Wheeler, Texas
Wheeler is a city, the county seat of Wheeler County, United States, located on the eastern border of the Texas Panhandle. The population was last reported at 1,592 in the 2010 census. Both the town of Wheeler and Wheeler County are named for Royall Tyler Wheeler, a Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court; the town is positioned 3 miles northwest from the center of the county, 100 miles east of Amarillo, TX, 12 miles west of the Texas-Oklahoma states’ line. According to the United States Census Bureau, Wheeler has a total township-area of 1.5 square miles, all of it land. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Wheeler has a semiarid climate, BSk on climate maps; as of the census of 2000, 1,378 people, 520 households, 365 families resided in the city. The population density was 900.4 people per square mile. The 612 housing units averaged 399.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 85.05% White, 1.81% African American, 0.44% Native American, 0.15% Asian, 10.60% from other races, 1.96% from two or more races.
Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 18.07% of the population. Of the 520 households, 33.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.8% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 29.8% were not families. About 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals, 18.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.04. In the city, the population was distributed as 25.0% under the age of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 21.4% from 25 to 44, 23.4% from 45 to 64, 21.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.7 males. The median income for a household in the city was $31,375, for a family was $36,667. Males had a median income of $27,679 versus $16,723 for females; the per capita income for the city was $17,224. About 6.8% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.6% of those under age 18 and 10.7% of those age 65 or over.
Wheeler Public Schools are part of the Wheeler Independent School District. One elementary school, one junior high school, one high school serve the district. Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, was born in Wheeler. A street in Wheeler is named in his honor. Don Rives, a linebacker for Texas Tech and the Chicago Bears, was born in Wheeler. Jack Frye, Aviation Pioneer and President of TWA is buried in Wheeler. City of Wheeler Wheeler County
Abilene, Texas
Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in Texas, United States. The population was 117,463 at the 2010 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas, it is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2017 estimated population of 170,219. It is the county seat of Taylor County. Dyess Air Force Base is located on the west side of the city. Abilene is located between exits 279 on its western edge and 292 on the east. Abilene is 150 miles west of Fort Worth; the city is looped by I-20 to the north, US 83/84 on the west, Loop 322 to the east. A railroad divides the city down the center into south; the historic downtown area is on the north side of the railroad. Established by cattlemen as a stock shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, the city was named after Abilene, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail; the T&P had bypassed the town of the county seat at the time. A landowner north of Buffalo Gap, Clabe Merchant, known as the father of Abilene, chose the name for the new town.
According to a Dallas newspaper, about 800 people had begun camping at the townsite before the lots were sold. The town was laid out by Colonel J. Stoddard Johnson, the auction of lots began early on March 15, 1881. By the end of the first day, 139 lots were sold for a total of $23,810, another 178 lots were sold the next day for $27,550. Abilene was incorporated soon after being founded in 1881, Abilenians began to set their sights on bringing the county seat to Abilene, in a three-to-one vote, won the election. In 1888, the Progressive Committee was formed to attract businesses to the area, which became the Board of Trade in 1890. By 1900, 3,411 people lived in Abilene, in that decade, the Board of Trade changed its name to the 25,000 Club in the hope of reaching 25,000 people by the next census. However, this committee failed when the population only hit 9,204 in 1910. Replacing it was the Young Men's Booster Club, which became the Abilene Chamber of Commerce in 1914; the cornerstone was laid for the first of three future universities in Abilene, called Simmons College, in 1891, which became Hardin–Simmons University.
Childers Classical Institute followed in 1906 Abilene Christian University, the largest of the three. In 1923, McMurry College was founded and became McMurry University. Much more Abilene succeeded in bringing Cisco Junior College and Texas State Technical College branches to Abilene, with the Cisco Junior College headquarters being located in Abilene. In 1940, Abilene raised the money to purchase land for a U. S. Army base, southwest of town, named Camp Barkeley, at the time twice the size of Abilene with 60,000 men; when the base closed, many worried that Abilene could become a ghost town, but in the post-World War II boom, many servicemen returned to start businesses in Abilene. In the early-1950s, residents raised $893,261 to purchase 3,400 acres of land for an Air Force base. Today, Dyess Air Force Base is the city's largest employer, with 6,076 employees. Abilene's population nearly doubled in 10 years from 45,570 in 1950 to 90,638. In the same year, a second high school was added, Cooper High School.
In 1966, the Abilene Zoo was created near Abilene Regional Airport. The following year, one of the most important bond elections in the city's history passed for the funding of the construction of the Abilene Civic Center and the Taylor County Coliseum, as well as major improvements to Abilene Regional Airport. In 1969, the Woodson elementary and high school for black students closed as the school system was integrated. In 1982, Abilene became the first city in Texas to create a downtown reinvestment zone. Texas State Technical College opened an Abilene branch three years later; the 2,250-bed French Robertson Prison Unit was built in 1989. A half-cent sales tax earmarked for economic development was created after the decline in the petroleum business in the 1980s. A branch of Cisco Junior College was located in the city in 1990; the Grace Museum and Paramount Theatre revitalizations, along with Artwalk in 1992, sparked a decade of downtown restoration. In 2004, Frontier Texas!, a multimedia museum highlighting the history of the area from 1780 to 1880, was constructed, a new $8 million, 38-acre Cisco Junior College campus was built at Loop 322 and Industrial Boulevard.
Subdivisions and businesses started locating along the freeway, on the same side as the CJC campus, showing a slow but progressive trend for Abilene growth on the Loop. Abilene has become the commercial, retail and transportation hub of a 19-county area more known as "The Big Country", but known as the "Texas Midwest", is part of the Central Great Plains ecoregion. By the end of 2005, commercial and residential development had reached record levels in and around the city. Abilene is located in northeastern Taylor County; the city limits extend north into Jones County. Interstate 20 leads west 148 miles to Midland. Three U. S. highways pass through the city. US 83 runs west of the city center, leading south 55 miles to Ballinger. US 84 runs with US 83 through the southwest part of the city but leads southeast 52 miles to Coleman and west with I-20 40 miles to Sweetwater. US 277 follows US 83 around the northwest side of the city and north to Anson but heads southwest from Abilene 89 miles so San Angelo.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Abilene has a total area of 112.2 square miles, of which 106.8 square miles are land and 5.4 square miles are covered by
Mobeetie, Texas
Mobeetie is a city in northwestern Wheeler County, United States, located on Sweetwater Creek and State Highway 152. The population was 101 at the 2010 census, six below the 2000 figure. Mobeetie was a trading post for hunters and trappers for nearby United States Army outpost Fort Elliott, it was first a buffalo hunter's camp unofficially called "Hidetown." Connected to the major cattle-drive town of Dodge City, Kansas by the Jones-Plummer Trail, Mobeetie was a destination for stagecoach freight and buffalo skinners. As it grew, the town supported the development of cattle ranches within a hundred-mile radius by supplying the staple crops.1The first formal name for the town was "Sweetwater." It was located on the North Fork of the Red River. Nearby Fort Elliott, developed to protect the buffalo trade from Indian raiders, stimulated further growth of the town. On January 24, 1876 occurred the "Sweetwater Shootout". Anthony Cook killed Mollie Brennan. Sgt. King wounded Bat Masterson, who in turn killed him.
Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight said about the town: "I think it was the hardest place I saw on the frontier except Cheyenne, Wyoming." When the town applied for a post office in 1879, the name "Sweetwater" was in use. The town took the new name of "Mobeetie," believed to be a Native American word for "Sweetwater." Because of the presence of Fort Elliott and Mobeetie's importance as a commercial center, Wheeler County became the first politically organized county in the Texas Panhandle, in 1879, followed by Oldham County at Tascosa, now a ghost town. Mobeetie became the first county seat for Wheeler County. From 1880 to 1883, the notorious Robert Clay Allison ranched with his two brothers, John William and Jeremiah Monroe, twelve miles northeast of town, at the junction of the Washita River and Gageby Creek. One day, Allison rode through Mobeetie naked. Allison married America Medora "Dora" McCulloch in Mobeetie on February 15, 1881. Lester Fields Sheffy, in The Life and Times of Timothy Dwight Hobart, 1855-1935: Colonization of West Texas, describes Mobeetie as follows: Mobeetie was the most typical frontier town in the American Southwest on account of its background and the cosmopolitan character of its people.
It was never a large town as early plains towns went. When Timothy Dwight Hobart arrived at Mobeetie in 1886, the town was in the heyday of its existence, its several merchandise stores and other business firms, its blacksmith shops and livery stables, its law offices and real estate agencies, its nine saloons, its fort, its substantial rock school building and its church organizations were a splendid index to the varied interest and character of the people. Mobeetie had all the elements of people, it had its buffalo hunters and its bull whackers, its soldiers and its scouts, its indolents and its prostitutes, its substantial businessmen, its legal fraternity.... One of the most stabilizing influences among the citizenry of Mobeetie was its soldiers. While most of the soldiers themselves were transient and never became permanent citizens of the community, yet they exercised a restraining influence over the town and surrounding country because of the feeling of security which their presence gave to the region....
At times there was dissension between the soldiers and the civilians, but the most cordial relationships existed at all times between the officers at the fort and the more substantial business leaders of the town. The presence of several hundred soldiers at the fort increased the profits of the merchants, the saloon keepers, the dance halls, brought considerable ready cash into the community... When Army Lieutenant Colonel John Porter Hatch was reassigned from Fort Elliott in 1881, the Wheeler County Commissioners Court authorized a resolution honoring Hatch for his service: "He has proven himself at all times agreeable to the citizens of this section and willing to aid them as a community or as individuals whenever such aid has been required, to the fullest extent of his power." In the 1880s, Temple Lea Houston, the youngest son of Sam Houston, was the district attorney of the 35th Judicial District of Texas, when encompassed fifteen counties in the Texas Panhandle. The district was based at the time in the courthouse at Mobeetie.
Houston was a member of the Texas State Senate from 1885 to 1889 and moved to Oklahoma, where he worked for statehood. An NBC television series, Temple Houston, which aired from 1963 to 1964, is loosely based on his life, with Jeffrey Hunter in the starring role. At its peak in 1890, the town had over four hundred people, but Mobeetie's boom days ended when Fort Elliott closed that same year. Further decline came with the tornado of May 1, 1898, the loss of the county seat, in 1907, to Wheeler. In 1929, Wheeler moved two miles when the Santa Fe Railway built nearby tracks; the town grew again until the start of World War II brought a peak of about five hundred. Little remains of the Old Mobeetie. Sheffy, in The Life and Times of Timothy Dwight Hobart writes: The new Mobeetie stands within gun shot of the old town in the midst of a great agricultural and stock raising region; the worn and unkept buildings of the old town speak eloquently of its hard struggle to survive. They should be preserved as a lasting monument to the struggle and achievement of a people who wrought well in laying the foundations of Anglo-American civilization in the Southwest
Supreme Court of Texas
The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for civil appeals in the U. S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort for criminal matters; the Court is composed of eight Associate Justices. It was established in 1846 to replace the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas; the Court meets in Downtown Austin, Texas in a building located on the state Capitol grounds, behind the Texas State Capitol. By statute, the Texas Supreme Court has administrative control over the State Bar of Texas, an agency of the judiciary; the Texas Supreme Court has the sole authority to license attorneys in Texas, appoints the members of the Board of Law Examiners which, under instructions of the Supreme Court, administers the Texas bar examination. The Texas Supreme Court is the only state supreme court in the United States in which the manner in which it denies discretionary review can imply approval or disapproval of the merits of the lower court's decision and in turn may affect the geographic extent of the precedential effect of that decision.
In March 1927, the Texas Legislature enacted a law directing the Texas Supreme Court to summarily refuse to hear applications for writs of error when it believed the Court of Appeals opinion stated the law. Thus, since June 1927, over 4,100 decisions of the Texas Courts of Appeals have become valid binding precedent of the Texas Supreme Court itself because the high court refused applications for writ of error rather than denying them and thereby signaled that it approved of their holdings as the law of the state. While Texas' unique practice saved the state supreme court from having to hear minor cases just to create uniform statewide precedents on those issues, it makes for lengthy citations to the opinions of the Courts of Appeals, since the subsequent writ history of the case must always be noted in order for the reader to determine at a glance whether the cited opinion is binding precedent only in the district of the Court of Appeals in which it was decided, or binding precedent for the entire state.
The Court has eight associate justices. Each member of the Court must be at least 35 years of age, a citizen of Texas, licensed to practice law in Texas, must have practiced law for at least ten years; the Clerk of the Court serves a four-year term. The Chief Justice and the Associate Justices are elected to staggered six-year terms in statewide partisan elections; when a vacancy arises the Governor of Texas may appoint Justices, subject to Senate confirmation, to serve out the remainder of an unexpired term until the next general election. As of 2017, seven of the current Justices, a majority, were appointed by Governor Rick Perry; the current Justices, like all the Judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, are all Republican. The place numbers have no special meaning as all justices are elected statewide, except that the Chief Justice position is considered "Place 1". Hortense Sparks Ward, who became the first woman to pass the Texas Bar Exam in 1910, was appointed Special Chief Justice of an all-female Texas Supreme Court 15 years later.
All of the court's male justices recused themselves from Johnson v. Darr, a 1924 case involving the Woodmen of the World, since nearly every member of the Texas Bar was a member of that fraternal organization, paying personal insurance premiums that varied with the claims decided against it, no male judges or attorneys could be found to hear the case. After ten months of searching for suitable male replacements to decide the case, Governor Pat Neff decided on January 1, 1925, to appoint a special court composed of three women; this court, consisting of Ward, Hattie Leah Henenberg, Ruth Virginia Brazzil, met for five months and ruled in favor of Woodmen of the World. On July 25, 1982, Ruby Kless Sondock became the court's first regular female justice, when she was appointed to replace the Associate Justice James G. Denton who had died of a heart attack. Sondock served the remainder of Denton's term, which ended on December 31, 1982, but did not seek election to the Supreme Court in her own right.
Rose Spector became the first woman elected to the court in 1992 and served until 1998 when she was defeated by Harriet O'Neill. Judicial Committee on Information Technology Created in 1997 JCIT was established to set standards and guidelines for the systematic implementation and integration of information technology into the trial and appellate courts in Texas. JCIT approaches this mission by providing a forum for state-local, inter-branch, public-private collaboration, development of policy recommendations for the Supreme Court of Texas. Court technology, the information it carries, are sprawling topics, Texas is a diverse state with decentralized funding and decision-making for trial court technology. JCIT provides a forum for discussion of court information projects. With this forum, JCIT reaches out to external partners such as the Conference of Urban Counties, the County Information Resource Agency, Texas.gov, TIJIS, advises or is consulted by the Office of Court Administration on a variety of projects.
Three themes recur in the JCIT conversation: expansion and governance of electronic filing.
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U. S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east; the Handbook of Texas defines the southern border of Swisher County as the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region. Its land area is nearly 10 % of the state's total; the Texas Panhandle is larger in size than the US state of West Virginia. An additional 62.75 sq mi are covered by water. Its population as of the 2010 census was 1.7 % of the state's total population. As of the 2010 census, the population density for the region was 16.6 per square mile. However, more than 72% of the Panhandle's residents live in the Amarillo Metropolitan Area, the largest and fastest-growing urban area in the region; the Panhandle is distinct from North Texas, farther southeast. West of the Caprock Escarpment and north and south of the Canadian River breaks, the surface of the Llano Estacado is rather flat.
South of the city of Amarillo, the level terrain gives way to Palo Duro Canyon, the second-largest canyon in the United States. This colorful canyon was carved by the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River. North of Amarillo lies a reservoir created by Sanford Dam on the Canadian River; the lake, along with the Ogallala Aquifer, provides drinking water and irrigation for this moderately dry area of the High Plains. Interstate Highway 40 passes through the Panhandle, passes through Amarillo; the freeway passes through Deaf Smith, Potter, Gray and Wheeler Counties. The Texas Panhandle has been identified in the early 21st century as one of the fastest-growing windpower-producing regions in the nation because of its strong, steady winds. Before the rise of Amarillo, the three original towns of the Panhandle were Clarendon in Donley County, Mobeetie in Wheeler County, Tascosa in Oldham County. Clarendon moved itself after it was overlooked by the Fort Denver Railroad. Mobeetie was reduced below its original small size with the closure of the United States Army's Fort Elliott in 1890.
Tascosa was ruined by the location of the railroad too far north of the town and the inability to build a feeder line. The Tascosa Pioneer wrote in 1890: "Truly this is a world which has no regard for the established order of things but knocks them sky west and crooked, lo, the upstart hath the land and its fatness." As of the census of 2000, about 402,862 people lived in the Panhandle. Of these, 68.9% were non-Hispanic White, 23.8% were Hispanic, 4.6% were African American. Only 2.7% were of some other ethnicity. About 92.3% of inhabitants claimed native birth, 8.9% were veterans of the United States armed forces. Around 13.2% of the population was 65 years of age or older, whereas 27.8% of the population was under 18 years of age. The 26 northernmost counties that make up the Texas Panhandle include: Major cities of the Texas Panhandle with populations greater than 10,000 include: Some of the smaller towns with populations less than 10,000 include: Much like the rest of West Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle, the region is politically and conservative.
Following the pattern of other larger cities, Amarillo has the largest liberal population in the Panhandle. It was one of the first regions of the state to break away from its Democratic roots, though Democrats continued to do well at the local level well into the 1980s. However, Republicans now dominate every level of government, holding nearly every elected post above the county level. Nearly all of the Panhandle is in Texas's 13th congressional district, represented by Republican Mac Thornberry. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+33, it is the most Republican district in the nation; the counties of Castro and Parmer are in Texas's 19th congressional district, represented by Republican Jodey Arrington. In the 2016 Presidential election, Donald Trump received 79.9% of the vote in the 13th District, as compared with Hillary Clinton's 16.9% share of the vote. Panhandle from the Handbook of Texas Online Photos of the Llano Estacado
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network, a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles and Philadelphia; the network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting, it became the network's official emblem in 1979. Founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. At that time the parent company of RCA was General Electric. In 1930, GE was forced to sell the companies as a result of antitrust charges. In 1986, control of NBC passed back to General Electric through its $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as chief executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007, when he was succeeded by Jeff Zucker.
In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, forming NBC Universal. Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, acquired General Electric's remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBCUniversal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke. NBC has thirteen owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are available in Canada and/or Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over-the-air. During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had a competing outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ, which served as the flagship for a loosely structured network; this station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, moved to New York City. WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas.
The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, was an immediate success. In an early example of "chain" or "networking" broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island. C. WCAP. New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, after getting a license for radio station WRC in Washington, D. C. in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines; the early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with the company's primary goal of providing a telephone service.
AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission. RCA spent $1 million to purchase WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, merged its facilities with surviving station WRC; the division's ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC started broadcasting on November 15, 1926. WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927, NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the "Red Network" offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the pushpins NBC engineers used to designate affiliate stations of WEAF and WJZ, or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils. On April 5, 1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network known as the Pacific Coast Network.
This was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18, 1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network; the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. In 1936, the Orange Network affiliate stations became part of the Red Network, at the same time the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC developed a network for shortwave radio stations, called the NBC White Network. In 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building de
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
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Wheeler County, Texas
