18 February 2023 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 7 minutes
© Richard Zietz/cc-by-sa-3.0
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The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the
United Colonies , were a group of
British colonies on the Atlantic coast of
North America . Founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, they began fighting the
American Revolutionary War in April 1775 and formed the
United States of America by
declaring full independence in July 1776. Just prior to declaring independence, the Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: New England (
New Hampshire ;
Massachusetts ;
Rhode Island ;
Connecticut ); Middle (
New York ;
New Jersey ;
Pennsylvania ;
Delaware ); Southern (
Maryland ;
Virginia ;
North Carolina ;
South Carolina ; and
Georgia ). The Thirteen Colonies came to have very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, dominated by
Protestant English-speakers. The first of these colonies was
Virginia Colony in 1607, a
Southern colony . While all these colonies needed to become economically viable, the founding of the
New England colonies , as well as the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania, were substantially motivated by their founders’ concerns related to the practice of religion. The other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion. The
Middle Colonies were established on an earlier Dutch colony,
New Netherland . All the Thirteen Colonies were part of
Britain’s possessions in the New World , which also included territory in
Canada ,
Florida , and the
Caribbean .
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1 November 2022 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 9 minutes
Germantown Library © Carol M. Highsmith – Library of Congress
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Germantown is an urbanized
census-designated place in
Montgomery County ,
Maryland , United States. With a population of 91,249 as of 2020 U.S. Decennial Census, Germantown is the third most populous place in Maryland, after the city of
Baltimore , and the census-designated place of
Columbia . Germantown is located approximately 28 miles (45 km) outside the U.S. capital of
Washington, D.C. and is an important part of the
Washington metropolitan area .
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1 March 2021 | Author/Destination: Yachting and Spa | Rubric: Cruise Ships , Yacht of the Month
Reading Time: 8 minutes
in Nassau, Bahamas © ArnoldReinhold/cc-by-4.0
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Carnival Pride is a
Spirit -class cruise ship operated by
Carnival Cruise Line . Built by
Kværner Masa-Yards at its
Helsinki New Shipyard in
Helsinki ,
Finland , she was laid down on March 30, 2000, launched on March 29, 2001 and completed and delivered to Carnival on December 12, 2001. She was christened by American scientist and astronaut
Tamara Jernigan in
Port Canaveral , Florida, on January 7, 2002.
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30 August 2019 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 12 minutes
© Carol M. Highsmith
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Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of
Maryland , as well as the
county seat of
Anne Arundel County . Situated on the
Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the
Severn River , 25 miles (40 km) south of
Baltimore and about 30 miles (50 km) east of
Washington, D.C. , Annapolis is part of the
Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area . Its population was measured at 38,394 by the
2010 census . This city served as the seat of the
Confederation Congress (former Second
Continental Congress ) and temporary national capital of the United States in 1783–1784. At that time, General
George Washington came before the body convened in the new
Maryland State House and
resigned his commission as commander of the
Continental Army . A month later, the Congress ratified the
Treaty of Paris of 1783, ending the
American Revolutionary War , with
Great Britain recognizing the independence of the United States. The city and state capitol was also the site of the
1786 Annapolis Convention , which issued a call to the states to send delegates for the
Constitutional Convention to be held the following year in
Philadelphia . Over 220 years later, the
Annapolis Peace Conference was held in 2007. Annapolis is the home of
St. John’s College , founded 1696; the
United States Naval Academy , established 1845, is adjacent to the city limits.
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23 August 2019 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 6 minutes
George Peabody Library at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University © Matthew Petroff/cc-by-sa-3.0
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Baltimore is the largest city in the state of
Maryland within the
United States . Baltimore was established by the
Constitution of Maryland as an
independent city in 1729. With a population of 602,495 in 2018, Baltimore is the largest such independent city in the United States. As of 2017, the population of the
Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be just under 2.802 million, making it the
21st largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (60 km) northeast of
Washington, D.C. , making it a principal city in the
Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA) , the fourth-largest CSA in the nation, with a calculated 2018 population of 9,797,063.
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19 September 2018 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General , Architecture , Universities, Colleges, Academies
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Gilman Hall © Daderot
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Johns Hopkins University is an American
private research university in
Baltimore, Maryland . Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur,
abolitionist , and philanthropist
Johns Hopkins . His $7 million bequest (~$150 million in 2017 dollars)—of which half financed the establishment of
Johns Hopkins Hospital —was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States at that time.
Daniel Coit Gilman , who was inaugurated as the institution’s first president on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. Adopting the concept of a
graduate school from
Germany ‘s ancient
Heidelberg University , Johns Hopkins University is considered the first research university in the
United States .
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13 May 2015 | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika | Rubric: General , Museums, Exhibitions , Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine © National Park Service Digital Image Archives
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Fort McHenry, in
Baltimore in
Maryland , is a coastal star-shaped fort best known for its role in the
War of 1812 , when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in
Chesapeake Bay September 13–14, 1814. It was during the bombardment of the fort that
Francis Scott Key was inspired to write
The Star-Spangled Banner , the poem that would eventually be set to the tune of
To Anacreon in Heaven and become the national anthem of the United States.
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