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Watergate Scandal

Watergate scandal

:For other uses, see Watergate (disambiguation) The Watergate Scandal (1972–1974) (or just "Watergate") was an American political scandal and constitutional crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The scandal came in the political context of the ongoing Vietnam War, which had since Lyndon Johnson's presidency grown increasingly unpopular with the American public. The term "Watergate" refers to an over two-year series of events that began with the Nixon administration's abuse of power toward the goal of undermining political opposition in the public anti-war movement and the Democratic Party. Though Nixon had endured two years of mounting political embarrassments, the court-ordered release of the "smoking gun tape" in August 1974 brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment for Nixon, and he resigned only days later on August 9.

Overview

The Watergate scandal was a slow-building series of embarrasing and incriminating disclosures about the conduct of the Nixon administration in using its political authority and executive powers, beginning with the disclosure of the Pentagon Papers—a highly classified Defense Department study of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and preceding political and military conflicts in the Southeast Asia region, in the wake of the end of French colonial occupation.

The burglary

On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard working at the office complex of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., noticed a piece of tape on the door between the basement stairwell and the parking garage. It was holding the door unlocked, so Wills removed it, assuming the cleaning crew had put it there. Later, he returned and discovered that the tape had been replaced. Wills then contacted the D.C. police. After the police came, five men — Bernard Barker, Virgilio González, Eugenio Martínez, James W. McCord, Jr., and Frank Sturgis — were discovered and arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The men had broken into the same office three weeks earlier as well, and had returned intending to fix wiretaps that were not working and, according to some, to photograph documents. The need to break into the office for a second time was just the highlight of a number of mistakes made by the burglars. Another, the telephone number of E. Howard Hunt in McCord's notebook, proved costly to them — and the White House — when found by the police. Hunt had previously worked for the White House, while McCord was officially employed as Chief of Security at the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), later commonly referred to as CREEP. This quickly suggested that there was a link between the burglars and someone close to the President. However, Nixon press secretary Ron Ziegler dismissed the affair as a "third-rate burglary". Though the burglary occurred at a sensitive time, with a looming presidential campaign, most Americans initially believed that no President with Nixon's advantage in the polls would be so foolhardy or unethical as to risk association with such an affair. At his arraignment, burglar McCord identified himself as retired from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Washington D.C. district attorney's office began an investigation of the links between McCord and the CIA, and eventually determined that McCord had received payments from CRP. Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward was at the arraignment, and he along with his colleague, Carl Bernstein, began an investigation into the burglary. Most of what they published was known to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other governmental investigators — these were often Woodward's and Bernstein's sources — but they helped keep Watergate in the spotlight. Woodward's relations with a principal inside source added an extra layer of mystery to the affair. This source was codenamed "Deep Throat", and his true identity was kept from the public. Decades of speculation ended on May 31, 2005, when W. Mark Felt, the No. 2 official at the FBI in the early 1970s, revealed that he was Deep Throat — a claim later confirmed by Woodward. W. Mark Felts used by E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy during the burglary.]] President Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman were tape-recorded (a standard, but secret, Nixon practice) on June 23 discussing use of the CIA to obstruct the FBI's investigation of the Watergate break-ins. Nixon followed through by asking the CIA to slow the FBI's investigation of the crime, claiming that national security would be put at risk. In fact, the crime and numerous other "dirty tricks" had been undertaken on behalf of CRP, mainly under the direction of Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The pair had also worked in the White House in the Special Investigations Unit, nicknamed the "Plumbers." This group investigated leaks of information the administration did not want publicly known, and ran various operations against the Democrats and anti-war protestors. Most famous of their activities was the break-in at the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg, a former employee of The Pentagon and State Department, had leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and, as a result, was prosecuted for espionage, theft, and conspiracy. Hunt and Liddy found nothing useful, however, and trashed the office to cover their tracks. The break-in was only linked to the White House much later, but at the time it caused the collapse of Ellsberg's trial due to evident government misconduct. There is still much dispute about the level of involvement of leading figures in the White House, such as Attorney General John Mitchell, chief of staff Haldeman, leading aides Charles Colson and John Ehrlichman, and Nixon himself. Mitchell dubbed these events the White House horrors. As the head of CRP, along with campaign manager Jeb Stuart Magruder and Fred LaRue, Mitchell approved Hunt's and Liddy's espionage plans, including the break-in, but whether it went above them is unclear. Magruder, for instance, gave a number of different accounts, including that he had overheard Nixon order Mitchell to conduct the break-in in order to gather intelligence about the activities of Larry O'Brien, the director of the Democratic Campaign Committee. On January 8, 1973, the original burglars, along with Liddy and Hunt, went to trial. All except McCord and Liddy pleaded guilty, and all were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. The accused had been paid by CRP to plead guilty but say nothing, and their refusal to allocute to the crimes angered the trial judge John Sirica (known as "Maximum John" because of his harsh sentencing). Sirica handed down thirty-year sentences, but indicated he would reconsider if the group would be more cooperative. McCord complied, implicated CRP in the burglary and the payoff for the burglars' silence, and admitted to perjury.

The tapes

perjury.]] The hearings held by the Senate Watergate Committee, in which Dean was the star witness and in which many other former key administration officials gave dramatic testimony, were broadcast through most of the summer, causing devastating political damage to Nixon. Most famously, Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee asked the memorable question "What did the president know and when did he know it?" which focused attention for the first time on Nixon's personal role in the scandal. On July 13, Watergate Committee Deputy Minority Counsel Donald G. Sanders asked Alexander Butterfield, deputy assistant to the President, if there were any type of recording system in the White House. Butterfield answered that though he was reluctant to say so, there was a system in the White House that automatically recorded everything in the Oval Office. The shocking revelation radically transformed the Watergate investigation. The tapes were soon subpoenaed by both first special prosecutor Archibald Cox and the Senate, as they might prove whether Nixon or Dean was telling the truth about key meetings. Nixon refused, citing the principle of executive privilege, and ordered Cox, via Attorney General Richardson, to drop his subpoena. Cox's refusal led to the "Saturday night massacre" on October 20, 1973, when Nixon compelled the resignations of Richardson and then his deputy William Ruckelshaus in a search for someone in the Justice Department willing to fire Cox. This search ended with Solicitor General Robert Bork, and the new acting department head dismissed the special prosecutor. Allegations of wrongdoing caused Nixon to famously state, "I am not a crook" in front of 400 Associated Press managing editors at Walt Disney World in Florida on November 17. Nixon was forced, however, to allow the appointment of a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, who continued the investigation. While Nixon continued to refuse to turn over actual tapes, he did agree to release edited transcripts of a large number of them. These largely confirmed Dean's account, and caused further embarrassment when a crucial, 18½ minute portion of one tape, which had never been out of White House custody, was found to have been erased. The White House blamed this on Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who said she had accidentally erased the tape by pushing the wrong foot pedal on her tape player while answering the phone. However, as photos splashed all over the press showed, for Woods to answer the phone and keep her foot on the pedal required a stretch that would have challenged many a gymnast. She was then said to have held this position for the full 18½ minutes. Later forensic analysis determined that the gap had been erased several — perhaps as many as nine — times over, refuting the "accidental erasure" explanation. This issue of access to the tapes went all the way to the Supreme Court. On July 24, 1974, in United States v. Nixon, the Court (which did not include the recused Justice Rehnquist) ruled unanimously that Nixon's claims of executive privilege over the tapes were void and they further ordered him to surrender them to Jaworski. On July 30 he complied with the order and released the subpoenaed tapes.

Articles of impeachment, resignation, and convictions

July 30.]] On January 28, 1974, Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter pleaded guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI during the early stages of the Watergate investigation. On February 25, Nixon's personal lawyer Herbert Kalmbach pleaded guilty to two charges of illegal election campaign activities. Other charges were dropped in return for Kalmbach's cooperation in the forthcoming Watergate trials. On March 1, 1974, former aides of the president, known as the Watergate Seven — Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson — were indicted for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. The grand jury also secretly named Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator. Dean, Magruder and other figures in the scandal had already pleaded guilty. Colson stated in his book Born Again that he was given a report by a White House aide that clearly implicated the CIA in the whole Watergate scandal and showed an attempt to implicate him as the one responsible. On April 7, the Watergate grand jury indicted Ed Reinecke, Republican lieutenant governor of California, on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee. On April 5, former Nixon appointments secretary Dwight Chapin was convicted of lying to the grand jury. Nixon's position was becoming increasingly precarious, and the House of Representatives began formal investigations into the possible impeachment of the President. The House Judiciary Committee voted 27 to 11 on July 27, 1974 to recommend the first article of impeachment against the President: obstruction of justice. The second (abuse of power) and third (contempt of Congress) articles were passed on July 29 and July 30, respectively. In August, the previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972 was released. Recorded only a few days after the break-in, it documented Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA claim to the FBI (falsely) that national security was involved. The tape was referred to as a "smoking gun." With this last piece of evidence, Nixon's few remaining supporters deserted him. The ten congressmen who had voted against all three Articles of Impeachment in committee announced that they would all support impeachment when the vote was taken in the full House. 1972 Nixon's support in the Senate was weak as well. After being told by key Republican Senators that enough votes existed to convict him, Nixon decided to resign. In a nationally televised address on the evening of August 8, 1974, he announced he would resign effective noon on August 9. Though Nixon's resignation obviated the pending impeachment, criminal prosecution was still a possibility. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford, who on September 8 issued a widely-scoped pardon for Nixon, immunizing him from prosecution for any crimes he may have committed as President. Nixon proclaimed his innocence until his death, although his acceptance of the pardon was construed by many as an admission of guilt. He did state in his official response to the pardon that he "was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal into a national tragedy." Colson pleaded guilty to charges concerning the Ellsberg case; in exchange, the indictment against him for covering up the activities of CRP was dropped, as it was against Strachan. The remaining five members of the Watergate Seven indicted in March went on trial in October 1974, and on January 1, 1975, all but Parkinson were found guilty. In 1976, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Mardian; subsequently, all charges against him were dropped. Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell exhausted their appeals in 1977. Ehrlichman entered prison in 1976, followed by the other two in 1977

Aftermath

The effects of the Watergate scandal did not by any means end with the resignation of President Nixon and the imprisonment of some of his aides. Indirectly, Watergate was the cause of new laws leading to extensive changes in campaign financing. It was a major factor in the passage of amendments to the Freedom of Information Act in 1986, as well as laws requiring new financial disclosures by key government officials. While not legally required, other types of personal disclosure, such as releasing recent income tax forms, became expected. Presidents since Franklin Roosevelt had recorded many of their conversations, but after Watergate this general practice ended, at least as far as the public knows. Watergate led to a new era in which the mass media became far more aggressive in reporting on the activities of politicians. For instance, Wilbur Mills, a powerful congressman, was in a drunken driving accident a few months after Nixon resigned. The incident, similar to others which the press had previously never mentioned, was reported, and Mills soon had to resign. In addition to reporters becoming more aggressive in revealing the personal conduct of key politicians, they also became far more cynical in reporting on political issues. A new generation of reporters, hoping to become the next Woodward and Bernstein, embraced investigative reporting and sought to uncover new scandals in the increasing amounts of financial information being released about politicians and their campaigns. Since Nixon and many senior officials involved in Watergate were lawyers, the scandal severely tarnished the public image of the legal profession. In order to defuse public demand for direct federal regulation of lawyers (as opposed to leaving it in the hands of state bar associations or supreme courts), the American Bar Association launched two major reforms. First, the ABA decided that its existing Model Code of Professional Responsibility (promulgated 1969) was a failure, and replaced it with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 1983. The MRPC has been adopted in part or in whole by 44 states. Its preamble contains an emphatic reminder to young lawyers that the legal profession can remain self-governing only if lawyers behave properly. Second, the ABA promulgated a requirement that law students at ABA-approved law schools take a course in professional responsibility (which means they must study the MRPC). The requirement remains in effect. The Watergate scandal left such an impression on the national and international consciousness that many scandals since then have been labeled with the suffix "-gate" — such as Contragate, Whitewatergate, Travelgate or Filegate in the U.S., Tunagate in Canada, and even PEMEXGATE and Toallagate in Mexico. In 2003 a scandal involving a group of Poland's key political figures and a Polish media magnate Lew Rywin was frequently referred to in Polish media as "Rywingate." The idea of scandals ending in "-gate" is itself lampooned in Tim Dorsey's novel Orange Crush, where a fraudulent campaign manager is overjoyed to find that after years of trying to get a "-gate" scandal of his own, he has committed "Seniorgate" at a retirement home.

The Watergate Scandal in Film, Literature and Music


- Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford starred, as Bernstein and Woodward respectively, in the 1976 movie All the President's Men.
- In Forrest Gump Tom Hanks innocently complains that he can't sleep because of the lights and noises from the apartment across the street--the "apartment" being a room in the Watergate.
- While driving through the rain in the Rocky Horror Picture Show Brad and Janet listen to Richard Nixon's resignation speech. ("I am not a quitter!")
- The movie "Dick" starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams is based around the story of Watergate. Deep Throat is the code name of the two girls who divulge information concerning the scandal.

See also


- List of scandals with "-gate" suffix
- Watergate figures
- "Deep Throat" is Unmasked

External links


- [http://www.archives.gov/nixon/tapes/transcripts.html White House tape transcripts]
- [http://www.c-span.org/executive/presidential/nixon.asp The White House tapes themselves]
- [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/splash.html Washington Post Watergate Archive]
- [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/watergate/watergatefront.htm Washington Post Watergate Tape Listening Guide]
- [http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/30/newsid_2933000/2933155.stm BBC News reports on Watergate]
- [http://www.watergate.info/ Watergate.info - The Scandal That Destroyed Pres. Richard Nixon]
- [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/chronology.htm Watergate Timeline]
- [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/players.htm Watergate Key Players by Washington Post]
- [http://www.benbest.com/history/schemers.html Schemers In the Web]
- [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/watergate.htm Extensive set of online Watergate biographies at Spartacus] Category:U.S. political scandals
- ja:ウォーターゲート事件 zh-cn:水门事件

Watergate (disambiguation)

"Watergate" can refer either to the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s or to the Watergate Hotel and complex in Washington, D.C., from which that scandal takes its name.

1974

1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar).

Events

January-February


- January 5 - Dungeons & Dragons officially released.
- January 6 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
- January 30 - G. Gordon Liddy found guilty of Watergate charges
- February 1 - Fire in Joelman Bank Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil - 177 dead, 293 injured
- February 1 - The Joelma Fire kills 188 in São Paulo.
- February 3 - Prisoners riot in the Bathurst Jail Riots, destroying much of the jail.
- February 4 - Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst
- February 8 - After 84 days in space, the crew of the temporary American space station, Skylab, return to Earth.
- February 12 - US District Court Judge George Boldt rules that Native American tribes in Washington State are entitled to half of the legal salmon and steelhead catches, based on treaties signed by the tribes and the US government.
- February 13 - Nobel Prize winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the Soviet Union (he returns May 27 1994)
- February 17 - Soccer stampede in Cairo - 49 dead
- February 20 - Following a visit to his home from a woman wearing a strange pendant, Phillip K Dick begins to receive a series of visions which he refers to as 2-3-74, shorthand for February/March of 1974.
- February 23 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demand $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
- February 27 - People magazine is published for the first time.
- February 28 - United Kingdom general election results in an almost dead-heat. Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister again despite his Labour Party (UK) having received fewer votes than the Conservative Party (UK).
- February 28 - Ethiopian prime minister Tsehafi Aklilu Habte-Wold, who has held the position since 1961, is dismissed by Emperor Haile Selassie and replaced with Endelkachew Makonnen.

March


- March 1 - Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
- March 1 - Pierre Messmer finishes his first term as Prime Minister of France.
- March 3 - A Turkish Airlines DC-10 travelling from Paris to London crashes in a wood near Paris, killing all 346 aboard.
- March 8 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
- March 10 - Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Lancashire.
- March 10 - Japanese World War Two soldier, second lieutenant Hiroo Onoda surrenders in the Philippines
- March 18 - Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
- March 20 - Ian Balls fails in his attempt to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
- March 29 - Mariner 10 approaches Mercury.

April-May


- April 1 - the Local Government Act 1972 comes into effect in England and Wales, creating six new metropolitan counties and comprehensively redrawing the administrative map
- April 3 - The Super Outbreak, the largest series of tornadoes in history, hits 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province. By the time the last of 148 tornadoes hit early the following morning, 315 died and over 5,000 were injured.
- April 10 - In Israel, Golda Meir resigns as Prime Minister
- April 17 - Three members of the Symbionese Liberation Army die when their apartment catches fire during a shootuot with the LAPD
- April 25 - Coup in Portugal restores democracy (see Carnation Revolution)
- April 28 - Last Americans evacuated from Saigon
- May 4 - All female Japanese team summits Manaslu and become the first women to climb an 8,000 metre peak.
- May 9 - The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon
- May 17 - Los Angeles, California police raid Symbionese Liberation Army headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall
- May 17 - Thirty-three people die in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings in Ireland. Members of the UDR and UVF, allegedly assisted by British intelligence, are behind the blast.
- May 18 - Nuclear test: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
- May 18 - Completition of Warsaw radio mast. The Warsaw radio mast was the tallest construction ever built. It collapsed on August 8, 1991
- May 19 - In the second round of the presidential elections in France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing wins from François Mitterrand, but by a close margin.

June


- June 1 - Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough, UK kills 28 people
- June 6 - A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy
- June 15 - The Red Lion Square disorders
- June 16 - First Darwin beer-can boat regatta in Darwin, Australia - 63 crafts made of beer cans participate
- June 17 - A bomb explodes at the Houses of Parliament in London damaging Westminster Hall. The bomb had been planted by the Irish Republican Army
- June 24 - The UPC label is used for the first time to ring up purchases at a supermarket.
- June 29 - Isabel Peron becomes interim president of Argentina when Juan Peron falls seriously ill
- June 30 - Assassination of Alberta Williams King, mother of the late Martin Luther King, Jr., during a church service

July


- July 7 - West Germany defeats Netherlands 2-1 to win the Football World Cup 1974.
- July 14 - Christine Chubbuck, US television presenter for WXLT-TV, draws a revolver and shoots herself in the head during a live broadcast. She dies in a hospital 14 hours later.
- July 15 - Military coup overthrows President Makarios in Cyprus
- July 17- A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army explodes in the White Tower at the Tower of London, killing one person and injuring 41. Another bomb explodes outside a government building in South London.
- July 20 - Turkish occupation of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after Greek Cypriots' attempt at enosis.
- July 22 - Ethiopian Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen is replaced with Mikael Imru.
- July 23 - Greek military government collapses
- July 24 - Watergate Scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor
- July 27-July 30 - Watergate Scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee adopts three articles of impeachment charging President Richard M. Nixon with obstruction of justice, failure to uphold laws, and refusal to produce material subpoenaed by the committee.

August-October


- August 3 - Former Scottish Works team Ferranti Thistle joins the Profesional Scottish Leagues and changes its name to Meadowbank Thistle Football Club.
- August 4 - Bomb explodes in Italicus Expressen train between Italy and West Germany. Italian neo-fascist terrorists take responsibility
- August 8 - Watergate scandal: US President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (effective August 9)
- August 9 - Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office, an action taken to avoid being removed by impeachment in response to his role in the Watergate scandal. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, takes the oath of office and becomes the 38th president
- September 8 - Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
- September 8 - TWA Flight 841 crashes into the Ionian sea, 18 minutes after take off from Athens, by a bomb exlosion in the cargo hold killing 88 people.
- September 13 - Japanese Red Army members seize the French Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands. They secure the release of member Yatuka Fumiya, $300.000 and a flight to Aden
- September 23 - Ceefax is started by the BBC - one of the first public service information systems
- October 5 - The Guildford Pub Bombings at The Horse and Groom and The Seven Stars kill 5 people, lead to the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of the Guildford Four the next year
- October 10 - the second United Kingdom general election of the year results in a narrow victory for Labour, still led by Harold Wilson.

November


- November 7 - Lord Lucan disappears
- November 7 - An IRA bomb explodes at the Kings Arms, Woolwich
- November 8 - In Salt Lake City, Utah, Carol DaRonch narrowly escapes abduction by serial killer Ted Bundy
- November 10 - Members of the Movement 2 June try to kidnap Günter von Drenkmann, the president of West Germany's Superior Court of Justice, at his home but he is fatally shot during the attempt
- November 14 - Ronald Defeo, Jr. murders his parents four siblings in what would later become known as "The Amityville Horror House"
- November 16 - Arecibo radio telescope sends an interstellar radio message towards M 13 great globular cluster
- November 17 - Irish President Childers dies suddenly of a heart attack in the Republic of Ireland in the middle of a public speech
- November 20 - The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the break up of AT&T and the Bell System.
- November 21 - In Birmingham, England, two pubs are bombed, killing 21 people (the Birmingham Six were later sentenced to life in prison for this)
- November 21 - George W. Bush is discharged from the US Air Force Reserve
- November 22 - The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.
- November 24 - A skeleton from the hominid Australopithecus afarensis is discovered and named Lucy.
- November 27 - The Prevention of Terrorism Act is passed in the United Kingdom

December


- December 1 - A Boeing 727 carrying TWA Flight 514 crashes 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Dulles International Airport during bad weather, killing all 92 people on-board
- December 8 - Greek voters reject a proposal to restore the Greek monarchy.
- December 19 - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh becomes the fifth President of Ireland, in a state inauguration in Dublin Castle
- December 23 - Former British ex-minister John Stonehouse, who faked his drowning in Florida, is arrested in Melbourne, Australia
- December 24-December 25 - Darwin, Australia almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy

Unknown date


- The Milgram experiment first described by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in his 1974 book Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View.
- Baltimore police strike
- Volkswagen's Golf automobile first enters production. VW will go on to sell 22 million Golfs, and the model is still very popular today.

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Tricia Helfer, Canadian actress and model
- January 11 - The Rosenkowitz sextuplets (Cape Town, South Africa), the first sextuplets known to survive their infancy.
- January 12 - Tor Arne Hetland, Norwegian cross-country skiier
- January 16 - Kate Moss, English model
- January 17 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian conjoined twins (d. 2003)
- January 23 - Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
- January 27 - Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lankan cricketer
- January 28 - Tony Delk, American basketball player
- January 30 - Christian Bale, Welsh actor
- January 31 - Ian Huntley, English murderer
- February 7 - Steve Nash, Canadian basketball player
- February 8 - Seth Green, American actor
- February 11 - D'Angelo, American singer
- February 13 - Robbie Williams, English singer
- February 15 - Seattle Slew, American racehorse (d. 2002)
- February 15 - Ugueth Urbina, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- February 24 - Chad Hugo, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)

March-April


- March 1 - Mark-Paul Gosselaar, American actor
- March 5 - Jens Jeremies, German footballer
- March 7 - Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer and actor
- March 11 - Bobby Abreu, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- March 11 - Russ Haas, American wrestler (d. 2001)
- March 20 - Paula Garces, Colombian actress
- March 20 - Andrzej Pilipiuk, Polish writer
- March 20 - Carsten Ramelow, German footballer
- March 22 - Marcus Camby, American basketball player
- March 24 - Alyson Hannigan, American actress
- March 25 - Lark Voorhies, American actress
- April 4 - Dave Mirra, American athlete
- April 9 - Jenna Jameson, American actress
- April 11 - Trot Nixon, baseball player
- April 14 - Da Brat, American rapper
- April 15 - Josh Todd, musician and singer (Buckcherry)
- April 17 - Victoria Beckham, English singer (Spice Girls)
- April 22 - Shavo Odadjian, Armenian-born bassist (System of a Down)
- April 28 - Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress
- April 28 - Richel Hersisia, Dutch boxer

May-July


- May 8 - Korey Stringer, American football player (d. 2001)
- May 17 - Andrea Corr, Irish singer (The Corrs)
- May 23 - Ken Jennings, American long-time winner on Jeopardy!
- May 23 - Jewel, American singer
- May 23 - Monica Naranjo, Spanish singer
- May 24 - Ruslana, Ukrainian singer
- May 26 - Lars Frölander, Swedish swimmer
- May 27 - Danny Wuerffel, American football player
- June 1 - Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer
- June 2 - Gata Kamsky, American chess player
- June 7 - Mahesh Bhupathi, Indian tennis player
- June 10 - James Spix, American author
- June 12 - Hideki Matsui, Japanese baseball player
- June 13 - Brande Roderick, American actress
- June 25 - Karisma Kapoor, Indian actress
- June 26 - Derek Jeter, baseball player
- July 2 - Matthew Reilly, Australian writer
- July 4 - La'Roi Glover, American football player
- July 19 - Preston Wilson, baseball player
- July 22 - Daddy Kev, American record producer
- July 23 - Maurice Greene, American athlete
- July 27 - Eason Chan, Hong Kong singer
- July 31 - Emilia Fox, English actress
- July 31 - Jonathan Ogden, American football player

August-October


- August 2 - Jeremy Castle, American singer and songwriter
- August 5 - Kajol Devgan, Indian actress
- August 9 - Matt Morris, baseball player
- August 15 - Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress and model
- August 20 - Maxim Vengerov, Russian violinist
- August 23 - Ray Park, Scottish actor
- August 24 - Jennifer Lien, American actress
- August 27 - Jose Vidro, baseball player
- September 2 - Lisa Snowdon, English television presenter
- September 6 - Tim Henman, English tennis player
- September 10 - Ben Wallace, American basketball player
- September 14 - Hicham El Guerrouj, Moroccan athlete
- September 17 - Rasheed Wallace, American basketball player
- September 19 - Jimmy Fallon, American actor and comedian
- September 23 - Matt Hardy, American Professional Wrestler
- October 7 - Allison Munn, American actress
- October 10 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., American race car driver
- October 11 - Terje Haakonsen, Norwegian snowboarder
- October 16 - Paul Kariya, Canadian hockey player
- October 21 - Lera Auerbach, Russian composer, pianist, and poet
- October 23 - Sander Westerveld, Dutch soccer player
- October 29 - Michael Vaughan, English cricketer

November-December


- November 1 - VVS Laxman, Indian cricketer
- November 4 - Louise Redknapp, English singer
- November 5 - Ryan Adams, American singer and songwriter
- November 5 - Jerry Stackhouse, American basketball player
- November 9 - Uncle Kracker, American singer
- November 11 - Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor
- November 11 - Bettina Goislard, French UN worker (d. 2003)
- November 22 - Ken Mondschein, American writer
- November 22 - David Pelletier, Canadian figure skater
- November 23 - Jamie Sharper, American football player
- November 27 - Zsófia Polgár, Hungarian-born chess player
- December 1 - Costinha, Portuguese footballer
- December 7 - Nicole Appleton, Canadian singer (All Saints)
- December 13 - Nicholas McCarthy, English-born guitarist (Franz Ferdinand (band))
- December 14 - Billy Koch, baseball player
- December 18 - Peter Boulware, American football player
- December 19 - Jake Plummer, American football player
- December 21 - Karrie Webb, Australian golfer
- December 24 - Ryan Seacrest, American television host
- December 29 - Jenny Barker, British radio presenter
- December 29 - Richie Sexson, baseball player

Unknown date


- Ziad Jarrah, Lebanese hijacker (d. 2001)

Deaths

January-July


- January 2 - Tex Ritter, American actor and singer (b. 1905)
- January 12 - Princess Patricia of Connaught (b. 1886)
- January 31 - Samuel Goldwyn, Polish-born film studio executive (b. 1879)
- February 11 - Anna Q Nilsson, Swedish actress (b. 1888)
- February 15 - Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer (b. 1887)
- February 21 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1930)
- February 23 - Harry Ruby, American composer and writer (b. 1895)
- March 1 - Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist (b. 1935)
- March 5 - Sol Hurok, Russian-born impresario (b. 1888)
- March 6 - Ernest Becker, American cultural anthropologist
- March 9 - Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
- March 20 - Chet Huntley, American television journalist (b. 1911)
- April 2 - Georges Pompidou, President of France (b. 1911)
- April 15 - Giovanni D'Anzi, Italian songwriter (b. 1906)
- April 19 - Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan (b. 1907)
- April 24 - Bud Abbott, American actor (b. 1897)
- May 24 - Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist and bandleader (b. 1899)
- June 9 - Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemalan writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
- June 10 - Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Governor-General of Australia (b. 1900)
- June 22 - Darius Milhaud, French composer (b. 1892)
- June 28 - Frank Sutton, American actor (b. 1923)
- July 1 - Juan Domingo Perón, President of Argentina (b. 1895)
- July 9 - Earl Warren, Governor of California and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (b. 1891)
- July 11 - Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
- July 13 - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- July 24 - James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)

August-December


- August 6 - Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1925)
- September 3 - Harry Partch, American composer (b. 1901)
- September 4 - Creighton Williams Abrams, American general (b. 1914)
- September 4 - Marcel Achard, French playwright and scriptwriter (b. 1899)
- September 14 - Warren Hull, American actor (b. 1903)
- October 6 - V.K. Krishna Menon, Indian freedom fighter and politician (b. 1897)
- October 24 - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1908)
- November 11 - Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (b. 1894)
- November 13 - Vittorio De Sica, Italian film director (b. 1901)
- November 17 - Erskine Hamilton Childers, fourth President of Ireland (b. 1905)
- November 19 - George Brunies, American musician (b. 1902)
- November 21 - John B. Gambling, American radio talk-show host (b. 1897)
- November 21 - Frank Martin, Swiss composer (b. 1890)
- November 24 - Nick Drake, British musician (b. 1948)
- November 24 - Endelkachew Makonnen, Ethiopian politician (b. 1927)
- November 29 - Peng Dehuai, Chinese leader (b. 1898)
- December 2 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1897)
- December 18 - Harry Hooper, baseball player (b. 1887)
- December 20 - André Jolivet, French composer (b. 1905)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Sir Martin Ryle, Antony Hewish
- Chemistry - Paul J. Flory
- Medicine - Albert Claude, Christian de Duve, George E. Palade
- Literature - Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
- Peace - Séan MacBride, Eisaku Sato
- Economics - Gunnar Myrdal, Friedrich von Hayek

Fields Medalists


- Enrico Bombieri, David Mumford Category:1974

Templeton Prize


- Brother Roger als:1974 ko:1974년 ja:1974年 simple:1974 th:พ.ศ. 2517

United States

: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