1.
Administrative divisions of New York (state)
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The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local government services in the state of New York. The state is divided into counties, cities, towns, and villages, each such government is granted varying home rule powers as provided by the New York Constitution. New York has various corporate entities that serve purposes that are also local governments, such as school. New York has 62 counties, which are subdivided into 932 towns and 62 cities, in total, the state has more than 3,400 active local governments and more than 4,200 taxing jurisdictions. They do so while adhering to the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of New York, articles VIII and IX of the state constitution establish the rights and responsibilities of the municipal governments. The New York State Constitution provides for democratically elected bodies for counties, cities, towns. These legislative bodies are granted the power to local laws as needed in order to provide services to their citizens. The county is the administrative division of New York. There are sixty-two counties in the state, five of the counties are boroughs of the city of New York and do not have functioning county governments. Such services generally include law enforcement and public safety, social and health services, every county outside of New York City has a county seat, which is the location of county government. Nineteen counties operate under county charters, while 38 operate under the provisions of the County Law. Although all counties have a certain latitude to govern themselves, charter counties are afforded greater home rule powers, sixteen counties are governed by a Board of Supervisors, composed of the supervisors of its constituent towns and cities. In most of counties, each supervisors vote is weighted in accordance with the towns population in order to abide by the U. S. Supreme Court mandate of one person. Other counties have legislative districts of equal population, which may cross municipal borders, most counties in New York do not use the term Board of Supervisors. 34 counties have a County Legislature, six counties have a Board of Legislators, the five counties, or boroughs, of New York City are governed by a 51-member City Council. In non-charter counties, the legislative body exercises executive power as well, many, but not all, charter counties have an elected executive who is independent of the legislature, the exact form of government is defined in the County Charter. In New York, each city is a highly autonomous incorporated area that, with the exceptions of New York City, cities in New York are classified by the U. S. Census Bureau as incorporated places. They provide almost all services to their residents and have the highest degree of home rule, also, villages are part of a town, with residents who pay taxes to and receive services from the town
2.
Hudson River
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The Hudson River is a 315-mile river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York in the United States. The river originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, flows through the Hudson Valley, the river serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York, and further north between New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary occupying the Hudson Fjord, tidal waters influence the Hudsons flow from as far north as Troy. The river is named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609, and after whom Canadas Hudson Bay is also named. The Dutch called the river the North River – with the Delaware River called the South River –, during the eighteenth century, the river valley and its inhabitants were the subject and inspiration of Washington Irving, the first internationally acclaimed American author. In the nineteenth century, the area inspired the Hudson River School of landscape painting, the Hudson was also the eastern outlet for the Erie Canal, which, when completed in 1825, became an important transportation artery for the early-19th-century United States. The source of the Hudson River is Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Park at an altitude of 4,322 feet, the river is not cartographically called the Hudson River until miles downstream. From that point on, the stream is known as the Hudson River. Popular culture and convention, however, more often cite the photogenic Lake Tear of the Clouds as the source, South of the confluence of Indian Pass Brook and Calamity Brook, the Hudson River flows south into Sanford Lake. South of the outlet of the lake, the Opalescent River flows into the Hudson, the Hudson then flows south, taking in Beaver Brook and the outlet of Lake Harris. After its confluence with the Indian River, the Hudson forms the boundary between Essex and Hamilton counties, in the hamlet of North River, the Hudson flows entirely in Warren County and takes in the Schroon River. Further south, the forms the boundary between Warren and Saratoga Counties. The river then takes in the Sacandaga River from the Great Sacandaga Lake, shortly thereafter, the river leaves the Adirondack Park, flows under Interstate 87, and through Glens Falls, just south of Lake George although receiving no streamflow from the lake. It next goes through Hudson Falls, at this point the river forms the boundary between Washington and Saratoga Counties. At this point the river has an altitude of 200 feet, further south the Hudson takes in water from the Batten Kill River and Fish Creek near Schuylerville. The river then forms the boundary between Saratoga and Rensselaer counties, the river then enters the heart of the Capital District. It takes in water from the Hoosic River, which extends into Massachusetts, shortly thereafter the river has its confluence with the Mohawk River, the largest tributary of the Hudson River, in Waterford. Shortly thereafter, the river reaches the Federal Dam in Troy, at an elevation of 2 feet, the bottom of the dam marks the beginning of the tidal influence in the Hudson as well as the beginning of the lower Hudson River
3.
Troy
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The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. It was the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle, in particular in the Iliad, a new capital called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually in the Byzantine era and these excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Troy VII has been identified with the city that the Hittites called Wilusa, the origin of the Greek Ἴλιον. Today, the hill at Hisarlık has given its name to a village near the ruins. It lies within the province of Çanakkale, some 30 km south-west of the provincial capital, the map here shows the adapted Scamander estuary with Ilium a little way inland across the Homeric plain. Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, Ancient Greek historians variously placed the Trojan War in the 12th, 13th, or 14th centuries BC, Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Duris of Samos to 1334 BC. Modern archaeologists associate Homeric Troy with archaeological Troy VII, in the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the River Scamander, where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, recent geological findings have permitted the identification of the ancient Trojan coastline, and the results largely confirm the accuracy of the Homeric geography of Troy. In November 2001, the geologist John C, kraft from the University of Delaware and the classicist John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin, presented the results of investigations, begun in 1977, into the geology of the region. Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the major work attributed to Homer. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid, the Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and there made sacrifices at tombs associated with the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus. After the 1995 find of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, with the rise of critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were, for a long time, consigned to the realms of legend. However, the location of ancient Troy had from classical times remained the subject of interest. The Troad peninsula was anticipated to be the location, leChavaliers location, published in his Voyage de la Troade, was the most commonly accepted theory for almost a century. In 1822, the Scottish journalist Charles Maclaren was the first to identify with confidence the position of the city as it is now known, the hill, near the city of Çanakkale, was known as Hisarlık. In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann visited Calvert and secured permission to excavate Hisarlık, in 1871–73 and 1878–79, he excavated the hill and discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period
4.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
7.
Rensselaer County, New York
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Rensselaer County /rɛnsəˈlɪər/ is a county in the state of New York, in the United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429, the county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Rensselaer County is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area, the area that is now Rensselaer County was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Mohican Indian tribe at the time of European encounter. Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a Dutch jeweler and merchant, purchased the area in 1630, the land passed into English rule in 1664, the Dutch regained control in 1673, but the English took it back in 1674. Until 1776, the year of American independence, the county was under English or British control, the county was not organized as a legal entity until after the Revolution in 1791, when it was created from an area that was originally part of the very large Albany County. In 1807, in a county re-organization, the sections of Troy were set off as Towns. The two towns created were Brunswick and Grafton, a third town, Philipstown, was set off in 1806. In 1808 it was renamed Nassau after the duke of that area, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 665 square miles, of which 652 square miles is land and 13 square miles is water. Rensselaer County is in the part of New York State. The eastern boundary of Rensselaer County runs along the New York–Vermont, the terrain runs from level and flat near the Hudson and then rises into the Rensselaer Plateau around Poestenkill and Sand Lake, then to the Taconic Mountains along the Massachusetts state line. The highest point is Berlin Mountain,2,818 feet above sea level, the lowest point is sea level at the Hudson. The Hoosic River, a tributary of the Hudson River, is in the part of the county. Depending on precise location within the county, road distance to New York City ranges between 132 miles and 178 miles. The population density was 233 people per square mile, there were 69,120 housing units at an average density of 109 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 88. 73% White,7. 14% Black or African American,0. 23% Native American,1. 71% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,0. 89% from other races, and 1. 34% from two or more races. 5. 01% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 22. 3% were of Irish,14. 7% Italian,12. 8% German,7. 5% English,6. 2% French,5. 3% American and 2. 3% Puerto Rican ancestry according to Census 2010. 95. 4% spoke English and 2. 7% Spanish as their first language,27. 90% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
8.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
9.
2010 United States Census
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The 2010 United States Census, is the twenty-third and currently most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the day used for the census, was April 1,2010. As part of a drive to increase the accuracy,635,000 temporary enumerators were hired. The population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, as required by the United States Constitution, the U. S. census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The 2000 U. S. Census was the previous census completed, participation in the U. S. Census is required by law in Title 13 of the United States Code. On January 25,2010, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves personally inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, more than 120 million census forms were delivered by the U. S. Post Office beginning March 15,2010, the number of forms mailed out or hand-delivered by the Census Bureau was approximately 134 million on April 1,2010. The 2010 Census national mail participation rate was 74%, from April through July 2010, census takers visited households that did not return a form, an operation called non-response follow-up. In December 2010, the Census Bureau delivered population information to the president for apportionment, personally identifiable information will be available in 2082. The Census Bureau did not use a form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, the 2010 Census used only a short form asking ten basic questions, How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1,2010. Were there any additional people staying here on April 1,2010 that you did not include in Question 1, mark all that apply, Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – What is your telephone number. What is Person 1s age and Person 1s date of birth, is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else, the form included space to repeat some or all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, detailed socioeconomic information collected during past censuses will continue to be collected through the American Community Survey. The survey provides data about communities in the United States on a 1-year or 3-year cycle, depending on the size of the community, rather than once every 10 years. A small percentage of the population on a basis will receive the survey each year. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced that it would count same-sex married couples, however, the final form did not contain a separate same-sex married couple option
10.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
11.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
12.
Eastern Time Zone
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Places that use Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time are 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern Daylight Time, when observing daylight saving time DST is 4 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, in the northern parts of the time zone, on the second Sunday in March, at 2,00 a. m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3,00 a. m. EDT leaving a one-hour gap, on the first Sunday in November, at 2,00 a. m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1,00 a. m, southern parts of the zone do not observe daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ruled that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October in the United States, the act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time as of 1987. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States beginning in 2007. So local times change at 2,00 a. m. EST to 3,00 a. m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, in Canada, the time changes as it does in the United States. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area – Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley. Florida, All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, as the Eastern–Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the Bay/Gulf county line. Indiana, All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. Kentucky, Roughly, the half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville, is in the Eastern Time Zone. Historically the entire state observed Central Time, when daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all, Tennessee, Most of the eastern third of Tennessee is legally on Eastern Time. Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital and the largest city. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, for example, a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable television and national broadcast networks advertise airing times in Eastern time, national broadcast networks generally have two primary feeds, an eastern feed for Eastern and Central time zones, and a tape-delayed western feed for the Pacific Time Zone. The prime time is set on Eastern and Pacific at 8,00 p. m. with the Central time zone stations receiving the eastern feed at 7,00 p. m. local time. Mountain Time Zone stations receive a separate feed at 7,00 p. m. local time, as Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, during the summer months, it has its own feed at 7,00 p. m. local time
13.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
14.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
15.
Area codes 518 and 838
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Area codes 518 and 838 are telephone area codes in eastern upstate New York. 518 was established as one of the area codes in 1947. It covers 24 counties and 1,200 ZIP codes and it has 493 landline and 100 wireless exchanges serviced by 47 carriers. It is the largest area code in size in New York, extending from the eastern Mohawk Valley to the Vermont border, the bulk of the area codes population is in the Capital District. Other major cities in the code are Glens Falls and Plattsburgh. 518 is the one of New Yorks original five NPAs that still has its original boundaries. Despite the presence of the Capital District and the proliferation of phones and pagers. By the spring of 2016, however,518 was on the verge of exhaustion, by the fall, however, it was anticipated that 518 would exhaust in the third quarter of 2017. An overlay area code,838, was approved, to be implemented in the fall of 2017. List of New York area codes List of NANP area codes North American Numbering Plan NANPA Area Code Map of New York List of exchanges from AreaCodeDownload. com,518 Area Code
16.
Geographic Names Information System
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It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names to promote the standardization of feature names, the database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited, variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier, the database never removes an entry, except in cases of obvious duplication. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U. S. geographical features, the general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard and street, department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer, Users Manual. Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways, A Journey Into America, standard was withdrawn in September 2008, See Federal Register Notice, Vol.73, No. 170, page 51276 Report, Principles, Policies, and Procedures, Domestic Geographic Names, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000. Board on Geographic Names website Geographic Names Information System Proposals from the general public Meeting minutes
17.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
18.
County seat
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A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in the United States, Canada, Romania, China, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, county towns have a similar function. In the United States, counties are the subdivisions of a state. Depending on the state, counties may provide services to the public, impose taxes. Some types of subdivisions, such as townships, may be incorporated or unincorporated. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government is known as the seat of its respective county, a county seat is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia, likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey, though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township, in some of the colonial states, county seats include or formerly included Court House as part of their name. Most counties have only one county seat, an example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult, there have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of pride for the towns involved. There are 36 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states, Coffee County, for example, the official county seat is Greensboro, but an additional courthouse has been located in nearby High Point since 1938. For example, Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, in New England, the town, not the county, is the primary division of local government. Historically, counties in this region have served mainly as dividing lines for the judicial systems. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no county level of government and thus no county seats, in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine the county seats are legally designated shire towns. County government consists only of a Superior Court and Sheriff, both located in the shire town. Bennington County has two towns, but the Sheriff is located in Bennington. In Massachusetts, most government functions which would otherwise be performed by county governments in other states are performed by town governments. As such, Massachusetts has dissolved many of its county governments, two counties in South Dakota have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county
19.
Albany, New York
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Albany is the capital of the U. S. state of New York and the seat of Albany County. Roughly 150 miles north of New York City, Albany developed on the west bank of the Hudson River, the population of the City of Albany was 97,856 according to the 2010 census. With a Census-estimated population of 98,4242013, the Capital District is the third-most populous metropolitan region in the state and 38th in the United States. Fortune 500 companies that have offices in Albany include American Express, J. P. Morgan and Chase, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, International Paper, and Key Bank. In the 21st century, the Capital District has emerged as an anchor of Tech Valley. This was the first European settlement in the state, settled by Dutch colonists who built Fort Nassau for fur trading in 1614 and they formed successful relations with both the Mahican and the Mohawk peoples, two major Native American nations in the region. The fur trade attracted settlers who founded a village called Beverwijck near Fort Orange, in 1664 the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the city as Albany, in honor of the then Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland. The city was chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York State in 1797, following the United States gaining independence in the American Revolutionary War, Albany is one of the oldest surviving settlements of the original British thirteen colonies, and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. Its charter is possibly the longest-running instrument of government in the Western Hemisphere. During the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a center of trade, Albanys main exports at the time were beer, lumber, published works, and ironworks. Beginning in 1810, Albany was one of the ten most populous cities in the United States, in the 20th century, the city opened one of the first commercial airports in the world, the precursor of todays Albany International Airport. During the 1920s a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in the state capital and it marshalled the power of immigrants and their descendants in both cities. In the early 21st century, Albany has experienced growth in the high-technology industry, Albany has been a center of higher education for over a century, with much of the remainder of its economy dependent on state government and health care services. The city has rebounded from the decline of the 1970s and 1980s. Albany is known for its history, commerce, culture, architecture. Albany won the All-America City Award in both 1991 and 2009, Albany is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original thirteen colonies and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. The Hudson River area was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohican, who called it Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw
20.
Schenectady, New York
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Schenectady /skᵻˈnɛktədi/ is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135, the name Schenectady is derived from a Mohawk word skahnéhtati meaning beyond the pines. The city was founded on the side of the Mohawk River by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. They were prohibited from the fur trade by the Albany monopoly, residents of the new village developed farms on strip plots along the river. Connected to the west via the Mohawk River and Erie Canal, by 1824 more people worked in manufacturing than agriculture or trade, and the city had a cotton mill, processing cotton from the Deep South. Numerous mills in New York had such ties with the South, the city was part of emerging technologies, with GE collaborating in the production of nuclear-powered submarines and, in the 21st century, working on other forms of renewable energy. The city is in eastern New York, near the confluence of the Mohawk and it is in the same metropolitan area as the state capital, Albany, which is about 19 miles southeast. In December 2014, the announced that the city was one of three sites selected for development of off-reservation casino gambling, under terms of a 2013 state constitutional amendment. The project would redevelop an ALCO brownfield site in the city along the waterfront, with hotels, housing, when first encountered by Europeans, the Mohawk Valley was the territory of the Mohawk nation, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee. They had occupied territory in the region since at least 1100 AD, in the 1640s, the Mohawk had three major villages, all on the south side of the Mohawk River. The easternmost one was Ossernenon, located about 9 miles west of present-day Auriesville, about 3200 acres of this unique ecosystem are now protected as the Albany Pine Bush. Eventually, this word entered the lexicon of the Dutch settlers, the settlers in Fort Orange used skahnéhtati to refer to the new village at the Mohawk flats, which became known as Schenectady. In 1661 Arent van Curler, a Dutch immigrant bought a big piece of land on the side of the Mohawk River. Other colonists were given grants of land by the government in this portion of the flat fertile river valley. The settlers recognized that these bottomlands had been cultivated for maize by the Mohawk for centuries, Van Curler took the largest piece of land, the remainder was divided into 50-acre plots for the other first fourteen proprietors. As most early colonists were from the Fort Orange area, they may have anticipated working as fur traders, the settlers here turned to farming. Their 50-acre lots were unique for the colony, laid out in strips along the Mohawk River, with the narrow edges fronting the river and they relied on rearing livestock and wheat. From the early days of interaction, early Dutch traders in the valley had unions with Mohawk women and their children were raised within the Mohawk community, which had a matrilineal kinship system, considering children born into the mothers clan
21.
Capital District, New York
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The Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, refers to the metropolitan area surrounding Albany, the capital of the U. S. state of New York. With a population of 1,170,483, the Capital District is the fourth largest metropolitan region in the state, companies that have headquarters in Albany include CommerceHub and the Environment One Corporation. In the 21st century, the Capital District has emerged as an anchor of Tech Valley. The Capital District was first settled by the Dutch in the early 17th century, Albany has been the permanent capital of the state of New York since 1797. The Capital District is notable for historical events that predate the independence of the United States, including the Albany Plan of Union. The term Capital District is commonly used to refer to the due to its location surrounding the state capital. This is similar to other districts throughout the world, all of which are associated with a respective capital city. Later, Schenectady was added to this district as well, the Capital District Recreation League, formed in 1816, proposed a Capital District Park to be roughly 8 miles from Albany, Cohoes, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Troy, and Watervliet. The location proposed was the area of the Shaker settlement, the park was never created, though in 1928 the location was used for Albany International Airport for the same reason of its central location to those suburbs. Capitaland, Metroland, and Tech Valley are nicknames sometimes used to refer to the Capital District, permanent European claims and settlement began in 1609 when Henry Hudson sailed north up the Hudson River in the name of the Dutch. During the same year, Samuel Champlain explored south down Lake Champlain, conflict soon ensued between the French and Dutch for control of the fur trade and both made alliances with different Native American tribes. In 1630, Kiliaen van Rensselaer founded the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, a Dutch patroonship in the area, in 1664 the English successfully conquered the Dutch while rivalry with the French continued. Through the Dongan Charter, Governor Thomas Dongan granted Albany the right to purchase 500 acres in Schaahtecogue and 1,000 acres at Tionnondoroge, arent van Curler founded Schenectady in 1662, Fort Saratoga was built at present-day Schuylerville in 1691, and Greenbush was settled in the 1620s. South of Albany, settlement occurred quickly at first, but slowed as growth on the frontier pushed people north and west of Albany and it was chartered as a city in 1785, becoming only the third city in the state. The French and Indian War saw several battles in the Capital District. In the end, the French were defeated, freeing the land for settlement to the west. During the American Revolution the area saw fighting and Fort Ticonderoga experienced notable action. The Battle of Saratoga, which place in the present-day town of Stillwater, is considered the turning point of the war
22.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university and space-grant institution located in Troy, New York, with two additional campuses in Hartford and Groton, Connecticut. Numerous American colleges or departments of applied sciences were modeled after Rensselaer, built on a hillside, RPIs 265-acre campus overlooks the city of Troy and the Hudson River and is a blend of traditional and modern architecture. The institute operates a business incubator and the 1, 250-acre Rensselaer Technology Park. Today, Rensselaer is organized into six main schools which contain 37 departments, with emphasis on science and it is well recognized for its degree programs in engineering, computing, business and management, information technology, the sciences, design, and liberal arts. Rensselaer is ranked 39th among all colleges and universities in the U. S. News & World Report rankings. Stephen van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5,1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the schools first senior professor and appointed the first board of trustees, the school opened on Monday, January 3,1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy. Tuition was around $40 per semester, the fact that the school attracted students from as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania is attributed to the reputation of Eaton. Fourteen months of successful trial led to the incorporation of the school on March 21,1826 by the state of New York, in its early years, the Rensselaer School strongly resembled a graduate school more than it did a college, drawing graduates from many older institutions. Under Eaton, the Rensselaer School, renamed the Rensselaer Institute in 1832, was a small, the first civil engineering degrees in the United States were granted by the school in 1835, and many of the best remembered civil engineers of that time graduated from the school. Important visiting scholars included Joseph Henry, who had studied under Amos Eaton, and Thomas Davenport. In 1847 alumnus Benjamin Franklin Greene became the new senior professor, earlier he had done a thorough study of European technical schools to see how Rensselaer could be improved. In 1850 he reorganized the school into a polytechnic institute with six technical schools. In 1861 the name was changed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a severe conflagration of May 10,1862, known as The Great Fire, destroyed more than 507 buildings in Troy and gutted 75 acres in the heart of the city. The Infant School building that housed the Institute at the time was destroyed in this fire, columbia University proposed that Rensselaer leave Troy altogether and merge with its New York City campus. Ultimately, the proposal was rejected and the left the crowded downtown for the hillside. Classes were temporarily held at the Vail House and in the Troy University building until 1864, one of the first Latino student organizations in the United States was founded at RPI in 1890. The Club Hispano Americano was established by the international Latin American students that attended the institute at this time, in 1904 the Institute was for the fourth time devastated by fire, when its main building was completely destroyed
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Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
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Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, now owned by First Niagara Financial Group, is a bank and performance space in Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The music hall, renowned for its acoustics and an Odell concert organ, is operated by a not-for-profit organization, the Troy Savings Bank was founded in 1823 and moved to its current location in 1870. In appreciation of the support, the plans for the new building called for a music hall to be built on the upper floors. In the 1930s and 1940s, artists including Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin and it was a usual stop for a musician on a tour around America. Apparently not up to building codes, there was long a tradition that prior to each performance the Fire Marshal would come out on stage. If you have to smoke, you can hit the streets at half time, following World War II, Troys wealth declined and so did the banks. Many public initiatives were begun to save the bank from closure, ideas included establishing an industrial and folk art museum downstairs and renting the Hall itself to the areas many colleges. In 1979, the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Revitalization Committee was founded by private citizens, with the banks support and additional funding from the city and county for its administration, the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Corporation was founded. A not-for-profit organization which still leases the Hall from the bank, a corporate re-structuring and buyout followed, and, in 1999, the Troy Savings Bank converted to a public corporation. On January 16,2004, First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. acquired Troy Financial Corporation, the company for the Troy Savings Bank. It is a property to the Central Troy Historic District. Posts design was selected by default, due to his work in crafting metal to simulate stone in a buildings superstructure. A graduate of the University of New York, Post studied under Richard Morris Hunt in the mid 1800s and his preference for the Beaux Arts and French Renaissance styles can be seen in the buildings highly detailed decorations. Construction began on the new property on the corner of State. The building was completed in April 1875, at a final cost of $435,000, the result was a massive six story edifice that dominates the surrounding neighborhood. Above this rose the Music Hall,106 feet long,69 feet wide, original granite stairs running the width of the building introduced concert-goers to the ornate grandeur of the hall. Box offices to the left and right preceded a center stairway, parquet and Dress Circle seats were, and still are, reached by using the center staircase. Iron staircases on either side guided the way to the upper and lower boxes, the balcony, the halls seating capacity is 1,253, and seating arrangements have never changed
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Mahican
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Following the disruption of the American Revolutionary War, most of the Mahican descendants first migrated westward to join the Iroquois Oneida on their reservation in central New York. The Oneida gave them about 22,000 acres for their use, after more than two decades, in the 1820s and 1830s, the Oneida and the Stockbridge moved again, pressured to relocate to northeastern Wisconsin under the federal Indian Removal program. Therefore, they, along with tribes living along the Hudson River, were called the River Indians by the Dutch. The Dutch heard and wrote the term for the people of the area variously as, Mahigan, Mahikander, Mahinganak, Maikan and Mawhickon, which the English simplified later to Mahican or Mohican. The Mahican were living in and around the Hudson River at the time of their first contact with Europeans traders along the Hudson River in the 1590s, after 1609 at the time of the settlement of New Netherland, they also ranged along the Mohawk River and the Hoosic River. In their own language, the Mahican referred to collectively as the Muhhekunneuw. The original Mahican homeland was the Hudson River Valley from the Catskill Mountains north to the end of Lake Champlain. Usually consisting of 20 to 30 mid-sized longhouses, they were located on hills, agriculture provided most of their diet but was supplemented by game, fish, and wild foods. Mahican villages were governed by hereditary sachems advised by a council of clan elders, a general council of sachems met regularly at Shodac to decide important matters affecting the entire confederacy. The Mahican were a confederacy of five tribes and as many as forty villages, Mahican proper, Mechkentowoon Wawyachtonoc Westenhuck Wiekagjoc The Mahican traded with Henry Hudson when he sailed up the Hudson River in September,1609. Hudson returned to Holland with a cargo of furs which immediately attracted Dutch merchants to the area. The first Dutch fur traders arrived on the Hudson River the following year to trade with the Mahican, besides exposing them to European epidemics, the fur trade destabilized the region. Many settled in the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where they became known as the Stockbridge Indians. Etow Oh Koam, one of their chiefs, accompanied three Mohawk chiefs on a visit to Queen Anne and her government in England in 1710. They were popularly referred to as the Four Mohawk Kings, the Stockbridge Indians allowed Protestant missionaries, including Jonathan Edwards, to live among them. In the 18th century, many converted to Christianity, while keeping certain traditions of their own and they fought on the side of the British colonists in the French and Indian War. During the American Revolution, they sided with the colonists, Henry Rauch reached out to two Mahican leaders, Maumauntissekun, also known as Shabash, and Wassamapah, who took him back to Shekomeko. They named him the new religious teacher, over time, Rauch won listeners, as the Mahicans had suffered much from disease and warfare, which had disrupted their society
25.
Patroon
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In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, the Dutch West India Company first started to grant this title and these inducements to foster colonization and settlement are the basis for the patroon system. In 1775, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, primogeniture and feudal tenure were abolished and thus patroons and manors evolved into simply large estates subject to division and leases. The deeded tracts were called patroonships and could span 16 miles in length on one side of a major river, in 1640 the charter was revised to cut new plot sizes in half, and to allow any Dutch American in good standing to purchase an estate. The title of patroon came with powerful rights and privileges, a patroon could create civil and criminal courts, appoint local officials and hold land in perpetuity. As tenants working for the patroon, these first settlers were relieved of the duty of public taxes for ten years, a patroonship sometimes had its own village and other infrastructure, including churches. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the system continued with the granting of large tracts known as manors, the largest and most successful patroonship in New Netherland was the Manor of Rensselaerswijck, established by Kiliaen van Rensselaer. Rensselaerswijck covered almost all of present-day Albany and Rensselaer counties and parts of present-day Columbia, Manor of Rensselaerswyck and Lower Manor at Claverack. Zwaanendael - Samuel Blommaert and Samuel Godyn, abandoned after being decimated by indigenous population, pavonia - Michael Reyniersz Pauw, re-sold to the West India Company becoming a company-managed holding. Staaten Eylandt - Cornelis Melyn, mired in conflict with Raritan tribe, achter Col, aborted at the outset of Kiefts War. Colen Donck - Adriaen van der Donck Bronx - Jonas Bronck Vriessendael - David Pietersen de Vries Bentley Manor - Christopher Billopp, ethnic Dutch, who were still a substantial part of the population, resented the change and moved mostly toward the cause of the Independence movement. After the war, the newly recognized New York State government refused to overturn the law, Rensselaerswijck was dismantled in the early 19th century after its last sole proprietor died. Two sons split the property and, after tenant farmers gained the right to refuse to pay rent, the land was organized as different counties and towns in New Yorks Capital District
26.
Kiliaen van Rensselaer (merchant)
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He was one of the first patroons, but the only one to become successful. He founded the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in what is now mainly New Yorks Capital District and his estate remained throughout the Dutch and British colonial era and the American Revolution as a legal entity until the 1840s. Eventually, that came to an end during the Anti-Rent War, Van Rensselaer was the son of Hendrick Kiliaensz van Rensselaer, a soldier from Nijkerk in the States army of the duke of Upper Saxony, and Maria Pafraet, descendant of a well-known printers dynasty. To keep from risking his life in the army like his father, he apprenticed under his uncle and he too became a successful jeweler and was one of the first subscribers to the Dutch West India Company upon its conception. The concept of patroonships may have been Kiliaen van Rensselaers, he was likely the leading proponent of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, Van Rensselaer married twice and had at least eleven children. When he died sometime after 1642, two succeeded him as patroons of Rensselaerswyck, Van Rensselaer had a marked effect on the history of the United States. Kiliaen van Rensselaer was born in Hasselt, Overijssel, Netherlands in 1586, the exact day of his birth is unknown. He was the son of Hendrick van Rensselaer and Maria Pafraet and his father was a captain in the Dutch army until his death at the Siege of Ostend in early June 1602. With his father usually not home because of a career, Van Rensselaers mother sent him to apprentice with his uncle, Wolfert van Bijler. At the time, the gem trade was an enterprise to join. In those days, the trade was nearly always combined with the trade in pearls, other articles of luxury. Dutch jewelers found a market for their valuable wares at the Dutch imperial court. This realm of work promoted Van Rensselaer to a life of economic success, much of Van Rensselaers early life is unknown to todays historians, though in March 1608 it has been recorded that he was taking care of some business of Van Bijler in Prague. It seems Van Bijler gradually retired from his business, leaving it in the control of Van Rensselaer, the firms combined under the name of Jan van Wely & Co. in February 1614. Van Rensselaers name was not included in the name of the new company, since he contributed only one eighth of the investment capital, in 1616, van Wely was called on by Prince Maurice to meet at the Hague for a sale in jewels. He was murdered while waiting to meet with the Prince, the firms contract stipulated that at the death of Jan van Wely, the remaining members of the firm should continue the partnership for another six years. Some of Van Rensselaers success as a jewel merchant came about due to trade made possible by the Dutch East India Company, the practical spirit of the Dutch merchant could not fail to recognize that the way to riches was through trade with the West Indies and Africa. During the Twelve Years Truce, Dutch merchants had sailed unmolested to the West Indies, before the Eighty Years War began, people realized that the West Indies trade might bring great prosperity to the country and that more power might be developed against Spain
27.
Central Troy Historic District
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The Central Troy Historic District is an irregularly shaped, 96-acre area of downtown Troy, New York, United States. It has been described as one of the most perfectly preserved 19th-century downtowns in the with nearly 700 properties in a variety of styles from the early 19th to mid-20th centuries. These include most of Russell Sage College, one of two privately owned urban parks in New York, and two National Historic Landmarks, visitors ranging from the Duke de la Rochefoucauld to Philip Johnson have praised aspects of it. Martin Scorsese used parts of downtown Troy as a stand-in for 19th-century Manhattan in The Age of Innocence, in 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, superseding five smaller historic districts that had been listed on the Register in the early 1970s. Most of the buildings, structures and objects within the district contribute to its historic character, two of Troys four National Historic Landmarks, the Gurley Building and Troy Savings Bank, are located within its boundaries. Nine other buildings are listed on the Register in their own right, among the architects represented are Alexander Jackson Davis, George B. Post, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Clarke Withers, there are many buildings designed by the regionally significant architect Marcus F. Cummings. The downtown street plan was borrowed from Philadelphia, and one neighborhood, the district reflects Troys evolution from its origins as a Hudson River port into an early industrial center built around textile manufacture and steelmaking. During this period it was twice in the wake of two devastating fires, resulting in its mix of architecture styles. These efforts have paid off with increased attention from developers, the revival of much of the area, with the collaboration of nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy is hoping to make the district a center for the development of cutting-edge technologies, a Silicon Valley of the 19th century. The district boundary was drawn to include the highest concentration of historic resources, the street plan dates to 1787 and the most recent historic building dates to 1940, making those years the period of significance. All of the five historic districts are included in full, along with other historic neighborhoods. It is centered around the axes of US4 and NY2, Monument Square, the center of Troy since the late 19th century, along with all the buildings around it are located within its northwestern corner. At its western end it is bounded by the Hudson River. To the south it includes the buildings of Russell Sage College, Washington Square Park and the houses on Adams Street. The mostly regular southeastern boundary follows Clinton Street until it reaches Ferry, then it becomes ragged and irregular, reaching the districts northernmost extent at the former Grand Street Historic District. This extension allows it to include as well the Gurley Building and its surrounding neighborhood, to the east of the district Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troys most notable institution of higher learning, is situated on a low rise overlooking downtown. RPI has played a role in the district in recent years
28.
Lansingburgh, New York
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Lansingburgh was a village in the north end of Troy. It was first laid out in lots and incorporated in 1771 by Abraham Jacob Lansing, in 1900, Lansingburgh became part of the City of Troy. Demographically speaking Lansingburgh is fairly diverse, Lansingburgh has always been a predominately working class Irish Neighborhood since the late 1880s. In the 12182 zip code 71% of residents are Non-Hispanic White, 17% Non Hispanic Black or African American, 9% Hispanic or Latino and 3% other. Top Ancestries reported in the zip code 12182 are 22% Irish, 13% African American, 8% Italian, 7% French, 6% Puerto Rican, the Median Household Income for this zip is 31,321. 24% of the population is living below the poverty line, as of 2015, the Lansingburgh Central School District has a 87% graduation rate for the Senior High School. This is higher than most other urban school districts. 65% of students in the district are economically disadvantaged, the district is 67% Non-Hispanic White, 17% Black, 10% Hispanic, 5% Multi-Racial and 1% Asian. Lansingburgh has its own district as well as post office, but police, fire. Herman Melville lived in what is now known as the Herman Melville House from 1838 to 1847 and it currently serves as headquarters of the Lansingburgh Historical Society. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, the Powers Home, built in 1846, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Lansingburgh Academy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the Trinity Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The Lansingburgh Village Burial Ground was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, the Haskell School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. The Jacob H. Patten House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States, born in Fairfield, Vermont, spent part of his youth in Lansingburgh. Catcher Fatty Briody was a 19th Century Major League Baseball player from Lansingburgh, moby-Dick author Herman Melville wrote his first two novels in Lansingburgh. He resided at what is now known as the Herman Melville House from 1838 to 1847, children’s author Mary Louise Peebles was born, raised and died in Lansingburgh. Lansingburgh Historical Society website Early history of Lansingburgh, NY Lansingburgh
29.
Vermont
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Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders the other U. S. states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermonts western border with the state of New York, Vermont is the 2nd-least populous of the U. S. states, with nearly 50,000 more residents than Wyoming. The capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the U. S, the most populous municipality, Burlington, is the least populous city in the U. S. to be the most populous within a state. As of 2015, Vermont continued to be the producer of maple syrup in the U. S. It was ranked as the safest state in the country in January 2016, for thousands of years inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Mohawk, much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by Frances colony of New France. France ceded the territory to Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years War, for many years, the nearby colonies, especially the provinces of New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area. Settlers who held land titles granted by New York were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, ultimately, those settlers prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for 14 years, aside from the original 13 states that were formerly colonies, Vermont is one of only four U. S. states that were previously sovereign states. Vermont was also the first state to join the U. S. as its 14th member state after the original 13, while still an independent republic, Vermont was the first of any future U. S. state to partially abolish slavery. It played an important geographic role in the Underground Railroad, sights in Vermont Vermont is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States and comprises 9,614 square miles, making it the 45th-largest state. It is the state that does not have any buildings taller than 124 feet. Land comprises 9,250 square miles and water comprises 365 square miles, making it the 43rd-largest in land area, in total area, it is larger than El Salvador and smaller than Haiti. The west bank of the Connecticut River marks the eastern border with New Hampshire. 41% of Vermonts land area is part of the Connecticut Rivers watershed, Lake Champlain, the major lake in Vermont, is the sixth-largest body of fresh water in the United States and separates Vermont from New York in the northwest portion of the state. From north to south, Vermont is 159 miles long and its greatest width, from east to west, is 89 miles at the Canada–U. S. Border, the narrowest width is 37 miles at the Massachusetts line, the states geographic center is approximately three miles east of Roxbury, in Washington County. There are fifteen U. S. federal border crossings between Vermont and Canada, the origin of the name Vermont is uncertain, but likely comes from the French les Verts Monts, meaning the Green Mountains
30.
Petersburgh, New York
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Petersburgh is a town located in the northeast section of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 1,525 at the 2010 census, the town was named after an early settler named Peter Simmons. The area was settled around the middle of the 18th century and was part of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, the town was created in 1791 from the Town of Stephentown. The size of town was diminished by the formation of other towns in the county, including the Towns of Berlin and Lansingburgh in 1806. The Petersburgh United Methodist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, according to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 41.6 square miles, all land. On the east the borders on the states of Massachusetts. The Taconic Mountains cover a portion of the town. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,563 people,587 households, the population density was 37.6 people per square mile. There were 695 housing units at a density of 16.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 98. 08% White,0. 19% African American,0. 06% Native American,0. 90% Asian,0. 19% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0. 45% of the population. 21. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.07. In the town, the population was out with 26. 2% under the age of 18,6. 5% from 18 to 24,28. 3% from 25 to 44,26. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 103.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.3 males, the median income for a household in the town was $45,909, and the median income for a family was $49,125. Males had an income of $35,500 versus $25,208 for females. The per capita income for the town was $21,249, about 9. 8% of families and 12. 3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16. 8% of those under age 18 and 10. 3% of those age 65 or over. North Petersburgh – A hamlet in the part of the town on Routes 22 and 346. The U. S. Postal Service treats the name as unacceptable in mailing addresses, Petersburgh – A hamlet on Routes 2 and 22, including the town hall
31.
History of Troy, New York
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The history of Troy, New York extends back to the Mohican Indians. Troy is a city on the east bank of the Hudson River about 5 miles north of Albany in the US State of New York. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Troy area was inhabited by the Muh-he ka-ne-ok and this Algonquian-speaking people had probably lived in the area for thousands of years. The Mohican called the general Troy area Paanpack and referred to the Hudson River as Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, there were at least three clans within the tribe, Wolf, Turtle, and Turkey. Regardless, the tribe was led by one sachem. Skiwias, sometimes known as Aepjen, was sachem for some 20 years and led the tribe during the first encounters, the tribe had at least two settlements near Troy. One was either near present-day Hoosick Street or along the banks of the Poesten Kill and was called Unawatts Castle, the other was located on Peebles Island, on the west side of the Hudson, across from Lansingburgh, and was called Moenemines Castle. A third settlement may also have existed on the east side of the Hudson at Lansingburgh, the natives typically lived in domed wigwams or longhouses, and usually settled near the river or on higher ground nearby. The original Mahican homeland was the Hudson River Valley from the Catskill Mountains north to the end of Lake Champlain. It is thought that more than 8,000 Mohican inhabitants lived in the area at the time of the Dutch arrival, the land comprising the Poesten Kill and Wynants Kill areas were owned by two Mohicans. The area around the Poesten Kill was owned by Skiwias and was called Panhooseck, the area around the Wynants Kill was owned by Peyhaunet and was named Paanpack, meaning the Great Meadow. The land between the creeks, which makes up most of downtown and South Troy, was owned by Annape, South of the Wynants Kill and into present-day North Greenbush, the land was owned by Pachquolapiet. These parcels of land were sold to the Dutch between 1630 and 1657 and each purchase was overseen and signed by Skiwias, in total, more than 75 individual Mohicans were involved in deed signings. By 1708, the Mohican had sold all the land now makes up Troy. The upper Hudson River was first explored by Henry Hudson in 1609 and it is said that the Mohican greeted the newcomers excitedly, while the Mohicans coexisted peacefully with the Dutch, they had a hostile relationship with the nearby Mohawk tribe to the west. They lost another war with the Mohawks in 1666, which led many of them to move to Stockbridge, the tribes disappearance from the area is the basis of James Fenimore Coopers novel Last of the Mohicans. The first European settlement in the area was Fort Orange, a trading post built by the Dutch West India Company on the site of present-day Albany near the west bank of the North River. The fort was mainly to exploit and expand upon the thriving fur trade in the area
32.
Mohawk River
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The Mohawk River is a 149-mile-long river in the U. S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River, the Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy and it is a major waterway in north-central New York. The river and its canal, the Erie Canal, connect the Hudson River and port of New York with the Great Lakes at Buffalo. The lower part of the Mohawk River has five permanent dams, nine movable dams, Schoharie Creek and West Canada Creek are the principal tributaries of the Mohawk River. Both of these tributaries have several significant dams including the Hinckley Dam on the West Canada, the Gilboa Dam, which was completed in 1926 as part of the New York City water supply system, is the subject of an active and aggressive rehabilitation project. The Mohawk Valley allowed easier passage than going over the mountains to the north or south of the valley, as a result, it was strategically important during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, and a number of important battles were fought here. The fertile Mohawk Valley also attracted early settlers, in the early nineteenth century water transport was a vital means of transporting both people and goods. A corporation was formed to build the Erie Canal off the Mohawk River to Lake Erie, the canal cut shipping costs to Lake Erie by 95%. It also simplified and reduced the difficulties of westward settler migration, the Mohawk Valley still plays an important role in transportation. Railroads followed the Water Level Route, as did major east-west roads such as Route 5, the Mohawk River Heritage Corridor Commission was created to preserve and promote the natural and historic assets of the Mohawk River. This commission was created by the NY State Legislature in 1997 to improve historic preservation along the river, the Mohawk watershed drains a large section of the Catskill Mountains, the Mohawk Valley proper, and a section of the southern Adirondack Mountains. All three regions have distinct geology, and the underlying rocks become progressively younger to the south. Overall, this part of New York is represented by lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks that overlie the Grenville-aged metamorphic rocks of the Adirondacks. In the watershed, these rocks are only significant in the headwaters of the West Canada Creek, much of the main trunk of the Mohawk River sits in Cambro-Ordovician carbonates and Middle Ordovician sandstones and shales. The southern tributaries are underlain by a sequence of Devonian limestones that are overlain by a thick sequence of sandstones and shale of the Catskill Delta. During the Pleistocene, the watershed was extensively modified by continental glaciation, as a result of glacial scour and deposition, the surficial deposits in much of the watershed are poorly sorted boulder- and clay-rich glacial till. During deglaciation, several glacial lakes left varved clay deposits, in the final stages of deglaciation, approximately 13,350 years ago, the catastrophic draining of Glacial Lake Iroquois, a pro-glacial lake, was through what would become the modern Mohawk Valley
33.
North Greenbush, New York
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North Greenbush is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. North Greenbush is located in the part of the county. The population was 12,075 at the 2010 census, the town has three main hamlets, Wynantskill in the northwestern corner, Defreestville in the southern portion of the town, and Snyders Lake which occupies the majority of the towns east end. Both have strong identities and hinder efforts by the town to have a centralized identity. Also hindering a unified town image is that North Greenbush consists of parts of four different school districts, only one of which carries the towns name, North Greenbush was created on February 23,1855 from the town of Greenbush at the same time as the town of Clinton. At this time North Greenbush occupied more than what it today, it also covered what is now the northern section of the city of Rensselaer. The earliest settlers, in the early 1620s settled in Bath, some settlement in what is today North Greenbush may have occurred in the 17th century as well, but most significant early settlement occurred just prior to the US Revolutionary War. Early settlements in the town were at Bath, Wynantskill, in 1874 Bath became incorporated as a village, and in 1902 it was annexed to Rensselaer. De Freest and family who owned a tavern there, Defreestville and Wynantskill continue to be important hamlets in the town. Snyders Lake would in the 20th century also become an important community, Snyders Lake was developed as summer residences and continues to lack a central business district. In 1931 the road between Troy and East Greenbush was widened and the right-of-way straightened as US Route 4, the older, narrower, winding residential parts of the road were bypassed and is todays Bloomingrove Drive. Starting in the 1940s and 50s suburban growth along Route 4 would begin to displace farms and this suburban growth would be encouraged by the construction of Interstate 90 and the Patroon Island Bridge in the 1960s making North Greenbush an easy commute to Albany. I-90 would not have an exit to North Greenbush until 1996 though. In the 1970s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute began developing the RPI Tech Park on Route 4 as a business incubator, today it has over 1,000,000 square feet of office space. A connector highway will eventually also go from Exit 8 parallel to US4 north through the RPI Tech Park, not all suburban growth has been well received in the town however. In the late 1990s the RPI Tech Park became the focus of regional, the RPI Tech Park site originally met little opposition from the town. But as time progressed opposition grew in response to concerns about impacts on traffic. Another instance of NIMBY opposition to development occurred after the construction of I-90s Exit 8 when that location became well-primed for commercial development, local developer Frank Nigro with Nigro Company proposed a high-end shopping center for the north-east corner of the intersection of routes 4 and 43
34.
Dutch Republic
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It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles
35.
Manor of Rensselaerswyck
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The estate was originally deeded by the Dutch West India Company in 1630 to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant and one of the companys original directors. Rensselaerswyck extended for miles on side of the Hudson River near present-day Albany. It included most of what are now the present New York counties of Albany and Rensselaer, as well as parts of Columbia, under the terms of the patroonship, the patroon had nearly total jurisdictional authority, establishing civil and criminal law, villages, a church. Tenant farmers were allowed to work on the land, but had to pay rent to the owners, in addition, the Rensselaers harvested timber from the property. The patroonship was maintained intact by Rensselaer descendants for more than two centuries and it was split up after the death of its last patroon, Stephen van Rensselaer III in 1839. At his death, van Rensselaers land holdings made him the tenth-richest American in history to date, the manor was split between Stephen IIIs sons, Stephen IV and William. Tenant farmers began protesting the feudal system and their anti-rent movement was eventually successful, Stephen IV and William sold off most of their land, ending the patroonship in the 1840s. For length of operations, it was the most successful patroonship established under the West India Company system and this established a Dutch presence in the area, formally called New Netherland. In June 1620, the Dutch West India Company was established by the States-General, in 1630, the managers of the West India Company, in order to attract capitalists to the colony, offered certain exclusive privileges to the members of the company. The only restriction was that the colony had to be outside the island of Manhattan, to meet such cases, the West India Company adopted the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions for the agricultural colonization of its American province. The chief features of this charter stated that lands for each colony could extend 16 miles in length if confined to one side of a river or 8 miles if both sides were occupied. Additionally, the lands could extend into the countryside and even be enlarged if more immigrants were to settle there, each patroon would have the chief command within their respective patroonship, having the sole rights to fish and hunt. If a city were to be founded within its boundaries, the patroon would have the power and authority to establish officers, each patroonship was free of taxes and tariffs for ten years following its founding. Colonists of a patroonship were limited by the West India Company in some instances, for example, fur trading was illegal for colonists, it was reserved as a Company monopoly. But, patroonships had the right to trade anywhere from Newfoundland to Florida, each patroon was required to satisfy the Indians of that place for the land, implying that the land must be bought from the local Indians, and not just taken. Additionally, the Company agreed to all colonists, whether free or in service, from all aggressors. For longer time than it shall see fit, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a pearl and diamond merchant of Amsterdam, was one of the original directors of the West India Company and one of the first to take advantage of the new settlement charter. This took place even before the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was ratified, on April 8,1630, a representative for van Rensselaer purchased a large tract of land from its American Indian owners adjacent to Fort Orange, on the west side of the Hudson River
36.
Patroonship
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In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, the Dutch West India Company first started to grant this title and these inducements to foster colonization and settlement are the basis for the patroon system. In 1775, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, primogeniture and feudal tenure were abolished and thus patroons and manors evolved into simply large estates subject to division and leases. The deeded tracts were called patroonships and could span 16 miles in length on one side of a major river, in 1640 the charter was revised to cut new plot sizes in half, and to allow any Dutch American in good standing to purchase an estate. The title of patroon came with powerful rights and privileges, a patroon could create civil and criminal courts, appoint local officials and hold land in perpetuity. As tenants working for the patroon, these first settlers were relieved of the duty of public taxes for ten years, a patroonship sometimes had its own village and other infrastructure, including churches. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the system continued with the granting of large tracts known as manors, the largest and most successful patroonship in New Netherland was the Manor of Rensselaerswijck, established by Kiliaen van Rensselaer. Rensselaerswijck covered almost all of present-day Albany and Rensselaer counties and parts of present-day Columbia, Manor of Rensselaerswyck and Lower Manor at Claverack. Zwaanendael - Samuel Blommaert and Samuel Godyn, abandoned after being decimated by indigenous population, pavonia - Michael Reyniersz Pauw, re-sold to the West India Company becoming a company-managed holding. Staaten Eylandt - Cornelis Melyn, mired in conflict with Raritan tribe, achter Col, aborted at the outset of Kiefts War. Colen Donck - Adriaen van der Donck Bronx - Jonas Bronck Vriessendael - David Pietersen de Vries Bentley Manor - Christopher Billopp, ethnic Dutch, who were still a substantial part of the population, resented the change and moved mostly toward the cause of the Independence movement. After the war, the newly recognized New York State government refused to overturn the law, Rensselaerswijck was dismantled in the early 19th century after its last sole proprietor died. Two sons split the property and, after tenant farmers gained the right to refuse to pay rent, the land was organized as different counties and towns in New Yorks Capital District
37.
Homer
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Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
38.
Iliad
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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
39.
Brunswick, New York
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Brunswick is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, in the United States. The municipality was settled in the early 18th century. During its history, it had part of Albany County, Rensselaerswyck. It is bordered on the west by the city of Troy, on the north by Schaghticoke and Pittstown, on the east by Grafton, the population was 11,941 at the 2010 census. The source of the name is not certain, though some claim it comes from the source of its first inhabitants from the province of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Germany. The town was agricultural, but began experiencing suburban sprawl in the later decades of the 20th century. Historically, most of the developments have occurred around the two major thoroughfares, New York Route 7 and New York Route 2, known locally as Hoosick Road and Brunswick Road. Brunswick became a place to settle in upon the completion of the local highway system in the Capital District. Brunswick is the domicile of U. S, the first settlement in Brunswick dates to 1711 to 1715 at Haynersville. In the records, Haynersville was first called simply Hosek Road, the Hoosick Road was a vital link to the then frontier settlement at Hoosick, and which formed a link to both Bennington, Vermont and Williamstown. Until the 1790s, the government at Albany claimed Vermont, german Palatines had settled in Livingstons Manor, south of Rensselaers Manor. Adam Freiderich, Georg Shaffer, Phillip Kelmer, Stephen Froelich, Andreas Bergman, Ludowig W. Schmidt, schneider, were in an initial group prior to 1715, and Coenraet Ham, Jans Witbeck and Hans Jury Kolemer, came in 1715. The last named individual settled within the manor and therefore within the town, paul Dirk and Peter Ham were the first settlers of Center Brunswick. Paul Derricks manor farm still stands as the section of the farmhouse at 936 Hoosick Road. Of the earliest church records for the Gilead Lutheran Church, consisting of several dated receipts and their first minister, Peter Nicholas Sommer, began his ministry at Haynersville and adjoining areas in 1743. In the 1740s and 1750s, van Rensselaer as patroon of the manor gave land for the erection of a church, and for the support of a minister at Hosek Road. Barnett concludes that more than twenty years before 1769 roughly corresponds to Sommers appointment as minister, and it was referred to as the log church, and was probably a simple structure. From this beginning there was an increase, but not without conflict, one particularly notorious incident was the burning of Hoosick, outside Brunswick, by the French in August 1754
40.
Grafton, New York
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Grafton is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 2,130 at the 2010 census and it is believed that the town received its name from Grafton, Vermont, from where the first town supervisor, Nathaniel Dumbleton, was originally from. The town is a town near the north-central part of the county. NY Route 2 passes across the town, Grafton is notable for having a Peace Pagoda, built by Nipponzan Myohoji buddhist order in 1993. The town of Grafton was originally a part of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, the first settlements are not clear from the ca. As part of Rennesselaerswyck, the first inhabitants were renters of that estate, the question of the first settlement of Grafton has never been settled. The names of the first white men who built new homes in the wilderness, in all probability, however, the town was the last in Rensselaer County to be settled. Grafton was formed from the towns of Troy and Petersburgh on March 20,1807, Abel Owen is generally believed to have been the first man to enter the rather unattractive mountain wilderness and build himself a home. Owen was not long without neighbors, if indeed there were not one or more located in that vicinity when he built his log house. There is nothing to show when Mr. Owen moved to Grafton, possibly it was several years later, during that war or at its close. Abel Owen is recorded as a Revolutionary soldier, so that the preponderance of opinion is that no settlements were made in the town until the years of the war or later. Perhaps those who locacted there in the years mentioned accompanied Owen, about 1786 the latter had at least two or three neighbors, families names Coon and Demmon being early lessees of the patroons lands. About 1796 Abel own sold his farm to Lemuel Steward and removed with his family to Onondaga County, the first town meeting was held soon after the organization, on the first Tuesday of April,1807 at the house of Nathan Hakes. Two taverns are mentioned by authorities as the earliest in town. One was located at East Grafton and was built and maintained by Thomas Scriven, the tavern of S. McChesney was opened about the year 1800. The Grafton House was built about 1838 by Stephen Van Rensselaer and it was the most pretentious affair in the town and for many years one of the most prominent taverns in the central part of the county. About the year 1800 Josiah Litchfield opened a store at Quackenkill. S. McChesney, in addition to his tavern, also kept a store at Quackenkill
41.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
42.
Stephen Van Rensselaer
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Stephen Van Rensselaer III was a New York landowner, businessman, militia officer, and politician. A graduate of Harvard University, at age 21, Van Rensselaer took control of Rensselaerswyck, active in politics as a Federalist, Van Rensselaer served in the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate, and as Lieutenant Governor of New York. After the demise of the Federalist Party, Van Rensselaer was a John Quincy Adams supporter, Van Rensselaer was a supporter of higher education, he served on the board of trustees for several schools and colleges, and was the founder of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was also a civic activist and philanthropist, and was a founder of Albanys public library, after Van Rensselaers 1839 death, efforts by his sons to collect past due lease payments led to the Anti-Rent War, and the break up and sale of the manor. His mother was Catharina Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and his family was very wealthy, and the Van Rensselaer Manor House was a rich childhood environment for the young boy to grow up in. However, his father died in 1769 when Van Rensselaer was only five, Van Rensselaer was raised by his mother and stepfather, the Rev. Eilardus Westerlo, whom his mother married in 1775, and his Livingston grandfather. His uncle, Abraham Ten Broeck, administered the Van Rensselaer estate after the death of Van Rensselaers father. At an early age, Van Rensselaer was raised to succeed his father as lord of the manor, stephens younger brother Philip S. Van Rensselaer, later served as Mayor of Albany from 1799 to 1816 and again from 1819 to 1820. On his 21st birthday, Van Rensselaer took possession of Rensselaerswyck, his familys 1,200 square mile estate, Van Rensselaer desired to profit from the land, but was extremely reluctant to sell it off. This meant that they could invest more in their operations, which led to increased productivity in the area, over time, Van Rensselaer became landlord to more than 80,000 tenants. One facet of the leases Van Rensselaer granted was the quarter-sale -- tenants who sold their leases were required to pay Van Rensselaer one fourth of the price or one additional years rent. Over time, this requirement became a point of contention between Van Rensselaer and the tenants, which in part led to the Anti-Rent War. In 1791, Van Rensselaer was one of the incorporators of the Albany Library, which evolved over time into the Albany Public Library, in the First Census of the United States in 1790, it was noted that he owned fifteen slaves. By the time of the 1830 Census, he had none, in keeping with New Yorks gradual emancipation law, in 1797, Van Rensselaer was an organizer of the Albany and Schenectady Turnpike Company, and served on its board of directors. A Federalist, Van Rensselaer was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1789 to 1791, and he was Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1795 to 1801, elected with Governor John Jay. Van Rensselaer, over his time in politics, acquired a reputation as something of a reformer, voting in favor of extending suffrage and going against much of New Yorks upper class in doing so. In 1801, Van Rensselaer was the Federalist nominee for Governor of New York and he was one of the first to advocate for a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and was appointed to a commission to investigate the route in 1810. Van Rensselaer served on the Erie Canal Commission for 23 years, in 1821, he was a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention
43.
Samuel Wilson
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Samuel Wilson was a meat packer from Troy, New York whose name is purportedly the source of the personification of the United States known as Uncle Sam. Samuel was born in the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, to parents Edward. Samuel Wilson is a descendant of one of the oldest families of Boston, through direct heritance of his grandfather, Robert Wilson, originally from Greenock, Scotland, he was Scottish with a Massachusetts background. As a boy, he moved with his family to Mason, in 1789, at the age of 22, Samuel and his older brother Ebeneezer, age 27, relocated, by foot, to Troy, New York. The Wilson brothers were amongst the first pioneer settlers of the community, Troy, New York was attractive to earlier settlers for its proximity to the Hudson River. Samuel and his brother Ebeneezer partnered together and built several successful businesses, both were employees of the city as well as successful entrepreneurs. Samuel returned to Mason, New Hampshire in 1797, to marry Betsey Mann, Samuel and Betsey were parents to four children, Polly, Samuel, Benjamin, and Albert. Benjamin Wilson was the child to have children. He married Mary Wood, and together they were parents to Sarah, Elizabeth, Emma, Albert married Amanda but they had no children. While living in Mason, New Hampshire, at the age of fifteen. His duties while enlisted consisted of guarding and caring for cattle, guarding meat was a priority during the war. It was not uncommon for enemies to tamper with and poison food sources, samuel’s service to the Revolutionary Army most likely came to an end around October 19,1781 with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. After his relocation to Troy, New York, Samuel drew upon his prosperous location and he purchased property on Mount Ida, closely located to the Hudson River. The combination of elements produced exceptional clay, ideal for brick making. This began a new venture for Samuel Wilson. His bricks were the first native bricks of Troy, many historical buildings in Troy include bricks made by Wilson. This was revolutionary during the 18th century, many bricks during this period were imported from the Netherlands. On March 8,1793, Samuel and his brother Ebeneezer leased the western half of lot 112 and this was the year the Wilson brothers began E & S Wilson, which was the Wilson brothers’ introduction to the profitable meat business
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City of Troy
