George Hervey Hallett Jr.
George Hervey Hallett Jr. (1895–1985) was a civic activist and avid birder. As head of Citizens Union, a municipal watchdog group, he led the revision of the New York City Charter that was adopted by voters in 1975. Hallett was born in 1895 to a Quaker family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Haverford College, received a master's degree in mathematics from Harvard University and a PhD from Pennsylvania University. He was a conscientious objector during World War I. Hallett was a prominent advocate of proportional representation in politics. The Hallett Nature Sanctuary in the southern end of New York City's Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ... was dedicated to his memory on June 30, 1986. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Hallett, George 1895 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Birder
Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescope, by listening for bird sounds, watching public webcams, or by viewing smart bird feeder cameras. Most birdwatchers pursue this activity for recreational or social reasons, unlike ornithologists, who engage in the study of birds using formal scientific methods. Birding, birdwatching, and twitching The first recorded use of the term ''birdwatcher'' was in 1712 by William Oldsworth. The term ''birding'' was also used for the practice of ''fowling'' or hunting with firearms as in Shakespeare's ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (1602): "She laments sir... her husband goes this morning a-birding." The terms ''birding'' and ''birdwatching'' are today used by some interchangeably, although some participants prefer ''birding'', partly because it in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Haverford College Alumni
Haverford may refer to: *Haverford College, a coeducational, undergraduate liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania *The Haverford School, a private, all-boys preparatory day school in Haverford, Pennsylvania *Haverford High School, a public high school serving all of Haverford Township, Pennsylvania *Haverford, Pennsylvania, a town partly in both Haverford and Lower Merion Townships, Pennsylvania *Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, a township of Delaware County, west of Philadelphia *SS Haverford, SS ''Haverford'', an American transatlantic liner used in World War I *Tom Haverford, a ''Parks and Recreation'' character played by Aziz Ansari See also *Havertown, Pennsylvania, the name created to designate ZIP Code 19083, the area of which is wholly within, and a portion of, Haverford Township *Haverfordwest, a town in Wales, after which Haverford, Pennsylvania, was named {{disambig, geo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1985 Deaths
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights. * January 7 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches '' Sakigake'', Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union. * January 15 – Tancredo Neves is elected president of Brazil by the Congress, ending the 21-year military rule. * January 27 – The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is formed, in Tehran. * January 28 – The charity single record "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. February * February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spain reopens for the first time since Francisco Franco closed it in 1969. * February 5 – Australia cancels its involv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1895 Births
Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of treason. * January 6 – The Wilcox rebellion, an attempt led by Robert Wilcox to overthrow the Republic of Hawaii and restore the Kingdom of Hawaii, begins with royalist troops landing at Waikiki Beach in O'ahu and clashing with republican defenders. The rebellion ends after three days and the remaining 190 royalists are taken prisoners of war. * January 12 – Britain's National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty is founded by Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. * January 13 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Coatit – Italian forces defeat the Ethiopians. * January 15 – A warehouse fire and dynamite explosion kills 57 people, including 13 firefighters in Butt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the city, containing , and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually . It is also one of the most filmed locations in the world. The creation of a large park in Manhattan was first proposed in the 1840s, and a park approved in 1853. In 1858, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a Architectural design competition, design competition for the park with their "Greensward Plan". Construction began in 1857; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village, were seized through eminent domain and razed. The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county. The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics, and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in 2024 of 8,478,072 distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hallett Nature Sanctuary
The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary are two connected features at the southeastern corner of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located near Grand Army Plaza, across Central Park South from the Plaza Hotel, and slightly west of Fifth Avenue. The Pond is one of seven bodies of water in Central Park. Hallett Sanctuary The Hallett Nature Sanctuary is the smallest of Central Park's wooded areas at . Originally known as the Promontory, it is the only permanently fenced-off section of Central Park aside from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, occupies of the wooded promontory to the west of the Pond, jutting into the water body. The area was closed in 1934 when NYC Parks commissioner Robert Moses set the site apart as a bird sanctuary. In the 1980s, after decades of neglect, invasive alien plants like ailanthus and Far Eastern wisterias were extirpated, and the equally invasive though native black cherry was thinned, the woodland was enriched with native shrubs. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Proportional Representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) among voters. The aim of such systems is that all votes cast contribute to the result so that each representative in an assembly is mandated by a roughly equal number of voters, and therefore all votes have equal weight. Under other election systems, a bare Plurality (voting), plurality or a scant majority in a district are all that are used to elect a member or group of members. PR systems provide balanced representation to different factions, usually defined by parties, reflecting how votes were cast. Where only a choice of parties is allowed, the seats are allocated to parties in proportion to the vote tally or ''vote share'' each party receives. Exact proportionality is never achieved under PR systems, except by chance. The use of elector ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Conscientious Objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–industrial complex due to a crisis of conscience. In some countries, conscientious objectors are assigned to an alternative civilian service as a substitute for conscription or military service. A number of organizations around the world celebrate the principle on May 15 as International Conscientious Objection Day. On March 8, 1995, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/83 stated that "persons performing military service should not be excluded from the right to have conscientious objections to military service". This was re-affirmed on April 22, 1998, when resolution 1998/77 recognized that "persons lreadyperforming military service may ''develop'' conscientious objections". History Many conscientious objectors h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Citizens Union
Citizens Union is a New York City-based good government group founded in 1897 to combat the influences of the Tammany Hall political machine. J. Pierpont Morgan, Benjamin Altman, Elihu Root, and Carl Schurz numbered among its 165 founders. In 1987, on the 90th anniversary of the organization's founding, ''The New York Times'' called Citizens Union "one of the most venerated 'good government' groups in New York City." In 1902, Citizens Union supported Columbia University president Seth Low in his successful campaign to become the second mayor of New York. Six years later, in 1908, Citizens Union transitioned from a political party to a nonpartisan government watchdog organization. By 1918, the group had formally dropped any political affiliation and committed itself solely to reforming and modernizing government. Citizens Union was involved in promoting investigations into corruption, participating in charter revision commissions, and advocating for permanent voter registratio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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University Of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of founder and first president Benjamin Franklin, who had advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. The university has four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools. Schools enrolling undergraduates include the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, School of Nursing. Among its graduate schools are its University of Pennsylvania Law School, law school, whose first professor, James Wilson (Founding Father), James Wilson, helped write the Constitution of the United States, U.S. Cons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |