1.
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
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Hugh Mercer
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Hugh Mercer was a Scottish soldier and physician. Mercer died as a result of his wounds received at the Battle of Princeton and became a fallen hero and rallying symbol of the American Revolution. Mercer was born near Rosehearty, at the manse of Pitsligo Kirk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to Church of Scotland minister Reverend William Mercer of Pitsligo Parish Kirk, at 15, he attended the University of Aberdeen, Marischal College, studying medicine and graduated a Doctor. As a fugitive in his own homeland in 1747, Mercer fled Scotland after months in hiding and he bought his way onto a ship and moved to America, settling near what is now Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and practiced medicine for eight years. He came to the aid of the wounded and eventually took up arms in support of the army that a few years prior had hunted him, this time as a soldier, not a surgeon. By 1756, he was commissioned a captain in a Pennsylvania regiment, during the attack, Mercer was badly wounded and separated from his unit. He trekked 100 miles through the woods for fourteen days, injured and with no supplies, until he found his way back to Fort Shirley and he rose to the rank of colonel and commanded garrisons. It was during this period that Mercer developed a lifelong and warm friendship with another colonel, both Washington and Mercer served under British General John Forbes during the second attempt to capture Fort Duquesne. Forbes occupied the fort on November 25,1758. Forbes immediately ordered the construction of a new fortification to be named Fort Pitt and he also named the settlement between the rivers Pittsborough, modern Pittsburgh. Forbes’s health, which had been poor for much of the campaign, on December 3,1758, now gravely ill, Forbes began the arduous journey back to Philadelphia leaving Colonel Hugh Mercer in command of Fort Pitt. General Forbes died in Philadelphia on March 11,1759 and he was buried in Christ Church in Philadelphia. Mercers first task was to construct a fort to hold the two forms of the Ohio in case the French were able to execute their plans to return in the Spring of 1759. Drawings of the call this temporary fortification Mercers Fort. It stood at the site of what is today a lot between Point State Park and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Building. After befriending several Virginia men, Mercer moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1760 to begin his medical practice anew at the conclusion of the war. When Mercer arrived in Fredericksburg, it was a thriving Scottish community that must have been a sanctuary for a Scotsman who could never again see his homeland. He became a member and businessman in town, buying land
4.
County seat
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A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function. In the United States, counties are the subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide services to the public, impose taxes. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be incorporated or unincorporated. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county, a county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, in some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included Court House as part of their name. Most counties have only one county seat, an example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult, there have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states, Coffee County, for example, the official county seat is Greensboro, but an additional courthouse has been located in nearby High Point since 1938. For example, Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, in New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government. Historically, counties in this region have served mainly as dividing lines for the judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats, in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine the county seats are legally designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the shire town. Bennington County has two towns, but the Sheriff is located in Bennington. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments. As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county
5.
Aledo, Illinois
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Aledo /ʌˈliːdoʊ/ is a city in Mercer County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,640 at the 2010 census, up from 3,613 in 2000 and it is the county seat of Mercer County. Aledo had its start in the 1850s when the railroad was extended to that point, a post office has been in operation at Aledo since 1856. Aledo is located at 41°12′1″N 90°45′0″W, according to the 2010 census, Aledo has a total area of 2.392 square miles, of which 2.38 square miles is land and 0.012 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 3,640 people,1,568 households, and 947 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 98. 5% white,0. 6% African American,0. 0% Native American,0. 3% Asian,0. 1% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 2% of the population. 35. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 20. 2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.84. The male population made up 47. 5%, the population made up 52. 5%. The median age was 45.8 years, the 2009-2013 American Community Survey estimated the median income in 2013 for a household in the city to be $39,424, and the median income for a family to be $56,546. Full-time, year-round male workers were estimated to have an income of $44,435 versus $30,357 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,373, about 15. 0% of families and 18. 4% of the population were estimated below the poverty line, including 22. 1% of those under age 18 and 11. 7% of those age 65 or over. The American Community Survey estimated that in 2013 there were 1,740 civilians 16 years, - Aledo, Murcia, Spain Aledo was the home to William & Vashti College — the campus/buildings were purchased and used by the Roosevelt Military Academy from 1924–1973. The Administration Building was torn down, and the spot was used to construct a living facility. The remaining two buildings are unused, William & Vashti College was a member of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from 1910–1917. The High School Mascot used to be the Aledo Green Dragons, School colors were Forest Green and White. The Class of 2006 had 71 students, which is about a class size. Aledo High School offers a variety of curriculum in the sciences, math, literature, social sciences. The school has a band, jazz band, concert choir
6.
2010 United States Census
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The 2010 United States Census, is the twenty-third and currently most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the day used for the census, was April 1,2010. As part of a drive to increase the accuracy,635,000 temporary enumerators were hired. The population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, 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 personally inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, 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 approximately 134 million on April 1,2010. 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 Census Bureau delivered population information to the president for apportionment, personally identifiable information will be available in 2082. The Census Bureau did not use a form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, 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 1s age and Person 1s date of birth, is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else, the form included space to repeat some or all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, 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 basis will receive the survey each year. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced that it would count same-sex married couples, however, the final form did not contain a separate same-sex married couple option
7.
Illinois's 17th congressional district
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The 17th Congressional District of Illinois is represented by Democrat Cheri Bustos. It includes most of the portion of the state, with most of its population living on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities, as well as parts of Peoria. The 17th congressional district has shifted northward after the 2012 redistricting and it lost Quincy and Decatur, as well as its share of Springfield. It was generally thought that the map would allow the district to revert to the Democrats. As expected, one-term Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling was defeated by Democratic opponent Cheri Bustos in the 2012 election cycle, all or parts of Canton, East Moline, Freeport, Galesburg, Kewanee, Moline, Peoria, Rock Island, Rockford, Pekin and Sterling are included. The representatives for these districts were elected in the 2012 primary and general elections, from 2003 to 2013 the district was known as the rabbit on a skateboard for its unusual shape devised as the outcome of gerrymandering. The boundaries were drawn in a deal to protect both Democratic incumbent Lane Evans and neighboring Republican incumbents. The lines of the district were drawn to move Republican voters into neighboring districts and to include Democratic neighborhoods in Springfield, as of May 2015, two former members of the U. S. House of Representatives from Illinoiss 17th congressional district are alive. The most recent representative to die was Lane Evans on November 5,2014, Illinoiss congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Gerrymander Martis, Kenneth C. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts
8.
Time in the United States
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The time zone boundaries and DST observance are regulated by the Department of Transportation. The clocks run by these services are synchronized with each other as well as with those of other international timekeeping organizations. It is the combination of the zone and daylight saving rules, along with the timekeeping services. The use of solar time became increasingly awkward as railways. American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s, each train station set its own clock making it difficult to coordinate train schedules and confusing passengers. Time calculation became a problem for people travelling by train. Every city in the United States used a different time standard so there were more than 300 local sun times to choose from, Time zones were therefore a compromise, relaxing the complex geographic dependence while still allowing local time to be approximate with mean solar time. Railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced at noon on November 18,1883, the conference therefore established the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian and Greenwich Mean Time as the worlds time standard. The US time-zone system grew from this, in all zones referred back to GMT on the prime meridian. It is, within about 1 second, mean time at 0°. It does not observe daylight saving time and it is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, standard time zones in the United States are currently defined at the federal level by law 15 USC §260. The federal law establishes the transition dates and times at which daylight saving time occurs. As of August 9,2007, the time zones are defined in terms of hourly offsets from UTC. Prior to this they were based upon the solar time at several meridians 15° apart west of Greenwich. Only the full-time zone names listed below are official, abbreviations are by common use conventions, the United States uses nine standard time zones. The Central standard time zone, which comprises roughly the Gulf Coast, Mississippi Valley, the Mountain standard time zone, which comprises roughly the states that include the Rocky Mountains
9.
Central Time Zone
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The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
Mercer County, Illinois
