The Hague
The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would be called the Binnenhof.
He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange.
From 1588, The Hague became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft served as the 27th President of the United States and as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, the only person to have held both offices. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, Taft was born in Cincinnati in 1857. His father, Alphonso Taft, was a U. S. Attorney General, William Taft attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones secret society like his father, and after becoming a lawyer was appointed a judge while still in his twenties. He continued a rapid rise, being named Solicitor General and as a judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in 1901, President William McKinley appointed Taft civilian governor of the Philippines. In 1904, Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and he became Roosevelts hand-picked successor, despite his personal ambition to become chief justice, Taft declined repeated offers of appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing his political work to be more important. With Roosevelts help, Taft had little opposition for the Republican nomination for president in 1908, in the White House, he focused on East Asia more than European affairs, and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments.
Taft sought reductions to trade tariffs, a source of governmental income. Controversies over conservation and over antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to separate the two men. Roosevelt challenged Taft for renomination in 1912, Taft used his control of the party machinery to gain a bare majority of delegates, and Roosevelt bolted the party. The split left Taft with little chance of re-election, he took only Utah, after leaving office, Taft returned to Yale as a professor, continuing his political activity and working against war through the League to Enforce Peace. In 1921, President Harding appointed Taft as chief justice, an office he had long sought, Chief Justice Taft was a conservative on business issues, but under him, there were advances in individual rights. In poor health, he resigned in February 1930, after his death the next month, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the first president and first Supreme Court justice to be interred there. Taft is generally listed near the middle in historians rankings of U. S.
presidents, William Howard Taft was born September 15,1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alphonso Taft and Louise Torrey. The Taft family was not wealthy, living in a modest home in the suburb of Mount Auburn, Alphonso served as a judge, ambassador and in the cabinet, as War Secretary and Attorney General under Ulysses S. Grant. William Taft was not seen as brilliant as a child, but was a worker, Tafts demanding parents pushed him and his four brothers toward success. He attended Woodward High School in Cincinnati, at Yale College, which he entered in 1874, the heavyset, jovial Taft was popular. One classmate described him succeeding through hard work rather than being the smartest, in 1878, Taft graduated, second in his class out of 121. He attended Cincinnati Law School, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1880, while in law school, he worked on The Cincinnati Commercial newspaper, edited by Murat Halstead
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, known as the Catskills, are a large area in the southeastern portion of the U. S. state of New York. They are located approximately 100 miles north-northwest of New York City and 40 miles southwest of Albany, the Catskills occupy much or all of five counties, with some areas falling into the boundaries of southwestern Albany, eastern Broome, northwestern Orange, and southern Otsego counties. Foothills are found in southeastern Chenango, southern Montgomery, northern Otsego, the Catskills are a mature dissected plateau, a once-flat region subsequently uplifted and eroded into sharp relief by watercourses. The Catskills form the end of, and highest-elevation portion of. Climatically, the Catskills lie within the Allegheny Highlands forests ecoregion, the regions many large resorts gave countless young stand-up comedians an opportunity to hone their craft. In addition, the Catskills have long been a haven for artists, nicolaes Visscher Is 1656 map of New Netherland located the Landt van Kats Kill at the mouth of Catskill creek.
While the meaning of the name and the namer are settled matters, exactly how, The most common, and easiest, explanation is that bobcats were seen near Catskill creek and the present-day village of Catskill, and the name followed from there. Mountain lions were known to have been in the area when the Dutch arrived in the 17th century and it was named for Dutch poet Jacob Cats, who was known for his real estate prowess, profiting from speculation in lands reclaimed from the sea. A ship named The Cat had gone up the Hudson shortly before the name was first used, in nautical slang of the era, cat could mean a piece of equipment, or a particular type of small vessel, called a catboat. It has suggested that it refers to lacrosse, which Dutch visitors had seen the Iroquois natives play. The Mohicans roamed the woods of New England during the 18th century, a Mohican tribe supposedly inhabited the area known as the Catskills today, led by a Mohican chief named Cat. The supposed Indian name for the range, was created by a white man in the mid-19th century to drum up business for a resort.
It, persists today as the name of a school district, the locals preferred to call the range the Blue Mountains, to harmonize with Vermonts Green Mountains and New Hampshires White Mountains. It was only after Washington Irvings stories that Catskills won out over Blue Mountains, at the eastern end of the range, the mountains begin quite dramatically with the Catskill Escarpment rising up suddenly from the Hudson Valley. The western boundary is far less certain, as the mountains decline in height. The Poconos, to the immediate southwest in Pennsylvania, are technically a continuation of the Catskills under a different name, the Catskills contain more than 30 peaks above 3,500 feet and parts of six important rivers. The Catskill Mountain 3500 Club is an organization whose members have climbed all the peaks in the Catskills over 3,500 feet, the highest mountain, Slide Mountain in Ulster County, has an elevation of 4,180 feet. The history of the Catskill Mountains is a story come full circle, from erosion and uplift
Lake Mohonk
Lake Mohonk is a lake in Ulster County, New York, United States. It is located approximately 14 miles northwest of Poughkeepsie, the peak of Sky Top lies just east of the south end of the lake, to the west, Eagle Cliff rises to a height of 1,412 feet. Competitors in the Survival of the Shawangunks swim the lake as their final leg of the competition. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Hugh. U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Lake Mohonk Link to Brittanica article
National Park Service
It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS.
On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States.
In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
United Nations
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council.
UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations.
Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952.
Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and his analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe and Schopenhauer. Mann was a member of the Hanseatic Mann family and portrayed his family and class in his first novel and his older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland, when World War II broke out in 1939, he moved to the United States, returning to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur. Manns work influenced many authors, including Heinrich Böll, Joseph Heller, Yukio Mishima. Paul Thomas Mann was born to a family in Lübeck.
His mother was Roman Catholic but Mann was baptised into his fathers Lutheran religion, Manns father died in 1891 and his trading firm was liquidated. The family subsequently moved to Munich, Mann lived in Munich from 1891 until 1933, with the exception of a year in Palestrina, with his novelist elder brother Heinrich. Thomas worked with the South German Fire Insurance Company in 1894-95 and his career as a writer began when he wrote for Simplicissimus. Manns first short story, Little Mr Friedemann, was published in 1898, in 1905, Mann married Katia Pringsheim, daughter of a wealthy, secular Jewish industrialist family. She joined the Lutheran church, today the cottage is a cultural center dedicated to him, with a small memorial exhibition. In 1933, while traveling in the South of France, Mann heard from Klaus and Erika in Munich, the family emigrated to Küsnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland but received Czechoslovak citizenship and a passport in 1936. After Nazi Germany took over Czechoslovakia, he emigrated to the United States in 1939.
In 1942, the Mann family moved to 1550 San Remo Drive in the Pacific Palisades suburb of Los Angeles, on 23 June 1944 Thomas Mann was naturalized as a citizen of the United States. The Manns lived in Los Angeles until 1952, the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, prompted Mann to offer anti-Nazi speeches to the German people via the BBC. In October 1940 he began monthly broadcasts, recorded in the U. S. and flown to London, in these eight-minute addresses, Mann condemned Hitler and his paladins as crude philistines completely out of touch with European culture. In one noted speech he said, The war is horrible, Mann was one of the few publicly active opponents of Nazism among German expatriates in the U. S
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the U. S. Department of the Interior. The BIA’s responsibilities include providing health care to American Indians and Alaska Natives, located at 1849 C Street, NW, in Washington, D. C. the BIA is headed by a bureau director who reports to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The current director is Michael S. Black, the current assistant secretary is Lawrence S. Roberts, an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. On January 1,2016, Roberts succeeded Kevin K. Washburn, a member of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. The Office of Justice Services, directly operates or funds law enforcement, tribal courts, OJS funded 208 law enforcement agencies, consisting of 43 BIA-operated police agencies, and 165 tribally operated agencies under contract, or compact with the OJS. The OJS provides oversight and technical assistance to law enforcement programs when. It operates four divisions, Drug Enforcement, the Indian Police Academy, the Office of Trust Services, works with tribes and individual American Indians and Alaska Natives in the management of their trust lands and resources.
Agencies to relate to Native Americans had existed in the U. S. government since 1775, benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry were appointed among the early commissioners to negotiate treaties with Native Americans to obtain their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War. In 1789, the U. S. Congress placed Native American relations within the newly formed War Department. By 1806 the Congress had created a Superintendent of Indian Trade, or Office of Indian Trade within the War Department, the post was held by Thomas L. McKenney from 1816 until the abolition of the factory system in 1822. The government licensed traders to have control in Indian territories. The abolition of the system left a vacuum within the U. S. government regarding Native American relations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was formed on March 11,1824, who created the agency as a division within his department, without authorization from the United States Congress. He appointed McKenney as the first head of the office, which went by several names, McKenney preferred to call it the Indian Office, whereas the current name was preferred by Calhoun.
In 1832 Congress established the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in 1849 Indian Affairs was transferred to the U. S. Department of the Interior. In 1869, Ely Samuel Parker was the first Native American to be appointed as commissioner of Indian affairs and it emphasized being educated to European-American culture. Some were beaten for praying to their own creator god, the bureau was renamed from Office of Indian Affairs to Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947. The rise of activist groups such as the American Indian Movement worried the U. S. government and they intended to bring attention to American Indian issues, including their demands for renewed negotiation of treaties, enforcement of treaty rights and improvement in living standards
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493, the county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. Ulster County comprises the Kingston, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is located in the states Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley The area of present-day Ulster County was called Esopus by Dutch settlers, it was part of the New Netherland Colony. In 1652, Thomas Chambers, a freeholder from the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, purchased land at Esopus, in 1683, the Duke of York created twelve counties in his province. Ulster County was one of them and its boundaries at that time included the present Sullivan County, and portions of the present Delaware and Greene Counties. In 1777, the capital of New York State was established at Kingston, in 1797, portions of Otsego and Ulster Counties were split off to create Delaware County. In 1798, the southernmost towns in Ulster County were moved into Orange County, in 1800, portions of Albany and Ulster Counties were split off to create Greene County.
In 1809, Sullivan County was split off from Ulster County, during the American Civil War volunteers were recruited from the more affluent families of the County to form the 139th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The Lake Mohonk Mountain House on Shawangunk Ridge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,161 square miles. Ulster County is in the southeast part of New York State, south of Albany, much of the county is within the Catskill Mountains and the Shawangunk Ridge. The highest point is Slide Mountain, at approximately 4,180 feet above sea level, the lowest point is sea level along the Hudson River. The population density was 158 people per square mile, there were 77,656 housing units at an average density of 69 per square mile. 7. 6% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,19. 2% were of Italian,16. 8% Irish,15. 5% German,6. 8% English, and 4. 7% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 90. 3% spoke English,4.
5% Spanish,1. 2% Italian, of all households,27. 90% were made up of individuals and 10. 20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the family size was 3.03. In the county, the population was out with 23. 50% under the age of 18,8. 70% from 18 to 24,29. 70% from 25 to 44,24. 70% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38 years, for every 100 females there were 99.10 males
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American oil industry business magnate and philanthropist. He is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time, born into a large family in upstate New York, he was shaped by his con man father and religious mother. His family moved several times before settling in Cleveland, Ohio. Rockefeller became an assistant bookkeeper at the age of 16, and went into a partnership with Maurice B. Clark. After buying them out, he and his brother William founded Rockefeller & Andrews with Samuel Andrews, instead of drilling for oil, he concentrated on refining. In 1867, Henry Flagler entered the partnership, the Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler company grew by incorporating local refineries. As kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefellers wealth soared and he became the richest person in the country, Oil was used throughout the country as a light source until the introduction of electricity and as a fuel after the invention of the automobile. Furthermore, Rockefeller gained enormous influence over the industry, which transported his oil around the country.
Standard Oil was the first great business trust in the United States, Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry, and along with other key contemporary industrialists such as steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, defined the structure of modern philanthropy. His peak net worth was estimated at $336 billion in 1913, Rockefeller spent the last 40 years of his life in retirement at his estate in Westchester County, New York. His foundations pioneered the development of research and were instrumental in the eradication of hookworm. Rockefeller was the founder of both the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University and funded the establishment of Central Philippine University in the Philippines and he was a devout Northern Baptist, and supported many church-based institutions. Rockefeller adhered to total abstinence from alcohol and tobacco throughout his life and he was a faithful congregant of the Erie Street Baptist Mission Church, where he taught Sunday school, and served as a trustee and occasional janitor.
Religion was a force throughout his life, and Rockefeller believed it to be the source of his success. Rockefeller was the second of six children and eldest son born in Richford, New York, to con artist William Avery Bill Rockefeller and his siblings were Lucy, William Jr. Mary, and twins Franklin and Frances. His father was of English and German descent while his mother was of Scots-Irish descent, Bill was first a lumberman and a traveling salesman who identified himself as a botanic physician and sold elixirs. The locals referred to the mysterious but fun-loving man as Big Bill and he was a sworn foe of conventional morality who had opted for a vagabond existence and who returned to his family infrequently. Throughout his life, Bill was notorious for shady schemes, in between the births of Lucy and John and his mistress/housekeeper Nancy Brown had a daughter named Clorinda who died young
