NASA HQ are in Houston, Texas. Famous quote "Houston we have a problem" from Apollo 13 relates to it.
Slavery was incredibly divisive because the Us was expanding into the west, and each new state had to decide whether it was going to be "slave" or "free", so there was no middle ground in terms of how the extension of slavery would unfold. This led to the Civil War.
... as a response to US support of Israel in its 1973 war against a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.
OPEC stands for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Within that, there was also the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), formed in 1968. In 1973, OAPEC said they would cut oil production "until the Israeli forces are completely evacuated from all the Arab territories occupied in the June 1967 war." (The 1973 war was being fought to regain control of territories lost to Israel in 1967.) Egypt and Syria were both members of OAPEC, and they and other Arab nations were seeking leverage in the struggle with Israel and positioning for post-war settlements.
