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Virginia Davis

Virginia Davis

Virginia Davis (born December 31, 1918, in Kansas City, Missouri, USA) was a movie actor. She began working for Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Films as a four year old model. Virginia Davis was hired to act in a film called Alice's Wonderland, combining live action with animation. This film intiated a series known as the Alice Comedies.

External links


- Davis, Virginia Davis, Virginia Davis, Virginia

December 31

December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. It is the final day of the Gregorian year.

Events


- 406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
- 1600 - British East India Company is chartered.
- 1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
- 1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
- 1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada
- 1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two); meanwhile, the Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
- 1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey).
- 1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
- 1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burns to the ground.
- 1929 - Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne for the first time
- 1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany
- 1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
- 1955 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
- 1960 - The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender.
- 1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
- 1963 - Central African Federation officially collapsed, and eventually became Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
- 1968 - Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.
- 1972 - Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
- 1983 - The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
- 1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
- 1988 - Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins becomes the first player in National Hockey League history to score one goal of each type in a single hockey game: a even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot, and an empty-net goal.
- 1990 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
- 1991 - The Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
- 1992 - In the last of the great ITV franchise renewals, Thames Television, Television South West and Television South cease broadcasting, replaced by Carlton Television, Westcountry Television and Meridian Television respectively.
- 1995 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
- 1997 - After 26 years in operation, Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, Tennessee closes permanently.
- 1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
- 1999 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
- 1999 - The Panama Canal comes completely under Panama's jurisdiction.
- 2005 (coming) - various sections of the USA PATRIOT Act are set to expire

Births


- 1378 - Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
- 1491 - Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
- 1514 - Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)
- 1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (b. 1617)
- 1668 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)
- 1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)
- 1738 - Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)
- 1763 - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
- 1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1954)
- 1880 - George Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)
- 1881 - Max Pechstein, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1955)
- 1894 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
- 1903 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
- 1905 - Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)
- 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor and activist (d. 2005)
- 1910 - Carl Dudley, American film director (died 1973)
- 1919 - Tommy Byrne, baseball player
- 1920 - Rex Allen, American actor and singer (d. 1999)
- 1930 - Odetta, American singer
- 1936 - Aga Khan IV, Shia Imam
- 1937 - Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- 1937 - Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
- 1938 - Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)
- 1941 - Alex Ferguson, Scottish football player and manager
- 1943 - John Denver, American musician (d. 1997)
- 1943 - Ben Kingsley, English actor
- 1945 - Taylor Hackford, American film producer and director
- 1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer
- 1947 - Burton Cummings, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)
- 1947 - Tim Matheson, American actor
- 1948 - Roy Partridge, American aviator, author, inventor, scholar, and military leader
- 1948 - Donna Summer, American singer
- 1951 - George Thorogood, American musician
- 1953 - James Remar, American actor
- 1953 - Jane Badler, American actress
- 1958 - Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
- 1959 - Val Kilmer, American actor
- 1959 - Phill Kline, American politician
- 1960 - John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer
- 1963 - Scott Ian, American singer (Anthrax)
- 1964 - Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman
- 1971 - Brent Barry, American basketball player
- 1979 - Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance)
- 1980 - Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player

Deaths


- 192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
- 1164 - Margrave Ottokar III of Styria (b. 1124)
- 1194 - Duke Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)
- 1297 - Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1249)
- 1302 - Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1238)
- 1384 - John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator
- 1424 - Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader
- 1460 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1443)
- 1460 - Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b. 1400)
- 1510 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1472)
- 1535 - William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1465)
- 1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1493)
- 1575 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b. 1502)
- 1583 - Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)
- 1610 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b. 1540)
- 1650 - Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b. 1612)
- 1673 - Oliver St John, English statesman and judge
- 1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b. 1608)
- 1691 - Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641)
- 1719 - John Flamsteed, English astonomer (b. 1646)
- 1742 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)
- 1799 - Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b. 1723)
- 1872 - Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b. 1834)
- 1877 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)
- 1888 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b. 1808)
- 1889 - Ion Creangă, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)
- 1921 - Boies Penrose, United States Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)
- 1936 - Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b. 1864)
- 1948 - Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b. 1885)
- 1969 - George Lewis, American musician (b. 1900)
- 1972 - Roberto Clemente, baseball player (b. 1934)
- 1980 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)
- 1980 - Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)
- 1985 - Rick Nelson, American singer (b. 1940)
- 1990 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (b. 1928)
- 1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)
- 1997 - Floyd Cramer, American musician (b. 1933)
- 1999 - Elliot Richardson, American politician (b. 1920)
- 2000 - Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)
- 2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b. 1898)
- 2004 - Gerard Debreu, French-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances


- The sixth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
- The evening is called New Year's Eve. At 24:00 the beginning of the new year is celebrated, see January 1.
- "Last Day of the Year", Special holiday in the Philippines
- The day and evening are called Hogmanay in Scotland.
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Sharaf (Honor) - First day of the 16th month of the Bahá'í Calendar

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/31 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/12/31 Today in History: December 31] ---- December 30 - January 1 - November 30 - January 31 -- listing of all days ko:12월 31일 ms:31 Disember ja:12月31日 simple:December 31 th:31 ธันวาคม

1918

1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January 8 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
- January 22 - Manitoba, Canada film censor board bans comedies
- January 24 - a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1 (Julian calendar date), issued
- January 28 - Vladimir Lenin decrees the establishment of the Red Army.
- February 3 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long).
- February 8 - The Stars and Stripes newspaper
- February 14 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar). As a consequence the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, previously October, now falls in November.
- February 16 - Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany
- February 18 - White Cossack troops retreat from the Don after advancing Bolsheviks
- February 24 - Estonia declares its independence from Russia
- February 26 - Grandstands at the Hong Kong Jockey Club collapse - 604 dead

March-April


- March 1 - German submarine U 19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Nothern Ireland.
- March 3 - World War I: Germany, Austria and Bolshevist Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in the war.
- March 5 - The Soviet Russia moves its national capital from Petrograd to Moscow
- March 6 - Finnish Air Force founded. The blue swastika is adopted as its symbol as a tribute to the Swedish explorer and aviator Eric von Rosen who donated the first plane. Von Rosen had painted the Buddhist symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.
- March 7 - World War I: Finland forms an alliance with Germany.
- March 12 – Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia
- March 19 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (DST went into effect on March 31).
- March 21 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins
- March 23 - The giant German cannon, the so called Paris Gun begins to shell Paris from 114 km (75 miles) away
- March 23 - In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital.
- March 23 - The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belorussia independent; Bolshevik armies soon crush them
- March 25 - for the first time Belarus declares independence.
- April 1 - The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force.

May-July


- May 1 - German troops enter Don province - they take Rostov May 6
- May 2 - General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.
- May 15 - The Post Office Department (later renamed the USPS) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
- May 16 - The Sedition Act of 1918 is approved by US Congress.
- May 26 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
- May 28 - Armenia gains independence from the Ottoman Empire
- June 1 - World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins.
- July - The Siberian Expedition is launched to extract the Czechoslovak Legion from the Russian civil war.
- July 4 - Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Mehmed V (Resad) (1909-1918) to Mehmed VI (Vahdettin) (1918-1922)
- July 9 - Great train wreck of 1918: In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express killing 101.
- July 15 - World War I: Second Battle of the Marne - The battle begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
- July 16 - Russian Revolution: At Ekaterinburg, Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.

August-October


- August - "Spanish Flu" Influenza becomes pandemic; over twenty-five million people die in the following six months (three times as many as died during the war).
- August 1 - British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Archangel, Russia. August 10 commander is told to help White Russians
- August 1 - Emma Susan Daugherty Banister becomes the first female sheriff in the United States following the death of her husband, John Riley Banister.
- August 8 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."
- August 30 - Strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition.
- August 30 - Fanya Kaplan tries to shoot Lenin. Petrograd head of Cheka is assassinated the same day.
- September 11 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship. (their last World Series win until 2004)
- September 28 - Don Voisko adopts a constitution including declaration of independence. Collapse of Imperial Germany makes it void
- October 3 - Kaiser makes Max von Baden a German chancellor.
- October 3 - Poland declares independence.
- October 8 - World War I - In the Argonne Forest in France, US Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
- October 25 - The Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska, 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.
- October 28 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary.
- October 28 - New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe)

November


- November 1 - Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.
- November 1 - Ruthenia in eastern Czechoslovakia declares brief independence
- November 3 - World War I: Austria-Hungary enters an armistice with the Allies.
- November 3 - Poland declares its independence from Russia.
- November 4 - World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
- November 4 - Mutiny in the German fleet at Kiel begin the German Revolution.
- November 6 - A new Polish government is proclaimed in Lublin.
- November 8 - German army withdraws its support of the Kaiser
- November 9 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and chooses to live in exile in the Netherlands.
- November 9 - Provisional National Council Minister-President Kurt Eisner declares Bavaria to be a republic.
- November 11 - World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France.
- November 11 - Poland regains independence after 123 years of partitions. Józef Piłsudski is appointed Commander-in-Chief.
- November 11 - Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.
- November 12 - Austria becomes a republic.
- November 14 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.
- November 14 - Józef Piłsudski is appointed head of state of Poland
- November 16 - Hungary declares independence from Austria
- November 16 - Hungarian People's Republic declared
- November 18 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
- November 22 - Spartacist League founds German Communist Party
- November 22 - Belgian royal family returns to Brussels after the war
- November 26 - the Podgorica Assembly voted for "union of the people", declaring a joining into the Kingdom of Serbia

December


- December 1 - Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains united with Denmark.
- December 1 - New voting laws in Sweden. Votes no longer dependent on taxable assets. One person, one vote.
- December 1 - Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. Following the March 27 incorporation of Bessarabia and Bucovina, Transylvania unites with Romania.
- December 1 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
- December 4 - US President Woodrow Wilson sails for the Paris_Peace_Conference, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
- December 27 - Beginning of Great Poland Uprising, the Poles in Greater Poland (or Grand Duchy of Poznań rise against the Germans.
- December 28 - Constance Markiewicz becomes the first woman elected to the House of Commons.

Unknown dates


- Finnish Civil War between the Reds and the Whites, January - April.
- Habsburg Empire ceases to exist.
- Grand Duchy of Baden ceases to exist.
- British occupy Palestine
- Katla erupts in Iceland.
- Native American Church is founded.
- Ernest Ansermet founds the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
- John Riley Banister becomes sherrif of Coleman County, Texas.
- Clifton Hillegass, American author born (d. 2001)
- Association Against the Prohibition Amendment founded to promote repeal of prohibition in U.S.

Births

January-February


- January 10 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana
- January 15 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
- January 16 - Nel Benschop, Dutch poetess (d. 2005)
- January 16 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (d. 1996)
- January 19 - John H. Johnson, American publisher, (d. 2005)
- January 20 - Esquivel, Mexican musician (d. 2002)
- January 23 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
- January 25 - Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
- January 26 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
- January 26 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
- January 27 - Skitch Henderson, English-born musician and bandleader (d. 2005)
- January 29 - John Forsythe, American actor
- February 1 - Dame Muriel Spark, Scottish author
- February 3 - Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
- February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author
- February 8 - Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
- February 12 - Julian Schwinger, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- February 17 - William Bronk, American poet (d. 1999)
- February 22 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, American record-holder as the tallest man (d. 1940)
- February 25 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (d. 1996)
- February 25 - Bobby Riggs, American tennis player (d. 1995)
- February 26 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (d. 1985)

March-April


- March 1 - Roger Delgado, British actor (d. 1973)
- March 1 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
- March 3 - Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- March 3 - Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian (d. 2000)
- March 5 - James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
- March 9 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)
- March 9 - Mickey Spillane, American mystery writer
- March 11 - Jack Coe, American evangelist (d. 1956)
- March 12 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)
- March 16 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- March 17 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
- March 18 - Al Benton, baseball player (d. 1968)
- March 18 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (d. 2005)
- March 22 - Cheddi Jagan, President of Guyana (d. 1997)
- March 25 - Howard Cosell, American attorney, lecturer, and sports journalist (d. 1995)
- March 29 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (d. 1990)
- April 9 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
- April 16 - Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (d. 2002)
- April 20 - Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 22 - Mickey Vernon, baseball player
- April 26 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)

May-August


- May 1 - Jack Paar, American television show host (d. 2004)
- May 9 - Mike Wallace, American journalist
- May 9 - Orville L. Freeman, American politician (d. 2003)
- May 11 - Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
- May 12 - Julius Rosenberg, American-born Soviet spy (d. 1953)
- May 15 - Eddy Arnold, American singer
- May 16 - Wilf Mannion, English footballer (d. 2000)
- May 17 - Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano
- May 20 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- June 6 - Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 18 - Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 18 - Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
- July 4 - Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
- July 4 - Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
- July 5 - George Rochberg, American composer (d. 2005)
- July 13 - Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
- July 14 - Ingmar Bergman Swedish film director
- July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
- July 17 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
- July 18 - Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- July 24 - Ruggiero Ricci, Italian-born violinist
- July 27 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
- July 31 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 3 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)
- August 5 - Betty Oliphant, co-founder of National Ballet of Canada (d. 2004)
- August 8 - Brian Stonehouse, English painter and World War II spy (d. 1998)
- August 13 - Frederick Sanger, English biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 25 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (d. 1990)
- August 30 - Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)

September-December


- September 4 - Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
- September 8 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- September 22 - Henryk Szeryng, Polish-born violinist (d. 1988)
- September 27 - Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1984)
- October 4 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- October 5 - Roland Garros, French pilot (shot down) (b. 1888)
- October 8 - Jens Christian Skou, Danish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 19 - Louis Althusser, French philosopher (d. 1990)
- October 31 - Ian Stevenson, American parapsychologist
- November 3 - Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (d. 2003)
- November 4 - Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
- November 10 - Ernst Otto Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 13 - Jack Elam, American actor (d. 2003)
- December 8 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)
- December 11 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 12 - Joe Williams, American jazz singer (d. 1999)
- December 15 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961)
- December 21 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary (d. 2003)
- December 21 - Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations and President of Austria
- December 23 - José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (d. 2001)
- December 25 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1981)

Deaths


- January 6 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician (b. 1845)
- January 9 - Émile Reynaud, French science teacher and maker of the first animated films (b. 1844)
- January 28 - John McCrae, Canadian soldier and poet (b. 1872)
- February 6 - Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (b. 1862)
- February 10 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1833)
- March 13 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (b. 1835)
- March 25 - Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
- March 27 - Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)
- April 20 - Karl Ferdinand Braun, German phyicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1850)
- April 21 - Manfred von Richthofen, "Red Baron", German World War I pilot (b, 1892)
- May 14 - James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American newspaper publisher (b. 1841)
- May 19 - Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot (b. 1885)
- June 10 - Arrigo Boito, Italian poet and composer (b. 1842)
- July 3 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844)
- July 17 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868) and his family (executed)
- August 1 - John Riley Banister, law officer, cowboy, and Texas Ranger (b. 1854)
- August 18 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (b. 1884)
- September 12 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
- September 28 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1858)
- October 22 - Myrtle Gonzalez, American stage and screen actress (b. 1891)
- November 4 - Wilfred Owen, English poet (killed in action) (b. 1893)
- November 9 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (b. 1880)
- November 19 - Joseph Fielding Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1838)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
- Chemistry - Fritz Haber
- Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - not awarded
- Peace - not awarded Category:1918 ko:1918년 ms:1918 ja:1918年 simple:1918 th:พ.ศ. 2461

USA

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In