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Learn about the history, art, culture, sport, science, and regions of the United States of America.
United States :
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The United States of America (commonly referred
to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal
constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The
country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight
contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the
south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to
the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is
an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several
territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with about 308 million
people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area,
and the third largest both by land area and population. It is one of the world's
most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale
immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the largest national
economy in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP) of US
$14.4 trillion (a quarter of nominal global GDP and a fifth of global GDP at
purchasing power parity).
Indigenous peoples, probably of Asian origin, have inhabited what is now the
mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American
population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact.
The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the
Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence,
which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a
cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American
Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. The
Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on
September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of
a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights,
comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil
rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.
In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the
United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the
Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North
over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the
American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split
of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the
1870s, the national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War
and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged
from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent
member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the
dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower.
The country accounts for two-fifths of global military spending and is a leading
economic, political, and cultural force in the world.
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United States of America :
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American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. (AA) is a major airline
of the United States. It is the world's largest airline in passenger miles
transported and passenger fleet size; third largest, behind FedEx Express and
Delta Air Lines, in aircraft operated; and second behind Air France-KLM in
operating revenues. A subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, the airline is
headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to the Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport. American operates scheduled flights throughout the United
States, and flights to Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan, the
People's Republic of China, and India.
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Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is a
financial services company, the largest bank holding company in the United
States, by assets, and the second largest bank by market capitalization. Bank of
America serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a relationship with 99
percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83 percent of the Fortune Global
500. The company is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and a
member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
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Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is a specialty
retailer of consumer electronics in the United States accounting for 19% of the
market. It also operates in Canada, Mexico, China, and Turkey. The company's
subsidiaries include Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in
Canada operates under both the Best Buy and Future Shop label. Together these
operate more than 1,150 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, China,
Mexico, and Turkey. The company's corporate headquarters are located in
Richfield, Minnesota. On June 26, 2007, Best Buy announced a 40% increase in its
operations, with plans to operate more than 1,800 stores worldwide, including
1,400 Best Buy stores in the United States.
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The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is
an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Globe has been
owned by The New York Times Company since 1993. Its chief print rival is the
Boston Herald. In 2008 the Globe's average weekday circulation fell to 350,605,
down from 382,503, or 8.3%. Sunday circulation fell 6.5% to 525,959.
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Discover America
The Official Travel & Tourism Website of the
United States, Discover America is the best online resource for planning a
vacation to the United States. Explore vacation ideas, hotels, restaurants,
specials and packages to popular US cities and states.
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ESPN
ESPN (originally an abbreviation for the
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American cable television
network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24
hours a day.
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Google Maps
Google Maps (for a time named Google Local) is
a basic web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free
(for non-commercial use), that powers many map-based services, including the
Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on
third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route
planner for traveling by foot, car, or public transport and an urban business
locator for numerous countries around the world. According to one of its
creators (Lars Rasmussen), Google Maps is "a way of organizing the world's
information geographically".
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Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper
published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. In 2008 it was the
second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States and
the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country.
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Monster.com
Monster.com is an employment website owned by
Monster Worldwide. Monster is one of the 20 most visited websites out of 100
million worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrics (November 2006). It was
created in 1999 by the merger of The Monster Board (TMB) and Online Career
Center (OCC), which were two of the first and most popular career web sites on
the Internet. Monster is primarily used to help those seeking work to find job
openings that match their skills and location.
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National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an
agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the
primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and
health-related research. It consists of 27 separate institutes and centers which
includes the Office of the Director. Francis S. Collins is the current Director.
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New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper
published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to
have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most
other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor
actions. Since 1993, it has been owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News
Corporation, which had owned it previously from 1976 to 1988. It is the
sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. by circulation. Its editorial offices are
located at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, in New York City, New York.
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The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily
newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest
metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid
appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record. The Times is
owned by The New York Times Company, which publishes eighteen other newspapers,
including the International Herald Tribune and The Boston Globe. The company's
chairman is Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., whose family has controlled the paper
since 1896.
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State of California
Official state government site provides
information and links for virtually every aspect of the state, including
business and agriculture, education, government, health, history, culture and
transportation.
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USA.gov
USA.gov is the official web portal of the
United States Government. It is designed to improve the public’s interaction
with the U.S. Government by quickly directing website visitors to the services
or information they are seeking. USA.gov links to every Federal agency and to
State, local, and tribal governments, and is the most comprehensive site in—and
about—the U.S. Government.
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Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA) is the official external
radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal
government. Its oversight entity is the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).
VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio, TV and the
Internet around the world in forty-six languages, promoting a positive view of
the United States. Its day-to-day operations are supported by the International
Broadcasting Bureau (IBB).
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The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (also TWC) is a U.S. cable
and satellite television network that broadcasts weather forecasts and
weather-related news 24 hours a day. In addition to its cable TV programming,
TWC also provides forecasts for terrestrial and satellite radio stations,
newspapers, and websites, and maintains an extensive online presence at
weather.com. The Weather Channel debuted its high-definition simulcast on
September 26, 2007. It has its headquarters in unincorporated Cobb County,
Georgia, near the intersection of Interstates 75 and 285.
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