Search

During the early 1600’s, the Massachusetts Puritans prohibited newcomers from settling in their communities without their permission. As the colonial population grew from 275,000 in 1700 to 3,929,000 in 1790, each colony made and enforced its own rules: Massachusetts was restrictive, Rhode Island was more lenient, and Pennsylvania was a sanctuary from religious persecution. After ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Congress passed the first Naturalization Act in March, 1790. The act required individuals seeking to become U.S. citizens to have two years of residency and limited naturalization to “free white persons.” The residency requirement was increased to five years in 1795. The first federal legislation that dealt with the expulsion of aliens from the United States was the Alien Act of June 25, 1798. It allowed the president to deport any alien he considered dangerous, but it expired two years after it was enacted.

Since the seventeenth century, women have journeyed alone or as members of families to North America. Coming first from England, Africa, Ireland, and northern and western Europe, in the nineteenth century they immigrated from southern and eastern Europe and from China and Japan. The major source of immigration shifted in the twentieth century from Europe to Latin America and Asia.

Over four hundred species of hummingbirds have been identified in North and South America, forming the Western Hemisphere’s second largest family of birds. These exceptionally small birds have the greatest comparative energy output of any warm-blooded animal. In one day, they often consume more than half their total weight in food and twice their weight in water. The smaller species have the fastest wing beat of all birds. Unlike other birds, their wing up stroke is as powerful as their downstroke. They can fly forward, backward, and briefly, upside down.

John Osborne submitted the script of his play in response to an advertisement, placed by George Devine, in The Stage, a British theater weekly. Devine was looking for new scripts for his English Stage Company. The play was notable for its blunt language and realistic portrayal of everyday life, which was in sharp contrast to the contemporary and popular light comedies. It was the first “kitchen sink” drama—a term that refers to the depiction of gritty working-class realities—and focused on Jimmy Porter, the quintessential angry young man of the period, who rails against Great Britain’s class system and the complacency of its population. Kenneth Tynan, the influential drama critic for the English newspaper the Observer, called it a totally original play of a new generation, while The Evening Standard described it as a self-pitying snivel.

The genesis of England’s claim to Ireland lies in an agreement between King Henry II and Pope Adrian IV in the twelfth century, when the pope granted the king lordship of Ireland. Norman invasions followed and for several hundred years the English maintained and enforced their intermittently challenged power.

On the evening of February 28, 1986, Prime Minister Olof Palme and his wife, Lisbeth Beck-Friis Palme, left a movie theater on Tunnelgaten (Tunnel Street) in Stockholm and began walking home to their apartment in the Old Town. About fifteen minutes later, as the couple turned onto Sveavagen, a major city thoroughfare, from a few yards behind, a man fired two shots at Palme, hitting Palme in the chest and abdomen and grazing Palme’s wife. The man fled, reportedly in a car. A young nurse who was passing by, not knowing who she was helping, attempted to assist the fallen prime minister. A taxi driver who had observed the incident phoned the police. Palme was taken to Sabbatsberg Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy revealed that he had died instantly from the gunshot wound to his chest. He was fifty-nine years old.

The life span of all species in the animal kingdom depends upon genetic composition, environmental conditions, and the amount of energy expended throughout their lifetime. The natural lifespan varies from one species to another. Insects generally have the shortest lives. The adult mayfly lives only a few hours, while the fruit fly lives for thirty to fifty days. At the other extreme, the giant tortoise may live up to 177 years, the Greenland shark up to 500 years, and the quahog clam can live over 400 years. Human life expectancy has increased substantially since the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1998, it ranged from seventy-five to eighty years in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Australia, compared to fifty-five years in most of Africa. By the early 2020s, the average lifespan in Western developed nations rose to between seventy-seven and eighty-three years, and the average lifespan in African nations was sixty-three years.