1.
New Orleans
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New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
2.
New Orleans metropolitan area
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As of the April 1,2012, estimate, the metropolitan statistical area had a population of 1,227,096. The New Orleans-Metairie-Hammond Combined Statistical Area, an area, had a population of 1,452,502. The metropolitan area was hit by Hurricane Katrina – once a Category 5 hurricane, within the city of New Orleans proper, multiple breaches and structural failures occurred in the system of levees and flood walls designed under Federal government auspices. The resulting decline in the population negatively impacted population numbers for the entire metro area. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area is made up of nine parishes, the CSA includes two metropolitan area and one micropolitan areas. The Census Bureaus CSA adds Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes, to make nine parishes, the New Orleans regions chamber of commerce, GNO, Inc. includes the nine parishes of the Census Bureaus CSA plus St. James Parish. This wider 10-parish region had a population of 1.32 million as of July 1,2008, the Louisiana state legislature created a commission, the Regional Planning Commission, to be responsible for the planning and development of the New Orleans metropolitan area. The five parishes covered by the commission are, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, additionally, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist are associate members of the Regional Planning Commission. The New Orleans metropolitan area was first defined in 1950, then known as the New Orleans Standard Metropolitan Area, it consisted of three parishes – Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard – and had a population of 685,405. Following a term change by the Bureau of the Budget, the New Orleans SMA was called the New Orleans Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, by the census of 1960, the population had grown to 868,480, a 27% increase over the previous census. St. Tammany Parish was added the New Orleans SMSA in 1963, the four-parish area had a combined population of 899,123 in 1960 and 1,045,809 in 1970. By the 1980 census, the population had increased by 14% to 1,187,073, in 1983, the official name was shortened to the New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area. Two more parishes, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, were added to the MSA the same year, making a six-parish MSA. The newly defined area had a total of 1,256,256 residents in 1980, the New Orleans MSA expanded to eight parishes in 1993 with the inclusion of Plaquemines and St. James. The eight-parish area had a population of 1,285,270 at the 1990 census and 1,337,726 in 2000. The MSA was renamed the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2003, St. James Parish was removed from the defined metropolitan area. A total of 1,316,510 people lived in the seven parishes of Greater New Orleans in 2000, the City of Kenner is the largest incorporated city located in Jefferson Parish, just west of the City of New Orleans. In the New Orleans metropolitan area, the following terms are used, Eastbank, Westbank, Northshore
3.
Uptown New Orleans
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It remains an area of mixed residential and small commercial properties, with a wealth of 19th-century architecture. It includes part or all of Uptown New Orleans Historic District, historically, uptown was a direction, meaning movement in the direction against the flow of the Mississippi. After the Louisiana Purchase, many settlers from parts of the United States developed their homes and businesses in the area upriver from the older Creole city. The very broadest definition of Uptown, historically, included everything upriver from Canal Street, in the narrowest usage, as a New Orleans City Planning neighborhood, Uptown refers to an area of only some dozen blocks centering on the intersection of Jefferson and St. Charles Avenues. Neither of these is what most New Orleanians of recent generations usually mean by uptown, the boundaries of the federal Uptown New Orleans Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are the River to S. Claiborne Avenue and Jackson Avenue to Broadway. Uptown was developed during the 19th century, mostly from land that had plantations in the Colonial era. Several sections were developed as separate towns, like Lafayette, Jefferson City, Greenville. For a time in the early 19th century most of Uptown was part of Jefferson Parish until the City of New Orleans annexed them, in 1874, New Orleans added the towns of Lafayette, and Carrollton. Uptown has always had a sizable African American population, census data shows that ethnically and racially mixed blocks were common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which continues to be the case with much of Uptown. Several small settlements grew up at steamboat landings a few miles upstream of New Orleans, the original Lafayette began as one of these. It was subdivided and incorporated in April 1833 as the City of Lafayette, the center of town was around Jackson Avenue. Lafayette was also the site of the original Jefferson Parish court house, the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, also incorporated in 1833, constructed a spur from the main line along Nyades Street down Jackson Avenue. Lafayette annexed Faubourg Delassize in 1844, bringing that citys boundary with New Orleans to Toledano Street, in 1852, New Orleans annexed Lafayette, moving the New Orleans city limit upriver to Toledano Street. The seat of Jefferson Parish moved to the City of Carrollton, however, the boundary between Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish remained at Felicity Street until 1870, when it was moved to Lowerline Street. Cornelius Hurst, developer of Faubourg Hurstville, sold a block to the City of Lafayette for a cemetery in 1833. Now known as Lafayette Cemetery No,1, the land is bounded by Washington Avenue, 6th Street, Coliseum Street and Prytania Street. In 1972, this cemetery was added to the National Register of Historical Places, the Fund helped in the creation of a preservation plan with assistance from American Express. In 2010, the Louisiana Landmarks Society rated Lafayette Cemetery No.1 as one of the nine most endangered New Orleans landmarks and it said that two large oak trees threatened to destroy 30 tombs
4.
Garden District, New Orleans
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The Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The National Historic Landmark district extends a little farther, the area was originally developed between 1832 and 1900 and is considered one of the best-preserved collections of historic mansions in the Southern United States. The 19th-century origins of the Garden District illustrate wealthy newcomers building opulent structures based upon the prosperity of New Orleans in that era, the Garden District is located at 29°55′40″N 90°05′05″W and has an elevation of 3 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the district has an area of 0.21 square miles. 0.21 square miles of which is land and 0.00 square miles of which is water, the Garden District Association defines the boundaries as both sides of Carondelet Street, Josephine Street, both sides of Louisiana Avenue, and Magazine Street. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,970 people,1,117 households, the population density was 9,381 /mi². As of the census of 2010, there were 1,926 people,1,063 households and this whole area was once a number of plantations, including the Livaudais Plantation. It was sold off in parcels to mainly wealthy Americans who did not want to live in the French Quarter with the Creoles and it became a part of the city of Lafayette in 1833, and was annexed by New Orleans in 1852. The district was out by New Orleans architect, planner. Originally the area was developed only a couple of houses per block, each surrounded by a large garden. In the late 19th century, some of large lots were subdivided. This has produced a pattern for much of the neighborhood, of any given block having a couple of early 19th-century mansions surrounded by gingerbread-decorated late Victorian period houses, thus, the Garden District is now known for its architecture more than for its gardens per se. A slightly larger district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974, Gilmour – Parker House,1520 Prytania Street, erected in 1853 for Thomas Corse Gilmour, English Cotton Merchant, Isaac Thayer, architect-builder. Sold by Gilmour heirs in 1882 to John M. Parker, whose son, John M. Parker, Jr. lived here and later served as Governor of Louisiana. The dining room extension with bay window was added by Mrs. Sarah Roberta Buckner, widow of John M. Parker, residence of Walter Denegre 1892-1929, Louise S. McGehee School since 1929. Adam-Jones House,2423 Prytania Street, erected for John I, adams, merchant, who in 1860 purchased the Garden District part of the former plantation of Jacques Francois de Livaudais, built the Adam-Jones House and made it his residence until 1896. Subsequent family ownerships were Ferdinand Reusch, Mrs. William Preston Johnston, restored in 1961-1962 by Mrs. Hamilton Polk Jones. Womens Guild of the New Orleans Opera Association,2500 Prytania Street, Dr. and Mrs. Herman de Bachelle Seebold purchased the home in 1944 and donated the mansion, furnishings and art in 1965 to the Womens Guild of the New Orleans Opera Association
5.
Eastern New Orleans
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Eastern New Orleans is a large section of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Developed extensively from the 1960s onwards, its numerous residential subdivisions offered suburban-style living within the city limits, starting in the mid-1980s, Eastern New Orleans increasingly suffered from disinvestment and urban decay. As a result, the Pre-Katrina trend of few, if any. Approximately 65,000 to 75,000 residents presently inhabit Eastern New Orleans, Eastern New Orleans is the portion of the city to the east of the Industrial Canal and north of the Intracoastal Waterway. It is often called New Orleans East as well, or simply Da East, Eastern New Orleans is a portion of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Originally named Lake Forest, as development first centered along the easternmost segment of Lake Forest Boulevard, eastover is a gated community containing palatial homes and a Joe Lee-designed golf course. The far eastern portion of Eastern New Orleans has little urban development, Village de LEst is known for its Vietnamese community. The Vietnamese community is known as Versailles, as the earliest migrants to the area, arriving in the years after 1975. The commercial hub for this community extends along Alcee Fortier Boulevard, sometimes known as Little Vietnam, the area hosts a number of Vietnamese restaurants, including Dong Phuong Restaurant & Bakery. Eastern New Orleans is the extensive suburban or suburban-style region of Greater New Orleans where, since the late 1960s. Until the late 19th century, this area was outside of the city limits of New Orleans, there was little development other than in two areas. The first hugged the long, narrow ridge of ground along Gentilly Road. Various farms, plantations, and small villages such as Michoud were sited along this ridge, in the early 20th century some residential development of the area began, at first as an extension of Gentilly. Construction of the Industrial Canal began in 1918 and was completed in 1923, from the 1930s to the 1960s, Lincoln Beach, on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, was the citys amusement park for the African-American community. However other than light flooding near the Morrison Canal, damage from Betsy was much more modest than had been feared, tragically, some of those who evacuated Eastern New Orleans in advance of Betsys arrival went to the Lower 9th Ward, which flooded disastrously. Rapid growth east of the Industrial Canal commenced in the 1960s, many new subdivisions were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, to cater to those who preferred a more suburban lifestyle but were open to remaining within the city limits of New Orleans. Eastern New Orleans grew in a comparatively well-planned and neatly zoned fashion, some care was taken to avoid placing major thoroughfares along the rights-of-way of unsightly drainage canals, as had frequently occurred in suburban Jefferson Parish. Instead, major roads were located equidistant from parallel canals and were outfitted with landscaped medians, numerous subdivisions were developed with large lakes at their centers, providing both an assist to neighborhood drainage and a scenic backdrop for the backyards of homes
6.
9th Ward of New Orleans
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The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the seventeen Wards of New Orleans, on the south, the Ninth Ward is bounded by the Mississippi River. On the western or upriver side, the Ninth Ward is bounded by Franklin Avenue, then Almonaster Avenue, then Peoples Avenue. From the north end of Peoples Avenue the boundary continues on a line north to Lake Pontchartrain. The Lake forms the north and northeastern end of the ward, saint Bernard Parish is the boundary to the southeast, Lake Borgne farther southeast and east, and the end of Orleans Parish to the east at the Rigolets. While there is overlap, the 9th Ward should not be confused with city planning designation of the ninth planning district of New Orleans. Brite, actor John Larroquette, trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, and the prominent Batiste musical family, from 2012 to 2016, the 9th Ward was represented in the Louisiana House of Representatives by Democrat Wesley T. Bishop. When Bishop was elected in 2015 to the Louisiana State Senate, another Democrat, Jimmy Harris, St. Claude St. Roch Bywater Florida Desire The smallest of these pieces is the area south and east of these canals. The portion of the Ninth Ward along the river down-river from the Industrial Canal stretching to the St. Bernard line is called the Lower 9th Ward or Lower Ninth and it includes the Holy Cross neighborhood, the twin Doullut Steamboat Houses and the Jackson Barracks. Until Hurricane Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward had the highest percentage of home ownership in the city. The area west or above the Canal has sometimes called the Upper Ninth Ward. Such distinctions arose when the Industrial Canal bisected the neighborhood in the 1920s, the portion of the Ninth Ward along the riverfront between Faubourg Marigny and the Industrial Canal is known as Bywater. Further back are the Infamous St. Claude and Florida area and this part of the Ward contained two of the Housing Projects of New Orleans. The Desire neighborhood was home to the notorious Desire Projects, until they were demolished concurrent with HOPE VI policy, just across Florida Avenue from that are the Florida Projects once stood. Nearby was the Agriculture Street Landfill, an old city dump that was covered over and made into a neighborhood of low-income housing, the area along the river front was developed first, at the start of the 19th century, followed by the natural high land along Gentilly Ridge. Along the lakefront were various fishing camps built on piers, the most famous collection being Little Woods, the Industrial Canal was dredged through the neighborhood at the start of the 1920s. Most of the area between Gentilly Ridge and Lake Pontchartrain was swamp, not drained and developed until the mid, lincoln Beach was an amusement park along the lakefront for African-Americans during the era of racial segregation. The nearby Pontchartrain Beach was the amusement area for whites
7.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
8.
Boroughs of New York City
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New York City, in the U. S. state of New York, is composed of five county-level administrative entities called boroughs. They are Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, each borough is coextensive with a county of New York State. The county governments were dissolved when New York City consolidated in 1898, along all city, town. The term borough was adopted to describe a form of administration for each of the five fundamental constituent parts of the newly consolidated city in 1898. Under the 1898 City Charter adopted by the New York State Legislature, the term is also used by politicians to counter a frequent focus on Manhattan and thereby to place all five boroughs on equal footing. In the same vein, the outer boroughs refers to all of the boroughs excluding Manhattan. All of the boroughs were created in 1898 during consolidation, when the current boundaries were established. Ultimately in 1914, the present-day separate Bronx County became the last county to be created in the State of New York, the borough of Queens consists of what formerly was only the western part of a then-larger Queens County. The borough of Staten Island was officially the borough of Richmond until the name was changed in 1975 to reflect its common appellation, there are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs of New York City, many with a definable history and character to call their own. Manhattan is the geographically smallest and most densely populated borough and is home to Central Park and most of the citys skyscrapers. Manhattans population density of 72,033 people per mile in 2015 makes it the highest of any county in the United States. Manhattan is often described as the financial and cultural center of the world, most of the borough is situated on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. Manhattan Island is loosely divided into Lower, Midtown, and Uptown regions, Uptown Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the park is Harlem. The borough also includes a neighborhood on the United States mainland. New York Citys remaining four boroughs are collectively referred to as the outer boroughs, Brooklyn, on the western tip of Long Island, is the citys most populous borough. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social, and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods, downtown Brooklyn is the only central core neighborhood in the outer boroughs. The borough has a long beachfront shoreline including Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country, marine Park and Prospect Park are the two largest parks in Brooklyn. Historically a collection of towns and villages founded by the Dutch
9.
Choctaw
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The Choctaw are Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States. The Choctaw language belongs to the Muskogean language family group, the Choctaw are descendants of the peoples of the Hopewell and Mississippian cultures, who lived throughout the east of the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries. About 1,700 years ago, the Hopewell people built Nanih Waiya, an earthwork mound. The early Spanish explorers of the mid-16th century encountered Mississippian-culture villages, the anthropologist John Swanton suggested that the Choctaw derived their name from an early leader. Henry Halbert, a historian, suggests that their name is derived from the Choctaw phrase Hacha hatak and these included the French, based on the Gulf Coast and in Louisiana, the English of the Southeast, and the Spanish of Florida and Louisiana during the colonial era. During the American Revolution, most Choctaw supported the Thirteen Colonies bid for independence from the British Crown and they never went to war against the United States prior to Indian Removal. In the 19th century, the Choctaw became known as one of the Five Civilized Tribes because they adopted numerous practices of their United States neighbors. The Choctaw and the United States agreed to nine treaties and and they were the first Native Americans forced under the Indian Removal Act. The Choctaw were exiled because the U. S. wanted to expand territory available for settlement by European Americans, to save the tribe from extinction, the Choctaw negotiated the largest area and most desirable lands in Indian Territory. Their early government had three districts, each with its own chief, who together with the town chiefs sat on the National Council and they appointed a Choctaw Delegate to represent them with the US government in Washington, DC. By the 1831 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, those Choctaw who chose to stay in the formed state of Mississippi were one of the first major non-European ethnic groups to become U. S. citizens. During the American Civil War, the Choctaw in both Oklahoma and Mississippi mostly sided with the Confederate States of America, the Confederacy suggested it would support a state under Indian control if it won the war. After the Civil War, the Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana Choctaw fell into obscurity for some time, in 1978, the United Supreme Court of the United states held that all remnants of the Choctaw Nation are entitled to all rights of the Nation. The Choctaw in Oklahoma struggled to build a nation, transferring the Choctaw Academy there, in the aftermath of the Dawes Act, the US dissolved tribal governments and appointed chiefs. During World War I, Choctaw soldiers served in the U. S. military as the first Native American codetalkers, after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Choctaw reconstituted their government, and the Choctaw Nation had kept their culture alive despite years of pressure for assimilation. The third largest federally recognized tribe, since the century, they have created new institutions, such as a tribal college, housing authority. Federal Court of Appeals was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 2002, many thousands of years ago groups classified by anthropologists as Paleo-Indians lived in what today is referred to as the American South. These groups were hunter-gatherers who hunted a wide range of animals, including a variety of megafauna, cushman wrote, the ancient Choctaw through their tradition they saw the mighty beasts of the forests, whose tread shook the earth
10.
John Kennedy Toole
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John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, whose posthumously published novel A Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He also wrote The Neon Bible, although several people in the literary world felt his writing skills were praiseworthy, Tooles novels were rejected during his lifetime. After suffering from paranoia and depression due in part to these failures, Toole was born to a middle-class family in New Orleans. From a young age, his mother taught him an appreciation of culture and she was thoroughly involved in his affairs for most of his life, and at times they had a difficult relationship. With his mothers encouragement, Toole became a performer at the age of 10 doing comic impressions. At 16 he wrote his first novel, The Neon Bible, Toole received an academic scholarship to Tulane University. After graduating from Tulane, he studied English at Columbia University in New York while teaching simultaneously at Hunter College. He also taught at various Louisiana colleges, and during his career as an academic he was valued on the faculty party circuit for his wit. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army, after receiving a promotion, he used his private office to begin writing A Confederacy of Dunces, which he finished at his parents home after his discharge. Dunces is a novel featuring the misadventures of protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly. It is hailed for its depictions of New Orleans dialects. Toole based Reilly in part on his college professor friend Bob Byrne, byrnes slovenly, eccentric behavior was anything but professorial, and Reilly mirrored him in these respects. The character was based on Toole himself, and several personal experiences served as inspiration for passages in the novel. While at Tulane, Toole filled in for a friend at a job as a hot tamale cart vendor, both of these experiences were later adopted into his fiction. Toole submitted Dunces to publisher Simon & Schuster, where it reached noted editor Robert Gottlieb, Gottlieb considered Toole talented but felt his comic novel was essentially pointless. Despite several revisions, Gottlieb remained unsatisfied, and after the book was rejected by another literary figure, suffering from depression and feelings of persecution, Toole left home on a journey around the country. He stopped in Biloxi, Mississippi, to end his life by running a garden hose in from the exhaust of his car to the cabin. Some years later, his mother brought the manuscript of Dunces to the attention of novelist Walker Percy, in 1981, Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
11.
Astoria, Queens
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Astoria is a middle-class and commercial neighborhood with a population of 78,793 in the northwestern corner of the New York City borough of Queens. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods, Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Woodside, Astoria is patrolled by the New York City Police Departments 114th Precinct. The area now known as Astoria was originally called Halletts Cove, after its first landowner William Hallett, beginning in the early 19th century, affluent New Yorkers constructed large residences around 12th and 14th streets, an area that later became known as Astoria Village. Halletts Cove, incorporated on April 12,1839 and previously founded by fur merchant Stephen A. Halsey, was a recreational destination. The area was renamed for John Jacob Astor, then the wealthiest man in America with a net worth of over $40 million and he only invested $500, but the name stayed nonetheless, as a bitter battle over naming the village finally was won by Astors supporters and friends. From Astors summer home in Hell Gate, Manhattan—on what is now East 87th Street near York Avenue—he could see across the East River the new Long Island village named in his honor, Astor, however, never actually set foot in Astoria. During the second half of the 19th century, economic and commercial growth brought increased immigration from German settlers, mostly furniture and cabinet makers. One such settler was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, patriarch of the Steinway family who founded the piano company Steinway & Sons in 1853, later on the Steinways built a sawmill and foundry, as well as a streetcar line. The family eventually established Steinway Village for their workers, a town that provided school instruction in German as well as English. Astoria and several surrounding villages, including Steinway, were incorporated into Long Island City in 1870. Long Island City remained an independent municipality until it was incorporated into New York City in 1898, the areas farms were turned into housing tracts and street grids to accommodate the growing number of residents. Astoria also figured prominently in early American filmmaking as one of its initial centers and that heritage is preserved today by the Museum of the Moving Image and Kaufman Astoria Studios. Today, much of the Astoria waterfront is being redeveloped and underutilized industrial sites in historic neighborhoods are being revived. The development will include new waterfront parks, a supermarket, retail shops and restaurants. These waterfront projects were designed by a New York architectural firm, in conjunction with private developers, city agencies and landscape architects. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Astoria was 78,793, covering an area of 902.94 acres, the neighborhood had a population density of 87.3 inhabitants per acre. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 49. 2% White,4. 5% African American,0. 2% Native American,16. 2% Asian,0. 0% Pacific Islander,1. 2% from other races, and 2. 2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26. 5% of the population, Astoria was first settled by the Dutch and Germans in the 17th century
12.
Louisiana Purchase
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The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U. S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs, the Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U. S. states and two Canadian provinces. Its non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were African slaves, the Kingdom of France controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. Napoleon in 1800, hoping to re-establish an empire in North America, however, Frances failure to put down the revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States. The Americans originally sought to purchase only the city of New Orleans and its adjacent coastal lands. The Louisiana Purchase occurred during the term of the third President of the United States, before the purchase was finalized, the decision faced Federalist Party opposition, they argued that it was unconstitutional to acquire any territory. Constitution did not contain provisions for acquiring territory, but he asserted that his constitutional power to negotiate treaties was sufficient. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, Louisiana was a pawn on the chessboard of European politics and it was controlled by the French, who had a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. Following French defeat in the Seven Years War, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi, the United States controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi to the sea, as the lands were being gradually settled by a few American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired piece by piece. The risk of power taking it from a weakened Spain made a profound reconsideration of this policy necessary. New Orleans was already important for shipping goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Pinckneys Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27,1795, gave American merchants right of deposit in New Orleans, Americans used this right to transport products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, and cheese. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, in 1798 Spain revoked this treaty, prohibiting American use of New Orleans, and greatly upsetting the Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo, Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, but the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30,1803, another ceremony was held in St. Louis a few months later, in part because during winter conditions the news of the New Orleans formalities did not reach Upper Louisiana. The March 9–10,1804, event is remembered as Three Flags Day, James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston had traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans in January 1803. Their instructions were to negotiate or purchase control of New Orleans and its environs, the Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest territorial gain in U. S. history
