1.
Hunter College
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Hunter College, located in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, an American public university. The College offers studies in more than an undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also administers Hunter College High School and Hunter College Elementary School, Hunter was founded in 1870 as a womens college. The main campus has been located on Park Avenue since 1873, in 2012, Hunter announced a partnership with Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center and plans to develop a shared health-science campus on East 74th Street. The college is the one in the nation whose roster of alumni includes two female Nobel laureates in medicine. Hunter College has its origins in the 19th-century movement for normal school training which swept across the United States, Hunter descends from the Female Normal and High School, established in New York City in 1870. Founded by Irish immigrant Thomas Hunter, who was president of the school during the first 37 years, it was originally a womens college for training teachers. The school, which was housed in an armory and saddle store at Broadway and East Fourth Street in Manhattan, was open to all qualified women, irrespective of race, at the time most womens colleges had racial or ethno-religious admissions criteria. Created by the New York State Legislature, Hunter was deemed the only approved institution for those seeking to teach in New York City, the school incorporated an elementary and high school for gifted children, where students practiced teaching. In 1887, a kindergarten was established as well, the first female professor at the school, Helen Gray Cone, was elected to the position in 1899. The hall was designed by the architect Snyder. In 1888 the school was incorporated as a college under the statutes of New York State, after 1902 when the Normal course of study was abolished, the Academic course became standard across the student body. In 1914 the Normal College became Hunter College in honor of its first president, at the same time, the college was experiencing a period of great expansion as increasing student enrollments necessitated more space. The college reacted by establishing branches in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, by 1920, Hunter College had the largest enrollment of women of any municipally financed college in the United States. In 1930, Hunters Brooklyn campus merged with City Colleges Brooklyn campus, between 1938 and 1939 the garden at Park Avenue was given up for the construction of the north building. The expansion also destroyed a part of the neo-gothic original structure. Only the back part facing Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th street remain from the original building, the late 1930s saw the construction of Hunter College in the Bronx. During the Second World War, Hunter leased the Bronx Campus buildings to the United States Navy who used the facilities to train 95,000 women volunteers for service as WAVES
2.
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
3.
Gold (color)
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Gold, also called golden, is one of a variety of yellow-orange color blends used to give the impression of the color of the element gold. The web color gold is sometimes referred to as golden to distinguish it from the metallic gold. The use of gold as a term in traditional usage is more often applied to the color metallic gold. The first recorded use of golden as a name in English was in 1300 to refer to the element gold. Metallic gold, such as in paint, is often called goldtone or gold-tone, in heraldry, the French word or is used. In model building, the gold is different from brass. A shiny or metallic silvertone object can be painted with transparent yellow to obtain goldtone, at right is displayed a representation of the color metallic gold which is a simulation of the color of the actual metallic element gold itself—gold shade. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the color metallic gold as A light olive-brown to dark yellow, or a moderate, of course, the visual sensation usually associated with the metal gold is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the materials reflective brightness varying with the surfaces angle to the light source. Especially in sacral art in Christian churches, real gold was used for rendering gold in paintings, Gold can also be woven into sheets of silk to give an East Asian traditional look. Old gold is a yellow, which varies from heavy olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow. The widely accepted color old gold is on the rather than the lighter side of this range. The first recorded use of old gold as a name in English was in the early 19th century. The Delta Sigma Pi fraternity, founded in November 7,1907, official colors are designated royal purple, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternitys colors are garnet and old gold. Old gold is one of two colors of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, maroon and old gold are the colors of Texas State Universitys intercollegiate sports teams. Old Gold and black are the colors of Purdue University Boilermakers intercollegiate sports teams. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets wear white and old gold, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, UCF Knights, and Vanderbilt Commodores wear old gold and black. The New Orleans Saints list their official team colors as black, old gold, Golden yellow is the color halfway between amber and yellow on the RGB color wheel
4.
Sphinx
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A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion and it is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such stories, as they are killed. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus, unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man. In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a revival during the Renaissance. Sphinxes are generally associated with structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The oldest known sphinx was found near Gobekli Tepe at another site, Nevali Çori, or possibly 120 miles to the east at Kortik Tepe, Turkey, and was dated to 9,500 BCE. The largest and most famous sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza, situated on the Giza Plateau adjacent to the Great Pyramids of Giza on the west bank of the Nile River, the sphinx is located southeast of the pyramids. Although the date of its construction is uncertain, the head of the Great Sphinx now is believed to be that of the pharaoh Khafra, what names their builders gave to these statues is not known. At the Great Sphinx site, a 1400 BCE inscription on a stele belonging to the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose IV lists the names of three aspects of the sun deity of that period, Khepera–Rê–Atum. The theme was expanded to form great avenues of guardian sphinxes lining the approaches to tombs, nine hundred with ram heads, representing Amon, were built in Thebes, where his cult was strongest. Perhaps the first sphinx in Egypt was one depicting Queen Hetepheres II and she was one of the longest-lived members of the royal family of that dynasty. The Great Sphinx has become an emblem of Egypt, frequently appearing on its stamps, coins, from the Bronze Age, the Hellenes had trade and cultural contacts with Egypt. Before the time that Alexander the Great occupied Egypt, the Greek name, the historians and geographers of Greece wrote extensively about Egyptian culture. Herodotus called the ram-headed sphinxes Criosphinxes and called the hawk-headed ones Hieracosphinxes, the word sphinx comes from the Greek Σφίγξ, apparently from the verb σφίγγω, meaning to squeeze, to tighten up. This name may be derived from the fact that the hunters for a pride of lions are the lionesses, There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Orthrus and either Echidna or the Chimera, or perhaps even Ceto, according to others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are figures from the earliest of Greek myths
5.
Rosa 'American Beauty'
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American Beauty is a deep pink rose cultivar, bred by Henri Lédéchaux in France in 1875, and was originally named Madame Ferdinand Jamin. The hybrid perpetual has cup-shaped flowers with a brilliant crimson colour and up to 50 petals, the buds are thick and globular and open to strongly scented, hybrid tea-like flowers with a diameter of 11 cm. They appear in flushes over a period, but according to the RHS Encyclopedia of Roses. The height of the upright, vigorous shrub ranges between 90 and 200 centimetres at a width of 90 to 125 centimetres. American Beauty has prickly shoots, dark foliage and is winter hardy up to -29 °C. It is well suited as cut flower, and can be grown in greenhouses, in containers or as garden rose, in 1875 it was brought to the United States by George Valentine Nash. It was introduced as a new rose cultivar named American Beauty by Bancroft and Field Bros in 1886, in 1888, Bassett & Washburn first introduced the rose to other florists for purchase. It became a famous greenhouse variety and was the best selling rose cultivar in the United States until the 1920s, due to its high price per stem and its popularity, the cultivar was called the million-dollar rose. Its popularity remained focused on the United States, while it is rarely cultivated in other countries. The flower is commemorated in the Joseph Lamb ragtime composition American Beauty Rag and it makes repeated appearances in the 1999 film American Beauty. It was also featured on the cover of the Grateful Dead album American Beauty, American Beauty is the official flower of the District of Columbia. It was further adopted as the symbol of the upscale Lord & Taylor store chain in 1943
6.
Sapphire
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Sapphire is a gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide. It is typically blue in color, but natural fancy sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, the only color which sapphire cannot be is red - as red colored corundum is called ruby, another corundum variety. This variety in color is due to amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, copper. Commonly, natural sapphires are cut and polished into gemstones and worn in jewelry and they also may be created synthetically in laboratories for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boules. Sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the 45th anniversary, a sapphire jubilee occurs after 65 years. Sapphire is one of the two gem-varieties of corundum, the other being ruby, although blue is the best-known sapphire color, they occur in other colors, including gray and black, and they can be colorless. A a pinkish orange variety of sapphire is called padparadscha, significant sapphire deposits are found in Eastern Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, Madagascar, East Africa, and in North America in a few locations, mostly in Montana. Sapphire and rubies are often found in the geological setting. Every sapphire mine produces a range of quality - and origin is not a guarantee of quality. For sapphire, Kashmir receives the highest premium although Burma, Sri Lanka, the cost of natural sapphires varies depending on their color, clarity, size, cut, and overall quality. For gems of exceptional quality, an independent determination from a respected laboratory such as the GIA, gemstone color can be described in terms of hue, saturation, and tone. Hue is commonly understood as the color of the gemstone, saturation refers to the vividness or brightness of the hue, and tone is the lightness to darkness of the hue. Blue sapphire exists in various mixtures of its primary and secondary hues, various tonal levels, blue sapphires are evaluated based upon the purity of their primary hue. Purple, violet, and green are the most common secondary hues found in blue sapphires, violet and purple can contribute to the overall beauty of the color, while green is considered to be distinctly negative. Blue sapphires with up to 15% violet or purple are generally said to be of fine quality, gray is the normal saturation modifier or mask found in blue sapphires. Gray reduces the saturation or brightness of the hue, and therefore has a negative effect. The 423-carat Logan sapphire in the National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, sapphires in colors other than blue are called fancy or parti colored sapphires. Fancy sapphires are found in yellow, orange, green sapphires, brown, purple
7.
Fraternities and sororities
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Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities. A form of the fraternity, they are prominent in the United States, and the Philippines, with smaller numbers existing in France, the United Kingdom, Canada. Similar organizations exist in countries as well, including the Studentenverbindungen of German-speaking countries. Similar, but much less common, organizations also exist for secondary school students, in modern usage, the term Greek letter organization is often synonymous with the terms fraternity and sorority. Traditional fraternities of the type described in this article are often called social fraternities, generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained while an undergraduate student but continues, thereafter, for life. Some of these organizations can accept graduate students as well as undergraduates, the first fraternity in North America to incorporate most of the elements of modern fraternities was Phi Beta Kappa, founded at the College of William and Mary in 1775. The founding of Phi Beta Kappa followed the establishment of two other secret student societies that had existed at that campus as early as 1750. In 1779 Phi Beta Kappa expanded to include chapters at Harvard, by the early 19th century, the organization transformed itself into a scholastic honor society and abandoned secrecy. In 1825 Kappa Alpha Society, the oldest extant fraternity to retain its characteristic, was established at Union College. In 1827, Sigma Phi and Delta Phi were also founded at the same institution, the foundation of this triad established Union College as the Mother of Fraternities. Fraternities represented the intersection between dining clubs, literary societies, and secret initiatory orders such as Freemasonry, as fraternity membership was punishable by expulsion at many colleges at this time, the house was located deep in the woods. The first residential home to be built by a fraternity is believed to have been Alpha Delta Phis chapter at Cornell. Alpha Tau Omega became the first fraternity to own a house in the South when, in 1880. Chapters of many fraternities followed suit, purchasing and less often, Phi Sigma Kappas chapter home at Cornell, completed in 1902, is the oldest such house still occupied by its fraternal builders. The term sorority was invented by a professor of Latin who felt the word fraternity was inappropriate for a group of ladies, the first organization to use the term sorority was Gamma Phi Beta, established in 1874. The development of fraternities for women during this time was an accomplishment in the way of womens rights. By mere existence these organizations were defying the odds, the women were able to advance their organizations despite many factors working against them. Today both social and multicultural sororities are present on more than 650 college campuses across the United States, the National Panhellenic Conference serves as the umbrella organization for 26 national sororities, representing over 4 million women at both the collegiate level and in alumni associations
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
