1.
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
2.
South Beach
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South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States, located due east of Miami city proper between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses all of the islands of Miami Beach south of Indian Creek. The area has gone through numerous artificial and natural changes over the years, including a regional economy, increased tourism, and the 1926 hurricane. As of 2010,39,186 people lived in South Beach, in 1870, Henry and Charles Lum purchased 165 acres for coconut farming. Charles Lum built the first house on the beach in 1886, in 1894, the Lum brothers left the island, leaving control of the plantation to John Collins, who came to South Beach two years later to survey the land. He used the land for farming purposes, discovering fresh water, in 1912, Miami businessmen the Lummus Brothers acquired 400 acres of Collins land in an effort to build an oceanfront city of modest single family residences. In 1913 Collins started construction of a bridge from Miami to Miami Beach, although some local residents invested in the bridge, Collins ran short of money before he could complete it. Carl G. Fisher, an entrepreneur who made millions in 1909 after selling a business to Union Carbide. His vision was to establish South Beach as a city independent of Miami. This was the year that the restaurant Joes Stone Crab opened. Fisher loaned $50,000 to Collins for his bridge, which was completed in June,1913, the Collins Bridge was later replaced by the Venetian Causeway. On March 26,1915, Collins, Lummus, and Fisher consolidated their efforts, in 1920 the County Causeway was completed. The Lummus brothers sold their oceanfront property, between 6th and 14th Streets, to the city, to this day, this area is known as Lummus Park. In 1920, the Miami Beach land boom began, South Beachs main streets were all suitable for automobile traffic. The population was growing in the 1920s, and several such as Harvey Firestone, J. C. Penney. Stutz, Albert Champion, Frank Seiberling, and Rockwell LaGorce built homes on Miami Beach, president Warren G. Harding stayed at the Flamingo Hotel during this time, increasing interest in the area. In the 1930s, an architectural revolution came to South Beach, bringing Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, South Beach claims to be the worlds largest collection of Streamline Moderne Art Deco architecture. Napier, New Zealand, another notable Art Deco city, is comparable to Miami Beach as it was rebuilt in the Ziggurat Art Deco style after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1931
3.
Miami
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Miami is a seaport city at the southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Florida and its Atlantic coast. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, Miamis metro area is the eighth-most populous, Miami is a major center, and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2012, Miami was classified as an Alpha−World City in the World Cities Study Groups inventory, in 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked 33rd among global cities, in 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami Americas Cleanest City, for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets, and citywide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, Miami is nicknamed the Capital of Latin America and is the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality. Miami has the third tallest skyline in the U. S. with over 300 high-rises, Downtown Miami is home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and many large national and international companies. The Civic Center is a center for hospitals, research institutes, medical centers. For more than two decades, the Port of Miami, known as the Cruise Capital of the World, has been the number one cruise port in the world. It accommodates some of the worlds largest cruise ships and operations, Metropolitan Miami is the major tourism hub in the American South, number two in the U. S. after New York City and number 13 in the world, including the popular destination of Miami Beach. The Miami area was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous Native American tribes, the Tequestas occupied the area for a thousand years before encountering Europeans. An Indian village of hundreds of people dating to 500–600 B. C. was located at the mouth of the Miami River, in 1566 the explorer, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, claimed it for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later in 1567, Spain and Great Britain successively controlled Florida, and Spain ceded it to the United States in 1821. In 1836, the US built Fort Dallas as part of its development of the Florida Territory and attempt to suppress, the Miami area subsequently became a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. Miami is noted as the major city in the United States conceived by a woman, Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower. The Miami area was known as Biscayne Bay Country in the early years of its growth. In the late 19th century, reports described the area as a promising wilderness, the area was also characterized as one of the finest building sites in Florida. The Great Freeze of 1894–95 hastened Miamis growth, as the crops of the Miami area were the ones in Florida that survived. Julia Tuttle subsequently convinced Henry Flagler, a tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railway to the region
4.
Airborne leaflet propaganda
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Airborne leaflet propaganda is a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets are scattered in the air. Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to attempt to alter the behavior of combatants and non-combatants in enemy-controlled territory, humanitarian air missions, in cooperation with leaflet propaganda, can turn the populace against their leadership while preparing them for the arrival of enemy combatants. This has the purpose of reducing collateral damage and encouraging enemy combatants and non-combatants to abandon their duties. Prompt the enemy to surrender Explain to prospective deserters how to surrender, offer rewards Rewards could be offered to encourage individuals to provide assistance, or to encourage defection. Disseminate or counter disinformation Reduce enemy morale through propaganda, advise radio listeners about frequencies/times of propaganda broadcasts and methods for circumventing radio jamming. Facilitate communication Create a friendly atmosphere for the enemy by promoting ideologies such as freedom, capitalism, provide humanitarian assistance Inform people where to find airdropped food, how to open and consume it, and when it comes. Airborne leaflets have been used for propaganda purposes at least since the 19th century. Foolish people, shall we always throttle one another for the pleasure, glory and conquest are crimes, defeat brings hate and desire for vengeance. Only one war is just and holy, that of independence, Leaflet propaganda has been delivered by airplanes since the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–12. Aerial leaflets were first used on a large scale during World War I by all parties, by the end of the war MI7b had distributed almost 26 million leaflets. The Germans began shooting the pilots, prompting the British to develop an alternative method of delivery. Mr. A. Fleming invented the unmanned leaflet balloon in 1917, the hydrogen balloon would drift over no-mans land to land in the enemy trenches. At least one in seven of these leaflets were not handed in by the soldiers to their superiors, in 1915, the British began airdropping a regular leaflet newspaper Le Courrier de lAir for civilians in German-occupied France and Belgium. Distribution of airborne leaflet propaganda was used by both Allied and Axis forces in the Second World War, starting with a Royal Air Force leaflet drop over the port of Kiel in September 1939. The first proposal to construct a bomb with which to disperse airborne leaflets was put forward by British air force officers during World War II. The most successful leaflet bomb model of the War was the Monroe bomb and it was developed from laminated paper containers that had been used to transport M-17 incendiary bombs. The British improved the use of balloons to carry leaflets over German lines. Some of the V-1 flying bombs launched by the Germans against southern England carried leaflets – they were contained in a tube at the tail of a missile
5.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
6.
Haikou
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Hǎikǒu, is the capital and most populous city of Hainan province, China. It is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River, the northern part of the city is the district of Haidian Island, which is separated from the main part of Haikou by the Haidian River, a branch of the Nandu. Administratively, Haikou is a city, comprising four districts. There are 2,046,189 inhabitants in the built up area all living within the 4 urban districts of the city, Haikou was originally a port city. Today, more than half of the total trade still goes through its ports. The city is home to Hainan University, which has its campus on Haidian Island. The hanzi characters comprising the name, 海口, mean ocean/sea and mouth/port. Thus, the name Haikou is also a word for seaport - similar to Portsmouth in England, Haikou originally served as the port for Qiongshan, the ancient administrative capital of Hainan island, located some 5 kilometres inland to the south east. During its early history Haikou was a part of Guangdong province, in the 13th century it was fortified and became a military post under the Ming dynasty. The port is located west of the mouth of the Nandu River, when Qiongshan was opened to foreign trade under the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, Haikou started to rival the old administrative city. It was known internationally as Hoihow, based on the local dialect, in 1926, Haikou overtook Qiongshan in population and it was declared a separate administrative city. Haikou was developed as a port during the Sino-Japanese War when the Japanese invaded and occupied Hainan Island from early 1939 to 1945, since 1949, Haikou has maintained its position as Hainans main port, handling more than half of the islands total trade. It has replaced Qiongshan as the administrative capital. In 1988, Haikou was made a city as well as the capital of the newly created Hainan Province. Haikou old town contains the oldest buildings in the city and was built by wealthy Chinese from the mainland. The houses are a mixture of styles including Portuguese, French, various projects are currently under discussion to decide the best way to restore and preserve these historical buildings. Most of the city is almost completely flat and only a few metres above sea level and it has an area of 2,304.84 square kilometres. The northern part of Haikou City, the district of Haidian Island, is separated from the part of Haikou by the Haidian River
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