Memphis summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Memphis.

Memphis, City (pop., 2010: 646,889), southwestern Tennessee, U.S. Situated above the Mississippi River where the borders of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee meet, it was founded in 1819 on the site of a Chickasaw Indian village and a U.S. fort. It was incorporated as a city in 1826. A Confederate military centre at the start of the American Civil War, it was captured by Union forces in 1862. In the 1870s yellow fever killed more than 5,000 residents, and the city was forced into bankruptcy. Rechartered in 1893, it was the state’s largest city by 1900. Sites of interest include Beale Street, made famous by W.C. Handy as the birthplace of the blues; and Graceland, the mansion of Elvis Presley. It is the seat of several educational institutions, including the University of Memphis.

Mississippi River Summary

Mississippi River, the longest river of North America, draining with its major tributaries an area of approximately 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square km), or about one-eighth of the entire continent. The Mississippi River lies entirely within the United States. Rising in Lake Itasca in

Tennessee Summary

Tennessee, constituent state of the United States of America. It is located in the upper South of the eastern United States and became the 16th state of the union in 1796. The geography of Tennessee is unique. Its extreme breadth of 432 miles (695 km) stretches from the Appalachian Mountain

United States Summary

United States, country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii, in the