1.
Atlanta
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
2.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
3.
DirecTV
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DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider based in El Segundo, California and is a subsidiary of AT&T. Its satellite service, launched on June 17,1994, transmits digital television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America. Its primary competitors are Dish Network and cable television providers, DirecTV provides television and audio services to subscribers through satellite transmissions. Services include the equivalent of local television stations, broadcast television networks, subscription television services, satellite radio services. Subscribers have access to hundreds of channels, so its competitors are cable television service, most subscribers use reception antennas which are much smaller than the first generation antennas, which were typically a few yards across. Advances in antenna technology, including fractal antennas, have allowed a reduction in antenna size across all industries. Receiving equipment includes a dish, an integrated receiver/decoder and a DirecTV access card. Consumers who purchase DirecTV subscribe to various packages of DirecTV programming for which the subscriber pays a monthly fee, additional monthly fees may include a protection plan, DVR, additional receivers, HD channels, and other premium channel packages. A subscriber also can order pay-per-view and video on demand events, all programming distributed by DirecTV is delivered to its broadcast centers in Castle Rock, Colorado, and Los Angeles, where it is then digitized and compressed. The resulting signal is encrypted by DirecTV to prevent its unauthorized reception, DirecTV then transmits these signals to several satellites located in geostationary orbit. As of the quarter ended September 30,2012, DirecTV U. S. had 19.981 million subscribers, for the same period, DirecTV Latin America ended with 9.666 million subscribers and revenues of US$1.577 billion. In addition to serving residences, DirecTV offers service to bars, restaurants, hotels, dorms, the company also offered mobile service for cars, boats, and RVs as well as aircraft in cooperation with Connexion by Boeing. On November 30,2016, DirecTV Now, an internet streaming TV service was launched, in 1953, Howard Hughes created the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to which he transferred full ownership of Hughes Aircraft. Ostensibly created as a medical research foundation, HHMI was accused of being used by Hughes as a tax shelter. Following Hughes death in 1976, HHMI was incorporated in 1977, in 1984, the court appointed a new board for HHMI, which proceeded to sell off Hughes Aircraft to General Motors on December 20,1985, for an estimated $5.1 billion. General Motors then merged Hughes Aircraft with its subsidiary Delco Electronics to create Hughes Electronics Corporation, the new subsidiary was initially composed of four units, Delco Electronics Company, Hughes Aircraft Company, Hughes Space and Communications Company, and Hughes Network Systems. Stanley E. Hubbard founded United States Satellite Broadcasting in 1981 and was a proponent for the development of direct-broadcast satellite service in the United States. USSB was awarded five frequencies by the FCC, at the coveted 101 degree west satellite location, Hughes Communications, Inc. was also awarded 27 frequencies at the same 101-degree location
4.
Dish Network
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Dish Network is an American direct-broadcast satellite service provider. The company provides satellite television, satellite Internet access, audio programming, as of November 2016, the company provided services to 13.7 million television and 580,000 broadband subscribers. The company has approximately 16,000 employees, the company is headquartered in Meridian, Colorado, though the postal designation of nearby Englewood, Colorado is used in the corporate mailing address. In January 2008, Dish Network was spun off from its parent company EchoStar. The company began using Dish Network as its brand in March 1997, after the successful launch of its first satellite, EchoStar I. That launch marked the beginning of its television services, and EchoStar has since launched numerous satellites. EchoStar continues to be the technology partner to Dish Network. Joseph Clayton became president and chief officer of the company in June 2011. Clayton remained in the position until March 31,2015 when he retired leaving Ergen to resume the post, Dishs main service is satellite television. Its offerings are similar to satellite and cable companies. Viewers can choose from a series of bundles, paying more money for more channels. A la carte programming is available, however limited other than Premium channels, the company is currently working on diversifying its offerings. With its purchase of Blockbuster LLC, it now owns the Blockbuster trademarks and has used its intellectual property agreement to offer streaming, Dish Anywhere is Dishs subscriber-only streaming video service, which includes HBO and Cinemax programming. In May 2012, the American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Dish second among American television providers and it weighs ten pounds, is protected from weather, and automatically searches for a signal. The only satellites that are compatible with the Tailgater are at Dishs 119,110. In March 2012, Dish began offering a video recorder called Dish Hopper that can automatically record all prime time programming on the four major television networks. The other half is for video on demand, a Hopper feature, called AutoHop, enables customers to view these programs without commercials, subject to time restrictions. AutoHop has attracted enthusiasts, critics, boycotts and legal action, at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show Dish won an award for their AutoHop feature on the Hopper
5.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
6.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area
7.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
8.
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
9.
Basketball
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Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking. The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable. Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
10.
Documentary film
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A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record. Documentary has been described as a practice, a cinematic tradition. Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was among those who identified the mode of documentary film and he wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema Une nouvelle source de lhistoire and La photographie animée. Both were published in 1898 in French and among the written works to consider the historical. Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect, the American film critic Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as a factual film which is dramatic. Others further state that a documentary stands out from the types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion. Documentary practice is the process of creating documentary projects. Documentary filmmaking can be used as a form of journalism, advocacy, early film was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. They were single-shot moments captured on film, a train entering a station and these short films were called actuality films, the term documentary was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, were a minute or less in length. Films showing many people were made for commercial reasons, the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States, in May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film few surigical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen invited Bolesław Matuszewski and Clément Maurice and they started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations, Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. These and five other of Doyens films survive, all these short films have been preserved. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me, unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way. Travelogue films were popular in the early part of the 20th century
11.
Women's National Basketball Association
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The Womens National Basketball Association is a professional womens basketball league in the United States. It is currently composed of twelve teams, the league was founded on April 24,1996 as the womens counterpart to the National Basketball Association, and league play started in 1997. The regular season is played from June to September with the All Star game being played midway through the season in July, many WNBA teams have direct NBA counterparts and play in the same arena. The four aforementioned franchises, along with the Atlanta Dream and the Los Angeles Sparks, are all independently owned. The creation of the WNBA was officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24,1996, and announced at a conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie. The new WNBA had to compete with the recently-formed American Basketball League, while not the first major womens professional basketball league in the United States, the WNBA is the only league to receive full backing of the NBA. The WNBA logo, Logo Woman, paralleled the NBA logo and was selected out of 50 different designs. On the heels of a gold medal run by the 1996 USA Basketball Womens National Team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The first WNBA game featured the New York Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles, the game was televised nationally in the United States on the NBC television network. Penny Toler scored the leagues first point, the WNBA centered its marketing campaign, dubbed We Got Next, around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. In the leagues first season, Leslies Los Angeles Sparks underperformed, the WNBAs true star in 1997 was WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper, Swoopes teammate on the Houston Comets. The Comets defeated Lobos New York Liberty in the first WNBA Championship game, the initial We Got Next advertisement ran before each WNBA season until it was replaced with the We Got Game campaign. Two teams were added in 1998 and two more in 1999, bringing the number of teams in the league up to twelve and we expect to keep growing the league. In 1999, the chief competition, the American Basketball League. When a lockout resulted in an abbreviated NBA season, the WNBA saw faltering TV viewership, on May 23,2000, the Houston Comets became the first WNBA team to be invited to the White House Rose Garden. Before this invitation, only mens sports teams had traveled to the White House, at the end of the 2000 season, the Houston Comets won their fourth championship, capturing every title since the leagues inception. Led by the Big Three of Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and four-time Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper, under head coach Van Chancellor, the team posted a 98–24 record through their first four seasons. After 2000, Cooper retired from the league and the Comets dynasty came to an end, the top contender in the 2001 season was the Los Angeles Sparks
12.
Secaucus, New Jersey
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Secaucus is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Secaucus is a derivation of the Algonquian words for black and snake, or place of snakes, or sekakes, sikakes, once an island, was part of the territory purchased by Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. Settlement had begun by at least 1733 by the Smith family, Secaucus was originally formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 12,1900, from portions of North Bergen. On June 7,1917, Secaucus was incorporated as a town, replacing Secaucus borough, Secaucus was originally an agricultural community specializing in flowers. It later became known for its pig farms in the first half of the 20th century, in the early 1900s the town was home to approximately 55 pig farms, which housed nearly 250,000 pigs, which outnumbered humans 16 to 1. These farms served the demands of Newark and New York. Many of them were politicians, most notably pork peddler Henry B. Krajewski, who ran for New Jersey senator, three times for governor and twice for U. S. President, the towns pig farms, rendering plants, and junk yards gave the town a reputation for being one of the most odorous in the New York metropolitan area. In the 1950s the pig began to dwindle, partially due to construction on the New Jersey Turnpike. In 1963, debris from the demolition of Pennsylvania Station was dumped in the Secaucus Meadowlands, in later decades Secaucus became more of a commuter town. In a non-binding referendum in 1969, 90% of voters in Secaucus chose to leave Hudson County and join Bergen County, however, only the state has the authority to change county lines, so it never came to fruition. Today it remains the most suburban town in Hudson County, New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Secaucus as its 182nd best place to live in its 2010 rankings of the Best Places To Live in New Jersey, after ranking the borough 11th in its 2008 rankings. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had an area of 6.599 square miles. At the southern end of Secaucus is Snake Hill, an igneous rock intrusion jutting up some 150 feet from the Meadowlands below. Being partly surrounded by the Hackensack Meadowlands, Secaucus provides opportunities to observe the recovery of natural marshes in the towns post industrial, the Hackensack River and its tributary Mill Creek create the other borders for the district. The North End is one of the older, traditional residential neighborhoods of Secaucus which itself has been transformed to a town and retail. It is home to Secaucus High School, whose fields are used by the Bergen County Scholastic League. Nearby Schmiddts Wood is one of the last original hardwood forests in urban North Jersey, as part of the New Jersey Meadowlands District, the areas along the river are characterized by wetlands preservation and restoration areas
