1972 United States presidential election
The 1972 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. Nixon swept aside challenges from two Republican congressmen in the 1972 Republican primaries to win re-nomination. McGovern, who had played a significant role in reforming the Democratic nomination system after the 1968 election, mobilized the anti-war movement and other liberal supporters to win his party's nomination. Among the candidates he defeated were early front-runner Edmund Muskie, 1968 nominee Hubert Humphrey, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American to run for a major party's presidential nomination. Nixon emphasized the strong economy and his success in foreign affairs, while McGovern ran on a platform calling for an immediate end to the Vietnam War, the institution of a guaranteed minimum income. Nixon maintained a consistent lead in polling.
Separately, Nixon's reelection committee broke into the Watergate Hotel to wiretap the Democratic National Committee's headquarters, a scandal that would be known as "Watergate". McGovern's campaign was further damaged by the revelation that his running mate, Thomas Eagleton, had undergone psychiatric electroshock therapy as a treatment for depression. Eagleton was replaced on the ballot by Sargent Shriver. Nixon won the election in a landslide, taking 60.7% of the popular vote and carrying 49 states, he was the first Republican to sweep the South. McGovern took just 37.5% of the popular vote, while John G. Schmitz of the American Independent Party won 1.4% of the vote. Nixon received 18 million more votes than McGovern, he holds the record for the widest popular vote margin in any United States presidential election; the 1972 presidential election was the first since the ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Within two years of the election, both Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned from office, the former due to Watergate and the latter to a separate corruption charge, Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford.
Overall, fifteen people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were: George McGovern, Senator from South Dakota Hubert Humphrey, Senator from Minnesota and former Vice President, presidential nominee in 1968 George Wallace, Governor of Alabama Edmund Muskie, Senator from Maine, vice presidential nominee in 1968 Eugene J. McCarthy, former Senator from Minnesota Henry M. Jackson, Senator from Washington Shirley Chisholm, Representative of New York's 12th congressional district Terry Sanford, former Governor of North Carolina John Lindsay, Mayor of New York City, New York Wilbur Mills, Representative of Arkansas's 2nd congressional district Vance Hartke, Senator from Indiana Fred Harris, Senator from Oklahoma Sam Yorty, Mayor of Los Angeles, California Patsy Mink, Representative of Hawaii's 2nd congressional district Walter Fauntroy, Delegate from Washington, D. C. Reubin Askew, former Governor of Florida Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of late President John F. Kennedy and late United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was the favorite to win the 1972 nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate.
The favorite for the Democratic nomination became Senator Ed Muskie, the 1968 vice-presidential nominee. Muskie's momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the so-called "Canuck letter" was published in the Manchester Union-Leader; the letter a forgery from Nixon's "dirty tricks" unit, claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians – a remark to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern New England. Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife Jane, reporting that she drank and used off-color language during the campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper's offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were melted snowflakes, the press reported that Muskie broke down and cried, shattering the candidate's image as calm and reasoned. Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered the race as an anti-war, progressive candidate.
McGovern was able to pull together support from the anti-war movement and other grassroots support to win the nomination in a primary system he had played a significant part in designing. On January 25, 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm announced she would run, became the first African-American woman to run for the Democratic or Republican presidential nomination. Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink announced she would run and became the first Asian American to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary. Two days journalist Robert Novak quoted a "Democratic senator" revealed to be Thomas Eagleton as saying: "The people don't know McGovern is for amnesty and legalization of pot. Once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he's dead." The label stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty and acid". It became Humphrey's battle cry to stop McGovern—especially in the Nebraska primary.
Alabama Governor George Wallace, an anti-integrationist, did well in the South and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the North. What might have become a forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was left paralyzed from the waist down; the day
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is a city located in Hamilton County, southeastern Tennessee, along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia. With an estimated population of 179,139 in 2017, it is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. Served by multiple railroads and Interstate highways, Chattanooga is a transit hub. Chattanooga lies 118 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, 112 miles southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, 134 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, 102 miles east-northeast of Huntsville, 147 miles northeast of Birmingham, Alabama; the city, with a downtown elevation of 680 feet, lies at the transition between the ridge-and-valley portion of the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau. Surrounded by mountains and ridges, the official nickname for Chattanooga is "Scenic City", reinforced by the city's reputation for outdoor activities. Unofficial nicknames include "River City", "Chatt", "Nooga", "Chattown", "Gig City", referencing Chattanooga's claims that it has the fastest internet service in the Western Hemisphere.
Chattanooga is internationally known for the 1941 song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Chattanooga is home to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Chattanooga State Community College; the city has its own typeface, launched in August 2012. According to the Nooga.com website, this marks the first time that an American city has its own custom-made typeface and the first time a crowd-funded custom-made typeface has been used for any municipality in the world. The first inhabitants of the Chattanooga area were Native Americans. Sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period show continuous human occupation through the Archaic, Mississippian/Muskogean/Yuchi, Cherokee periods; the Chickamauga Mound near the mouth of the Chickamauga Creek is the oldest remaining visible art in Chattanooga. The Citico town and mound site was the most significant Mississippian/Muscogee landmark in Chattanooga up to 1915; the first part of the name "Chattanooga" derives from the Muskogean word cvto /chắtȯ/ –'rock'.
The latter may be derived from a regional suffix - dwelling place. The earliest Cherokee occupation of the area dates from 1776, when Dragging Canoe separated himself from the main tribe to establish resistance to European settlement during the Cherokee–American wars. In 1816 John Ross, who became Principal Chief, established Ross's Landing. Located along what is now Broad Street, it became one of the centers of Cherokee Nation settlement, which extended into Georgia and Alabama. In 1838, the U. S. government forced the Cherokees, along with other Native Americans, to relocate to the area designated as Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Their journey west became known as the "Trail of Tears" for their exile and fatalities along the way; the U. S. Army used Ross's Landing as the site of one of three large internment camps, or "emigration depots", where Native Americans were held before the journey on the Trail of Tears. In 1839, the community of Ross's Landing incorporated as the city of Chattanooga.
The city grew initially benefiting from a location well-suited for river commerce. With the arrival of the railroad in 1850, Chattanooga became a boom town; the city was known as the site "where cotton meets corn," referring to its location along the cultural boundary between the mountain communities of southern Appalachia and the cotton-growing states to the south. During the American Civil War, Chattanooga was a center of battle. During the Chickamauga Campaign, Union artillery bombarded Chattanooga as a diversion and occupied it on September 9, 1863. Following the Battle of Chickamauga, the defeated Union Army retreated to safety in Chattanooga. On November 23, 1863, the Battles for Chattanooga began when Union forces led by Major General Ulysses S. Grant reinforced troops at Chattanooga and advanced to Orchard Knob against Confederate troops besieging the city; the next day, the Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought. On November 25, Grant's army routed the Confederates in the Battle of Missionary Ridge.
These battles were followed the next spring by the Atlanta Campaign, beginning just over the nearby state line in Georgia and moving southeastward. After the war ended, the city became industrial and manufacturing center; the largest flood in Chattanooga's history occurred in 1867, before the Tennessee Valley Authority system was created in 1933 by Congress. The flood crested at 58 feet and inundated the city. Since the completion of the reservoir system, the highest Chattanooga flood stage has been nearly 37 feet, which occurred in 1973. Without regulation, the flood would have crested at 52.4 feet. Chattanooga was a major priority in the design of the TVA reservoir system and remains a major operating priority in the 21st century. In December 1906, Chattanooga was in the national headlines in United States v. Shipp, as the United States Supreme Court, in the only criminal trial in its history, ruled that Hamilton County Sheriff Joseph H. Shipp had violated Ed Johnson's civil rights when Shipp allowed a mob to enter the Hamilton County jail and lynch Johnson on the Walnut Street Bridge.
Chattanooga grew with the entry of the United States in the First World War in 1917, as the nearest training camp was in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Effects of the Influenza of 1918 on Chattanooga included having movie theaters and pool halls closed. By the 1930s, Chattanooga was known as the "Dynamo of Dixie", inspiring the 1941 Glenn Miller big-band
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the state capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Ohio. With a population of 879,170 as of 2017 estimates, it is the 14th-most populous city in the United States and one of the fastest growing large cities in the nation; this makes Columbus the third-most populous state capital in the US and the second-most populous city in the Midwest. It is the core city of the Columbus, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses ten counties. With a population of 2,078,725, it is Ohio's second-largest metropolitan area. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County; the municipality has annexed portions of adjoining Delaware and Fairfield counties. Named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, assumed the functions of state capital in 1816; the city has a diverse economy based on education, insurance, defense, food, logistics, energy, medical research, health care, hospitality and technology.
Columbus Region is home to the Battelle Memorial Institute, the world's largest private research and development foundation. As of 2018 the city has the headquarters of four corporations in the U. S. Fortune 500: American Electric Power, Cardinal Health, L Brands and Big Lots, just out of the top 500. In 2016, Money Magazine ranked Columbus as one of "The 6 Best Big Cities", calling it the best in the Midwest, citing a educated workforce and excellent wage growth. In 2012, Columbus was ranked in BusinessWeek's 50 best cities in the United States. In 2013, Forbes gave Columbus an "A" grade as one of the top cities for business in the U. S. and that year included the city on its list of Best Places for Business and Careers. Columbus was ranked as the No. 1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation by Forbes in 2008, the city was ranked a top-ten city by Relocate America in 2010. In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no. 3 in the U. S. for cities of the future, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no. 1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide.
The area including modern-day Columbus once comprised the Ohio Country, under the nominal control of the French colonial empire through the Viceroyalty of New France from 1663 until 1763. In the 18th century, European traders flocked to the area, attracted by the fur trade; the area found itself caught between warring factions, including American Indian and European interests. In the 1740s, Pennsylvania traders overran the territory. In the early 1750s, the Ohio Company sent George Washington to the Ohio Country to survey. Fighting for control of the territory in the French and Indian War became part of the international Seven Years' War. During this period, the region suffered turmoil and battles; the 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the Ohio Country to the British Empire. After the American Revolution, the Virginia Military District became part of Ohio Country as a territory of Virginia. Colonists from the East Coast moved in, but rather than finding an empty frontier, they encountered people of the Miami, Wyandot and Mingo nations, as well as European traders.
The tribes resisted expansion by the fledgling United States. The decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, which opened the way for new settlements. By 1797, a young surveyor from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant had founded a permanent settlement on the west bank of the forks of the Scioto River and Olentangy River. An admirer of Benjamin Franklin, Sullivant chose to name his frontier village "Franklinton"; the location was desirable for its proximity to navigable rivers—but Sullivant was foiled when, in 1798, a large flood wiped out the new settlement. He persevered, the village was rebuilt. After Ohio achieved statehood in 1803, political infighting among prominent Ohio leaders led to the state capital moving from Chillicothe to Zanesville and back again. Desiring to settle on a location, the state legislature considered Franklinton, Dublin and Delaware before compromising on a plan to build a new city in the state's center, near major transportation routes rivers.
Named in honor of Christopher Columbus, the city was founded on February 14, 1812, on the "High Banks opposite Franklinton at the Forks of the Scioto most known as Wolf's Ridge." At the time, this area was a dense forestland, used only as a hunting ground. The "Burough of Columbus" was established on February 10, 1816. Nine people were elected to fill the various positions of Mayor and several others. In 1816-1817, Jarvis W. Pike would serve as the 1st Mayor. Although the recent War of 1812 had brought prosperity to the area, the subsequent recession and conflicting claims to the land threatened the new town's success. Early conditions were abysmal with frequent bouts of fevers and an outbreak of cholera in 1833; the National Road reached Columbus from Baltimore in 1831, which complemented the city's new link to the Ohio and Erie Canal and facilitated a population boom. A wave of European immigrants led to the creation of two ethnic enclaves on the city's outskirts. A large Irish population settled in the north along Naghten Street, while the Germans took advantage of the cheap land to the south, creating a community that came to be known as t
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's major newspapers and is owned by WEHCO Media, Inc. a diversified communications company with ownership in 14 daily newspapers, 11 weekly newspapers and 13 cable television companies in six states. The current president of the Chattanooga Times Free Press is Jeff DeLoach; the Chattanooga Times was first published on December 1869 by the firm Kirby & Gamble. In 1878, 20-year-old Adolph Ochs borrowed money and bought half interest in the struggling morning paper. Two years when he assumed full ownership, it cost him $5,500. In 1892, the paper's staff moved to the Ochs Building on Georgia Avenue at East Eighth Street, now the Dome Building. In 1896, Ochs entrusted the management of the paper to his brother-in-law Harry C. Adler when he purchased The New York Times. Ochs remained publisher of the Chattanooga Times.
Ochs' slogan, "To give the news impartially, without fear or favor" remains affixed atop the paper's mast today. The Times was controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family until 1999. In 1933, Roy Ketner McDonald launched a free Thursday tabloid, delivered door to door, featuring stories and advertisements for his stores. Three years circulation had hit 65,000 per week, making some ad revenue. On August 31 the paper began publishing as an evening daily with paid subscriptions. One year the Free Press circulation reached 33,000, within reach of another p.m. competitor, the Chattanooga News. McDonald bought the Chattanooga News from owner George Fort Milton in December 1939. Out of respect for Milton, McDonald put the News first in the merged name "News-Free Press". In their guide to writing, The Elements of Style and White used the paper as an illustration of comically misleading punctuation, noting that the hyphen made it sound "as though the paper were news-free, or devoid of news." By 1941, News-Free Press daily circulation reached 51,600, surpassing the Times, with 50,078.
In competition, the Times began the Chattanooga Evening Times. One year however, the competing newspapers joined business and production operations, while maintaining separate news and editorial departments; the Times ceased publishing in the evening and the News-Free Press dropped its Sunday edition. The two shared offices at 117 E. 10th St. Twenty-four years McDonald withdrew from the agreement, he bought the Davenport Hosiery Mills building at 400 E. 11th St. in 1966, competition resumed between the two papers. The News-Free Press was the first paper in the nation to dissolve a joint operating agreement; that August, the day after the News-Free Press resumed Sunday publication, the Times responded with an evening newspaper: the Chattanooga Post. The following year, the Post ceased publication; the News-Free Press gave Chattanooga its first full-color newspaper photos. Each newspaper won a single Pulitzer Prize. In 1956, Charles L. Bartlett of the Washington Bureau of The Chattanooga Times won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, for articles leading to the resignation of the secretary of the Air Force, Harold E. Talbott.
In 1977, staff photographer Robin Hood of the Chattanooga News-Free Press received the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. The photo was of legless Vietnam veteran Eddie Robinson in his wheelchair watching a rained-out parade in Chattanooga with his tiny son on his lap; when business declined for the News-Free Press, 14 employees mortgaged their homes to help keep the newspaper afloat. In the late 1970s, Walter E. Hussman, Jr. the 31-year-old publisher of the Arkansas Democrat, approached McDonald for counsel regarding a bitter struggle with the Arkansas Gazette. In 1980, the Times and the News-Free Press entered into a new joint operating agreement. In 1990, after leading the paper for 54 years, McDonald died at age 88. Three years the paper returned to its original name: the Chattanooga Free Press. In 1998, Hussman bought the Free Press. A year he bought the Times as well and merged the two papers; the first edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press was published on January 5, 1999. The Times Free Press runs two editorial pages, one staunchly liberal, the other staunchly conservative, reflecting the editorial leanings of the Times and Free Press, respectively.
The Tennessee Press Association recognized the Times Free Press as the best newspaper in Tennessee in 2002. One year Editor and Publisher magazine named the Times Free Press as one of 10 newspapers in the United States "doing it right"; the newspaper has subscribers in northern Georgia. On Monday, April 14, 2014 the Chattanooga Times Free Press was named a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting for "Speak No Evil." In 2017, the newspaper was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for "The Poverty Puzzle." When the Chattanooga Times Free Press launched its website in 2004, the site was only accessible to paid subscribers and featured only a handful of section pages and links. Four years in early 2008, the redesigned online presence of timesfreepress.com debuted, with an emphasis on breaking news and multimedia. The site features all local content in the paper, an online edition of the news product, classified ads, as well. In late 2010 the newspaper launched "Right 2 Know", an online database of police mugshots, salaries of government employees, a map of shootings in Hamilton County.
The Times Free Press is responsible for several other niche publications: Chatter – a monthly magazine launched in 2008 with feature stories from around the area "Ge
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is a city located in the north central region of the U. S. state of Alabama. With an estimated 2017 population of 210,710, it is the most populous city in Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Alabama's most populous and fifth largest county; as of 2017, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 1,149,807, making it the most populous in Alabama and 49th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South and Appalachian regions of the nation. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, most notably Elyton; the new city was named for Birmingham, the UK's second largest city and, at the time, a major industrial city. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry, rail transport. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry.
The city was developed as a place where cheap, non-unionized immigrant labor, along with African-American labor from rural Alabama, could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over unionized industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the southern United States, its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned it nicknames such as "The Magic City" and "The Pittsburgh of the South". Its major industries were steel production. Major components of the railroad industry and railroad cars, were manufactured in Birmingham. Since the 1860s, the two primary hubs of railroading in the "Deep South" have been Birmingham and Atlanta; the economy diversified in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, insurance have become major economic activities. Birmingham ranks as one of the largest banking centers in the U.
S. Also, it is among the most important business centers in the Southeast. In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine and the University of Alabama School of Dentistry since 1947. In 1969 it gained the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System, it is home to three private institutions: Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, Miles College. The Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, optometry, physical therapy, law and nursing; the city has three of the state's five law schools: Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, Miles Law School. Birmingham is the headquarters of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Southeastern Conference, one of the major U. S. collegiate athletic conferences. Birmingham was founded on June 1, 1871, by the Elyton Land Company, whose investors included cotton planters and railroad entrepreneurs, it sold lots near the planned crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads, including land, a part of the Benjamin P. Worthington plantation.
The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre and Allen. The site of the railroad crossing was notable for its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore and limestone – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity. From the start the new city was planned as a center of industry; the city's founders, organized as the Elyton Land Company, named it in honor of Birmingham, one of the world's premier industrial cities, to emphasize that point. The growth of the planned city was impeded by an outbreak of cholera and a Wall Street crash in 1873. Soon afterward, however, it began to develop at an explosive rate; the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company became the leading steel producer in the South by 1892. In 1907 U. S. Steel became the most important political and economic force in Birmingham, it resisted new industry, however. In 1911, the town of Elyton and several other surrounding towns were absorbed into Birmingham.
From the early 20th century, the city grew so it earned the sobriquet "The Magic City". The downtown was redeveloped from a low-rise commercial and residential district into a busy grid of neoclassical mid- and high-rise buildings crisscrossed by streetcar lines. Between 1902 and 1912, four large office buildings were constructed at the intersection of 20th Street, the central north-south spine of the city, 1st Avenue North, which connected the warehouses and industrial facilities along the east-west railroad corridor; this early group of skyscrapers was nicknamed the "Heaviest Corner on Earth". Birmingham was hit by the 1916 Irondale earthquake. A few buildings in the area were damaged; the earthquake was felt as far as Atlanta and neighboring states. While excluded from the best-paying industrial jobs, African Americans joined the migration of residents from rural areas to the city, drawn by economic opportunity; the Great Depression of the 1930s struck Birmingham hard, as the sources of capital fueling the city's growth dried up at the same time farm laborers, driven off the land, made their way to the city in search of work.
Hundreds poured into many riding in empty boxcars. "Hobo jungles" were established in Boyles, the Twenty-fourth Street Viaduct, G
Las Vegas
Las Vegas the City of Las Vegas and known as Vegas, is the 28th-most populated city in the United States, the most populated city in the state of Nevada, the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known for its gambling, fine dining and nightlife; the Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for its mega casino–hotels and associated activities, it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations; the city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, television programs, music videos.
Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century. Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, according to a 2018 estimate, the population is 648,224 with a regional population of 2,227,053; as with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city is used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this applies to the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, located within the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester; the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago. A young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829.
Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, California in 1829. The area was named Las Vegas, Spanish for "the meadows," as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as the desert spring waters needed by westward travelers; the year 1844 marked the arrival of John C. Frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont Street is named after him. Eleven years members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies; the fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city. 1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas.
At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This year witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam; the influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935. In 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the aerobatic team called the Thunderbirds. Following World War II, lavishly decorated hotels, gambling casinos, big-name entertainment became synonymous with Las Vegas. In the 1950s the Moulin Rouge opened and became the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas. In 1951, nuclear weapons testing began at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. During this time the city was nicknamed the "Atomic City". Residents and visitors were able to witness the mushroom clouds until 1963, when the limited Test Ban Treaty required that nuclear tests be moved underground.
The iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, never located within municipal limits, was created in 1959 by Betty Willis. During the 1960s, corporations and business powerhouses such as Howard Hughes were building and buying hotel-casino properties. Gambling was referred to as "gaming"; the year 1995 marked the opening of the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas's downtown area. This canopied five-block area features 12.5 million LED lights and 550,000 watts of sound from dusk until midnight during shows held on the top of each hour. Due to the realization of many revitalization efforts, 2012 was dubbed "The Year of Downtown." Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of projects made their debut at this time. They included The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and DISCOVERY Children's Museum, Mob Museum, Neon Museum, a new City Hall complex and renovations for a new Zappos.com corporate headquarters in the old City Hall building. Las Vegas is situated within Clark County in a basin on the floor of the Mojave Desert and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides.
Much of the landscape is arid with desert vegetation and wildlife. It can be subjected to torrential flash floods, although much has been done to mitigate the effects of flash floods through improved drainage systems; the peaks surrounding Las Vegas reach elevations of o
Competition law
Competition law is a law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through private enforcement. Competition law is known as "antitrust law" in the United States for historical reasons, as "anti-monopoly law" in China and Russia. In previous years it has been known as trade practices law in Australia. In the European Union, it is referred to as both antitrust and competition law; the history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices of market traders and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, sometimes severe sanctions. Since the 20th century, competition law has become global; the two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States antitrust law and European Union competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks. Modern competition law has evolved on a country level to promote and maintain fair competition in markets principally within the territorial boundaries of nation-states.
National competition law does not cover activity beyond territorial borders unless it has significant effects at nation-state level. Countries may allow for extraterritorial jurisdiction in competition cases based on so-called effects doctrine; the protection of international competition is governed by international competition agreements. In 1945, during the negotiations preceding the adoption of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947, limited international competition obligations were proposed within the Charter for an International Trade Organisation; these obligations were not included in GATT, but in 1994, with the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of GATT Multilateral Negotiations, the World Trade Organization was created. The Agreement Establishing the WTO included a range of limited provisions on various cross-border competition issues on a sector specific basis. Competition law, or antitrust law, has three main elements: prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business.
This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels. Banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, price gouging, refusal to deal, many others. Supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to "remedies" such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing. Substance and practice of competition law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Protecting the interests of consumers and ensuring that entrepreneurs have an opportunity to compete in the market economy are treated as important objectives. Competition law is connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatization of state owned assets and the establishment of independent sector regulators, among other market-oriented supply-side policies.
In recent decades, competition law has been viewed as a way to provide better public services. Robert Bork argued that competition laws can produce adverse effects when they reduce competition by protecting inefficient competitors and when costs of legal intervention are greater than benefits for the consumers. An early example was enacted during the Roman Republic around 50 BC. To protect the grain trade, heavy fines were imposed on anyone directly and insidiously stopping supply ships. Under Diocletian in 301 A. D. an edict imposed the death penalty for anyone violating a tariff system, for example by buying up, concealing, or contriving the scarcity of everyday goods. More legislation came under the constitution of Zeno of 483 A. D. which can be traced into Florentine municipal laws of 1322 and 1325. This provided for confiscation of property and banishment for any trade combination or joint action of monopolies private or granted by the Emperor. Zeno rescinded all granted exclusive rights. Justinian I subsequently introduced legislation to pay officials to manage state monopolies.
Legislation in England to control monopolies and restrictive practices was in force well before the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book recorded that "foresteel" was one of three forfeitures that King Edward the Confessor could carry out through England, but concern for fair prices led to attempts to directly regulate the market. Under Henry III an act was passed in 1266 to fix bread and ale prices in correspondence with grain prices laid down by the assizes. Penalties for breach included amercements and tumbrel. A 14th century statute labelled forestallers as "oppressors of the poor and the community at large and enemies of the whole country". Under King Edward III the Statute of Labourers of 1349 fixed wages of artificers and workmen and decreed that foodstuffs should be sold at reasonable prices. On top of existing penalties, the statute stated that overcharging merchants must pay the injured party double the sum he received, an idea, replicated in punitive treble damages under US antitrust law.
Under Edward III, the following statutory provision outlawed trade combination.... We have ordained and established, that no merchant or other shall make Confederacy, Coin, Imagin
