1.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
2.
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
3.
San Angelo, Texas
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San Angelo /sæn ˈændʒəloʊ/ is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. According to a 2014 Census estimate, San Angelo has a population of 100,450. The city is the city and center of the San Angelo metropolitan area. San Angelo is home to Angelo State University, historic Fort Concho, common nicknames of the city include Angelo, the River City, the Concho City, the Pearl of the Conchos, and the Oasis of West Texas. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, San Angelo was the center of the Jumano people, as of 1600, the area had been inhabited for over a thousand years by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. In 1632, a mission of Franciscans under Spanish auspices was founded in the area to serve the Indians. The mission was led by the friars Juan de Salas and Juan de Ortega, the area was visited by the Castillo-Martin expedition of 1650 and the Diego de Guadalajara expedition of 1654. The current city of San Angelo was founded in 1867, when the United States built Fort Concho, the fort was home to cavalry, infantry, and the famous Black Cavalry, also known as Buffalo Soldiers by Indigenous Americans. The settler Bartholomew J. DeWitt founded the village of Santa Angela outside the fort at the junction of the North and South Concho Rivers and he named the village after his wife, Carolina Angela. The name was changed to San Angela. The name would change again to San Angelo in 1883 on the insistence of the United States Postal Service, the town became a trade center for farmers and settlers in the area, as well as a fairly lawless cow town filled with brothels, saloons, and gambling houses. After being designated as the county seat, the town grew quickly in the 1880s and it became a central transportation hub for the region. The Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1888 and the Kansas City, Mexico, after a tuberculosis outbreak hit the United States in the early 1900s, many patients moved to San Angelo. At the time, doctors could only recommend rest in dry, TB sufferers went to San Angelo for treatment. In 1928, the city founded San Angelo College, one of the regions first institutes of higher education, the city had been passed over by the Texas State Legislature to be the home of what would become Texas Tech University. San Angelo College, one of the first municipal colleges, has grown to become Angelo State University, the military returned to San Angelo during World War II with the founding of Goodfellow Air Force Base, which was assigned to train pilots at the time. San Angelo grew exponentially during the oil boom of the 1900s, when vast amounts of oil were found in the area, the San Angelo Independent School District became one of the first in Texas to integrate, doing so voluntarily in 1955. San Angelo is located at 31°26′34″N 100°27′1″W
4.
Texas's 11th congressional district
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Texas District 11 of the United States House of Representatives is a Congressional district that serves the midwestern portion of the state of Texas. The current Representative from District 11 is Mike Conaway, Texas has had at least 11 districts since 1883. Major cities in the district are Lamesa, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Granbury, the district is one of the most Republican districts in the nation. Much of the now in the district began shaking off its Democratic roots far sooner than the rest of Texas. For instance, Barry Goldwater did very well in much of this area in 1964 and it was President George W. Bushs strongest district in the entire nation in the 2004 election. From 1903-2005 the district was based in central Texas and contained Waco, list of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
5.
Confederate States Army
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The Confederate States Army was the military ground force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. S. Military Academy and colonel of a regiment during the Mexican War. In March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a more permanent Confederate States Army, the better estimates of the number of individual Confederate soldiers are between 750,000 and 1,000,000 men. This does not include a number of slaves who were pressed into performing various tasks for the army, such as construction of fortifications. Since these figures include estimates of the number of individual soldiers who served at any time during the war. These numbers do not include men who served in Confederate naval forces, although most of the soldiers who fought in the American Civil War were volunteers, both sides by 1862 resorted to conscription, primarily as a means to force men to register and to volunteer. In the absence of records, estimates of the percentage of Confederate soldiers who were draftees are about double the 6 percent of Union soldiers who were conscripts. Confederate casualty figures also are incomplete and unreliable, one estimate of Confederate wounded, which is considered incomplete, is 194,026. These numbers do not include men who died from causes such as accidents. Other Confederate forces surrendered between April 16,1865 and June 28,1865, by the end of the war, more than 100,000 Confederate soldiers had deserted. The Confederacys government effectively dissolved when it fled Richmond in April, by the time Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States on March 4,1861, the seven seceding slave states had formed the Confederate States. The Confederacy seized federal property, including nearly all U. S. Army forts, Lincoln was determined to hold the forts remaining under U. S. control when he took office, especially Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, C. S. troops under the command of General P. G. T, Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12–13,1861, forcing its capitulation on April 14. The Northern states were outraged by the Confederacys attack and demanded war and it rallied behind Lincolns call on April 15, for all the states to send troops to recapture the forts from the secessionists, to put down the rebellion and to preserve the Union intact. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy. The Confederate Congress provided for a Confederate army patterned after the United States Army and it was to consist of a large provisional force to exist only in time of war and a small permanent regular army. Although the two forces were to exist concurrently, very little was done to organize the Confederate regular army, the Provisional Army of the Confederate States began organizing on April 27. Virtually all regular, volunteer, and conscripted men preferred to enter this organization since officers could achieve a rank in the Provisional Army than they could in the Regular Army
6.
United States Postal Service
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The United States Postal Service, is an independent agency of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution, Mail traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The USPS as of February 2015 has 617,254 active employees, the USPS is the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world. The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price, the USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked U. S. The USPS lost $5.5 billion in fiscal year 2014 and $5.1 billion in 2015, in the early years of the North American colonies, many attempts were made to initiate a postal service. These early attempts were of small scale and usually involved a colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony for example, for example, informal independently-run postal routes operated in Boston as early as 1639, with a Boston to New York City service starting in 1672. A central postal organization came to the colonies in 1691, when Thomas Neale received a 21-year grant from the British Crown for a North American Postal Service, the patent included the exclusive right to establish and collect a formal postal tax on official documents of all kinds. The tax was repealed a year later, Neale appointed Andrew Hamilton, Governor of New Jersey, as his deputy postmaster. The first postal service in America commenced in February 1692, rates of postage were fixed and authorized, and measures were taken to establish a post office in each town in Virginia. Massachusetts and the other colonies soon passed laws, and a very imperfect post office system was established. Neales patent expired in 1710, when Parliament extended the English postal system to the colonies, the chief office was established in New York City, where letters were conveyed by regular packets across the Atlantic. Before the Revolution, there was only a trickle of business or governmental correspondence between the colonies, most of the mail went back and forth to counting houses and government offices in London. The Revolution made Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress, News, new laws, political intelligence, and military orders circulated with a new urgency, and a postal system was necessary. Journalists took the lead, securing post office legislation that allowed them to reach their subscribers at very low cost, overthrowing the London-oriented imperial postal service in 1774-1775, printers enlisted merchants and the new political leadership, and created a new postal system. The United States Post Office was created on July 26,1775, the official post office was created in 1792 as the Post Office Department. It was based on the Constitutional authority empowering Congress To establish post offices, the 1792 law provided for a greatly expanded postal network, and served editors by charging newspapers an extremely low rate. The law guaranteed the sanctity of personal correspondence, and provided the country with low-cost access to information on public affairs. Rufus Easton was appointed by Thomas Jefferson first postmaster of St. Louis under the recommendation of Postmaster General Gideon Granger, Rufus Easton was the first postmaster and built the first post office west of the Mississippi
7.
Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
8.
English people
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The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England, who speak the English language. The English identity is of medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD, England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England along with the later Danes, Normans, in the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs. The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system and these and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire. The concept of an English nation is far older than that of the British nation, many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word English to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as English and it is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words English and British to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say English, I mean British. He notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of Englands dominant position with the UK and it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles. In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago and it meant indiscriminately England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so, bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as Prime Minister of England Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of England except for a geographic area brings protests and this version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al, the remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age
9.
USS Tom Green County (LST-1159)
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USS Tom Green County was a Terrebonne Parish-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy at the tail end of the Korean War. Named for Tom Green County, Texas, she is the only U. S. Naval vessel to have borne that name and she was subsequently transferred to Spain, where she served in the Spanish Navy as Conde de Venadito. Originally laid down as LST-1159, the ship was launched on 2 July 1953, sponsored by Mrs. R. T. Cowdrey, and commissioned on 12 September 1953 with Lieutenant Commander Stephen J. Nemeth in command. Initially attached to Amphibious Forces, Atlantic Fleet, LST-1159 conducted shakedown in Guantánamo Bay and she departed Norfolk on 24 February 1954 for duty with Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet, and, after a transit of the Panama Canal, reached the west coast on 20 March. The tank landing ship operated out of her new port, San Diego, until 20 September, including calls at San Francisco, San Pedro, California. LST-1159 stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor before proceeding on toward Japan, while on the voyage across the Pacific, the ship was diverted to join Task Force 98 in Southeast Asian waters and arrived at Henriette Pass, near the port of Haiphong, French Indochina on 29 October. Taking part in Operation Passage to Freedom, LST-1159 transported refugees from the part of what became a divided Vietnam, to the southern ports of Tourane. Soon after completing these operations, LST-1159 was named USS Tom Green County, returning via Sasebo and Inchon, Korea to the United States, Tom Green County made port at San Diego on 2 April to begin a period of local operations out of that port. On 14 October the tank landing ship entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, moving back to San Diego following the overhaul, Tom Green County departed the west coast for her second Far East deployment on 24 April and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 May. On 23 January 1957 the tank landing ship departed Japanese waters for Hawaii and she remained engaged in these activities through the fall of 1958, before returning, via Pearl Harbor, to San Diego to round out the year. Local operations between the west coast and Pearl Harbor occupied the ship through 1959, in July 1960 new orders dictated the tank landing ships change of home port from San Diego to Yokosuka and assigned Tom Green County as flagship of Landing Ship Division 92. She continued her operations much as before, but maintenance work was now conducted in Japanese yards, local operations, interspersed yard periods, and training exercises kept the tank landing ship engaged through 1962. Ready for any eventuality, the Navy prepared itself, world-wide, Tom Green County sailed for Naha on 24 October, moored at the LST ramp, and took on board marines and their equipment. After the crisis passed, the returned to her normal operating schedule, making for Iwakuni on the 27th to offload. Upkeep from 2 to 25 November at Yokosuka preceded the ships type-training exercises through 29 November, Tom Green County paid a port visit at Beppu, Japan from 1 to 3 December before returning to her home port on the 7th. Underway three days later, the made for Numazu, Japan to load marines and material for transport to Okinawa. The tank landing ship off-loaded, headed for Japanese waters, Tom Green County departed the Japanese capital city on the 28th and returned to Yokosuka, where she spent the remainder of the year in upkeep status. The following year saw more of the activities in store for the tank landing ship
10.
Texas State Highway 208
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State Highway 208 or SH208 is a Texas state highway that runs from San Angelo to southeast of Spur. The route was designated by 1935 from Colorado City to Robert Lee. By 1939, SH208 extended north to Colorado City, the section from Robert Lee to Colorado City was dropped in 1942, but was reinstated in 1947, when it replaced RM18. In 1956, the route was extended north to Snyder. The route was extended north in 1990 to Spur, replacing Farm to Market Road 948. FM1231 was designated in 1949 as a route from US84 at Snyder north 8.8 miles to a road intersection, in 1951, FM1231 extended north to the Kent County Line. Later that year, FM1231 extended 3 miles further north, in 1952, FM1231 extended to US380, replacing FM1741 from US380 south 6.1 miles. FM1231 was cancelled in 1990 and transferred to SH208
Tom Green County, Texas
