Coordinates	50°15′″N19°0′″N
Conventional long name	United States of America
Common name	the United States
Image coat	US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg
Length	1776–present
Symbol type	Great Seal
National motto	In God We Trust(official)(traditional)(Latin: Out of Many, One)
Map width	220px
National anthem	"The Star-Spangled Banner"
Official languages	None at federal level
Languages type	National language
Languages	English (''de facto'')
Capital	Washington, D.C.
Largest city	New York City
Government type	Federal presidential constitutional republic
Leader title1	President
Leader name1	Barack Obama (D)
Leader title2	Vice President
Leader name2	Joe Biden (D)
Leader title3
Leader name3	John Boehner (R)
Leader title4	Chief Justice
Leader name4	John Roberts
Legislature	Congress
Upper house	Senate
Lower house	House of Representatives
Sovereignty type	Independence
Established event1	Declared
Established date1	July 4, 1776
Established event2	Recognized
Established date2	September 3, 1783
Established event3	Current constitution
Established date3	June 21, 1788
Area footnote
Area sq mi	3794101
Area km2	9826675
Area rank	3rd/4th
Area magnitude	1 E12
Percent water	6.76
Population estimate	}}

|population_estimate_year = 2011 |population_estimate_rank = 3rd |population_density_km2 = 33.7 |population_density_sq_mi = 87.4 |GDP_PPP_year = 2010 |GDP_PPP = $14.780 trillion |GDP_PPP_rank = 1st |GDP_PPP_per_capita = $47,123 |GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 6th |GDP_nominal = $14.780 trillion |GDP_nominal_rank = 1st |GDP_nominal_year = 2010 |GDP_nominal_per_capita = $47,132 |GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 9th |HDI_year = 2010 |HDI = 0.902 |HDI_rank = 4th |HDI_category = very high |EF_year = 2007 |EF = 8.0 gha |EF_rank = 6th |Gini = 45.0 |Gini_rank = 39th |Gini_year = 2007 |currency = United States dollar ($) |currency_code = USD |country_code = USA |utc_offset = −5 to −10 |utc_offset_DST = −4 to −10 |cctld = .us .gov .mil .edu |calling_code = +1 |date_format = m/d/yy (AD) |drives_on = right |demonym = American |footnotes = a. English is the official language of at least 28 states—some sources give a higher figure, based on differing definitions of "official". English and Hawaiian are both official languages in the state of Hawaii.

b. English is the ''de facto'' language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language.

c. Whether the United States or the People's Republic of China is larger is disputed. The figure given is from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's ''World Factbook''. Other sources give smaller figures. All authoritative calculations of the country's size include only the 50 states and the District of Columbia, not the territories.

d. The population estimate includes people whose usual residence is in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, including noncitizens. It does not include either those living in the territories, amounting to more than 4 million U.S. citizens (most in Puerto Rico), or U.S. citizens living outside the United States. }}

The United States of America (also called the United States, the States, the U.S., the USA, and America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2010 GDP of $14.780 trillion (23% of nominal global GDP and 20% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity).

Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for between 12,000 and 40,000 years since the Paleo-Indians crossed the Bearing land bridge from Asia to North America. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated the British Empire in the American Revolution, the first successful colonial war of independence. The current United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

Through the 19th century, the United States displaced native tribes, acquired the Louisiana territory from France, Florida from Spain, part of the Oregon Country from the United Kingdom, Alta California and New Mexico from Mexico, Alaska from Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over the expansion of the institution of slavery and states' rights provoked the Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, its national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and it is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.

Etymology

In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. The former British colonies first used the country's modern name in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America". On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which states, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'" The Franco-American treaties of 1778 used "United States of North America", but from July 11, 1778, "United States of America" was used on the country's bills of exchange, and it has been the official name ever since.

The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms include the "U.S.", the "USA", and "America". Colloquial names include the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "States". "Columbia", a once popular name for the United States, derives from Christopher Columbus; it appears in the name "District of Columbia".

The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an "American". Although "United States" is the official appositional term, "American" and "U.S." are more commonly used to refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). "American" is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States.

The phrase "United States" was originally treated as plural—e.g., "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. It became common to treat it as singular—e.g., "the United States is"—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States".

Geography and environment

The land area of the contiguous United States is approximately . Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at . Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, has just over . The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from to to . Including only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the tallest peak in the country and in North America. 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. The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.

The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species. About 91,000 insect species have been described. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas. Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area. Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.

Political divisions

The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Early in the country's history, three new states were organized on territory separated from the claims of the existing states: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. Most of the other states have been carved from territories obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions comprises Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was an independent republic before joining the union. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959. The states do not have the right to secede from the union.

The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the two other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also possesses five major overseas territories: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Those born in the major territories (except for American Samoa) possess U.S. citizenship. American citizens residing in the territories have many of the same rights and responsibilities as citizens residing in the states; however, they are generally exempt from federal income tax, may not vote for president, and have only nonvoting representation in the U.S. Congress.

History

Native American and European settlement

The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are believed to have migrated from Asia, beginning between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago. Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After Europeans began settling the Americas, many millions of indigenous Americans died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox.

In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the region were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies. Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680. By the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonial population grew rapidly. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans (popularly known as "American Indians"), who were being displaced, those thirteen colonies had a population of 2.6 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain; nearly one in five Americans were black slaves. Though subject to British taxation, the American colonials had no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.

Independence and expansion

Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 to 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable Rights", the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak confederal government that operated until 1789.

After the British defeat by American forces assisted by the French and Spanish, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American territory west to the Mississippi River. Those wishing to establish a strong national government with powers of taxation organized a constitutional convention in 1787. The United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the transatlantic slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution". The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements, including abolitionism.

Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, amid a period when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming popular. The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, a primary resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.

Civil War and industrialization

Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 declared slaves in the Confederacy to be free. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers.

After the war, the assassination of Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern Southern and Eastern Europe hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, provided labor and transformed American culture. National infrastructure development spurred economic growth. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the United States annexed the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year demonstrated that the United States was a world power and led to the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories.

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Most Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many opposed intervention. In 1917, the United States joined the Allies, and the American Expeditionary Forces helped to turn the tide against the Central Powers. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism. In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy, including the establishment of the Social Security system. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration. The United States, effectively neutral during World War II's early stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers as well as the internment of Japanese Americans by the thousands. Participation in the war spurred capital investment and industrial capacity. Among the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer because of the war. Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.

Cold War and protest politics

The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact, respectively. While they engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided direct military conflict. Resisting leftist land and income redistribution projects around the world, the United States often supported authoritarian governments. American troops fought Communist Chinese forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.

The 1961 Soviet launch of the first manned spaceflight prompted President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to be first to land "a man on the moon", achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement, symbolized and led by African Americans such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel, used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He also signed into law the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A widespread countercultural movement grew, fueled by opposition to the war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution. Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others led a new wave of feminism that sought political, social, and economic equality for women.

As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, to avoid being impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power. The Jimmy Carter administration of the late 1970s was marked by stagflation and the Iran hostage crisis. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 heralded a rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. His second term in office brought both the Iran-Contra scandal and significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The subsequent Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.

Contemporary era

Under President George H. W. Bush, the United States took a lead role in the UN–sanctioned Gulf War. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the Bill Clinton administration and the dot-com bubble. A civil lawsuit and sex scandal led to Clinton's impeachment in 1998, but he remained in office. The 2000 presidential election, one of the closest in American history, was resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision—George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the global War on Terror, invading Afghanistan and removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds. Forces of a so-called Coalition of the Willing invaded Iraq in 2003, ousting Saddam Hussein. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along much of the Gulf Coast, devastating New Orleans. In 2008, amid a global economic recession, the first African American president, Barack Obama, was elected. In 2010, major health care and financial system reforms were enacted.

Government, elections, and politics

The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, federal, state, and local; the local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels.

The federal government is composed of three branches:

Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.

Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.

Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.

The House of Representatives has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.

The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature. The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.

The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus, and Article Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases. Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was declared by the Supreme Court in ''Marbury v. Madison'' (1803).

Parties and ideology

The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history. For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general 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, only one third-party presidential candidate—former president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912—has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.

Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or "conservative" and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or "liberal". The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as "blue states", are relatively liberal. The "red states" of the South and parts of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative.

The winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president. The 2010 midterm elections saw the Republican Party take control of the House and make gains in the Senate, where the Democrats retain the majority. In the 112th United States Congress, the Senate comprises 51 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 47 Republicans; the House comprises 240 Republicans and 192 Democrats—three seats are vacant. There are 29 Republican and 20 Democratic state governors, as well as one independent.

Foreign relations and military

The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City hosts the United Nations Headquarters. It is a member of the G8, G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, Libya, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.

The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and several European countries. It works closely with fellow NATO members on military and security issues and with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 2008, the United States spent a net $25.4 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. As a share of America's large gross national income (GNI), however, the U.S. contribution of 0.18% ranked last among twenty-two donor states. By contrast, private overseas giving by Americans is relatively generous.

The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in time of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty. The Reserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.

Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System. American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's eleven active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. The military operates 865 bases and facilities abroad, and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries. The extent of this global military presence has prompted some scholars to describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases".

Total U.S. military spending in 2008, more than $600 billion, was over 41% of global military spending and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. The per capita spending of $1,967 was about nine times the world average; at 4% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top fifteen military spenders, after Saudi Arabia. The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, is a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion is proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of September 2010, the United States is scheduled to have 96,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan, and 50,000 to Iraq. As of July 25, 2011, the United States had suffered 4,474 military fatalities during the Iraq War, and 1,680 during the War in Afghanistan.

Economy

The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $15 trillion constitutes 23% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 20% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP). Though larger than any other nation's, its national GDP is about 5% smaller than the GDP of the European Union at PPP in 2008. The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP. The U.S. dollar is the world's primary reserve currency.

The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2008, the total U.S. trade deficit was $696 billion. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners. In 2007, vehicles constituted both the leading import and leading export commodity. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt.

In 2009, the private sector was estimated to constitute 55.3% of the economy, with federal government activity accounting for 24.1% and state and local government activity (including federal transfers) the remaining 20.6%. While its economy has reached a postindustrial level of development and its service sector constitutes 67.8% of GDP, the United States remains an industrial power. The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is manufacturing. Chemical products are the leading manufacturing field. The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer. It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP, the United States is the world's top producer of corn and soybeans. Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognized brands in the world.

In August 2010, the American labor force comprised 154.1 million people. With 21.2 million people, government is the leading field of employment. The largest private employment sector is health care and social assistance, with 16.4 million people. About 12% of workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe. The World Bank ranks the United States first in the ease of hiring and firing workers. In 2009, the United States had the third highest labor productivity per person in the world, behind Luxembourg and Norway. It was fourth in productivity per hour, behind those two countries and the Netherlands. Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate income tax rates are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption tax rates are lower.

Income and human development

According to the United States Census Bureau, the pretax median household income in 2007 was $49,777. The median ranged from $65,469 among Asian American households to $32,584 among African American households. Using purchasing power parity exchange rates, the overall median is similar to the most affluent cluster of developed nations. After declining sharply during the middle of the 20th century, poverty rates have plateaued since the early 1970s, with 11–15% of Americans below the poverty line every year, and 58.5% spending at least one year in poverty between the ages of 25 and 75. In 2009, 43.6 million Americans lived in poverty.

The U.S. welfare state is one of the least extensive in the developed world, reducing both relative poverty and absolute poverty by considerably less than the mean for rich nations, though combined private and public social expenditures per capita are relatively high. While the American welfare state effectively reduces poverty among the elderly, it provides relatively little assistance to the young. A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations ranked the United States next to last.

Between 1947 and 1979, real median income rose by over 80% for all classes, with the incomes of poor Americans rising faster than those of the rich. Since 1980, the United States has witnessed strong increases in productivity, low unemployment, and low inflation. However, income gains since 1980 have been slower than in previous decades, less widely shared, and accompanied by increased economic insecurity. Median household income has increased for all classes since 1980, largely owing to more dual-earner households, the closing of the gender gap, and longer work hours, but growth has been slower and strongly tilted toward the very top (see graph). Consequently, the share of income of the top 1%—21.8% of total reported income in 2005—has more than doubled since 1980, leaving the United States with the greatest income inequality among developed nations. The top 1% pays 27.6% of all federal taxes, while the top 10% pays 54.7%. Wealth, like income, is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share among developed nations. The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth. In 2010 the United Nations Development Programme ranked the United States 12th among 139 countries on its inequality-adjusted human development index (IHDI), eight places lower than in the standard HDI.

Infrastructure

Science and technology

The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. Nikola Tesla pioneered alternating current, the AC motor, and radio. In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford popularized the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.

The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many European scientists, including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, to immigrate to the United States. During World War II, the Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and computers. IBM, Apple Computer, and Microsoft refined and popularized the personal computer. The United States largely developed the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Today, 64% of research and development funding comes from the private sector. The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact factor. Americans possess high levels of technological consumer goods, and almost half of U.S. households have broadband Internet access. The country is the primary developer and grower of genetically modified food, representing half of the world's biotech crops.

Transportation

Personal transportation is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of 13 million roads, including the world's longest highway system. The world's second largest automobile market, the United States has the highest rate of per-capita vehicle ownership in the world, with 765 vehicles per 1,000 Americans. About 40% of personal vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks. The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes driving every day, traveling .

Mass transit accounts for 9% of total U.S. work trips, ranking last in a survey of 17 countries. While transport of goods by rail is extensive, relatively few people use rail to travel. Light rail development has increased in recent years but, like high speed rail, is below European levels. Bicycle usage for work commutes is minimal.

The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned. The four largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are American; Southwest Airlines is number one. Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen are in the United States, including the busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Energy

The United States energy market is 29,000 terawatt hours per year. Energy consumption per capita is 7.8 tons of oil equivalent per year, the 10th highest rate in the world. In 2005, 40% of this energy came from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 22% from natural gas. The remainder was supplied by nuclear power and renewable energy sources. The United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum. For decades, nuclear power has played a limited role relative to many other developed countries, in part due to public perception in the wake of a 1979 accident. In 2007, several applications for new nuclear plants were filed. The United States has 27% of global coal reserves.

Education

American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen. About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.

The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. According to prominent international rankings, 13 or 15 American colleges and universities are ranked among the top 20 in the world. There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans twenty-five 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. The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%. The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.

Health

The United States life expectancy of 78.3 years at birth is ranked 36th among 194 United Nations member states; while above the world average, it falls short of the overall figure in Western Europe. Increasing obesity in the United States and health improvements elsewhere have contributed to lowering the country's rank in life expectancy from 1987 to 2007, from 11th to 42nd in the world. The infant mortality rate of 6.37 per thousand places the United States 42nd out of 221 countries, above average but behind all of Western Europe. Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight; the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century. Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by health care professionals.

The U.S. health care system far outspends any other nation's, measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP. The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. health care system in 2000 as first in responsiveness, but 37th in overall performance.

Health care coverage in the United States is a combination of public and private efforts, and is not universal as in all other developed countries. In 2004, private insurance paid for 36% of personal health expenditures, private out-of-pocket payments covered 15%, and federal, state, and local governments paid for 44%. In 2005, 46.6 million Americans, 15.9% of the population, were uninsured, 5.4 million more than in 2001. The main cause of this rise is the drop in the number of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance. The subject of uninsured and underinsured Americans is a major political issue. A 2009 study estimated that lack of insurance is associated with nearly 45,000 deaths a year. In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate universal health insurance. Federal legislation passed in early 2010 will create a near-universal health insurance system around the country by 2014.

Crime and law enforcement

Law enforcement in the United States is primarily the responsibility of local police and sheriff's departments, with state police providing broader services. Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties. At the federal level and in almost every state, jurisprudence operates on a common law system. State courts conduct most criminal trials; federal courts handle certain designated crimes as well as certain appeals from the state systems. Federal law prohibits a variety of drugs, although states sometimes pass laws in conflict with federal regulations. The smoking age is generally 18 and the drinking age is generally 21.

Among developed nations, the United States has above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence and homicide. There were 5.0 murders per 100,000 persons in 2009, 10.4% fewer than in 2000. Gun ownership rights are the subject of contentious political debate.

The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate and total prison population in the world. At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were incarcerated, more than one in every 100 adults. The current rate is about seven times the 1980 figure, and over three times the figure in Poland, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with the next highest rate. African American males are jailed at about six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males. The country's high rate of incarceration is largely due to sentencing and drug policies.

Though it has been abolished in most Western nations, capital punishment is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military crimes, and in thirty-four states. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a four-year moratorium, there have been more than 1,000 executions. In 2010, the country had the fifth highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, North Korea, and Yemen. In 2007, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since the 1976 Supreme Court decision, followed by New Mexico in 2009 and Illinois in 2011.

Demographics

{|class="infobox" style="font-size: 90%; border: 1px solid #999; float: right; margin-left: 1em; width: 240px;" |- style="background:#f5f5f5;" ! colspan="2" | Race/Ethnicity (2010) |- | White || style="text-align: center;" |72.4% |- | Black/African American || style="text-align: center;" |12.6% |- | Asian || style="text-align: center;" |4.8% |- | American Indian and Alaska Native || style="text-align: center;" |0.9% |- | Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander || style="text-align: center;" |0.2% |- | Other || style="text-align: center;" |6.2% |- | Two or more races || style="text-align: center;" | 2.9% |- | Hispanic/Latino (''of any race'') || style="text-align: center;" |16.3% |}

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the country's population now to be }}, including an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants. The U.S. population almost quadrupled during the 20th century, from about 76 million in 1900. The third most populous nation in the world, after China and India, the United States is the only industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected. Even with a birth rate of 13.82 per 1,000, 30% below the world average, its population growth rate is positive at 1%, significantly higher than those of many developed nations. In fiscal year 2010, over 1 million immigrants (most of whom entered through family reunification) were granted legal residence. Mexico has been the leading source of new residents for over two decades; since 1998, China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year.

The United States has a very diverse population—thirty-one ancestry groups have more than one million members. White Americans are the largest racial group; German Americans, Irish Americans, and English Americans constitute three of the country's four largest ancestry groups. African Americans are the nation's largest racial minority and third largest ancestry group. Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the two largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans. In 2010, the U.S. population included an estimated 5.2 million people with some American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry (2.9 million exclusively of such ancestry) and 1.2 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific island ancestry (0.5 million exclusively). The census counted more than 19 million people of "Some Other Race" who were "unable to identify with any" of its five official race categories in 2010.

The population growth of Hispanic and Latino Americans (the terms are officially interchangeable) is a major demographic trend. The 50.5 million Americans of Hispanic descent are identified as sharing a distinct "ethnicity" by the Census Bureau; 64% of Hispanic Americans are of Mexican descent. Between 2000 and 2010, the country's Hispanic population increased 43% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 4.9%. Much of this growth is from immigration; as of 2007, 12.6% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, with 54% of that figure born in Latin America. Fertility is also a factor; the average Hispanic woman gives birth to 3.0 children in her lifetime, compared to 2.2 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.8 for non-Hispanic white women (below the replacement rate of 2.1). Minorities (as defined by the Census Bureau, all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constitute 34% of the population, and are projected to constitute the majority by 2042.

About 82% of Americans live in urban areas (including suburbs); about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000. In 2008, 273 incorporated places had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than 1 million residents, and four global cities had over 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston). There are fifty-two metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million. Of the fifty fastest-growing metro areas, forty-seven are in the West or South. The metro areas of Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix all grew by more than a million people between 2000 and 2008.

Language

{|class="infobox" style="font-size: 90%; border: 1px solid #999; float: right; margin-left: 1em; width: 200px;" |- style="background:#f5f5f5;" !colspan="2"|Languages (2007) |- |English (''only'')||style="text-align: center;"|225.5 million |- |Spanish, incl. Creole||style="text-align: center;"|34.5 million |- |Chinese||style="text-align: center;"|2.5 million |- |French, incl. Creole||style="text-align: center;"|2.0 million |- |Tagalog||style="text-align: center;"|1.5 million |- |Vietnamese||style="text-align: center;"|1.2 million |- |German||style="text-align: center;"|1.1 million |- |Korean||style="text-align: center;"|1.1 million |}

English is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2007, about 226 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language. Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.

While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French. Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms. Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions. Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.

Religion

The United States is officially a secular nation; the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids the establishment of any religious governance. In a 2002 study, 59% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation. According to a 2007 survey, 78.4% of adults identified themselves as Christian, down from 86.4% in 1990. Protestant denominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination. The study categorizes white evangelicals, 26.3% of the population, as the country's largest religious cohort; another study estimates evangelicals of all races at 30–35%. The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2007 was 4.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990. The leading non-Christian faiths were Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). The survey also reported that 16.1% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion, up from 8.2% in 1990.

Family structure

In 2007, 58% of Americans age 18 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 25% had never been married. Women now mostly work outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees.

Same-sex marriage is a contentious issue. Some states permit civil unions or domestic partnerships in lieu of marriage. Since 2003, several states have legalized gay marriage as the result of judicial or legislative action. Meanwhile, the federal government and a majority of states define marriage as between a man and a woman and/or explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage. Public opinion on the issue has shifted from general opposition in the 1990s to a statistical deadlock as of 2011.

The U.S. teenage pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is the highest among OECD nations. Abortion policy was left to the states until the Supreme Court legalized the practice in 1972. The issue remains highly controversial, with public opinion closely divided for many years. Many states ban public funding of the procedure and restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate a waiting period. While the abortion rate is falling, the abortion ratio of 241 per 1,000 live births and abortion rate of 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 remain higher than those of most Western nations.

Culture

The United States is a multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values. Aside from the now small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries. The culture held in common by most Americans—mainstream American culture—is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa. More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.

American culture is considered the most individualistic in the world. Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants, other developed nations offer greater social mobility. While the mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society, scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values. The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism. Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree. While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.

Popular media

The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, using Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. The next year saw the first commercial screening of a projected film, also in New York, and the United States was in the forefront of sound film's development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar and Orson Welles's ''Citizen Kane'' (1941) is frequently cited as the greatest film of all time. American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood have produced the most commercially successful movies in history, such as ''Star Wars'' (1977) and ''Titanic'' (1997), and the products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry.

Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world, and the average viewing time continues to rise, reaching five hours a day in 2006. The four major broadcast networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercialized, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day. Aside from web portals and search engines, the most popular websites are Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Blogger, eBay, and Craigslist.

The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music have deeply influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European traditions. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is now known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century. Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s. Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the mid-1950s pioneers of rock and roll. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's most celebrated songwriters and James Brown led the development of funk. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. American pop stars such as Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become global celebrities.

Literature, philosophy, and the arts

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is now recognized as an essential American poet. 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), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby'' (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel".

Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway are often named among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed in the United States. The Beat Generation writers opened up new literary approaches, as have postmodernist authors such as John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.

The transcendentalists, led by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, established the first major American philosophical movement. After the Civil War, Charles Sanders Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the 20th century, the work of W. V. Quine and Richard Rorty, built upon by Noam Chomsky, brought analytic philosophy to the fore of U.S. academics. John Rawls and Robert Nozick led a revival of political philosophy.

In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The realist paintings of Thomas Eakins are now widely celebrated. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene. Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new styles, displaying a highly individualistic sensibility. Major artistic movements such as the abstract 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 modernism and then postmodernism has brought fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry. One of the first major promoters of American theater was impresario P. T. Barnum, who began operating a lower Manhattan entertainment complex in 1841. The team of Harrigan and Hart produced a series of popular musical comedies in New York starting in the late 1870s. In the 20th century, the modern musical form emerged on Broadway; the songs of musical theater composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim have become pop standards. Playwright Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel literature prize in 1936; other acclaimed U.S. dramatists include multiple Pulitzer Prize winners Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and August Wilson.

Though little known at the time, Charles Ives's work of the 1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical tradition, while experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John Cage created a distinctive American approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland and George Gershwin developed a new synthesis of popular and classical music. Choreographers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham helped create modern dance, while George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in 20th century ballet. Americans have long been important in the modern artistic medium of photography, with major photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams. The newspaper comic strip and the comic book are both U.S. innovations. Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero, has become an American icon.

Food

Mainstream American cuisine is similar to that in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses indigenous ingredients, such as turkey, venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, which were consumed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American foods. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important.

Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed. Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages.

The American fast food industry, the world's largest, pioneered the drive-through format in the 1930s. Fast food consumption has sparked health concerns. During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%; frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what public health officials call the American "obesity epidemic". Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular, and sugared beverages account for 9% of American caloric intake.

Sports

Baseball has been regarded as the national sport since the late 19th century, while American football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport. Basketball and ice hockey are the country's next two leading professional team sports. College football and basketball attract large audiences. Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Soccer is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many outdoor sports are popular as well.

While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and cheerleading are American inventions. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, and 253 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most.

Measurement systems

The country retains United States customary units, constituted largely by British imperial units such as miles, yards, and degrees Fahrenheit. Distinct units include the U.S. gallon and U.S. pint volume measurements. The United States is one of only three countries that have not adopted the International System of Units. However, metric units are increasingly used in science, medicine, and many industrial fields.

See also

International rankings of the United States

List of Americans

List of places in the United States

List of U.S. state portals

References

External links

;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 ;Overviews and Data

InfoUSA Portal to U.S. Information Agency resources

Library of Congress Official site of the U.S. Library of Congress

Demographic Highlights Statistics from the Population Reference Bureau

The 50 States of the U.S.A. Collected informational links for each state

United States travel guide from Wikitravel

United States ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' entry

U.S. Census Housing and Economic Statistics Wide-ranging data from the U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Official government site

State Fact Sheets Population, employment, income, and farm data from the U.S. Economic Research Service

State Energy Profiles Economic, environmental, and energy data for each state from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

;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

National Atlas of the United States Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior

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Coordinates	50°15′″N19°0′″N
Image 1	LineartPresRev.png
Image title 1	$1 Coin
image 2	USDnotes.png
image title 2	Federal Reserve Notes
Iso code	USD
Using countries
Unofficial users
Pegged by
Inflation rate	3.56%, June 2011.
Inflation source date	inflationdata.com''
inflation method	CPI
Subunit ratio 1	1/10
Subunit name 1	Dime
Subunit ratio 2	1/100
Subunit name 2	Cent
Subunit ratio 3	1/1000
Subunit name 3	Mill (''used in accounting and by fuel stations'')
Symbol	$
Symbol subunit 4	¢
Nickname	Buck, bean, paper, dead president, smacker, and greenback. Plural: dough, bread, bones, simoleons, clams. Also, Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, Jacksons, Benjamins, Grants, and Hamiltons are used based on denomination; also peso in Puerto Rico, and piastre in Cajun Louisiana.
Frequently used coins	1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢
Rarely used coins	50¢, $1
Coin article	Coins of the United States dollar
Frequently used banknotes	$1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100
Rarely used banknotes	$2
Banknote article	Federal Reserve Note
Issuing authority	Federal Reserve System
Issuing authority website	www.federalreserve.gov
Printer	Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printer website	www.moneyfactory.gov
Mint	United States Mint
Mint website	www.usmint.gov
Footnotes	}}

The United States dollar (sign: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$), also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents.

The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and is one of the world's reserve currencies. Several countries use it as their official currency, in many others it is the ''de facto'' currency, and it is also used as the sole currency in some British Overseas Territories (British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos).

Overview

The Constitution of the United States of America provides that the United States Congress shall have the power "To coin Money". Laws implementing this power are currently codified in Section 5112 of Title 31 of the United States Code. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars shall be issued. Those coins are both designated in Section 5112 as "legal tender" in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar. The pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins, which have values ranging from one cent to fifty dollars. These other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar.

The Constitution provides that "a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time". That provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the "Statements" are currently being expressed in U.S. dollars (for example, see the ''2009 Financial Report of the United States Government''). The U.S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States.

The word "dollar" is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. In that context, "dollars" is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U.S. Congress adopted legislation titled ''An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States''. Section 9 of that act authorized the production of various coins, including "DOLLARS OR UNITS—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver". Section 20 of the act provided, "That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units... and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation". In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the ''unit of currency'' of the United States.

The U.S. dollar bill uses the decimal system, consisting of 100 equal cents (symbol ¢). It is also officially divided into 1,000 ''mills'' or ten ''dimes'', while ten dollars is equal to an ''eagle''. However, only cents are in everyday use as divisions of the dollar; "dime" is used solely as the name of the coin with the value of 10¢, while "eagle" and "mill" are largely unknown to the general public, though mills are sometimes used in matters of tax levies, and gasoline prices are usually in the form of $X.XX9 per gallon, e.g., $3.599, sometimes written as $3.59. When currently issued in circulating form, denominations equal to or less than a dollar are emitted as U.S. coins while denominations equal to or greater than a dollar are emitted as Federal Reserve notes (with the exception of gold, silver and platinum coins valued up to $100 as legal tender, but worth far more as bullion). Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the note form is significantly more common. In the past, "paper money" was occasionally issued in denominations less than a dollar (fractional currency) and gold coins were issued for circulation up to the value of $20 (known as the "double eagle," discontinued in the 1930s). The term ''eagle'' was used in the Coinage Act of 1792 for the denomination of ten dollars, and subsequently was used in naming gold coins. In 1854, James Guthrie, then Secretary of the Treasury, proposed creating $100, $50 and $25 gold coins, which were referred to as a "Union," "Half Union," and "Quarter Union," thus implying a denomination of 1 Union = $100. Today, USD notes are made from cotton fiber paper, unlike most common paper, which is made of wood fiber. U.S. coins are produced by the United States Mint. U.S. dollar banknotes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and, since 1914, have been issued by the Federal Reserve. The "large-sized notes" issued before 1928 measured by ; small-sized notes, introduced that year, measure by by .

Etymology

In the 16th century, Count Hieronymus Schlick of Bohemia began minting coins known as ''Joachimstalers'' (from German ''thal,'' or nowadays usually ''Tal,'' "valley", cognate with "dale" in English), named for Joachimstal, the valley where the silver was mined (St. Joachim's Valley, now Jáchymov; then part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of the Czech Republic). Joachimstaler was later shortened to the German ''Taler'', a word that eventually found its way into Danish and Swedish as daler, Dutch as daalder, Ethiopian as ታላሪ (talari), Italian as tallero, and English as dollar. Alternatively, ''thaler'' is said to come from the German coin ''Guldengroschen'' ("great guilder", being of silver but equal in value to a gold guilder), minted from the silver from Joachimsthal.

Nicknames

The colloquialism "''buck''" (much like the British word "''quid''" for the pound sterling) is often used to refer to dollars of various nations, including the U.S. dollar. This term, dating to the 18th century, may have originated with the colonial fur trade. "''Greenback''" is another nickname originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the Civil War for the North. The original note was printed in black and green on the back side. It is still used to refer to the U.S. dollar (but not to the dollars of other countries). Other well-known names of the dollar as a whole in denominations include "''greenmail''", "''green''" and "''dead presidents''" (the last because late presidents are pictured on some of the bills).

"''Grand''", sometimes shortened to simply "''G''", is a common term for the amount of $1,000. The suffix "''K''" or "''k''" (from "kilo-") is also commonly used to denote this amount (such as "$10k" to mean $10,000). In colloquial English, when someone refers to a "''large''" or "''stack''", it is usually a reference to an amount that is a multiple of $1,000 (such as "''fifty large''" meaning $50,000). Banknotes' nicknames are the same as their values (such as "''five''", "''twenty''" etc.) The $100 bill is nicknamed "''Benjamin''", "''Benji''" or "''Franklin''" (after Benjamin Franklin, who is pictured on the note), "''C-note''" (C being the Roman numeral for 100), "''Century note''" or "''bill''" (e.g. "''two bills''" being $200). The $20 bill has been referred to as "''double sawbuck''", "''dub''" or "''Jackson''" (after Andrew Jackson); the $10 bill - as "''sawbuck''", "''ten-spot''" or "''Hamilton''" (after Alexander Hamilton); the $5 bill - as "''fin''", "''fiver''" or "''five-spot''". The $2 bill is sometimes called "''deuce''", "''Tom''", "''Jefferson''" or "''T.J.''" (after Thomas Jefferson); and the $1 bill - "''single''" or "''buck''". The dollar has also been referred to as a "''bone''" and "''bones''" in plural (e.g. "''twenty bones''" is equal to $20) or a "''bean''". The newer designs are sometimes referred to as "''Bigface''" bills or "Monopoly money". Some people refer to U.S. money as "''cha-chingers''", "''bucks''", "''green-backs''" and "''smackers''".

In French-speaking areas of Louisiana, the dollar is referred to as "''piastre''" (pronounced "pee-as") and the French holdover "''sous''" (pronounced "soo") is used to refer to the cent.

In Panama, the equivalent of buck is "''palo''" (literally "stick").

In Ecuador, the dollar is referred to as "''lata''".

In Peru, a nickname for the U.S. dollar is "''coco''", which is a pet name for ''Jorge'' ("''George''" in Spanish), a reference to the portrait of George Washington on the $1 note.

Puerto Ricans, both living in Puerto Rico and in the United States, may refer to the dollar as "''peso''".

In some places in Mexico, prices in U.S. dollars are referred to as "''en americano''" ("in American"), with the word "peso" used in Mexico primarily to refer to the Mexican peso.

Cubans call the U.S. dollar "fula". Loosely translated from Cuban jargon mean bad or not good. American money was not bad to have or use by Cubans in the island, but its possession was penalized before the mid-1990s, hence the nickname.

Dollar sign

The symbol $, usually written before the numerical amount, is used for the U.S. dollar (as well as for many other currencies). The sign's ultimate origins are not certain, though it is possible that it comes from the Pillars of Hercules on the Spanish Coat of arms on the Spanish dollars that were minted in the New World mints in Mexico City, Potosí, Bolivia, and in Lima, Peru. These Pillars of Hercules on the silver Spanish dollar coins take the form of two vertical bars (||) and a swinging cloth band in the shape of an "S".

Another explanation is that this symbol for peso was the result of a late 18th-century evolution of the scribal abbreviation "p^s." The ''p'' and the ''s'' eventually came to be written over each other giving rise to ''$''.

A fictional possibility suggested is that the dollar sign is the capital letters U and S typed one on top of the other. This theory, popularized by novelist Ayn Rand in ''Atlas Shrugged'', does not consider the fact that the symbol was already in use before the formation of the United States.

History

The first dollar coins issued by the United States Mint (founded 1792) were similar in size and composition to the Spanish dollar. The Spanish, U.S. silver dollars, and Mexican silver pesos circulated side by side in the United States, and the Spanish dollar and Mexican peso remained legal tender until 1857. The coinage of various English colonies also circulated. The lion dollar was popular in the Dutch New Netherland Colony (New York), but the lion dollar also circulated throughout the English colonies during the 17th century and early 18th century. Examples circulating in the colonies were usually worn so that the design was not fully distinguishable, thus they were sometimes referred to as "dog dollars".

The U.S. dollar was created and defined by the Coinage Act of 1792. It specified a "dollar" to be based in the Mexican peso at 1 dollar per peso and between 371 and of silver (depending on purity) and an "eagle" to be between 247 and of gold (again depending on purity). The choice of the value 371 grains arose from Alexander Hamilton's decision to base the new American unit on the average weight of a selection of worn Spanish dollars (and later Mexican peso). Hamilton got the treasury to weigh a sample of Spanish dollars and the average weight came out to be 371 grains. A new Spanish dollar was usually about 377 grains in weight, and so the new U.S. dollar was at a slight discount in relation to the Spanish dollar. The gold equivalent of the Spanish dollar in sterling was ₤1 = $4.80, whereas the gold equivalent of the U.S. dollar was ₤1 = 4.86⅔. This exchange rate with sterling remained right up until Britain abandoned the gold standard in 1931.

The Coinage Act of 1792 set the value of an eagle at 10 dollars, and the dollar at 1/10 eagle. It called for 90% silver alloy coins in denominations of 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/10, and 1/20 dollars; it called for 90% gold alloy coins in denominations of 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/10 eagles.

The value of gold or silver contained in the dollar was then converted into relative value in the economy for the buying and selling of goods. This allowed the value of things to remain fairly constant over time, except for the influx and outflux of gold and silver in the nation's economy.

The early currency of the USA did not exhibit faces of presidents, as is the custom now. In fact, George Washington was against having his face on the currency, a practice he compared to the policies of European monarchs. The currency as we know it today did not get the faces they currently have until after the early 20th century; before that "heads" side of coinage used profile faces and striding, seated, and standing figures from Greek and Roman mythology and composite native Americans. The last coins to be converted to profiles of historic Americans were the dime (1946) and the Dollar (1971).

For articles on the currencies of the colonies and states, see Connecticut pound, Delaware pound, Georgia pound, Maryland pound, Massachusetts pound, New Hampshire pound, New Jersey pound, New York pound, North Carolina pound, Pennsylvania pound, Rhode Island pound, South Carolina pound and Virginia pound.

Continental currency

In 1775, the United States and the individual states began issuing "Continental Currency" denominated in Spanish dollars and (for the issues of the states) the £sd currencies of the states. The dollar was valued relative to the states' currencies at the following rates:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="width:450pt;"|State !Value of Dollarin State Currency |- |Georgia |align=center|5 Shillings |- |Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia |align=center|6 Shillings |- |Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania |align=center|7½ Shillings |- |New York, North Carolina |align=center|8 Shillings |- |South Carolina |align=center|32½ Shillings |}

The continental currency suffered from printing press inflation and was replaced by the silver dollar at the rate of 1 silver dollar = 1000 continental dollars.

Silver and gold standards

From 1792, when the Mint Act was passed, the dollar was pegged to silver at 371.25 grains (24.056 g), or of gold. Many historians erroneously assume gold was standardized at a fixed rate in parity with silver, however there is no evidence of Congress making this law. This has to do with Alexander Hamilton's suggestion to Congress of a fixed 15:1 ratio of silver to gold, respectively. The gold coins that were minted however, were not given any denomination whatsoever and traded for a market value relative to the Congressional standard of the silver dollar. 1834 saw a shift in the gold standard to , followed by a slight adjustment to in 1837 (16:1 ratio).

In 1862, paper money was issued without the backing of precious metals, due to the Civil War. Silver and gold coins continued to be issued and in 1878 the link between paper money and coins was reinstated. This disconnection from gold and silver backing also occurred during the War of 1812. The use of paper money not backed by precious metals had also occurred under the Articles of Confederation from 1777 to 1788. With no solid backing and being easily counterfeited, the continentals quickly lost their value, giving rise to the phrase "not worth a continental". This was a primary reason for the "No state shall... make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts" clause in article 1, section 10 of the United States Constitution.

The Gold Standard Act of 1900 abandoned the bimetallic standard and defined the dollar as of gold, equivalent to setting the price of 1 troy ounce of gold at $20.67. Silver coins continued to be issued for circulation until 1964, when all silver was removed from dimes and quarters, and the half dollar was reduced to 40% silver. Silver half dollars were last issued for circulation in 1969.

Gold coins were confiscated in 1933 and the gold standard was changed to , equivalent to setting the price of 1 troy ounce of gold at $35. This standard persisted until 1968. Between 1968 and 1975, a variety of pegs to gold were put in place. The price was at $42.22 per ounce before August 15, 1971 saw the U.S. dollar freely float on currency markets.

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the largest note it ever printed was the $100,000 Gold Certificate, Series 1934. These notes were printed from December 18, 1934 through January 9, 1935, and were issued by the Treasurer of the United States to Federal Reserve Banks only against an equal amount of gold bullion held by the Treasury. These notes were used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks and were not circulated among the general public.

Coins

Official United States coins have been produced every year from 1792 to the present.

Half-cent 1792 - 1857

Cent (Penny) 1793–present

2-cent 1864–1873

3-cent 1851-1889

Half Dime, or half disme 1792-1873 (Not to be confused with the Five-cent Nickel below)

Five-cent Nickel 1866–present

Dime 1792–present

20-cent 1875-1878

Quarter 1796–present

Half dollar 1794–present

Dollar coin 1794–present

Quarter Eagle ($2.50 gold coin) 1792-1929

Three-dollar piece 1854-1889 (gold coin)

Four-dollar piece 1879-1880 (gold coin)

Half Eagle ($5 gold coin) 1795-1929

Eagle ($10 gold coin) 1795-1933

Double Eagle ($20 gold coin) 1850-1933

Collector coins for which everyday transactions are non-existent.

American Eagles originally were not available from the Mint for individuals but had to be purchased from authorized dealers. In 2006 The Mint began direct sales to individuals of uncirculated bullion coins with a special finish, and bearing a "W" mintmark.

: * American Silver Eagle $1 (1 troy ounce) silver bullion coin 1986-Present : * American Gold Eagle $5 (1/10 troy oz), $10 (1/4 troy oz), $25 (1/2 troy oz), and $50 (1 troy oz) Gold bullion coin 1986-Present : * American Platinum Eagle ($10, $25, $50, and $100 platinum coin) 1997–present

United States commemorative coins - special issue coins

: * $50.00 (Half Union) 1915 : * Presidential Proofs (see below) 2007-present

Technically, all these coins are still legal tender at face value, though some are far more valuable today for their numismatic value, and for gold and silver coins, their precious metal value. From 1965 to 1970 the Kennedy half dollar was the only ''circulating'' coin with any silver content though the Mint still makes what it calls Silver Proof sets for collectors.

In addition, an experimental $4.00 (Stella) coin was also minted, but never placed into circulation and is properly considered to be a pattern rather than an actual coin denomination.

The $50 coin mentioned was only produced in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915) celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal. Only 1,128 were made, 645 of which were octagonal; this remains the only U.S. coin that was not round as well as the largest and heaviest U.S. coin ever.

From 1934 to present the only denominations produced for circulation have been the familiar penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. The nickel is the only coin still in use today that is essentially unchanged (except in its design) from its original version. Every year since 1866, the nickel has been 75% copper and 25% nickel, except for 4 years during World War II when nickel was needed for the war.

Collector coins

The United States Mint produces Proof Sets specifically for collectors and speculators. ''Silver Proofs'' tend to be the standard designs but with the dime, quarter, half dollar, and in some cases the dollar having silver content. Another type of proof set is the Presidential Dollar Proof Set where four special $1 coins are minted each featuring a president.

2007 had George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison

2008 had James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren

2009 had William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor

2010 had Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln

2011 is to have Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James A. Garfield

Dollar coins

The first United States dollar was minted in 1794. Known as the Flowing Hair Dollar, it contained 416 grains of "standard silver" (89.25% silver and 10.75% copper), as specified by Section 13 of the Coinage Act of 1792. It was designated by Section 9 of that Act as having "the value of a Spanish milled dollar".

Dollar coins have not been very popular in the United States. Silver dollars were minted intermittently from 1794 through 1935; a copper-nickel dollar of the same large size, featuring President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was minted from 1971 through 1978. Gold dollars were also minted in the 19th century. The Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was introduced in 1979; these proved to be unpopular because they were often mistaken for quarters, due to their nearly equal size, their milled edge, and their similar color. Minting of these dollars for circulation was suspended in 1980 (collectors' pieces were struck in 1981), but, as with all past U.S. coins, they remain legal tender. As the number of Anthony dollars held by the Federal Reserve and dispensed primarily to make change in postal and transit vending machines had been virtually exhausted, additional Anthony dollars were struck in 1999. In 2000, a new $1 coin, featuring Sacagawea, (the Sacagawea dollar) was introduced, which corrected some of the mistakes of the Anthony dollar by having a smooth edge and a gold color, without requiring changes to vending machines that accept the Anthony dollar. However, this new coin has failed to achieve the popularity of the still-existing $1 bill and is rarely used in daily transactions. The failure to simultaneously withdraw the dollar bill and weak publicity efforts have been cited by coin proponents as primary reasons for the failure of the dollar coin to gain popular support. There are indications that the dollar coin's failure was also due to the reluctance of armored transport companies to make the necessary adjustments to handle the new coins, and the government's reluctance to mandate it. The result of the armored carriers' unwillingness to handle the new coins was that they virtually never reached merchants in quantities sufficient to be given out as change on a routine basis, or for retail clerks to become used to handling them.

In February 2007, the U.S. Mint, under the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005, introduced a new $1 U.S. Presidential dollar coin. Based on the success of the "50 State Quarters" series, the new coin features a sequence of presidents in order of their inaugurations, starting with George Washington, on the obverse side. The reverse side features the Statue of Liberty. To allow for larger, more detailed portraits, the traditional inscriptions of "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust," the year of minting or issuance, and the mint mark will be inscribed on the edge of the coin instead of the face. This feature, similar to the edge inscriptions seen on the British £1 coin, is not usually associated with U.S. coin designs. The inscription "Liberty" has been eliminated, with the Statue of Liberty serving as a sufficient replacement. In addition, due to the nature of U.S. coins, this will be the first time there will be circulating U.S. coins of different denominations with the same President featured on the obverse (heads) side. (Lincoln/penny, Jefferson/nickel, Franklin D. Roosevelt/dime, Washington/quarter and Kennedy/half dollar/dollar Another unusual fact about the new $1 coin is Grover Cleveland will have two coins with his portrait issued due to the fact he was the only U.S. President to be elected to two non-consecutive terms.

Early releases of the Washington coin included error coins shipped primarily from the Philadelphia mint to Florida and Tennessee banks. Highly sought after by collectors, and trading for as much as $850 each within a week of discovery, the error coins were identified by the absence of the edge impressions "E PLURIBUS UNUM IN GOD WE TRUST 2007 P". The mint of origin is generally accepted to be mostly Philadelphia, although identifying the source mint is impossible without opening a mint pack also containing marked units. Edge lettering is minted in both orientations with respect to "heads", some amateur collectors were initially duped into buying "upside down lettering error" coins. Some cynics also erroneously point out that the Federal Reserve makes more profit from dollar bills than dollar coins because they wear out in a few years, whereas coins are more permanent. The fallacy of this argument arises because new notes printed to replace worn out notes which have been withdrawn from circulation bring in no net revenue to the government to offset the costs of printing new notes and destroying the old ones. As most vending machines are incapable of making change in banknotes, they commonly accept only $1 bills, though a few will give change in dollar coins.

Mint marks

Most U.S. coins bear a mint mark as part of the design, usually found on the front of the coin near the date although in the past it was more commonly found on the reverse. The Philadelphia Mint issues coins bearing a letter P (or no mark at all), while the Denver Mint uses a letter D. The San Francisco Mint uses an S, though no coins have been released from that mint for general circulation since 1980. It does, however, continue to strike proof coins for collectors. The West Point Mint uses a W, though this is rarely seen as the West Point mint generally only makes high denomination coins (with face values over $1.00) which are not meant for everyday use. A CC mark, for the Carson City Mint, was used from 1870 to 1893, but the mint at that location was only a temporary establishment. The New Orleans Mint used a mint mark O. It operated from 1838 until Louisiana seceded from the Union in 1861, and again from 1879 to 1909. The letter D was also used for coinage of the Dahlonega Mint from 1837 to 1861, and C was used for the Charlotte Mint during the same timespan. The latter two mints struck gold coins only.

Banknotes

The U.S. Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power to "borrow money on the credit of the United States". Congress has exercised that power by authorizing Federal Reserve Banks to issue Federal Reserve Notes. Those notes are "obligations of the United States" and "shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank." Federal Reserve Notes are designated by law as "legal tender" for the payment of debts. Congress has also authorized the issuance of more than 10 other types of banknotes, including the United States Note and the Federal Reserve Bank Note. The Federal Reserve Note is the only type that remains in circulation since the 1970s.

Currently printed denominations are $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. Notes above the $100 denomination stopped being printed in 1946 and were officially withdrawn from circulation in 1969. These notes were used primarily in inter-bank transactions or by organized crime; it was the latter usage that prompted President Richard Nixon to issue an executive order in 1969 halting their use. With the advent of electronic banking, they became less necessary. Notes in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $100,000 were all produced at one time; see large denomination bills in U.S. currency for details. These notes are now collector's items and are worth more than their face value to collectors.

Though still predominantly green, post-2004 series incorporate other colors to better distinguish different denominations. As a result of a 2008 decision in an accessibility lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to implement a raised tactile feature in the next redesign of each note, except the $1 and the version of the $100 bill already in process. It also plans larger, higher-contrast numerals, more color differences, and distribution of currency readers to assist the visually impaired during the transition period.

Means of issue

Currently, the US government maintains over 800 billion US dollars in cash money (primarily Federal Reserve Notes) in circulation. The amount of cash in circulation is increased (or decreased) by the actions of the Federal Reserve System. Eight times a year, the 12-person Federal Open Market Committee meet to determine US monetary policy. Every business day, the Federal Reserve System engages in Open market operations to carry out that monetary policy. If the Federal Reserve desires to increase the money supply, it will buy securities (such as US Treasury Bonds) anonymously from banks in exchange for dollars. Conversely, it will sell securities to the banks in exchange for dollars, to take dollars out of circulation.

When the Federal Reserve makes a purchase, it credits the seller's reserve account (with the Federal Reserve). This money is not transferred from any existing funds – it is at this point that the Federal Reserve has created new high-powered money. Commercial banks can freely withdraw in cash any excess reserves from their reserve account at the Federal Reserve. To fulfill those requests, the Federal Reserve places an order for printed money from the US Treasury Department. The Treasury Department in turn sends these requests to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (to print new dollar bills) and the Bureau of the Mint (to stamp the coins).

Usually, the short term goal of open market operations is to achieve a specific short term interest rate target. In other instances, monetary policy might instead entail the targeting of a specific exchange rate relative to some foreign currency or else relative to gold. For example, in the case of the USA the Federal Reserve targets the federal funds rate, the rate at which member banks lend to one another overnight. The other primary means of conducting monetary policy include: (i) Discount window lending (as lender of last resort); (ii) Fractional deposit lending (changes in the reserve requirement); (iii) Moral suasion (cajoling certain market players to achieve specified outcomes); (iv) "Open mouth operations" (talking monetary policy with the market).

Value

{| cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style="float: right; clear: right; margin: 0em 0em 0em 1em" |+ Buying power of one U.S. dollar compared to 1774 USD |- valign="top" |

! Year	Equivalent  buying power
1774	$1.00
1780	$0.59
1790	$0.89
1800	$0.64
1810	$0.66
1820	$0.69
1830	$0.88
1840	$0.94
1850	$1.03
1860	$0.97

|

! Year	Equivalent  buying power
1870	$0.62
1880	$0.79
1890	$0.89
1900	$0.96
1910	$0.85
1920	$0.39
1930	$0.47
1940	$0.56
1950	$0.33
1960	$0.26

|

! Year	Equivalent  buying power
1970	$0.20
1980	$0.10
1990	$0.06
2000	$0.05
2007	$0.04
2008	$0.04
2009	$0.04
2010	$0.03

|}

The 5th paragraph of Section 8 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides that the U.S. Congress shall have the power to "coin money" and to "regulate the value" of domestic and foreign coins. Congress exercised those powers when it enacted the Coinage Act of 1792. That Act provided for the minting of the first U.S. dollar and it declared that the U.S. dollar shall have "the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current".

The table to the right shows the equivalent amount of goods that, in a particular year, could be purchased with $1. The table shows that from 1774 through 2009 the U.S. dollar has lost about 96.4% of its buying power.

The decline in the value of the U.S. dollar corresponds to price inflation, which is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. A consumer price index (CPI) is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The United States Consumer Price Index, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services in the United States. It reflects inflation as experienced by consumers in their day-to-day living expenses. A graph showing the U.S. CPI relative to 1982-1984 and the annual year-over-year change in CPI is shown at right.

The value of the U.S. dollar declined significantly during wartime, especially during the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II. The Federal Reserve, which was established in 1913, was designed to furnish an "elastic" currency subject to "substantial changes of quantity over short periods," which differed significantly from previous forms of high-powered money such as gold, national bank notes, and silver coins. Over the very long run, the prior gold standard kept prices stable - for instance, the price level and the value of the U.S. dollar in 1914 was not very different from the price level in the 1880s. The Federal Reserve initially succeeded in maintaining the value of the U.S. dollar and price stability, reversing the inflation caused by the First World War and stabilizing the value of the dollar during the 1920s, before presiding over a 30% deflation in U.S. prices in the 1930s.

Under the Bretton Woods system established after World War II, the value of the U.S. dollar was fixed to $35 per ounce, and the value of the U.S. dollar was thus anchored to the value of gold. Rising government spending in the 1960s, however, led to doubts about the ability of the United States to maintain this convertibility, gold stocks dwindled as banks and international investors began to convert dollars to gold, and as a result the value of the dollar began to decline. Facing an emerging currency crisis and the imminent danger that the United States would no longer be able to redeem dollars for gold, gold convertibility was finally terminated in 1971 by President Nixon, resulting in the "Nixon shock."

The value of the U.S. dollar was therefore no longer anchored to gold, and it fell upon the Federal Reserve to maintain the value of the U.S. currency. The Federal Reserve, however, continued to increase the money supply, resulting in stagflation and a rapidly declining value of the U.S. dollar in the 1970s. This was largely due to the prevailing economic view at the time that inflation and real economic growth were linked (the Phillips curve), and so inflation was regarded as relatively benign. Between 1965 and 1981, the U.S. dollar lost two thirds of its value.

In 1979, President Carter appointed Paul Volcker Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve tightened the money supply and inflation was substantially lower in the 1980s, and hence the value of the U.S. dollar stabilized.

Over the thirty-year period from 1981 to 2009, the U.S. dollar lost over half its value. This is because the Federal Reserve has targeted not zero inflation, but a low, stable rate of inflation - between 1987 and 1997, the rate of inflation was approximately 3.5%, and between 1997 and 2007 it was approximately 2%. The so-called "Great Moderation" of economic conditions since the 1970s is credited to monetary policy targeting price stability.

There is ongoing debate about whether central banks should target zero inflation (which would mean a constant value for the U.S. dollar over time) or low, stable inflation (which would mean a continuously but slowly declining value of the dollar over time, as is the case now). Although some economists are in favor of a zero inflation policy and therefore a constant value for the U.S. dollar, others contend that such a policy limits the ability of the central bank to control interest rates and stimulate the economy when needed.

Exchange rates

Historical exchange rates

{|class="wikitable" |+ Currency units per U.S. dollar, averaged over the year. * = value at start of year. 1864 ! !! 1970* !! 1980* || 1985* !! 1990* !! 1993 !! 1999 !! 2000 !! 2001 !! 2002 !! 2003 !! 2004 !! 2005 !! 2006 !! 2007 !! 2008 !! 2009 !! 2010 |- | Euro || - || - || - || 0.8343 || 0.8551 || 0.9387 || 1.0832 || 1.1171 || 1.0578 || 0.8833 || 0.8040 || 0.8033 || 0.7960 || 0.7293 || 0.6791 || 0.7176 || 0.6739 |- | Japanese yen || 357.6 || 240.45 || 250.35 || 146.25 || 111.08 || 113.73 || 107.80 || 121.57 || 125.22 || 115.94 || 108.15 || 110.11 || 116.31 || 117.76 || 103.39 || 93.68 || 87.78 |- | Pound sterling || 0.4164 || 0.4484 || 0.8613 || 0.6207 || 0.6660 || 0.6184 || 0.6598 || 0.6946 || 0.6656 || 0.6117 || 0.5456 || 0.5493 || 0.5425 || 0.4995 || 0.5392 || 0.6385 || 0.4548 |- | Canadian dollar || 1.081 || 1.168 || 1.321 || 1.1605 || 1.2902 || 1.4858 || 1.4855 || 1.5487 || 1.5704 || 1.4008 || 1.3017 || 1.2115 || 1.1340 || 1.0734 || 1.0660 || 1.1412 || 1.0298 |- | Mexican peso|| - || 2.80¹ || 2.67¹ || 2.50¹ || 3.1237 || 9.553 || 9.459 || 9.337 || 9.663 || 10.793 || 11.290 || 10.894 || 10.906 || 10.928 || 11.143 || 13.498 || 12.623 |- | Renminbi yuan|| - || 1.7050 || 2.9366 || 4.7832 || 5.7620 || 8.2783 || 8.2784 || 8.2770 || 8.2771 || 8.2772 || 8.2768 || 8.1936 || 7.9723 || 7.6058 || 6.9477 || 6.8307 || 6.7696 |- | Singapore dollar || - || - || 2.179 || 1.903 || 1.6158 || 1.6951 || 1.7361 || 1.7930 || 1.7908 || 1.7429 || 1.6902 || 1.6639 || 1.5882 || 1.5065 || 1.4140 || 1.4543 || 1.3629 |- | South African Rand || - || - ||- ||2.5600 || 3.2729 ||6.1191 || 6.9468 || 8.6093 || 10.5176 || 7.5550 ||6.4402 ||6.3606 || - ||7.0477 ||8.2480 || 8.4117 || 7.3161 |-

|colspan="18" |_{Source: Last 4 years 2005-2002 2003-2000 1996-1999 1993-1996 1990 1970-1992 1970-1985 Canada, China, Mexico 1. Mexican peso values prior to 1993 revaluation. |}}

See also

Counterfeit United States currency

International use of the American dollar

Strong dollar policy

References

External links

U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing

U.S. Currency and Coin Outstanding and in Circulation

U.S. Treasury page with images of all current banknotes

American Currency Exhibit at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank

Relative values of the US dollar, from 1790 to 2006

Summary of BEP Production Statistics

U.S. Currency tracking experiment

50 Factors that Affect the Value of the US Dollar – Currency Trading.net

Images of U.S. currency and coins

U.S. Bureau of Engraving: Banknotes

U.S. Mint: Image Library

Dollar Dollar Category:Currencies of British Overseas Territories Category:Historical currencies of the United States Category:Currencies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

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Coordinates	50°15′″N19°0′″N
Name	Gerald Celente
Birth date	November 29, 1946
Birth place	The Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Trend forecaster
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	White
Parents	}}

Gerald Celente (born November 29, 1946) is an American trend forecaster, publisher of the ''Trends Journal'', business consultant and author who makes predictions about the global financial markets and other events of historical importance. Celente has described himself as a "political atheist" and "citizen of the world". He has appeared as a guest on television news shows such as ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', ''The Today Show'', ''Good Morning America'', ''CBS Morning News'', ''The Glenn Beck Show'', ''NBC Nightly News'', ''The Alex Jones Show'' and ''Russia Today''.''

Background

Celente was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York. He had early political experience running a mayoral campaign in Yonkers, New York and served as executive assistant to the secretary of the New York State Senate, which Celente called the worst job he ever had. From 1973 to 1979 Celente traveled between Chicago and Washington D.C. as a government affairs specialist. In 1980 Celente founded The Trends Research Institute (at first called the Socio-Economic Research Institute of America), now located in Kingston, New York, publisher of the ''Trends Journal'' which forecasts and analyzes business, socioeconomic, political, and other trends.

Forecasting

His forecasts since 1993 have included predictions about terrorism, economic collapses and war. More recent forecasts involve fascism in the United States, food riots and tax revolts. Celente has long predicted global anti-Americanism, a failing economy and immigration woes in the U.S. In December 2007 Celente wrote, "Failing banks, busted brokerages, toppled corporate giants, bankrupt cities, states in default, foreign creditors cashing out of US securities ... whatever the spark, the stage is set for panic in the streets" and "Just as the Twin Towers collapsed from the top down, so too will the U.S. economy ... when the giant firms fall, they’ll crush the man on the street." He has also predicted tax revolts. In November 2008 Celente appeared on Fox Business Network and predicted economic depression, tax rebellions and food riots in the United States by 2012. Celente also predicted an "economic 9/11" and a "panic of 2008."

In 2009 Celente predicted turmoil which he described as "Obamageddon" and he was a popular guest on conservative cable-TV shows such as ''Fox News Sunday'' and Glenn Beck's television program. In April 2009 Celente wrote, "Wall Street controls our financial lives; the media manipulates our minds. These systems cannot be changed from within. There is no alternative. Without a revolution, these institutions will bankrupt the country, keep fighting failed wars, start new ones, and hold us in perpetual intellectual subjugation." He appeared on the ''Glenn Beck'' show and criticized the U.S. stimulus plan of 2009, calling government controlled capitalism "fascism" and saying shopping malls in the U.S. would become "ghost malls." Celente has said, "smaller communities, the smaller groups, the smaller states, the more self-sustaining communities, will 'weather the crisis in style' as big cities and hypertrophic suburbias descend into misery and conflict," and forecasts "a downsizing of America."

Revolution in the USA

On Russia Today, he predicted that the USA would face a revolution.

Neosurvivalism

Celente's website has stated that:

Predictions

2009

"The Crash of '09 was as dramatic as the crash of '29. The New Depression had begun." (Trends Journal, Summer 2008, pg. 12)

2010

Some areas of the U.S. are experiencing resurgences in real estate values due to highly localized factors, and some investors profit from this. However, the rises will almost all stop and reverse with time, and the overall national trend in real estate values is downward. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 8)

Ghost malls have become a common sight across America. Especially hard-hit are big chain stores (Sears, Home Depot, etc.). (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 8)

2011

Developers have begun rehabbing some of the ghost malls for more productive uses. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 9)

2012

The economic policies of the U.S. government over the past few years have failed to fix America's fundamental problems and have merely papered over them and in fact made them worse. By 2012, the "American Empire" is collapsing. In the U.S., basic staple goods like quality food and water are too expensive for most people to afford,(T.J. Summer 08, pg. 1) and "food riots" happen across the country (T.J. Summer 09, pg.1). Major American cities look like disaster zones, and mass homelessness exists across the country. Crime is rampant, with much of it being directed at the rich. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 1) Kidnappings and ransomings of rich people are on the rise. Average people fed up with big government, high taxes and out-of-control spending join tax revolts. (T.J. Summer 09, pg. 1) The world is also experiencing major environmental problems and "the blackest of plagues." The global financial system has also "melted down" and the situation is very bad outside the U.S.(T.J. Summer 08, pg. 1) The advanced industrial economies collapse first, and their sagging consumer spending drags down the export-based economies of emerging economies next.(T.J. Summer 09, pg. 2) The economy is as bad as it was during the Great Depression in many ways. In spite of all this, the U.S. government, power elites, and mainstream media continue to insist that the fundamentals of the world economy are sound, and that official policies can lead to a recovery. A growing number of average people, however, doubt this. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 1)

While the Mayan and Hopi prophecies of global destruction do not come to pass, 2012 is indeed a watershed year that sees the death of an ailing and unsustainable global economic system and lifestyle and its replacement with something better. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 2)

By 2012, Obama is viewed by most as a stale president who sold himself as a fresh, visionary candidate in 2008 and instead proved to be a servant of the big corporations and the military-industrial complex like his predecessors.(T.J. Summer 09, pg. 5) His economic policies only delayed disaster and in fact have made the situation worse: Expansionary monetary policy and the various government bailouts and stimulus programs create a "Bailout Bubble" that invariably bursts in a cataclysm for the U.S. and world economy.(T.J. Summer 09, pg. 11) Obama blames other factors for this and might have even tried to start a war by 2012 to distract attention from the domestic misery.(T.J. Summer 09, pg. 12) Obama's foreign policy has also failed to accomplish anything significant on the world stage, and Pakistan is a mess and the Afghan war continues to drag on without hope of conclusion.(T.J. Summer 09, pg. 12)

In the 2012 U.S. elections, online news sites, bloggers and independent journalists wield as much influence on voters as mainstream media outlets (TV, cable, magazines, newspapers) for the first time. This breaks the corporate and moneyed stranglehold on American politics and allows a third party to attain nation-level recognition. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 5)

Broad future trends

Americans will adapt to lower standards of living and will travel less, both on a daily basis and for vacations. Higher fuel costs, advances in telecommuting and an aging American population will push many more people to work from home or close to home. Walking-distance communities will be constructed and will become popular. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 7)

Geographically isolated resort destinations like Las Vegas will wither due to higher fuel costs, lower American incomes and increased overseas competition while vacation spots closer to population centers will revive. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 9)

Government-run lotteries, on the other hand, will thrive. (T.J. Summer 08, pg. 9)

In America and to a lesser extent overseas, consumer spending habits will be motivated out of fear and escapism. Businesses that capitalize upon this will succeed. (T.J. Summer 09, pg. 24)

Publications

''Trend Tracking: The System to Profit from Today's Trends'' (1991), ISBN 978-0446392877

''Trends 2000: How to Prepare for and Profit from the Changes of the 21st Century'' (1997), ISBN 978-0446519014

''What Zizi Gave Honeyboy: A True Story about Love, Wisdom, and the Soul of America'' (2002), ISBN 978-0066212661

References

External links

trendsresearch.com

geraldcelente.com

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:American economics writers Category:Futurologists Category:People from the Bronx

de:Gerald Celente fr:Gerald Celente pl:Gerald Celente fi:Gerald Celente sv:Gerald Celente

Coordinates	50°15′″N19°0′″N
names	John Williams
background	non_performing_personnel
birth name	John Towner Williams
born	February 08, 1932
origin	Flushing, Queens, New York, U.S.
occupation	Composer, pianist, conductor
years active	1952–present
spouse	Barbara Ruick (1956–74) (deceased)Samantha Winslow (1980–present) }}

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the ''Star Wars'' saga, ''Jaws,'' ''Superman,'' the ''Indiana Jones'' films, ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,'' ''Hook,'' ''Jurassic Park,'' ''Schindler's List,'' ''Home Alone'' and the first three ''Harry Potter'' films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two of Spielberg's feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, the ''NBC Nightly News,'' the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, the DreamWorks Pictures production logo, and the television series ''Lost in Space.'' Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 45 Academy Award nominations, Williams is, together with composer Alfred Newman, the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney. John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Early life and family

John Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in Flushing (Queens), New York, the son of Esther and John Williams, Sr. His father was a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet.

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U.S. Air Force, where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Band as part of his assignments.

After his Air Force service ended in 1955, Williams moved to New York City and entered the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time, Williams worked as a jazz pianist in New York's many clubs and eventually studios, most notably for composer Henry Mancini. His fellow session musicians included Rolly Bundock on bass, Jack Sperling on drums, and Bob Bain on guitar—the same lineup featured on the ''Mr. Lucky'' television series. Williams was known as "Little Johnny Love" Williams during the early 1960s, and he served as music arranger and bandleader for a series of popular music albums with the singer Frankie Laine.

Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death on March 3, 1974. The Williamses had three children: Jennifer (born 1956), Mark (born 1958), and Joseph (born 1960). Williams' younger son is one of the various lead singers the band Toto has had over the decades. John Williams married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, on July 21, 1980.

John Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.

Film and television scoring

While skilled in a variety of twentieth-century compositional idioms, Williams's most familiar style may be described as a form of neoromanticism, inspired by the same large-scale orchestral music of the late 19th century—especially the compositions of Richard Wagner and its concept of leitmotif—that inspired his film music predecessors.

After his studies at Juilliard, Williams returned to Los Angeles, where he began working as an orchestrator at film studios. Among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. Williams recorded with Henry Mancini on the film scores of ''Peter Gunn'' (1959), ''Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), and ''Charade'' (1963). (Williams actually played the well-recognized opening riff to Mancini's ''Peter Gunn'' theme.) Williams (often credited as "Johnny Williams") also composed the theme music for various TV programs in the 1960s: The pilot episode of ''Gilligan's Island,'' the ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'', ''Lost in Space'' (1965–68), ''The Time Tunnel'' (1966–67), and ''Land of the Giants'' (the last three created by the prolific TV producer, Irwin Allen).

Working at Universal Studios, Williams shared music credit on a number of films, the most notable being ''The Creature from the Black Lagoon'' in 1954. Williams's first major film composition was for the B movie ''Daddy-O'' in 1958, and his first screen credit came two years later in ''Because They're Young.'' He soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first nomination for an Academy Award for his film score for ''Valley of the Dolls'' (1967), and then was nominated again for his score for ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969). Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his adapted score for the film ''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971). In 1972 he composed the score for the Robert Altman psychological thriller ''Images'' (recorded in collaboration with noted percussionist Stomu Yamashta) which earned him another nomination in the category 'Best Music, Original Dramatic Score' at the 1973 Academy Awards. During the early 1970s, Williams' prominence grew thanks to his work for now–film producer Irwin Allen's disaster films, composing the scores for ''The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972) and ''The Towering Inferno'' (1974). In addition, he scored Universal's ''Earthquake'' (1974) for director Mark Robson, completing a "trinity" of scores for the highest grossing "disaster films" of the decade. He also wrote a very memorable score to ''The Cowboys'' (1972), a western starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell.

In 1974, Williams was approached by director Steven Spielberg to compose the music for his feature directorial debut, ''The Sugarland Express.'' The young director had been impressed with Williams's score for the movie ''The Reivers'' (1969), and Spielberg was convinced that Williams could compose the musical sound that he desired for any of his films. They teamed up again a year later for Spielberg's second film, ''Jaws.'' Widely considered to be a classic suspense film, its film score's ominous two-note motif has become synonymous with sharks and approaching danger. The score for ''Jaws'' earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first one for an original composition.

Shortly thereafter, Williams and Spielberg began a long collaboration for their next feature film together, ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (''CE3K,'' 1977). In an unusual step for a Hollywood film, Spielberg and Williams developed their script and musical concepts simultaneously, as in the film these entwine very closely together. During their two-year-long collaboration, they crafted its distinctive five-note figure that functions both in the background music and as the communications signal of the film's extraterrestrials. Williams also used a system of musical hand signals in ''CE3K'' that were based on hand signs created by John Curwen and refined by Zoltan Kodaly.

During the same period, Spielberg recommended Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious space epic, ''Star Wars'' (1977). Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in motion picture history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotif. Both the film and its soundtrack were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time—and Williams won another Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1980, Williams returned to score ''The Empire Strikes Back'', where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire. The original ''Star Wars'' trilogy concluded with the 1983 film ''Return of the Jedi'', for which Williams's score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme", "Parade of the Ewoks", and "Luke and Leia". Both scores earned Williams Academy Award nominations.

Williams worked with director Richard Donner to score the 1978 film ''Superman''. The score's heroic and romantic themes, particularly the main march, the Superman fanfare and the love theme, known as "Can You Read My Mind", would appear in the four sequel films. For the 1981 film ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', created and directed by Lucas and Spielberg, Williams wrote a rousing main theme known as "The Raiders March" to accompany the film's hero, Indiana Jones. He also composed separate themes to represent the Ark of the Covenant, the character Marion, and the Nazi villains of the story. Additional themes were featured in his scores to the sequel films ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984), ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008). Williams composed an emotional and sensitive score to Spielberg's 1982 fantasy film ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. The music conveys the film's benign, childlike sense of innocence, particularly with a spirited theme for the freedom of flight, and a soft string-based, harp-featured theme for the friendship between characters E.T. and Elliott. The film's final chase and farewell sequence marks a rare instance in film history in which the on-screen action was re-edited to conform to the composer's musical interpretation. Williams was awarded a fourth Academy Award for this score.

The 1985 film ''The Color Purple'' is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score ''Twilight Zone: The Movie,'' but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer. The Williams-Spielberg collaboration resumed with the director's 1987 film ''Empire of the Sun,'' and has continued to the present, spanning genres from science fiction thrillers (1993's ''Jurassic Park),'' to somber tragedies (1993's ''Schindler's List'', 2005's ''Munich),'' to Eastern-tinged melodramas (2005's ''Memoirs of a Geisha'', directed by Rob Marshall). Spielberg has said, "I call it an honorable privilege to regard John Williams as a friend."

In 1999, George Lucas launched the first of a series of prequels to the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy. Williams was asked to score all three films, starting with ''The Phantom Menace.'' Along with themes from the previous movies, Williams created new themes to be used as leitmotifs in ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005). Most notable of these was "Duel of the Fates", an aggressive choral movement utilizing harsh Sanskrit lyrics that broadened the style of music used in the Star Wars films. Also of note was "Anakin's Theme", which begins as an innocent childlike melody and morphs insidiously into a quote of the sinister "Imperial March" of the prior trilogy. For ''Episode II,'' Williams composed "Across the Stars", a love theme for Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker (mirroring the love theme composed for the second film of the previous trilogy, ''The Empire Strikes Back''). The final installment combined many of the themes created for the series' previous movies, including "The Emperor's Theme", "The Imperial March", "Across the Stars", "Duel of the Fates", "The Force Theme", "Rebel Fanfare", "Luke's Theme", and "Princess Leia's Theme", as well as new themes for General Grievous and the film's climax, entitled "Battle of the Heroes." Few composers have scored an entire series of this magnitude: The combined scores of all six ''Star Wars'' films add up to more than 14 hours of orchestral music.

In the new millennium, Williams was asked to score the film adaptations of the widely successful book series, ''Harry Potter''. He went on to score the first three installments of the film franchise. As with his ''Superman'' theme, the most important theme from Williams's scores for the adaptations of J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series, dubbed ''Hedwig's Theme'', has been used in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films (''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'', ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' and ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2''), scored by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat respectively. Like the main themes from ''Star Wars'', ''Jaws'', ''Superman'', and ''Indiana Jones'', fans have come to identify the ''Harry Potter'' films with Williams's original compositions. Williams was asked to return to the film franchise to score the final installment, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'', but director David Yates stated that "their schedules simply did not align" as he would have had to provide Williams with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible.

In 2006, ''Superman Returns'' was completed under the direction of Bryan Singer, best known for directing the first two movies in the ''X-Men'' series. Although Singer did not request Williams to compose a score for the intentionally Donner-esque film, he employed the skills of ''X2'' composer John Ottman to incorporate Williams's original ''Superman'' theme, as well as those for Lois Lane and Smallville. Don Davis performed a similar role for ''Jurassic Park III'', recommended to the producers by Williams himself. (Film scores by Ottman and to a lesser extent Davis are often compared to those of Williams, as both use similar styles of composition.)

In 2008, Williams returned to the ''Indiana Jones'' series to score the fourth film—''The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''. He received a Grammy nomination for his work on the film. During 2008, he also composed music for two documentaries, ''Warner at War'', and ''A Timeless Call'', the latter of which was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Williams also composed the score to ''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn,'' the first film in the upcoming ''Tintin'' trilogy based on the comics by Hergé. This film continues his long-time collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, and he will work with producer Peter Jackson for the first time. The film is currently in post production. Williams is also scheduled to score Spielberg's upcoming films ''War Horse'' (2011) and ''Lincoln'' (2012).

Conducting and performing

From 1980 to 1993, Williams succeeded Arthur Fiedler as Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Williams never met Fiedler in person but spoke with him by telephone. His arrival as the new leader of the Pops in the spring of 1980 allowed him to devote part of the Pops' first PBS broadcast of the season to presenting his new compositions for ''The Empire Strikes Back,'' in addition to conducting many Fiedler audience favorites.

Williams almost ended his tenure with the Pops in 1984. Considered a customary practice of opinion, some players hissed while sight-reading a new Williams composition in rehearsal; Williams abruptly left the session and turned in his resignation. He initially cited mounting conflicts with his film composing schedule, but later admitted a perceived lack of discipline in and respect from the Pops' ranks, culminating in this latest instance. After entreaties by the management and personal apologies from the musicians, Williams withdrew his resignation and continued as principal conductor for nine more years. In 1995 he was succeeded by Keith Lockhart, the former associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Williams is now the Laureate Conductor of the Pops, thus maintaining his affiliation with its parent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Williams leads the Pops on several occasions each year, particularly during their Holiday Pops season and typically for a week of concerts in May. He conducts an annual Film Night at both Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, where he frequently enlists the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, official chorus of the BSO.

Williams has written many concert pieces, including a symphony; a Concerto for Horn written for Dale Clevenger, principal hornist of the Chicago Symphony; a Concerto for Clarinet written for Michele Zukovsky (Principal Clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) in 1991; a sinfonietta for wind ensemble; a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1994; concertos for the flute and violin recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra; and a trumpet concerto, which was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra and their principal trumpet Michael Sachs in September 1996. His bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees", which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic and principal bassoon player Judith LeClair in 1995, was recorded for Sony Classical by Williams with LeClair and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also an accomplished pianist, as can be heard in various scores in which he provides solos, as well as a handful of European classical music recordings.

Williams was the subject of an hour-long documentary for the BBC in 1980, and was featured in a story for ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 in 1983.

In 1985, Williams was commissioned by NBC to compose a television news music package for various network news spots. The package, which Williams named "The Mission", consists of four movements, two of which are still used heavily by NBC today for ''The Today Show'', ''NBC Nightly News'', and ''Meet the Press''. Williams also composed the "Liberty Fanfare" for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, "We're Lookin' Good!" for the Special Olympics in celebration of the 1987 International Summer Games, and themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2002 Olympic games. His most recent concert work, "Seven for Luck", for soprano and orchestra, is a seven-piece song cycle based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. "Seven for Luck" was given its world premiere by the Boston Symphony under Williams with soprano Cynthia Haymon.

Williams makes annual appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and took part as conductor and composer in the orchestra's opening gala concerts for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003.

In April 2005, Williams and the Boston Pops performed "The Force Theme" from ''Star Wars'' at opening day in Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox, having won their first World Series championship since 1918, received their championship rings. For Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, Williams conducted a brass-and-drum ensemble through a new dissonant arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner."

In April 2004, February 2006, and September 2007, he conducted the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The initial program was intended to be a one-time special event, and featured Williams's medley of Oscar-winning film scores first performed at the previous year's Academy Awards. Its unprecedented popularity led to two concerts in 2006: fundraising gala events featuring personal recollections by film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Continuing demand fueled three more concerts in 2007, which all sold out. These featured a tribute to the musicals of film director Stanley Donen, and had the distinction of serving as the opening event of the New York Philharmonic season. After a four-season absence, Williams is scheduled to conduct the Philharmonic once again in October 2011.

Notable compositions

Film scores

{| style="width:100%;" |- valign="top"

The following list consists of select films for which John Williams wrote the score and/or songs.

2010s

''Lincoln'' (2012)

''War Horse'' (2011)

''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn'' (2011)

''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2'' (2011) Music composed by Alexandre Desplat. The cues "Leaving Hogwarts" and "Hedwig's Theme" were used from ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'', and another variant of "Hedwig's Theme" was used from ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''

2000s

''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' (2008) At the 51st Grammy Awards, John Williams won an award for the Mutt Williams theme

''Munich'' (2005) Oscar nomination, Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition; and Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack Album

''Memoirs of a Geisha'' (2005) Oscar Nomination, Grammy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA winner

''War of the Worlds'' (2005) Grammy nomination

''Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) double Grammy nominations

''The Terminal'' (2004)

''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' (2004) Grammy and Oscar nominations (soundtrack)

''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002) Grammy nomination/Adapted and conducted by William Ross

''Minority Report'' (2002)

''Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones'' (2002)

''Catch Me if You Can'' (2002) Oscar nomination

''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' (2001) Oscar nomination and double Grammy nominations

''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'' (2001) Grammy and Oscar nominations

''The Patriot'' (2000) Oscar nomination

1990s

''Angela's Ashes'' (1999) Grammy and Oscar nomination

''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' (1999) Grammy nomination

''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998) Golden Globe, Grammy, and Oscar nominations

''Stepmom'' (1998)

''Amistad'' (1997) Grammy and Oscar nominations

''Seven Years in Tibet'' (1997)

''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' (1997)

''Rosewood'' (1997)

''Sleepers'' (1996) Oscar nomination

''Sabrina'' (1995) double Oscar nominations

''Nixon'' (1995) Oscar nomination

''Schindler's List'' (1993) Oscar, Grammy, and BAFTA winner

''Jurassic Park'' (1993)

''Far and Away'' (1992)

''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' (1992)

''JFK'' (1991) Oscar nomination

''Hook'' (1991) Grammy and Oscar nominations

''Home Alone'' (1990) double Oscar nominations

''Presumed Innocent'' (1990)

''Stanley & Iris'' (1990)

1980s

''Always'' (1989)

''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989) Oscar nomination

''Born on the Fourth of July'' (1989) Oscar nomination

''The Accidental Tourist'' (1988) Oscar nomination

''The Witches of Eastwick'' (1987) Oscar nomination

''Superman IV: The Quest for Peace'' (1987) Adapted and conducted by Alexander Courage

''Empire of the Sun'' (1987) Oscar nomination, BAFTA winner

''SpaceCamp'' (1986)

''The River'' (1984) Oscar nomination

''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984) Oscar nomination

''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' (1983) Oscar nomination

''Monsignor'' (1982)

''Yes, Giorgio'' (1982) Song only – "If We Were In Love" Oscar and Golden Globe nomination

''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982) Golden Globe, Oscar, and BAFTA winner (soundtrack)

''Heartbeeps'' (1981)

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981) Oscar and double Grammy nominations

''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) Oscar and double Grammy nominations, BAFTA winner

1970s

''Dracula'' (1979)

''1941'' (1979)

''Superman'' (1978) Oscar nomination and double Grammy nominations

''The Fury'' (1978)

''Jaws 2'' (1978)

''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977) Oscar nomination

''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' (1977) Oscar, Golden Globe & BAFTA winner

''Black Sunday'' (1977)

''The Missouri Breaks'' (1976)

''Midway'' (1976)

''Family Plot'' (1976)

''The Eiger Sanction'' (1975)

''Jaws'' (1975) Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar winner

''The Sugarland Express'' (1974)

''Earthquake'' (1974)

''The Towering Inferno'' (1974) Oscar nomination

''Tom Sawyer'' (1973) Oscar nomination shared with Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman

''The Paper Chase'' (1973)

''The Long Goodbye'' (1973), also title song.

''Cinderella Liberty'' (1973) Oscar nomination

''The Cowboys'' (1972)

''The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972) Oscar nomination

''Images'' (1972) Oscar nomination

''Fiddler on the Roof'' (1971) Oscar winner (score adaptation)

''Jane Eyre'' (1970)

''Storia di una donna'' (1970) His only score written for a foreign movie

1960s

''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1969) Oscar nomination

''The Reivers'' (1969) Oscar nomination

''Heidi'' (1968)

''Fitzwilly'' (1967)

''A Guide for the Married Man'' (1967)

''Valley of the Dolls'' (1967) Oscar nomination (songs written by André and Dory Previn)

''John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!'' (1965)

''The Rare Breed'' (1966)

''How to Steal a Million'' (1966)

''None But the Brave'' (1965)

''The Killers'' (1964)

''Gidget Goes to Rome'' (1963)

''Diamond Head'' (1963)

''Bachelor Flat'' (1962)

''The Secret Ways'' (1961)

''I Passed for White'' (1960)

''Because They're Young'' (1960)

1950s

''Daddy-O'' (1958)

The Olympics

Williams has composed music for four Olympic Games:

"Olympic Fanfare and Theme" – 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles

* Written specifically for the opening ceremonies. In a 1996 re-release, the opening trumpet fanfare was replaced with "Bugler's Dream", a previous Olympic Theme written by Leo Arnaud. This recording has been used as the theme for NBC's Olympic coverage ever since.

"The Olympic Spirit" – 1988 Summer Olympics, Seoul

* Commissioned by NBC Sports for their television coverage

"Summon the Heroes" – 1996 Summer Olympics, Atlanta, Georgia

* Written in commemoration of the Centennial of the Modern Olympic Games. Premiering on July 19, 1996, the piece features heavy use of the brass and wind sections and is approximately six minutes in length. Principal Boston Pops trumpeter Timothy Morrison played the opening solo on the album recording. It has been arranged for various types of ensembles, including wind ensembles. This theme is now used prevalently by NBC for intros and outros to commercial breaks of the Olympics.

"Call of the Champions" – 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah

Television themes

For NBC (United States):

* ''NBC News''—"The Mission"

** ''NBC Nightly News''

** ''The Today Show''

** ''Meet the Press''

''NBC Sunday Night Football''

''Amazing Stories''

''Checkmate (TV series)''

''Land of the Giants''

''Lost in Space''

''The Time Tunnel''

Theme for ''Great Performances''

Score for ''Gilligan's Island'' (first season)

Concerti

"Concerto for Flute and Orchestra" (1969), premiered in 1981 by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin

"Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra" (1976 rev. 1998), premiered in 1981 by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Slatkin

"Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra" (1985), premiered by the tubist Chester Schmitz of the Boston Pops for their 100th anniversary

"Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra" (1991), recorded by Michele Zukovsky for whom it was written

"Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (The Five Sacred Trees)" (1993), recorded by Judith LeClaire with the London Symphony Orchestra

"Concerto for Cello and Orchestra" (1994)

"Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra" (1996)

"Elegy for Cello and Piano" (1997), later arranged for Cello and Orchestra (2002). Based on a theme from ''Seven Years in Tibet''

"TreeSong, Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra" (2000)

"Heartwood: Lyric Sketches for Cello and Orchestra" (2002)

"Concerto for Horn and Orchestra" (2003). Premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in November 2003

"Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola" (2007). Premiered at Tanglewood in August 2007

"Concerto for Viola and Orchestra" (2009)

"Concerto for Harp and Orchestra: On Willows and Birches" (2009)

"Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra" (2011)

"La Jolla Quartet: A Chamber Piece for Violin, Cello, Clarinet, and Harp" (2011). Premieres August 2011 at the La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest (Also has worked with Yo Yo Ma)

Celebration pieces and other concert works

"Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra" (1965). Available for download in MP3 at the United States Marine Band website.

"Symphony #1" (1966), premiered by Houston Symphony under André Previn in 1968. Williams reworked the piece in 1988 (performed by San Francisco Symphony during a visit as guest conductor in early 1990s)

''Thomas and The King'' (musical, 1975), premiered in London. Recorded in 1981 by the Original Cast.

"Jubilee 350 Fanfare" (1980), premiered by the Boston Pops conducted by Williams. Piece celebrating the 350th anniversary of the City of Boston

"Liberty Fanfare" (1986), premiered on July 4, 1986 by the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Piece composed for the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty

"A Hymn to New England" (1987)

"Fanfare for Michael Dukakis" (1988). Composed for Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign and premiered at the 1988 Democratic National Convention

"For New York" (Variations on theme by Leonard Bernstein) (1988). Composed for Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday celebrations

"Celebrate Discovery" (1990). Composed for the 500th anniversary celebration of the arrival of Columbus in America

"Sound the Bells!" (1993)

"Song for World Peace" (1994)

"Variations on Happy Birthday" (1995)

"American Journey" (1999). Portions premiered as accompaniment to a film by Steven Spielberg as part of the Millennium Celebration in Washington D.C. December 31, 1999

"Three Pieces for Solo Cello" (2001)

"Soundings" (2003), composed for the Walt Disney Concert Hall

"Star Spangled Banner" (2007), special arrangement for game 1 of the 2007 World Series played by the Boston Pops Orchestra

"A Timeless Call" (2008). Score to the Steven Spielberg war veteran tribute film shown on day 3 of the 2008 Democratic National Convention

"Air and Simple Gifts", performed by Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Gabriela Montero on piano, and Anthony McGill on clarinet. Composed for the Barack Obama 2009 presidential inauguration

chamber music piece for the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest in California

Awards

John Williams has won five Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. He has been nominated for 21 Golden Globes and 59 Grammys. With 45 Oscar nominations, Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person, and is the second most nominated person in the history of the Academy Awards, tied with late fellow film composer Alfred Newman and behind only Walt Disney's 59. Forty of Williams' Oscar nominations are for Best Original Music Score and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score and one for Best Adapted Score ''(Fiddler on the Roof).''

Williams has received three Emmy Awards and five nominations, six BAFTAs, twenty-one Grammy Awards, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2004 he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classical Brit award in 2005 for his soundtrack work of the previous year.

Notably, Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for his scores for ''Star Wars'', ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', ''Superman'', ''The Empire Strikes Back'', ''E.T. The Extraterrestrial'', ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), ''Munich'' (2005), and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.'' The competition includes not only composers of film scores, but also composers of instrumental music of any genre, including composers of classical fare such as symphonies and chamber music.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee accorded Mr. Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order.

In 2010, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House in Washington for his achievements in symphonic music for motion pictures, and "as a pre-eminent composer and conductor [whose] scores have defined and inspired modern movie-going for decades."

AFI

Williams's richly thematic and highly popular 1977 score to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was selected in 2005 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American movie score of all time. His scores for ''Jaws'' and ''E.T.'' also appeared on the list, at No. 6 and #14, respectively. Other Williams scores for the following films were nominated for the list:

''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001)

''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977)

''The Cowboys'' (1972)

''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' (2001)

''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981)

''Schindler's List'' (1993)

''Superman'' (1978)

''The Witches of Eastwick'' (1987)

Academy Awards

|- | 1967 | ''Valley of the Dolls'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | rowspan=2 | 1969 | ''Goodbye, Mr Chips'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | ''The Reivers'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1971 | ''Fiddler on the Roof'' | Best Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1972 | ''Images'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | ''The Poseidon Adventure'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | rowspan=3 | 1973 | ''Cinderella Liberty'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | "Nice to Be Around" (from ''Cinderella Liberty'') | Best Original Song | |- | ''Tom Sawyer'' | Best Score Adaptation | |- | 1974 | ''The Towering Inferno'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1977 | ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1978 | ''Superman'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1982 | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Original Score | |- | "If We Were in Love" (from ''Yes, Giorgio'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1983 | ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1984 | ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''The River'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1987 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''The Witches of Eastwick'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1988 | ''The Accidental Tourist'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1989 | ''Born on the Fourth of July'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1990 | ''Home Alone'' | Best Original Score | |- | "Somewhere in My Memory" (from ''Home Alone'') | Best Original Song | |- | rowspan=2 | 1991 | ''JFK'' | Best Original Score | |- | "When You're Alone" (from ''Hook'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=3 | 1995 | ''Nixon'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | ''Sabrina'' | Best Original Musical or Comedy Score | |- | "Moonlight" (from ''Sabrina'') | Best Original Song | |- | 1996 | ''Sleepers'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1997 | ''Amistad'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1998 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Original Dramatic Score | |- | 1999 | ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2000 | ''The Patriot'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 2001 | ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2002 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2004 | ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Munich'' | Best Original Score |

BAFTA Awards

|- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Film Music | |- | rowspan=2 | 1978 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Film Music | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1982 | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1988 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Film Music | |- | 1998 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Film Music | |- | 2002 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Film Music | |- | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Film Music |

Emmy Awards

|- | 1962 | ''Alcoa Premiere'' | Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television | |- | 1963 | ''Alcoa Premiere'' | Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music | |- | 1968 | ''Heidi'' | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | |- | 1971 | ''Jane Eyre'' | Outstanding Achievement in Musical Composition | |- | 2002 | The 74th Academy Awards | Outstanding Music Direction | |- | 2009 | ''Great Performances'' | Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music |

Golden Globe Awards

|- | 1973 | ''The Poseidon Adventure'' | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1974 | ''Cinderella Liberty'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Tom Sawyer'' (with Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman) | Best Original Score | |- | rowspan=2 | 1975 | ''Earthquake'' | Best Original Score | |- | ''Jaws'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1977 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1978 | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1979 | ''Superman'' | Best Original Score | |- | | 1981 | ''Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1982 | ''E.T.'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1983 | "If We Were In Love" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Yes, Giorgio'' | Best Original Song | |- | 1985 | ''The River'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1988 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1989 | ''The Accidental Tourist'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1990 | ''Born on the Fourth of July'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1994 | ''Schindler's List'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1996 | "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Sabrina'' | Best Original Song | |- | 1998 | ''Seven Years in Tibet'' | Best Original Score | |- | 1999 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2000 | ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2002 | ''Artificial Intelligence: AI'' | Best Original Score | |- | 2005 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Original Score |

Grammy awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States.

|- | 1962 | ''Checkmate'' | Best Soundtrack Album or Recording or Score from Motion Picture or Television | |- | 1975 | ''Jaws'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=3 | 1977 | ''Star Wars'' | Best Pop Instrumental Performance | |- | "Main Title" from ''Star Wars'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1978 | "Theme" from ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1979 | "Main Title Theme from Superman" | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Superman'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=2 | 1980 | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | 1981 | ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | rowspan=3 | 1982 | "Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'') | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' | Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |- | "Flying" (Theme from ''E.T.'') | Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording | |- | rowspan=2 | 1984 | ''Olympic Fanfare and Theme'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1988 | ''The Witches of Eastwick'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1989 | ''Empire of the Sun'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1990 | ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1992 | "Somewhere in My Memory" (with Leslie Bricusse) from ''Home Alone'' | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1993 | ''Schindler's List'' | Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or Television | |- | ''Hook'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1994 | ''Jurassic Park'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | 1997 | "Moonlight" (with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) from ''Sabrina'' | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1998 | ''Seven Years in Tibet'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | ''The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 1999 | ''Saving Private Ryan'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | ''Amistad'' | Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television | |- | rowspan=2 | 2000 | "Theme" from ''Angela's Ashes'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2002 | ''Artificial Intelligence: A.I.'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2003 | ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | rowspan=2 | 2004 | ''Catch Me If You Can'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2005 | ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | 2006 | ''Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | rowspan=3 | 2007 | ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | ''Munich'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | |- | "A Prayer For Peace" (Theme from ''Munich'') | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | rowspan=2 | 2009 | "The Adventures of Mutt" from ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' | Best Instrumental Composition | |- | ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' | Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media |

See also

Star Wars music

Superman music

Harry Potter music

References

Further reading

External links

John Williams Fan Network

Music by John Williams

The John Towner Touch (1957) (First solo album)

The John Williams Web Pages

Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame

John Williams Music Network

John Williams at Soundtrackguide.net

John Williams on SoundtrackNet

John Williams Discography at SoundtrackCollector.com

The John Williams Collection

John Williams Sheet Music and Scores

Timelines John Williams (Article Part 1 of 6) Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Critical review of Williams's career by Anthony Tommasini at New York Times (2005)

John Williams Fan Site (Chinese language)

John Williams on Pandora

Category:1932 births Category:People from Queens Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American film score composers Category:American music arrangers Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Harry Potter music Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States Air Force personnel Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

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The death of Osama bin Laden gave rise to various conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and rumors. These include the ideas that bin Laden had been dead for years, or is still alive. Doubts about bin Laden's death were fueled by the U.S. military's disposal of his body at sea, the decision to not release photographic evidence of bin Laden's death, the official story on the raid at the Abbottabad compound have changed or directly contradicts previous assertions, and the 25-minute blackout during the raid on bin Laden's compound during which a live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the U.S. special forces was cut off.

On May 2, 2011, an image purporting to show a dead bin Laden was broadcast on Pakistani television. Though the story was picked up by much of the British press, as well the Associated Press, it was swiftly removed from websites after it was exposed as a fake on Twitter.

On May 4, 2011, the Obama administration announced it would not release any images of bin Laden's dead body. The administration had considered releasing the photos to dispel rumors of a hoax, at the risks of perhaps prompting another attack by al Qaeda and of releasing very graphic images to people who might find them disturbing. Several photos of the aftermath of the raid were given to Reuters by an anonymous Pakistani security official, but though all appeared to be authentic, they were taken after the U.S. forces had left and none of them included evidence regarding bin Laden's fate.

On May 6, 2011, it was reported that an al-Qaeda website acknowledged bin Laden's death. On May 11, Republican senator and Senate Armed Services Committee member Jim Inhofe viewed "gruesome" photographs of bin Laden's corpse, and later confirmed that the body "was him", adding, "He's history".

The people who promote the conspiracy theories have been referred to by bloggers and mainstream media as "deathers", or "proofers".

Criticism of burial at sea

Doubts about bin Laden's death were fueled by the U.S. military's disposal of his body at sea, though U.S. officials maintained that the burial was necessary because arrangements could not be made with any country to bury bin Laden within 24 hours, as dictated by Muslim practice, even though its against Muslim beliefs to have a sea burial. The Muslim practice has not always been followed by the U.S. in the past. For example, the bodies of Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, sons of Saddam Hussein, were held for 11 days before being released for burial. In that instance, however, several Iraqi cities were reluctant to grant a gravesite for Saddam's sons.

The decision to bury bin Laden at sea was questioned by some Islamic scholars and by some 9/11 victims and their relatives. Professor Peter Romaniuk of John Jay College described the burial at sea as a way to forestall further questions. He stated: "Obviously they’re going to be under pressure to show a body or produce further evidence, but this was a way of taking that issue off the table."

Views of individuals and groups

In Pakistan

A number of Abbottabad, Pakistan, residents said they believed the announcement of Osama's death was a U.S. conspiracy against Pakistan. A local lawyer said, "They’re just making it up. Nobody has seen the body." Some residents doubted not only that bin Laden was dead, but also that he ever lived among them. Conspiracy theories abound in the Middle East, according to Lewis Brownstein, professor of international relations and political science at State University of New York.

Senior Pakistani officials disseminated the theory that no firefight ever took place, and that U.S. forces captured bin Laden alive, executed him outside the compound in front of his 12-year-old daughter, and took his body away on a helicopter.

In an interview with CNN's Eliot Spitzer, Hamid Gul former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) stated that he believed bin Laden had died many years ago and that the official death story given out by the American media was a hoax. Furthermore, he thinks the American government knew about bin Laden's death for years, "They must have known that he had died some years ago so they were waiting. They were keeping this story on the ice and they were looking for an appropriate moment and it couldn't be a better moment because President Obama had to fight off his first salvo in his next year's election as he runs for the presidential and for the White House and I think it is a very appropriate time to come out, bring this out of the closet."

Yet another scenario was reported in an article in the Urdu newspaper ''Ausaf'', which quoted military sources as saying, "Bin Laden has been killed somewhere else. But since the US intends to extend the Afghan war into Pakistan, and accuse Pakistan, and obtain a permit for its military's entry into the country, it has devised the [assassination] scenario."

Bashir Qureshi, who lives just a bean field away from where bin Laden was shot and whose windows were blown out in the raid, was dismissive. "Nobody believes it. We've never seen any Arabs around here, he was not here."

In Iran

A number of Iranians said they believed that bin Laden was working with the U.S. during the entire war on terror. Ismail Kosari, an Iranian MP, said that bin Laden:

was just a puppet controlled by the Zionist regime in order to present a violent image of Islam after the September 11 attacks. Bin Laden's death reflects the passing of a temporary US pawn, and symbolizes the end of one era and the beginning of another in American policy in the region.

Another MP, Javad Jahangirzadeh, said he believed that it was the U.S. that had carried out the terrorist attacks, and bin Laden was the main source of help. He stated, "The West has been very pleased with bin Laden's operations in recent years. Now the West was forced to kill him in order to prevent a possible leak of information he had, information more precious than gold." Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi claims that bin Laden died from an illness before the US raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Iran has documents to prove it, "we have credible information that Bin Laden died some time ago of a disease."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "I have exact information that bin Laden was held by the American military for sometime... until the day they killed him he was a prisoner held by them," in a live interview on Iranian state television.

On the internet

Facebook groups formed discussing a rumor, in what has been dubbed the "death hoax". Some blogs theorised that the raid and killing were faked, in a conspiracy to attempt to deflect questions about President Barack Obama's citizenship, or to boost Obama's approval ratings and guarantee him popularity during the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Others

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan stated "If you believe the newest death of OBL, you’re stupid". She referred to America as a "lying, murderous Empire", and told Americans, whom she called "brainwashed," to "put [their] flags away." Sheehan further stated on her Facebook page, "The only proof of [bin Laden] being dead again that we were offered was Obama telling us that there was a DNA match between the man killed by the Navy SEALs and OBL. Even if it is possible to get DNA done so quickly, and the regime did have bin Laden DNA lying around a lab somewhere – where is the empirical proof?" An article in ''The Village Voice'' criticized her suggestion that Osama bin Laden wasn't dead, writing that "she appears to have really lost it."

On Russia Today, radio host Alex Jones claimed that bin Laden had been dead for nearly ten years, and that his body had been kept frozen on ice to be used as a propaganda tool at a future politically expedient time. In 2002, he claimed that an anonymous White House source had told him that bin Laden "is frozen, literally frozen and that he would be rolled out in the future at some date". In a separate interview in 2002, Steve Pieczenik told Jones that bin Laden had been dead for months. Pieczenik also later suggested that bin Laden had died from complications of Marfan Syndrome in 2002. Jones also pointed to similar comments made by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2003, "Yes we have been told by intelligence that they’ve got him, Bush may roll him out but because they exposed that at the election they didn’t do it". Jones further voiced doubts about the official story of bin Laden's death on his radio show telling his listeners, "My friends, this is a complete and total hoax."

The Iranian-controlled network Press TV interviewed journalist Webster Tarpley and researcher Stephen Lendman, who both doubted the official story of bin Laden's death. Tarpley said he believed bin Laden had been dead for a long time. He also claimed that the public was deceived by a staged announcement. Moreover, Lendman said that bin Laden died of natural causes in mid-December 2001—citing former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto (who later stated that she misspoke) —and that bin Laden's supposed death was strategically timed as a distraction so Obama's approval rating would increase, despite a very weak American economy. Both Tarpley and Lendman suggested that Obama's announcement was also an excuse to involve the United States in wars with Pakistan and Middle Eastern nations.

Andrew Napolitano, the host of the Fox Business program ''Freedom Watch'', said bin Laden's death could not be verified and insinuated that Obama was using the death of bin Laden to save his "lousy presidency." On the Fox News morning show ''Fox & Friends'', co-host Steve Doocy challenged the DNA evidence confirming bin Laden's death, saying that the report was "just numbers on a piece of paper". An article in ''Mediaite'' criticized Napolitano's remarks, opining that "such conspiracy talk is ultimately beneath Napolitano and his often enlightened discussions."

Canadian deputy Leader of the Opposition and MP, Thomas Mulcair, stated in an interview with CBC Television that "I don't think from what I've heard that those pictures [of bin Laden's body] exist". His remark were picked up by dozens of U.S. media outlets, and criticized by various Canadian politicians.

An official statement from the Taliban stated that the lack of photos or video footage is suspicious, as their own sources close to bin Laden had not confirmed or denied his death, and that "When the Americans killed Mullah Dadullah (Taliban’s chief military commander) they publicly showed the footage".

Other conspiracy theories

Numerous other conspiracy theories relating to bin Laden's death that were discussed include:

That bin Laden had in fact been killed a number of years prior in the Tora Bora mountains, but that this information had been kept secret to encourage continued support for the war on terror. That bin Laden died much earlier than reported, and the announcement of bin Laden's death was delayed, so as not to clash with the festivities surrounding the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. That the announcement of bin Laden's death was timed to conflict with and take Donald Trump's ''Celebrity Apprentice'' off the air, to punish Trump for publicly questioning the authenticity of Barack Obama's birth certificate. That it is suspicious that bin Laden's death occurred exactly eight years after George W. Bush's declaration of "mission accomplished" in Iraq and Afghanistan. That bin Laden and Adolf Hitler were announced dead on May 1 (U.S. time), leading to a theory that the Illuminati "sacrificed" them on one of their holiest holidays.

See also

Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden

Al Qaeda

List of conspiracy theories

References

External links

Bin Laden Is Dead: The Reaction – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Conspiracy theories Category:Conspiracy theories Laden, Osama bin Category:Osama bin Laden

hr:Teorije zavjere oko smrti Osame bin Ladena id:Teori konspirasi kematian Usamah bin Ladin sh:Teorije zavjere oko smrti Osame bin Ladena