1.
Stillwater, Oklahoma
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Stillwater is a city in north east Oklahoma at the intersection of US-177 and State Highway 51. It is the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, United States, as of 2012, the city population was estimated to be 46,560, making it the tenth largest city in Oklahoma. Stillwater is the city of the Stillwater Micropolitan Statistical Area which had a population of 78,399 according to the 2012 census estimate. Stillwater was part of the first Oklahoma Land Run held April 22,1889, the city charter was adopted on August 24 later that year. Stillwater has an economy with a foundation in aerospace, agribusiness, biotechnology, optoelectronics, printing and publishing. The city operates under a government system. The citys largest employer is Oklahoma State University and it was one of the 100 top places to live in 2010, according to CNN Money Magazine. Stillwater is located in the popularly known as Tornado Alley. It has a subtropical climate and the highest recorded temperature was 115 °F on August 11,1936. The city is home to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum, the north-central region of Oklahoma became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1832, author and traveler Washington Irving provided the first recorded description of the area around Stillwater in his book A Tour on the Prairies and he wrote of “a glorious prairie spreading out beneath the golden beams of an autumnal sun. The deep and frequent traces of buffalo, showed it to be a one of their grazing grounds. ”According to one legend, local Native American tribes — Ponca, Kiowa, Osage. A second legend states that cattlemen driving herds from Texas to railways back east always found water still there, a third legend holds that David L. Payne walked up to Stillwater Creek and said, “This town should be named Still Water”. Members of the thought he was crazy, but the name stuck. Stillwater Creek received its name in 1884 when William L. Couch established his “boomer colony” on its banks. On April 22,1889, the cannons fired signaling the first Land Run that opened up the Unassigned Lands of the Oklahoma Territory, which included Stillwater. By the end of the day,240 acres had been claimed and designated as Stillwater township, the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture simply says that the name officiallybecame Stillwater only when the post office opened on May 28,1889. On Christmas Eve,1890, the legislature of Oklahoma Territory passed a bill certifying Stillwater as the land grant college site, in 1894, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College held a dedication of its first brick building, Assembly Building, later known as Old Central
2.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
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
5.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
6.
Robert Altman
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Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, however, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German, English and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans later work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue
7.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
8.
I Dream of Jeannie
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Produced by Screen Gems, the show originally aired from September 18,1965 to May 26,1970 with new episodes, and through September 1970 with season repeats, on NBC. The show ran for five seasons and produced 139 episodes, on the beach, Tony notices a strange bottle that rolls by itself. When he rubs it after removing the stopper, smoke starts shooting out and they cannot understand each other until Tony expresses his wish that Jeannie could speak English, which she then does. One of the first things Jeannie does, in a subsequent episode, is break up Tonys engagement to his commanding generals daughter, who, along with that particular general, is never seen again. Tony at first keeps Jeannie in her bottle most of the time, Air Force Colonel Dr. Alfred Bellows. In a running gag, Dr. Bellows tries over and over to prove to his superiors that Tony is either crazy or hiding something, a frequently used plot device is that Jeannie loses her powers when she is confined in a closed space. She is unable to leave her bottle when it is corked, and under certain circumstances, a multiple-episode story arc involves Jeannie becoming trapped in a safe when it is accidentally locked. Both Tony and Roger are promoted to the rank of major late in the first season, in later seasons, Rogers role is retconned to portray him knowing about Jeannie from the beginning. Her final attempt in the series comes right after Tony and Jeannie get married, with a ploy involving a man played by Barbara Edens real-life husband at the time, Michael Ansara. The evil sister, whose name is never revealed, wears a green costume, early in the fifth season, Jeannie is called upon by her Uncle Sully to become queen of their familys native country, Basenji. Tony inadvertently gives grave offense to Basenji national pride in their feud with neighboring Kasja, to regain favor, Tony is required by Sully to marry Jeannie and avenge Basenjis honor, by killing the ambassador from Kasja when he visits NASA. Hearing this, Jeannie bitterly leaves Tony and returns to Basenji, with Jeannie gone, Tony realizes how deeply he loves her. That outweighs all concerns he has had about Jeannies threat to his career and he flies to Basenji to win Jeannie back. Upon their return to NASA, Tony introduces Jeannie as his fiancée, in which she attires herself as a modern American woman in public and this changed the shows premise in that instead of the avoidance of Jeannies exposure, it was to hide her magical abilities. This is contrary to the created by Sidney Sheldons own season-two script for The Birds and Bees Bit, in which it was claimed that, upon marriage. Both I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched were Screen Gems productions, the show debuted at 8 pm, Saturday, September 18,1965, on NBC. When casting was opened for the role of Jeannie, producer Sidney Sheldon could not find an actress who could play the role the way that he had written it. He did have one rule, He did not want a blonde genie
9.
The Jeffersons
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The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18,1975, through July 2,1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show focuses on George and Louise Jefferson, a successful African-American couple who have moved from Queens to Manhattan following the success of Georges dry-cleaning business chain. The show was launched as the second spin-off of All in the Family, on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie, the show was the creation of Norman Lear. The Jeffersons eventually evolved into more of a traditional sitcom but did reference such issues as alcoholism, racism, suicide, gun control, the epithets nigger and honky were used occasionally, especially during the earlier seasons. The Jeffersons had one spin-off, titled Checking In, the series was centered on the Jeffersons housekeeper, Florence. Checking In only lasted four episodes, after which Florence returned to The Jeffersons, the Jeffersons also shared continuity with the show E/R, which featured Lynne Moody, who made a guest appearance in one episode of The Jeffersons. Sherman Hemsley guest-starred as George in two episodes of the series, which lasted for one season, the Jeffersons ended in controversy after CBS abruptly canceled the series without allowing for a proper series finale. The cast was not informed until after the July 2,1985, episode Red Robins, the cast reunited in a stage play based on the sitcom. In the 1996 series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in an episode of Tyler Perrys House of Payne in 2011, Sherman Hemsley and Marla Gibbs reprised their roles of George Jefferson and Florence Johnston. In 1985, Hemsley and Sanford made a special joint guest appearance in the Canale 5 comedy show Grand Hotel, starring Italian actors Paolo Villaggio, Franco & Ciccio comic duo and Carmen Russo. They were guests in the hotel, and appeared just twice during the show. Their voices were dubbed by Italian actors Enzo Garinei and Isa di Marzio, Louise Jefferson, played by Isabel Sanford, first appeared in the All in the Family episode Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood, which was broadcast on March 2,1971. The episode, the eighth of the series, centers on Louise, her son Lionel, Lionel, played by Mike Evans, first appeared in Meet the Bunkers, the premiere episode of All in the Family. Norman Lear created the character of George Jefferson specifically for Hemsley, Lear created the character of Henry Jefferson, Georges younger brother, and replaced George with Henry in the seriess scripts until Purlie finished its run. Mel Stewart was cast as Henry, George was introduced in the episode Henrys Farewell, and Hemsley and Stewart share their only scene together in its final minutes. The episode marked the appearance of Henry. George, Louise, and Lionel continued to appear on All in the Family until 1975, when the spin-off The Jeffersons, also created by Lear, premiered. The characters of Lionels biracial fiancée, Jenny, and her family, the Jeffersons premiered the following week, on January 18,1975
