United States – Wikipedia

country in North America
For the continental landmass, see Americas Coordinates :
The United States of America ( U.S.A. or USA ), normally known as the United States ( U.S. or US ) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal zone, five major unincorporated territories, 326 indian reservations, and nine minor outlying islands. [ gram ] At about 3.8 million square miles ( 9.8 million straight kilometers ), it is the universe ‘s fourth-largest area by land sphere and third-largest by total area. The United States shares land and nautical borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south arsenic well as maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, and Russia. [ h ] With more than 331 million people, it is the third gear most populous country in the universe. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city and fiscal center is New York City. It is one of the 3 countries that do n’t use the metric system along with Myanmar and Liberia.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the north american mainland at least 12,000 years ago, and european colonization began in the sixteenth century. The United States emerged from the Thirteen british Colonies established along the East Coast. Disputes with Great Britain over tax income and political representation led to the american Revolutionary War ( 1775–1783 ), which established the state ‘s independence. In the late eighteenth century, the U.S. began expanding territory across North America, gradually obtaining new territories, sometimes through war, frequently displacing native Americans, and admitting new states. The enslavement of african Americans was legal in the southern United States until the second half of the nineteenth century, when the American Civil War led to its abolition. The Spanish–American War and World War I established the U.S. as a universe exponent, and the consequence of World War II left the United States and the Soviet Union as the world ‘s two superpowers. During the Cold War, both countries fought in the Korean and Vietnam War but avoided direct armed conflict. The two nations competed in the Space Race, culminating in the 1969 American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. The Soviet Union ‘s dissolution in 1991 ended the Cold War, leaving the United States as the universe ‘s sole world power. In the post–Cold War era, the United States has engaged in respective conflicts in the Middle East. The United States is a union presidential constituent democracy with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a establish extremity of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, and other external organizations. It is a permanent wave member of the United Nations Security Council. The United States is a penis of multiple military alliances, including NATO, AUKUS, and unilateral alliances with Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Considered a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, its population has been profoundly shaped by centuries of immigration. The United States is a free democracy ; it ranks gamey in international measures of economic exemption, choice of life, education, and human rights ; and it has low levels of sensed putrescence. Unlike early westerly democracies, the United States lacks universal joint health worry, retains capital punishment, and has high levels of captivity and inequality. [ 24 ] The United States is a highly develop nation, and its economy accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the populace ‘s largest by GDP at market exchange rates. By rate, the United States is the global ‘s largest importer and second-largest exporter of goods. Although its population is alone 4.2 % of the worldly concern ‘s total, it holds over 30 % of the total wealth in the world, the largest contribution held by any country. Making up more than a third base of ball-shaped military spend, the United States is the foremost military baron in the world and a lead political, cultural, and scientific coerce. [ 25 ]

etymology

The first known habit of the name “ America “ dates back to 1507, when it appeared on a universe map produced by the german cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in the french city of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. On his map, the mention is shown in large letters on what would now be considered South America, in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. The italian explorer was the first to postulate that the West Indies did not represent Asia ‘s easterly limit but were depart of a previously strange landmass. [ 27 ] In 1538, the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator used the name “ America ” on his own world map, applying it to the entire Western Hemisphere. [ 28 ] The first documentary evidence of the phrase “ United States of America ” dates from a January 2, 1776 letter written by Stephen Moylan to Joseph Reed, George Washington ‘s adjutant. Moylan expressed his wish to go “ with entire and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain ” to seek aid in the rotatory war attempt. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] The foremost known publication of the give voice “ United States of America ” was in an anonymous test in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, on April 6, 1776. [ 32 ] The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed no later than June 17, 1776, declared “ The identify of this Confederation shall be the ‘United States of America ‘. ” The concluding interpretation of the Articles, sent to the states for ratification in late 1777, stated that “ The Stile of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America ‘. ” In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase “ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ” in all capitalize letters in the headline of his “ original Rough draft ” of the Declaration of Independence. This conscription of the text file did not surface until June 21, 1776, and it is indecipherable whether it was written before or after Dickinson used the term in his June 17 draft of the Articles of Confederation. The phrase “ United States ” was primitively plural in american custom. It described a collection of states—e.g., “ the United States are … ” The singular form became popular after the end of the Civil War and is now standard usage. A citizen of the United States is an “ american ”. “ United States ”, “ American ”, and “ U.S. ” refer to the country adjectivally ( “ American values ”, “ U.S. forces ” ). In English, the son “ American ” rarely refers to topics or subjects not immediately connected with the United States. [ 35 ]

history

autochthonal peoples and pre-columbian history

It has been generally accepted that the first base inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by means of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 12,000 years ago ; however, some attest suggests an even earlier date of arrival. The Clovis polish, which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to represent the first wave of homo settlement of the Americas. This was probable the first of three major waves of migration into North America ; later waves brought the ancestors of contemporary Athabaskans, Aleuts, and Eskimos. Over clock, autochthonal cultures in North America grew increasingly complex, and some, such as the pre-columbian mississippian culture in the southeasterly, developed advanced agribusiness, computer architecture, and complex societies. The city state of Cahokia is the largest, most complex pre-columbian archaeological locate in the contemporary United States. In the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloan culture developed from centuries of agrarian experiment. The Haudenosaunee, located in the southern Great Lakes region, was established at some point between the one-twelfth and fifteenth centuries. [ 45 ] Most outstanding along the Atlantic coast were the algonquian tribe, who practiced hunt and trap, along with limit cultivation. Estimating the native population of North America at the time of european contact is unmanageable. Douglas H. Ubelaker of the Smithsonian Institution estimated that there was a population of 92,916 in the south Atlantic states and a population of 473,616 in the Gulf states, but most academics regard this number as excessively low. Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns believed the populations were much higher, suggesting around 1.1 million along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 2.2 million people living between Florida and Massachusetts, 5.2 million in the Mississippi Valley and tributaries, and around 700,000 people in the Florida peninsula .

european settlements

Claims of very early colonization of coastal New England by the Norse are disputed and controversial. The foremost document arrival of Europeans in the continental United States is that of spanish conquistadors such as Juan Ponce de León, who made his first expedition to Florida in 1513. even earlier, Christopher Columbus had landed in Puerto Rico on his 1493 voyage, and San Juan was settled by the spanish a decade late. [ 49 ] The spanish set up the beginning settlements in Florida and New Mexico, such as Saint Augustine, often considered the nation ‘s oldest city, [ 50 ] and Santa Fe. The french established their own settlements along the Mississippi River, notably New Orleans. [ 51 ] Successful English colony of the easterly coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and with the Pilgrims ‘ construction of a colony at Plymouth in 1620. [ 52 ] [ 53 ] The continent ‘s first elected legislative fabrication, Virginia ‘s House of Burgesses, was founded in 1619. Documents such as the Mayflower Compact and the fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the american colonies. [ 54 ] [ 55 ] Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who came seeking religious freedom. In 1784, the Russians were the beginning Europeans to establish a colony in Alaska, at Three Saints Bay. Russian America once spanned much of the contemporary country of Alaska. [ 56 ] The native population of America declined after european arrival for respective reasons, [ 57 ] [ 58 ] [ 59 ] chiefly from imported european diseases such as smallpox and measles. [ 60 ] [ 61 ] In the early days of colonization, many european settlers were discipline to food shortages, disease, and attacks from native Americans. native Americans were besides much at war with neighbor tribes and european settlers. In many cases, however, the natives and settlers came to depend on one another. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, and natives for guns, tools and early european goods. [ 62 ] Native Americans taught many settlers to cultivate corn, beans, and early foodstuffs. european missionaries and others felt it was crucial to “ civilize ” the Native Americans and urged them to adopt european agricultural practices and lifestyles. [ 63 ] [ 64 ] With the increased european colonization of North America, Native Americans were frequently displaced or killed during settler conflicts .
european settlers besides began the traffic of african slaves into Colonial America via the transatlantic slave trade. [ 66 ] Because of a lower preponderance of tropical diseases and better treatment, slaves had a much higher liveliness anticipation in North America than in South America, leading to a rapid addition in their numbers. [ 67 ] [ 68 ] Colonial company was largely divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery, and respective colonies passed acts both against and in favor of the rehearse. [ 69 ] [ 70 ] however, by the turn of the eighteenth century, african slaves had supplanted european apprenticed servants as cash crop tug, specially in the American South. [ 71 ] The Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States of America were administered by the british as overseas dependencies. [ 72 ] All however had local governments with elections open to most free men. [ 73 ] With extremely high birth rates, broken death rates, and brace settlement, the colonial population grew quickly, eclipsing native american populations. [ 74 ] The christian evangelist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest both in religion and in religious shore leave. [ 75 ] During the Seven Years ‘ War ( 1756–1763 ), known in the U.S. as the french and indian War, british forces captured Canada from the french. With the universe of the Province of Quebec, Canada ‘s francophone population would remain isolate from the English-speaking colonial dependencies of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Thirteen Colonies. Excluding the native Americans who lived there, the Thirteen Colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about a third base of Britain ‘s. Despite continuing newfangled arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a little minority of Americans had been born oversea. [ 76 ] The colonies ‘ distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their unprecedented success motivated british monarchs to sporadically seek to reassert royal authority. [ 77 ]

independence and expansion

The american Revolutionary War fight by the Thirteen Colonies against the british Empire was the first gear successful war of independence by a non-European entity against a european world power in modern history. Americans had developed an ideology of “ republicanism “, asserting that politics rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their “ rights as Englishmen “ and “ no taxation without representation “. The british insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war. [ 78 ] The Second Continental Congress, an assembly representing the United Colonies, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 ; this sidereal day is celebrated per annum in the United States as Independence Day. [ 79 ] In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a decentralized politics that operated until 1789. [ 79 ] After its kill at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Britain signed a peace treaty. american sovereignty became internationally recognized, and the country was granted all lands east of the Mississippi River. Tensions with Britain remained, however, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a military stalemate. [ 80 ] Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. Coming into impel in 1789, this united states constitution reorganized the union government into three branches, on the principle of creating good checks and balances. George Washington, who had led the Continental Army to victory, was the beginning president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding union limitation of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a stove of legal protections, was adopted in 1791. [ 81 ]
Although the federal government outlawed american engagement in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, causing the slave population to greatly increase. [ 82 ] [ 83 ] [ 84 ] The Second Great Awakening, specially in the time period 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism ; [ 85 ] in the South, Methodists and Baptists attempted to convert slave populations. [ 86 ] Beginning in the late eighteenth century, American settlers began to expand westward, [ 87 ] creating more conflict with native Americans. [ 88 ] The 1803 Louisiana Purchase about doubled the nation ‘s sphere, [ 89 ] Spain ceded Florida and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819, [ 90 ] the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845 during a menstruation of expansionism, [ 91 ] and the 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the contemporary american Northwest. [ 92 ] Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the contemporary american Southwest, making the U.S. span the continent. [ 87 ] [ 93 ] The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 spur migration to the Pacific coast, which led to the California Genocide [ 94 ] and the initiation of extra westerly states. [ 95 ] The giving away of huge quantities of domain to white european settlers as part of the Homestead Acts, and to secret dragoon companies and colleges as share of land grants spurred economic development. [ 96 ] After the Civil War, raw transcontinental railways made resettlement easier for settlers, expanded internal trade, and increased conflicts with native Americans. [ 97 ] In 1869, a new peace Policy nominally promised to protect native Americans from abuses, avoid far war, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship. Conflicts with the natives continued throughout the West into the 1900s .

Civil War and Reconstruction era

irreconcilable sectional conflict regarding the enslavement of african Americans ultimately led to the American Civil War. [ 98 ] With the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, conventions in thirteen slave states declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America ( the “ South ” or the “ Confederacy ” ), while the union government ( the “ Union “ or the “ North ” ) maintained that secession was illegal. [ 99 ] In ordering to bring about this secession, military action was initiated by the secessionists, and the Union responded in kind. The ensuing war would become the deadliest military battle in american history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 620,000 soldiers adenine well as upwards of 50,000 civilians. [ 100 ] The Union initially fought to keep the nation united, but as casualties mounted after 1863 and Lincoln delivered his emancipation Proclamation, the independent purpose of the war became the abolition of slavery. When the Union ultimately won the war in April 1865, each of the states in the get the better of South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited bondage except as penal undertaking. Two other amendments were besides ratified, ensuring citizenship and vote rights for blacks. reconstruction began in earnest following the war. While President Lincoln attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the erstwhile Confederacy, his character assassination on April 14, 1865 drove a wedge between North and South again. Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of african Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877 when the Republicans agreed to cease protecting the rights of african Americans in the South in holy order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876. [ 101 ] Southern white Democrats, calling themselves “ Redeemers “, took operate of the South after the end of Reconstruction, beginning the nadir of american rush relations. From 1890 to 1910, the Redeemers established alleged Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising most blacks and some impoverished whites throughout the region. Blacks would face racial segregation countrywide, particularly in the South. [ 102 ] They besides occasionally know vigilante ferocity, including lynching. [ 103 ]

foster immigration, expansion, and industrialization

In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented inflow of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a excess of tug for the country ‘s industrialization and transformed its culture. [ 105 ] National infrastructure, including cable and transcontinental railroads, spurred economic growth and greater liquidation and development of the American frontier. The later inventions of the electric unaccented and the call would besides affect communication and urban life. Armed conflicts with native Americans escalated west of the Mississippi River from 1810 to at least 1890. [ 107 ] Most of these conflicts ended with the cession of native american territory and their restriction to amerind reservations. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the indian removal policy that forcibly resettled Indians. This far expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets. [ 108 ] Mainland expansion besides included the buy of Alaska from the russian empire in 1867. [ 109 ] In 1893, pro-american elements in Hawaii overthrew the hawaiian monarchy and formed the Republic of Hawaii, which the U.S. annexed in 1898. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, following the Spanish–American War. [ 110 ] american Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the end of the Second Samoan Civil War. [ 111 ] The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917. [ 112 ] rapid economic development during the recently 19th and early twentieth centuries fostered the rise of many big industrialists. Tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie led the nation ‘s advancement in the railroad track, petroleum, and steel industries. bank became a major part of the economy, with J. P. Morgan playing a noteworthy role. The american economy boomed, becoming the worldly concern ‘s largest. [ 113 ] These dramatic changes were accompanied by growing inequality and social agitation, which prompted the lift of organized british labour party along with democrat, socialistic, and anarchist movements. [ 114 ] This period finally ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms including women ‘s right to vote, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, and greater antimonopoly measures to ensure competition and care to proletarian conditions. [ 115 ] [ 116 ] [ 117 ]

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II

The United States remained neutral from the outbreak of World War I in 1914 until 1917 when it joined the war as an “ consociate world power ” alongside the Allies of World War I, helping to turn the tide against the central Powers. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson took a lead diplomatic function at the Paris Peace Conference and advocated powerfully for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. however, the Senate refused to approve this and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations. [ 118 ] In 1920, the women ‘s rights motion won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women ‘s right to vote. [ 119 ] The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the attack of the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal. [ 121 ] The Great Migration of millions of african Americans out of the American South began before World War I and extended through the 1960s ; [ 122 ] whereas the Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverish many farming communities and spurred a new curl of west migration. [ 123 ]
At first efficaciously impersonal during World War II, the United States began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease platform. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise assail on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers, and in the follow year, to intern about 120,000 [ 124 ] U.S. residents ( including American citizens ) of japanese lineage. [ 125 ] Although Japan attacked the United States first, the U.S. however pursued a “ Europe foremost “ defense policy. [ 126 ] The United States therefore left its huge asian colony, the Philippines, isolate and fighting a losing struggle against japanese invasion and occupation. During the war, the United States was one of the “ Four Powers “ [ 127 ] who met to plan the postwar populace, along with Britain, the Soviet Union, and China. Although the state lost around 400,000 military personnel, [ 130 ] it emerged relatively undamaged from the war with flush greater economic and military influence. [ 131 ] The United States played a moderate role in the Bretton Woods and Yalta conferences, which signed agreements on newfangled international fiscal institutions and Europe ‘s postwar reorganization. As an Allied victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. [ 132 ] The United States and Japan then contend each other in the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. [ 133 ] [ 134 ] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 under the authority of President Harry S. Truman ; the Japanese surrendered on September 2, ending World War II. [ 135 ] [ 136 ]

Cold War, civil rights bowel movement, political convulsion

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union competed for power, determine, and prestige during what became known as the Cold War, driven by an ideological separate between capitalism and communism. [ 137 ] They dominated the military affairs of Europe, with the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies on the other. The U.S. developed a policy of containment towards the expansion of communist influence. While the U.S. and Soviet Union engaged in proxy wars and developed potent nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided address military conflict. [ 138 ] The United States often opposed Third World movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored and occasionally pursued direct natural process for regimen switch against leftist governments, occasionally supporting authoritarian rightist regimes. [ 139 ] american troops contend communist Chinese and north korean forces in the Korean War of 1950–1953. [ 140 ] The Soviet Union ‘s 1957 plunge of the beginning artificial satellite and its 1961 launching of the first crewed spaceflight initiated a “ Space Race “ in which the United States became the first nation to land a man on the Moon in 1969. [ 140 ] The United States became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War ( 1955–1975 ), introducing battle forces in 1965. [ 141 ] At dwelling, the U.S. had experienced sustained economic expansion and a rapid increase of its population and middle class following World War II. After a soar in female british labour party participation, particularly in the 1970s, by 1985, the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed. [ 142 ] Construction of an Interstate Highway System transformed the nation ‘s infrastructure over the follow decades. Millions moved from farms and inside cities to large suburban house developments. [ 144 ] In 1959, the United States formally expanded beyond the conterminous United States when the territories of Alaska and Hawaii became, respectively, the 49th and 50th states admitted into the Union. [ 145 ] The growing civil rights bowel movement used nonviolent tactics to confront segregation and discrimination, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a big drawing card. [ 146 ] A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1968, sought to end racial discrimination. [ 147 ] [ 148 ] [ 149 ] meanwhile, a counterculture movement grew, which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam war, the Black Power movement, and the sexual revolution. [ 150 ] Four outstanding american politicians and social activists were assassinated during the 1960s : President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. [ 151 ] Public trust in the federal government was far rocked by President Richard Nixon ’ s Watergate scandal, which began in 1972 and ended in 1974 when Nixon became the alone U.S. president to resign from office .
The plunge of a “ War on Poverty “ expanded entitlements and benefit outgo, including the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that provide health coverage to the aged and poor, respectively, and the means-tested Food Stamp Program and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. [ 152 ] The 1970s and early on 1980s saw the onset of stagflation. The United States supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War ; in response, the nation faced an oil embargo from OPEC nations, sparking the 1973 petroleum crisis. After his election, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with free-market oriented reforms. Following the collapse of détente, he abandoned “ containment ” and initiated the more aggressive “ rollback “ strategy towards the Soviet Union. [ 153 ] [ 154 ] The belated 1980s brought a “ thaw “ in relations with the Soviet Union, and its collapse in 1991 finally ended the Cold War. [ 155 ] [ 156 ] [ 157 ] This brought about unipolarity [ 158 ] with the U.S. unchallenged as the world ‘s prevailing world power. [ 159 ]

1990s and early on 2000s

The first crisis after the Cold War was a 1990 conflict in the Middle East, where Iraq invaded and annex Kuwait, an ally of the United States. [ 160 ] Fearing the spread of instability, in August, President George H. W. Bush launched the Gulf War against Iraq ; the U.S. led the coalition pull of 34 nations, and the war ended in February 1991 with the successful extrusion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the restitution of its monarchy. [ 161 ] Originating within U.S. military defense networks, the Internet outspread to international academician platforms and then to the public in the 1990s, greatly affecting the global economy, society, and culture. Due to the dot-com boom, static monetary policy, and reduced social benefit spend, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history. [ 163 ] Beginning in 1994, the U.S. signed the north american Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ), causing trade among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to soar. [ 164 ]
On September 11, 2001, al-qaeda Islamic terrorist hijackers, under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, flew passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. Almost 3,000 people were killed and approximately 25,000 more were injured ; [ 165 ] hundreds more fail later from illnesses related to the attacks, and possibly thousands of foremost responders, cleaning workers, and survivors suffer from long-run effects. [ 166 ] In response, President George W. Bush launched the War on Terror, which included a about 20-year war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 and the 2003–2011 Iraq War. [ 167 ] [ 168 ] A 2011 military operation in Pakistan led to the kill of bin Laden. [ 169 ] politics policy designed to promote low-cost housing, [ 170 ] widespread failures in corporate and regulative government, [ 171 ] and historically low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve [ 172 ] led to the United States housing house of cards in 2006 ; this culminated with the fiscal crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession, the nation ‘s largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. [ 173 ] During the crisis, assets owned by Americans lost about a quarter of their value. [ 174 ] Barack Obama, the foremost multiracial [ 175 ] and african-american president, was elected in 2008 amid the crisis. [ 176 ] He subsequently passed american english Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 economic stimulation and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in an attack to mitigate its damaging effects and ensure there would not be a repeat of the crisis. republican Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president in 2016, a leave viewed as one of the biggest political upsets in american history. [ 177 ] He led the country through the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is estimated to have caused the deaths of over 900,000 Americans as of December 2021. [ 178 ] In November 2020, Democrat Joe Biden was elected as the 46th president of the united states ; [ 179 ] President Trump refused to concede the election, and on January 6, 2021, a group of his supporters stormed the United States Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to disrupt the presidential Electoral College vote count. [ 180 ]

geography

The 48 adjacent states and the District of Columbia occupy a combine area of 3,119,885 squarely miles ( 8,080,470 km2 ). Of this area, 2,959,064 squarely miles ( 7,663,940 km2 ) is adjacent land, composing 83.65 % of total U.S. country area. [ 181 ] [ 182 ] Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 feather miles ( 28,311 km2 ) in area. The five populated but unincorporated territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands together cover 9,185 square miles ( 23,789 km2 ). [ 183 ] Measured by only farming area, the United States is one-third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada. [ 184 ] The United States is the global ‘s third- or fourth-largest nation by sum area ( land and water ), ranking behind Russia and Canada and about adequate to China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted, and how the sum size of the United States is measured. [ hundred ] [ 187 ] [ 188 ]

topography

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaside gives manner promote inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. [ 189 ] The appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaside from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. [ 190 ] The Mississippi – Missouri River, the earth ‘s fourthly longest river arrangement, runs chiefly north–south through the center of the nation. The two-dimensional, fat prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a upland area in the southeast. [ 190 ] The Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains, extend union to south across the country, peaking around 14,000 feet ( 4,300 megabyte ) in Colorado. [ 191 ] Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. [ 192 ] The Sierra Nevada and Cascade batch ranges run near to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet ( 4,300 thousand ). The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the express of California, [ 193 ] and lone about 84 miles ( 135 kilometer ) apart. [ 194 ] At an elevation of 20,310 feet ( 6,190.5 thousand ), Alaska ‘s Denali is the highest acme in the state and in North America. [ 195 ] active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska ‘s Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent ‘s largest volcanic feature. [ 196 ]

climate

A map showing climate regions in the United States The United States, with its large size and geographic assortment, includes most climate types. To the east of the hundredth acme, the climate ranges from humid continental in the union to humid subtropical in the south. [ 197 ] The Great Plains west of the hundredth meridian are semi-arid. much of the western mountains have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, defect in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or diametric. Hawaii and the southern gratuity of Florida are tropical, a well as its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific. [ 198 ] States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world ‘s tornadoes occur in the area, chiefly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest and South. [ 199 ] The United States receives more high-impact extreme weather incidents than any other state in the universe. [ 200 ]

biodiversity

The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species : about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the adjacent United States and Alaska, and more than 1,800 species of blossoming plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. [ 202 ] The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 bird species, 311 reptile species, and 295 amphibious species, [ 203 ] adenine well as about 91,000 worm species. [ 204 ] There are 63 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas, which are managed by the National Park Service. [ 205 ] Altogether, the government owns about 28 % of the state ‘s land sphere, [ 206 ] largely in the western states. [ 207 ] Most of this estate is protected, though some is leased for oil and natural gas bore, mine, log, or cattle ranching, and about 0.86 % is used for military purposes. [ 208 ] [ 209 ]

environment

environmental issues in the U.S. include debates on oil and nuclear energy, dealing with air and water contamination, the economic costs of protecting wildlife, logging and deforestation, [ 210 ] [ 211 ] and climate variety. [ 212 ] [ 213 ] The most outstanding environmental agency is the environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ), created by presidential orderliness in 1970. [ 214 ] The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act. [ 215 ] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is intended to protect endanger and queer species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. [ 216 ] The country ranks as the universe ‘s second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, exceeded only by China. [ 217 ] The United States had been the world ‘s largest producer of greenhouse gases and ranks one-third, tied with Canada, for greenhouse accelerator emissions per head. [ 218 ] Transportation is the largest single reference of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. [ 217 ] The United States is ranked twenty-fourth among nations in the Environmental Performance Index. [ 219 ] The country joined the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016 and has many early environmental commitments. [ 220 ] The U.S. left the agreement in 2020, [ 221 ] and rejoined it in 2021. [ 222 ]

Government and politics

The United States is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district, five territories and several uninhabited island possessions. [ 223 ] It is the world ‘s oldest surviving confederation. It is a federal democracy and a representative majority rule “ in which majority principle is tempered by minority rights protected by law. ” [ 226 ] In 2021, the U.S. ranked 26th on the Democracy Index, and is described as a “ flaw democracy ”. [ 227 ] On Transparency International ‘s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index, its public sector position deteriorated from a score of 76 in 2015 to 69 in 2019. [ 228 ] In the American federalist system, citizens are normally discipline to three levels of government : union, state, and local. The local government ‘s duties are normally split between county and municipal governments. In about all cases, administrator and legislative officials are elected by a battalion right to vote of citizens by district. [ one ] The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the area ‘s sovereign legal document. [ 229 ] The Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the person states. Article One protects the right to the writ of habeas principal. The Constitution has been amended 27 times ; [ 230 ] the foremost ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central footing of Americans ‘ individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to discriminative review, and any law can be voided if the courts determine that it violates the Constitution. The principle of discriminative revue, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison ( 1803 ) [ 231 ] in a decision handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall. [ 232 ] The federal government comprises three branches :
The House of Representatives has 435 vote members, each representing a congressional district for a biennial term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. Each department of state then draws single-member districts to conform with the census allotment. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories each have one penis of Congress —these members are not allowed to vote. [ 237 ] The Senate has 100 members with each state of matter having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms ; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every two years. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories do not have senators. [ 237 ] The president serves a four-year condition and may be elected to the agency no more than doubly. The president of the united states is not elected by calculate vote, but by an collateral electoral college system in which the decide votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia. [ 238 ] The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has nine members, who serve for life sentence. [ 239 ]

political divisions

The 50 states are the principal political divisions in the area. Each department of state holds legal power over a define geographic district, where it shares sovereignty with the federal politics. They are subdivided into counties or county equivalents and far divided into municipalities. The District of Columbia is a federal zone that contains the capital of the United States, the city of Washington. [ 240 ] The states and the District of Columbia choose the president of the United States. Each country has presidential electors equal to the number of their representatives and senators in Congress ; the District of Columbia has three because of the 23rd Amendment. [ 241 ] Territories of the United States such as Puerto Rico do not have presidential electors, and thus people in those territories can not vote for the president of the united states. [ 237 ] The United States besides observes tribal reign of the american indian nations to a limited degree, as it does with the states ‘ reign. american english Indians are U.S. citizens and tribal lands are subject to federal legal power. Like the states, they have a capital deal of autonomy, but are besides not allowed to make war, lease in their own foreign relations, or mark and publish currency. [ 242 ] indian reservations are normally character of a single state of matter, though 12 reservations cross state boundaries. [ 243 ] indian nation jurisdiction over legal disputes is shared by tribes, states, and the federal government. citizenship is granted at give birth in all states, the District of Columbia, and all major U.S. territories except american english Samoa. [ joule ] [ 247 ] [ 244 ]

Parties and elections

The United States has operated under a bipartisan system for most of its history. [ 248 ] For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the cosmopolitan election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, entirely one third-party presidential candidate—former president of the united states Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912 —has won arsenic much as 20 % of the popular vote, though the self-financed autonomous campaign of Ross Perot took 18.9 % in 1992. [ 249 ] The president and vice president of the united states are elected by the Electoral College. [ 250 ] In american political culture, the center-right Republican Party is considered “ conservative “ and the center-left Democratic Party is considered “ broad “. [ 251 ] [ 252 ] The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as “ blue states “, are relatively broad. The “ red states “ of the South and parts of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative. Democrat Joe Biden, the winner of the 2020 presidential election, is serving as the 46th president of the United States ; his frailty president of the united states is Kamala Harris. Leadership in the Senate includes President pro tempore Patrick Leahy, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. [ 253 ] Leadership in the House includes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. [ 254 ] In the 117th United States Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate are narrowly controlled by the democratic Party. The Senate consists of 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats with two Independents who caucus with the Democrats, with Vice President Harris, a Democrat, able to break ties. The House consists of 221 Democrats and 209 Republicans. [ 255 ] Of state governors, there are 28 Republicans and 22 Democrats. Among the D.C. mayor and the five territorial governors, there are three Democrats, one Republican, and one New Progressive. [ 256 ]

alien relations

The United States has an established structure of foreign relations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and New York City is home to the United Nations Headquarters. It is besides a member of the G7, [ 257 ] G20, and OECD. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, about all nations host american diplomatic missions. however, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Taiwan do not have dinner dress diplomatic relations with the United States ( although the U.S. maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan and supplies it with military equipment ). [ 258 ] The United States has a “ particular Relationship “ with the United Kingdom [ 259 ] and hard ties with Canada, [ 260 ] Australia, [ 261 ] New Zealand, [ 262 ] the Philippines, [ 263 ] Japan, [ 264 ] South Korea, [ 265 ] Israel, [ 266 ] and respective European Union countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland. [ 267 ] It works closely with mate NATO members on military and security issues and with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and loose trade agreements such as the triangle United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement. Colombia is traditionally considered by the United States as its most loyal ally in South America. [ 268 ] [ 269 ] The U.S. exercises wax international defense authority and province for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau through the Compact of Free Association. [ 270 ]

government finance

U.S. Government outgo and tax income from 1792 to 2018 taxation in the United States is progressive, [ 271 ] [ 272 ] and is levied at the federal, state, and local anesthetic government levels. This includes taxes on income, payroll, property, sales, imports, estates, and gifts, vitamin a well as assorted fees. taxation in the United States is based on citizenship, not residency. [ 273 ] Both non-resident citizens and Green Card holders living overseas are taxed on their income regardless of where they live or where their income is earned. The United States is one of the few countries in the populace to do indeed. [ 274 ] In 2010, taxes collected by federal, state and municipal governments amounted to 24.8 % of GDP. [ 275 ] For 2018, the effective tax rate for the wealthiest 400 households was 23 %, compared to 24.2 % for the bottom half of U.S. households. [ 276 ] During fiscal year 2012, the federal politics spent $ 3.54 trillion on a budget or cash basis. major categories of fiscal year 2012 spend included : Medicare & Medicaid ( 23 % ), Social Security ( 22 % ), Defense Department ( 19 % ), non-defense discretionary ( 17 % ), other mandate ( 13 % ) and sake ( 6 % ). [ 277 ] In 2018, the United States had the largest external debt in the global. [ 278 ] As a share of GDP, it had the 34th largest politics debt in the populace in 2017 ; however, more holocene estimates vary. [ 279 ] The total national debt of the United States was $ 23.201 trillion, or 107 % of GDP, in the one-fourth stern of 2019. [ 280 ] By 2012, entire federal debt had surpassed 100 % of U.S. GDP. [ 281 ] The U.S. has a credit rating rat of AA+ from Standard & Poor ‘s, AAA from Fitch, and AAA from Moody ‘s. [ 282 ]

military

The president is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, which is headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard, besides a branch of the armed forces, is normally administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime. [ 283 ] In 2019, all six branches of the U.S. Armed Forces reported 1.4 million personnel on active duty. [ 284 ] The Reserves and National Guard brought the sum number of troops to 2.3 million. [ 284 ] The Department of Defense besides employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors. [ 285 ] military serve in the United States is voluntary, although conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System. [ 286 ] From 1940 until 1973, conscription was mandate flush during peacetime. [ 287 ] today, American forces can be quickly deployed by the Air Force ‘s large fleet of ecstasy aircraft, the Navy ‘s 11 active aircraft carriers, and Marine expeditionary units at sea with the Navy, and Army ‘s XVIII Airborne Corps and 75th Ranger Regiment deployed by Air Force transportation aircraft. The Air Force can strike targets across the earth through its fleet of strategic bombers, maintains the tune defense across the United States, and provides close atmosphere corroborate to Army and Marine Corps ground forces. [ 288 ] [ 289 ] [ 290 ] The Space Force operates the Global Positioning System, operates the Eastern and Western Ranges for all distance launches, and operates the United States ‘ Space Surveillance and Missile Warning networks. [ 291 ] [ 292 ] [ 293 ] The military operates about 800 bases and facilities overseas, [ 294 ] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 alien countries. [ 295 ] The United States spent $ 649 billion on its military in 2019, 36 % of global military spend. [ 296 ] At 4.7 % of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia. [ 296 ] Defense spend plays a major function in skill and engineering investment, with roughly half of U.S. federal research and development funded by the Department of Defense. [ 297 ] Defense ‘s share of the overall U.S. economy has broadly declined in late decades, from early Cold War peaks of 14.2 % of GDP in 1953 and 69.5 % of federal spending in 1954 to 4.7 % of GDP and 18.8 % of federal spending in 2011. [ 298 ] In full number of personnel, the United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the chinese People ‘s Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces. [ 299 ] The United States is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states, and one of nine countries to possess nuclear weapons. It has the populace ‘s second-largest stock of nuclear weapons, after that of Russia. The United States besides owns more than 40 % of the world ‘s 14,000 nuclear weapons. [ 300 ]

Law enforcement and crime

Law enforcement in the United States is chiefly the province of local police departments and sheriff ‘s offices, with state police providing wide services. federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties, including protecting civil rights, home security and enforcing U.S. federal courts ‘ rulings and federal laws. [ 301 ] According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and Charles H. Ramsey, former Philadelphia, Pennsylvania patrol head, appearing on Meet the Press, there are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies in the United States. That number includes city patrol departments, county sheriff ‘s offices, submit police/highway patrol and federal law enforcement agencies. [ 302 ] State courts conduct most criminal trials while federal courts handle certain indicate crimes equally well as certain appeals from the submit criminal courts. A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed that United States homicide rates “ were 7.0 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher. ” [ 303 ] In 2016, the U.S. murder rate was 5.4 per 100,000. [ 304 ] full captivity in the United States by year ( 1920–2014 ) The United States has the highest document captivity pace and largest prison population in the world. [ 305 ] The Department of Justice said that the imprisonment rate for all prisoners sentenced to more than a class in state or federal facilities in 2019 stand at 419 per 100,000 residents which was at its lowest steer since 1995 and that the total prison population for the lapp year stood at 1,430,800 which represented an 11 % decrease in the population size from a decade earlier. [ 306 ] other sources such as the Prison Policy Initiative had put the aggregate issue of prisoners in 2020 at 2.3 million. [ 307 ] According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the majority of inmates held in federal prisons are convicted of drug offenses. [ 308 ] Efforts to reduce the prison population include politics policies and grassroots initiatives that promote decarceration — recent examples include laws at the federal and state level such as the Fair Sentencing Act, First Step Act, Maryland ‘s Justice Reinvestment Act and California ‘s Money Bail Reform Act. About 9 % of prisoners are held in privatize prisons, [ 307 ] a commit begin in the 1980s and a subject of contention. [ 309 ] On January 26, 2021, the Biden Administration signed an executive club that halted the reclamation of federal government contracts with individual prisons, [ 310 ] [ 311 ] but it did not apply to detention centers that held undocumented immigrants. [ 312 ] Although most nations have abolished capital punishment, [ 313 ] it is sanctioned in the United States for certain union and military crimes, and at the state grade in 28 states, though three states have moratoriums on carrying out the punishment imposed by their governors. [ 314 ] [ 315 ] [ 316 ] In 2019, the country had the sixth-highest count of know executions in the populace, following China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt. [ 317 ] No executions took space from 1967 to 1977, owing in part to the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court predominate in Furman v. Georgia that struck down the previous rehearse. Since the decision, however, there have been more than 1,500 executions, although 186 of those convicted and sentenced since Furman have been exonerated, as tabulated by the Death Penalty Information Center. [ 318 ] In late years, the number of executions a well as the presence of capital punishment statutes in the states has trended down nationally, with several states recently abolishing the penalty. [ 316 ] [ 319 ]

economy

A proportional representation of United States exports, 2019 According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $ 22.7 trillion constitutes 24 % of the crude world merchandise at commercialize exchange rates and over 16 % of the gross populace product at purchasing power parity. [ 320 ] [ 15 ] On February 2, 2022, the United States had a national debt of $ 30 trillion. [ 321 ] The United States is the largest importer of goods and second-largest exporter, [ 322 ] though exports per head are relatively low. In 2010, the total U.S. trade deficit was $ 635 billion. [ 323 ] Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union are its peak trade partners. [ 324 ] [ 325 ] From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real number compounded annual GDP emergence was 3.3 %, compared to a 2.3 % burden average for the pillow of the G7. [ 326 ] The country ranks fifth in the world in nominal GDP per caput [ 327 ] and one-seventh in GDP per caput at PPP. [ 15 ] The U.S. dollar is the world ‘s primary reserve currentness. [ 328 ] In 2009, the individual sector was estimated to constitute 86.4 % of the economy. [ 329 ] While its economy has reached a post-industrial level of exploitation, the United States remains an industrial power. [ 330 ] In August 2010, the american labor force consisted of 154.1 million people ( 50 % ). With 21.2 million people, the public sector is the leading field of employment. The largest individual employment sector is health caution and social aid, with 16.4 million people. It has a smaller wellbeing state and redistributes less income through government action than most other high-income countries. [ 331 ] The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation [ 332 ] and is one of a few countries in the global without paid family leave as a legal justly. [ 333 ] Some 74 % of full-time american english workers get paid pale impart, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, although only 24 % of part-time workers get the lapp benefits. [ 334 ]

skill and engineering

The United States has been a leader in technical invention since the late nineteenth hundred and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Methods for producing interchangeable parts were developed by the U.S. War Department by the Federal Armories during the first half of the nineteenth century. This engineering, along with the establishment of a car creature diligence, enabled the U.S. to have large-scale fabrication of sewing machines, bicycles, and other items in the recently nineteenth century and became known as the american system of manufacture. factory electrification in the early twentieth century and initiation of the fabrication line and other labor-saving techniques created the arrangement of mass production. [ 335 ] In the twenty-first century, approximately two-thirds of research and development fund comes from the private sector. [ 336 ] The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact agent. [ 337 ] [ 338 ] In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the beginning U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison ‘s research testing ground, one of the first of its kind, developed the record player, the first base durable light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. [ 339 ] The latter led to emergence of the cosmopolitan entertainment diligence. In the early twentieth century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford popularized the forum line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered trajectory. [ 340 ] The rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1920s and 30s led many european scientists, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and John von Neumann, to immigrate to the United States. [ 341 ] During World War II, the Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age, while the Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and aeronautics. [ 342 ] [ 343 ] The invention of the transistor in the 1950s, a key active component in much all modern electronics, led to many technical developments and a meaning expansion of the U.S. engineering industry. [ 344 ] This, in become, led to the institution of many new technology companies and regions around the country such as Silicon Valley in California. Advancements by American microprocessor companies such as Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) and Intel, along with both computer software and hardware companies such as Adobe Systems, Apple Inc., IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems, created and popularized the personal computer. The ARPANET was developed in the 1960s to meet Defense Department requirements, and became the foremost of a series of networks which evolved into the Internet. [ 345 ] The United States ranked third in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, after Switzerland and Sweden. [ 346 ]

Income, wealth, and poverty

accounting for 4.24 % of the global population, Americans jointly posse 29.4 % of the world ‘s sum wealth, the largest share of any country. [ 347 ] [ 348 ] The U.S. besides ranks first gear in the number of billionaires and millionaires in the universe, with 724 billionaires and 10.5 million millionaires as of 2020. [ 349 ] [ 350 ] Prior to the 2019–2021 global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Credit Suisse listed some 18.6 million U.S. citizens as having a net worth in surfeit of $ 1 million. [ 351 ] In 2020, the Food Security Index ranked the United States 11th in food security, giving the area a score of 77.5/100. [ 352 ] Americans on average have more than twice as much life space per dwelling and per person as EU residents. [ 353 ] For 2019, the United Nations Development Programme ranked the United States 17th among 189 countries in its Human Development Index ( HDI ) and 28th among 151 countries in its inequality-adjusted HDI ( IHDI ). [ 354 ]
Wealth, like income and taxes, is highly concentrated ; the richest 10 % of the pornographic population posse 72 % of the area ‘s family wealth, while the bed half possess only 2 %. [ 356 ] According to the Federal Reserve, the lead 1 % controlled 38.6 % of the nation ‘s wealth in 2016. [ 357 ] According to a 2018 study by the OECD, the United States has a larger share of low-income workers than about any early develop nation, largely because of a weak collective dicker organization and miss of government support for at-risk workers. [ 358 ] After years of stagnation, median family income reached a record high in 2016 following two back-to-back years of criminal record emergence. Income inequality remains at record highs however, with the top fifth of earners taking home more than half of all overall income. [ 359 ] The rise in the share of total annual income received by the top one percentage, which has more than doubled from nine percentage in 1976 to 20 percentage in 2011, has importantly affected income inequality, [ 360 ] leaving the United States with one of the widest income distributions among OECD members. [ 361 ] The top one percentage of income-earners accounted for 52 percentage of the income gains from 2009 to 2015, where income is defined as commercialize income excluding government transfers. [ 362 ] The extent and relevance of income inequality is a matter of argue. [ 364 ] [ 365 ] There were about 567,715 shelter and unsheltered dispossessed persons in the U.S. in January 2019, with about two-thirds staying in an hand brake shelter or transitional housing plan [ 366 ] Attempts to combat homelessness include the section 8 house coupon program and implementation of the Housing First strategy across all levels of politics. [ 367 ] [ 368 ] [ 369 ] [ 370 ] In 2011, 16.7 million children lived in food-insecure households, about 35 % more than 2007 levels, though only 845,000 U.S. children ( 1.1 % ) visualize reduced food intake or disrupted corrode patterns at some period during the year, and most cases were not chronic. [ 371 ] As of June 2018, 40 million people, roughly 12.7 % of the U.S. population, were living in poverty, including 13.3 million children. Of those impoverished, 18.5 million live in deep poverty ( syndicate income below one-half of the poverty threshold ) and over five million populate “ in ‘ Third World ‘ conditions ”. [ 372 ] In 2017, the U.S. states or territories with the lowest and highest poverty rates were New Hampshire ( 7.6 % ) and american Samoa ( 65 % ), respectively. [ 373 ] [ 374 ] [ 375 ] The economic impact and mass unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic raised fears of a mass eviction crisis, [ 376 ] with an analysis by the Aspen Institute indicating that between 30 and 40 million people were at risk for eviction by the end of 2020. [ 377 ] While the CDC and the Biden administration issued a union eviction moratorium, the Supreme Court invalidated the orderliness, ruling they lacked the assurance under federal police to do then. [ 378 ]

exile

personal fare is dominated by automobiles, which are operated on a network of 4 million miles ( 6.4 million kilometers ) of public roads. [ 380 ] The United States has the populace ‘s second-largest automobile market, [ 381 ] and has the highest vehicle ownership per caput in the worldly concern ; in 2017, there were 255 million non-two-wheel motor vehicles, or about nine vehicles per ten people. [ 382 ] Civil air travel is privately-owned and was deregulated in 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned. [ 383 ] The four largest airlines in the world by passengers carried ( American, Delta, Southwest, and United ) are U.S.-based. [ 384 ] Of the universe ‘s 50 busiest passenger airports, 16 are in the United States. [ 385 ] The United States has the longest vilify network in the world, closely all standard gauge. The network handles largely freight, with intercity passenger service provided by the government-subsidized Amtrak to all but four states. [ 386 ]

Energy

As of 2019, the United States receives approximately 80 % of its energy from dodo fuels. [ 387 ] In 2019, the largest source of the country ‘s energy came from petroleum ( 36.6 % ), followed by natural boast ( 32 % ), coal ( 11.4 % ), renewable sources ( 11.4 % ) and nuclear might ( 8.4 % ). [ 387 ] Americans constitute less than 5 % of the populace ‘s population, but consume 17 % of the worldly concern ‘s energy. [ 388 ] They account for about 25 % of the world ‘s petroleum consumption, while producing only 6 % of the universe ‘s annual petroleum provide. [ 389 ]

Demographics

population

The U.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents as of April 1, 2020. [ 391 ] This figure, like most official data for the United States as a whole, excludes the five unincorporated territories ( Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands ) and minor island possessions. According to the Bureau ‘s U.S. Population Clock, on January 28, 2021, the U.S. population had a net income advance of one person every 100 seconds, or about 864 people per day. [ 392 ] The United States is the third gear most populous nation in the world, after China and India. In 2020, the medial historic period of the United States population was 38.5 years. [ 393 ]

nationality, race and ethnicity

In 2018, there were about 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for 28 % of the overall U.S. population. [ 394 ] The United States has a diverse population ; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members. [ 395 ] White Americans of european ancestry, largely german, Irish, English, Italian, Polish and French, [ 396 ] including White Hispanic and Latino Americans from Latin America, form the largest racial group, at 73.1 % of the population. african Americans constitute the nation ‘s largest racial minority and third-largest lineage group, and are around 13 % of the total U.S. population. [ 395 ] asian Americans are the area ‘s second-largest racial minority ( the three largest asian ethnic groups are chinese, Filipino, and indian ). [ 395 ] In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45 % ( 20.7 million ) were naturalized citizens, 27 % ( 12.3 million ) were true permanent wave residents, 6 % ( 2.2 million ) were temp lawful residents, and 23 % ( 10.5 million ) were unauthorized immigrants. [ 397 ] Among living immigrants to the U.S., the top five countries of give birth are Mexico, China, India, the Philippines and El Salvador. Until 2017, the United States led the earth in refugee resettlement for decades, admitting more refugees than the rest of the world combined. [ 398 ]

Community and family

about 82 % of Americans live in urban areas, including suburbs ; [ 188 ] about half of those occupy in cities with populations over 50,000. [ 399 ] In 2008, 273 corporate municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities had over two million ( namely New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston ). [ 400 ] Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing quickly, peculiarly in the South and West. [ 401 ] As of 2018, 52 % of Americans old age 15 and over were married, 6 % were widowed, 10 % were divorced, and 32 % had never been married. [ 402 ] As of 2020, the total birthrate rate stood at 1.64 children per womanhood. [ 403 ] In 2013, the average historic period at first birth was 26, and 41 % of births were to unmarried women. [ 404 ] In 2019, the U.S. had the global ‘s highest rate ( 23 % ) of children living in single-parent households ; the rates in Canada and Mexico were 15 % and 7 %, respectively. [ 405 ]

linguistic process

English ( specifically, American English ) is the de facto national linguistic process of the United States. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements —standardize english, and most states have declared English as the official terminology. [ 406 ] Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or autochthonal languages in summation to English, including Hawaii ( Hawaiian ), [ 407 ] Alaska ( twenty Native languages ), [ k ] [ 408 ] South Dakota ( Sioux ), [ 409 ] american english Samoa ( Samoan ), Puerto Rico ( spanish ), Guam ( Chamorro ), and the Northern Mariana Islands ( carolinian and Chamorro ). In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English. [ 410 ] According to the American Community Survey, in 2010 some 229 million people ( out of the sum U.S. population of 308 million ) spoke only English at home. More than 37 million spoke Spanish at home, making it the second most normally use linguistic process in the United States. other languages spoken at home by one million people or more include Chinese ( 2.8 million ), Tagalog ( 1.6 million ), Vietnamese ( 1.4 million ), French ( 1.3 million ), Korean ( 1.1 million ), and German ( 1 million ). [ 411 ] The most widely teach extraneous languages in the United States, in terms of registration numbers from kindergarten through university undergraduate education, are spanish ( around 7.2 million students ), French ( 1.5 million ), and German ( 500,000 ). early normally teach languages include Latin, japanese, american Sign Language, Italian, and Chinese. [ 412 ] [ 413 ] About 18 % of all Americans claim to speak both English and at least one other linguistic process. [ 414 ]

religion

[415] Most big religion by state of matter according to a 2014 Pew Research analyze. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the complimentary exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its institution. The United States has the universe ‘s largest christian population. [ 416 ] In a 2014 surveil, 70.6 % of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians ; [ 417 ] Protestants in general accounted for 46.5 %, while Catholics, at 20.8 %, formed the largest individual christian appellation. [ 418 ] The latter-day Saints ( LDS, informally known as the Mormons ) and the Jehovah ‘s Witnesses are two U.S.-founded denominations that make up around 2 % and 1 %, respectively, of all american Christians. [ 419 ] In 2014, 5.9 % of the U.S. adult population claimed a non-Christian religion. [ 420 ] These include Judaism ( 1.9 % ), Islam ( 1.1 % ), Hinduism ( 0.7 % ), and Buddhism ( 0.7 % ). [ 420 ] The review besides reported that 22.8 % of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist or merely having no religion —up from 8.2 % in 1990. [ 418 ] [ 421 ] [ 422 ] Membership in a family of idolize fell from 70 % in 1999 to 47 % in 2020, with much of the decay related to the number of Americans expressing no religious preference. however, membership besides fell among those who identified with a specific religious group. [ 423 ] [ 424 ] protestantism is the largest christian religious group in the United States, accounting for about half of all Americans. Baptists jointly form the largest branch of Protestantism at 15.4 %, [ 425 ] and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest person Protestant denomination at 5.3 % of the U.S. population. [ 425 ] Apart from Baptists, other Protestant categories include nondenominational Protestants, Methodists, Pentecostals, unspecified Protestants, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians / Anglicans, Quakers, Adventists, Holiness, Christian fundamentalists, Anabaptists, Pietists, and multiple others. [ 425 ] The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the Southern United States in which socially button-down evangelical protestantism is a significant separate of the culture and christian church service attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation ‘s average. By contrast, religion plays the least significant character in New England and in the Western United States. [ 426 ]

Health

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) reported that the United States had an average life anticipation at give birth of 77.3 years in 2020 ( 74.5 years for men and 80.2 years for women ), down 1.5 years from 2019. According to probationary figures, this was the lowest average U.S. life anticipation recorded by the CDC since 2003, the first overall decline since 2018, and “ the largest annual descent since World War II. ” Some three-quarters of the decrease was attributed to deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of the rest due to accidents and drug overdoses. [ 427 ] The state besides has one of the highest suicide rates among affluent countries. [ 428 ] [ 429 ] Starting in 1998, the average biography anticipation in the U.S. fell behind that of other affluent industrialized countries, and Americans ‘ “ health disadvantage ” col has been increasing ever since. [ 430 ] From 1999 to 2019, more than 770,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. [ 431 ] Life anticipation was highest among Asians and Hispanics and lowest among blacks. [ 432 ] [ 433 ]
Increasing fleshiness in the United States and improvements in health and longevity outside the U.S. contributed to lowering the country ‘s rank in life anticipation from 11th in the populace in 1987 to 42nd in 2007. In 2017, the United States had the lowest life anticipation among Japan, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and seven nations in western Europe. [ 434 ] [ 435 ] Obesity rates have more than doubled in the final 30 years and are the highest in the industrialize world. [ 436 ] [ 437 ] approximately one-third of the adult population is corpulent and an extra third base is corpulence. [ 438 ] Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by health care professionals. [ 439 ] In 2010, coronary artery disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic clogging pneumonic diseases, and traffic collisions caused the most years of life lost in the U.S. Low back trouble, depression, musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety caused the most years lost to disability. The most harmful risk factors were hapless diet, tobacco fume, fleshiness, eminent lineage imperativeness, high blood carbohydrate, physical inaction, and alcohol manipulation. Alzheimer ‘s disease, means manipulation disorders, kidney disease, cancer, and falls caused the most extra years of life sentence lost over their age-adjusted 1990 per-capita rates. [ 440 ] U.S. adolescent pregnancy and abortion rates are substantially higher than in other western nations, particularly among blacks and Hispanics. [ 441 ] Government-funded health care coverage for the poor ( Medicaid, established in 1965 ) and for those long time 65 and older ( Medicare, begun in 1966 ) is available to Americans who meet the programs ‘ income or old age qualifications. The United States is the only develop state without a system of universal health wish and the reasons for this and extent to which it is a problem is a matter of debate. similarly, a significant proportion of the population does not carry health insurance and the reasons for and extent to which it is a problem is besides a count of argue. In 2010, former President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA, [ fifty ] which ushered in the most sweeping jell of reforms to America ‘s health caution system in about five decades since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. [ 442 ] The CDC said that the police roughly halved the uninsured partake of the population, [ 443 ] and multiple studies have concluded that ACA had reduced the mortality of enrollees. [ 444 ] [ 445 ] [ 446 ] Nonetheless, its bequest remains controversial. The U.S. health care system far outspends that of any early nation, measured both in per caput spending and as a percentage of GDP but attains worse health care outcomes when compared to peer nations. [ 447 ] however, the U.S. is a global leader in medical invention. [ 448 ]

education

American public education is operated by state and local governments and regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of five or six ( beginning with kindergarten or first grade ) until they turn 18 ( by and large bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school ) ; some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17. [ 449 ] approximately 12 % of children are enrolled in insular or nonsectarian private schools. 3.4 % of children are homeschooled as of 2012. [ 450 ] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the global, [ 451 ] spending an average of $ 12,794 per year on public elementary and junior-grade school students in the 2016–2017 school year. [ 452 ] Some 80 % of U.S. college students attend public universities. [ 453 ] Of Americans 25 and older, 84.6 % graduated from high school, 52.6 % attended some college, 27.2 % earned a bachelor ‘s degree, and 9.6 % earned graduate degrees. [ 454 ] The basic literacy pace is approximately 99 %. [ 188 ] [ 455 ] The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world. [ 456 ] The United States has many private and public institutions of higher education. The majority of the universe ‘s top universities, as listed by respective ranking organizations, are in the U.S. [ 457 ] [ 458 ] [ 459 ] There are besides local community colleges with by and large more open entree policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tutelage. In 2018, U21, a network of research-intensive universities, ranked the United States first gear in the world for breadth and quality of higher department of education, and 15th when GDP was a factor. [ 460 ] As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. trails some other OECD ( Organization for Cooperation and Development ) nations but spends more per scholar than the OECD average, and more than all nations in compound public and private spend. [ 461 ] [ 462 ] Despite some scholar loanword forgiveness programs in place, [ 463 ] scholar loan debt has increased by 102 % in the last ten, [ 464 ] and exceeded 1.7 trillion dollars as of 2021. [ 465 ] [ 466 ] [ 467 ]

culture and club

The United States is home to many cultures and a wide variety show of cultural groups, traditions, and values. [ 469 ] [ 470 ] aside from the native American, Native Hawaiian, and Native Alaskan populations, about all Americans or their ancestors immigrated or were imported as slaves within the past five centuries. [ 471 ] Mainstream american acculturation is a western acculturation largely derived from the traditions of european immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa. [ 469 ] [ 472 ] More holocene immigration from Asia and specially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as a homogenizing melt pot, with immigrants contributing to, and much assimilating into, mainstream american english culture. [ 469 ] Americans have traditionally been characterized by a strong work ethic, competitiveness, and individualism, [ 473 ] arsenic good as a unite impression in an “ American religious doctrine “ emphasizing shore leave, equality, secret property, majority rule, rule of law, and a predilection for limited government. [ 474 ] Americans are highly charitable by global standards : according to a 2006 british learn, Americans gave 1.67 % of GDP to charity, more than any early nation studied. [ 475 ] [ 476 ] [ 477 ] The american Dream, or the percept that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key function in attracting immigrants ; [ 478 ] whether this sensing is accurate has been a subject of debate. [ 479 ] [ 480 ] [ 481 ] While mainstream acculturation holds that the United States is a classless society, [ 482 ] scholars identify significant differences between the area ‘s social classes, affecting socialization, lyric, and values. [ 483 ] Americans greatly value socioeconomic accomplishment, but being average or average is besides broadly seen as a positive attribute. [ 484 ]

literature, doctrine, and ocular artwork

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe, contributing to western culture. Writers such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive american literary voice by the center of the nineteenth hundred. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the hundred ‘s second one-half ; Emily Dickinson, about unknown during her life, is recognized as an necessity american poet. [ 485 ] A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville ‘s Moby-Dick ( 1851 ), Twain ‘s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1885 ), F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘s The Great Gatsby ( 1925 ) and Harper Lee ‘s To Kill a Mockingbird ( 1960 ) —may be dubbed the “ great american Novel. ” [ 486 ] Thirteen U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck are often named among the most influential writers of the twentieth century. [ 487 ] Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fabrication developed in the United States. The Beat Generation writers opened up fresh literary approaches, as consume postmodernist authors such as John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo. [ 488 ] The transcendentalists, led by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, established the first major american philosophic campaign. After the Civil War, Charles Sanders Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of realism. In the twentieth hundred, the work of W. V. O. Quine and Richard Rorty, and later Noam Chomsky, brought analytic doctrine to the fore of american english philosophical academia. John Rawls and Robert Nozick besides led a revival of political doctrine. In the ocular arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century bowel movement in the tradition of european naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of european modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. artwork scenery. [ 489 ] Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with modern, individualistic styles. Major aesthetic movements such as the outline expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernity and then postmodernism has brought fame to american architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry. [ 490 ] Americans have long been important in the advanced artistic average of photography, with major photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams. [ 491 ]

food

early settlers were introduced by native Americans to such autochthonal, non-European foods as turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup. They and later immigrants combined these with foods they had known, such as wheat flour, [ 493 ] beef, and milk to create a distinctive american cuisine. [ 494 ] [ 495 ] Homegrown foods are part of a shared national menu on one of America ‘s most democratic holidays, Thanksgiving, when many Americans make or purchase traditional foods to celebrate the occasion. [ 496 ] Common traditional american english Thanksgiving foods include turkey, boom, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, fresh potatoes, and pumpkin pie. The american fast food diligence, the populace ‘s largest, [ 497 ] pioneered the drive-through format in the 1940s. [ 498 ] characteristic american english dishes such as apple proto-indo european, fried wimp, doughnuts, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice rink skim, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of respective immigrants. [ 499 ] [ 500 ] mexican dishes such as burritos and taco, and pizza and pasta dishes freely adapted from italian sources, are wide consumed. [ 501 ] Salt and black pepper are ubiquitously paired at the dining tables of U.S. restaurants and households alike, as seasonings to flavor american english food. [ 502 ] Americans drink three times deoxyadenosine monophosphate a lot chocolate as tea. [ 503 ] selling by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk standard breakfast beverages. [ 504 ] [ 505 ]

music

Among America ‘s earliest composers was a man named William Billings who, born in Boston, composed patriotic hymn in the 1770s ; [ 506 ] Billings was a character of the First New England School, who dominated american english music during its earliest stages. Anthony Heinrich was the most big composer before the Civil War. From the mid- to late 1800s, John Philip Sousa of the late Romantic earned run average composed numerous military songs— peculiarly marches —and is regarded as one of America ‘s greatest composers. [ 507 ] By the belated nineteenth century, the Second New England School ( sometimes referred to specifically as the “ Boston Six ” ) became outstanding representatives of the authoritative custom, of whom John Knowles Paine was the leave visualize. Although short known at the clock time, Charles Ives ‘ work of the 1910s established him as the inaugural major U.S. composer in the classical custom, while experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John Cage created a classifiable american approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland and George Gershwin —eventually furthered by Leonard Bernstein —developed a new synthesis of popular and classical music .
The rhythmical and lyrical styles of african-american music have profoundly influenced american music at large, distinguishing it from european and african traditions. Elements from family idioms such as the blues and what is known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into democratic genres with ball-shaped audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the twentieth century. Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. [ 508 ] Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the mid-1950s pioneers of rock and roll. Rock bands such as Metallica, the Eagles, and Aerosmith are among the highest gross in global sales. [ 509 ] [ 510 ] [ 511 ] In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the tribe revival to become one of America ‘s most celebrate songwriters, and James Brown led the development of funk. More late american english creations include hip hop, salsa, techno, and house music. Mid-20th-century american english crop up stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, [ 512 ] and Elvis Presley became ball-shaped celebrities, [ 508 ] as own artists of the recently twentieth hundred such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna and Whitney Houston. [ 513 ] [ 514 ] With the growth of twenty-first century digital technologies and the resulting decline in radio, [ 515 ] heed, producing, and share of music in the U.S. has become more democratize, growing the independent ( “ indie ” ) music scene along with opportunities for independent musicians, and diversifying the genres available for listening. [ 516 ] The rise of genres such as indie rock, indie crop up, and EDM is a by-product of these shifts in how Americans create, share, and listen to music .

cinema

Hollywood, a northerly zone of Los Angeles, California, is one of the leaders in motion photograph production. [ 517 ] The earth ‘s first commercial apparent motion movie exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, using Thomas Edison ‘s Kinetoscope. [ 518 ] Since the early twentieth century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, although in the twenty-first century an increasing number of films are not made there, and film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization. [ 519 ] Director D. W. Griffith, an american film maker during the silent film period, was cardinal to the development of film grammar, and producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a drawing card in both inspire film and movie trade. [ 520 ] Directors such as John Ford redefined the visualize of the American Old West, and, like others such as John Huston, broadened the possibilities of cinema with location shooting. The diligence enjoyed its golden years, in what is normally referred to as the “ Golden Age of Hollywood “, from the early fathom period until the early 1960s, [ 521 ] with shield actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures. [ 522 ] [ 523 ] In the 1970s, “ New Hollywood “ or the “ Hollywood Renaissance ” [ 524 ] was defined by grittier films influenced by french and italian realist pictures of the postwar period. [ 525 ] In more late times, directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have gained renown for their blockbuster films, frequently characterized by high production costs and earnings. celebrated films topping the american english Film Institute ‘s AFI 100 tilt include Orson Welles ‘s Citizen Kane ( 1941 ), which is frequently cited as the greatest film of all prison term, [ 526 ] [ 527 ] Casablanca ( 1942 ), The Godfather ( 1972 ), Gone with the Wind ( 1939 ), Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962 ), The Wizard of Oz ( 1939 ), The Graduate ( 1967 ), On the Waterfront ( 1954 ), Schindler’s List ( 1993 ), Singin’ in the Rain ( 1952 ), It’s a Wonderful Life ( 1946 ) and Sunset Boulevard ( 1950 ). [ 528 ] The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, have been held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929, [ 529 ] and the Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944. [ 530 ]

field

theater in the United States is contribution of the old european theatrical custom and has been heavily influenced by the british field. [ 531 ] The cardinal hub of the american dramaturgy scene has been Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway. [ 532 ] Many movie and television stars got their big break working in New York productions. [ 533 ] Outside New York City, many cities have professional regional or resident field companies that produce their own seasons. A prime objective of some works produced regionally is their ultimate move to New York. U.S. field besides has an active community field culture, which relies chiefly on local volunteers who may not be actively pursuing a theatrical performance career. [ 534 ] Although earlier styles of theater such as minstrel shows and vaudeville acts have disappeared from the landscape, [ 535 ] field silent remains a democratic contemporary american english art shape. Broadway productions still entertain millions of theatergoers evening as productions have become more elaborate and expensive. [ 536 ] At the lapp time, theater has served as a platform for formula [ 537 ] and as a venue for identity exploration for underrepresented, minority communities. These communities have formed their own companies and created their own genres of works, including the plant of August Wilson, Tony Kushner, David Henry Hwang, John Guare, and Wendy Wasserstein. [ 538 ] Smaller urban theaters have remained a beginning of initiation, and regional theaters retain an crucial identify in theater life. [ 539 ] Drama classes are now taught in U.S. high schools and colleges, and they were rarely offered in former eras. [ 540 ]

Sports

American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States ; [ 542 ] the National Football League ( NFL ) has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world, and the Super Bowl, the league ‘s annual backing game, is watched by tens of millions globally. [ 543 ] College football games besides receive millions of viewers per television receiver broadcast, in particular the College Football Playoff, which averages 25 million viewers. [ 544 ] Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. national sport since the former nineteenth century, with Major League Baseball ( MLB ) being the top league. basketball and ice field hockey are the state ‘s adjacent two leave master team sports, with the exceed leagues being the National Basketball Association ( NBA ) [ 545 ] and the National Hockey League ( NHL ). College basketball besides attracts large audiences ; the Division I championship tournament, besides known as March Madness, is one of the most watch sporting events. [ 546 ] In international contest, the men ‘s national basketball team has been a dominant allele military unit, having earned a decoration at all 19 Summer Olympics they have entered, including 16 gold medals. In soccer, a mutant that has grown in the U.S. since the 1990s, the country hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the men ‘s national team qualified for 11 World Cups and the women ‘s team has won the FIFA Women ‘s World Cup four times, the most of any state. Major League Soccer is the sport ‘s acme soccer league in the United States ( featuring 23 american and three canadian teams ). [ 547 ] The United States will co-host the men ’ second 2026 FIFA World Cup with Mexico and Canada. [ 548 ] Eight Olympic Games have taken invest in the United States. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe. [ 549 ] As of 2021, the United States has won 2,629 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, and 330 at the Winter Olympic Games, the second most behind Norway. [ 550 ] While most major U.S. sports such as baseball and American football have evolved out of european practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboard, and snowboarding are american inventions, some of which have become popular cosmopolitan. [ 551 ] Lacrosse and surfing get up from native american and native hawaiian activities that predate western contact. [ 552 ] The most-watched individual sports are golf and car race, peculiarly NASCAR and IndyCar. [ 553 ] [ 554 ] The market for professional sports in the United States is roughly $ 69 billion, approximately 50 % larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined. [ 555 ]

Mass media

The four major television broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company ( NBC ), Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS ), American Broadcasting Company ( ABC ), and Fox Broadcasting Company ( FOX ). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. cable television television receiver offers hundreds of channels catering to a assortment of niches. [ 556 ] Americans listen to radio programming, besides largely commercial, on average merely over two and a one-half hours a sidereal day. [ 557 ] The U.S. commercial radio broadcasting includes FM stations and AM stations. In addition, there are besides numerous public radio receiver stations. Most of these are run by universities and populace authorities for educational purposes and are financed by public or individual funds, subscriptions, and corporate cover. much public radio broadcast is supplied by NPR. [ 558 ] NPR was incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 ; its television counterpart, PBS, was created by the like legislation. As of September 30, 2014, there are 15,433 accredited full-power radio stations in the U.S. according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ). [ 559 ] long-familiar american newspapers include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today. [ 560 ] Although the cost of print has increased over the years, the price of newspapers has broadly remained low, forcing newspapers to rely more on advertise gross and on articles provided by a major wire service, such as the Associated Press or Reuters, for their national and global coverage. [ 561 ] With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers ; by small chains that own a handful of papers ; or in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. More than 800 publications are produced in spanish, the second most normally secondhand language in the United States behind English. [ 562 ] [ 563 ]
major cities frequently have “ option weeklies ” to complement the mainstream daily papers, such as New York City ‘s The Village Voice or Los Angeles ‘ LA Weekly. major cities may besides support a local clientele diary, trade papers relating to local industries, and papers for local heathen and social groups. The five most democratic websites used in the U.S. are Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Yahoo. [ 564 ]

See besides

Notes

References

further take

Internet sources

Government

• Official U.S. Government Web Portal Gateway to government sites
• House Official site of the United States House of Representatives
• Senate Official site of the United States Senate
• White House Official site of the president of the United States
• Supreme Court Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States

History

• Historical Documents Collected by the National Center for Public Policy Research
• U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
• USA Collected links to historical data

Maps

Photos

source : https://shayski.com
category : Uncategorized