Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was so named; the PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U. S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1925, it operated 10,515 miles of rail line, its only formidable rival was the New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRR's ton-miles. By 1882 it had become the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, the largest corporation in the world. With 30,000 miles of track, it had longer mileage than any other country in the world, except Britain and France, its budget was second only to the U. S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 consecutive years. In 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years.
The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, itself broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway, including nearly all of the former PRR. Amtrak received the electrified segment of the Main Line east of Harrisburg. With the opening of the Erie Canal and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic; the state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania and thus the Main Line of Public Works was commissioned in 1826. It soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical and a series of railroads, inclined planes, canals was proposed; the route consisted of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, canals up the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, an inclined plane railroad and tunnel across the Allegheny Mountains, canals down the Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. Because freight and passengers had to change cars several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome and a better way was needed.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846 to build a private rail line that would connect Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The Directors chose John Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey and construct the line, he chose a route that followed the west bank of the Susquehanna River northward to the confluence with the Juniata River, following its banks until the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains were reached at a point that would become Altoona, Pennsylvania. To traverse the mountains, the line climbed a moderate grade for 10 miles until it reached a split of two mountain ravines which were cleverly crossed by building a fill and having the tracks ascend a 220-degree curve known as Horseshoe Curve that limited the grade to less than 2 percent; the crest of the mountain was penetrated by the 3,612-foot Gallitzin Tunnels and descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown. At the end of its first year of operation, it paid a dividend, continued the dividend without interruption until 1946.
The western end of the line was built from Pittsburgh east along the banks of the Allegheny and Conemaugh rivers to Johnstown. PRR was granted trackage rights over the Philadelphia and Columbia and gained control of the three short lines connecting Lancaster and Harrisburg, instituting an all-rail link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by 1854. In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania, abandoned most of its canals and inclined planes; the line was double track from its inception, by the end of the century a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, PRR expanded by gaining control of other railroads by stock purchases and 999-year leases. Thomson was the entrepreneur who led the PRR from 1852 until his death in 1874, making it the largest business enterprise in the world and a world-class model for technological and managerial innovation, he served as PRR's first Chief Engineer and third President. Thomson's sober, technical and non-ideological personality had an important influence on the Pennsylvania Railroad, which in the mid-19th century was on the technical cutting edge of rail development, while nonetheless reflecting Thomson's personality in its conservatism and its steady growth while avoiding financial risks.
His Pennsylvania Railroad was in his day the largest railroad in the world, with 6,000 miles of track, was famous for steady financial dividends, high quality construction improving equipment, technological advances, innovation in management techniques for a large complex organization. In 1861 the PRR gained control of the Northern Central Railway, giving it access to Baltimore, Maryland, as well as points along the Susquehanna River via connections at Columbia, Pennsylvania or Harrisburg. On December 1, 1871, the PRR leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, which included the original Camden and Amboy Railroad from Camden, New Jersey to South Amboy, New Jersey, as well as a newer line from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Je
John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier
Field Marshal John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, was a British soldier. He enjoyed a distinguished career as an active officer, became a leading official of the Pitt–Newcastle ministry that led Britain during the Seven Years' War exercising extensive control over Britain's army as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces; the son of Louis de Ligonier, a member of a Huguenot family of Castres in the south of France that had emigrated to England in 1697, Louise Ligonier, John Ligonier was educated in France and Switzerland. He joined a Regiment in Flanders commanded by Lord Cutts in 1702, he fought, with distinction, in the War of the Spanish Succession and was one of the first to mount the breach at the siege of Liège in October 1702. After becoming a captain in the 10th Foot on 10 February 1703, he commanded a company at the battles of Schellenberg in July 1704 and Blenheim in August 1704, was present at Menen where he led the storming of the covered way as well as Ramillies in May 1706, Oudenarde in July 1708 and Malplaquet in September 1709 where he received twenty-three bullets through his clothing yet remained unhurt.
In 1712, he became governor of Menorca. During the War of the Quadruple Alliance in 1719 he was adjutant-general of the troops employed in the Vigo expedition, where he led the stormers of Pontevedra. Two years he became colonel of the Black Horse, he was made a brigadier general in 1735, major general in 1739, accompanied Lord Stair in the Rhine Campaign of 1742 to 1743. He was promoted to lieutenant general on 26 February 1742 and George II made him a Knight of the Bath on the field of Dettingen in June 1743. At Fontenoy in May 1745, Ligonier commanded the British and Hessian infantry. During the Jacobite rising of 1745 he was called home to command the British army in the Midlands. In November 1745 he led a column of troops sent to Lancashire to oppose the rebels. Having been promoted to the rank of general of horse on 3 January 1746, he was placed at the head of the British and British-paid contingents of the Allied army in the Low Countries in June 1746, he was present at Rocoux in October 1746 and, having been made Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance on 19 March 1747, he fought at Lauffeld in July 1747, where he led the charge of the British cavalry.
He did this with such vigour. In this encounter his horse was killed and he was taken prisoner by Louis XV, but was exchanged within a few days; the official despatch reported:"it is impossible to commend too much the conduct of the generals both horse and foot. Sir John Legonier, who charged at the head of the British dragoons with that skill and spirit that he has shown on so many occasions, in which he was so well seconded..." He became Member of Parliament for Bath in March 1748 and colonel of the 2nd Dragoon Guards in 1749. From 1748 to 1770 he was governor of the French Hospital. On 6 April 1750 he was appointed Governor of Guernsey and on 3 February 1753 he became colonel of the Royal Horse Guards. In September 1757, following the disgrace of the Duke of Cumberland who had signed the Convention of Klosterzeven, Ligonier was made Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, he worked with the Pitt–Newcastle ministry who sought his strategic advice in connection with the Seven Years' War, underway at this time.
Ligonier was made a field marshal on 3 December 1757, Colonel of the 1st Foot Guards on the same date and a peer of Ireland on 10 December 1757 under the title of Viscount Ligonier of Enniskillen. He was notionally given command of British forces in the event of a planned French invasion in 1759 though it never occurred, he became Master-General of the Ordnance. He was given a further Irish peerage on 1 May 1762 as Viscount Ligonier of Clonmell and on 19 April 1763 he became a Baron, on 6 September 1766 an Earl, in the British peerage, he spent his years at Cobham Park in Cobham, which he bought around 1750. He was buried in Cobham Church. There is a monument to him, sculpted by John Francis Moore in Westminster Abbey; the earldom became extinct but the Irish viscountcy and Cobham Park passed to his nephew Edward, who would be created Earl Ligonier six years later. Ligonier's younger brother, was a distinguished soldier; this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed..
"Ligonier, John Ligonier, Earl". Encyclopædia Britannica. 16. Cambridge University Press. P. 679. DNB00: "Ligonier, John" Albemarle, George. Fifty Years Of My Life. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1103473823. Browne, James. A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans, Volume 4. A. Fullarton & Co. Clarke; the Georgian Era: Military and Naval Commanders. Judges and Barristers. Physicians and Surgeons. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1143366468. Combes, Émile. J. L. Ligonier, une étude. Castres. Guy, Alan. Oeconomy and discipline: officership and administration in the British army, 1714-1763. Manchester University Press. Heathcote, Tony; the British Field Marshals 1736-1997. Pen & Sword Books Ltd. ISBN 0-85052-696-5. Kimber, Edward; the new peerage, or, present state of the nobility of England and Ireland, Volume 1. Retrieved 3 May 2012. Mayo, Lawrence Shaw. Jeffrey Amherst: A Biography. London. Murdoch, Tessa; the French Hospital in England: Its Huguenot History and Collections. Cambridge: John Adamson. ISBN 978-0-9524322-7-2. Pilkington, Laetitia.
Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington, Volume 1. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-08
1940 United States Census
The Sixteenth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 123,202,624 people. The census date of record was April 1, 1940. A number of new questions were asked including where people were 5 years before, highest educational grade achieved, information about wages; this census introduced sampling techniques. Other innovations included a field test of the census in 1939; this was the first census in which every state had a population greater than 100,000. The 1940 census collected the following information: In addition, a sample of individuals were asked additional questions covering age at first marriage and other topics. Full documentation on the 1940 census, including census forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Following completion of the census, the original enumeration sheets were microfilmed; as required by Title 13 of the U.
S. Code, access to identifiable information from census records was restricted for 72 years. Non-personally identifiable information Microdata from the 1940 census is available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. On April 2, 2012—72 years after the census was taken—microfilmed images of the 1940 census enumeration sheets were released to the public by the National Archives and Records Administration; the records are indexed only by enumeration district upon initial release. Official 1940 census website 1940 Census Records from the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration 1940 Federal Population Census Videos, training videos for enumerators at the U. S. National Archives Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts from the U. S. Census Bureau Snow, Michael S. "Why the huge interest in the 1940 Census?"
CNN. Monday April 9, 2012. 1941 U. S Census Report Contains 1940 Census results 1940 Census Questions Hosted at CensusFinder.com
Ligonier Armory
Ligonier Armory was a historic National Guard armory located at Ligonier, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1937-1938 as a Public Works Administration sponsored project, was a "T"-shaped brick building executed in the Art Deco style; the two-story front section housed the drill hall, with a one-story administrative section in the rear. Additions were completed in 1962 and 1972, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The armory was demolished in the late 2000s, the site redeveloped with residences
2010 United States Census
The 2010 United States Census is the twenty-third and most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010; the census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving to spot-check randomly selected neighborhoods and communities. As part of a drive to increase the count's accuracy, 635,000 temporary enumerators were hired; the population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, a 9.7% increase from the 2000 Census. This was the first census in which all states recorded a population of over half a million, as well as the first in which all 100 largest cities recorded populations of over 200,000; as required by the United States Constitution, the U. S. census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The 2000 U. S. Census was the previous census completed. Participation in the U. S. Census is required by law in Title 13 of the United States Code. On January 25, 2010, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, a resident of Noorvik, Alaska.
More than 120 million census forms were delivered by the U. S. Post Office beginning March 15, 2010; the number of forms mailed out or hand-delivered by the Census Bureau was 134 million on April 1, 2010. Although the questionnaire used April 1, 2010 as the reference date as to where a person was living, an insert dated March 15, 2010 included the following printed in bold type: "Please complete and mail back the enclosed census form today." The 2010 Census national mail participation rate was 74%. From April through July 2010, census takers visited households that did not return a form, an operation called "non-response follow-up". In December 2010, the U. S. Census Bureau delivered population information to the U. S. President for apportionment, in March 2011, complete redistricting data was delivered to states. Identifiable information will be available in 2082; the Census Bureau did not use a long form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, which asked for detailed social and economic information.
The 2010 Census used only a short form asking ten basic questions: How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010? Were there any additional people staying here on April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1? Mark all that apply: Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – What is your telephone number? What is Person 1's name? What is Person 1's sex? What is Person 1's age and Person 1's date of birth? Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin? What is Person 1's race? Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else? The form included space to repeat all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, nor was the form available for download. Detailed socioeconomic information collected during past censuses will continue to be collected through the American Community Survey; the survey provides data about communities in the United States on a 1-year or 3-year cycle, depending on the size of the community, rather than once every 10 years.
A small percentage of the population on a rotating basis will receive the survey each year, no household will receive it more than once every five years. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced. However, the final form did not contain a separate "same-sex married couple" option; when noting the relationship between household members, same-sex couples who are married could mark their spouses as being "Husband or wife", the same response given by opposite-sex married couples. An "unmarried partner" option was available for couples; the 2010 census cost $13 billion $42 per capita. Operational costs were $5.4 billion under the $7 billion budget. In December 2010 the Government Accountability Office noted that the cost of conducting the census has doubled each decade since 1970. In a detailed 2004 report to Congress, the GAO called on the Census Bureau to address cost and design issues, at that time, had estimated the 2010 Census cost to be $11 billion. In August 2010, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced that the census operational costs came in under budget.
Locke credited the management practices of Census Bureau director Robert Groves, citing in particular the decision to buy additional advertising in locations where responses lagged, which improved the overall response rate. The agency has begun to rely more on questioning neighbors or other reliable third parties when a person could not be reached at home, which reduced the cost of follow-up visits. Census data for about 22% of U. S. househol
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies; the outnumbered French depended on the Indians. The European nations declared a wider war upon one another overseas in 1756, two years into the French and Indian war, some view the French and Indian War as being the American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63; the name French and Indian War is used in the United States, referring to the two enemies of the British colonists, while European historians use the term Seven Years' War, as do English-speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it the Fourth Intercolonial War; the British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy member tribes Abenaki and Mi'kmaq, the Algonquin, Ojibwa, Ottawa and Wyandot tribes.
Fighting took place along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from the Province of Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol. In 1755, six colonial governors met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster. British operations failed in the frontier areas of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Province of New York during 1755–57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, Indian warrior allies.
In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by Commander-in-Chief William Shirley without direction from Great Britain; the Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to the King. Indians were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England; the British colonial government fell in the region of Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry. William Pitt came to power and increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies who were now engaged in the Seven Years' War in Europe. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture French Canada.
They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and the city of Quebec. The British lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain, as well as French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Spanish Florida. France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in America. In British America, wars were named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. There had been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, it became known as the French and Indian War; this continues as the standard name for the war in the United States, although Indians fought on both sides of the conflict.
It led into the Seven Years' War overseas, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain that did not involve the American colonies. Less used names for the war include the Fourth Intercolonial War and the Great War for the Empire. In Europe, the French and Indian War is conflated into the Seven Years' War and not given a separate name. "Seven Years" refers to events in Europe, from the official declaration of war in 1756—two years after the French and Indian War had started—to the signing of the peace treaty in 1763. The French and Indian War in America, by contrast, was concluded in six years from the Battle of Jumonville Glen in 1754 to the capture of Montreal in 1760. Canadians conflate both the American conflicts into the Seven Years' War. French Canadi
Bandstand
A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an ornamental focal point and serves acoustic requirements while providing shelter for the changeable weather, if outdoors. Many bandstands in the United Kingdom originated in the Victorian era as the British brass band movement gained popularity. Smaller bandstands are not much more than gazebos. Much larger bandstands such as that at the Hollywood Bowl may be called bandshells and take a shape similar to a quarter sphere. Though many bandstands fell into disuse and disrepair in the post-World War II period, the cultural project the Bandstand Marathon has seen bandstands across the U. K utilized for free live concerts since 2008; the parks where most bandstands are found were created in response to the Industrial Revolution, when local authorities realized worsening conditions in urban areas meant there was an increasing need for green, open spaces where the general public could relax.
The first bandstands in Britain were built in the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens, South Kensington in 1861. Bandstands became hugely popular and were considered a necessity in parks by the end of the 19th century. To assist the war effort during World War II, iron fittings were removed from many bandstands to be melted down and transformed into weapons and artillery. Many bandstands were boarded up in the late 1940s and 1950s. Other attractions – such as the cinema and television – were becoming increasing popular and traditional recreational parks lost much of their appeal. Between 1979 and 2001, more than half of the 438 bandstands in historic parks across the country were demolished, vandalized or in a chronic state of disuse. In the late 1990s the National Lottery and Heritage Lottery Fund invested a substantial sum in the restoration and rebuilding of bandstands across the country; as a result of this funding, over eighty bandstands were either restored or replaced. Between 1996 and 2010 there was over £500 million worth of investments in parks - a significant chunk of this money was spent on the restoration and building of bandstands.
In 1993 the Deal Memorial Bandstand was opened as memorial to the eleven bandsmen killed by 1989 Deal barracks bombing. The bandstand is maintained by volunteers. A good example of a semi-circular bandstand is the Eastbourne Bandstand, built in 1935 to replace a circular bandstand that stood on cast iron stilts. Herne Bay, Kent contains a enclosed bandstand with a stage and cafe area, topped with copper-clad domes. There is a old bandstand at Horsham's Carfax, built in 1892 by Walter Macfarlane & C at the Saracen Foundry in Glasgow, another one in its adjacent park, it was moved from its original location, to better accommodate pedestrians and refurbished in 1978 with funds raised by the Horsham Society and with council funding. In 1992, the original design was rediscovered in museum archives and it was restored to its original colour scheme. Scotland's many ironwork foundries and manufacturers built bandstands that were subsequently erected at locations throughout the United Kingdom; some of the most notable bandstands in Scotland are located at: Alexander Hamilton Memorial Park in Stonehouse Bellfield Park in Inverness Bothwell Road Public Park in Hamilton Brechin Park in Brechin Bridgeton Cross, Glasgow Burngreen Peace Park in Kilsyth Collison Park in Dalbeattie Clyde Retail Park in Clydebank Dock Park in Dumfries Duthie Park in Aberdeen George Allan Park in Strathaven Glebe Park, Falkirk in Falkirk Haugh Park in Cupar Houston Square in Johnstone High Street, Falkirk in Falkirk Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow Langholm Town Bandstand Lewisvale Park in Musselburgh Macrosty Park in Crieff Magdalene Park in Dundee Overtoun Park in Rutherglen Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh St Margaret's Drive Park in Dunfermline Stair Park in Stranraer The Links in Nairn The Scores in St Andrews, Fife Milo, IA - History of Milo, IA bandstand http://www.cityofmilo.com/history/ The function of the bandstand inspired the names of: the American television show American Bandstand and the Australian television show Bandstand.
The Broadway musical Bandstand Belvedere Dance pavilion Gazebo Kiosk Pavilion Vintage Bandstand photographs
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