Portal:United States
Introduction
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the International Fire Marshals Association is partly responsible for the ban on fireworks in some U.S. states?
- ... that before she entered the U.S. Army in 1942, Jane Douglass White, a songwriter for soldier's shows, had already composed the tune which would become the official "Song of the Women's Army Corps"?
- ... that the Piedmont Hotel hosted a former, a current, and a future U.S. president in one week?
- ... that 2000 Alabama Amendment 2, which repealed the state's anti-miscegenation laws, was carefully written to avoid legalizing same-sex marriage?
- ... that there is an East Quoddy Head Lighthouse and a West Quoddy Head Lighthouse on opposite sides of a bay, but one is in Canada and the other is in the United States?
- ... that many participants in the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack have been charged with obstructing an official proceeding, a crime that was created in response to the 2001 Enron accounting scandal?
- ... that Kobe Shoji escaped 120 °F (49 °C) heat at the Poston Internment Camp by enlisting in the U.S. Army's 442nd Infantry Regiment?
- ... that Peter Clavelle did not face either a Republican or a Democratic opponent in the 1991 Burlington mayoral election?
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 -
Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her work in films, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award.
Despite her professional triumphs, Garland battled personal problems throughout her life. Insecure about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film executives who told her she was unattractive and manipulated her on-screen physical appearance. Garland was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. Garland died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 47, leaving children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft.
In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema.
Selected location -
It is known as the world's traditional automotive center — "Detroit" is a metonym for the American automobile industry — and an important source of popular music, legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, Motor City and Motown. Other nicknames emerged in the twentieth century, including Rock City, Arsenal of Democracy (during World War II), The D, D-Town, and The 3-1-3 (its area code). The metropolitan area is an important center for research and development; its broad based economy includes advanced manufacturing, robotics, biotechnology, information technology, and finance. Metro Detroit attracts about 15.9 million visitors annually.
In 2008, Detroit ranked as the United States' eleventh most populous city, with 910,920 residents. A population shift to the suburbs began in the 1950s and continued as the metropolitan area grew to one of the nation's largest. The name Detroit sometimes refers to the Metro Detroit area, a sprawling region with a population of 4,425,110 for the Metropolitan Statistical Area, and 5,354,225 for the Combined Statistical Area, making it the nation's eleventh-largest as of the 2008 Census Bureau estimates. The Windsor-Detroit area, a critical commercial link straddling the Canada-U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,800,000.
Selected quote -
Anniversaries for June 7
- 1776 – Richard Henry Lee presents the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and leads to the Declaration of Independence.
- 1862 – The United States and Britain agree to suppress the slave trade.
- 1942 – Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands chain off of Alaska as part of an effort by the Axis powers to expand their defensive perimeter.
- 1965 – The Supreme Court rules in Griswold v. Connecticut that laws prohibiting the use of contraception by married couples are unconstitutional.
- 1971 – The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment.
- 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland (interior pictured), Elvis Presley's estate in Memphis, Tennessee, to the public.
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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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