Portal:United States
Introduction
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Louise Willingale is developing ZEUS, which is projected to be the most powerful laser in the United States?
- ... that The Occupation of the American Mind sought to explore the United States' steadfast support for Israel in the face of the latter's controversial actions?
- ... that Dallas television station KDAF abandoned plans to launch a local newscast in 1994, after having already hired 20 staff, because it was to lose its Fox affiliation and be sold?
- ... that despite Missourians voting for Henry Clay, Missouri representative John Scott voted for John Quincy Adams?
- ... that the ongoing infant formula shortage in the United States also affects non-infant medical patients who require nasogastric feeding?
- ... that the Acoustic Atlas at Montana State University Library helped to create a public domain archive of sounds from Yellowstone National Park?
- ... that Dash for Cash, an event in which teachers competed to grab one-dollar bills to pay for school supplies, was criticized for being dehumanizing?
- ... that the Big Stan drill rig is claimed to be the largest vehicle-mounted drilling rig in the United States?
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 -
Robinson was also known for his pursuits outside the baseball diamond. He was the first black television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first black vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
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Providence was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for his finding such a haven to settle. After being one of the first cities in the country to industrialize, Providence became noted for its jewelry and silverware industry. Today, Providence city proper alone is home to eight hospitals and seven institutions of higher learning, which has shifted the city's economy into service industries, though it still retains significant manufacturing work. The city was once nicknamed the "Beehive of Industry", while today "The Renaissance City" is more common, though as of 2000 census, its poverty rate was still among the ten highest for cities over 100,000.
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Anniversaries for May 14
- 1607 – Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.
- 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begin their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.
- 1913 – New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D. Rockefeller.
- 1961 – The Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protesters are beaten by an angry mob.
- 1973 – Skylab (pictured), the United States' first space station, is launched. Its launch marked the last time a Saturn V rocket was used in spaceflight.
- 1998 – The finale of the long running sit-com Seinfeld airs on NBC, with 76 million viewers tuning in.
Selected cuisines, dishes and foods -
Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans. It originated in the American South from the cuisines of enslaved Africans trafficked to the North American colonies through the Atlantic slave trade during the Antebellum period and is closely associated (but not to be confused with) with the cuisine of the American South.
The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s, when "soul" was a common word used to describe African-American culture. Soul food uses cooking techniques and ingredients from West African, Central African, Western European, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas. Soul food came from the blending of what African Americans ate in their native countries in Africa and what was available to them as slaves. The cuisine had its share of negativity initially. Soul food was initially seen as low class food, and Northern African Americans looked down on their Black Southern counterparts who preferred soul food. The term evolved from being the diet of a slave in the South to being a primary pride in the African-American community in the North such as New York City. (Full article...)Selected panorama -
More did you know? -
- ... that a 1996 National Geographic magazine map of the United States labeled the High Desert region of southeast Oregon (pictured) as the Great Sandy Desert?
- ... that centenarian Dorothy Geeben was the oldest mayor in the United States until her death on January 10, 2010?
- ... that Louis Merrilat played football with Dwight Eisenhower at West Point, trained Iran's Persian Guard, and served as a soldier of fortune in China and with the French Foreign Legion?
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