1.
Champaign, Illinois
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Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The city is 135 miles south of Chicago,124 miles west of Indianapolis, Indiana, the United States Census Bureau estimates the city was home to 84,513 people as of July 1,2014. Champaign is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois, and the states fourth-most populous city outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with its sister city of Urbana. Champaign is also the home of Parkland College which serves about 18,000 students during the academic year. Due to the university and a number of well known technology startup companies, it is referred to as the hub, or a significant landmark. Champaign houses offices for Abbott, Archer Daniels Midland, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, Dow Chemical Company, IBM, State Farm, and Intel all of which are Fortune 500 companies, and for Sony. Champaign was founded in 1855, when the Illinois Central Railroad laid its rail track two miles west of downtown Urbana, originally called West Urbana, it was renamed Champaign when it acquired a city charter in 1860. Both the city and county name were derived from Champaign County, during February 1969, Carl Perkins joined with Bob Dylan to write the song Champaign, Illinois, which Perkins released on his album On Top. The two Champaign, Illinois songs are not similar to other, except that Bob Dylan was involved in both of them. On September 22,1985, Champaign hosted the first Farm Aid concert at the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium, the concert drew a crowd of 80,000 people and raised over $7 million for American family farmers. In 2005, Champaign-Urbana was the location of the National Science Olympiad Tournament, the city also hosts the state Science Olympiad competition every year. The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign once again hosted the National competition on May 20–22,2010, in 2013, Champaign was rated fifth best place in the United States for a healthy work-life balance. According to the 2010 census, Champaign has an area of 22.457 square miles. Champaign is located on high ground, providing sources to the Kaskaskia River to the west. Downtown Champaign drains into Boneyard Creek, which feeds the Saline Branch of the Salt Fork Vermilion River, Champaign shares a border with the neighboring city of Urbana, together they are home to the University of Illinois. Champaign, Urbana, and the village of Savoy form the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area also known as Champaign-Urbana. It may also be known as the Twin Cities or Chambana. The following diagram represents localities within a 35 miles radius of Champaign, the city has a humid continental climate, typical of the Midwestern United States, with hot summers and cold, moderately snowy winters
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
American Freedom Party
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The American Freedom Party is a Third Position American political party that promotes white nationalism. In November 2009 it filed papers to get on a ballot in California, the party chairman is Los Angeles attorney William Daniel Johnson. Long Beach State University professor of psychology Kevin B and he placed fifth out of five candidates in the Republican primary, garnering 296 votes. Murdough was the National Political Director for the National Socialist American Labor Party, however, the party failed to qualify and did not get on the 2010 ballot in California or any other state. The party received enough signatures to get Harry Bertram on the ballot for the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election, bertrams campaign ran a television ad emphasizing his desire to advance the interests of white Americans. Bertram was soundly defeated in the election, coming in last place out of 5 candidates on the ballot and netting only 1,111 votes, in January 2012, the American Third Position Party announced Merlin Miller as its presidential nominee for the 2012 presidential election. Virginia Abernethy was announced as his running mate, according to an AmericanFreedomUnion. com posting, they obtained ballot access in Colorado, New Jersey, and Tennessee. Kenn Gividen was nominated by the party as its candidate for president, Gividen resigned from the nomination on 26 July 2015 after holding the role for 4 months, Whitaker then stepped into the role as candidate for president. The front page of the website was defaced with #OpBlitzkrieg. On February 1,2013, the partys website carried an announcement that the party was changing its name to American Freedom Party, although the values and mission would remain unchanged
4.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
5.
Los Angeles Athletic Club
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Los Angeles Athletic Club is a privately-owned athletic club and social club in Los Angeles, California, USA. Established in 1880, the club is today best known for its John R. Wooden Award presented to the mens and womens college basketball player of each year. The Los Angeles Athletic Club was founded on September 8,1880, a 19th Century history indicates that the club had the dual purposes of providing its members with the means of physical development along with the advantages of a gentlemens club. The club relocated for the first time in 1881, moving to more commodious accommodations in the Downey block and it also provided rooms designed for socialization, including an expansive reading room, as well as designated areas for billiards and cards. In 1912 it moved into its own new Los Angeles Athletic Club Building at 431 West Seventh Street in Downtown Los Angeles, the twelve-story Beaux-Arts style clubhouse was designed for the LAAC by John Parkinson and George Bergstrom, and is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The building was notable for being the first in Southern California to have a swimming pool built on an upper floor. During its heyday, the LAAC founded a number of institutions, including the California Yacht Club. The club faced significant financial burdens due to World War II, athletes from the LAAC have earned numerous medals in the Summer Olympics, with a particularly high number during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympiad. The total Olympic medal tally for the LAAC is 97 medals, charles F. Lummis, Los Angeles Athletic Club, The Land of Sunshine, vol. Henry Winfred Splitter, Los Angeles Recreation, 1846-1900, Part 1, Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, in JSTOR Henry Winfred Splitter, Los Angeles Recreation, 1846-1900, Part 2, Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, vol. In JSTOR Los Angeles Athletic Club website List of actors who listed LAAC as their residence
6.
Olympic Games
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The Olympic Games are considered the worlds foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years. Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in changes to the Olympic Games. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, as a result, the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship, World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916,1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games, the Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations, National Olympic Committees, and organising committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, the IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and symbols, such as the Olympic flag and torch, over 13,000 athletes compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals, gold, silver, the Games have grown so much that nearly every nation is now represented. This growth has created numerous challenges and controversies, including boycotts, doping, bribery, every two years the Olympics and its media exposure provide unknown athletes with the chance to attain national and sometimes international fame. The Games also constitute an opportunity for the host city and country to themselves to the world. The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic but also combat such as wrestling. It has been written that during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or truce and this idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were travelling to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were protected by Zeus
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1956 Summer Olympics
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The 1956 Games were the first to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania, as well as the first to be held outside Europe and North America. Melbourne is the southernmost city to host the games, equestrian events could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. This was the second Olympics not to be entirely in one country, the first being the 1920 Summer Olympics. Melbourne was selected as the host city over bids from Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Montreal and six American cities on 28 April 1949, at the 43rd IOC Session in Rome, many members of the IOC were sceptical about Melbourne as an appropriate site. Its location in the Southern Hemisphere was a concern, since the reversal of seasons would mean the Games were held during the northern winter. This was thought likely to inconvenience athletes from the Northern Hemisphere, notwithstanding these concerns, the field of candidates eventually narrowed to two Southern Hemisphere cities, these being Melbourne and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Melbourne was selected, in 1949, to host the 1956 Olympics by a one-vote margin, the above problems of the Melbourne Games were compounded by bickering over financing among Australian politicians. Faced with a shortage, the Premier of Victoria refused to allocate money for the Olympic Village. At one point, IOC President Avery Brundage suggested that Rome, as late as April 1955, Brundage was still doubtful about Melbourne, and was not satisfied by an inspection trip to the city. Construction was well under way by then, thanks to a $4.5 million federal loan to Victoria and he still held out the possibility that Rome might have to step in. By the beginning of 1956, though, it was obvious that Melbourne would be ready for the Olympics. Meanwhile, in 1956 the Soviet Union crushed the Hungarian Revolution, and the Soviet presence at the Games led to the withdrawal of the Netherlands, Cambodia, Spain, and Switzerland. Less than two weeks before the 22 November opening ceremony, the Peoples Republic of China chose to boycott the event because the Republic of China had been allowed to compete. Although the number of participating was almost the same as in 1952. Once underway, the Games unfolded smoothly, and became known as the Friendly Games. Betty Cuthbert, an 18-year-old from Sydney, won the 100- and 200-metre dashes and ran a final leg in the 4 x 100-metre relay to overcome Great Britains lead. The veteran Shirley Strickland repeated in the 80-metre hurdles and also ran on the team, running her career total to seven. Australia also did well in swimming and they won all of the freestyle races, mens and womens, and collected a total of eight gold, four silver and two bronze medals
