Free Republic

On December 24, 1814, the Treaty Of Ghent was signed in the Netherlands by delegates from the United States and Great Britain, beginning the process of ending the War of 1812. While signalling the end of the war, the treaty still had to be ratified by Congress and Parliament (which would come in February 1815), and several battles fought before peace was established, including the Battle of New Orleans, which would take place on January 8, 1815.

The human cost of the War of 1812 was dramatic. Some 35,000 people were killed, wounded or missing at the end of the war. York (now Toronto), Niagara (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Washington, D.C. were torched. Elsewhere, homes and properties were looted and damaged and family lives were thrown into chaos. The borders between British North America and the United States might not have changed when the fighting stopped — the old lines were reconfirmed in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war on December 24, 1814. But once the treaty was signed, there wasn’t simply a return to the...

<p>Cheap foreign labor and global competition have cost the Valley 500 hard to replace manufacturing jobs and a bit of its history.</p> <p>AdobeAir, whose pioneer swamp coolers tamed the sweltering Valley summers and paved the way for the post-World War II growth that continues today, shut down its Phoenix factory earlier this month in favor of lower-cost operations in Mexico.</p>