Portal:North America
The North America Portal
North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The region includes Middle America (comprising the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico) and Northern America.
North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), representing approximately 16.5% of Earth's land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa, and the fourth-largest continent by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. As of 2021[update], North America's population was estimated as over 592 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population. In human geography, the terms "North America" and "North American" can refer to Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States, or alternatively, Canada, Greenland, and the United States (Mexico being classified as a part of Latin America), or simply Canada and the United States (Greenland being classified as either Arctic or European – due to its political status as a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the same goes for Saint Pierre and Miquelon in relation to France), and Mexico being classified as Latin American).
It is unknown with certainty how and when first human populations first reached North America. People were known to live in the Americas at least 20,000 years ago, but various evidence points to possibly earlier dates. The Paleo-Indian period in North America followed the Last Glacial Period, and lasted until about 10,000 years ago when the Archaic period began. The classic stage followed the Archaic period, and lasted from approximately the 6th to 13th centuries. Beginning in 1000 AD, the Norse were the first Europeans to begin exploring and ultimately colonizing areas of North America.
In 1492, the exploratory voyages of Christopher Columbus led to a transatlantic exchange, including migrations of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the early modern period. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, immigrants from Europe, Asia, and descendants of these respective groups. (Full article...)
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FairTax is a fixed rate sales tax proposal introduced as bill H.R. 25 in the United States Congress every year since 2005. The Fair Tax Act calls for elimination of the Internal Revenue Service and repeal the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. H.R. 25 would eliminate all federal income taxes (including the alternative minimum tax, corporate income taxes, and capital gains taxes), payroll taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), gift taxes, and estate taxes, replacing federal taxes with a single consumption tax levied on retail sales.
The Fair Tax Act (H.R. 25/S. 18) would apply a fixed rate sales tax at the point of sale on all new, final goods and services purchased for household consumption. The proposal also specifies a monthly payment made to all households based on household size. Called a "prebate," the monthly payment offsets the regressive nature of a sales tax up to the poverty level. First introduced into the United States Congress in 1999, a number of congressional committees have heard testimony on the bill; however, it did not move from committee. A campaign in 2005 for the FairTax proposal involved Leo E. Linbeck and the Fairtax.org. Talk radio personality Neal Boortz and Georgia Congressman John Linder published The FairTax Book in 2005 and additional visibility was gained in the 2008 presidential campaign. (Full article...)
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Louis Riel (/ˈluːi riˈɛl/; French: [lwi ʁjɛl]; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.
The first resistance movement led by Riel was the Red River Resistance of 1869–1870. The provisional government established by Riel ultimately negotiated the terms under which the new province of Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation. However, while carrying out the resistance, Riel had a Canadian nationalist, Thomas Scott, executed. Riel soon fled to the United States to escape prosecution. He was elected three times as member of the House of Commons, but, fearing for his life, never took his seat. During these years in exile he came to believe that he was a divinely chosen leader and prophet. He married in 1881 while in exile in the Montana Territory. (Full article...)
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Wolf Point is the location at the confluence of the North, South and Main Branches of the Chicago River in the present day Near North Side, Loop, and Near West Side community areas of Chicago. This fork in the river is historically important in the development of early Chicago. Located about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) from Lake Michigan, this was the location of Chicago's first three taverns, its first hotel, Sauganash Hotel, its first ferry, its first drug store, its first church, its first theater company, and the first bridges across the Chicago River. The name is said to possibly derive from a Native American Chief whose name translated to wolf, but alternate theories exist.
Historically, the west bank of the river at the fork was called "Wolf Point," but in the 1820s and 1830s it came to denote the entire area and the settlement that grew up around the river-fork. Wolf Point is now often used more specifically to refer to a plot of land on the north side of the fork in the Near North Side community area partially owned by the Kennedy family, now occupied by Wolf Point South Tower. Today the north bank at the fork, is the location of several commercial skyscrapers and high-rises, the west bank includes condominium high rises, commercial skyscrapers, including River Point and 150 North Riverside on air rights over railroad tracks, while the south bank includes part of the Chicago Riverwalk and serves as the transition point of Wacker Drive from an east–west street to a north–south street, above which the 333 Wacker Drive building curves in line with the riverbend. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that the Ulster cherry is named after Ulster County, New York, a region where sweet cherries are produced commercially?
- ...that the Pewee Valley Confederate Memorial (pictured) is the only American Civil War obelisk monument in Kentucky to be made of zinc?
- ...that the Soufrière Hills volcano is an active complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat?
- ... that Bésame Mucho, a song written in 1940 by Consuelo Velazquez, is according to some sources the most interpreted and performed song of the 20th century?
- ...that the Land Run of 1889 resulted in the founding of both Oklahoma City and Guthrie, whose populations grew from zero to over 10,000 in less than a day?
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