Managua in the context of "Nicaragua v. United States"

Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II.

The son of a U.S. Army chaplain, Groves lived at various Army posts during his childhood. In 1918, he graduated fourth in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned into the United States Army Corps of Engineers. In 1929, he went to Nicaragua as part of an expedition to conduct a survey for the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal. Following the 1931 Nicaraguan earthquake, Groves took over Managua's water supply system, for which he was awarded the Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit. He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935 and 1936, and the Army War College in 1938 and 1939, after which he was posted to the War Department General Staff. Groves developed "a reputation as a doer, a driver, and a stickler for duty". In 1940 he became special assistant for construction to the Quartermaster General, tasked with inspecting construction sites and checking on their progress. In August 1941, he was appointed to create the gigantic office complex for the War Department's 40,000 staff that would ultimately become the Pentagon.

Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising 130,370 km (50,340 sq mi). With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras.

Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shares maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. Nicaragua's largest city and national capital is Managua, the fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 in 2020. Nicaragua is known as "the breadbasket of Central America" due to having the most fertile soil and arable land in all of Central America. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish, though indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English. The mixture of cultural traditions has generated substantial diversity in folklore, cuisine, music, and literature, including contributions by Nicaraguan poets and writers such as Rubén Darío.

The 1931 Nicaragua earthquake devastated Nicaragua's capital city of Managua on 31 March 1931. It had a moment magnitude of 6.1 and a maximum MSK intensity of VI (Strong). Between 1,000 and 2,450 people were killed. A major fire started and destroyed thousands of structures, burning into the next day. At least 45,000 were left homeless and losses of $35 million were recorded.

Lake Managua (Spanish: Lago de Managua, [maˈnaɣwa]), also known as Lake Xolotlán (Lago Xolotlán), is a freshwater lake in Nicaragua. At 1,042 km², it is approximately 65 kilometres (40 mi) long and 25 kilometres (16 mi) wide. Similarly to the name of Lake Nicaragua, its other name comes from the Nahuatl language, possibly from the Spanish Tlaxcaltec and Mexica allies but most likely from the Nicarao tribes that had already settled in the region. The city of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, lies on its southwestern shore.

Managua (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈna.ɣwa]) is a department in Nicaragua. It covers an area of 3,465 km and has a population of 1,559,774 (2021 estimate), making it the country's most populated department. The capital is the city of Managua, which is also the capital of Nicaragua. The department has two coastlines, on the Pacific Ocean and on Lake Managua, but does not border Lake Nicaragua. The Nahua chiefdom of Tekwantepek was located in the Managua department. According to Spanish conquistador and historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Tekwantepek was one of the last chiefdoms in present-day Nicaragua to fall to the conquistadors and their central-Mexican allies. The chiefdom's name is a combination of the Nawat words tēkwani (jaguar), and tepek (hill), therefore the translation of Tekwantepek is "hill of jaguars" or "jaguar hill". The municipality of Ticuantepe located in the department is likely named after this chiefdom. The Indigenous inhabitants of Managua are the Chorotegas and Nahuas.

The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake occurred at 12:29:44 a.m. local time (06:29:44 UTC) on 23 December near Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It had a moment magnitude of 6.3 and a maximum MSK intensity of IX (Destructive). The epicenter was 28 km (17 mi) northeast of the city centre with a depth of about 10 km (6.2 mi). The earthquake caused widespread casualties among Managua's residents: 4,000–11,000 were killed, 20,000 were injured and over 300,000 were left homeless.

El Tortuguero (Spanish pronunciation: [el toɾˈtuɣeɾo]) is a municipality in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. It is located at about 530 km from Managua and can only be reached by an hour-long truck ride from El Rama.