TECH NEWSS

The Land

Empire State, Excelsior, Knickerbocker, New York was named in honor of the brother of England's King Charles II, the Duke of York and Albany.

New York is located in the Northeastern United States, between the New England States and the Great Lakes and is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut & the Atlantic Ocean on the east, New Jersey & Pennsylvania (south), Lake Erie & Ontario and the Canadian province of Ontario (northwest), and the province of Quebec (north).



At 49,112 square miles, New York is the 30th biggest state. The highest elevaton is Mt. Marcy in Essex County at 5,344 feet while the lowest elevation is the Atlantic Ocean at sea level.

The climate of New York is generally humid. Variations in terrain, elevation, and exposure to bodies of water cause variations in climate. The coastal area has higher temperatures, less frost, less cloudiness, and fewer storms. Upstate lowlands are subject to considerable extremes in temperature, especially during winter when cold air from Canada and the interior invade the state. In summer, warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern United States may bring rains, although cloudless skies generally prevail.

The highest teperature recorded was 108° while the lowest was -52°.

The History

The 1st Europeans was Giovanni da Verrazano (an Italian-born navigator sailing for France) who entered New York Bay in 1524. Henry Hudson (an Englishman employed by the Dutch) reached the bay and sailed up the Hudson River in 1609. Samuel de Champlain explored and claimed northern New York for France in 1609.

In 1624 the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at Fort Orange (now Albany); one year later Peter Minuit is said to have purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for trinkets worth about $24 and founded the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City), which was surrendered to the English in 1664.

For a short time, New York City was the U.S. capital, and George Washington was inaugurated there as the first president on April 30, 1789.

New York City has been the most ethnically diverse city in the world since the 1640s, when fewer than 1,000 total residents spoke more than 15 languages. Between 1880 and 1919, more than 23 million Europeans immigrated to the United States. At least 17 million of them disembarked in New York. No one knows how many remained there, but as early as 1880, more than half the city's working population was foreign-born, providing New York with the largest immigrant labor force on earth.

New York became the 11th State to Unite under America on July 26.

The People

In 1990 nearly 16 percent of the state's total population had been born abroad, and many of them resided in New York City. Whites constituted 67.9 percent of the population in 2000, blacks 15.9 percent, Asians 5.5 percent, and Native Americans 0.4 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 8,818. Those of mixed heritage or not reporting ethnicity were 10.2 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, were 15.1 percent of the people.

By the late 1990s, more than 120 languages were spoken in New York city's schools, and there were dozens of ethnic churches, political organizations, cultural festivals, and parades, as well as scores of foreign-language newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations. Although rivalries among the various groups could be intense, the very diversity of the city permitted immigrants to mingle more easily than in most other parts of the nation.

The 1998 census put New York's population at 18,175,000. The State Capital is Albany, other major cities or towns include New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Syracuse, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, Schenectady and Utica.