1.
William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
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The William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building is located in the Federal Triangle in Washington, D. C. across 12th Street from the Old Post Office. The building, which now houses the headquarters of the U. S, the Clinton Building was constructed in the early 1930s as part of the redevelopment of the Federal Triangle area. At that time one of the citys most blighted neighborhoods, this area was known as Murder Bay and was a center of crime, construction on the Clinton Building was completed in 1934. The Clinton Building was a feature of the redevelopment. The neoclassical building was designed by architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich, the central section of the tri-unit building consists of two huge, back to back, semicircular units with side wings. The semicircle formed by the curve on its eastern façade was to be mirrored by a similarly curved façade built across 12th Street on the site of the Old Post Office Building. The second half of the plaza was never finished as designed. The exterior is decorated with bas relief panels, by Adolph Alexander Weinman, the Clinton Building has been refurbished with the architectural details of the hallways preserved in the style of the 1920s and 1930s. A seven-story marble spiral staircase is a prominent element of the buildings interior, a chandelier hangs in the center of the staircase and has exposed bulbs to illuminate each floor. It terminates in a chrome and brass globe. In December 2012, both houses of Congress unanimously voted to rename the Rios Building as the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, after Bill Clinton, the General Services Administration administratively renamed the building for Clinton on May 13,2013. The structure was dedicated at a ceremony on July 17,2013, at which Clinton spoke. The Rios family approved of renaming a building, a reflecting pool at the new ATF headquarters on New York Avenue NW was named for Rios. 25 murals were chosen and six have been criticized by visitors and employees as to stereotyping American Indians, the General Services Administration addressed the controversy, The U. S. At the same time, engrained cultural attitudes of the 1930s are inevitably present, including stereotypes about women, Native Americans, African Americans, controversy over WPA murals was prevalent during their installation and afterward. Nudity and revolutionary sentiments implicit in some murals led to a public debate. In 1993, the building was renovated, in 1998, the limestone facade was renovated. In 2007, the courtyard was renovated
William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
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William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
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Columns and lamps, Clinton Building
William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
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Spiral stairs
William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
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Inlaid floor
2.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
Washington, D.C.
–
Clockwise from top left:
Smithsonian Institution Building,
Rock Creek Park,
National Mall (including the
Lincoln Memorial in the foreground),
Howard Theatre and the
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Washington, D.C.
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Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the
retrocession
Washington, D.C.
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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865
assassination of
President Lincoln
Washington, D.C.
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Crowds surrounding the
Reflecting Pool during the 1963
March on Washington
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
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The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
Scott Pruitt
–
Edward Scott Pruitt is an American lawyer and Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma who is currently the 14th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2016, Pruitt was confirmed by the Senate to lead the EPA on February 17,2017, Pruitt represented Tulsa and Wagoner Counties in the Oklahoma Senate from 1998 until 2006. In 2006, Pruitt narrowly lost to Oklahoma Speaker of the House Todd Hiett in a bid for the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma, in 2010, Pruitt was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma. In 2012, Pruitt was elected as chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, Pruitt rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. Pruitt was born in 1968 in Danville, Kentucky, but moved to Lexington as a boy and he was a standout football and baseball player at Lafayette, earning a baseball scholarship to the University of Kentucky, where he played second base. After a year, he attended Georgetown College in Kentucky and graduated in 1990 with bachelors degrees in political science and he then moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he attended the University of Tulsa and earned a Juris Doctor in 1993. Pruitt entered into practice in Tulsa where he specialized in constitutional law, contracts, insurance law, labor law. From 2003 until he was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma in 2010, Pruitt was co-owner and the general partner of the Oklahoma RedHawks. Pruitt has said that, while he was the owner, the team regularly rated among the leaders in attendance. After five years as an attorney, Pruitt was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1998, representing Tulsa, after two years in the Senate, Pruitt was selected to serve as the Republican whip from 2001 to 2003. He was then selected to serve as the Republican Assistant Floor Leader, Pruitt, while a freshman state legislator, sought his partys nomination to succeed Steve Largent as the representative for Oklahomas 1st congressional district in 2001. Largent, who had resigned to run for Governor of Oklahoma, two other main candidates emerged for the job, including sitting State Representative John A. Sullivan, the eventual winner, and Cathy Keating, the wife of then-Governor Frank Keating. Pruitt came in third behind Sullivan and Keating, Pruitt sought the Republican nomination to replace outgoing Republican Mary Fallin as Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma in the 2006 lieutenant gubernatorial election. In the primary election, Pruitt faced Nancy Riley and Speaker of the House Todd Hiett, in the primary election on July 25,2006, Pruitt received 34% of the vote, Riley received 23%, and Hiett received 43%. Pruitt, pursuant to Oklahoma state law, had to face Hiett in an election in order to receive the partys nomination. Pruitt was defeated by Hiett by less than one percent in the run-off primary, in 2010, Pruitt ran for the position of Attorney General of Oklahoma. He won the Republican primary on July 27,2010, with 56. 05% of the vote, defeating Ryan Leonard, a former state prosecutor in Canadian County and former senior aide to former U. S. Pruitt went on to defeat the Democratic nominee, Oklahoma City defense attorney Jim Priest, in the November 2,2010, Pruitt ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections
Scott Pruitt
–
Scott Pruitt
6.
Federal government of the United States
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The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
Federal government of the United States
–
The
United States Capitol is the
seat of government for Congress.
Federal government of the United States
–
Great Seal of the United States
Federal government of the United States
–
Diagram of the Federal Government and American Union, 1862.
7.
Human health
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Health is the level of functional and metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt, other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction. The definition of health has evolved over time, although this definition was welcomed by some as being innovative, it was also criticized as being vague, excessively broad, and was not construed as measurable. For a long time it was set aside as an impractical ideal, just as there was a shift from viewing disease as a state to thinking of it as a process, the same shift happened in definitions of health. Again, the WHO played a role when it fostered the development of the health promotion movement in the 1980s. This brought in a new conception of health, not as a state, the 1984 WHO revised definition of health defined it as the extent to which an individual or group is able to realize aspirations and satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living, it is a concept, emphasizing social and personal resources. Thus, health referred to the ability to maintain homeostasis and recover from insults, since the late 1970s, the federal Healthy People Initiative has been a visible component of the United States’ approach to improving population health. Progress has been limited for many objectives, leading to concerns about the effectiveness of Healthy People in shaping outcomes in the context of a decentralized and uncoordinated US health system. Healthy People 2020 gives more prominence to health promotion and preventive approaches, a new expanded digital interface facilitates use and dissemination rather than bulky printed books as produced in the past. The impact of changes to Healthy People will be determined in the coming years. Systematic activities to prevent or cure health problems and promote health in humans are undertaken by health care providers. Applications with regard to animal health are covered by the veterinary sciences, studies have shown that high levels of stress can affect human health. Generally, the context in which an individual lives is of importance for both his health status and quality of their life. The concept of the field, as distinct from medical care. The report identified three interdependent fields as key determinants of an individuals health, the maintenance and promotion of health is achieved through different combination of physical, mental, and social well-being, together sometimes referred to as the health triangle. The WHOs 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion further stated that health is not just a state, Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Health and illness can co-exist, as people with multiple chronic diseases or terminal illnesses can consider themselves healthy
Human health
–
Donald Henderson as part of the CDC's
smallpox eradication team in 1966.
Human health
–
Postage stamp,
New Zealand, 1933. Public health has been promoted – and depicted – in a wide variety of ways.
Human health
–
A lady washing her hands c. 1655
8.
Environmental protection
–
Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual, organisation controlled or governmental levels, for the benefit of both the environment and humans. Due to the pressures of over consumption, population and technology and this has been recognized, and governments have begun placing restraints on activities that cause environmental degradation. Since the 1960s, activity of environmental movements has created awareness of the environmental issues. There is no agreement on the extent of the impact of human activity and even scientific dishonesty occurs. For instance, in India, Environment Improvement Trust has been working for environment & forest protection since 1998, a group of Green Volunteers get a goal of Green India Clean India concept. CA Gajendra Kumar Jain an Chartered Accountant is founder of Environment Improvement Trust in Sojat city a small village of State of Rajasthan in India, in developing countries, such as throughout Latin America, these agreements are more commonly used to remedy significant levels of non-compliance with mandatory regulation. The challenges that exist with these agreements lie in establishing baseline data, targets, due to the difficulties inherent in evaluating effectiveness, their use is often questioned and, indeed, the whole environment may well be adversely affected as a result. The key advantage of their use in developing countries is that their use helps to build environmental management capacity and this approach ideally supports a better exchange of information, development of conflict-resolution strategies and improved regional conservation. Many of the resources are especially vulnerable because they are influenced by human impacts across many countries. As a result of this, many attempts are made by countries to develop agreements that are signed by multiple governments to prevent damage or manage the impacts of human activity on natural resources. This can include agreements that impact factors such as climate, oceans, rivers and these agreements have a long history with some multinational agreements being in place from as early as 1910 in Europe, America and Africa. Some of the most well-known international agreements include the Kyoto Protocol, discussion concerning environmental protection often focuses on the role of government, legislation, and law enforcement. However, in its broadest sense, environmental protection may be seen to be the responsibility of all the people, decisions that impact the environment will ideally involve a broad range of stakeholders including industry, indigenous groups, environmental group and community representatives. Gradually, environmental decision-making processes are evolving to reflect this broad base of stakeholders and are becoming more collaborative in many countries, many constitutions acknowledge the fundamental right to environmental protection and many international treaties acknowledge the right to live in a healthy environment. Also, many countries have organizations and agencies devoted to environmental protection, there are international environmental protection organizations, such as the United Nations Environment Programme. Tanzania is recognised as having some of the greatest biodiversity of any African country, almost 40% of the land has been established into a network of protected areas, including several national parks. In year 1948, Serengeti was officially established as the first national park for wild cats in East Africa, in 1998 Environment Improvement Trust start working for environment & forest protection in India from a small city Sojat. Founder of Environment Improvement Trust is CA Gajendra Kumar Jain working with volunteers, division of the biosphere is the main government body that oversees protection
Environmental protection
–
Zebras, Serengeti savana plains, Tanzania
Environmental protection
–
The
Longwanqun National Forest Park is a nationally protected nature area in Huinan County, Jilin, China
Environmental protection
–
Top 5 Countries by biological diversity
Environmental protection
–
Panorama of the
Iguazu falls in Brazil
9.
United States Congress
–
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
United States Congress
United States Congress
–
United States Congress
United States Congress
–
In 1868, this committee of representatives prosecuted president
Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial, but the Senate did not convict him.
United States Congress
–
George Washington presiding over the signing of the
United States Constitution.
10.
Richard Nixon
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Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U. S. president to resign from office. He had previously served as a U. S, Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, after completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government and he subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950 and his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president and he waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected by defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft. His administration generally transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states and he imposed wage and price controls for a period of ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race and he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern. The year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, the scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9,1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, in retirement, Nixons work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image. He suffered a stroke on April 18,1994. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9,1913 in Yorba Linda, California and his parents were Hannah Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith, Nixons upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers, Harold, Donald, Arthur, four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England, Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart. Nixons early life was marked by hardship, and he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood, We were poor. The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the moved to Whittier
Richard Nixon
–
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
–
The infant Richard stands outside the Nixons' Yorba Linda Home (early 1914), looking toward what is today the
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Richard Nixon
–
Nixon (second from right) makes his newspaper debut in 1916, contributing five cents to a fund for war orphans.
Donald is to the left of his brother.
Richard Nixon
–
Nixon at
Whittier High School in 1930.
11.
Reorganization Plan No. 3
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The order consolidated components from different Federal agencies to form the EPA, a strong, independent agency that would establish and enforce federal environmental protection laws. Unlike other agencies such as OSHA, the EPA was not established by an enabling act of Congress. According to author Jack Lewis, the decade of the 1960s fostered a general consensus of the American public to increase protection, rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, which is widely credited with helping to launch the environmental movement. The oil spill polluted a 60-mile stretch of coastline, harming marine wildlife, the event led to widespread criticism of both Union Oil and the offshore oil drilling industry. On April 22,1970, the first Earth Day brought millions of Americans together to demonstrate in support of environmental reform. The NEPA required any federal agency planning a project that would affect the environment to submit a report on the consequences of its plan. 378, enacted September 6,1966, created Title 5 of the United States Code, Congress responded by enacting the Reorganization Acts Amendment in Public Law 98-614, which was signed on November 8,1984. The Amendment expanded the power of the President to communicate with Congress plans of reorganization of agencies within the executive branch, in his message to Congress explaining his reasons for proposing Reorganization Plan No. Under the terms of Reorganization Plan No,3, the Environmental Protection Agency would be created to absorb these departments and agencies. From the Department of the Interior, functions carried out by the Federal Water Quality Administration as well as pesticide studies would be moved to the EPA, from the Department of Agriculture, the responsibilities of the Agricultural Research Service to register pesticides would be transferred. Text of Reorganization Plan No.3 & Presidents Message to Congress from U. S. EPA website
Reorganization Plan No. 3
–
Richard Nixon, who proposed the EPA via Reorganization Plan No. 3
Reorganization Plan No. 3
–
William Ruckelshaus, the first
Administrator of the EPA
12.
President of the United States
–
The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
President of the United States
–
Incumbent
Barack Obama since January 20, 2009 (2009-01-20)
President of the United States
–
Presidential Seal
President of the United States
–
Obama signing legislation at the
Resolute desk
President of the United States
–
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, successfully preserved the
Union during the
American Civil War
13.
Cabinet of the United States
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The Cabinet of the United States is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the government serving under the President. Aside from the Attorney General, the heads of the executive departments all receive the title of Secretary, all members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the President, who can dismiss them at will for no cause. There is no definition of the term Cabinet in the United States Constitution. The name comes from a 17th-century usage for a room where advisors would meet. The term principal officers of the departments is also mentioned in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. The executive departments are listed in 5 U. S. C, under the 1967 Federal Anti-Nepotism statute, federal officials are prohibited from appointing their immediate family members to certain governmental positions, including those in the Cabinet. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, an incoming administration may appoint acting heads of department from employees of the relevant department and these may be existing high-level career employees, from political appointees of the outgoing administration, or sometimes lower-level appointees of the incoming administration. The heads of the departments and all other federal agency heads are nominated by the President. If approved, they receive their commission scroll, are sworn in, an elected Vice President does not require Senate confirmation, nor does the White House Chief of Staff, which is an appointed staff position of the Executive Office of the President. 21 positions, including the heads of the departments and others. §5312, and those 46 positions on Level II pay are listed in 5 U. S. C, as of 2015, Level I annual pay, was set at $203,700. The annual salary of the Vice President is $235,300, the salary level was set by the Government Salary Reform Act of 1989, which also provides an automatic cost of living adjustment for federal employees. For a full list of people nominated for Cabinet positions, see Formation of Donald Trumps Cabinet, the Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments, listed here according to their order of succession to the Presidency. The following officials hold positions that are considered to be Cabinet-level positions, Department of the Navy, headed by the Secretary of the Navy, became a military department within the Department of Defense. Post Office Department, headed by the Postmaster General, reorganized as the United States Postal Service, National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense, created by the National Security Act of 1947 and recreated as the Department of Defense in 1949. Department of the Army, headed by the Secretary of the Army, Department of the Air Force, headed by the Secretary of the Air Force, became a military department within the Department of Defense. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, created in July 1781 and renamed Secretary of State in September 1789, Secretary of War, created in 1789 and was renamed as Secretary of the Army by the National Security Act of 1947. The 1949 Amendments to the National Security Act of 1947 made the Secretary of the Army a subordinate to the Secretary of Defense
Cabinet of the United States
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James K. Polk and his Cabinet in 1846. The first Cabinet to be photographed.
Cabinet of the United States
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Abraham Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the
Emancipation Proclamation draft, (July 26, 1862).
Cabinet of the United States
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The
Nixon Cabinet, 1969
14.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
U.S. state
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U.S. states
15.
James E. Murray
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James Edward Murray was a United States Senator from Montana, and a liberal leader of the Democratic Party. He served in the United States Senate from 1934 until 1961, born on a farm near St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, Murray graduated from St. Jeromes College in Berlin, Ontario in 1897. That same year his father died and he went to live with an uncle in Butte, Montana. Murray became an American citizen in 1900 and he practiced law in Butte and in 1906 was elected to one term as Silver Bow County attorney. Murray feuded with local officials and judges, and returned to private practice, active in the Democratic Party, Murray worked closely with labor unions to build his political base. In 1921, he and his mother inherited over $10 million from his late uncle and he dabbled in Irish politics, and reentered Montana politics when the Great Depression soured the Montana economy in the 1930s. Until 1987 his family owned The Murray Hotel in Livingston, Montanas downtown historic district, Murray was county attorney of Silver Bow County, Montana from 1906 to 1908, and became chairman of the State advisory board of the Public Works Administration from 1933 to 1934. When Senator Thomas Walsh died in 1933, Democratic Governor John E. Erickson resigned and had appointed to the seat. Murray defeated Erickson in the 1934 primary, and was elected senator on the platform of one hundred per-cent support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Murray was a staunch liberal and aggressive supporter of the New Deal Coalition. He broke with Montanas senior senator, Burton K, an advocate of the second front and of stronger ties with Britain. A free trader except on copper issues, instead, Congress adopted the Pick-Sloan Plan with flood control by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and private development. As Chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee in the 1950s, in his later years, Murray was reported to have suffered from senility and his son, running his office for him in the 1950s, told him how to vote. Murray died in Butte less than three months after leaving office and was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, American National Biography Online Feb.2000. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
James E. Murray
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James E. Murray
16.
86th United States Congress
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It met in Washington, D. C. from January 3,1959 to January 3,1961, during the last two years of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Seventeenth Census of the United States in 1950, both chambers had a Democratic majority. When Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states in 1959, the membership of the House temporarily increased to 437, 86–72 September 14,1959, Landrum–Griffin Act, Pub. L. 86–257,73 Stat.519 April 22,1960, Narcotics Manufacturing Act of 1960, 86–429,74 Stat.55 May 6,1960, Civil Rights Act of 1960, Pub. L. 86–449,74 Stat.86 June 12,1960, Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, 86–517,74 Stat.215 July 14,1960, Flood Control Act of 1960, Pub. L. 86–845,74 Stat.488 September 13,1960, Social Security Amendments, Democratic,64, then 65 Republican,34, then 35 TOTAL members,98, then 100 Democratic,283 Republican,153 Independent,1 TOTAL members,437. The increase over the usual 435 members was due to the admission of Alaska and Hawaii, President of the Senate, Richard Nixon President pro tempore, Carl Hayden Majority Leader, Lyndon B. Johnson Majority Whip, Mike Mansfield Caucus Secretary, Thomas C. Hennings Jr. Kirwan Minority Leader, Charles A, hoeven Policy Committee Chairman, John W. Byrnes House Democratic Caucus Senators are popularly elected statewide every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers, duke Clerk, Ralph R. Roberts Doorkeeper, William Mosley Fishbait Miller Parliamentarian, Lewis Deschler Postmaster, H. H. Morris Sergeant at Arms, Zeake W. Johnson, Jr. Biographical Directory of the U. S. Congress, archived from the original on June 1,2006. Archived from the original on June 1,2006, archived from the original on June 1,2006. House of Representatives Session Calendar for the 86th Congress, official Congressional Directory for the 86th Congress, 1st Session. Official Congressional Directory for the 86th Congress, 2nd Session, pocket Congressional Directory for the 86th Congress
86th United States Congress
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United States Capitol (1956)
86th United States Congress
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Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan
86th United States Congress
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The official Joint Resolution of Congress proposing what became the
23rd Amendment as contained in the
National Archives
17.
Silent Spring
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Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. The book was published on 27 September 1962 and it documented the effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly, in the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to the American public. S, in 1996, a follow-up book, Beyond Silent Spring, co-written by H. F. van Emden and David Peakall, was published. In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine. In the mid-1940s, Carson became concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides, landowners in Long Island filed a suit to have the spraying stopped, and many in affected regions followed the case closely. Though the suit was lost, the Supreme Court granted petitioners the right to gain injunctions against potential environmental damage in the future, Carson later wrote that this letter prompted her to study the environmental problems caused by chemical pesticides. The Washington, D. C. chapter of the Audubon Society actively opposed chemical spraying programs and recruited Carson to help publicize the U. S. governments spraying practices, Carson began the four-year project of Silent Spring by gathering examples of environmental damage attributed to DDT. She tried to enlist essayist E. B, white and a number of journalists and scientists to her cause. By 1958, Carson had arranged a deal, with plans to co-write with Newsweek science journalist Edwin Diamond. Diamond would later write one of the harshest critiques of Silent Spring, as her research progressed, Carson found a sizable community of scientists who were documenting the physiological and environmental effects of pesticides. She took advantage of her connections with many government scientists. That spring, Carson wrote a letter, published in The Washington Post, that attributed the recent decline in bird populations—in her words, the silencing of birds—to pesticide overuse. The same year, the 1957,1958, and 1959 crops of U. S. cranberries were found to high levels of the herbicide aminotriazole. She also wondered about the financial inducements behind certain pesticide programs. Research at the Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health brought Carson into contact with medical researchers investigating the gamut of cancer-causing chemicals, by 1960, Carson had sufficient research material and the writing was progressing rapidly. She had investigated hundreds of incidents of pesticide exposure and the resulting human sickness. In January 1960, she suffered an illness which kept her bedridden for weeks, as she was nearing full recovery in March, she discovered cysts in her left breast, requiring a mastectomy
Silent Spring
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Rachel Carson, 1940
Fish and Wildlife Service employee photo
Silent Spring
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The
Book-of-the-Month Club edition of Silent Spring, including an endorsement by Justice Douglas, had a first print run of 150,000 copies, two-and-a-half times the combined size of the two conventional printings of the initial release
18.
Rachel Carson
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Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and her widely praised 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us won her a U. S. National Book Award, recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the version of her first book. This sea trilogy explores the whole of life from the shores to the depths. Late in the 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, the result was the book Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. Although Silent Spring was met with opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy. It also inspired a grassroots movement that led to the creation of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter, Rachel Carson was born on May 27,1907, on a family farm near Springdale, Pennsylvania, just up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. She was the daughter of Maria Frazier and Robert Warden Carson, an avid reader, she also spent a lot of time exploring around her familys 65-acre farm. She began writing stories at age eight, and had her first story published at age ten. She especially enjoyed the St. Nicholas Magazine, the works of Beatrix Potter, and the novels of Gene Stratton Porter, the natural world, particularly the ocean, was the common thread of her favorite literature. Carson attended Springdales small school through tenth grade, then completed school in nearby Parnassus, Pennsylvania. At the Pennsylvania College for Women, as in high school and she originally studied English, but switched her major to biology in January 1928, though she continued contributing to the schools student newspaper and literary supplement. After a summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, she continued her studies in zoology and genetics at Johns Hopkins in the fall of 1929. After her first year of school, Carson became a part-time student, taking an assistantship in Raymond Pearls laboratory. After false starts with pit vipers and squirrels, she completed a project on the embryonic development of the pronephros in fish. She earned a degree in zoology in June 1932. She had intended to continue for a doctorate, but in 1934 Carson was forced to leave Johns Hopkins to search for a teaching position to help support her family
Rachel Carson
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Rachel Carson, 1940
Fish & Wildlife Service employee photo
Rachel Carson
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Carson's childhood home is now preserved as the
Rachel Carson Homestead (photo taken November 7, 2009)
Rachel Carson
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Rachel Carson and
Bob Hines conducting research off the Atlantic coast in 1952
Rachel Carson
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The
Book-of-the-Month Club edition of
Silent Spring, including an endorsement by Justice Douglas, had a first print run of 150,000 copies, two-and-a-half times the combined size of the two conventional printings of the initial release.
19.
Pesticide
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Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds. The most common of these are herbicides which account for approximately 80% of all pesticide use, most pesticides are intended to serve as plant protection products, which in general, protect plants from weeds, fungi, or insects. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes, although pesticides have benefits, some also have drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other species. According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,9 of the 12 most dangerous, the term includes substances intended for use as a plant growth regulator, defoliant, desiccant, or agent for thinning fruit or preventing the premature fall of fruit. Also used as substances applied to either before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage. Pesticides can be classified by target organism, chemical structure, biopesticides include microbial pesticides and biochemical pesticides. Plant-derived pesticides, or botanicals, have been developing quickly and these include the pyrethroids, rotenoids, nicotinoids, and a fourth group that includes strychnine and scilliroside. Many pesticides can be grouped into chemical families, prominent insecticide families include organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates. Organochlorine hydrocarbons could be separated into dichlorodiphenylethanes, cyclodiene compounds, and they operate by disrupting the sodium/potassium balance of the nerve fiber, forcing the nerve to transmit continuously. Their toxicities vary greatly, but they have phased out because of their persistence. Organophosphate and carbamates largely replaced organochlorines, both operate through inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, allowing acetylcholine to transfer nerve impulses indefinitely and causing a variety of symptoms such as weakness or paralysis. Organophosphates are quite toxic to vertebrates, and have in some cases replaced by less toxic carbamates. Thiocarbamate and dithiocarbamates are subclasses of carbamates, prominent families of herbicides include phenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides, triazines, ureas, and Chloroacetanilides. Phenoxy compounds tend to selectively kill broad-leaf weeds rather than grasses, the phenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides function similar to plant growth hormones, and grow cells without normal cell division, crushing the plants nutrient transport system. Many commonly used pesticides are not included in these families, including glyphosate, Pesticides can be classified based upon their biological mechanism function or application method. Most pesticides work by poisoning pests, a systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward and outward, increased efficiency may be a result
Pesticide
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A
crop-duster spraying pesticide on a field
Pesticide
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A
Lite-Trac four-wheeled self-propelled crop sprayer spraying pesticide on a field
Pesticide
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A sign warning about potential pesticide exposure.
Pesticide
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Preparation for an
application of hazardous herbicide in USA.
20.
Henry M. Jackson
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Henry Martin Scoop Jackson was a U. S. Congressman and Senator from the state of Washington, Jackson was twice a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1972 and 1976. The Henry Jackson Society is named in his honor, Henry Martin Jackson was born in the home of his parents, Marine and Peter Jackson, in Everett, Washington. Both parents were immigrants from Norway, Peter Jackson was born Peter Gresseth, and changed his name when he immigrated. He met Marine at the Lutheran church in Everett, where they were married in 1897, Henry was the fifth and youngest of the Jackson children. Jackson was nicknamed Scoop by his sister in his childhood, after a comic character that he is said to have resembled. Henry Jackson went on to graduate with a degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Washington. In 1935 he was admitted to the bar and began to practice law in Everett and he found immediate success, and won election to become the prosecuting attorney for Snohomish County from 1938 to 1940, where he made a name for himself prosecuting bootleggers and gamblers. The Jacksons had two children, Anna Marie Laurence and Peter Jackson, Peter was most recently a speechwriter for Governor Christine Gregoire. Jackson successfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1940 and took his seat in the House of Representatives with the 77th Congress on January 3,1941, from that date forward, Jackson did not lose a congressional election. Jackson joined the Army when the United States entered World War II, as a representative, he visited the Buchenwald concentration camp a few days after its liberation in 1945. From 1945 to 1947 Jackson was also the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, in the 1952 election, Jackson relinquished his seat in the House for a run for one of Washingtons Senate seats. Jackson won that election, soundly defeating Republican Senator Harry P. Cain, Jackson died in office in 1983 after winning re-election for the fifth time in 1982. Jackson boasted one of the strongest records on civil rights during the civil rights movement and he supported the 1957 Civil Rights Act, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In April 1968, responding to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Senator Jackson gave a speech in which he talked about the legacy and injustice of inequality. In 1963, Jackson was made chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, which became the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in 1977, Jackson authored the National Environmental Policy Act. This Act has been called one of the most influential environmental laws in history and it helped stimulate similar laws and the principle of publicly analyzed environmental impact in other states and in much of the world. He was also a leader of the fight for statehood for Alaska, in 1974, Jackson sponsored the Jackson-Vanik amendment in the Senate which denied normal trade relations to certain countries with non-market economies that restricted the freedom of emigration
Henry M. Jackson
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Henry M. Jackson
Henry M. Jackson
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Henry M. Jackson's home Everett, Washington
21.
George Miller (California politician)
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George Miller III is an American politician who served as a United States Representative from California from 1975 until his retirement in 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party, from 2007 to 2011, Miller served as chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. The son of liberal State Senator and Democratic Party leader George Miller, Jr. he was born in Richmond and he graduated from Diablo Valley Community College and San Francisco State University. He then attended the University of California, Davis School of Law, after admission to the university, he served as legislative assistant to California Senate majority leader George Moscone before entering the U. S. House of Representatives in 1974. Representative Ron Dellums decided to run in the newly redrawn 8th district, Miller decided to run for the open seat in Californias 7th congressional district. He won the primary with a plurality of 38%, in the general election, he defeated Republican Gary Fernandez 56% to 44%, the lowest winning percentage of his career. He went on to win re-election 18 times, and never won less than 60% of the vote. 2012 After redistricting, Millers district was redrawn and renumbered the 11th and he ran against, and defeated, Republican Virginia Fuller in the general election. In a 2012 campaign ad, Miller said that the challenge the U. S. faces is the need “to correct the disparities that exist in our country. ”Fuller has spoken of her inspiration to run against Miller. Democratic primary challenger John Fitzgerald, for his part, said that “people like us” need to run for Congress because D. C. pols are no longer in touch with the world. According to the National Journal, Miller is one of seven members of the House of Representatives who tie for most liberal, in 2011-12, Miller sponsored 10 bills, none of which were made into law. He co-sponsored 199 bills,4 of which were made Into law, during Millers 1974 campaign, he routinely disclosed his donors and expenses, taking advantage of the Watergate scandal that was still in the minds of voters. This helped get him a seat in the House at the age of 29, Miller is one of the three remaining Congressmen elected in the class following the Watergate scandal - the others are Henry Waxman and Rick Nolan - and has spent over half of his life in Congress. One of the 10 most senior members of Congress, Miller has been described as someone who has proven himself both a liberal lion. and savvy about working both sides of the aisle. ”Miller has one of the most liberal voting records in the House, and brings a zest for political combat. A review of Millers career states that, although he has been unsuccessful in his pursuit of top party positions, he has learned a legislator’s virtues of patience, timing, and creativity. Environmental issues In the House, Miller was a member of the Natural Resources Committee, Miller supported efforts to preserve public lands such as the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, which among other things created Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park. Miller lost his chairmanship when Republicans won control of Congress in 1994 and he stayed as the committees Ranking Member until 2000. and remained on the committee as a member until 2015. Miller was also a member of the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus, Labor issues From 2001 to 2006, Miller was the ranking Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee
George Miller (California politician)
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George Miller
George Miller (California politician)
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An early congressional photo of Miller
22.
National Environmental Policy Act
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The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the Presidents Council on Environmental Quality. The law was enacted on January 1,1970, as the bill was an early step towards the development of the United States environmental policy, NEPA is referred to as the “environmental Magna Carta”. NEPAs most significant outcome was the requirement that all federal agencies prepare environmental assessments. These reports state the potential effects of proposed federal agency actions. NEPA does not apply to the President, Congress, or the federal courts, NEPA grew out of the increased appreciation and concern for the environment that resulted from the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. During this time, environmental interest group efforts and the movement resulting from Rachel Carsons 1962 book, Silent Spring, helped to pass the Wilderness, Clean Air, and Clean Water Acts. The act also promotes the CEQ to advise the President in the preparation of a report on the progress of federal agencies in implementing NEPA. It also established the CEQ to advise the president on environmental policy, NEPA establishes this national environmental policy by requiring federal agencies to prepare an environmental impact statement to accompany reports and recommendations for Congressional funding. This impact statement is known as an EIS, NEPA is an action-forcing piece of legislation, meaning the act itself does not carry any criminal or civil sanctions, and therefore, all enforcement of NEPA must occur through the court system. In practice, a project is required to meet NEPA guidelines when a federal agency provides any portion of financing for the project. However, review of a project by an employee can be viewed as a federal action. NEPA covers a vast array of federal agency actions, but the act does not apply to state action where there is an absence of federal influence or funding. Exemptions and exclusions are also present within NEPAs guidelines, including specific federal projects detailed in legislation, exemptions also apply when compliance with other environmental laws require an impact analysis similar to that mandated by NEPA. Such laws can include but are not limited to the Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The NEPA process is the evaluation of the relevant environmental effects of a project or action mandated by NEPA. This process begins when an agency develops a proposal addressing a need to take action, if it is determined that the proposed action is covered under NEPA, there are three levels of analysis that a federal agency must undertake to comply with the law. A Categorical Exclusion is a list of actions an agency has determined do not individually or cumulatively affect the quality of the human environment. If a proposed action is included in an agencys CatEx, the agency must make sure that no extraordinary circumstances might cause the action to affect the environment
National Environmental Policy Act
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National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
23.
Council on Environmental Quality
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The most recent CEQ chairman was Nancy Sutley, who was appointed by President Barack Obama on December 15,2008, and confirmed by the Senate on January 22,2009. Sutley announced that she was stepping down as Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality in February 2014, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20th,2017, Ted Boling is the acting director. The CEQ website was removed upon President Trumps inauguration, as of February 23,2017, the CEQ vacated their offices, and future plans have not been disclosed. The United States Congress established the CEQ within the Executive Office of the President as part of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the CEQ was assigned additional responsibilities by the Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970. Under NEPA, CEQ works to balance environmental, economic, NEPA tasks CEQ with ensuring that federal agencies meet their obligations under the Act, granting the body a significant role in environmental protection. Through inter-agency working groups and coordination with other EOP bodies, CEQ also works to advance the agenda on the environment, natural resources. Bush Administration, there were concerns over links between CEQ staffers and the industries it oversaw, BBC Environment Analyst Roger Harrabin described it as a hard-line group of advisers with close links to the U. S. oil industry. One CEQ chief of staff under President Bush, Philip Cooney, was previously a lobbyist employed by the American Petroleum Institute, in June 2005, the New York Times published an internal CEQ memo provided by federal whistleblower Rick Piltz. The memo showed Cooney had repeatedly edited government climate reports in order to play down links between emissions and global warming, Cooney, who claimed he had been planning to resign for two years, resigned two days after the scandal broke to spend more time with his family. Immediately after resigning, Cooney went to work for ExxonMobil in their public affairs department, in 2005 Piltz created a watchdog organization, Climate Science Watch, a program of the Government Accountability Project. President Bushs CEQ chairman James L
Council on Environmental Quality
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Council on Environmental Quality building on
Jackson Place in
Washington, D.C.
Council on Environmental Quality
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Council on Environmental Quality
24.
William Ruckelshaus
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William Doyle Bill Ruckelshaus is an American attorney and former U. S. government official. He was the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, was subsequently acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during 1983 through 1985 he returned as EPA Administrator. Ruckelshaus was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to a family with a long history of practicing law in Indianapolis. He attended parochial schools until the age of 16, then finished high school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, after graduation, he served for two years in the United States Army, becoming a drill sergeant, and left the service in 1955. Ruckelshaus then graduated with an A. B. in history from Princeton University, after passing the Indiana bar exam, Ruckelshaus joined the family law firm of Ruckelshaus, Bobbitt, and OConnor. In 1960, at age 28, he was appointed as Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, for two years he was assigned to the Indiana Board of Health. After that assignment, he spent two years as Chief Counsel for the Attorney Generals Office, in 1964 Ruckelshaus ran as a moderate Republican for an Indiana Congressional seat, losing in the primaries to a candidate from the conservative wing of the party. He subsequently spent a year as Minority Attorney for the Indiana State Senate and he won a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1967, benefitting from an up year for Republicans overall. During his term in office, until 1969, he served as Majority Leader of the House. Ruckelshaus won the Republican nomination for U. S. Senate in 1968, Ruckelshaus became the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s first Administrator when the agency was formed on December 2,1970, by President Nixon. Although many people were mentioned as possibilities for this new position, Ruckelshaus got the nod based upon the recommendation of the U. S. Attorney General. Ruckelshaus laid the foundation for the EPA by hiring its leaders, defining its mission, deciding priorities, with the formation of EPA, authority over pesticides was transferred to it from the Department of Agriculture. The fledgling EPAs first order of business was whether to issue a ban of DDT, judge Edmund Sweeney was appointed to examine the case and held testimony hearings for seven months. His conclusion was that DDT “is not a hazard to man. However, Ruckelshaus, who had not attended the hearings or read the report himself, overruled Sweeneys decision and issued the ban nevertheless, Ruckelshauss record of success at EPA and his reputation for integrity led to his being appointed Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Later in the year, he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice. Two years later, he and his wife and five children moved to Seattle, Washington and he also served as a director of American Water Development with, among others, Maurice Strong, Samuel Belzberg, Alexander Crutchfield and Richard Lamm. In 1983, with the EPA in crisis due to mass resignations over the mishandling of the Superfund project and this time it was White House Chief of Staff James Baker who was Ruckelshauss champion in asking him to return to the agency
William Ruckelshaus
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William Ruckelshaus
William Ruckelshaus
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Ruckleshaus sworn in as first EPA Administrator.
William Ruckelshaus
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Secretary of State
25.
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
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The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance is the law enforcement arm of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It is made up of attorneys, special agents, scientists, the OECA consists of eight component offices. The Office of Administration and Policy recommends national policy on issues pertaining to enforcement, OCE directly implements and enforces federal programs. These environmental laws include those related to air, water. CID Special Agents receive twelve weeks of basic law enforcement and Criminal Investigator training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center located in Glynco. In addition to the law enforcement training, CID Special Agents also receive nine weeks of training in conducting investigations related to U. S. environmental laws. There is also periodic in-service training, as well as advanced training in various investigative techniques, OC provides compliance assistance and compliance data and ensures the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement personnel through training. FFEO facilitates compliance through inspections and enforcement under all environmental statutes, Site Remediation and Enforcement Staff Planning, Prevention, and Compliance Staff The Office of Site Remediation Enforcement manages the enforcement of EPAs national hazardous waste cleanup programs. The cleanup enforcement program protects human health and the environment by getting those responsible for a waste site to either clean up or reimburse EPA for its cleanup. EPA uses a number of cleanup authorities independently and in combination to address specific situations, including the Superfund law, RCRA. Policy and Program Evaluation Division Regional Support Division Program Operation Staff Current EPA Fugitives
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
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EPA CID Special Agent badge
26.
Inspector general
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An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is inspectors general, the chief of police of Bangladesh is known as the inspector general of police. He is from the Bangladesh Civil Service police cadre, the current inspector general of police is A K M Shahidul Hoque, and his predecessor was Hassan Mahmud Khondokar. There is another temporary post of general of police, known as Pulish Shômônnoyôk or police coordinator. Before 1867 the position of Inspector General of Canada existed as the responsible for finances. After 1867 the position was assumed as the Minister of Finance, alexander Galt served at the last Inspector General from 1858 to 1867 and the first Minister of Finance in 1867. Colombias inspector general is a unique post with broad powers to investigate government malfeasance, the inspection générale des Finances is particularly prestigious as a job appointment after studies at the École Nationale dAdministration. In recent decades, many of its members have occupied various positions in lieu of their traditional mission of inspection. The corps has come under increased criticism for this, during World War II, Colonel General Heinz Guderian was appointed inspector general of armoured troops on 1 March 1943, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler. Head of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces, his position is equivalent to that of the American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the German federal police, the police officer is called inspector of the federal police as well. For all state police services there also exists an inspector. All of the sixteen German state police departements has an inspector, the state police presidents are normally not police officers, they are administration officials. The competence for police services in Germany is assigned to the states of Germany. The federal police is a coordinating police département with only a few competences, e. g. in border control or airport, in the scope of responsibility of the state police departments the federal police can only act with permission or request of the local state police. During the British rule in India, in 1861, the British Government introduced the Indian Councils Act of 1861, the act created a new cadre of police, called Superior Police Services, later known as the Indian Imperial Police. The highest rank in the service was the Inspector General, in modern India, the inspector general of police or joint commissioner of police is a two-star rank officer and one of the most senior officers in the state police forces. All inspectors general and joint commissioners in state police forces are Indian Police Service officers and they are in some states the commissioner of police for the city, that is they head a police force for a particular city
Inspector general
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General IG emblem
Inspector general
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Shoulder insignia of a police inspecteur général (France)
Inspector general
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Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) logo.
Inspector general
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United States Department of Labor (DOL-OIG)
27.
Standard Federal Regions
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This is a list of some of the regions in the United States. Many regions in the United States are defined in law or regulations by the federal government, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau region definition is widely used … for data collection and analysis, the ten standard federal regions were established by OMB Circular A-105, Standard Federal Regions, in April,1974, and required for all executive agencies. In recent years, some agencies have tailored their field structures to meet needs and facilitate interaction with local, state. However, the OMB must still approve any departures and these twelve Federal Reserve Banks together form a major part of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. Boston New York Philadelphia Cleveland Richmond Atlanta Chicago St and its jurisdiction is nationwide, but based on subject matter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis defines regions for comparison of economic data and it is used for data collection on refining petroleum and its products. Each PADD is subdivided into refining districts,1, West Virginia along with counties of Pennsylvania and New York State not mentioned above. North Louisiana-Arkansas, Arkansas and parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama not mentioned above, the EIA has updated the PADD system with a complimentary set of regions to reflect this and will change it to suite current needs. There are also a number of unofficial regions in Connecticut with no regional government. g. Nielsen Designated Market Area The Nine Nations of North America Political divisions of the United States United States territory Vernacular geography U. S, library of Congress Map of the US Regions
Standard Federal Regions
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Kentucky's regions.
Standard Federal Regions
–
U.S. Census Bureau Regions and Divisions.
Standard Federal Regions
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Oregon's High Desert.
28.
Connecticut
–
Connecticut is the southernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Connecticut is also often grouped along with New York and New Jersey as the Tri-State Area and it is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital city is Hartford, and its most populous city is Bridgeport, the state is named for the Connecticut River, a major U. S. river that approximately bisects the state. The word Connecticut is derived from various anglicized spellings of an Algonquian word for long tidal river, Connecticut is the third smallest state by area, the 29th most populous, and the fourth most densely populated of the 50 United States. It is known as the Constitution State, the Nutmeg State, the Provisions State, and it was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States. Connecticuts center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticuts first European settlers were Dutch. They established a small, short-lived settlement in present-day Hartford at the confluence of the Park, initially, half of Connecticut was a part of the Dutch colony New Netherland, which included much of the land between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers. The first major settlements were established in the 1630s by England, the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies established documents of Fundamental Orders, considered the first constitutions in North America. In 1662, the three colonies were merged under a charter, making Connecticut a crown colony. This colony was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, the Connecticut River, Thames River, and ports along the Long Island Sound have given Connecticut a strong maritime tradition which continues today. The state also has a history of hosting the financial services industry, including insurance companies in Hartford. As of the 2010 Census, Connecticut features the highest per-capita income, Human Development Index, and median household income in the United States. Landmarks and Cities of Connecticut Connecticut is bordered on the south by Long Island Sound, on the west by New York, on the north by Massachusetts, and on the east by Rhode Island. The state capital and third largest city is Hartford, and other cities and towns include Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, Greenwich. Connecticut is slightly larger than the country of Montenegro, there are 169 incorporated towns in Connecticut. The highest peak in Connecticut is Bear Mountain in Salisbury in the northwest corner of the state, the highest point is just east of where Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York meet, on the southern slope of Mount Frissell, whose peak lies nearby in Massachusetts. At the opposite extreme, many of the towns have areas that are less than 20 feet above sea level. Connecticut has a maritime history and a reputation based on that history—yet the state has no direct oceanfront
Connecticut
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Bear Mountain, highest peak in Connecticut
Connecticut
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Flag
Connecticut
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Lake Mcdonough reservoir as seen from the Tunxis Trail Overlook Spur trail, Barkhamsted
Connecticut
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New Haven
29.
Maine
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Maine is the northernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Maine is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the U. S. states and territories and it is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the north. Maine is the easternmost state in the contiguous United States, and it is known for its jagged, rocky coastline, low, rolling mountains, heavily forested interior, and picturesque waterways, and also its seafood cuisine, especially clams and lobster. There is a continental climate throughout the state, even in areas such as its most populous city of Portland. For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European arrival in what is now Maine, the first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607, as Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maines territory during the American Revolution, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become an independent state. On March 15,1820, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise, there is no definitive explanation for the origin of the name Maine, but the most likely origin is the name given by early explorers after a province in France. Whatever the origin, the name was fixed for English settlers in 1665 when the English Kings Commissioners ordered that the Province of Maine be entered from then on in official records. The state legislature in 2001 adopted a resolution establishing Franco-American Day, other theories mention earlier places with similar names, or claim it is a nautical reference to the mainland. Attempts to uncover the history of the name of Maine began with James Sullivans 1795 History of the District of Maine. He made the allegation that the Province of Maine was a compliment to the queen of Charles I, Henrietta Maria. MAINE appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 in reference to the county of Dorset, the view generally held among British place name scholars is that Mayne in Dorset is Brythonic, corresponding to modern Welsh maen, plural main or meini. Some early spellings are, MAINE1086, MEINE1200, MEINES1204, mason had served with the Royal Navy in the Orkney Islands where the chief island is called Mainland, a possible name derivation for these English sailors. Initially, several tracts along the coast of New England were referred to as Main or Maine, Maine is the only state whose name has exactly one syllable. The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Penobscot, who had a loose confederacy. European contact with what is now called Maine started around 1200 CE when Norwegians interacted with the native Penobscot in present-day Hancock County, most likely through trade
Maine
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The coast of Maine near
Acadia National Park
Maine
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Flag
Maine
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Boothbay Harbor
Maine
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Autumn in Stratton
30.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
Massachusetts
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A portion of the north-central
Pioneer Valley in
Sunderland
Massachusetts
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Flag
Massachusetts
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Many coastal areas in Massachusetts provide breeding areas for species such as the
piping plover
Massachusetts
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The
Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by
William Halsall (1882). The
Pilgrims were a group of
Puritans who founded
Plymouth in 1620.
31.
New Hampshire
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New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, New Hampshire is the 5th smallest by land area and the 9th least populous of the 50 United States. Concord is the capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state and in northern New England, including Vermont. It has no sales tax, nor is personal income taxed at either the state or local level. The New Hampshire primary is the first primary in the U. S. presidential election cycle and its license plates carry the state motto, Live Free or Die. The states nickname, The Granite State, refers to its extensive granite formations, the state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire by Captain John Mason. New Hampshire is part of the New England region and it is bounded by Quebec, Canada, to the north and northwest, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Massachusetts to the south, and Vermont to the west. New Hampshires major regions are the Great North Woods, the White Mountains, the Lakes Region, the Seacoast, the Merrimack Valley, the Monadnock Region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any U. S. coastal state, New Hampshire was home to the rock formation called the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in Franconia Notch, until the formation disintegrated in May 2003. Major rivers include the 110-mile Merrimack River, which bisects the lower half of the state north–south and ends up in Newburyport and its tributaries include the Contoocook River, Pemigewasset River, and Winnipesaukee River. The 410-mile Connecticut River, which starts at New Hampshires Connecticut Lakes and flows south to Connecticut, only one town – Pittsburg – shares a land border with the state of Vermont. The northwesternmost headwaters of the Connecticut also define the Canada–U. S, the Piscataqua River and its several tributaries form the states only significant ocean port where they flow into the Atlantic at Portsmouth. The Salmon Falls River and the Piscataqua define the southern portion of the border with Maine, the U. S. Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2002, leaving ownership of the island with Maine. New Hampshire still claims sovereignty of the base, however, the largest of New Hampshires lakes is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 71 square miles in the east-central part of New Hampshire. Umbagog Lake along the Maine border, approximately 12.3 square miles, is a distant second, Squam Lake is the second largest lake entirely in New Hampshire. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any state in the United States, Hampton Beach is a popular local summer destination. It is the state with the highest percentage of area in the country. New Hampshire is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, much of the state, in particular the White Mountains, is covered by the conifers and northern hardwoods of the New England-Acadian forests
New Hampshire
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Shaded relief map of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
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Flag
New Hampshire
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Mount Adams (5,774 ft or 1,760 m) is part of New Hampshire's
Presidential Range.
New Hampshire
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Lake Winnipesaukee and the
Ossipee Mountains
32.
Rhode Island
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Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, the state also shares a short maritime border with New York. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution, on May 29,1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution. Rhode Islands official nickname is The Ocean State, a reference to the fact that the state has several large bays, Rhode Island covers 1,214 square miles, of which 1,045 square miles are land. Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is located on the mainland of the United States, the official name of the state is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is derived from the merger of four settlements. Rhode Island is now commonly called Aquidneck Island, the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay, Providence Plantation was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the area now known as the city of Providence. This was adjoined by the settlement of Warwick, hence the plural Providence Plantations and it is unclear how Aquidneck Island came to be known as Rhode Island, although there are two popular theories. Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay in 1524, subsequent European explorers were unable to precisely identify the island that Verrazzano had named, but the Pilgrims who later colonized the area assumed that it was Aquidneck. A second theory concerns the fact that Adriaen Block passed by Aquidneck during his expeditions in the 1610s, historians have theorized that this reddish appearance resulted from either red autumn foliage or red clay on portions of the shore. The earliest documented use of the name Rhode Island for Aquidneck was in 1637 by Roger Williams, the name was officially applied to the island in 1644 with these words, Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Isle of Rodes or Rhode-Island. The name Isle of Rodes is used in a document as late as 1646. Dutch maps as early as 1659 call the island Red Island, Williams was a theologian forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeking religious and political tolerance, he and others founded Providence Plantation as a proprietary colony. Providence referred to the concept of providence, and plantation was an English term for a colony. State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is the longest official name of any state in the Union, advocates for excising plantation asserted that the word specifically referred to the British colonial practice of establishing settlements which disenfranchised native people. Advocates for retaining the name argued that plantation was simply an archaic English synonym for colony, the referendum election was held on November 2,2010, and the people voted overwhelmingly to retain the entire original name. It shares a maritime border with New York State between Block Island and Long Island
Rhode Island
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Verrazzano Monument, Providence, Rhode Island.
Rhode Island
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Flag
Rhode Island
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Terrain Map of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
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Shoreline in Newport, Rhode Island
33.
Vermont
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Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders the other U. S. states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermonts western border with the state of New York, Vermont is the 2nd-least populous of the U. S. states, with nearly 50,000 more residents than Wyoming. The capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the U. S, the most populous municipality, Burlington, is the least populous city in the U. S. to be the most populous within a state. As of 2015, Vermont continued to be the producer of maple syrup in the U. S. It was ranked as the safest state in the country in January 2016, for thousands of years inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Mohawk, much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by Frances colony of New France. France ceded the territory to Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years War, for many years, the nearby colonies, especially the provinces of New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area. Settlers who held land titles granted by New York were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, ultimately, those settlers prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for 14 years, aside from the original 13 states that were formerly colonies, Vermont is one of only four U. S. states that were previously sovereign states. Vermont was also the first state to join the U. S. as its 14th member state after the original 13, while still an independent republic, Vermont was the first of any future U. S. state to partially abolish slavery. It played an important geographic role in the Underground Railroad, Vermont is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States and comprises 9,614 square miles, making it the 45th-largest state. It is the state that does not have any buildings taller than 124 feet. Land comprises 9,250 square miles and water comprises 365 square miles, making it the 43rd-largest in land area, in total area, it is larger than El Salvador and smaller than Haiti. The west bank of the Connecticut River marks the eastern border with New Hampshire. 41% of Vermonts land area is part of the Connecticut Rivers watershed, Lake Champlain, the major lake in Vermont, is the sixth-largest body of fresh water in the United States and separates Vermont from New York in the northwest portion of the state. From north to south, Vermont is 159 miles long and its greatest width, from east to west, is 89 miles at the Canada–U. S. Border, the narrowest width is 37 miles at the Massachusetts line, the states geographic center is approximately three miles east of Roxbury, in Washington County. There are fifteen U. S. federal border crossings between Vermont and Canada, the origin of the name Vermont is uncertain, but likely comes from the French les Verts Monts, meaning the Green Mountains
Vermont
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Vermont State House in
Montpelier
Vermont
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Flag
Vermont
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The Hancock Overlook, on Route 100 in
Hancock, Vermont.
Vermont
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Burlington, Vermont's largest city
34.
New England
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New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeast United States, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and south, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Its largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston, which also includes Worcester, Manchester, ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced one of the most infamous cases of hysteria in the history of the Western Hemisphere. The Boston Tea Party was a protest to which Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government, the confrontation led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. Each state is subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns. The only unincorporated areas in the region exist in the populated northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire. The region is one of the U. S. Census Bureaus nine regional divisions, the earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages. Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Narragansett Indians, Pocumtuck, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in present-day Maine, the Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansett and smaller tribes under Narragansett sovereignty lived in most of modern-day Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, the Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region, the Connecticut River Valley includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically. As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, on April 10,1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth. These were privately funded ventures, intended to land for England, conduct trade. In 1620, Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, in 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region New England. As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633, roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636
New England
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Clockwise from top: skyline of Boston, Massachusetts financial district at night; a building of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; a view from Nubble Light on Cape Neddick, Maine; view from Mount Mansfield, Vermont; and a fisherman on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
New England
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Emblem
New England
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Title page of John Smith's
A Description of New England (1616)
New England
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An early English map of New England, c. 1670, depicts the area around modern
Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
35.
New Jersey
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New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants
New Jersey
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The New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands in
Ringwood State Park,
Passaic and
Bergen Counties
New Jersey
–
Flag
New Jersey
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Washington Crossing the Delaware during the
New York and New Jersey campaign, winter 1777
New Jersey
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George Washington rallying his troops at the
Battle of Princeton
36.
New York (state)
–
New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
New York (state)
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British general
John Burgoyne surrenders at
Saratoga in 1777.
New York (state)
–
Flag
New York (state)
–
1800 map of New York from
Low's Encyclopaedia
New York (state)
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The
Erie Canal at
Lockport, New York in 1839
37.
Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra. The capital and most populous city is San Juan and its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The islands population is approximately 3.4 million, Puerto Ricos rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African captives, and Canarian. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States appropriated Puerto Rico together with most former Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States, however, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U. S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the level and may not vote for president. However, Congress approved a constitution, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. A fifth referendum will be held in June 2017, with only Statehood, in early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with 12. 4% unemployment, the debt had been increasing during a decade long recession. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is also known in Spanish as la isla del encanto. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city. The islands name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the anglicized name was used by the US government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931, the ancient history of the archipelago known today as Puerto Rico is not well known. The scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish scholarly accounts from the colonial era constitute the basis of knowledge about them. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland
Puerto Rico
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A Taíno Village at the
Tibes Ceremonial Center.
Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico
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Juan Ponce de León (
Santervás de Campos,
Valladolid, Spain), was the first governor of Puerto Rico. His grandson
Juan Ponce de León II was the first criollo governor of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico
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The 16th century
Fort San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico
38.
U.S. Virgin Islands
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The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. The U. S. Virgin Islands consist of the islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas. The total land area of the territory is 133.73 square miles, the territorys capital is Charlotte Amalie on the island of Saint Thomas. Previously the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916. They are classified by the U. N. as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, the U. S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions. The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U. S. Virgin Islands met in October 2012 to address these concerns, in 2010 the population was 106,405, and mostly Afro-Caribbean. Tourism and related categories are the economic activity, employing a high percentage of the civilian non-farm labor force that totalled 42,752 persons in 2016. Private sector jobs made up 71 percent of the total workforce, the average private sector salary was $34,088 and the average public sector salary was $52,572. In a May 2016 report, some 11,000 people were categorized as being involved in some aspect of agriculture in the first half of 2016, at that time, there were approximately 607 manufacturing jobs and 1,487 natural resource and construction jobs. The single largest employer was the government, in mid February 2017, the USVI was facing a financial crisis due to a very high debt level of $2 billion and a structural budget deficit of $110 million. The U. S. Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by the Ciboney, Carib, the islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next two hundred years, the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway. The Danish West India Company settled on Saint Thomas in 1672, settled on Saint John in 1694, the islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish West Indian Islands. Sugarcane, produced by labor, drove the islands economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Danish West India and Guinea Company are also credited with naming the island St. John, the Danish crown took full control of Saint John in 1754 along with St. Thomas and St. Croix. Sugarcane plantations such as the famous Annaberg Sugar Plantation were established in great numbers on St. John because of the intense heat, the establishment of sugarcane plantations also led to the buying of more slaves from Africa. In 1733 St. John was the site of one of the first significant slave rebellions in the New World when Akwamu slaves from the Gold Coast took over the island for six months, the Danish were able to defeat the enslaved Africans with help from the French in Martinique
U.S. Virgin Islands
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The aftermath of
Hurricane Marilyn on the island of St. Thomas, 1995.
U.S. Virgin Islands
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U.S. Virgin Islands
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Charlotte Amalie,
St. Thomas, the Islands' capital.
U.S. Virgin Islands
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Christiansted, the largest town on
St. Croix.
39.
Delaware
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Delaware is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic and/or Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, to the northeast by New Jersey, the state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginias first colonial governor. Delaware occupies the portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest, the sixth least populous. Delaware is divided into three counties, the lowest number of counties of any state, from north to south, the three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized. Before its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Delaware was inhabited by groups of Native Americans, including the Lenape in the north. It was initially colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near the present town of Lewes, Delaware was one of the 13 colonies participating in the American Revolution. On December 7,1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, the Delaware Indians, a name used by Europeans for Lenape people indigenous to the Delaware Valley, also derive their name from the same source. The surname de La Warr comes from Sussex and is of Anglo-Norman origin and it came probably from a Norman lieu-dit La Guerre. This toponymic could derive from the Latin word ager, from the Breton gwern or from the Late Latin varectum, the toponyms Gara, Gare, Gaire also appear in old texts cited by Lucien Musset, where the word gara means gore. It could also be linked with a patronymic from the Old Norse verr, Delaware is 96 miles long and ranges from 9 miles to 35 miles across, totaling 1,954 square miles, making it the second-smallest state in the United States after Rhode Island. Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania, to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean, small portions of Delaware are also situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land boundaries with New Jersey. The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland, the definition of the northern boundary of the state is unusual. Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending 12 miles from the cupola of the courthouse in the city of New Castle and this boundary is often referred to as the Twelve-Mile Circle. This is the only nominally circular state boundary in the United States, to the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of Maryland. The remaining western border runs slightly east of due south from its intersection with the arc, the Wedge of land between the northwest part of the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delawares claim was confirmed. Delaware is on a plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any state in the nation. Its highest elevation, located at Ebright Azimuth, near Concord High School, the northernmost part of the state is part of the Piedmont Plateau with hills and rolling surfaces
Delaware
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The Blackbird Pond on the Blackbird State Forest Meadows Tract in New Castle County, Delaware
Delaware
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Delaware
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A field north of Fox Den Rd., along the Lenape Trail in
Middle Run Valley Natural Area.
Delaware
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Sunset in Woodbrook, New Castle County, Delaware
40.
Maryland
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The states largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, the state is named after Henrietta Maria of France, the wife of Charles I of England. George Calvert was the first Lord of Baltimore and the first English proprietor of the colonial grant. Maryland was the state to ratify the United States Constitution. Maryland is one of the smallest U. S. states in terms of area, as well as one of the most densely populated, Maryland has an area of 12,406.68 square miles and is comparable in overall area with Belgium. It is the 42nd largest and 9th smallest state and is closest in size to the state of Hawaii, the next largest state, its neighbor West Virginia, is almost twice the size of Maryland. Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature. The mid-portion of this border is interrupted by Washington, D. C. which sits on land that was part of Montgomery and Prince Georges counties and including the town of Georgetown. This land was ceded to the United States Federal Government in 1790 to form the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. Close to the town of Hancock, in western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state. This geographical curiosity makes Maryland the narrowest state, bordered by the Mason–Dixon line to the north, portions of Maryland are included in various official and unofficial geographic regions. Much of the Baltimore–Washington corridor lies just south of the Piedmont in the Coastal Plain, earthquakes in Maryland are infrequent and small due to the states distance from seismic/earthquake zones. The M5.8 Virginia earthquake in 2011 was felt moderately throughout Maryland, buildings in the state are not well-designed for earthquakes and can suffer damage easily. The lack of any glacial history accounts for the scarcity of Marylands natural lakes, laurel Oxbow Lake is an over one-hundred-year-old 55-acre natural lake two miles north of Maryland City and adjacent to Russett. Chews Lake is a natural lake two miles south-southeast of Upper Marlboro. There are numerous lakes, the largest of them being the Deep Creek Lake. Maryland has shale formations containing natural gas, where fracking is theoretically possible, as is typical of states on the East Coast, Marylands plant life is abundant and healthy. Middle Atlantic coastal forests, typical of the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain, grow around Chesapeake Bay, moving west, a mixture of Northeastern coastal forests and Southeastern mixed forests cover the central part of the state
Maryland
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Western Maryland: known for its heavily forested mountains. A panoramic view of
Deep Creek Lake and the surrounding
Appalachian Mountains in
Garrett County.
Maryland
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Maryland
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Dramatic example of Maryland's
fall line, a change in rock type and elevation that creates waterfalls in many areas along the Southwest to Northeast geological boundary that crosses the state.
Great Falls, cliffs and rapids.
Maryland
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Typical freshwater river above the tidal zone. The
Patapsco River includes the famous
Thomas Viaduct and is part of the
Patapsco Valley State Park. Later, the river forms the
Inner Harbor as it empties into the
Chesapeake Bay.
41.
Pennsylvania
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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
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World's End State Park, Sullivan County
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania
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Autumn in North Branch Township,
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
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Penn's Treaty with the Indians, by
Edward Hicks
42.
West Virginia
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West Virginia /ˌwɛst vərˈdʒɪnjə/ is a state located in the Appalachian region of the Southern United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the north, West Virginia is the 9th smallest by area, is ranked 38th in population, and has the second lowest household income of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston, West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20,1863, and was a key Civil War border state. The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States, the unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the state that is entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The state is noted for its mountains and rolling hills, its historically significant logging and coal mining industries and it is one of the most densely karstic areas in the world, making it a choice area for recreational caving and scientific research. The karst lands contribute to much of the states cool trout waters and it is also known for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, fishing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, and hunting. Many ancient man-made earthen mounds from various mound builder cultures survive, especially in the areas of Moundsville, South Charleston. The artifacts uncovered in these give evidence of village societies and they had a tribal trade system culture that crafted cold-worked copper pieces. The Iroquois drove out other American Indian tribes from the region to reserve the upper Ohio Valley as a ground in the 1670s. Siouan language tribes such as the Moneton had also recorded in the area previously. West Virginia was originally part of the British Virginia Colony from 1607 to 1776, residents of the western and northern counties set up a separate government under Francis Pierpont in 1861, which they called the restored government. Most voted to separate from Virginia and the new state was admitted to the Union in 1863, in 1864 a state constitutional convention drafted a constitution, which was ratified by the legislature without putting it to popular vote. West Virginia abolished slavery and temporarily disfranchised men who had held Confederate office or fought for the Confederacy, West Virginias history has been profoundly affected by its mountainous terrain, numerous and vast river valleys, and rich natural resources. These were all factors driving its economy and the lifestyles of its residents, a 2010 analysis of a local stalagmite revealed that Native Americans were burning forests to clear land as early as 100 BC. Some regional late-prehistoric Eastern Woodland tribes were involved in hunting and fishing, practicing the slash. Another group progressed to the more time-consuming, advanced companion crop fields method of gardening, also continuing from ancient indigenous people of the state, field space and time was given to tobacco growing through to early historic. Maize did not make a contribution to the diet until after 1150 BP
West Virginia
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Thomas Lee, the first manager of the
Ohio Company of Virginia.
West Virginia
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West Virginia
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A celebration at a slave wedding in Virginia, 1838
West Virginia
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On October 24, 1861, when voters from 41 counties voted to form a new state, voter turnout was 34%. The name was subsequently changed from Kanawha to West Virginia.
43.
District of Columbia
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
District of Columbia
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Clockwise from top left:
Smithsonian Institution Building,
Rock Creek Park,
National Mall (including the
Lincoln Memorial in the foreground),
Howard Theatre and the
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
District of Columbia
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Map of the District of Columbia in 1835, prior to the
retrocession
District of Columbia
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Ford's Theatre in the 19th century, site of the 1865
assassination of
President Lincoln
District of Columbia
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Crowds surrounding the
Reflecting Pool during the 1963
March on Washington
44.
Alabama
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Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the U. S. states. At nearly 1,500 miles, Alabama has one of the nations longest navigable inland waterways, Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State, the state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long been the most industrialized city, the oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states in the southern U. S. suffered economic hardship, like other southern states, Alabama legislators disenfranchised African Americans and many poor whites at the turn of the century. Following World War II, Alabama grew as the economy changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified interests. The state economy in the 21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, in the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo. The word Alabama is believed to have come from the Alabama language, the words spelling varies significantly among historical sources. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, Allibamou. Sources disagree on the words meaning, some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba and amo. The meaning may have been clearers of the thicket or herb gatherers, the state has numerous place names of Native American origin. However, there are no correspondingly similar words in the Alabama language, an 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant Here We Rest. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek, experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization, trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no links to Mesoamerican culture
Alabama
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One of the entrances to
Russell Cave in Jackson County. Charcoal from indigenous camp fires in the cave has been dated as early as 6550 to 6145 BC.
Alabama
Alabama
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The
Moundville Archaeological Site in Hale County. It was occupied by Native Americans of the
Mississippian culture from 1000 to 1450 AD.
Alabama
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The main house, built in 1833, at
Thornhill in Greene County. It is a former
Black Belt plantation.
45.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
Florida
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St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S., established in 1565 by Spain.
Florida
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Florida
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Aerial view of
Castillo De San Marcos (Florida).
Florida
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The five flags of Florida from the right,
Spain (1565–1763), the
Kingdom of Great Britain, Spain (1784–1821), the
Confederacy, and the United States. France (flag not shown) also controlled part of Florida.
46.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
Georgia (U.S. state)
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A girl spinner in a Georgia cotton mill, 1909.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Flag
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Road to
Brasstown Bald
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Jekyll Island
47.
Kentucky
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Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U. S. states constituted as a commonwealth, originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States, Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State, a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky. In 1776, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County, the precise etymology of the name is uncertain, but likely based on an Iroquoian name meaning the meadow or the prairie. Kentucky is situated in the Upland South, a significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia. Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast, West Virginia lies to the east, Virginia to the southeast, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois and Indiana to the northwest, and Ohio to the north and northeast. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more, Kentuckys northern border is formed by the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River. The official state borders are based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792, for instance, northbound travelers on U. S.41 from Henderson, after crossing the Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about two miles. Ellis Park, a racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the land border between Indiana and Kentucky. Kentucky has a part known as Kentucky Bend, at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded completely by Missouri and Tennessee, Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River requires a trip through Tennessee. The epicenter of the powerful 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The Jackson Purchase and western Pennyrile are home to several bald cypress/tupelo swamps, located within the southeastern interior portion of North America, Kentucky has a climate that can best be described as a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures in Kentucky usually range from daytime summer highs of 87 °F to the low of 23 °F. The average precipitation is 46 inches a year, Kentucky experiences four distinct seasons, with substantial variations in the severity of summer and winter. The highest recorded temperature was 114 °F at Greensburg on July 28,1930 while the lowest recorded temperature was −37 °F at Shelbyville on January 19,1994, due to its location, Kentucky has a moderate humid subtropical climate, with abundant rainfall
Kentucky
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Narrow country roads bounded by stone and wood plank fences are a fixture in the Kentucky
Bluegrass region.
Kentucky
Kentucky
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Kentucky's regions (click on image for color-coding information.)
Kentucky
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The
Eastern Kentucky Coalfield is known for its rugged terrain.
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Mississippi
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Mississippi /ˌmɪsᵻˈsɪpi/ is a state in the southern region of the United States, with part of its southern border formed by the Gulf of Mexico. Its western border is formed by the Mississippi River, the state has a population of approximately 3 million. It is the 32nd most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States, located in the center of the state, Jackson is the state capital and largest city, with a population of approximately 175,000 people. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, before the American Civil War, most development in the state was along riverfronts, where slaves worked on cotton plantations. After the war, the bottomlands to the interior were cleared, by the end of the 19th century, African Americans made up two-thirds of the Deltas property owners, but timber and railroad companies acquired much of the land after a financial crisis. Clearing altered the Deltas ecology, increasing the severity of flooding along the Mississippi, much land is now held by agribusinesses. The states catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States, since the 1930s and the Great Migration, Mississippi has been majority white, albeit with the highest percentage of black residents of any U. S. state. From the early 19th century to the 1930s, its residents were mostly black, whites retained political power through Jim Crow laws. In 2010, 37% of Mississippians were African Americans, the highest percentage of African Americans in any U. S. state, since gaining enforcement of their voting franchise in the late 1960s, most African Americans support Democratic candidates in local, state and national elections. Conservative whites have shifted to the Republican Party, African Americans are a majority in many counties of the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, an area of historic settlement during the plantation era. Since 2011 Mississippi has been ranked as the most religious state in the country, the states name is derived from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary. Settlers named it after the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi, in addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake, Mississippi is entirely composed of lowlands, the highest point being Woodall Mountain, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains,807 feet above sea level. The lowest point is sea level at the Gulf coast, the states mean elevation is 300 feet above sea level. Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain, the coastal plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. The Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast have somewhat higher elevations, yellow-brown loess soil is found in the western parts of the state. The northeast is a region of black earth that extends into the Alabama Black Belt. The coastline includes large bays at Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, the northwest remainder of the state consists of the Mississippi Delta, a section of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
Mississippi
Mississippi
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Flag
Mississippi
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Bottomland hardwood swamp near
Ashland, Mississippi
Mississippi
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Jackson, Mississippi
49.
North Carolina
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North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second largest banking center in the United States after New York City. The state has a range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell. The climate of the plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a highland climate. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, the United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the most famous of these is the Queen Annes Revenge, which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the states most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 feet in elevation in the east to about 1,500 feet in the west, the western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, the Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, the five basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins,11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the states border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin. Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, the climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, the coastal plain averages around 1 inch of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all. North Carolina experiences severe weather in summer and winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rain
North Carolina
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North Carolina topographic map
North Carolina
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Flag
North Carolina
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The
Blue Ridge Mountains as seen from the
Blue Ridge Parkway.
North Carolina
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Deer in the
Eno River as it flows through the Piedmont region of North Carolina
