query: The United States became the world's sole superpower in 1991.

pos: United States The United States of America ( USA ) , commonly known as the United States ( U.S. ) or America , is a constitutional federal republic composed of 50 states , a federal district , five major self-governing territories , and various possessions .  Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico . The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America , bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west . The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean . The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea . Nine time zones are covered . The geography , climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse .   At 3.8 million square miles ( 9.8 million km2 ) and with over 324 million people , the United States is the world 's third - or fourth-largest country by total area , third-largest by land area , and the third-most populous . It is one of the world 's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations , and is home to the world 's largest immigrant population . The capital is Washington , D.C. , and the largest city is New York City ; nine other major metropolitan areas -- each with at least 4.5 million inhabitants and the largest having more than 13 million people -- are Los Angeles , Chicago , Dallas , Houston , Philadelphia , Miami , Atlanta , Boston , and San Francisco .   Paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago . European colonization began in the 16th century . The United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast . Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the Seven Years ' War led to the American Revolution , which began in 1775 . On July 4 , 1776 , during the course of the American Revolutionary War , the colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence . The war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain , representing the first successful war of independence against a European power . The current constitution was adopted in 1788 , after the Articles of Confederation , adopted in 1781 , were felt to have provided inadequate federal powers . The first ten amendments , collectively named the Bill of Rights , were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties .   The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century , displacing Native American tribes , acquiring new territories , and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848 . During the second half of the 19th century , the American Civil War led to the end of legal slavery in the country . By the end of that century , the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean , and its economy , driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution , began to soar . The Spanish -- American War and confirmed the country 's status as a global military power . The United States emerged from as a global superpower , the first country to develop nuclear weapons , the only country to use them in warfare , and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council . The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world 's sole superpower . The U.S. is a founding member of the United Nations , World Bank , International Monetary Fund , Organization of American States ( OAS ) , and other international organizations .   The United States is a highly developed country , with the world 's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP . Though its population is only 4.3 % of the world total , Americans hold nearly 40 % of the total wealth in the world . The United States ranks among the highest in several measures of socioeconomic performance , including average wage , human development , per capita GDP , and productivity per person . While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial , characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy , the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world . Accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP and a third of global military spending , the United States is the world 's foremost economic and military power . The United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally , and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations .

neg: Culture of the United Kingdom The culture of the United Kingdom is influenced by the UK 's history as a developed island country , a liberal democracy and a major power ; its predominantly Christian religious life ; and its composition of four countries -- England , Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland -- each of which has distinct customs , cultures and symbolism . The wider culture of Europe has also influenced British culture , and Humanism , Protestantism and representative democracy developed from broader Western culture .   British literature , music , cinema , art , theatre , comedy , media , television , philosophy , architecture and education are important aspects of British culture . The United Kingdom is also prominent in science and technology , producing world-leading scientists ( e.g. Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin ) and inventions . Sport is an important part of British culture ; numerous sports originated in the country , including football . The UK has been described as a `` cultural superpower '' , and London has been described as a world cultural capital .   The Industrial Revolution , which started in the UK , had a profound effect on the socio-economic and cultural conditions of the world . As a result of the British Empire , significant British influence can be observed in the language , law , culture and institutions of a geographically wide assortment of countries , including Australia , Canada , India , the Republic of Ireland , New Zealand , Nigeria , Pakistan , South Africa , the United States and English speaking Caribbean nations . These states are sometimes collectively known as the Anglosphere , and are among Britain 's closest allies . In turn the empire also influenced British culture , particularly British cuisine .   The cultures of England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland are diverse and have varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness .

neg: Presidency of John F. Kennedy The presidency of John F. Kennedy began on January 20 , 1961 , when he was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States , and ended on November 22 , 1963 , upon his assassination and death , a span of days . A Democrat , he took office following the 1960 presidential election , in which he narrowly defeated Richard Nixon . He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson .   Kennedy was the first person born in the 20th century to be elected president , and , at age 43 , the youngest person elected to the office . He was also the first Roman Catholic elected to the presidency . Kennedy played an important role in bringing American politics into the modern communications age , as his use of television provided a campaign model that spoke to voters directly , and his media presidency greatly weakened the power of political machines in party politics .   Kennedy 's time in office was marked by Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union and especially with Cuba . In Cuba , a failed attempt was made in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro . Kennedy 's administration subsequently rejected plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to orchestrate false-flag attacks on American soil in order to gain public approval for a war against Cuba . In October 1962 , it was discovered that Soviet ballistic missiles had been deployed in Cuba ; the resulting period of unease , termed the Cuban Missile Crisis , is seen by many historians as the closest the human race has ever come to nuclear war between nuclear-armed belligerents .   To contain Communist expansion in Asia , Kennedy increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18 over his predecessor , Dwight D. Eisenhower ; a further escalation of the American role in the Vietnam War took place after Kennedy 's death . In domestic politics Kennedy made bold proposals in his New Frontier agenda , but few were passed by Congress . He did establish of the Peace Corps , and intensify the Space Race . Kennedy took steps to support the Civil Rights Movement , and after his death his proposed civil rights bill was passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 .

neg: Unitary executive theory The unitary executive theory is a theory of American constitutional law holding that the President possesses the power to control the entire executive branch . The doctrine is rooted in Article Two of the United States Constitution , which vests `` the executive power '' of the United States in the President .   Although that general principle is widely accepted , there is disagreement about the strength and scope of the doctrine . It can be said that some favor a `` strongly unitary '' executive , while others favor a `` weakly unitary '' executive . The former group argue , for example , that Congress 's power to interfere with intra-executive decision-making ( such as firing executive branch officials ) is limited , and that the President can control policy-making by all executive agencies within the limits set for those agencies by Congress . Still others agree that the Constitution requires a unitary executive , but believe this to be a bad thing , and propose its abolition by constitutional amendment .   In several states , in contrast to the federal government , executive officers such as lieutenant governor , attorney general , comptroller , secretary of state and others are elected independently of the state 's governor , with Texas being one example . This type of executive structure is known as a plural executive . Another type of plural executive , used in Japan , Israel , and Sweden , though not in any U.S. state , in which a collegial body comprises the executive branch - however , that collegial body does not comprise multiple members elected in elections , but is rather more akin to the US Cabinet in formation and structure .

neg: Superstate A superstate is defined as `` a large and powerful State formed when several smaller countries unite '' , `` A large and powerful state formed from a federation or union of nations '' .  This is distinct from the concept of superpower , although these are frequently seen together . It is also distinct from the concept of empire , where one nation dominates other nations through military , political , and economic power , although an empire may also be a superstate .   In the early 20th century , `` superstate '' had a similar definition as today 's supranational organisations . In a 1927 article by Edward A. Harriman on the League of Nations , a superstate was defined as merely `` an organisation , of which a state is a member , which is superior to the member themselves '' , in that '' -LSB- a -RSB- complete superstate has legislative , executive and judicial organs to make , to execute and to interpret its laws '' . According to this definition , Harriman saw the League of Nations as a `` rudimentary superstate '' , and the United States as `` an example of a complete and perfect superstate '' .   In World Order of Bahá ` u 'll áh , first published in 1938 , Shoghi Effendi , the Guardian of the Bahá ' í Faith , described the anticipated world government of that religion as the `` world 's future super-state '' with the Bahá ' í Faith as the `` State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power . ''   In the 1970s , academic literature used the term `` superstate '' to indicate a particularly rich and powerful state , in a similar fashion to the term superpower .   In contemporary political debate , especially the one centred on the European Union , the term `` superstate '' is used to indicate a ( usually deemed unwelcome ) development in which the Union takes over the character of a State ( including the monopoly on violence ) thus abolishing the sovereignty and independence of its member states .  For instance , Glyn Morgan opposes the perspective of a `` European superstate '' to the ones of `` a Europe of nation-states '' and of `` a post-sovereign European polity '' . In her definition , a `` European superstate is nothing more than a sovereign state - a tried and tested type of polity that predominates in the modern world - operating on a European wide scale '' , i.e. , `` a unitary European state ''   The term was famously used by Margaret Thatcher in her 1988 Bruges speech , when she decried the perspective of `` a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels '' , and has since entered the eurosceptic lexicon .  Tony Blair argued in 2000 that he welcomed an EU as a `` superpower , not a superstate ''

neg: Mutual Defense Assistance Act The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on 6 October 1949 . For US Foreign policy , it was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era , and initially to Europe . The Act followed Truman 's signing of the Economic Cooperation Act ( the Marshall Plan ) , on April 3 , 1948 , which provided non-military , economic reconstruction and development aid to Europe . The Act was reauthorized in 1950 , but in 1951 , it and the Economic Cooperation Act were succeeded by the Mutual Security Act , and its newly created independent agency , the Mutual Security Administration , to supervise all foreign aid programs , including both military assistance programs and non-military , economic assistance programs that bolstered the defense capability of U.S. allies .   About the same time , the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951 , also known or referred to as the Battle Act , ( 65 Stat . 644 ; 22 U.S.C. 1611 et seq. ) was also passed ; it banned U.S. assistance to countries doing business with the Soviet Union and was so-named after its sponsor , Representative Laurie C. Battle of Alabama . Strong motivation for this ` control ' act also came from export control concerns , following their tightening by the Export control Act of 1949 over Soviet advances ; export controls were used for both domestic policy and later as an instrument of foreign policy . This is exemplified by the restrictions on export of certain strategic or military items to the Soviet bloc or to other countries which it felt , if permitted , would be detrimental to the foreign policy program of the US . This latter motive became so strong that it brought legislation directing the President to enlist the cooperation of other nations in enacting controls on trade with the Soviet block to parallel those of the United States . The benefits of the various economic and military aid programs were to be withheld from non-cooperating nations . The act covered a wide range of materials needed for the production of weapons , and was especially focused on anything that could aid atomic weapons research and construction .   As the Cold War developed , these acts were part of the American policy of containment of Communism . They importantly provided defense assistance to any ally that might be attacked by the Soviet Union or one of its allies , while other programs provided non-military economic assistance . In Asia the programs expanded with the newly established Maoist People 's Republic of China , and other areas , with the development of specific country missions , including ones in Austria ( 1947 -- 50 ) , China ( 1946 -- 48 ) , Ireland ( 1948 -- 51 ) , and Trieste ( 1947 -- 52 ) .

neg: History of nuclear weapons Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive power from nuclear fission or combined fission and fusion reactions . Starting with scientific breakthroughs made during the 1930s , the United States , the United Kingdom and Canada collaborated during World War II in what was called the Manhattan Project to counter the suspected Nazi German atomic bomb project . In August 1945 , two fission bombs were dropped on Japan , and stands to date as the only use of nuclear weapons in combat . The Soviet Union started development shortly thereafter with their own atomic bomb project , and not long after that both countries developed even more powerful fusion weapons known as `` hydrogen bombs '' .

neg: Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative ( SDI ) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons ( intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles ) . The system , which was to combine ground-based units and orbital deployment platforms , was first publicly announced by President Ronald Reagan on March 23 , 1983 . The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of mutual assured destruction ( MAD ) . The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization ( SDIO ) was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative .   Reagan was a vocal critic of MAD doctrine . SDI was an important part of his defense policy intended to end MAD as a nuclear deterrence strategy , as well as a strategic initiative to neutralize the military component of the Soviet Union 's nuclear defenses .   The ambitious initiative was criticized for allegedly threatening to destabilize the MAD-approach and to possibly re-ignite `` an offensive arms race '' . SDI was nicknamed largely in the mainstream media as `` Star Wars '' , after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas . In 1987 , the American Physical Society concluded that a global shield such as `` Star Wars '' was extremely ambitious and with existing technology not directly feasible for operational status , and that about ten more years of research was needed to learn about such a comprehensive and complex system to set up and make it fully operational .   Under the SDIO 's Innovative Sciences and Technology Office , headed by physicist and engineer Dr. James Ionson , the investment was predominantly made in basic research at national laboratories , universities , and in industry ; these programs have continued to be key sources of funding for top research scientists in the fields of high-energy physics , supercomputing/computation , advanced materials , and many other critical science and engineering disciplines -- funding which indirectly supports other research work by top scientists , and which was most politically viable to fund within the budget environment .   Laser research funded by the SDI office was disclosed at laser conferences that also included panel discussions on the subject with the participation of James Ionson , Edward Teller , and other prominent advocates of SDI .   During the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1993 , the SDIO 's name was changed to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization ( BMDO ) and its focus shifted from national missile defense to theater missile defense ; and its scope from global to more regional coverage . It was never truly developed or deployed , though certain aspects of SDI research and technologies paved the way for some anti-ballistic missile systems of today . BMDO was renamed to the Missile Defense Agency in 2002 . This article covers defense efforts under the SDIO .   Today , the United States holds a significant advantage in the field of comprehensive advanced missile defense systems through years of extensive research and testing . The US and the UK also have both laser weapons and 360 degree laser shields in development , which are expected to be ready for military use as early as 2020 . Many of the obtained technological insights were transferred to subsequent programs and would find use in follow-up programs .

neg: World championship A world championship is generally an international sports competition open to elite competitors from across the world , representing their nations , and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport or contest .   The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or , less commonly , ranking systems ( e.g. the ICC Test Championship ) , or a combination of the two ( e.g. World Triathlon Championships in Triathlon ) . This determines a ` world champion ' , who or which is commonly considered the best nation , team , individual ( or other entity ) in the world in a particular field , although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the ` world champion ' ( see Underdog ) .   Certain sports do not have a world championship . Instead , they may organise a world cup competition , or they may organize both , for example cycling ( UCI World Championships and UCI World Cups ) ) . Often , the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words . Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations , such as boxing , mixed martial arts and wrestling .   Certain sports do not have a world championship or a world cup as such , but may have one or several world champions . Professional boxing , for example , has several world champions at different weights , but each one of them is decided by a `` title fight '' , not a tournament .   A certain number of sports hold world championships or world cups which are overshadowed , in terms of prestige , by the same events in the Olympic Games , the most prestigious multi-sports event .   Still other sports may or may not have a true world championship but may designate the winners of a domestic competition to be `` world champions . '' This is especially true of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada ; world cups and championships exist in all of the major sports , but the domestic U.S. and Canadian leagues are generally recognized as the world professional championships or the equivalent of a world club championship . ( In American football , although an IFAF World Championship exists , the United States is so far above and beyond the other nations it faces that the winner of the U.S.-based Super Bowl , a competition limited to the 32 teams in the National Football League , is commonly recognized as the world champion . )   Finally , certain professional sports do not have a world championship or world cup , but rather hold a series of events recognised as the elite level in their field ( e.g. tennis has a series of four Grand Slam events recognised as the pinnacle of the game , in addition to key team events , world tour finals and the Olympic Games , but no world championship or world cup ) .

neg: World Freedom Day (United States) World Freedom Day is a United States federal observance declared by then-President George W. Bush to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe . It started in 2001 and is celebrated on November 9 .   For this occasion , conservative youth groups such as Young America 's Foundation and the College Republicans urge students to commemorate this day ( which they mark as the start of `` Freedom Week , '' thus including Veterans Day ) by `` celebrating victory over communism '' through provocative flyer campaigns and activism projects . Many conservative political commentators and activists use World Freedom Day as an occasion in which to acclaim President Ronald Reagan , whom they regard as being responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War .

neg: 1917 State of the Union Address The 1917 State of the Union Address was given by Woodrow Wilson , the 28th President of the United States on December 4 , 1917 , during his turbulent second term . He spoke in the United States House of Representatives , in the United States Capitol . He said , `` I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war . The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed . '' He addressed the 65th United States Congress , and spoke of World War I . He ended with , `` A supreme moment of history has come . The eyes of the people have been opened and they see . The hand of God is laid upon the nations . He will show them favor , I devoutly believe , only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy . '' In the middle of the speech , he said this about the German Empire , `` The worst that can happen to the detriment the German people is this , that if they should still , after the war is over , continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world , men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust , it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world 's peace . '' He is saying that empires ' do not promote world peace . A year after he gave this speech , on December 4 , 1918 , the United States military would swallow Germany in victory , and the saying that is written would come true , `` Death has been swallowed up in victory . ''

neg: Federalism in Australia Federalism in Australia was formally adopted on 1 January 1901 when the six self-governing Australian colonies federated as the Commonwealth of Australia . To this day Australia remains a federation of those six `` original States '' under the Commonwealth Constitution . Australia is the seventh oldest federation in the world after the United States ( 1789 ) , Mexico ( 1824 ) , Switzerland ( 1848 ) , Canada ( 1867 ) , the German Empire ( 1871 ) and Brazil ( 1891 ) and the only one of those to have remained entirely unchanged in its composition . In formal constitutional terms , little has been altered since Australians made that decision over a century ago ; in practice , however , the way Australian federalism functions has changed enormously over the intervening years . The most significant respect in which it has changed is in the degree to which the Commonwealth government has assumed a position of dominance .

neg: 1950s The 1950s ( pronounced nineteen-fifties ; commonly abbreviated as the 50s or Fifties ) was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1 , 1950 , and ended on December 31 , 1959 .   By its end , the world had largely recovered from World War II and the Cold War developed from its modest beginning in the late-1940s to a hot competition between the United States and the Soviet Union by the early-1960s .   Clashes between communism and capitalism dominated the decade , especially in the Northern Hemisphere . The conflicts included the Korean War in the beginnings of the decade and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1 . Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons ( such as RDS-37 and Upshot -- Knothole ) , this created a politically conservative climate . In the United States , the Second Red Scare caused Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress and anti-communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States throughout the decade . The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia took place in this decade and accelerated in the following decade .

neg: Four Powers Four Powers may refer to :   Allied Control Council , also referred to as the Four Powers , usually refers to the four countries that occupied the defeated Germany and Austria after the end of the Second World War in 1945 - France , the United Kingdom , the United States and the Soviet Union .  Four Policemen , also called the Four Powers during the war , was the four major Allies powers of World War II : China , Soviet Union , the United Kingdom and the United States .

neg: Airpower Airpower or air power comprises the application of military strategy and strategic theory to the realm of aerial warfare . Airpower began with the advent of powered flight early in the 20th century . Airpower represents a `` complex operating environment that has been subjected to considerable debate '' . British doctrine defines airpower as `` the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events . ''   Airpower is a function of air supremacy and numbers . Roughly speaking , a combatant side that has 100 % or near 100 % control of the skies has air supremacy ; an advantage of some 70 -- 90 % would indicate air superiority . A 50/50 split is air parity ; lower than this , one side may be said to be air denied or air incapable . Because aeroplanes generally take off from designed airfields on missions typically involving some hours of cruising , the precise state of air superiority is fluid and less defined vis-a-vis land or sea warfare . For example , a contested airspace directly above a battlespace bristling with anti-aircraft weapons may be denied to the air forces of both sides . Further , the completely different situations of a technologically advanced airforce with one flight of high-tech planes ( air supremacy but low capacity ) or a low-tech force of massive numbers of low-tech planes ( e.g. , An-2 ) resulting in high capacity but low long-term survivability demonstrate that ` air power ' is multi-faceted and complex .   Significant contributors to theorizing about air power have been Giulio Douhet , Billy Mitchell , John Boyd and John A. Warden III .   At the start of World War I , opinions differed on the national air forces and the value of airships .  Some early strategists/visionaries after World War I imagined that airpower alone would suffice to bring nations to their knees . The Bombing of Guernica was an early trial that revealed both capabilities and limitations . But yet another maxim , `` no war was ever won solely by airpower '' was challenged by the NATO victory in Kosovo . Airpower has been used to conduct lightning strategic strikes , to complement land offensives , to instill fear and lower morale similarly to a fleet in being , and to create broad-based destruction behind enemy lines . With airpower , supplies can be transported by cargo planes , providing a decisive edge in mobility .   Military and civilian aircraft interact in a number of complex ways , including shootdowns of civilian planes , whether mistaken or not ; military escorts of civilian planes ; civilian planes being used for military transport , espionage , or other purposes ; and/or no-fly zones being enforced to punish or sanction a target nation . Airpower also relates to space power , although militarization of space remains regulated by international treaty .   Developed nations have enjoyed a consistent advantage in airpower since the beginning of mechanized flight . Airpower has been wielded mostly decisively in the last hundred years by Nazi Germany , the United Kingdom , the United States , the Soviet Union , Japan , Italy , and France , with many client nations using aircraft developed by one or more of these nations . A mass technological base is considered necessary for the development of airpower .

neg: History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom The history of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom covers British foreign policy from about 1600 to 2000 . For the current situation since 2000 see Foreign relations of the United Kingdom .   Britain from 1750 to the 1910s took pride in an unmatched economic base comprising industry , finance , shipping and trade that largely dominated the globe . Foreign policy based on free trade ( after 1840 ) kept the economy flourishing . The overseas Empire recovered after the loss of America in 1776 and reached its zenith about 1920 , and foreign policy made sure it was never seriously threatened .   After expending enormous energy on the defeat of France and Napoleon ( 1793-1815 ) , British policy focused on achieving a conservative balance of power within Europe , with no one country achieving dominance over the affairs of the continent . This had been the basic reason behind the British wars against Napoleon , and the British commitment in the First and Second World Wars . The chief enemy down to 1815 was France , with its much larger population base and its powerful army . The British were generally successful in their many wars , with the notable exception of the American War of Independence ( 1775 -- 1783 ) . In that war Britain , without any major allies , was defeated by the colonials who had the support of France and the Netherlands , and France had support from Spain .   A favoured diplomatic strategy was subsidising the armies of continental allies , such as Prussia , thereby turning London 's enormous financial power to military advantage . Britain relied heavily on its Royal Navy for security , seeking to keep it the most powerful fleet afloat with a full complement of bases across the globe . British dominance of the seas was vital to the formation of the British Empire , which was achieved through the maintenance of a Navy larger than the next two largest Navies combined for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries , prior to the entry of the United States into the Second World War . The British controlled the oceans . So powerful was the Royal Navy , it needed to do little actual fighting from 1812 to 1914 . Although all of the other major Powers fought with their neighbours , the British army had only one relatively limited war ( the Crimean War against Russia in 1854-56 ) . The Army mostly handled garrison duty , and did have to deal with localized insurrections and colonial conflicts in Asia and Africa .

neg: Philippines–United States relations Philippines -- United States relations ( Filipino : Ugnayang Pilipinas at Estados Unidos ) are bilateral relations between the United States of America and its former colony , the Republic of the Philippines . The relationship between the United States and the Philippines has historically been strong and has been described as a Special Relationship . The current Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte , however , is supportive of a foreign policy that is less dependent on the United States , favoring one that prioritizes closer relations with China instead . The Philippines is one of the oldest Asian partners of the U.S. and a strategically major non-NATO ally . The United States was consistently ranked as one of the Philippines ' favorite nations in the world , with 90 % of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and 91 % viewing Americans favorably in 2002 , 90 % of Filipinos viewing U.S. influence positively in 2011 , 85 % of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and Americans favorably in 2013 , and 92 % of Filipinos viewing the U.S. favorably in 2015 , and 89 % having confidence in United States president , Barack Obama in 2014 , making the Philippines the most pro-American country in the world . On October 20 , 2016 , the President of the Philippines announced a `` separation '' from the US , both militarily and economically , in favor of alliances with China and Russia .   This article discusses Philippine -- American relations after Philippine independence from the United States in 1946 , while the article History of the Philippines ( 1898 -- 1946 ) describes the history of the Philippines during American colonial rule .

neg: History of the United States The date of the start of the history of the United States is a subject of debate among historians . Older textbooks start with the arrival of Christopher Columbus on October 12 , 1492 and emphasize the European background of the colonization of the Americas , or they start around 1600 and emphasize the American frontier . In recent decades American schools and universities typically have shifted back in time to include more on the colonial period and much more on the prehistory of the Native Americans .   Indigenous people lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years before European colonists began to arrive , mostly from England , after 1600 . The Spanish built small settlements in Florida and the Southwest , and the French along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast . By the 1770s , thirteen British colonies contained two and a half million people along the Atlantic coast east of the Appalachian Mountains . After the end of the French and Indian Wars in the 1760s , the British government imposed a series of new taxes , rejecting the colonists ' argument that any new taxes had to be approved by them ( see Stamp Act 1765 ) . Tax resistance , especially the Boston Tea Party ( 1773 ) , led to punitive laws ( the Intolerable Acts ) by Parliament designed to end self-government in Massachusetts . American Patriots ( as they called themselves ) adhered to a political ideology called republicanism that emphasized civic duty , virtue , and opposition to corruption , fancy luxuries and aristocracy .   Armed conflict began in 1775 as Patriots drove the royal officials out of every colony and assembled in mass meetings and conventions . In 1776 , the Second Continental Congress declared that there was a new , independent nation , the United States of America , not just a collection of disparate colonies . With large-scale military and financial support from France and the military leadership of General George Washington , the American Patriots won the Revolutionary War . The peace treaty of 1783 gave the new nation the land east of the Mississippi River ( except Florida and Canada ) . The central government established by the Articles of Confederation proved ineffectual at providing stability , as it had no authority to collect taxes and had no executive officer . Congress called a convention to meet secretly in Philadelphia in 1787 . It wrote a new Constitution , which was adopted in 1789 . In 1791 , a Bill of Rights was added to guarantee inalienable rights . With Washington as the first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief political and financial adviser , a strong central government was created . When Thomas Jefferson became president he purchased the Louisiana Territory from France , doubling the size of the United States . A second and final war with Britain was fought in 1812 .   Encouraged by the notion of Manifest Destiny , federal territory expanded all the way to the Pacific . The U.S. always was large in terms of area , but its population was small , only 4 million in 1790 . Population growth was rapid , reaching 7.2 million in 1810 , 32 million in 1860 , 76 million in 1900 , 132 million in 1940 , and 321 million in 2015 . Economic growth in terms of overall GDP was even faster . However , compared to European powers , the nation 's military strength was relatively limited in peacetime before 1940 . The expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave owners . The expansion of slavery was increasingly controversial and fueled political and constitutional battles , which were resolved by compromises . Slavery was abolished in all states north of the Mason -- Dixon line by 1804 , but the South continued to profit off the institution , producing high-value cotton exports to feed increasing high demand in Europe . The 1860 presidential election of Republican Abraham Lincoln was on a platform of ending the expansion of slavery and putting it on a path to extinction .   Seven cotton-based deep South slave states seceded and later founded the Confederacy four months before Lincoln 's inauguration . No nation ever recognized the Confederacy , but it opened the war by attacking Fort Sumter in 1861 . A surge of nationalist outrage in the North fueled a long , intense American Civil War ( 1861 -- 1865 ) . It was fought largely in the South as the overwhelming material and manpower advantages of the North proved decisive in a long war . The war 's result was restoration of the Union , the impoverishment of the South , and the abolition of slavery . In the Reconstruction era ( 1863 -- 1877 ) , legal and voting rights were extended to the freed slave . The national government emerged much stronger , and because of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 , it gained the explicit duty to protect individual rights . However , when white Democrats regained their power in the South during the 1870s , often by paramilitary suppression of voting , they passed Jim Crow laws to maintain white supremacy , and new disfranchising constitutions that prevented most African Americans and many poor whites from voting , a situation that continued for decades until gains of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and passage of federal legislation to enforce constitutional rights .   The United States became the world 's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th century due to an outburst of entrepreneurship in the Northeast and Midwest and the arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers from Europe . The national railroad network was completed with the work of Chinese immigrants and large-scale mining and factories industrialized the Northeast and Midwest . Mass dissatisfaction with corruption , inefficiency and traditional politics stimulated the Progressive movement , from the 1890s to 1920s , which led to many social and political reforms . In 1920 , the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed women 's suffrage ( right to vote ) . This followed the 16th and 17th amendments in 1913 , which established the first national income tax and direct election of US senators to Congress . Initially neutral during World War I , the US declared war on Germany in 1917 and later funded the Allied victory the following year .   After a prosperous decade in the 1920s , the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset of the decade-long worldwide Great Depression . Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended the Republican dominance of the White House and implemented his New Deal programs for relief , recovery , and reform . The New Deal , which defined modern American liberalism , included relief for the unemployed , support for farmers , Social Security and a minimum wage . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 , 1941 , the United States entered World War II along with Britain , the Soviet Union , China , and the smaller number of Allied nations . The U.S. financed the Allied war effort and helped defeat Nazi Germany in the European theater . Its involvement culminated in using the newly invented nuclear weapons on Japanese cities that helped defeat Imperial Japan in the Pacific theater .   The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers after World War II . During the Cold War , the US and the USSR confronted each other indirectly in the arms race , the Space Race , proxy wars , and propaganda campaigns . US foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the support of Western Europe and Japan along with the policy of containment , stopping the spread of communism . The US joined the wars in Korea and Vietnam to try to stop its spread . In the 1960s , in large part due to the strength of the civil rights movement , another wave of social reforms were enacted by enforcing the constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement to African-Americans and other racial minorities . Native American activism also rose . The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union officially dissolved in 1991 , leaving the United States as the world 's only superpower .   After the Cold War , the United States focused on international conflicts around the Middle East in response to the Gulf War in the early 1990s . The beginning of the 21st century saw the September 11 attacks by Al-Qaeda in 2001 , which would later followed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . In 2008 , the United States had its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression , which has been followed by slower than usual rates of economic growth during the 2010s .

neg: Special Relationship The Special Relationship is the unofficial term for the exceptionally close political , diplomatic , cultural , economic , military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States . It was used in a 1946 speech by Winston Churchill . Although both the United Kingdom and United States have close relationships with many other nations , the level of cooperation between them in economic activity , trade and commerce , military planning , execution of military operations , nuclear weapons technology , and intelligence sharing has been described as `` unparalleled '' among major powers .   The United Kingdom and United States have been close allies in numerous military and political conflicts throughout the 20th and 21st centuries including World War I , World War II , the Korean War , the Cold War , the Gulf War , and the War on Terror .

neg: Kingdom of Great Britain The United Kingdom of Great Britain , officially Great Britain , was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800 . The state came into being following the Treaty of Union in 1706 , ratified by the Acts of Union 1707 , which united the kingdoms of England and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands . It did not include Ireland , which remained a separate realm . The unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster . The former kingdoms had been in personal union since James VI , King of Scots , became King of England and King of Ireland in 1603 following the death of Queen Elizabeth I , bringing about a `` Union of the Crowns '' . Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714 , the kingdom was in a personal union with the Electorate of Hanover .   The early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746 . Later on in 1763 , victory in the Seven Years ' War led to the dominance of the British Empire , which was to become the foremost global power for over a century and later grew to become the largest empire in history .   On 1 January 1801 , the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1922 , five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom and the state was renamed the `` United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland '' -- a title it has retained to date .

neg: United States Navy in World War II The United States Navy grew rapidly during World War II from 1941 -- 45 , and played the central role in the war against Japan , and ( after the British Royal Navy ) a major role in the European war against Germany and Italy .   The U.S. Navy grew into a formidable force in the years prior to World War II , with battleship production being restarted in 1937 , commencing with the . It was able to add to its fleets during the early years of the war while the US was still neutral , increasing production of vessels both large and small , deploying a navy of nearly 350 major combatant ships by December 1941 and having an equal number under construction .   The Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) sought naval superiority in the Pacific by sinking the main American battle fleet at Pearl Harbor , which was built around its battleships . The December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor did knock out the battle fleet , but it did not touch the aircraft carriers , which became the mainstay of the rebuilt fleet .   Naval doctrine had to be changed overnight . The United States Navy ( like the IJN ) had followed Alfred Thayer Mahan 's emphasis on concentrated groups of battleships as the main offensive naval weapons . The loss of the battleships at Pearl Harbor forced Admiral Ernest J. King , the head of the Navy , to place primary emphasis on the small number of aircraft carriers .   The U.S. Navy grew tremendously as the United States was faced with a two-front war on the seas . It achieved notable acclaim in the Pacific Theater , where it was instrumental to the Allies ' successful `` island hopping '' campaign . The U.S. Navy fought six great battles with the Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) : the Attack on Pearl Harbor , Battle of the Coral Sea , the Battle of Midway , the Battle of the Philippine Sea , the Battle of Leyte Gulf , and the Battle of Okinawa .   By war 's end in 1945 , the United States Navy had added nearly 1,200 major combatant ships , including 27 aircraft carriers and 8 battleships , and had over 70 % of the world 's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1,000 tons or greater .


query: Lewis Hamilton was named Personality of the Year.

pos: Lewis Hamilton Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton , MBE ( born 7 January 1985 ) is a British Formula One racing driver from England , currently racing for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team . A three-time Formula One World Champion , he is regarded by fellow and former drivers as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in the history of the sport . He won his first title with McLaren in 2008 before moving to Mercedes , where he won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015 .   In December 1995 , at the age of ten , he approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony and told him , `` I want to race for you one day ... I want to race for McLaren . '' Less than three years later McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed him to their Young Driver Support Programme . After winning the British Formula Renault , Formula Three Euroseries , and GP2 championships on his way up the racing career ladder , he drove for McLaren in 2007 , making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis . Hamilton 's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in a Formula One drive .   Coming from a mixed background , with a black father and white mother , Hamilton is the first black driver to race in Formula One . Hamilton commented on this , saying `` The way I see it , my colour is an advantage in that it 's something people talk about '' , `` Being the first black man does n't matter much to me personally , but for the sport itself it probably means quite a lot . ''   In his first season in Formula One , Hamilton set numerous records while finishing second in the 2007 Formula One Championship , just one point behind Kimi Räikkönen . He won the World Championship the following season in dramatic fashion , becoming the then-youngest Formula One World Champion in history before Sebastian Vettel broke the record two years later . Following his second world title in 2014 , he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year . In 2015 , he became the first British driver in history to win consecutive F1 titles , and the second British driver to win three titles after Jackie Stewart . He also became the first English driver to reach that milestone . He is the first driver in the history of F1 to have made the podium after starting 20th place or lower at least 3 times . He is the only driver in the history of the sport to have won at least one race in each season he has competed to date , with McLaren from 2007 until 2012 , and with Mercedes since 2013 . He has more race victories than any other British driver in the history of Formula One . His Grand Prix victories is the second highest of all-time having surpassed Alain Prost 's total of 51 at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix , behind only Michael Schumacher at 91 . Hamilton also holds the record for most wins in the season without winning the World Championship , after winning 10 times in the 2016 season where he finished runner-up to teammate Nico Rosberg .

neg: Hamilton's Quest Hamilton 's Quest was a Canadian television series that ran from 1986 to 1988 .

neg: Lewis–Mogridge Position The Lewis -- Mogridge Position , named after David Lewis and Martin J. H. Mogridge , was formulated in 1990 and observes that the more roads are built , the more traffic there is to fill these roads . Speed gains from some new roads can disappear within months , if not weeks . Sometimes , new roads help to reduce traffic jams , but in most cases , the congestion is only shifted to another junction .   The position reads traffic expands to meet the available road space ( Mogridge , 1990 ) . It is generally referred to as induced demand in the transport literature , and was posited as the `` Iron Law of Congestion '' by Anthony Downs . It is a special case of Jevons paradox ( where the resource in question is traffic capacity ) , and relates to the Marchetti 's constant ( average commute times are similar in widely varying conditions ) .   Following the Lewis -- Mogridge Position , it is not generally concluded that new roads are never justified but that their development needs to consider the whole traffic system , which means understanding the movement of goods and people in detail as well as the motivation behind the movement .   The Lewis -- Mogridge Position is often used to understand problems caused by private transport such as congested roads in cities and on motorways . It can also be used to explain the success of schemes such as the London congestion charge .   The position , however , is not confined to private transport . Mogridge , a British transport researcher , concluded also that all road investment in a congested urban area will have the effect of reducing the average speed of the transport system as a whole : road and public transport . The relationship and overall equilibria is also known as the `` Downs -- Thomson paradox '' . However , according to Downs , the link between average speeds on public transport and private transport applies only `` to regions in which the vast majority of peak-hour commuting is done on rapid transit systems with separate rights of way . Central London is an example , since in 2001 around 85 percent of all morning peak-period commuters into that area used public transit ( including 77 percent on separate rights of way ) and only 11 percent used private cars . When peak-hour travel equilibrium has been reached between the subway system and the major commuting roads , then the travel time required for any given trip is roughly equal on both modes . ''

neg: Bertie Lewis Hubert `` Bertie '' Lewis ( 22 July 1920 -- 21 December 2010 ) was a World War II RAF airman who went on to become a peace campaigner in the UK . Bertie Lewis became well known for his opposition to nuclear weapons and the wars in which his adopted and his native country were engaged .

neg: Golden Years Golden Years or The Golden Years may refer to :   In music :  Golden Years ( album ) , an album by David Bowie  The Golden Years ( EP ) , an EP by Motörhead  `` Golden Years '' ( song ) , a song by David Bowie  The Golden Year ( Ou Est Le Swimming Pool album ) , an album by Ou Est le Swimming Pool  `` Golden Years '' , a song by Disco Ensemble   In film , television and theatre :  The Golden Years ( 1960 film ) , a 1960 film about bowling  The Golden Years ( 1993 film ) , a 1993 Croatian film  Golden Years ( 2016 film ) , a 2016 British film  Golden Years ( 2017 film ) , a 2017 French film  Golden Years ( TV series ) , a 1991 American miniseries from Stephen King  Golden Years ( TV programme ) , a 1998 British TV comedy starring Ricky Gervais  `` The Golden Years '' ( Kim Possible ) , an episode of Kim Possible  The Golden Years ( play ) , 1940 radio play , first produced in 1987 , by Arthur Miller

neg: 2015 Singapore Grand Prix The 2015 Singapore Grand Prix ( formally known as the 2015 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix ) was a Formula One motor race held on 20 September 2015 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay , Singapore . The race was the thirteenth round of the season . It was the eighth time the race was run as a round of the Formula One World Championship .   Defending race winner Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes entered as the leader in the World Drivers ' Championship with 252 points , 53 points ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg and 74 points ahead of Ferrari 's Sebastian Vettel . Mercedes came into the race leading the Constructors ' Championship by 181 points ahead of Ferrari , with Williams a further 82 points back in third place .   Vettel won the race from pole position , ahead of Red Bull 's Daniel Ricciardo in second and Vettel 's Ferrari teammate Kimi Räikkönen in third . The Mercedes team struggled at Singapore ; Lewis Hamilton recorded his first retirement of the season , while Nico Rosberg managed only fourth place , closing the gap in the championship to 41 points .

neg: Know Your Sport Know Your Sport is an Irish sports quiz show produced by RTÉ between 8 October 1987 and 1 April 1998 . The show was presented by George Hamilton and featured Jimmy Magee and Mary Hogan as scorekeeper .   Rounds of questions included the `` specialist subject '' , `` great moment in sport '' , `` mystery guest '' and `` buzzer '' rounds .   In 2009 an appeal to re-introduce the show to RTÉ 's schedule gathered support on networking website , Facebook .

neg: Comedy Central's Indecision 2000 Comedy Central 's Indecision 2000 was a series of special episodes featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart spoofing the 2000 Presidential Election . This series covered the primaries leading up to the general election between George W. Bush and Al Gore . The series featured `` correspondents '' at the Democratic National Convention as well as the Republican National Convention . At the conventions , the correspondents interviewed many politicians in the comedic style that has made The Daily Show famous . On the first episode after election night , Jon Stewart said that the name was a joke and he had not expected people to take it seriously , referring to the debacle in Florida .   This edition of Indecision also included a separate series called Lewis Black 's World of Politics , aired during the Republican and Democratic national conventions and featuring Lewis Black . It was included on Black 's DVD releases Lewis Black - Unleashed in 2003 .   In 2000 , Indecision 2000 won a Peabody Award .

neg: Lewis Carroll: A Biography Lewis Carroll : A Biography is a 1995 biography of author Lewis Carroll by Morton N. Cohen , first published by Knopf , later by Macmillan . It is generally considered to be the definitive scholarly work on Carroll 's ( real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ) life . Cohen 's approach is mainly chronological , with some chapters grouped by theme , such as those on Carroll 's religion , his love of little girls , and his guilty feelings . Cohen , a Carroll scholar for 30 years , opts to use Dodgson 's first name , Charles , throughout the work , because it `` seems most appropriate in a book dealing with the intimacy of his life '' .   The book generally assumes that Carroll 's love of little girls was not just emotional but sexual -- that he was a paedophile , albeit a suppressed one . In the book Cohen writes :  `` We can not know to what extent sexual urges lay behind Charles 's preference for drawing and photographing children in the nude . He contended that the preference was entirely aesthetic . But given his emotional attachment to children as well as his aesthetic appreciation of their forms , his assertion that his interest was strictly artistic is naïve . He probably felt more than he dared acknowledge , even to himself . ''  While attributing the source of Carroll 's chaotic emotional life to his sexual urges , Cohen opined that they were also responsible for his creative works .   Karoline Leach in In the Shadow of the Dreamchild ( 1999 ) writes that Cohen and previous biographers misunderstood the norms and customs of the Victorian era , and that Carroll 's adulation of children was not sexual but a reflection of the romanticisation of the child prevalent in that era . Contrariwise , a website set up by opponents ( including Leach ) of the tradition Carroll image , reports that while Cohen acknowledges the paedophilic nature of Carroll 's image , he `` Inexplicably he lists the numbers of intimate woman-friends that Dodgson had through his life , yet still concludes that his existence revolved exclusively around friendships with small girls ! ''   Jo Elwyn Jones and J. Francis Gladstone in The Alice Companion : A Guide to Lewis Carroll 's Alice Books ( 1998 ) criticises the book for what they say is a poor treatment of Carroll 's involvement in controversies at the University of Oxford . Megan Harlan in Entertainment Weekly writes that `` This beautifully written bio never shies away from the house-of-mirrors complexity of its subject . '' An issue of Victorian Studies reported that there were issues with inconsistent references . Miles Edward Friend compares Cohen 's handling of the material to Carroll 's boat trips with the children , saying , `` With Cohen at the tiller , we are deftly guided through the flow of Carroll 's life . '' Ronald Warwick in Times Higher Education criticises Cohen 's interpretation of Carroll 's relationship with his archdeacon father ; his `` insecure grasp of 19th-century ecclesiastical history '' ; his prose , which Warwich called cliched ; and his choice to use Dodgson 's first name , which Warwick said was not used even by Dodgson 's most intimate male friends .

neg: BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year is an award presented at the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony . The award is presented to a non-British sportsperson considered to have made the most substantial contribution to a sport in that year . The award was decided by a panel of over 30 sporting journalists . Each panellist voted for their top two choices ; their first preference was awarded two points , and their second preference was awarded one point . The winning sportsperson had the most total points . In the case of a points tie , the sportsperson chosen as first preference by the most panellists is the winner . If this is also a tie the award is shared . In 2015 the public voted for this award .   The Overseas Personality award was first presented in 1960 , six years after the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award was introduced . The first recipient of the award was Australian middle distance runner Herb Elliott . Since then , the award has been presented to 49 sportspersons . American boxer Muhammad Ali , Swiss tennis player Roger Federer and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt have each won the award three times , while Australian golfer Greg Norman won the award twice . The award has been shared on three occasions -- by Ron Clarke and Gary Player in 1965 , Eusébio and Garfield Sobers in 1966 , and Evander Holyfield and Michael Johnson in 1996 . The husband-and-wife skating duo of Oleg Protopopov and Ludmila Belousova are the only pair to have won the award , doing so in 1968 . Belousova was the first woman to become Overseas Personality -- she was also the oldest , aged 33 . George Moore is the oldest recipient of the award , winning in 1967 aged 44 . The youngest recipient of the award is Nadia Comăneci , who won in 1976 at age 15 . Boris Becker , who was 18 when he won in 1985 , is the youngest male to have won .   Twenty different countries have been represented by the award winners . United States sportspersons have won the award the most times , having had nineteen recipients , two of whom shared the award . Three cricketers have received the award -- Garfield Sobers of Barbados , Brian Lara of Trinidad and Tobago ( both of whom played for the West Indies cricket team ) , and Shane Warne of Australia . Thirteen sporting disciplines have been represented ; tennis has the highest representation , with fourteen recipients . The most recent recipient in 2016 was American gymnast Simone Biles .   Only one winner has ever been stripped of the award -- US cyclist Lance Armstrong , whose 2003 award was rescinded by the BBC following the UCI 's 2012 decision to strip Armstrong of his titles and ban him for life from the sport .

neg: A Moment Like This `` A Moment Like This '' is the debut single by American singer Kelly Clarkson , the winner of the first season of American Idol . It was released as a double-A side with `` Before Your Love '' and topped the Billboard Hot 100 . The song was later included on her debut album , Thankful ( 2003 ) . It is her coronation song from American Idol .   In 2006 , the song was recorded and released by British singer Leona Lewis , the winner of the third series of The X Factor . Her version gained the Christmas number one , outselling the rest of the top 40 combined . Lewis ' version has sold 914,000 copies as of 2015 .

neg: Lewis Costello Lewis Costello ( born 7 February 1993 ) is an English comedian , writer , and actor . His style involves storytelling and discussing popular culture . Stuart Holmes of CityLife commented ; `` Running through a mixture of laddish humour , original observations , and a particularly clever deconstruction of Biblical events ... He has both the confidence and material to go far in a competitive industry , and is certainly a talent to watch out for in the near future . ''

neg: John R. Hamilton (architect) John R. Hamilton was an English architect who moved to Cincinnati , Ohio . In England Hamilton designed the Lincoln and Worcester Insane Asylums ; the Birmingham , Plymouth , and Leicester Cemeteries ; and churches in London and Oxford ( according to an affidavit ) . He is believed to have come to the U.S. in approximately 1850 and to Cincinnati in approximately 1852 . According to the Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati 's Biographical Dictionary of Cincinnati Architects : `` relatively little is known about Hamilton 's American career , but he seems to have been a fine designer , willing to explore new technology , and with a significant influence through his pupils on later 19th-century Cincinnati-area architecture . ''   He is listed on his own in 1853-1855 , with Rankin , 1856 -- 1857 , and with James W. McLaughlin in 1857-1858 . Prominent Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford , born in England and brought to the Cincinnati area as a child , got his start in Hamilton 's office in 1857 .   Hamilton won a silver medal at the Ohio Mechanics ' Institute for his ` Paintings , Lithographic , Architectural , and other Drawings . ' He may have been in New York City at 36 Wall Street by 1859 ( or 1858 , according to Haverstock ) , and was `` made a Fellow of the fledgling American Institute of Architects in 1860 . '' According to Haverstock , page 369 , `` he served during the Civil War as special artist for Harper 's Weekly , traveling as far south as Port Hudson , Louisiana , '' and was in Richmond , Virginia , from about 1864 to 1866 . Hamilton was an early member of the Literary Club of Cincinnati ( 1857 ) .   In 1854 Hamilton won a design competition for the Henry Clay Monument in the Lexington , Kentucky Cemetery , a Gothic dome `` constructed entirely and innovatively of cast-iron '' , but it was not built and a `` more conventional ( if provincial ) column , raised on an Egyptoid mausoleum base , supported a statue of Clay . ''   The Horticultural Review and Botanical Magazine ( published in Cincinnati by H.W. Derby -LSB- a Hamilton & Rankin client -RSB- and edited by John Aston Warder and James W. Ward ) published Hamilton 's Charles Anderson House ( later Broadwell House ) at SEC Fifth and Pike streets in downtown Cincinnati , and ran a series of signed articles on architecture by Hamilton . The article about `` rural architecture '' are `` perhaps '' the earliest known architectural writings by a Cincinnati-based architect , announced by the publication 's editor in the first issue of the volume , IV , 1 ( 1/1854 ) , 47 .

neg: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 Fear and Loathing : On the Campaign Trail '72 is a collection of articles covering the 1972 presidential campaign written by Hunter S. Thompson and illustrated by Ralph Steadman . The articles were first serialized in Rolling Stone magazine throughout 1972 and later released as a book in early 1973 ( San Francisco , CA : Straight Arrow Books , 1973 ; London : Allison & Busby , 1973 ) .   The book focuses almost exclusively on the Democratic Party 's primaries and the breakdown of the party as it splits between the different candidates . Of particular focus is the manic maneuvering of the George McGovern campaign during the Miami convention as they sought to ensure the Democratic nomination despite attempts by the Hubert Humphrey campaign and other candidates to block McGovern .   Thompson began his coverage of the campaign in December 1971 , just as the race toward the primaries was beginning , from a rented apartment in Washington , DC ( a situation he compared to `` living in an armed camp , a condition of constant fear '' ) . Over the next 12 months , in voluminous detail , he covered every aspect of the campaign , from the smallest rally to the raucous conventions .   Because of the freewheeling nature of the campaign , a first-generation fax machine was procured at great expense by the magazine for Thompson . Dubbing it `` the mojo wire '' , Thompson used the new technology to extend the writing process precariously close to printing deadlines , often haphazardly sending in notes mere hours before the magazine went to press . Fellow writers and editors would have to assemble the finished product with Thompson over the phone .   Like his earlier novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Thompson employed a number of unique literary styles in On the Campaign Trail , including the use of vulgarity and the humorous exaggeration of events . Despite the unconventional style , the book is still considered a hallmark of campaign journalism and helped to launch Thompson 's role as a popular political observer .

neg: Lewis Hamilton (footballer) Lewis Emmanuel Hamilton ( born 21 November 1984 ) is an English footballer who plays for Horsham .

neg: Lewis Hamilton (disambiguation) Lewis Hamilton ( born 1985 ) is a British Formula One racing driver .   Lewis Hamilton may also refer to :   Lewis Hamilton ( footballer ) ( born 1984 ) , English footballer  Lewis Hamilton ( Cars ) , fictional character  SS Lewis Hamilton , cargo ship  Lewis Hamilton : Secret Life , alternate reality game

neg: Hamilton's Pharmacopeia Hamilton 's Pharmacopeia is a Vice series featuring Hamilton Morris .

neg: Carroll Levis Carroll Richard Levis ( March 15 , 1910 -- October 17 , 1968 ) was a talent scout , impresario and television and radio personality . Born in Toronto , Ontario , Canada , and brought up in Vancouver , he moved to England in 1935 and joined the BBC , where he hosted a regular programme showcasing unknown performers discovered through his touring stage show . In 1939 he appeared in the film `` Discoveries '' . In 1948 he starred in the British mystery film Brass Monkey , in which he played himself . He also had an acting role in The Depraved ( 1957 ) .   In 1945 , Levis was featured in a concert show which entertained troops of the First Canadian Army . In the 1950s he hosted a talent competition for young people called The Carroll Levis Discovery Show . In 1961 he removed himself from the public eye , only to attempt a return in 1968 after a four-year struggle with a stomach ailment . He died the same year .

neg: 2014 iHeartRadio Music Awards The 2014 iHeartRadio Music Awards , was the inaugural music award show presented by iHeartMedia 's platform iHeartRadio and NBC . The awards were held on May 1 , 2014 , at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles . The awards show was announced on February 26 , 2014 . The nominations were compiled by the results of Mediabase charts , listener feedback and digital straming data from the iHeartRadio platform and announced on March 26 , 2014 . The awards recognized the biggest artists and songs of the year . The show was directed by Hamish Hamilton . The voting took place on iHeartRadio 's official webpage except for the `` Instagram Award '' , where voting took place on social network Instagram .   Rihanna led the nominations with eight and also became the biggest winner of the night with four wins including Artist of the Year and Song of the Year .   NBC 's telecast of the iHeartRadio Music Awards drew 5.4 million viewers overall and a rating of 1.7 in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic .

neg: Lewiston, New York Lewiston is a village in Niagara County , New York , United States . The population was 2,701 at the 2010 census . The village is named after Morgan Lewis , an early 19th-century governor of New York . It is part of the Buffalo -- Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area .   The Village of Lewiston , NY ( also known as Yehęwakwáʼthaʼ in Tuscarora ) is within the Town of Lewiston . The Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park lies at its southern border . Lewiston was selected by Rand McNally as one of the `` Top Ten Best Small Towns in America '' in November 2012 .   Lewiston is situated on the Niagara River , just across the river from Canada . The Niagara River intersects the Niagara Escarpment between Lewiston and Queenston , Ontario , identifying the Lewiston-Queenston section of the escarpment as the geologic origin of Niagara Falls . Over a roughly 12,500 year span , the falls has eroded nearly 7 miles south from Lewiston to its present location in Niagara Falls , NY , creating the 7 mile long Niagara Gorge . Lewiston lies halfway between the world-famous Niagara Falls and historic Fort Niagara in Youngstown , New York . Niagara Falls is about a ten-minute drive to the south . Visitors from Canada can take the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge across the Niagara River .   Popular summer festivals include the Outdoor Art Festival ( the second weekend in August ) and the Historic Lewiston Jazz Festival ( the last weekend in August ) . The famous Kiwanis Peach Festival takes place during the second weekend of September . Several other festivals , such as the Harvest Fest , take place during the year . Most are held on or near Center Street , the Village 's main street ( 18F North ) .   Lewiston recently won an online voting contest sponsored by USA Today and Rand McNally for `` Best for Food '' small town in America , beating 176 other communities . Lewiston has over 30 locally owned and operated restaurant/food establishments within a mile , located primarily on Center Street , catering to a variety of tastes . It was also designated in the same contest as one of the `` Top Ten Best Small Towns in America . ''

neg: Tom Hamilton (American football) Thomas James `` Tom '' Hamilton ( December 26 , 1905 -- April 3 , 1994 ) was an American football player , coach , college athletics administrator , and naval aviator who rose to the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy . He served as the head football coach at the United States Naval Academy from 1934 to 1936 and again from 1946 to 1947 and at the University of Pittsburgh in 1951 and 1954 , compiling a career college football record of 28 -- 32 -- 1 . Hamilton was also the athletic director at the Naval Academy from 1948 to 1948 and at Pittsburgh from 1949 to 1959 . From 1959 to 1971 , he was the commissioner of the Athletic Association of Western Universities , renamed the Pacific-8 Conference in 1968 and now known as the Pac-12 Conference . Hamilton was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1965 .