McCurtain County, Oklahoma
McCurtain County is located in the southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,151, its county seat is Idabel. It was formed at statehood from part of the earlier Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory; the name honors an influential Choctaw family. Green McCurtain was the last chief when the Choctaw Nation was dissolved before Oklahoma became a state in 1907; the area now included in McCurtain County was part of the Choctaw Nation before Oklahoma became a state. In the 1820s, it was a major part of Arkansas; the area was sparsely populated, with no towns. There were post offices established at small trading posts along the various trails. Towns began to form when the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway was built across the area in 1902. Between 1910 and 1921 the Choctaw Lumber Company laid tracks for the Texas and Eastern Railroad from Valliant, Oklahoma to DeQueen, Arkansas; these roads still served the area at the beginning of the 21st century. The county experienced difficulty functioning because of lack of funds.
When the Choctaws accepted their land allotments, their homesteads were not taxable for twenty-one years. No roads were built until a decade after statehood. There were no bridges, so ferries carried people and vehicles across the major streams; the only F5 tornado in April in Oklahoma occurred in this county on April 4, 1982. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,902 square miles, of which 1,850 square miles is land and 52 square miles is water, it is the third-largest county in Oklahoma by area. The terrain of McCurtain county varies from the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains in the northern part of the county to the rich Red River bottoms of the southern part. Sections of the Mountain Fork and Little River drainages lie in McCurtain county. Glover River originates in McCurtain County and flows 33.2 miles to its confluence with Little River southeast of Wright City. Broken Bow Lake was created in 1968 by damming the Mountain Fork River. Mountain Fork river is one of the two year round trout fisheries in the state.
The lowest point in the state of Oklahoma is located on the Little River in McCurtain County, where it flows out of Oklahoma and into Arkansas. The county contains McCurtain County Wilderness Area, a 14,087 acre tract created in 1918 and managed by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. S. Highway 70 U. S. Highway 259 State Highway 3 State Highway 4 State Highway 37 State Highway 87 State Highway 98 Little River National Wildlife Refuge Ouachita National Forest As of the census of 2000, there were 34,402 people, 13,216 households, 9,541 families residing in the county; the population density was 7/km². There were 15,427 housing units at an average density of 3/km²; the racial makeup of the county was 70.54% White, 9.30% Black or African American, 13.57% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.34% from other races, 5.02% from two or more races. 3.09% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 28.6% were of American, 7.6% Irish and 5.9% English ancestry according to Census 2000.
94.4% spoke English, 2.9% Spanish and 2.6% Choctaw as their first language. There were 13,216 households out of which 34.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.30% were married couples living together, 14.60% had a female householder with no husband present, 27.80% were non-families. 25.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.00% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.06. In the county, the population was spread out with 28.20% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 26.20% from 25 to 44, 23.40% from 45 to 64, 14.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 92.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $24,162, the median income for a family was $29,933. Males had a median income of $26,528 versus $17,869 for females; the per capita income for the county was $13,693.
About 21.00% of families and 24.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.40% of those under age 18 and 21.20% of those age 65 or over. Agriculture and forestry have dominated the county's economy; the dense forests that covered the area were cleared and processed within two decades after statehood. The cleared lands became subsistence farms. Cotton was the main money crop. Cattle raising, as well as production of swine and poultry, replaced cotton farming in importance. Cotton farms in the Red River valley began raising grains and forage instead. Natural reseeding and active reforestation projects, both public and private, have replenished much of the harvested forest area; this revitalized the timber industry, again important to the county economy. Limestone and gravel are extracted for extensive local use. Broken Bow Idabel Garvin Haworth Millerton Smithville Valliant Wright City Eagletown National Register of Historic Places listings in McCurtain County, Oklahoma McCurtain County Tourism Authority McCurtain County OSU Extension Center Beavers Bend Cabins near Broken Bow Lake and Beavers Bend State Park Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory
Peter Pitchlynn
Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, of the Hat-choo-tuck-nee clan, was a Choctaw chief of Choctaw and Anglo-American ancestry. He was principal chief of the Choctaw from 1864-1866 and surrendered to the Union on behalf of the nation at the end of the Civil War. Educated in Choctaw culture and American schools, in 1825 he helped found a school for Choctaw boys: the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky, he worked to reduce the sale of alcohol in their territory. After removal to Indian Territory in the 1830s, he was appointed by the National Council in 1845 as the Choctaw Delegate to Washington, D. C. At the time, the Nation was proposing to be recognized by the US Congress as a territory. After the war, Pitchlynn returned to Washington, D. C. to represent Choctaw interests and work for concessions from the government for the Choctaw lands sold under pressure to the United States in 1830 during Indian Removal. He died in Washington, D. C. and is buried there. Peter P. Pitchlynn was born in Noxubee County, January 30, 1806 as the first son of Sophia Folsom, a Choctaw of Anglo-American descent.
Sophia's Choctaw name was Lk-lo-ha-wah. Sophia Folsom and John Pitchlynn married in 1804; as the Choctaw had a matrilineal system of property and hereditary leadership, Peter was born into his mother's clan and people. His father was Major John Pitchlynn, of Scots descent; the father was raised from childhood by the Choctaw after the death of a widower. John Pitchlynn served George Washington as an interpreter for negotiations with the Choctaw. One of ten children born to the Pitchlynns, after several years at home, Peter was sent to a Tennessee boarding school about 200 miles from Mississippi, he attended an academy in Columbia, Tennessee. To complete his education, he studied at and graduated from the University of Nashville, considered one of the finest institutions of the time, it started small like many colleges. After he obtained his degree, Pitchlynn returned to his family home in Mississippi, where he became a farmer, he soon married a first cousin. As part of changing practices, they were married by Reverend Cyrus Kingsbury.
They had several children: Lycurgus, Peter P. Jr. Leonidas, Rhoda Mary, Malvinia. After his wife's death, Pitchlynn corresponded with his older children while they were away at school, trying to give them guidance. Lycurgus attended a school in Peter Jr. one in Oxford, Georgia. The Pitchlynn sons had difficulties as youths and adults: Lycurgus and Leonidas were convicted of assault in 1857 and sentenced to prison; the father gained a pardon for them from President John Buchanan. In 1860, Peter Jr. shot and killed his uncle, Lorenzo Harris, married to his father's sister Elizabeth Pitchlynn. Some said. After Rhoda's death, Peter married Caroline Lombardy, they had a daughter together, who never married and lived with her father. Pitchlynn was well educated in both European-American culture, he began working on ways to improve Choctaw life. He worked to ban the sale of alcohol in Choctaw territory. Believing that education was important, he persuaded the National Council to found the Choctaw Academy, located in Blue Springs, Scott County, Kentucky in 1825.
It sometimes accepted students of other American Indian tribes as well as Choctaw. Pitchlynn stayed involved with the school, receiving quarterly reports. In 1830 Pitchlynn was elected to the National Council of Choctaw; because of his education, he served as an interpreter and effective liaison between the Choctaw and the US federal government. He moved with the Choctaw to Indian Territory in the 1830s. Pitchlynn's widowed mother, Sophia Folsom Pitchlynn, moved with her son, she had the oldest known grave in Oklahoma. Charles Dickens, whom Pitchlynn met on a steamboat on the Ohio River described him at length: He was a remarkably handsome man. There were but twenty thousand of the Choctaws left, he said, their number was decreasing every day. A few of his brother chiefs had been obliged to become civilised, to make themselves acquainted with what the whites knew, for it was their only chance of existence, but they were not many. He dwelt on this: and said several times that unless they tried to assimilate themselves to their conquerors, they must be swept away before the strides of civilised society.
When we shook hands at parting, I told him he must come to England, as he longed to see the land so much: that I should hope to see him there, one day: and that I could promise him he would be well received and kindly treated. He was evidently pleased by this assurance, though he rejoined with a good-humoured smile and an arch shake of his head, that the English used to be fond of the Red Men when they wanted their help, but had not cared much for them, since, he took his leave. He sent me a lithographed portrait of himself soon afterwards. In 1840 the Council appointed Pitchlynn as a superintendent of the Choctaw Academy; the following year, they decided to relocate the school to the Choctaw
Attala County, Mississippi
Attala County is a county located in the U. S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,564, its county seat is Kosciusko. Attala County is named for Atala, a fictional Native American heroine from an early-19th-century novel of the same name by François-René de Chateaubriand. Myrtis Methvin was elected in 1932 as the second woman mayor in Louisiana and took office in Castor in Bienville Parish, serving from 1933 to 1945, she was born in Attala County in 1895. John D. Winters, an historian of the American Civil War, was born in Attala County in 1917. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 737 square miles, of which 735 square miles is land and 1.7 square miles is water. Mississippi Highway 12 Mississippi Highway 14 Mississippi Highway 19 Mississippi Highway 35 Mississippi Highway 43 Natchez Trace Parkway Montgomery County Choctaw County Winston County Leake County Madison County Holmes County Carroll County Natchez Trace Parkway As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 19,564 people residing in the county, down from its peak in 1940.
56.2% were White, 42.0% Black or African American, 0.3% Asian, 0.2% Native American, 0.7% of some other race and 0.6% of two or more races. 1.7% were Hispanic or Latino. As of the census of 2000, there were 19,661 people, 7,567 households, 5,380 families residing in the county; the population density was 27 people per square mile. There were 8,639 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 58.34% White, 40.00% Black or African American, 0.17% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.65% from other races, 0.57% from two or more races. 1.42% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 7,567 households out of which 32.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.30% were married couples living together, 16.70% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.90% were non-families. 26.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.50% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.07.
In the county, the population was spread out with 25.90% under the age of 18, 9.20% from 18 to 24, 25.20% from 25 to 44, 22.40% from 45 to 64, 17.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 91.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.70 males. The median income for a household in the county was $24,794, the median income for a family was $30,796. Males had a median income of $26,180 versus $17,394 for females; the per capita income for the county was $13,782. About 18.30% of families and 21.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.60% of those under age 18 and 21.40% of those age 65 or over. Kosciusko Ethel McCool Sallis Hesterville McAdams Williamsville Zama Sand Hill Valena Dry county National Register of Historic Places listings in Attala County, Mississippi Attala County Courthouse Pictures Attala County GenWeb
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135; the name "Schenectady" is derived from a Mohawk word, skahnéhtati, meaning "beyond the pines". Schenectady was founded on the south side of the Mohawk River by Dutch colonists in the 17th century, many from the Albany area, they were prohibited from the fur trade by the Albany monopoly, which kept its control after the English takeover in 1664. Residents of the new village developed farms on strip plots along the river. Connected to the west via the Mohawk River and Erie Canal, Schenectady developed in the 19th century as part of the Mohawk Valley trade and transportation corridor. By 1824 more people worked in manufacturing than agriculture or trade, the city had a cotton mill, processing cotton from the Deep South. Numerous mills in New York had such ties with the South. Through the 19th century, nationally influential companies and industries developed in Schenectady, including General Electric and American Locomotive Company, which were powers into the mid-20th century.
Schenectady was part of emerging technologies, with GE collaborating in the production of nuclear-powered submarines and, in the 21st century, working on other forms of renewable energy. Schenectady is near the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, it is in the same metropolitan area as the state capital, about 15 miles southeast. In December 2014, the state announced that the city was one of three sites selected for development of off-reservation casino gambling, under terms of a 2013 state constitutional amendment; the project would redevelop an ALCO brownfield site in the city along the waterfront, with hotels, housing and a marina in addition to the casino. When first encountered by Europeans, the Mohawk Valley was the territory of the Mohawk nation, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, they had occupied territory in the region since at least 1100 AD. Starting in the early 1600s the Mohawk moved their settlements closer to the river and by 1629, they had taken over territories on the west bank of the Hudson River that were held by the Algonquian-speaking Mahican people.
In the 1640s, the Mohawk had all on the south side of the Mohawk River. The easternmost one was Ossernenon, located about 9 miles west of New York; when Dutch settlers developed Fort Orange in the Hudson Valley beginning in 1614, the Mohawk called their settlement skahnéhtati, meaning "beyond the pines," referring to a large area of pine barrens that lay between the Mohawk settlements and the Hudson River. About 3200 acres of this unique ecosystem are now protected as the Albany Pine Bush; this word entered the lexicon of the Dutch settlers. The settlers in Fort Orange used skahnéhtati to refer to the new village at the Mohawk flats, which became known as Schenectady. In 1661, Arent van Curler, a Dutch immigrant, bought a big piece of land on the south side of the Mohawk River. Other colonists were given grants of land by the colonial government in this portion of the flat fertile river valley, as part of New Netherland; the settlers recognized that these bottomlands had been cultivated for maize by the Mohawk for centuries.
Van Curler took the largest piece of land. As most early colonists were from the Fort Orange area, they may have anticipated working as fur traders, but the Beverwijck traders kept a monopoly of legal control; the settlers here turned to farming. Their 50-acre lots were unique for the colony, "laid out in strips along the Mohawk River", with the narrow edges fronting the river, as in French colonial style, they relied on rearing wheat. The proprietors and their descendants controlled all the land of the town for generations acting as government until after the Revolutionary War, when representative government was established. From the early days of interaction, early Dutch traders in the valley had unions with Mohawk women, if not always official marriages, their children were raised within the Mohawk community, which had a matrilineal kinship system, considering children born into the mother's clan. Within Mohawk society, biological fathers played minor roles; some mixed-race descendants, such as Jacques Cornelissen Van Slyck and his sister Hilletie van Olinda, who were of Dutch and Mohawk ancestry, became interpreters and intermarried with Dutch colonists.
They gained land in the Schenectady settlement. They were among the few métis who seemed to move from Mohawk to Dutch society, as they were described as "former Indians", although they did not always have an easy time of it. In 1661 Jacques inherited what became known as Van Slyck's Island from his brother Marten, given it by the Mohawk. Van Slyck family descendants retained ownership through the 19th century; because of labor shortages in the colony, some Dutch settlers brought African slaves to the region. In Schenectady, they used them as farm laborers; the English imported slaves and continued with agriculture in the river valley. Traders in Albany kept control of the fur trade after the takeover by the English. In 1664 th
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware is a public research university located in Newark, Delaware. University of Delaware is the largest university in Delaware. UD offers more than 135 undergraduate degrees. At the graduate level, it offers 67 doctoral, 142 master’s degree programs, 14 dual degrees, 15 interdisciplinary programs, 12 on-line programs, 28 certificate programs across its seven colleges and more than 82 research centers and institutes. UD is one of the top 100 institutions for federal obligations in science and engineering and interdisciplinary initiatives in energy science and policy, the environment, in human health; the main campus is in Newark, with satellite campuses in Dover, Wilmington and Georgetown. It is considered a large institution with 18,500 undergraduate and 4,500 graduate students. UD is a governed university which receives public funding for being a land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant and urban-grant state-supported research institution. UD is classified as a research intensive university with high research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
The university's programs in engineering, business, hospitality management, urban affairs and public policy, public administration, history and biomolecular engineering and biochemistry have been ranked with some positive impact from the strong presence of the nation's chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the state of Delaware, such as DuPont and W. L. Gore and Associates, it is one of only four schools in North America with a major in art conservation. In 1923, UD was the first American university to offer a study abroad program; the school from which the university grew was founded in 1743, making it one of the oldest in the nation. However, UD was not chartered as an institution of higher learning until 1833, its original class of ten students included George Read, Thomas McKean, James Smith, all three of whom would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence. The University of Delaware traces its origins to 1743, when Presbyterian minister Francis Alison opened up his "Free School" in his home in New London, Pennsylvania.
During its early years, the school was run under the auspices of the Philadelphia Synod of the Presbyterian Church. The school changed its location several times, it moved to Newark around 1763, received a charter from the colonial Penn government as the Academy of Newark in 1769. In 1781 the academy trustees petitioned the Delaware General Assembly to grant the academy the powers of a college, but no action was taken on this request. In 1818 the Delaware legislature authorized the trustees of the Newark Academy to operate a lottery in order to raise funds with which to establish a college. Commencement of the lottery, was delayed until 1825, in large part because some trustees, several of whom were Presbyterian ministers, objected to involvement with a lottery on moral grounds. In 1832 the academy trustees selected the site for the college and entered into a contact for the erection of the college building. Construction of that building began in late 1832 or in 1833. On February 5, 1833 the Delaware legislature incorporated Newark College, charged with instruction in languages and sciences, granted the power to confer degrees.
All the trustees of the academy became trustees of the college, the college absorbed the academy, which became the preparatory department of the college. Newark College commenced operations on May 8, 1834 with a collegiate department and an academic department. In January 1835 the Delaware legislature passed legislation authorizing the academy trustees to suspend operations and to allow the educational responsibilities of the academy to be performed by the academic department of the college. If, the college ceased to have an academic department, the trustees of the academy were required to revive the academy. In 1843, the name of the college was changed to Delaware College; the school closed from 1859 until 1870. It reopened in 1870 due to the support of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts. In 1921, Delaware College was renamed the University of Delaware, it became a coeducational institution in 1945 when it merged with the nearby Women's College of Delaware. On October 23, 2009 the University of Delaware signed an agreement with Chrysler to purchase a 272-acre closed vehicle assembly plant adjacent to the university for expansion for $24.25 million as part of Chrysler's bankruptcy restructuring plan.
Plans call for this facility to be repurposed into a "world-class research facility". Initial plans include the new home of the College of Health Science and the east coast headquarters of Bloom Energy. In 2010–11, the university conducted a feasibility study in support of plans to add a law school focused on corporate and patent law. At its completion, the study suggested that the planned addition was not within the university's funding capability given the nation's economic climate at the time. Capital expenses were projected at $100 million, the operating deficit in the first ten years would be $165 million; the study assumed an initial class of two hundred students entering in the fall of 2015. Widener University has Delaware's only law school as of 2011; the university is organized into seven colleges: College of Agriculture and Natural Resources College of Arts and Sciences Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics College of Earth and Environment College of Education and Human Development College of Engineering College of Health SciencesThere are three schools: Schoo
Union Theological Seminary (New York City)
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is an independent, non-denominational, seminary grounded in the Christian tradition, located in New York City. It is the oldest independent seminary in the United States and has long been known as a bastion of progressive Christian scholarship, with a number of prominent thinkers among its faculty or alumni, it was founded in 1836 by members of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. but was open to students of all denominations. In 1893, Union rescinded the right of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to veto faculty appointments, thus becoming independent. In the 20th century, Union became a center of liberal Christianity, it served as the birthplace of the Black theology, womanist theology, other theological movements. Union houses the Columbia University Burke Library, one of the largest theological libraries in the Western Hemisphere. Union is affiliated with neighboring Columbia University. Since 1928, the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology.
Although administratively independent, Union is represented in Columbia's governance structure and appoints one faculty member and one student to the Columbia University Senate. In 1964, Union established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Union's campus is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, bordered by Claremont Avenue, Broadway, W. 120th St. and W. 122nd St. The brick and limestone English Gothic revival architecture, by Francis R. Allen and Collins, completed in 1910, includes the tower, which adapts features of the crossing tower of Durham Cathedral. Adjacent to Teachers College, Barnard College, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Manhattan School of Music, Union has cross-registration and library access agreements with all of these schools; the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1980. Some sections of the campus are now on long-term lease to Columbia University.
Union's urban campus is regarded by some to be among the most beautiful in the United States. The inner quadrangle and other various halls and rooms are used as a filming location by the motion picture industry; the Columbia University Burke Library, one of the largest theological libraries in North America, contains holdings of over 700,000 items. The Burke's holdings include extensive special collections, including Greek census records from 20 CE, a rare 12th Century manuscript of the Life of St. Boniface, one of the first African-American hymnals, published in Philadelphia in 1818; the Burke Library maintains a number of world-renowned archival collections, including the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship and the Missionary Research Library Archives. In 2004 Union's Burke Library became integrated into the Columbia University Libraries system, which holds over 10 million volumes; the library is named in honor of Walter Burke, a generous benefactor to the library who served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Seminary from 1976 to 1982.
Union Theological Seminary was founded in 1836. During the late 19th century it became one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States. In 1891, Charles A. Briggs, being installed as the chair of biblical studies, delivered an inaugural address in which he questioned the verbal inspiration of Scripture; when the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. vetoed Briggs' appointment and deposed Briggs for heresy two years Union removed itself from denominational oversight. In 1939 the Auburn Theological Seminary moved to its campus. Among its graduates were the historian of Christianity Arthur McGiffert. In 1895, members of the Union Theological Seminary Alumni Club founded Union Settlement Association, one of the oldest settlement houses in New York City. After visiting Toynbee Hall in London and inspired by the example of Hull House in Chicago, the alumni decided to create a settlement house in the area of Manhattan enclosed on the north and south by East 96th and 110th Streets and on the east and west by the East River and Central Park.
Known as East Harlem, it was a neighborhood filled with new tenements but devoid of any civic services. The ethos of the settlement house movement called for its workers to "settle" in such neighborhoods in order to learn first-hand the problems of the residents. “It seemed to us that, as early settlers, we had a chance to grow up with the community and affect its development,” wrote William Adams Brown, Theology Professor, Union Theological Society and President, Union Settlement Association. Union Settlement still exists, providing community-based services and programs to support the immigrant and low-income residents of East Harlem. One of East Harlem's largest social service agencies, Union Settlement reaches more than 13,000 people annually at 17 locations throughout East Harlem through a range of programs, including early childhood education, youth development, senior services, job training, the arts, adult education, counseling, a farmers' market, community development, neighborhood cultural events.
Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich made UTS the center of both liberal and neo-orthodox Protestantism in the post-War period. Prominent public intellectual Cornel West commenced a promising academic career at UTS in 1977; as liberalism lost ground to conservatism after the 1960s and thus declined in prestige, UTS ran into financial difficulties and shrank because of a
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
