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- 1973 oil crisis
- A.T. Kearney
- Abilene, Texas
- Abu Dhabi
- Acres Homes, Houston
- Addicks, Houston
- Afton Oaks, Houston
- Airline hub
- Airline, Texas
- Alabama language
- Alan McGraw
- Albany, Texas
- Aldine, Texas
- Alice, Texas
- Alief, Houston
- Allen's Landing
- Almeda, Houston
- Alpine, Texas
- Alvin, Texas
- Amarillo, Texas
- American Civil War
- Amtrak
- Anahuac, Texas
- Anderson, Texas
- Andrews, Texas
- Angleton, Texas
- Angola
- Annise Parker
- Anson, Texas
- Apache Corporation
- Archer City, Texas
- Arcola, Texas
- Area code 281
- Area code 713
- Area code 832
- Ark-La-Tex
- Arlington, Texas
- Art groups
- Aseismic creep
- Aspermont, Texas
- Astrodome
- Atascocita, Texas
- Athens, Texas
- Atlanta
- Austin County, Texas
- Austin, Texas
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Baird, Texas
- Baker Hughes
- Baku
- Ballinger, Texas
- Baltimore
- Bammel, Texas
- Bandera, Texas
- Barker, Texas
- Barrett, Texas
- Bastrop, Texas
- Battle of Galveston
- Bay City, Texas
- Bayou City
- Bayou Place
- Baytown, Texas
- BBVA Compass Stadium
- Beasley, Texas
- Beaumont, Texas
- Becky Ames
- Beeville, Texas
- Beijing
- Bellaire, Texas
- Bellville, Texas
- Belton, Texas
- Benjamin, Texas
- Beth Van Duyne
- Betsy Price
- Big Bend (Texas)
- Big Lake, Texas
- Big Spring, Texas
- Bill Hobby
- Bill Keffler
- Bill Whitfield
- Billiards
- Black people
- Blue Ridge, Houston
- Boerne, Texas
- Bonham, Texas
- Booth, Texas
- Boston
- Boston, Texas
- Brackettville, Texas
- Brady, Texas
- Braeburn, Houston
- Brays Oaks, Houston
- Brazos Valley
- Breckenridge, Texas
- Brenham, Texas
- Brentwood, Houston
- Brownfield, Texas
- Brownsville, Texas
- Brownwood, Texas
- Bryan, Texas
- Buffalo Bayou
- Burnet, Texas
- Caldwell, Texas
- Calpine
- Cameron, Texas
- Canadian, Texas
- Canton, Texas
- Canyon, Texas
- Carrollton, Texas
- Carthage, Texas
- Cedar Bayou, Texas
- Center, Texas
- CenterPoint Energy
- Centerville, Texas
- Central Texas
- Channelview, Texas
- Channing, Texas
- Charles England
- Chiba City
- Chicago
- Childress, Texas
- China
- Chinatown, Houston
- Chinese American
- Cimarron, Texas
- Cinco Ranch, Texas
- City
- City (Texas)
- City council
- City Park, Houston
- Clarendon, Texas
- Clarksville, Texas
- Class A office space
- Claude, Texas
- Cleburne, Texas
- Cleveland
- Climate of Houston
- Climate of Texas
- Clodine, Texas
- Cloverland, Houston
- Cloverleaf, Texas
- Clute, Texas
- Clymer Wright
- Coady, Texas
- Coldspring, Texas
- Coleman, Texas
- Colorado City, Texas
- Colt Stadium
- Columbus, Ohio
- Columbus, Texas
- Comanche, Texas
- Compaq Center
- Comptroller
- ConocoPhillips
- Conroe, Texas
- Constellation Field
- Continental Airlines
- Cooper, Texas
- Copperfield, Texas
- Corsicana, Texas
- Cotulla, Texas
- County seat
- Covenant (law)
- Crabb, Texas
- Crane, Texas
- Crestwood, Houston
- Crime in Texas
- Crockett, Texas
- Crosby, Texas
- Crosbyton, Texas
- Cross Timbers
- Crowell, Texas
- Crystal City, Texas
- Cuero, Texas
- Culture of Houston
- Culture of Texas
- Cumings, Texas
- Cut and Shoot, Texas
- Cypress, Texas
- César Pelli
- Daingerfield, Texas
- Dalhart, Texas
- Dallas
- Dallas County, Texas
- Daylight saving time
- Dean Ueckert
- Debra McCartt
- Decatur, Texas
- Deer Park, Texas
- Del Rio, Texas
- Demonym
- Denison, Texas
- Denton, Texas
- Denver
- Detroit
- Devolution
- Dickens, Texas
- Dickinson, Texas
- Dimmitt, Texas
- Discovery Green
- Dobbin, Texas
- Downtown Houston
- Dumas, Texas
- Dyersdale, Texas
- EaDo
- Eagle Pass, Texas
- East Aldine, Texas
- East End, Houston
- East Texas
- Eastland, Texas
- Eastwood, Houston
- Economy of Houston
- Economy of Texas
- Ecuador
- Edge city
- Edinburg, Texas
- Education in Houston
- Education in Texas
- Edwards Plateau
- El Lago, Texas
- El Paso Energy
- El Paso, Texas
- Eldorado, Texas
- Emergency management
- Emory, Texas
- Enron
- EOG Resources
- Fairchilds, Texas
- Fairfield, Texas
- Falfurrias, Texas
- Fall Creek, Texas
- Farwell, Texas
- Fault (geology)
- Fifth Street, Texas
- Fifth Ward, Houston
- Filipino American
- First Ward, Houston
- Fiscal year
- Flag of Houston
- Floresville, Texas
- Floydada, Texas
- Folk art
- Fort Bend Parkway
- Fort Davis, Texas
- Fort Hood
- Fort Stockton, Texas
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Fortune (magazine)
- Fortune 500
- Forum Park, Houston
- Four Corners, Texas
- Fourth Ward, Houston
- France
- Franklin, Texas
- Freeport, Texas
- Fresno, California
- Fresno, Texas
- Friendswood, Texas
- Frontier Oil
- Fulshear, Texas
- Gail, Texas
- Gainesville, Texas
- Galena Park, Texas
- Galveston Bay
- Galveston, Texas
- Garden City, Texas
- Garden Oaks, Houston
- Garland, Texas
- Gatesville, Texas
- Gay pride parade
- Genoa, Houston
- Geography of Houston
- Geography of Texas
- George West, Texas
- Georgetown, Texas
- Gerald D. Hines
- Germany
- Ghost town
- Giddings, Texas
- Gilmer, Texas
- Glen Rose, Texas
- Global city
- Goldthwaite, Texas
- Goliad, Texas
- Gonzales, Texas
- Government of Texas
- Graham, Texas
- Grampian Region
- Granbury, Texas
- Grand Prairie, Texas
- Grangerland, Texas
- Greater Houston
- Greenspoint, Houston
- Greenville, Texas
- Greenway Plaza
- Groesbeck, Texas
- Group 1 Automotive
- Groveton, Texas
- Guayaquil
- Gulf of Mexico
- Gulfton, Houston
- Guthrie, Texas
- Guy, Texas
- Halite
- Hallettsville, Texas
- Halliburton
- Hamilton, Texas
- Handbook of Texas
- Hardy Toll Road
- Harlingen, Texas
- Harris County, Texas
- Harrisburg, Houston
- Haskell, Texas
- Hebbronville, Texas
- Hemphill, Texas
- Hempstead, Texas
- Henderson, Texas
- Henrietta, Texas
- Hereford, Texas
- Hermann Park
- Highlands, Texas
- Hillsboro, Texas
- History of Houston
- History of Texas
- Hockley, Texas
- Hofheinz Pavilion
- Hondo, Texas
- Houmont Park, Texas
- Houston
- Houston Aeros
- Houston Astros
- Houston Auto Show
- Houston Ballet
- Houston Chronicle
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- Houston Comets
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- Houston Dynamo
- Houston Grand Opera
- Houston Heights
- Houston hip hop
- Houston Mass Murders
- Houston Oilers
- Houston Post
- Houston Press
- Houston Rockets
- Houston Ship Channel
- Houston Symphony
- Houston Texans
- Houston TranStar
- Houston Zoo
- Houston, Texas
- Huelva
- Huffman, Texas
- Hufsmith, Texas
- Humble, Texas
- Huntsville, Texas
- Hurricane Katrina
- Hurricane Rita
- I. M. Pei
- Idylwood, Houston
- Illegal immigration
- Ima Hogg
- Imperial Oaks, Texas
- Indian American
- Indianapolis
- International trade
- Interstate 45
- Irving, Texas
- Istanbul
- Jacinto City, Texas
- Jacksboro, Texas
- James Sanders Holman
- Japan
- Japanese American
- Jasper, Texas
- Jayton, Texas
- Jefferson, Texas
- Joe Adame
- John B. Magruder
- John Burgee
- John Cook (El Paso)
- John Kirby Allen
- John Monaco
- Johnny Isbell
- Johnson City, Texas
- Johnson Space Center
- Jones Hall
- Jourdanton, Texas
- Julian Castro
- Juliff, Texas
- Junction, Texas
- Karachi
- Karnes City, Texas
- Katy, Texas
- Kaufman, Texas
- KBR (company)
- Kemah Boardwalk
- Kendleton, Texas
- Kermit, Texas
- Kerrville, Texas
- KHOU-TV
- Killeen, Texas
- Kinder Morgan
- Kingsville, Texas
- Kingwood, Houston
- Kinwood, Texas
- Klein, Texas
- Kleinbrook, Texas
- Kohrville, Texas
- Korean American
- Kountze, Texas
- KPRC-TV
- KRIV-TV
- KTRK-TV
- KUHA
- KUHF
- KUHT
- La Grange, Texas
- La Marque, Texas
- La Porte, Texas
- Lake Conroe
- Lake Houston
- Lake Jackson, Texas
- Lake Livingston
- Lamesa, Texas
- Lampasas, Texas
- Languages of Texas
- Lanham Lyne
- Larchmont, Houston
- Laredo, Texas
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- League City, Texas
- Leakey, Texas
- Lee Leffingwell
- Lee P. Brown
- Leipzig
- Levelland, Texas
- Lewisville, Texas
- Liberty, Texas
- Life Flight
- Linden, Texas
- Link Valley, Houston
- Lipscomb, Texas
- Littlefield, Texas
- Livingston, Texas
- Llano Estacado
- Llano, Texas
- Lockhart, Texas
- Long Point, Texas
- Longview, Texas
- Los Angeles
- Louetta, Texas
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Luanda
- Lubbock, Texas
- Lufkin, Texas
- Lynchburg, Texas
- Madisonville, Texas
- Magnolia, Texas
- Major League Soccer
- Maplewood, Houston
- Marathon Oil
- Marfa, Texas
- Mark Burroughs
- Marlin, Texas
- Marshall, Texas
- Mason, Texas
- Matador, Texas
- Mayor
- McAllen, Texas
- McKinney, Texas
- McNair, Texas
- Meadows Place, Texas
- Memorial City
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Memphis, Texas
- Menard, Texas
- Menil Collection
- Menninger Clinic
- Mentone, Texas
- Meridian, Texas
- Mertzon, Texas
- Mesa, Arizona
- Mesquite, Texas
- Metropolitan area
- METRORail
- Mexico
- Meyerland, Houston
- Miami
- Miami, Texas
- Midland, Texas
- Midtown, Houston
- Mike Rawlings
- Milwaukee
- Minneapolis
- Minute Maid Park
- Mission Bend, Texas
- Mission, Texas
- Missouri City, Texas
- MLS
- Monahans, Texas
- Montague, Texas
- Montgomery, Texas
- Montrose, Houston
- Moon rocks
- Morgan Quitno
- Morton, Texas
- Mount Vernon, Texas
- Muleshoe, Texas
- Multiracial American
- Nacogdoches, Texas
- NASA
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Nassau Bay, Texas
- Neartown Houston
- Needville, Texas
- New Braunfels, Texas
- New Caney, Texas
- New Territory, Texas
- New York City
- Newton, Texas
- Nice
- Nicknames of Houston
- Non-Hispanic whites
- Nonpartisan
- Norm Archibald
- North Houston, Texas
- North Shore, Houston
- North Texas
- Northcliffe, Texas
- Northeast Texas
- Northside, Houston
- Norway
- NPR
- Oak Forest, Houston
- Oakland, California
- Odessa, Texas
- Oil field
- Oklahoma City
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Orange, Texas
- Orchard, Texas
- Osage Plains
- Ozona, Texas
- Ozone
- Pacific Islander
- Paducah, Texas
- Paint Rock, Texas
- Pakistan
- Pakistani American
- Palestine, Texas
- Palo Pinto, Texas
- Pampa, Texas
- Panhandle, Texas
- Paris, Texas
- Pasadena, Texas
- Pearland, Texas
- Pearsall, Texas
- Pecan Grove, Texas
- Pecan Park, Houston
- Pecos, Texas
- Pennzoil Place
- Perryton, Texas
- Phil Dyer
- Philadelphia
- Philip Johnson
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Piney Woods
- Pittsburg, Texas
- Pittsville, Texas
- Plains, Texas
- Plainview, Texas
- Plano, Texas
- Pleak, Texas
- Poland
- Politics of Houston
- Politics of Texas
- Pope John Paul II
- Popemobile
- Port Arthur, Texas
- Port Bolivar, Texas
- Port Lavaca, Texas
- Port of Houston
- Portal Houston
- Portal Texas
- Porter, Texas
- Portland, Oregon
- Post, Texas
- Poverty threshold
- Powell Point, Texas
- Prairie
- Quanah, Texas
- Quitman, Texas
- Rankin, Texas
- Raul G. Salinas
- Raymondville, Texas
- Refugio, Texas
- Relative humidity
- Reliant Arena
- Reliant Astrodome
- Reliant Stadium
- Republic of China
- Republic of Texas
- Rice Owls
- Rice Stadium
- Rice University
- Richard F. Cortez
- Richardson, Texas
- Richmond Strip
- Richmond, Texas
- Rio Grande Valley
- River Oaks, Houston
- Robert Cluck
- Robert Lee, Texas
- Robertson Stadium
- Robindell, Houston
- Roby, Texas
- Rockport, Texas
- Rocksprings, Texas
- Rockwall, Texas
- Rocky Mountains
- Roman Forest, Texas
- Ron Branson
- Ronald C. Green
- Ronald E. Jones
- Rosenberg, Texas
- Rothko Chapel
- Round Rock, Texas
- Rusk, Texas
- Russia
- Rust Belt
- Salt dome
- Sam Houston
- Sam Houston Park
- San Angelo, Texas
- San Antonio
- San Augustine, Texas
- San Diego
- San Diego, Texas
- San Francisco
- San Jacinto College
- San Jose, California
- San Marcos, Texas
- San Saba, Texas
- Sanderson, Texas
- Sarita, Texas
- Satsuma, Texas
- Saudi Arabia
- Scotland
- Seabrook, Texas
- Seal of Houston
- Seattle
- Second Ward, Houston
- Sediment
- Seguin, Texas
- Seminole, Texas
- Settegast, Houston
- Seymour, Texas
- Sharpstown, Houston
- Sheldon, Texas
- Shell Houston Open
- Shenandoah, Houston
- Shenandoah, Texas
- Shenzhen
- Sherman, Texas
- Shoreacres, Texas
- Sierra Blanca, Texas
- Silverton, Texas
- Simonton, Texas
- Sinton, Texas
- Sixth Ward, Houston
- Skatepark
- Snyder, Texas
- Sonora, Texas
- South Houston, Texas
- South Park, Houston
- South Plains
- South Texas
- Southcrest, Houston
- Southeast Texas
- Space Center Houston
- Spain
- Spearman, Texas
- Spectra Energy
- Spindletop
- Splendora, Texas
- Sports in Houston
- Sports in Texas
- Spring, Texas
- Stablewood, Houston
- Stafford, Texas
- Stagecoach, Texas
- Stanton, Texas
- Stavanger
- Stephenville, Texas
- Sterling City, Texas
- Stinnett, Texas
- Stratford, Texas
- Subsidence
- Sugar Land Skeeters
- Sugar Land, Texas
- Sun Belt
- Sundance Cinema
- Sunnyside, Houston
- Sunset Limited
- Supercell
- Sweetwater, Texas
- Sysco
- Tahoka, Texas
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- Tamaulipas
- Tamina, Texas
- Tampico
- Targa Resources
- Tavener, Texas
- Template talk Texas
- Template Texas
- Temple, Texas
- Tennessee Titans
- Terry Hershey Park
- Texarkana, Texas
- Texas
- Texas A&M; University
- Texas Bowl
- Texas City, Texas
- Texas Coastal Bend
- Texas cuisine
- Texas Hill Country
- Texas literature
- Texas Medical Center
- Texas Panhandle
- The Alley Theatre
- The Daily Cougar
- The Orange Show
- The Woodlands, Texas
- Theme park
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Third Ward, Houston
- Thompsons, Texas
- Throckmorton, Texas
- Tilden, Texas
- Time zone
- Timothy L. Hancock
- Tomball, Texas
- Tornado Alley
- Tower block
- Town
- Toyota Center
- Traces, Texas
- Tranquility Park
- Trans-Pecos
- Tucson, Arizona
- Tulia, Texas
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Turkey
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- Tyumen
- Unincorporated area
- United Airlines
- United Arab Emirates
- United States
- University of Texas
- University of Utah
- Upper Kirby
- Uptown Houston
- Urban area
- Urban sprawl
- UTC-5
- UTC-6
- Uvalde, Texas
- Van Horn, Texas
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- Vernon, Texas
- Victoria, Texas
- Vietnamese American
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- Virginia DuPuy
- Waco, Texas
- Waller County, Texas
- Waller, Texas
- Walnut Bend, Houston
- Ward (politics)
- Washington, D.C.
- Water park
- Waxahachie, Texas
- Weatherford, Texas
- Webster, Texas
- Wellington, Texas
- Wes Perry
- West End (Houston)
- West Texas
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- Westchase, Houston
- Western Australia
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- Weston Lakes, Texas
- Wharton, Texas
- Wheeler, Texas
- White Americans
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- Wichita, Kansas
- Wikipedia Link rot
- Wikitravel
- Williams Tower
- Willis, Texas
- Willowbend, Houston
- Woodbranch, Texas
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- Woodrow Wilson
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- World War I
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- Zoning
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Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi (Arabic: أبو ظبي Abu Dhabi, Father of Deer) is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western coast. The city proper had an estimated population of 896,800 in 2009.
Abu Dhabi houses important offices of the federal government, and is the seat for the United Arab Emirates Government and the home for the Abu Dhabi Emiri Family and the President of the UAE from this family. Abu Dhabi has grown to be a cosmopolitan metropolis. Its rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the relatively high average income of its population, has transformed Abu Dhabi to a larger and advanced metropolis. Today the city is the country's center of political, industrial activities, and a major cultural, and commercial centre due to its position as the capital. Abu Dhabi alone generated 56.7% of the GDP of the United Arab Emirates in 2008.
wn.com/Abu_Dhabi -
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (Portuguese: República de Angola, pronounced: [ʁɨˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈɡɔla];Kikongo, Kimbundu, Umbundu: Repubilika ya Ngola), is a country in southern Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Portuguese were present in some—mostly coastal—points of the territory of what is now Angola, from the 16th to the 19th century, interacting in diverse ways with the peoples that lived there. In the 19th century they slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. Angola as a Portuguese colony encompassing the present territory was not established before the end of the 19th century, and "effective occupation", as required by the Berlin Conference (1884) was achieved only by the 1920s. Independence was achieved in 1975, after a protracted liberation war. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002. The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy has on average grown at a two-digit pace since the 1990s, especially since the end of the civil war. In spite of this, standards of living remain low for the majority of the population, and life expectancy and infant mortality rates in Angola are among the worst-ranked in the world. At the same time, a minority has reached comfortable life standards, and the dominant stratum has succeeded in accumulating considerable wealth, so that social inequality in Angola is one of the highest in the world.
wn.com/Angola -
Atlanta
Atlanta (
/ətˈlæntə/, stressed /ætˈlæntə/, locally /ætˈlænə/) is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia with a 2010 population of 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest in the U.S. It is a major component of a growing southeastern megalopolis known as the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion. Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County.
Atlanta began as a settlement located at the terminus of a railroad line, and it was incorporated in 1845. Today, the city is a major business city and the primary transportation hub of the Southeastern United States (via highway, railroad, and air), with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being the world's busiest airport since 1998. The World Cities Study Group at Loughborough University rated Atlanta as an "alpha(-) world city." With a gross domestic product of US$270 billion, Atlanta's economy ranks 15th among world cities and sixth in the nation. The city is a center for services, finance, information technology, government, and higher education. Metro Atlanta contains the country's third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and is the world headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting, The Home Depot, AT&T Mobility, UPS, and Delta Air Lines. As of 2010, Atlanta is the seventh most visited city in the United States, with over 35 million visitors per year.
wn.com/Atlanta -
Australia
Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
wn.com/Australia -
Austria
Austria (
i/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] (
listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.
wn.com/Austria -
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (
i/ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/ AZ-ər-by-JAHN; Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası) is the largest country in the Caucasus region located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest.
Azerbaijan has an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Aside from having been the first Muslim-majority country to have operas, theater and plays, Azerbaijan today is among the Muslim-majority countries where support for secularism and tolerance is the highest. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world, was established in 1918, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920. Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991. Shortly thereafter, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, neighboring Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, its surrounding territories and the enclaves of Karki, Yukhary Askipara, Barkhudarly and Sofulu. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which emerged in Nagorno-Karabakh, continues to be not diplomatically recognized by any nation and the region is still considered a de jure part of Azerbaijan, despite being de facto independent since the end of the war. Azerbaijan has come under repeated international criticism for its record on human rights.
wn.com/Azerbaijan -
Baku
Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı, IPA: [bɑˈcɯ]), sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City (21.5 ha). Baku's urban population at the beginning of 2009 was estimated at just over two million people. Officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in the metropolitan city area of Baku.
Baku is divided into eleven administrative districts (raions) and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on islands in the Baku Bay and the town of Oil Rocks built on stilts in the Caspian Sea, 60 km (37 mi) away from Baku. The Inner City of Baku along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planet's ranking, Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife.
wn.com/Baku -
Baltimore
Baltimore ( /ˈbɒltɨmɔr/, colloquially /ˈbɔl.mɔr/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is located in the central area of the state along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. The independent city is often referred to as Baltimore City to distinguish it from surrounding Baltimore County.
Founded in 1729, Baltimore is the largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic United States and is situated closer to Midwestern markets than any other major seaport on the East Coast. Baltimore's Inner Harbor was once the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States and a major manufacturing center. After a decline in manufacturing, Baltimore shifted to a service-oriented economy.
At 620,961 residents in 2010, Baltimore's population has decreased by one-third since its peak in 1950. The Baltimore Metropolitan Area has grown steadily to approximately 2.7 million residents in 2010; the 20th largest in the country. Baltimore is also a principal city in the larger Baltimore–Washington combined statistical area of approximately 8.4 million residents.
wn.com/Baltimore -
Battle of Galveston
The Battle of Galveston or the Second Battle of Galveston was a naval and land battle that occurred on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War when Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder attacked and expelled occupying Union troops from the city of Galveston, Texas.
The First Battle of Galveston was a naval engagement fought on October 4, 1862, during early Union attempts to blockade Galveston Harbor.
Two Confederate cottonclads, The CS Bayou City and the CS Neptune, sailed from Houston to Galveston in an effort to engage the Union Fleet in Galveston Harbor. Outnumbered six to two by the Northern ships, the Neptune was severely damaged by the Union Fleet and eventually sank. While the Neptune was quickly disabled, the Bayou City succeeded in capturing the USS Harriet Lane.
During this time, the USS Westfield was grounded on a sandbar. A three-hour truce was called for by Magruder, but Union Fleet Commander William B. Renshaw, ignoring the negotiation offer, attempted to destroy the grounded Westfield with explosives rather than let it fall into enemy hands.
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Bayou Place
Bayou Place is a 130,000 square foot entertainment complex that houses multiple theaters, bars, and restaurants located in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The complex was the former Albert Thomas convention center located in the Houston Theater District at 500 Texas Street (originally built in the late 1960s).
The convention center was made obsolete with the opening in 1987 of the much larger George R. Brown Convention Center on the eastern edge of downtown. After years of discussion (which included possibly turning the building into offices, or demolishing it altogether), Maryland-based developer David Cordish entered into an agreement with the city of Houston in 1991 to redevelop the site. After a few more years of discussions, delays, and construction, it was reopened to the public as an entertainment complex December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1997. At one time the complex had a scheduled completion date in the year 1996.
Cordish Company has had a 50 year lease to manage Bayou Place since 1997.
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Beijing
Beijing ( /beɪˈdʒɪŋ/; Chinese: 北京; pinyin: Běijīng, [peɪ˨˩ t͡ɕiŋ˥]), formerly romanized as Peking ( /piːˈkɪŋ/ or /peɪˈkɪŋ/), is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The metropolis, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government, with 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties. Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast.
Beijing is China's second largest city by urban population after Shanghai and is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's largest state-owned companies. Beijing is a major transportation hub in the national highway, expressway, railway and high-speed rail network. Beijing's Capital International Airport is the second busiest in the world by passenger traffic.
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Boston
Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ or locally /ˈbɔstən/ ( listen)) is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper, covering only 48.43 square miles, had a population of 617,594 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center, and its rich history now helps attract many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone attracting over 20 million every year. The city was the site of several firsts, including America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and the first subway system in the United States (1897).
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Chicago
Chicago (i/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in the US state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. The city has around 2.7 million residents. Its metropolitan area, sometimes called "Chicagoland", is the third largest in the United States, with an estimated 9.8 million people. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, though a small portion also extends into DuPage County.
Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, Chicago is listed as an alpha+ global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranks seventh in the world on the 2012 Global Cities Index. The city retains its status as an international hub for finance, industry, telecommunications and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements. In 2008[update], the city hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors. Among metropolitan areas, Chicago has the 4th largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, ranking just behind Tokyo, New York City, and Los Angeles. Chicago is one of the most important Worldwide Centers of Commerce and trade.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Cleveland
Cleveland ( /ˈkliːvlənd/) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of the Pennsylvania border. It was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location on the lake shore, as well as being connected to numerous canals and railroad lines. Cleveland's economy has diversified sectors that include manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and biomedical. Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As of the 2010 Census, the city proper had a total population of 396,815 and was the 45th largest city in the United States, and the second largest city in Ohio. It is the center of Greater Cleveland, the largest metropolitan area in Ohio. The Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2011 ranked as the 28th largest in the United States with 2,068,283 people. Cleveland is part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area, which in 2011 had a population of 2,871,084, and ranked as the country's 15th largest.
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Constellation Field
Coordinates: 29°37′26″N 95°38′49″W / 29.624°N 95.647°W / 29.624; -95.647
Constellation Field is a baseball park located in Sugar Land, Texas. It is the home of the Sugar Land Skeeters in the Atlantic League that began play in 2012.. The park also has the ability to host football, soccer, lacrosse, and cheerleading competitions, as well as concerts. Constellation Field has a capacity of 7,500 spectators for baseball games, and 9,500 spectators for concerts.
In December 2010, StarTex Power—a Houston-based power company—bought the naming rights for the ballpark from the team and the City of Sugar Land. The deal is scheduled to last for 10 years. In December 2011, the ballpark's name was changed to Constellation Field after the merger of StarTex Power and Constellation Energy.
Constellation Field has one of the largest scoreboards in minor league baseball. It is also unique in that its shape will resemble Texas' borders. The scoreboard, constructed by TS Sports, rises almost 100 feet above the playing field. Additionally, Constellation Field has a traditional, manually operated scoreboard in the left-field wall.
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Cross Timbers
The term Cross Timbers is used to describe a strip of land in the United States that runs from southeastern Kansas across Central Oklahoma to Central Texas. Made up of a mix of prairie, savanna, and woodland, it forms part of the boundary between the more heavily forested eastern country and the almost treeless Great Plains, and also marks the western habitat limit of many mammals and insects.
No major metropolitan areas lie wholly within the Cross Timbers, although roughly the western half of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex does, including the cities of Fort Worth, Denton, Arlington, and Weatherford. The western suburbs of the Tulsa metropolitan area and the northeastern suburbs of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area also lie within this area. The main highways that cross the region are I-35 and I-35W going north to south (although they tend to skirt the Cross Timbers' eastern fringe south of Fort Worth) and I-40 going east to west. Numerous U.S. Highways also cross the area.
The Cross Timbers are defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as Ecoregion 29, a Level III ecoregion. Some organizations and maps refer to the Cross Timbers ecoregion as the Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains. The Cross Timbers are contained within the WWF Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion.
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Dallas
Dallas ( /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Divided between Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties, the city had a population of 1,197,816 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the DFW MSA) that according to the March 2010 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,371,773. The metroplex economy is the sixth largest in the United States, with a 2010 gross metropolitan product of $374 billion.
Dallas was founded in 1841 and was formally incorporated as a city in February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South, Dallas is the main core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.
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Denver
Denver ( /ˈdɛnvər/) (Arapaho: Niinéniiniicíihéhe' ) is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Colorado. As Denver County, it is the second most populous county in Colorado after El Paso County, which surpassed Denver County as of the 2010 Census. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (1.6 km) or 5,280 feet (1,609.344 m) above sea level, which is defined by the elevation of the spot of a benchmark on the steps of the State Capital building. The elevation of the entire city ranges from 5,130 to 5,680 feet. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich passes through Union Station and is the temporal reference for the Mountain Time Zone.
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Detroit
Detroit ( /diˈtrɔɪt/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan, and the seat of Wayne County. It is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people, and serves as a major port on the Detroit River connecting the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the French explorer, adventurer, and nobleman Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac.
In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777 and ranked as the 18th most populous city in the United States. The name Detroit sometimes refers to the Metro Detroit area with a population of 4,296,250 for the six-county Metropolitan Statistical Area, the United States' eleventh-largest, and a population of 5,218,852 for the nine-county Combined Statistical Area as of the 2010 Census. The Detroit–Windsor area, a critical commercial link straddling the Canada–U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,700,000.
Known as the world's traditional automotive center, "Detroit" is a metonym for the American automobile industry and an important source of popular music legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, the Motor City and Motown. Other nicknames arose in the 20th century, including City of Champions beginning in the 1930s for its successes in individual and team sport,The D, D-Town, Hockeytown (a trademark owned by the city's NHL club, the Red Wings), Rock City (after the Kiss song "Detroit Rock City"), and The 313 (its telephone area code) Detroit became known as the "great arsenal of democracy" for its support of the U.S. role among the Allied powers during World War II.
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Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district. The tunnel system is home to many fast food restaurants, shops and services.
Downtown Houston was the original founding point of the city of Houston. After the Texas Revolution, two New York real estate promoters, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen purchased 6,642 acres (2,688 ha) of land T.F.L. Parrot (John Austin's widow) for $9,428. The Allen brothers first landed in the area where the White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou meet, a spot now known as Allen's Landing. Gail Borden, Jr., a city planner, laid out wide streets for the town.
The city was granted incorporation by the Texas legislature on June 5, 1837. Houston was made as the temporary capital of Texas. In 1840, the town was divided into four wards, each with different functions in the community. The wards are no longer political divisions, but their names are still used to refer to certain areas. By 1906 what is now Downtown was divided among six wards.
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Ecuador
Ecuador (i/ˈɛkwədɔr/ E-kwə-dawr), officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador [reˈpuβlika ðel ekwaˈðor], which literally translates to the "Republic of the Equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, (along with Chile), that do not have a border with Brazil. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) west of the mainland.
The main spoken language in Ecuador is Spanish. Ecuador straddles the equator, from which it takes its name, and has an area of 275,830 km2 (106,500 sq mi). Its capital city is Quito, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America. The country's largest city is Guayaquil. The historic center of Cuenca, the third largest city in the country, was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, for being an outstanding example of a planned inland Spanish style colonial city in the Americas. Ecuador is also home—despite its size—to a great variety of species, many of them endemic, like those of the Galápagos islands. This species diversity makes Ecuador one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.
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Edwards Plateau
The Edwards Plateau is a region of west-central Texas which is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east, the Llano Uplift and the Llano Estacado to the north, and the Pecos River and Chihuahuan Desert to the west.San Angelo, Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio roughly outline the area. The eastern portion of the plateau is the Texas Hill Country.
According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the following 40 counties comprise the Edwards Plateau:
The bedrock consists primarily of limestone, with elevations ranging between 100 ft. and 3000 ft. Caves are numerous.
The landscape of the Plateau is mostly savanna scattered with trees. It mostly lacks deep soil suitable for farming, though the soil is fertile mollisols and some cotton, grain sorghum and oats are grown. For the most part, though, the thin soil and rough terrain areas are primarily grazing regions, with cattle, sheep and Angora goats predominant. Several rivers cross the region, which generally flow to the south and east through the Texas Hill Country toward the Gulf of Mexico; springs occur (in wet years), however permanent surface water supplies are sparse throughout the area, except for man-made reservoirs. The area is well drained; rainwater flows into the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone at the south of the plateau to feed rivers to the south. Rainfall varies from 15 to 33 in. per year, on average, from northwest to southeast, and the area has a moderate temperature and a reasonably long growing season.
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Fort Hood
Fort Hood is a United States military post located outside of Killeen, Texas. The post is named after Confederate General John Bell Hood. It is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about 60 miles (100 km) from each, within the U.S. state of Texas.
Its origin was the need for wide-open space to test and train with World War II tank destroyers. The War Department announced the location in January 1942, and the initial completion was set for that August. As originally constructed, Fort Hood had an area of 158,706 acres, with billeting for 6,007 officers and 82,610 enlisted personnel. The main cantonment of Fort Hood had a total population of 53,416 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. It is in Bell County, with some portions of the base in Coryell County.
During World War II, tank destroyers were developed to counter German mobile armored units. These were mobile anti-tank guns on armored halftracks or specially developed tanks. Wide-open space was needed for the tank destroyer testing and training, which Texas had in abundance. Andrew Davis (A.D.) Bruce was assigned to organize a new Tank Destroyer Tactical and Firing Center, and he chose Killeen, Texas for the new camp. The War Department announced the selection on 15 January 1942. An initial acquisition of 108,000 acres (169 mi² / 437 km²) was made, and it was estimated that the camp would cost $22,800,000 for the land, facilities, and development of utilities. The date of completion was set for 15 August 1942.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Greater Houston
Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown is a 10-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas. The metropolitan area is colloquially referred to as "Greater Houston" and is situated in Southeast Texas, just west of the Golden Triangle.
Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 6,086,538 as of U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2011 estimates. The population of the metropolitan area is centered in the city of Houston—the largest economic and cultural center of the American South, with a population of 2.1 million.
Houston is among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. The area grew 25.2 percent between the 1990 and 2000 censuses—adding more than 950,000 people—while the nation's population increased 13.2 percent over the same period. From 2000 to 2007, the area grew by 912,994 people. From 2000 to 2030, the metropolitan area is projected by Woods & Poole Economics to rank fifth in the nation in population growth—adding 2.66 million people. In 2009, Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners ranked Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown as the fifth-best performing metropolitan area; the Houston area had moved up 11 spaces from the previous year's ranking.
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Greenway Plaza
Greenway Plaza is a master-planned mixed-use development off U.S. Highway 59 in Houston, Texas, United States, five miles (8 kilometers) west of Downtown Houston and three miles (5 kilometers) east of Uptown Houston. Greenway Plaza is Houston's first totally planned business-commercial-residential complex developed by the late Kenneth Schnitzer. Greenway Plaza is owned and operated by subsidiaries of Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. (NYSE: CEI). Most buildings within the Greenway Plaza campus are interconnected by environmentally-controlled bridges, and/or tunnels and covered walkways. The late civil engineer Jack Boyd Buckley also worked on the Greenway Plaza design.[citation needed]
The complex, composed of 10 commercial buildings, has more than 4,200,000 sq ft (390,000 m2) of space. Within the complex is the Renaissance Hotel Houston, the Houston City Club, and Tony's - one of Houston's premiere restaurants. The commercial buildings in the complex range from 11 to 31 stories.
Greenway Plaza is located next to the City owned arena occupied by the Lakewood Church. This arena was formerly called "The Summit" and later "Compaq Center" and hosted the Houston Rockets, a professional basketball team, as well as other sporting teams, concerts, and events. Privately owned residential condominiums are also located near Greenway Plaza, just west of Timmons Lane. The Greenway condominiums consist of two 30-story buildings (14 & 15 Greenway Plaza) located at the southwest periphery of the development.[citation needed]
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Guayaquil
Guayaquil (pronounced: [ɡwaʝaˈkil]), officially Santiago de Guayaquil (pronounced: [sanˈtjaɣo ðe ɣwaʝaˈkil]), is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador, with around 3.8 million residents in the city and nearly 4.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as the nation's main port. The city is the capital of the Ecuadorian province of Guayas and the seat of the namesake canton.
Guayaquil is located on the western bank of the Guayas River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Guayaquil. Because of its location, the city is the center of Ecuador's business and manufacturing industries.
Guayaquil was founded on July 25, 1538 with the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil (Most Noble and Most Loyal City of St. James of Guayaquil) by Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana. Even before it was founded by the Spanish, it already existed as a native village.
In 1600 Guayaquil had a population of about 2,000 people; by 1700 the city had a population of over 10,000.[citation needed]
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Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In Texas and Louisiana it is often called the "Third Coast," in comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The shape of its basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles (1,500 km) wide and filled with sedimentary rocks and debris. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea (with which it forms the American Mediterranean Sea) via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba. With this narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 615,000 mi² (1.6 million km²). Almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. At its deepest it is 14,383 ft (4,384 m) at the Sigsbee Deep, an irregular trough more than 300 nautical miles (560 km) (550 km) long. The basin contains a volume of roughly 660 quadrillion gallons (2.5 × 106 km3). It was formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics.
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Houston
Houston ( /ˈhjuːstən/) (Alibamu: Yosti ) is the largest city in the state of Texas, and the fourth-largest city in the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of 656.3 square miles (1,700 km2). Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, which is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 6.08 million people as of July 1st, 2011.
Houston was founded in 1836 on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou. It was incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837, and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas—former General Sam Houston—who had commanded at the Battle of San Jacinto, which took place 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located.
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Houston City Hall
The Houston City Hall building is the headquarters of the City of Houston government. It was constructed in 1938-1939, and is located in Downtown Houston. It is surrounded by skyscrapers and very similar to dozens of other city halls built in the southwest United States during the same time period. It is flanked by Tranquility Park and the Houston Public Library. The simply designed structure featured many construction details that have helped to make this building an architectural classic.
From 1841 to 1939, Houston's municipal government was headquartered at Old Market Square. It was destroyed by fire in the 1870s, and also in 1901, and rebuilt each time. In those days, City Hall was part of the lively commercial atmosphere of the Square. However, by the 1920s, the city leaders decided the site was no longer appropriate for their needs.
In 1929, the city's planning commission urged the establishment of a civic center around a downtown park, Herman Square. However, the Great Depression sidetracked the plans for the new center. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted the Works Progress Administration program, the city applied for a WPA grant to help finance the construction of a new City Hall. The grant was approved, and construction began in March 1938, continuing for 20 months.
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Houston Heights
Coordinates: 29°47′53″N 95°23′52″W / 29.79807°N 95.39783°W / 29.79807; -95.39783
Houston Heights (often referred to simply as "The Heights") is a community located in northwest-central Houston, Texas (USA).
By 1891 millionaire Oscar Martin Carter and a group of investors established the Omaha and South Texas Land Company. The company purchased 1,756 acres (7.11 km2) of land and established infrastructure, including alleys, parks, schools, streets and utilities, worth $500,000 United States dollars. When Houston Heights was founded, it was a streetcar suburb of Houston which attracted people who did not wish to live in the dense city. It had its own municipality until the City of Houston annexed the Heights in 1919.
After World War II industrial interests moved into the Houston Heights. Marilyn Bardsley of Crime Library stated that the Houston Heights became "decrepit" and "tired" after World War II.In the 1970s the Houston Heights was considered to be a low income area of the city. On December 13, 1970 Dean Corll began luring and killing children from the Houston Heights as part of the Houston Child Murders. For most of the period of his crime spree, Corll lived in or close to Houston Heights as his two teenage accomplices resided there. Other teens from the area were targeted simply because the two teens knew many of them which made it easier to entice them to Corll's various residences during the period.
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Houston Ship Channel
The Houston Ship Channel, located in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston—one of the United States's busiest seaports. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between the Houston-area shipyards and the Gulf of Mexico.
The channel is a widened and deepened natural watercourse created by dredging the Buffalo Bayou and the Galveston Bay. Major products, such as petrochemicals and Midwestern grain, are transported in bulk together with general cargo. The original watercourse for the channel, Buffalo Bayou, has its headwaters 30 miles (48 km) to the west of the city of Houston. Today the navigational head of the channel, the most upstream point to which general cargo ships can travel, is at Turning Basin in east Houston.
The Ship Channel has numerous terminals and berthing locations along Buffalo Bayou and Galveston Bay. The major public terminals include Turning Basin, Barbours Cut, and Bayport. There are many private docks as well, including the ExxonMobil Baytown Complex and the Deer Park Complex.
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Huelva
Huelva (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwelβa]) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous region of Andalusia. It is located along the Gulf of Cadiz coast, at the confluence of the Odiel and Tinto rivers. According to the 2010 census, the city has a population of 149,410 inhabitants. The city has been inhabited since 3000 BC. The town is home to Recreativo de Huelva, the oldest football club in Spain.
A maritime town between the rivers Anas (modern Guadiana) and Baetis (modern Guadalquivir), it was seated on the estuary of the River Luxia (modern Odiel), and on the road from the mouth of the Anas to Augusta Emerita (modern Mérida).
The city may be the site of Tartessus; by the Phoenicians it was called Onoba. The Greeks kept the name and rendered it Ὄνοβα. It was in the hands of the Turdetani at the time of conquest by Rome, and before the conquest it issued silver coins with Iberian legends. It was called both Onoba Aestuaria or Onuba (used on coinage) during Roman times, or, simply, Onoba. The city was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. The Arabs then called it Walbah and ruled between 712-1250. It suffered substantial damage in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
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Indianapolis
Indianapolis /ˌɪndiəˈnæpɵlɨs/ (abbreviated Indy /ˈɪndi/) is the capital of the US state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 829,718. It is Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S. Census, is the 12th largest city in the U.S., the second largest city in the Midwest (behind Chicago), the second most populous state capital (after Phoenix, Arizona), and the most populous state capital east of the Mississippi River. Indianapolis is also one of the fastest growing regions in the United States.
For much of its history, Indianapolis has oriented itself around government and industry, particularly manufacturing. Today, Indianapolis has a much more diversified economy, contributing to the fields of education, health care, and finance. Tourism is also a vital part of the economy of Indianapolis, and the city plays host to numerous conventions and sporting events. Of these, perhaps the most well known is the annual Indianapolis 500 and the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Other major sporting events include the Brickyard 400 and the Men's and Women's NCAA Basketball Tournaments. 2012 marked the first time Indianapolis hosted the Super Bowl. Super Bowl XLVI was played at Lucas Oil Stadium, on February 5, 2012 in Downtown Indianapolis. Also held in Lucas Oil Stadium is the Drum Corps International World Championships, and the Music for All Bands of America Grand National Championships.
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Istanbul
Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is the largest city in Turkey, forming the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population of 13.4 million, the city is at the center of the second-largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, and among the world's largest cities by population within city limits. Istanbul's vast area of 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi) is coterminous with Istanbul Province, of which the city is considered capital. Straddling the Bosphorus—one of the world's busiest waterways—in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, Istanbul is a transcontinental city, with one third of its population living in Asia but its commercial and historical center in Europe.
Founded around 660 BC as Byzantium on the Seraglio Point, the city now known as Istanbul developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. For nearly sixteen centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 AD, it served as the capital of four empires — the late classical Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold from which the last caliphate ruled. Although the Republic of Turkey established its capital elsewhere, in Ankara, remnants of Istanbul's previous central role still remain highly visible across the city, with palaces and imperial mosques lining its hills.
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Japan
Japani/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
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Jones Hall
Coordinates: 29°45′39″N 95°21′54″W / 29.760876°N 95.364994°W / 29.760876; -95.364994
The Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, commonly known as Jones Hall, is a performance venue in Houston, Texas, and the permanent home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Society for the Performing Arts.
Jones Hall is also frequently rented as a venue for contemporary pop musicians and other performers and is estimated to draw over 400,000 audience members yearly.
Officially completed on October 2, 1966 at the cost of $7.4 million, it is named after Jesse H. Jones, a former United States Secretary of Commerce and Houstonian. (For the Hall's opening concert a special work was commissioned of the American composer Alan Hovhaness, the appropriately titled 'Ode to the Temple of Sound'). Construction of the hall was underwritten by Houston Endowment, Inc., a foundation endowed by Jones and his wife. Upon completion, the hall was donated to the city, and today is operated by the Houston First Corporation.
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Karachi
Karachi ( Karācī (help·info), Urdu: کراچی; Sindhi: ڪراچي) is the largest city, main seaport and financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 13 million. Results in April 2012 of Pakistan's latest census initial tabulations show that the district is home to over 21 million people, at a density of nearly 6,000 people per square kilometer (15,500 per square mile). Karachi is the most populous city in the country, one of the world's largest cities in terms of population and also the 10th largest urban agglomeration in the world. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, economic activity and trade and is home to Pakistan's largest corporations, including those involved in textiles, shipping, automotive industry, entertainment, the arts, fashion, advertising, publishing, software development and medical research. The city is a major hub of higher education in South Asia and the wider Muslim world.
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles (i/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km2), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".
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Luanda
Coordinates: 8°50′18″S 13°14′04″E / 8.83833°S 13.23444°E / -8.83833; 13.23444
Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of over 5 million. It is also the capital city of Luanda Province, and the world's third most populous Portuguese-speaking city, behind only São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both in Brazil.
The city is currently undergoing a major reconstruction, with many large developments taking place that will alter the cityscape significantly. Luanda was ranked the most expensive city to live in for expatriates by Mercer, for 2011.
Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda on 25 January 1576 as "São Paulo da Assumpção de Loanda", with a hundred families of settlers and four hundred soldiers. In 1618 the Portuguese built the fortress called Fortaleza São Pedro da Barra, and they subsequently built two more: Fortaleza de São Miguel (1634) and Forte de São Francisco do Penedo (1765-6). Of these, the Fortaleza de São Miguel is the best preserved.
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Menil Collection
The Menil Collection, located in Houston (Texas, USA) refers either to a museum that houses the private art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself. Dominique was an heir to the Schlumberger oil-drilling fortune, and John was an executive of that company.
The Renzo Piano-designed museum opened to the public in June 1987 and houses John and Dominique de Menils' privately-assembled collection of twentieth-century art, including over 15,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books. It includes the early to mid-twentieth century works of Yves Tanguy, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso among others. The museum also maintains an extensive collection of pop art and contemporary art from Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly, among others. Also included in the museum's permanent collection are Antiquities and works of Byzantine, Medieval and Tribal art.
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Mexico
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
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Miami
Miami ( /maɪˈæmi/ or /maɪˈæmə/) is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625. The 42nd largest city proper in the United States, with a population of 408,568, it is the principal, central, and most populous city of the South Florida metropolitan area, and the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States. According to the US Census Bureau, Miami's metro area is the seventh most populous and fifth-largest urban area in the United States, with a population of around 5.5 million.
Miami is a major center and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2010, Miami was classified as a Alpha- World City in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory. In 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked thirty-third among global cities. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami "America's Cleanest City", for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, and the world's fifth-richest city in terms of purchasing power. Miami is nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America", is the 2nd largest U.S. city (after El Paso) with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.
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Milwaukee
Milwaukee /mɪlˈwɔːkiː/ is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States, and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the City of Milwaukee has a population of 594,833. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area with a population of 1,751,316 as of 2010. Milwaukee is also the regional center of the seven county Greater Milwaukee Area, with an estimated population of 2,014,032 as of 2008.
The first Europeans to pass through the area were French missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French-Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, and in 1846 Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee. Large numbers of German and other immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades.
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Minneapolis
Minneapolis (pronunciation:i/ˌmɪniːˈæpəlɪs/), nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City", is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States. Its name is attributed to the city's first schoolteacher, who combined mni, the Dakota word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.
As of the 2010 Census, the population of the city of Minneapolis is 382,578. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with approximately 3.3 million residents. The city is abundantly rich in water, with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi river, creeks and waterfalls, many connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway. Among cities of similar densities, Minneapolis has the most dedicated parkland. It was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing the fifth highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. It has cultural organizations that draw creative people and audiences to the city for theater, visual art, writing, and music. The community's diverse population has a long tradition of charitable support through progressive public social programs and VOLAGs, as well as private and corporate philanthropy.
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NASA
Coordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W / 38.88306°N 77.01639°W / 38.88306; -77.01639
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Since February 2006, NASA's mission statement has been to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." On September 14, 2011, NASA announced that it had selected the design of a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before and provide the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.
NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958. U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.
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New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. The city is referred to as New York City or The City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part. As a global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.
Located on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which comprises a state county. The five boroughs—The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a Census-estimated 2011 population of 8,244,910 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km2), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States' largest, with 18.9 million people distributed over 6,720 square miles (17,400 km2), and is also part of the most populous combined statistical area in the United States, containing 22.1 million people as of the 2010 Census.
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Nice
Coordinates: 43°42′12″N 7°15′59″E / 43.7034°N 7.2663°E / 43.7034; 7.2663
Nice ( /ˈniːs/, French pronunciation: [nis]; Niçard Occitan: Niça [classical norm] or Nissa [nonstandard], Italian: Nizza or Nizza Marittima, Greek: Νίκαια, Latin: Nicaea) is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of 71.92 km2 (28 sq mi). The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of about 1 million on an area of 721 km2 (278 sq mi). Located on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille.
The city is called Nice la Belle (Nissa La Bella in Niçard), which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912. Nice is the capital of the Alpes Maritimes département and the second biggest city of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille.
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Northeast Texas
Coordinates: 32°26′N 94°59′W / 32.433°N 94.983°W / 32.433; -94.983
Northeast Texas is a region in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. It is geographically centered around two metropolitan areas strung along Interstate 20: Tyler in the west and Longview/Marshall to the east. Clarksville, Mount Pleasant, Greenville, Paris and Texarkana in the north and the Nacogdoches/Lufkin area, Jacksonville and Palestine to the south are also major cities within the region. Most of Northeast Texas is included in the inter-state region of the Arklatex.
Its climate is warmer and wetter than most of Texas and its geography is more hilly and forested. Its culture is similar to that of Southeast Texas, but does not have as much of a Cajun influence. Many of the largest cities in Northeast Texas still follow a rural Southern way of life, especially in dialect, mannerisms, religion, and cuisine.
The geography is composed mainly of the Piney Woods, a mixed forest of deciduous and conifer flora. The Piney woods cover 23,500 square miles (60,900 km²) of gently rolling or hilly forested land. These woods are part of a much larger region of pine-hardwood forest that extends into Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Northeast Texas lies within the Gulf Coastal Plain and receives more rainfall, 35 to 50 inches (890 to 1270 mm), than the rest of Texas.
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Norway
Norwayi/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
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Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (Pawnee: Uukuhuuwasiri ) is the capital and the largest city in the US state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area had a population of 1,322,249 residents. Oklahoma City's city limits extend into Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie counties, though much of those areas outside of the core Oklahoma County area are suburban or rural (watershed). The city ranks as the eighth-largest city in the United States by land area (including consolidated city-counties; it is the largest city in the United States by land area whose government is not consolidated with that of a county).
Oklahoma City features one of the largest livestock markets in the world. Oil, natural gas, petroleum products and related industries are the largest sector of the local economy. The city is situated in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs large numbers of workers at Tinker Air Force Base and the United States Department of Transportation's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. (These two sites house several offices of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Department's Enterprise Service Center, respectively.)
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Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] (
listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
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Pennzoil Place
Pennzoil Place is a set of two 36-story towers in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and built in 1975, Pennzoil Place is Houston's most award-winning skyscraper and is widely known for its innovative design.
Pennzoil Place, developed and managed by Gerald D. Hines Interests, consists of two 495 ft (151 m) trapezoidal towers placed ten feet apart and sheathed in dark bronze glass and aluminum. The buildings are mirror images of each other. The entire street-level plaza joining the two structures is enclosed in a 115-foot (35 m) glass pyramid-shaped atrium. Deliberately designed as an optical illusion, Pennzoil Place's appearance will vary depending on the different locations from where it is viewed. Pennzoil Place is considered significant in architectural circles for breaking the modernist glass box design made popular by followers of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and for introducing the era of postmodernism. The buildings combined contain 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m2) of leasable space.
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").
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Poland
Polandi/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
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Port of Houston
The Port of Houston is a port in Houston — the fourth-largest port in the United States. The Port is a 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities located a few hours' sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. It is the busiest port in the United States in terms of foreign tonnage, second-busiest in the United States in terms of overall tonnage, and thirteenth-busiest in the world. Though originally the port's terminals were primarily within the Houston city limits, the port has expanded to such a degree that today it has facilities in multiple communities in the surrounding area. In particular the port's busiest terminal, the Barbours Cut Terminal, is located in Morgan's Point.
The Port of Houston is a cooperative entity consisting of both the port authority, which operates the major terminals along the Houston Ship Channel, and more than 150 private companies situated along Buffalo Bayou and Galveston Bay. Many petroleum corporations have built refineries along the channel where they are partially protected from the threat of major storms in the Gulf of Mexico. The petrochemical complex associated with the Port of Houston is one of the largest in the world.
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Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded 295-acre (1.19 km2) campus in Houston, Texas, United States. The university is situated near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center.
Opened in 1912 after the murder of its namesake William Marsh Rice, Rice is now a preeminent research university with a distinct undergraduate focus. Its emphasis on undergraduate education is demonstrated by a small student body and 5:1 student-faculty ratio, among the lowest in the top American universities including the Ivy League.Rice alumni are prominent in every sector of society today. The university has produced 101 Fulbright Scholars, 20 Marshall Scholars, and 12 Rhodes Scholars. The university has a very high level of research activity for its size, with $115.3 million in sponsored research funding in 2011. Rice is noted for its applied science programs in the fields of artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, signal processing, space science, and nanotechnology. It was ranked first in the world in materials science research by the Times Higher Education (THE) in 2010.
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Rio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas. It lies along the northern bank of the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the United States.
The Rio Grande Valley is not a valley, but a delta or floodplain containing many oxbow lakes or resacas formed from pinched-off meanders in earlier courses of the Rio Grande. Early 20th-century land developers, attempting to capitalize on unclaimed land, utilized the name "Magic Valley" to attract settlers and appeal to investors. The Rio Grande Valley is also called "El Valle", the Spanish translation of "the valley", by those who live there. The residents of the Rio Grande Valley occasionally refer to the area as "El Magico Valle del Rio Grande" ("The Magical Valley of the Rio Grande"), and also simply by the initials "RGV."
The region is made up of four counties: Starr County, Hidalgo County, Willacy County, and Cameron County. As of January 1, 2008, the Texas State Data Center estimated the population of the Rio Grande Valley at 1,138,872. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008, 86 percent of Cameron County, 90 percent of Hidalgo County, 97 percent of Starr County, and 86 percent of Willacy County are Hispanic.
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Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
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Sam Houston Park
Sam Houston Park is a park located in downtown Houston, Texas, and is dedicated to the buildings and culture of Houston's historic past. The park, which was the first to be established in the city, was developed on land purchased by former Mayor Sam Brashier in 1900.
Mayor Brashear appointed Houston’s first park committee to oversee the establishment of a city park in 1899. The 20 acres (81,000 m2) chosen for the park was landscaped into a Victorian-styled village, with footpaths leading past an old mill and across a bridge that traversed a small stream. At that time, the park also included a 52-year old house that had long been used as a school.
The Heritage Society was founded by Houstonians Faith Bybee, Harvin Moore and Marie Phelps in 1954, and Sam Houston Park has been its home ever since.
The purpose of the Society is to preserve the complete history of the community and region through preservation and restoration of historic structures, exhibition of historical artifacts, and presentation of educational programs which focus on Houston and Harris County's diverse past, and its relationship to the present and future.
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San Antonio
San Antonio ( /ˌsænænˈtoʊni.oʊ/) is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.3 million. It was the fastest growing of the top 10 largest cities in the United States from 2000-2010, and the second from 1990-2000. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. San Antonio has characteristics of other western urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city limits. The city is one of the two principal municipalities of the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area, the other being New Braunfels. Commonly referred to as Greater San Antonio, the metropolitan area has a population of 2.2 million based on the 2011 U.S. Census estimate, making it the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the United States and third-largest in the state of Texas.
The city was named for San Antonio de Padua, whose feast day is on June 13, when a Spanish expedition stopped in the area in 1691. Famous for Spanish missions, the Alamo, the River Walk, the Tower of the Americas, the Alamo Bowl, Marriage Island and host to SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme parks, the city is visited by approximately 26 million tourists per year according to the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city is home to the four-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, one of the largest in the country.
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San Diego
San Diego /ˌsæn diːˈeɪɡoʊ/ is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round climate, natural deep-water harbor, extensive beaches, long association with the U.S. Navy, and recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology enclave. The population was 1,301,617 at the 2010 census.
Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Cabrillo claimed the entire area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission of San Diego, founded in 1769, were the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of newly independent Mexico, and in 1850, became part of the United States following the Mexican-American War and the admission of California to the union.
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San Francisco
San Francisco (/ˌsæn frənˈsɪskoʊ/), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.6 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland. The only consolidated city-county in California, it encompasses a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km2) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, giving it a density of about 17,179 people per square mile (6,632 people per km2). It is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated large city in the United States after New York City. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 13th most populous city in the United States, with a population of 805,235 as of the 2010 Census. The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area has a population of 4,335,391.
In 1776, colonists from Spain established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849 propelled the city into a period of rapid growth, increasing the population in one year from 1,000 to 25,000, and thus transforming it into the largest city on the West Coast at the time. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. During World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
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Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia (i/ˌsaʊdi əˈreɪbi.ə/ or i/ˌsɔːdiː əˈreɪbi.ə/; Arabic: السعودية as-Su‘ūdīyah[citation needed] or incorrectly as-Sa‘ūdīyah, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabīyah as-Su‘ūdīyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab world, after Algeria. It is bordered by Jordan, and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Red Sea lies to its west, and the Persian Gulf lies to the east. Saudi Arabia has an area of approximately 2,250,000 km2 (870,000 sq mi), and it has an estimated population of 27 million, of which 9 million are registered foreign expatriates and an estimated 2 million are illegal immigrants. Saudi nationals comprise an estimated 16 million people.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (known for most of his career as Ibn Saud) in 1932, although the conquests which eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom began in 1902 when he captured Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud, referred to in Arabic as the Al Saud. The Saudi Arabian government, which has been an absolute monarchy since its inception, refers to its system of government as being Islamic, though this is contested by many due to its strong basis in Salafism, a minority school of thought in Islam. The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.
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Scotland
Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba ([ˈalˠ̪apə] listen (help·info))) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
Edinburgh, the country's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.
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Seattle
Seattle (pronounced /siːˈætɫ̩/ ( listen) see-AT-əl or /siːˈæɾɫ̩/) is the county seat of King County, in the U.S. state of Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country. The city is a major coastal seaport situated on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 114 miles (183 km) south of the Canada–United States border. In 2010, Seattle was the sixth busiest port in the United States, serving as a major gateway for trade with Asia.
The Seattle area had been inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent white settlers.Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to its current site and renamed "Seattle" in 1853, after Chief Seattle of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.
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Shenzhen
Shenzhen (Mandarin pronunciation: [ʂə́ntʂə̂n]) is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones (SEZs). It currently also holds sub-provincial administrative status, with powers slightly less than a province.
Shenzhen's modern cityscape is the result of the vibrant economy made possible by rapid foreign investment since the institution of the policy of "reform and opening" establishment of the SEZ in the late 1979, before which it was only a small village. Both Chinese and foreign nationals have invested enormous amount of money in the Shenzhen SEZ. More than US$30 billion in foreign investment has gone into both foreign-owned and joint ventures, at first mainly in manufacturing but more recently in the service industries as well. Shenzhen is now reputedly considered as one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
Being southern mainland China's major financial centre, Shenzhen is home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as well as the headquarters of numerous high-tech companies. Shenzhen is also the third-busiest container port in China, after Shanghai and Hong Kong.
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Spain
Spain (i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
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Stavanger
Stavanger (Norwegian pronunciation: [stɑˈʋɑŋər] (listen)) is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway. Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway. Stavanger is the centre of the Stavanger metropolitan area, which has a population of 297,569, and the administrative centre of Rogaland county. The city is commonly referred to as the Petroleum Capital of Norway.
Despite its age, dating back at least to the Viking Age, Stavanger only grew to its position among the most important Norwegian cities in the second half of the 20th century, after oil was discovered in the North Sea. Today, the city is marked by noticeable foreign influences as a result of the presence of several major international oil companies. Stavanger also houses the NATO Joint Warfare Center.
Norway's oldest cathedral, Stavanger domkirke, is situated in the city centre, right next to Breiavatnet lake. The two most popular recreational areas are situated around lakes, namely Mosvatnet and Stokkavatnet.
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Sun Belt
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest (the geographic southern United States). Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel, north latitude. It is the largest region which the U.S government does not recognize officially (in its postal regions and census).[citation needed] The main defining feature of the Sun Belt is its warm-temperate climate with extended summers and brief, relatively mild winters; Florida, the Gulf Coast, and southern Texas, however, have a true subtropical climate.
The Belt has seen substantial population growth in recent decades (1960s to recent) fueled by milder winters; a surge in retiring baby boomers who migrate domestically; and the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal. This population boom has been less substantial in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama compared with their western and eastern neighbor states. Also, over the past several decades, air conditioning has made it easier for people to deal with the heat in portions of the region during the summertime. Water shortages are becoming a common problem in the region.
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Taipei
Taipei City (/ˌtaɪˈpeɪ/; [tʰǎipèi]; Chinese: 臺北市 or 台北市; pinyin: Táiběi Shì) is the capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Situated at the northern tip of the island of Taiwan, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River; it is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, a port city on the Pacific Ocean. It lies in the two relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung (基隆河) and Xindian (新店溪) rivers, which join to form the Tamsui River along the city's western border. The city proper (Taipei City) is home to an estimated 2,618,772 people. Taipei, New Taipei, and Keelung together form the Taipei metropolitan area with a population of 6,900,273. However, they are administered under different local governing bodies. "Taipei" sometimes refers to the whole metropolitan area, while "Taipei City" refers to the city proper. Taipei City proper is surrounded on all sides by New Taipei.
Taipei is the political, economic, and cultural center of Taiwan. The National Palace Museum which has one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artworks in the world is located in Taipei. Considered to be a global city, Taipei is part of a major industrial area. Railways, high speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island. The city is served by two airports – Taipei Songshan and Taiwan Taoyuan.
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Taiwan
Taiwan (i/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
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Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (Spanish pronunciation: [tamauˈlipas]) officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas (English: Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas) is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the first President of Mexico.
It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Veracruz to the southeast, San Luis Potosí to the southwest and Nuevo León to the west. To the north, it has a 370 km (142.9 mi) stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border along the state of Texas.
The name Tamaulipas is derived from Tamaholipa, a Huastec term in which the tam- prefix signifies "place where." As yet, there is no scholarly agreement on the meaning of holipa, but "high hills" is a common interpretation. Another explanation of the state name is Ta ma ho'lipam – “place, where the Lipan prey”.
In addition to the capital city, Ciudad Victoria, the state's largest cities include Reynosa, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, and Tampico.
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Texas
Texas (i/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km2), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.
During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.
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Texas Coastal Bend
The Texas Coastal Bend refers to the flat area of land along the Texas coast. It is home to many cities including Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Port Lavaca, Galveston, Victoria, Beaumont, and Houston. The Coastal Bend includes the barrier islands of Texas and the Laguna Madre. According to the United States 2000 Census the Texas Coastal Bend had a population of 6,332,801.
The Texas Coastal Bend enjoys a rural, urban, and suburban mix of mainly Bi-Cultural, Hispanic and Anglo traditions. African American and Asian/Pacific Islander population and their cultural traditions are well represented throughout this region as well.
Among the universal features which connects the populations of this region, are the ever present summer threats of severe hurricane winds and flooding affecting these predominantly flat lands areas. As such, the people of these low topography counties threaded by the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, are subject to regular evacuations and keep a keen sense hurricane awareness.
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Texas Medical Center
The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world with one of the highest densities of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research. Located in Greater Houston, the center contains 50 medicine-related institutions, including 15 hospitals and two specialty institutions, three medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and other health-related practices. All 50 institutions are not-for-profit. Exceeding one thousand acres in size, the center is larger than downtown Dallas. Some member institutions are located outside of the city of Houston. The center is where one of the first and largest air ambulance services was created and where one of the first successful inter-institutional transplant programs was developed. More heart surgeries are performed in the center than anywhere else in the world.
The Texas Medical Center receives 160,000 daily visitors and over six million annual patient visits, including over 18,000 international patients. In 2010, the center employed over 93,500 people, including 20,000 physicians, scientists, researchers and other advanced degree professionals in the life sciences.
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Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. The Handbook of Texas defines the southern border of Swisher County to be the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region, though some consider the region to extend as far south as Lubbock County., The Texas Panhandle Press Association accepts members in the actual panhandle and a triangle formed by its southern tier, the southeastern border of New Mexico and a diagonal to the beginning, which includes Lubbock County.
Its land area is 66,883.58 km² (25,823.9 sq mi), or nearly 10 percent of the state's total. There is an additional 162.53 km² (62.75 sq mi) of water area. Its population as of the 2010 census was 427,927 residents, or 1.7 percent of the state's total population. As of the 2010 census, this would put the average population density for the region at 16.6 persons/sq mi. The Panhandle is distinct from North Texas, which is more to the southeast.
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The Orange Show
Jeff McKissack, a mail carrier in Houston, Texas, transformed a small suburban lot near his wood frame house into The Orange Show in honor of his favorite fruit. Between 1956 and 1980, when he died, McKissak used common building materials and recycled junk such as bricks, tiles, fencing, and farm implements to transform his home into an architectural maze of walkways, balconies, arenas and exhibits decorated with mosaics and brightly painted iron figures.
When McKissack died, Houston arts patron Marilyn Oshman formed a non-profit foundation to preserve The Orange Show.[citation needed] The 21 original donors represent a diverse cross-section of Houston: Dominique de Menil, members of the legendary Texas rock band ZZ Top and East End funerary director Tommy Schlitzberger.[citation needed] In 1982, the restored site opened and newly hired staff began to integrate The Orange Show into Houston’s cultural life through a wide variety of programs. Artists, musicians and literary figures that make Houston their home bring depth and dimension to programs, and give the public immediate access to creative thinking.
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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
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Tyumen
Tyumen (Russian: Тюме́нь; IPA: [tʲʉˈmʲenʲ] ( listen)) is the largest city and the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located on the Tura River 2,144 kilometers (1,332 mi) east of Moscow. Population: 581,758 (2010 Census preliminary results); 510,719 (2002 Census); 476,869 (1989 Census).
Tyumen is the oldest Russian settlement in Siberia. Founded in 1586 to support Russia's eastward expansion, the city has remained one of the most important industrial and economic centers east of the Ural Mountains. Located at the junction of several important trade routes and with easy access to navigable waterways, Tyumen rapidly developed from a small military settlement to a large commercial and industrial city. The central part of Old Tyumen retains many historic buildings from throughout the city's history.
Today Tyumen is one of Russia's most important business centers and is prominent in the political and cultural life of Russia.
Tyumen is the transportation hub and industrial center of Tyumen Oblast—a vast oil-rich region stretching from the Kazakh border to the Arctic Ocean—as well as the home of many companies active in Russia's oil and gas industry.
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United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emiratesi/juːˌnaɪtɨd ˌærəb ˈɛmɪrɨts/ (Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Al Imārāt al ‘Arabīyah al Muttaḥidah), sometimes simply called the Emirates or the UAE, is a country situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing sea borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities), each governed by a hereditary emir, with a single national president. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the state's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.
Prior to independence in 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a 19th-century truce between the local sheikhs, hereditary rulers of the territories, and the United Kingdom. The term Pirate Coast was also used by some to refer to the emirates from the 18th to the early 20th century, owing to the preponderance of pirates operating from Emirati ports.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated 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 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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University of Utah
The University of Utah (also referred to as The U, the U of U or Utah) is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
As the state's flagship university, Utah offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 90 graduate degree programs. Graduate studies include the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the School of Medicine, Utah's only medical school. As of 2011, there are 23,371 undergraduate students and 7,448 graduate students, for an enrollment total of 30,819; with 84% coming from Utah and 6% coming from foreign countries. Just over 10% of students live on campus.
The university's athletic teams, the Utes, participate in NCAA Division I athletics (FBS for football) as a member of the Pacific-12 Conference. Its football team has received national attention in recent years for winning the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest institution of higher education. It received its current name in 1892, four years before Utah attained statehood, and moved to its current location in 1900.
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Upper Kirby
Upper Kirby is a commercial district in Houston, Texas, United States.
Upper Kirby contains many businesses, including restaurants. Upper Kirby is east of the Greenway Plaza, southwest of Neartown, north of the city of West University Place, and south of River Oaks.
Upper Kirby is considered to be in an area west of South Shepherd Drive, east of Buffalo Speedway, north of Bissonnet Street, and south of Westheimer Road.
The River Oaks Garden Club Forum of Civics, located in Upper Kirby, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the "Forum of Civics" on October 13, 1988. Formerly a county schoolhouse, the building is currently the administrative center for the River Oaks Garden Club.
The Texas Legislature created the Harris County Improvement District #3, also known as the Upper Kirby Management District, which governs the Upper Kirby area. In 1999 the Houston city council created the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 19, which covers 15 acres (61,000 m2).
In 2006 the Upper Kirby district plans to establish a "teen center" at Richmond at Wake Forest geared towards students at Lamar High School, Lanier Middle School, St. John's School, and other Upper Kirby schools and schools near Upper Kirby. Funding issues have delayed establishment of the center.
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Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles (10 km) west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road (Farm to Market Road 1093), and the Galleria. In its role as a satellite central business district and a center for premier shopping centers and hotels.[citation needed]
The Uptown District is roughly bounded by Woodway Drive to the north, the I-610 (West Loop) to the east, Richmond Avenue to the south, and Yorktown Street to the west.
At 23.6 million square feet (2,193,000 m²) of office space, the Uptown District is the 17th-largest business district in the United States, comparable in size to the downtowns of Denver, and Pittsburgh. The district is home to approximately 2,000 companies and represents more than 11 percent of Houston's total office space.
In 1948 what is now Uptown was 3 miles (4.8 km) outside of the city limits of Houston. A local reporter described the roads as "lonely, unlit, pockmarked booby trap for nocturnal animals and boozed up motorists." Development increased after Gerald D. Hines and other individuals began to develop properties in Uptown in the 1960s.
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West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas.
There is a general lack of consensus regarding the boundaries that separate East Texas and West Texas.Walter Prescott Webb, the American historian and geographer, suggested that the 98th meridian separates East and West Texas. The Texas writer A.C. Greene proposed that West Texas extends west of the Brazos River. Perhaps, the truth is that there is no distinct line that separates East and West Texas. Rather, there are places that are clearly in West Texas and there are places that are clearly in East Texas, and then there are places that fall within a transitional zone between these two regions.
West Texas is often subdivided according to distinct physiographic features. The portion of West Texas that lies west of the Pecos River is often referred to as "Far West Texas" or the "Trans-Pecos," a term first introduced in 1887 by the Texas geologist Robert T. Hill. The Trans-Pecos lies within the Chihuahuan Desert, the most arid portion of the state. Another important subdivision of West Texas is the Llano Estacado, a vast region of high level plains that extends into Eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. To the east of the Llano Estacado lies the “redbed country” of the Rolling Plains and to the south of the Llano Estacado lies the Edwards Plateau. The Rolling Plains and the Edwards Plateau subregions act as transitional zones between East and West Texas.
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Western Australia
Coordinates: 26°0′S 121°0′E / 26°S 121°E / -26; 121
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state and the second-largest subnational entity in the world. The state has approximately 2.3 million inhabitants (around 10% of the national total), the majority of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.
The first European to visit Western Australia was the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616. The British established a military outpost at King George Sound, near present-day Albany, in 1826, which was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the townsite of the present-day capital, Perth.
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Williams Tower
The Williams Tower (formerly the Transco Tower) is a skyscraper located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas in the back of the Houston Galleria. It was designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, in association with Houston-based Morris Architects (formerly Morris-Aubry Architects), and erected in 1983. The tower is among Houston's most visible buildings. The building is the 4th-tallest in Texas, the 22nd-tallest in the United States, and the 102nd-tallest building in the world. It is the tallest building in Houston outside of Downtown Houston, and at the time of its construction was believed to be the world's tallest skyscraper outside of a central business district. The building has the United States headquarters of the Hines Interests real estate firm.
Hines Interests LP was the original developer of the tower. In 2008, an affiliate of Hines purchased the Williams Tower for $271.5 million. The building was offered along with the parking garage, a 2.3 acres (0.93 ha) tract across the street from the Williams Tower, and a 48% stake in the Williams Waterwall and the surrounding park; Hines had already owned the other 52% of the waterwall.
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Annise Parker
Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician and the mayor of Houston since January 2, 2010. She served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2009.
Parker is Houston's second female mayor, and one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city.
Parker was born in Houston and raised in the community of Spring Branch, where she attended public schools. Her mother was a bookkeeper, and her father worked for the Red Cross. In 1971, when Parker was 15, her family moved to a U.S. Army base in Mannheim, Germany for two years. In Germany, she volunteered as a candy striper in the Red Cross youth service organization and worked at the base library.
Parker began attending Rice University on a National Merit scholarship in 1974, working several jobs to pay for her room and board. A member of Jones College, she graduated in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology, psychology and sociology.
Prior to serving as an elected official, Parker worked in the oil and gas industry as a software analyst for over 20 years, including 18 years at Mosbacher Energy. In addition, she co-owned Inklings Bookshop with business partner Pokey Anderson from the late 1980s until 1997 and served as president of the Neartown Civic Association from 1995 to 1997. In 1986, she was president of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus.
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Austria
Austria (i/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.
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Betsy Price
Betsy Price is the 44th mayor of Fort Worth, Texas. She was elected on June 18, 2011, in a nonpartisan race to replace mayor Mike Moncrief, and took office on July 12. She is a Republican who previously served 2½ terms as Tarrant County tax assessor-collector, from 2001 to 2011.
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Black people
The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.
As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.
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Chinese American
Chinese Americans (Chinese: trad. 華裔美國人, simp. 华裔美国人, pin. Huáyì Měiguórén; t 美籍華人, s 美籍华人, p Měijí Huárén) are Americans of Chinese – particularly Han Chinese – descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans are immigrants along with their descendants from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well as Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries in Southeast Asia and South America that include large populations of Chinese diaspora. Overall demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia into the broadly defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China and the United States refer Taiwanese Americans as a separate subgroup of Chinese Americans.
The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community in North America, closely followed by the Chinese communities in Canada and Mexico. It is also the fourth largest in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Chinese American community is the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising 25.9% of the Asian American population as of 2010. They constitute 1.2% of the United States, including those with partial Chinese ancestry. According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.8 million.
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Clymer Wright
Clymer Lewis Wright. Jr. (July 24, 1932 – January 24, 2011) was a Texas conservative political activist and a crusading journalist later credited with bringing term limits to Houston municipal government and encouraging Ronald W. Reagan to seek the American presidency.
A veteran of the United States Army in the Korean War, Wright was active in the Baptist Church and in the alumni association of his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
During the middle 1950s, as owner and editor of the Fort Bend Reporter in Rosenberg, Texas, Wright survived death threats targeting himself as well as his family, but he joined with state authorities and the Texas Rangers to rid Galveston and Fort Bend County, outside Houston, of organized crime, including brothels and illegal gambling casinos. Wright sold the Fort Bend Reporter as early as 1957. After further changes of ownership, on August 27, 2005, it assumed the name, the Fort Bend Herald and Texas Coaster.
Wright later published a second conservative newspaper, the Houston Tribune.
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César Pelli
César Pelli (born October 12, 1926) is an Argentine American architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects. His many awards include the 1995 AIA Gold Medal which recognizes a body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Perhaps his most famous work are the Petronas Twin Towers, which were for a time the world's tallest buildings. He also designed the World Financial Center complex in downtown Manhattan, next to the since-fallen World Trade Center.
After studying architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Pelli completed his studies at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He started his career in the New Haven offices of architect Eero Saarinen.
He emigrated to the United States in 1952 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1964. He married Diana Balmori, a renowned landscape and urban designer. They had two children: Denis, a neurobiologist and Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University and Rafael, also a renowned architect.
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Filipino American
Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry, including those who migrated from the Philippines. There are over 3.4 million people of Filipino descent residing in the United States, according to the 2010 United States Census. Filipino Americans make up about 1.1% of the country's population and making them the second largest Asian American subgroup. The Philippines is also one of the major sources of immigration into the United States.
The term Filipino American is sometimes shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy". Some Filipinos believe that the term Pinoy was coined by the early Filipinos who came to the United States to distinguish themselves from Filipinos living in the Philippines.
Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until the early 20th Century when the Philippines was ceded by Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. The Philippines' independence recognized by the United States on July 4, 1946. Immigration was reduced significantly during the 1930s, except for those who served in the United States Navy, and increased following immigration reform in the 1960s.
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Ima Hogg
Ima Hogg (July 10, 1882 – August 19, 1975), known as "The First Lady of Texas", was an American philanthropist, patron and collector of the arts, and one of the most respected women in Texas during the 20th century. Hogg was an avid art collector, and owned works by Picasso, Klee, and Matisse, among others. Hogg donated hundreds of pieces of artwork to Houston's Museum of Fine Arts and served on a committee to plan the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. An enthusiastic collector of early American antiques, she also served on a committee tasked with locating historical furniture for the White House. She restored and refurbished several properties, including the Varner plantation and Bayou Bend, which she later donated to Texas arts and historical institutions who maintain the facilities and their collections today. Hogg received numerous awards and honors, including the Louise E. du Pont Crowninshield Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Santa Rita Award from the University of Texas System, and an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Southwestern University.
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Indian American
Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with the indigenous peoples of the Americas commonly referred to as American Indians.
In North America, the term Indian has an ambiguous meaning. In the western hemisphere, historically and currently, Indian has been commonly used to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Qualifying terms such as American Indian and East Indian were and are commonly used to avoid ambiguity.
While East Indian remains in use, South Asian is often chosen instead. The U.S. government coined Native American to refer to the indigenous peoples of the United States, but American Indian remains popular among the indigenous and general populations.
People of Indian origin often prefer the term Desi to refer to the diasporic subculture of South Asians. Indian Americans are categorized as Asian Indian (and more broadly, Asian American) by the United States Census Bureau.
It was after the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, that Indian Americans were restored naturalization rights in the United States. A number of Indian Americans came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, in both of which 2% of the population is currently of Indian origin,Mauritius, nations of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Guyana, Fiji, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Trinidad & Tobago, and Jamaica.
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James Sanders Holman
James Sanders Holman (1804–1867) became the first mayor of Houston, Texas in 1837. He served as mayor until 1838.
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Japanese American
Japanese Americans (日系米国人, Nikkei Beikokujin?) are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades, it have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,304,286, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity. In the 2000 census, the largest Japanese American communities were found in California with 394,896, Hawaii with 296,674, Washington with 56,210, New York with 45,237, and Illinois with 27,702.
People from Japan began migrating to the U.S. in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Particularly after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were sought by industrialists to replace the Chinese immigrants. In 1907, the "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the governments of Japan and the U.S. ended immigration of Japanese workers (i.e., men), but permitted the immigration of spouses of Japanese immigrants already in the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1924 banned the immigration of all but a token few Japanese.
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Joe Adame
Joseph Anthony Adame (born October 20, 1945) is the current mayor of Corpus Christi, Texas.
He was born to Gumercinda and Cayatanio Adame in Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi TX.
He graduated from Corpus Christi Academy in 1963, then attended Del Mar College in 1964. In 1969, he graduated from Sam Houston State with a Bachelor of Business Administration.
In 1970 he became a licensed Texas real estate broker, and now runs Joe Adame & Associates, a commercial real estate brokerage.
He has served as a past member on the Texas Real Estate Advisory Board at Texas A&M University – College Station, then chairman from 1997–2006.
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John Burgee
John Burgee is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architects. Their landmark collaborations included Pennzoil Place in Houston and the AT&T World Headquarters in New York. Burgee eased Johnson out of the firm in 1991, and when it subsequently went bankrupt, Burgee's design career was essentially over. Burgee is retired, and resides in California.
Burgee graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame in 1956, and served on the university's Board of Trustees from 1988 until 2006, when he was named trustee emeritus, and on the School of Architecture's Advisory Council from 1982. He also served on the boards of the Architectural League of New York, Lenox Hill Hospital, Columbia University’s Master of Sciences Program in Real Estate Development, the Parsons School of Design, and the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic District, and was the co-chairman of the Architectural Committee of the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Centennial Commission. For the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, Burgee was president and chairman.
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John Kirby Allen
John Kirby Allen (1810–1838) was born in Canasareaugh, near Syracuse in the U.S. state of New York. He, along with his older brother, Augustus Chapman Allen, founded Houston, Texas in 1836. John Kirby Allen was never married. He died of congestive fever on August 15, 1838, and was buried at Founders Cemetery in Houston.
When he was seven years old, John took his first job, as a bellboy in a hotel in Orrville. Three years later, he started working as a clerk in a retail shop. At sixteen, he formed a partnership with a friend operating a hat store at Chittenango, New York, where his brother, Augustus Chapman Allen, was professor of mathematics. In 1827, John cashed in his interest in the hat store and followed his brother to New York City, where they were investors in H. and H. Canfield Company until 1832. The brothers then moved to Texas.
The Allen brothers arrived first in Galveston, Texas and then moved to the small town of Saint Augustine. In 1833, John Allen and his brother associated with a group of entrepreneurs in Nacogdoches and started operating a business as land speculators.
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Julian Castro
Julián Castro (born September 16, 1974) is an American politician and the current Mayor of San Antonio, Texas.
Castro was born in San Antonio on September 16, 1974. He is the twin brother of Joaquín Castro, both graduates from Thomas Jefferson High School (San Antonio, TX). He graduated in 1996 from Stanford University, majoring in political science and communications. He said he began thinking about entering politics while at Stanford. He later graduated from Harvard Law School. His brother graduated from both schools with him.
Castro served on the San Antonio City Council from 2001 to 2005, representing District 7. He sought to establish himself as a leader on issues of economic development, education, and environmental protection. Castro ran for Mayor of San Antonio in 2005 and was widely viewed as the front runner in a field that also included retired judge Phil Hardberger and conservative city councilman Carroll Schubert. While Castro received a plurality of the vote in the May 2005 election, he was narrowly defeated by Hardberger in the June 2005 runoff.
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Korean American
Korean Americans (Korean: 한국계 미국인, Hanja: 韓國系美國人, Hangukgye Migukin) are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea. The Korean American community comprises about 0.6% of the United States population, or about 1.7 million people, and is the fifth largest Asian American subgroup, after the Chinese American, Filipino American, Indian American, and Vietnamese American communities. The U.S. is home to the second largest Korean diaspora community in the world after the People's Republic of China.
While people living in North Korea cannot leave or emigrate from their country with rare exceptions, there are numbers of people of North Korean origin living in the U.S., primarily those who fled to the south during the Korean War and then later migrated to the United States. Also, since the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 allowed North Korean defectors to be admitted as refugees, about 130 have settled in the U.S. under that status.
According to the 2010 Census, there were approximately 1.7 million people of Korean descent residing in the United States, making it the country with the second largest Korean population living outside Korea (after the People's Republic of China). The ten states with the largest estimated Korean American populations were California (452,000; 1.2%), New York (141,000, 0.7%), New Jersey (94,000, 1.1%), Virginia (71,000, 0.9%), Texas (68,000, 0.3%), Washington (62,400, 0.9%), Illinois (61,500, 0.5%), Georgia (52,500, 0.5%), Maryland (49,000, 0.8%), and Pennsylvania (41,000, 0.3%). Hawaii was the state with the highest concentration of Korean Americans, at 1.8%, or 23,200 people.
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Lee Leffingwell
Shelly Lee Leffingwell (born October 13, 1939) is the current mayor of Austin, Texas. He was first elected as an Austin city council member in 2005, won re-election in 2008, and was elected mayor in 2009. He was reelected to a second three year term on May 12, 2012 with over 52% of the vote.
Leffingwell is a native of Austin and a retired airline pilot. He graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, then became an officer and pilot in the United States Navy. After spending five years on active duty, including Vietnam service, Leffingwell left active duty and joined the Navy Reserves, completing a total of 20 years military service. He was a pilot and Captain for Delta Air Lines for almost 32 years, ending his airline career as an international Boeing 767 and MD-11 Captain.
Leffingwell served for more than five years as a consensus appointee to the City of Austin's Environmental Board and was elected by his peers as Chair for the last four of those years.
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Mike Rawlings
Mike Rawlings is the Mayor of Dallas after winning the Dallas Mayoral Election defeating former Dallas Police Chief, David Kunkle. He is also the former CEO of Pizza Hut.
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Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander (or Pacific person; pl: Pacific people; also Oceanic person/people(s) or Oceanians), is a geographic phrase to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands, consist of:
Polynesia: The islands scattered across a tangle covering the east-central region of the Pacific Ocean. The triangle is bounded by the Hawaiian islands in the north, New Zealand in the west, and Easter Island in the east. The rest of Polynesia comprises Samoan islands (American Samoa and Samoa), the Cook Islands, French Polynesia (Tahiti and The Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, Austral Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago), Niue Island, Tokelau and Tuvalu, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, and Pitcairn Island.
Melanesia: The island of New Guinea, the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagos, the Admiralty Islands, and Bougainville Island (which make up the independent state of Maluku, Papua New Guinea), the Solomon Islands, the Santa Cruz Islands (part of the Solomon Islands), New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), Fiji, Norfolk Island, and various smaller islands.
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Pakistani American
A Pakistani American is any citizen or resident of the United States who has Pakistani heritage.
Muslim immigrants from areas that are now part of Pakistan have been migrating to America and first entered the United States as early as the eighteenth century, working in agriculture, logging, and mining in the western states of California, Oregon, and Washington. The passage of the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 allowed these immigrants to acquire U.S. citizenship through naturalization. Between 1947 and 1965, only 2,500 Pakistani immigrants entered the United States; most of them were students who chose to settle in the United States after graduating from American universities, according to reports from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. This marked the beginning of a distinct 'Pakistani' community in America. However after President Lyndon Johnson signed the INS Act of 1965 into law, eliminating per-country immigration quotas and introducing immigration on the basis of professional experience and education, the number of Pakistanis immigrating to USA increased dramatically. By 1990, the U.S. Census bureau indicated that there were about 100,000 Pakistani Americans in the United States and by 2005 their population had grown to 210,000.
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Phil Dyer
Phil Dyer (born July 6, 1951) is the current and 37th mayor of Plano, Texas. He was elected in 2009.
He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. He received his Masters of Business Administration from East Texas State University in 1981. Dyer served on several local boards and committees starting in 1984 and was in the Plano City Council from 1999 through 2005. He is also the president of LegacyTexas Bank.
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Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an influential American architect.
In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later (1978), as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 1979. He was a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Johnson died in his sleep while at the Glass House retreat. He was survived by his life partner of 45 years, David Whitney, who died later that year at age 66.
Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was descended from the Jansen (a.k.a. Johnson) family of New Amsterdam, and included among his ancestors the Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou, who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvesant. He attended the Hackley School, in Tarrytown, New York, and then studied at Harvard University as an undergraduate, where he focused on history and philosophy, particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Johnson interrupted his education with several extended trips to Europe. These trips became the pivotal moment of his education; he visited Chartres, the Parthenon, and many other ancient monuments, becoming increasingly fascinated with architecture.
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Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920, Wadowice, Republic of Poland – 2 April 2005, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523.
John Paul II was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. He was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. Though criticised by progressives for upholding the Church's teachings against artificial contraception and the ordination of women, and by traditionalists for his support of the Church's Second Vatican Council and its reform, he was also widely praised for his firm, orthodox Catholic stances.
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Robert Cluck
Dr. Robert Cluck, M.D., (born March 20, 1939) is the current mayor of Arlington, Texas, and a former obstetrician-gynecologist. He was elected to the office of Mayor of the City of Arlington in May 2003 after serving two terms on the City Council. He represented Council District 4.
Cluck is currently the Vice President for Medical Affairs at Arlington Memorial Hospital, a position he has held since 2002. Prior to that, he was the Medical Director at Arlington Memorial Hospital and Harris Methodist Health Plan.
From 1971 to 1994, Cluck was in private practice as an Obstetrician-Gynecologist in Arlington. After receiving his medical training from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dr. Robert Cluck served in the U.S. Air Force for two years, serving during the Vietnam War as a general medical officer at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.
He currently serves on many boards and commissions including the Arlington Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Texas Municipal League Board of Directors, the University of Texas Metroplex Council, and the Workforce Solutions Workforce Governing Board.
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Sam Houston
Samuel "Sam" Houston (March 2, 1793–July 26, 1863), was a nineteenth-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, U.S. Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as a governor of the state. He refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War, and was removed from office. To avoid bloodshed, he refused an offer of a Union army to put down the Confederate rebellion. Instead, he retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died before the end of the Civil War.
His earlier life included migration to Tennessee from Virginia, time spent with the Cherokee Nation (into which he later was adopted as a citizen and took a wife), military service in the War of 1812, and successful participation in Tennessee politics. Houston is the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two different states (although other men had served as governors of more than one American territory).
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Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt ( /ˈroʊzəvɛlt/ ROH-zə-velt; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th President of the United States of America (1901–1909). He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party of 1912. Before becoming President, he held offices at the city, state, and federal levels. Roosevelt's achievements as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, and soldier are as much a part of his fame as any office he held as a politician. Roosevelt was 42 years old when sworn in as President of the United States in 1901, making him the youngest president ever; he beat out the youngest elected president, John F. Kennedy, by only one year. Roosevelt was also one of only three sitting presidents to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the other two being Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama.
wn.com/Theodore_Roosevelt -
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American (Vietnamese: Người Mỹ gốc Việt) is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese (Người Việt Hải Ngoại) and are the fourth-largest Asian American group.
Mass Vietnamese immigration to the United States started after 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War. Early immigrants were refugee boat people fleeing persecution or poverty. Forced to flee from their homeland and often thrust into poor urban neighborhoods, these newcomers have nevertheless managed to establish strong communities in a short amount of time. More than sixty percent of Vietnamese Americans reside in the states of California, Texas, Washington, Florida, and Virginia.
As a relatively recent immigrant group, most Vietnamese Americans are either first- or second-generation Americans. They have the lowest distribution of people with more than one race among the major Asian American groups. As many as one million people who are five years and older speak Vietnamese at home—making it the seventh-most spoken language in the United States. As refugees, Vietnamese Americans have some of the highest rates of naturalization. In the 2006 American Community Survey, 72% of foreign-born Vietnamese are naturalized US citizens; this combined with the 36% who are born in the United States makes 82% of them United States citizen in total. Of those born outside the United States, 46.5% entered before 1990, 38.8% between 1990 and 2000, and 14.6% entered after 2000.
wn.com/Vietnamese_American -
Virginia DuPuy
Virginia DuPuy was from 2005 until 2010 the mayor of Waco, Texas. She attends Central Presbyterian Church and is also the CEO of DuPuy Oxygen, a Waco-based company. She is married to Les DuPuy.
DuPuy received both her Bachelor of Arts from Baylor University in 1957 and her Master of Arts degree in 1961 from Baylor as well.
She married Leslie Carr DuPuy, Jr. in 1959.
Dupuy was reelected mayor in a landslide election in May 2008 in which she received over six times as many votes as the challenger. After re-election, DuPuy expressed her plans for the upcoming years as mayor to the Waco Tribune-Herald:
“I’m looking forward to another two years and being a part of what’s going on in Waco. I plan on seeing continued development in downtown Waco and along the Brazos River Corridor. I’m looking forward to the overall development plans from the dam back up to the mammoth site. We hope to get started on that this year.”
She said she sees opportunities for the city to work with local colleges and hospitals to help develop a biotechnology industry in Waco.
wn.com/Virginia_DuPuy -
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. Running against Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and Republican candidate William Howard Taft, Wilson was elected President as a Democrat in 1912.
In his first term as President, Wilson persuaded a Democratic Congress to pass major progressive reforms. Historian John M. Cooper argues that, in his first term, Wilson successfully pushed a legislative agenda that few presidents have equaled, and remained unmatched up until the New Deal. This agenda included the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act and an income tax. Child labor was curtailed by the Keating–Owen Act of 1916, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1918. He also had Congress pass the Adamson Act, which imposed an 8-hour workday for railroads. Wilson, after first sidestepping the issue, became a major advocate for the women's suffrage.
wn.com/Woodrow_Wilson -
World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
wn.com/World_War_I
Houston Filmography
- After Porn Ends (2010)
- 50 Greatest Plastic Surgery Shockers (2010)
- Pink TV (2008)
- Knifemares (2006)
- Only the Best! The 90's (2006)
- Fluffy Cumsalot, Porn Star (2003)
- The Incredible Ashley Juggs & Her Busty Friends (2003)
- Pussy Foot'n 5 (2003)
- Behind Closed Doors (2002)
- More Than a Handful 11 (2002)
- Colin's Sleazy Friends Rocks (2002)
- Cooking with Porn Stars (2002)
- America the Beautiful (2002)
- Only the Bust from Napali Video (2001)
- Young Girls Who Love Girls (2001)
- Eager Beavers 3 (2001)
- Babes Illustrated 9: Cyber Sluts (2000)
- Blowjob Fantasies 11 (2000)
- Hand Job Hunnies 2 (2000)
- Stop! My Ass Is on Fire! 5 (2000)
- Backseat Driver 5: All Stars (1999)
- Blowjob Fantasies 9 (1999)
- Big Bust Bash (1999)
- Titman's Pool Party (1999)
- The World's Biggest Gang Bang III - The Houston 620 (1999)
- Under Dressed (1999)
- Stop! My Ass Is on Fire! 3 (1999)
- Hot House Tales (1999)
- Gang Bang Fluffers (1999)
- Porn to Rock (1999)
- Flesh Peddlers 2 (1998)
- Wind Song (1998)
- Deadly Currency (1998)
- Air Tight 2 (1998)
- Tits and Ass 1 (1998)
- Fade to Blue (1998)
- Georgia Peaches (1997)
- Sorority Sex Kittens 3 (1997)
- Lisa (1997)
- Dirty Bob's Xcellent Adventures 36 (1997)
- Get Lucky (1996)
- Adult Video News Awards 1996 (1996)
- Hollywood Legs (1996)
- Carnal Invasions (1996)
- Angels in Flight (1995)
- Texas Crude (1995)
- The Bottom Line (1995)
- Dream Lust (1995)
- Twists of the Heart (1995)
- Russian Roulette (1995)
Houston, Don Filmography
Houston Filmography
- Dean Martin
- R.E.M.
- Bobby Bare
- Whitney Houston
- Mary Chapin Carpenter
- Slim Thug
- Phil Vassar
- Soul Coughing
- Jennifer Brown
- Visqueen
karaoke
Well it's lonesome in this old town
Everybody puts me down
I'm a face without a name
Just walking in the rain
Goin' back to Houston, Houston, Houston
I got holes in both of my shoes
Well I'm a walking case of the blues
Saw a dollar yesterday
But the wind blew it away
Goin' back to Houston, Houston, Houston
I haven't eaten in about a week
I'm so hungry when I walk I squeak
Nobody calls me friend
It's sad the shape I'm in
Goin' back to Houston, Houston, Houston
Goin' back to Houston, Houston, Houston
I got a girl waiting there for me
Well at least she said she'd be
I got a home and a big warm bed
And a feather pillow for my head
Goin' back to Houston, Houston, Houston
Well it's lonesome in this old town
Everybody put me down
I'm a face without a name
Just walking in the rain
If the storm doesn't kill me the government will
I've got to get that out of my head
It's a new day today and the coffee is strong
I've finally got some rest
So a man's put to task and challenges
I was taught to hold my head high
Collect what is mine,
Make the best of what today has
Houston is filled with promise
Laredo is a beautiful place
Galveston sings like that song that I loved
Its meaning has not been erased
And so there are claims forgiven
And so there are things that are gone
Houston is filled with promise
Laredo is a beautiful place
Galveston sings like that song that I loved
Its meaning has not been erased
And some things, they fall to the wayside
Their memory is yet to be still
Belief has not filled me
Well it's lonesome in this ol' town everybody puts me down
I'm a face without a name just a walking in the rain
A going back to Houston Houston Houston
I got holes in both of my shoes well I'm a walking case of the blues
Saw a dollar yesterday but the wind blew it away
A going back to Houston Houston Houston
I haven't eaten in about a week I'm so hungry when I walk I squeak
Nobody calls me friend it's sad the shape I'm in
A going back to Houston Houston Houston
[ harmonica ]
A going back to Houston Houston Houston
I got a girl waitin' there for me well at least she said she'd be
I got a home and big warm bed and a feather pillow for my head
A going back to Houston Houston Houston
Well it's lonesome in this ol' town...
Whitney Houston
@ALBUM:
@SONG: My love is your love
If tomorrow is judgement day (sing mommy)
And I'm standin' on the front line
And the Lord ask me what I did w/ my life
I will say I spent it with you
If I wake up in WW 3
I see destruction and poverty
And I feel like I want to go home
It's okay if you coming' with me
Chorus:
Cause your love is my love
and my love is your love
It would take an eternity to break us
And the chains of Amistad couldn’t hold us
If I lose my fame and fortune
And I'm homeless on the street
And I'm sleepin' in Grand Central Station
It's okay if you're sleepin' with me
As the years they pass us by
We stay young through each other's eyes
And no matter how old we get
It's okay as long as I got you babe
Chorus
If I should die this very day
Don't cry, cause on earth we wasn't meant to stay
And no matter what people day
I'll be waiting for you after judgement day
Mama's got a baby sleeping in a grocery cart
Daddy's eyes are hazy wondering where they are
Waiting for the buses, waiting on some providence
Once we get to Houston, maybe it will all make sense
Praying to the Father and calling for the cavalry
Look at all this water and somehow not a drop to drink
Now did you ever hear of nightmares coming in the light of day?
Once we get to Houston, maybe they'll just wash away
Roll on Mississippi, goodbye Crescent City
Le bon temp New Orleans, never coming back to stay
Never been to Texas, hope this bus is on a tear
Never seen the President, maybe he will lead us there
And I never knew a promise that didn't break right in two
Once we get to Houston, maybe one will come true
Roll on Mississippi, goodbye Crescent City
Le bon temp New Orleans, never coming back to you
Last night I dreamed of rain but golden light was all I saw
I heard my old dog barking, went to see Mardi Gras
And I stood up on the banks and looked out over Pontchartrain
I woke up here in Houston, didn't even know my name
Roll on Mississippi, goodbye Crescent City
Le bon temp New Orleans, never coming back again
[Verse 1 – Slim Thug]
Texas tatted on my arm, got Houston on my back
'Cause I love the city I'm from, hands up if you feel that
I ball hard like a Texan, every Sunday catch me wreckin'
?, code name Boss because you can't catch him
And they catch them bops like Dre do
Ball hard like I play too, run that back like Jay do
Bet a couple? and we play you
We came to win, can't take a loss
Ain't shit 'bout that H South,
Team strong we'll break 'em off, lay 'em down then rake 'em out
Car roof like?, when the sun's out I drop the top
H-Town we shinin' red white and blue in that lot
See you boys in the playoffs, bet you this year we on top
And if you from that H like me, you already know what I'm talkin' 'bout
[Hook]
I'm from Houston, Texas home of the Texans [x3]
Texas Tatted on my arm, Houston on my back
I'm from Houston, Texas home of the Texans [x3]
Texas Tatted on my arm, Houston on my back
[Verse 2 – Paul Wall]
I'm from that HOU TEX, non-believers get put to the death
Then hard times, we get put to the test, but dedication turn the last to the best
Stop complainin' just a little bit less and start to quest on the road to success
We got now and we got next, say it loud with some bass in your chest
Haters hate but now they on jock like Joseph and Queen the corners on lock
I come through the line like Brian Kush and then I can't be blocked like JJ Watt
Now we on top, no more middle, like Super Mario I'm a hard hitter
Can't be stopped, don't be bitter, never give up 'cause I'm a go getter
In the groupie and I wade through you, she like Torro and the whole crew
In battle red or liberty white out, I might come out in the deep still blue
I thought boys knew, don't be surprised, tell them boys about Texas pride
We ride for each other when we on the otherside and if you aint?
[Hook]
[Verse 3 – Chamillionaire]
Hold up
If you ain't from Texas, you didn't get the message
Let me give you boys a quick lesson then
I swore to God to be fresh to death, I didn't die so time to get fresh again
You know the H what I'm reppin' and it's like 35% Mexican
And that's so ironic (why?)
Every cup is like 35% beverage and 65% medicine
Plenty? for thick specimens
A million fine and bad yela's and that's like 22% lesbian
And in my zone what you steppin' in, then I bet my fist is gone check a chin
'Cause that trill in Bun, and that trill is Pimp, and that trill is somethin' y'all never been
Hit your woman and let her in to my vehicle that I never tint
That brain got to be official baby, no artificial intelligence
I'm runnin in it like Andre, if y'all ain't from Houston I ain't convinced
'Cause y'all touch down in our city once and been rappin' like you are ever since
It's been three days, two hours
And a minute
Since she blasted off breaking every speed limit
As fast and far away from me
As she could get
Well, she said, you'll straighten up one way or another
The Don't Mess With Texas bumper
Sticker on the bumper
Said it all as she drove off into the red sunset
She was right and I've learned my lesson
Here on out, I'm a man on a mission
Houston, we have a problem
If you can put a man on the moon
I'm sure there's something you can do
To help a love a little off course
Well, I'm losin' her, heaven knows I can't do that
I need her back
So come in Houston, we have a problem
She left with a suitcase full of resentment
She told me that I was afraid
Of commitment
She said don't call me baby, I'll call you
Well it's been days and I ain't
Heard nothing
Somebody's just got to do something
Houston, we have a problem
If you can put a man on the moon
I'm sure there's something you can do
To help a love a little off course
Well, I'm losin' her, heaven knows I can't do that
I need her back
So come in Houston, we have a problem
If I could do anything I would give everything
To make her come home
I only need a chance to say if
I could find a way
To let her know, come in
Houston, we have a problem
If you can put a man on the moon
I'm sure there's something you can do
To help a love a little off course
I'm losin' her, heaven knows I can't do that
I need her back
So come in Houston, we have a problem
(M. Doughty)
I met a girl on roller skates
She had a spare bag, she had lost some weight
Where I used to work, she was a waitress
She proposed a trade, it was generous
She's gone to Houston, feel like I'm floating in a warm sea
And if she finds out when she comes back, I know that she wil leave me
Oh I heard a sign, it was a dull crack
It was a clock hand, It was snapping back
Oh it wasn't her's, it was the dope's kiss
I'll take the blame upon my shoulder, I just love to feel like this
love is a rocket
focusing me to fly
blast off with me baby
all we need is the clear blue sky
take a look at my eyes
let me look at your eyes
i'll take the window
and you can take control
steer me up to heaven
far away from the fears i know
leave a trail of love smoke
just like a dusted road
houston look here i go again
when i'll be home again god only knows
houston please don't wait up for me
turn off your technology, the lights and the show
if im forgotten
houston we have a problem
satellites of doubts can surround me
from being hurt many times before
so touch me like a healer
show me stars never seen before
lift me of the floor
that's what love is for
houston look here i go again
when i'll be home again god only knows
houston please don't wait up for me
turn off your technology, the lights and the show
if im forgotten
houston we have a problem
if my heart breaks and worlds collide
at least i'll be on the other side
i'd rather will and risk it all
and wonder if we'll ever fall
houston look here i go again
when i'll be home again god only knows
houston please don't wait up for me
turn off your technology, the lights and the show
if im forgotten
houston we have a problem
You buy her everything
A bracelet diamond ring
A tennis date with brad and kelly
But she fudged on the card, down cowboy boulevard
The rodeo's in town and selling
Your money's in the trade
A fortune to be made
A dream that you will soon wake up from
Houston feels so low
Her calves against the bar
Housekeeper took the car
And pool house rules can't keep your cloths on
The ranch house rattlesnakes will pray you soul to take
Black cadillac with white-walled wheels on
The saddle sores are real, more cactus fruit to peel
As san antone feels yellow rosy
Houston feels so low
The bulk of his estate
Is sifted through probate
Iced relatives talk over bourbon
The benefactor falls
A hidden mistress calls
As grandmother adjusts her turban
Last will and testament
To leave in the event
I hit the lights on grand old opry
Houston feels so low
RELEASE
ALBUMS
- Pride
- Truth Slips
- Hold On
- I'm Alive
- One Chance
- Give Me Back My Heart
- Misery
- She's a Mystery
- Now
- 1000 Songs
- Under Your Skin
- Chasing the Dream
- It's Already Written, Part 1
- I Like That
- Twizala (intro)
- Twizala
- Ain't Nothing Wrong
- My Promise
- Keep It on the Low
- What You Say
- Love You Down
- Allright
- Bye Bye Love
- Didn't Give a Damn (interlude)
- Didn't Give a Damn
- She Is
- It's Already Written, Part 2 (Thunder)
- Dumb Rock 2
- It's a Shame
- Chicken Little
- Intro
- Home for the Holidays
- Our Puffy Little Lives
- The Day She Cracked
- I'm a Girl
- Heave
- The Time of the Fall of Love
- True Love Forever
- Dumb Rock 1
- Weathervane
- Part One
- Big Three
- This Lousy Picture I Took
- Waves
- I'm Not Sayin' (I'm Just Sayin')
- Ugly Tree
- #12 Looks Just Like You
- Caeser, Nero, Next
- An Alternative to Sleep
- Water
- Ditty One
- Buddy
- Romp
- Sex, Guns and Ear Protection
- Waves
- Let's Use All the Hangers
- Cover
- How Was Your Day
- Banner Year
- Peddel (Sic)
- Nine
- Sunday in December
- Ocean
- Keith Moon
- Intermission - Let's Go to the Kitchen
- Sunrise
- Overhead
- Bender
- [untitled]
- We're Not Done Yet
- The Weather
- Old 61
- 17
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Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:35
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Music video by Whitney Houston performing I Will Always Love You. (C) 1999 Arista Records, Inc & Viacom International Inc.
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston_I_Will_Always_Love_You
Music video by Whitney Houston performing I Will Always Love You. (C) 1999 Arista Records, Inc & Viacom International Inc.
I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU BY WHITNEY HOUSTON
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:11
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Background information Birth name***Whitney Elizabeth Houston Born***August 9,1963,Newark, New Jersey,US Origin***East Orange,New Jersey Genres***R&B;, pop,dance,soul,gospel Occupations***Singer,actress,model,film producer,record producer,songwriter Instruments***Vocals,piano Years active***1977--present Labels***Arista (1983--2011)RCA (2011--present) Associated acts***Cissy Houston,Dionne Warwick,Aretha Franklin,Mariah Carey,Bobby Brown,Jermaine Jackson,Enrique Iglesias Website***Official website
http://wn.com/I_WILL_ALWAYS_LOVE_YOU_BY_WHITNEY_HOUSTON
Background information Birth name***Whitney Elizabeth Houston Born***August 9,1963,Newark, New Jersey,US Origin***East Orange,New Jersey Genres***R&B;, pop,dance,soul,gospel Occupations***Singer,actress,model,film producer,record producer,songwriter Instruments***Vocals,piano Years active***1977--present Labels***Arista (1983--2011)RCA (2011--present) Associated acts***Cissy Houston,Dionne Warwick,Aretha Franklin,Mariah Carey,Bobby Brown,Jermaine Jackson,Enrique Iglesias Website***Official website
- published: 06 Feb 2012
- views: 11265380
- author: joelledolphin
Whitney Houston - I Look To You
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:26
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Music video by Whitney Houston performing I Look To You. (C) 2009 RCA/JIVE Label Group, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston_I_Look_To_You
Music video by Whitney Houston performing I Look To You. (C) 2009 RCA/JIVE Label Group, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment
- published: 14 Nov 2009
- views: 23136406
- author: whitneyhoustonVEVO
Slim Thug FEAT. Paul Wall & ZRo - HOUSTON
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:14
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
MICHAEL ARTIS TEAMS UP WITH HOUSTON'S POWER HOUSE SLIM THUG PAUL WALL & ZRO TO CREATE A VISUAL FOR THE NEW HOUSTON TEXANS THEME SONG OFF SLIM THUG'S NEW MIX TAPE ENTITLED HOUSTON!!! DIRECTED BY MICHAEL ARTIS WWW.MICHAELARTISFILMS.COM FOLLOW ON TWITTER @MICHAEL_ARTIS @PAULWALLBABY @SLIMTHUGGA @ZROMOCITYDON
http://wn.com/Slim_Thug_FEAT_Paul_Wall_ZRo_HOUSTON
MICHAEL ARTIS TEAMS UP WITH HOUSTON'S POWER HOUSE SLIM THUG PAUL WALL & ZRO TO CREATE A VISUAL FOR THE NEW HOUSTON TEXANS THEME SONG OFF SLIM THUG'S NEW MIX TAPE ENTITLED HOUSTON!!! DIRECTED BY MICHAEL ARTIS WWW.MICHAELARTISFILMS.COM FOLLOW ON TWITTER @MICHAEL_ARTIS @PAULWALLBABY @SLIMTHUGGA @ZROMOCITYDON
- published: 06 Jan 2012
- views: 1047645
- author: Michael Artis
Jason Viet Tien's audition - Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing - The X Factor UK 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:07
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Visit the official site: itv.com Watch Jason Viet Tien sing I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston Jason Viet Tien is a massive fan of Tulisa (oops, we mean 'Tulisha'). In fact, his three favourite words are 'I. Love. Tulisha.' In addition to serenading 'Tulisha' with Whitney, the smooth operator wooed her with a kiss and some flowers. Could Tulisa have a new toy boy on her hands? Watch this space... SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly Facebook: bit.ly Twitter: bit.ly Buy Live Tour Tickets: bit.ly Watch full episodes on ITV Player (UK ONLY): bit.ly
http://wn.com/Jason_Viet_Tien's_audition_Whitney_Houston's_I_Have_Nothing_The_X_Factor_UK_2012
Visit the official site: itv.com Watch Jason Viet Tien sing I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston Jason Viet Tien is a massive fan of Tulisa (oops, we mean 'Tulisha'). In fact, his three favourite words are 'I. Love. Tulisha.' In addition to serenading 'Tulisha' with Whitney, the smooth operator wooed her with a kiss and some flowers. Could Tulisa have a new toy boy on her hands? Watch this space... SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly Facebook: bit.ly Twitter: bit.ly Buy Live Tour Tickets: bit.ly Watch full episodes on ITV Player (UK ONLY): bit.ly
- published: 08 Sep 2012
- views: 3450682
- author: TheXFactorUK
Houston Zoo Cheetahs Run at Sam Houston Race Park!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:38
- Updated: 05 Jan 2013
The Houston Zoo cheetahs enjoy stretching their legs out while running at the Sam Houston Race Park. Running is a natural behavior for cheetahs in the wild, so the staff at the Houston Zoo want to promote this behavior by encouraging them to run - this is called "enrichment." For more on animal enrichment and the Houston Zoo, visit www.houstonzoo.org.
http://wn.com/Houston_Zoo_Cheetahs_Run_at_Sam_Houston_Race_Park!
The Houston Zoo cheetahs enjoy stretching their legs out while running at the Sam Houston Race Park. Running is a natural behavior for cheetahs in the wild, so the staff at the Houston Zoo want to promote this behavior by encouraging them to run - this is called "enrichment." For more on animal enrichment and the Houston Zoo, visit www.houstonzoo.org.
- published: 12 Dec 2012
- views: 129585
- author: houstonzoo
Whitney Houston - Never Give Up
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:02
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Pre-order "I Will Always Love You - The Best of Whitney Houston" here: smarturl.it Music video by Whitney Houston performing Never Give Up. (C) 2012 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston_Never_Give_Up
Pre-order "I Will Always Love You - The Best of Whitney Houston" here: smarturl.it Music video by Whitney Houston performing Never Give Up. (C) 2012 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
- published: 06 Nov 2012
- views: 825402
- author: whitneyhoustonVEVO
NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets Vs Minnesota Timberwolves Highlights 26 December 2012 www.nbacircle.com
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:30
- Updated: 05 Jan 2013
www.nbacircle.com NBA Christmas Gifts Get a Free NBA Jersey! NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets 87-84 Minnesota Timberwolves Highlights Wednesday, December 26, 2012 NBA 2013 Regular Season Highlight
http://wn.com/NBA_CIRCLE_Houston_Rockets_Vs_Minnesota_Timberwolves_Highlights_26_December_2012_wwwnbacirclecom
www.nbacircle.com NBA Christmas Gifts Get a Free NBA Jersey! NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets 87-84 Minnesota Timberwolves Highlights Wednesday, December 26, 2012 NBA 2013 Regular Season Highlight
- published: 27 Dec 2012
- views: 20418
- author: NEWNBACIRCLE
Jahmene Douglas sings Whitney Houston's I Look To You - Live Week 9 - The X Factor UK 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:34
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Visit the official site: itv.com Download this performance on iTunes: bit.ly Watch as Jahmene Douglas performs I Look To You Lighters in the air and wave 'em around like you just don't care! Yup, Jahmene is here and he's on a mission to tug at those heart-strings in another choir-tastic performance. Top marks for that swishy suit too, we likey! SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly Facebook: bit.ly Twitter: bit.ly Buy Live Tour Tickets: bit.ly/T3LeU1 Watch full episodes on ITV Player (UK ONLY): bit.ly
http://wn.com/Jahmene_Douglas_sings_Whitney_Houston's_I_Look_To_You_Live_Week_9_The_X_Factor_UK_2012
Visit the official site: itv.com Download this performance on iTunes: bit.ly Watch as Jahmene Douglas performs I Look To You Lighters in the air and wave 'em around like you just don't care! Yup, Jahmene is here and he's on a mission to tug at those heart-strings in another choir-tastic performance. Top marks for that swishy suit too, we likey! SUBSCRIBE: bit.ly Facebook: bit.ly Twitter: bit.ly Buy Live Tour Tickets: bit.ly/T3LeU1 Watch full episodes on ITV Player (UK ONLY): bit.ly
- published: 01 Dec 2012
- views: 778590
- author: TheXFactorUK
NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets Vs New York Knicks Highlights 17 December 2012 www.nbacircle.com
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:38
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
www.nbacircle.com Celebrate with Houston Rockets Get a Free NBA Jersey! NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets 109-96 New York Knicks Highlights Monday, December 17, 2012 NBA 2013 Regular Season Highlight
http://wn.com/NBA_CIRCLE_Houston_Rockets_Vs_New_York_Knicks_Highlights_17_December_2012_wwwnbacirclecom
www.nbacircle.com Celebrate with Houston Rockets Get a Free NBA Jersey! NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets 109-96 New York Knicks Highlights Monday, December 17, 2012 NBA 2013 Regular Season Highlight
- published: 18 Dec 2012
- views: 44741
- author: NEWNBACIRCLE
Dancing Rabbis take Houston NBA basketball by storm
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:24
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
A group of dancing rabbis in the American city of Houston have set the world of top tier NBA basketball alight with a performance which is helping promote the image of Judaism far beyond the court.
http://wn.com/Dancing_Rabbis_take_Houston_NBA_basketball_by_storm
A group of dancing rabbis in the American city of Houston have set the world of top tier NBA basketball alight with a performance which is helping promote the image of Judaism far beyond the court.
- published: 17 Dec 2012
- views: 27668
- author: JewishNewsOne
Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:49
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Music video by Whitney Houston performing I Have Nothing. (C) 1992 Arista Records, Inc.
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston_I_Have_Nothing
Music video by Whitney Houston performing I Have Nothing. (C) 1992 Arista Records, Inc.
- published: 14 Nov 2009
- views: 14223389
- author: whitneyhoustonVEVO
North Dakota State Captures 2nd Straight Title
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:41
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Quarterback Brock Jensen ran for three touchdowns and Sam Ojuri scored twice to help North Dakota State rout Sam Houston State for the FCS championship.
http://wn.com/North_Dakota_State_Captures_2nd_Straight_Title
Quarterback Brock Jensen ran for three touchdowns and Sam Ojuri scored twice to help North Dakota State rout Sam Houston State for the FCS championship.
- published: 05 Jan 2013
- views: 653
- author: ESPN
NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets Vs Cleveland Cavaliers Highlights 5 January 2013 www.nbacircle.com
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:33
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
www.nbacircle.com Celebrate with Houston Rockets Get a Free NBA Jersey! NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets 112-104 Cleveland Cavaliers Highlights Saturday, January 5, 2013 NBA 2013 Regular Season Highlight
http://wn.com/NBA_CIRCLE_Houston_Rockets_Vs_Cleveland_Cavaliers_Highlights_5_January_2013_wwwnbacirclecom
www.nbacircle.com Celebrate with Houston Rockets Get a Free NBA Jersey! NBA CIRCLE - Houston Rockets 112-104 Cleveland Cavaliers Highlights Saturday, January 5, 2013 NBA 2013 Regular Season Highlight
- published: 06 Jan 2013
- views: 3054
- author: NEWNBACIRCLE
Christmas Roadtrip Houston Style (Day 907)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 23:33
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Wanna help our Channel (ErikTV365)? You can nominate us for YouTube's On The Rise program. Let me know who to thank! docs.google.com 2 on 2 Basketball Game Highlights: www.youtube.com Wanna learn more about us? Watch our 30 second commercial... www.youtube.com We're TEXAS based YouTube Partners with Maker Studios out of Los Angeles! We put out new videos every day! Be sure to SUBSCRIBE so that you are always notified when we put out a new video! Also, be sure to follow us and interact with us through the links listed down below! "Life After Cancer" Cancer survivor with a goal of showing everyone that every day can bring a bit of happiness no matter the obstacles life throws at you. My goal is TO BE THE BEST Father/Dad and husband I can be for my family. I need your help to make this YouTube dream come true. Spread the word and tweet/share/email our videos around to your friends and family so we can accomplish this goal of making YouTube a career. *********** Royalty Free Music by audiomicro.com Sound Effects by audiomicro.com ALSO Track info: Kevin Macleod - incompetech.com *********** Be sure to Subscribe to us (Reasons to subscribe 1: Cute Kids 2: Survived Cancer 3: Committed to vlogging forever; just to name a few) and leave me lots of feedback/comments so that we can get better and better each and every day WE vlog. Certifique-se Inscrever-se para nós (Razões para subscrever 1: Cute Kids 2: sobreviveu a um câncer 3: Compromisso com a vlogging para sempre, apenas para ...
http://wn.com/Christmas_Roadtrip_Houston_Style_Day_907
Wanna help our Channel (ErikTV365)? You can nominate us for YouTube's On The Rise program. Let me know who to thank! docs.google.com 2 on 2 Basketball Game Highlights: www.youtube.com Wanna learn more about us? Watch our 30 second commercial... www.youtube.com We're TEXAS based YouTube Partners with Maker Studios out of Los Angeles! We put out new videos every day! Be sure to SUBSCRIBE so that you are always notified when we put out a new video! Also, be sure to follow us and interact with us through the links listed down below! "Life After Cancer" Cancer survivor with a goal of showing everyone that every day can bring a bit of happiness no matter the obstacles life throws at you. My goal is TO BE THE BEST Father/Dad and husband I can be for my family. I need your help to make this YouTube dream come true. Spread the word and tweet/share/email our videos around to your friends and family so we can accomplish this goal of making YouTube a career. *********** Royalty Free Music by audiomicro.com Sound Effects by audiomicro.com ALSO Track info: Kevin Macleod - incompetech.com *********** Be sure to Subscribe to us (Reasons to subscribe 1: Cute Kids 2: Survived Cancer 3: Committed to vlogging forever; just to name a few) and leave me lots of feedback/comments so that we can get better and better each and every day WE vlog. Certifique-se Inscrever-se para nós (Razões para subscrever 1: Cute Kids 2: sobreviveu a um câncer 3: Compromisso com a vlogging para sempre, apenas para ...
- published: 25 Dec 2012
- views: 439
- author: ErikTV365
POP ETC - How Will I Know (Whitney Houston Cover)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:22
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
POP ETC cover Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know" Hear more from POP ETC on iTunes here- itunes.apple.com www.POPETC.com http www.twitter.com www.popetcetera.tumblr.com iTunes link: itunes.apple.com Directed by POP ETC Shot in Tokyo
http://wn.com/POP_ETC_How_Will_I_Know_Whitney_Houston_Cover
POP ETC cover Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know" Hear more from POP ETC on iTunes here- itunes.apple.com www.POPETC.com http www.twitter.com www.popetcetera.tumblr.com iTunes link: itunes.apple.com Directed by POP ETC Shot in Tokyo
- published: 24 Dec 2012
- views: 18322
- author: popetcetera
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You - Lyrics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:42
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Subscribe Leorah now on Facebook! www.facebook.com It's I will always love you with lyrics. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy. :D mp3svinylrecords.learnguitarsoftware.org
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston_I_Will_Always_Love_You_Lyrics
Subscribe Leorah now on Facebook! www.facebook.com It's I will always love you with lyrics. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoy. :D mp3svinylrecords.learnguitarsoftware.org
- published: 28 Jun 2008
- views: 60202368
- author: GermanGirly013
Whitney Houston's Tribute on VH1Divas 2012 w/ Jordin Sparks, Ledsi and Melanie Fiona
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:46
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Check out VH1 Divas 2012 paying tribute to Ms Whitney Houston with the like of Jordin Sparks, Ledsi and Melonie Fiona. For more, go to darealrastabwoi.blogspot.com
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston's_Tribute_on_VH1Divas_2012_w_Jordin_Sparks,_Ledsi_and_Melanie_Fiona
Check out VH1 Divas 2012 paying tribute to Ms Whitney Houston with the like of Jordin Sparks, Ledsi and Melonie Fiona. For more, go to darealrastabwoi.blogspot.com
- published: 17 Dec 2012
- views: 17278
- author: DaChatBoutMr
Whitney Houston & George Michael - If I Told You That
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:05
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Music video by Whitney Houston & George Michael performing If I Told You That. (C) 1998 Arista Records, Inc.
http://wn.com/Whitney_Houston_George_Michael_If_I_Told_You_That
Music video by Whitney Houston & George Michael performing If I Told You That. (C) 1998 Arista Records, Inc.
- published: 25 Oct 2009
- views: 4065744
- author: whitneyhoustonVEVO
Matt Houston Ft P-Square - POSITIF- Officiel
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:58
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Matt Houston , Découvre le Nouveau Clip "Le Bagne" Ici !!! www.youtube.com Album RACINES Disponible sur ITUNES ICI : itunes.apple.com POSITIF enfin disponible sur ITUNES Cliquer ici pour acheter le titre : itunes.apple.com Music video by Matt Houston performing Positif (feat. P. Square). Directed by OP (P) 2012 On The Track under exclusive licence to Play On © On The Track 2012 Positif ft P-Square Produit par Oniryk Production Follow Twitter @Matthouston971 Follow Facebook www.facebook.com/matthouston971
http://wn.com/Matt_Houston_Ft_P-Square_POSITIF_Officiel
Matt Houston , Découvre le Nouveau Clip "Le Bagne" Ici !!! www.youtube.com Album RACINES Disponible sur ITUNES ICI : itunes.apple.com POSITIF enfin disponible sur ITUNES Cliquer ici pour acheter le titre : itunes.apple.com Music video by Matt Houston performing Positif (feat. P. Square). Directed by OP (P) 2012 On The Track under exclusive licence to Play On © On The Track 2012 Positif ft P-Square Produit par Oniryk Production Follow Twitter @Matthouston971 Follow Facebook www.facebook.com/matthouston971
- published: 05 May 2012
- views: 12093611
- author: onthetrackofficiel
Jeremy Lin Highlights & Postgame Houston Rockets vs New York Knicks 17.12.2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 22:28
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Lin is still must-see TV in New York. Lin's first trip back to New York since signing with the Houston Rockets resulted in MSG Network's highest-rated Knicks game of the season, according to the network. - MSG Network had highest rating of season for Knicks-Rockets game - Popular ex-Knick Jeremy Lin returned for game, which drew 4.77 rating - MSG Network's average rating is 3.41 www.usatoday.com ========================================== Lin shows Knicks why he's a keeper NEW YORK -- The artist formerly known as Jeremy Lin was back on his preferred stage, throwing himself fearlessly at the Madison Square Garden basket while recreating something he swore he did not want to recreate. Yes, this was a worthy sequel to Linsanity. Some sentimental New York Knicks fans showed up in their Lin jerseys, maybe for the last time, and their former point guard showed up with some of his old flash and dash, definitely not for the last time. Lin desperately wanted to beat the Knicks on Monday night, to finish 2-0 against them in his first season with the Houston Rockets, and there was no denying that. As he walked away from his 22-point, eight-assist performance in yet another Houston blowout of the Knicks, as he walked out of his postgame news conference and toward a reunion with family and friends in the Garden stands, Lin revealed he'd promised confidants he would hold nothing back against the most recent franchise to fire him. "I just said, 'Tonight, I'm going ...
http://wn.com/Jeremy_Lin_Highlights_Postgame_Houston_Rockets_vs_New_York_Knicks_17122012
NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Lin is still must-see TV in New York. Lin's first trip back to New York since signing with the Houston Rockets resulted in MSG Network's highest-rated Knicks game of the season, according to the network. - MSG Network had highest rating of season for Knicks-Rockets game - Popular ex-Knick Jeremy Lin returned for game, which drew 4.77 rating - MSG Network's average rating is 3.41 www.usatoday.com ========================================== Lin shows Knicks why he's a keeper NEW YORK -- The artist formerly known as Jeremy Lin was back on his preferred stage, throwing himself fearlessly at the Madison Square Garden basket while recreating something he swore he did not want to recreate. Yes, this was a worthy sequel to Linsanity. Some sentimental New York Knicks fans showed up in their Lin jerseys, maybe for the last time, and their former point guard showed up with some of his old flash and dash, definitely not for the last time. Lin desperately wanted to beat the Knicks on Monday night, to finish 2-0 against them in his first season with the Houston Rockets, and there was no denying that. As he walked away from his 22-point, eight-assist performance in yet another Houston blowout of the Knicks, as he walked out of his postgame news conference and toward a reunion with family and friends in the Garden stands, Lin revealed he'd promised confidants he would hold nothing back against the most recent franchise to fire him. "I just said, 'Tonight, I'm going ...
- published: 19 Dec 2012
- views: 44432
- author: coffeetime
Charice wows crowd with Houston hit
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:26
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
Charice wows crowd with Houston hit
http://wn.com/Charice_wows_crowd_with_Houston_hit
Madden 13 - Madden 13 Gameplay: Houston Texans vs New England Patriots
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:40
- Updated: 04 Jan 2013
Madden 13 gameplay from the early release version. This gameplay features the Houston Texans and the New England Patriots. I've been playing a lot of Madden 13 and I'm excited for all my new projects to come this year. Follow me on the Social Networks to see ALL my new videos and livestreams! www.twitter.com www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/Madden_13_Madden_13_Gameplay_Houston_Texans_vs_New_England_Patriots
Madden 13 gameplay from the early release version. This gameplay features the Houston Texans and the New England Patriots. I've been playing a lot of Madden 13 and I'm excited for all my new projects to come this year. Follow me on the Social Networks to see ALL my new videos and livestreams! www.twitter.com www.facebook.com
- published: 27 Aug 2012
- views: 71655
- author: MrHurriicane
photo: AP / Juan Karita
04 Jan 2013
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has released a public letter urging the United Kingdom to relinquish its control over the disputed Falkland Islands. ... The veterans delivered a letter addressed to the British Ambassador in Argentina, John Freeman, criticising the British government for refusing to discuss the sovereignty of the islands with the Argentine government ... 508 Source.. Al Jazeera and agencies. Share....(size: 19.6Kb)
photo: AP / SANA
05 Jan 2013
Syrian government forces have bombarded several rebel strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus to quell the fighters battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad from reaching the capital. Activists on Saturday said troops leveled their bombardment campaign on the districts of Hajar al-Aswad and Qaboun in southern Damascus while they continued to shell the suburbs of Daraya, Beit Hahm, Zibdeen, Maadamiya and Jisteen ... 445 Source. ... ....(size: 19.0Kb)
photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick
05 Jan 2013
Tweet. New Delhi, Jan 5 (ANI). The male friend of the 23-year-old medical student, who was gang-raped and left unclothed and bleeding in the street and later died in hospital two weeks after she was attacked on December 16 on a private bus in New Delhi, has said that things would have gone differently if someone had stopped to help ... "It would have been a very different scenario today, had even one person come to our help that day ... (ANI)....(size: 3.8Kb)
photo: AP / Yadana Htun
04 Jan 2013
LAIZA, Myanmar (AP) — Ethnic Kachins living in makeshift camps in Myanmar described their terror at the army's use of air power during fighting with Kachin rebels seeking more autonomy as the government said Friday that it has exercised maximum restraint. Connect With Us on Twitter. Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List. Reporters and Editors ... Are We Becoming Cyborgs?. IHT Magazine ... ... ....(size: 10.1Kb)
photo: UN / Evan Schneider
06 Jan 2013
LONDON -- They have barely 3,000 inhabitants and far more sheep than people. They are more than 8,700 miles from London. For much of the year, they are bitterly cold and wind-swept, with only open sea and ice between them and Antarctica ... But the Falkland Islands, the focus of a short war between Britain and Argentina in 1982, have been in the headlines again recently ... Their arguments suggest what has long been evident ... Ms ... Mr ... Cameron said....(size: 5.1Kb)
Huffington Post
06 Jan 2013
Houston Texans defensive end J.J ... 5, 2013, in Houston ... HOUSTON (AP) — Arian Foster ran for 140 yards and a touchdown, and the Houston Texans used a stifling defensive effort for a 19-13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday in an AFC wild-card playoff game ... Houston struck first after the break, with Foster scoring the game's only offensive touchdown on a 1-yard run in the third quarter to make it 16-7 ... 5, 2013, in Houston....(size: 10.8Kb)
Huffington Post
06 Jan 2013
Houston Texans defensive end J.J ... 5, 2013, in Houston ... HOUSTON — J.J. Watt swatted away passes, Arian Foster ran away from tacklers and the Houston Texans did just enough to knock Cincinnati out of the playoffs for the second straight year ... Houston struck first after the break, with Foster scoring the game's only offensive touchdown to make it 16-7 ... Houston had struggled on third downs lately ... Schaub was back in charge for Houston....(size: 14.2Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
HOUSTON CHRONICLE ... CREW Houston ... 11.30 a.m.-1 p.m., Junior League of Houston, 1811 Briar Oaks ... Two-day conference sponsored by the Houston TSCPA Foundation ... 7-8, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Hyatt Regency Houston, 1200 Louisiana ... Bio/Medical Technology Club of Houston ... www.webnetwork.org/houston ... Panel discussion hosted by Public Relations Society of America Houston Chapter (PRSA Houston) ... HOUSTON CHRONICLE Copyright 2013 HOUSTON CHRONICLE....(size: 16.7Kb)
noodls
06 Jan 2013
Houston Aeros) Houston Rounds out Weekend with 5 p.m ... Houston, TX - The Houston Aeros (18-11-2-3, 41 points) defeated the San Antonio Rampage (13-18-0-4, 30 points) 1-0 on Saturday night in front of 6,045 fans at Toyota Center. Houston goalie Darcy Kuemper (5-3-0) finished with 19 saves on the evening, posting his second shutout of the ......(size: 4.4Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
Ben Bronston, a personal injury lawyer and founder of Houston-based personal injury firm Ben Bronston & Associates, was named "Top Lawyer" by New Orleans Magazine ... Houston, TX (PRWEB) January 05, 2013. Ben Bronston, founder of Houston, Texas-based personal injury law firm Ben Bronston & Associates, received special recognition as a "Top Lawyer" from New Orleans Magazine (New Orleans Magazine, Vol....(size: 10.9Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
Known as The City of Homes, it's no surprise many people think of Bellaire as an iconic Houston neighborhood ... A century ago there were six miles of vast prairie between Bellaire and Houston. Today, the 3.6-square mile city sits at the heart of Houston's bustling southwest region, overlapping the 610 Loop just south of 59 ... At the time, it served as an agricultural trading center connected to Houston by trolley ... Houston Legal ....(size: 15.2Kb)
my SA
06 Jan 2013
Houston 3, Cincinnati 0.Second Quarter ... Houston 6, Cincinnati 0 ... Cincinnati 7, Houston 6 ... Houston 9, Cincinnati 7.Third Quarter ... Houston 16, Cincinnati 7 ... Houston 16, Cincinnati 10.Fourth Quarter ... Houston 19, Cincinnati 10 ... Houston 19, Cincinnati 13 ... Houston, Foster 32-140, Martin 1-16, Schaub 4-1, Tate 2-1 ... Houston, Schaub 29-38-1-262 ... Houston, Daniels 9-91, Foster 8-34, Johnson 4-62, Walter 4-26, G.Graham 3-29, Casey 1-20....(size: 3.5Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
HOUSTON CHRONICLE ... Rohrer has been appointed president and CEO of Property Masters, a Houston-based home owners association management firm. Lee Vela, vice president for public affairs at Clear Channel Outdoor-Houston, has been elected president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Texas for 2013 ... Jeff Wagner has opened the mortgage banking office of NRL at 3 Riverway in Houston ... HOUSTON CHRONICLE Copyright 2013 HOUSTON CHRONICLE....(size: 14.5Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
HOUSTON CHRONICLE ... Starting & Running Your Own Business - Presented by SCORE and Houston Community College Bizconnect ... Sam Houston Parkway North ... HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Subscribe to the Houston Chronicle and receive access to the Chronicle for iPad App ... HOUSTON CHRONICLE Copyright 2013 HOUSTON CHRONICLE ... Houston’s historic homes ... 7-Eleven fans might thank heaven for Houston return ... The Houston Chronicle is owned by the Hearst Corporation....(size: 12.9Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
Mount Houston about 4 p.m ... Deputies said the Houston Police Department found him unhurt Friday morning ... Subscribe to the Houston Chronicle and receive access to the Chronicle for iPad App ... HOUSTON CHRONICLE Copyright 2013 HOUSTON CHRONICLE ... Mount Houston about 4 p.m ... Most Emailed Houston teen dies in Colo ... Houston teen dies in Colo ... report says Houston exec organized illicit gold deal ... Houston Legal ... Houston Chronicle ....(size: 13.0Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
By Houston Chronicle ... Bill Kerley, Houston ... By Houston Chronicle. Subscribe to the Houston Chronicle and receive access to the Chronicle for iPad App ... Houston Chronicle Copyright 2013 Houston Chronicle ... Bill Kerley, Houston ... Steroid affects voice Searching for Houston heroes Nuthatches make a surprise appearance in Texas ... The Houston Chronicle is owned by the Hearst Corporation ... Houston Chronicle ... Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210–4260....(size: 12.3Kb)
Houston Chronicle
06 Jan 2013
A gunman was killed after attempting to rob an armored truck outside a southwest Houston movie theater Saturday, police said ... The gunman shot the guard in the hip before a second guard in the truck returned fire, Houston Police Department Sgt ... Subscribe to the Houston Chronicle and receive access to the Chronicle for iPad App ... Houston Chronicle Copyright 2013 Houston Chronicle ... Most Emailed Houston teen dies in Colo ... Houston Legal ....(size: 13.0Kb)
The Business Review
06 Jan 2013
Houston Business Journal by Greg Barr, Managing Editor ... The Houston Texans survived a nail-biting playoff game Saturday to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 19-13. Managing Editor- Houston Business Journal . ... New England pounded Houston 42-14 on Dec ... Have you read our 2013 predictions on Houston's game changers? via @ Ready for the @ vs ... Houston, TX Verizon Wireless ... Houston, TX Ameriprise Financial ....(size: 9.0Kb)
This article is about the U.S. city. For other uses, see Houston (disambiguation).
| Houston | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — City — | |||
| City of Houston | |||
 |
|||
|
|||
| Nickname(s): Space City (official), more. . . | |||
 |
|||
 Houston
|
|||
| Coordinates: 29°45′46″N 95°22′59″W / 29.76278°N 95.38306°W / 29.76278; -95.38306Coordinates: 29°45′46″N 95°22′59″W / 29.76278°N 95.38306°W / 29.76278; -95.38306 | |||
| Country |  United States |
||
| State |  Texas |
||
| Counties | Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery | ||
| Incorporated | June 5, 1837 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | Mayor–council | ||
| • Mayor | Annise Parker | ||
| Area | |||
| • City | 1,699.81 km2 (656.3 sq mi) | ||
| • Land | 1,642.05 km2 (634.0 sq mi) | ||
| • Water | 57.7 km2 (22.3 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 13 m (43 ft) | ||
| Population (2010 US Census)[1][2] | |||
| • City | 2,099,451(4th U.S.) | ||
| • Density | 1,505/km2 (3,623/sq mi) | ||
| • Urban | 3,822,509 (10th U.S.) | ||
| • Metro | 5,946,800 (5th U.S.) | ||
| • Demonym | Houstonian | ||
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) | ||
| Area code(s) | 713, 281, 832 | ||
| FIPS code | 48-35000[3] | ||
| GNIS feature ID | 1380948[4] | ||
| Website | houstontx.gov | ||
Houston ( /ˈhjuːstən/) (Alibamu: Yosti [5]) is the largest city in the state of Texas, and the fourth-largest city in the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of 656.3 square miles (1,700 km2).[1][6] Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, which is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 6.08 million people as of July 1st, 2011.[7]
Houston was founded in 1836 on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou.[8] It was incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837, and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas—former General Sam Houston—who had commanded at the Battle of San Jacinto, which took place 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located.[9]
Rated as a global city, Houston's economy has a broad industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics, and transportation. It is also leading in health care sectors and building oilfield equipment; only New York City is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters.[10][11] The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled and second in total cargo tonnage handled.[12] The city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. It is home to many cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has an active visual and performing arts scene in the Theatre District and offers year-round resident companies in all major performing arts.[13]
Contents |
History[link]
Main article: History of Houston
See also: Historical events of Houston
In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs—Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen—from New York, purchased 6,642 acres (26.88 km2) of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city.[14] The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the popular general at the Battle of San Jacinto,[14] who was elected President of Texas in September 1836.
Houston was granted incorporation on June 5, 1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor.[15] In the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County (now Harris County) and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas.[16] In 1840, the community established a chamber of commerce in part to promote shipping and waterborne business at the newly created port on Buffalo Bayou.[17]
By 1860, Houston had emerged as a commercial and railroad hub for the export of cotton.[16] Railroad spurs from the Texas inland converged in Houston, where they met rail lines to the ports of Galveston and Beaumont. During the American Civil War, Houston served as a headquarters for General John Bankhead Magruder, who used the city as an organization point for the Battle of Galveston.[18] After the Civil War, Houston businessmen initiated efforts to widen the city's extensive system of bayous so the city could accept more commerce between downtown and the nearby port of Galveston. By 1890, Houston was the railroad center of Texas.
In 1900, after Galveston was struck by a devastating hurricane, efforts to make Houston into a viable deepwater port were accelerated.[19] The following year, oil discovered at the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont prompted the development of the Texas petroleum industry.[20] In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt approved a $1 million improvement project for the Houston Ship Channel. By 1910 the city's population had reached 78,800, almost doubling from a decade before. An integral part of the city were African Americans, who numbered 23,929 or nearly one-third of the residents.[21] They were developing a strong professional class based then in the Fourth Ward.
President Woodrow Wilson opened the deepwater Port of Houston in 1914, seven years after digging began. By 1930, Houston had become Texas's most populous city and Harris the most populous county.[22]
When World War II started, tonnage levels at the port decreased and shipping activities were suspended; however, the war did provide economic benefits for the city. Petrochemical refineries and manufacturing plants were constructed along the ship channel because of the demand for petroleum and synthetic rubber products during the war.[23] Ellington Field, initially built during World War I, was revitalized as an advanced training center for bombardiers and navigators.[24] The M.D. Anderson Foundation formed the Texas Medical Center in 1945. After the war, Houston's economy reverted to being primarily port-driven. In 1948, several unincorporated areas were annexed into the city limits, which more than doubled the city's size, and Houston proper began to spread across the region.[15][25]
In 1950, the availability of air conditioning provided impetus for many companies to relocate to Houston resulting in an economic boom and producing a key shift in the city's economy toward the energy sector.[26][27]
The increased production of the local shipbuilding industry during World War II spurred Houston's growth,[28] as did the establishment in 1961 of NASA's "Manned Spacecraft Center" (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973), which created the city's aerospace industry. The Astrodome, nicknamed the "Eighth Wonder of the World",[29] opened in 1965 as the world's first indoor domed sports stadium.
During the late 1970s, Houston experienced a population boom as people from Rust Belt states moved to Texas in large numbers.[30] The new residents came for the numerous employment opportunities in the petroleum industry, created as a result of the Arab Oil Embargo.
The population boom ended abruptly in the mid-1980s, as oil prices fell precipitously. The space industry also suffered in 1986 after the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after launch. The late 1980s saw a recession adversely affecting the city's economy.
Since the 1990s, as a result of the recession, Houston has made efforts to diversify its economy by focusing on aerospace and health care/biotechnology and by reducing its dependence on the petroleum industry. In 1997, Houstonians elected Lee P. Brown as the city's first African American mayor.[31]
In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped up to 40 inches (1,000 mm) of rain on parts of Houston, causing the worst flooding in the city's history; the storm cost billions of dollars in damage and killed 20 people in Texas.[32] By December of that same year, Houston-based energy company Enron collapsed into the third-largest ever U.S. bankruptcy during an investigation surrounding fabricated partnerships that were allegedly used to hide debt and inflate profits.
In August 2005, Houston became a shelter to more than 150,000 people from New Orleans who evacuated from Hurricane Katrina.[33] One month later, approximately 2.5 million Houston area residents evacuated when Hurricane Rita approached the Gulf Coast, leaving little damage to the Houston area. This was the largest urban evacuation in the history of the United States.[34][35]
Geography[link]
Main article: Geography of Houston
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 656.3 square miles (1,700 km2); this comprises 634.0 square miles (1,642 km2) of land and 22.3 square miles (58 km2) of water.[36] Most of Houston is located on the gulf coastal plain, and its vegetation is classified as temperate grassland and forest. Much of the city was built on forested land, marshes, swamp, or prairie, which are all still visible in surrounding areas. Flatness of the local terrain, when combined with urban sprawl, has made flooding a recurring problem for the city.[37] Downtown stands about 50 feet (15 m) above sea level,[38] and the highest point in far northwest Houston is about 125 feet (38 m) in elevation.[39][40] The city once relied on groundwater for its needs, but land subsidence forced the city to turn to ground-level water sources such as Lake Houston, Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston.[15][41] The city owns surface water rights for 1.2 billion gallons of water a day in addition to 150 million gallons a day worth of groundwater.[42]
Houston has four major bayous passing through the city. Buffalo Bayou runs through downtown and the Houston Ship Channel, and has three tributaries: White Oak Bayou, which runs through the Houston Heights community northwest of Downtown and then towards Downtown; Braes Bayou, which runs along the Texas Medical Center; and Sims Bayou, which runs through the south of Houston and downtown Houston. The ship channel continues past Galveston and then into the Gulf of Mexico.
Geology[link]
Underpinning Houston's land surface are unconsolidated clays, clay shales, and poorly cemented sands up to several miles deep. The region's geology developed from river deposits formed from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains. These sediments consist of a series of sands and clays deposited on decaying organic marine matter, that over time, transformed into oil and natural gas. Beneath the layers of sediment is a water-deposited layer of halite, a rock salt. The porous layers were compressed over time and forced upward. As it pushed upward, the salt dragged surrounding sediments into salt dome formations, often trapping oil and gas that seeped from the surrounding porous sands. The thick, rich, sometimes black, surface soil is suitable for rice farming in suburban outskirts where the city continues to grow.[43][44]
The Houston area has over 150 active faults (estimated to be 300 active faults) with an aggregate length of up to 310 miles (500 km),[45][46][47] including the Long Point–Eureka Heights fault system which runs through the center of the city. There have been no significant historically recorded earthquakes in Houston, but researchers do not discount the possibility of such quakes having occurred in the deeper past, nor occurring in the future. Land in some communities southeast of Houston is sinking because water has been pumped out from the ground for many years. It may be associated with slip along the faults; however, the slippage is slow and not considered an earthquake, where stationary faults must slip suddenly enough to create seismic waves.[48] These faults also tend to move at a smooth rate in what is termed "fault creep",[41] which further reduces the risk of an earthquake.
Climate[link]
Main article: Climate of Houston
Houston's climate is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa in Köppen climate classification system). While not necessarily part of "Tornado Alley" like much of the rest of Texas, Spring supercell thunderstorms do sometimes bring tornadoes to the area. Prevailing winds are from the south and southeast during most of the year, bringing heat across the continent from the deserts of Mexico and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.[49]
During the summer months, it is common for the temperature to reach over 90 °F (32 °C), with an average of 99 days per year above 90 °F (32 °C).[50] However, the humidity results in a heat index higher than the actual temperature. Summer mornings average over 90 percent relative humidity and approximately 60 percent in the afternoon.[51] Winds are often light in the summer and offer little relief, except near the immediate coast.[52] To cope with the heat, people use air conditioning in nearly every vehicle and building in the city; in 1980 Houston was described as the "most air-conditioned place on earth".[53] Scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms are common in the summer. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Houston was 109 °F (43 °C) on September 4, 2000[2] and August 28, 2011.[3]
Winters in Houston are mild. The average high in January, the coldest month, is 63 °F (17 °C), while the average low is 43 °F (6 °C). Snowfall is very rare. Recent snow events in Houston include a storm on December 24, 2004 when one inch (2.5 cm) fell and more recent snowfalls on December 10, 2008. This was the earliest snowfall ever recorded in Houston. In addition, it set another milestone marking the first time in recorded history that snowfall has occurred in two consecutive years, and was the third accumulating snowfall occurring in the decade of 2000–2010. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Houston was 5 °F (−15 °C) on January 23, 1940.[54] Houston receives a high amount of rainfall annually, averaging about 50 inches a year. These rains tend to cause floods over portions of the city.
Houston has excessive ozone levels and is ranked among the most ozone-polluted cities in the United States.[55] Ground-level ozone, or smog, is Houston's predominant air pollution problem, with the American Lung Association rating the metropolitan area's ozone level as the 8th worst in the United States in 2011.[56] The industries located along the ship channel are a major cause of the city's air pollution.[57] Houston's air quality has been compared by the Citizens League for Environmental Action Now to Beijing and Los Angeles.[58]
| Climate data for Houston (George Bush Intercontinental Airport (KIAH)), 1981-2010 normals | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 84 (29) |
91 (33) |
96 (36) |
95 (35) |
99 (37) |
105 (41) |
105 (41) |
109 (43) |
109 (43) |
99 (37) |
89 (32) |
85 (29) |
109 (43) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 62.9 (17.2) |
66.3 (19.1) |
73.0 (22.8) |
79.6 (26.4) |
86.3 (30.2) |
91.4 (33.0) |
93.7 (34.3) |
94.5 (34.7) |
89.7 (32.1) |
82.0 (27.8) |
72.5 (22.5) |
64.3 (17.9) |
79.68 (26.49) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 43.2 (6.2) |
46.5 (8.1) |
52.5 (11.4) |
59.4 (15.2) |
67.6 (19.8) |
73.5 (23.1) |
75.1 (23.9) |
74.8 (23.8) |
69.8 (21.0) |
60.9 (16.1) |
52.1 (11.2) |
44.6 (7.0) |
60.00 (15.56) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 5 (−15) |
6 (−14) |
21 (−6) |
31 (−1) |
44 (7) |
52 (11) |
62 (17) |
54 (12) |
45 (7) |
29 (−2) |
19 (−7) |
7 (−14) |
5 (−15) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 3.38 (85.9) |
3.20 (81.3) |
3.41 (86.6) |
3.31 (84.1) |
5.09 (129.3) |
5.93 (150.6) |
3.79 (96.3) |
3.76 (95.5) |
4.12 (104.6) |
5.70 (144.8) |
4.34 (110.2) |
3.74 (95) |
49.77 (1,264.2) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 10 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 104 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 45 | 50 | 54 | 58 | 62 | 68 | 70 | 68 | 66 | 64 | 52 | 51 | 59 |
| Source no. 1: NOAA [59] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: Average Precip Days [60] | |||||||||||||
Cityscape[link]
Further information: Geographic areas of Houston and List of Houston neighborhoods
Houston was incorporated in 1837 under the ward system of representation. The ward designation is the progenitor of the nine current-day Houston City Council districts. Locations in Houston are generally classified as either being inside or outside the Interstate 610 Loop. The inside encompasses the central business district and many residential neighborhoods that predate World War II. More recently, high-density residential areas have been developed within the loop. The city's outlying areas, suburbs and enclaves are located outside of the loop. Beltway 8 encircles the city another 5 miles (8.0 km) farther out.
Though Houston is the largest city in the United States without formal zoning regulations, it has developed similarly to other Sun Belt cities because the city's land use regulations and legal covenants have played a similar role.[61][62] Regulations include mandatory lot size for single-family houses and requirements that parking be available to tenants and customers. Such restrictions have had mixed results. Though some[62] have blamed the city's low density, urban sprawl, and lack of pedestrian-friendliness on these policies, the city's land use has also been credited with having significant affordable housing, sparing Houston the worst effects of the 2008 real estate crisis.[63] The city issued 42,697 building permits in 2008 and was ranked first in the list of healthiest housing markets for 2009.[64]
Voters rejected efforts to have separate residential and commercial land-use districts in 1948, 1962, and 1993. Consequently, rather than a single central business district as the center of the city's employment, multiple districts have grown throughout the city in addition to downtown which include Uptown, Texas Medical Center, Midtown, Greenway Plaza, Memorial City, Energy Corridor, Westchase, and Greenspoint.
Government and politics[link]
Main article: Politics of Houston
The city of Houston has a strong mayoral form of municipal government.[65] Houston is a home rule city and all municipal elections in the state of Texas are nonpartisan.[65][66] The City's elected officials are the mayor, city controller and 16 members of the city council.[67] The current mayor of Houston is Annise Parker, a Democrat elected on a nonpartisan ballot whose second term in office will expire at the end of 2013.[68] Houston's mayor serves as the city's chief administrator, executive officer, and official representative, and is responsible for the general management of the city and for seeing that all laws and ordinances are enforced.[68]
The original city council line-up of 14 members (nine district-based and five at-large positions) was based on a U.S. Justice Department mandate which took effect in 1979.[69] At-large council members represent the entire city.[67] Under the city charter, once the population in the city limits exceeded 2.1 million residents, two additional districts were to be added.[70] The City of Houston's official 2010 census count was 600 shy of the required number; however, as the city was expected to grow beyond 2.1 million shortly thereafter, the two additional districts were added and the positions filled during the August 2011 elections. The districts are labeled A through K while the at-large positions are numbered 1 through 5.
The city controller is elected independently of the mayor and council. The controller's duties are to certify available funds prior to committing such funds and processing disbursements. The city's fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. Ronald Green is the city controller, serving his first term as of January 2010.
As the result of a 1991 referendum in Houston, a mayor is elected for a two-year term, and can be elected to as many as three consecutive terms. The term limits were spearheaded by conservative political activist Clymer Wright.[71] The city controller and city council members are also subject to the same two-year, three-term limitations.
Houston is considered to be a politically divided city whose balance of power often sways between Republicans and Democrats. Much of the city's wealthier areas vote Republican, while the city's middle class, working class, and minority areas vote Democratic. According to the 2005 Houston Area Survey, 68 percent of non-Hispanic whites in Harris County are declared or favor Republicans while 89 percent of non-Hispanic blacks in the area are declared or favor Democrats. About 62 percent Hispanics (of any race) in the area are declared or favor Democrats.[72] The city has often been known to be the most politically diverse city in Texas, a state known for being generally conservative.[72] As a result the city is often a contested area in statewide elections.[72] In 2010, Houston became the first US city with a population over 1 million to elect a gay mayor, by appointing Annise Parker.
Economy[link]
| Top publicly traded companies in Houston for 2011 with Texas and U.S. ranks |
|||||
| Texas | Corporation | US | |||
| 2 | ConocoPhillips | 4 | |||
| 5 | Marathon Oil | 29 | |||
| 7 | Sysco | 67 | |||
| 8 | Enterprise Products Partners | 80 | |||
| 9 | Plains All American Pipeline | 99 | |||
| 14 | Halliburton | 144 | |||
| 17 | Baker Hughes | 170 | |||
| 19 | Waste Management, Inc | 196 | |||
| 20 | National Oilwell Varco | 202 | |||
| 23 | Apache Corporation | 206 | |||
| 25 | KBR | 242 | |||
| 29 | CenterPoint Energy | 279 | |||
| 32 | Kinder Morgan | 294 | |||
| 34 | Enbridge Energy Partners | 309 | |||
| 35 | Calpine | 349 | |||
| 38 | Cameron International | 375 | |||
| 39 | EOG Resources | 377 | |||
| 41 | Frontier Oil | 389 | |||
| 44 | Group 1 Automotive | 413 | |||
| 45 | Targa Resources | 416 | |||
| 46 | Spectra Energy | 441 | |||
| 48 | El Paso Energy | 481 | |||
| Notes | |||||
| Revenues for year ending 2010 | |||||
| Energy and oil (19 companies) | |||||
| Source: Fortune[73] | |||||
Main article: Economy of Houston
Further information: List of companies in Houston
Houston is recognized worldwide for its energy industry—particularly for oil and natural gas—as well as for biomedical research and aeronautics. Renewable energy sources—wind and solar—are also growing economic bases in Houston.[74][75] The ship channel is also a large part of Houston's economic base. Because of these strengths, Houston is designated as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network and by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.[11]
The Houston area is a leading center for building oilfield equipment.[76] Much of Houston's success as a petrochemical complex is due to its busy man-made ship channel, the Port of Houston.[77] The port ranks first in the United States in international commerce, and is the tenth-largest port in the world.[12][78] Unlike most places, high oil and gasoline prices are beneficial for Houston's economy as many of its residents are employed in the energy industry.[79]
The Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown MSA's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 was $385 billion, larger than Austria's, Poland's or Saudi Arabia's GDP.[80] Only 21 countries other than the United States have a gross domestic product exceeding Houston's regional gross area product. Mining, which in Houston consists almost entirely of exploration and production of oil and gas, accounts for 26.3% of Houston's GAP, up sharply in response to high energy prices and a decreased worldwide surplus of oil production capacity; followed by engineering services, health services, and manufacturing.[81]
File:Houstonecon.jpg
A graph showing the major sectors of the Houston economy.[82]
The University of Houston System's annual impact on the Houston-area's economy equates to that of a major corporation: $1.1 billion in new funds attracted annually to the Houston area, $3.13 billion in total economic benefit, and 24,000 local jobs generated.[83][84] This is in addition to the 12,500 new graduates the UH System produces every year who enter the workforce in Houston and throughout Texas. These degree-holders tend to stay in Houston. After five years, 80.5 percent of graduates are still living and working in the region.[84]
In 2006, the Houston metropolitan area ranked first in Texas and third in the U.S. within the Category of "Best Places for Business and Careers" by Forbes magazine.[85] Foreign governments have established 92 consular offices in metropolitan Houston, the third highest in the nation.[86] Forty foreign governments maintain trade and commercial offices here and 23 active foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations.[87] Twenty-five foreign banks representing 13 nations operate in Houston, providing financial assistance to the international community.[88]
In 2008, Houston received top ranking on Kiplinger's Personal Finance Best Cities of 2008 list which ranks cities on their local economy, employment opportunities, reasonable living costs and quality of life.[89] The city ranked fourth for highest increase in the local technological innovation over the preceding 15 years, according to Forbes magazine.[90] In the same year, the city ranked second on the annual Fortune 500 list of company headquarters,[91] ranked first for Forbes Best Cities for College Graduates,[92] and ranked first on Forbes list of Best Cities to Buy a Home.[93] In 2010, the city was rated the best city for shopping, according to Forbes.[94]
Demographics[link]
Main article: Demographics of Houston
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1850 | 2,396 |
|
|
| 1860 | 4,845 | 102.2% | |
| 1870 | 9,332 | 92.6% | |
| 1880 | 16,513 | 77.0% | |
| 1890 | 27,557 | 66.9% | |
| 1900 | 44,633 | 62.0% | |
| 1910 | 78,800 | 76.6% | |
| 1920 | 138,276 | 75.5% | |
| 1930 | 292,352 | 111.4% | |
| 1940 | 384,514 | 31.5% | |
| 1950 | 596,163 | 55.0% | |
| 1960 | 938,219 | 57.4% | |
| 1970 | 1,232,802 | 31.4% | |
| 1980 | 1,595,138 | 29.4% | |
| 1990 | 1,630,553 | 2.2% | |
| 2000 | 1,953,631 | 19.8% | |
| 2010 | 2,099,451 | 7.5% | |
Houston is a multicultural city, in part because of its many academic institutions and strong industries as well as being a major port city. Over 90 languages are spoken in the city.[95] The city has among the youngest populations in the nation,[96][97][98] partly due to an influx of immigrants into Texas.[99] An estimated 400,000 illegal aliens reside in the Houston area.[100]
According to the 2010 Census, Whites made up 51% of Houston's population; 26% of the total population were non-Hispanic whites. Blacks or African Americans made up 24% of Houston's population. American Indians made up 0.7% of Houston's population. Asians made up 6% of Houston's population (1.7% Vietnamese, 1.3% Chinese, 1.3% Indian, 0.9% Pakistani, 0.4% Filipino, 0.3% Korean, 0.1% Japanese), while Pacific Islanders made up 0.1%. Individuals from some other race made up 15.2% of the city's population, of which 0.2% were non-Hispanic. Individuals from two or more races made up 3.3% of the city's population. People of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 44% of Houston's population; 32% of Houston's population is of Mexican heritage; the next five Hispanic groups are those of Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan, Colombian and Puerto Rican heritage, respectively.[101][102]
As of the 2000 Census, there were 1,953,631 people and the population density was 3,371.7 people per square mile (1,301.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 49.3% White, 25.3% African American, 5.3% Asian, 0.4% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 16.5% from some other race, and 3.1% from two or more races. In addition, Hispanics and Latinos made up 37.4% of Houston's population while non-Hispanic whites made up 30.8%,[103] down from 62.4% in 1970.[104]
The median income for a household in the city was $37,000, and the median income for a family was $40,000. Males had a median income of $32,000 versus $27,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,000. Nineteen percent of the population and 16 percent of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 26% of those under the age of 18 and 14% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Culture[link]
Main article: Culture of Houston
See also: Nicknames of Houston, List of events in Houston, List of people raised in Houston, and Sister cities of Houston
Houston is a diverse city with a large and growing international community.[105] The metropolitan area is home to an estimated 1.1 million (21.4 percent) residents who were born outside the United States, with nearly two-thirds of the area's foreign-born population from south of the United States–Mexico border.[106] Additionally, more than one in five foreign-born residents are from Asia.[106] The city is home to the nation’s third-largest concentration of consular offices, representing 86 countries.[107]
Many annual events celebrate the diverse cultures of Houston. The largest and longest running is the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, held over 20 days from late February to early March, which happens to be the largest annual livestock show and rodeo anywhere in the world.[108] Another large celebration is the annual night-time Houston Pride Parade, held at the end of June.[109] Other annual events include the Houston Greek Festival,[110] Art Car Parade, the Houston Auto Show, the Houston International Festival,[111] and the Bayou City Art Festival, which is considered to be one of the top five art festivals in the United States.[112][113]
Houston received the official nickname of "Space City" in 1967 because it is the location of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Other nicknames often used by locals include "Bayou City," "Magnolia City,", "New Houston" a 2005 Reference to The New Orleans natives who left New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe and help contribute to a rich black culture in Houston Texas and "H-Town."
Arts and theatre[link]
The Houston Theater District, located downtown, is home to nine major performing arts organizations and six performance halls. It is the second-largest concentration of theater seats in a downtown area in the United States.[114][115][116] Houston is one of few United States cities with permanent, professional, resident companies in all major performing arts disciplines: opera (Houston Grand Opera), ballet (Houston Ballet), music (Houston Symphony Orchestra), and theater (The Alley Theatre).[13][117] Houston is also home to folk artists, art groups and various small progressive arts organizations.[118] Houston attracts many touring Broadway acts, concerts, shows, and exhibitions for a variety of interests.[119] Facilities in the Theater District include the Jones Hall—home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Society for the Performing Arts—and the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.
The Museum District's cultural institutions and exhibits attract more than 7 million visitors a year.[120][121] Notable facilities the include The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Holocaust Museum Houston, and the Houston Zoo.[122][123][124] Located near the Museum District are The Menil Collection, Rothko Chapel, and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum.
Bayou Bend is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) facility of the Museum of Fine Arts that houses one of America's best collections of decorative art, paintings and furniture. Bayou Bend is the former home of Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg.[125]
The National Museum of Funeral History is located in Houston near the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The museum houses the original Popemobile used by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s along with numerous hearses, embalming displays and information on famous funerals.
Venues across Houston regularly host local and touring rock, blues, country, dubstep, and Tejano musical acts. While Houston has never been a widely renowned for its music scene,[126] Houston hip-hop has become a significant, independent music scene, producing some of most famed hip-hop artists and creating a sound which has become largely influential in the South as well as other hip-hop scenes.[127]
Tourism and recreation[link]
The Theater District is a 17-block area in the center of downtown Houston that is home to the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, and parks. Bayou Place is a large multilevel building containing full-service restaurants, bars, live music, billiards and Sundance Cinema. The Houston Verizon Wireless Theater stages live concerts, stage plays, and stand-up comedy. Space Center Houston is the official visitors’ center of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. The Space Center has many interactive exhibits including moon rocks, a shuttle simulator, and presentations about the history of NASA's manned space flight program. Other tourist attractions include the Galleria (Texas's largest shopping mall located in the Uptown District), Old Market Square, the Downtown Aquarium, and Sam Houston Race Park. SplashTown Waterpark Houston is a water park located north of Houston. Earth Quest Adventures is a theme park planned to open in 2013/2014.
Houston is home to 337 parks including Hermann Park, Terry Hershey Park, Lake Houston Park, Memorial Park, Tranquility Park, Sesquicentennial Park, Discovery Green, and Sam Houston Park. Within Hermann Park are the Houston Zoo and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Sam Houston Park contains restored and reconstructed homes which were originally built between 1823 and 1905.[128] There is a proposal to open the city's first botanic garden at Herman Brown Park.[129]
Of the 10 most populous U.S. cities, Houston has the most total area of parks and green space, 56,405 acres (228 km2)[130] The city also has over 200 additional green spaces—totaling over 19,600 acres (79 km2) that are managed by the city—including the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. The Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark is a public skatepark owned and operated by the city of Houston, and is one of the largest skateparks in Texas consisting of 30,000 (2,800 m2) square foot in-ground facility. The Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park—located in the Uptown District of the city—serves as a popular tourist attraction, weddings, and various celebrations. A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Houston the 23rd most walkable of the 50 largest cities in the United States.[131]
Tourism and Recreation as early as 1899[link]
Like the New Orleans Mardi Gras, No-Tsu-Oh, was a carnival that was celebrated in Houston from 1899 until World War I. Even in 1899, generating commerce was important and the carnival was a week long festival bringing people to Houston in November. No-Tsu-Oh featured parades and a football game between the University of Texas and the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University). No-Tsu-Oh is Houston spelled backwards. Backwards spelling was a character of No-Tsu-Oh, with the King of the festival being Nottoc (cotton) until King Nottoc was replaced by King Retaw (water) in 1914 in honor of the completion of the Houston Ship Channel. With the beginning of World War I, came the end of the carnival. [132]
Media[link]
Further information: List of newspapers in Houston, List of television stations in Texas, List of radio stations in Texas, and List of films featured in Houston
The primary network-affiliated television stations are KPRC-TV (NBC), KHOU-TV (CBS), KTRK-TV (ABC), and KRIV-TV (Fox).
The Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area is served by one public television station and two public radio stations. KUHT (HoustonPBS) is a PBS member station and is the first public television station in the United States. Houston Public Radio is listener-funded and comprises two NPR member stations: KUHF (KUHF News) and KUHA (Classical 91.7). KUHF is news/talk radio and KUHA is a classical music station. The University of Houston System owns and holds broadcasting licenses to KUHT, KUHF, and KUHA. The stations broadcast from the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting, located on the campus of the University of Houston.
Houston is served by the Houston Chronicle, its only major daily newspaper with wide distribution. The Hearst Corporation, which owns and operates the Houston Chronicle, bought the assets of the Houston Post—its long-time rival and main competition—when Houston Post ceased operations in 1995. The Houston Post was owned by the family of former Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby of Houston. The only other major publication to serve the city is the Houston Press—a free alternative weekly with a weekly readership of more than 300,000.[133]
Education[link]
Main article: Education in Houston
Seventeen school districts exist within the city of Houston. The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the seventh-largest school district in the United States.[134] HISD has 112 campuses that serve as magnet or vanguard schools—specializing in such disciplines as health professions, visual and performing arts, and the sciences. There are also many charter schools that are run separately from school districts. In addition, some public school districts also have their own charter schools.
The Houston area encompasses more than 300 private schools,[135][136][137] many of which are accredited by Texas Private School Accreditation Commission recognized agencies. The Houston Area Independent Schools offer education from a variety of different religious as well as secular viewpoints.[138] The Houston area Catholic schools are operated by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
Colleges and universities[link]
Further information: List of colleges and universities in Houston
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Four distinct state universities are located in Houston. The University of Houston is a nationally recognized top-tier research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System.[139][140][141][142] The institution ranks among the Top 50 American Research Universities.[143] The third-largest university in Texas, UH has nearly 40,000 students on its 667 acre campus in southeast Houston.[144] The University of Houston–Clear Lake and the University of Houston–Downtown are stand-alone universities; they are not branch campuses of the University of Houston. Located in the historic community of Third Ward is Texas Southern University—one of the largest historically black colleges and universities in the United States.
Several private institutions of higher learning—ranging from liberal arts colleges to Rice University, the nationally recognized research university—are located within the city. Rice, with a total enrollment of slightly more than 6,000 students, is widely recognized as one of the top twenty universities in the nation, and it has a number of distinguished graduate programs and research institutes such as the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy. The university's undergraduates are among the most select in the nation.[145]
Three community college districts exist with campuses in and around Houston. The Houston Community College System serves most of Houston. The northwestern through northeastern parts of the city are served by various campuses of the Lone Star College System, while the southeastern portion of Houston is served by San Jacinto College. The Houston Community College and Lone Star College systems are within the 10 largest institutions of higher learning in the United States.
Healthcare[link]
Main article: Texas Medical Center
See also: List of hospitals in Texas
Houston is the seat of the internationally renowned Texas Medical Center, which contains the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions.[146] All 49 member institutions of the Texas Medical Center are non-profit organizations. They provide patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. Employing more than 73,600 people, institutions at the medical center include 13 hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first—and still the largest—air emergency service, Life Flight, was created, and a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed. More heart surgeries are performed at the Texas Medical Center than anywhere else in the world.[147]
Some of the academic and research health institutions at the center include MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, UT Health Science Center, Memorial Hermann Hospital, The Methodist Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, and University of Houston College of Pharmacy.
The Baylor College of Medicine has annually been considered within the top ten medical schools in the nation; likewise, the MD Anderson Cancer Center has consistently ranked as one of the top two U.S. hospitals specializing in cancer care by U.S. News & World Report since 1990.[148][149] The Menninger Clinic, a renowned psychiatric treatment center, is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital System.[150] With hospital locations nationwide and headquarters in Houston, the Triumph Healthcare hospital system is the third largest long term acute care provider nationally.[151]
Transportation[link]
Main article: Transportation in Houston
Highways[link]
The predominant form of transportation in Houston is the automobile with 71.7 percent of residents driving alone to work[152] This is facilitated through Houston's freeway system, comprising 739.3 miles (1,189.8 km) of freeways and expressways in a ten-county metropolitan area.[153] However, the Texas Transportation Institute's annual Urban Mobility Report found that Houston had the fourth-worst congestion in the country with commuters spending an average of 58 hours in traffic in 2009.[154]
Houston's highway system has a hub-and-spoke freeway structure serviced by multiple loops. The innermost loop is Interstate 610, which encircles downtown, the medical center, and many core neighborhoods with around a 10-mile (16 km) diameter. Beltway 8 and its freeway core, the Sam Houston Tollway, form the middle loop at a diameter of roughly 25 miles (40 km). A proposed highway project, State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway), would form a third loop outside of Houston. As of 2010, only two out of eleven segments of State Highway 99 have been completed. Houston is located along the route of the proposed Interstate 69 NAFTA superhighway that would link Canada, the U.S. industrial Midwest, Texas, and Mexico. Other spoke freeways either planned or under construction include the Fort Bend Parkway, Hardy Toll Road, Crosby Freeway, and the future Alvin Freeway.
Houston's freeway system is monitored by Houston TranStar—a partnership of four government agencies that are responsible for providing transportation and emergency management services to the region.[155]
Transit systems[link]
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) provides public transportation in the form of buses, light rail, and lift vans. METRO's various forms of public transportation still do not connect many of the suburbs to the greater city.
METRO began light rail service on January 1, 2004 with the inaugural track ("Red Line") running about 8 miles (13 km) from the University of Houston–Downtown (UHD), which traverses through the Texas Medical Center and terminates at Reliant Park. METRO is currently in the design phase of a 10-year expansion plan that will add five more lines to the existing system.[156]
Amtrak, the national rail passenger system, provides service to Houston via the Sunset Limited (Los Angeles–New Orleans), which stops at a train station on the north side of the downtown area. The station saw 14,891 boardings and alightings in fiscal year 2008.[157]
Airports[link]
Houston is served by three airports, two of which are commercial that served 52 million passengers in 2007 and managed by the Houston Airport System.[158] The Federal Aviation Administration and the state of Texas selected the "Houston Airport System as Airport of the Year" for 2005,[159] largely because of its multi-year, $3.1 billion airport improvement program for both major airports in Houston.
The primary city airport is George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), the sixth-busiest in the United States for total passengers, and fourteenth-busiest worldwide.[160] Bush Intercontinental currently ranks third in the United States for non-stop domestic and international service with 182 destinations.[161] In 2006, the United States Department of Transportation named George Bush Intercontinental Airport the fastest-growing of the top ten airports in the United States.[162] The Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center stands on the George Bush Intercontinental Airport grounds.
Houston was the headquarters of Continental Airlines until its 2010 merger with United Airlines with headquarters in Chicago; regulatory approval for the merger was granted in October of that year. Bush Intercontinental became United Airline's largest airline hub.[163] The airline retained a significant operational presence in Houston while offering more than 700 daily departures from the city.[164][165] In early 2007, Bush Intercontinental Airport was named a model "port of entry" for international travelers by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.[166]
The second-largest commercial airport is William P. Hobby Airport (named Houston International Airport until 1967) which operates primarily small to medium-haul domestic flights. Houston's aviation history is showcased in the 1940 Air Terminal Museum located in the old terminal building on the west side of the airport. Hobby Airport has been recognized with two awards for being one of the top five performing airports in the world and for customer service by Airports Council International.[167]
Houston's third municipal airport is Ellington Airport (a former U.S. Air Force base) used by military, government, NASA, and general aviation sectors.[168]
Architecture[link]
Main article: Architecture of Houston
See also: List of tallest buildings in Houston
Houston has the third tallest skyline in North America and one of the top 10 in the world.[169][170] A seven-mile (11 km) system of tunnels and skywalks link downtown buildings containing shops and restaurants, enabling pedestrians to avoid summer heat and rain while walking between buildings.
In the 1960s, Downtown Houston consisted of a collection of mid-rise office structures. Downtown was on the threshold of an energy industry led boom in 1970. A succession of skyscrapers were built throughout the 1970s—many by real estate developer Gerald D. Hines—culminating with Houston's tallest skyscraper, the 75-floor, 1,002-foot (305 m)-tall JPMorgan Chase Tower (formerly the Texas Commerce Tower), completed in 1982. It is the tallest structure in Texas, 10th tallest building in the United States and the 30th tallest skyscraper in the world, based on height to roof. In 1983, the 71-floor, 992-foot (302 m)-tall Wells Fargo Plaza (formerly Allied Bank Plaza) was completed, becoming the second-tallest building in Houston and Texas. Based on height to roof, it is the 13th tallest in the United States and the 36th tallest in the world. As of 2007, downtown Houston had over 43 million square feet (4,000,000 m²) of office space.[171]
Centered on Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road, the Uptown District boomed during the 1970s and early 1980s when a collection of mid-rise office buildings, hotels, and retail developments appeared along Interstate 610 west. Uptown became one of the most prominent instances of an edge city. The tallest building in Uptown is the 64-floor, 901-foot (275 m)-tall, Philip Johnson and John Burgee designed landmark Williams Tower (known as the Transco Tower until 1999). At the time of construction, it was believed to the be the world's tallest skyscraper outside of a central business district. The Uptown District is also home to buildings designed by noted architects I. M. Pei, César Pelli, and Philip Johnson. In the late 1990s and early 2000s decade, there was a mini-boom of mid-rise and high-rise residential tower construction, with several over 30 stories tall.[172][173][174] In 2002, Uptown had more than 23 million square feet (2,100,000 m²) of office space with 16 million square feet (1,500,000 m²) of Class A office space.[175]
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The Niels Esperson Building stood as the tallest building in Houston from 1927 to 1929.
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The JP Morgan Chase Tower is the tallest building in Texas and the tallest 5-sided building in the world.
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The Williams Tower in the Uptown District is the tallest building in the United States outside of a central business district.
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The Bank of America Center is an example of postmodern architecture construction designed by award winning architect Philip Johnson.
Sports[link]
Main article: Sports in Houston
Houston has sports teams for every major professional league, except the National Hockey League.
Minute Maid Park (home of the Astros) and Toyota Center (home of the Rockets and Aeros), are located in Downtown. Houston has the NFL's first retractable-roof stadium, Reliant Stadium (home of the Texans). BBVA Compass Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium for the Dynamo, located in East Downtown (EaDo) and is the first soccer specific stadium in a downtown area in MLS. In addition, Reliant Astrodome, the first domed stadium in the world. Other sports facilities include Robertson Stadium (home of the Houston Cougars football team), Hofheinz Pavilion (Houston Cougars basketball), Rice Stadium (Rice Owls football), and Reliant Arena.
Houston was home to the now defunct WNBA Comets from 1997-2008. The Comets won 4 WNBA Championships which is still the most championships of any sports team in Houston. The AFL/NFL Oilers called Houston home from 1960-1998 when the team moved to Tennessee and became the NFL Titans.
The city has hosted several major professional and college sporting events, including the annual Shell Houston Open golf tournament. Houston hosts the annual NCAA College Baseball Minute Maid Classic every February and NCAA football's Texas Bowl in December.
Major league sports teams in the Houston area:[link]
| Club | League | Sport | Venue | Established | Championships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston Astros | MLB 1962-Present | Baseball | Colt Stadium 1962–1964 Astrodome 1965 – 1999 Minute Maid Park 2000-Present |
1962 | 1 National League Pennant Title – 2005 |
| Houston Texans | NFL 2002-Present | Football | Reliant Stadium 2002-Present | 2002 | |
| Houston Rockets | NBA 1967-Present | Basketball | San Diego Sports Arena 1967–1971 Hofheinz Pavilion 1971–1975 Compaq Center 1975–2003 Toyota Center 2003 – present |
1967 | 2 NBA Titles – 1994, 1995 4 Western Conference Championship Titles – 1981, 1986, 1994, 1995 |
| Houston Dynamo | MLS 2005-Present | Soccer | Robertson Stadium 2005-2011 BBVA Compass Stadium 2012 – present |
2005 | 2 MLS Cup Titles-2006,2007 2 Western Conference Championship Titles – 2006, 2007 1 Eastern Conference Championship Title-2011 |
| Houston Aeros | IHL 1994-2001 AHL 2001-Present |
Hockey | Compaq Center 1994–2003 Toyota Center 2003 – present |
1994 | 1 Turner Cup – 1999 1 Calder Cup –2003 3 Conference Championship Titles – 1999, 2003, 2011 |
| Sugar Land Skeeters | ALPB 2012-Present | Minor League Baseball | Constellation Field 2012 – present | 2012 |
Crime[link]
Houston's murder rate ranked 46th of U.S. cities with a population over 250,000 in 2005 (per capita rate of 16.3 murders per 100,000 population).[176] In 2010, the city's murder rate (per capita rate of 11.8 murders per 100,000 population) was ranked sixth among U.S. cities with a population of over 750,000 (behind New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles)[177] according to the FBI.
Murders fell by 37 percent from January to June 2011, compared with the same period in 2010. Houston's total crime rate including violent and nonviolent crimes decreased by 11 percent.[178]
Houston—due to its size and proximity to major illegal drug exporting nations—is a significant hub for trafficking of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, MDMA, and methamphetamine.[179] In the early 1970s, Houston, Pasadena and several coastal towns were the site of the 'Houston Mass Murders' which at the time were the deadliest case of serial killing in American history.[180][181]
Sister cities[link]
Houston has 17 sister cities[182] designated by Sister Cities International—a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network creating and strengthening partnerships between U.S. and international communities in an effort to increase global cooperation at the municipal level, to promote cultural understanding, and to stimulate economic development. Many of Houston's sister cities, including Abu Dhabi, Baku, Luanda, Stavanger, Tampico, and Tyumen are, like Houston, important cities in the oil industry.
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- ^ Home Page. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
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- ^ Lomax, John Nova (2007-02-01). "Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive - The Houston Rock Scene and the Cultural Cringe". The Houston Press.
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- ^ The Heritage Society: Walk into Houston's Past. The Heritage Society. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Huber, Kathy. "Houston botanic garden slowly becoming reality." Houston Chronicle. Monday October 30, 2006. Retrieved on November 14, 2011.
- ^ Continental Magazine, March 2008. p.67.
- ^ "2011 City and Neighborhood Rankings". Walk Score. 2011. http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/cities/. Retrieved Aug 28, 2011.
- ^ Marilyn M. Sibley, "NO-TSU-OH," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lln01), accessed March 22, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
- ^ "Houston Press: About Us". Houston Press. http://www.houstonpress.com/about/. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
- ^ "Houston ISD automates lunch", eSchool News online, 2006-02-21. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
- ^ Private Schools. Houston-Texas-Online. 2004. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Houston Private Schools. HoustonAreaWeb.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ School Art Participation. Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Retrieved on 2007-01-10. Archived at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
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- ^ Bonnin, Richard. "Carnegie Foundation Gives University of Houston its Highest Classification for Research Success, Elevating UH to Tier One Status". University of Houston. http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011articles/Jan2011/011811CarnegieTierOne.php. Retrieved 2011-02-08.
- ^ "UH achieves Tier One status in research". Houston Business Journal. January 21, 2011. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2011/01/21/uh-achieves-tier-one-status-in-research.html. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
- ^ "UH takes big step up to Tier One status". Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7386162.html. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
- ^ "University of Houston named Tier One school for research activity". KHOU.com. http://www.khou.com/news/local/University-of-Houston-named-Tier-One-school-for-research-activity-114137594.html. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
- ^ "2010 Top American Research Universities Report". The Center for Measuring University Performance. http://mup.asu.edu/research2010.pdf. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- ^ Khator, Renu (October 4, 2011). "State of the University: Fall 2011". University of Houston. http://www.uh.edu/president/communications/university-community/fall-address-highlights/Fall_Address_Slides_10-3-2011.pdf. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
- ^ "Rice University, Best Colleges 2009". U.S. News & World Report. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/items/3604. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
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- ^ "Rice and Baylor College of Medicine extend MOU". Rice University, News & Media. http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=13117. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
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- ^ "52 Million Travelers and Over 387,000 Metric Tons of Air Cargo Passed through Houston’s Airports in 2007". fly2houston.com, Houston Airport System. 2008-01-28. http://www.fly2houston.com/0/685923/0/1906D1940/. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
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- ^ Fast Facts, Downtown Houston[dead link]. Houstondowntown.com 2006. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ Residential Real Estate[dead link]. Uptown-houston.com Retrieved on 2007-01-11.
- ^ Sarnoff, Nancy (2001-12-14). "Genesis Laying Down Plans for Newest Uptown Condo Highrise". Houston Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2001/12/17/newscolumn3.html. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
- ^ Apte, Angela (2001-10-26). "Rising Land Costs Boost Houston's Mid-Rise Market". Houston Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2001/10/29/focus1.html. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
- ^ Commercial Real Estate[dead link]. Uptown-houston.com Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
- ^ "Murder Rate in 2005PDF (30.4 KB)," Morgan Quitno. Retrieved on November 29, 2006.
- ^ FBI Uniform 2010 (prov.) Crime Report Table 4 "[1]. Retrieved on July 6, 2011.
- ^ Lee, Renee C.. "Murder, other crimes drop in Hoston", Houston Chronicle, July 26, 2011, p. B2. Retrieved 2006-07-26.
- ^ "Distribution - Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009." U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved on August 11, 2009.
- ^ "CRIME: The Houston Horrors". TIME Magazine. 1973-08-20. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907718-1,00.html. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
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- ^ "Sister cities". City of Houston eGovernment Center. http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/sistercities.html. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
- ^ "About the Formation Of HGA". Houston Grampian Association. 2007. http://www.houstongrampian.com/hga2.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
- ^ "Karachi and Houston declared sister cities". Pakistan Daily, daily.pk. Archived from the original on 2008-06-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20080612091431/http://www.daily.pk/pakistan/international-level/42-international-level/3462-karachi-and-houston-declared-sister-cities.html. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ "Many US investors soon to visit Karachi". topix.com. http://www.topix.com/forum/world/pakistan/TE18D9UGSS1E6LRA4. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
Further reading[link]
- Houston, Texas from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Houston, New York Has a Problem, City Journal, Summer 2008
- 174 Years of Historic Houston Houstonhistory.com. 2007. Retrieved on 2007-01-13.
- A thumb-nail history of the city of Houston, Texas, from its founding in 1836 to the year 1912, published 1912, hosted by the Portal to Texas History, republished 2007 by Copano Bay Press.
- True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., published 1913, hosted by the Portal to Texas History, republished 2007 by Copano Bay Press.
- Allen, O. Fisher (1936). City of Houston from Wilderness to Wonder. Self Published. NA. .
- Johnston, Marguerite (1991). Houston, The Unknown City, 1836–1946. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0-89096-476-9.
- Miller, Ray (1984). Ray Miller's Houston. Gulf Publishing Company. ISBN 0-88415-081-X.
- Slotboom, Oscar F. "Erik" (2003). Houston Freeways. Oscar F. Slotboom. ISBN 0-9741605-3-9. [4]
- Wilson, Ann Quin (1982). Native Houstonian – A Collective Portrait. The Donning Company – Houston Baptist University Press. 80-27644.
External links[link]
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- City of Houston official website
- Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Greater Houston Transportation and Emergency Management Center
- Houston Public Library official website
- Houston at the Open Directory Project
- Houston travel guide from Wikitravel
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This article is about the person. For her 1985 eponymous album, see Whitney Houston (album).
| Whitney Houston | |
|---|---|
 Whitney Houston performing at Good Morning America in Central Park on September 1, 2009 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Whitney Elizabeth Houston |
| Born | (1963-08-09)August 9, 1963 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | February 11, 2012(2012-02-11) (aged 48) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B, soul, pop, dance, gospel |
| Occupations | Singer, actress, model, film producer, record producer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1977–2012 |
| Labels | Arista, RCA |
| Associated acts | Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Jermaine Jackson, Mariah Carey, Enrique Iglesias, Bobby Brown |
| Website |
 Whitney Houston's autograph |
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time.[1] Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide.[2][3] She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know",[4] influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.[5][6]
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.[7] She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts.[8] Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[9] Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.[9]
Houston's first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992). The film's original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Its lead single "I Will Always Love You", became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history. With the album, Houston became the first act (solo or group, male or female) to sell more than a million copies of an album within a single week period under Nielsen SoundScan system.[9] The album makes her the top female act in the top 10 list of the best-selling albums of all time, at number four. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher's Wife (1996). The Preacher's Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history.[10]
Contents
|
Life and career[link]
1963–1976: Early life[link]
Whitney Houston was born in what was then a middle-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, the second child of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr. (September 13, 1920 – February 2, 2003), and gospel singer Cissy Houston (née Emily Drinkard).[11] She was of African American, Native American and Dutch descent.[12] Her mother, along with cousins Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, godmother Darlene Love[13] and honorary aunt Aretha Franklin[14] were all notable figures in the gospel, rhythm and blues, pop, and soul genres.[15] She met her honorary aunt at age 8, or 9, when her mother took her to a recording studio.[16] Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey, when she was four.[17]
At the age of 11, Houston began to follow in her mother's footsteps and started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she also learned to play the piano.[18] Her first solo performance in the church was "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".[19] When Houston was a teenager, she attended Mount Saint Dominic Academy, a Catholic girls' high school in Caldwell, New Jersey, where she met her best friend Robyn Crawford, whom she described as the "sister she never had".[20] While Houston was still in school, her mother continued to teach her how to sing.[5] In addition to her mother, Franklin, and Warwick, Houston was also exposed to the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Roberta Flack, most of whom would have an impact on her as a singer and performer.[21]
1977–1984: Early career[link]
Houston spent some of her teenage years touring nightclubs where her mother Cissy was performing, and she would occasionally get on stage and perform with her. In 1977, at age 14, she became a backup singer on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's a Party".[22] In 1978, at age 15, Houston sang background vocals on Chaka Khan's hit single "I'm Every Woman", a song she would later turn into a larger hit for herself on her monster-selling The Bodyguard soundtrack album.[23][24] She also sang back-up on albums by Lou Rawls and Jermaine Jackson.[23]
In the early 1980s, Houston started working as a fashion model after a photographer saw her at Carnegie Hall singing with her mother. She appeared in Seventeen[25] and became one of the first women of color to grace the cover of the magazine.[26] She was also featured in layouts in the pages of Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Young Miss, and appeared in a Canada Dry soft drink TV commercial.[27] Her striking looks and girl-next-door charm made her one of the most sought after teen models of that time.[27] While modeling, she continued her burgeoning recording career by working with producers Michael Beinhorn, Bill Laswell and Martin Bisi on an album they were spearheading called One Down, which was credited to the group Material. For that project, Houston contributed the ballad "Memories", a cover of a song by Hugh Hopper of Soft Machine. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called her contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've ever heard".[28] She also appeared as a lead vocalist on one track on a Paul Jabara album, entitled Paul Jabara and Friends, released by Columbia Records in 1983.[29]
Houston had previously been offered several recording agencies (Michael Zager in 1980, and Elektra Records in 1981), however her mother declined the offers stating her daughter must first complete high school.[22][30] In 1983, Gerry Griffith, an A&R representative from Arista Records, saw her performing with her mother in a New York City nightclub and was impressed. He convinced Arista's head Clive Davis to make time to see Houston perform. Davis too was impressed and offered a worldwide recording contract which Houston signed. Later that year, she made her national televised debut alongside Davis on The Merv Griffin Show.[31]
Houston signed with Arista in 1983, but did not begin work on her album immediately.[1] The label wanted to make sure no other label signed the singer away. Davis wanted to ensure he had the right material and producers for Houston's debut album. Some producers had to pass on the project due to prior commitments.[32] Houston first recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass entitled "Hold Me" which appeared on his album, Love Language.[33] The single was released in 1984 and gave Houston her first taste of success, becoming a Top 5 R&B hit.[34] It would also appear on her debut album in 1985.
1985–1986: Rise to international prominence[link]
With production from Michael Masser, Kashif, Jermaine Jackson, and Narada Michael Walden, Houston's debut album Whitney Houston was released in February 1985. Rolling Stone magazine praised Houston, calling her "one of the most exciting new voices in years" while The New York Times called the album "an impressive, musically conservative showcase for an exceptional vocal talent".[35][36] Arista Records promoted Houston's album with three different singles from the album in the US, UK and other European countries. In the UK, the dance-funk "Someone for Me", which failed to chart in the country, was the first single while "All at Once" was in such European countries as the Netherlands and Belgium, where the song reached the top 5 on the singles charts, respectively.[37]
In the US, the soulful ballad "You Give Good Love" was chosen as the lead single from Houston's debut to establish her in the black marketplace first.[38] Outside the US, the song failed to get enough attention to become a hit, but in the US, it gave the album its first major hit as it peaked at No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and No. 1 on the Hot R&B chart.[32] As a result, the album began to sell strongly, and Houston continued promotion by touring nightclubs in the US. She also began performing on late-night television talk shows, which were not usually accessible to unestablished black acts. The jazzy ballad "Saving All My Love for You" was released next and it would become Houston's first No. 1 single in both the US and the UK. She was then an opening act for singer Jeffrey Osborne on his nationwide tour. "Thinking About You" was released as the promo single only to R&B-oriented radio stations, which peaked at number ten on the US R&B Chart. At the time, MTV had received harsh criticism for not playing enough videos by black, Latino, and other racial minorities while favoring white acts.[39] The third US single, "How Will I Know", peaked at No. 1 and introduced Houston to the MTV audience thanks to its video. Houston's subsequent singles from this, and future albums, would make her the first African-American female artist to receive consistent heavy rotation on MTV.[26]
By 1986, a year after its initial release, Whitney Houston topped the Billboard 200 albums chart and stayed there for 14 non-consecutive weeks.[40] The final single, "Greatest Love of All", became Houston's biggest hit at the time after peaking No. 1 and remaining there for three weeks on the Hot 100 chart, which made her debut the first album by a female artist to yield three No. 1 hits. Houston was No. 1 artist of the year and Whitney Houston was the No. 1 album of the year on the 1986 Billboard year-end charts, making her the first female artist to earn that distinction.[40] At the time, Houston released the best-selling debut album by a solo artist.[41] Houston then embarked on her world tour, Greatest Love Tour. The album had become an international success, and was certified 13× platinum (diamond) in the United States alone, and has sold a total of 25 million copies worldwide.[42]
At the 1986 Grammy Awards, Houston was nominated for three awards including Album of the Year.[43] She was not eligible for the Best New Artist category due to her previous hit R&B duet recording with Teddy Pendergrass in 1984.[44] She won her first Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Saving All My Love for You".[45] Houston's performance of the song during the Grammy telecast later earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.[46]
Houston won seven American Music Awards in total in 1986 and 1987, and an MTV Video Music Award.[47][48] The album's popularity would also carry over to the 1987 Grammy Awards when "Greatest Love of All" would receive a Record of the Year nomination. Houston's debut album is listed as one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and on The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list.[49][50] Houston's grand entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today.[51] Following Houston's breakthrough, doors were opened for other African-American female artists such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker to find notable success in popular music and on MTV.[52][53]
[edit] 1987–1991: Whitney, I'm Your Baby Tonight and "The Star Spangled Banner"
With many expectations, Houston's second album, Whitney, was released in June 1987. The album again featured production from Masser, Kashif and Walden as well as Jellybean Benitez. Many critics complained that the material was too similar to her previous album. Rolling Stone said, "the narrow channel through which this talent has been directed is frustrating".[54] Still, the album enjoyed commercial success. Houston became the first female artist in music history to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and the first artist to enter the albums chart at number one in both the US and UK, while also hitting number one or top ten in dozens of other countries around the world. The album's first single, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)", was also a massive hit worldwide, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and topping the singles chart in many countries such as Australia, Germany and the UK. The next three singles, "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional", and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100 chart, which gave her a total of seven consecutive number one hits, breaking the record of six previously shared by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.[55][56] Houston became the first female artist to generate four number-one singles from one album. Whitney has been certified 9× Platinum in the US for shipments of over 9 million copies, and has sold a total of 20 million copies worldwide.[57]
At the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988, Houston was nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year, winning her second Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)".[58][59] Houston also won two American Music Awards in 1988 and 1989, respectively, and a Soul Train Music Award.[60][61][62] Following the release of the album, Houston embarked on the Moment of Truth World Tour, which was one of the ten highest grossing concert tours of 1987.[63] The success of the tours during 1986–87 and her two studio albums ranked Houston No. 8 for the highest earning entertainers list according to Forbes magazine.[64] She was the highest earning African-American woman overall and the third highest entertainer after Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy.[64]
Houston was a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement. During her modeling days, the singer refused to work with any agencies who did business with the then-apartheid South Africa.[65][66] On June 11, 1988, during the European leg of her tour, Houston joined other musicians to perform a set at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate a then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday.[65] Over 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium, and over a billion people tuned in worldwide as the rock concert raised over $1 million for charities while bringing awareness to apartheid.[67] Houston then flew back to the US for a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City in August. The show was a benefit concert that raised a quarter of a million dollars for the United Negro College Fund.[68] In the same year, she recorded a song for NBC's coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics, "One Moment in Time", which became a Top 5 hit in the US, while reaching number one in the UK and Germany.[69][70][71] With her world tour continuing overseas, Houston was still one of the top 20 highest earning entertainers for 1987–88 according to Forbes magazine.[72][73]
In 1989, Houston formed The Whitney Houston Foundation For Children, a non-profit organization that has raised funds for the needs of children around the world. The organization cares for homelessness, children with cancer or AIDS, and other issues of self-empowerment.[74] With the success of her first two albums, Houston was undoubtedly an international crossover superstar, the most prominent since Michael Jackson, appealing to all demographics. However, some black critics believed she was "selling out".[6] They felt her singing on record lacked the soul that was present during her live concerts.[25]
At the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, when Houston's name was called out for a nomination, a few in the audience jeered.[75][76] Houston defended herself against the criticism, stating, "If you're gonna have a long career, there's a certain way to do it, and I did it that way. I'm not ashamed of it".[25] Houston took a more urban direction with her third studio album, I'm Your Baby Tonight, released in November 1990. She produced and chose producers for this album and as a result, it featured production and collaborations with L.A. Reid and Babyface, Luther Vandross, and Stevie Wonder. The album showed Houston's versatility on a new batch of tough rhythmic grooves, soulful ballads and up-tempo dance tracks. Reviews were mixed. Rolling Stone felt it was her "best and most integrated album".[77] while Entertainment Weekly, at the time thought Houston's shift towards an urban direction was "superficial".[78]
The album contained several hits: the first two singles, "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and "All the Man That I Need" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; "Miracle" peaked at number nine; "My Name Is Not Susan" peaked in the top twenty; "I Belong to You" reached the top ten of the US R&B chart and garnered Houston a Grammy nomination; and the sixth single, the Stevie Wonder duet "We Didn't Know", reached the R&B top twenty. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and went on to be certified 4× platinum in the US while selling twelve million total worldwide.
File:W. Houston & G. Bush at White house.jpg
Houston met with President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office in 1990, while in Washington, D.C., to participate in the Youth Leadership Forum
In 1990, Houston was the spokesperson for a youth leadership conference hosted in Washington, D.C. She had a private audience with President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office to discuss the associated challenges.
With America entangled in the Persian Gulf War, Houston performed "The Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium on January 27, 1991.[79] Due to overwhelming response to her rendition, it was released as a commercial single and video of her performance, and reached the Top 20 on the US Hot 100, making her the only act to turn the national anthem into a pop hit of that magnitude (Jose Feliciano's version reached No. 50 in November 1968).[80][81] Houston donated all her share of the proceeds to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund. As a result, the singer was named to the Red Cross Board of Governors.[79][82][83]
Her rendition was considered the benchmark for singers and critically acclaimed.[84] Rolling Stone commented that "her singing stirs such strong patriotism. Unforgettable", and the performance ranked No. 1 on the 25 most memorable music moments in NFL history list. VH1 listed the performance as one of the greatest moments that rocked TV.[85][86] Following the attacks on 9/11, it was released again by Arista Records, all profits going towards the firefighters and victims of the attacks. This time it peaked at No. 6 in the Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[87]
Later in 1991, Houston put together her Welcome Home Heroes concert with HBO for the soldiers fighting in the Persian Gulf War and their families. The free concert took place at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia in front of 3,500 servicemen and women. HBO descrambled the concert so that it was free for everyone to watch.[88] Houston's concert gave HBO its highest ratings ever.[89] She then embarked on the I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour.
[edit] 1992–1994: Marriage to Bobby Brown and The Bodyguard
Throughout the 1980s, Houston was romantically linked to American football star Randall Cunningham and actor Eddie Murphy, whom she dated.[90] She then met R&B singer Bobby Brown at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. After a three-year courtship, the two were married on July 18, 1992.[91] On March 4, 1993, Houston gave birth to their daughter Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, her only child, and his fourth. Brown would go on to have several run-ins with the law, including some jail time.[91]
With the commercial success of her albums, movie offers poured in, including offers to work with Robert De Niro, Quincy Jones, and Spike Lee; but Houston felt the time wasn't right.[90] Houston's first film role was in The Bodyguard, released in 1992 and co-starring Kevin Costner. Houston played Rachel Marron, a star who is stalked by a crazed fan and hires a bodyguard to protect her. USA Today listed it as one of the 25 most memorable movie moments of the last 25 years in 2007.[92] Houston's mainstream appeal allowed people to look at the movie color-blind.[93]
Still, controversy arose as some felt the film's advertising intentionally hid Houston's face to hide the film's interracial relationship. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1993, the singer commented that "people know who Whitney Houston is – I'm black. You can't hide that fact."[21] Houston received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress. The Washington Post said Houston is "doing nothing more than playing Houston, comes out largely unscathed if that is possible in so cockamamie an undertaking",[94] and The New York Times commented that she lacked passion with her co-star.[95] Despite the film's mixed reviews, it was hugely successful at the box office, grossing more than $121 million in the U.S. and $410 million worldwide, making it one of the top 100 grossing films in film history at its time of release, though it is no longer in the top 100 due to rising ticket prices since the time the film was released.[96]
The film's soundtrack also enjoyed big success. Houston executive produced and contributed six songs for the motion picture's adjoining soundtrack album. Rolling Stone said it is "nothing more than pleasant, tasteful and urbane".[97] The soundtrack's lead single was "I Will Always Love You", written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton in 1974. Houston's version of the song was acclaimed by many critics, regarding it as her "signature song" or "iconic performance". Rolling Stone and USA Today called her rendition "the tour-de-force".[98][99] The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for a then-record-breaking 14 weeks, number one on the R&B chart for a then-record-breaking 11 weeks, and number one on the Adult Contemporary charts for five weeks, thus becoming the first single to top those three charts simultaneously for five weeks.[100]
The single was certified 4× platinum by the RIAA, making Houston the first female artist with a single to reach that level in the RIAA history and becoming the best-selling single by a female artist in the US.[101][102][103] The song also became a global success, hitting number-one in almost all countries, and one of the best-selling singles of all time with 12 million copies sold.[104] The soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 chart and remained there for 20 non-consecutive weeks, the longest tenure by any album on the chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era, and became one of the fastest selling albums ever.[105] During Christmas week of 1992, the soundtrack sold over a million copies within a week, becoming the first album to achieve that feat under Nielsen SoundScan system.[106][107] With the follow-up singles "I'm Every Woman", a Chaka Khan cover, and "I Have Nothing" both reaching the top five, Houston became the first female artist to ever have three singles in the Top 11 simultaneously.[108][109][110] The album was certified 17× platinum in the US alone,[111] with worldwide sales of 44 million,[112] making The Bodyguard the biggest-selling album by a female act on the list of the world's Top 10 best-selling albums, topping Shania Twain's 40 million sold for Come On Over.[113]
Houston won three Grammys for the album in 1994, including two of the Academy's highest honors, Album of the Year and Record of the Year. In addition, she won a record 8 American Music Awards at that year's ceremony including the Award of Merit,[114] 11 Billboard Music Awards, 3 Soul Train Music Awards in 1993–94 including Sammy Davis, Jr. Award as Entertainer of the Year,[115] 5 NAACP Image Awards including Entertainer of the Year,[116][117][118] a record 5 World Music Awards,[119] and a BRIT award.[120] Following the success of the project, Houston embarked on another expansive global tour, The Bodyguard World Tour, in 1993–94. Her concerts, movie, and recording grosses made her the third highest earning female entertainer of 1993–94, just behind Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand according to Forbes magazine.[121] Houston placed in the top five of Entertainment Weekly's annual "Entertainer of the Year" ranking[122] and was labeled by Premiere magazine as one of the 100 most powerful people in Hollywood.[123]
In October 1994, Houston attended and performed at a state dinner in the White House honoring newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela.[124][125] At the end of her world tour, Houston performed three concerts in South Africa to honor President Mandela, playing to over 200,000 people. This would make the singer the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free nation following Mandela's winning election.[126] The concert was broadcast live on HBO with funds of the concerts being donated to various charities in South Africa. The event was considered the nation's "biggest media event since the inauguration of Nelson Mandela".[127]
[edit] 1995–1997: Waiting to Exhale, The Preacher's Wife, and Cinderella
In 1995, Houston starred alongside Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon in her second film Waiting to Exhale, a motion picture about four African-American women struggling with relationships. Houston played the lead character Savannah Jackson, a TV producer in love with a married man. She chose the role because she saw the film as "a breakthrough for the image of black women because it presents them both as professionals and as caring mothers".[128] After opening at number one and grossing $67 million in the US at the box office and $81 million worldwide,[129] it proved that a movie primarily targeting a black audience can cross over to success, while paving the way for other all-black movies such as How Stella Got Her Groove Back and the Tyler Perry movies that have become popular in the 2000s.[130][131][132] The film is also notable for its portrayal of black women as strong middle class citizens as opposed to stereotypes.[133] The reviews were mainly positive for the ensemble cast. The New York Times said "Ms. Houston has shed the defensive hauteur that made her portrayal of a pop star in 'The Bodyguard' seem so distant."[134] Houston was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture", but lost to her co-star Bassett.
The film's accompanying soundtrack, Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album, was produced by Houston and Babyface. Though Babyface originally wanted Houston to record the entire album, she declined. Instead, she "wanted it to be an album of women with vocal distinction", and thus gathered several African-American female artists for the soundtrack, to go along with the film's strong women message.[128] As a result, the album featured a range of contemporary R&B female recording artists along with Houston, such as Mary J Blige, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, Patti Labelle, and Brandy. Houston's "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" peaked at No. 1, and then spent a record eleven weeks at the No. 2 spot and eight weeks on top of the R&B Charts. "Count On Me", a duet with CeCe Winans, hit the US Top 10; and Houston's third contribution, "Why Does It Hurt So Bad", made the Top 30. The album debuted at No. 1, and was certified 7× Platinum in the United States, denoting shipments of seven million copies.[57] The soundtrack received strong reviews as Entertainment Weekly said "the album goes down easy, just as you'd expect from a package framed by Whitney Houston tracks.... the soundtrack waits to exhale, hovering in sensuous suspense"[135] and has since ranked it as one of the 100 Best Movie Soundtracks.[136] Later that year, Houston's children's charity organization was awarded a VH1 Honor for all the charitable work.[137]
In 1996, Houston starred in the holiday comedy The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington. She plays a gospel-singing wife of a pastor (Courtney B. Vance). It was largely an updated remake of the 1948 film "The Bishop's Wife" which starred Loretta Young, David Niven and Cary Grant. Houston earned $10 million for the role, making her one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood at the time and the highest earning African American actress in Hollywood.[138] The movie, with its all African-American cast, was a moderate success, earning approximately $50 million at the U.S. box offices.[139] The movie gave Houston her strongest reviews so far. The San Francisco Chronicle said Houston "is rather angelic herself, displaying a divine talent for being virtuous and flirtatious at the same time" and that she "exudes gentle yet spirited warmth, especially when praising the Lord in her gorgeous singing voice".[140] Houston was again nominated for an NAACP Image Award and won for Outstanding Actress In A Motion Picture.
Houston recorded and co-produced, with Mervyn Warren, the film's accompanying gospel soundtrack. The Preacher's Wife: Original Soundtrack Album included six gospel songs with Georgia Mass Choir that were recorded at the Great Star Rising Baptist Church in Atlanta. Houston also duetted with gospel legend Shirley Caesar. The album sold six million copies worldwide and scored hit singles with "I Believe in You and Me" and "Step by Step", becoming the largest selling gospel album of all time. The album received mainly positive reviews. Some critics, such as that of USA Today, noted the presence of her emotional depth,[141] while The Times said "To hear Houston going at full throttle with the 35 piece Georgia Mass Choir struggling to keep up is to realise what her phenomenal voice was made for".[142]
In 1997, Houston's production company changed its name to BrownHouse Productions and was joined by Debra Martin Chase. Their goal was "to show aspects of the lives of African-Americans that have not been brought to the screen before" while improving how African-Americans are portrayed in film and television.[143] Their first project was a made-for-television remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. In addition to co-producing, Houston starred in the movie as the Fairy Godmother along with Brandy, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bernadette Peters. Houston was initially offered the role of Cinderella in 1993, but other projects intervened.[144] The film is notable for its multi-racial cast and nonstereotypical message.[145] An estimated 60 million viewers tuned into the special giving ABC its highest TV ratings in 16 years.[146] The movie received seven Emmy nominations including Outstanding Variety, Musical or Comedy, while winning Outstanding Art Direction in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Special.[147]
Houston and Chase then obtained the rights to the story of Dorothy Dandridge. Houston was to play Dandridge, who was the first African American actress to be nominated for an Oscar. She wanted the story told with dignity and honor.[143] However, Halle Berry also had rights to the project and she got her version going first.[148] Later that year, Houston paid tribute to her idols such as Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, and Dionne Warwick by performing their hits during the three-night HBO Concert Classic Whitney, live from Washington, D.C. The special raised over $300,000 for the Children's Defense Fund.[149] Houston received The Quincy Jones Award for outstanding career achievements in the field of entertainment at the 12th Soul Train Music Awards.[150][151]
[edit] 1998–2000: My Love Is Your Love and Whitney: The Greatest Hits
After spending much of the early and mid 1990s working on motion pictures and their soundtrack albums, Houston's first studio album in eight years, the critically acclaimed My Love Is Your Love, was released in November 1998. Though originally slated to be a greatest hits album with a handful of new songs, recording sessions were so fruitful that a new full-length studio album was released. Recorded and mixed in only six weeks, it featured production from Rodney Jerkins, Wyclef Jean and Missy Elliott. The album debuted at number thirteen, its peak position, on the Billboard 200 chart.[152] It had a funkier and edgier sound than past releases and saw Houston handling urban dance, hip hop, mid-tempo R&B, reggae, torch songs, and ballads all with great dexterity.[153]
From late 1998 to early 2000, the album spawned several hit singles: "When You Believe" (US No. 15, UK No. 4), a duet with Mariah Carey for 1998's The Prince of Egypt soundtrack, which also became an international hit as it peaked in the Top 10 in several countries and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song;[154] "Heartbreak Hotel" (US No. 2, UK No. 25) featured Faith Evans and Kelly Price, received a 1999 MTV VMA nomination for Best R&B Video,[155] and number one on the US R&B chart for seven weeks; "It's Not Right But It's Okay" (US No. 4, UK No. 3) won Houston her sixth Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance;[156] "My Love Is Your Love" (US No. 4, UK No. 2) with 3 million copies sold worldwide;[157] and "I Learned from the Best" (US No. 27, UK No. 19).[158][159] These singles became international hits as well, and all the singles, except "When You Believe", became number one hits on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart. The album sold four million copies in America, making it certified 4× platinum, and a total of eleven million copies worldwide.[42]
The album gave Houston some of her strongest reviews ever. Rolling Stone said Houston was singing "with a bite in her voice"[160] and The Village Voice called it "Whitney's sharpest and most satisfying so far".[161] In 1999, Houston participated in VH-1's Divas Live '99, alongside Brandy, Mary J. Blige, Tina Turner, and Cher. The same year, Houston hit the road with her 70 date My Love Is Your Love World Tour. The European leg of the tour was Europe's highest grossing arena tour of the year.[162] In November 1999, Houston was named Top-selling R&B Female Artist of the Century with certified US sales of 51 million copies at the time and The Bodyguard Soundtrack was named the Top-selling Soundtrack Album of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[163] She also won The Artist of the Decade, Female award for extraordinary artistic contributions during the 1990s at the 14th Soul Train Music Awards, and an MTV Europe Music Award for Best R&B.[164][165][166][167][168]
In May 2000, Whitney: The Greatest Hits was released worldwide. The double disc set peaked at number five in the United States, reaching number one in the United Kingdom.[159][169] In addition, the album reached the Top 10 in many other countries.[170] While ballad songs were left unchanged, the album features house/club remixes of many of Houston's up-tempo hits. Included on the album were four new songs: "Could I Have This Kiss Forever" (a duet with Enrique Iglesias), "Same Script, Different Cast" (a duet with Deborah Cox), "If I Told You That" (a duet with George Michael), and "Fine", and three hits that had never appeared on a Houston album: "One Moment in Time", "The Star Spangled Banner", and "If You Say My Eyes Are Beautiful", a duet with Jermaine Jackson from his 1986 Precious Moments album.[171] Along with the album, an accompanying VHS and DVD was released featuring the music videos to Houston's greatest hits, as well as several hard-to-find live performances including her 1983 debut on The Merv Griffin Show, and interviews.[172] The greatest hits album was certified 3× platinum in the US, with worldwide sales of 10 million.[173][174]
[edit] 2000–2005: Just Whitney, and personal struggles
Though Houston was seen as a "good girl" with a perfect image in the 1980s and early 1990s, by the late 1990s, her behavior changed. She was often hours late for interviews, photo shoots and rehearsals, and canceling concerts and talk-show appearances.[175][176] With the missed performances and weight loss, rumors about Houston using drugs with her husband circulated. On January 11, 2000, airport security guards discovered marijuana in both Houston's and husband Bobby Brown's luggage at a Hawaii airport, but the two boarded the plane and departed before authorities could arrive. Charges were later dropped against them,[177] but rumors of drug usage between the couple would continue to surface. Two months later, Clive Davis was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Houston had been scheduled to perform at the event, but failed to show up.[178]
Shortly thereafter, Houston was scheduled to perform at the Academy Awards but was fired from the event by musical director and longtime friend Burt Bacharach. Her publicist cited throat problems as the reason for the cancellation. In his book The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards, author Steve Pond revealed that "Houston's voice was shaky, she seemed distracted and jittery, and her attitude was casual, almost defiant", and that while Houston was to sing "Over the Rainbow", she would start singing a different song.[179] Houston later admitted to having been fired.[180] Later that year, Houston's long-time executive assistant and friend, Robyn Crawford, resigned from Houston's management company.[178]
In August 2001, Houston signed the biggest record deal in music history with Arista/BMG. She renewed her contract for $100 million to deliver six new albums, on which she would also earn royalties.[181][182][183] She later made an appearance on Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special. Her extremely thin frame further spurred rumors of drug use. Houston's publicist said, "Whitney has been under stress due to family matters, and when she is under stress she doesn't eat."[184] The singer was scheduled for a second performance the following night but canceled.[185] Within weeks, Houston's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" would be re-released after the September 11 attacks, with the proceeds donated to the New York Firefighters 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Fraternal Order of Police.[186] The song peaked at No. 6 this time on the US Hot 100, topping its previous position.[158]
In 2002, Houston became involved in a legal dispute with John Houston Enterprise. Although the company was started by her father to manage her career, it was actually run by company president Kevin Skinner. Skinner filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit and sued for $100 million (but lost), stating that Houston owed the company previously unpaid compensation for helping to negotiate her $100 million contract with Arista Records and for sorting out legal matters.[187] Houston stated that her 81-year-old father had nothing to do with the lawsuit. Although Skinner tried to claim otherwise, John Houston never appeared in court.[188] Houston's father later died in February 2003.[189] The lawsuit was dismissed on April 5, 2004, and Skinner was awarded nothing.[190]
Also in 2002, Houston did an interview with Diane Sawyer to promote her then-upcoming album. The interview was the highest-rated television interview in history.[citation needed] During the prime-time special, Houston spoke on topics including rumored drug use and marriage. She was asked about the ongoing drug rumors and replied, "First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let's get that straight. Okay? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack is wack."[180] The line was from Keith Haring's mural which was painted in 1986 on the handball court at 128th Street and 2nd Avenue.[191] Houston did, however, admit to using other substances at times, including cocaine.[180]
In December 2002, Houston released her fifth studio album, Just Whitney.... The album included productions from then-husband Bobby Brown, as well as Missy Elliott and Babyface, and marked the first time that Houston did not produce with Clive Davis as Davis had been released by top management at BMG. Upon its release, Just Whitney... received mixed reviews.[192] The album debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 chart and it had the highest first week sales of any album Houston had ever released.[193] The four singles released from the album, didn't fare well on the Billboard Hot 100, but became Hot Dance Club Play hits. Just Whitney... was certified platinum in the United States, and sold approximately three million worldwide.[194]
On a June 2003 trip to Israel, Houston said of her visit, "I've never felt like this in any other country. I feel at home, I feel wonderful."[195]
In late 2003, Houston released her first Christmas album One Wish: The Holiday Album, with a collection of traditional holiday songs. Houston produced the album with Mervyn Warren and Gordon Chambers. A single titled "One Wish (for Christmas)" reached the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and the album was certified gold in the US. Having always been a touring artist, Houston spent most of 2004 touring and performing in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Russia. In September 2004, she gave a surprise performance at the World Music Awards in a tribute to long time friend Clive Davis. After the show, Davis and Houston announced plans to go into studio to work on her new album.[196]
In early 2004, husband Bobby Brown starred in his own reality TV program, Being Bobby Brown (on the Bravo network), which provided a view into the domestic goings-on in the Brown household. Though it was Brown's vehicle, Houston was a prominent figure throughout the show, receiving as much screen time as Brown. The series aired in 2005 and featured Houston in, what some would say, not her most flattering moments. The Hollywood Reporter said it was "undoubtedly the most disgusting and execrable series ever to ooze its way onto television."[197] Despite the perceived train-wreck nature of the show, the series gave Bravo its highest ratings in its time slot and continued Houston's successful forays into film and television.[198] The show was not renewed for a second season after Houston stated that she would no longer appear in it, and Brown and Bravo could not come to an agreement for another season.[199]
[edit] 2006–2012: Return to music, I Look to You, tour and film comeback
After years of controversy and turmoil, Houston separated from Bobby Brown in September 2006, filing for divorce the following month.[200] On February 1, 2007, Houston asked the court to fast track their divorce.[201] The divorce was finalized on April 24, 2007, with Houston granted custody of the couple's daughter.[202] On May 4, Houston sold the suburban Atlanta home featured in Being Bobby Brown for $1.19 million.[203] A few days later, Brown sued Houston in Orange County, California court in an attempt to change the terms of their custody agreement. Brown also sought child and spousal support from Houston. In the lawsuit, Brown claimed that financial and emotional problems prevented him from properly responding to Houston's divorce petition.[204] Brown lost at his court hearing as the judge dismissed his appeal to overrule the custody terms, leaving Houston with full custody and Brown with no spousal support.[205] In March 2007, Clive Davis of Arista Records announced that Houston would begin recording a new album.[206] In October 2007, Arista released another compilation The Ultimate Collection outside the United States.[207]
Houston gave her first interview in seven years in September 2009, appearing on Oprah Winfrey's season premiere. The interview was billed as "the most anticipated music interview of the decade".[208] Whitney admitted on the show to using drugs with former husband Bobby Brown, who "laced marijuana with rock cocaine".[209] By 1996, she told Oprah, "[doing drugs] was an everyday thing... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."[210]
Houston released her new album, I Look to You, in August 2009.[211] The album's first two singles are "I Look to You" and "Million Dollar Bill". The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1, with Houston's best opening-week sales of 305,000 copies, marking Houston's first number one album since The Bodyguard, and Houston's first studio album to reach number one since 1987's Whitney. Houston also appeared on European television programs to promote the album. She performed the song "I Look to You" on the German television show Wetten, dass..?. Three days later, she performed the worldwide first single from I Look To You, Million Dollar Bill, on the French television show Le Grand Journal. Houston appeared as guest mentor on The X Factor in the United Kingdom. She performed "Million Dollar Bill" on the following day's results show, completing the song even as a strap in the back of her dress popped open two minutes into the performance. She later commented that she "sang [herself] out of [her] clothes".
The performance was poorly received by the British media, and was variously described as "weird" and "ungracious",[212] "shambolic"[213] and a "flop". Despite this reception, "Million Dollar Bill" jumped to its peak from 14 to number 5 (her first UK top 5 for over a decade), and three weeks after release "I Look to You" went gold. Houston appeared on the Italian version of The X Factor, performing the same song "Million Dollar Bill" to excellent reviews.[214] She was awarded the Gold Certificate for achieving over 50,000 CD sales of "I Look To You" in Italy.[215] In November, Houston performed "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" at the 2009 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. Two days later, Houston performed both songs on the Dancing With The Stars season 9 finale. As of December 2009, "I Look to You" has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of more than one million copies in the United States.[216] On January 26, 2010, her debut album was re-released in a special edition entitled Whitney Houston – The Deluxe Anniversary Edition.[217]
Houston later embarked on a world tour, entitled the Nothing but Love World Tour. It was her first world tour in over ten years and was announced as a triumphant comeback. However, some poor reviews and rescheduled concerts brought some negative media attention.[218][219] Houston canceled some concerts due to illness and received widespread negative reviews from fans who were disappointed in the quality of her voice and performance. Some fans reportedly walked out of her concerts.[220]
In January 2010, Houston was nominated for two NAACP Image Awards, one for Best Female Artist and one for Best Music Video. She won the award for Best Music Video for her single "I Look to You". On January 16, she received The BET Honors Award for Entertainer citing her lifetime achievements spanning over 25 years in the industry. The 2010 BET Honors award was held at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. and aired on February 1, 2010. Jennifer Hudson and Kim Burrell performed in honor of her, garnering positive reviews. Houston also received a nomination from the Echo Awards, Germany's version of the Grammys, for Best International Artist. In April 2010, the UK newspaper The Mirror reported that Houston was thinking about recording her eighth studio album and wanted to collaborate with will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), her first choice for a collaboration.[221]
Houston also performed the song "I Look to You" on the 2011 BET Celebration of Gospel, with gospel–jazz singer Kim Burrell, held at the Staples Center, Los Angeles. The performance aired on January 30, 2011. Early in 2011, she gave an uneven performance in tribute to cousin Dionne Warwick at music mogul Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy gala. In May 2011, Houston enrolled in a rehabilitation center again, as an out-patient, citing drug and alcohol problems. A representative for Houston said that it was a part of Houston's "longstanding recovery process".[222]
In September 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Houston would produce and star alongside Jordin Sparks and Mike Epps in the remake of the 1976 film Sparkle. In the film, Houston portrays Sparks' "not-so encouraging mother". Houston would have executive producer credits on top of acting credits according to Debra Martin Chase, producer of Sparkle. She stated that Houston deserved the title considering she had been there from the beginning in 2001, when Houston obtained Sparkle production rights. R&B singer Aaliyah – originally tapped to star as Sparkle – died in a 2001 plane crash. Her death derailed production, which would have begun in 2002.[223][224][225] Houston's remake of Sparkle was filmed in the fall of 2011,[226] and is set for release by TriStar Pictures in August 2012.[227]
Death[link]
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Wikinews has related news: American pop star Whitney Houston dies at 48 |
On February 9, 2012, Houston visited singers Brandy and Monica, together with Clive Davis, at their rehearsals for Davis' pre-Grammy Awards party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.[228][229] That same day, she made her last public performance, when she joined Kelly Price on stage in Hollywood, California, and sang "Jesus Loves Me".[230][231]
On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub.[232][233] The cause of death was not immediately known.[234][235] It was later ruled by the coroner to have been an "accidental drowning".[236] Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PST.[234][237] Local police said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent."[238] On March 22, 2012, the Los Angeles County coroner's office reported the cause of Houston's death was drowning and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use".[239] The office stated the amount of cocaine found in Houston's body indicated that she used the substance shortly before her death.[240] Toxicology results revealed additional drugs in her system: Benadryl, Xanax, marijuana and Flexiril.[241] The manner of death was listed as an "accident".[242]
Houston had an invitation-only memorial on Saturday, February 18, 2012, at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. The service was scheduled for two hours, but lasted for four hours.[243] Among those who performed at the funeral were Stevie Wonder (rewritten version of "Ribbon in the Sky," and "Love's in Need of Love Today"), CeCe Winans ("Don't Cry" and "Jesus Loves Me"), Alicia Keys ("Send Me an Angel"), Kim Burrell (rewritten version of "A Change Is Gonna Come") and R. Kelly ("I Look to You"), interspersed with hymns by the church choir and remarks by Clive Davis, Houston’s record producer; Kevin Costner; Ricky Minor her music director; her cousin Dionne Warwick and Ray Watson, her security guard for the past 11 years. Aretha Franklin was listed on the program and was expected to sing, but was unable to attend the service.[244][245] Bobby Brown, Houston's ex-husband, was also invited to the funeral but he left before the service began.[246] Houston was buried on Sunday, February 19, 2012, in Fairview Cemetery, in Westfield, New Jersey next to her father, John Russell Houston, who died in 2003.[247]
Reaction[link]
The Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party that Houston was expected to attend, and that featured many of the biggest names in music and movies, went on as scheduled although it was quickly turned into a tribute to Houston. Davis spoke about Houston's death at the evening's start: "By now you have all learned of the unspeakably tragic news of our beloved Whitney's passing. I don't have to mask my emotion in front of a room full of so many dear friends. I am personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years. Whitney was so full of life. She was so looking forward to tonight even though she wasn't scheduled to perform. Whitney was a beautiful person and a talent beyond compare. She graced this stage with her regal presence and gave so many memorable performances here over the years. Simply put, Whitney would have wanted the music to go on and her family asked that we carry on."[248]
Tony Bennett spoke of Houston's death before performing at Davis' party. He said, "First, it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now, the magnificent Whitney Houston". Bennett sang "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" and said of Houston, "When I first heard her, I called Clive Davis and said, 'You finally found the greatest singer I've ever heard in my life.'"[249]
Some celebrities opposed Davis' decision to continue on the party while a police investigation was being conducted in Houston's hotel room and her body was still in the building. Chaka Khan, in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan on February 13, 2012, shared that she felt the party should have been canceled, saying "I thought that was complete insanity. And knowing Whitney I don't believe that she would have said 'the show must go on.' She's the kind of woman that would've said 'Stop everything! Un-unh. I'm not going to be there.' [...] I don't know what could motivate a person to have a party in a building where the person whose life he had influenced so enormously and whose life had been affected by hers. They were like... I don't understand how that party went on."[250] Sharon Osbourne condemned the Davis party, declaring "I think it was disgraceful that the party went on. I don't want to be in a hotel room when there's someone you admire who's tragically lost their life four floors up. I'm not interested in being in that environment and I think when you grieve someone, you do it privately, you do it with people who understand you. I thought it was so wrong."[251]
Several other celebrities released statements responding to Houston's death. Dolly Parton, whose song "I Will Always Love You" was covered by Houston, said, "I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'." Aretha Franklin said, "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."[252] Mariah Carey said, "Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend ... She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth."[253] Oprah Winfrey, who did an in-depth interview with Houston in 2009, wrote on Twitter "To me Whitney was THE VOICE. We got to hear a part of God every time she sang. Heart is heavy, spirit grateful for the GIFT of her."[254] Quincy Jones said, "I am absolutely heartbroken at the news of Whitney’s passing. Ashford & Simpson first made me aware of Whitney when she was just sixteen, and I always regretted not having had the opportunity to work with her. She was a true original and a talent beyond compare. I will miss her terribly."[253]
Moments after news of her death emerged, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News all broke from their regularly scheduled programming to dedicate time to non-stop coverage of Houston's death. All three featured live interviews with people who knew Houston including those that have worked with her, interviewed her along with some of her peers in the music industry. Saturday Night Live displayed a photo of a smiling Houston, alongside Molly Shannon, from her 1996 appearance.[255][256] MTV and VH-1 interrupted their regularly scheduled programming on Sunday February 12 to air many of Houston's classic videos with MTV often airing news segments in between and featuring various reactions from fans and celebrities.
Houston's former husband, Bobby Brown, was reported to be "in and out of crying fits" since receiving the news. He did not cancel a scheduled performance and within hours of his ex-wife's sudden death, an audience in Mississippi observed as Brown blew kisses skyward, tearfully saying: "I love you, Whitney".[257]
Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the 54th Grammy Awards, announced that Jennifer Hudson would perform a tribute to Houston at the February 12, 2012, awards. He said "event organizers believed Hudson – an Academy Award-winning actress and Grammy Award-winning artist – could perform a respectful musical tribute to Houston". Ehrlich went on to say: "It's too fresh in everyone's memory to do more at this time, but we would be remiss if we didn't recognize Whitney's remarkable contribution to music fans in general, and in particular her close ties with the Grammy telecast and her Grammy wins and nominations over the years".[258] At the start of the awards ceremony, a footage of Houston performing "I Will Always Love You" from 1994 Grammys was shown following a prayer read by host, LL Cool J. Later in the program following a montage of photos of musicians who died in 2011 with Houston singing "Saving All My Love for You" at the 1986 Grammys, Hudson paid tribute to Houston and the other artists by performing "I Will Always Love You".[259][260]
Houston was honored in the form of various tributes at the 43rd NAACP Image Awards, held on February 17. A image montage of Houston and important black figures who died in 2011 was followed by video footage from the 1994 ceremony, which depicted her accepting two Image Awards for outstanding female artist and entertainer of the year. Following the video tribute, Yolanda Adams delivered a rendition of "I Love the Lord" from The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack. In the finale of the ceremony, Kirk Franklin and The Family started their performance with "Greatest Love of All."[261] The 2012 BRIT Awards, which took place at London's O2 Arena on February 21, also paid tribute to Houston by playing a 30-second-video montage of her music videos with a snippet of "One Moment in Time" as the background music in the ceremony's first segment.[262] New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said that all New Jersey state flags would be flown at half-staff on Tuesday, February 21 to honor Houston.[263] Accompanied by Esperanza Spalding belting out "What a Wonderful World" along with the Southern California Children's Choir, Houston was featured in the In Memoriam montage alongside other cinema greats at the 84th Academy Awards, held at the Hollywood and Highland Center on February 26, 2012.[264][265]
Artistry and legacy[link]
Voice[link]
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One of Houston's best selling singles worldwide and recognized songs, "I Will Always Love You" prominently uses melismas.
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Houston was a mezzo-soprano,[266][267] and was commonly referred to as "The Voice" in reference to her exceptional vocal talent.[268] Her vocal range extended from G below middle C (G3) to high B-flat (B♭5); she could belt out to treble F (F5).[269] She was third in MTV's list of 22 Greatest Voices,[270] and sixth on Online Magazine COVE's list of the 100 Best Pop Vocalists with a score of 48.5/50.[271] In 2008, Rolling Stone listed Houston as the thirty-fourth of the 100 greatest singers of all time, stating, "Her voice is a mammoth, coruscating cry: Few vocalists could get away with opening a song with 45 unaccompanied seconds of singing, but Houston's powerhouse version of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' is a tour de force."[98] Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone also eulogized Houston's vocal, enumerating ten performances, including "How Will I Know" from the 1986 MTV VMAs and "The Star Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl. "Whitney Houston was blessed with an astonishing vocal range and extraordinary technical skill, but what truly made her a great singer was her ability to connect with a song and drive home its drama and emotion with incredible precision," he stated. "She was a brilliant performer, and her live shows often eclipsed her studio recordings."[272]
Jon Caramanica of The New York Times commented, "Her voice was clean and strong, with barely any grit, well suited to the songs of love and aspiration. [...] Hers was a voice of triumph and achievement, and it made for any number of stunning, time-stopping vocal performances."[273] Mariah Carey stated, "She [Whitney] has a really rich, strong mid-belt that very few people have. She sounds really good, really strong."[274] While in her review of I Look to You, music critic Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times writes, "[Houston's voice] stands like monuments upon the landscape of 20th century pop, defining the architecture of their times, sheltering the dreams of millions and inspiring the climbing careers of countless imitators", adding "When she was at her best, nothing could match her huge, clean, cool mezzo-soprano".[267]
Lauren Everitt from BBC News Magazine commented on melisma used in Houston's recording and its influence. "An early 'I' in Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' takes nearly six seconds to sing. In those seconds the former gospel singer-turned-pop star packs a series of different notes into the single syllable," stated Everitt. "The technique is repeated throughout the song, most pronouncedly on every 'I' and 'you'. The vocal technique is called melisma, and it has inspired a host of imitators. Other artists may have used it before Houston, but it was her rendition of Dolly Parton's love song that pushed the technique into the mainstream in the 90s. [...] But perhaps what Houston nailed best was moderation." Everitt said that "[i]n a climate of reality shows ripe with 'oversinging', it's easy to appreciate Houston's ability to save melisma for just the right moment".[275]
Houston's vocal stylings have had a significant impact on the music industry. She has been called the "Queen of Pop" for her influence during the 1990s, commercially rivaling Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.[276] Stephen Holden from The New York Times, in his review of Houston's Radio City Music Hall concert on July 20, 1993, praised her attitude as a singer, writing, "Whitney Houston is one of the few contemporary pop stars of whom it might be said: the voice suffices. While almost every performer whose albums sell in the millions calls upon an entertainer's bag of tricks, from telling jokes to dancing to circus pyrotechnics, Ms. Houston would rather just stand there and sing." With regard to her singing style, he added: "Her [Houston's] stylistic trademarks – shivery melismas that ripple up in the middle of a song, twirling embellishments at the ends of phrases that suggest an almost breathless exhilaration – infuse her interpretations with flashes of musical and emotional lightning."[277]
Elysa Gardner of the Los Angeles Times in her review for The Preacher's Wife Soundtrack praised Houston's vocal ability highly, commenting, "She is first and foremost a pop diva – at that, the best one we have. No other female pop star – not Mariah Carey, not Celine Dion, not Barbra Streisand – quite rivals Houston in her exquisite vocal fluidity and purity of tone, and her ability to infuse a lyric with mesmerizing melodrama."[278]
Influence[link]
During the 1980s, MTV was coming into its own and received criticism for not playing enough videos by black artists. With Michael Jackson breaking down the color barrier for black male artists, Houston did the same for black female artists. She became the first black female artist to receive heavy rotation on the network following the success of the "How Will I Know" video.[279] Following Houston's breakthrough, other African-American female artists, such as Janet Jackson and Anita Baker, were successful in popular music.[52][53] Baker commented that "Because of what Whitney and Sade did, there was an opening for me... For radio stations, black women singers aren't taboo anymore."[280]
Allmusic noted her contribution to the success of black artists on the pop scene, commenting, "Houston was able to handle big adult contemporary ballads, effervescent, stylish dance-pop, and slick urban contemporary soul with equal dexterity" and that "the result was an across-the-board appeal that was matched by scant few artists of her era, and helped her become one of the first black artists to find success on MTV in Michael Jackson's wake".[281] The New York Times stated that "Houston was a major catalyst for a movement within black music that recognized the continuity of soul, pop, jazz and gospel vocal traditions".[282] Richard Corliss of Time magazine commented on her initial success breaking various barriers:
Of her first album's ten cuts, six were ballads. This chanteuse [Houston] had to fight for air play with hard rockers. The young lady had to stand uncowed in the locker room of macho rock. The soul strutter had to seduce a music audience that anointed few black artists with superstardom. [...] She was a phenomenon waiting to happen, a canny tapping of the listener's yen for a return to the musical middle. And because every new star creates her own genre, her success has helped other blacks, other women, other smooth singers find an avid reception in the pop marketplace.[283]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that Houston "revitalized the tradition of strong gospel-oriented pop-soul singing".[284] Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times referred to the singer as a "national treasure".[267] Jon Caramanica, other music critic of The New York Times, called Houston "R&B's great modernizer," adding "slowly but surely reconciling the ambition and praise of the church with the movements and needs of the body and the glow of the mainstream".[273] He also drew comparisons between Houston's influence and other big names' on 1980s pop:
She was, alongside Michael Jackson and Madonna, one of the crucial figures to hybridize pop in the 1980s, though her strategy was far less radical than that of her peers. Jackson and Madonna were by turns lascivious and brutish and, crucially, willing to let their production speak more loudly than their voices, an option Ms. Houston never went for. Also, she was less prolific than either of them, achieving most of her renown on the strength of her first three solo albums and one soundtrack, released from 1985 to 1992. If she was less influential than they were in the years since, it was only because her gift was so rare, so impossible to mimic. Jackson and Madonna built worldviews around their voices; Ms. Houston’s voice was the worldview. She was someone more to be admired, like a museum piece, than to be emulated.[273]
The Independent's music critic Andy Gill also wrote about Houston's influence on modern R&B and singing competitions, comparing it to Michael Jackson's. "Because Whitney, more than any other single artist ― Michael Jackson included ― effectively mapped out the course of modern R&B, setting the bar for standards of soul vocalese, and creating the original template for what we now routinely refer to as the 'soul diva'," stated Gill. "Jackson was a hugely talented icon, certainly, but he will be as well remembered (probably more so) for his presentational skills, his dazzling dance moves, as for his musical innovations. Whitney, on the other hand, just sang, and the ripples from her voice continue to dominate the pop landscape." Gill said that there "are few, if any, Jackson imitators on today's TV talent shows, but every other contestant is a Whitney wannabe, desperately attempting to emulate that wondrous combination of vocal effects – the flowing melisma, the soaring mezzo-soprano confidence, the tremulous fluttering that carried the ends of lines into realms of higher yearning".[285]
Houston was considered by many to be a "singer's singer", who had an influence on countless other vocalists, both female and male.[98][286] Similarly, Steve Huey from Allmusic wrote that the shadow of Houston's prodigious technique still looms large over nearly every pop diva and smooth urban soul singer – male or female – in her wake, and spawned a legion of imitators.[281] Rolling Stone, on her biography, stated that Houston "redefined the image of a female soul icon and inspired singers ranging from Mariah Carey to Rihanna".[287] Essence ranked Houston the fifth on their list of 50 Most Influential R&B Stars of all time, calling her "the diva to end all divas".[288]
A number of artists have acknowledged Houston as an influence, including Celine Dion,[289] Mariah Carey,[98] Toni Braxton,[290] Christina Aguilera,[291] LeAnn Rimes,[292] Jessica Simpson,[293] Nelly Furtado,[294][295] Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears,[296] Ciara,[297] P!nk,[296] Ashanti,[298] Robin Thicke,[299] Jennifer Hudson, Stacie Orrico, Amerie,[300] and Destiny's Child.[296][301] Mariah Carey, who was often compared to Houston, said, "She [Houston] has been a big influence on me."[302] She later told USA Today that "none of us would sound the same if Aretha Franklin hadn't ever put out a record, or Whitney Houston hadn't."[303] Celine Dion who was the third member of the troika that dominated female pop singing in the 1990s, did a telephone interview with Good Morning America on February 13, 2012, telling "Whitney's been an amazing inspiration for me. I've been singing with her my whole career, actually. I wanted to have a career like hers, sing like her, look beautiful like her."[304] Beyoncé told the Globe and Mail that Houston "inspired [her] to get up there and do what [she] did".[305] She also wrote on her website on the day after Houston's death, "I, like every singer, always wanted to be just like [Houston]. Her voice was perfect. Strong but soothing. Soulful and classic. Her vibrato, her cadence, her control. So many of my life's memories are attached to a Whitney Houston song. She is our queen and she opened doors and provided a blueprint for all of us."[306]
Mary J. Blige said that Houston inviting her onstage during VH1's Divas Live show in 1999 "opened doors for [her] all over the world".[307] Brandy stated, "The first Whitney Houston CD was genius. That CD introduced the world to her angelic yet powerful voice. Without Whitney, half of this generation of singers wouldn't be singing."[308] Kelly Rowland, in an Ebony's feature article celebrating black music in June 2006, recalled that "[I] wanted to be a singer after I saw Whitney Houston on TV singing 'Greatest Love of All'. I wanted to sing like Whitney Houston in that red dress." She added that "And I have never, ever forgotten that song [Greatest Love of All]. I learned it backward, forward, sideways. The video still brings chills to me. When you wish and pray for something as a kid, you never know what blessings God will give you."[309]
Alicia Keys said "Whitney is an artist who inspired me from [the time I was] a little girl".[310] Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson cites Houston as her biggest musical influence. She told Newsday that she learned from Houston the "difference between being able to sing and knowing how to sing".[311] Leona Lewis, who has been called "the new Whitney Houston", also cites her as an influence. Lewis stated that she idolized her as a little girl.[312][313]
Awards and achievements[link]
Further information: List of awards and nominations received by Whitney Houston and Whitney Houston chart records and achievements
Houston was the most awarded female artist of all time, according to Guinness World Records,[1] with two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among a total of 415 career awards as of 2010. She held the all-time record for the most American Music Awards of any female solo artist and shared the record with Michael Jackson for the most AMAs ever won in a single year with eight wins in 1994.[314] Houston won a record 11 Billboard Music Awards at its fourth ceremony in 1993.[315] She also had the record for the most WMAs won in a single year, winning five awards at the 6th World Music Awards in 1994.[316]
In May 2003, Houston placed at number three on VH1's list of "50 Greatest Women of the Video Era", behind Madonna and Janet Jackson.[317] She was also ranked at number 116 on their list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time".[318] In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, ranking Houston at number nine.[319][320] Similarly, she was ranked as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time" by VH1 in September 2010.[321] In November 2010, Billboard released its "Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years" list and ranked Houston at number three whom not only went on to earn eight number one singles on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but also landed five number ones on R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[322]
Houston's debut album is listed as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine[49] and is on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200 list.[50] In 2004, Billboard picked the success of her first release on the charts as one of 110 Musical Milestones in its history.[323] Houston's entrance into the music industry is considered one of the 25 musical milestones of the last 25 years, according to USA Today in 2007. It stated that she paved the way for Mariah Carey's chart-topping vocal gymnastics.[51] In 1997, the Franklin School in East Orange, New Jersey was renamed to The Whitney E. Houston Academy School of Creative and Performing Arts. In 2001, Houston was the first artist to be given a BET Lifetime Achievement Award.[324]
Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 200 million albums and singles worldwide.[2][3] She was ranked as the fourth best-selling female artist in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with 55 million certified albums sold in the US.[216][325]
She held an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Grambling State University, Louisiana.[326]
Discography[link]
Main articles: Whitney Houston discography and Whitney Houston videography
- Studio Albums
- 1985: Whitney Houston
- 1987: Whitney
- 1990: I'm Your Baby Tonight
- 1998: My Love Is Your Love
- 2002: Just Whitney
- 2009: I Look to You
- Holiday Albums
Filmography[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes and awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | The Bodyguard | Rachel Marron | Feature film
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| 1995 | Waiting to Exhale | Savannah Jackson | Feature film
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| 1996 | The Preacher's Wife | Julia Biggs | Feature film
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| 1997 | Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella | Fairy Godmother | Made-for-television film, part of a revival of the Wonderful World of Disney.[335]
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| 2012 | Sparkle | Emma | Posthumous release |
| Year | Title | Network | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Gimme a Break! | NBC | Rita | "Katie's College" (Season 3, Episode 20, air date: March 15, 1984)[338] |
| As the World Turns | CBS | Herself | Houston appeared on the soap on August 1–2, 1984, with Jermaine Jackson singing two duets off a new album he was releasing at the time: "Take Good Care of My Heart" and "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do." They taped their appearance on July 25 at CBS Studios in New York City. | |
| 1985 | Silver Spoons | NBC | Herself | "Head Over Heels" (Season 4, Episode 1, air date: September 15, 1985)[338] She performed the edited version of "Saving All My Love for You", changing some of the words. |
| 2002 | Boston Public | Fox | Herself | She performed "Try It On My Own" from the 2002 studio album Just Whitney. |
| Year | Company | Promoting | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Dr Pepper/Seven Up | Canada Dry (soft drink beverage) |
United States |
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| 1986 | Coca-Cola | Diet Coke (soft drink beverage) |
United States | |
| 1988 | Coca-Cola | Diet Coke (soft drink beverage) |
United States |
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| 1989 | Sanyo | Electronics (the stereo, TV) |
Japan |
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| 1994/ 1995 |
AT&T | Telephone services | United States | |
| 1999 | Nissin | Consumer credit business | Japan |
|
| Year | Title | Director | Notes and awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella | Robert Iscove | Executive producer[350]
|
| 2001 | The Princess Diaries | Garry Marshall | Producer[351]
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| 2003 | The Cheetah Girls | Oz Scott | Producer[356] |
| 2004 | The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement | Garry Marshall | Producer[357] |
| 2006 | The Cheetah Girls 2: When in Spain | Kenny Ortega | Co-executive producer[358] |
Tours[link]
Main article: List of Whitney Houston tours and concerts
See also[link]
References[link]
Further reading[link]
External links[link]
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http://hi.wn.com/व्हिटनी ह्यूस्टन
http://it.wn.com/Whitney Houston
http://id.wn.com/Whitney Houston
http://nl.wn.com/Whitney Houston
http://fr.wn.com/Whitney Houston
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Slim Thug | |
|---|---|
 Slim Thug at the KDHT studio in 2005. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stayve Jerome Thomas |
| Born | (1980-09-08) September 8, 1980 (age 31) Houston, Texas |
| Genres | Hip hop Gangsta rap |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | Swishahouse, Boss Hogg Outlawz, Interscope, E1 |
| Associated acts | Boss Hogg Outlawz, Bun B, Chalie Boy, Chamillionaire, Z-Ro, Mike Jones, T.I. |
| Website | www.bosshoggoutlawz.com |
Stayve Jerome Thomas (born September 8, 1980),[1] better known as Slim Thug, Boss Hogg or Thug Boss, is an American rapper. He gained mainstream attention for his contribution to the popular single from rapper Mike Jones, "Still Tippin'".
Contents |
Early life[link]
Slim Thug grew up in Houston's Northside neighborhood of Homestead/Scenic Woods. Slim says that his rap name come from the fact that as a teenager, he was very tall and skinny before he filled out.[citation needed] He stands 6'6" tall. The Thug part comes from people's assumptions of him due to his fresh braids and sunglasses.[citation needed] At age 17, he performed freestyle raps at local high school parties. He began his rap career with Swishahouse in the late 1990s. After realizing how much money he could make distributing his own mixtapes, he parted ways with Swishahouse on good terms and formed his own independent label, Boss Hogg Outlawz.[2] Thomas bought two record stores and worked in real estate.[1]
Music career[link]
Already Platinum (2005–2008)[link]
Slim Thug's debut album with Star Trak Entertainment & Interscope Records, Already Platinum, was released in July 2005 after many delays.[1] It premiered on #2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and sold 130,000 copies in its first week.[3] Singles included "3 Kings" (featuring T.I. and Bun B), and "I Ain't Heard of That" (featuring Pharrell and Bun B). Slim Thug appeared on Still Tippin' with Mike Jones and Paul Wall, Beyoncé Knowles's #1 single "Check on It" and Gwen Stefani's "Luxurious". With the Boss Hogg Outlawz, Slim Thug released three albums, Boyz N Blue (2004), Serve & Collect (2007) and Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II (2008). He left Star Trak & Interscope Records in 2008.[4]
Boss of All Bosses (2009)[link]
Slim Thug's second solo album Boss of All Bosses was released in 2009. Although not as successful as his debut album Boss of All Bosses debuted at #15 on the Billboard 200 with 32,000 copies sold in the first week released. It included the single "I Run".
Tha Thug Show (2010–present)[link]
Slim Thug's third studio album Tha Thug Show. His first single was "Gangsta" which featured Z-Ro. His second single featured rapper/singer B.o.B entitled "So High". It was released November 30, 2010.
Other Ventures[link]
Acting career[link]
In October 2009 he appeared on The Daily Show, in a parody discussing the effects of the recession upon wealthy rappers such as himself.[5] The skit was filmed in part at The Lion's Den Recordings in Houston, Texas.
Personal life[link]
Slim Thug dated singer LeToya Luckett until 2006.[6][7] He claimed the two broke up as a result of his cheating and having a child with another woman.[8]
According to MTV News, Lupe Fiasco's video for "Hip Hop Saved My Life" was based on Slim Thug's life story. "It is based on Slim Thug," Fiasco revealed.[9] On June 7, 2010, Vibe released controversial statements Slim Thug had made regarding treatment of black men by black and white women saying "it’s hard to find [a successful black man] so Black women have to bow down and let it be known that they gotta start working hard; they gotta start cooking and being down for they man more. ...White women treat they man like a king."[10]
The article stirred many varied reactions from bloggers and online commentators.[7][11][12] Cultural critic and Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill,[13] singers Aubrey O'Day, D. Woods,[14] and Talib Kweli[15] have all responded publicly to his comments.
Discography[link]
Main article: Slim Thug discography
- Studio albums
- 2005: Already Platinum
- 2009: Boss of All Bosses
- 2010: Tha Thug Show
- 2012: Hogg Life
Awards and Nominations[link]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "Still Tippin'" | MTV2 Award | Nominated |
| 2006 | "Check On It" | Best R&B Video | Won |
References[link]
- ^ a b c Kellman, Andy (2005). "Slim Thug: Biography". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p452088/biography. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Rashbaum, Alyssa (October 27, 2004). "Slim Thug: No One-Sided Hustler". You Hear It First (MTV News). http://www.mtv.com/news/yhif/slim_thug/. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
- ^ Harris, Chris (July 20, 2005). "R. Kelly Fights Off Slim Thug And Bow Wow To Hold #1". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1506012/20050720/kelly_r.jhtml. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Reid, Shaheem (April 15, 2008). "Slim Thug Is Ready To Be His Own Boss Again: MC Says He'll Be Free Of Record Deal Within The Week". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585472/20080414/slim_thug.jhtml. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Matt Tobey: The Daily Show and Slim Thug's Music Video "Still a Boss" – Comedy Central Insider Blog
- ^ Waldron, Clarence (2006-09-11). "LeToya: ex-Destiny's Child member tops charts; says everything is 'cool' with her and Beyonce.". Jet (magazine). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_10_110/ai_n26705291/. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ a b Langhorne, Cyrus (2010-06-07). "Slim Thug On Interracial Dating, "White Women Treat They Man Like A King & Black Women Feel They Ain't Gotta"". SOHH.com. http://www.sohh.com/2010/06/slim_thug_on_interracial_dating_white_wo.html. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ "Slim Thug On Why He & LeToya Broke Up". BET.com. 2010-03-10. http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/spotlight/2010/03/10/slim-thug-on-why-he-letoya-broke-up/. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ Rodriguez, Jayson (April 11, 2008). "Lupe Fiasco's Latest Single, 'Hip-Hop Saved My Life,' Honors Southern Rap Heroes Bun B, Slim Thug". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585211/20080410/fiasco__lupe.jhtml. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Rhett, Starrene (2010-06-07). "Slim Thug: 'Black Women Need To Stand By Their Man More'". VIBE.com. http://www.vibe.com/posts/slim-thug-black-women-need-stand-their-man-more. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ "Battle Of The Sexes: Bloggers Debate Slim Thug's Blog About Black Women". VIBE.com. 2010-06-08. http://www.vibe.com/content/battle-sexes-bloggers-debate-slim-thugs-blog-about-black-women. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ Runteldat (2010-06-08). "Was Slim Thug Offensive Towards Black Women?". BET.com. http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/spotlight/2010/06/08/slim-thug-offensive/. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ Hill, Marc Lamont (2010-06-08). "An open letter to Slim Thug". TheLoop21.com. http://theloop21.com/society/open-letter-slim-thug. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ "A Woman's Side: Aubrey O'Day, D. Woods Respond To Slim Thug". VIBE.com. 2010-06-10. http://www.vibe.com/content/womans-side-aubrey-oday-d-woods-respond-slim-thug. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
- ^ "A Man's Side: Talib Kweli Responds To Slim Thug". VIBE.com. 2010-06-10. http://www.vibe.com/posts/talib-kwli-things-slim-thug-said-are-real-problems-our-community. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
External links[link]
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Thug, Slim |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American rapper |
| Date of birth | September 8, 1980 |
| Place of birth | Houston, Texas |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Slim_Thug
Related pages:
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http://it.wn.com/Slim Thug
http://pl.wn.com/Slim Thug
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Thug
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Paul Wall | |
|---|---|
 Paul Wall in 2005 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul Michael Slayton[1] |
| Born | (1981-03-11) March 11, 1981 (age 31)[1] |
| Origin | Houston, Texas, United States |
| Genres | Hip hop Southern hip hop Rap rock |
| Occupations | Rapper DJ Promoter Jeweller |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | Swishahouse/Asylum |
| Associated acts | Michael "5000" Watts, Expensive Taste, Limp Bizkit, Chamillionaire, Slim Thug, The Color Changin' Click, Trae, Bun B, Z-Ro, brokeNCYDE |
| Website | paulwallbaby.com, grillsbypaulwall.com |
Paul Michael Slayton (born March 11, 1981), better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper. He is currently affiliated with Swishahouse Records, having released several albums under the label as well as collaborating with other rappers signed to the label. He was formerly musical partners with rapper Chamillionaire releasing several collaborative albums including the independently released Get Ya Mind Correct. In 2005, he was signed to Atlantic Records and became successful with his major-label debut The Peoples Champ. Get Money, Stay True followed in 2007.[2]
Contents |
Career[link]
Wall attended Jersey Village High School and studied mass communications at the University of Houston for three years.[3][4] After proposing to do promotions for Michael "5000" Watts' company, Swishahouse, Chamillionaire and Paul Wall came to Watts' studio, KBXX.[5] Paul & Chamillionaire convinced Watts to let them rap on his radio show and put the verses on one of his mixtapes. That mixtape was titled Choppin Em Up Part 2, which was released in mid 1999. The freestyle became so popular in the streets that Chamillionaire and Paul Wall became regular staples on Houston's mixtape circuit, appeared on several of Watts' mixtapes and became permanent members of Swishahouse.
After fellow member Slim Thug left the label, Chamillionaire and Paul Wall followed suit and the two started their own group known as The Color Changin' Click (named after Chamillion's Chameleon persona). Each successive mixtape released by The Color Changin' Click led to more business opportunities; the most notable of which was a contract to do a full album for Paid in Full Records. A one album contract was then negotiated between the Color Changin' Click and Paid in Full's label head, DJ Madd Hatta from 97.9 The Box, and the CCC's first album, Get Ya Mind Correct, would go on to sell over 200,000 copies. Wall's first music exposure came as a street team member on the Northwest side of Houston, promoting southern labels like Def Jam Records, Cash Money and No Limit Records. He is also an accomplished and proficient mixtape and party DJ, known for producing mixtapes in the now well-known screwed & chopped style, which was invented by the late DJ Screw.[6]
Paul Wall and Chamillionaire were originally affiliated with Swishahouse Records, but left for Paid in Full Records a short time later. After several mixtape and independent releases including. Get Ya Mind Correct, the two parted ways, citing creative differences. Chamillionaire continued to release independent records, while Paul Wall returned to the Swishahouse fold. This move allowed him to appear on Mike Jones' first commercially distributed single, "Still Tippin'", from his first major label album Who Is Mike Jones?. The single is originally on Swishahouse's The Day Hell Broke Loose Part 2 aka Major Without A Major Deal, released in 2003, the album went on to sell over 500,000 copies two months after being released.
In 2005, Paul Wall released his first album, The Peoples Champ, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The first single "Sittin' Sidewayz" featuring Big Pokey. The second single, "They Don't Know", featured Bun B of UGK, and the video version also featured Mike Jones. The third single is "Girl", receiving radio airplay and peaking at #35 onl the Billboard Hot 100.[7] In 2007, Paul Wall released his second album Get Money, Stay True, which debuted in the #1 spot on the Billboard Chart Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Paul Wall released the singles "Break 'Em Off" featuring Lil Keke and "I'm Throwed" featuring and produced by Jermaine Dupri.
In 2007, Paul Wall appeared alongside other celebrities and regular people in the music video for Rockstar by Nickelback. He also appears on Bermuda-based reggae artist Collie Buddz self-titled debut album.[8]
Paul Wall is currently a member of the rap group Expensive Taste, with his good friends Travis Barker and Skinhead Rob (Transplants). The trio also collectively owns a line.[2][9]
In the spring of 2008, Paul Wall joined Strange Music recording artist Tech N9ne on a nationwide tour, which also featured Brooklyn rapper ILL BiLL.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, Paul Wall spoke out in favor of candidate Barack Obama. He was quoted in The Source magazine as saying "Barack seems to come off as a true leader for everyone, whereas most people campaigning, including Hillary Clinton, seem to be just politicians. Barack seems to be genuine and sincere about his beliefs. He is selfless, while they are selfish. I'm gonna 'Barack the vote' this year and I've never voted before." [10]
Paul Wall appears as fictional rapper Grillionaire in the movie I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, released on September 25, 2009. He, along with screenwriters Nils Parker and Tucker Max, co-wrote tracks for the movie.
In 2010, Paul Wall featured on the 'Przyjazn, Duma, Godnosc' (eng. 'Friendship, Pride and Dignity') album by a highly rated Polish rap artist Kaczor.
In February 2011, Paul appeared on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation along with rapper Yelawolf and singer Christina Milian.[11]
In October 2011, Paul Wall joined forces with Silicon Valley based social and mobile game company Jump Shot Media to create the world's first mobile battle rap game, Battle Rap Stars. Paul is featured as the "main event" and is the rapper to beat in order to win the game.[12] On March 7th 2012 Paul Wall released a mixtape entitled [13] "No Sleep To Houston" and as of 3-28-12 it has gone silver on the mixtape website "datpiff".
Personal life[link]
Paul Wall married girlfriend Crystal in 2006. Their son William Patrick Slayton was born April 18, 2006.[14][15] and their daughter Noelle Slayton was born in 2007.
During a concert in San Antonio Paul Wall hit a fan with a microphone. The fan was flicking his middle finger at Paul Wall. Paul Wall apologized to not only the victim but to all his San Antonio fans.[16]
In 2010, Paul Wall went on an extreme diet and had gastric sleeve surgery,[17] resulting in an over 100 lb. weight loss.
In February 2011, Paul Wall and his wife Crystal unveiled a Bonnie & Clyde 40's themed photo shoot, which revealed Paul's slimmer, trimmer physique.[18]
Discography[link]
Main article: Paul Wall discography
- 2004: Chick Magnet
- 2005: The Peoples Champ
- 2007: Get Money, Stay True
- 2009: Fast Life
- 2010: Heart of a Champion
Awards and nominations[link]
| Year | Award/Nomination |
|---|---|
| 2006 | Ozone Awards Won in the categories of Taste Maker (style and trendsetter)[19] |
| Ozone Awards Won for Best Rap/R&B Collaboration (for "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper) (Remix)" by T-Pain featuring Twista, Pimp C, Paul Wall, R. Kelly, MJG, and Too Short)[19] | |
| Ozone Awards Won for Best Rap Collaboration ("Holla at Me" by DJ Khaled featuring Lil' Wayne, Paul Wall, Fat Joe, Rick Ross, and Pitbull)[19] | |
| 2007 | Grammy Awards nominated Best Rap Performance as a Duo or Group (for "Grillz" by Nelly featuring Paul Wall, and Ali & Gipp)[20] |
Acting career[link]
During his break from rapping, Paul Wall appeared in Furnace with Ja Rule. He also appeared in the 2009 movie I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell along with Jesse Bradford and Matt Czuchry. He was in 2010 movie; Alligator X '.[21]
Filmography[link]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Furnace | Joey Robbins |
| 2009 | I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell | Grillionaire |
| 2010 | Alligator X | Froggy |
| 2011 | Cash or Crash |
Video games[link]
- 2011: Battle Rap Stars for iPhone and Android
References[link]
- ^ a b "Texas Births 1926–1995". "Family Tree Networks". http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/txbirths?c=search&first=Paul+&last=Slayton&spelling=Exact&11_year=1981&11_month=0&11_day=0&4=&14=&SubmitSearch.x=62&SubmitSearch.y=13&SubmitSearch=Submit.
- ^ a b "Paul Wall Biography". Atlantic Records. http://www.atlanticrecords.com/paulwall/bio. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ Dansby, Andrew (May 8, 2009). "Rapper Paul Wall is all smiles". Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/music/6415191.html. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
- ^ "Paul Wall...the people's champ". AskMen.com. http://www.askmen.com/celebs/interview_150/191_paul_wall_interview.html. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
- ^ Paul Wall World – Interview
- ^ Paul Wall | New Music Release | Rapindustry.Com Promotion
- ^ "The Peoples Chump" Charts & Awards – Singles. Allmusic: 2006
- ^ Watson, Margeaux (2007-07-06). "Collie Budz". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20045030,00.html. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ Rodriguez, Jayson (2007-02-16). "Travis Barker Gets Down With Paul Wall, Juelz Santana While Arm Heals". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1552627/20070216/barker__travis.jhtml. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ The Source magazine, August 2008 issue
- ^ "Hot Pics! Paul Wall, Yelawolf, Christina Milian, Laurence Fishburne and More on CSI!". UrbLife.com. February 13, 2011. http://www.urblife.com/the-look/paul-wall-and-wife-crystal-go-gangsta.
- ^ "Paul Wall Featured in Mobile Battle Rap Game". allhiphop.com. October 31, 2011. http://allhiphop.com/2011/10/31/paul-wall-featured-in-mobile-battle-rap-game.
- ^ "Paul Wall - No Sleep Til Houston Hosted by DJ Drama // Free Mixtape @". Datpiff.com. 2012-03-26. http://www.datpiff.com/Paul-Wall-No-Sleep-Til-Houston-mixtape.315182.html. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
- ^ Black Celebrity Kids,babies,and their Parents » RAPPER PAUL WALL TALKS ABOUT BEING A DADDY. Blackcelebkids.Com (2006-04-18). Retrieved on 2011-01-05.
- ^ Paul Wall Gives Happy Home Tips! Top 7 Family Keepers! | UrbLife.com
- ^ Paul Wall – Sorry For Laying Down that Beat. TMZ.com (2010-09-28). Retrieved on 2011-01-05.
- ^ "Paul Wall's Dramatic Weight Loss! Life Changing Surgery; How He Did It!". UrbLife.com. July 13, 2010. http://www.urblife.com/the-life/paul-wall-dramatic-weight-loss.
- ^ "Paul Wall and Wife Crystal Go Gangsta! Hot Pics!". UrbLife.com. February 13, 2011. http://www.urblife.com/the-look/paul-wall-and-wife-crystal-go-gangsta.
- ^ a b c Kennedy, Keith. A Date with Destiny. TJsDJs.com.
- ^ 49th Annual Grammy Awards Winners List – Field 7 (Rap)
- ^ Xtinction (2010), IMDB.com
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Wall |
- Paul Wall on Myspace
- Paul Wall at the Internet Movie Database
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Slayton, Paul |
| Alternative names | Paul Wall |
| Short description | American rapper |
| Date of birth | 1981-03-11 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Paul_Wall
Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Paul Wall
http://nl.wn.com/Paul Wall
http://pt.wn.com/Paul Wall
http://de.wn.com/Paul Wall
http://it.wn.com/Paul Wall
http://pl.wn.com/Paul Wall
http://es.wn.com/Paul Wall
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wall
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other people named Sam Houston, see Sam Houston (disambiguation).
| Sam Houston | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 7th Governor of Texas | |
| In office December 21, 1859[1] – March 18, 1861 |
|
| Lieutenant | Edward Clark |
| Preceded by | Hardin Richard Runnels |
| Succeeded by | Edward Clark |
| United States Senator from Texas |
|
| In office February 21, 1846 – March 4, 1859 |
|
| Preceded by | None |
| Succeeded by | John Hemphill |
| 1st & 3rd President of the Republic of Texas | |
| In office December 13, 1841 – December 9, 1844 |
|
| Preceded by | Mirabeau B. Lamar |
| Succeeded by | Anson Jones |
| In office October 22, 1836 – December 10, 1838 |
|
| Preceded by | David G. Burnet (ad interim) |
| Succeeded by | Mirabeau B. Lamar |
| 6th Governor of Tennessee | |
| In office October 1, 1827 – April 16, 1829 |
|
| Lieutenant | William Hall |
| Preceded by | William Carroll |
| Succeeded by | William Hall |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 7th district |
|
| In office March 4, 1823 – March 4, 1827 |
|
| Preceded by | None (district created) |
| Succeeded by | John Bell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Samuel Houston (1793-03-02)March 2, 1793 Rockbridge County, Virginia |
| Died | July 26, 1863(1863-07-26) (aged 70) Huntsville, Texas |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Signature |  |
Samuel "Sam" Houston (March 2, 1793–July 26, 1863), was a nineteenth-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, U.S. Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as a governor of the state. He refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War, and was removed from office.[2] To avoid bloodshed, he refused an offer of a Union army to put down the Confederate rebellion. Instead, he retired to Huntsville, Texas, where he died before the end of the Civil War.
His earlier life included migration to Tennessee from Virginia, time spent with the Cherokee Nation (into which he later was adopted as a citizen and took a wife), military service in the War of 1812, and successful participation in Tennessee politics. Houston is the only person in U.S. history to have been the governor of two different states (although other men had served as governors of more than one American territory).
In 1827 Houston was elected Governor of Tennessee as a Jacksonian.[3] In 1829 Houston resigned as Governor and relocated to Arkansas Territory.[4] In 1832 Houston was involved in an altercation with a U.S. Congressman, followed by a high-profile trial.[5] Shortly afterwards he relocated to Coahuila y Tejas, then a Mexican state, and became a leader of the Texas Revolution.[6] Sam Houston supported annexation by the United States.[7] The city of Houston is named after him. Houston's reputation was honored after his death: posthumous commemoration has included a memorial museum, a U.S. Army base, a national forest, a historical park, a university, and the largest free-standing statue of an American.[8]
Contents
|
Early life and family heritage[link]
Sam Houston was the son of Major Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Paxton. Houston's ancestry is often traced to his great-great grandfather Sir John Houston, who built a family estate in Scotland in the late seventeenth century. His second son John Houston emigrated to Ulster, Ireland, during the English plantation period. Under the system of primogeniture, he did not inherit the estate. After several years in Ireland, John Houston emigrated in 1735 with his family to the North American colonies, where they first settled in Pennsylvania. As it filled with Lutheran German immigrants, Houston decided to move his family with other Scots-Irish who were migrating to lands in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.[9] A historic plaque in Townland tells the story of the Houston family. It is located in Ballyboley Forest Park near the site of the original John Houston estate. It is dedicated to "One whose roots lay in these hills whose ancestor John Houston emigrated from this area."
The Shenandoah Valley had many farms of Scots-Irish migrants. Newcomers included the Lyle family of the Raloo area, who helped found Timber Ridge Presbyterian Church. The Houston family settled nearby. Gradually John developed his land and purchased slaves.[9] Their son Robert inherited his father's land. His youngest of five sons was Samuel Houston. Samuel Houston became a member of Morgan's Rifle Brigade and was commissioned a major during the American Revolutionary War. At the time militia officers were expected to pay their own expenses. He had married Elizabeth Paxton and inherited his father's land, but he was not a good manager and got into debt, in part because of his militia service.[9] Their children were born on his family's plantation near Timber Ridge Church, including Sam Houston on March 2, 1793, the fifth of nine children and the fifth son born.
Planning to move on as people did on the frontier to leave debts behind, the elder Samuel Houston patented land in Maryville the county seat of Blount Co.in East Tennessee near relatives. He died in 1807 before he could move with his family, and they moved on without him: Elizabeth taking their five sons and three daughters to the new state.[9] Having received only a basic education on the frontier, young Sam was 14 when his family moved to Maryville.[10] In 1809, at age 16, Houston ran away from home, because he was dissatisfied to work as a shop clerk in his older brothers' store.
He went southwest, where he lived for a few years with the Cherokee tribe led by Ahuludegi (also spelled Oolooteka) on Hiwassee Island, on the Hiwassee River above its confluence with the Tennessee. Having become chief after his brother moved west in 1809, Ahuludegi was known to the European Americans as John Jolly. He became an adoptive father to Houston, giving him the Cherokee name of Colonneh, meaning "the Raven".[11] Houston learned fluent Cherokee, while visiting his family in Maryville every several months. Finally he returned to Maryville in 1812, and at age 19, Houston founded a one-room schoolhouse in Knox county between Maryville and Knoxville.[9] This was the first school built in Tennessee, which had become a state in 1796.
War of 1812[link]
In 1812 Houston reported to a training camp in Knoxville, Tennessee,[10] and enlisted in the 39th Infantry Regiment to fight the British in the War of 1812. By December of that year, he had risen from private to third lieutenant. At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814, he was wounded in the groin by a Creek arrow. His wound was bandaged, and he rejoined the fight. When Andrew Jackson called on volunteers to dislodge a group of Red Sticks from their breastwork, Houston volunteered, but during the assault he was struck by bullets in the shoulder and arm. He returned to Maryville as a disabled veteran, but later took the army's offer of free surgery and convalesced in a New Orleans, Louisiana hospital.[12]
Houston became close to Jackson, who was impressed with him and acted as a mentor. In 1817 Jackson appointed him sub-agent in managing the business relating to Jackson's removal of the Cherokees from East Tennessee to a reservation in what is now Arkansas. He had differences with John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, who chided him for appearing dressed as a Cherokee at a meeting. More significantly, an inquiry was begun into charges related to Houston's administration of supplies for the Native Americans. Offended, he resigned in 1818.[13]
Tennessee politics[link]
Following six months of study at the office of Judge James Trimble, Houston passed the bar examination in Nashville, after which he opened a legal practice in Lebanon, Tennessee.[14] In 1818 Houston was appointed as the local prosecutor in Nashville,[15] and was also given a command in the state militia.
In 1822 Houston was elected to the US House of Representatives for Tennessee, where he was a staunch supporter of fellow Tennessean and Democrat Andrew Jackson. He was widely considered to be Jackson's political protégé, although their ideas about appropriate treatment of Native Americans differed greatly. Houston was a Congressman from 1823 to 1827, re-elected in 1824. In 1827 he declined to run for re-election to Congress. Instead he ran for, and won, the office of governor of Tennessee, defeating the former governor, William Carroll. He planned to stand for re-election in 1829, but resigned after the dissolution of his first marriage.
Marriage, family, and religion[link]
On January 22, 1829, at the age of 35, Houston married 19-year-old Eliza Allen, the daughter of the well-connected planter Colonel John Allen (1776–1833) of Gallatin, Tennessee, who was a friend of Andrew Jackson. Houston's friends thought he was genuinely in love with the girl, but for unknown reasons Eliza left him shortly after the marriage and returned to her father and the couple never reconciled. Neither Houston nor Eliza Allen ever discussed the reasons for their separation; speculation and gossip accredited their split to Eliza being in love with another man.[9] Houston seemed to care greatly for his wife's reputation and took great care to forestall any possible allegations of infidelity on their parts, writing to her father
April 9, 1829
Mr. Allen, the most unpleasant & unhappy circumstance has just taken place in the family, & one that was entirely unnecessary at this time. Whatever had been my feelings or opinions in relation to Eliza at one time, I have been satisfied & it is now unfit that anything should be averted to....The only way this matter can now be overcome will be for us all to meet as tho it had never occurred, & this will keep the world, as it should ever be, ignorant that such thoughts ever were. Eliza stands acquitted by me. I have received her as a virtuous wife, & as such I pray God I may ever regard her, & trust I ever shall.
She was cold to me, and I thought did not love me. She owns that such was one cause of my unhappiness. You can judge how unhappy I was to think I was united to a woman that did not love me. This time is now past, & my future happiness can only exist in the assurance that Eliza and myself can be happy & that Mrs. Allen & you can forget the past, —forgive all & and find your lost peace & you may rest assured that nothing on my part shall be wanting to restore it. Let me know what is to be done.
Houston also requested that one of her relatives: "...publish in the Nashville papers that if any wretch ever dares to utter a word against the purity of Mrs. Houston I will come back and write the libel in his heart's blood."
In April 1829, in part due to the embarrassment of his well known separation, Houston resigned as governor of Tennessee and went west with the Cherokee to exile in Arkansas Territory. That year he was adopted as a citizen in the nation. There Houston cohabited with Tiana Rogers Gentry, a part-Cherokee widow in her mid-30s. They lived together for several years, and though he was still married under civil law he married Tiana under the Cherokee law.[9] After declining to accompany Houston to Texas in 1832, she later married John McGrady. He officially divorced Eliza Allen in 1837; the following year 1838 Tiana died of pneumonia. (Eliza Allen remarried in 1840, becoming the wife of Dr. Elmore Douglass and stepmother to his 10 children; she bore him 4 children and died in 1861.)[16]
In 1833, in the living room of the Adolphus Sterne House in Nacogdoches, Houston was baptized into the Catholic faith in order to qualify under the existing law for property ownership in Coahuila y Tejas.[17][18][19]
On May 9, 1840, Houston, aged 47 and now the President of Texas, married for a third time. The bride was 21-year-old Margaret Moffette Lea of Marion, Alabama. The union was far longer lived than his two previous unions and produced eight children born between Houston's 50th and 67th years. Margaret Houston acted as a tempering influence on her much older husband and even convinced him to stop drinking. Although the Houstons had numerous houses, they kept only one continuously, Cedar Point (1840–1863) on Trinity Bay.
Their children were the following:
- Sam Houston, Jr., 1843–1894
- Nancy Elizabeth, 1846–1920 (named after her grandmothers)
- Margaret Lea, 1848–1906
- Mary William, 1850–1931
- Antoinette Power, 1852–1932 (named after Margaret's sister)
- Andrew Jackson Houston, 1854-1941 (U.S. Senator from Texas)
- William Rogers, 1858–1920
- Temple Lea Houston, 1860–1905 (named after Margaret's father) (state senator of Texas legislature, 1885–1888)
By 1854, Margaret had spent 14 years trying to convert Sam to the Baptist denomination. With the assistance of George Washington Baines, she was able to convince Sam. Word had spread about the upcoming Baptism, bringing spectators from neighboring communities into Independence to witness the event. On November 19, 1854, Sam was baptized in Little Rocky Creek, two miles southeast of Independence.[20][21] The baptismal site is marked by the Texas Historical Commission as located on Farm to Market Road 150 at Sam Houston Road.[22]
Indian Territory[link]
In 1829, Houston went west and lived again among the Cherokee in the Arkansas Territory, who in October 1829 formally adopted him as a citizen of their nation.[13] He set up a trading post (Wigwam Neosho) near Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, by the Verdigris River near its confluence with the Arkansas. The Cherokee gave him a nickname meaning "The Raven."[23] During this time Houston was interviewed by the author Alexis de Tocqueville, who was traveling in the United States and its territories. Houston's abandonment of his gubernatorial office and his wife all caused a rift with his mentor President Jackson. They were not reconciled for several years.
Controversy and trial[link]
In 1830 and 1832 Houston visited Washington, DC, to expose the frauds which government agents committed against the Cherokee.[13] While he was in Washington in April 1832, anti-Jacksonian Congressman William Stanbery of Ohio made accusations about Houston in a speech on the floor of Congress. Attacking Jackson through his protégé, Stanbery accused Houston of being in league with John Van Fossen and Congressman Robert S. Rose. The three men had bid on supplying rations to the various tribes of Native Americans who were being forcibly relocated because of Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830. After Stanbery refused to answer Houston's letters about the accusation, Houston confronted him on Pennsylvania Avenue and beat him with a hickory cane. Stanbery drew one of his pistols and pulled the trigger—the gun misfired.
On April 17 Congress ordered Houston's arrest. During his trial at the District of Columbia City Hall, he pleaded self-defense and hired Francis Scott Key as his lawyer. Houston was found guilty, but thanks to highly placed friends (among them James K. Polk), he was only lightly reprimanded. Stanbery filed charges against Houston in civil court. Judge William Cranch found Houston liable and fined him $500. Houston left the United States for Mexico without paying the fine.
Republic of Texas[link]
Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto
The painting Surrender of Santa Anna by William Huddle shows the Mexican general Santa Anna's surrender to a wounded Sam Houston. It hangs in the Texas State Capitol.
The publicity surrounding the trial raised Houston's unfavorable political reputation. He asked his wife, Tiana Rodgers, to go with him to Mexican Texas, but she preferred to stay at their cabin and trading post in Oklahoma. She later married a man named John McGrady and died of pneumonia in 1838. Houston married again after her death.
Houston left for Texas in December 1832 and was immediately swept up in the politics of what was still a territory of the Mexican state of Coahuila. One possible theory speculates that Houston traveled to Texas at the behest of President Jackson in order to facilitate a U.S. annexation of the territory, yet this contention has not been verified with supporting evidence.[24] Attending the Convention of 1833 as representative for Nacogdoches, Houston emerged as a supporter of William Harris Wharton and his brother, who promoted independence from Mexico, the more radical position of the American settlers and Tejanos in Texas. He also attended the Consultation of 1835. The Texas Army commissioned him as Major General in November 1835. He negotiated a peace settlement with the Cherokee of East Texas in February 1836 to allay their fears about independence. At the convention to declare Texan Independence in March 1836, he was made Commander-in-Chief.
On March 2, 1836, his 43rd birthday, Houston signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Mexican soldiers killed all those at the Alamo Mission at the end of the Siege of the Alamo on March 6. On March 11, Houston joined what constituted his army at Gonzales: 374 poorly equipped, trained, and supplied recruits.[25][26] Word of the defeat at the Alamo reached Houston there, and while he waited for confirmation, he organized the recruits as the 1st Regiment Volunteer Army of Texas. On March 13, short on rations, Houston retreated before the superior forces of Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Heavy rain fell nearly every day, causing severe morale problems among the exposed troops struggling in mud. After four days' march, near present-day LaGrange, Houston received additional troops and continued east two days later with 600 men. At Goliad, Santa Anna ordered the execution of approximately 400 volunteer Texas militia led by James Fannin, who had surrendered his forces on March 20. Near present-day Columbus on March 26, they were joined by 130 more men, and the next day learned of the Fannin disaster.
Houston continued his retreat eastward towards the Gulf coast, drawing criticism for his perceived lack of willingness to fight. On March 29, camped along the Brazos River, two companies refused to retreat further, and Houston decided to use the opportunity for rudimentary training and discipline of his force. On April 2 he organized the 2nd Regiment, received a battalion of regulars, and on April 11 ordered all troops along the Brazos to join the main army, approximately 1,500 men in all. He began crossing the Brazos on April 12.
Finally, Santa Anna caught up with Houston's army, but had split his own army into three separate forces in an attempt to encircle the Texans. At the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, Houston surprised Santa Anna and the Mexican forces during their afternoon "siesta." The Texans won a decisive victory in under 18 minutes, suffering few casualties, although Houston's ankle was shattered by a stray bullet. Badly beaten, Santa Anna was forced to sign the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas its independence. Although Houston stayed on briefly for negotiations, he returned to the United States for treatment of his ankle wound.
Houston was twice elected president of the Republic of Texas. On September 5, 1836, he defeated Stephen F. Austin and Henry Smith with a landslide of over 79% of the vote. Houston then served from October 22, 1836, to December 10, 1838, and again from December 12, 1841, to December 9, 1844. On December 20, 1837, Houston presided over the convention of Freemasons that formed the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas, now the Grand Lodge of Texas. While he initially sought annexation by the U.S., Houston dropped that goal during his first term. In his second term, he strove for fiscal prudence and worked to make peace with the Native Americans. He also struggled to avoid war with Mexico, whose forces invaded twice during 1842. In response to the Regulator-Moderator War of 1844, he sent in Republic militia to put down the warfare.
Settlement of Houston[link]
The settlement of Houston was founded in August 1836 by brothers J.K. Allen and A.C. Allen. It was named in Houston's honor and served as capital. Gail Borden helped lay out Houston's streets.
In 1835, one year before being elected first President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston founded the Holland Masonic Lodge. The initial founding of the lodge took place in Brazoria and was relocated to what is now Houston in 1837.[27]
The city of Houston served as the capital until President Mirabeau Lamar signed a measure that moved the capital to Austin on January 14, 1839. Between his presidential terms (the constitution did not allow a president to serve consecutive terms), Houston was a representative in the Texas House of Representatives for San Augustine. He was a major critic of President Mirabeau Lamar, who advocated continuing independence of Texas and the extension of its boundaries to the Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Senator from Texas[link]
After the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, Houston was elected to the U.S. Senate, along with Thomas Jefferson Rusk. Houston served from February 21, 1846, until March 4, 1859. He was a Senator during the Mexican-American War, when the U.S. defeated Mexico and acquired vast expanses of new territory in the Southwest as part of the concluding treaty.
Throughout his term in the Senate, Houston spoke out against the growing sectionalism of the country. He blamed the extremists of both the North and South, saying: "Whatever is calculated to weaken or impair the strength of [the] Union,– whether originating at the North or the South,– whether arising from the incendiary violence of abolitionists, or from the coalition of nullifiers, will never meet with my unqualified approval."[citation needed]
Houston supported the Oregon Bill in 1848, which was opposed by many Southerners. In his passionate speech in support of the Compromise of 1850, echoing Matthew 12:25, Houston said "A nation divided against itself cannot stand."[28] Eight years later, Abraham Lincoln would express the same sentiment. Houston opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, and correctly predicted that it would cause a sectional rift in the country that would eventually lead to war, saying: " ... what fields of blood, what scenes of horror, what mighty cities in smoke and ruins– it is brother murdering brother ... I see my beloved South go down in the unequal contest, in a sea of blood and smoking ruin."[citation needed] He was one of only two Southern senators (the other was John Bell of Tennessee) to vote against the act. At the time, he was considered a potential candidate for President of the United States. But, despite the fact that he was a slave-owner, his strong Unionism and opposition to the extension of slavery alienated the Texas legislature and other southern States.
Governor of Texas[link]
Houston ran twice for governor of Texas as a Unionist, unsuccessfully in 1857, and successfully against Hardin R. Runnels in 1859. Upon election, he became the only person in U.S. history to serve as governor of two states as well as the only governor to have been a foreign head of state. (However, John Dickinson's and Thomas McKean's service as chief executives of Delaware and then of Pennsylvania, beginning in the period immediately following the Declaration of Independence, arguably predate Houston on both counts.) Although Houston was a slave owner and opposed abolition, he opposed the secession of Texas from the Union.
An elected convention voted to secede from the United States on February 1, 1861, and Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2, 1861. Houston refused to recognize its legality, but the Texas legislature upheld the legitimacy of secession. The political forces that brought about Texas's secession were powerful enough to replace the state's Unionist governor. Houston chose not to resist, stating, "I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her. To avert this calamity, I shall make no endeavor to maintain my authority as Chief Executive of this State, except by the peaceful exercise of my functions ... " He was evicted from his office on March 16, 1861, for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, writing,
"Fellow-Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas....I protest....against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void.[29] "
He was replaced by Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark. To avoid more bloodshed in Texas, Houston turned down U.S. Col. Frederick W. Lander's offer from President Lincoln of 50,000 troops to prevent Texas's secession. He said, "Allow me to most respectfully decline any such assistance of the United States Government."
After leaving the Governor's mansion, Houston traveled to Galveston. Along the way, many people demanded an explanation for his refusal to support the Confederacy. On April 19, 1861 from a hotel window he told a crowd:
Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South.[30]
Electoral history[link]
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| 1836 Texas Presidential Election | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
| Independent | Sam Houston | 5,119 | 79.4% | |
| Independent | Henry Smith | 743 | 11.5% | |
| Independent | Stephen F. Austin | 587 | 9.1% | |
Later life[link]
In 1854, Houston was baptized by Rev. Rufus C. Burleson. At the time Burleson was the pastor of the Independence Baptist Church in Washington County, which Houston and his wife attended. Then the wealthiest community in Texas, Independence had won the bid for Baylor College, where Burleson served as second president.[31] Houston was also close friend of Rev. George Washington Baines, who preceded Burleson at the church. Baines was the maternal great-grandfather of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1862, Houston returned to Huntsville, Texas, and rented the Steamboat House; the hills in Huntsville reminded him of his boyhood home in Tennessee. Houston was active in the Masonic Lodge, transferring his membership to Forrest Lodge #19. His health deteriorated in 1863 due to a persistent cough. In mid-July, Houston developed pneumonia. He died on July 26, 1863 at Steamboat House, with his wife Margaret by his side. His last recorded words were, "Texas! Texas! Margaret..."[citation needed]
The inscription on his tomb reads:
<poem> A Brave Soldier. A Fearless Statesman. A Great Orator– A Pure Patriot. A Faithful Friend, A Loyal Citizen. A Devoted Husband and Father. A Consistent Christian– An Honest Man. </poem>
Sam Houston was buried in Huntsville, Texas, where he lived in retirement; after her death his wife, Margaret Lea, was buried in Independence at her family's cemetery.
Honors[link]
-
Sam Houston, Commemorative Issue of 1963
-
Texas Centennial Issue of 1936, showing Sam Houston, The Alamo, and Stephen F. Austin
-
Sam Houston Statue.jpg
67-foot-tall (20 m) statue of Sam Houston near Huntsville, Texas
-
Statue of Sam Houston in Hermann Park
-
The Sam Houston State Office Building houses the headquarters of the Texas Ethics Commission and the Texas State Preservation Board
- Huntsville, Texas, is the home of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum, a 67 ft (20 m) statue, Sam Houston State University, and Houston's gravesite. The statue (which is the world's largest statue of an American hero, easily visible by motorists traveling on Interstate 45) is the title and subject of a country music song by Merle Haggard.
- A bronze equestrian sculpture of Houston is located in Hermann Park in Houston, Texas This statue depicts Houston atop his horse with a single hand out stretched pointing directly towards San Jacinto.
- The Sam Houston Wayside near Lexington, Virginia, is a 38,000-pound piece of Texas pink granite commemorating Houston's birthplace.
- The Sam Houston Schoolhouse in Maryville, Tennessee, is Tennessee's oldest schoolhouse. In addition to the schoolhouse there is a museum on the grounds.
- USS Sam Houston, an Ethan Allen class submarine, was named after Houston.
- The Sam Houston National Forest, one of four national forests in Texas, was named after Houston.[32]
- The Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, located outside of Liberty, Texas has the largest known collection of photographs and illustrations of Houston.
- Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, is named after Houston.
- Many cities in the U.S. have a street, school, or park named for Houston; however, New York City's Houston Street is not named after Sam Houston. Instead, it is named after William Houstoun, and pronounced HOW-stin.
- The State of Texas has placed a statue of Sam Houston inside Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol.
- The Sam Houston Coliseum (now demolished) in Houston, Texas, was named after Houston. The Beatles performed there in 1965.
- There is a mural depicting Sam Houston on a gas tank near State Hwy 225 in Houston.[33]
- Sam Houston High School,[34] in Lake Charles, Louisiana and in Arlington, Texas [35]
- Sam Houston Middle School,[36] in Garland, Texas
- Sam Houston Elementary Schools in Lebanon and Maryville, Tennessee; Eagle Pass, Huntsville, Conroe and Bryan,[37] Texas, and Houston, Texas [38]
- A bust of Sam Houston is located inside the Virginia State Capitol Building in Richmond, Virginia
- The eponymous cities in Texas, Mississippi, and Minnesota are named after Houston
- A road encirling the city of Houston is named the Sam Houston Tollway
- The song "SayHo" by Scott Miller is about Sam Houston
- The State of Tennessee has a county with the seat is Erin, TN, named after Houston
- In Texas, Houston County is named in honour of the renowned statesman. Its county seat is Crockett, Texas.
- The County Seat of Texas County, Missouri is Houston, Missouri, named after Sam Houston.
Notes[link]
- ^ Williams, John H. (1994), Sam Houston: Life and Times of Liberator of Texas an Authentic American Hero, New York, NY: Touchstone, p. 316, ISBN 0-671-88071-3
- ^ Magazine article, The Biggest Texan: A Profile of Sam Houston, by Margaret Coit, Boys' Life Magazine, April, 1963
- ^ Sam Houston's Wife: A Biography of Margaret Lea Houston, by William Seale, 1992, page 21
- ^ Representing Texas, by Ben R. Guttery, 2008, page 83
- ^ Sam Houston's Texas, by Sue Flanagan, 1964, page 6
- ^ Texas Cemeteries, by Bill Harvey, 2003, page 158
- ^ Our Nation's Archive: The History of the United States in Documents, by Erik A. Bruun, 1999, page 268
- ^ Oddball Texas: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places, by Jerome Pohlen, 2006, page 216
- ^ a b c d e f g James L. Haley, Sam Houston, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004
- ^ a b Neely, Jack. Knoxville's Secret History, Scruffy City Publishing, 1995.
- ^ Samuel Houston from the Handbook of Texas Online
- ^ Neely, Jack, Knoxville's Secret History, Scruffy City Publishing, 1995
- ^ a b c
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Houston, Sam". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - ^ "Lebanon, Tennessee: A Tour of Our City" (PDF). Lebanon/Wilson County Chamber of Commerce. http://www.wilsoncountycvb.com/images/tour.pdf. Retrieved February 5, 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Office History, Nashville District Attorney General
- ^ "Eliza Allen". WNPT.org. http://www.wnpt.org/productions/samhouston/people/eliza.html. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ Ramos, Mary G; Reavis, Dick; Vandivier, Kevin (2004). Compass American Guides: Texas. Compass America Guides. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-676-90502-1.
- ^ By
- ^ Haley (2004) pp. 104,105
- ^ Augustin, Byron; Pitts, William L. "Independence, Texas". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hli03. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
- ^ Seale (1992) 167-171
- ^ "THC-Houston baptismal site". Texas Historical Commission. http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/viewform.asp?atlas_num=5477008421&site_name=Houston%2C%20Sam&class=5000. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ Joseph McElroy, Jefferson Davis, p. 79
- ^ Thomas H. Kreneck, "HOUSTON, SAMUEL," Handbook of Texas Online [1], accessed March 07, 2012. [Paragraph 11.]
- ^ Helen Burleson Kelso, "BURLESON, EDWARD," Handbook of Texas Online [2], accessed March 07, 2012.
- ^ Thomas H. Kreneck, "HOUSTON, SAMUEL," Handbook of Texas Online [3], accessed March 07, 2012.
- ^ "Holland Masonic Lodge - History". HollandLodge.org. http://www.hollandlodge.org/hlfamous.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/samhouston/PresAm.html
- ^ James l. Haley. Sam Houston. University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, pp. 390-91.
- ^ James l. Haley, Sam Houston, University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, p. 397
- ^ USA (2008-07-15). "General Sam Houston - Texas State Historical Marker, Independence, Texas". StoppingPoints.com. http://www.stoppingpoints.com/texas/sights.cgi?marker=General+Sam+Houston&cnty=washington. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ "Sam Houston National Forest". US Forest Service. Archived from the original on 2010-12-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20101206071547/http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/texas/recreation/sam_houston/samhouston_gen_info.shtml. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ "Sam Houston mural". Flickr.com. 2008-03-03. http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonstoney/sets/72157604042665290/. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ http://samhouston.cpsb.org
- ^ "Sam Houston High School". Aisd.net. http://www.aisd.net/sam/. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ "Garland ISD: Sam Houston Middle School". Garlandisdschools.net. 2011-09-19. http://www.garlandisdschools.net/page.cfm?p=563. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ "Houston Elementary School, Bryan, Texas". Bryanisd.org. 2005-06-22. http://bryanisd.org/school.asp?schoolID=18. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
- ^ http://www.galenaparkisd.com/campuspages/sam/index.htm[dead link]
See also[link]
References[link]
The following are reference sources (alphabetical by author):
- Andrew Jackson-His Life and Times; Brands, H.W.; Doubleday: ISBN 0-385-50738-0.
- The Texas Revolution; Brinkley, William; Texas A&M Press: ISBN 0-87611-041-3.
- Sword of San Jacinto, Marshall De Bruhl; Random House: ISBN 0-394-57623-3.
- Sam Houston, Haley, James L.; University of Oklahoma Press: ISBN 0-8061-3644-8.
- The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston; James, Marquis; University of Texas Press: ISBN 0-292-77040-5.
- The Eagle and the Raven; Michener, James A.; State House Press: ISBN 0-938349-57-0.
Further reading[link]
- Campbell, Randolph B.; Handlin, Oscar (1993), Sam Houston and the American Southwest, HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-06-500688-9
- De Bruhl, Marshall (1993), Sword of San Jacinto: A Life of Sam Houston, Random House, ISBN 978-0-394-57623-7
- Haley, James L. (2004), Sam Houston, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0-8061-3644-8
- James, Marquis (1988), The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston, University of Texas Press, ISBN 978-0-292-77040-9
- Williams, John Hoyt (1993), Sam Houston: A Biography of the Father of Texas, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-0-671-74641-4
- Williams, John Hoyt (1994), Sam Houston: The Life and Times of the Liberator of Texas, an Authentic American Hero, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-0-671-88071-2
- John F. Kennedy: Profiles in Courage, 1956
External links[link]
| Find more about Sam Houston on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
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Definitions and translations from Wiktionary |
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Images and media from Commons |
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Learning resources from Wikiversity |
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News stories from Wikinews |
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Quotations from Wikiquote |
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Source texts from Wikisource |
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Textbooks from Wikibooks |
- Life of General Houston, 1793-1863 published 1891, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- Sam Houston ; David Crockett. published 1901, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- Samuel Houston from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Sam Houston Memorial Museum
- Sam Houston Memorial Museum Antiquities Collection From Texas Tides
- Sam Houston's Obituary - The Tri Weekly Telegraph, Houston, Texas July 29, 1863 - TexasBob.com
- Sam Houston Historic Schoolhouse in Maryville, TN USA
- Documentary film on life of Sam Houston. Massive web site with many pictures, links, and educational tools.
- Tennessee Encyclopedia entry
- Tennessee State Library & Archives, Papers of Governor Sam Houston, 1827-1829
- Sam Houston Rode a Gray Horse
- Houston Family Papers, 1836-1869 and undated, in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University
- Booknotes interview with Marshall DeBruhl on Sword of San Jacinto: The Life of Sam Houston, May 2, 1993.
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by (none) |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 7th congressional district March 4, 1823 – March 4, 1827 |
Succeeded by John Bell |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by William Carroll |
Governor of Tennessee 1827–1829 |
Succeeded by William Hall |
| Preceded by David G. Burnet (ad interim) |
President of the Republic of Texas 1836–1838 |
Succeeded by Mirabeau B. Lamar |
| Preceded by Mirabeau B. Lamar |
President of the Republic of Texas 1841–1844 |
Succeeded by Anson Jones |
| Preceded by Hardin R. Runnels |
Governor of Texas 1859–1861 |
Succeeded by Edward Clark |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by None |
United States Senator (Class 2) from Texas February 21, 1846 – March 4, 1859 Served alongside: Thomas J. Rusk, J. Pinckney Henderson and Matthias Ward |
Succeeded by John Hemphill |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Houston, Sam |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American politician |
| Date of birth | March 2, 1793 |
| Place of birth | Rockbridge County, Virginia |
| Date of death | July 26, 1863 |
| Place of death | Huntsville, Texas |
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Wiki Summary
Houston ( /ˈhjuːstən/) (Alibamu: Yosti ) is the largest city in the state of Texas, and the fourth-largest city in the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of 656.3 square miles (1,700 km2). Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown, which is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with 6.08 million people as of July 1st, 2011.
Houston was founded in 1836 on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou. It was incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837, and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas—former General Sam Houston—who had commanded at the Battle of San Jacinto, which took place 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located.
