1.
Dupont Circle
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Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D. C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW to the west, M Street NW to the south, the local government Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Dupont Circle Historic District have slightly different boundaries. The circle is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, the area that now constitutes Dupont Circle was once home to a brickyard and slaughterhouse. Improvements made in the 1870s by a board of public works headed by Alexander Boss Shepherd transformed the area into a residential neighborhood. In 1871, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the circle, then called Pacific Circle. On February 25,1882, Congress renamed it Dupont Circle, unveiled on December 20,1884, the statue was sculpted by Launt Thompson, and the circle was landscaped with exotic flowers and ornamental trees. In 1920, the current double-tiered white marble fountain replaced the statue, during the 1870s and 1880s, mansions were built along Massachusetts Avenue, one of Washingtons grand avenues, and townhouses were built throughout the neighborhood. In 1872, the British built a new embassy on Connecticut Avenue, stewarts Castle was built in 1873 on the north side of the circle. By the 1920s, Connecticut Avenue was more commercial in character, some residences, including Senator Philetus Sawyers mansion at Connecticut and R Street, were demolished to make way for office buildings and shops. The Patterson House, at 15 Dupont Circle, served as a residence for President Calvin Coolidge while the actual White House was being repaired in 1927. In 1933, the National Park Service took over administering the circle, Connecticut Avenue was widened in the late 1920s, and increased traffic in the neighborhood caused a great deal of congestion in the circle, making it difficult for pedestrians to get around. Medians were installed in 1948, in the circle, to separate the traffic on Massachusetts Avenue from the local traffic. In 1949 traffic tunnels and a streetcar station were built under the circle as part of the now-defunct Capital Transit project. The tunnels allowed trams and vehicles traveling along Connecticut Avenue to pass more quickly past the circle, when streetcar service ended in 1962, the entrances to the underground station were filled in and paved over, leaving only the traffic tunnel. The neighborhood declined after World War II and particularly after the 1968 riots, the neighborhood took on a bohemian feel and became popular among the gay and lesbian community. D. C. s first gay bookstore, Lambda Rising, opened in 1974, in 1975, the store ran the worlds first gay-oriented television commercial. Gentrification accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, and the area is now a mainstream and trendy location with coffeehouses, restaurants, bars
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.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
4.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
5.
Charleston, South Carolina
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Charleston had an estimated population of 132,609 in 2015. Charleston was founded as Charles Town—honoring King Charles II of England—in 1670 and its initial location at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River was abandoned in 1680 for its present site, which became the 5th-largest city in North America within 10 years. Despite its size, it remained unincorporated throughout the period, its government was handled directly by the state legislature and by its Anglican parish wardens. It adopted its present spelling with its incorporation as a city in 1783 at the close of the Revolutionary War. The Confederates burned the town prior to its evacuation but continued demand for the cotton and rice, along with growing industry. In 2016, Charleston was ranked the Worlds Best City by Travel + Leisure, the city proper consists of six distinct areas, the Peninsula or Downtown, West Ashley, Johns Island, James Island, Daniel Island, and the Cainhoy Peninsula. The old town fit into 4–5 square miles as late as the First World War, the city limits also have expanded across the Cooper River, encompassing Daniel Island and the Cainhoy area. The present city has an area of 127.5 square miles. North Charleston blocks any expansion up the peninsula, and Mount Pleasant occupies the land directly east of the Cooper River, Charleston Harbor runs about 7 miles southeast to the Atlantic with an average width of about 2 miles, surrounded on all sides except its entrance. Sullivans Island lies to the north of the entrance and Morris Island to itself south, the entrance itself is about 1 mile wide, it was originally only 18 feet deep, but began to be enlarged in the 1870s. The tidal rivers are evidence of a submergent or drowned coastline, there is a submerged river delta off the mouth of the harbor and the Cooper River is deep. Charleston has a subtropical climate, with mild winters, hot, humid summers. Summer is the wettest season, almost half of the rainfall occurs from June to September in the form of thundershowers. Fall remains relatively warm through November, winter is short and mild, and is characterized by occasional rain. Measurable snow only occurs several times per decade at the most, however,6.0 in fell at the airport on December 23,1989, the largest single-day fall on record, contributing to a single-storm and seasonal record of 8.0 in snowfall. The highest temperature recorded within city limits was 104 °F on June 2,1985, and June 24,1944, and the lowest was 7 °F on February 14,1899. At the airport, where records are kept, the historical range is 105 °F on August 1,1999. Hurricanes are a threat to the area during the summer and early fall
6.
Charleston Historic District
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The Charleston Historic District, alternatively known as Charleston Old and Historic District, is a National Historic Landmark District in Charleston, South Carolina. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, the city of Charleston was founded in 1670, with its main historic colonial heart laid out in 1680 on the peninsula at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Since that time, the city has been a major commercial and these types of houses are built using all types of building materials, including wood, brick, and stucco. In Ansonborough, there are blocks of fine Greek Revival houses, Broad Street, a major east-west thoroughfare since the early days, is home to a fine collection of Federal period houses, many of which have been converted to commercial uses. The city of Charleston legislatively established the Old and Historic District as a historic district. In 1960, a portion of district was designated a National Historic Landmark District for its architectural significance. When initially listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, battery and Ashley and an area along Church bounded by Cumberland and Chalmers. Minor enlargements have added single buildings in 1984,1985, and 1986, initially built in 1950, the Sergeant Jaspers owners, The Beach Company of Charleston, SC, proposed a redevelopment of the property in 2014. As the Palmetto Business Daily reports, several concepts for the redevelopment were rejected by the BAR. As a result, The Beach Company filed suit over what it claims is an arbitrary, the Sergeant Jasper stakeholders went into court-ordered mediation over the project on April 6,2014. But it is still unconstitutional to deny property owners their due process rights
7.
French Quarter
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The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the Vieux Carré, the district is more commonly called the French Quarter today, or simply The Quarter, related to changes in the city with American immigration after the Louisiana Purchase. The district as a whole has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and it is a prime tourist destination in the city, as well as attracting local residents. The French Quarter is located at 29°57′31″N 90°03′54″W and has an elevation of 1 foot, according to the United States Census Bureau, the district has a total area of 0.66 square miles. 0.49 square miles of which is land and 0.17 square miles of which is water, the most common definition of the French Quarter includes all the land stretching along the Mississippi River from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue and inland to North Rampart Street. It equals an area of 78 square blocks, louis Street and North Rampart Street to the west. The National Historic Landmark district is stated to be 85 square blocks, the Quarter is subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD Area. Faubourg Marigny Mississippi River Central Business District Iberville Tremé As of the census of 2000, there were 4,176 people,2,908 households, the population density was 8,523 /mi². As of the census of 2010, there were 3,813 people,2,635 households, most of the French Quarters architecture was built during the late 18th century and the period of Spanish rule over the city, which is reflected in the architecture of the neighborhood. Their strict new fire codes mandated that all structures be physically adjacent, the old French peaked roofs were replaced with flat tiled ones, and wooden siding was banned in favor of fire-resistant stucco, painted in the pastel hues fashionable at the time. As a result, colorful walls and roofs and elaborately decorated ironwork balconies and galleries, from the late 18th, when Anglophone Americans began to move in after the Louisiana Purchase, they mostly built on available land upriver, across modern-day Canal Street. This thoroughfare became the place of two cultures, one Francophone Creole and the other Anglophone American. The median of the boulevard became a place where the two contentious cultures could meet and do business in both French and English. As such, it known as the neutral ground. Even before the Civil War, French Creoles had become a minority in the French Quarter, in the late 19th century the Quarter became a less fashionable part of town, and many immigrants from southern Italy and Ireland settled there. In 1905, the Italian consul estimated that one-third to one-half of the Quarter’s population were Italian-born or second generation Italian-Americans, Irish immigrants also settled heavily in the Esplanade area, which was called the Irish Channel. In 1917, the closure of Storyville sent much of the vice formerly concentrated therein back into the French Quarter, was the last straw, and they began to move uptown. This, combined with the loss of the French Opera House two years later, provided a bookend to the era of French Creole culture in the Quarter, many of the remaining French Creoles moved to the University area
8.
New Orleans
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New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
9.
Alexandria, Virginia
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Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is coterminous with the U. S. Census Bureau-census-designated place of Arlington, as a result, the county is often referred to in the region simply as Arlington or Arlington, Virginia. In 2015, the population was estimated at 229,164. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal district of Columbia. In 1846, Congress returned the land southwest of the Potomac River donated by Virginia due to issues involving Congressional representation, the General Assembly of Virginia changed the countys name to Arlington in 1920 to avoid confusion with the adjacent City of Alexandria. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington. Arlington is also bordered by Fairfax County and City of Falls Church to the northwest, west and southwest, as of the 2010 census, the population was 207,627. Due to the proximity to downtown Washington, D. C. It is also home to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the many federal agencies, government contractors, and service industries contribute to Arlingtons stable economy. It is the county in the United States by median family income. According to a 2016 study by Bankrate. com, Arlington is the best place to retire, the area that now constitutes Arlington County was originally part of Fairfax County in the Colony of Virginia. Land grants from the British monarch were awarded to prominent Englishmen in exchange for political favors, one of the grantees was Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who lends his name to both Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax. George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of First Lady Martha Washington, the estate was eventually passed down to Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of General Robert E. Lee. The property later became Arlington National Cemetery during the American Civil War, the area that now contains Arlington County was ceded to the new United States federal government by the Commonwealth of Virginia. With the passage of the Residence Act in 1790, Congress approved a new permanent capital to be located on the Potomac River, the Residence Act originally only allowed the President to select a location within Maryland as far east as what is now the Anacostia River. However, President Washington shifted the federal territorys borders to the southeast in order to include the city of Alexandria at the Districts southern tip. In 1791, Congress amended the Residence Act to approve the new site, however, this amendment to the Residence Act specifically prohibited the erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the River Potomac. As permitted by the U. S. Constitution, the shape of the federal district was a square, measuring 10 miles on each side
10.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
