Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The city is located on the north bank of the Potomac River and is bordered by the states of Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the other sides. The District has a resident population of 591,833; however, due to commuters from the surrounding suburbs, its population rises to over one million during the workweek. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are located in the District, as are many of the nation's monuments and museums. Washington, D.C. hosts 173 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The United States Congress has supreme authority over Washington, D.C.; residents of the city therefore have less self-governance than residents of the states.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.

_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1320:

After reuniting Poland, Władysław the Short was crowned king in Kraków. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_I_the_Elbow-high)

1839:

Chilean troops decisively defeated the forces of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation at the Battle of Yungay in the Ancash Region of Peru, effectively ending the War of the Confederation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yungay)

1892:

The first official basketball game was played at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball)

1921:

The first Turkish Constitution was ratified by the Grand National Assembly, making fundamental changes in Turkey by enshrining the principle of national sovereignty. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Constitution_of_1921)

1942:

World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials decided the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", accelerating The Holocaust. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution)

_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

rational (adj) 1. Reasonable; not absurd, foolish, emotional, or fanciful. 2. Capable of reasoning. 3. (arithmetic) Capable of being expressed as the ratio of two integers. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rational)

______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I love child things because there's so much mystery when you're a child. When you're a child, something as simple as a tree doesn't make sense. You see it in the distance and it looks small, but as you go closer, it seems to grow -- you haven't got a handle on the rules when you're a child. We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experienced is a narrowing of the imagination. --David Lynch (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lynch)