhodes Scholars, 29 Truman Scholars, 7 Gates Scholars, 55 Olympic Medalists, 14 living billionaires. The student body consists of more than 14,000 undergraduate and 8,000 graduate students from all 50 American states and 116 countries. Cornell University was founded on April 27, 1865. Senator Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca, New York, as a site and $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial endowment. Fellow senator and educator Andrew Dickson White agreed to be the first president. During the next three years, White oversaw the construction of the first two buildings and traveled to attract students and faculty; the university was inaugurated on October 7, 1868, 412 men were enrolled the next day. Cornell developed as a technologically innovative institution, applying its research to its own campus and to outreach efforts. For example, in 1883 it was one of the first university campuses to use electricity from a water-powered dynamo to light the grounds.
Since 1894, Cornell fulfill statutory requirements. Cornell has had active alumni since its earliest classes, it was one of the first universities to include alumni-elected representatives on its Board of Trustees. Cornell was among the Ivies that had heightened student activism during the 1960s related to cultural issues, civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War. Today the university has more than 4,000 courses. Cornell is known for the Residential Club Fire of 1967, a fire in the Residential Club building that killed eight students and one professor. Since 2000, Cornell has been expanding its international programs. In 2004, the university opened the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, it has partnerships with institutions in India and the People's Republic of China. Former president Jeffrey S. Lehman described the university, with its high international profile, a "transnational university". On March 9, 2004, Cornell and Stanford University laid the cornerstone for a new'Bridging the Rift Center' to be built and jointly operated for education on the Israel–Jordan border.
Cornell's main campus is on East Hill in Ithaca, New York, overlooking Cayuga Lake. Since the university was founded, it has expanded to about 2,300 acres, encompassing both the hill and much of the surrounding areas. Central Campus has laboratories, administrative buildings, all of the campus' academic buildings, athletic facilities and museums. North Campus is composed of ten residence halls that house first-year students, although the Townhouse Community houses transfer students; the five main residence halls on West Campus make up the West Campus House System, along with several Gothic-style buildings, referred to as "the Gothics". Collegetown contains two upper-level residence halls and the Schwartz Performing Arts Center amid a mixed-use neighborhood of apartments and businesses; the main campus is marked by an irregular layout and eclectic architectural styles, including ornate Collegiate Gothic and Neoclassical buildings, the more spare international and modernist structures. The more ornat
