Portal:United States
Introduction
Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that the Circleville Pumpkin Show, the oldest pumpkin show in the United States, has been selecting a Miss Pumpkin since 1933?
- ... that Franklin Sonn was the first black South African ambassador to the United States?
- ... that just seven years after being elected to a local school board, Nancy Ross was a candidate for Vice President of the United States?
- ... that Sacred Heart Church was the birthplace of the orphanage which would become the only pontifical university in the United States?
- ... that the Martin-Smith School of Music, according to one historian, was "one of the most important black musical institutions" in the United States?
- ... that Patrick J. Hessian, the 16th Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army, earned the Soldier's Medal for disarming a suicidal soldier who was holding a live grenade with the pin pulled?
- ... that actress Edna May Sperl's fiancé was arrested on the day of her wedding by a federal marshal because her fiancé's father opposed the marriage?
- ... that fighter pilot I. B. Donalson was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions while commanding a boat?
Selected society biography -
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Selected culture biography -
Vishniac was an extremely diverse photographer, an accomplished biologist and a knowledgeable collector and teacher of art history. Throughout his life, he made significant scientific contributions to the fields of photomicroscopy and time-lapse photography. Vishniac was very interested in history, especially that of his ancestors. In turn, he was strongly tied to his Jewish roots and was a Zionist later in life.
Roman Vishniac won international acclaim for his photography: his pictures from the shtetlach and Jewish ghettos, celebrity portraits, and images of microscopic biology. He is known for his book A Vanished World, published in 1983, which was one of the first such pictorial documentations of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe from that period and also for his extreme humanism, respect and awe for life, sentiments that can be seen in all aspects of his work.
Selected location -
The comprises five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. With over 8.2 million residents within an area of 322 square miles (830 km²), it's the most densely populated major city in the United States.
Many of the city's neighborhoods and landmarks are known around the world. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they arrived at Ellis Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wall Street is home to the New York Stock Exchange. The city has had several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center.
New York is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art, abstract expressionism in painting, and hip hop, salsa and Tin Pan Alley in music. In 2005, nearly 170 languages were spoken in the city and 36% of its population was born outside the United States. With its 24-hour subway and constant bustling of traffic and people, New York is known as "The City That Never Sleeps."
Selected quote -
Anniversaries for July 31
- 1777 – Congress passes a resolution that commissions French aristocrat Lafayette (pictured) as a major-general of the United States army. Lafayette would become a key military leader in the Revolutionary War.
- 1790 – Samuel Hopkins is issued the first patent issued by the government of the United States.
- 1930 – The radio mystery program The Shadow is aired for the first time.
- 1961 – At Fenway Park in Boston, the first tie in a Major League Baseball All-Star Game occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain.
- 1964 – The space probe Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon. The images are a thousand times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
- 1976 – NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, which had been taken by the Viking 1 satellite.
Selected cuisines, dishes and foods -
The Western United States has its cuisine, distinct in various ways from that of the rest of the country. States west of Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska would be considered part of this area, as would, in some cases, western parts of adjoining states. (Full article...)
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More did you know? -
- ... that completion of the Howard A. Hanson Dam (pictured) in 1961 ended a 70-year era of flooding in the Green River Valley, and by 1996, the dam had prevented an estimated US$694 million in flood damages?
- ... that the commanding officer of American soldier Matthias W. Day wanted to court-martial him for the actions that instead won him the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars?
- ... that Elihu Embree published the first newspaper in the United States devoted to abolishing slavery until his death in 1820?
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