1.
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
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New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
3.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
4.
US Open (tennis)
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The United States Open Tennis Championships is a hardcourt tennis tournament. The tournament is the version of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world. The US Open is held annually, starting on the last Monday in August, the main tournament consists of five event championships, mens and womens singles, mens and womens doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has played on acrylic hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens. The US Open is owned and organized by the United States Tennis Association, net proceeds from ticket sales, sponsorships, and television deals are used to promote the development of tennis in the United States. The US Open is the only Grand Slam that employs tiebreakers in every set of a match, the first edition was won by Richard Sears, who went on to win seven consecutive singles titles. In the first years of the U. S. National Championship only men competed and this was followed by the introduction of the U. S. Womens National Doubles Championship in 1899 and the U. S. The womens tournament used a system from 1888 through 1918. This view was opposed by another group of players which included eight former national singles champions, the contentious issue was brought to a vote at the annual USNLTA meeting on February 5,1915 and with 128 votes in favor and 119 against it was decided to relocate. From 1921 through 1923, the tournament was played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia and it returned to Forest Hills in 1924 following the completion of the newly constructed 14,000 seat concrete Forest Hills Stadium. Though regarded unofficially by many as a major championship beforehand, the tournament was officially designated as one of the tournaments by the ILTF commencing in 1924. At the 1922 U. S. National Championships the draw for the first time included seeded players in order to avoid leading players drawing against each other in the early rounds. Open era The open era began in 1968 when all five events were merged into the US Open, the 1968 combined tournament was open to professionals for the first time. That year,96 men and 63 women entered the event, from 1970 to 1974 the US Open used a best-of-nine point, sudden death tiebreaker before moving to the ITF best-of-twelve point system. In 1973 the US Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to award equal prize money to men and women with that years singles champions John Newcombe, another US Open innovation came in 1975 when floodlights enabled night play for the first time. In 1978 the tournament moved from the West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills, Queens to the larger USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, three miles to the north. In the process, the tournament switched the court surface from clay, jimmy Connors is the only individual to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces, while Chris Evert is the only woman to win on two surfaces. The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that has played every year since its inception
5.
Molla Mallory
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Anna Margrethe Molla Bjurstedt Mallory was a Norwegian tennis player, naturalized American. She won a record eight titles at the U. S. Championships. Indoor Championships that year unheralded and beat defending champion Marie Wagner 6–4, 6–4. She also won the title in Cincinnati in 1915. Mallory had less in the way of equipment than most tennis champions. But the sturdy, Norwegian-born woman, the daughter of an officer, was a fierce competitor. Robert Kelleher, a president of the United States Tennis Association. She walked around in a manner that said youd better look out or shed deck you and she was an indomitable scrambler and runner. She was a player of the old school and she held that a woman could not sustain a volleying attack in a long match. I do not know a girl who can play the net game. Therefore, she relied on her game, consisting of strong forehand attacks. She took the ball on the rise and drove it from corner to corner to keep her opponent on the constant run and her quick returns made her passing shots extremely effective. She once said, I find that the girls generally do not hit the ball as hard as they should. I believe in always hitting the ball with all my might, I do not call this tennis. Her second round match with Suzanne Lenglen at the 1921 U. S. National Championships brought Mallory her greatest celebrity, before the match, Bill Tilden advised Mallory to hit the cover off the ball. Once the match began, Mallory attacked with a vengeance and was ahead 2–0 when Lenglen began to cough, after the match, the USTA accused Lenglen of feigning illness. The French Tennis Federation exonerated Lenglen and accepted her testimony that she had been ill, however, Albert de Joannis, vice president of the FTF who accompanied Lenglen during her trip to the United States, quit his post in protest of the FTFs conclusion. He claimed that Lenglen was perfectly fit during the match and that, Lenglen avenged the loss by defeating Mallory 6–2, 6–0 in 26 minutes in the 1922 Wimbledon final, the shortest final in a Grand Slam tournament on record
6.
Bill Tilden
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William Tatem Tilden II, nicknamed Big Bill, was an American male tennis player. He is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Tilden was the World No.1 player for six years from 1920 through 1925. He won 15 Major singles titles including ten Grand Slam events, one World Hard Court Championships and he was the first American to win Wimbledon in 1920. He also won a record seven US Championships titles, Tilden dominated the world of international tennis in the first half of the 1920s, and during his 18-year amateur period of 1912–30, won 138 of 192 tournaments. He owns a number of all-time tennis achievements including a match winning record. At the 1929 US National Championships Tilden became the first player to reach 10 finals at a single Grand Slam event and this mark stood until 2015, when Roger Federer reached his tenth Wimbledon final. He turned professional on the last day of year and toured with a handful of other professionals for the next 15 years. Bill Tilden was born on February 10,1893 in Germantown and his father was William Tatem Tilden, a wool merchant and local politician, and his mother, Selina Hey, was a pianist. The loss at 22 of his father and older brother Herbert marked him deeply, after several months of deep depression, and with encouragement from his aunt, tennis, which he had taken up at age five, became his primary means of recovery. In spite of his travels, Tilden lived at his aunts house until 1941 when he was 48 years old. Tilden was initially home-schooled but in 1908 went to Germantown Academy and he later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a reluctant student, and graduated from Peirce College. Tilden went to the prep school Germantown Academy where he wasnt known for his tennis nor was he eventually good enough to play on his college team, the following year he won his first tournaments, the junior singles and doubles title of Germantown. He later enrolled at the Peirce School of Business, in just three years, he worked his way up the ranks. His first national title was winning the doubles championships with Mary Browne in 1913. From 1914 to 1917, Tilden won the Philadelphia championship and he won six consecutive U. S. singles championships from 1920–1925 and seven in total, making him the co-record holder with Richard Sears and Bill Larned. In the winter of 1919–20, he moved to Rhode Island where, on an indoor court, with this change, he became the world no.1 tennis player and the first male American to win the Wimbledon singles championship. In the mid 1920s Tilden came into conflict with the USLTA regarding alleged violations of the amateur rule, Tilden had long been at odds with the rigid amateur directors of the United States Lawn Tennis Association about his income derived from newspaper articles about tennis. He won his last major championship at Wimbledon in 1930 at the age of 37, on 31 December 1930, in need of money, he turned professional and joined the fledgling pro tour, which had begun only in 1927
7.
Marion Zinderstein
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Marion Hall Zinderstein also known by her married name Marion Jessup, was a female tennis player from the United States. At the 1924 Paris Olympics she won a medal in the mixed doubles event partnering Vincent Richards. Marion Zinderstein twice reached the finals of the U. S. National Championships. In 1919 she defeated reigning champion Molla Bjurstedt from Norway in the semifinals in straight sets but was soundly defeated by compatriot Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman in the final. A year later,1920, Bjurstedt revenged her earlier defeat and Zinderstein again suffered a heavy loss in the final. In 1924 she became national singles indoor champion when she defeated the Lillian Scharman, 6–2, 6–3, in the tournament at Brookline. In 1979, Jessup was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum, Marion Zinderstein at the International Tennis Federation Marion Jessup at Sports Reference
8.
Vincent Richards
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Vincent Vinnie Richards was an American tennis player. Richards was active in the decades of the 20th century. He was ranked World No.2 both as an amateur in 1924 by A. Wallis Myers, and as a pro by American Lawn Tennis magazine in 1930. Born in Yonkers, New York, he attended the Jesuit Fordham Preparatory School, attended Fordham University, Richards won the National Boys Outdoor Singles Tournament in 1917. He became a protégé of Bill Tilden after being defeated by the latter in a match and he remains the youngest male to have ever won a major championship. Twenty-seven years later, in 1945, he and Tilden won the United States Pro doubles title, while Bill Tilden teamed with Richards to win titles together, he was also beaten by Richards in both singles and doubles, including for several major titles. During their long rivalry, they faced each other 102 times, Richards retained his amateur status for 10 years because his ambition was to compete in the 1924 Olympics held in Paris, France. He realized this ambition by winning the medal for the United States in both singles and doubles, additionally collecting the silver medal in mixed doubles. Richards is one of two American male tennis players to win the medal in both singles and doubles, and he ranks second all-time with his three medals won in 1924. Between both men and women, Richards is tied with Venus Williams with three medals, with Williams collecting three gold medals over multiple Olympics. While Tilden may have overshadowed Richards, even in the Davis Cup, Richards was one of the best singles players of the 1920s and played on several United States Davis Cup teams. In 1927 he was the first prominent male player to turn professional, Richards only beat Koželuh five times in 20 matches. At the end of 1930 he announced his retirement from professional tennis. At the time, he had won the United States Pro Championship in 1927,1928 and he came out of retirement and won the Pro Championship again in 1933, this time beating Frank Hunter. Coming out of retirement again some 12 years later, at age 45, he, Richards was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1959. After retiring from tennis, Richards joined the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company as general manager of the sporting goods division, in February 1924 he married Claremont Gushee in Greenwich, Connecticut and the couple had three children. On September 28,1959 Richards died of an attack at Doctors Hospital in New York
United States
Molla Bjurstedt 