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Robert Pfeifle
Robert Pfeifle (1880-1958) was an American politician who served as mayor of the City of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for five terms between 1930 and 1950. A Democrat, Pfeifle led the city through the great depression and World War II. A biography of Pfeifle, ''Dare to be Brave'', was published posthumously in 1977; it was co-written by his granddaughter, Jean Pfeifle McQuade, and a retired reporter, Frank Orpe. Early life Bob Pfeifle was born on April 14, 1880, on a farm in Almont, Pennsylvania (a former crossroads village in what was then farm country, near Sellersville). His parents were Franklin (Frank) and Catherine (Headman) Pfeifle, of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. The family moved in the 1880s, and Bob's primary-school education was at Lansdale. The family moved to Philadelphia when Pfeifle was 12 years old. He served his apprenticeship as a blacksmith there in the 1890s. He did not like the blacksmith trade, but because his father insisted, he finished the apprenticeship; af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayor Of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
The Mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is a political position dating from 1917, arising from the merger of Borough of Bethlehem and the Borough of South Bethlehem, which came together as the city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. J. William Reynolds is the current mayor having been sworn in on January 3, 2021. Term limits In October 1973, just before the 15th mayoral election as the city was about to elect its 6th mayor, the council voted in favor of an ordinance limiting Bethlehem mayors to two full four-year terms (in addition to a partial term as an interim mayor if applicable). The ordinance was never submitted to, or challenged by, the voters. At the time, Bethlehem was the only city in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia that had term limits for mayor. This ordinance was ruled illegal by the Northampton County Court shortly after and mayor Paul Marcincin, who had voted in favor of the ordinance in 1973 when he was on the city council, used the court ruling to run for a third ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fancy Dutch
The Fancy Dutch, also known as the Church Dutch, Gay Dutch (old-fashioned), or Church people, are the Pennsylvania Dutch who do not belong to the Plain Dutch Anabaptist churches. Unlike the Amish, the conservative Dunkards, or Old Order Mennonites, they do not wear plain clothing, and they fight in wars. Many popularly associated characteristics of Pennsylvania Dutch culture, including spielwerk, hex signs, and other aspects of Pennsylvania Dutch art, music, and folklore, are derived from the Fancy Dutch. The tourism industry and mainstream media often erroneously attribute such contributions to the more conservative Plain Dutch, though they would reject these aspects of their more worldly Fancy counterparts. For most of the 19th century, the Fancy Dutch far outnumbered the Plain groups among the Pennsylvania Dutch. But since the two World Wars and the subsequent suppression of the German language in the US, as well as socioeconomic trends generally, there was substantia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion began around September and led to the Wall Street stock market crash of October 24 (Black Thursday). It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. Devastating effects were seen in both rich and poor countries with falling personal income, prices, tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moonshine
Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial distilleries have begun producing their own novelty versions of moonshine, including many flavored varieties. Terminology Different languages and countries have their own terms for moonshine (see ''Moonshine by country''). In English, moonshine is also known as ''mountain dew'', ''choop'', ''hooch'' (abbreviation of ''hoochinoo'', name of a specific liquor, from Tlingit), ''homebrew'', ''mulekick'', ''shine'', ''white lightning'', ''white/corn liquor'', ''white/corn whiskey'', ''pass around'', ''firewater, bootleg''. Fractional crystallization The ethanol may be concentrated in fermented beverages by means of freezing. For example, the name ''applejack'' derives from the traditional method of producing the drink, ''wikt:jack#Verb, jacki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution. Legal status On 2 December 1949, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The Convention came into effect on 25 July 1951 and by December 2013 had been ratified by 82 states. The Convention seeks to combat prostitution, which it regards as "incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person." Parties to the Convention agreed to abolish regulation of individual prostitutes, and to ban brothels and procuring. Some countries not parties to the convention also ban prostitution or the operation of broth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government. Until 2003, the Secret Service was part of the Department of the Treasury, as the agency was founded in 1865 to combat the then-widespread counterfeiting of U.S. currency. Primary missions The Secret Service is mandated by Congress with two distinct and critical national security missions: protecting the nation's leaders and safeguarding the financial and critical infrastructure of the United States. Protective mission The Secret Service is tasked with ensuring the safety of the president of the United States, the vice president of the United States, the president-elect of the United States, the vice president-elect of the United States, and their immediate families; former presidents, their sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prostitution In The United States
Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. Prostitution nevertheless occurs elsewhere in the country. The regulation of prostitution in the country is not among the enumerated powers of the federal government. It is therefore exclusively the domain of the states to permit, prohibit, or otherwise regulate commercial sex under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, except insofar as Congress may regulate it as part of interstate commerce with laws such as the Mann Act. In most states, prostitution is considered a misdemeanor in the category of public order crime–crime that disrupts the order of a community. Prostitution was at one time considered a vagrancy crime. Currently, Nevada is the only U.S. jurisdiction to allow legal prostitution – in the form of regulated brothels – the terms of which are stipula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambling In The United States
In the United States, gambling is legally restricted. In 2008, gambling activities generated gross revenues (the difference between the total amounts wagered minus the funds or "winnings" returned to the players) of $92.27 billion in the United States. The American Gaming Association, an industry trade group, states that gaming in the U.S. is a $240 billion industry, employing 1.7 million people in 40 states. In 2016, gaming taxes contributed $8.85 billion in state and local tax revenues. Critics of gambling argue it leads to increased political corruption, compulsive gambling, and higher crime rates. Others argue that gambling is a type of regressive tax on the individuals in local economies where gambling venues are located. History Authorized types Many levels of government have authorized multiple forms of gambling in an effort to raise money for needed services without raising direct taxes. These include everything from bingo games in church basements, to multimillion-do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prohibition In The United States
In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Led by Pietism, pietistic Protestantism in the United States, Protestants, prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, Domestic violence, family violence, and Saloon bar, saloon-based political corruption. Many communities introduced al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, particularly in major cities such as Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. In France, the decade was known as the ''années folles'' ("crazy years"), emphasizing the era's social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Jazz blossomed, the flapper redefined the modern look for British and American women, and Art Deco peaked. In the wake of the military mobilization of World War I and the Spanish flu, President Warren G. Harding " brought back normalcy" to the United States. The social and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centres and spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
