. Evangelical Protestant 31 Surface water Houston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas, fourth most populous city in the United States as well as the sixth most populous in North America with an estimated 2018 population of 2,325,502. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico it is the seat of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area which is the fifth most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second most populous in Texas after the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with a population of 6,997,384 in 2018, Houston generally receives ample rainfall averaging about 49.8 in (1,260 mm) annually based on records between 1981 and 2010 Many parts of the city have a high risk of localized flooding due to flat topography ubiquitous low-permeability clay-silt prairie soils and inadequate infrastructure. During the mid-2010s Greater Houston experienced consecutive major flood events in 2015 ("Memorial Day") 2016 ("Tax Day") and 2017 (Hurricane Harvey). Overall there have been more casualties and property loss from floods in Houston than in any other locality in the United States the majority of rainfall occurs between April and October (the wet season of Southeast Texas) when the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico evaporates extensively over the city. Education Birth of the Spanish Kingdom In the 1970s the Chinese-American community in Houston which had been relatively small started growing at a rapid rate. Harris-Fort Bend ESD #100 Dual Community FD 1% .07951 The Theater District is a 17-block area in the center of Downtown Houston that is home to the Bayou Place entertainment complex restaurants movies plazas and parks Bayou Place is a large multilevel building containing full-service restaurants bars live music billiards and Sundance Cinema the Bayou Music Center stages live concerts stage plays and stand-up comedy Space Center Houston is the official visitors' center of NASA's Lyndon B Johnson Space Center the Space Center has many interactive exhibits including moon rocks a shuttle simulator and presentations about the history of NASA's manned space flight program Other tourist attractions include the Galleria (Texas' largest shopping mall located in the Uptown District) Old Market Square the Downtown Aquarium and Sam Houston Race Park; .
Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system but some Spanish legal practices were retained including homestead exemption community property and adoption. In the Soviet Union both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia on 4 July 1943 Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge Within a week German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defences and for the first time in the war Hitler cancelled the operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July which combined with previous Italian failures resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month, In 1945 the M.D Anderson Foundation formed the Texas Medical Center After the war Houston's economy reverted to being primarily port-driven in 1948 the city annexed several unincorporated areas more than doubling its size Houston proper began to spread across the region, The Niels and Mellie Esperson buildings are examples of Italian Renaissance architecture in downtown Houston. Designed by John Eberson the two buildings were built in 1927 and 1941 respectively. They are detailed with massive columns great urns terraces and a grand tempietto at the top similar to one built in the courtyard of San Pietro in Rome in 1502. Mellie Esperson had the first building constructed for her husband Niels a real estate and oil tycoon. His name is carved on the side of the building in large letters at street level the name "Mellie Esperson" is carved on the accompanying structure known as the Mellie Esperson building although it is really just a 19-story annex to the original building. Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines the most well known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra a pioneering method for decoding Enigma benefiting from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Another aspect of military intelligence was the use of deception which the Allies used to great effect such as in operations Mincemeat and Bodyguard. In the aftermath of the Galveston disaster action proceeded on building the Houston Ship Channel to create a more protected inland port Houston quickly grew once the Channel was completed and rapidly became the primary port in Texas Railroads were constructed in a radial pattern to link Houston with other major cities such as Dallas-Fort Worth San Antonio and Austin.
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