Incest is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity, sometimes those related by affinity, clan, or lineage; the incest taboo is one of the most widespread of all cultural taboos, both in present and in past societies. Most modern societies have laws regarding incest or social restrictions on consanguineous marriages. In societies where it is illegal, consensual adult incest is seen by some as a victimless crime; some cultures extend the incest taboo to relatives with no consanguinity such as milk-siblings, step-siblings, adoptive siblings, albeit sometimes with less intensity. Third-degree relatives on average have 12.5% common genetic heritage, sexual relations between them are viewed differently in various cultures, from being discouraged to being acceptable. Children of incestuous relationships have been regarded as illegitimate, are still so regarded in some societies today. In most cases, the parents did not have the option to marry to remove that status, as incestuous marriages were, are also prohibited.

A common justification for prohibiting incest is avoiding inbreeding: a collection of genetic disorders suffered by the children of parents with a close genetic relationship. Such children are at greater risk for congenital disorders and developmental and physical disability, that risk is proportional to their parents' coefficient of relationship—a measure of how the parents are related genetically, but cultural anthropologists have noted that inbreeding avoidance cannot form the sole basis for the incest taboo because the boundaries of the incest prohibition vary between cultures, not in ways that maximize the avoidance of inbreeding. In some societies, such as those of Ancient Egypt, brother–sister, father–daughter, mother–son, cousin–cousin, aunt–nephew, uncle–niece, other combinations of relations within a royal family were married as a means of perpetuating the royal lineage; some societies, such as the Balinese and some Inuit tribes, have different views about what constitutes illegal or immoral incest.

However, sexual relations with a first-degree relative are universally forbidden. The English word incest is derived from the Latin incestus, which has a general meaning of "impure, unchaste", it was introduced into Middle English, both in the generic Latin sense and in the narrow modern sense. The derived adjective incestuous appears in the 16th century. Before the Latin term came in, incest was known in Old English as sib-leger or mǣġhǣmed but in time, both words fell out of use. Terms like incester and incestual have been used to describe those interested or involved in sexual relations with relatives among humans, while inbreeder has been used in relation to similar behavior among non-human animals or organisms. Other words that describe sexual attraction to relatives include consanguinophilia, synegenesophilia and incestophilia. In ancient China, first cousins with the same surnames were not permitted to marry, while those with different surnames could marry.. Several of the Egyptian Pharaohs had several children with them.

For example, Tutankhamun married his half-sister Ankhesenamun, was himself the child of an incestuous union between Akhenaten and an unidentified sister-wife. Several scholars, such as Frier et al. state that sibling marriages were widespread among all classes in Egypt during the Graeco-Roman period. Numerous papyri and the Roman census declarations attest to many husbands and wives being brother and sister, of the same father and mother. However, it has been argued that available evidence does not support the view such relations were common; the most famous of these relationships were in the Ptolemaic royal family. The fable of Oedipus, with a theme of inadvertent incest between a mother and son, ends in disaster and shows ancient taboos against incest as Oedipus blinds himself in disgust and shame after his incestuous actions. In the "sequel" to Oedipus, his four children are punished for their parents' incestuousness. Incest appears in the accepted version of the birth of Adonis, when his mother, Myrrha has sex with her father Cinyras during a festival, disguised as a prostitute.

In Ancient Greece, Spartan King Leonidas I, hero of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae, was married to his niece Gorgo, daughter of his half-brother Cleomenes I. Greek law allowed marriage between a sister if they had different mothers. For example, some accounts say. Incest is mentioned and condemned in Virgil's Aeneid Book VI: hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos. Roman civil law prohibited marriages within four degrees of consanguinity but had no degrees of affinity with regards to marriage. Roman civil laws prohibited any marriage between parents and children, either in the ascending or descending line ad infinitum. Adoption was considered the same as affinity in that an adoptive father could not marry an unemancipated daughter or granddaughter if the adoption had been dissolved. Incestuous unions were d

The American Falls is the second-largest of the three waterfalls that together are known as Niagara Falls on the Niagara River along the Canada–U. S. Border. Unlike the much larger Horseshoe Falls, of which 90% is in Ontario, Canada and 10% in the U. S. state of New York, the American Falls is within the United States. The falls receive 11% of the flow from Niagara River, with most of the rest going over Horseshoe Falls, from which it is separated by Goat Island, it has a straight line crest width of about 830 feet. If measured along the jagged lip of the falls, the crest is about 950 feet long; the torrent of water passing over the crest of the falls is about 2 feet deep. The height of the American Falls ranges between 70 to 110 feet; this measurement is taken from the top of the Falls to top of the rock pile. The height of the Falls from the top of the Falls to the river is 188 feet. Visitors can view the falls from a steep angle on the American side, where it is possible to approach to within several meters of the edge of the falls.

One can view the falls from the bank of the river, as well as on Goat Island and Luna Island, which are accessible by a pedestrian bridge that crosses the rapids of the Niagara River upstream from the falls. The falls are viewable head-on from the Canadian side in Ontario; the ledge of the American Falls is shaped in a modified "W" form, caused by numerous rock falls over the past 150 years which have resulted in the huge mound of rock at its base. The most notable recent rockfall occurred in 1954 with the collapse of Prospect Point to the north. To survey the rockfall and determine how to prevent the falls from becoming a series of rapids, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers blocked the flow of water over the American Falls from June to November 1969. Results conflict as to whether tourist attendance that season was lower than normal. Attendance increases were due to the news the cataract was dried off. By December 1969, water was flowing over the American Falls again. In the mid‑1970s, it was decided not to make alterations to the rockwall, citing the trend to allow nature to take its course.

Images from the Historic Niagara Digital Collections Art works in the collection of the Niagara Falls Public Library Dewatering timeline

The Selden Motor Vehicle Company was an early American manufacturer of automobiles. The Company, founded in 1905, was based in New York; the Selden Motor Vehicle Company was founded by George B. Selden, whose 1877 patent was the first U. S. patent of a "horseless carriage" and thus, controversially, is considered the inventor of the automobile. The company produced cars for only three years, from 1909 through 1912. In 1913 the company was reorganized towards the production of trucks, where it had more success, producing trucks until the company's sale to the Hahn Motor Truck Company of Hamburg, Pennsylvania, in 1930. Hahn and Selden went out of business in 1932. List of defunct automobile manufacturers Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers Electric Vehicle Company Barnes, J. W.. Rochester and the Automobile Industry. Rochester History, XLIII