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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
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New Milford, Connecticut
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New Milford is a town in southern Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States 14 miles north of Danbury, on the Housatonic River. It is the largest town in the state in terms of area at nearly 62 square miles. The population was 28,671 according to the Census Bureaus 2006 estimates, the town center is also listed as a census-designated place. The northern portion of the town is situated in the region considered Northwestern CT and it is located roughly 55 miles from Hartford,75 miles from Springfield,100 miles from Albany and 85 from NYC. New Milford is home to the Canterbury School, a well-known Roman Catholic boarding school, the schools Chapel of Our Lady features the Jose M. Ferrer Memorial Carillon. The house that inspired the 1946 novel and 1948 film, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, weantinock were a sub-group of the Paugussett Nation who lived the area of modern New Milford both before and during the colonial era. They were a farming and fishing culture, cultivating corn, squash, beans and tobacco and they may have also travelled to the coast to fish in summer months. In 1707, John Noble Sr. previously of Westfield, Massachusetts and they were soon joined by others who had also bought land there. On October 17,1711, twelve families petitioned the General Assembly to create the town, with the legislatures approval, the town was organized the next year. The residents soon secured Daniel Boardman to preach and he was ordained as the minister of the Congregational Church on November 21,1716, roger Sherman lived in New Milford before moving to New Haven in 1761. He later became a member of the Continental Congress and signed both the Declaration of Independence and U. S. Constitution, the lot of his former house is the site of the present Town Hall. During the American Revolution, the 7th Connecticut Regiment was raised in town on September 16,1776, the regiment, and the New Milford men in it, would see action in the Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown and the Battle of Monmouth. In total, the town sent 285 men to fight in the War out of a population of 2,776. David Sherman Boardman, was the youngest child of Deacon Sherman and he became a lawyer in town and later chief judge in Litchfield County Court. He served as judge of probate for the district of New Milford in 1805 and he was elected Representative to the General Assembly eight times. Born in New Milford, he was educated by private tutors, Representative born in town, was the son of Elijah Boardman. He died in New Haven, Connecticut, and is interred at Grove Street Cemetery in New Milford, in the second half of the 19th century, many new industries came to town. The Water Witch Hose Company No,2, local telephone and electricity companies, and newspapers were all founded
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Cartoonist
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A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is created for entertainment, political commentary, or advertising. The English satirist and editorial cartoonist William Hogarth, who emerged In the 18th century, has credited with pioneering Western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic series of pictures called modern moral subjects. Much of his work poked fun at politics and customs. Gillray explored the use of the medium for lampooning and caricature, calling the king, prime ministers and generals to account, while never a professional cartoonist, Benjamin Franklin is credited with having the first cartoon published in an American newspaper. In the 19th century, professional cartoonists such as Thomas Nast introduced other familiar American political symbols, during the 20th century, numerous magazines carried single-panel gag cartoons by such freelance cartoonists as Charles Addams, Irwin Caplan, Chon Day, Clyde Lamb, and John Norment. These were almost always published in black and white, although Colliers often carried cartoons in color, the debut of Playboy introduced full-page color cartoons by Jack Cole, Eldon Dedini, and others. Single-panel cartoonists syndicated to newspapers included Dave Breger, Hank Ketcham, George Lichty, Fred Neher, Irving Phillips, comic strips received widespread distribution to mainstream newspapers by syndicates such as the Universal Press Syndicate, United Media, or King Features. Sunday strips go to a company such as American Color before they are published. Some comic strip creators publish in the press or on the Internet. Comic strip artists may also work in book-length form, creating graphic novels. Both vintage and current strips receive reprints in book collections, the major comic book publishers utilize teams of cartoonists to produce the art. When a consistent artistic style is wanted among different cartoonists, character model sheets may be used as reference, animated cartooning is created for short films, advertising, feature films and television. It is also used in live-action films for dream sequences or opening titles. An animation artist is referred to as an animator rather than a cartoonist. They create motion pictures as well, Animation studios such as DreamWorks Animation, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Blue Sky Studios create CGI or computer-animated films that are more three-dimensional. There are many books of cartoons in both paperback and hardcover, such as the collections of cartoons from The New Yorker, prior to the 1960s, cartoons were mostly ignored by museums and art galleries
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Kingston, New York
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Kingston /ˈkɪŋstən/ is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is 91 miles north of New York City and 59 miles south of Albany and it became New Yorks first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British on October 13,1777, after the Battles of Saratoga. In the 19th century, the city became an important transport hub after the discovery of cement in the region. As early as 1614 the Dutch had set up a factorij at Ponckhockie, at the junction of the Rondout Creek, the first recorded permanent settler in what would become the city of Kingston, was Thomas Chambers, who came from the area of Rensselaerswyck in 1653. The place was called Esopus after the local Esopus tribe, as more settlers arrived, tensions developed between the Esopus and the Dutch, in part due to the Dutch selling alcohol to the young Esopus men. In the spring of 1658 Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Amsterdam, arrived and advised the residents if they wished to remain they must re-locate to high ground. Tensions continued between the Esopus and the settlers, eventually leading to the Esopus Wars, in 1661 the settlement was granted a charter as a separate municipality, Stuyvesant named it Wiltwijck. It was not until 1663 that the Dutch ended the conflict with the Esopus through a coalition of Dutch settlers, Wappinger. Wiltwyck was one of three large Hudson River settlements in New Netherland, the two being Beverwyck, now Albany, and New Amsterdam, now New York City. With the English seizure of New Netherland in 1664, relations between the Dutch settlers and the English soldiers garrisoned there were often strained, in 1669 Wiltwyck was renamed Kingston, in honor of the family seat of Governor Lovelaces mother. In 1777, Kingston became the first capital of New York, during the summer of 1777, when the New York State constitution was written, New York City was occupied by British troops and Albany was under threat of attack by the British. The seat of government was moved to Kingston, which was deemed safer, however, the British never reached Albany, having been stopped at Saratoga, but they did reach Kingston. On October 13,1777, the city was burned by British troops moving up river from New York City, the denizens of Kingston knew of the oncoming fleet. By the time the British arrived, the residents and government officials had removed to Hurley, the area was a major granary for the colonies at the time, so the British burned large amounts of wheat and all but one or two of the buildings. Kingston celebrates and re-enacts the 1777 burning of the city by the British every other year, Kingston was incorporated as a village on April 6,1805. In the early 1800s four sloops plied the river from Kingston to New York, by 1829 steamers made the trip to Manhattan in a little over twelve hours, usually travelling by night. Columbus Point was the landing for Kingston and stage lines ran from the village to the Point. The Dutch cultural influence in Kingston remained strong through the end of the nineteenth century, prior to 1825 Rondout was a small farming village
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Milton Caniff
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Milton Arthur Paul Milt Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips. Caniff was born in Hillsboro, Ohio and he was an Eagle Scout and a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. Caniff did cartoons for local newspapers while studying at Stivers High School in Dayton Ohio, at Ohio State University, Caniff joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity and later illustrated for The Magazine of Sigma Chi and The Norman Shield. Graduating in 1930, Caniff began at the Columbus Dispatch where he worked with the noted cartoonists Billy Ireland and Dudley Fisher, but Caniffs position was eliminated during the Great Depression. Caniff related later that he had been uncertain of whether to pursue acting or cartooning as a career and he died on May 3,1988 and was buried in the Mount Repose Cemetery, Haverstraw, New York. In 1932, Caniff moved to New York City to accept an artist job with the Features Service of the Associated Press. Caniff continued Gilfeather until the spring of 1933, when it was retired in favor of a comedy panel cartoon called The Gay Thirties. In July 1933, Caniff began a fantasy strip, Dickie Dare, influenced by series such as Flash Gordon. The eponymous main character was a youth who dreamed himself into adventures with such literary and legendary persons as Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe, in 1934, Caniff was hired by the New York Daily News to produce a new strip for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. The result was Terry and the Pirates, the strip which made Caniff famous, like Dickie Dare, Terry Lee began as a boy who is traveling with an adult mentor and adventurer, Pat Ryan. But over the years the character aged, and by World War II he was old enough to serve in the Army Air Force. During the 12 years that Caniff produced the strip, he introduced many fascinating characters, introduced during the early days of the strip was Terry and Pats interpreter and manservant Connie. They were later joined by the mute Chinese giant Big Stoop, both he and Connie provided the main source of comic relief. During the war, Caniff began a strip, a special version of Terry. Caniff donated all of his work on this strip to the armed forces—the strip was only in military newspapers. Another strip had her dancing with a man in civilian clothes, a disgruntled GI shoved and mocked him for having an easy life, Caniff continued Male Call until seven months after V-J Day, ending it in March 1946. In 1946 Caniff ended his association with Terry and the Pirates, while the strip was a major success, it was not owned by its creator but by its distributing syndicate, the Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News, a common practice with syndicated comics at the time. Caniff produced his last strip of Terry and the Pirates in December 1946, at the time, Caniff was one of only two or three syndicated cartoonists who owned their creations, and he attracted considerable publicity as a result of this circumstance
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Superman
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Superman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, high school living in Cleveland, Ohio. They sold Superman to Detective Comics, the future DC Comics, Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, newspaper strips, television programs, films, and video games. With this success, Superman helped to create the superhero archetype, the character is also referred to by such epithets as the Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, and The Last Son of Krypton. Discovered and adopted by a Kansas farm couple, the child is raised as Clark Kent, very early on he started to display various superhuman abilities, which, upon reaching maturity, he resolved to use for the benefit of humanity through a secret Superman identity. Superman resides and operates in the fictional American city of Metropolis, as Clark Kent, he is a journalist for the Daily Planet, a Metropolis newspaper. Supermans love interest is generally Lois Lane, and his archenemy is supervillain Lex Luthor and he is typically a member of the Justice League and close ally of Batman and Wonder Woman. Like other characters in the DC Universe, several versions of Superman have been depicted over the years. Supermans appearance is distinctive and iconic, he wears a blue costume with a red-and-yellow emblem on the chest, consisting of the letter S in a shield shape. This shield is used in media to symbolize the character. Superman is widely considered an American cultural icon and he has fascinated scholars, with cultural theorists, commentators, and critics alike exploring the characters impact and role in the United States and worldwide. The characters ownership has often been the subject of dispute, with Siegel, the character has been adapted extensively and portrayed in other forms of media as well, including films, television series, and video games. Several actors have portrayed Superman in motion pictures and TV series including Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, Siegels fanzine did not sell well. Siegel and Shuster shifted to making comic strips, which they self-published in a book they called Popular Comics, the pair dreamed of becoming professional authors and believed that syndicated newspaper strips offered more lucrative and stable work than pulp magazines. The art quality standards were lower, making them more accessible to the inexperienced Shuster. In early 1933 or in 1934, Siegel developed a new character, also named Superman, but now a heroic character and this first prototype of Superman had no fantastic abilities and wore casual clothing. Siegel and Shuster often compared this version to Slam Bradley, a character they created in 1936. Siegel shared his idea with Shuster and they decided to turn it into a comic strip, the first publisher they solicited was Humor Publishing in Chicago, after having read one of their comic books, Detective Dan
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Mary Martin
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Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress, singer, and Broadway star. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles over her career, including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and she was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. She was the mother of actor Larry Hagman, Martin was born in Weatherford, Texas. Her life as a child, as she describes it in her autobiography My Heart Belongs, was secure and she had close relationships with both her mother and father, as well as her siblings. Her autobiography details how the young actress had an ear for recreating musical sounds. Martins father, Preston Martin, was a lawyer, and her mother, although the doctors told Juanita that she would risk her life if she attempted to have another baby, she was determined to have a boy. Instead, she had Mary, who became quite a tomboy and her family had a barn and orchard that kept her entertained. She played with her elder sister Geraldine, climbing trees and riding ponies and he was tall, good-looking, silver-haired, with the kindest brown eyes. Mother was the disciplinarian, but it was Daddy who could turn me into an angel with just one look, Martin, who said I’d never understand the law, began singing outside the courtroom where her father worked every Saturday night at a bandstand. She sang in a trio with her sister and Marion Swofford, even in those days without microphones, my high piping voice carried all over the square. I have always thought that I inherited my carrying voice from my father and she remembered having a photographic memory as a child, making it easy to memorize songs, as well as get her through school tests. She got her first taste of singing solo at a fire hall, sometimes I think that I cheated my own family and my closest friends by giving to audiences so much of the love I might have kept for them. But thats the way I was made, I truly dont think I could help it, Martins craft was developed by seeing movies and becoming a mimic. She would win prizes for looking, acting and dancing like Ruby Keeler, never, never, never can I say I had a frustrating childhood. Mother used to say she never had such a happy child—that I awakened each morning with a smile. I dont remember that, but I do remember that I never wanted to go to bed, to go to sleep, during high school, Martin dated Benjamin Hagman, before she was packed off to finishing school at Ward–Belmont in Nashville, Tennessee. During that time, she enjoyed imitating Fanny Brice at singing gigs and she was homesick for Weatherford, her family, and Hagman. During a visit, Mary and Benjamin persuaded Marys mother to them to marry
8.
Grace Kelly
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Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who became Princess of Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier III, in April 1956. In October 1953, she gained stardom from her performance in the film Mogambo, which won her a Golden Globe Award, subsequently, she had leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, for which her deglamorized performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Kelly retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Rainier and they had three children, Caroline, Albert II, and Stéphanie. Kelly retained her American roots, maintaining dual U. S. and she died on September 14,1982, a day after suffering a stroke while driving her car, which caused a crash. Kelly was born on November 12,1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an affluent and influential family. Her father, Irish-American John B. Kelly Sr. had won three Olympic gold medals for sculling and owned a successful brickwork contracting company that was well-known on the East Coast. A registered Democrat, he was nominated to be mayor of Philadelphia for the 1935 election, in later years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness. Kellys mother was Philadelphia native Margaret Katherine Majer, the daughter of German immigrants, Margaret had taught physical education at the University of Pennsylvania and had been the first woman to coach womens athletics at the institution. She was noted for her beauty and modeled for a time in her youth, after marrying John B. Kelly in 1924, Margaret focused on being a housewife until all her children were of school age, following which she began actively participating in various civic organizations. Kelly had two siblings, Margaret and John Jr. and a younger sister, Elizabeth. The children were raised in the Roman Catholic faith, while attending Ravenhill Academy, a prestigious Catholic girls school, Kelly modeled fashions at local social events with her mother and sisters. In 1942, at the age of 12, she played the lead in Dont Feed the Animals, before graduating in May 1947 from Stevens School, a socially prominent private institution on Walnut Lane in the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Germantown, she acted and danced. Her graduation yearbook listed her favorite actress as Ingrid Bergman and her favorite actor as Joseph Cotten, written in the Stevens Prophecy section was, Miss Grace P. Kelly – a famous star of stage and screen. Owing to her low mathematics scores, Kelly was rejected by Bennington College in July 1947, despite her parents initial disapproval, Kelly decided to pursue her dreams of being an actress. John was particularly displeased with her decision, he viewed acting as a cut above streetwalker. To start her career, she auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, although the school had already met its semester quota, she obtained an interview with the admission officer, Emile Diestel, and was admitted through the influence of George. She began her first term the following October, while at school, she lived in Manhattans Barbizon Hotel for Women, a prestigious establishment which barred men from entering after 10 pm, and she worked as a model to support her studies. Kelly worked diligently and practiced her speech by using a tape recorder and her early acting pursuits led her to the stage, most notably a Broadway debut in Strindbergs The Father alongside Raymond Massey
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Robert Cummings
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Cummings received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance in 1955. On February 8,1960, he received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the picture and television industries. The motion picture star is at 6816 Hollywood Boulevard, the star is on 1718 Vine Street. Cummings was born in Joplin, Missouri, a son of Dr. Charles Clarence Cummings and his father was a surgeon, who was part of the original medical staff of St. Johns Hospital in Joplin. He was the founder of the Jasper County Tuberculosis Hospital in Webb City, Cummings mother was an ordained minister of the Science of Mind. While attending Joplin High School, Cummings was taught to fly by his godfather, Orville Wright and his first solo was on March 3,1927. During high school, Cummings gave Joplin residents rides in his aircraft for $5 per person, when the government began licensing flight instructors, Cummings was issued flight instructor certificate No. 1, making him the first official flight instructor in the United States, Cummings studied briefly at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, but his love of flying caused him to transfer to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied aeronautical engineering for a year before he dropped out because of financial reasons, since the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City paid its male actors $14 a week, Cummings decided to study there. Cummings studied drama for two years appearing on Broadway in 1931. As British actors were in demand, Cummings traveled to England and he had a brief career on Broadway under the name Blade Stanhope Conway, posing as an Englishman. In 1933, Cummings met and two later married his second wife, Vivi Janiss, a native of Nebraska, with whom he appeared in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1934. In 1934, he moved to Hollywood, where he acted at first under the name Bruce Hutchens and he made his film debut the following year in The Virginia Judge. Cummings then began to use his own name, acting throughout the 1930s as a player in a number of supporting roles. He achieved stardom in 1939 in Three Smart Girls Grow Up and his many film comedies include, The Devil and Miss Jones with Jean Arthur, Moon Over Miami, and The Bride Wore Boots with Barbara Stanwyck. Cummings gave memorable performances in three notable dramas, in Kings Row, he played the lead role, Parris Mitchell, alongside friend Ronald Reagan, Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan and an all-star cast. In spite of its critical reaction, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture. Cummings starred in the spy thriller Saboteur with Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd and he played Barry Kane, an aircraft worker wrongfully accused of espionage, trying to clear his name
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Charlton Heston
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Charlton Heston was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years and he played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments, for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also starred in Touch of Evil with Orson Welles, Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid and he also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth, Secret of the Incas, and The Big Country. A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a political action committee. Hestons most famous role in politics came as the president of the National Rifle Association. After being diagnosed with Alzheimers disease in 2003, he retired from acting and the NRA presidency. Heston died on April 5,2008, aged 84, from pneumonia, Charlton Heston was born on October 4,1923, to Russell Whitford Carter, a sawmill operator and Lilla. Many sources indicate he was born in Evanston, Illinois, Hestons autobiography, however, and some other sources, place his birth in No Mans Land, Illinois, which usually refers to a then-unincorporated area now part of Wilmette, a wealthy Chicago suburb. Heston said in a 1995 interview that he was not very good at remembering addresses or his early childhood, Heston was partially of Scottish descent, including from the Clan Fraser, but the majority of his ancestry was English. His earliest immigrant ancestors arrived in America from England in the 1600s and his maternal great-grandparents, William Charlton and Mary Drysdale Charlton, were English. They emigrated to Canada, where his grandmother, Marian Emily Charlton, was born in 1872, in his autobiography, Heston refers to his father participating in his familys construction business. When Heston was an infant, his fathers work moved the family to St. Helen and it was a rural, heavily forested part of the state, and Heston lived an isolated yet idyllic existence, spending much time hunting and fishing in the backwoods of the area. When Heston was 10 years old, his parents divorced, shortly thereafter, his mother remarried and the new family moved back to Wilmette. Heston attended New Trier High School and he recalled living there, All kids play pretend games, but I did it more than most. Even when we moved to Chicago, I was more or less a loner and we lived in a North Shore suburb, where I was a skinny hick from the woods, and all the other kids seemed to be rich and know about girls. Contradictions on paper and in an interview surround when Charlton became Hestons first name, the 1930 United States Census record for Richfield, Michigan, in Roscommon County, shows his name as being Charlton J. Carter at age six. Later accounts by sources and movie studio biographies say he was born John Charles Carter, interestingly, Charlton was his maternal grandmother Marians maiden name, not his mother Lillas. This is contrary to how 20th century references read and what Heston said, when Hestons maternal grandmother and his true maternal grandfather Charles Baines separated or divorced in the early 1900s, Marian Baines married William Henry Lawton in 1907
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United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
