1.
United States dollar
–
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
2.
Abraham Lincoln
–
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
3.
Lincoln Memorial
–
The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the end of the National Mall in Washington. Dedicated in 1922, it is one of several built to honor an American president. It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has been a symbolic center focused on race relations and it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15,1966. It is open to the public 24 hours a day, in 2007, it was ranked seventh on the List of Americas Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects. Since 2010, approximately 6 million people visit the memorial annually, the first public memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D. C. was a statue by Lot Flannery erected in front of the District of Columbia City Hall in 1868, three years after Lincolns assassination. Demands for a national memorial had been voiced since the time of Lincolns death. In 1867, Congress passed the first of many bills incorporating a commission to erect a monument for the sixteenth president, an American sculptor, Clark Mills, was chosen to design the monument. Subscriptions for the project were insufficient, the first five bills, proposed in the years 1901,1902, and 1908, met with defeat because of opposition from Speaker Joe Cannon. The sixth bill, introduced on December 13,1910, passed, the Lincoln Memorial Commission had its first meeting the following year and U. S. President William H. Taft was chosen as the commissions president. Progress continued at a pace and by 1913 Congress had approved of the Commissions choice of design. There were questions regarding the commissions plan, many thought that architect Henry Bacons Greek temple design was far too ostentatious for a man of Lincolns humble character. Instead they proposed a simple log cabin shrine, the site too did not go unopposed. The recently reclaimed land in West Potomac Park was seen by many to be too swampy or too inaccessible. Other sites, such as Union Station, were put forth, furthermore, the Potomac Park site had already been designated in the McMillan Plan of 1901 to be the location of a future monument comparable to that of the Washington Monument. With Congressional approval and a $300,000 allocation, the project got underway, on February 12,1914, a dedication ceremony was conducted and the following month the actual construction began. Work progressed steadily according to schedule, some changes were made to the plan. The statue of Lincoln, originally designed to be 10 feet tall, was enlarged to 19 feet to prevent it from being overwhelmed by the huge chamber
4.
Denomination (currency)
–
Denomination is a proper description of a currency amount, usually for coins or banknotes. Denominations may also be used other means of payment like gift cards. For example, five euros is the denomination of a five euro note, in a currency, there is usually a main unit, and a subunit that is a fraction of the main unit. In some countries, there are levels of subunits. In the former Ottoman Empire,1 lira =100 kuruş =4000 para =12000 akçe, today, only a few places have more than one subunit, notably Chinese speaking regions, the mainland China, the Hong Kong, and Republic of Chinas. In addition, the Jordanian dinar is divided into 10 dirham,100 qirsh/piastres, many countries where Western European languages are spoken currently have their main units divided into 100 subunits. Some currencies that previously had no longer do, because inflation has rendered the subunit useless. A prominent example is the Japanese yen, which was divided into 100 sen or 1000 rin. Both subunits were demonetized at the end of 1953, occasionally, a super unit is used as a multiple of the main unit. Examples include Korean won =5 yang in 1893, Iranian toman 10 rials, in the Ottoman Empire, lira and kuruş were super units at some point before becoming the main unit. A decimal currency is a currency where the ratio between the unit and the subunit is an integral power of 10. Non-decimal currencies are now rare but had advantages in daily life transactions. For example,1 South German Gulden =60 Kreuzer,60 can be divided into 2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20 or 30 parts that are still integers, making pricing easy. This advantage and the lack of widespread accurate weighing apparatus coupled with tradition were the reasons why non-decimal currencies were used, in theory, two countries currently use non-decimal currency, Mauritania and Madagascar. In practice, however, the value of the unit in each case is so low that the sub-unit is not of any practical use and is rarely seen in circulation. The last major countries to use non-decimal currencies in practice were the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, the average number of coins needed to make change. It is common to name a unit with a unit of weight, such as pound, lira, in most cases, these currencies were originally defined as that amount of some precious metal. Another choice of name is some form of derivative of the political entity, the Afghan afghani and European euro fall into this category
5.
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
6.
Federal Reserve Note
–
Federal Reserve Notes, also United States banknotes or U. S. banknotes, are the banknotes currently used in the United States of America. Denominated in United States dollars, Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing on paper made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Federal Reserve Notes are the only type of U. S. banknote currently produced. The notes are then put into circulation by the Federal Reserve Banks, at which point they become liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, Federal Reserve Notes are legal tender, with the words this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private printed on each note. They have replaced United States Notes, which were issued by the Treasury Department. Federal Reserve Notes are backed by the assets of the Federal Reserve Banks and these assets are generally Treasury securities which have been purchased by the Federal Reserve through its Federal Open Market Committee in a process called debt monetizing. This monetized debt can increase the supply, either with the issuance of new Federal Reserve Notes or with the creation of debt money. This increase in the base leads to a larger increase in the money supply through fractional-reserve banking as deposits are lent. Prior to centralized banking, each bank issued its own notes. The first institution with responsibilities of a bank in the U. S. was the First Bank of the United States. Its charter was not renewed in 1811, in 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered, its charter was not renewed in 1836, after President Andrew Jackson campaigned heavily for its disestablishment. From 1837 to 1862, in the Free Banking Era there was no central bank. From 1862 to 1913, a system of banks was instituted by the 1863 National Banking Act. The first printed notes were Series 1914, in 1928, cost-cutting measures were taken to reduce the note to the size it is today. The authority of the Federal Reserve Banks to issue notes comes from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, legally, they are liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks and obligations of the United States government. Although not issued by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Notes carry the signature of the Treasurer of the United States, at the time of the Federal Reserves creation, the law provided for notes to be redeemed to the Treasury in gold or lawful money. The Emergency Banking Act of 1933 removed the gold obligation and authorized the Treasury to satisfy these redemption demands with current notes of equal face value, under the Bretton Woods system, although citizens could not possess gold, the federal government continued to maintain a stable international gold price. This system ended with the Nixon Shock of 1971, present-day Federal Reserve Notes are not backed by convertibility to any specific commodity, but only by the collateral assets that Federal Reserve Banks post in order to obtain them. Series 1914 FRN were the first of two large-size issues, denominations were $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 printed first with a red seal and then continued with a blue seal
7.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
8.
Yiddish
–
Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized alphabet based on the Hebrew script, the earliest surviving references date from the 12th century and call the language לשון־אַשכּנז or טײַטש, a variant of tiutsch, the contemporary name for Middle High German. Colloquially, the language is sometimes called מאַמע־לשון, distinguishing it from לשון־קדש, the term Yiddish, short for Yiddish-Teitsch, did not become the most frequently used designation in the literature until the 18th century. In the late 19th and into the 20th century the language was commonly called Jewish, especially in non-Jewish contexts. Modern Yiddish has two major forms, Eastern Yiddish is far more common today. It includes Southeastern, Mideastern, and Northeastern dialects, Eastern Yiddish differs from Western both by its far greater size and by the extensive inclusion of words of Slavic origin. Western Yiddish is divided into Southwestern, Midwestern, and Northwestern dialects, the term Yiddish is also used in the adjectival sense, synonymously with Jewish, to designate attributes of Ashkenazi culture. Prior to the Holocaust, there were over 10 million speakers of Yiddish, 85% of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers, assimilation following World War II further decreased the use of Yiddish both among survivors and Yiddish-speakers from other countries. However, the number of speakers is increasing in global Hasidic communities, the established view is that, as with other Jewish languages, Jews speaking distinct languages learned new co-territorial vernaculars, which they then Judaized. Exactly what German base lies behind the earliest form of Yiddish is disputed, both Weinreich and Solomon Birnbaum developed this model further in the mid-1950s. In Weinreichs view, this Old Yiddish substrate later bifurcated into two versions of the language, Western and Eastern Yiddish. They retained the Semitic vocabulary needed for religious purposes and created a Judeo-German form of speech, recent linguistic research has finessed, contested, or challenged the Weinreich model, providing alternative approaches to the origins of Yiddish. Some theorists argue that the fusion occurred with a Bavarian dialect base, the two main candidates for the germinal matrix of Yiddish, the Rhineland and Bavaria, are not necessarily incompatible. There may have been developments in the two regions, seeding the Western and Eastern dialects of Modern Yiddish. Dovid Katz proposes that Yiddish emerged from contact between speakers of High German and Aramaic-speaking Jews from the Middle East, wexlers model has met with little academic support, and strong critical challenges, especially among historical linguists. Alternative theories recognize the extent of Yiddishs Germanic vocabulary. Ashkenaz was centered on the Rhineland and the Palatinate, in what is now the westernmost part of Germany and its geographic extent did not coincide with the German principalities of the time, and it included northern France. Ashkenaz bordered on the inhabited by another distinctive Jewish cultural group, the Sephardim or Spanish Jews
9.
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
–
The BEP does not produce coins, all coinage is produced by the United States Mint. With production facilities in Washington, DC, and Fort Worth, Texas, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has its origins in legislation enacted to help fund the Civil War. In July 1861, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue currency in lieu of coins due to the lack of funds needed to support the conflict. The paper notes were essentially government IOUs and were called Demand Notes because they were payable on demand in coin at certain Treasury facilities, at this time the government had no facility for the production of paper money so a private firm produced the Demand Notes in sheets of four. These sheets were then sent to the Treasury Department where dozens of clerks signed the notes and scores of workers cut the sheets, initially, the currency processing operations in the Treasury were not formally organized. For years, however, the operations were known by various semi-official labels, such as the Printing Bureau, Small Note Bureau, Currency Department. It was not until 1874 that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was officially recognized in legislation with a specific allocation of operating funds for fiscal year 1875. From almost the beginning of its operations, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing designed and printed a variety of products in addition to currency. As early as 1864, the offices which would become the BEP made passports for the State Department. Passports are now produced by the Government Publishing Office, other early items produced by the BEP included various government debt instruments, such as interest-bearing notes, refunding certificates, compound interest Treasury notes, and bonds. The production of stamps began in 1894, and for almost the next century the BEP was the sole producer of postage stamps in the country. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing officially took over production of stamps for the United States government in July 1894. Paper currency was produced on hand presses around 1918, utilizing plates capable of printing four notes per sheet. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing officially took over production of stamps for the United States government in July 1894. The first of the works printed by the BEP was placed on sale on July 18,1894, and by the end of the first year of stamp production, the BEP had printed and delivered more than 2.1 billion stamps. The United States Postal Service switched purely to private postage stamp printers in 2005, starting in 2011 the United States Postal Service in housed all postage stamp printing services. Plate capacity on power presses increased from four to eight notes per sheet in 1918 in order to greatly expanded production requirements related to World War I. Due to this reduction in size, the Bureau was able to convert from eight-note printing plates to twelve-note plates, the redesign effort came about for several reasons, chief among them a reduction in paper costs and improved counterfeit deterrence through better public recognition of currency features
10.
Mathew Brady
–
Mathew B. Brady was one of the first American photographers, best known for his scenes of the Civil War. He studied under inventor Samuel F. B, Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York in 1844, and photographed Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, when the Civil War started, his use of a mobile studio and darkroom enabled vivid battlefield photographs that brought home the reality of war to the public. Thousands of war scenes were captured, as well as portraits of generals, after the war, these pictures went out of fashion, and the government did not purchase the master-copies as he had anticipated. Brady’s fortunes declined sharply, and he died in debt, Brady was born on May 18,1822 in Warren County, New York near Lake George, the youngest of three children of Irish immigrant parents, Andrew and Samantha Julia Brady. He himself originally said that he was born in Ireland, at age 16, Brady moved to Saratoga, New York, where he met portrait painter William Page, and became Pages student. In 1839, the two traveled to Albany, New York, and then to New York City, where Brady continued to study painting with Page, and also with Pages former teacher, Samuel F. B. Morse. Morse had met Louis Jacques Daguerre in France in 1839, at first, Bradys involvement was limited to manufacturing leather cases that held daguerreotypes. But soon he became the center of the New York artistic colony that wished to study photography, Morse opened a studio and offered classes, Brady was one of the first students. In 1849, he opened a studio in Washington, D. C. where he met Juliet Handy, in 1850, Brady produced The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, a portrait collection of prominent contemporary figures. The album, which featured noteworthy images including the elderly Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage, was not financially rewarding but invited increased attention to Brady’s work, in 1856, Brady placed an ad in the New York Herald offering to produce photographs, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes. This inventive ad pioneered, in the USA, the use of typeface and fonts that were distinct from the text of the publication, at first, the effect of the Civil War on Bradys business was a brisk increase in sales of cartes de visite to departing soldiers. However, he was taken with the idea of documenting the war itself. He first applied to an old friend, General Winfield Scott, for permission to travel to the battle sites, Lincoln granted permission in 1861, with the proviso that Brady finance the project himself. His efforts to document the American Civil War on a grand scale by bringing his photographic studio onto the battlefields earned Brady his place in history, despite the dangers, financial risk, and discouragement by his friends, Brady was later quoted as saying I had to go. A spirit in my feet said Go, and I went and his first popular photographs of the conflict were at the First Battle of Bull Run, in which he got so close to the action that he barely avoided capture. While most of the time the battle had ceased before pictures were taken, Brady came under fire at the First Battle of Bull Run, Petersburg. He also employed Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. OSullivan, William Pywell, George N. Barnard, roche, and seventeen other men, each of whom was given a traveling darkroom, to go out and photograph scenes from the Civil War
11.
President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home
–
It is located near the Petworth and Park View neighborhoods of Washington, D. C. President Lincolns Cottage was formerly known as Anderson Cottage, President Lincolns Cottage also served as the Summer White House for Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur. The historic Cottage, built in the Gothic revival style, was constructed from 1842 to 1843 as the home of George Washington Riggs, who went on to establish the Riggs National Bank in Washington, D. C. Lincoln lived in the cottage June to November 1862 through 1864 and during the first summer living there, mary Todd Lincoln fondly recalled the campus, in 1865, she wrote, How dearly I loved the Soldiers Home. Poet Walt Whitman, who was living on Vermont Avenue near the White House in 1863, Whitman quoted this article in his 1876 book Memoranda During the War, adding the phrase, We have got so that we always exchange bows, and very cordial ones. The Soldiers Home stands on 251 acres atop the third highest point in Washington, the Home was designated a National Historic Landmark on November 7,1973, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 11,1974. In 2000, the cottage was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservations 11 Most Endangered list, then about 2.3 acres of the Home was proclaimed a National Monument by President Bill Clinton on July 7,2000. The National Trust took on the restoration which was completed in 2007, President Lincolns Cottage opened to the public on February 18,2008. A reproduction of the Lincoln desk on which he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation was commissioned by the Trust for use in the Cottage, the original drop-lid walnut paneled desk is in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. The desk is the only surviving piece of furniture that is known to have placed in the White House. The adjacent Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center features exhibits about the Soldiers Home, wartime Washington, Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief during the Civil War, and a special exhibit gallery. President Lincolns Cottage and Visitor Education Center is open to the public for tours seven days a week. C, a Shrinking Operation, Battling Bankruptcy in D. C. Veterans Retirement Home Is Cutting Costs and Care, Armed Forces Retirement Home, Allegations of Poor Care Being Probed. Crescent Resources to transform Armed Forces Retirement Home, Armed Forces Retirement Home redo falls through. Booknotes interview with Matthew Pinsker on Lincolns Sanctuary, Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers Home, December 21,2003
12.
Blacklight
–
A blacklight, also referred to as a UV-A light, Woods lamp, or simply ultraviolet light, is a lamp that emits long-wave ultraviolet light and not much visible light. Blacklight lamps which have this filter have a lighting industry designation that includes the letters BLB and this stands for blacklight blue, which is a contradiction in that they are the type that does not look blue. A second type of lamp produces ultraviolet but does not have the filter material and these tubes are made for use in bug zapper insect traps, and are identified by the industry designation BL. In medicine, forensics, and some scientific fields, such a light source is referred to as a Woods lamp. Strong sources of ultraviolet light are used in tanning beds. Fluorescent black light tubes are made in the same fashion as normal fluorescent tubes except that a phosphor that emits UVA light instead of visible white light is used. These tubes have a dim violet glow when operating and they should not be confused with blacklight or BL tubes, which have no filter coating, and have a brighter blue color. These are made for use in bug zapper insect traps, where visible light emission is not a problem, blacklight Blue lamps peak at 365 nm. Manufacturers use different numbering systems for black light tubes, philips uses one system which is becoming outdated, while the Osram system is becoming dominant outside North America. The following table lists the tubes generating blue, UVA and UVB, approximate phosphor compositions, major manufacturers type numbers and some uses are given as an overview of the types available. Peak position is approximated to the nearest 10 nm, width is the measure between points on the shoulders of the peak that represent 50% intensity. These two types seem to be the most commonly used, different manufacturers offer either one or the other and sometimes both. BLB fluorescent lamps tend to run with efficiencies in the 25% range, another class of UV fluorescent bulb is designed for use in bug zapper flying insect traps. Insects are attracted to the UV light, which they are able to see, and are then electrocuted by the device. These bulbs use the same UV-A emitting phosphor blend as the filtered blacklight, plain glass blocks out less of the visible mercury emission spectrum, making them appear light blue-violet to the naked eye. These lamps are referred to by the designation blacklight or BL in some North American lighting catalogs and these types are not suitable for applications which require the low visible light output of BLB tubes lamps. A black light may also be formed by simply using Woods glass as the envelope for an incandescent bulb. This was the method that was used to create the very first black light sources, due to its black body spectrum, an incandescent light radiates less than 0. 1% of its energy as UV light
13.
Microprinting
–
Microprinting is the production of recognizable patterns or characters in a printed medium at a scale that requires magnification to read with the naked eye. To the unaided eye, the text may appear as a solid line, Microprint is predominantly used as an anti-counterfeiting technique, due to its inability to be easily reproduced by digital methods. Over the following decade, Boni worked to develop microprint, a process in which pages were photographed using 35mm microfilm. This process proved to produce a 6 by 9 index card that stored 100 pages of text from the normal sized publications he was reproducing, Boni began the Readex Microprint company to produce and license this technology. He also published an article A Guide to the Literature of Photography and Related Subjects, currency commonly exhibits the highest quality of microprint because it demands the highest level of counterfeiting deterrence. For example, on the series 2004 United States $20 bill, bank cheques as well as various other items of value may also commonly leverage microprinting methods, but generally not of such extreme size. While microprinting on such medium may be readable to the eye without microscopy. The first US postage stamp to incorporate microprinting was the American Wildflower Series introduced by The United States Postal Service in 1992 and it was also the first commemorative stamp wholly produced by offset lithography. Microprint of the smallest scale is only producible by hand using engraved offset printing plates or some other method of Intaglio, digital microtext printers utilize specially designed fonts and ink for the purpose. The ink used is most commonly MICR toner particles but may also be polyester based toners, Microprint of the scale capable by other printing methods can not be produced by a digital printer regardless of the resolution of the device. Some digital fonts are designed specifically for the purpose of microprinting and these pseudo-microprint fonts are referred to as microtext. Xerox was acclaimed for developing a microtext font they claimed could produce characters 1/100th of an inch tall, 1/100th of an inch is equivalent to 0.7227 points. In April 2015, Videojet Technologies released their 1650 High Resolution and 1620 HR Continuous Inkjet printers, the printers use a 40-micron nozzle that outputs more than 100,000 drops per second of ink. While these printers make microprinting faster and easier to produce digitally, the smallest scale microtext a laser printer can produce is 0. 5pt. Using gold nanoparticle inks on a substrate, scientists concluded that it was possible for them to control the production of print patterns to a scale of 2 microns. After printing, the nano-particle ink suspension was heated using a laser, as it was heated. In further experiments, they were able to fuse the nano-particles together into a tighter formation a continuous conductive line, such experiments did not directly include font characters but could translate to such usage. Microdot Microfilmer Microform Microphotograph Point Preservation
14.
Infrared
–
It extends from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers, to 1000000 nm. Most of the radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared. Like all EMR, IR carries radiant energy, and behaves both like a wave and like its quantum particle, the photon, slightly more than half of the total energy from the Sun was eventually found to arrive on Earth in the form of infrared. The balance between absorbed and emitted infrared radiation has an effect on Earths climate. Infrared radiation is emitted or absorbed by molecules when they change their rotational-vibrational movements and it excites vibrational modes in a molecule through a change in the dipole moment, making it a useful frequency range for study of these energy states for molecules of the proper symmetry. Infrared spectroscopy examines absorption and transmission of photons in the infrared range, Infrared radiation is used in industrial, scientific, and medical applications. Night-vision devices using active near-infrared illumination allow people or animals to be observed without the observer being detected, Infrared thermal-imaging cameras are used to detect heat loss in insulated systems, to observe changing blood flow in the skin, and to detect overheating of electrical apparatuses. Thermal-infrared imaging is used extensively for military and civilian purposes, military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing, and tracking. Humans at normal body temperature radiate chiefly at wavelengths around 10 μm, Infrared radiation extends from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers to 1 mm. This range of wavelengths corresponds to a range of approximately 430 THz down to 300 GHz. Below infrared is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Sunlight, at a temperature of 5,780 kelvins, is composed of near thermal-spectrum radiation that is slightly more than half infrared. At zenith, sunlight provides an irradiance of just over 1 kilowatt per square meter at sea level, of this energy,527 watts is infrared radiation,445 watts is visible light, and 32 watts is ultraviolet radiation. Nearly all the radiation in sunlight is near infrared, shorter than 4 micrometers. On the surface of Earth, at far lower temperatures than the surface of the Sun, almost all thermal radiation consists of infrared in mid-infrared region, much longer than in sunlight. Of these natural thermal radiation processes only lightning and natural fires are hot enough to produce much visible energy, thermal infrared radiation also has a maximum emission wavelength, which is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of object, in accordance with Wiens displacement law. Therefore, the band is often subdivided into smaller sections. Due to the nature of the blackbody radiation curves, typical hot objects, such as exhaust pipes, the three regions are used for observation of different temperature ranges, and hence different environments in space
15.
Euro
–
Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
16.
EURion constellation
–
The EURion constellation is a pattern of symbols incorporated into a number of banknote designs worldwide since about 1996. It is added to help imaging software detect the presence of a banknote in a digital image, such software can then block the user from reproducing banknotes to prevent counterfeiting using colour photocopiers. Research shows that the EURion constellation is used for colour photocopiers, the name EURion constellation was coined by Markus Kuhn, who uncovered the pattern in early 2002 while experimenting with a Xerox colour photocopier that refused to reproduce banknotes. The word is a combination of EUR, the euros ISO4217 designation, and Orion, the EURion constellation first described by Kuhn consists of a pattern of five small yellow, green or orange circles, which is repeated across areas of the banknote at different orientations. The mere presence of five of these circles on a page is sufficient for some colour photocopiers to refuse processing, the EURion constellation is most prominent, and was therefore first recognised, on the 200210 Euro banknote. Some banks integrate the constellation tightly with the design of the note. On 50 DM German banknotes, the EURion circles formed the innermost circles in a pattern of fine concentric circles. On the front of former Bank of England Elgar £20 notes, they appear as green heads of musical notes, on some U. S. bills, they appear as the digit zero in small, yellow numbers matching the value of the note. On Japanese Yen, these circles sometimes appear as flowers, technical details regarding the EURion constellation are kept secret by its inventors and users. A patent application suggests that the pattern and detection algorithm were designed at Omron Corporation and it is also not clear whether the feature has any official name. The term Omron anti-photocopying feature appeared in an August 2005 press release by the Reserve Bank of India, in 2007 it was picked up in an award announcement by a banknote collectors society. The following table lists the banknotes on which the EURion constellation has been found so far, countries where all recent banknotes use the constellation are in bold. Since 2003, image editors such as Adobe Photoshop CS or Paint Shop Pro 8 refuse to print banknotes, however, experiments by Steven J. Murdoch and others showed that this banknote detection code does not rely on the EURion pattern. It instead detects a digital watermark embedded in the images, developed by Digimarc, the rules for currency image use Nieves, J. Ruiz-Agundez, I. Recognizing Banknote Patterns for Protecting Economic TransactionsDatabase and Expert Systems Applications,2010 Workshop on, IEEE, 247--249
17.
Optically variable ink
–
Optically variable ink is an anti-counterfeiting measure used on many major modern banknotes, as well as on other official documents. The ink displays two distinct colors depending on the angle the bill is viewed at, the United States fifty-dollar bill, for example, uses color shifting ink for the numeral 50 so that it displays copper at one angle and bright green in another. OVI is particularly useful as a measure as it is not widely available. One major manufacturer is a Swiss company called SICPA, additional suppliers include Sun Chemical and the Brazilian company Sellerink, located in São Paulo, Brazil. Color-shifting inks reflect various wavelengths in white light differently, depending on the angle of incidence to the surface, an unaided eye will observe this effect as a change of color while the viewing angle is changed. A color copier or scanner can copy a document only at one fixed angle relative to the document’s surface
18.
Great Seal of the United States
–
The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the U. S. federal government. The phrase is used both for the seal itself, and more generally for the design impressed upon it. The Great Seal was first used publicly in 1782, the obverse of the great seal is used as the national coat of arms of the United States. It is officially used on such as United States passports, military insignia, embassy placards. As a coat of arms, the design has official colors, since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal have appeared on the reverse of the one-dollar bill. The Seal of the President of the United States is directly based on the Great Seal, the design on the obverse of the seal is the coat of arms of the United States. The shield, though sometimes drawn incorrectly, has two differences from the American flag. First, it has no stars on the blue chief, second, unlike the American flag, the outermost stripes are white, not red, so as not to violate the heraldic rule of tincture. The supporter of the shield is an eagle with its wings outstretched. Although not specified by law, the branch is usually depicted with 13 leaves and 13 olives. The eagle has its head turned towards the branch, on its right side. In its beak, the eagle clutches a scroll with the motto E pluribus unum, over its head there appears a glory with 13 mullets on a blue field. In the current dies of the seal, the 13 stars above the eagle are arranged in rows of 1-4-3-4-1. The 1782 resolution of Congress adopting the arms, still in force, legally blazoned the shield as Paleways of 13 pieces, argent and gules, a more technically proper blazon would have been argent, six pallets gules. But the phrase used was chosen to preserve the reference to the 13 original states, the 1782 resolution adopting the seal blazons the image on the reverse as A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory, the pyramid is conventionally shown as consisting of 13 layers to refer to the 13 original states. The adopting resolution provides that it is inscribed on its base with the date MDCCLXXVI in Roman numerals, where the top of the pyramid should be, the Eye of Providence watches over it. Two mottos appear, Annuit cœptis signifies that Providence has approved of undertakings, Novus ordo seclorum, freely taken from Virgil, is Latin for a new order of the ages
19.
Secretary of the Treasury
–
This position in the Federal Government of the United States is analogous to the Minister of Finance in many other countries. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the Presidents Cabinet, nominees for The Secretary of the Treasury undergo a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Finance before being confirmed by the United States Senate. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the U. S. National Security Council. The Secretary along with the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender, the Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund. Most of the Departments law enforcement agencies such as the U. S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, secret Service were reassigned to other Departments in 2003 in conjunction with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Secretary of the Treasury salary is $205,700 annually,2 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury M. Peter McPherson served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from August 17,1988, to September 15,1988. 4 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth W. Dam served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from December 31,2002,5 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert M. Kimmitt served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from June 30,2006, to July 9,2006. 7 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from January 25,2013, as of April 2017, there are eleven living former Secretaries of the Treasury, the oldest being George P. Shultz. The most recent Secretary of the Treasury to die was Lloyd M. Bentsen, United States Department of the Treasury
20.
Jack Lew
–
Jacob Joseph Jack Lew is an American attorney who was the 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury, serving from 2013 to 2017. He served as the 25th White House Chief of Staff from 2012 to 2013, Lew previously served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton and Obama Administrations, and is a member of the Democratic Party. Born in New York City, Lew received his A. B. from Harvard College, Lew began his career as a legislative assistant to Representative Joe Moakley and as a senior policy adviser to former House Speaker Tip ONeill. Lew then worked as an attorney in practice before working as a deputy in Bostons office of management. In 1993, he work for the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President. After leaving the Clinton Administration, Lew worked as the Executive Vice President for Operations at New York University from 2001 to 2006, Lew then served as the first Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, from 2009 to 2010. On January 10,2013, Lew was nominated as the replacement for retiring Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, on February 27,2013, the Senate confirmed Lew for the position. He was sworn in the following day, Lew was born in New York City, the son of Ruth and Irving Lew. He attended New York City public schools, graduating from Forest Hills High School and his father was a lawyer and rare-book dealer who came to the United States from Poland as a child. Lew attended Carleton College in Minnesota for a year, where his faculty adviser was Paul Wellstone and he graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983. He worked as an aide to Rep. Joe Moakley from 1974 to 1975, in 1979, he was a senior policy adviser to House Speaker Tip ONeill. Lew practiced as an attorney for five years as a partner at Van Ness Feldman and his practice dealt primarily with electric power generation. From February 1993 to 1994, Lew served as Special Assistant to the President under President Clinton, Lew was responsible for policy development and the drafting of the national service initiative and health care reform legislation. Lew left the White House in October 1994 to work as OMBs Executive Associate Director, from August 1995 until July 1998, Lew served as Deputy Director of OMB. There, Lew was chief operating officer responsible for management of a staff of 500. He had crosscutting responsibilities to coordinate Clinton administration efforts on budget and he frequently served as a member of the Administration negotiating team, including regarding the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. President Clinton nominated Lew to be Director of the OMB, and he served in that capacity until the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001. As OMB Director, Lew had the responsibility for the Clinton Administration’s policies on budget, management
21.
Martin Luther King Jr.
–
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, with the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech, on October 14,1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, in the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled Beyond Vietnam. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D. C. to be called the Poor Peoples Campaign, Kings death was followed by riots in many U. S. cities. Ray, who fled the country, was arrested two months later at London Heathrow Airport, King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, hundreds of streets in the U. S. have been renamed in his honor, and a county in Washington State was also renamed for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, King was born on January 15,1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. It was during this time he chose to be called Martin Luther King in honor of the German reformer Martin Luther, King had Irish ancestry through his paternal great-grandfather, as well as African ancestry. King was a child, between an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. King sang with his choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind. His mother was an accomplished organist and choir leader, and she took him to various churches to sing and he received attention for singing I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus. King later became a member of the choir in his church. King said that his father regularly whipped him until he was fifteen, King saw his fathers proud and fearless protests against segregation, such as King Sr. When King was a child, he befriended a boy whose father owned a business near his familys home. When the boys were six, they started school, King had to attend a school for African Americans, King lost his friend because the childs father no longer wanted the boys to play together. King suffered from depression throughout much of his life, in his adolescent years, he initially felt resentment against whites due to the racial humiliation that he, his family, and his neighbors often had to endure in the segregated South
22.
I Have a Dream
–
Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. the speech was a defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement. Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863, King observes that, one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme I have a dream, prompted by Mahalia Jacksons cry, Tell them about the dream. In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become its most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. Jon Meacham writes that, With a single phrase, Martin Luther King Jr. joined Jefferson, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was partly intended to demonstrate support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy in June. Martin Luther King and other leaders therefore agreed to keep their speeches calm, also, King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. King had been preaching about dreams since 1960, when he gave a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called The Negro, King suggests that It may well be that the Negro is Gods instrument to save the soul of America. In 1961, he spoke of the Civil Rights Movement and student activists dream of equality—the American Dream, a dream as yet unfulfilled—in several national speeches and statements, and took the dream as the centerpiece for these speeches. On November 27,1962, King gave a speech at Booker T. Washington High School in Rocky Mount and that speech was longer than the version which he would eventually deliver from the Lincoln Memorial. And while parts of the text had been moved around, large portions were identical, after being rediscovered, the restored and digitized recording of the 1962 speech was presented to the public by the English department of North Carolina State University. Martin Luther King had also delivered a speech in Detroit, in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Reverend C. L. Franklin. The March on Washington Speech, known as I Have a Dream Speech, has shown to have had several versions. It has no single version draft, but is an amalgamation of several drafts, little of this, and another Normalcy Speech, ended up in the final draft. A draft of Normalcy, Never Again is housed in the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection of the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, the focus on I have a dream comes through the speechs delivery. Toward the end of its delivery, noted African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to King from the crowd, Tell them about the dream, King departed from his prepared remarks and started preaching improvisationally, punctuating his points with I have a dream. The speech was drafted with the assistance of Stanley Levison and Clarence Benjamin Jones in Riverdale, March, a recording of Kings Cobo Hall speech was released by Detroits Gordy Records as an LP entitled The Great March To Freedom. Early in his speech, King alludes to Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address by saying Five score years ago, in reference to the abolition of slavery articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation, King says, It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity
23.
Marian Anderson
–
Marian Anderson was an American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth said, Her voice was a rich, most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965. Although offered roles with many important European opera companies, Anderson declined and she preferred to perform in concert and recital only. She did, however, perform opera arias within her concerts and she made many recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire of everything from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals. Between 1940 and 1965 the German-American pianist Franz Rupp was her permanent accompanist, Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused permission for Anderson to sing to an audience in Constitution Hall. The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the community on a level unusual for a classical musician. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and her performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdis Un ballo in maschera at the Met was the only time she sang an opera role on stage. She participated in the civil movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs. Marian Anderson was born on February 27,1897, in Philadelphia, the daughter of John Berkley Anderson and her father sold ice and coal at the Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia and eventually opened a small liquor business as well. Prior to her marriage, Andersons mother had attended the Virginia Seminary. As she did not obtain a degree, Annie Anderson was unable to teach in Philadelphia under a law that was applied only to black teachers and she therefore earned an income caring for small children. Marian was the eldest of the three Anderson children and her two sisters, Alice and Ethel, also became singers. Ethel married James DePreist and their son, James Anderson DePreist was a noted conductor. Andersons parents were both devout Christians and the family was active in the Union Baptist Church in South Philadelphia. Marians aunt Mary, her fathers sister, was active in the churchs musical life and, noticing her nieces talent. In that role she got to perform solos and duets, often with her aunt Mary, Marian was also taken by her aunt to concerts at local churches, the YMCA, benefit concerts, and other community music events throughout the city. Anderson credited her aunts influence as the reason she pursued a singing career, beginning as young as six, her aunt arranged for Marian to sing for local functions where she was often paid 25 or 50 cents for singing a few songs
24.
United States Note
–
A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U. S. Having been current for more than 100 years, they were issued for longer than any form of U. S. paper money. They were known popularly as greenbacks, a name inherited from the earlier greenbacks, the Demand Notes, often termed Legal Tender Notes, they were named United States Notes by the First Legal Tender Act, which authorized them as a form of fiat currency. They were originally issued directly into circulation by the U. S. Treasury to pay expenses incurred by the Union during the American Civil War, during the next century, the legislation governing these notes was modified many times and numerous versions were issued by the Treasury. S. Treasury Seals and serial numbers in place of green ones, existing United States Notes remain valid currency in the United States, however, as no United States Notes have been issued since January 1971, they are increasingly rare in circulation. The Act of July 17,1861 authorized United States Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to raise money via the issuance of $50,000,000 in Treasury Notes payable on demand. These Demand Notes were paid to creditors directly and used to meet the payroll of soldiers in the field. While issued within the framework of Treasury Note Debt, the Demand Notes were intended to circulate as currency and were of the same size as banknotes. During December 1861, economic conditions deteriorated and a suspension of specie payment caused the government to cease redeeming the Demand Notes as coins, the beginning of 1862 found the Unions expenses increasing, and the government was having trouble funding the escalating war. Demand Notes—which were used, among other things, to pay Union soldiers—were unredeemable, congressman and Buffalo banker Elbridge G. Spaulding prepared a bill, based on the Free Banking Law of New York, that eventually became the National Banking Act of 1863. This caused tremendous controversy in Congress, as hitherto the Constitution had been interpreted as not granting the government the power to issue a paper currency. Spaulding justified the action as a means of carrying into execution the powers granted in the Constitution to raise and support armies. Initially, the emission was limited to $150,000,000 total face value between the new Legal Tender Notes and the existing Demand Notes, the Act also intended for the new notes to be used to replace the Demand Notes as soon as practical. The Demand Notes had been issued in denominations of $5, $10, and $20, in addition, notes of entirely new design were introduced in denominations of $50, $100, $500 and $1000. The Demand Notes printed promise of payment On Demand was removed, Legal tender status guaranteed that creditors would have to accept the notes despite the fact that they were not backed by gold, bank deposits, or government reserves, and had no interest. The Act did provide that the notes be receivable by the government for short term deposits at 5% interest, the rationale for these terms was that the Union government would preserve its credit-worthiness by supporting the value of its bonds by paying their interest in gold. Lastly, by making the bonds available for purchase at par in United States Notes, the limitations of the legal tender status were quite controversial. This controversy would continue until the removal of the exceptions during 1933, the largest amount of greenbacks outstanding at any one time was calculated as $447,300,203.10
25.
Ulysses S. Grant
–
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States. As Commanding General, Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War and he implemented Congressional Reconstruction, often at odds with President Andrew Johnson. His presidency has often criticized for tolerating corruption and for the severe economic depression in his second term. Grant graduated in 1843 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, after the war he married Julia Boggs Dent in 1848, their marriage producing four children. Grant initially retired from the Army in 1854 and he struggled financially in civilian life. When the Civil War began in 1861, he rejoined the U. S. Army, in 1862, Grant took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee, and led Union forces to victory in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. He incorporated displaced African American slaves into the Union war effort, in July 1863, after a series of coordinated battles, Grant defeated Confederate armies and seized Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and dividing the Confederacy in two. After his victories in the Chattanooga Campaign, Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of bloody battles, trapping Lees army in their defense of Richmond. Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns in other theaters, as well, in April 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, effectively ending the war. Historians have hailed Grants military genius, and his strategies are featured in history textbooks. After the Civil War, Grant led the armys supervision of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states and he also used the army to build the Republican Party in the South. After the disenfranchisement of some former Confederates, Republicans gained majorities, in his second term, the Republican coalitions in the South splintered and were defeated one by one as redeemers regained control using coercion and violence. In May 1875, Grant authorized his Secretary of Treasury Benjamin Bristow to shut down and his peace policy with the Indians initially reduced frontier violence, but is best known for the Great Sioux War of 1876. Grant responded to charges of corruption in executive offices more than any other 19th Century president and he appointed the first Civil Service Commission and signed legislation ending the corrupt moiety system. In foreign policy, Grant sought to trade and influence while remaining at peace with the world. His administration successfully resolved the Alabama claims by the Treaty of Washington with Great Britain, Grant avoided war with Spain over the Virginius Affair, but Congress rejected his attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic. His administration implemented a standard and sought to strengthen the dollar. Grant left office in 1877 and embarked on a two-year diplomatic world tour that captured the nations attention, in 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term
26.
Educational Series
–
The notes depict various allegorical motifs and are considered by some numismatists to be the most beautiful monetary designs ever produced by the United States. The obverse of the notes depict a neoclassical allegorical motif, which dominates the front of the note, the motifs are meant as representations of the theme written on the note. The back contained the profiles of two American figures set against an ornate background, denominations of $1, $2, and $5 were produced. In addition to $1, $2 and $5 notes denominations of $10, $20, $50, designs for a $10 and $50 denomination were being prepared but were never completed or produced before the series was abandoned and replaced by the series of 1899. The term Educational is derived from the title of the vignette on the $1 note, smillie Border Engraver, Charles Schlecht Rear Back Designer, Thomas F. Morris Robert Fulton and Samuel F. B. Smillie Border Engraver, Thomas F. Morris Rear Back Designer, Lorenzo J. Hatch and Thomas F. Morris Rear Back Engraver, some bankers reportedly refused to accept the notes in transactions, and the term banned in Boston allegedly originates from the $5 silver certificate. In response the Bureau of Engraving and Printing prepared a draped bosom $5 vignette design for a proposed 1897 series, the redesign also included a highly modified front face but was never utilized. Also for the first time in 1893, Bureau authorities invited a group of outside artists. The presence of the group caused tremendous creative problems within the BEP. Great personality conflicts and jealousy could be one reason that although the $1 design was approved in July 1894 the remaining two notes were not accepted until late 1895, at one point during the process BEP designer Thomas Morris resigned. Coupled with being banned in Boston the notes were replaced by the Series of 1899 notes. ISBN 0-7948-1786-6 FRBSF Currency Exhibit Portions of this article used material from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco website, which is in the public domain
27.
Demand Note
–
A Demand Note is a type of United States paper money that was issued between August 1861 and April 1862 during the American Civil War in denominations of 5,10, and 20 US$. The U. S. government placed the Demand Notes into circulation by using them to pay expenses incurred during the Civil War including the salaries of its workers and military personnel. S. currency today. As a result, most Demand Notes were redeemed, though the few remaining Demand Notes are the oldest valid currency in the United States today, the Demand Notes were a transitional issue connecting these Treasury Notes to modern paper money. The Continental Congress had issued Continental dollars between 1775 and 1779 to help finance the American Revolution, while the constitution did not explicitly grant the power to issue paper currency, it did grant the power to borrow money. Treasury Notes, as a form of debt, were an innovation to help bridge federal financing gaps when the government encountered difficulty selling a sufficient amount of long term bonds, Treasury Notes were first employed during the War of 1812 and were issued irregularly up through the civil war. Characteristically the issues were not extensive and the fiction was always maintained that Treasury Notes did not serve as money when, in fact. These notes usually bore interest, their value varied with market conditions, however, only $3,392,994 were issued, and these were rapidly exchanged for bonds. In witness to the limited circulation achieved by these notes, only two issued uncancelled examples of the Small Treasury Notes are known today vs. almost 1000 examples of the Demand Notes. One response from Congress was the Act of July 17,1861, of this sum, up to $50,000,000 was authorized as non-interest bearing Treasury Notes, payable upon demand, in denominations less than fifty dollars and not less than ten dollars. These were called Demand Notes to distinguish them from the interest-bearing Treasury Notes in existence at the time, the notes were to be redeemable through the assistant treasurers offices at Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. These signature provisions would later be altered several times and this act also stipulated that prior to December 31,1862, an individual Demand Note could be re-issued into circulation after it was presented for redemption. Just before they were to be released, the Act of August 5,1861 and it allowed for Demand Notes to be issued in denominations of not less than $5 and be redeemable through the assistant treasurers office at St. Louis or the bullion depository in Cincinnati. This act also stated that the Treasurer of the United States, under this act, Demand Notes did not need to carry the seal of the U. S. Treasury. Because the Bureau of Engraving and Printing did not exist at the time, both companies were prominent printers of banknotes for private and state-chartered banks throughout the country. Most likely, the American Bank Note Company engraved the plates for $5. All of the Demand Notes were printed by the American Bank Note Company, as designed, they were of the same size, and in appearance closely resembled banknotes. Secretary of the Treasury Chase began distributing the notes to meet Union obligations in August 1861, initially, various merchants, banks and especially the railroad industry accepted the notes at a discounted rate or did not accept them at all. Louis, and at the Depository of Cincinnati and they must be always equivalent to gold, and often and for many purposes more convenient and valuable
28.
Alexander Hamilton
–
Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. He took the lead in the funding of the debts by the Federal government, as well as the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs. His vision included a central government led by a vigorous executive branch. This was challenged by Virginia agrarians Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who formed a rival party and they favored strong states based in rural America and protected by state militias as opposed to a strong national army and navy. They denounced Hamilton as too friendly toward Britain and toward monarchy in general, Hamilton was born out of wedlock in Charlestown, to a married mother of British and French Huguenot ancestry and a Scottish father. His father, James A. Hamilton, was the son of laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange. Orphaned as a child by his mothers death and his fathers abandonment, Hamilton was taken in by an older cousin and he was recognized for his intelligence and talent, and sponsored by a group of wealthy local men to travel to New York City to pursue his education. Hamilton attended Kings College, choosing to stay in the Thirteen Colonies to seek his fortune, discontinuing his studies before graduating when the college closed its doors during British occupation of the city, Hamilton played a major role in the American Revolutionary War. At the start of the war in 1775, he joined a militia company, in early 1776, he raised a provincial artillery company, to which he was appointed captain. He soon became the aide to General Washington, the American forces commander-in-chief. Hamilton was dispatched by Washington on numerous missions to convey plans to his generals, after the war, Hamilton was elected as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation from New York. He resigned to practice law, and founded the Bank of New York, Hamilton was among those dissatisfied with the weak national government. He led the Annapolis Convention, which successfully influenced Congress to issue a call for the Philadelphia Convention in order to create a new constitution, Hamilton became the leading cabinet member in the new government under President Washington. These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports, to overcome localism, Hamilton mobilized a nationwide network of friends of the government, especially bankers and businessmen, which became the Federalist Party. A major issue in the emergence of the American two-party system was the Jay Treaty and it established friendly trade relations with Britain, to the chagrin of France and the supporters of the French Revolution. Hamilton played a role in the Federalist party, which dominated national. In 1795, he returned to the practice of law in New York and he tried to control the policies of President Adams
29.
Allegorical
–
As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world issues and occurrences. Many ancient religions are based on astrological allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the sun, in classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Platos Republic and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa. One of the examples of allegory, Platos Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in an all of their lives. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israels exile to Rome. Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances, if, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Mediaeval Period, following the tradition, since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. S, lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear, The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin. The story of the apple falling onto Isaac Newtons head is another famous allegory and it simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale. According to Henry Littlefields 1964 article, L. Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that, A fairy tale is not an allegory, I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and this further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention. Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works, Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown, The Devils Staff symbolises defiance of God, the characters names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter symbolises many things, the characters, while developed with interiority, are allegorical in that they represent ways of seeing the world. George Orwell – Animal Farm, The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution, lászló Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies, It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government
30.
Andrew Jackson
–
Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837 and was the founder of the Democratic Party. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress, as president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the common man against what he saw as a corrupt aristocracy and to preserve the Union. Jackson was born in 1767 somewhere near the border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson acted as a courier, at age 13, he was captured and mistreated by the British. He moved to Tennessee and practiced as a lawyer, in 1791, he married Rachel Donelson Robards. The couple later learned that Rachels previous husband had failed to finalize their divorce, Jackson served briefly in the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate. Upon returning to Tennessee, he was appointed a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court, in 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, and was elected its commander the following year. He built the Hermitage plantation in 1804, in 1806, he killed a man in a duel over a matter of honor regarding his wife. He led Tennessee militia and U. S. Army regulars during the Creek War of 1813-1814, Jackson won a decisive victory in the War of 1812 over the British army at the Battle of New Orleans, making him into a national hero. Because Spanish Florida was a refuge for blacks escaping slavery, who allied with the Seminole Indians, Jackson invaded the territory in 1816 to destroy the Negro Fort. He led an invasion in 1818, as part of the First Seminole War, resulting in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. Jackson briefly served as Floridas first Territorial Governor in 1821, Jackson was nominated by several state legislatures to be a candidate for president in 1824. Although he earned a plurality in both the electoral and popular vote against three major candidates, Jackson failed to get a majority and lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams, Jacksons supporters founded what became the Democratic Party. He ran again for president in 1828 against Adams, building and expanding upon his base of support in the West and South, he won in a landslide. He blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred after the election, on the Adams campaigners, as president, Jackson faced a threat of secession by South Carolina over the Tariff of Abominations, which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of force if South Carolina attempted to secede. Jackson believed strongly in majority rule and he supported direct election of senators and abolition of the Electoral College, believing that these reforms would provide average citizens with greater power
31.
Vignetting
–
In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an images brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center. The word vignette, from the root as vine, originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a portrait which is clear in the center. A similar effect occurs when photographing projected images or movies off a projection screen, vignetting is often an unintended and undesired effect caused by camera settings or lens limitations. However, it is deliberately introduced for creative effect, such as to draw attention to the center of the frame. A photographer may deliberately choose a lens which is known to produce vignetting to obtain the effect, when using superzoom lenses, vignetting may occur all along the zoom range, depending on the aperture and the focal length. However, it may not always be visible, except at the widest end, in these cases, vignetting may cause an exposure value difference of up to 0. 75EV. There are several causes of vignetting and this has the effect of changing the entrance pupil shape as a function of angle. Darkening can be gradual or abrupt – the smaller the aperture, when some points on an image receives no light at all due to mechanical vignetting, then this results in an restriction of the field of view – parts of the image are then completely black. This type of vignetting is caused by the dimensions of a multiple element lens. Rear elements are shaded by elements in front of them, which reduces the lens opening for off-axis incident light. The result is a decrease in light intensity towards the image periphery. Optical vignetting is sensitive to the aperture and can often be cured by a reduction in aperture of 2–3 stops. Unlike the previous types, natural vignetting is not due to the blocking of light rays, the falloff is approximated by the cos4 or cosine fourth law of illumination falloff. Here, the light falloff is proportional to the power of the cosine of the angle at which the light impinges on the film or sensor array. Wideangle rangefinder designs and the designs used in compact cameras are particularly prone to natural vignetting. Telephoto lenses, retrofocus wideangle lenses used on SLR cameras, a gradual grey filter or postprocessing techniques may be used to compensate for natural vignetting, as it cannot be cured by stopping down the lens. Some modern lenses are designed so that the light strikes the image parallel or nearly so
32.
National gold bank note
–
National gold bank notes, issued by nine national gold banks in California in the 1870s and 1880s, were national bank notes redeemable in gold. Printed on a paper, six NGBN denominations circulated, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100. A $1,000 NGBN was designed and printed, but never issued, during the issuing period of national gold banks, the U. S. Treasury issued 200,558 notes totaling $3,465,240. Today, national bank notes are very rare in the higher denominations with condition generally falling in the good to fine range. Approximately 630 NGBNs are known to exist, and roughly 20 grade above very fine, the national gold bank notes were authorized under the provisions of the Currency Act of July 12,1870. The series was a result of the California Gold Rush where gold coins were preferered in commerce, ten national gold banks were charted, nine of them in California and one in Boston, Massachusetts. The Kiddler Bank was the bank to have $1,000 notes among others prepared however. Friedberg, Arthur L. Friedberg, Ira S, Paper Money of the United States, A Complete Illustrated Guide With Valuations. Huntoon, Peter W. United States Large Size National Bank Notes, society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc. Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency, office of the Comptroller of the Currency. About Paper Money - Large-size paper money - Early federal issues Coin World Pictures of National Gold Bank Notes The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
33.
Christopher Columbus
–
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
34.
Silver certificate (United States)
–
Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, the certificates were initially redeemable for their face value of silver dollar coins and later in raw silver bullion. Since 1968 they have been only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete. Large-size silver certificates were issued initially in denominations from $10 to $1,000 and in 1886 the $1, $2, in 1928, all United States bank notes were re-designed and the size reduced. The small-size silver certificate was issued in denominations of $1, $5. The complete type set below is part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, the Coinage Act of 1873 intentionally omitted language authorizing the coinage of “standard” silver dollars and ended the bimetallic standard that had been created by Alexander Hamilton. By 1875 business interests invested in silver wanted the bimetallic standard restored, people began to refer to the passage of the Act as the Crime of 73. Further public agitation for silver use was driven by fear that there was not enough money in the community. Members of Congress claimed ignorance that the 1873 law would lead to the demonetization of silver, some blamed the passage of the Act on a number of external factors including a conspiracy involving foreign investors and government conspirators. In response, the Bland–Allison Act, as it came to be known, was passed by Congress on 28 February 1878, the first silver certificates were issued in denominations of $10 through $1,000. Reception by financial institutions was cautious, while more convenient and less bulky than dollar coins, the silver certificate was not accepted for all transactions. Congress used the National Banking Act of 12 July 1882 to clarify the legal status of silver certificates by clearly authorizing them to be included in the lawful reserves of national banks. A general appropriations act of 4 August 1886 authorized the issue of $1, $2, the introduction of low-denomination currency greatly increased circulation. Over the 12-year lifespan of the Bland–Allison Act, the United States government would receive a seigniorage amounting to roughly $68 million, Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh appointed a committee to investigate possible advantages to issuing smaller sized United States banknotes. Due in part to the outbreak of World War I and the end of his appointed term, any recommendations may have stalled. On 20 August 1925, Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon appointed a committee and in May 1927 accepted their recommendations for the size reduction. On 10 July 1929 the new currency was issued. This required that the Treasury maintain stocks of dollars to back
35.
Morgan dollar
–
The Morgan dollar was a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, and again in 1921. The coin is named after its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan, the obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched. The dollar was authorized by the Bland–Allison Act, following the passage of the 1873 act, mining interests lobbied to restore free silver, which would require the Mint to accept all silver presented to it and return it, struck into coin. Instead, the Bland–Allison Act was passed, which required the Treasury to purchase between two and four million dollars worth of silver at market value to be coined into dollars each month and this act, once again, was repealed in 1893. In 1898, Congress approved a bill that all remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to be coined into silver dollars. When those silver reserves were depleted in 1904, the Mint ceased to strike the Morgan dollar, the Pittman Act, passed in 1918, authorized the melting and recoining of millions of silver dollars. Pursuant to the act, Morgan dollars resumed mintage for one year in 1921, the design was replaced by the Peace dollar later the same year. In the early 1960s, a quantity of unissued Morgan dollars was discovered in the Treasury vaults. Individuals began purchasing large quantities of the pieces at face value, beginning in the 1970s, the Treasury conducted a sale of silver dollars minted at the Carson City Mint through the General Services Administration. In 2006, Morgans reverse design was used on a silver dollar issued to commemorate the old San Francisco Mint building, in 1873, Congress enacted the Fourth Coinage Act, which effectively ended the bimetallic standard in the United States by demonetizing silver bullion. Prior to enactment of the Coinage Act, silver could be brought to the mints, the act ended production of the standard silver dollar and provided for mintage of a silver trade dollar, which was intended to compete with Mexican dollars for use in the Orient. Under the act, bullion producers were allowed to bring bullion to the mints in order to be cast into bars or coined into the newly authorized trade dollars for a small fee. Protests also came from bankers, manufacturers and farmers, who felt an increased supply would have a positive impact. Groups were formed that demanded the free coinage of silver in order to inflate the dollar following the Panic of 1873, beginning in 1876, several bills were introduced in the House of Representatives in an effort to resume the free coinage of silver. One such bill introduced into the House by Democratic Representative Richard P, bland of Missouri was passed in the fall of 1876. Republican senator William B. Allison of Iowa added important amendments to the bill in the Senate, the House bill allowed Free Silver, one of Allisons amendments struck that provision. This same amendment allowed for the issuance of certificates for the first time in United States history. The bill was vetoed by President Rutherford B, the presidents veto was overridden on February 28,1878
36.
Counterfeit
–
To counterfeit means to imitate something. Counterfeit products are fakes or unauthorised replicas of the real product, counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product. Counterfeit products tend to have company logos and brands, have a reputation for being lower quality. This has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, due to automobile and aviation accidents, poisoning, the counterfeiting of money is usually attacked aggressively by governments worldwide. Paper money is the most popular product counterfeited, counterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government and in deliberate violation of that countrys laws. The United States Secret Service, mostly known for its guarding-of-officials task, was organized primarily to combat the counterfeiting of American money. Forgery is the process of making or adapting documents with the intention to deceive and it is a form of fraud, and is often a key technique in the execution of identity theft. Uttering and publishing is a term in United States law for the forgery of documents, such as a trucking companys time. Questioned document examination is a process for investigating many aspects of various documents. Security printing is a printing industry specialty, focused on creating legal documents which are difficult to forge, the spread of counterfeit goods has become global in recent years and the range of goods subject to infringement has increased significantly. Apparel and accessories accounted for over 50 percent of the goods seized by U. S Customs. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicates that up to US$200 Billion of international trade could have been in counterfeit and illegally copied goods in 2005. In November 2009, the OECD updated these estimates, concluding that the share of counterfeit and that represents an increase to US$250 billion worldwide. In a detailed breakdown of the counterfeit goods industry, the total loss faced by countries around the world is $600 billion, when calculating counterfeit products, current estimates place the global losses at $400 billion. Some see the rise in counterfeiting of goods as being related to globalisation and these new managers of production have little or no loyalty to the original corporation. They see that profits are being made by the brand for doing little and see the possibilities of removing the middle men. Certain consumer goods, especially expensive or desirable brands or those that are easy to reproduce cheaply, have become frequent. The counterfeiters either attempt to deceive the consumer into thinking they are purchasing a legitimate item, or convince the consumer that they could deceive others with the imitation
37.
Electricity
–
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence of electric charge. Although initially considered a separate to magnetism, since the development of Maxwells Equations both are recognized as part of a single phenomenon, electromagnetism. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges, in addition, electricity is at the heart of many modern technologies. The presence of a charge, which can be either positive or negative. On the other hand, the movement of charges, which is known as electric current. When a charge is placed in a location with non-zero electric field, the magnitude of this force is given by Coulombs Law. Thus, if that charge were to move, the field would be doing work on the electric charge. Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though progress in theoretical understanding remained slow until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even then, practical applications for electricity were few, and it would not be until the nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry, electricitys extraordinary versatility means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport, heating, lighting, communications, and computation. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society, long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE referred to these fish as the Thunderer of the Nile, Electric fish were again reported millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists and physicians. Patients suffering from such as gout or headache were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them. Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. He coined the New Latin word electricus to refer to the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed and this association gave rise to the English words electric and electricity, which made their first appearance in print in Thomas Brownes Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646. Further work was conducted by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray, in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a key to the bottom of a dampened kite string. A succession of jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that lightning was indeed electrical in nature
38.
Philip Sheridan
–
Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. In 1865, his cavalry pursued Gen. Robert E. Lee and was instrumental in forcing his surrender at Appomattox, Sheridan fought in later years in the Indian Wars of the Great Plains. Both as a soldier and private citizen, he was instrumental in the development, in 1883, Sheridan was appointed general-in-chief of the U. S. Army, and in 1888 he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army during the term of President Grover Cleveland. Sheridan claimed he was born in Albany, New York, the child of six by John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan, Catholic immigrants from the parish of Killinkere, County Cavan. He grew up in Somerset, Ohio, fully grown, he reached only 165 cm tall, a stature that led to the nickname, Little Phil. Sheridan worked as a boy in general stores, and eventually as head clerk. In his third year at West Point, Sheridan was suspended for a year for fighting with a classmate, the previous day, Sheridan had threatened to run him through with a bayonet in reaction to a perceived insult on the parade ground. He graduated in 1853, 34th in his class of 52 cadets, Sheridan was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st U. S. Infantry regiment at Fort Duncan, Texas, then to the 4th U. S, most of his service with the 4th U. S. He lived with a mistress during part of his tour of duty and he was promoted to first lieutenant in March 1861, just before the Civil War, and to captain in May, immediately after Fort Sumter. In the fall of 1861, Sheridan was ordered to travel to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri, for assignment to the 13th U. S. Infantry. He departed from his command of Fort Yamhill, Oregon, by way of San Francisco, across the Isthmus of Panama, frémont, whose administration of the Department of the Missouri was tainted by charges of wasteful expenditures and fraud that left the status of $12 million in debt. Sheridan sorted out the mess, impressing Halleck in the process, much to Sheridans dismay, Hallecks vision for Sheridan consisted of a continuing role as a staff officer. Nevertheless, Sheridan performed the task assigned to him and entrenched himself as an excellent staff officer in Hallecks view, in January 1862, he reported for duty to Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis and served under him at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Sheridan soon discovered that officers were engaged in profiteering and they stole horses from civilians and demanded payment from Sheridan. He refused to pay for the property and confiscated the horses for the use of Curtiss army. When Curtis ordered him to pay the officers, Sheridan brusquely retorted, Curtis had Sheridan arrested for insubordination but Hallecks influence appears to have ended any formal proceedings. Gen. William T. Sherman, who offered him the colonelcy of an Ohio infantry regiment and this appointment fell through, but Sheridan was subsequently aided by friends, who petitioned Michigan Governor Austin Blair on his behalf
39.
Running Antelope
–
Running Antelope or Tȟatȟóka Íŋyaŋke became a head chief of the Hunkpapa in 1851. His belief that compromise with the whites was in their best interests led to his eventually distancing himself from Sitting Bull, perhaps one of the only American Indians depicted on U. S. When Running Antelope was born near the Grand River, presently South Dakota, in 1821, consequently, he grew up in the old traditions of his people. He learned to ride and hunt, and later went on horse-stealing expeditions and war parties, by the time he reached manhood things had changed. The whites were more numerous, and the Indians were forced to adapt to the new conditions, many Sioux took up arms and became strong in warfare, the Hunkpapas, one of the smaller bands of the Tetons, became one of the strongest. Running Antelope, however, was one of the first Hunkpapas to reject the warpath, Running Antelope, in his earlier years, was closely allied with Sitting Bull, who was eleven years his junior. Running Antelope, a chief, was prominent among the Lakota. In 1851, Running Antelope was elected one of four shirt wearers of the Hunkpapa, a shirt wearer served to intercede between the council and the headmen and akicita who carried out tribal policy and decisions. He was a warrior and accomplished diplomat. A great council with the Sioux was called at Fort Laramie, Running Antelope signed the Treaty of 1868 at Fort Rice. It was often said that Running Antelope was the greatest orator of the Sioux Nation and he attended the Fort Laramie, Fort Rice and Fort Peck treaty councils. Under the influence of James McLaughlin, he became a dominant leader of the reservation Hunkpapa people at the Grand River Agency and he was enrolled in 1868 at Grand River Agency, later part of Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota. Running Antelope established a settlement of about sixty families in the Grand River valley, in his later years, he regretted signing the 1868 Treaty and longed for the time when the Lakota were free, and realigned with Sitting Bull. He was chosen to lead the last great Sioux buffalo hunt in June,1882, a large herd was sighted about a hundred miles west of Fort Yates, and a hunting of 2,000 men, women and children left the fort on June 10. The next morning the herd numbering approximately 50,000 buffalo was sighted, about 2,000 were killed the first day, and the camp moved up to the scene of the hunt and the butchering began. The next day another 3,000 were killed and the camp settled in near a creek to jerk the meat, as usual when meat was plentiful, the labors of the Indian camp were lightened by feasting. In 1899, Running Antelope was pictured on the Five-Dollar Silver Certificate and he died between June 30,1896 and June 30,1897. He is buried at the Long Hill Cemetery east of Little Eagle, on the 1885 Standing Rock ration list, he had ten lodges and 42 people in his care
40.
Federal Reserve Bank Note
–
They had the same value as other kinds of notes of similar face value. Federal Reserve Bank Notes differ from Federal Reserve Notes in that they are backed by one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, rather than by all collectively. They were backed in a way to National Bank Notes, using U. S. bonds. Federal Reserve Bank Notes are no longer issued, the only U. S. banknotes still in production since 1971 are the Federal Reserve Notes, additional denominations of $1, $2, and $50 were issued in 1918. Small size Federal Reserve Bank Notes were printed as an issue in 1933 using the same paper stock as National Bank Notes. They were printed in denominations of $5 through $100, a National Bank Note has a line for the national banks presidents signature. The small size Federal Reserve Bank Note printed a bar over the label for this line since Federal Reserve Banks had governors, not presidents. The wording also was changed to add, Or by like deposit of other securities after the phrase, the twelve Federal Reserve Districts also appear on the bills as black alphabetically sequenced letters, from A to L, a system essentially followed today on the $1 and $2 bills. This emergency issue was prompted by the hoarding of cash because of the many bank failures happening at the time. This also limited the ability of the National Banks to issue notes of their own, small size Federal Reserve Bank Notes were discontinued in 1934 and no longer available from banks since 1945. As small size notes, they have brown seals and serial numbers, but while they look very similar, and both say National Currency across the top of the obverse, the issuers were not the same and they are considered to be distinctly different types of bills
41.
Hawaii overprint note
–
A Hawaii overprint note is one of a series of banknotes issued during World War II as an emergency issue after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The intent of the overprints was to easily distinguish US currency captured by Japanese forces in the event of an invasion of Hawaii, on June 25,1942, new overprinted notes were first issued. The hope was that should there have been a Japanese invasion, with this issue, military officials made the use of non-overprinted notes redundant and ordered all Hawaii residents to turn in unstamped notes for Hawaii-stamped notes by July 15. Starting from August 15,1942, no paper currency could be used except under special permission. At first, a crematorium was pressed into service to burn the notes. To ensure complete destruction, a fine mesh was placed on the top of the smokestacks to catch, progress on the destruction was slow, and pressed with time, the bigger furnaces of the Aiea sugar mill were requisitioned to help burn the currency. The notes and issuance continued in use until October 21,1944, by April 1946, many notes were saved as curios and souvenirs by servicemen. Of the series, the $5 note is considered the most desirable, over 35 million $1 notes were made, making them the most common of the series. Star notes exist for all the notes, and command a sizable premium, hawaiis Forgotten History, the good. the bad. the embarrassing. Friedberg, Arthur L. & Ira S, a Guide Book Of United States Paper Money, Complete Source for History, Grading, and Prices Whitman Publishing ISBN 0-7948-2362-9 Simpson, MacKinnon. Hawaii Homefront, Life in the Islands during World War II
42.
Series of 1928 (United States Currency)
–
The Series of 1928 was the first issue of small-size currency printed and released by the U. S. government. These notes, first released to the public on July 10,1929, were the first standardized notes in terms of design and characteristics, featuring similar portraits and other facets. This was the type of currency that, at first. These notes also carried a seal bearing the identity of the Federal Reserve Bank of issuance, the bank was noted in the black, circular seal to the left of the portrait. This can be seen in the picture at the upper right, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, responsible for the 7th district of the Federal Reserve System, issued this note. The regional seal is a design unique to Federal Reserve Notes. While these notes were issued by the Federal Reserve Banks, they were still obligations of the U. S. Government, as stated, The United States of America will pay to the bearer on demand dollars. This obligation to exchange FRNs for gold ended in the early 1930s as the United States outlawed the private ownership of gold, the $5, $10, and $20 denominations were the first to be issued. Series of 1928A for $5, $10, and $20 resulted from a signature change, the four corner numbers were aligned vertically, as well, causing a shift in plate position letters on certain denominations. Series of 1928C included only fives, tens, and twenties and this series of notes saw very low printing figures, as only certain districts issued notes. This series, the result of a change, is also known for its specific light green Treasury Seal variety. Series of 1928D, also the result of a change, included only fives. These notes are among the rarest small-size notes in existence today, all banknotes in the following table are Series of 1928 Federal Reserve Notes from the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History. Series of 1928 United States Notes were issued in $2 and $5 denominations until the early 1950s, also, for a brief period in 1933, Series of 1928 $1 United States Notes were issued as a response to the Great Depression. Most of these remained in storage before being released in Puerto Rico during 1948-9, Series of 1928 through 1928E silver certificates were only issued in the $1 denomination. The design closely followed the 1923 $1 Silver Certificate,1928 saw the last issuance of Gold Certificates to the public prior to their confiscation during the Great Depression
43.
Obverse and reverse
–
In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it depicts the head of a prominent person. In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the front is more commonly used than obverse. For prints and drawings with material on both sides the one judged as more significant will be the recto, a convention now exists typically to display the obverse to the left and the reverse to the right in photographs and museum displays, but this is not invariably observed. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena, similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries. The opposite side may have varied from time to time and this change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and this script alone style then was used on nearly all Islamic coinage until the modern period. The type of Justinian II was revived after the end of Iconoclasm, without images, therefore, it is not always easy to tell which side will be regarded as the obverse without some knowledge. After 695, Islamic coins avoided all images of persons and usually, the side expressing the Six Kalimas is usually defined as the obverse. The form of currency follows its function, which is to serve as an accepted medium of exchange of value. Traditionally, most states have been monarchies where the person of the monarch, if not provided for on the obverse, the reverse side usually contains information relating to a coins role as medium of exchange. Additional space typically reflects the countrys culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the states territory. Regarding the euro, some regarding the obverse and reverse of the euro coins exists. This rule does not apply to the coins as they dont have a common side. A number of the used for obverse national sides of euro coins were taken from the reverse of the old pre-euro coins of some individual countries. Several countries continue to use portraits of the monarch and the Republic of Ireland continues to use the State Arms. The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so, the side on which the date continues to be regarded as the reverse. Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom almost always feature the head of the monarch
44.
Great Depression
–
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
45.
Gold standard
–
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. Three types can be distinguished, specie, bullion, and exchange, the gold bullion standard is a system in which gold coins do not circulate, but the authorities agree to sell gold bullion on demand at a fixed price in exchange for the circulating currency. The gold exchange standard usually does not involve the circulation of gold coins. This creates a de facto standard, where the value of the means of exchange has a fixed external value in terms of gold that is independent of the inherent value of the means of exchange itself. Most nations abandoned the standard as the basis of their monetary systems at some point in the 20th century. An estimated total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history and this is roughly equivalent to 5.6 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 9,261 cubic metres, or a cube 21 metres on a side. There are varying estimates of the volume of gold mined. One reason for the variance is that gold has been mined for thousands of years, another reason is that some nations are not particularly open about how much gold is being mined. In addition, it is difficult to account for the output in illegal mining activities. World production for 2011 was at 2,700 tonnes, since the 1950s, annual gold output growth has approximately kept pace with world population growth of around 2x, although far less than world economic growth of some 8x, or some 4x since 1980. The gold specie standard arose from the acceptance of gold as currency. Various commodities have been used as money, typically, the one that loses the least value over time becomes the accepted form, the use of gold as money began thousands of years ago in Asia Minor. During the early and high Middle Ages, the Byzantine gold solidus, commonly known as the bezant, was used widely throughout Europe, however, as the Byzantine Empires economic influence declined, so too did the use of the bezant. In its place, European territories chose silver as its currency over gold, Silver pennies based on the Roman denarius became the staple coin of Mercia in Great Britain around the time of King Offa, circa CE 757–796. Similar coins, including Italian denari, French deniers, and Spanish dineros circulated in Europe, Spanish explorers discovered silver deposits in Mexico in 1522 and at Potosí in Bolivia in 1545. International trade came to depend on such as the Spanish dollar, the Maria Theresa thaler, and later. In modern times, the British West Indies was one of the first regions to adopt a gold specie standard, following Queen Annes proclamation of 1704, the British West Indies gold standard was a de facto gold standard based on the Spanish gold doubloon. A formal gold specie standard was first established in 1821, when Britain adopted it following the introduction of the sovereign by the new Royal Mint at Tower Hill in 1816
46.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
47.
Japanese people
–
Japanese people are an ethnic group native to Japan. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of the population of their country. Worldwide, approximately 129 million people are of Japanese descent, of these, people of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as the Japanese diaspora. The term ethnic Japanese may also be used in some contexts to refer to ethnic groups, including the Yamato, Ainu. The Japanese language is a Japonic language that in the past was treated as a language isolate, the Japanese language has a tripartite writing system using Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Domestic Japanese people use primarily Japanese for daily interaction, the adult literacy rate in Japan exceeds 99%. Japanese religion has traditionally been syncretic in nature, combining elements of Buddhism, Shinto, a polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japans native religion. Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the century and evolved into many different sects. Today, the largest form of Buddhism among Japanese people is the Jōdo Shinshū sect founded by Shinran, most Japanese people profess to believe in both Shinto and Buddhism. Japanese peoples religion functions mostly as a foundation for mythology, traditions, Christianity in Japan is among the nations minority religions. Just under 2%, or about 2.5 million, of Japans population are Christians, many Japanese practice Christianity in the diaspora in Brazil, which is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. About 60% of Japanese Brazilians are Roman Catholics, while 90% of Japanese Mexicans are Roman Catholic, certain genres of writing originated in and are often associated with Japanese society. These include the haiku, tanka, and I Novel, although modern writers generally avoid these writing styles, historically, many works have sought to capture or codify traditional Japanese cultural values and aesthetics. Twentieth-century Japanese writers recorded changes in Japanese society through their works, some of the most notable authors included Natsume Sōseki, Junichirō Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Fumiko Enchi, Yukio Mishima, and Ryōtarō Shiba. In contemporary Japan, popular authors such as Ryū Murakami, Haruki Murakami, decorative arts in Japan date back to prehistoric times. Jōmon pottery includes examples with elaborate ornamentation, in the Yayoi period, artisans produced mirrors, spears, and ceremonial bells known as dōtaku. Later burial mounds, or kofun, preserve characteristic clay haniwa, beginning in the Nara period, painting, calligraphy, and sculpture flourished under strong Confucian and Buddhist influences from China. Among the architectural achievements of this period are the Hōryū-ji and the Yakushi-ji, after the cessation of official relations with the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, Japanese art and architecture gradually became less influenced by China
