1. A state in northwestern United States on the Pacific; Also called: Evergreen State.
2. The capital of the United States; Also called: American capital, capital of the United States.
20. Unincorporated community in West Virginia (USA).
21. Village in Nebraska (USA).
3. Borough in New Jersey (USA).
4. City in Arkansas (USA); zip code 71862.
5. City in District of Columbia (USA).
6. City in Georgia (USA); zip code 30673.
7. City in Illinois (USA).
8. City in Indiana (USA); zip code 47501.
9. City in Iowa (USA); zip code 52353.
10. City in Kansas (USA); zip code 66968.
11. City in Kentucky (USA).
12. City in Missouri (USA); zip code 63090.
13. City in North Carolina (USA); zip code 27889.
14. City in Ohio (USA).
15. City in Pennsylvania (USA); zip code 15301.
16. City in Utah (USA); zip code 84780.
17. Town in Louisiana (USA); zip code 70589.
18. Town in Oklahoma (USA); zip code 73093.
19. Town in Virginia (USA); zip code 22747.
(US) State in northwestern US; nicknamed Evergreen State/Chinook State.
area 176,700 sq km/68,206 sq mi.
capital Olympia.
towns and cities Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma.
features Columbia River; Cascade Range, with volcanic peaks in Mount Rainier national park (Mount Rainier 4,392 m/14,410 ft), North Cascades national park, and Mount St Helens national volcanic monument; Olympic Peninsula, with Olympic national forest and Dungeness national wildlife refuge, including the Hoh Rain Forest and Sol Duc Hot Springs; Mount Adams (3,867 m/12,688 ft); Whidbey Island, with Ebey’s Landing national historic reserve and Couperville (founded 1852), and the San Juan Islands; Long Beach Peninsula, including Cape Disappointment Lighthouse (1856), Fort Canby State park, with the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center, and Oysterville, established as an oystering town 1854; Seattle, with the Seattle Art Museum (1991, designed by Robert Venturi), the Klondike gold rush national historic park, the Seattle Center and the Space Needle (both built for the 1962 World’s Fair), Pioneer Square, and the International District (inhabited by Asians, which originated with Chinese workers on the railroads).
including the Nippon Kan Theater; vineyards in the Yakima Valley; 90 dams.
industries apples and other fruits, potatoes, livestock, fish, timber, processed food, wood products, paper and allied products, aircraft and aerospace equipment, aluminum.
including 1.4% Indians, mainly of the Yakima people).
famous people Bing Crosby, Jimi Hendrix, Mary McCarthy, Theodore Roethke.
history explored by Spanish, British, and Americans in the 18th century; settled from 1811; became a territory 1853 and a state 1889.
Rival American and British territorial claims threatened war in the early 1840s that was settled by the Oregon Treaty 1846.
The transcontinental railroad arrived 1883. Radical labor activity repressed 1919. The New Deal era brought many public-works projects, and Boeing became the largest employer in World War II. Mount St Helens erupted here 1980, and many in the state are now fighting to close the antiquated and dangerous nuclear plant at Hanford.

(1732-1799) Commander of the American forces during the American Revolutionary War and 1st president of the United States 1789–97; known as “the father of his country”. An experienced soldier, he had fought in campaigns against the French during the French and Indian War. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses 1759 and was a leader of the Virginia militia, gaining valuable exposure to wilderness fighting. As a strong opponent of the British government’s policy, he sat in the Continental Congresses of 1774 and 1775, and on the outbreak of the American Revolution was chosen commander in chief of the Continental army. After many setbacks, he accepted the surrender of British general Cornwallis at Yorktown 1781.
After the war Washington retired to his Virginia estate, Mount Vernon, but in 1787 he reentered politics as president of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and was elected US president 1789. He attempted to draw his ministers from all factions, but his aristocratic outlook and acceptance of the fiscal policy championed by Alexander Hamilton alienated his secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, who resigned 1793, thus creating the two-party system.
Washington was reelected president 1792 but refused to serve a third term, setting a precedent that stood until 1940. He died and was buried at Mount Vernon.
George Washington was born at Wakefield on Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was of British descent, his great-grandfather, John Washington, having migrated from Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, in 1657. Largely self-taught, he began his career as a land surveyor, but inheriting the Mount Vernon estate from his brother Lawrence, Washington settled down as a country gentleman. Governor Dinwiddie soon made him lieutenant-colonel of the Virginia military. In April 1754 Washington was ordered to drive the French out of Fort Duquesne. He succeeded, but was in turn besieged in Fort Necessity, and was forced to accept surrender terms.
In 1758 Washington resigned command of the Virginia troops and in 1759 married a rich widow, Martha Custis. The union of their plantations made Washington one of the wealthiest men in his state. He entertained lavishly, and thus came into contact with notable men from all over the British colonies in America. He was elected in 1759 to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and reelected. He soon displayed a growing interest in disputes between the colonies and the British Crown, and Virginia elected him one of its delegates to the first Continental Congress. In Philadelphia he bought arms and ammunition, which he sent to Virginia, and when the congress adjourned he returned to Virginia to take up active training of the raw soldiers. When the second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia the general feeling among New Englanders was that they must have a Southern man to lead them, since only thus could they be sure of uniting all the colonies in one common cause. War had already started, and John Adams proposed Washington as commander-in-chief of the colonial armies and on 15 June 1775 Washington took over the command.
The American Revolution
The American troops often lacked arms, munitions, food, and clothes; and Washington had to combat faction and treachery among his generals, including the episode of Benedict Arnold's treachery. When he took charge of the American forces at Boston he won a notable success. His occupation of Dorchester Heights compelled Howe to evacuate Boston in March 1776. He then had a succession of reverses, notably at the battle of Brooklyn Heights, but in New Jersey he turned and beat his enemy at Trenton and Princeton. Following defeats in the battles of the Brandywine and Germantown in the autumn of 1777, Washington led his 11,000 men into winter camp at Valley Forge, 32 km/ 20 mi from Philadelphia. The spring brought better news for the Americans. The French were coming into the war. Clinton, who succeeded Howe, had been ordered to give up Philadelphia and return to New York. Washington harassed his troops, notably at the battle of Monmouth. When Clinton reached New York, Washington took up a position at White Plains a
nd for three years, while fighting was going on elsewhere, the two armies watched each other.
At last, Washington's chance came when Cornwallis met with difficulties in North Carolina, withdrew his army to Virginia, and finally shut himself up in Yorktown. Here Washington, who had hurried south, forced him to surrender (1781). When the British finally moved out of New York for home the American army under Washington entered the town. A few days afterwards, on 4 December 1783, Washington went via Philadelphia to Annapolis, Maryland, where Congress was sitting. Here on 23 December he resigned his commission as commander of the armies.
For four years he returned to his neglected estates to recoup his former wealth. At length it was decided to call a convention to frame a constitution, and Washington was chosen as one of the Virginia delegation. The convention opened on 13 May 1787 in Philadelphia, and Washington was unanimously chosen to preside. Others wrote the constitution, but it was Washington who did much to remove difficulties. He was unanimously chosen first president of the republic. He was inaugurated on 30 April 1789.
Washington’s Presidency
As president, Washington alienated his secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, who resigned in 1793, by accepting the fiscal policy championed by Alexander Hamilton and overseeing the payment of the foreign and domestic debt incurred by the new nation. He also shaped the powers of the presidency, assuming some implied powers not specified in the Constitution–among them, the power to create a national bank, and the introduction of an excise tax.
Washington wished to retire at the end of his first term, but at the instance of the rival leaders, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, he was elected to a second term by a unanimous vote. His neutral policy toward the French Revolution angered the pro-French Jefferson party. He was also widely criticised for signing Jay's Treaty 1794 that resolved outstanding differences with Britain, enabling trading links to be reestablished. Under the terms of Pinckney's Treaty 1795 the US made territorial gains from Spain.
He declined a third term, and on giving up office, he made a famous farewell address, warning the country against entangling alliances and advising it to keep aloof from European quarrels.

(aliaferro) (1856-1915) US educationist, pioneer in higher education for black people in the South. He was the founder and first principal of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, in 1881, originally a training college for blacks, and now a university. He maintained that economic independence was the way to achieve social equality.