United States

Coordinates: 40°N 100°W / 40°N 100°W / 40; -100

The United States of America (USA), commonly referred to as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major territories and various possessions. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At 3.8 million square miles (9.842 million km²) and with over 320 million people, the country is the world's third or fourth-largest by total area and the third most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The geography and climate of the United States are also extremely diverse, and the country is home to a wide variety of wildlife.

United States (disambiguation)

United States usually refers to the United States of America, a country in North America.

United States may also refer to:

Countries

Historical

SS United States

SS United States is a luxury passenger liner built in 1952 for United States Lines designed to capture the trans-Atlantic speed record.

Built at a cost of $79.4 million ($724 million in today's dollars) the ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the U.S. and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. Even in her retirement, she retains the Blue Riband, the accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the highest speed.

Her construction was subsidized by the U.S. government, since she was designed to allow conversion to a troopship should the need arise.United States operated uninterrupted in transatlantic passenger service until 1969. Since 1996 she has been docked at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

Design and construction

Inspired by the exemplary service of the British liners RMS Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, which transported hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops to Europe during World War II, the U.S. government sponsored the construction of a large and fast merchant vessel that would be capable of transporting large numbers of soldiers. Designed by renowned American naval architect and marine engineer William Francis Gibbs (1886–1967), the liner's construction was a joint effort between the United States Navy and United States Lines. The U.S. government underwrote $50 million of the $78 million construction cost, with the ship's operators, United States Lines, contributing the remaining $28 million. In exchange, the ship was designed to be easily converted in times of war to a troopship with a capacity of 15,000 troops, or to a hospital ship .

Ambassadors of the United States

This is a list of ambassadors of the United States to individual nations of the world, to international organizations, and to past nations, as well as ambassadors-at-large.

Ambassadors are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. An ambassador can be appointed during a recess, but he or she can only serve as ambassador until the end of the next session of Congress unless subsequently confirmed. Ambassadors serve "at the pleasure of the President", meaning they can be dismissed at any time.

An ambassador may be a career Foreign Service Officer or a political appointee. In most cases, career foreign service officers serve a tour of approximately three years per ambassadorship whereas political appointees customarily tender their resignations upon the inauguration of a new president. As embassies fall under the State Department's jurisdiction, ambassadors answer to the Secretary of State.

Current U.S. ambassadors

Ambassadors to international organizations

United States (album)

United States is the first full length hard rock collaborative album between hard rock guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert and singer Freddie Nelson. The collaboration has been described as a cross between Queen and Mr. Big.

Track listing

Personnel

References

Institutions in the Southern Victory Series

The Southern Victory Series is a fan name given to a series of Harry Turtledove alternate history novels.

The Southern Victory Series includes the novel How Few Remain, and the Great War, American Empire, and Settling Accounts series. They detail events in four major eras between 1862 and 1945.

A brief synopsis

An alternate name of the series, Timeline-191, is taken from Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191, detailing the Army of Northern Virginia's invasion of the Union on September 10, 1862 during the American Civil War. In reality the orders were lost and recovered by a Union soldier, allowing General George B. McClellan to surprise Lee and force the Battle of Antietam. In this fictional timeline, Lee defeated the Army of the Potomac in a comprehensive victory outside of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and then occupied Philadelphia.

In 1881, after the Confederacy purchased the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, President James G. Blaine of the United States declared war. With the help of British and French forces, the Confederate States again defeat the United States in the Second Mexican War, forcing the latter to cede a portion of northern Maine to the Canadian province of New Brunswick. After this defeat, the United States turned to Germany for military assistance and training, and the national mood of the U.S. changed to desire of revenge against the enemies that surrounded the U.S.—Canada, from where Britain invaded the U.S., and the Confederacy.

United States Live

United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson. Released as a 5-record boxed set (later reissued, slightly truncated, on four CDs), the album was recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City in February 1983.

United States was Anderson's magnum opus performance-art piece featuring musical numbers, spoken word pieces, and animated vignettes about life in the United States. Segments ranged from humorous, such as "Yankee See," which gently chided Anderson's record label, Warner Bros. Records, for signing her in the first place, to the apocalyptic anthem "O Superman," which had been an unexpected Top 10 hit for Anderson on the UK music charts in 1981.

Originally, United States was presented over the course of two nights, running some eight hours. The United States Live box set is a truncated rendering of the performance, omitting many segments that were solely of a visual nature.

Among the songs performed on the album was "Language is a Virus (from Outer Space)," a pop-like song based upon a phrase attributed to William S. Burroughs. Anderson later performed a modified arrangement of the song in her 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.