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Land

American Samoa is a self-governing, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the south Pacific Ocean, within the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. Centered on 14.3°S 170.7°W / -14.3; -170.7, it is 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the island country of Samoa, east of the International Date Line and the French territory of Wallis and Futuna, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 310 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii, and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. American Samoa consists of the eastern part of the Samoan archipelago – the inhabited volcanic islands of Tutuila, Aunuʻu, Ofu, Olosega and Taʻū and the uninhabited Rose Atoll – as well as Swains Island, a remote coral atoll in the Tokelau volcanic island group. The total land area is 77 square miles (199 km2), slightly larger than Washington, D.C.; including its territorial waters, the total area is 117,500 square miles (304,000 km2), about the size of New Zealand. American Samoa has a tropical climate, with 90 percent of its land covered by rainforests. As of 2024, the population is approximately 47,400 and concentrated on Tutuila, which hosts the capital and largest settlement, Pago Pago. The vast majority of residents are indigenous ethnic Samoans, most of whom are fluent in the official languages, Samoan and English. Inhabited by Polynesians since prehistoric times, American Samoa was first contacted by Europeans in the 18th century. The islands attracted missionaries, explorers, and mariners, particularly to the highly protected natural harbor of Pago Pago. The United States took possession of American Samoa in the late 19th century, developing it into a major naval outpost; the territory's strategic value was reinforced by the Second World War and subsequent Cold War. In 1967, American Samoa became self-governing with the adoption of a constitution; its local government is republican in form, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches. It remains officially unorganized and is thus directly administered by the federal government. American Samoa is listed among seventeen "non-self-governing territories" as defined by the United Nations, but it is a member of several intergovernmental organizations, including the Pacific Community, Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and International Olympic Committee (IOC). Due to the territory's strategic location, the U.S. military has a significant presence and plays a major role in its economy and society. The territory is noted for having the highest rate of military enlistment of any U.S. state or territory; as of 2021, the local U.S. Army recruiting station in Pago Pago ranked first in recruitment. Tuna products are the main exports, with the U.S. proper serving as the largest trading partner. Tourism is a nascent but underdeveloped sector, owing in part to the territory's relative geographic isolation, which also accounts for its high rate of poverty and emigration. Since the Deeds of Cession were signed in 1900 and 1904, Samoans have avoided further integration into the U.S. system. In 1949, the Department of the Interior moved to incorporate American Samoa through an Organic Act. Afraid that incorporation might undermine the Samoan culture and traditional land ownership, Samoan matai intervened and Congress halted incorporation. Instead, Samoa created its own government, the Samoan Fono, based on indigenous systems of governance. Since then, Samoans have declined to establish a federal district court and refused birthright citizenship; Samoa remains the only U.S. territory with its own immigration system. Many consider residents of American Samoa to be politically disenfranchised, with no voting representation in the U.S. Congress, though American Samoa itself has a democratic system of governance. However, many Samoans have prioritized indigenous culture and government over integration into the United States. American Samoa is the only permanently inhabited territory of the United States in which citizenship is not granted at birth, and people born there are considered "non-citizen nationals" with limited rights. A primary reason that Samoans do not have birthright citizenship is that it is opposed by many Samoans, as evidenced by the unanimous resolution of the Samoan Fono in 2021 against birthright citizenship, and multiple statements and actions by government officials over the decades. The elected representatives of American Samoan people unanimously fear that birthright citizenship would complicate the territory's political structure and lead to the erosion of indigenous governance, collective ownership of indigenous lands, and use of the Samoan language.

Being

Stéphane Chapuisat (born 28 June 1969) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the sporting director of BSC Young Boys. A prolific goalscorer for both club and country (for which he appeared more than 100 times), he spent most of his career with Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, and is regarded as one of the best strikers the club ever had. He represented Switzerland at the 1994 World Cup and two European Championships.

Concept

The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was conceived in 1960 in the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidency during Project Mercury and executed after Project Gemini. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal, "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in his address to the U.S. Congress on May 25, 1961. Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), and all three landed safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Approximately 650 million people worldwide watched this first landing on television. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last, Apollo 17, in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon. Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first crewed flight in 1968. It encountered a major setback in 1967 when the Apollo 1 cabin fire killed the entire crew during a ground test. After the first Moon landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with a plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration. Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these. Five of the remaining six missions achieved landings; but the Apollo 13 landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon, crippling the CSM. The crew barely managed a safe return to Earth by using the Lunar Module as a "lifeboat" on the return journey. Apollo used the Saturn family of rockets as launch vehicles, which were also used for an Apollo Applications Program, which consisted of Skylab, a space station that supported three crewed missions in 1973–1974, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, a joint United States-Soviet Union low Earth orbit mission in 1975. Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones. It stands alone in sending humans to the lunar surface. Apollo 8 was the first crewed mission to leave low Earth orbit and to orbit another celestial body, and Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to land humans on one. Overall, the Apollo program returned 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. The program laid the foundation for NASA's subsequent human spaceflight capability and funded construction of its Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. Apollo also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and human spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers. The only other time humans have left low Earth orbit has been the Artemis II flyby of the Moon in 2026, as part of the Artemis program, established as a successor to Apollo in 2017. Artemis intends to return humans to the Moon's surface no earlier than 2028.

Land

Euboea, also known as Evia, is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only 40 m (130 ft) at its narrowest point), the North Euboean Gulf, and the South Euboean Gulf. In general outline it is a long and narrow island; it is about 180 km (110 mi) long, and varies in breadth from 50 km (31 mi) to 6 km (3.7 mi). Its geographic orientation is from northwest to southeast, and it is traversed throughout its length by a mountain range, which forms part of the chain that bounds Thessaly on the east, and is continued south of Euboia in the lofty islands of Andros, Tinos and Mykonos. It forms most of the regional unit of Euboea, which also includes Skyros and a small area of the Greek mainland.

Being

Dr. John H. Watson is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887). "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (1927) is the last work of Doyle featuring Watson and Holmes, although their last appearance in the canonical timeline is in "His Last Bow" (1917). As Holmes's friend and confidant, Watson has appeared in various films, television series, video games, comics and radio programmes.