Portal:United States
Introduction
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that in the 1920s, Australian journalist E. George Marks predicted military conflict in the Pacific between Japan and the United States?
- ... that a Brontosaurus stamp led to the United States Postal Service being accused of "fostering scientific illiteracy"?
- ... that the LACE satellite tracked rocket plumes from space for the United States's Star Wars program?
- ... that TreasuryDirect, a website for purchasing US Treasury securities, originated in 1986 as a computerized service conducted over postal mail?
- ... that Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls was one of the leaders in the first successful effort to unionize Amazon warehouse workers in the United States?
- ... that in 1943, the United States Army conducted a large-scale battle near Stauffer, Oregon, as part of the Oregon Maneuver training exercise preparing troops for combat in World War II?
- ... that WNJU, a Spanish-language television station serving New York City, was the first in the United States to air a hard-liquor advertisement?
- ... that the Circleville Pumpkin Show, the oldest pumpkin show in the United States, has been selecting a Miss Pumpkin since 1933?
Selected society biography -
On December 1, 1955, Parks became famous for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. This action of civil disobedience started the Montgomery bus boycott, which is one of the largest movements against racial segregation. In addition, this launched Martin Luther King Jr., who was involved with the boycott, to prominence in the civil rights movement. She has had a lasting legacy worldwide.
Although Parks' autobiography recounts that some of her earliest memories are of the kindness of white strangers, her situation made it impossible to ignore racism. When the Ku Klux Klan marched down the street in front of her house, Parks recalls her grandfather guarding the front door with a shotgun. The Montgomery Industrial School, founded and staffed by white northerners for black children, was burned twice by arsonists, and its faculty was ostracized by the white community.
Parks received most of her national accolades very late in life, with relatively few awards and honors being given to her until many decades after the Montgomery bus boycott. For example, the Rosa Parks Congressional Gold Medal bears the legend "Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement".
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Selected culture biography -
Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today.
Selected location -
A major producer of natural gas, oil and food, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly 60 percent of Oklahomans living in their metropolitan statistical areas.
With small mountain ranges, prairie, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains and the U.S. Interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. With a prevalence of residents with Native American ancestry, more than 25 Native American languages are spoken in Oklahoma, the most of any state. It is located on a confluence of three major American cultural regions and historically served as a route for cattle drives, a destination for southern settlers, and a government-sanctioned territory for Native Americans.
Selected quote -
Anniversaries for August 8
- 1863 – Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The offer of resignation is refused.
- 1911 – Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the House of Representatives at 435. The law would come into effect in 1913 with the beginning of the 63rd Congress.
- 1946 – The Convair B-36 (pictured), the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever made, takes flight for the first time. The B-36 also has the longest wingspan any combat aircraft ever built.
- 1973 – Vice President Spiro Agnew goes on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland. He would later be forced to resign from office.
- 1974 – President Richard Nixon announces his resignation, effective the next day, as a result of the Watergate scandal.
- 2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
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More did you know? -
- ... that the maize weevil (pictured) is a serious pest of maize in the United States, and also infests standing crops and cereals in all tropical areas of the world?
- ... that presidential advisor John P. Lewis argued that aid to developing nations was a necessary component of American foreign policy, despite the budgetary costs and the potential for misuse?
- ... that in his dissenting opinion in the case of Taylor v. Beckham, U.S. Supreme Court justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that the right to hold elected offices should be considered part of the definition of "liberty" and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment?
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