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SALISBURY, MD -- ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ presents "Buy, Buy Louisiana, Hello World: Considering the Extraordinary Impact of the Louisiana Purchase on the Occasion of its 200th Anniversary," a lecture by Dr. Timothy O'Rourke, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, in the Great Hall of Holloway Hall.

Exactly 200 years ago this month, the United States, at President Thomas Jefferson's direction, bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. The deal doubled the size of the United States, gave birth to the mythology of the American West and marked off the battleground for the politics of slavery and cultural conflict in the 19th century, said O'Rourke.

The purchase also led to the establishment of 13 states, created the possibility of a continental nation and transformed the stature of the United States on the world stage.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the Louisiana Purchase affects events even to the present day," said O'Rourke.

The dean of the Fulton School of Liberal Arts at ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½, O'Rourke was executive director of the National Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Committee and is the author of The Impact of Reapportionment, named by CHOICE as one of the Outstanding Academic Books of 1980.

For more information call 410-543-6450 or visit the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ Web site at www.salisbury.edu.