GEOGRAPHICAL FACTS ABOUT AMERICA
Location: North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico
Land Size : 9,631,418 sq km
Weather/Climate of America : America has mostly a temperate type of a climate, but it is tropical in Florida and Hawaii, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest. The low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
Population of America : 293,500,000
Capital City of America : Washington, DC
American GDP: $10.98 trillion (2003 est.)
Main Industries : Petroleum, motor vehicles, aerospace, steel,
telecommunications, electronics, food processing, chemicals, consumer goods, mining, lumbering.
American Currency : US dollar (USD)
Agricultural products : Wheat, corn, fruits, vegetables, cotton, beef, poultry, pork, forest products, dairy products, fish.
Main Colors of American Flag : Red, white and blue.
Some US states have cities named the same as other US states. These are :
- Delaware, Arkansas
- California, Maryland
- Oregon, Wisconsin
- Wyoming, Ohio
- Indiana, Pennsylvania
- Nevada, Missouri
- Louisiana, Missouri
- Kansas, Oklahoma
- Michigan, North Dakota
There are approximately 500,000 detectable seismic tremors in California annually.
Rhode Island is the smallest US state in size.
New Amsterdam, Indiana is the smallest city in the U.S., they have a population of 1. (6-04)
Louisiana has 2,482 islands, covering nearly 1.3 million acres.
The states with the smallest populations are: Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
US FLAG FACTS
US flag has 50 stars representing the 50 states, and 13 stripes representing the 13 original states.
Earlier flags had a British Union Jack or the motto "Don't Tread on Me," . The first flag approved by the Continental Congress had thirteen stars on a field of blue and thirteen stripes.
The credit for designing the first flag perhaps goes to Francis Hopkins.
The Continental Congress approved the design of the first official U.S. flag on June 14, 1777. This day later came to be celebrated as the Flag Day.
The official colors of the flag are "Old Glory Red," white, and "Old Glory Blue."
On June 14, 1777, Congress adopted a resolution calling for a flag with thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, and with a blue canton or "union", with thirteen white stars. The resolution defined the significance of the colors: "White signifies Purity and Innocence; Red, Hardiness and Valor; Blue, Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice."
The thirteen stripes and thirteen stars are representative of the original thirteen colonies. The five pointed stars used as a flag symbol gained popularity only after its incorporation into the American flag. Since then it has been used in many state flags and in foreign flags, including Uruguay, Puerto
Rico, and the once sovereign nations of the Republic of Texas and the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Until 1818, an additional star and stripe was added as each new state was admitted to the Union. However it later became evident that it was not at all practical as the flag would inevitably become unwieldy. On April 4, 1816, a new scheme was made official. The Flag of the United States would have thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, and a blue canton on which a white star would be added for each state. Each star would be added to the flag on the July 4th following the admission of the new state to the Union.
In 1912, the government specified official patterns, proportions and colors, for the Flag we know today.
Traditionally a symbol of liberty, the American flag has carried the message of freedom to many parts of the world. Sometimes the same flag that was flying at a crucial moment in America's history has been flown again in another place to symbolize continuity in the struggles for the cause of liberty.
The American flag first flew over Fort Derne, off the shores of Tripoli in Libya.
INTERESTING FACTS
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.
On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
The United States Government keeps its supply of silver at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
52% of Americans drink coffee.
27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.
A Californian doctor has set the record of eating 17 bananas in two minutes.
Approximately 35 million Americans are linked by blood to one (or more) of the 102 pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.
There are five US states with no sales tax. They are: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.
Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work.
It was once illegal to take a bath in the wintertime in Indiana.
Ohio is the birthplace of more Presidents than any other state - eight.
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