cyanic-selkie/wikianc huggingface dataset:
1975–76 NBA season
The 1975–76 NBA season was the 30th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship. The Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals. This is also the year Foster Shore joined the Warrior Glazers Group making him the league's 3rd commissioner.
Myles Standish
Myles Standish (1584 – 1656) was an English military officer who was selected to defend the Pilgrims in the New World  He travelled on the Mayflower in 1620 and signed the Mayflower Compact. Standish became a assistant governor, and a treasurer of Plymouth Colony.
Early life
Standish's place of birth is uncertain. In his will he mentions Lancashire. Nathaniel Morton, secretary of Plymouth Colony, wrote that Standish was born in Lancashire.
Standish was a soldier and fought against the Spanish in the Eighty Years' War.
Standish and his wife did not believe in the Church of England and in 1608 they moved to Leiden Netherlands. After some years, they became concerned because their children were losing their English customs and culture. Since their religion was outlawed in England, they decided to travel to the New World.
There were many people in Leiden who did not believe in the Church of England and they also wanted to travel to the New World. They looked to employ someone who would protect them in the New World. They first asked John Smith. Smith was one of the founders of the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia. He had explored and made a map of the North American coast. Smith's experience would have helped them but he asked for too much money. He was also too bold and they feared he might try to rule over them. They asked Standish instead and he agreed to help protect them. They decided to hire the ship Mayflower to take them on their long voyage.
Exploration Missions
While the Mayflower was anchored off Cape Cod, Standish took some men ashore to find a good place for all to live.
William Bradford wrote of one of the exploration missions. They were Bradford, John Carver, Myles Standish, Edward Winslow, John Howland, Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins and Edward Doty set off in small boats. Hopkins was the most experienced because he had seen Native Americans during his time at Jamestown. Bradford said they set off in below freezing temperatures. Many of the men were ill, and when they left the salt spray froze on their coats. During their trip they saw Native Americans who appeared to be cutting up a whale which was very large. When they saw the men approaching the Indians fled. At night they tried to protect themselves from the cold and the Indians.
After more trips in late December 1620 they picked a place to live. Standish gave good advice and they built a small fort and placed cannon for protection against any who might try to harm them. Standish's wife, Rose, died in January.
Many passengers were sick but Standish stayed healthy. Standish was a source of great comfort and strength to those who suffered. Standish helped to care Bradford when he was sick and they became good friends. Bradford held the position of governor for most of his life and worked closely with Standish.
Plymouth Colony
In March of 1621, a Native American named Samoset came to the colony and spoke to the people in English. He stayed one day and talked with the leaders about many things. When he returned he brought the tribe leader Massasoit to meet with the Pilgrims. Governor John Carver, signed a treaty with this chief and they became friends. They all promised to help and defend each other.
Standish planned an attack. Standish and Hobbamock went to where they thought Corbitant would be sleeping but he had already fled the village. They did not kill Corbitant but because the colonist were willing to fight, if necessary, nine other leaders, and Corbitant, signed a treaty with the leaders of Plymouth.
In November 1621, a Narragansett messenger came to Plymouth with a bundle of arrows wrapped in a snakeskin. The Pilgrims were told by Tisquantum and Hobbamock that this was a threat and an insult from the Narragansett leader who was called Canonicus. This was one of the more powerful tribes in the area. Bradford sent back the snakeskin filled with gunpowder to show them they were not afraid. Standish told the colonists to prepare for a possible fight. The ship Fortune had brought some more men to the colony but there were still not very many men. Standish put one man to each wall and gave them orders on how to protect themselves and the people in case of an attack.
Bradford called a public meeting. The Pilgrims decided to send Standish and a small group of eight, including Hobbamock, to Wessagusset to kill the leaders who wanted kill them. The day after Pecksuot, a Massachusett warrior and leader of the group who threatened Wessagusset, came to the settlement with other warriors. Pecksuot approached Standish and, looking down on him, said, "You are a great captain, yet you are but a little man. Though I not a chief, I am of great strength and courage." He said this to make Standish afraid of him. The next day, Standish attacked Pecksuot, and stabbed him with the Native American's own knife. Standish returned to Plymouth. The leaders who wished them harm had been killed and there was no more threat. The attack also caused many of the unfriendly Native Americans to leave the area.
Standish showed great courage and skill as a soldier but sometimes was too harsh with the Native Americans. This would make both the Native Americans and the members of the colony angry.
By the 1640s, Standish was leading a quiet life on his farm in Duxbury. Standish also served as a surveyor of highways, as Treasurer of the Colony from 1644 to 1649. In 1642, his old friend Hobbamock, who had been part of his household, died and was buried on Standish's farm in Duxbury.
Standish put Lieutenant William Holmes in charge of training the men. He died in his home in 1656. He was buried in Duxbury's Old Burying Ground, now known as the Myles Standish Burial Ground.
Marriages and family
Standish's first wife, Rose, died in 1621. She was buried in an unmarked grave at Cole's Hill as were many others who died the first winter and named on the Pilgrim Memorial Tomb as "Rose, first wife of Myles Standish".
Standish then married Barbara who died in 1659 They had seven children and her burial place is unknown. Their children were named, Charles, John, Myles, Loara, and Josiah and (again) Charles. The first child named Charles died.
Monuments
There are two monuments to Myles Standish. One is placed over his grave at the Myles Standish Burial Ground. The site of Myles Standish's house is now in a small park in the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Standish, Maine, is named after Myles Standish. There are two forts named after Standish: a fort on Plymouth's Saquish Neck built during the American Civil War and a larger fort built in Boston Harbor in 1895.
William Rowan Hamilton
William Rowan Hamilton (August 4, 1805 – September 2, 1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He made important contributions to the development of optics, dynamics, mathematics, geometry and algebra. His discovery of quaternions is the most famous work. His work was important in the development of quantum mechanics. Hamilton's talent was discovered very early by the astronomer John Brinkley. In 1823, when Hamilton was eighteen, John Brinkley said: "I don't say he would be but now he is the leading mathematician of his age". Hamilton was the first to introduce the term "vector", "association law".
Schlins
Schlins is a municipality of the district Feldkirch in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg.
PrivatBank
PrivatBank is the largest Ukrainian bank in terms of assets and the leader of the retail banking market of Ukraine, registered on March 19, 1992. It is a state bank.
As of January 1, 2018, the net assets of PrivatBank amounted to 259 billion hryvnias (19.3% of the assets of all banks in Ukraine). PrivatBank owns the second largest network of branches and the largest network of ATMs and terminals among Ukrainian banks. At the beginning of 2018, about 7,200 ATMs, 13,300 payment terminals and 141,000 retail POS terminals were operating in the network. The national banking service network of PrivatBank has about 2,240 branches. PrivatBank is the largest issuer and acquirer of payment cards in Ukraine. At the beginning of 2018, the bank issued more than 30 million cards, which is more than half of the total number of payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks. The bank owns the money transfer system "PrivatMoney" and the most popular internet banking and payment system in Ukraine "Privat24".
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear. He was created by A. A. Milne. He is based on a stuffed toy that belonged to Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne. The toy was named after "Winnipeg" ("Winnie" for short), who was a black bear at the London Zoo, and "Pooh", which was a nickname Milne and his son had given to a swan. The first book was published in 1926. Other books were published later. Walt Disney made a series of cartoons based on the books. The Walt Disney Company still owns the character.
Pooh is a small yellow bear. He is nearly 22 in tall. He wears an old red t-shirt. His favorite food is honey. The first thing he says when he gets up in the morning is "What's for breakfast?". He invented the game "Poohsticks".
Pooh has several friends. Their names are Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo, Owl, Gopher, and Christopher Robin. Piglet is a small timid pig. Eeyore is an old grey donkey. Tigger is an energetic tiger. Rabbit is a kind-hearted rabbit. Kanga is a female kangaroo. Roo is Kanga's son.
The first book, Winnie-the-Pooh, was published on October 15, 1926 by Methuen & Company. The second book was The House at Pooh Corner, which was published on October 11, 1928. The poetry book When We Were Very Young was published in 1924 and Now We Are Six was published in 1927. Return to Hundred Acre Wood was written by David Benedictus and published on October 5, 2009. The Best Bear in All the World was published in 2016 to mark the 90th anniversary of the first Winnie-the-Pooh book.
Leon Goretzka
Leon Christoph Goretzka (born 6 February 1995) is a German professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bayern Munich and the Germany national team.
Thomas Kopache
Thomas Kopache (born October 17, 1945) is an American actor. He was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. He is known for his roles as Assistant Secretary of State Bob Slatterly in The West Wing and for roles in the Star Trek franchise. He has also appeared in the stage productions of As You Like It as the banished Duke and in Antigone as Creon.
In 2017, Kopache appeared on the HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as the "Catheter Cowboy", a character based on a commercial that aired on networks such as Fox News. The character appears on commercials produced by Oliver which airs on Fox to educate President Donald Trump.
Winnie the Pooh
There have been quite a few series created by Walt Disney based on these books. The stories are translated into many languages.
A Disney movie about Pooh, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, was made in March 1977. Winnie the Pooh was made in July 2011. A live-action movie directed by Marc Forster and based on A. A. Milne's books, entitled Christopher Robin, was released in 2018. An Horror Film made By Rhys Frake-Waterfield titled Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey Premiered on February 15,2023.
Ushuaia Loppet
The Ushuaia Loppet is a cross-country skiing marathon in Argentina. It was first held in 1986.
Staphylococcal infection
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus aureus is a staphylococcus bacterium that can cause dangerous or even fatal diseases. Because Staphylococcus aureus can live on dry surfaces, such as doorknobs or tables, for longer than most bacteria, someone can get sick from Staphylococcus aureus from touching one of those surfaces if someone with a staphylococcal infection has touched it even if there is nobody who has a staphylococcal infection near them. Staphylococcus aureus can also cause toxic shock syndrome by releasing toxins into the bloodstream.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is Staphylococcus aureus that is not cured by the antibiotic Methicillin or any other penicillin or cephalosporin antibiotics. This is called antibiotic resistance. Because penicillin and cephalosporin are the most important drugs that doctors use to treat Staphylococcus aureus infections, doctors may not be able to cure people with MRSA.
Other Staphylococcus bacteria
Other Staphylococcus bacteria can cause infections, including Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus saprophyticus. Staphylococcus epidermidis is a bacterium that is normally on the skin. If someone has a disease that makes his or her immune system work badly, this bacterium might give him or her an infection. Staphylococcus saprophyticus can cause urinary tract infections in women.
Door of the Duomo of Milan (Castiglioni)
The Do or of the Duomo of Milan is a sculpture by Giannino Castiglioni.
The Door is a group of monumental sculptures of the door of honor located on the east side of the Duomo of Milan. Made by the Italian sculptor Giannino Castiglioni, it was inaugurated on December 7, 1950. It is a masterpiece of this sculptor, who worked there for more than 15 years in Lierna Lake Como.
Description
The door of Castiglioni tells the story of Saint Ambrose, patron saint of Milan.
History of the United States
History of the United States is what happened in the past in the United States, a country in North America.
Native Americans lived in the Americas for thousands of years. English people in 1607 went to the place now called Jamestown, Virginia. Other European settlers went to the colonies, mostly from England and later Great Britain. France, Spain, and the Netherlands also colonized North America. In 1775, a war between the thirteen colonies and Britain began when the colonists were upset over paying taxation to their government in the UK, but were not being given any chance to vote in the UK/British elections, to contribute to how that money was spent.
Just after dawn on April 19, 1775, the British attempted to disarm the Massachusetts militia at Concord, Massachusetts, thus beginning the war with the "Shot Heard Round the World." On July 4, 1776, Founding Fathers wrote the United States Declaration of Independence. They won the Revolutionary War and started a new country. They signed the constitution in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1791. General George Washington, who had led the war, became its first president. During the 19th century, the United States gained much more land in the West and began to become industrialized. In 1861, several states in the South attempted to leave the United States to start a new country called the Confederate States of America. This caused the American Civil War. After the war, Immigration resumed. Some Americans became very rich in this Gilded Age, and the country developed one of the largest economies in the world.
In the early 20th century, the United States became a world power, fighting in World War I and World War II. Between the wars, there was an economic boom called the Roaring Twenties, when many people became richer, and a bust, called the Great Depression, when most were poorer. The Great Depression ended with World War II.
The United States and the Soviet Union entered the Cold War. This included wars in Korea and Vietnam. During this time, African-Americans, Chicanos, and women sought more rights. In the 1970s and 1980s, the United States started to make fewer things in factories. The country then went through the worst recession it had since the Great Depression. In the late 1980s, the Cold War ended, helping the United States out of recession. The Middle East became more important in American foreign policy, especially after the September 11 attacks in 2001. In the 2010s, Barack Obama's presidency helped many domestic problems in the country such as the auto business and healthcare coverage. After Obama, the country saw a rise in populist politics with the presidency of Donald Trump. In 2020, the country oversaw the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest over racial justice and disputes over the 2020 election results which led to violent reactions.
Pre-Columbian America
The Pre-Columbian Era is the time before Christopher Columbus went to the Americas in 1492. At that time, Native Americans lived on the land that is now controlled by the United States. They had various cultures: Native Americans in the Eastern Woodlands hunted game and deer; Native Americans in the Northwest fished; Native Americans in the Southwest grew corn and built houses called pueblos; and Native Americans in the Great Plains hunted Bison. Around the year 1000, the Vikings visited Newfoundland. However, they did not settle there.
Colonial America
The English tried to settle at Roanoke Island in 1585. The settlement did not last, and no one knows what happened to the people. In 1607, the first lasting English settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia, by John Smith, John Rolfe and other Englishmen interested in gold and adventure. In its early years, many people in Virginia died of disease and starvation. The colony in Virginia lasted because it made money by planting tobacco, rice and cotton.
In 1621, a group of Englishmen called the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. A bigger colony was built at Massachusetts Bay by the Puritans in 1630. The Pilgrims and the Puritans were interested in making a better society, not looking for gold. They called this ideal society a "city on a hill". A man named Roger Williams left Massachusetts after disagreeing with the Puritans, and started the colony of Rhode Island in 1636.
Great Britain was not the only country to settle what would become the United States. In the 1500s, Spain built a fort at Saint Augustine, Florida. France settled Louisiana, and the area around the Great Lakes. The Dutch settled New York, which they called New Netherland. Other areas were settled by Scotch-Irish, Germans, and Swedes. However, in time Britain controlled all of the colonies, and most American colonists adopted the British way of life. The growth of the colonies was not good for Native Americans. Many of them died of smallpox, a disease brought to America by the Europeans. The ones who lived lost their lands to the colonists.
In the early 1700s, there was a religious movement in the colonies called the Great Awakening. Preachers such as Jonathan Edwards preached sermons. One of them was called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". The Great Awakening may have led to the thinking used in the American Revolution.
By 1733, there were thirteen colonies. New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston were the largest cities and main ports at that time.
American Revolution
After the French and Indian War, the colonists began to think that they were not getting their "rights as freeborn Englishman". This meant they wanted to be treated fairly by the English government. This was mainly caused by new taxes the British made the colonies pay to pay for the war. Americans called this "No taxation without representation", meaning that the colonists should not have to pay taxes unless they had votes in the British Parliament. Each tax was disliked, and replaced by another which led to more unity between the colonies. In 1770, colonists in Boston known as the Sons of Liberty got in a fight with British soldiers. This became known as the Boston Massacre. After the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty dumped hundreds of boxes of tea in the sea. This was known as the Boston Tea Party (1773). This led to the British Army taking over Boston. After that, leaders of the 13 colonies formed a group called the Continental Congress ( 1774 ). Many people were members of the Continental Congress, but some of the more important ones were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Roger Sherman and John Jay.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense. It argued that the colonies should be free of English rule. This was based on the English ideas of natural rights and social contract put forth by John Locke and others. On July 4, 1776, people from the 13 colonies agreed to the United States Declaration of Independence. This said that they were free and independent states, and were not part of England any more. The colonists were already fighting Britain in the Revolutionary War at this time. The Revolutionary War started in 1775 at Lexington and Concord. Though American soldiers under George Washington lost many battles to the British, they won a major victory at Saratoga in 1777. This led to France and Spain joining the war on the side of the Americans. In 1781, an American victory at Yorktown helped by the French led Britain to decide to stop fighting and give up the colonies. America had won the war and its independence.
The Federal Period (1781–1815)
In 1781, the colonies formed a confederation of states under the Articles of Confederation, but it lasted only six years. It gave almost all the power to the states and very little to the central government. The confederation had no president. It could not remove Native Americans or the British from the frontier, nor could it stop mob uprisings such as Shays' Rebellion. After Shays' Rebellion, many people thought the Articles of Confederation were not working.
In 1787, a constitution was written. Many of the people who helped write the Constitution, such as Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris, were among the major thinkers in America at the time. Some of these men would later hold important offices in the new government. The constitution created a stronger national government that had three branches: executive (the President and his staff), legislative (the House of Representatives and the Senate), and judicial (the federal courts).
Some states agreed to the Constitution very quickly. In other states, many people did not like the Constitution because it gave more power to the central government and had no bill of rights. To try and get the Constitution passed, Madison, Hamilton and Jay wrote a series of newspaper articles called the Federalist Papers. Very soon after, the Bill of Rights was added. This was a set of 10 amendments (changes), that limited the government's power and guaranteed rights to the citizens. Like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution is a social contract between the people and the government. The main idea of the Constitution is that the government is a republic (a representative democracy) elected by the people, who all have the same rights. However, this was not true at first, when only white males who owned property could vote. Because of state laws as well as the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments, almost all American citizens who are at least 18 years old can vote today.
Spear-thrower
A spear thrower is a wooden tool used for throwing spears. It gives the human arm more leverage to build up the spear's velocity. This gives the spear more force and makes it go faster. Spear throwers were used in many civilisations. It was used by the Aztecs, who called it an atlatl. It is also used by Aboriginals in Australia, where it has become most widely known as a woomera (the Dharuk name for it).
History of the United States
The Federal Period (1781–1815)
In 1789, Washington was elected the first President. He defined how a person should act as President and retired after two terms. During Washington's term, there was a Whiskey Rebellion, where country farmers tried to stop the government from collecting taxes on whiskey. In 1795, Congress passed the Jay Treaty, which allowed for increased trade with Britain in exchange for the British giving up their forts on the Great Lakes. However, Great Britain was still doing things that hurt the U.S., such as impressment (making American sailors join the British Royal Navy).
John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1796 to become the second President of the United States. This was the first American election that was between two political parties. As president, Adams made the army and navy larger. He also got the Alien and Sedition Acts passed, which were much disliked.
In the election of 1800, Jefferson defeated Adams. One of the most important things he did as President was to make the Louisiana Purchase from France, which made the United States twice as big. Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to map the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson also tried to stop trade with England and France so that the United States would not become involved in a war the two countries were fighting. Fighting broke out between the United States and England in 1812 when James Madison was President. This was called the War of 1812.
Expansion Industrialization And Slavery (1815–1861)
One of the problems of this period was slavery. By 1861, over three million African-Americans were enslaved in the South. This means that they worked for other people, but had no freedom and received no money for their work. Most worked picking cotton on large plantations. Cotton became the main crop in the South after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793. There were a few slave rebellions against slavery, including one led by Nat Turner. All of these rebellions failed. The South wanted to keep slavery, but by the time of the Civil War, many people in the North wanted to end it. Another argument between the North and South was about the role of government. The South wanted stronger state governments, but the North wanted a stronger central government. After the War of 1812 the Federalist Party faded away, leaving an "Era of Good Feelings" in which only one party was important, under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. Under Monroe, the United States' policy in North America was the Monroe Doctrine, which suggested that Europe should stop trying to control the United States and other independent countries in the Americas. Around this time, Congress called for something called the "American System". The American System meant spending money on banking, transportation and communication. Due to the American System, bigger cities and more factories were built. One of the big transportation projects of this time was the Erie Canal, a canal in the state of New York. By the 1840s, railroads were built as well as canals. By 1860, thousands of miles of railroads and telegraph lines had been built in the United States, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest.
In the early 19th century, the industrial revolution came to America. Many factories were built in Northern cities such as Lowell, Massachusetts. Most of them made clothes. Many factory workers were women, and some were children or people from Ireland or Germany. Despite this industrialization, America was still a nation of farmers.
In the early and mid-1800s, there was a religious movement called the Second Great Awakening. Thousands of people gathered at large religious meetings called revivals. They thought they could bring about a Golden Age in America through religion. New religious movements such as the Holiness Movement and the Mormons started, and groups like the Methodist Church grew. The Second Great Awakening led to two movements in reform, that is, changing laws and behaviors to make society better. One of these was the Temperance Movement, which believed that drinking alcohol was evil. The other was abolitionism, which tried to end slavery. People such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Lloyd Garrison wrote books and newspapers saying that slavery should stop. They also formed political movements, which included the Liberty Party, the Free Soil Party and the Republican Party. Some abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, were former slaves. By 1820, slavery was very rare in the North, but continued in the South.
In the 19th century, there was something called the “cult of domesticity” for many American women. This meant that most married women were expected to stay in the home and raise children. As in other countries, American wives were very much under the control of their husband, and had almost no rights. Women who were not married had only a few jobs open to them, such as working in clothing factories and serving as maids. By the 19th century, women such as Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton thought that women should have more rights. In 1848, many of these women met and agreed to fight for more rights for women, including voting. Many of the women involved in the movement for women’s rights were also involved in the movement to end slavery. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected President. He was the first president elected from the Democratic Party. He changed the government in many ways. Since many of his supporters were poor people who had not voted before, he rewarded them with government jobs, which is called "spoils" or "patronage". Because of Jackson, a new party was formed to run against him called the Whigs. This was called the "Second Party System". Jackson was very much against the National Bank. He saw it as a symbol of Whigs and of powerful American businessmen. Jackson also called for a high import tax that the South did not like. They called it the "Tariff of Abominations". Jackson’s Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, was from the South. He wrote that the South should stop the tariff and perhaps leave the Union (secession). These words would be used again during the Civil War.
People started to move west of the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains at this time. The first people who moved west were people who caught and sold animal skins such as John Colter and Jim Bridger. By the 1840s, many people were moving to Oregon by wagon, and even more people went west after the California Gold Rush of 1849. Many new states were added to the first thirteen, mostly in the Midwest and South before the Civil War and in the West after the Civil War. During this period, Native Americans lost much of their land. They had lost military battles to the Americans at Tippecanoe and in the Seminole War. In the 1830s, Indians were being pushed out of the Midwest and South by events such as the Trail of Tears and the Black Hawk War. By the 1840s, most Native Americans had been moved west of the Mississippi River.
The Mexican–American War ( 1846—1848 )
In 1845, Texas, which was a nation after it left Mexico, joined the United States. Mexico did not like this, and the Americans wanted the land Mexico had on the West Coast (“Manifest Destiny”). This led to the U.S. and Mexico fighting a war called the Mexican-American War. During the war, the U.S captured the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Monterrey, Veracruz and Mexico City. As a result of the war, the U.S. gained land in California and much of the American Southwest. Many people in the North did not like this war, because they thought it was just good for Southern slave states.
Civil War
In the 1840s and 1850s, people in the Northern states and people in the Southern states did not agree whether slavery was right or wrong in the territories—parts of the United States that were not yet states. People in the government tried to make deals to stop a war. Some deals were the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but they did not really work to keep the Union together. People in the South were angry at books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin that said that slavery was wrong. People in the North did not like a Supreme Court decision called Dred Scott that kept Scott a slave. People from the South and people from the North started killing each other in Kansas over slavery. This was called "Bleeding Kansas". One of the people from Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, took over a town in Virginia in 1859 to make a point about slavery being wrong and to try to get slaves to fight their owners.
In the election of 1860, the Democratic Party split and the Republican candidate for President, Abraham Lincoln, was elected. After this, many Southern states left the Union. Eventually, eleven states left. They tried to start a new country called the Confederate States of America, or the "Confederacy". A war started between the Union (North) and the Confederacy (South). Not having factories made it harder for Southern soldiers to get guns or uniforms. The South could not get supplies because Northern ships blockaded the Southern coast.
Early in the war, Confederate generals such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson won battles over Union generals such as George B. McClellan and Ambrose Burnside. In 1862 and 1863, the Union Army tried to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia several times, but failed each time. Lee's army invaded the North twice, but was turned back at Antietam and Gettysburg. In the middle of war, Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the Confederacy, and started letting black men fight in the Union Army. The war started going the Union’s way after the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863. Gettysburg stopped Lee from invading the North, and Vicksburg gave the Union control over the Mississippi River. In 1864, a Union Army under William T. Sherman marched through Georgia and destroyed much of it. By 1865, Union General Ulysses S. Grant had taken Richmond and forced Lee to give up the fight at Appomattox.
Reconstruction and the Gilded Age
In April 1865, Lincoln was shot and killed while watching a play. The new president, Andrew Johnson, had to go through the process of reconstruction, which was putting the United States back together after the Civil War. During this time, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed, freeing slaves, making them citizens and allowing them to vote. Congress was run by "Radical Republicans", who wanted to punish the South after the Civil War. They did not like Johnson, and almost removed him from office. They also sent many soldiers to the South, installed unpopular "scalawag" governments, and made the South pass the 14th and 15th Amendments. The South did not like this, so they made "Jim Crow" laws that placed blacks in lower roles. White Southern Democrats started a group called the Ku Klux Klan that attacked blacks and stopped them from voting.
After the Civil War, people continued to move west where new states were formed. People now could get free land in the West due to an 1862 law called the Homestead Act. Most of the land in the West was owned by the government, railroads, or large farmers. The Transcontinental Railroad, finished in 1869, helped get people and goods from the west to the rest of the country. Chicago became the center of trade between West and East because many rail lines met there. There were problems between the white settlers and the native Indians as more people began to move west. Because of this, many more Indians were killed at battles such as Wounded Knee. Almost all the Indians' land was taken away by laws like the Dawes Act.
Many Americans thought the railroads charged farmers so much money that it made them poor. Workers led several strikes against the railroad that were put down by the army. Also, farmers started groups to fight the railroad, such as the Grange. These groups became the Populist Movement, which almost won the presidency under William Jennings Bryan. The Populists wanted reforms such as an income tax and direct election of Senators. The Populist Party died out after 1896. Many of the things the Populists wanted would happen during the Progressive Era.
Progressive era and imperialism
In the United States, progressivism is the belief that the government should have a larger role in the everyday life of Americans to provide good living standards for people, especially workers. Imperialism was the belief that the U.S. should build a stronger navy and conquer land.
In the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, the U.S. started being more active in foreign affairs. In 1898, the United States fought a war with Spain called the Spanish–American War. The United States won, and gained Puerto Rico, Guam, Guantanamo and the Philippines. Combined with the purchase of Alaska and the taking-over of Hawaii, the United States had gained all the territory it has today, plus some it would later lose after World War II. Around this time, the U.S. and European nations opened up trade with China. This was because they had beaten China in the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. The U.S. and Europe were able to trade with China through the Open Door Policy. In 1901, Republican Theodore Roosevelt became President. He had been a soldier in the Spanish–American War. He called for a foreign policy known as the "Big Stick". This meant having a large navy and exercising control over Latin America. Between 1901 and 1930, the United States sent soldiers into Latin America several times. When Roosevelt was president, work was begun on the Panama Canal, a link between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans that made travel around the world much faster.
During this time, people started to notice the poor condition of American cities. A group of people called the “muckrakers” wrote books and newspaper articles about subjects like the power of big business, unclean practices in factories, and the condition of poor people. Roosevelt and Congress answered their concerns with laws such as the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Act controlled the way food was made to make sure it was safe. Another response to the muckrakers was something called "trust-busting", where big businesses were broken up into smaller ones. The biggest business broken up this way was the Standard Oil Company in 1911.
World War I
The United States did not want to enter World War I but wanted to sell weapons to both sides. In 1915 a German submarine sank a ship carrying Americans called the Lusitania. This angered Americans, and Germany stopped attacking passenger ships. In January 1917 Germany started attacking them again, and sent the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico about invading the U.S. The United States joined the war against Germany, and it ended a year later. Wilson worked to create an international organization called the League of Nations. The main goal of the League was preventing war. However, the United States did not join because isolationists rejected the peace treaty. At the end of World War I, a flu pandemic killed millions of people in the U.S. and Europe. After the war, the United States was one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world.
The "Roaring Twenties"
The 1920s were an era of growth and increased wealth for the United States. Many Americans began buying consumer products, such as Model T Fords and appliances. Advertising became very important to American life. During this time, many black people moved out of the South and into large cities such as New York City, Chicago, St. Louis and Los Angeles. They brought with them jazz music, which is why the 1920s are called the "Jazz Age". The 1920s were also the Prohibition Era after the Eighteenth Amendment passed. During the 1920s, drinking alcohol was illegal, but many Americans drank it anyway. This led to much rum-running and violent crime.
Racism was strong in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan was powerful once again, and attacked black people, Catholics, Jews and immigrants. People blamed the war and problems in business on immigrants and labor leaders, whom they said were Bolsheviks (Russian communists). Many people also thought that the United States had lost touch with religion. They handled that by changing religion, and some of them by attacking science.
After World War I, the United States had an isolationist foreign policy. That meant it did not want to enter into another global war. It passed laws and treaties that supposedly would end war forever, and refused to sell weapons to its former allies.
In 1921, Warren G. Harding became President. He believed that the best way to make the economy good was for the government to be friendly to big business by cutting taxes and regulating less. While the economy was doing very well under these policies, America had the largest difference between how much money the rich had and how much money the poor had. Harding's presidency had several problems. The biggest one was Teapot Dome over oil drilling in the Navy Oil Reserve. Harding died in 1923, and Calvin Coolidge became President. Coolidge believed that the government should keep out of business, just like Harding, and continued many of Harding's policies. Coolidge chose not to seek the presidency in 1928 and Herbert Hoover became president.
The Great Depression
In 1929, a Great Depression hit the United States. The stock market crashed (lost much of its value). Many banks ran out of money and closed. By 1932, over a quarter of the nation had no jobs, and much of the nation was poor or unemployed. Many people were driven off farms, not only because of the Depression, but also because of a storm known as the "Dust Bowl" and because farmers had not been doing well during the 1920s. President Hoover tried to do something about the Depression, but it did not work. In 1932, he was defeated and Franklin D. Roosevelt became President. He created the New Deal. It was a series of government programs which would give relief (to the people who were hurt by the bad economy), recovery (to make the economy better), and reform (to make sure a depression never happens again).
The New Deal had many programs such as Social Security, the National Recovery Administration (regulated wages), Works Progress Administration (built thousands of roads, schools, government buildings and works of art), the Civilian Conservation Corps (gave young people jobs to help the environment), and Tennessee Valley Authority (built dams and electric lines in the South). These programs put millions of Americans to work, though often at low pay. Many of these programs were started early in Roosevelt's term in a time called the "Hundred Days" or in 1935 in a time called the "Second New Deal". Programs like Social Security grew out of populist movements by people such as Huey Long that were called "Share Our Wealth" and "Ham and Eggs". The New Deal also led to the rise of worker's unions such as the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
The New Deal is often called the period that "saved capitalism", and stopped America from becoming a Communist or Fascist state. Although the New Deal improved the economy, it did not end the Great Depression. The Great Depression was ended by World War II.
World War II
As World War II was beginning, the United States said they would not get involved in it. Most Americans thought the United States should remain neutral, and some people thought the United States should enter the war on the side of the Germans. Eventually, the U.S. did try to help the Allied Powers (Soviet Union, Britain, and France) with the Lend Lease Act. It gave the Allies a lot of money and guns in trade for use of air bases throughout the world.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, a U.S.Naval base in Hawaii. The U.S. was no longer neutral, and it declared war on the Axis Powers (Germany, Japan, Italy). The U.S. entering World War II ended the Great Depression because the war created many jobs. While some of the battles the U.S. fought in were air and naval battles with Japan, the U.S. mainly fought in Europe and Africa. The U.S. opened up several fronts, including in North Africa and Italy. The U.S. also bombed Germany from airplanes, blowing up German cities and factories. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day), American and British forces invaded Normandy. A year later, the Allies had freed France and taken Berlin. In 1945, Roosevelt died, and Harry Truman became president. The U.S. decided to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. Japan gave up soon afterwards, and the war ended.
The war meant different things for women and minorities. During the war, many women worked in weapons factories. They were symbolized by a character called "Rosie the Riveter". Many African-Americans served in the army, but often in segregated units with white officers. Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were forced to live in internment camps, though a few also served in the Army.
Cold War
After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were the two most powerful countries left in the world. The Cold War was a period of tension between the two countries over ways of life. The two countries tried to get other countries on their side. The Soviet Union tried to get countries to become Communist and the United States tried to stop them from being Communist. American and Soviet soldiers never fought in battles, but they fought indirectly in the Korean War (1950s) and the Vietnam War (1950s–1970s).
The Korean War lasted only a few years, but led to American soldiers being in Korea since then. The Vietnam War lasted much longer. It started with a few American troops in Vietnam, but by the 1960s thousands of Americans were being sent to Vietnam. Both wars were between a Northern Communist government helped by the Soviet Union and Communist China and a Southern government helped by the U.S. The Korean War resulted in a split Korea, but the Vietnam War resulted in a Communist Vietnam after the United States left due to American people wanting to end the war. Over a quarter million Americans died or were wounded in Vietnam, which was very much a military failure. The U.S. and Soviet Union argued about where they could place nuclear weapons. One of these arguments was the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. and Soviet Union came very close to attacking each other with nuclear weapons.