WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO)

SATURDAY JANUARY 12: CROSSING THE RUBICON

Profile America — Saturday, January 12th.  Near this date in 49 B.C., Julius Caesar, leading the 13th Roman legion, crossed the Rubicon, a minor river in northeastern Italy, marking a boundary south of which a Roman general could not bring his troops.  Crossing the Rubicon, which has since come to mean passing a point of no return, precipitated a civil war.  Caesar triumphed, ending the Roman republic and launching imperial Rome.  Many generations later, the descendants of the Romans crossed a more formidable water barrier:  the Atlantic Ocean.  In 1832, three Italians were recorded as immigrants to the U.S.; by 1914, that number peaked at over 283,000.  Today there are nearly 17.5 million Americans of Italian ancestry, around 5½ percent of the population.  Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources:  Historical Statistics of the United States:  Colonial Times to 1970, p. 105, 106

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau