1.
St. Louis
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St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
2.
Call sign
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In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitter station. In North America, they are used for all FCC licensed transmitters, a call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise a stations identity. The use of signs as unique identifiers dates to the landline railroad telegraph system. Because there was only one line linking all railroad stations. In order to time, two-letter identifiers were adopted for this purpose. This pattern continued in operation, radio companies initially assigned two-letter identifiers to coastal stations and stations aboard ships at sea. These were not globally unique, so a company identifier was later added. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities, in the case of states such as Liberia or Panama, which are flags of convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters. United States merchant vessels are given call signs beginning with the letters W or K while US naval ships are assigned callsigns beginning with N, leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships in the US wishing to have a radio licence anyway are under F. C. C, class SA, Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped. Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers. U. S. Coast Guard small boats have a number that is shown on both bows in which the first two digits indicate the length of the boat in feet. For example, Coast Guard 47021 refers to the 21st in the series of 47 foot motor lifeboats, the call sign might be abbreviated to the final two or three numbers during operations, for example, Coast Guard zero two one. Call signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation, in most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign corresponding to the aircrafts registration number. In this case, the sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization phonetic alphabet. Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, for example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa. However, in the United States a pilot of an aircraft would normally omit saying November, at times, general aviation pilots might omit additional preceding numbers and use only the last three numbers and letters. This is especially true at uncontrolled fields when reporting traffic pattern positions, for example, Skyhawk eight-Charlie-Papa, left base
3.
Kirkwood, Missouri
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Kirkwood is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis located in St. Louis County, Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,540. Founded in 1853, the city is named after James P. Kirkwood and it was the first planned suburb located west of the Mississippi River. Plans for a new community close to St. Louis began following the St. Louis Fire, Kirkwood was the first suburban municipality built outside of the St. Louis City boundaries. Hiram W. Leffingwell and Richard Smith Elliott bought land 14 miles from downtown in 1850 at about the same time James P. Kirkwood was laying out a route for the Pacific Railroad. Kirkwood was platted in 1852, and named for James P. Kirkwood, when the railroad reached the community in 1853, the developers sold lots for the Kirkwood Association. Other Leffingwell developments were to include the construction of Grand Avenue, the original town plat including quarter section blocks and families could be a block estate of 5 acres. The train station of Richardsonian Romanesque style was built in 1893, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it has become a symbol of the town. It is the station stop that Amtrak makes in the St. Louis metropolitan area outside the central city. Among the four buildings in Kirkwood listed on the NRHP is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Ebsworth Park Foundation. In 1895 the Meramec Highlands resort was built on the bluffs above the Meramec River, the Greentree Festival is held every September. The Greentree Festival has many things to do such as arts and crafts for kids, Greentree has been a tradition for over 50 years. Since 1961, it has held in Kirkwood Park. The festival consists of a parade and a held in Kirkwood park. The festival was created to replace the drought-stricken trees in the park. The 100th anniversary game was in 2007, the winner of the Turkey Day Game receives the Frisco Bell, while the loser gets the Little Brown Jug. The Kirkwood Farmers Market was founded in 1976 and it is an outdoor market that has a variety of homegrown vegetables and fruits. There are more than 300 local businesses that contribute to the market, the Magic House, St. Louis Childrens Museum in Kirkwood has become a popular family attraction for the region
4.
St. Louis Blues
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The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League, the team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song Saint Louis Blues, and plays in the 19, the franchise was founded in 1967 as an expansion team during the leagues original expansion from six to 12 teams. The Blues are the oldest NHL team never to have won the Stanley Cup, the Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and California Seals. St. Louis was the last of the six teams to gain entry into the League. The Black Hawks were owned by the influential Wirtz family of Chicago, which also owned the decrepit St. Louis Arena. The Wirtzes sought to unload the arena, which had not been well-maintained since the 1940s, and thus pressed the NHL to give the franchise to St. Louis, which had not submitted a formal expansion bid. NHL President Clarence Campbell said during the 1967 expansion meetings that, We want a team in St. Louis because of the geographical location. The teams first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr. his son, Sid Salomon III, and Robert L. Wolfson, Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. Garagnani would never see the Blues franchise take the ice, as he died from an attack on June 19,1967. Upon acquiring the franchise in 1966, Salomon then spent several million dollars on extensive renovations for the 38-year-old arena, the Blues were originally coached by Lynn Patrick, who resigned in late November after recording a 4–13–2 record. He was replaced by Assistant Coach Scotty Bowman, who led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. Although the Leagues rules effectively kept star players with the six teams. Phil Goyette won the Lady Byng Trophy for the Blues in 1970, the arena quickly became one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, a reputation it maintained throughout its tenure as the Blues home. During that time, Salomon gained a reputation throughout the NHL as the top players owner and he gave his players cars, signed them to deferred contracts and treated them to vacations in Florida. The players, used to being treated like mere commodities, felt the way they could pay him back was to give their best on the ice every night. The Blues successes in the late 1960s, however, did not continue into the 1970s, as the Stanley Cup playoff format changed, defensively, however, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 1973–74, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment
5.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
6.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
7.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
8.
Emergency Alert System
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The official EAS is designed to enable the President of the United States to speak to the United States within 10 minutes. In addition to requirement, EAS is also designed to alert the public of local weather emergencies such as tornadoes. A national EAS test was conducted on November 9,2011, the most recent National EAS Test was performed September 28,2016, at 2,20 PM EDT. EAS is jointly coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, the EAS regulations and standards are governed by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC. EAS has become part of Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, EAS messages are transmitted via AM, FM, broadcast television, cable television and Land Mobile Radio Service, as well as VHF, UHF, and FiOS. DirecTV, Dish Network, and all other DBS providers have been required to participate since May 31,2007, in 2008, the FCC began work on another system for public alerting designed and targeted at smartphones, meant to support the EAS. The Commercial Mobile Alert System made its debut in about early 2013 in select states for select events, while this system functions independently from the Emergency Alert System, it may broadcast identical information. Messages in the EAS are composed of four parts, a digitally encoded SAME header, a signal, an audio announcement. The SAME header is the most critical part of the EAS design,77 radio stations are designated as National Primary Stations in the Primary Entry Point System to distribute presidential messages to other broadcast stations and cable systems. The Emergency Action Notification is the notice to broadcasters that the President of the United States or his/her designee will deliver a message over the EAS via the PEP system, the FEMA PEP stations also serve as the primary source of initial broadcast for a Presidential Emergency Alert Notification. PEP station expansion will help ensure that all conditions the President of the United States can alert. In September 2009, FEMA contracted with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers to equip selected radio stations to become FEMA Primary Entry Point stations, the project with USACE is actively bringing new stations into the FEMA PEP program. PEP stations provide resilience for alerts and warnings to the public, the IPAWS PMO continues to complete the integration of satellite data transmission paths as a diverse path for EAS message delivery from FEMA to PEP stations. An XM Radio transmission path was completed in the first quarter of 2010, the IPAWS EAS Modernization and PEP Expansion project includes and maintains 77 operational PEP stations throughout the United States and its territories. Direct coverage of the population will expand from approximately 67 percent in 2009 to over 90 percent when all 77 PEP stations become operational in 2015. The FEMA National Radio System Provides Primary Entry Point service to the Emergency Alert System, the FNARS net control station is located at the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. Once an EAN is received by an EAS participant from a PEP station the message then daisy chains through the network of participants, daisy chains form when one station receives a message from multiple other stations and the station then forwards that message to multiple other stations. Because the header lacks error detection codes, it is repeated three times for redundancy, EAS decoders compare the received headers against one another, looking for an exact match between any two, eliminating most errors which can cause an activation to fail
9.
Tacoma, Washington
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Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washingtons Puget Sound,32 miles southwest of Seattle,31 miles northeast of the capital, Olympia. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census, Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of activity for the South Sound region. Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Takhoma or Tahoma and it is locally known as the City of Destiny because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacomas neighboring deep-water harbor, by connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacomas motto became When rails meet sails. Today, Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of trade on the Pacific Coast. Like most central cities, Tacoma suffered a decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization. Neighborhoods such as the 6th Avenue District have become revitalized, tacoma-Pierce County has been named one of the most livable areas in the United States. In 2006, Tacoma was listed as one of the most walkable cities in the country and that same year, the womens magazine Self named Tacoma the Most Sexually Healthy City in the United States. In contrast, Tacoma was also ranked as the most stressed-out city in the country in a 2004 survey, Tacoma gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname Galloping Gertie. The city of Tacoma and surrounding areas were inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, predominantly the Puyallup people, mcCarver, who named his project Tacoma City, derived from the indigenous name for the mountain. Tacoma was incorporated on November 12,1875, following the merger of Old Tacoma, the transcontinental link was effected in 1887, but the railroad built its depot on New Tacoma, two miles south of the Carr-McCarver development. The two communities together and joined. The population grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890, rudyard Kipling visited Tacoma in 1889 and said it was literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest. George Francis Train was a resident for a few years in the late 19th century, in 1890, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish line, in November 1885, white citizens led by then-mayor Jacob Weisbach expelled several hundred Chinese residents peacefully living in the city. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground, the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898 led Tacomas prominence in the region to be eclipsed by the booming development of Seattle
10.
Charles Lindbergh
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Charles Augustus Lindbergh, nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist. At age 25 in 1927, he went from obscurity as a U. S. Air Mail pilot to instantaneous world fame by making his Orteig Prize–winning nonstop flight from Long Island, New York, to Paris. He covered the 33 1⁄2-hour,3,600 statute miles alone in a single-engine purpose-built Ryan monoplane and this was the first solo transatlantic flight, and the first non-stop flight between North America and mainland Europe. Lindbergh was an officer in the U. S. Army Air Corps Reserve, and he received the United States highest military decoration and his achievement spurred interest in both commercial aviation and air mail, and Lindbergh himself devoted much time and effort to promoting such activity. Lindberghs historic flight and instantaneous world fame led to tragedy, in March 1932, his infant son, Charles Jr. was kidnapped and murdered in what was widely called the Crime of the Century and described by H. L. Mencken as the biggest story since the resurrection. The case prompted the United States Congress to upgrade kidnapping from a crime to a federal crime once the kidnapper had crossed state lines with his victim. By late 1935 the hysteria surrounding the case had driven the Lindbergh family into exile in Europe. Before the United States formally entered World War II, some people accused Lindbergh of being a fascist sympathizer, in his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist. Lindbergh had six children with his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February 4,1902, and spent most of his childhood in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Washington, D. C. Charles parents separated in 1909 when he was seven, congressman from 1907 to 1917, was one of the relatively few Congressmen to oppose the entry of the U. S. into World War I. Lindberghs mother was a teacher at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. Lindbergh also attended over a dozen schools from Washington, D. C. From an early age, Lindbergh had exhibited an interest in the mechanics of motorized transportation, including his familys Saxon Six automobile, and later his Excelsior motorbike. By the time he started college as an engineering student, he had also become fascinated with flying. A few days later Lindbergh took his first formal flying lesson in that same machine and he also briefly worked as an airplane mechanic at the Billings, Montana municipal airport. With the onset of winter, however, Lindbergh left flying, though Lindbergh had not touched an airplane in more than six months, he had already secretly decided he was ready to take to the air by himself. After a half-hour of dual time with a pilot who was visiting the field to pick up another surplus JN-4, Lindbergh flew solo for the first time in the Jenny he had just purchased for $500. After spending another week or so at the field to practice, Lindbergh took off from Americus for Montgomery, Alabama, some 140 miles to the west and he went on to spend much of the rest of 1923 engaged in almost nonstop barnstorming under the name of Daredevil Lindbergh
