1.
Market Street (Philadelphia)
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Market Street, originally known as High Street, is a major east–west street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is signed as Pennsylvania Route 3 between the 38th Street and 15th Street, the High Street was the familiar name of the principal street in nearly every English town at the time Philadelphia was founded. But if Philadelphia was indebted to England for the name of High Street, nearly every American town is, in turn, indebted to Philadelphia for its Market Street. Long before the city was out or settled, Philadelphias founder. The citys first market stalls were situated in the center of the thoroughfare starting at Front Street, the stalls soon became covered and were not taken down as planned. Later, additional covered sheds appeared west of Center Square as the city expanded westward, the street began to be called Market Street around 1800. The roads new name was official by an ordinance of 1858, ironically. Market Street has been called the most historic highway in the United States because of the historic sites along its eastern section. Many of Benjamin Franklins activities were centered along Market Street and his house was located near the intersection of Fourth Street, and he may have performed his famous kite-flying experiment near Third and Market Streets. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in a house once located at the Seventh Street intersection. The mansion of Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution, was located near Sixth and this house, known as the Presidents House, was used by George Washington and John Adams as their residence during their terms as President. Around 1795 Theophilus Cazenove lived at Market Street, several important finance and publishing firsts also occurred along Market Street between Second and Fourth Streets during the 18th century. Market Street is still one of the locations of business. Market Street runs from Millbourne to Front Street in Center City, at Front Street, a bridge over Interstate 95 brings traffic from Penns Landing, on the western bank of the Delaware River, onto westbound Market Street. Market Street runs one way, eastbound, between 20th Street and 15th Street, with traffic diverted onto JFK Boulevard. Market Street is interrupted between 15th Street and Juniper Street by Philadelphia City Hall, and technical does not intersect with Broad Street as a result, a pedestrian-only path continues Market Street across the City Hall block. Between 12th Street and roughly 20th Street, Market Street is heavily commercial, the street continues westward, crossing over the Schuylkill River via the Market Street Bridge, into and through University City and West Philadelphia. SEPTAs Market-Frankford Line runs along Market Street, as a subway east of 44th Street and as a line above Market Street
2.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
3.
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
4.
George Washington
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George Washington was an American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is popularly considered the driving force behind the nations establishment and came to be known as the father of the country, both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely admired for his leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. Washingtons incumbency established many precedents still in use today, such as the system, the inaugural address. His retirement from office two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment now limits the president to two elected terms and he was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became an officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, in that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776 but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause and his strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies, after victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation and he supported Alexander Hamiltons programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795 and he remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he largely supported its policies. Washingtons Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home, upon his death, Washington was eulogized as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia. He was revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history and he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, public works, currency, and other dedications to the present day. He was born on February 11,1731, according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22,1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave and his great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, Georges father Augustine
5.
John Adams
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John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States and the first Vice President. He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father and he was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor Abigail. He collaborated with his cousin, revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, Adams was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and acquired vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. Adams was the author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which influenced American political theory. Adamss credentials as a revolutionary secured for him two terms as President George Washingtons vice president and also his own election in 1796 as the second president. In his single term as president, he encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army, the major accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamiltons opposition. Due to his strong posture on defense, Adams is often called the father of the American Navy and he was the first U. S. president to reside in the executive mansion, now known as the White House. In 1800, Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts and he eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson upon the latters own retirement by initiating a correspondence which lasted fourteen years. He and his wife established a family of politicians, diplomats, Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He died on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Modern historians in the aggregate have favorably ranked his administration, John Adams was born on October 30,1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two brothers, Peter and Elihu. Adams birthplace was then in Braintree, Massachusetts, and is preserved at Adams National Historical Park, Adams mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregationalist deacon, a farmer, a cordwainer, the Deacon also served as a selectman and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship, though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt an acute responsibility to live up to his familys heritage of reverence. Journalist Richard Brookhiser wrote that Adams Puritan ancestors believed they lived in the Bible, England under the Stuarts was Egypt, they were Israel fleeing
6.
William Penn
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He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed, in 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his American land holdings to William Penn to appease the debts the king owed to Penns father. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware, Penn immediately set sail and took his first step on American soil in New Castle in 1682 after his trans-Atlantic journey. On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new proprietor, afterwards, Penn journeyed up the Delaware River and founded Philadelphia. However, Penns Quaker government was not viewed favourably by the Dutch, Swedish and they had no historical allegiance to Pennsylvania, so they almost immediately began petitioning for their own assembly. In 1704 they achieved their goal when the three southernmost counties of Pennsylvania were permitted to split off and become the new colony of Lower Delaware. As the most prominent, prosperous and influential city in the new colony, as one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution, as a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply. He developed a project for a United States of Europe through the creation of a European Assembly made of deputies that could discuss. He is therefore considered the very first thinker to suggest the creation of a European Parliament, a man of extreme religious convictions, Penn wrote numerous works in which he exhorted believers to adhere to the spirit of Primitive Christianity. He was imprisoned several times in the Tower of London due to his faith, and his book No Cross, No Crown, William Penn, Sr. served in the Commonwealth Navy during the English Civil War and was rewarded by Oliver Cromwell with estates in Ireland. The lands were seized from Irish Catholics in retaliation for the failed Irish Rebellion of 1641, Admiral Penn took part in the restoration of Charles II and was eventually knighted and served in the Royal Navy. At the time of his sons birth, Captain Penn was twenty-three, William Penn grew up during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, who succeeded in leading a Puritan rebellion against King Charles I, the king was beheaded when Penn was age 5. Penns father was often at sea, little William caught smallpox at a young age, losing all his hair, prompting his parents to move from the suburbs to an estate in Essex. The country life made an impression on young Penn. Penn was educated first at Chigwell School, by private tutors whilst in Ireland, at that time, there were no state schools and nearly all educational institutions were affiliated with the Anglican Church. Children from poor families had to have a sponsor to get an education. Penns education heavily leaned on the authors and no novelties or conceited modern writers were allowed including William Shakespeare
7.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
8.
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
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General William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC was a British Army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American War of Independence. Howe was one of three brothers who had distinguished military careers, having joined the army in 1746, Howe saw extensive service in the War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years War. Howe also participated in the campaigns to take Louisbourg, Belle Île and he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, a post he would hold until 1795. Howe was sent to North America in March 1775, arriving in May after the American War of Independence broke out. After leading British troops to a victory in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Howes record in North America was marked by the capture of both New York City and Philadelphia. However, poor British campaign planning for 1777 contributed to the failure of John Burgoynes Saratoga campaign, Howes role in developing those plans and the degree to which he was responsible for British failures that year have both been subjects of contemporary and historic debate. He resigned his post as Commander in Chief, North America, in 1778, and returned to England and he served for many years in Parliament, and was knighted after his successes in 1776. He inherited the Viscountcy of Howe upon the death of his brother Richard in 1799 and he married, but had no children, and the viscountcy was extinguished with his death in 1814. His mother was a regular in the courts of George II and this connection with the crown may have improved the careers of all four sons, but all were also very capable officers. His father was a politician, who served as Governor of Barbados where he died in 1735, williams eldest brother, General George Howe, was killed just before the 1758 Battle of Carillon at Fort Ticonderoga. Another brother, Admiral Richard Howe, rose to one of Britains leading naval commanders. A third brother, Thomas, commanded ships for the East India Company, Winchelsea in 1762–4 and Nottingham in 1766, William entered the army when he was 17 by buying a cornets commission in the Duke of Cumberlands Dragoons in 1746. He then served for two years in Flanders during the War of the Austrian Succession, after the war he was transferred to the 20th Regiment of Foot, where he became a friend of James Wolfe. During the Seven Years War Howes service first brought him to America and he joined the newly formed 58th Regiment of Foot in February 1757, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in December of that year. He commanded the regiment at the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 and this action won the attackers a flanking position and earned Howe a commendation from Wolfe. Howe commanded an infantry battalion under General Wolfe during the 1759 Siege of Quebec. Howe led a brigade in the 1761 Capture of Belle Île, off the French coast and he served as adjutant general of the force that captured Havana in 1762, playing a part in a skirmish at Guanabacoa
9.
Benedict Arnold
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Benedict Arnold was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fortifications at West Point, New York overlooking the cliffs at the Hudson River, the plan was exposed in September 1780, and he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general. Arnold was born in Connecticut and was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775 and he joined the growing army outside Boston and distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. Despite Arnolds successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress, adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts and found that he was indebted to Congress after having spent much of his own money on the war effort. Arnold was frustrated and bitter at this, as well as with the alliance with France and he decided to change sides and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he was awarded command of West Point and his scheme was to surrender the fort to the British, but it was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers which revealed the plot. Upon learning of Andrés capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot. Arnold received a commission as a general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360. He led British forces on raids in Virginia and against New London and Groton, in the winter of 1782, he moved to London with his second wife Margaret Peggy Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories, in 1787, he returned to the merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick. He returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later and his earlier legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor. Benedict Arnold was born the second of six children to Benedict Arnold and Hannah Waterman King in Norwich, Connecticut Colony on January 14,1741. He was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold, a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island—as were his father and grandfather. Only Benedict and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood, his other siblings succumbed to yellow fever in childhood and his siblings were, in order of birth, Benedict, Hannah, Mary, Absolom, and Elizabeth. Arnold was a descendant of John Lothropp through his maternal grandmother, Benedict Arnolds father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. When he was ten, Arnold was enrolled in a school in nearby Canterbury. However, the deaths of his siblings two years later may have contributed to a decline in the fortunes, since his father took up drinking
10.
Robert Morris (financier)
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From 1781 to 1784, he served as the powerful Superintendent of Finance, managing the economy of the fledgling United States. As the central civilian in the government, Morris was, next to General George Washington and his successful administration led to the sobriquet, Financier of the Revolution. At the same time he was Agent of Marine, a position he took without pay and he was one of Pennsylvanias original pair of US senators, serving from 1789 to 1795. After he left prison in 1801, he lived a quiet, Morris was born to Robert Morris, Sr. and Elizabeth Murphet in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on January 20,1734. At the age of 13, Morris immigrated to Oxford, Maryland, to live with his father, as a youth, Morris was provided a tutor and was a quick learner. His father sent him to Philadelphia to study where he stayed with Charles Greenway, Greenway arranged for young Robert to become an apprentice at the shipping and banking firm of the Philadelphia merchant Charles Willing. A year later, Roberts father died after being wounded in an accident when hit by the wadding of a gun that was fired in his honor. When Charles Willing died in 1754, his son Thomas Willing made Morris his partner at the age 24 and they established the prominent shipping-banking firm of Willing, Morris & Co. on May 1,1757. The partnership lasted until about 1779, on March 2,1769, at age 35, Morris married 20-year-old Mary White. White was the daughter of a wealthy and prestigious Maryland landholder, together they had five sons and two daughters. White came from a prominent family in Maryland, her brother was the well-known Anglican Bishop William White, Morris worshiped in Philadelphia at St. Peters Church on Pine Street and Christ Church on 2nd Street, both of which were run by his brother-in-law, Bishop William White. Morris remained a constant worshipper and supporter at this Anglican Church for his entire life, both Morris and his brother-in-law William White are buried at Christ Church, Philadelphia in the churchyard located at Second and Market. In 1757 Morris became a partner with Thomas Willing. Their partnership was a merchant firm with interests in shipping, real estate, the partnership was forged just after the Seven Years War began, which hindered attracting the usual supply of new indentured servants to the colony. Potential immigrants were conscripted in England to fight in Europe, indentured servants could legally break their contracts to join the British forces to fight against the French and their Indian allies. At the same time, the British Crown wanted to encourage the trade which was profitable for the Kings political allies in the African Company of Merchants. While Morris was a partner and Willing was pursuing a political career. Willing, Morris & Co funded its own slave-trading voyage, the ship did not carry enough to be profitable and, during a second trip, was captured by French privateers
United States
