1.
Richard Nixon
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Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U. S. president to resign from office. He had previously served as a U. S, Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, after completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government and he subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950 and his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president and he waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected by defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft. His administration generally transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states and he imposed wage and price controls for a period of ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race and he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern. The year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, the scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9,1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, in retirement, Nixons work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image. He suffered a stroke on April 18,1994. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9,1913 in Yorba Linda, California and his parents were Hannah Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith, Nixons upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers, Harold, Donald, Arthur, four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England, Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart. Nixons early life was marked by hardship, and he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood, We were poor. The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the moved to Whittier
2.
Pat Nixon
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Thelma Catherine Pat Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. Born in Ely, Nevada, she grew up with her two brothers in what is now Cerritos, California, graduating high school in 1929. She attended Fullerton Junior College and later the University of Southern California and she paid for her schooling by working multiple jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist, radiographer, and retail clerk. In 1940, she married lawyer Richard Nixon and they had two daughters, Nixon campaigned for her husband in his successful congressional campaigns of 1946 and 1948. Richard Nixon was elected Vice President in the Eisenhower administration, whereupon Pat undertook many missions of goodwill with her husband and she assisted her husband in both his unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign and later in his successful 1968 presidential campaign. As First Lady, Pat Nixon promoted a number of charitable causes and she oversaw the collection of more than 600 pieces of historic art and furnishings for the White House, an acquisition larger than that of any other administration. She was the most traveled First Lady in U. S. history and these trips gained her favorable reception in the media and the host countries. Her tenure ended when, after being re-elected in a victory in 1972. Her public appearances became increasingly rare later in life and she and her husband returned to California, and later moved to New Jersey. She suffered two strokes, one in 1976 and another in 1983, then was diagnosed with cancer in 1992. She died in 1993, aged 81, thelma Catherine Ryan was born in the small mining town of Ely, Nevada, the day before Saint Patricks Day. Her father, William M. Ryan Sr. was a sailor, gold miner, Pat was a nickname given to her by her father, referring to her birthdate and Irish ancestry. After her birth, the Ryan family moved to California, thelma Ryans high-school yearbook page gives her nickname as Buddy and her ambition to run a boarding house. During this time she worked on the farm, and also at a local bank as a janitor. Her mother died of cancer in 1924, Pat, who was 12 at the time, assumed all the household duties for her father, who died in 1929 of silicosis, and two older brothers, William Jr. and Thomas. She also had a half-sister, Neva Bender, and a half-brother, Matthew Bender, from her mothers first marriage and it has been said that few, if any, First Ladies worked as consistently before their marriage as did Pat Nixon. As she told the writer Gloria Steinem during the 1968 presidential campaign, I never had time to think things like that—who I wanted to be, or who I admired. I never had time to dream about being anyone else, after graduating from Excelsior High School in 1929, she attended Fullerton Junior College
3.
Julie Nixon Eisenhower
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Julie Nixon Eisenhower is the daughter of Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States. She is the sister to Patricia Nixon Cox. While her father served as President of the United States, she wrote several books, since her father left the White House in 1974, she has written additional books and works to support her parents legacy. In 1968, she married David Eisenhower, grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and she is the mother of two daughters, Jennie Eisenhower and Melanie Catherine Eisenhower, and a son, Alexander Richard Eisenhower. Julie Nixon was born while her father, Richard Nixon, was a Congressman and she recalled her father as being romantic, while her mother was practical and down to earth. Her mother tried to seal her and her sister from much of her fathers political career, after expressing these feelings to Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady invited the two Nixon daughters to play with her grandchildren. Also at the inauguration, President Eisenhower suggested to her as their photograph was being taken to hide a black eye by turning her head. Julie had acquired it in an accident and turned her head towards David. Her grandmother Hannah Nixon would come to watch her and her sister whenever her parents traveled, as a teenager, she attended the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington along with her sister, Tricia. After her father lost the Presidential Election of 1960 to John F. Kennedy, Julie felt battered by the results and felt that the votes had been stolen. Julie left school in 1961, after her father lost his bid in 1960. At the time of what her father called to reporters his last press conference and that afternoon, Julie joined the two in crying at the foot of her parents bed over her fathers loss. The Nixons moved to New York after the race. She received a degree from New York University in 1972. David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Julie and David were both invited to address the Republican Womens Club. The club learned that the two were only seven miles apart, and invited the two to be featured speakers. They discussed the invitations and both chose to decline, but would come in again when David visited Julie with his roommate from Amherst and took her. David reflected, I was broke, my roommate forgot his wallet and she began dating David Eisenhower in the fall of 1966 when both were freshmen at Smith College and Amherst College, respectively
4.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
5.
Howard Hughes
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Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was an American businessman, investor, pilot, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. He first made a name for himself as a film producer, later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle, oddities that were caused in part by a worsening obsessive–compulsive disorder and chronic pain from a plane crash. As a maverick film tycoon, Hughes gained prominence in Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he made big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket, Hells Angels, later he controlled the RKO film studio. Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers and designers and he spent the rest of the 1930s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules. He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, Hughes was included in Flying Magazines list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No.25. Today, his legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the birthplace of Howard Hughes is recorded as either Humble or Houston, Texas. The date remains uncertain due to conflicting dates from various sources and he repeatedly claimed that his birthday was on Christmas Eve. A1941 affidavit birth certificate of Hughes that was signed by his aunt Annette Gano Lummis and Estelle Boughton Sharp states that he was born on December 24,1905, in Harris County, Texas. Hughes was the son of Allene Stone Gano and Howard R. Hughes Sr. a successful inventor and he was of English, and some French Huguenot, ancestry, and was a descendant of John Gano, a minister who allegedly baptized George Washington. His father had patented the two-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for petroleum in previously inaccessible places, the senior Hughes made the shrewd and lucrative decision to commercialize the invention by leasing the bits instead of selling them, and founded the Hughes Tool Company in 1909. Hughes uncle was the famed novelist, screenwriter, and film director Rupert Hughes, at a young age, Hughes demonstrated interest in science and technology. In particular, he had great engineering aptitude and built Houstons first wireless radio transmitter at age 11 and he went on to be one of the first licensed ham radio operators in Houston, having the assigned callsign W5CY. At 12, Hughes was photographed in the newspaper, identified as being the first boy in Houston to have a motorized bicycle. He was an indifferent student, with a liking for mathematics, flying and he took his first flying lesson at 14, and later attended math and aeronautical engineering courses at Caltech. The red brick house where Hughes lived as a teenager at 3921 Yoakum St. Houston today serves as the headquarters of the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas and his mother Allene died in March 1922 from complications of an ectopic pregnancy. Howard Hughes Sr. died of an attack in 1924. Their deaths apparently inspired Hughes to include the creation of a research laboratory in the will that he signed in 1925 at age 19. Howard Sr. s will had not been updated since Allenes death, on his 19th birthday, Hughes was declared an emancipated minor, enabling him to take full control of his life
6.
Whittier, California
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Whittier is a city in Southern California located within Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 85,331, reflecting an increase of 1,631 from the 83,680 counted in the 2000 Census, like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities. Whittier was incorporated in February 1898 and became a city in 1955. The city is named for the poet John Greenleaf Whittier and is home to Whittier College, Whittiers roots can be traced to Spanish soldier Manuel Nieto. In 1784, Nieto received a Spanish land grant of 300,000 acres, Rancho Los Nietos, as a reward for his military service, the area of Nietos land grant was reduced in 1790 as the result of a dispute with Mission San Gabriel. Nieto built a rancho for his family near Whittier, and purchased cattle and horses for his ranch, when Nieto died in 1804, his children inherited their fathers property. At the time of the Mexican-American War, much of the land that would become Whittier was owned by Pio Pico, a rancher, Pio Pico built a hacienda here on the San Gabriel River, known today as Pio Pico State Historic Park. Gerkens would later become the first chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department, gerkens land was owned by several others before a group of Quakers purchased it and expanded it to 1,259 acres, with the intent of founding a Quaker community. The area soon became known as a thriving citrus ranching region, later, walnut trees were also planted, and Whittier became the largest walnut grower in the United States. In addition to walnuts and citrus, Whittier was also a producer of pampas grass. For many years, the means of transport from this area to Los Angeles was on foot, or via horse and wagon over rough dirt roads, impeding settlement, development. Thus in 1887 enterprising and aggressive businessmen contracted with the Southern Pacific Railroad to build the first railroad spur to Whittier, by 1906,650 carloads of oranges and 250 carloads of lemons were shipped annually by rail. In 1904, the Pacific Electric opened the line known as Big Red Cars from Los Angeles to Whittier. In the first two decades, over a million passengers a year rode to and from Los Angeles on the Whittier line, groves of walnuts were planted in 1887 and eventually Whittier was known as the primary walnut growing town in the United States. After World War II Whittier grew rapidly and the sub-dividing of orange groves began, in 1955 the new Civic Center complex was completed and the City Council met in new chambers for the first time on March 8,1955. The city continued to grow as the City annexed portions of Whittier Boulevard, the 1961 annexation added over 28,000 people to the population, bringing the total to about 67,000. In the founding days of Whittier, when it was an isolated town, Jonathan Bailey and his wife. They followed the Quaker religious faith and practice, and held meetings on their porch
7.
United States presidential election, 1960
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The United States presidential election of 1960 was the 44th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8,1960. The Republican Party nominated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, while the Democratic Party nominated John F. Kennedy, the incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. This was the first presidential election in which voters in Alaska and Hawaii were able to participate, Kennedy received 112,827 more votes than Nixon nationwide and although Nixon won the popular vote contest in more individual states, Kennedy won a 303 to 219 Electoral College victory. The 1960 presidential election was the closest election since 1916, which can be explained by a number of factors. Kennedy benefited from the recession of 1957–58, which hurt the standing of the incumbent Republican Party. Furthermore, the new votes that Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president, Kennedys campaigning skills decisively outmatched Nixons. In the end, Nixons emphasis on his experience carried little weight, Kennedy used his large, well-funded campaign organization to win the nomination, secure endorsements, and, with the aid of the last of the big-city bosses, get out the vote in the big cities. Kennedy relied on running mate Lyndon B. Johnson to hold the South, following the election, Nixon unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in 1962, before making a successful campaign for the presidency in 1968, winning re-election by a landslide in 1972. He was later the first United States President to resign, following the Watergate Scandal and this election also features the last time the state of Ohio was on the losing end of the presidential election. From 1964 onward, the candidate who won Ohio won the election nationwide, several other candidates sought support in their home state or region as favorite son candidates without any realistic chance of winning the nomination. Symington, Stevenson, and Johnson all declined to campaign in the presidential primaries, realizing that this was a strategy touted by his opponents to keep the public from taking him seriously, Kennedy stated frankly, Im not running for vice-president, Im running for president. The next step was the primaries, Kennedys Roman Catholic religion was an issue. Kennedy first challenged Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary, Kennedys attractive sisters, brothers, and wife Jacqueline combed the state looking for votes, leading Humphrey to complain that he felt like an independent merchant competing against a chain store. The first televised debate of 1960 was held in West Virginia, humphreys campaign was low on funds and could not compete for advertising and other get-out-the-vote drives with Kennedys well-financed and well-organized campaign. In the end, Kennedy defeated Humphrey with over 60% of the vote, West Virginia showed that Kennedy, a Catholic, could win in a heavily Protestant state. Although Kennedy had only competed in nine primaries, Kennedys rivals, Johnson and Symington. Following the primaries, Kennedy traveled around the nation speaking to state delegations, as the Democratic Convention opened, Kennedy was far in the lead, but was still seen as being just short of the delegate total he needed to win. The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California, in the week before the convention opened, Kennedy received two new challengers when Lyndon B
8.
Watergate scandal
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When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U. S. Congress, the Nixon administrations resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis. The term Watergate, by metonymy, has come to encompass an array of clandestine and those activities included such dirty tricks as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty, the affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex on Saturday, June 17,1972. In July 1973, evidence mounted against the Presidents staff, including testimony provided by staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee. The investigation revealed that President Nixon had a system in his offices. After a protracted series of court battles, the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president was obliged to release the tapes to government investigators. The tapes revealed that Nixon had attempted to cover up activities that took place after the break-in, facing virtually certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9,1974. On September 8,1974, his successor, Gerald Ford, the name Watergate and the suffix -gate have since become synonymous with political and non-political scandals in the United States. According to Dean, this marked the scene of the worst political scandal of the twentieth century. Mitchell viewed the plan as unrealistic, Liddy was nominally in charge of the operation, but has since insisted that he was duped by Dean and at least two of his subordinates. These included former CIA officers E. Howard Hunt and James McCord, in May, McCord assigned former FBI agent Alfred C. Baldwin III to carry out the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward. McCord testified that he selected Baldwins name from a registry published by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI to work for the Committee to Re-elect the President, Baldwin first served as bodyguard to Martha Mitchell, the wife of John Mitchell, who was living in Washington. Baldwin accompanied Martha Mitchell to Chicago, Martha did not like Baldwin and described him as the gauchest character Ive ever met. The Committee replaced Baldwin with another security man, the room 419 was booked in the name of McCord’s company. At behest of G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, McCord and his team of burglars prepared for their first Watergate break-in, two phones inside the offices of the DNC headquarters were said to have been wiretapped. The FBI found no evidence that OBriens phone was bugged, however, it was determined that an effective listening device had been installed in Olivers phone. Despite the success in installing the devices, the Committee agents soon determined that they needed to be repaired. They planned a burglary in order to take care of this
9.
Hubert Humphrey
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Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969. Humphrey twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 1949 to 1964 and 1971 to 1978 and he was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 1968 presidential election, losing to the Republican nominee Richard M. Nixon. Born in Wallace, South Dakota in 1911, Humphrey attended the University of Minnesota before earning his pharmacist license from the Capitol College of Pharmacy in 1931. He helped run his fathers pharmacy until 1937 when he returned to academia, graduating with a degree from Louisiana State University in 1940. He returned to Minnesota during World War II and became a supervisor for the Works Progress Administration and he was then appointed state director of the Minnesota war service program before becoming the assistant director of the War Manpower Commission. In 1943, Humphrey became a professor of Political Science at Macalester College, Humphrey helped found the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party in 1944, and in 1945, became the DFL candidate for mayor of Minneapolis for a second time, winning with 61% of the vote. Humphrey served as mayor from 1945 to 1948, he was reelected and he served three terms in the Senate from 1949 to 1964 and was the Democratic Majority Whip from 1961 to 1964. Humphrey ran for two failed Presidential campaigns in the 1952 and 1960 Democratic primaries, after Johnson made the surprise announcement that he would not seek reelection in March 1968, Humphrey launched his campaign for the presidency the following month. Humphreys main Democratic challengers were anti-Vietnam War Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy, Humphreys delegate strategy succeeded in clinching the nomination, choosing Senator Edmund Muskie as his running mate. On November 5,1968, Humphrey lost to former Vice President Richard Nixon in the general election, Humphrey then returned to teaching in Minnesota before returning to the Senate in 1971. He became the first Deputy President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Humphrey died of bladder cancer at his home in Waverly, Minnesota, and is buried at the Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. He was succeeded by his wife of forty-one years Muriel Humphrey as interim Senator for Minnesota, Humphrey was born in a room over his fathers drugstore in Wallace, South Dakota. In the late 1920s, an economic downturn hit Doland. After his son graduated from Dolands high school, Hubert Humphrey Sr. left Doland and opened a new drugstore in the town of Huron, South Dakota. Because of the financial struggles, Humphrey had to leave the University of Minnesota after just one year. He earned a license from the Capitol College of Pharmacy in Denver, Colorado. Both father and son were innovative businessmen in finding ways to attract customers, to supplement their business, a sign featuring a wooden pig was hung over the drugstore to tell the public about this unusual service. Farmers got the message, and it was Humphreys that became known as the farmers drugstore, Humphrey himself later wrote that we made Humphreys Sniffles, a substitute for Vicks Nose Drops
10.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
11.
Oliver Stone
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William Oliver Stone is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of Midnight Express and he also wrote the acclaimed gangster movie Scarface. As a director, Stone achieved prominence as director/writer of the war drama Platoon, for which Stone won the Academy Award for Best Director, Platoon was the first in a trilogy of films based on the Vietnam War, in which Stone served as an infantry soldier. He continued the series with Born on the Fourth of July —for which Stone won his second Best Director Oscar—and Heaven & Earth. Many of Stones films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century and they often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as evidenced in JFK, Natural Born Killers, and Nixon. Stone was born September 15,1946, in New York City, the son of Jacqueline and Louis Stone and he grew up in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. His parents met during World War II, when his father was fighting as a part of the Allied force in France and his American-born father was a non-practicing Jew, and his French-born mother was a non-practicing Roman Catholic. Stone was raised in the Episcopal Church, and now practices Buddhism, Stone attended Trinity School in New York City before his parents sent him away to The Hill School, a college-preparatory school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. His parents were divorced abruptly while he was away at school, Stones mother was often absent and his father made a big impact on his life, father-son relationships were to feature heavily in Stones films. He often spent parts of his vacations with his maternal grandparents in France. Stone also worked at 17 in the Paris mercantile exchange in sugar, Stone graduated from The Hill School in 1964. Stone was admitted into Yale University, but left in June 1965 at age 18 to teach school students English for six months in Saigon at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam. Afterwards, he worked as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship in 1966 and he returned to Yale, where he dropped out a second time. In April 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army, from September 16,1967 to April 1968, he served in Vietnam with 2nd Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Division and was twice wounded in action. He was then transferred to the First Cavalry Division participating in long range patrols before being transferred again to drive for an infantry unit of the division until November 1968. Stone graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film in 1971, Stone made a short, well received 12-minute film Last Year in Viet Nam. In 1979, Stone won his first Academy Award, after adapting true-life prison story Midnight Express into a hit film for British director Alan Parker. Stones screenplay for Midnight Express was criticized by some for its inaccuracies in portraying the events described in the book, the original author, Billy Hayes, around whom the film is set, spoke out against the film, protesting that he had many Turkish friends while in jail
12.
Playboy
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Playboy is an American mens lifestyle and entertainment magazine. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, with a presence in nearly every medium. In addition to the magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide. The magazine has a history of publishing short stories by notable novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Saul Bellow, Chuck Palahniuk, P. G. Wodehouse, Haruki Murakami, the magazine generally reflects a liberal editorial stance, although it often interviews conservative celebrities. After a year-long removal of most nude photos in Playboy magazine and he formed HMH Publishing Corporation, and recruited his friend Eldon Sellers to find investors. Hefner eventually raised just over $8,000, including from his brother and mother. However, the publisher of a mens adventure magazine, Stag, contacted Hefner. Hefner, his wife Millie, and Sellers met to seek a new name, considering Top Hat, Gentleman, Sir, Satyr, Pan, the first issue, in December 1953, was undated, as Hefner was unsure there would be a second. He produced it in his Hyde Park kitchen, the first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, although the picture used originally was taken for a calendar rather than for Playboy. Hefner chose what he deemed the sexiest image, a previously unused nude study of Marilyn stretched with an arm on a red velvet background with closed eyes. The heavy promotion centered around Marilyns nudity on the calendar, together with the teasers in marketing. The first issue sold out in weeks, copies of the first issue in mint to near mint condition sold for over $5,000 in 2002. The novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, was serialized in the March, April, an urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month because of markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979, the P in Playboy had stars printed in or around the letter. The legend stated that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the stars, between zero and 12, actually indicated the domestic or international advertising region for that printing. From 1966 to 1976, Robie Macauley was the Fiction Editor at Playboy, P. Donleavy, as well as poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Macauley also contributed all of the popular Ribald Classics series published between January 1978 and March 1984, christie Hefner, daughter of the founder Hugh Hefner, joined Playboy in 1975 and became head of the company in 1988
