1.
Invasion of Normandy
–
The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful D-Day, Allied land forces came from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Free French forces. The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, the invasion began and during the evening the remaining elements of the airborne divisions landed. Land forces used on D-Day sailed from bases along the south coast of England, Allied forces rehearsed their D-Day roles for months before the invasion. On 28 April 1944, in south Devon on the English coast,749 U. S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allied forces conducted an operation, Operation Fortitude, aimed at misleading the Germans with respect to the date. There were several leaks prior to or on D-Day, through the Cicero affair, the Germans obtained documents containing references to Overlord, but these documents lacked all detail. Double Cross agents, such as the Spaniard Juan Pujol, played an important role in convincing the German High Command that Normandy was at best a diversionary attack. After being told, Eisenhower reduced Miller to lieutenant colonel and sent him back to the U. S. where he retired, another such leak was General Charles de Gaulles radio message after D-Day. He, unlike all the leaders, stated that this invasion was the real invasion. This had the potential to ruin the Allied deceptions Fortitude North, in contrast, Gen. Eisenhower referred to the landings as the initial invasion. A full moon occurred on 6 June, Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as the date for the assault. The weather was fine during most of May, but deteriorated in early June, the Allied troop convoys already at sea were forced to take shelter in bays and inlets on the south coast of Britain for the night. It seemed possible that everything would have to be cancelled and the returned to their embarkation camps. The next full moon period would be nearly a month away, at a vital meeting on 5 June, Eisenhowers chief meteorologist forecast a brief improvement for 6 June. Commander of all forces for the invasion General Bernard Montgomery. Commander of the Allied Air Forces Air Chief Marshal Leigh Mallory was doubtful, on the strength of Staggs forecast, Eisenhower ordered the invasion to proceed. As a result, prevailing overcast skies limited Allied air support, some troops stood down and many senior officers were away for the weekend
Invasion of Normandy
–
Into the Jaws of Death by
Robert F. Sargent. Assault craft land one of the first waves at
Omaha Beach. The
U.S. Coast Guard caption identifies the unit as Company E,
16th Infantry,
1st Infantry Division.
Invasion of Normandy
–
U.S. soldiers march through Weymouth, Dorset en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France.
Invasion of Normandy
–
D-day assault routes into Normandy.
Invasion of Normandy
–
Off Omaha Beach, American Liberty ships –
'Corn Cobs' were scuttled to provide a makeshift breakwater during the early days of the invasion.
2.
Kedge anchor
–
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα. Anchors can either be temporary or permanent, permanent anchors are used in the creation of a mooring, and are rarely moved, a specialist service is normally needed to move or maintain them. Vessels carry one or more anchors, which may be of different designs. A sea anchor is a drogue, not in contact with the seabed, used to control a drifting vessel, anchors achieve holding power either by hooking into the seabed, or via sheer mass, or a combination of the two. Permanent moorings use large masses resting on the seabed, semi-permanent mooring anchors and large ships anchors derive a significant portion of their holding power from their mass, while also hooking or embedding in the bottom. Modern anchors for smaller vessels have metal flukes which hook on to rocks on the bottom or bury themselves in soft seabed, the vessel is attached to the anchor by the rode, which is made of chain, cable, rope, or a combination of these. A10,1 scope gives the greatest holding power, Anchoring with sufficient scope and/or heavy chain rode brings the direction of strain close to parallel with the seabed. If necessary, motoring slowly around the location of the anchor also helps dislodge it, anchors are sometimes fitted with a tripping line attached to the crown, by which they can be unhooked from rocks or coral. The term aweigh describes an anchor when it is hanging on the rope and is not resting on the bottom and this is linked to the term to weigh anchor, meaning to lift the anchor from the sea bed, allowing the ship or boat to move. An anchor is described as aweigh when it has broken out of the bottom and is being hauled up to be stowed. Aweigh should not be confused with under way, which describes a vessel which is not moored to a dock or anchored, the earliest anchors were probably rocks, and many rock anchors have been found dating from at least the Bronze Age. Pre-European Maori waka used one or more hollowed stones, tied with flax ropes, many modern moorings still rely on a large rock as the primary element of their design. However, using pure mass to resist the forces of a storm only works well as a permanent mooring, the ancient Greeks used baskets of stones, large sacks filled with sand, and wooden logs filled with lead. According to Apollonius Rhodius and Stephen of Byzantium, anchors were formed of stone, such anchors held the vessel merely by their weight and by their friction along the bottom. Iron was afterwards introduced for the construction of anchors, and an improvement was made by forming them with teeth, or flukes, the Admiralty Pattern, A. P. or simply Admiralty, and also known as Fisherman, is the anchor shape most familiar to non-sailors. It consists of a shank with a ring or shackle for attaching the rode. At the other end of the shank there are two arms, carrying the flukes, while the stock is mounted to the other end, when the anchor lands on the bottom, it will generally fall over with the arms parallel to the seabed
Kedge anchor
–
Anchor in front of the
Chamber of Commerce of
port city Duisburg.
Kedge anchor
–
Anchor of the
Amoco Cadiz in
Portsall, north-west
Brittany, France
Kedge anchor
–
An Admiralty Pattern anchor
Kedge anchor
–
Stockless anchor
3.
Philadelphia Navy Yard
–
The Navy Yard, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Naval Business Center, was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries. It is now an industrial park that includes a commercial shipyard. Philadelphias original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street, the new, much larger yard grew up around facilities begun in 1871 on League Island at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. The United States Navy ended most of its activities there in the 1990s, and in 2000, the Navy still has a Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility and a few engineering activities at the site. The yard has its origins in a shipyard on Philadelphias Front Street on the Delaware River that was founded in 1776, from 1812 till 1865 it was a big production center. The first ship which was launched to the water was vessel Franklin and this event was watched by more than 50,000 spectators. The rapid development of shipbuilding companies pledged Philadelphia to improve production processes. It was the first shipyard in the world which used floating dry docks in the process to improve an operating time of the ships. After the advent of ironclad warships made the site obsolete, new facilities were built in 1871 on League Island at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. After first making a request to the Secretary of the Navy via shipyard Commandant Commodore James Barron, on August 29,1835 they appealed directly to President Andrew Jackson, there is no probability they will secede from their demands. Rodegier, David R. and Foner, Sheldon Our Own Time, A History of American Labor, Naval Aircraft Factory was established at the League Island site in 1917. Just after World War I, a 350-ton capacity hammerhead crane was ordered for the yard, manufactured in 1919 by the McMyler-Interstate Company in Bedford, Ohio, the crane was called the League Island Crane by its builder. Weighing 3,500 tons, the crane was shipped to the yard in sections, the League Island Crane was for many years the Navys largest crane. Mustin Field opened at the Naval Aircraft Factory in 1926 and operated until 1963, the shipyards greatest period came in World War II, when the yard employed 40,000 people who built 53 ships and repaired 574. During this period, the built the famed battleship New Jersey and its 45, 000-ton sister ship. In the Naval Laboratory Philip Abelson developed the thermal diffusion technique for separating U-235 for the Manhattan Project. After the war, the workforce dropped to 12,000, the yard built its last new ship, the command ship Blue Ridge, in 1970. The yards closure was originally recommended in 1991 by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, as a result of foreign competition, the planned closing was unsuccessfully litigated to the US Supreme Court in Dalton v. Specter
Philadelphia Navy Yard
–
Reserve Fleet in Philadelphia in 1955
Philadelphia Navy Yard
–
The Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Navy Yard
–
The "League Island Crane" with Clemson -class destroyer
USS Lamson in the foreground.
Philadelphia Navy Yard
–
Guns from battleships being scrapped in
Philadelphia Navy Yard in December 1923.
USS South Carolina being dismantled in the background.
4.
Battle star
–
The service star may also be referred to as a campaign star or battle star depending on which award is authorized the star and the manner in which the device is used for the award. Service stars, Campaign stars, and Battle stars are worn with one point of the star pointing up on the ribbon of a medal. A silver star is worn instead of five bronze stars, a service star is sometimes mistaken for a Bronze Star or Silver Star. The service star is similar to the gold and silver 5⁄16 Inch Stars which may be authorized to be worn on specific individual decorations of certain services to denote additional decorations. Service stars are authorized for the following United States expeditionary medals, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Navy Expeditionary Medal, Service stars are also authorized for the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal effective February 9,2015 retroactive to September,11,2001. Each star represents a deployment in support of an approved GWOT operation, only one GWOT-EM is awarded for each operation. The five GWOT-EM approved operations by inclusive dates are, Enduring Freedom,11,2001 - TBD Iraqi Freedom, Mar.19,2003 - Aug.31, 2010Nomad Shadow, Nov.05,2007 - TBD New Dawn, Sep. 01,2010 - Dec.31,2011 Inherent Resolve, the bronze service star is also authorized for certain unit awards such as the Presidential Unit Citation to denote a second and subsequent award. The service ribbon itself indicates the first award, with a service star being added to indicate the second. If ever applicable, a service star is worn instead of five bronze stars. As a result, at least one star will be worn on the ribbon. However, though authorized for wear, no battle stars have been approved for wear, only a combatant commander can initiate a request for a battle star. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the approving authority, only one award of the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and one award of the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal may be authorized for any individual. The specific manner of wear and symbolism of the stars varied from medal to medal, for example, an American Campaign Medal with a bronze service star indicated the service member had participated in an antisubmarine campaign. On other medals, bronze service stars were used on the service ribbon for those recipients of medals in possession of authorized campaign claps for those medals. Similarly, during the Vietnam War and afterwards, the Battle Effectiveness Award took the place of receiving battle stars for superior battle efficiency in place of combat operations. Awards and decorations of the United States military United States military award devices 5/16 inch star Oak leaf cluster United States award regulations for World War II
Battle star
–
Bronze and Silver Service Stars
5.
Museum ship
–
A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the number of museum ships that are still operational. Many, if not most, museum ships are also associated with a maritime museum, only a few survive, sometimes because of historical significance, but more often due to luck and circumstance. The restoration and maintenance of museum ships presents problems for historians who are asked for advice, for instance, the rigging of sailing ships has almost never survived, and so the rigging plan must be reconstructed from various sources. Studying the ships also allows historians to analyze how life on and operation of the ships took place, numerous scientific papers have been written on ship restoration and maintenance, and international conferences are held discussing the latest developments. Another consideration is the distinction between a museum ship, and a ship replica. As repairs accumulate over time, less and less of the ship is of the materials. Visitors without historical background are often unable to distinguish between a historical museum ship and a ship replica, which may serve solely as a tourist attraction. Typically the visitor enters via gangplank, wanders around on the deck, then goes below, usually using the original stairways, giving a sense of how the crew got around. The interior features restored but inactivated equipment, enhanced with mementos including old photographs, explanatory displays, pages from the logs, menus. Some add recorded sound effects, audio tours or video displays to enhance the experience, in some cases, the ships radio room has been brought back into use, with volunteers operating amateur radio equipment. Often, the callsign assigned is a variation on the identification of the ship. For example, the submarine USS Cobia, which had the call NBQV, is now on the air as NB9QV. The World War II submarine USS Pampanito, berthed at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, had the wartime call NJVT and is now on the air as NJ6VT, in other cases, such as the USS Missouri, a distinctive call is used. This radio work not only helps restore part of the vessel, a number of the larger museum ships have begun to offer hosting for weddings, meetings, other events, and sleepovers, and on a few ships still seaworthy, cruises. In the United States, this includes the USS Constitutions annual turnaround, a place on the deck is by invitation or lottery only, and highly prized. Many consider the appeal of an interesting old vessel on the city waterfront strong enough that any port city should showcase one or more museum ships. This may even include building a ship at great expense
Museum ship
–
The
Polish destroyer
ORP Błyskawica is currently preserved as a museum ship in
Gdynia.
Museum ship
–
Former crew members of
USS Missouri pose for photos after the Anniversary of the End of World War II ceremony.
Museum ship
–
The 17th-century warship
Vasa on display in the
Vasa Museum
6.
Evansville, Indiana
–
Evansville is a city in and the county seat of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 117,429 at the 2010 census, the 38th parallel crosses the north side of the city and is marked on Interstate 69. Situated on an oxbow in the Ohio River, the city is referred to as the Crescent Valley or River City. As testament to the Ohios grandeur, early French explorers named it La Belle Riviere, the area has been inhabited by various cultures for millennia, dating back at least 10,000 years. Angel Mounds was a permanent settlement of the Mississippian culture from 1000 AD to around 1400 AD, the city itself was founded in 1812. The broad economic base of the region has helped build an economy which is known for its stability, diversity, Four NYSE companies are headquartered in Evansville, along with the global operations center for NYSE company Mead Johnson. Three other companies traded on the NASDAQ are also headquartered in Evansville, the city is home to public and private enterprise in many areas, as Evansville serves as the economic hub of the region. The city has well known educational institutions. Other local educational institutions have also garnered praise and attention, including nationally ranked Signature School, in 2008, Evansville was voted the best city in the country in which to live, work, and play by the readers of Kiplinger, and in 2009 the 11th best. See main article, History of Evansville, Indiana, there was a continuous human presence in the area that became Evansville from at least 8,000 BC by Paleo-Indians. Following the abandonment of Angel Mounds between the years 1400 and 1450, tribes of Miami, Shawnee, Piankeshaw, Wyandot, Delaware, the land encompassing Evansville was formally relinquished by the Delaware in 1805 to General William Henry Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory. French hunters and trappers were among the first Europeans to come to the area, on March 27,1812, Hugh McGary Jr. purchased about 441 acres and named it McGarys Landing. In 1814, to more people, McGary renamed his village Evansville in honor of Colonel Robert Morgan Evans. Evansville incorporated in 1817 and became a county seat on January 7,1818, the county was named for Henry Vanderburgh, a deceased chief judge of the Indiana territorial supreme court. Evansville soon became a commercial town with an extensive river trade. The west side of Evansville was for many years cut off from the part of the city by Pigeon Creek. The land comprising the town of Lamasco was platted in 1837 and was ultimately annexed in 1870. The project was intended to open Indiana to commerce and improve transportation from New Orleans to New York City, unfortunately the project bankrupted the state and was so poorly engineered that it would not hold water
Evansville, Indiana
–
Downtown Evansville at nightfall
Evansville, Indiana
–
Robert Morgan Evans
Evansville, Indiana
–
P-47 Thunderbolt
Evansville, Indiana
–
The downtown riverfront area features tiered stadium seating for special events and fireworks along the Ohio River.
7.
LST-1 class tank landing ship
–
This provided amphibious assaults to almost any beach. The bow of the LST had a door that would open with a ramp for unloading the vehicles. The LST had a flat keel that allowed the ship to be beached. The twin propellers and rudders had protection from grounding, the LSTs served across the globe during World War II including, Pacific War and European theatre. The first tank landing ships were built to British requirements by converting existing ships, then the British, over 1,000 LSTs were laid down in the United States during World War II for use by the Allies. Eighty more were built in the United Kingdom and Canada, as an interim measure, three 4, 000- to 4, 800-GRT tankers, built to pass over the restrictive bars of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, were selected for conversion because of their shallow draft. Bow doors and ramps were added to ships, which became the first tank landing ships, LST, HMS Misoa, Tasajera. They later proved their worth during the invasion of Algeria in 1942, the first purpose-built LST design was HMS Boxer. It was a design from ideas penned by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In order that it could carry 13 Churchill infantry tanks,27 other vehicles and nearly 200 men at a speed of 18 knots, as a result, each of the three ordered in March 1941 had a very long ramp stowed behind the bow doors. The three ships were converted to Fighter Direction Ships for the invasion of Normandy, the U. S. were to build seven LST but in light of the problems with the design and progress with the LCT Mark II the plans were canceled. Construction of the LCTs took until 1943 and the first US LCT was launched before them, at their first meeting at the Atlantic conference in Argentia, Newfoundland, in August 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill confirmed the Admiraltys views. During this meeting, it was decided that the Bureau of Ships would design these vessels, as with the standing agreement, these ships would be built by the US so British shipyards could concentrate on building vessels for the Royal Navy. The specifications called for vessels capable of crossing the Atlantic, calling a vessel 300 ft long a craft was considered a misnomer and the type was re-christened Landing Ship, Tank, or LST. The LST design incorporated elements of the first British LCTs from their designer, Sir Rowland Baker, one of the elements provided for sufficient buoyancy in the ships sidewalls so that they would float the ship even when the tank deck was flooded. The LST gave up the speed of HMS Boxer, at only 10 knots, within a few days, John C. Niedermair of the Bureau of Ships sketched out an awkward looking ship that proved to be the design for the more than 1,000 LST that were built during World War II. An anchor and mechanical winch system also aided in the ability to pull itself off the beach
LST-1 class tank landing ship
–
A
Canadian LST off-loads an
M4 Sherman during the
Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.
LST-1 class tank landing ship
–
Bren Gun Carriers being loaded at Bone Harbour through the bow doors of HMS Bachaquero
LST-1 class tank landing ship
–
Boxer as Fighter Direction Ship
LST-1 class tank landing ship
–
LST-942 underway soon after completion, late in 1944
8.
Tank landing ship
–
This provided amphibious assaults to almost any beach. The bow of the LST had a door that would open with a ramp for unloading the vehicles. The LST had a flat keel that allowed the ship to be beached. The twin propellers and rudders had protection from grounding, the LSTs served across the globe during World War II including, Pacific War and European theatre. The first tank landing ships were built to British requirements by converting existing ships, then the British, over 1,000 LSTs were laid down in the United States during World War II for use by the Allies. Eighty more were built in the United Kingdom and Canada, as an interim measure, three 4, 000- to 4, 800-GRT tankers, built to pass over the restrictive bars of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, were selected for conversion because of their shallow draft. Bow doors and ramps were added to ships, which became the first tank landing ships, LST, HMS Misoa, Tasajera. They later proved their worth during the invasion of Algeria in 1942, the first purpose-built LST design was HMS Boxer. It was a design from ideas penned by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In order that it could carry 13 Churchill infantry tanks,27 other vehicles and nearly 200 men at a speed of 18 knots, as a result, each of the three ordered in March 1941 had a very long ramp stowed behind the bow doors. The three ships were converted to Fighter Direction Ships for the invasion of Normandy, the U. S. were to build seven LST but in light of the problems with the design and progress with the LCT Mark II the plans were canceled. Construction of the LCTs took until 1943 and the first US LCT was launched before them, at their first meeting at the Atlantic conference in Argentia, Newfoundland, in August 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill confirmed the Admiraltys views. During this meeting, it was decided that the Bureau of Ships would design these vessels, as with the standing agreement, these ships would be built by the US so British shipyards could concentrate on building vessels for the Royal Navy. The specifications called for vessels capable of crossing the Atlantic, calling a vessel 300 ft long a craft was considered a misnomer and the type was re-christened Landing Ship, Tank, or LST. The LST design incorporated elements of the first British LCTs from their designer, Sir Rowland Baker, one of the elements provided for sufficient buoyancy in the ships sidewalls so that they would float the ship even when the tank deck was flooded. The LST gave up the speed of HMS Boxer, at only 10 knots, within a few days, John C. Niedermair of the Bureau of Ships sketched out an awkward looking ship that proved to be the design for the more than 1,000 LST that were built during World War II. An anchor and mechanical winch system also aided in the ability to pull itself off the beach
Tank landing ship
–
A
Canadian LST off-loads an
M4 Sherman during the
Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.
Tank landing ship
–
Bren Gun Carriers being loaded at Bone Harbour through the bow doors of HMS Bachaquero
Tank landing ship
–
Boxer as Fighter Direction Ship
Tank landing ship
–
LST-942 underway soon after completion, late in 1944
9.
General Motors
–
With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States, GM manufactures cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008,8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under various brands, current auto brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, and Wuling. Former GM automotive brands include McLaughlin, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall, the company was founded by William C. Durant on September 16,1908 as a holding company. The company was the largest automobile manufacturer from 1931 through 2007, in addition to brands selling assembled vehicles, GM also has had various automotive-component and non-automotive brands, many of which it divested in the 1980s through 2000s. General Motors produces vehicles in 37 countries under twelve brands, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, HSV, Opel, Vauxhall, Wuling, Baojun, Jie Fang, and Ravon. The current company, General Motors Company LLC, was formed in 2009 following the bankruptcy of General Motors Corporation, the new company purchased the majority of the assets of the old GM, including the brand General Motors. In addition to its twelve brands, General Motors also holds a 20% stake in IMM, General Motors employs 212,000 people and does business in more than 140 countries. General Motors is divided into five segments, GM North America, Opel Group, GM International Operations, GM South America. General Motors led global vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer any other automaker. General Motors acts in most countries outside the U. S. via wholly owned subsidiaries, GMs OnStar subsidiary provides vehicle safety, security and information services. In 2009, General Motors shed several brands, closing Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, in 2010, the reorganized GM made an initial public offering that was one of the worlds top five largest IPOs to date, and returned to profitability later that year. General Motors Corporation was formed on September 16,1908, in Flint, Michigan, GMs co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GMs creation. Over the years, Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM, and spent his life with his Mott Foundation, GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant, along with R. S. McLaughlin, lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers trust, because of the amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions. The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in the U. S. and in Canada in 1915, Durant took back control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916, merging Chevrolet with GM, shortly thereafter, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. These facilities were added to the factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland
General Motors
–
The
GM Renaissance Center in
Detroit, Michigan.
General Motors
–
General Motors Company
General Motors
–
The longest-lived continuous automobile nameplate still in production in the world is the
Chevrolet Suburban [
citation needed]
General Motors
–
GM World Headquarters in Detroit
10.
EMD 567
–
The EMD567 is a line of large medium-speed diesel engines built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. This engine, which succeeded Wintons 201A, was used in EMDs locomotives from 1938 until its replacement in 1966 by the EMD645 and it has a bore of 8 1⁄2 in, a stroke of 10 in and a displacement of 567 cu in per cylinder. Like the 201A, the EMD645 and the EMD710 and it is a V engine with an angle of 45° between cylinder banks. The 710,645, and 567 are the only two-stroke engines commonly used today in locomotives, eugene W. Kettering, son of Charles F. Kettering, joined Winton Engine in 1930. He moved to Detroit in 1936, and was a figure in the development of the 567. He moved to EMD in 1938, became Chief Engineer at EMD in 1948, then Division Director in 1956, although this power increase is not recommended, horsepower-for-horsepower updates are quite successful and common. Because of their age,567 engines are exempt from emissions rules. EMD manufactures a series of 645 power assemblies which are particularly useful in updating these exempt 567 engines. EMDs chief competitor, GE, now makes EMD-compatible replacement parts, all 567 engines are two-stroke 45 degree V-engines. The engine is a design with four poppet-type exhaust valves in the cylinder head. For maintenance, an assembly, consisting of a cylinder head, cylinder liner, piston, piston carrier. The block is made flat, formed and rolled structural steel members. Blocks may, therefore, be repaired, if required. Each bank of cylinders has a camshaft which operates the exhaust valves. The 567 is laid out with engine accessories at the forward end, the blowers and camshafts are at the rear end of the engine, with the blowers mounted above the power take off. All engines have mechanically-controlled unit injectors, see EMD645 for general specifications common to all 567-645-710 engines. All 567 engines utilize forced induction, with either a Roots blower or a turbocharger, at higher engine speeds, increased exhaust gas temperature is sufficient to drive the turbine and the clutch disengages, turning the turbo-compressor system into a true turbocharger. The turbo-compressor can revert to compressor mode momentarily during demands for large increases in output power
EMD 567
–
An EMD 16-567B on display at the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Shown in the foreground is an "exploded" Power Assembly, with the piston, piston carrier and piston rod (fork type) on the left, and the cylinder liner and cylinder head on the right.
EMD 567
–
An EMD 16-567A at the Florida Central Railroad locomotive shops
11.
Diesel engine
–
Diesel engines work by compressing only the air. This increases the air temperature inside the cylinder to such a degree that it ignites atomised diesel fuel that is injected into the combustion chamber. This contrasts with spark-ignition engines such as an engine or gas engine. In diesel engines, glow plugs may be used to aid starting in cold weather, or when the engine uses a lower compression-ratio, the original diesel engine operates on the constant pressure cycle of gradual combustion and produces no audible knock. Low-speed diesel engines can have an efficiency that exceeds 50%. Diesel engines may be designed as either two-stroke or four-stroke cycles and they were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, trucks, heavy equipment and electricity generation plants followed later, in the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the US increased. According to the British Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders, the EU average for diesel cars accounts for 50% of the total sold, including 70% in France and 38% in the UK. The worlds largest diesel engine is currently a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C Common Rail marine diesel, the definition of a Diesel engine to many has become an engine that uses compression ignition. To some it may be an engine that uses heavy fuel oil, to others an engine that does not use spark ignition. However the original cycle proposed by Rudolf Diesel in 1892 was a constant temperature cycle which would require higher compression than what is needed for compression ignition. Diesels idea was to compress the air so tightly that the temperature of the air would exceed that of combustion, to make this more clear, let it be assumed that the subsequent combustion shall take place at a temperature of 700°. Then in that case the pressure must be sixty-four atmospheres, or for 800° centigrade the pressure must be ninety atmospheres. In later years Diesel realized his original cycle would not work, Diesel describes the cycle in his 1895 patent application. Notice that there is no longer a mention of compression temperatures exceeding the temperature of combustion, now all that is mentioned is the compression must be high enough for ignition. In 1806 Claude and Nicéphore Niépce developed the first known internal combustion engine, the Pyréolophore fuel system used a blast of air provided by a bellows to atomize Lycopodium
Diesel engine
–
Diesel generator on an oil tanker
Diesel engine
–
A Diesel engine built by
MAN AG in 1906
Diesel engine
–
A
Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine working at the
Great Dorset Steam Fair
Diesel engine
–
Diesel's original 1897 engine on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany
12.
Knot (unit)
–
The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. The ISO Standard symbol for the knot is kn, the same symbol is preferred by the IEEE, kt is also common. The knot is a unit that is accepted for use with the SI. Etymologically, the term derives from counting the number of knots in the line that unspooled from the reel of a log in a specific time. 1 international knot =1 nautical mile per hour,1.852 kilometres per hour,0.514 metres per second,1.151 miles per hour,20.254 inches per second,1852 m is the length of the internationally agreed nautical mile. The US adopted the definition in 1954, having previously used the US nautical mile. The UK adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having used the UK Admiralty nautical mile. The speeds of vessels relative to the fluids in which they travel are measured in knots, for consistency, the speeds of navigational fluids are also measured in knots. Thus, speed over the ground and rate of progress towards a distant point are given in knots. Until the mid-19th century, vessel speed at sea was measured using a chip log, the chip log was cast over the stern of the moving vessel and the line allowed to pay out. Knots placed at a distance of 8 fathoms -47 feet 3 inches from each other, passed through a sailors fingers, the knot count would be reported and used in the sailing masters dead reckoning and navigation. This method gives a value for the knot of 20.25 in/s, the difference from the modern definition is less than 0. 02%. On a chart of the North Atlantic, the scale varies by a factor of two from Florida to Greenland, a single graphic scale, of the sort on many maps, would therefore be useless on such a chart. Recent British Admiralty charts have a latitude scale down the middle to make this even easier, speed is sometimes incorrectly expressed as knots per hour, which is in fact a measure of acceleration. Prior to 1969, airworthiness standards for aircraft in the United States Federal Aviation Regulations specified that distances were to be in statute miles. In 1969, these standards were amended to specify that distances were to be in nautical miles. At 11000 m, an airspeed of 300 kn may correspond to a true airspeed of 500 kn in standard conditions. Beaufort scale Hull speed, which deals with theoretical estimates of maximum speed of displacement hulls Knot count Knotted cord Metre per second Orders of magnitude Rope Kemp
Knot (unit)
–
Graphic scale from a Mercator projection world map, showing the change with latitude
13.
LCVP (United States)
–
The landing craft, vehicle, personnel or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins based on boats made for operating in swamps, more than 20,000 were built, by Higgins Industries and licensees. Typically constructed from plywood, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat could ferry a platoon-sized complement of 36 men to shore at 9 knots. Men generally entered the boat by climbing down a cargo net hung from the side of their troop transport, they exited by charging down the boats bow ramp. Satisfactory in most respects, the major drawback appeared to be that equipment had to be unloaded. However, it was put into production and service as the craft, personnel. The LCP had two gun positions at the bow. The LCP, commonly called the U-boat or the Higgins boat, was supplied to the British, to whom it was known as the R-boat. Within one month, tests of the ramp-bow Eureka boat in Lake Pontchartrain showed conclusively that successful operation of such a boat was feasible and this boat became the Landing Craft, Personnel or LCP. The machine gun positions were still at the front of the boat, the design was still not ideal, because the ramp was a bottleneck for the troops, as was the case with the British Landing Craft Assault of the year before. The next step was to fit a full-width ramp, now troops could leave en masse and a small vehicle such as a Jeep could be carried, this new version became the LCVP, or simply, the Higgins boat. The machine gun positions were moved to the rear of the boat, at just over 36 ft long and just under 11 ft wide, the LCVP was not a large craft. Powered by a 225-horsepower Diesel engine at 12 knots, it would sway in choppy seas, since its sides and rear were made of plywood, it offered limited protection from enemy fire. The Higgins boat could hold either a 36-man platoon, a jeep and its shallow draft enabled it to run up onto the shoreline, and a semi-tunnel built into its hull protected the propeller from sand and other debris. The steel ramp at the front could be lowered quickly and it was possible for the Higgins boat to swiftly disembark men and supplies, reverse itself off the beach, and head back out to the supply ship for another load within three to four minutes. If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach, the whole strategy of the war would have been different. Only a few Higgins boats have survived, often with modifications for post-War use. A remarkably preserved Higgins boat, with the original Higgins motor, was discovered in a yard in Valdez, Alaska
LCVP (United States)
–
USS Darke (APA-159)'s LCVP 18, possibly with army troops as reinforcements at
Okinawa, circa 9 to 14 April 1945.
LCVP (United States)
–
LCVP side elevation and plan
LCVP (United States)
–
U.S. Navy sailors stream
minesweeping gear behind an LCVP off
Chinnampo,
North Korea, on 5 December 1950 during the
Korean War.
LCVP (United States)
–
A replica Higgins boat plies the water near New Orleans.
14.
National Register of Historic Places
–
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
National Register of Historic Places
–
Logo used for the NRHP.
National Register of Historic Places
–
Old Slater Mill, a historic district in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the first property listed in the National Register on November 13, 1966.
National Register of Historic Places
–
The
Loren Andrus Octagon House in
Washington, Michigan has been on the NRHP since September 3, 1971.
National Register of Historic Places
–
Built in 1800 by
Samuel McIntire in
Salem, the
Stephen Phillips House is operated as a
historic house museum by
Historic New England and open for public tours.
15.
Tall Stacks
–
The sixth edition was held on October 4 through October 8,2006. After the 2009 event was cancelled a festival was scheduled for 2010. Organizers later set a date of October 3–7,2012, which was also cancelled. The first Tall Stacks festival was held in October 1988 as a part of Cincinnatis bicentennial celebration, subsequent festivals,1992, when the event expanded to four days. Attendance increased to 800,000, which was the largest attendance for any event in Cincinnati history to date,1995, when the schedule was moved up a year to prevent a near-conflict with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The event expanded to five days and 19 riverboats, the Kentucky cities added a Civil War re-enactment to the festivities, and attendance increased again to 850,000, a new record. 1999, though attendance was down, Tall Stacks 99 drew 660,000 and was named the top tourism event by the American Bus Association. Nineteen riverboats again travelled to the festival,2003, when the festival took on its current formal name and drew a record 900,000 visitors. Theme cruises were an attraction, such as wine tasting cruises, Cincinnati Zoo cruises. Musical acts included Creedence Clearwater Revisited, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, The Jayhawks, Delbert McClinton, John Hammond, Nickel Creek, B. B. King, Los Lobos, Ricky Skaggs, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and more than 150 other national, regional,2006, when 17 riverboats took part in the festival, including the Delta Queen, Belle of Louisville, General Jackson, Natchez, Mississippi Queen, and Majestic. On the Newport, Kentucky side of the river at the site of the Newport Barracks, a series of American Civil War displays were established, the US Army Corps of Engineers had displays about the river. 2009, Event was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship, denny Tall Stacks official Web site Tall Stacks Photos Tall Stacks Photos II Video Clips of Paddle Steamers at Tall Stacks 2006
Tall Stacks
–
The
Belle of Louisville,
Natchez, and
Majestic preparing for 2006 Tall Stacks
Tall Stacks
–
The Belle of Louisville docks next to the Natchez in Cincinnati for Tall Stacks.
Tall Stacks
–
Numerous river boats along the
Ohio River during the 2006 festival.
16.
Cincinnati, OH
–
Cincinnati is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio that serves as county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the side of the confluence of the Licking with the Ohio River. With a population of 298,550, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and its metropolitan statistical area is the 28th-largest in the United States and the largest centered in Ohio. The city is part of the larger Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington combined statistical area. In the 19th century, Cincinnati was an American boomtown in the heart of the country, it rivaled the larger cities in size. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was listed among the top 10 U. S and it was by far the largest city in the west. By the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads drawing off freight shipping, trade patterns had altered and Cincinnatis growth slowed considerably. Cincinnati is home to two sports teams, the Cincinnati Reds, the oldest franchise in Major League Baseball. The University of Cincinnati, founded in 1819, is one of the 50 largest in the United States, Cincinnati is known for its historic architecture. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as Paris of America, due mainly to such ambitious projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel. The original surveyor, John Filson, named it Losantiville, in 1790, Arthur St. Ethnic Germans were among the early settlers, migrating from Pennsylvania and the backcountry of Virginia and Tennessee. General David Ziegler succeeded General St. Clair in command at Fort Washington, after the conclusion of the Northwest Indian Wars and removal of Native Americans to the west, he was elected as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1802. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819, exporting pork products and hay, it became a center of pork processing in the region. From 1810 to 1830 its population tripled, from 9,642 to 24,831. Completion of the Miami and Erie Canal in 1827 to Middletown, Ohio further stimulated businesses, the city had a labor shortage until large waves of immigration by Irish and Germans in the late 1840s. The city grew rapidly over the two decades, reaching 115,000 persons by 1850. Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21,1825, the first section of the canal was opened for business in 1827. In 1827, the canal connected Cincinnati to nearby Middletown, by 1840, during this period of rapid expansion and prominence, residents of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the Queen City
Cincinnati, OH
–
Downtown Cincinnati from
Devou Park in
Covington, Kentucky
Cincinnati, OH
–
Cincinnati in 1812 with a population of 2,000
Cincinnati, OH
–
Cincinnati in 1841 with the Miami and Erie Canal in the foreground.
Cincinnati, OH
–
Cincinnati in 1862, a lithograph in
Harper's Weekly.
17.
Geographic coordinate system
–
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
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
18.
United States Navy
–
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
United States Navy
United States Navy
–
United States Navy portal
United States Navy
–
USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente during the
Quasi-War
United States Navy
–
USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere during the
War of 1812
19.
National Park Service
–
It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
National Park Service
–
In 1916, a portfolio of nine major parks was published to generate interest. Printed on each brochure was a map showing the parks and principal railroad connections.
National Park Service
–
National Park Service Arrowhead
National Park Service
–
In 1934, a series of ten postage stamps were issued to commemorate the reorganization and expansion of the National Park Service.
National Park Service
–
Grand Canyon National Park, south rim of canyon.
20.
Philadelphia
–
In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
Philadelphia
–
From top left, the Philadelphia skyline, a
statue of Benjamin Franklin, the
Liberty Bell, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia City Hall, and
Independence Hall
Philadelphia
–
An 18th century map of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia
–
Penn's Treaty with the Indians by
Benjamin West
Philadelphia
–
Benjamin Franklin, 1777
21.
Pennsylvania
–
Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
Pennsylvania
–
World's End State Park, Sullivan County
Pennsylvania
–
Flag
Pennsylvania
–
Autumn in North Branch Township,
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
–
Penn's Treaty with the Indians, by
Edward Hicks
22.
North Africa
–
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of Africa. The United Nationss definition of Northern Africa is, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the countries of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya are often collectively referred to as the Maghreb, which is the Arabic word for sunset. Egypt lies to the northeast and encompasses part of West Asia, while Sudan is situated on the edge of the Sahel, Egypt is a transcontinental country because of the Sinai Peninsula, which geographically lies in Western Asia. North Africa also includes a number of Spanish possessions, the Canary Islands and Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean northwest of the African mainland are included in considerations of the region. From 3500 BC, following the abrupt desertification of the Sahara due to changes in the Earths orbit. The Islamic influence in the area is significant, and North Africa is a major part of the Muslim world. Some researchers have postulated that North Africa rather than East Africa served as the point for the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent in the Out of Africa migration. The Atlas Mountains extend across much of Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, are part of the mountain system that also runs through much of Southern Europe. They recede to the south and east, becoming a steppe landscape before meeting the Sahara desert, the sediments of the Sahara overlie an ancient plateau of crystalline rock, some of which is more than four billion years old. Sheltered valleys in the Atlas Mountains, the Nile Valley and Delta, a wide variety of valuable crops including cereals, rice and cotton, and woods such as cedar and cork, are grown. Typical Mediterranean crops, such as olives, figs, dates and citrus fruits, the Nile Valley is particularly fertile, and most of the population in Egypt and Sudan live close to the river. Elsewhere, irrigation is essential to improve yields on the desert margins. The inhabitants of Saharan Africa are generally divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa, the Maghreb, the Nile valley. The edge of the Sahel, to the south of Egypt has mainly been inhabited by Nubians, Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber, as well as Nubians from the south. They have contributed to the Arabized Berber populations, the official language or one of the official languages in all of the countries in North Africa is Arabic. The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak Berber languages and several varieties of Arabic, the Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afroasiatic language family. The Tuareg Berber languages are more conservative than those of the coastal cities. Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with cultures, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Europeans
North Africa
–
Market of
Biskra in Algeria, 1899
North Africa
–
Northern Africa (UN subregion)
North Africa
–
The
kasbah of
Aït Benhaddou in Morocco
North Africa
–
The first
Roman emperor native to North Africa was
Septimius Severus, born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya.
23.
Gela, Sicily
–
Gela, is a city and comune in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, the largest for area and population in the islands southern coast. It is part of the Caltanissetta province, being the only comune in Italy with a population and area that exceeds those of the provinces capital. Founded by Greek colonists from Rhodes and Crete in 689 BC, in 1943 Gela was the first Italian beach reached by allies during the Invasion of Sicily from the allies. The city was founded around 688 BC by colonists from Rhodes, the city was named after the river Gela. The Greeks established many colonies in the south of what is now Italy, Gela flourished and after only a century, a group of Geloi founded the colony of Agrigento. The expansion, however, led to economic and social strain, causing the plebs to leave the city, however, the revolt was opposed by the high priest of Diana and the exiled plebs returned to Gela. For over a century no further mention is made about the politics of the city, until the ancient historians note that a tyrant, Cleander. After his death, power transferred to his brother Hippocrates, who conquered Callipoli, Leontini, Naxos, Hergetios, only Syracuse, with the help of her former colonizing city, Corinth and Corcyra, managed to escape the Gelese expansion. When Camarina, a Syracusan colony, rebelled in 492 BC, after having defeated the Syracusan army at the Heloros river, he besieged the city but was convinced to retreat in exchange for possession of Camarina. The tyrant lost his life in 491 in a battle against the Siculi, Hippocrates was succeeded by Gelo, who, in 484, conquered Syracuse and moved his seat of government there. His brother Hiero was given control over Gela, when Theron of Agrigento conquered Himera and a Carthaginian army disembarked in Sicily to counter him, he asked for help from Gela and Syracuse. Gelo and Hiero were victorious in the subsequent battle of Himera, after the death of Gelo, Hiero moved to Syracuse, leaving Gela to Polyzelos. Thenceforth the history of the city becomes uncertain, it has suggested that the citizens freed themselves from the rule of tyrants. Many of the Geloi returned from Syracuse in this period, Gela was at the head of the Sicilian league that pushed back the Athenian attempt to conquer the island in 415 BC. In 406 the Carthaginians conquered Agrigento and destroyed it, Gela asked for the help of Dionysius I of Syracuse. However, for reasons, the latter did not arrive in time and, after heroic deeds, Gela was ruined. The survivors took refuge in Syracuse, in 397 they returned home and joined Dionysius II in his struggle for freedom from the invaders, and in 383 BC they saw their independence acknowledged. Under Agathocles the city suffered again for internal strife between the population and the aristocrats
Gela, Sicily
–
A stretch of the Gelese coast with the city in the background.
Gela, Sicily
–
The Cathedral in an early 20th-century photograph.
Gela, Sicily
–
The Torre di Manfria.
Gela, Sicily
–
Province of Agrigento
24.
Salerno, Italy
–
Salerno listen is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Salerno was an independent Lombard principality in the early Middle Ages. During this time, it became the site of the first medical school in the world, later, in 1694, the city was struck by several catastrophic earthquakes and plagues. After a period of Spanish rule which would last until the 18th century, in recent history the city hosted the King of Italy, who moved from Rome in 1943 after Italy negotiated a peace with the Allies in World War II. A brief so-called government of the South was then established in the town, some of the Allied landings during Operation Avalanche occurred near Salerno. Today Salerno is an important cultural centre in Campania and Italy and has had a long, a patron saint of Salerno is Saint Matthew, the Apostle, whose relics are kept here at the crypt of Salerno Cathedral. The area of what is now Salerno has been settled since pre-historical times. We know the Oscan-Etruscan city of Irna, situated across the Irno river and this settlement represented an important base for Etruscan trade with the Greek colonies of Posidonia and Elea. It was occupied by the Samnites around the 5th century BC as consequence of the Battle of Cumae as part of the Syracusan sphere of influence. With the Roman advance in Campania, Irna began to lose its importance, being supplanted by the new Roman colony of Salernum, developing around an initial castrum. The new city, which gradually lost its function in favour of its role as a trade center, was connected to Rome by the Via Popilia. Archaeological remains, although fragmentary, suggest the idea of a flourishing, under the Emperor Diocletian, in the late 3rd century AD, Salernum became the administrative centre of the Lucania and Bruttii province. Like many coastal cities of southern Italy, Salerno initially remained untouched by the newcomers and it subsequently became part of the Duchy of Benevento. Under the Lombard dukes Salerno enjoyed the most splendid period of its history, with Arechis II, Salerno became a centre of studies with its famous Medical School. The Lombard prince ordered the city to be fortified, the Castle on the Bonadies mountain had already been built with walls, in 839 Salerno declared independence from Benevento, becoming the capital of a flourishing principality stretching out to Capua, northern Calabria and Apulia up to Taranto. The coins minted in the city circulated in all the Mediterranean, however, the stability of the Principate was continually shaken by the Saracen attacks and, most of all, by internal struggles. In 1056, one of the numerous plots led to the fall of Guaimar and his weaker son Gisulf II succeeded him, but the decline of the principality had begun. In 1077 Salerno reached its zenith but soon lost all its territory to the Normans, on 13 December 1076, the Norman conqueror Robert Guiscard, who had married Guaimar IVs daughter Sikelgaita, besieged Salerno and defeated his brother-in-law Gisulf
Salerno, Italy
–
Panorama of Salerno
Salerno, Italy
–
The Schola Medica Salernitana in a miniature from
Avicenna 's Canon.
Salerno, Italy
–
Salerno in a print from the 17th century.
Salerno, Italy
–
The Allied landing at Salerno (September 1943).
25.
Normandy Landings
–
The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected
Normandy Landings
–
Men of the
16th Infantry Regiment,
U.S. 1st Infantry Division wade ashore on
Omaha Beach on the morning of 6 June 1944.
Normandy Landings
–
Meeting of the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), 1 February 1944. Front row: Air Chief Marshal
Arthur Tedder; General
Dwight D. Eisenhower; General
Bernard Montgomery. Back row: Lieutenant General
Omar Bradley; Admiral
Bertram Ramsay; Air Chief Marshal
Trafford Leigh-Mallory; Lieutenant General
Walter Bedell Smith
Normandy Landings
–
Shoulder patches were designed for units of the fictitious
First United States Army Group under Patton.
Normandy Landings
–
Surface weather analysis map showing
weather fronts on 5 June
26.
Omaha Beach
–
Omaha Beach was the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II. On D-Day, the untested 29th Infantry Division, along with nine companies of U. S. Army Rangers redirected from Pointe du Hoc, were to assault the western half of the beach, the battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division was given the eastern half. The initial assault waves, consisting of tanks, infantry, and combat forces, were carefully planned to reduce the coastal defenses. Opposing the landings was the German 352nd Infantry Division, of the 12,020 men of the division,6,800 were experienced combat troops, detailed to defend a 53-kilometer front. The Germans were largely deployed in strongpoints along the coast—the German strategy was based on defeating any seaborne assault at the water line, very little went as planned during the landing at Omaha. Difficulties in navigation caused the majority of landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day, the defenses were unexpectedly strong, and inflicted heavy casualties on landing U. S. troops. Under heavy fire, the engineers struggled to clear the beach obstacles, weakened by the casualties taken just in landing, the surviving assault troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach. This caused further problems and consequent delays for later landings, small penetrations were eventually achieved by groups of survivors making improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points. Omaha was bounded at either end by large rocky cliffs, the crescent-shaped beach presented a gently sloping tidal area averaging 300 m between low and high-water marks. Above the tide line was a bank of shingle 2.5 m high, at the western end, the shingle bank rested against a stone sea wall which ranged from 1. 5–4 m in height. For the remaining two thirds of the beach after the seawall ended, the shingle lay against a low sand embankment, the German defensive preparations and the lack of any defense in depth indicated that their plan was to stop the invasion at the beaches. Four lines of obstacles were constructed in the intertidal zone,30 meters behind these was a continuous line of logs driven into the sand pointing seaward, every third one capped with an anti-tank mine. The final line of obstacles was a line of hedgehogs 150 meters from the shoreline. The area between the bank and the bluffs was both wired and mined, and mines were also scattered on the bluff slopes. Positions within each strongpoint were interconnected by trenches and tunnels, as well as the basic weaponry of rifles and machine guns, more than 60 light artillery pieces were deployed at these strongpoints. The heaviest pieces were located in eight gun casemates and four open positions while the guns were housed in 35 pillboxes. A further 18 anti-tank guns completed the disposition of artillery targeting the beach, areas between the strongpoints were lightly manned with occasional trenches, rifle pits, and 85 machine-gun emplacements. No area of the beach was left uncovered, and the disposition of weapons meant that flanking fire could be brought to bear anywhere along the beach, Allied intelligence had identified the coastal defenders as a reinforced battalion of the 716th Infantry Division
Omaha Beach
–
Into the Jaws of Death: Troops from the
1st Infantry Division landing on Omaha – photograph by
Robert F. Sargent
Omaha Beach
–
D-Day assault map of the
Normandy region and the north-western coast of France.
Utah and Omaha are separated by the
Douve River, whose mouth is clear in the coastline notch (or "corner") of the map.
Omaha Beach
–
German
Panzer IV 'Panzerstellung' turret mounted on a Tobruk at Widerstandnester 68, June 1944
Omaha Beach
–
A German
casemate at Omaha
27.
English Channel
–
The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the Channel is of geologically recent origins, having been dry land for most of the Pleistocene period. The first flood would have lasted for months, releasing as much as one million cubic metres of water per second. The flood started with large but localized waterfalls over the ridge, the flow eroded the retaining ridge, causing the rock dam to fail and releasing lake water into the English Channel. The erosion of the Lobourg Channel was probably the final opening of the Strait, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English
English Channel
–
English Channel
English Channel
–
Three French river mouths. Top to bottom: the
Somme, the
Authie and the
Canche
English Channel
–
The Hermitage of
St Helier lies in the bay off
Saint Helier and is accessible on foot at low tide.
English Channel
–
British radar facilities during the
Battle of Britain 1940
28.
England
–
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
England
–
Stonehenge, a
Neolithic monument
England
–
Flag
England
–
Boudica led an uprising against the
Roman Empire
England
–
Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial
helmet from the
Kingdom of East Anglia, found at
Sutton Hoo
29.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
30.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
United States
Greece
City of Evansville
