United States of America

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.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Eurasia to what is now the U.S. mainland at least 15,000 years ago, with European colonization beginning in the 16th century. The United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Disputes between Great Britain and the colonies led to the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, as the colonies were fighting Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, delegates from the 13 colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. The war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by the Kingdom of Great Britain, and was the first successful war of independence against a European colonial empire. The country's constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, and ratified by the states in 1788. The first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties.

Geography

The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7.7 Mm2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1.7 Mm2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area. The populated territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and US Virgin Islands together cover 9,185 square miles (23,789 km2).

The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9.5 Mm2) to 3,717,813 square miles (9.6 Mm2) to 3,794,101 square miles (9.8 Mm2)to 3,805,927 square miles (9.9 Mm2). Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.

The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m). The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the state of California, and only about 84 miles (135 km) apart. At an elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m), Alaska's Denali (Mount McKinley) is the highest peak in the country and North America. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.

The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Hawaii and the southern tip of Florida are tropical, as are the populated territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in Tornado Alley areas in the Midwest and South.

Info:

Motto: "In God We Trust"
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"
March: "The Stars and Stripes Forever"[3]
Capital: Washington, D.C.
National Language: English
Religion: Christian
Demonym: American
Legislature: Congress
Area: 9,857,306 km2
Currency: United States Dollar
Time Zone: (UTC−4 to −12, +10, +11)
Summer (DST): (UTC−4 to −10)
Date Format: MM/DD/YYYY
Drives on the: right
Calling code: +1
ISO 3166 Code: US
International TLD: .us .gov .mil. edu

Largest Cities of United States

1. New York City
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. Houston
5. Philadelphia
6. Phoenix
7. San Antonio
8. San Diego
9. Dallas
10. San Jose
11. Austin
12. Jacksonville
13. Indianapolis
14. San Francisco
15. Columbus
16. Fort Worth
17. Charlotte
18. Detroit
19. El Paso
20. Memphis

Flag of United States

On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated: "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

Official Website: Usa.gov

Did You Know?

• 63% of U.S. prison inmates can't read.
• There are more public libraries than McDonald's in the U.S.
• 60,000 plastic bags are being used in the U.S. every 5 seconds.
• The banana is the most popular fruit in the U.S.
• The biggest bill the U.S. issued was a US$ 10,000 bill.
• At least 1 in 25 people sentenced to the death penalty in the U.S. are innocent.
• In 1893, an amendment was proposed to rename the U.S. into the "United States of the Earth".
• 97% of rapists in the U.S. never spend a day in jail for their crime.
• The U.S. Government spends US$1.8 billion per year printing documents.
• There's a town called "Big Ugly" in West Virginia, U.S.A.
• Valentine's Day is also National Condom Day in the U.S.
• Almost half the world's credit card frauds happen in the U.S.
• There are more TVs in the U.S. than people in the U.K.
• The launch code for all U.S. Minuteman nuclear missiles for 20 years used the same code: 00000000.
• The Afghan War is the longest war in U.S. history.
• 10% of all U.S. companies go out of business every year.
• Hackers cost the U.S. economy up to 500,000 jobs each year.
• No U.S. president has been elected after being divorced except for Ronald Reagan.
• There are 100 divorces every hour in the U.S.
• There are 2 pets for every 3 people in the U.S.
• An average person in the U.S. eats 35 tons of food in a lifetime.
• American flags made in China are banned in the U.S. Military.
• The State of New Jersey, U.S.A., was originally called Lorraine and New Sweden.
• In WW2, the U.S. and New Zealand secretly tested 3,700 "tsunami bombs" designed to destroy coastal cities.
• It's estimated 1.5 million people are "missing missing" in the U.S.; people who have disappeared but haven't been reported as missing.
• Gerald Ford was the only to have served as both U.S. President and Vice President without being elected to either position.
• The U.S. government spent US$1.1 million on puppets from 2009 to 2013.
• The cost of college in the U.S. has gone up 500% since 1985.
• The U.S. has 19 aircraft carriers, compared to the rest of the world's 12 aircraft carriers combined.
• The first Friday of June is National Donut Day in the U.S.
• If the U.S. can raise its 34.5% recycling rate to 75%, it will be the CO2 equivalent of removing 50 million cars from the road.
• 30% of businesses in the U.S. are owned by women.
• GPS is owned and controlled by the U.S. Government. It can be 'switched off' at any time.
• 47% of the U.S. remains unoccupied, despite having a population of 310 million.
• The U.S. has more people of Norwegian descent than Norway.
• In the U.S., more than 1.2 million people have HIV.
• The U.S. uses less water now than it did in 1970.
• More than half of the U.S. is now abnormally dry or officially in a drought.
• The U.S. has more museums than Starbucks and McDonald's locations combined.

References

• Wikipedia
• Fact Slides
• Wikimedia