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Adam Cadre

Adam Cadre

Adam Cadre (born February 5, 1974 in Silver Spring, Maryland) is a U.S. writer. He gained prominence in the world of interactive fiction with works like I-0 (1997), Photopia (1998), and Varicella (1999). He has also written a novel, Ready, Okay! (2000, ISBN 0-06-019558-4).

External links


- [http://adamcadre.ac Adam's website], with interactive fiction, several short stories (including two that extend the Ready, Okay! world), ongoing webcomic, short essays, and more. Cadre, Adam Cadre, Adam Cadre, Adam

February 5

February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 329 days remaining (330 in leap years).

Events


- 1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France.
- 1631 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.
- 1778 - South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- 1782 - Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.
- 1846 - The Oregon Spectator becomes the first newspaper on the Pacific coast of the United States.
- 1859 - Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza under the name Romania (see December 1 1918 for the final unification, Transylvania and other regions were still missing at this time).
- 1881 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated.
- 1885 - King Léopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
- 1917 - The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
- 1917 - The Congress of the United States passes a law, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, banning most Asian immigration to the United States.
- 1919 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
- 1922 - DeWitt and Lila Wallace publish the first issue of Reader's Digest. (Some sources say February 7.)
- 1924 - The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".
- 1929 - "They'll Do It Every Time", a comic strip still in syndication as of 2005, debuts in a San Francisco newspaper.
- 1937 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 1945 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
- 1946 - The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.
- 1953 - The movie Peter Pan premieres at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.
- 1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
- 1958 - A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
- 1961 - The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue.
- 1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation.
- 1968 - The Battle of Khe Sanh of the Vietnam War begins.
- 1971 - Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.
- 1972 - Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
- 1974 - John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the Congress of the United States.
- 1978 - The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters ever to hit New England, forms.
- 1988 - Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
- 1988 - Comic Relief hold the first "Red Nose Day", which raises £15 million in the United Kingdom for charity.
- 1991 - A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.
- 1994 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
- 1997 - The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
- 1997 - Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter investment banks announce a $10 billion merger.
- 1999 - Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year's imprisonment for the August 31, 1998 assault on two people.
- 2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announce that they have separated.
- 2003 - U.S. plan to invade Iraq: Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.
- 2004 - Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.
- 2004 - Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.

Births


- 976 - Sanjo, Emperor of Japan (d. 1017)
- 1505 - Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (d. 1572)
- 1519 - René of Châlon, Prince of the House of Orange (d. 1544)
- 1534 - Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian writer, composer, and soldier (d. 1612)
- 1589 - Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (d. 1669)
- 1626 - Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (d. 1696)
- 1650 - Anne-Jules, 2nd duc de Noailles, French general (d. 1708)
- 1703 - Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (d. 1764)
- 1725 - James Otis, American lawyer and patriot (d. 1783)
- 1788 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
- 1804 - Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (d. 1877)
- 1808 - Carl Spitzweg, German painter (d. 1885)
- 1810 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (d. 1880)
- 1837 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (d. 1899)
- 1840 - John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (d. 1921)
- 1848 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (d. 1907)
- 1848 - Belle Starr, American outlaw (d. 1889)
- 1878 - André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (d. 1935)
- 1880 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (d. 1973)
- 1889 - Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1962)
- 1900 - Adlai Stevenson, American politician (d. 1965)
- 1906 - John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
- 1908 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (d. 1969)
- 1910 - Francisco Varallo, Argentine footballer
- 1911 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
- 1914 - William S. Burroughs, American author (d. 1997)
- 1914 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
- 1915 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- 1918 - Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973)
- 1919 - Red Buttons, American actor
- 1919 - Andreas Papandreou, Greek politician (d. 1996)
- 1921 - John Pritchard, English conductor (d. 1989)
- 1923 - Claude King, American musician
- 1927 - Ruth Fertel, American entrepreneur (d. 2002)
- 1928 - Andrew Greeley, American priest and novelist
- 1929 - Luc Ferrari, French composer (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician
- 1929 - Al Worthington, baseball player
- 1930 - John A. Gambling, American radio show host (d. 2004)
- 1934 - Don Cherry,Canadian NHL Hockey player, and "CBC's Hockey Night in Canada" Commentator
- 1934 - Hank Aaron, baseball player
- 1937 - Stuart Damon, American actor
- 1940 - H.R. Giger, Swiss artist
- 1941 - Jane Bryant Quinn, American journalist
- 1941 - David Selby, American actor
- 1941 - Kaspar Villiger, Swiss Federal Councilor
- 1942 - Roger Staubach, American football player
- 1943 - Nolan Bushnell, American video game pioneer
- 1943 - Michael Mann, American film director, writer, and producer
- 1943 - Craig Morton, American football player
- 1944 - Al Kooper, American musician
- 1945 - Charlotte Rampling, English actress
- 1947 - Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver
- 1948 - Christopher Guest, American actor, writer, director, composer, and the 5th Baron Haden-Guest
- 1948 - Barbara Hershey, American actress
- 1948 - Errol Morris, American film director
- 1948 - V. Alexander Stefan, American physicist, educator, and writer
- 1949 - Nigel Olsson, drummer
- 1962 - Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress
- 1964 - Laura Linney, American actress
- 1964 - Duff McKagen, American musician (Guns N'Roses)
- 1965 - Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer
- 1966 - Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993)
- 1968 - Roberto Alomar, baseball player
- 1969 - Bobby Brown, American singer
- 1971 - Sara Evans, American singer
- 1972 - Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
- 1977 - Ben Ainslie, British sailor
- 1977 - Ahmad Merritt, American football player
- 1984 - Carlos Tévez, Argentinine footballer
- 1985 - Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
- 1989 - Jeremy Sumpter, American actor

Deaths


- 995 - William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
- 1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, regent of Sweden (b. 1493)
- 1578 - Giambattista Moroni, Italian painter
- 1705 - Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (b. 1635)
- 1766 - Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- 1775 - Eusebius Amort, German Catholic theologian (b. 1692)
- 1790 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)
- 1807 - Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot and military leader (b. 1725)
- 1818 - King Charles XIII of Sweden (b. 1748)
- 1881 - Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (b. 1795)
- 1915 - Ross Barnes, baseball player (b. 1850)
- 1922 - Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian inventor (b. 1871)
- 1922 - Christiaan De Wet, South African general
- 1937 - Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)
- 1946 - George Arliss, English actor (b. 1868)
- 1962 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (b. 1890)
- 1966 - Ludwig Binswanger, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1881)
- 1967 - Leon Leonwood Bean, American department store founder (b. 1872)
- 1970 - Rudy York, baseball player (b. 1913)
- 1972 - Marianne Moore, American poet (b. 1887)
- 1976 - Rudy Pompilli, American musician (Bill Haley and His Comets) (b. 1926)
- 1981 - Ella Grasso, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1919)
- 1991 - Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903)
- 1992 - Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist (b. 1913)
- 1993 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American writer, producer, and director (b. 1909)
- 1995 - Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935)
- 1997 - Pamela Harriman, English-born American diplomat (b. 1920)
- 1999 - Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 2003 - Helge Boes, American Central Intelligence Agency officer
- 2005 - Gnassingbe Eyadema, President of Togo (b. 1937)

Holidays and observances


- Catholicism - Feast day of St Agatha.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/5 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050205.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 4 - February 6 - January 5 - March 5 -- listing of all days ko:2월 5일 ms:5 Februari ja:2月5日 simple:February 5 th:5 กุมภาพันธ์

Silver Spring, Maryland

Silver Spring is an urbanized, but unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland and the third largest after Baltimore and Columbia. It is also a major suburb of Washington, DC. Silver Spring takes its name from a mica-flecked spring discovered by Francis Preston Blair, who subsequently bought much of the surrounding land. Acorn Park in the downtown area of Silver Spring is believed to be the site of the original spring.

Culture

Downtown Silver Spring hosts several musical and ethnic festivities. Furthermore, cuisine culture in Silver Spring is also very varied, perhaps not to the extent of nearby Bethesda, but nevertheless extensive with the likes of Ethiopian, Salvadorean, and Vietnamese restaurants. Silver Spring, and the surrounding area, have the largest concentration of new African immigrants in the United States. Ethiopian culture is particulary represented, as upwards of 50,000 Ethiopians claim Silver Spring and the surrounding communities home, with an estimated 200,000 present in the Greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area. Silver Spring has many churches, synagogues, temples, and other religious institutions. Silver Spring serves as the primary urban area in Montgomery County and its revitalization has ushered in a diverse and extremely ecclectic mix of people and ideas, evident in the fact that the flagship high school has no majority group with each major racial and ethnic group claiming a significant percentage. Silver Spring hosts the American Film Institute Silver Theatre and Culture Center, on Colesville Road. The theatre showcases American and Foreign Films. Discovery Communications, a company that has wielded considerable influence in cable and satellite programming, has its headquarters nearby. The downtown area is also home to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a branch of the United States Department of Commerce incorporating the National Weather Service.

History

The Blair and Lee families are irrefutably tied to Silver Spring's history. In 1840, Francis Preston Blair, with his daughter, Elizabeth, and his horse Selim discovered the spring, flowing with chips of mica. Two years later, the 20-room mansion Silver Spring was built on a 250 acre (1 km²) country homestead situated just outside of Washington, D.C. By 1854, Blair's son, Montgomery Blair, who became Postmaster General under Abraham Lincoln and represented Dred Scott before the United States Supreme Court, built a house in the area, called Falkland. Samuel Phillips Lee married Elizabeth Blair, and they bore Francis Preston Blair Lee in 1857. The child would eventually become the first popularly elected Senator in United States history. In 1864, Confederate States of America Army General Jubal Early occupied Silver Spring prior to the Battle of Fort Stevens. After the engagement, fleeing Confederate soldiers razed Montgomery Blair's Falkland residence. In the late 1800s, the area started developing. 1873 brought rails to the area, as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Metropolitan Branch ran from Washington, DC to Point of Rocks, Maryland. The first suburban development began in 1887 when Selina Wilson divided part of her farm on Colesville Road and Brookville Road into 5 and 10 acre (20,000 and 40,000 m²) plots. In 1893, Francis Preston Blair Lee and his wife, Anne Brooke Lee, gave birth to E. Brooke Lee, who is known as the father of modern Silver Spring for his visionary attitude about developing the region. The Silver Spring Armory, constructed in 1911, housed Company K, 115th Infantry Regiment, Maryland National Guard, which Captain Lee commanded in World War I. Lee eventually retired a Colonel. The early 1900s set the pace for downtown Silver Spring's growth. E. Brooke Lee and his brother, Blair Lee I, founded the Lee Development Company, whose Colesville Road office building remains a downtown fixture. Dale Drive, a winding roadway, was built to provide vehicular access to much of the family's substantial real estate holdings. Suburban development continued in 1922 when Woodside Development Corporation created Woodside Park, with 1 acre (4,000 m²) plot home sites. In 1924, trolley service on Georgia Avenue across B&O's Metropolitan Branch was temporarily suspended so that an underpass could be built. The underpass was completed two years later, but trolley service never resumed. It would be rebuilt again in 1948 with additional lanes for automobile traffic, opening the areas to the north for readily accessible suburban development. A new Maryland National Guard Armory was built in 1927 on the corner of Fenton Street and Wayne Avenue. The old armory was converted to a fire station. Takoma-Silver Spring High School, built in 1924 was the first high school for Silver Spring. The communities rapid growth prompted the need for a larger school. In 1935, when a new high school was built at Wayne Avenue and Sligo Creek Parkway, it was renamed Montgomery Blair High School. The Silver Spring Shopping Center and Silver Theatre (designed by noted theatre architect John Eberson) were built in 1938, at the prompting of developer William Alexander Julian. The Shopping Center was unique because it was one of the nation's first retail spaces that featured a street-front parking lot, a feature that was unheard of at the time. Conventional wisdom held that merchandise should be in windows closest to the street so that people could see it, and the shopping center broke those rules. By the 1950s, Silver Spring was the second busiest retail market between Baltimore and Richmond, with the Hecht Company, J. C. Penney, Sears, Roebuck & Co, and a number of other retailers locating there. In 1954, the Blair mansion Silver Spring was replaced with Blair Station Post office, which opened in 1956. In 1958, Falkland was burned again, to give practice to the local Volunteer Fire Department, and to clear space for Blair Plaza Shopping Center. Wheaton Plaza, a shopping mall with ample parking spaces, opened in 1960, much to the detriment of the downtown area, which began a period of decline. Metrorail service began in 1978 with the opening of Silver Spring Station. The red line was built on the median of the old B&O Metropolitan Branch right of way, and went downtown, parallel to Georgia Avenue before descending into Union Station. By the mid-1990s, the red line continued underground to two more locations in northern Silver Spring, with the opening of Forest Glen and Wheaton Stations. By the late 1980s, the downtown area was in decline, and the Hecht Company, the last remaining department store, closed as a new store in Wheaton opened. City Place, a multi-level mall, was established in the old Hecht Company building in 1992, but it had trouble attracting quality anchor stores and gained a reputation as a budget mall. On February 16, 1996, during the Friday-evening rush hour, a MARC commuter train bound for Washington Union Station collided with an outgoing Amtrak train and erupted in flames on a snow-swept stretch of track in Silver Spring, leaving 11 people dead. In 1998, the National Guard Armory was demolished, against opposition by concerned citizens, who later formed the Silver Spring Historical Society. In 2000, downtown Silver Spring began to see the results of redevelopment. Several city blocks near City Place Mall were completely reconstructed to accommodate a new outdoor shopping plaza. The shops included many national retail chains, including Whole Foods Market, Borders Books, and Pier 1 Imports, as well as many restaurants. In 2003, Discovery Communications completed the construction of its headquarters, and relocated from neighboring Bethesda. 2003 also brought the reopening of the Silver Theatre, under the auspices of the American Film Institute (see AFI Silver). Downtown Silver Spring continues to develop with the opening of new office buildings, stores, and restaurants, although City Place continues to struggle to fill its interior vacanies despite the explosive growth around it. Brookside Gardens is a 50-acre (20,000-m²) park in Silver Spring, located within Wheaton Regional Park, on the original site of Stadler Nursery (now located in Laytonsville, Maryland).

Geography

Laytonsville, MarylandLaytonsville, Maryland As an unincorporated area, Silver Spring's boundaries are not officially defined. However, residents of a huge swath of Montgomery County have Silver Spring mailing addresses. This area extends roughly from the Washington, D.C., Prince George's County, Maryland and Howard County, Maryland lines to the south, east and north, and Rock Creek Park and Plyers Mill Road to the west and north-west. The United States Census Bureau defines Silver Spring as a Census-Designated Place whose center is located at 39°1' North latitude, 77°1' West longitude. It is larger than any city in Maryland except for Baltimore. The United States Geological Survey locates the center of Silver Spring at 38°59'26" North, 77°1'35" West, notably some distance from the Census Bureau's datum. By another definition, Silver Spring is located at 39°0'15" North, 77°1'8" West (39.004242, -77.019004). The definitions used by the Silver Spring Urban Planning District, the United States Postal Service, the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce, etc., are all different, each one defining it for their own purposes. According to the United States Census Bureau, the community has a total area of 24.4 km² (9.4 mi²). Twenty-four point four km² (24.4 km²) (9.4 mi²) of it is land and none of the area is covered with water (although there are numerous creeks and small lakes).

Demographics

When the entire portion of Montgomery County, Maryland using Silver Spring addresses is taken into account, the population can swell to over 250,000 people, comparable to mid-sized American cities such as Buffalo, New York and St. Paul, Minnesota. In the Washington-Baltimore region, Silver Spring is the third-largest community, behind the cities of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C., and ahead of Arlington, Virginia and Alexandria, Virginia. As of the census of 2000 for the "central area" of Silver Spring and areas directly adjacent, not including North Silver Spring, Forest Glen, Aspen Hill, Colesville, White Oak, Kemp Mill, Hillandale, Burtonsville, and other Silver Spring communities, there are 76,540 people, 30,374 households, and 17,616 families residing in the area. The population density is 3,137.2/km² (8,123.6/mi²). There are 31,208 housing units at an average density of 1,279.1/km² (3,312.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the community is 46.61% White, 28.07% African American, 0.44% Native American, 8.22% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 11.55% from other races, and 5.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race consist of 22.22% of the population. Silver Spring has become a haven for thousands of Modern Orthodox Jews most of whom are highly skilled professionals with government-related employment. They have established a thriving network of synagogues and yeshivas highly commited to Religious Zionism. There are 30,374 households out of which 29.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.8% are married couples living together, 12.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 42.0% are non-families. Thirty-two point size percent (32.6%) of all households are made up of individuals and 7.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.50 and the average family size is 3.21. In the area the population is spread out with 23.0% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 37.0% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.5 males. The Silver Spring area is very affluent, especially given its extremely diverse nature. The median income for a household in the area is $51,653, and the median income for a family is $60,631. Males have a median income of $38,124 versus $36,096 for females. The per capita income for the area is $26,357. Nine point three percent of the population and 6.4% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 11.7% of those under the age of 18 and 9.7% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Education


- Springbrook High School
- Montgomery Blair High School
- Northwood High School
- John F. Kennedy High School
- Paint Branch High School
- James H. Blake High School In addition to these high schools located within Silver Spring, there are a few others which cater to students who live in the city. These include:
- Albert Einstein High School
- Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
- Wheaton High School There are large numbers of public elementary and middle schools in Silver Spring, as well as a large collection of private K-8 and high schools.

References


- McCoy, J, et. al. (2003). Silver Spring Timeline. Retrieved August 6, 2003 from http://www.homestead.com/silverspringhistory/timeline.html

External links


- [http://www.silversprung.com Silver Sprung]
- [http://www.gsscc.org/ Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce]
- [http://www.gazette.net/silverspring/news/ The Silver Spring Gazette newspaper]
- [http://www.mc-mncppc.org/silverspring/ Montgomery County Planning Board, Maryland National Capital Area Parks & Planning Commission] Category:Unincorporated communities in Maryland Category:Washington, D.C. suburbs Category:Montgomery County, Maryland neighborhoods Category:Census-designated places in Maryland Category:Orthodox Jewish communities

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Interactive fiction

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software containing simulated environments in which players use text commands to control characters. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as computer games. In common usage, the word refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game with text-based input and output. The term is sometimes used to encompass the entirety of the medium, but is also sometimes used to distinguish games produced by the interactive fiction community from those created by games companies. It can also be used to disambiguate the more modern style of such works, focusing on narrative, from the more traditional focus on puzzles. More expansive definitions of interactive fiction may refer to all adventure games, including wholly graphical adventures such as Myst. Today, interactive fiction no longer appears to be commercially viable, but a constant stream of new works is produced by an online interactive fiction community, using freely available development systems. Most of these games can be downloaded for free from the Interactive Fiction Archive (see external links). Since 1995 there has been an annual Interactive Fiction Competition for relatively short works. There are also annual XYZZY Awards given out in various categories, modelled on the Academy Awards. Another annual competition, the Spring Thing, has been held since 2001 to highlight works considered to be too long for the Interactive Fiction Competition.

The medium of interactive fiction

Text adventures are one of the oldest types of computer games and form a subset of the adventure genre. The player uses text input to control the game and the game state is relayed to the player via text output. Input is usually provided by the player in the form of simple sentences such as "get key" or "go east" which may be handled by a simple parser. Parsers vary in sophistication; the first text adventure parsers could only handle two-word sentences in the form of verb-noun pairs. Later parsers could handle increasing levels of complexity from sentences such as "open the red box with the green key then go north". This level of complexity is the standard for works of interactive fiction today. Works of interactive fiction function like single-player Multi-User Dungeons or 'MUDs', and the original MUD was actually a multi-player generalization of Zork (one version of which was called Dungeon). MUDs, which became popular in the mid-1980s, rely on a textual exchange and accept similar commands from players as do works of IF, but the social aspects and the communities of players who participate are often the most important features of MUDs. Interactive fiction usually relies on reading from a screen and on typing input, although speech synthesis allows blind and visually impaired users to play interactive fiction.

History

Adventure

Around 1975 [http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/canon/Adventure.htm], Will Crowther wrote the first text adventure game, Adventure (originally called ADVENT, and later Colossal Cave). It was programmed in Fortran for the PDP-10. In 1976, Don Woods discovered Adventure while working at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, and obtained Crowther's permission to expand the game. Crowther's original version was more or less realistic; Woods' changes were reminiscent of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, and included a troll, elves, and a volcano inspired by Mount Doom. In 1976, the game began spreading on