The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Falcons compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league's National Football Conference South division; the Falcons joined the NFL in 1965 as an expansion team, after the NFL offered then-owner Rankin Smith a franchise to keep him from joining the rival American Football League. In their 53 years of existence, the Falcons have compiled a record of 368–466–6, winning division championships in 1980, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2016; the Falcons have appeared in two Super Bowls, the first during the 1998 season in Super Bowl XXXIII, where they lost to the Denver Broncos 34–19, the second was 18 years a 34–28 overtime loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. The Falcons' current home field is Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Professional football first came to Atlanta in 1962, when the American Football League staged two preseason contests, with one featuring the Denver Broncos vs. the Houston Oilers and the second pitting the Dallas Texans against the Oakland Raiders.

Two years the AFL held another exhibition, this time with the New York Jets taking on the San Diego Chargers. In 1965, after the Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium was built, the city of Atlanta felt the time was right to start pursuing professional football. One independent group, active in NFL exhibition promotions in Atlanta applied for franchises in both the AFL and NFL, acting on its own with no guarantee of stadium rights. Another group reported it had deposited earnest money for a team in the AFL. With everyone running in different directions, some local businessmen worked out a deal and were awarded an AFL franchise on June 8, contingent upon acquiring exclusive stadium rights from city officials. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, moving in Atlanta matters, was spurred by the AFL interest and headed on the next plane down to Atlanta to block the rival league's claim on the city of Atlanta, he forced the city to make a choice between the two leagues. The AFL's original expansion plans in June 1965 were for two new teams in 1966, in Atlanta and Philadelphia.

It evolved into the Miami Dolphins in 1966 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968. The NFL had planned to add two teams in 1967; the odd number of teams resulted in one idle team each week, with each team playing 14 games over 15 weeks. The second expansion team, the New Orleans Saints, joined the NFL as planned in 1967 as its 16th franchise; the Atlanta Falcons franchise began on June 30, 1965, when Rozelle granted ownership to 40-year-old Rankin Smith Sr. an Executive Vice President of Life Insurance Company of Georgia. He paid the highest price in NFL history at the time for a franchise. Rozelle and Smith made the deal in about five minutes and the Atlanta Falcons brought the largest and most popular sport to the city of Atlanta; the Atlanta expansion team became the fifteenth NFL franchise, they were awarded the first overall pick in the 1966 NFL Draft as well as the final pick in each of the first five rounds. They selected consensus All-American linebacker Tommy Nobis from the University of Texas, making him the first-ever Falcon.

The league held the expansion draft six weeks in which Atlanta selected unprotected players from the fourteen existing franchises. Although the Falcons selected many good players in those drafts, they still were not able to win right away; the Atlanta team received its nickname on August 29, 1965. Miss Julia Elliott, a school teacher from Griffin, was singled out from many people who suggested "Falcons" as the nickname for the new franchise, she wrote: "the Falcon is dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey, it is deadly and has a great sporting tradition." The Falcons' inaugural season was in 1966, their first preseason game was on August 1, a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Under head coach Norb Hecker, Atlanta lost their first nine regular season games in 1966. Two weeks Atlanta won at Minnesota, beat St. Louis in Atlanta the next week for their first home win; the team finished the 1960s with twelve wins in four seasons. The Falcons had their first Monday Night Football game in Atlanta during the 1970 season, a 20–7 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

The only two winning seasons in their first twelve years were 1971 and 1973. In the 1978 season, the Falcons qualified for the playoffs for the first time and won the Wild Card game against the Eagles 14–13; the following week, they lost to the Dallas Cowboys 27–20 in the Divisional Playoffs. In the 1980 season, after a nine-game winning streak, the Falcons posted a franchise then-best record of 12–4 and captured their first NFC West division title; the next week, their dream season ended at home with a loss to the Cowboys 30–27 in the divisional playoffs. In the strike-shortened 1982 season, the Falcons made the playoffs but lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 30–24. Falcons coach Leeman Bennett was fired after the loss; the team had losing seasons for the next eight years. In the 1989 NFL Draft, the Falcons selected cornerback Deion Sanders in the first round, who helped them for the next four yea

The Hayachine Dam is a multi-purpose dam on the Hienuki River, a branch of the Kitakami River, located in the city of Hanamaki, Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. It managed by Hanamaki Civil Engineering Center, Minami Kunisaki Promotion Department, is a gravity-type concrete dam with a bank height of 73.5 meters. Hayachine Dam is one a series of five multipurpose dams built directly on the Kitakami River and its major tributaries, starting with the Tase Dam in 1941; the dam was intended to provide industrial and drinking water for the growing city of Hanamaki, as well as irrigation water, flood control and hydroelectric power. The dam was completed by the Kajima Corporation in 2000; the Hayachine Dam is a concrete gravity arch dam. The associated hydroelectric power plant has an installed capacity of 3000 KW. Japan Commission on Large Dams. Dams in Japan: Past and Future. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-415-49432-8 photo page with data ( Iwate Prefectural home page Kajima Corporation Home page

Pointe-à-Pitre is the largest city of Guadeloupe, an overseas région and département of France located in the Lesser Antilles, of which it is a sous-préfecture, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Pointe-à-Pitre. Although Pointe-à-Pitre is not Guadeloupe's administrative capital, it is nonetheless the region's largest city and economic capital. In 1999, it had a population of 171,773 inhabitants in its urban area, of whom 17,541 lived in the city of Pointe-à-Pitre proper; the inhabitants are called "Pointois". In 2014, its metropolitan population was estimated at 314,647 people. Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport, Guadeloupe's main international airport, is located 3 km north of downtown Pointe-à-Pitre in the commune of Les Abymes. Jacques Bangou is the current mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre. Pointe-à-Pitre is situated on the southwest portion of the island of Grande-Terre, facing the Caribbean Sea; the town of Pointe-à-Pitre is surrounded by the communes of Les Baie-Mahault and Le Gosier. Pointe-à-Pitre is on a limestone plateau, a factor for the construction of the city.

The bay, Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin, offers a sheltered port. The name Pointe-à-Pitre the "headland of Pitre", is said to derive from a Dutch Jewish sailor/fisherman called "Pieter", who settled in the 17th century on a promontory facing the Îlet à Cochon, just to the south of today's downtown Pointe-à-Pitre; the promontory came to be called "Pointe-à-Pieter" and "Pointe-à-Pitre". French colonial authorities had long thought about establishing a city on the current location of Pointe-à-Pitre, at the junction of Guadeloupe's two main'island' districts, but several attempts around 1713-1730 failed due to the insalubrious swampy ground. During the British occupation of Guadeloupe a settlement appeared on a hill overlooking the swamps. After the return of Guadeloupe to France in 1763, the city of Pointe-à-Pitre was founded under governor Gabriel de Clieu in 1764 by royal edict, the swamps where downtown Pointe-à-Pitre stands today were drained in the following years, thus allowing the urban development of the city.

The development of the city was rapid thanks to the corsairs. In 1780, however, a great fire destroyed the city. Sixty-three years in 1843, it was again destroyed by an earthquake; the history of Pointe-à-Pitre is marked by many disasters: the fires of 1850, 1871 and 1931, the earthquakes of 1851 and 1897 and the hurricanes of 1865 and 1928. The city experienced several epidemics of cholera, its location and large sheltered port have nonetheless allowed Pointe-à-Pitre to become Guadeloupe's largest city and economic capital. The former cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, Ancienne cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul, testifies that Pointe-à-Pitre has been the episcopal seat of a Roman Catholic Diocese of Pointe-à-Pitre on Grande-Terre; this was united with the present diocese for all Guadeloupe, at Basse-Terre, in 1951, since when its full title has been Roman Catholic Diocese of Basse-Terre-Pointe-à-Pitre. On the Köppen climate classification, Pointe-à-Pitre is on the border between tropical monsoon climate and tropical rainforest climate.

Like any other Eastern Caribbean city, it experiences rainfall quite evenly spread during the year, with a wetter season between July and November which coincides with the hurricane season. The city receives 1500–2000 mm of rainfall annually. Tropical heat is the norm; the trade winds blow from the northeast and temper the climate. The tiny commune of Pointe-à-Pitre is the center of a larger urban area covering several communes; this urban area – with 171,773 inhabitants at the 1999 census, representing 40% of the population – is the largest in Guadeloupe and one of the largest among French Overseas territories and departments. The seven communes making up the urban area of Pointe-à-Pitre, with their 1999 populations, are: Les Abymes: 63,054 Le Gosier: 25,360 Baie-Mahault: 23,389 Pointe-à-Pitre: 20,948 Petit-Bourg: 20,528 Lamentin: 13,434 Goyave: 5,060 The city is the commercial capital of Guadeloupe, serving as the main port of call for cargo and passengers alike; the main seaport is the Port de Jarry located across the Bay of Cul-de-Sac Marin in the commune of Baie-Mahault.

It has one of the biggest container terminals in the Eastern Caribbean with a quay 600m long. The main exports are animal products and manufactured goods; the extensive Zone Industrielle de Jarry, directly west of Pointe-à-Pitre is a major centre of commercial and light industrial activity, notably for warehousing and distribution. Agricultural production continues in the east of the area where cattle rearing and sugarcane growing continues; the nearby suburb of Le Gosier is Guadeloupe's main seaside resort. Seventy percent of re