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Country music can be traced back as early as the 1800s to immigrants who played the earliest forms of the music style. Because they had brought over their instruments, such as the banjo, from their native country, the music was completely new to the United States.

During the late 1800s until the early 1900s, this musical style could be found in the Appalachian Mountains but rarely anywhere else. It wasn’t until the 1920s that country music got its first break. A producer heard a small Appalachian mountain band; he liked it so much that he decided to give them a gig on his radio program. This greatly widened the awareness of the music style. With the dawn of television the popularity grew even more. Variety shows featured country music singers on a regular basis. Big cities, such as New York City, were now listening to country music. Most country music fans thought that New York City would never be acquainted with country music. [read more →]

The Rocky Mountains, more commonly known as “The Rockies”, are a large range of mountains in the Western United States. These mountains stretch longer than 3,000 miles, from Canada to New Mexico. Much of the Rocky Mountains are protected parks and protected forest lands, but are popular tourist locations.

Attractions
Every year during the summer, millions of tourists travel to the Rockies. Some examples of warm-weather tourist locations located in the United States portion of the mountains are: Pikes Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park. Some National Parks that are located in the Canada portion of the Rocky Mountains are: Jasper National Park, Waterton Lakes National Park, and Yoho National Park. [read more →]

Baseball has been commonly known as “America’s past time.” This is because the game has become very popular in the United States ever since it was invented in the Civil War era in the U.S. Originally the gloves for baseball were very small, making it even more difficult to catch the ball. It took a long time to add a cork to the process as well.

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport enjoyed between 2 groups regarding nine participants each and every. The actual aim is always to score runs through hitting a chucked ball with a baseball bat and also touching a number of 4 bottoms arranged on the 4 corners of a ninety-foot sq ., or perhaps diamond. Gamers on a single team (the particular playing baseball team) consider becomes striking from the pitcher with the additional staff (the actual fielding group), that endeavors to prevent these coming from scoring operates through obtaining batters out in any one of a number of ways.
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Every October 31 Halloween is recognized with a variety of traditions and festivities, many of them dating back at least a few millennia. Two thousand years ago, the ancient Celts celebrated their new year on November 1 marking the end of the warmer, harvest months and the beginning of the cold, dark winter.

Winter was the time of the year often associated with death and dying. The Celts celebrated Samhain, a grand festival, on October 31, the night before the new year when it was believed the dead came back in the form of ghosts and spirits.

Costumes were worn during Samhain when enormous bonfires were built for making sacrifices to Celtic deities who were thought to be able to foretell the future on this night when the worlds between the living and the dead become one. The costumes and bonfires also served the important purpose of warding off any malevolent ghosts roaming the earth waiting to cause mischief and mayhem. [read more →]

“Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” These words were penned by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, before Thomas Jefferson even took pen to paper. (Presented to Congress on June 7, 1776) It was part of a move by the Continental Congress to ride the current of national discontent, which had been stirred by the publication of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”. Furthermore, across the colonies, from the level of colonial legislature down to individual judges, Americans had been declaring themselves free of the rule of King George III beginning in April, 1776. [read more →]

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated in Canada and the United States on February 2 of each year. It is thought to have its roots in early European tradition which sought to determine whether winter would be prolonged based on the emergence of a bear or badger out of hibernation.

In the United States, the holiday celebration immigrated from Europe with the Pennsylvania Dutch who noted the groundhog’s considerable intelligence and chose it as an accurate prognosticator of the winter weather. One of the earliest references to the celebration of the day occurs in a Pennsylvania Dutchman’s journal in 1841. [read more →]

On March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey, Grover Cleveland was born. He was the fifth of nine children raised in upper state New York by his Yale-educated father Richard Falley Cleveland who was a Presbyterian minister and has mother Ann Neal.

When Grover was 16, his father died and college was no longer an option for him. Grover worked as a clerk to help support his family.

He did not attend college, but at the age of 22, he was admitted to the bar. Over the years, Cleveland rose to political prominence and served as the mayor of Buffalo in 1881. He had a second term as mayor before becoming the governor of New York.

Cleveland was a Democrat and gained a reputation for being very efficient and for being honest which led him to run for President of The United States. With the support of the Democratic Party and with the support of reform Republicans called the Mugwumps, Cleveland ran for President and became the 22nd President of the United States in 1885.
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Route 66 is easily the most famous road in all of America. Also known as “Main Street of America” or “The Mother Road,” this stretch of highway was established in November of 1926. Originally a length of 2,448 miles, it ran from the Southern tip of California, in Los Angeles, all the way to the Lake Michigan, in Chicago, Illinois. Extending through the additional states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Route 66 was a romanticized path for people to get to the warm and glittery Los Angeles, home to the stars.

Route 66 was made most popular by music. Beginning in 1946 with the Nat King Cole Trio, the hit song “(Get Your Kicks) On Route 66″ was rerecorded by several artists throughout the last 65 years, including Depeche Mode, Chuck Berry, and the Rolling Stones. As young people everywhere sang the lyrics “If you ever plan to motor west,
travel my way, take the highway that is best,” Route 66 became more and more popular, and road trips everywhere were planned with no destination–simply to travel along this popular and iconic road. [read more →]

In 1865, the young Frederic Bartoldi, the French sculptor, was among the guests at the home of the French politician and law professor, Edouard Rene de Laboulaye. He heard Laboulaye say in discussion after the meal regarding the United States and its current Civil War that, if a memorial should stand in the United States as a monument to its independence, it should be a joint effort of the French with the US. The idea was hypothetical with Laboulaye, but Bartoldi thought the issue should become a concrete reality, and he should be the one to construct the sculptured monument.

The sculptor was serious about beginning the project and even spoke with Laboulaye, who approved the idea, but years would pass before he could design and construct the memorial to liberty in the US harbour of New York. He made his first model of Lady Liberty, the figure he had in mind for the statue, in 1870. His concept after discussions with Laboulaye was a neoclassical lady in long, flowing dress and holding high a torch. [read more →]

Because for many foreigners the only glimpse they have of the American life is from the movie screen, Hollywood is one of the top picks for tourists to visit. Located in Los Angeles, California, Hollywood sits north-west of downtown. Also known as the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” Hollywood offers a variety of attractions.

Hollywood Boulevard Attractions

There are several theaters that are the most famous in the entertainment industry. The Chinese Theatre, Egyptain Theatre, Kodak Theatre, and Pantages Theatre have all left their mark in the development of the entertainment world.
Another attraction visitors are bound to “step over” is the Walk of Fame. The streets of Hollywood of are covered with numerous stars who have literally ingrained their names into the streets. Although hundreds of nominations are made each year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce only chooses a few honoreers. [read more →]