1.
Grand Gulf Military State Park (Mississippi)
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Grand Gulf Military State Park is a Mississippi state park located 10 miles northwest of Port Gibson in the unincorporated area that is now the ghost town of Grand Gulf, in Claiborne County. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Mississippi Landmark. Grand Gulf was originally a port on the Mississippi River, and in the 19th century before the war shipped thousands of bales of cotton that arrived by rail from Clinton, Mississippi in Hinds County. Its population in 1858 was 1,000 to 1500, and the community had two churches, a hospital, theater, town hall, cotton press, steam saw, and grits mill. It became isolated later after the Mississippi River changed its course to the west, and it became a ghost town after the turn of the 20th century. Grand Gulf Military Park, official web site
2.
Rodney, Mississippi
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Rodney is a former city in Jefferson County in southwest Mississippi, approximately 32 miles northeast of Natchez. Rodney was founded in 1828, and in the 19th century and its population declined to nearly zero after the Mississippi River changed course. The Rodney Center Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, today a small number of inhabitants remain but the area is considered a ghost town and reliable data is hard to find as the town is not listed as a separate entity by the census bureau. Rodney was originally settled by the French in January 1763 and named Petit Gouffre, as a result of the French and Indian War, the area was taken by Great Britain. Spain would later control this area after taking West Florida from the British in 1781, spain would hold the site until selling it to Thomas Calvit in 1798. The city was later renamed Rodney in 1828 in honor of Judge Thomas Rodney, the Old Rodney Presbyterian Church was dedicated in 1832. It is located at the section of the town, across the Rodney – Red Lick – Lorman Road from Alston Grocery Store. Formerly at the edge of the town was Sacred Heart Catholic Church. On the southeast corner of Rodney lies Alstons Grocery, operated by the Alston family since 1915, Alstons Grocery Store, actually a country general store, closed many years ago but the building still stands. In the northeast corner of the town is a park where regular band concerts were held by the Jefferson County Band. On the northwest corner are remains of a wooden drugstore, West of Alstons Grocery is the one surviving structure on Batchelor Street. Located at the southwest corner is a brick structure. At the western end of Batchelor St. is Mt. Zion No.1 Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church has a solid shot above the middle window which appears to have been fired by a 12 lb. Napoleon. Shooting started and the Rattler returned fire striking the Church, the minister, a known Union sympathizer, left town shortly thereafter. The 1850 United States Census listed the population of Rodney as 210, after the fall of Vicksburg, the Union Navy was in charge of the Mississippi River. As the second hymn was being sung, a Lt. Allen of the Confederate Cavalry walked up the aisle to the pulpit, apologizing to the Reverend Baker, he turned and announced that his men had surrounded the building and demanded the Yankee sailors surrender. One of the Yankee sailors jumped behind a door and took a shot at Lt. Allen, a general melee broke out, and most of the citizens dove under their pews for safety and reputedly one Yankee sailor hid in the undergarments of his local southern girlfriend. One older lady, however, would not run and she stood up in her pew and shouted Glory to God
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
5.
Mississippi
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Mississippi /ˌmɪsᵻˈsɪpi/ is a state in the southern region of the United States, with part of its southern border formed by the Gulf of Mexico. Its western border is formed by the Mississippi River, the state has a population of approximately 3 million. It is the 32nd most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States, located in the center of the state, Jackson is the state capital and largest city, with a population of approximately 175,000 people. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, before the American Civil War, most development in the state was along riverfronts, where slaves worked on cotton plantations. After the war, the bottomlands to the interior were cleared, by the end of the 19th century, African Americans made up two-thirds of the Deltas property owners, but timber and railroad companies acquired much of the land after a financial crisis. Clearing altered the Deltas ecology, increasing the severity of flooding along the Mississippi, much land is now held by agribusinesses. The states catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States, since the 1930s and the Great Migration, Mississippi has been majority white, albeit with the highest percentage of black residents of any U. S. state. From the early 19th century to the 1930s, its residents were mostly black, whites retained political power through Jim Crow laws. In 2010, 37% of Mississippians were African Americans, the highest percentage of African Americans in any U. S. state, since gaining enforcement of their voting franchise in the late 1960s, most African Americans support Democratic candidates in local, state and national elections. Conservative whites have shifted to the Republican Party, African Americans are a majority in many counties of the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, an area of historic settlement during the plantation era. Since 2011 Mississippi has been ranked as the most religious state in the country, the states name is derived from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary. Settlers named it after the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi, in addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake, Mississippi is entirely composed of lowlands, the highest point being Woodall Mountain, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains,807 feet above sea level. The lowest point is sea level at the Gulf coast, the states mean elevation is 300 feet above sea level. Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain, the coastal plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. The Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast have somewhat higher elevations, yellow-brown loess soil is found in the western parts of the state. The northeast is a region of black earth that extends into the Alabama Black Belt. The coastline includes large bays at Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, the northwest remainder of the state consists of the Mississippi Delta, a section of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
6.
Claiborne County, Mississippi
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Claiborne County is a county located in the U. S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 9,604 and its county seat is Port Gibson. The county is named after William Claiborne, the governor of the Mississippi Territory. Claiborne County is included in the Vicksburg, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Jackson-Vicksburg-Brookhaven and it is bordered by the Mississippi River on the west and the Big Black River on the north. According to the United States Census Bureau, this county has the third-highest percentage of African-American residents of any U. S. county. Located south of the known as the Mississippi Delta, this area was long a center of cotton plantations. Many African Americans have stayed here because of ties and making the land their own. Claiborne County was the center of a little-known but profound African-American civil rights movement and struggle during the middle of the 20th century. The county had been settled by French, Spanish, and English colonists, using enslaved African Americans as laborers, planters created long, narrow plantations that fronted on the Mississippi to the west and the Big Black River to the north, the transportation byways. As in other parts of the Delta, the areas further from the river were frontier. Well before the Civil War, the county had a majority-black population, grand Gulf, a port on the Mississippi River, shipped thousands of bales of cotton annually before the Civil War, much sent west to it by railroad from Port Gibson and three surrounding counties. The trading town became cut off from the river by its changing course, grand Gulf had 1,000 to 1500 residents about 1858, by the end of the century, it had 150 and became a ghost town. Businesses in the county seat of Port Gibson, which served the area, included a cotton gin and these groups acted as the military arm of the Democratic Party. Five other districts all had white majorities, Claiborne County is within the black-majority 2nd congressional district, as may be seen on the map to the right. The state has three congressional districts, all white majority. This second-class status was enforced by whites until after the civil rights movement gained passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, the countys economy was based on agriculture, and after the Civil War, the system of sharecropping developed. More than 80 percent of African-American workers were involved in sharecropping from the late 19th century into the 1930s, excluded from the political process and suffering lynchings and other violence, many blacks left the county and state. In 1900 whites numbered 4565 in the county, and blacks 16,222, a local history noted many blacks were leaving the county at that time
7.
Central Time Zone
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The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
8.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
9.
UTC-5
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UTC−05,00 is a time offset that subtracts five hours from Coordinated Universal Time. In North America, it is observed in the Eastern Time Zone during standard time, the western Caribbean uses it year round. The southwestern and northwestern portions of Indiana Mexico – Central Zone Central, in most of Mexico, daylight time starts a few weeks after the United States. Communities on the U. S. border that observe Central Time follow the U. S. daylight time schedule
10.
Geographic Names Information System
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It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names to promote the standardization of feature names, the database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited, variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier, the database never removes an entry, except in cases of obvious duplication. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U. S. geographical features, the general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard and street, department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer, Users Manual. Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways, A Journey Into America, standard was withdrawn in September 2008, See Federal Register Notice, Vol.73, No. 170, page 51276 Report, Principles, Policies, and Procedures, Domestic Geographic Names, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000. Board on Geographic Names website Geographic Names Information System Proposals from the general public Meeting minutes
11.
Ghost town
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A ghost town is an abandoned village, town, or city, usually one that contains substantial visible remains. Some ghost towns, especially those that preserve period-specific architecture, have become tourist attractions, visiting, writing about, and photographing ghost towns is a minor industry. The town of Plymouth on the Caribbean island of Montserrat is a ghost town that is the de jure capital of Montserrat and it was rendered uninhabitable by volcanic ash from an eruption. The definition of a ghost town varies between individuals, and between cultures, lindsey Baker, author of Ghost Towns of Texas, defines a ghost town as a town for which the reason for being no longer exists. Some believe that any settlement with visible tangible remains should not be called a ghost town, others say, conversely, whether or not the settlement must be completely deserted, or may contain a small population, is also a matter for debate. Generally, though, the term is used in a sense, encompassing any. The American author Lambert Florins preferred definition of a ghost town was simply a shadowy semblance of a former self, a town can also be abandoned when it is part of an exclusion zone due to natural or man-made causes. Ghost towns may result when the activity or resource that created a boomtown is depleted or the resource economy undergoes a bust. Boomtowns can often decrease in size as fast as they initially grew, sometimes, all or nearly the entire population can desert the town, resulting in a ghost town. The dismantling of a boomtown can often occur on a planned basis, modular buildings can be used to facilitate the process. A gold rush would often bring intensive but short-lived economic activity to a remote village, in other cases, the reason for abandonment can arise from a towns intended economic function shifting to another, nearby place. This happened to Collingwood, Queensland in Outback Australia when nearby Winton outperformed Collingwood as a centre for the livestock-raising industry. The railway reached Winton in 1899, linking it with the rest of Queensland, the Middle East has many ghost towns that were created when the shifting of politics or the fall of empires caused capital cities to be socially or economically unviable, such as Ctesiphon. The rise of condominium investment caused for real estate bubbles also leads to a ghost town, as real estate prices rise, such examples include China and Canada, where housing is often used as an investment rather than for habitation. Railroads and roads bypassing or no longer reaching a town can create a ghost town. This was the case in many of the ghost towns along Ontarios historic Opeongo Line, some ghost towns were founded along railways where steam trains would stop at periodic intervals to take on water. Amboy, California was part of one series of villages along the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad across the Mojave Desert. River re-routing is another factor, one example being the towns along the Aral Sea, Ghost towns may be created when land is expropriated by a government and residents are required to relocate
12.
Mississippi River
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The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
13.
Diego de Gardoqui
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Diego María de Gardoqui y Arriquibar was a Spanish politician and diplomat. He was of Basque descent and a member of the wealthy Gardoqui family of Bilbao, after the Revolution he became Spains envoy to the United States. He arrived in New York in the Spring of 1785, although Jay backed the treaty, congress never ratified it. Gardoqui continued as Spains Minister to the United States until he returned to Bilbao in October,1789 and he attended George Washingtons inaugural address and pronounced it an eloquent and appropriate address. Diego de Gardoqui laid the cornerstone of St. Peters, the first permanent structure for a Catholic church erected in the State of New York, the church first opened on November 4,1786. Because Spain was in control of the Louisiana Territory, Gardoqui worked to protect the Kings interests on the Mississippi River, various factions in Kentucky were frustrated with congress refusal to allow them statehood. Gardoqui worked with John Brown and General James Wilkinson in 1788 to procure a treaty between Kentucky and Spain concerning navigation on the River, in the end, of course, Kentucky joined the United States and there was no separate treaty. Gardoqui also worked with Colonel George Morgan and Benjamin Harrison in 1788 and 1789 and they had been attempting to buy land in Illinois from the United States government with no success. Morgan was to be the commander of the colony, subject to the king of Spain, settlers would have religious freedom and some degree of autonomy. The new colony was to be called New Madrid, George Washington said of Gardoqui on August 10,1790. No man in his most Catholic Majestys dominions could be acceptable to the Inhabitants of these States. Gardoqui gave Washington a four-volume edition in the original Spanish of Don Quixote as a present, the set of volumes still exists and is preserved at Washingtons personal library, which opened as a museum on September 27,2013. He married Brígida Josefa de Orueta y Uriarte on December 6,1765, in Vitoria, Gardoqui served under the Bourbon kings Charles III of Spain and Charles IV of Spain. Gardoqui, as a Spanish diplomat, operated under the ministry of José Moñino and he became Finance Minister in 1791, as Minister Pedro López de Lerena, Count of Lerena, suffered an important illness. Gardoqui was officially named Finance Minister after the death of Count de Lerena, Gardoqui was the Spanish counterparty to the Jay–Gardoqui Treaty of 1789, negotiated by John Jay of the United States, relating to the navigational rights of Spain in the Mississippi River. Gardoqui, in 1785–86, had arranged for a Spanish horse to be sent to Jay, in 1785, Gardoqui laid the cornerstone of the first Catholic Church in New York City, St. Peters on Barclay Street. There is a Calle Gardoqui in Bilbao, Spain, but this has been named after his brother, the city of Constitución, Chile was originally named Nueva Bilbao de Gardoqui in his honor. There was a World War II-era ship in the United States Navy and it, in turn, had been named for a U. S. ship, the USS Gardoqui, that had seen action in the Spanish–American War
14.
Aaron Burr
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Aaron Burr Jr. was an American politician. He was the vice president of the United States, serving during President Thomas Jeffersons first term. Burr served as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, after which he became a successful lawyer, the highlight of Burrs tenure as president of the senate was the Senates first impeachment trial, that of Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase. In 1804, the last full year of his term as vice president. Burr was never tried for the duel, and all charges against him were eventually dropped. After leaving Washington, Burr traveled west seeking new opportunities, both economic and political and his activities eventually led to his arrest on charges of treason in 1807. The subsequent trial resulted in acquittal, but Burrs western schemes left him with large debts, in a final quest for grand opportunities, he left the United States for Europe. He remained overseas until 1812, when he returned to the United States to practice law in New York City, there he spent the rest of his life in relative obscurity. Aaron Burr Jr. was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1756 as the child of the Reverend Aaron Burr Sr. a Presbyterian minister. His mother Esther Burr was the daughter of Jonathan Edwards, the noted Calvinist theologian, Burr had an older sister Sarah, named for her maternal grandmother. She later married Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Burrs father died in 1757, and his mother the following year, leaving him and his sister orphans when he was two years old. He and his sister first lived with their grandparents, but Sarah Edwards also died in 1757. Young Aaron and Sally were placed with the William Shippen family in Philadelphia, in 1759, the childrens guardianship was assumed by their 21-year-old maternal uncle Timothy Edwards. The next year, Edwards married Rhoda Ogden and moved with the children to Elizabeth, New Jersey, rhodas younger brothers Aaron Ogden and Matthias Ogden became the boys playmates. The three boys, along with their neighbor Jonathan Dayton, formed a group of friends that lasted their lifetimes, Aaron Burr was admitted to the sophomore class of the College of New Jersey at the age of 13, after being rejected once at age 11. Aside from being occupied with studies, he was a part of the American Whig Society and Cliosophic Society. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1772 at age 16 and he studied theology for an additional year, before rigorous theological training with Joseph Bellamy, a Presbyterian. He changed his career two years later, at age 19, when he moved to Connecticut to study law with his brother-in-law Tapping Reeve
15.
Lake Bruin
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Lake Bruin is an ox-bow lake of the Mississippi River located in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana. It consists of some 3,000 acres of unusually clear water, particularly suited for swimming, boating, part of the lake is owned by the state, which operates Lake Bruin State Park, one of nineteen Louisiana state parks. Much of the land beside the lake is in private hands, many of the homes have piers extending into the lake. Lake Bruin is the lake for the St. Joseph area. Other ox-bow lakes include Lake St. Joseph, located in Newellton and across the highway from the nearby Winter Quarters State Historic Site, and Lake St. John near Waterproof. Lake Bruin is named for Peter Bryan Bruin, a native of Winchester, Virginia and he is interred near Bruinsburg in Claiborne County, Mississippi. Former State Senator Clifford Cleveland Brooks in 1920 purchased the Botany Bay plantation on Lake Bruin and he served in the Senate from 1924 to 1932. After Brooks death in 1944, his continued to operate the plantation
16.
Andrew Jackson
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Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837 and was the founder of the Democratic Party. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress, as president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the common man against what he saw as a corrupt aristocracy and to preserve the Union. Jackson was born in 1767 somewhere near the border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson acted as a courier, at age 13, he was captured and mistreated by the British. He moved to Tennessee and practiced as a lawyer, in 1791, he married Rachel Donelson Robards. The couple later learned that Rachels previous husband had failed to finalize their divorce, Jackson served briefly in the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate. Upon returning to Tennessee, he was appointed a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court, in 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, and was elected its commander the following year. He built the Hermitage plantation in 1804, in 1806, he killed a man in a duel over a matter of honor regarding his wife. He led Tennessee militia and U. S. Army regulars during the Creek War of 1813-1814, Jackson won a decisive victory in the War of 1812 over the British army at the Battle of New Orleans, making him into a national hero. Because Spanish Florida was a refuge for blacks escaping slavery, who allied with the Seminole Indians, Jackson invaded the territory in 1816 to destroy the Negro Fort. He led an invasion in 1818, as part of the First Seminole War, resulting in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. Jackson briefly served as Floridas first Territorial Governor in 1821, Jackson was nominated by several state legislatures to be a candidate for president in 1824. Although he earned a plurality in both the electoral and popular vote against three major candidates, Jackson failed to get a majority and lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams, Jacksons supporters founded what became the Democratic Party. He ran again for president in 1828 against Adams, building and expanding upon his base of support in the West and South, he won in a landslide. He blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred after the election, on the Adams campaigners, as president, Jackson faced a threat of secession by South Carolina over the Tariff of Abominations, which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of force if South Carolina attempted to secede. Jackson believed strongly in majority rule and he supported direct election of senators and abolition of the Electoral College, believing that these reforms would provide average citizens with greater power
17.
Ulysses S. Grant
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Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States. As Commanding General, Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War and he implemented Congressional Reconstruction, often at odds with President Andrew Johnson. His presidency has often criticized for tolerating corruption and for the severe economic depression in his second term. Grant graduated in 1843 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, after the war he married Julia Boggs Dent in 1848, their marriage producing four children. Grant initially retired from the Army in 1854 and he struggled financially in civilian life. When the Civil War began in 1861, he rejoined the U. S. Army, in 1862, Grant took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee, and led Union forces to victory in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. He incorporated displaced African American slaves into the Union war effort, in July 1863, after a series of coordinated battles, Grant defeated Confederate armies and seized Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and dividing the Confederacy in two. After his victories in the Chattanooga Campaign, Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of bloody battles, trapping Lees army in their defense of Richmond. Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns in other theaters, as well, in April 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, effectively ending the war. Historians have hailed Grants military genius, and his strategies are featured in history textbooks. After the Civil War, Grant led the armys supervision of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states and he also used the army to build the Republican Party in the South. After the disenfranchisement of some former Confederates, Republicans gained majorities, in his second term, the Republican coalitions in the South splintered and were defeated one by one as redeemers regained control using coercion and violence. In May 1875, Grant authorized his Secretary of Treasury Benjamin Bristow to shut down and his peace policy with the Indians initially reduced frontier violence, but is best known for the Great Sioux War of 1876. Grant responded to charges of corruption in executive offices more than any other 19th Century president and he appointed the first Civil Service Commission and signed legislation ending the corrupt moiety system. In foreign policy, Grant sought to trade and influence while remaining at peace with the world. His administration successfully resolved the Alabama claims by the Treaty of Washington with Great Britain, Grant avoided war with Spain over the Virginius Affair, but Congress rejected his attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic. His administration implemented a standard and sought to strengthen the dollar. Grant left office in 1877 and embarked on a two-year diplomatic world tour that captured the nations attention, in 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term
18.
Vicksburg, Mississippi
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Vicksburg is the only city and county seat of Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is located 234 miles northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and 40 miles due west of Jackson and it is located on the Mississippi River across from the state of Louisiana. The city has increased in population since 1900, when 14,834 people lived here, the population was 26,407 at the 2000 census. In 2010, it was designated as the city of a Micropolitan Statistical Area with a total population of 49,644. This MSA includes all of Warren County, the area which is now Vicksburg was long occupied by the Natchez Native Americans as part of their historical territory along the Mississippi. The Natchez spoke a language isolate not related to the Muskogean languages of the major tribes in the area. Before the Natchez, other cultures had occupied this strategic area for thousands of years. The first Europeans who settled the area were French colonists, who built Fort-Saint-Pierre in 1719 on the bluffs overlooking the Yazoo River at present-day Redwood. They conducted fur trading with the Natchez and others and started plantations, on 29 November 1729, the Natchez attacked the fort and plantations in and around the present-day city of Natchez. They killed several hundred settlers, including the Jesuit missionary Father Paul Du Poisson, as was the custom, they took a number of women and children as captives. The Natchez War was a disaster for French Louisiana, and the population of the Natchez District never recovered. But, aided by the Choctaw, traditional enemies of the Natchez, the French defeated and scattered the Natchez and their allies, the Choctaw Nation took over the area by right of conquest and inhabited it for several decades. Under pressure from the US government, in 1801 the Choctaw agreed to cede nearly 2,000,000 acres of land to the US under the terms of the Treaty of Fort Adams. The treaty was the first of a series that led to the removal in 1830 of most of the Choctaw to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Some Choctaw remained in Mississippi, citing article XIV of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, they became citizens of the state and they struggled to maintain their culture against the pressure of the binary slave society, which classified people as only white or black. In 1790, the Spanish founded a military outpost on the site, when the Americans took possession in 1798 following the American Revolutionary War and a treaty with Spain, they changed the name to Walnut Hills. The small village was incorporated in 1825 as Vicksburg, named after Newitt Vick and they captured and hanged five gamblers who had shot and killed a local doctor. The historian Joshua D. Rothman calls this event the deadliest outbreak of violence in the slave states between the Southampton Insurrection and the Civil War
19.
Battle of Port Gibson
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The Battle of Port Gibson was fought near Port Gibson, Mississippi, on May 1,1863, between Union and Confederate forces during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The Union Army was led by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Grant launched his campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the spring of 1863, starting his army south from Millikens Bend on the west side of the Mississippi River. He intended to storm Grand Gulf, while his subordinate Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman deceived the main army in Vicksburg by feigning an assault on the Yazoo Bluffs, Grant would then detach the XIII Corps to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks at Port Hudson, Louisiana, while Sherman hurried to join Grant, McPherson for an inland move against the railroad. The Union fleet, however, failed to silence the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Grant then sailed farther south and began crossing at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30. Shermans feint against the Yazoo Bluffs—the Battle of Snyders Bluff—was a complete success, Bowen moved south from Grand Gulf with Greens Brigade and took up a position astride the Rodney road just southwest of Port Gibson near Magnolia Church. A single brigade of reinforcements from Vicksburg under Brig. Gen. Edward D. Tracy arrived later and was posted across the Bruinsburg Road two miles north of Greens position, baldwins Brigade arrived later and was positioned in support of Greens Brigade. One-hundred-foot-tall hills separated by nearly vertical ravines choked with canebrakes and underbrush rendered Bowens position tenable, the absence of any Confederate cavalry would have a major impact on the campaign. If Bowen had known that Grants men were landing at Bruinsburg and not Rodney, he would have taken a position on the bluffs above Bruinsburg, denying Grants army a bridgehead into the area. Federal efforts to push rapidly inland were slowed because Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand had forgotten to issue rations to the men, despite the resulting delay, however, the Army of the Tennessee moved onto the river bluffs unopposed and pushed rapidly towards Port Gibson. Shortly after midnight on May 1, advanced elements of the 14th Division under Brig. Gen. Eugene A. Carr engaged Confederate pickets near the Shaifer House, sporadic skirmishing and artillery fire continued until 3 a. m. Wary of Tracys Brigade to the north, McClernand posted Brig. Gen. Peter J. Osterhauss 9th Division facing that direction, having developed each others positions, the opposing forces sat down and waited for daylight. General Carr scouted the ground before him and realized that an assault through the canebrakes would be fruitless. Brig. Gen. Alvin P. Hoveys 12th Division arrived and surged forward just as Carrs men were storming the Confederate position, both flanks were turned, and Greens men broke and ran. McClernand stopped to reorganize, then launched into a series of grandiose speeches until Grant pointed out that the Confederates had simply withdrawn to a defendable position. Reinforced by Brig. Gen. A. J. Smiths 10th Division and Stevensons Brigade of McPhersons XVII Corp, with 20,000 men crowded into a 1. 5-mile front, McClernands plan appeared to be to force his way past the Confederate line. A flanking assault by Col. Francis Cockrells Missourians crumpled the Federal right flank, sundown found the two sides settling into a stalemate along a broad front on the Rodney Road several miles from Port Gibson. McPherson showed up late in the afternoon with John E. Smiths brigade, donning a cloak to disguise his rank, he reviewed the front lines and quickly devised a turning movement that would render untenable the entire Confederate right flank
20.
Vicksburg Campaign
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The Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Lt. Gen. John C. The campaign consisted of important naval operations, troop maneuvers, failed initiatives. Military historians divide the campaign into two phases, Operations Against Vicksburg and Grants Operations Against Vicksburg. Grant conducted a number of experiments or expeditions—Grants Bayou Operations—that attempted to enable access to the Mississippi south of Vicksburgs artillery batteries. All five of these failed as well. Finally, Union gunboats and troop transport boats ran the batteries at Vicksburg, on April 29 and April 30,1863, Grants army crossed the Mississippi and landed at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. An elaborate series of demonstrations and diversions fooled the Confederates and the landings occurred without opposition, over the next 17 days, Grant maneuvered his army inland and won five battles, captured the state capital of Jackson, Mississippi, and assaulted and laid siege to Vicksburg. After Pembertons army surrendered on July 4, and when Port Hudson surrendered to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P, Grants Vicksburg Campaign is studied as a masterpiece of military operations and a major turning point of the war. Vicksburg was strategically vital to the Confederates, Jefferson Davis said, Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the Souths two halves together. The natural defenses of the city were ideal, earning it the nickname The Gibraltar of the Confederacy and it was located on a high bluff overlooking a horseshoe-shaped bend in the river, De Soto Peninsula, making it almost impossible to approach by ship. About twelve miles up the Yazoo River were Confederate batteries and entrenchments at Haynes Bluff, the Louisiana land west of Vicksburg was also difficult, with many streams and poor country roads, widespread winter flooding, and it was on the opposite side of the river from the fortress. The city had been under Union naval attack before, admiral David Farragut moved up the river after his capture of New Orleans and on May 18,1862, demanded the surrender of Vicksburg. Farragut had insufficient troops to force the issue, and he moved back to New Orleans and he returned with a flotilla in June 1862, but their attempts to bombard the fortress into surrender failed. Farragut investigated the possibility of bypassing the fortified cliffs by digging a canal across the neck of the rivers bend, on June 28, Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams, attached to Farraguts command, began digging work on the canal by employing local laborers and some soldiers. Many of the men fell victim to diseases and heat exhaustion. In the fall of 1862, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck was promoted from command of the Western Theater to general-in-chief of all Union armies. Halleck has received criticism for not moving promptly overland from Memphis, Tennessee and he believed that the Navy could capture the fortress on its own, not knowing that the naval force was insufficiently manned with ground troops to finish the job. What might have achieved success in the summer of 1862 was no longer possible by November because the Confederates had amply reinforced the garrison by that time, Grants army marched south down the Mississippi Central Railroad, making a forward base at Holly Springs
21.
Normandy landings
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The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected
22.
Windsor Ruins
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Windsor Ruins are in Claiborne County in the U. S. state of Mississippi, about 10 miles southwest of Port Gibson near Alcorn State University. The ruins consist of 23 standing Corinthian columns of the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion ever built in the state, the mansion stood from 1861 to 1890, when it was destroyed by fire. The 2. 1-acre site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1985, Windsor mansion was located on a plantation that covered 2,600 acres. The mansion was constructed between 1859 and 1861 for Smith Coffee Daniell II, who was born in Mississippi and had acquired great wealth as a cotton planter by age 30, in 1849, Smith Daniell married his cousin Catherine Freeland. The couple had six children, with three surviving to adulthood, Windsor mansion was built facing the Mississippi River and was located about 4 mi east of the river. The footprint for Windsor mansion was set by 29 columns which supported a roof line that protected 9 ft wide verandas on the second. The 29 columns were constructed of bricks that were covered with stucco, each column was more than 3.5 ft in diameter at their base and stood 40 ft tall. The columns were constructed atop 10 ft tall, paneled brick plinths that were almost 5 ft square, bricks were made in an onsite kiln. The fluted columns were crowned with ornate, iron Corinthian capitals, column capitals, balustrades, and four cast iron stairways were manufactured in St. Louis and shipped down the Mississippi River to the Port of Bruinsburg, about 2 mi west of Windsor mansion. Windsor mansion was constructed as a 3-story block, consisting of a ground floor basement, with living quarters on the second, the main block was 64 ft on each side. A 3-story ell projected from the east side of the main block, the ell measured 59 ft by 26.5 ft. Archeological examination suggests that outer walls were constructed of wood covered in stucco. When completed, the 17,000 sq ft mansion contained three hallways and 23 to 25 rooms, each with its own fireplace, a featured innovation for that time period was the inclusion of two interior bathrooms supplied with rainwater from a tank in the attic. In 1861, cost of construction was about $175,000, the ground floor basement contained a school room, doctor’s office, dairy, commissary, and storage rooms. The second floor had a hallway flanked by the master bedroom, in the ell off the second floor was the dining room. Connected to the room by a dumbwaiter was the kitchen. The third floor contained a bath and eight more bedrooms. Eight chimneys extended from the roof, and a domed cupola with glass walls was constructed above the attic. On April 28,1861, Smith Daniell died at age 34, once the American Civil War began in 1861, Confederate forces used the Windsor mansion cupola as an observation platform and signal station
23.
Port Gibson, Mississippi
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Port Gibson is a city in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,567 at the 2010 census, Port Gibson is the county seat of Claiborne County and home to the Claiborne County Courthouse. The first European settlers in Port Gibson were French colonists in 1729 and it was chartered as a town in the U. S. in 1803 after the Louisiana Purchase. Due to development of plantations in the area after Indian Removal. The county had a black majority established well before the Civil War, several notable people are native of Port Gibson. The town saw action during the American Civil War, Port Gibson has several historical sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With the decline in agriculture and lack of jobs, the city and county have suffered from reduced population. The peak of population in the city was in 1950, a report in the New York Times in 2002 characterized Port Gibson as 80 percent black and poor, with 20 percent of families living on incomes less than $10,000 a year according to the 2000 Census. It also has an population of whites, many of whom are related and have some historical connection to cotton. Chartered as a town on March 12,1803, Port Gibson is Mississippis third-oldest European-American settlement and it was developed beginning in 1729 by French colonists, and was then within French-claimed territory known as La Louisiane. The now defunct Port Gibson Female College was founded here in 1843, one of its buildings now serves as the city hall. Port Gibson was the site of clashes during the American Civil War. The Battle of Port Gibson occurred on May 1,1863, the battle was a turning point in the Confederates ability to hold Mississippi and defend against an amphibious attack. Port Gibson is the site of the Port Gibson Oil Works, many of the towns historic buildings survived the Civil War because Grant reportedly proclaimed the city to be too beautiful to burn. These words appear on the city limits signs. Historic buildings in the city include the Windsor Ruins, which have shown in several motion pictures. Although Port Gibson no longer has a Jewish community, Gemiluth Chessed synagogue and it is the oldest synagogue and the only Moorish Revival building in the state. The Jewish population gradually moved to offering more opportunity
24.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
25.
County seat
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A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function. In the United States, counties are the subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide services to the public, impose taxes. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be incorporated or unincorporated. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county, a county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, in some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included Court House as part of their name. Most counties have only one county seat, an example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult, there have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states, Coffee County, for example, the official county seat is Greensboro, but an additional courthouse has been located in nearby High Point since 1938. For example, Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, in New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government. Historically, counties in this region have served mainly as dividing lines for the judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats, in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine the county seats are legally designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the shire town. Bennington County has two towns, but the Sheriff is located in Bennington. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments. As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county
26.
City
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A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
27.
Alcorn State University
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Alcorn State University is a historically black comprehensive land-grant institution in Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 by the Reconstruction-era legislature to provide education for freedmen. It is the first black land grant college established in the United States, the university is counted as a census-designated place and had a resident population of 1,017 at the 2010 census. The universitys most famous alumnus, Medgar Evers, a rights activist. Students at the college were part of the mid-twentieth century civil rights struggle, other alumni have been activists, politicians and professionals in Mississippi and other states. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Alcorn State University was founded at the former Oakland College, a school for whites established by the Presbyterian Church. Oakland College closed its doors at the beginning of the American Civil War because of the outbreak of war, when the college failed to reopen at the end of the war, the property was sold to the state of Mississippi. It renamed the facility as Alcorn University in 1871, in honor of James L. Alcorn, then the states governor and this was the first black land grant college in the country. Alcorn University started with what are recognized as three historic buildings, United States Senator Hiram R. Revels resigned his seat when offered the position as Alcorns first president. The state legislature provided $50,000 in cash for ten years for the establishment. The state also granted Alcorn three-fifths of the proceeds earned from the sale of 30,000 acres of land scrip for agricultural or land grant colleges under federal legislation, the land was sold for $188,928 with Alcorn receiving a share of $113,400. This money was to be used solely to support the agricultural and mechanical components of the college, from its beginning, Alcorn State University was a land-grant college. In 1878, the name Alcorn University was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, the universitys original 225 acres of land have been expanded to develop a 1,700 acres campus. The goals for the set by the Mississippi legislature following the Reconstruction era emphasized training for blacks rather than academic education. At first the school was exclusively for males, but women were admitted in 1895. Today, women outnumber men at the university 1800 to 1200, Alcorn began with eight faculty members in 1871. Today the faculty and staff number more than 500, the student body has grown from 179 mostly local male students to more than 4,000 students from all over the world. In 1974 Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College was renamed Alcorn State University, governor William L. Waller signed House Bill 298 granting university status to Alcorn and the other state-supported colleges
28.
Unincorporated area
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Occasionally, municipalities dissolve or disincorporate, which may happen if they become fiscally insolvent, and services become the responsibility of a higher administration. In some countries, such as in Brazil, Japan, France or the United Kingdom, unlike many other countries, Australia has only one level of local government immediately beneath state and territorial governments. A local government area often contains several towns and even entire cities, thus, aside from very sparsely populated areas and a few other special cases, almost all of Australia is part of an LGA. Unincorporated areas are often in locations, cover vast areas or have very small populations. Postal addresses in unincorporated areas, as in parts of Australia. Thus, there is any ambiguity regarding addresses in unincorporated areas. The Australian Capital Territory has no municipalities and is in some sense an unincorporated area, the territorial government is directly responsible for matters normally carried out by local government. The far west and north of New South Wales constitutes the Unincorporated Far West Region, a civil servant in the state capital manages such matters as are necessary. The second unincorporated area of state is Lord Howe Island. In the Northern Territory,1. 45% of the area and 4. In South Australia, 60% of the area is unincorporated and communities located within can receive services provided by a state agency. Firstly, the remote area that is unincorporated is the Abrolhos Islands. Secondly, the unincorporated areas are A-class reserves either in, or close to. In Canada, depending on the province, a settlement is one that does not have a municipal council that governs solely over the settlement. It is usually, but not always, part of a municipal government. This can range from hamlets to large urbanized areas that are similar in size to towns. In British Columbia, unincorporated settlements lie outside municipal boundaries entirely, Unincorporated settlements with a population of between 100 and 1,000 residents may have the status of designated place in Canadian census data. In some provinces, large tracts of undeveloped wilderness or rural country are unorganized areas that fall directly under the provincial jurisdiction
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