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ALL ABOUT THE USA, In 1958 the Government of the US formed NASA to be the…

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        From 1754 to 1763, France and Britain fought over land.
        Britain won land, and asked for the colonists to pay taxes.
        They thought it was ridiculous, and they fought the British.
        On the 4th of July 1776, the colonists declared independence. They published the Declaration of Independence.
        The colonists led by George Washington fought the British and they won, they signed the Treaty of Paris.
        They called the new nation United States of America.
      - On the 6th of September 1620, 102 pilgrims sailed to "The New World", on a ship called Mayflower. They wanted religious and political freedom, they were 65 days at sea.
        On the 9th of November. They arrived on land, they went to explore the area. They decided to build a village. They called the village Plymouth. During the 1st winter 45 Pilgrims died.
        On March 1621. The pilgrims met a Native American, he taugh them to grow pumpkins.
        More people wants to go to the new world. 1975s, Britain has 13 colonies in America. France & Spain also owned the New World.
- - - - Today the capital of the USA is Washington D.C., but before, it was Philadelphia, the home of the Declaration of Independence. SInce Philadelphia was not at the centre of the USA, in 1791 George Washington asked architects to build a city in a 260 square- kilometre area near the Potomac River. The town was called Wasington. The government moved there in 1800 and people also went to live there.
    - - Architect James Hoban constructed the White House in 1792 and finished in 1800. John Adams was the first president to live there. In 1902 Theodore Roosevelt added the West Wing, because he needed more space.
        In the White House there are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms. It's 21 metres high and 51 wide.
        The Oval Office is the president's office. It's the most famous room.
        They also have a bowling alley, a tennis court, a swimming pool, a cinema, and a jogging track.
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    - - Flag act in 1777. The flag act had 13 stripes and 13 stars, one of each to represent all of the 13 colonies.
        As there were more states, they added more stripes and more stars, but there were too many stripes, so they decided to have a star for each state and a stripe for the original 13 colonies.
        Today they have 13 stripes and 50 stars.
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- - - - It's one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, it's in Arizona. It's 446km long, and 29km wide. Every year almost 5M people visit it. Over thousands of years, the Colorado River cut 1,5Km into th rock. This created the shapes in the canyons. Theodore Roosvelt told America: You can't improve on it. But you can keep it for your children, and your children's children... as one of the great sight every American must see.
        It became a national park in 1919.
    - - The Niagara falls are 3 different waterfalls:American falls, Bridal Veil Falls and Canadian Horseshoe falls. They are between the USA and Canada.
        They are the 2nd biggest waterfalls in the world. Every second more than 2.838.000L of water fall over the Niagara falls!
        ⅕ of the fresh water in the world flows through here. More than 13M see the Niagara Falls every year.
        In 1960 a 7 year old fell down the falls with only a life jacket and a swimsuit, and he survived! He was the only person to survive falling down the falls with only a swimsuit and a life jacket.
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- - - - The first thanksgiving was in 1621.
        The pilgrims invited the Native people to celebrate their first harvest. They ate meat.
        From 1846 to 1863 Sarah Hale asked the presidents to make Thanksgiving a holiday. Lincoln accepted in 1863.
        Most Americans spend it with their family, they eat turkey, yams, mashed potatoes...
        The Macy's Thanksgiving parade has giant balloons of famous characters.
    - - The Declaration of Independence was published on the 4th of July 1776.
        People hang the American flag on the 4th of July.
        Since it's a holiday people don't work and there are lots of events.
        People celebrate with picnics and BBQ's.
        They have burgers, hot dogs, ice cream...
        During the night there are concerts and fireworks.
- - - - It was 1878, Milton Wright gave his two sons a toy helicopter. They loved it. They constructed their own models. The fascination with flight lasted all their lives.
        They began to design aeroplanes.
        On 17th December 1903, they took the plane to a beach and it flew 12 seconds and 36,5m. Then it flew 59 seconds and 60m.
    - - He was one of the youngest persons to become president of the US. It was the 22nd November 1963. He and his wife went to Dallas. Many people were on the streets to see him pass. But someone shot him, he died.
        Millions of people watched his wife and two children lead the funeral.
    - - He was an important civil rights leader in the US. He was a pastor in Montgomery. At that time there was discrimination againts black people. King became famous in the early 1960s for protesting without violence.
        On 28th August 1963 he gave a speech on the Lincoln Memorial.
        He said: "I have a dream, that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character...".
        He recived the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968 he was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis. After that the 3rd Monday of July Became Martin Luther King day.
- - - - He was one of America's best writers. He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri. He moved to Hannibal in 1839. He grew up swimming, fishing and playing near the Mississippi.
        When he got older he became a steamboat pilot, he met lots of people.
        He wrote with humor and his books are still popular today, his most famous books are: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
    - - She was born in Monroeville on 28th April. She published a book called To Kill a Mockingbird, it was based on racism in the 1930s.
        It became an immediate bestseller, and it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. In 1962 a movie based on the book was made, it won three oscars.
        In 1999 To Kill a Mockingbird was voted "The Best Novel of the Century". There are 30M copies and it's still a best seller.
    - - He is a popular writer in the horror genre, though he also writes suspense, science-fiction and fantasy novels. He was born in Portland and he began to write stories when he was seven. His 1st book Carrie was very successful. Some of his more famous books that were made into movies are: Salem's Lot, The Shining, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist.
- - - - James Naismih was a sports teacher in Massachusetts, he invented basketball in 1891. It became popular immediately because it could be played inside.
        Initially players threw a ball into a fruit basket. But they had to climb up a ladder to get the ball. Later they made a hole in the bottom of the basket so the ball could fall through it. Now we use a ring with a net.
        Now we have the NBA, it's the top professional basketball league. Some basketball stars are Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade.
    - - People call it the national sport of the USA. There are two teams of nine players on an area with four bases. It's played with a ball and a bat.
        The teams bat by turns. The team that bats has to score 'runs' by hitting the ball and running around all of the bases to go back to 'home'.
    - - On 6th November 1869 the teams from Rutgers and Princeton played a football game, based on the rugby rules. At first the game was violent and some players died.
        Walter Camp wrote the rules of the game. Now the game is much safer.
        The Super Bowl is the championship game of the NFL. It's on the first Sunday in February 100M watch the game every year. It's the most important sporting event in the USA. Singers also appear before the game.
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    - - In 1976 a spacecraft called Viking 1 landed on Mars. The Mars Pathfinder landed there in 1996. The pathfinder had a rover in it. This robot sent 16,500 pictures of Mars to the Earth. NASA lost contact with it in 1997.
        In the 80s they started to develop space suttles. The Challenger in 1986 and the Columbia in 2003 exploded and the astronauts died.
        Most space projects are international, because they are very expensive. The ISS was made by Japan, Russia,the USA, Canada and Europe.
- - - - It's a tall, hairy, ape-like creature, it lives in forests.In 1958 Jerry Crew found an enormous footprint in California. He took a photo of it he called it "old Bigfoot", that's where the name came from. In 1967, two men filmed a Bigfoot, then lots of people filmed bigfoots, lots of them were hoaxes. So, who knows if they really exist.
    - - There was a man that walked thousands of miles to plant apples. He was born in Massachusetts, in 1774, his real name was John Chapman. He dreamed of a land with apple trees.
        He walked across the country carrying a bag with apple seeds. He walked through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
        He lived a simple vegetarian life. They say he was friendly and he loved animals. They also say that he wore a sack on his body and a pot on his head. He didn't even wear shoes during the winter. He planted trees for 50 years.
    - - In the early 18th century there was a pirate called Edward Teach, he was known as Blackbeard. He terrorised ships along the coast of America for 27 months. He stole money and jewellery from the ships, and he sometimes killed the passengers.
        In 1718 British soldiers caught Blackbeard, they managed to kill him.
        Lieutenant Maynard cut off Blackbeard's head and he threw his body into the sea. Acording to the legend the head shouted "Come on Edward", and the body swam three times around the ship. Many people say Blackbeard's ghost is still searching for his head.
- - - - Millions of people around the world watch the Academy Awards on TV. They love watching the stars on the red carpet. People that visit California want to see Hollywood and the Walk of Fame. They visit the sets of Universal, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Warner Brothers...
    - - Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975. It's one of the world's most valuable companies. Bill Gates also developed Windows.
        Steve Jobs started Apple, he gave us iPhones, iPods and iPads.
        Google came from California, it provided new Internet uses. It has google documents, photographs and Google maps.
        Thanks to social networks people can talk to people.
    - - The most famous food chains in the US are McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut.
        This food is not very healthy, because they have got lots of salt and fat. Since Americans eat a lot of fast food a lot of people are obese. And that is a real problem.
        Some fast food chains now are also selling healthier meals.