Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security is the commonly used term for the federal Old-Age and Disability Insurance program. Social Security is funded primarily through taxes called Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax or Self Employed Contributions Act Tax. With a few exceptions, all salaried income, up to an amount specifically determined by law, is subject to the Social Security payroll tax, all income over said amount is not taxed. In 2017, the amount of taxable earnings was $127,200. With few exceptions, all legal residents working in the United States now have an individual Social Security number. Indeed, nearly all working residents since Social Securitys 1935 inception have had a Social Security number because it is required to do a range of things, e. g. paying the IRS. In 2015, Social Security expenditures totaled $750.5 billion for OASDI, Social Security Timeline 1935 The 37-page Social Security Act signed August 14 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Landmark U. S. Supreme Court ruling that gave Congress the power to amend, the Court ruled that recipients have no contractual right to receive payments.
1961 Early retirement age lowered to age 62 at reduced benefits 1965 Medicare health care benefits added to Social security—20 million joined in three years 1966 Medicare tax of 0, the Earnings limit doubled exemption amount for retired Social Security beneficiaries. The Act was an attempt to limit unforeseen and unprepared for dangers in the life, including old age, poverty, unemployment. Opponents, decried the proposal as socialism, in a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Senator Thomas Gore asked Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Isnt this socialism. She said that it was not, but he continued, Isnt this a bit of socialism. By 1950, debates moved away from which occupational groups should be included to get enough taxpayers to fund Social Security to how to provide more benefits, changes in Social Security have reflected a balance between promoting equality and efforts to provide adequate and affordable protection for low wage workers. These retirement benefits are a form of insurance that is heavily biased toward lower paid workers to make sure they do not have to retire in relative poverty.
The OASI accounts plus trust funds are the only Social Security funding source that brings in more than it sends out, Social Security revenues exceeded expenditures, between 1983 and 2009. The disability insurance taxes of 1. 4% are included in the OASDI rate of 6. 2% for workers and employers or 12. 4% for the self-employed, the additional retirees expected under the baby boom bulge will hasten this trust fund depletion. Medicare expenses, tied to medical costs growth rates, have traditionally increased much faster than GDP growth rates, for workers the Social Security tax rate is 6. 2% on income under $127,200 through the end of 2017. The worker Medicare tax rate is 1. 45% of all income—employers pay another 1. 45%, employers pay 6. 2% up to the wage ceiling and the Medicare tax of 1.45 percent on all income
Joe Gans
Joe Gans was an African-American boxer, born in Baltimore, who was rated the greatest lightweight boxer of all time by boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder, Nat Fleischer. Gans was known as the Old Master and he fought from 1891 to 1909. He was the first African-American World Boxing Champion of the 20th century, reigning continuously as World Lightweight Champion from 1902-1904, Gans started boxing professionally about 1891 in Baltimore. He gained many fans within the world, both white and black, with his scientific approach to fighting. Finding an opponents strengths and weaknesses, competing with a game-plan was Gans specialty and he was known as a true student of the sport. In their rematch two years later, Gans knocked Erne out in one round to take the World Lightweight Title. He was not quite the first Black world title holder, Canadian born, George Dixon, won the Bantamweight World Title in 1892. Barbados Joe Walcott won the World Welterweight title on December 18,1901, Gans reigned as champion from 1902 to 1908.
A slender man, never weighing over 137 pounds, Gans frequently fought heavier boxers, adding to the legend of his scientific fighting technique. On January 6,1902, Gans defeated the former World Welterweight Champion Canadian born Eddie Connolly, Connolly lost in a five round disqualification at the Washington Sports Club in Philadelphia. One reporter noted that Connolly, did nothing but hug and wrestle, a head butt is a foul usually resulting in an immediate disqualification. The reporter noted that Connolly clinched frequently and wrestled rather than boxed, by the time the referee ended the bout in the fifth, Connolly had been rendered practically helpless by the powerful punching of Gans. BoxRec recorded the San Francisco fight as a World Welterweight Title match, the bout had a weight limit of around 142 pounds which was estimated to be Sullivans weigh in, whereas Gans weigh in was estimated to have been seven or eight pounds lighter. Gans defeat of the heavier Sullivan, a strong puncher by reputation, in this well attended bout, Gans share of the gate was a considerable $2,425.20 and Sullivans was $1,616.80.
Gans reportedly had bet another $1,700 on himself, which if accurate, Gans told the press he had had reasons to lose the fight. When Gans and Battling Nelson fought for the World Lightweight Title on July 4 and September 9,1908, Gans lost by a knockout, ending his long, Gans continued to fight until 1909. He died in August 1910, of tuberculosis, not long after his last fight and his monument is maintained by the International Boxing Commission and sits just to the left of the main entrance of the cemetery. I was born in the city of Baltimore in the year 1874, when I became an object of newspaper publicity, some reporter made a mistake and my name appeared as Joe Gans, and as Joe Gans it remained ever since
Port of Baltimore
Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the shores and branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland. The port includes facilities for cargo, especially roll-on/roll-off ships, and passenger facilities operated by the Maryland Port Administration, the port was renamed for Helen Delich Bentley during a 2006 celebration of the ports 300th birthday. English land grants 1661 were combined 1702 by James Carroll who named it Whetstone Point, the port was founded on this site in 1706 by the Maryland Colonial Assembly as a Port of Entry for the tobacco trade with England. In 1729 the point was incorporated into BaltimoreTown, starting in 1776 local citizenry erected earthworks named Fort Whetstone for port defense during the American Revolutionary War, which was replaced in 1798 by Fort McHenry. Fells Point was incorporated into Baltimore Town in 1773, the Continental Navy ordered their first frigate, USS Virginia, from George Wells in Fells Point in 1775. The first ship named the USF Constellation were produced at the Harris Creek Shipyard here, over 800 ships were commissioned from Fells Point shipyards from 1784 to 1821.
The California Gold Rush lead to orders for fast vessels. After the founding of Baltimore the waterfront developed drydocks, ship chandlers, in 1828 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began track laying eventually extending into Locust Point in 1845. The arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio and other railroads made the port a major transshipment point between inland points and the rest of the world, by the 1840s, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company was providing overnight steamship service down the Chesapeake Bay. After the Civil War, coffee ships were designed here for trade with Brazil, other industrial activities in Canton included Baltimore Copper Smelting Company and small oil refineries, purchased by Standard Oil. By the end of the century, European ship lines had terminals for emigrants from Britain, Germany. Maintenance of harbor channels and navigation aids began early, dredging in the harbor can be traced back as far as 1783, when the Ellicott brothers excavated the bottom at their wharf in the Inner Harbor.
In 1790 the state government began systematic dredging using a mud machine, in 1825 Sen. Sam Smith of Maryland petitioned Congress for federal funding for this work. At this time Congress was smarting from the incursions of the War of 1812 and had determined to expand naval defenses and this first project was completed in 1838. In the 1850s a second dredging project was undertaken, this time under Capt. Henry Brewerton, in 1865 Maj. William P. Craighill took over as Baltimore District Engineer of the Corps of Engineers. In the 1870s a cut-off channel was dug to ameliorate the turn between the old and new channels, the Brewerton Channel was extended to provide a connection to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Enlarged and extended to various facilities within the port, the Brewerton and Craighill Channels continue in use to the present. Federal lighthouse construction in the bay began in the 1820s, and these lights, the North Point Range Lights, were lit in 1822, marking a path roughly the same as that of the current Craighill Cutoff Channel
Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Albert, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase.
By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F.
Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
Vaudeville
Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment.
The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, singing and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F.
Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War.
The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817.
Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle
Slavery in the United States
Slavery had been practiced in British North America from early colonial days, and was legal in all Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. By the time of the American Revolution, the status of slave had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry, when the United States Constitution was ratified, a relatively small number of free people of color were among the voting citizens. During and immediately following the Revolutionary War, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states, most of these states had a higher proportion of free labor than in the South and economies based on different industries. They abolished slavery by the end of the 18th century, some with gradual systems that kept adults as slaves for two decades. But the rapid expansion of the industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor. Congress during the Jefferson administration prohibited the importation of slaves, effective in 1808, domestic slave trading, continued at a rapid pace, driven by labor demands from the development of cotton plantations in the Deep South.
More than one million slaves were sold from the Upper South, which had a surplus of labor, New communities of African-American culture were developed in the Deep South, and the total slave population in the South eventually reached 4 million before liberation. As the West was developed for settlement, the Southern state governments wanted to keep a balance between the number of slave and free states to maintain a balance of power in Congress. The new territories acquired from Britain and Mexico were the subject of major political compromises, by 1850, the newly rich cotton-growing South was threatening to secede from the Union, and tensions continued to rise. When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, the first six states to secede held the greatest number of slaves in the South. Shortly after, the Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked the US Armys Fort Sumter, four additional slave states seceded. In the early years of the Chesapeake Bay settlements, colonial officials found it difficult to attract and retain laborers under the frontier conditions.
Most laborers came from Britain as indentured servants, having signed contracts of indenture to pay with work for their passage, their upkeep and training and these indentured servants were young people who intended to become permanent residents. In some cases, convicted criminals were transported to the colonies as indentured servants, the indentured servants were not slaves, but were required to work for four to seven years in Virginia to pay the cost of their passage and maintenance. Historians estimate that more than half of all immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries came as indentured servants. The number of indentured servants among immigrants was particularly high in the South, many Germans, Scots-Irish, and Irish came to the colonies in the 18th century, settling in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and further south. The planters in the South found that the problem with indentured servants was that many left after several years, just when they had become skilled.
In addition, an economy in England in the late 17th
Noble Sissle
Noble Lee Sissle was an African-American jazz composer, bandleader and playwright, best known for the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, and its hit song Im Just Wild About Harry. Sissle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 10,1889 and his mother, Martha Angeline Sissle, was a school teacher and juvenile probation officer. As a youth Sissle sang in choirs and as a soloist with his high schools glee club in Cleveland. Sissle attended De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on scholarship, on October 1,1918, Sissle joined the New York 369th Infantry Regiment at New York City where he helped Lieutenant James Reese Europe form the 369th Regimental Band. Sissle played violin and served as major for the 369th that, under Europe as bandmaster. He sang several vocals on the last disc recorded by the band that was released in March 1919 and he left the army after the war as a second lieutenant with the 370th Infantry Regiment and joined Europe’s civilian version of the 369th band. Years earlier Sissle had struck up a partnership with Blake after they first met in Baltimore in 1915 and had remained in touch during the war, Sissle is noted for his collaborations with Blake.
The pair first performed in vaudeville and produced the musicals Shuffle Along, Sissle is also, the only African-American artist to appear in the Pathé film archives. Shortly after World War I, Sissle joined forces with Blake to form a music duo. After vaudeville, the pair work on the jazz musical revue Shuffle Along, which incorporated many songs they had written. When it premiered in 1921, Shuffle Along became the first hit musical on Broadway written by, the musicals introduced hit songs such as Im Just Wild About Harry and Love Will Find a Way. In 1923 Sissle made two films for Lee DeForest in DeForests Phonofilm sound-on-film process and they were Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake featuring Sissle and Blakes song Affectionate Dan, and Sissle and Blake Sing Snappy Songs featuring Sons of Old Black Joe and My Swanee Home. Blake made a film in Phonofilm, playing his composition Fantasy on Swanee River. These three films are preserved in the Maurice Zouary film collection at the Library of Congress, in 1932, Sissle appeared with Nina Mae McKinney, the Nicholas Brothers, and Eubie Blake in Pie, Pie Blackbird, a Vitaphone short released by Warner Brothers.
In February 1931, Sissle accompanied Adelaide Hall on piano at the prestigious Palace Theatre in New York during her 1931-32 world tour, in 1954, New York radio station WMGM, which was owned by Loews Theatre Organization, signed Sissle as a disc jockey. His show featured the music of African-American recording artists, Sissle was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Sissle died in 1975 at the age of 86 in Tampa and his rendition of the song Viper Mad was included in the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown. African American musical theater Notes Bibliography Reef, New York City, New York, Facts on File, Inc
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American flagship record company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. The company was founded by Eldridge R. Johnson, who had previously made gramophones to play Emile Berliners disc records, Victor Talking Machine Co. was incorporated officially in 1901 shortly before agreeing to allow Columbia Records use of its disc record patent. Victor had acquired the Pan-American rights to use the trademark of the fox terrier Nipper listening to a gramophone when Berliner. Barraud noticed that whenever he played a recorded by his brother. Barrauds original depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on a wooden surface. The London branch was managed by an American, William Barry Owen, Barraud paid a visit with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a horn. Owen gave Barraud an entire gramophone and asked him to paint it into the picture, the original painting still shows the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph beneath the paint of the gramophone when viewed in the correct light.
Only 13 originally commissioned His Masters Voice paintings were commissioned by the company, in 1915, the His Masters Voice logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola factory building. The tower remains today with replica windows installed during Radio Corporation of Americas ownership of the plant in its years, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D. C. There are different accounts as to how the Victor name came about, a second account is that Johnson emerged as the Victor from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seamans Zonophone. A third story is that Johnsons partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wifes name Victoria, finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular Victor bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts the first two are the most generally accepted, perhaps coincidentally, the first use of the Victor title on a letterhead, on March 28,1901, was only nine weeks after the death of British Queen Victoria.
Before 1925, recording was done by the purely mechanical. No microphone was involved and there was no means of amplification, the recording machine was essentially an exposed-horn acoustical record player functioning in reverse. The sound-vibrated center of the diaphragm was linked to a stylus that was guided across the surface of a very thick wax disc. The wax was too soft to be played back even once without seriously damaging it, although test recordings were sometimes made, although sound quality was gradually improved by a series of small refinements, the process was inherently insensitive. From the start, Victor innovated manufacturing processes and soon rose to preeminence by recording famous performers, in 1903, it instituted a three-step mother-stamper process to produce more stampers and records than previously possible. These new celebrity recordings bore red labels, and were marketed as Red Seal records, for many years these records were single-sided, only in 1923 did Victor begin offering Red Seals in double-sided form
Popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training and it stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or folk music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of music, although since the beginning of the recording industry. Traditional music forms such as blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States, although popular music sometimes is known as pop music, the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies, in the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular music forms have become global, while others have an appeal within the culture of their origin.
Through the mixture of genres, new popular music forms are created to reflect the ideals of a global culture. The examples of Africa and the Middle East show how Western pop music styles can blend with local traditions to create new hybrid styles. Sales of recordings or sheet music are one measure and Manuel note that this definition has problems because multiple listens or plays of the same song or piece are not counted. Manuel states that one criticism of music is that it is produced by large media conglomerates and passively consumed by the public. He claims that the listeners in the scenario would not have been able to make the choice of their favorite music, understandings of popular music have changed with time. A societys popular music reflects the ideals that are prevalent at the time it is performed or published, david Riesman states that the youth audiences of popular music fit into either a majority group or a subculture. The majority group listens to the commercially produced styles while the subcultures find a minority style to transmit their own values and this allows youth to choose what music they identify with, which gives them power as consumers to control the market of popular music.
Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, chorus form *, and twelve-bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics, the verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually has the melody, but the lyrics change for most verses. The chorus usually has a phrase and a key lyrical line which is repeated
Media related to Eubie Blake at Wikimedia Commons
