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6346 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%20D.%20Roosevelt | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945) was the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He served 12 years as president, dying shortly after beginning his 4th term, the longest ever spent in office. After his death, the 22nd Amendment came into effect, limiting how long a person could be President. Before becoming President, he was Governor of New York from 1929 to 1932, Assistant United States Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920 and a state senator from the state of New York.
Family
His father James Roosevelt I and his mother Sara Delano were from rich old New York families that made money from slavery. The Roosevelts were originally Dutch, and the Delanos were originally French. Franklin was their only child. His father's grandmother, Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Monroe, wife of the fifth U.S. President, James Monroe.
One of his ancestors was John Lothropp, also an ancestor of Benedict Arnold and Joseph Smith, Jr. One of his distant relatives from his mother's side is the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. His maternal grandfather Warren Delano II, a descendant of Mayflower passengers Richard Warren, Isaac Allerton, Degory Priest, and Francis Cooke, during a period of twelve years in China made more than a million dollars in the tea trade in Macau, Canton, and Hong Kong, but upon coming back to the United States, he lost it all in the Panic of 1857.
In 1860, he came back to China and made a fortune in the notorious but highly profitable opium trade supplying opium-based medication to the U. S. War Department during the American Civil War. He is a 5th cousin and a nephew-in-law of another United States President Theodore Roosevelt. His 5th cousin, once removed was Eleanor Roosevelt, who was also his wife. Roosevelt once had an affair with his wife's secretary and later avoided seeing her to protect his political career.
Early life
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York. When Roosevelt was five years old his father took him to visit President Grover Cleveland. The president said to him: "My little man, I am making a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be President of the United States." Roosevelt became the longest-serving president in American history.
Early political career
Roosevelt was the Assistant of the United States Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. He was nominated the vice presidential candidate under James M. Cox in 1920. Cox and Roosevelt lost to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.
In 1921, Roosevelt got sick with poliomyelitis, a disease that paralyzes people. He never walked again, but Roosevelt remained physically fit, becoming an avid swimmer. Roosevelt became a champion of medical research and treatment for crippling illnesses, but kept his illness as hidden as much as possible from the public, fearing discrimination. His disability did not limit his political career; Roosevelt was elected the Governor of New York in 1928. His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt helped his career by traveling and meeting people when Roosevelt could not. She became famous as his eyes and ears, meeting thousands of ordinary people and bringing their concerns to Roosevelt.
Presidency, 1933–45
Roosevelt won the election against the unpopular incumbent (president at the time) Herbert Hoover and became president in early 1933.
He started a series of popular programs known as the New Deal to fight against the Great Depression. The New Deal gave people jobs building roads, bridges, dams, parks, schools, and other public services. Also, it created Social Security, made banks insure their customers, gave direct aid to the needy, and made many regulations to the economy. Because of this, he was re-elected in a large victory in 1936 and continued the New Deal. The United States did not fully recover from the Great Depression until it entered World War II.
In 1939, Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to appear on television. Roosevelt was elected a third term in 1940. He gave weapons and money to the Allies fighting in World War II as a part of the Lend-Lease program at this time, but the United States was still technically neutral in the war.
War
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched its attack on the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii. On December 8, the United States Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan. It was formulated an hour after the famous Infamy Speech by Roosevelt. After the declaration, Japan's allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States. This brought the United States fully into World War II.
The military used a draft to get people to fight the war, but many people in Puerto Rico, a colony of the United States, did not want to fight because they felt the U.S. was treating them badly by occupying the island. The U.S. forced them to fight and to help pay for war supplies anyway.
Roosevelt also signed an order allowing Japanese Americans to be sent to internment camps against their will. While still president, he died on April 12, 1945. Vice President Harry Truman became president. World War II continued for almost four more months, but Allied victory was already assured.
For overcoming the difficult challenges of a depression and a world war, historians generally consider him to be one of the best U.S. presidents.
Gallery
Related pages
Roerich Pact
New Deal
References
Other websites
FDR's White House biography
1882 births
1945 deaths
Lawyers from New York
American people of World War II
Cardiovascular disease deaths in the United States
Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
Disease-related deaths in Georgia (U.S. state)
Governors of New York
National Radio Hall of Fame inductees
Presidents of the United States
Time People of the Year
US Democratic Party politicians
World War II political leaders
20th-century American politicians
Roosevelt family |
6349 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela | Venezuela | Venezuela is a country in northern South America. Its official name is República Bolivariana de Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela). The official language is Spanish, and the capital is Caracas.
The country has a wide range of geography including islands in the Caribbean Sea, coastal areas, highlands, and parts of the Andes Mountains. Venezuela is famous for being the home of Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall, in the Bolivar state.
Venezuela produces a large amount of oil every year, and it has one of the largest oil supplies in the world. The country has a very large supply of fossil fuels, gasoline, and minerals. Venezuela's economy is based on oil, cotton, cocoa, sugar, coffee, and tobacco.
Some other languages spoken in Venezuela are Carib, Guahibo, Warao, Wayuu, Pemon, and Piaroa. Most people are Roman Catholic at 96%, and a small minority is Protestant at 2%.
People and History
Ancient Venezuelans came from the east, west, south, and north. Christopher Columbus was the first European to enter Venezuela, but there were already people living there for a long time. The Spaniards first conquered Venezuela. Slaves were brought from Africa.
Venezuela's inhabitants are very racially mixed. This comes from the colonial period. When whites (the British, Spaniards, French, etc.) conquered America's territory, they took their black African slaves to America to work. During Venezuela's colonial time, black people did not have any rights. They just worked for food. The native people were taught Roman Catholicism. For a long time, society was headed by white creoles, people in Venezuela that were descended from Spaniards but considered Venezuela home. The other Venezuelan people did not like that, and they started thinking about independence. On July 24, 1823, Venezuela won its independence, led by Simón Bolívar.
Venezuela's modern history was shaped by a number of people, including President Romulo Betancourt, who replaced a military dictatorship with a democracy. By the 1970s, Venezuela had become rich off of oil revenue, but it had problems in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999 Hugo Chávez became president and tried to remake Venezuela as a socialist state. While popular at first, the economic changes Chavez and the next president, Maduro, passed caused a massive economic depression in the mid 2010s. The current president is disputed.
Demographics
The population of Venezuela is about 28,000,000 people. The ethnic groups of the population are:
65%: multiracial.
21%: European.
10%: African.
3%: Amerindian.
Map
Gallery
References
Spanish-speaking countries
1845 establishments
1840s establishments in South America |
6350 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi%20Arabia | Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , is a country in Western Asia including most of the Arabian Peninsula. The land area is approximately , so Saudi Arabia is geographically the 5th-largest state in Asia and 2nd-largest state in the Arab world after Algeria. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba. It is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its land is dry and barren. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Arabs and Islam and sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam. Arabic is the exclusive official language in Saudi Arabia.
Sunni Islam is the state religion. The practice of non-Islamic religions is forbidden in public but not in private. The Hanbali school of faith has a big influence, and the ultra-conservative Wahhabism religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called "the predominant feature of Saudi culture".
Saudi Arabia is the largest state in western Asia by land area (most of the Arabian Peninsula) and the second-largest in the Arab World. It has an estimated population of 27 million, of which 8.8 million are registered foreign expatriates and an estimated 1.5 million are illegal immigrants. Saudi nationals comprise an estimated 16 million people.
Saudi Arabia has the world's largest petroleum reserves and is the world's largest oil exporter. Oil accounts for more than 90% of exports and nearly 75% of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state. However, human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed concern about the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has cities that are important to the Muslim religion. Many Muslims from around the world visit Mecca in Saudi Arabia to make a pilgrimage. The pilgrimage is one of the "pillars of Islam". Other big cities are Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. The pilgrimage is called hajj in the Arabic language. Somebody who makes a pilgrimage to Mecca is called a hajj in the Arabic language. People who are not Muslim are not allowed to enter Mecca.
Most people speak the Arabic language.
The currency of Saudi Arabia is referred to as the Saudi Riyal.
History
The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa) and Southern Arabia ('Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. The country has since been an absolute monarchy, governed along Islamic lines.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (known for most of his career as Ibn Saud) in 1932. The conquests which eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom began in 1902 when he captured Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. The Saudi Arabian government, which is an absolute monarchy, refers to its system of government as being Islamic. It has a strong basis in Wahhabism, a minority school of thought in Islam. The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Masjid al-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.
Politics
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. However, according to the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia adopted by royal decree in 1992, the king must comply with Sharia (Islamic law) and the Quran, while the Quran and the Sunnah (the traditions of Muhammad) are declared to be the country's constitution. The primary source of law is the Islamic Sharia derived from the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the traditions of the Prophet). Saudi Arabia is unique among modern Muslim states in that Sharia is not codified and there is no system of judicial precedent, giving judges the power to use independent legal reasoning to make a decision. Saudi judges tend to follow the principles of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence (or fiqh) found in pre-modern texts and noted for its literalist interpretation of the Qur'an and hadith.
Because the judge is empowered to disregard previous judgments (either his own or of other judges) and may apply his personal interpretation of Sharia to any particular case, divergent judgements arise even in apparently identical cases, making predictability of legal interpretation difficult. The Sharia court system constitutes the basic judiciary of Saudi Arabia and its judges (qadi) and lawyers form part of the ulema, the country's Islamic scholars.
Royal decrees are the other main source of law; but are referred to as regulations rather than laws because they are subordinate to the Sharia. Royal decrees supplement Sharia in areas such as labor, commercial and corporate law. Additionally, traditional tribal law and custom remain significant. Extra-Sharia government tribunals usually handle disputes relating to specific royal decrees. Final appeal from both Sharia courts and government tribunals is to the King and all courts and tribunals follow Sharia rules of evidence and procedure.
Women
A hijab is a traditional Islamic norm whereby women are required "to draw their outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men)" and dress in a modest manner. Saudi Arabia is different from many Islamic societies in the extent of the covering that it considers Islamically correct hijab (everything except the hands and eyes) and the fact that covering is enforced by Mutaween or religious police.
Among unrelated men, women must cover the parts of the body that are awrah (private). In much of Islam, a women's face is not considered awrah. In Saudi Arabia and some other Arab states, all of the body is considered awrah except the hands and eyes. Accordingly, most women are expected to wear the hijab (head covering), a full black cloak called an abaya, and a face-veil called niqab. Many historians and Islamic scholars argue that the Quran was interpreted to require the veil as part of adapting it to tribal traditions.
Geography
Saudi Arabia is home to the largest mass of sand on earth, known as the Rub-al Khali desert (Rub-al Khali means "empty quarter"). The temperature is very hot. There are almost no rivers or lakes in the country. There are many wadis.
The countries of Yemen and Oman are south of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is west of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan. All of these countries, except Jordan and Iraq, make the Arabian Peninsula.
Animal life includes wolves, hyenas, mongooses, baboons, hares, sand rats, and jerboas. There used to be many larger animals such as gazelles, oryx, and leopards. By the 1950s hunting from motor vehicles made these animals almost extinct. Birds include falcons (which are caught and trained for hunting), eagles, hawks, vultures, sand grouse and bulbuls. There are several species of snakes, many of which are venomous, and numerous types of lizards. There is a wide variety of marine life in the Persian Gulf. Domesticated animals include camels, sheep, goats, donkeys, and chickens.
Because it is mostly a desert Saudi Arabia’s plant life is mostly small herbs and shrubs that need little water. There are a few small areas of grass and trees in southern Asir. The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is widespread.
Provinces
Saudi Arabia is divided into 13 provinces. The provinces are divided into 118 governorates.
Cities
These are the largest cities in Saudi Arabia.
Notes
References
Other websites
Saudi Arabia official government website
Saudi TV channels (live streams)
Saudi Arabia profile from the BBC News
Saudi Arabia -Citizendium
Current monarchies
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation |
6351 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia | Colombia | Colombia (; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a tropical equatorial country in northern South America. It is in the northwest part of the continent, and it has an area of 1,141,748 km² (440,839 sq mi).
It is the only South American country with coasts on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The countries that have borders on the continent with Colombia are: Venezuela (east), Brazil (southeast), Peru (south), Ecuador (southwest) and Panama (west). The countries that have borders with Colombia on the sea are: Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and Dominican Republic.
More than 50 million people live in Colombia. It is the third most populated country in Latin America after Mexico and Brazil.
The capital of Colombia is Bogotá. The second city is Medellín, a large industrial center. The third largest city is Cali, home to many multinational companies. The most important city of the country on the Caribbean coast is Barranquilla. It was also the first national port. Cartagena de Indias has a great Spanish wall from the 17th Century and an old town with 500-year-old buildings. After these cities comes Bucaramanga, a large city near the Venezuelan border, and the center of the textile industry in Colombia.
Meaning
The word "Colombia" is named after Christopher Columbus, the explorer who began the European colonization of the Americas.
In 1819, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama declared independence from Spain, and formed a country called "Gran Colombia". Venezuela and Ecuador separated in 1830. Panama continued to be part of Colombia until 1903, at which point it proclaimed independence. The official language is Spanish, but there are many languages spoken by minorities and official in theirs jurisdiction.
History
Before the Spanish
The land where Colombia now stands has been home to people for more than 20,000 years. The first people had many groups, cultures, and languages. There are many tools, caves, and things of those peoples. In Colombia, the peoples were similar to those of Asia, because scientists say that the first people came to America from Siberia or southeast Asia more than 50,000 years ago. The peoples of Colombia were called Arawak, Caribe, and Chibcha, but there were many other groups. The most famous were the Muiscas. legend of El Dorado comes from the Muiscas. The king of the Muiscas used to bathe in Lake Guatavita and he used a lot of gold for his bath. The Spanish heard about this, and the people told them that there was a great golden city somewhere. They started to look for El Dorado. The International Airport of Bogotá is called El Dorado International Airport, because the legend was born in Colombia. The descendants of the first peoples of Colombia live integrated with others. Some groups live in the forest, but many live in the countryside and in the cities.
The colony
The Spanish, led by Christopher Columbus, first came to the Americas in 1492. Columbus saw the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia and Panama and he gave them his own name. But Alonso de Ojeda was the first colonist to explore the area of the Gulf of Darién. After that, the Spanish founded the first European cities on the American continent: Santa Marta in 1525 and Cartagena de Indias in 1533. It was from Colombia that the Spanish conquered the Incas of Peru.
Spain would enslave the indigenous peoples who were already living there, but they also used the port they built at Cartagena to bring many black slaves from Africa into the area. The Spanish captured many, many people from Africa and forced them to work on plantations and ranches, in mines, and as personal servants.
While this was happening, they founded the city of Popayán in 1536 and they conquered the Confederation of the Muiscas. In Bacatá, the capital of the Muiscas, the Spanish founded the city of Santa Fe in 1538. In 1550 the Spanish declared the territory as a colony and its capital was Santa Fe de Bogotá, but in the first decades it depended on Peru. Soon after, it was declared a Viceroyalty.
Independence
On November 11, 1810, the city of Cartagena de Indias declared its independence from Spain. The whole region would fight a war to become independent, led by people like Antonio Nariño and Simón Bolívar. Nariño was one of the most important leaders in the war for the independence of Colombia. He was a politician, journalist and soldier. Bolivar was another important leader, and he was a president and a colonel. Bolivar had promised Alexandre Pétion, the president of Haiti, that he would abolish slavery during his independence war. But he only agreed because he was afraid the slaves would revolt against the slaveowners, like they did in Haiti, and only freed slaves if they agreed to fight in his army. He never freed all the slaves, and slavery was not abolished in Colombia until 1851.
Geography
The geography of Colombia has six main natural regions. Each has its own unique characteristics. The Andes mountain region shares borders with Ecuador and Venezuela. The Pacific Coast region shares borders with Panama and Ecuador. The Caribbean coastal region shares borders with Venezuela and Panama. The Llanos (plains) shares a border with Venezuela. The Amazon Rainforest region shares a border with Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. The insular region includes all the islands of the country.
The main rivers of Colombia are Magdalena, Cauca, Guaviare, Atrato, Meta, Putumayo and Caquetá. Colombia has four main drainage systems: the Pacific drain, the Caribbean drain, the Orinoco Basin and the Amazon Basin.
Most of the population lives in the Andes region. But the plains make over half the land. Only about 6% of the people live in the plains. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range includes the country's tallest peaks (Pico Cristóbal Colón and Pico Simón Bolívar).
Climate
Colombia's temperature changes with the altitude, and the temperature is different by region. The regions around the Andes are colder than the coast, which is lower.
Because of the many altitudes, Colombia has many different fruits, vegetables and kinds of animals. It has many valleys, beaches, plains, mountains and forests like the Amazon rainforest.
The top of some of the mountains in Colombia are so cold that people can ski over the equator. The lower mountains have warmer climates. The sea shores are cooled by ocean breezes. At sea level near the equator it is hot.
Rivers are important as waterways in the land for shipping things. One of the most important rivers in Colombia is the Magdalena-Cauca. The Magdelena River divides the eastern and center mountains. It makes a fertile valley. The Cauca River divides the center mountain range and the western ridge, making another great valley. The Cauca is really a part of the Magdalena. However, the two do not meet until a few miles before the Magdalena goes into the Caribbean Sea.
Biodiversity
Colombia is a megadiverse country. This means the country is home to a majority of Earth's species. There are also a high number of endemic species.
Colombia has 1,900 species of bird, more than any other country. There are about 2,000 species of marine fish. It is the second most diverse country in freshwater fish. As for plants, the country has between 40,000 and 45,000 species. Colombia is second in the number of amphibian species and is the third most diverse country in reptiles. There are about 2,900 species of mollusks and about 300,000 species of invertebrates.
Politics
In May 2006, President Álvaro Uribe was re-elected. His term lasted until 2010. Uribe was the first President in Colombia to win a second election in over 100 years.
In August 2010, Juan Manuel Santos became Colombia's president. Santos won the election on June 20 by a landslide. He promised to "preside over a government of national unity that will bring social prosperity for all Colombians"
Eight years later, conservative Senator Iván Duque Márquez was elected president and soon became the nation's latest president. He won the election by 2 million votes against his rival liberal Senator Gustavo Petro.
Departments
Colombia is divided into 32 departments and one capital district. The capital district is treated as a department. Departments are divided into municipalities. Municipalities are divided into corregimientos. Each department has a local government with a governor and assembly directly elected to four-year terms. Each municipality is headed by a mayor and council. Each corregimiento by an elected corregidor, or local leader.
Demographics
The population of Colombia was approximately 47 million as of 2016. The ethnic groups of the population are:
48% Mestizo
23% Mulatto
20% White
6% Black
2% Amerindian
1% Zambo
Economy
Up to 49.6% of the population is living below the poverty line.
Security
There are several guerilla groups in Colombia, the FARC being the most powerful, a guerilla group responsible for kidnappings, murders, attacks, and drug-dealing. Drug dealing is a problem the government has been trying to fight. This creates violence in the cities. With Operation: Jaque, Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans, and 11 soldiers were rescued from the FARC.
Transport
Most parts of Colombia are modern and the country has many roads. All major Colombian cities have airports and there are many ports on both oceans (Pacific and Atlantic). Because Colombia is a huge country and there are many mountains, airports are very important in the country. There are some regions like the Amazon Forest and Dariend, where the most important way of transportation is by the rivers.
Roads: The Pan American Highway in South America begins in Colombia. You can go as far as Tierra de Fuego in Chile using that road. Most of the Colombian cities are connected by road in Colombia. The most important roads are the Bogotá-Medellín Highway, the Bogotá-Cali Highway, the Bogotá-Cucuta Highway, the Bogotá-Barranquilla Highway and many others connecting big cities like Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Cartagena de Indias with other important centers. You can go by road from Bogotá to Caracas, Venezuela and Quito, Ecuador. The major cities have bus stations.
Airports: They are very important in Colombia and all the main cities have their own airports. The El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá is the most important. The Palmaseca International Airport in Cali is the second most important. Other important airports are the ones of Medellín, Barranquilla, San Andrés and Cartagena de Indias. The Colombian airports have international connections with most of the South American capitals, North America and Europe. The main Colombian airline is Avianca and it is the second oldest world airline and one of the most important in Latin America.
Ports: Colombia has coasts on both oceans - Atlantic and Pacific - and it is one of the first world water reserve because it has many rivers and lakes. The longest rivers are the Amazon, Magdalena, Cauca, and the Atrato. The main ports on the Atlantic coast are Barranquilla, which was the first Colombian port, Cartagena de Indias and Santa Marta. There are other ones like Rioacha and Turbo. The ports on the Pacific coast are Buenaventura and Tumaco. The port of the San Andres Island is also one of the most important for the country in the Caribbean and Antillean Sea. The city of Leticia is a very important river port on the Amazon river.
Train: The National Train was very important to Colombia during the 20th century, but it was forgotten when roads and airports were developed. Today the railways in Colombia are used more for tour visits, and they are not modern.
Transportation in the cities: The major Colombian cities have a very good system of transportation. There are public buses that connect the suburbs to the center of the cities. There are many taxi companies in Colombia. There are also very modern urban transports in the main cities like Transmilenio in Bogotá, the Metro in Medellín, and similar proposals in Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena de Indias and many others that are being developed.
Cities
Colombia also has some very well known cities.
Bogotá is the second largest capital city of South America after Buenos Aires and the third largest city after Buenos Aires and São Paulo. It is also one of the highest capital cities of the world, 2640 meters above sea level. It has a very active cultural, political, industrial and commercial life. Bogotá also has many international meetings, seminars, NGOs, organizations, universities, telecommunication centers and conventions. It is in the Andes. Many famous Colombians come from Bogotá like Rafael Pombo, José Asunción Silva and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Medellín is the second largest city of Colombia. At the end of the 20th Century it was known as the "most violent city of the world" because it was the hometown of Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Colombian Mafia. Now Medellín is safer and has become a very beautiful city. It is a very important industrial center, the first commercial area of the country and a leader in health care and medicine. Many foreigners come to Medellín for health services. It is in the Andes and it is known as the "City of the Eternal Spring" because it has nice weather. Many famous Colombians come from Medellín like the singer Juanes, the soccer player René Higuita, the artist Fernando Botero and many others.
Cali is the third largest city. It is very famous for its plantations of sugar cane. Cali is known as the "World Capital of Salsa". In Cali there are many skillful salsa dancers and very important Salsa groups. Cali is also a very modern city. It is an industrial city and its airport is the second in Colombia. Near Cali is the port city of Buenaventura in the Pacific Ocean. Cali is in a valley of the Andes. The name of the Valley is Cauca because it is crossed by the Cauca River.
Barranquilla is the fourth largest city and it was the first city in Colombia on the Caribbean Sea. Barranquilla is famous for its trade and international connections because it has a big port. The Colombian singer Shakira is from Barranquilla.
Cartagena de Indias is the most important tourist center in Colombia on the Caribbean Sea. It is also a very beautiful city. Many tourist come to visit the city.
Bucaramanga is near the Colombian border with Venezuela. This city is a great destination for travelers due to its Spanish history and its technological & urban development; it is a very popular city.
Eje Cafetero (Coffee Growing Axis) is the name of the region where coffee is grown in Colombia. There are three important cities: Pereira, Manizales and Armenia.
Science
Colombia has made many advances in medicine. Many foreigners come to the country to get health services, such as organ transplants or plastic surgery. Doctor Manuel Elkin Patarroyo of Colombia discovered a medicine against malaria. He donated his discovery to be used in Africa and Latin America. He did not want to make business of it, instead he wanted to use it to help people.
Resources
Colombia is known for its coffee, coal, and emeralds. It is also the biggest supplier of plantains to the United States. There are a few armed conflicts in Colombia. Most rebel groups finance their operations with the trade of illegal drugs (mostly cocaine).
Related pages
Colombia at the Olympics
Colombia national football team
List of rivers of Colombia
References
Bibliography
RODAS-LMASO
Other websites
Spanish-speaking countries
1810 establishments
1810s establishments in South America |
6354 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel%20Tasman | Abel Tasman | Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603–1659) was a Dutch sea explorer. He found Tasmania and New Zealand while on voyages in 1642 and 1644, in the service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company). He also made the first historical sightings of large parts of Australia.
He was born in Groningen, Holland. He went to Batavia (now called Jakarta) to work for the VOC in 1633. He went back to Holland in 1636. He went back to Batavia with his wife, Jannetie Tjaerss, two years later. He went north to Japan in 1640. In 1642 Tasman went south to Palembang.
Tasmania and New Zealand 1642-4
Tasman set Governor General of the Dutch East Indies. This man sailed around to the east coast of Van Diemen's Land and claimed the land for the Dutch on December 3, 1642. The ships then sailed west and found New Zealand. His ships were attacked by Maori in large war canoes (boats) and four sailors died. Tasman then sailed north-east to Tonga and Fiji. He then sailed north west to New Guinea and got back to Batavia in June 1643.
Western Australia 1644
In 1644 Tasman sailed from Batavia with the ships Limmen, Zeemeeuw and Bracq. He sailed along the west coast of New Guinea, and then the coast of Australia from Cape York to North West Cape. He went back to Batavia in August 1644. He showed that Western Australia and Queensland were part of the same country. He was not able to get through Torres Strait, but his maps were used for the next 200 years. Tasman made more trips including to Sumatra in 1646, Siam in 1647, and Manila in 1648. He purchased a lot of land in Batavia where he died in October 1659.
Several places have been named after him, including Tasmania, the Tasman Peninsula, Tasman Island and the Tasman Sea.
References
1603 births
1659 deaths
Dutch explorers
Exploration of Australia
People from Groningen (province) |
6359 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard%20science | Hard science | Hard science is science that uses systematic observation, experiments and sometimes mathematics to get knowledge. In hard science, experiments have to be reproducible (if the experiment is done a second time, it will have to produce the same results as the first time). Also, in hard sciences there is usually good agreement as to what is known for sure. This is not true of soft sciences. Also, in hard science there is a world-view or theory which is widely agreed.
Hard science subjects include the natural sciences, which are about the natural world. These include physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, and botany. Soft science is any of the social sciences, including history, sociology, and political science. Those sciences are soft because something could be done more than once, and produce a very different result each time. Also, there are radical disagreements between various schools of thought. Some aspects of psychology are hard science, especially relating to perception.
References
Science |
6360 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial%20intelligence | Artificial intelligence | Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer program or a machine to think and learn. It is also a field of study which tries to make computers "smart". They work on their own without being encoded with commands. John McCarthy came up with the name "Artificial Intelligence" in 1955.
In general use, the term "artificial intelligence" means a programme which mimics human cognition. At least some of the things we associate with other minds, such as learning and problem solving can be done by computers, though not in the same way as we do. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define AI as a system’s ability to correctly interpret external data, to learn from such data, and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation.
An ideal (perfect) intelligent machine is a flexible agent which perceives its environment and takes actions to maximize its chance of success at some goal or objective. As machines become increasingly capable, mental faculties once thought to require intelligence are removed from the definition. For example, optical character recognition is no longer perceived as an example of "artificial intelligence": it is just a routine technology.
At present we use the term AI for successfully understanding human speech, competing at a high level in strategic game systems (such as Chess and Go), self-driving cars, and interpreting complex data. Some people also consider AI a danger to humanity if it continues to progress at its current pace.
An extreme goal of AI research is to create computer programs that can learn, solve problems, and think logically. In practice, however, most applications have picked on problems which computers can do well. Searching databases and doing calculations are things computers do better than people. On the other hand, "perceiving its environment" in any real sense is way beyond present-day computing.
AI involves many different fields like computer science, mathematics, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. Eventually researchers hope to create a "general artificial intelligence" which can solve many problems instead of focusing on just one. Researchers are also trying to create creative and emotional AI which can possibly empathize or create art. Many approaches and tools have been tried.
Borrowing from the management literature, Kaplan and Haenlein classify artificial intelligence into three different types of AI systems: analytical, human-inspired, and humanized artificial intelligence. Analytical AI has only characteristics consistent with cognitive intelligence generating cognitive representation of the world and using learning based on past experience to inform future decisions. Human-inspired AI has elements from cognitive as well as emotional intelligence, understanding, in addition to cognitive elements, also human emotions considering them in their decision making. Humanized AI shows characteristics of all types of competencies (i.e., cognitive, emotional, and social intelligence), able to be self-conscious and self-aware in interactions with others.
History
AI research really started with a conference at Dartmouth College in 1956. It was a month-long brainstorming session attended by many people with interests in AI. At the conference they wrote programs that were amazing at the time, beating people at checkers or solving word problems. The Department of Defense started giving a lot of money to AI research and labs were created all over the world.
Unfortunately, researchers really underestimated just how hard some problems were. The tools they had used still did not give computers things like emotions or common sense. Mathematician James Lighthill wrote a report on AI saying that "in no part of the field have discoveries made so far produced the major impact that was then promised". The U.S and British governments wanted to fund more productive projects. Funding for AI research was cut, starting an "AI winter" where little research was done.
AI revived again in the 90s and early 2000s with its use in data mining and medical diagnosis. This was possible because of faster computers and focusing on solving more specific problems. In 1997, Deep Blue became the first computer program to beat chess world champion Garry Kasparov. Faster computers, advances in deep learning, and access to more data have made AI popular throughout the world. In 2011 IBM Watson beat the top two Jeopardy! players Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, and in 2016 Google's AlphaGo beat top Go player Lee Sedol 4 out of 5 times.
Related pages
Neural networks
Expert systems
Machine learning
References
What is Artificial Intelligence (A.I)?
Artificial intelligence
https://aiscite.blogspot.com/2021/08/what-is-artificial-intelligence-in.html |
6361 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer | Programmer | A computer programmer is a person who makes computer programs using a programming language. Programmers are also called software developers, coders, or hackers.
A programmer's main jobs are writing program source code, testing if it works, and debugging (fixing) the program if there are problems. Programmers often use software tools such as text editors and IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) to help them work.
Computer programming is a profession that can be done from a computer anywhere in the world. This is called telecommuting - doing work on the Internet instead of in an office.
Some programmers are famous because their software is used by many people. One example is Linus Torvalds, who created an important part of the Linux operating system.
Programming can be done in many different languages and can look very different but do the same thing. An example of this is the Hello world program.
Related pages
Software engineering
Computer science |
6362 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming%20language | Programming language | A programming language is a type of written language that tells computers what to do. Examples are: Python, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, C, C++, and C#. Programming languages are used to write all computer programs and computer software. A programming language is like a set of instructions that the computer follows to do something.
A programmer writes text in the source code of a programming language to make programs. Usually, the programming language uses real words for some of the commands (e.g. "if... then... else...", "and", "or"), so that the language is easier for a human to understand. Like any normal language, many programming languages use punctuation. Many programs are then compiled, which means that the computer changes, or translates, the source code into another language (such as assembly language or machine language) that a computer can read, but which is much harder for a person to read.
Computer programs must be written very carefully. If a programmer makes mistakes, or a program tries to do something the programmer did not design it to do, then the program might then stop working, which is called "crashing". When a program has a problem because of how the code was written, this is called a "bug". A very small mistake can cause a very big problem.
Types of programming languages
There are many types of programming languages. Most programming languages do not follow one type alone, so it is difficult to assign a type for each language. The examples of each type are given in each section below because they are the best well-known examples of that type.
High-level vs. low-level
High-level programming languages require less knowledge about the hardware compared to low-level programming languages. This is because high-level programming languages abstract away the hardware the program is running on. Many high-level languages require an interpreter to run the source code on the hardware in real time. On the other hand, low-level languages usually convert the whole source code to machine code before running, because the source code is so close to the hardware that it is easy to do so.
Declarative vs. Imperative programming
Declarative programming languages describe a "problem" but they usually do not say how the problem should be solved. The problem description uses logic, and "solving" the problem often looks like automatically proving a system of logical axioms. Examples for such programming languages are Prolog, XSLT, LISP and SQL.
Imperative programming languages describe a system of state changes. At the start, the program is in a certain state, and the computer is given steps to follow, in order to perform an action. Following the steps causes the program to "change state".
In general, declarative programming languages are safer and shorter. Imperative programming languages are more common, because they are easier to use.
Functional vs. Procedural
Functional programming looks at programming like a function in mathematics. The program receives input, together with some information, and uses this information to create output. It will not have a state in between, and it will also not change things that are not related to the computation.
Procedural programs specify or describe sets of steps or state changes.
Stack based
Stack based languages look at some of the program's memory like a stack of cards. There are very few things that can be done with a stack. A data item can be put on the top of the stack. This operation is generally called "push". A data item can be removed from the top of the stack. This is called a "pop". You can look at the item at the top of the stack without removing it. This is called a "peek".
If a program is written as "push 5; push 3; add; pop;" it will put 5 on the top of the stack, put 3 on top of the 5, add the top two values (3 + 5 = 8), replace the 3 and 5 with the 8, and print the top (8). Examples for programming languages that are stack-based are the languages Postscript and Forth.
Object-oriented
Object-oriented programming languages place data and functions that change data into a single unit. This unit is called an "object". Objects can interact with each other and change another object's data. This is usually called encapsulation or information hiding. Most modern programming languages are object-oriented, or at least allow this style of programming. Examples of this are Java, Python, Ruby, C++, C# and other C languages.
Flow-oriented
Flow oriented programming sees programming as connecting different components. These components send messages back and forth. A single component can be part of different "programs", without the need to be changed internally.
Scientific computing
Some of the languages above can be used for scientific computing. For example, C++ and Python are also used in this way. On the other hand, there are some languages that has scientific computing as their main purpose. The following are some examples:
MATLAB - made by MathWorks
GNU Octave, Scilab - open source versions of MATLAB
R (programming language) - widely used in the field of statistics
Wolfram Mathematica - made by Wolfram Research
Document creation
LaTeX and SATySFi are programming languages which helps document creation.
Rules
Every programming language has rules about what it can and can not do. These include:
Correct numbers (types of numbers, and how large or small the numbers can be)
Words (reserved words, case-sensitivity)
Limits on what the programming language can do
Most languages have official standards that define the rules of how to write the source code. Some programming languages have two or more standards. This can happen when a new standard replaces an old one. For example, the Perl 5 standard replaced Perl 4 in 1993. It can happen because two people made two standards at the same time. For example, there are several standards for APL.
Object-Oriented Programming
Object-Oriented Programming (sometimes shortened to OOP) is a form of programming where all parts of the program are objects. Objects are pieces of memory with the same structure that can be used again and again. A bank account, bitmap, or hero from a video game could all be objects within a program. Objects are made up of properties (pieces of information the object stores) and methods which are things the object can do. A Dog object might have properties like height and hairColor. Its methods might include bark() and wagTail().
All objects are created from templates called classes. You can think of a class as a mold from which objects are made. The class defines all the properties and methods that its objects will have. Objects created from a class are called instances of the class. A class can extend another class, which means that it takes all the properties and methods of the class but can add its own.
Here is an example of what a class might look like in a programming language:
class Dog extends Mammal{
//These are properties:
String breed = "Collie"
String type = "Herding Dog"
//These are methods
void wagTail(){
//Do some wagging
}
void bark(){
//Do the barking here
}
}
Notice that the Dog class extends the Mammal class, so all dogs will have the properties of a mammal, like hairLength, and methods, like eat() or sleep().
Object-oriented programming is used in many of today's most popular programming languages, such as Java, C#, Objective-C, C++, Python, Ruby, Javascript, and ActionScript.
Examples
Example of Visual Basic
Here is a simple program written in Visual Basic (a language made by Microsoft):
Dim Input
Input = InputBox("How old are you?? - Code")
If Not IsNumeric(Input) Then
MsgBox & Input & "That's not a number!"
ElseIf Input < 0 Then
MsgBox "You cannot be less than zero years old!"
ElseIf Input > 100 Then
MsgBox "That's old!"
Else
MsgBox "You're " & Input & " years old."
End If
This program asks the user his or her age and responds based on what the user typed. If the user typed something that is not a number, the program says so. If the user typed a number less than zero, the program says so. If the user says he or she is older than 100 years old, the program says "That's old!". If the user typed a correct age, the program says back to the user how old he or she is.
Example of Python
Here is a program that does the same thing as the program above, but in Python:
try:
age = int(raw_input("How old are you? "))
except ValueError:
print ("That's not a number!")
else:
if age < 0:
print ("You cannot be less than zero years old!")
elif age > 100:
print ("That's old!")
else:
print("You're %s years old." % age)
Example of C#
The same thing as the program above, but in C#:
using System;
public class Hello
{
public static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("What is your age?");
int age;
if (!int.TryParse(Console.ReadLine(), out age))
Console.WriteLine("That's not a number!");
else if (age < 0)
Console.WriteLine("You cannot be less than zero years old!");
else if (age > 100)
Console.WriteLine("That's old!");
else
Console.WriteLine("You're {0} years old.", age);
}
}
Example of Haskell
The same thing again, but in Haskell:
import Text.Read
main = do
putStrLn "What is your age?"
input <- fmap readMaybe getLine
putStrLn $ case input of
Just age | age < 0 -> "You cannot be less than zero years old!"
| age > 100 -> "That's old!"
| otherwise -> "You're " ++ show age ++ " years old."
Nothing -> "That's not a number!"
References
Related pages
List of programming languages
Programmer
Compiler
Computer programming
Programming paradigm |
6363 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual%20Basic | Visual Basic | Visual Basic (VB) is a programming language developed by Microsoft for their operating system Windows. The BASIC language is said to be easier to read than other languages.
Visual Basic is a widely understood high-level programming language, written using simple English-like words and syntax. It is an interpreted language, code can be run immediately after being written.
Having an interpreter makes it simpler to use, as there is no need for the computer to compile the code, possibly finding errors to fix, before the compiled version can be run. Once the code is working, it can be compiled into an .exe file so that it will run on all modern Windows computers, whether VB is installed or not. The language allows a beginning programmer to produce professional-looking Windows applications, as it includes drawing tools to create normal Windows forms. VB also includes advanced features - concepts and structures which allow programs to be adapted for use with the Internet. Visual Basic will not run on operating systems other than Windows and on machines with non-Intel compatible processors.
Though the program has received criticism for its faults, Visual Basic was a runaway commercial success since its release for version 3 in the summer of 1993. Many companies offered third party controls greatly extending its functionality.
Examples
Dim MyInput
MyInput = InputBox("How old are you?")
If Not IsNumeric(MyInput) Then
MsgBox "That's not a number!"
ElseIf MyInput < 0 Then
MsgBox "You cannot be less than zero!"
ElseIf MyInput > 100 Then
MsgBox "That's old!"
Else
MsgBox "You're " & MyInput & " years old."
End If
Private Sub Form_Load()
MsgBox "Hello, World"
End Sub
History
VB 1.0 was introduced in 1991. The drag and drop design for creating the user interface is derived from a prototype form generator developed by Alan Cooper and his company called Tripod. Microsoft contracted with Cooper and his associates to develop Tripod into a programmable form system for Windows 3.0, under the code name Ruby (no relation to the Ruby programming language). Tripod did not include a programming language at all. Microsoft decided to combine Ruby with the Basic language to create Visual Basic. The Ruby interface generator provided the "visual" part of Visual Basic and this was combined with the "EB" Embedded BASIC engine designed for Microsoft's abandoned "Omega" database system. Ruby also provided the ability to load dynamic link libraries containing additional controls (then called "gizmos"), which later became the Visual Basic Extension (VBX) interface. Versions of Visual Basic are listed below:
Visual Basic .NET
Visual Basic .NET is the next series of products in Microsoft's successful Visual Basic range of products. It makes creating programs easier because it is possible to drag-and-drop controls into the program. It runs on the .NET Framework and features another long line of programs (see Visual Basic .NET#Editions).
Visual Basic for Applications
This is a scripting language used in Microsoft Office and a few other programs. It is based on Visual Basic 6.0, and can change data in an office application, write it to a file, and do other actions.
Support
All versions of the Visual Basic development environment from 1.0 to 6.0 have been retired and are now unsupported by Microsoft. The associated runtime environments are unsupported too. This is except for the Visual Basic 6 core runtime environment, which will be officially supported by Microsoft until support of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 ends. Third party components that shipped with Visual Studio 6.0 are not included in this support statement. Some legacy Visual Basic components may still work on newer platforms. This is despite being unsupported by Microsoft and other vendors.
Development and maintenance development for Visual Basic 6 is possible on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 2003 using Visual Studio 6.0 platforms, but is unsupported. Documentation for Visual Basic 6.0, its application programming interface and tools is best covered in the last MSDN release before Visual Studio.NET 2002. Later releases of MSDN focused on .NET development and had significant parts of the Visual Basic 6.0 programming documentation removed. The Visual Basic IDE can be installed and used on Windows Vista, where it exhibits some minor incompatibilities which do not hinder normal software development and maintenance. As of August 2008, both Visual Studio 6.0 and the MSDN documentation are available for download by MSDN subscribers.
References
Other websites
VB 6.0 at MSDN
Locxtronic.com - Learn Visual Basic
VB.NET History and Tutorials
Programming languages
IDEs
Microsoft software |
6364 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting | Booting | Booting is what happens when a computer starts. This happens when the power is turned on. It is called "reboot" if it happens at other times. When you boot a computer, your processor looks for instructions in system ROM (the BIOS) and executes them. They normally 'wake up' peripheral equipment and search for the boot device. The boot device either loads the operating system or gets it from someplace else.
People use the word "boot" to mean "to start a computer" or other device with electronics built in. For example, if a person wants to ask a friend to turn on a satellite phone, they would say "could you boot up the satellite phone?".
Most operating systems call the first data storage device it uses a boot device. It may also be called a bootstrap loader. This is because the computer is making itself go, as in the idiom. When we start a computer, we can often see the simple instructions the computer uses to start, then more complicated pictures or software.
The phrase "to boot" in this meaning is short for "to bootstrap". This use is part of net jargon along with similar multi-use words like Internet or web. Often the computer is just called a box, so a phrase like "to boot the box" means "to start the computer".
The term "reboot" can also be used in a different context to mean a restarting of a storyline established in previous iterations of a series of fiction.
Computing
Software |
6365 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBS | DBS | DBS may stand for:
Direct broadcast satellite
Deep brain stimulation
Development Bank of Singapore
Douai Business School, an international business college in Douai, France
Diocesan Boys' School, Hong Kong
Den Beste Sykkel - a Norwegian bike manufacturer
Dibutyl sebacate - an organic compound used to make plastics |
6367 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea | Tea | Tea is a drink that is made from the steeping the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Tea can have other herbs, spices, or fruit flavors in it, like lemon. All teas are made from the Camellia sinensis plant.
Sometimes the word "tea" is used for other drinks that have been made by soaking fruit or herbs in hot water, like "rosehip tea" or "camomile tea". These are called "herbal teas".
Types of tea
There are three main types of tea: black tea, oolong, and green tea.
To make black tea, workers take the leaves and spread them out on shelves where they can dry. Next they are rolled and broken into pieces and put into a room where they absorb oxygen, or oxidize. Chemical reactions change the taste and style of the tea. Finally the leaves are dried with hot air until they turn brown or black. Most black tea comes from Sri Lanka, Indonesia and eastern Africa. When black tea leaves are brewed in boiling water, the tea made from them looks deep dark red, so another name used for black tea, especially in China, is red tea.
The process for oolong is similar to making black tea. It is made by partially oxidizing the tea leaves, rather than fully oxidizing them. Rutter’s has tea.
Green tea is made by putting freshly picked leaves into a steamer. This keeps them green. Then they are crushed and dried in ovens. India is the biggest maker and user of green tea.
Tea is mainly grown in China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Japan, Nepal, Australia, Argentina and Kenya.
The word tea can also be used as another word for an afternoon meal (mostly in the Commonwealth countries), as in "I am having tea in a short while." The word also applies to "afternoon tea", a small snack meal served sometimes, usually featuring sandwiches, cakes and tea. This small snack meal is also called "tea time".
Brewing
Green tea is usually steeped for 2–3 minutes in water at , while black tea is steeped for 3–5 minutes in boiling water.
Blends
Earl Grey is black tea with bergamot oil.
English breakfast is a full-bodied, robust blend that is made to go well with milk and sugar.
English afternoon tea is medium-bodied, bright and refreshing. Strong Assamese and Kenyan teas are blended with Ceylonese teas which adds a light, brisk quality to the blend.
Japan
Shizuoka is Japan's top producer of tea. Japan has many kinds of tea.
Related pages
Infusion
Coffee
Mate (drink)
References
Other websites
The United Kingdom Tea Council
International Tea Day-December 15
Tea |
6368 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua | Interlingua | Interlingua is a constructed language using words that are found in most West-European languages. It was made by IALA - a group of people (the most known was Alexander Gode) who worked on it for more than 20 years, and they finished and published the first dictionary in 1951. Interlingua was created on the base of languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.
Inter is the same root word as in the words "interaction", "interface" and so on, and it means "between" or "to each other"; lingua means "language". They chose the name Interlingua because they wanted it to be used for people of different countries to talk to each other easily. Because Interlingua was made by people to be easy, it is easier than natural languages to learn.
, 1,500 people knew Interlingua, and Interlingua speakers say that millions can understand it (read texts in it and listen to someone talk in it) without having to learn it first.
There are two other constructed languages in the world that have more than 1000 speakers, Esperanto and Ido. Those two were made before Interlingua. Some people think Esperanto and Ido are easy to learn because they have no exceptions (words that break the rules) but other people think Interlingua is easier because the makers chose all the words to be easy to understand for people who know English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian, plus languages like Occitan and Romanian, languages that used to be Latin, the language used in Rome a long time ago.
Actually, people who use Interlingua say that their language is actually new Latin, just simpler and modernized (made new).
Example text in Interlingua
Pater Noster in Interlingua
Related pages
Interlingua grammar
References
Other websites
A Grammar of Interlingua by Alexander Gode & Hugh Blair
(Danish) (Interlingua) http://www.interlingua.dk/ |
6369 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/World | World | When people say "the world" they usually mean Earth. Humans and all other known living things live in this world. Sometimes "world" means another planet.
Before people discovered that Earth is a planet, they often used "World" to mean "Universe". They still sometimes use it to mean all humans or all civilization. For example, they may say "end of the world" to mean the end of history or humanity.
Sometimes they mean a small part of Earth such as Western world, Islamic world, third world, new world, or ancient world.
Related pages
Universe
References
Geography |
6370 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan | Azerbaijan | Azerbaijan (; officially called the Republic of Azerbaijan) is a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. It is next to Russia in the north, Georgia, Armenia in the west, Iran in the south, and Caspian Sea on the east. Its capital city is Baku. Azerbaijan became independent from the Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991.
Azerbaijan also includes the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, an enclave, which is next to Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest.
Azerbaijan's land is in Eurasia. It is called an Eurasian country by the United Nations. Because Azerbaijan is close to Europe and its history is related to Europe, Azerbaijan is a member of a number of European groups, including the Council of Europe since 2001. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries. They have membership in 38 international organizations. On May 9, 2006 Azerbaijan was elected to membership in the newly made Human Rights Council by the United Nations General Assembly.
More than 90% of the people are ethnic Azerbaijanis. Minorities include Russians, Georgians and other minorities. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not say there is an official religion. But, Shia Islam, is by far the largest religion in the country, followed by Sunni Islam. There are also a small number of Christians (mainly Eastern Orthodox), Jews (mainly Ashkenazi), agnostics and atheists.
The name of Azerbaijan comes from Atropates. He was a Persian satrap under the Achaemenid Empire.
History
Ancient Azerbaijan was named "Caucasian Albania" and was relatively independent under Roman/Byzantine (Roman Azerbaijan) and Persian control.
After the Arab conquest in the 7th century the country has been always under Muslim influence, when its people became Muslim, until the Russian Empire entered the Caucasus region.
From 1920 to 1991, Azerbaijan was a Communist country as a member of the Soviet Union.
Since the early 19th century many Russians settled in Azerbaijan, but after the end of the Soviet Union with the independence of Azerbaijan which is back in control, most Russians and other minorities have left the country and are continuing to leave the country.
Biodiversity
There are 106 species of mammals, 97 species of fish, 363 species of birds, 10 species of amphibians and 52 species of reptiles which have been recorded and classified in Azerbaijan. The national animal of Azerbaijan is the Karabakh horse. It is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse native to Azerbaijan. It is one of the oldest breeds, with ancestry dating to the ancient world. However today the horse is an endangered species.
Azerbaijan's flora is more than 4,500 species of higher plants. Due the unique climate in Azerbaijan, the flora is much richer in the number of species than the flora of the other countries of the South Caucasus. About 67 percent of the species growing in the whole Caucasus can be in Azerbaijan.
Education
Many Azerbaijanis have some form of higher education, most notably in scientific and technical subjects. According to Soviet data, 100 percent of males and females (ages nine to forty-nine) were literate (able to read) in 1970. In 2009, the literacy rate in Azerbaijan was 99.5 percent.
Culture
The culture of Azerbaijan has come about as a result of many influences. Today, Western influences, including globalized consumer culture, are strong. National traditions are well kept in the country. Some of the main parts of the Azerbaijani culture are: music, literature, folk dances and art, cuisine, architecture, and movies.
Music and folk dances
Music of Azerbaijan builds on folk traditions that goes back nearly a thousand years. Among national musical instruments there are 14 string instruments, eight percussion instruments and six wind instruments.
Mugham, meykhana and Ashiq are some of the many musical traditions of Azerbaijan. Mugham is music with poetry and instrumental interludes. When performing Mugham, the singers have to bring their emotions into singing and music. Mugham singer Alim Qasimov is one of the five best singers of all time. Meykhana is a song with no music. It is usually done by several people. They make up the words about a particular subject. Ashiq joins poetry, storytelling, dance and vocal and instrumental music. It is as a symbol of Azerbaijani culture.
Azerbaijan was at the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2008. They hosted the contest in 2012, in Baku.
There are dozens of Azerbaijani folk dances. They are performed at formal festivals. The dancers wear national clothes like the Chokha. Most dances have a very fast rhythm.
Architecture
Azerbaijani architecture typically joins East and West. Many ancient treasures such as the Maiden Tower and Palace of the Shirvanshahs in the Walled City of Baku survive in modern Azerbaijan. Plans have been shown for the building of the Azerbaijan Tower. It will reportedly replace the Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world. The planned height is .
Movies
The movie industry in Azerbaijan dates back to 1898. In fact, Azerbaijan was among the first countries involved in making movies. In 1991, after Azerbaijan gained its freedom from the Soviet Union, the first Baku International Film Festival East-West was held in Baku.
Food
The traditional food is famous for many vegetables and greens used seasonally in the dishes. Fresh herbs, including mint, cilantro (coriander), dill, basil, parsley, tarragon, leeks, chives, thyme, marjoram, green onion, and watercress, are very popular. They are often served with main dishes on the table. National dishes show the variety of the landscape. They are based on fish from the Caspian Sea, local meat (mainly mutton and beef), and the many seasonal vegetables and greens. Saffron-rice plov is the flagship food in Azerbaijan and black tea is the national beverage.
Literature
The earliest known person in Azerbaijani literature was Hasanoghlu or Pur Hasan Asfaraini. He made a divan of Persian and Turkic ghazals. Classical literature in Azerbaijani was formed in 14th century. Among the poets of this period were Gazi Burhanaddin and Haqiqi. The famed Book of Dede Korkut has two manuscripts copied in the 16th century. It is a collection of 12 stories showing the oral tradition of Oghuz nomads.
In the span of the 17th century and 18th century, Fizuli's unique types as well Ashik poetry were taken up by poets and writers such as Qovsi of Tabriz and Shah Abbas Sani.
The first newspaper in Azerbaijani, Akinchi was published in 1875.
Sports
Sport in Azerbaijan is very old. Even now, both traditional and modern sports are still practiced. Freestyle wrestling has been traditionally said to be Azerbaijan's national sport. The most popular sports in Azerbaijan are football and chess. The national football team does not do well in international competitions. On March 19, 2010, Azerbaijan won the bid to host the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.
Futsal is another popular sport in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan national futsal team got fourth place in 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship.
Backgammon plays a major role in Azerbaijani culture. This game is very popular in Azerbaijan and is widely played by the local public.
Demographics
Out of 9,165,000 people (July 2011), nearly 52% were urban. The remaining 48% were rural. 51% of the people were female.
About 3 million Azerbaijanis, many of them guest workers, live in Russia.
The biggest reason for death in 2005 was from respiratory diseases.
Divisions
Azerbaijan is divided into 10 economic regions; 66 rayons and 77 cities. 11 cities are under the direct authority of the republic. Azerbaijan includes the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The President of Azerbaijan picks the governors of these units. The government of Nakhchivan is elected and approved by the parliament of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
Absheron
Absheron (Abşeron)
Baku (Bakı)
Khizi (Xızı)
Sumqayit (Sumqayıt)
Aran
Aghjabadi (Ağcabədi)
Aghdash (Ağdaş)
Barda (Bərdə)
Beylagan (Beyləqan)
Bilasuvar (Biləsuvar)
Goychay (Göyçay)
Hajigabul (Hacıqabul)
Imishli (İmişli)
Kurdamir (Kürdəmir)
Mingachevir (Mingəçevir)
Neftchala (Neftçala)
Saatly (Saatlı)
Sabirabad (Sabirabad)
Salyan (Salyan)
Shirvan (Şirvan)
Ujar (Ucar)
Yevlakh (Yevlax)
Yevlakh (Yevlax)
Zardab (Zərdab)
Daghlig Shirvan
Aghsu (Ağsu)
Gobustan (Qobustan)
Ismailly (İsmayıllı)
Shamakhy (Şamaxı)
Ganja-Gazakh
Aghstafa (Ağstafa)
Dashkasan (Daşkəsən)
Gadabay (Gədəbəy)
Ganja (Gəncə)
Gazakh (Qazax)
Goygol (Göygöl)
Goranboy (Goranboy)
Naftalan (Naftalan)
Samukh (Samux)
Shamkir (Şəmkir)
Tovuz (Tovuz)
Guba-Khachmaz
Guba (Quba)
Gusar (Qusar)
Khachmaz (Xaçmaz)
Shabran (Şabran)
Siyazan (Siyəzən)
Kalbajar-Lachin
Gubadly (Qubadlı)
Kalbajar (Kəlbəcər)
Lachin (Laçın)
Zangilan (Zəngilan)
Lankaran
Astara (Astara)
Jalilabad (Cəlilabad)
Lankaran (Lənkəran)
Lankaran (Lənkəran)
Lerik (Lerik)
Masally (Masallı)
Yardimly (Yardımlı)
Nakhchivan
Babek (Babək)
Julfa (Culfa)
Kangarli (Kəngərli)
Nakhchivan (Naxçıvan)
Ordubad (Ordubad)
Sadarak (Sədərək)
Shahbuz (Şahbuz)
Sharur (Şərur)
Shaki-Zaqatala
Balakan (Balakən)
Gabala (Qəbələ)
Gakh (Qax)
Oghuz (Oğuz)
Shaki (Şəki)
Shaki (Şəki)
Zaqatala (Zaqatala)
Yukhari Garabakh
Aghdam (Ağdam)
Fuzuli (Füzuli)
Jabrayil (Cəbrayıl)
Khankendi (Xankəndi)
Khojaly (Xocalı)
Khojavend (Xocavənd)
Shusha (Şuşa)
Shusha (Şuşa)
Tartar (Tərtər)
Note: The cities under the direct authority of the republic in italics.
Economy
The economy of Azerbaijan is based on industry, agriculture, and on services including tourism. The energy sector based on the large reserves of crude oil and natural gas, is the main source of economic growth in Azerbaijan today, though half of the Azerbaijani people earn their income directly or indirectly through services and a third earn their income through agriculture. The energy boom has led to massive foreign direct investment and the growth rate of the Azerbaijani economy is one of the world's highest.
After gaining independence in 1991 with the end of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan made the long and difficult change from a command economy to a market economy. The government has largely completed privatization of agricultural lands and small, medium and large state-owned companies. Azerbaijan is continuing making economic reforms, and old economic ties and structures have been slowly replaced. With independence, Azerbaijan became a member of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Azerbaijan's currency is the Azerbaijani manat (AZN) which is divided into 100 qəpik. It became the national currency in 1992 and replaced the old Soviet ruble. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan was created in 1992. The Central Bank serves as Azerbaijan's central bank, and is responsible for printing and distributing the national currency, the Azerbaijani manat, and to control all commercial banks.
Related pages
Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920)
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (1920-1991)
Azerbaijan at the Olympics
Water bodies of Azerbaijan
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Notes
References
Other websites
General information
Azerbaijan International
Heydar Aliyev Foundation
Azerbaijan at University of Colorado at Boulder
Country profile from BBC
Major government resources
President of Azerbaijan website
Azerbaijan State Statistical Committee
United Nations Office in Azerbaijan
Major news media
Azerbaijan Today
Azerbaijan Press Agency
Trend News Agency
News.Az
Tourism
Azerbaijan Tourism Portal
Caucasus
Azerbaijani republics
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
1991 establishments in Azerbaijan |
6371 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor | Actor | An actor is a person who acts, or has a role (a part) in a movie, television show, play, or radio show. Actors may be professional or not. Sometimes actors only sing or dance, or sometimes they only work on radio. A woman actor is actress, but the word "actor" is used for both men and women when referring to a group. Actors are also known as ‘thespians’ because of the first known Greek actor ‘Thespis’.
History
The first time we know an actor worked was in 534 B.C. The changes in calendar between then and now make the year uncertain. This actor was called Thespis and he was Greek. The place where the play happened was called the Theatre Dionysus in Athens, and he won a competition. He was the first person to speak words as a character. This was a big change in storytelling. Before then, people sang and danced stories, but no one had been a person in the story. Today we call actors "thespians" because of Thespis.
Women
In the past, the name "actor" was only for men. Women only began performing often in the 17th century. People called them "actresses". In the ancient world and in the Middle Ages, people thought it was bad (shameful) for a woman to act.
Today, the word "actor" is for both men and women, because some people think the name "actress" is sexism/sexist. But people also use the word actress very often.
Swapped Roles
Actresses in Men's Roles
Women actors sometimes act the roles of young boys, because in some ways a woman is more similar to a boy than a man is. For example, a woman usually plays the role of Peter Pan. In pantomime, a sort of play for children (not the same as mime), the most important young man is also a woman. Opera has some "pants roles" which women traditionally sing. These women are usually mezzo-sopranos, which means they sing with a voice that is high but not very high. Examples are Hansel in , and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.
Mary Pickford played the part of "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in the first film version of the book. Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Year of Living Dangerously, in which she played the part of a man.
In comic theatre and film, people often use a man for a woman's part, or a woman for a man's part - this has a long history. Most of Shakespeare's comedies have examples of this. Both Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams were in popular comedy films where they played most scenes as men in women's clothes, pretending to be women.
Actors in Women's Roles
In the time of Shakespeare, and earlier, all roles in an English play were played by men, meaning even characters such as Juliet, Lady Macbeth, and Cleopatra were first played by men or boys. After the English Restoration women were allowed to perform on-stage.
More recently, men have played female roles as a type of humor. Movies with this role reversal include Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie, Big Momma's House, Hairspray, and The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy.
Voice acting
Voice acting is a special type of acting. It is most commonly used in animation for both television and movies. Voice actors are the people who make the voices for the characters. They may be the narrator in non-animated works.
Types
Actors working in theatre, film, and television have to learn different skills. Skills that work well in one type of acting may not work well in another type of acting.
In theatre
To act on stage, actors need to learn the stage directions that appear in the script, such as "Stage Left" and "Stage Right". These directions are based on the actor's point of view as he or she stands on the stage facing the audience. Actors also have to learn the meaning of the stage directions "Upstage" (away from the audience) and "Downstage" (towards the audience)
Theatre actors need to learn blocking, which is "...where and how an actor moves on the stage during a play."
Most scripts specify some blocking. The Director will also give instructions on blocking, such as crossing the stage or picking up and using a prop.
Theatre actors need to learn stage combat, which is simulated fighting on stage. Actors may have to simulate "hand-to-hand [fighting] or with sword[-fighting]." Actors are coached by fight directors, who help them to learn the choreographed sequence of fight actions.
In film
D. W. Griffith first developed of acting that would "suit the cinema rather than the theater." He realized that theatrical acting did not look good on film. Griffith required his actors and actresses to go through weeks of film acting training.
Film actors have to learn to get used to and be comfortable with a camera being in front of them.
Film actors need to learn to find and stay on their "mark." This is a position on the floor marked with tape. This position is where the lights and camera focus are optimized. Film actors also need to learn how to prepare well and perform well on screen tests. Screen tests are a filmed audition of part of the script.
"Unlike the theater actor, who gets to develop a character during...a two- or three-hour performance, the film actor lacks continuity, forcing him or her to come to all the scenes (often shot in reverse order in which they'll ultimately appear) with a character already fully developed."
"Since film captures even the smallest gesture and magnifies it..., cinema demands a less flamboyant and stylized bodily performance from the actor than does the theater." "The performance of emotion is the most difficult aspect of film acting to master: ...the film actor must rely on subtle facial ticks, quivers, and tiny lifts of the eyebrow to create a believable character." Some theatre stars "...have made the theater-to-cinema transition quite successfully (Olivier, Glenn Close, and Julie Andrews, for instance), others have not..."
In television
"On a television set, there are typically several cameras angled at the set. Actors who are new to on-screen acting can get confused about which camera to look into." TV actors need to learn to use lav mics (Lavaliere microphones). TV actors need to understand the concept of "frame." "The term frame refers to the area that the camera's lens is capturing."
References
Entertainment occupations |
6373 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwarizmi | Al-Khwarizmi | Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (, ) was a Persian Muslim mathematician and astronomer. He was believed to have been born around 800 AD and died in 850 AD during the Abbasid Empire.
Al-Khwarizmi was known for the book he wrote about algebra, Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. He also wrote a book which taught the Western world about Hindu numerals and how to use them. This book was later titled the Hindu Art of Reckoning. With his books, al-Khwarizmi authored astronomical tables- tables designed to calculate the position of planets or eclipses.
His work changed the understanding and knowledge of mathematics in the Middle Ages and mathematicians in Europe read his book. They began to use these Hindu–Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ...) instead of the Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, ...). The Arabic numeral system is easier to do mathematics with, as Roman numbers have no place values. This means that they can only deal with whole numbers and do simple equations. Roman numerals also have no number zero.
He wrote a book on algebra named Al-Jabr Wal' Muqibla. In this book, he introduced his own number system and also introduced Arabic numerals. His books were translated into Greek and Latin. They named his books "So said Algorizmi". The word "algorithm" is derived from the word Algorizmi. The word algebra comes from the word al-jabr that is at the beginning of the title of the book.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi worked at the House of Wisdom, where people worked on translating scientific works.
References
Other websites
780s births
840s deaths
Muslims
Persian mathematicians
Astronomers |
6374 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy | Ptolemy | Claudius Ptolemy ( ; ; – ) was a Greek who probably lived and worked in Alexandria, Egypt. He is famous for his work on astronomy and geography. Very little is known about his personal life.
He was an astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. He described in his writing the Greek geocentric view of the universe. Earlier Greek philosophers changed the old assumption of a flat Earth below a "vault of the heavens". They substituted a spherical Earth surrounded by a Celestial sphere. Ptolemy built these two spheres into a system of nested spheres. He also thought out and described the apparent motions of the planets as they were known in his time.
Ptolemy explained and extended Hipparchus's system of epicycles and eccentric circles to explain the Earth-centered theory of the world. Ptolemy's system involved at least 80 epicycles to explain the motions of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known in his time. He believed the planets and sun moved around the Earth in this order: Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
This system became known as the Ptolemaic system. It predicts the positions of the planets well enough for naked-eye observations, so it seemed accurate at the time. This is described in his book Mathematical Syntaxis (widely called the Almagest), a thirteen-book mathematical treatment of the phenomena of astronomy. It contains a wide variety of information ranging from earth conceptions to sun, moon, and star movement as well as eclipses and an explanation of the length of months. The Almagest also included a star catalog containing 48 constellations, using the names we still use today.
In addition to his well-known works in astronomy, Claudius Ptolemy was important in the history of geography and cartography (making maps). He was influential up to the 16th century. Then his ideas were disproved by Nicolaus Copernicus. Ptolemy knew that the Earth is a sphere. Ptolemy's is the first known projection of the sphere onto a plane. His Geography remained the main work on the subject until the time of Christopher Columbus. But he had Asia extending much too far east, which may have been a factor in Columbus's decision to try to reach India by sailing west from Europe.
The Ptolemaic explanation of the motions of the planets was the accepted wisdom until the Polish scholar Copernicus proposed a sun-centered (heliocentric) view in 1543. Though the heliocentric idea is correct, its predictions were not better than Ptolemy's until Kepler's Laws were added.
Ptolemy may not actually have believed in the reality of his system. He may have thought of it only as a method of calculating positions.
Related pages
Geocentrism
Notes
100 births
160s deaths
Ancient Greek astronomers
Greek geographers |
6377 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moctezuma%20II | Moctezuma II | Moctezuma II, also known as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (1466-1520) and often called Montezuma in English, was the Aztec emperor (tlahtoani) from 1502 to 1520. His name comes from the Nahuatl Motecuhzoma, it means "he who is leader because of his fury". In Spanish, he is called Moctezuma.
When Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico in 1519, Moctezuma thought he was the god Quetzalcoatl, and did not want to fight against him. Cortés took Moctezuma prisoner. When the Aztecs wanted Cortés to get out of their capital Tenochtitlan in 1520, Cortes told Moctezuma to calm down his people. When doing that he died. The Spaniards said he was killed by the Aztecs, while the Aztecs said Cortés killed him. The Spanish said that the Aztec people threw rocks at him, killing him. The Aztecs said that they found his body in the streets with a lot of cuts made with a sword after the Spanish left.
Other websites
A reconstructed portrait of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, based on historical sources, in a contemporary style.
1466 births
1520 deaths
Mexican people
Emperors and empresses
Aztec |
6379 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio%20L%C3%B3pez%20de%20Santa%20Anna | Antonio López de Santa Anna | Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón (February 21, 1794 - June 21, 1876) was a Mexican general and dictator. Under his rule of Mexico, it lost half its territory. Santa Anna was president 11 times. He fought two wars against the United States. In the war against Texas (1835-1836), he won the famous Battle of the Alamo, but later he lost the Battle of San Jacinto and was taken prisoner by the Americans. He also lost the Mexican- American War with the United States (1846-1848), He was overthrown in 1855 and went to live in foreign countries.
1794 births
1876 deaths
Mexican military people
People from Veracruz
Presidents of Mexico |
6383 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granzyme | Granzyme | A Granzyme is an enzyme contained within cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells. These substances are used to destroy virus-infected cells.
Granzyme secretion can be detected and measured using the ELISPOT and ELISA techniques.
Blood cells
Enzymes |
6393 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid | Apartheid | Apartheid was a racist political and social system in South Africa during the era of White minority rule. It enforced racial discrimination against non-Whites, mainly focused on skin colour and facial features. This existed in the twentieth century, from 1948 until the early-1990s. The word apartheid means "distantiation” in the Afrikaans language. Racial segregation had existed in Southern Africa for centuries. In the elections of 1948 the National Party took power and in the next few years made new apartheid laws. The new laws more strictly enforced segregation. In theory, it was to bring independence to the African majority in their own little countries to be created from South African territory.
Under this system, the people of South Africa were divided by their race and the different races were forced to live separately from each other. There were laws in place to ensure that segregation was obeyed. The apartheid system in South Africa was abolished in 1994, when a new constitution was ratified which abolished the previous system of segregation. The last President who held office during the apartheid era was Frederik Willem de Klerk; who was responsible for holding negotiations with political prisoner Nelson Mandela to bring an end to apartheid. Following these successful negotiations, Nelson Mandela was elected to the Presidency of South Africa after multi-racial elections were held in April 1994, and became the first black person to hold the position. He was 75 years old The pair were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. Today, the term apartheid is sometimes used for similar segregational systems in other countries.
How apartheid worked in South Africa
During apartheid, people were divided into four racial groups and separated by law. The system was used to deny many basic rights to non-White people, mainly Black people who lived in South Africa. The law allowed white people to be in certain areas. Black people had to carry special passes or have permission to travel outside their designated area, or work in particular areas reserved for Whites. The government separated mixed communities and forcibly moved many black people off their land (From 1960 to 1983 the Bantustan Policy was enforced to forcibly move South African blacks out of the areas designated for 'whites'). Many other laws were made, for example: interracial marriage was outlawed; Black people could not own land in White areas or vote.
The United Nations did not agree with the South African government's apartheid policies. There were protests in South Africa, like in Sharpeville in 1960 and in Soweto in 1976. After the Sharpeville Massacre, the UN tried to remove South Africa in 1974. France, the United States, and the UK prevented that from happening. The Soweto Uprisings started because Africans were forced to study some subjects at school in Afrikaans. Many Black people did not like Afrikaans because it was the language of the apartheid government and the language of their oppressors.
Ending apartheid
In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became President of South Africa. He wanted to reform the system. In a speech in 1990, de Klerk said the ban on the African National Congress was lifted. He also ruled that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison.
In 1991, the UN created the National Peace Accord. The purpose of the Peace Accord was "to bring an end to political violence" in South Africa. It was agreed on by 27 organisations and governments. After this the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) was formed. CODESA worked to find a solution to the violence.
The first multiracial election in which all races could vote, was held on 27 April 1994. Nelson Mandela was elected President, with De Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputies. This date considered the end of apartheid. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to help victims speak out and seek justice. It was chaired by Desmond Tutu in the 1990s.
Although Black South Africans were granted equal rights by law after a long fought campaign, there is still huge economic inequality between Blacks and Whites. In 2012, South Africa held its first census in over ten years. It found that the average Black family earned one-sixth (about 17%) of what the average White family earned. "These figures tell us that at the bottom of the rung is the black majority who continue to be confronted by deep poverty unemployment and inequality,” President Jacob Zuma said when the findings were released. Nelson Mandela spent the majority of his life fighting against apartheid laws, and without his activism; many of the changes would never have happened.
Aim of apartheid
The goal of apartheid was to separate the people of South Africa into small independent nations. The black ones were called Bantustans. South Africa said they were independent countries and exchanged ambassadors but other countries did not. The National Party government did not want to spend a lot of money on this project. They also wanted to keep the majority of South Africa's land for white people, especially the richest places, like the gold mines of Johannesburg. They wanted black men to work in these mines for little money but their families had to live far away or face imprisonment.
Related pages
Dhimmi
Iran
Race (sociology)
Racial segregation
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Kanister
References
20th century in South Africa
Crimes against humanity
Apartheid |
6398 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus%20Affair | Dreyfus Affair | The Dreyfus Affair was one of the biggest scandals in the history of France. It happened at the end of the 19th century. It was about Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army.
In 1894, Dreyfus was accused of being a spy, and accused of crimes against France. People thought he wrote letters to the Germans telling them about secrets of the French army.
His punishment was to be sent to a prison island in South America for the rest of his life.
When he was in prison, people (mostly his brother Mathieu and a high-ranking officer called Picquart) thought he was innocent. They proved that another soldier, Major Esterhazy, was guilty. But the army did not want to admit that it had been wrong. They refused to free him. Finally, the evidence that Dreyfus was innocent became so strong that the government had to demand a new trial. At the new trial, the army again found him guilty. The President of France, who did not want an innocent man to suffer any more, pardoned Dreyfus in 1899.
Dreyfus was released. Seven years later, he was officially declared innocent, and allowed back into the army.
The affair divided France into people who thought Dreyfus really was a spy and people who thought he was innocent. Many of those who thought Dreyfus was a spy hated Jews and believed that he was a criminal because he was a Jew, and that a Jew could not be a good Frenchman; this belief is called anti-Semitism. Others thought that the army could not be questioned. The other side believed that an innocent man should not be imprisoned, and feared that Dreyfus's enemies were also enemies of France.
19th century in France
Judaism in France
French military people
Espionage |
6402 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball | Baseball | Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played on a field by two teams against each other. In baseball, a player on one team throws a small round ball at a player on the other team, who tries to hit it with a bat. Then the player who hits the ball has to run around the field. Players get runs by running around in a full circle around three points on the ground called bases, to back where they started, which is called home plate. They have to do this without getting caught by the players on the other team.
Baseball started in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s. Many people in North America, South America, and East Asia play baseball, but the sport is most known in the United States and Japan. In the U.S., baseball is called the national pastime, because so many people in the United States used to spend a lot of time playing or watching baseball games. Today, though, most Americans follow football more than baseball, especially when it comes time for the Super Bowl.
How baseball is played
A game of baseball is played by two teams on a baseball field. Each team has 9 players. There are also 4 umpires. There is one for where young players play. Umpires watch everything carefully to decide what happened, make calls about a play, and make sure everyone follows the rules.
On a baseball field, there are four bases. The bases form a diamond that goes around the field to the right from the starting base. The starting base is called home plate. Home plate is a pentagon, which is a shape that has five sides. First base is on the right side of the field, second base is at the top of the infield, third base is on the left side of the field, and home plate is at the back of the field, where the catcher plays.
The game is played in innings. Professional baseball games have 9 innings. In an inning, each team has one turn to bat and try to score runs, adding one point. When one team hits the ball, the other team defends and tries to get three players on the other team out. The team that is playing defense always has the ball. This is different from other team sports. When the team on defense gets three players out, it is their turn to try and score runs. Then the team that was batting starts playing defense, and the team that was playing defense starts batting. After nine innings, the team that has the most runs is the winner. If the teams have the same number of runs, they play more innings until one team wins. At the start of the game, the home team pitches, while players on the visiting team bat. Only one player can bat at a time.
The baseball field, or diamond, has two main parts, the infield and the outfield. The infield is where the four bases are. The outfield is beyond the bases, from the view of home plate. The lines from home plate to first base and home plate to third base are the foul lines, and the ground outside of these lines is called foul territory. A ball that is hit with a bat and flies between the foul lines is a fair ball, and the batter and runners can try and run around the bases and score. A ball that is outside the foul lines is a foul ball. If the ball hits the ground in the foul area rather than being caught in the air, the batter continues to bat, and any runners must return to the base that they were on before the ball was hit. If the batter has fewer than two strikes, a foul ball counts as a strike. If the batter already has two strikes, and the foul ball is not caught in the air, then the batter continues to hit. If a ball is caught by a fielder in fair or foul ground, the batter is out.
The most important part of the game is between the pitcher and the batter. The pitcher throws, or pitches, the ball towards home plate. The pitcher normally throws the ball close enough for the batter to hit it. If the pitcher throws the ball in the strike zone, which is the area over home plate and between the hitter's knee and chest, the pitch is a "strike", unless the batter hits the ball. The pitch is always a strike, regardless of where it is, if the batter swings the bat and misses, so the batter must have good aim with the bat. Three strikes are a "strikeout", and this is one way to make an "out". A pitch that the batter does not swing at, and which is not called a strike, is a "ball." On the fourth "ball" thrown by a pitcher, the batter "walks" to first base, so it is important to pitch well.
The catcher for the pitcher's team waits behind the batter, and catches any ball that the batter does not hit. The catcher uses signals to tell the pitcher where to throw the ball. If the pitcher does not like what the catcher says, he will shake his head, which signals "no". If he agrees with what the catcher has signaled, he will nod his head, which signals "yes".
There are many ways to get batters out, and runners can also be gotten out. Some common ways to get batters out are catching a batted ball in the air, whether in fair or foul territory, throwing the ball to the defensive player at first base (an out if it gets there before the batter), and a strikeout. A runner can be put out by tagging the runner while the runner is not on a base, and by "forcing him out" (when a base is touched before a player can get there, with no base for the runner to go back to). When the fielding team has put out three of the batting team's players, the half-inning is over and the team in the field and the team at bat switch places.
The batting team wants to get runs. In order to get a run, a player must bat, then become a base runner, touch all the bases in order, and then touch home plate without being called out. So first, the batter wants to make other players get to home plate, or to run the bases himself. Runners can not pass each other while running the bases.
A base runner who touches home plate after touching all previous bases in order, and without getting out, scores a run. If the batter hits the ball over the fence (between the foul lines) without touching the ground, it is a home run. The batter, and any base-runners, are allowed to advance to the home plate and score a run. The fielding team can do nothing to stop them.
Fielding team
The team on the field tries not to let the team who's batting get any runs. The fielding team has a pitcher and a catcher. The remaining seven fielders can stand anywhere in the field. However, there are usually four people that stand around the infield close to the bases and three outfielders who stand around the outfield.
The four infielders are the first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman. The first baseman and third baseman stand close to first base and third base. The second baseman and the shortstop stand on either side of second base.
The first baseman's job is to make force plays at first base. In a force play, another infielder catches a ball that has touched the ground, and throws it to the first baseman. The first baseman must then touch the batter or the base with the ball before the batter can touch first base. Then the batter is out. First basemen need to have quick feet, stretch well, be quick and know how to catch wild throws. First base is one of the most important positions as a significant number of plays happen there.
The second baseman's job is to cover the area to the right of second base and to back the first baseman up. The shortstop's job is to cover the area between second and third bases. This is where right-handed batters usually hit ground balls. The shortstop also covers second or third base and the near part of left field. The shortstop is usually the best fielder on the team. The third baseman needs to have a strong throwing arm. This is because many times the batter will hit a ball toward third base. The third baseman must throw the ball very quickly to the first baseman, to get the runner out. Because the balls that go to third base are usually hit very hard, the third baseman must also be very quick.
The three outfielders are called the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder, because they stand in left field, center field and right field. Left field and right field are on the left and right sides, if you look out from home plate. Center field is straight ahead from home plate. Center field is very big, so the center fielder is usually the fastest.
The team can decide where to put the infielders and outfielders. Players often stand at slightly different places on the field between some plays. These changes are called "shifts". The fielders may shift at any time. Players can shift for many reasons. One of the more popular ones is the defensive shift, where players move in the infield. They do this because they know that some batters can only hit a ball a certain direction. It can also be easier to make a double play when fielders are moved a certain way.
Pitching
Teams can change pitchers during a game. Teams change their pitchers often because it is hard for a pitcher to throw a full game of nine innings. A pitcher can sometimes throw a no-hitter where no one on the opposite team gets an earned hit. A team can use as many pitchers as it wants to, but it is rare to use more than eight in a game. The ways that a pitcher throws the ball are called pitches. Many professional pitchers use two or more different pitches. Pitchers change which pitch they throw so that the batter will be tricked and not know what pitch to expect. This makes it more difficult for the batter to hit the ball. Pitchers can make the ball move differently: faster or slower, closer or farther from the batter, higher or lower. There are also many types of pitches, such as the slurve, curve, slider, splitter, sinker, screw, 2-seam cut, 2-seam screw, knuckle, knuckle curve, change-up, circle change-up, palm ball, and others.
When throwing the ball, the pitcher must touch the pitchers mound with his foot. The pitcher's rubber is on top of the mound. The pitcher cannot take more than one step forward when he throws the ball. That makes the pitcher throw the ball slower. Many major-league pitchers can throw the ball up to 100 miles per hour (145 km/h). Throwing a baseball that fast can be bad for the body. Pitchers can end up with a lot of injuries. Doctors often will perform Tommy John surgery on a pitcher with an elbow injury. The operation is named after Tommy John, the first pitcher to have the surgery. Today, pitchers are able to recover from their injuries much more often than before Tommy John surgery.
The batting team
The batting team wants to get runs. The batting team sends its players up to home plate in a special order. This order is called the lineup. Each team chooses its lineup at the start of the game. After the game starts, the team cannot change the order. But the team can use a player who was not on the lineup. The new player has to change with an original player. The new player's name is written in the lineup where the original player's name was. After the ninth player has batted, the first player in the lineup starts again. If a runner comes to home plate, he scores a run. Then he is not a base runner. After scoring a run, the player must leave the field until it is his turn again. So a player can only score one run for each time he bats.
Since people began to have more free time, baseball has become the national pastime of America. About 12 million people play baseball in the United States.
Baseball terms
The field
See the image above for a diagram of the playing field.
Base: Four points on the field the players must run to. The player starts at Home plate and must go to each of the other bases in order and return to Home plate to score a run. The other bases are named First base, Second base and Third base. Home plate is a piece of hard rubber and the other bases are made of cloth. In professional baseball, the bases are 90 feet from each other. The bases on the field are in the shape of a diamond.
Baseline: the line between each of the bases in order. For example, from home plate to first base, from first base to second base, and so on.
Base path: The area along the baseline where the players run from base to base.
Ball: A pitch that was thrown outside the strike zone and that the batter did not swing at.
Strike: A pitch that was thrown inside the strike zone and that the batter did not swing at, a pitch that the batter swung at and missed, or a ball that the batter hit into foul territory.
Dugout: the place where the players and coaches who are not on the field sit.
Bullpen: the place where the pitchers watch the game and warm up before they start playing or when they are not playing.
Outfield: where three players play, typically where the best arm, the fastest and the second best arm play
The Game
Grounder: A ball that bounces and rolls on the ground after being hit.
Pop Fly: A ball that goes high in the air after being hit. It can be caught for an out or it can fall for a hit
Double Play: When the defense gets two outs on one play. Often happens when a ground ball is hit to an infielder with a runner on base.
Bunt: when the batter holds his bat out to try and hit the ball rather than swinging it. A bunted ball does not go far usually. Pitchers often bunt because they are not as good at hitting. A bunt is also often used when trying to advance another runner already on one of the bases. This is called a "sacrifice" or "sacrifice bunt."
Hit: When the batter hits the ball (thrown by the pitcher) in fair territory.
Home Run: When the batter hits the ball outside the baseball field, he (and any runners on base) gets to run all of the bases and scores at home plate.
Related pages
Major League Baseball
Comparison of baseball and cricket
References
Further reading
Dickson, Paul. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3d ed. (W. W. Norton, 2009).
Fitts, Robert K. Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005).
Gillette, Gary, and Palmer. Pete (eds.). The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, 5th ed. (Sterling, 2008).
Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams (Oxford University Press, 1992 [1970]).
Reaves, Joseph A. Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia (Bison, 2004).
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Baseball: An Illustrated History (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996).
Other websites
World Baseball Softball Confederation
"Baseball". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Baseball Prospectus
Society for American Baseball Research
The Rules of Baseball
Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio |
6409 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonym | Antonym | An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning of another word. The first known use of the word antonym was in 1857. Properly defined it means a word of opposite meaning and is a noun.
Related pages
Synonym - two words similar to each other
Contronym - word that has two meanings
References
Words |
6413 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names%20of%20God%20in%20Judaism | Names of God in Judaism | In Judaism, God is known by many names. The most important of these names is the Tetragrammaton, or "Four-lettered word": YHVH, YHWH, or י - ה וה. Jews are not allowed to say this name, and instead say Adonai. Even Adonai is only used by some Jews in prayer. Most Jews would refer to God as Hashem, or "The Name". Jews are not allowed to erase the Tetragrammaton, so they rarely write it down outside of their most holy books, such as the Torah.
Other names include Elohim, El, Shaddai, Tzeva-ot, ‘Elyon, and Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh which are respectively pronounced by observant Jews as Elokim, Kayl, Shakkai, Tzeva-Kot.
Certain names, such as Shalom, are pronounced as written, but when written one letter, in this case the last letter, is omitted. The last of the above "other" list is often said as Ek-yeh Asher Ek-yeh.
Other Jewish names of (or references) to God include
Emet (Truth)
Tzur Yisrael (The Rock of Israel)
Elohei Avraham, Elohei Yitzchak, v'Elohei Yaacov (God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob)
Ehiyeh sh'Ehiyeh (I Am That I Am)
Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, our King)
Ro'eh Yisrael (Shepherd of Israel)
Ha-Kadosh, Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed be He)
Melech ha-Melachim (The King of Kings)
Makom (literally, "the place"; meaning "The Omnipresent")
Magen Avraham (Shield of Abraham)
Shalom: of Peace
YHWH-Jireh: The Lord will provide (Genesis 22:13, 14).
YHWH-Rapha: The Lord that healeth (Exodus 15:26).
YHWH-Nissi: The Lord our Banner (Exodus 17:8-15).
YHWH-Shalom: The Lord our Peace (Judges 6:24).
YHWH-Ra-ah: The Lord my Shepherd (Psalms 23:1).
YHWH-Tsidkenu: The Lord our Righteousness (Book of Jeremiah 23:6).
YHWH-Shammah: The Lord is present (Book of Ezekiel 48:35).
Judaism |
6415 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFL%20Championship | EFL Championship | The EFL Championship, commonly known as The Championship, is the name of the English second division of football.
2021–22 clubs
Bournemouth
Champions
Former champions
Related pages
English Premier League
Football League One
Football League Two
Championship
Football in England
1888 establishments in England |
6416 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham | Birmingham | Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the second-largest metropolitan area and city in the United Kingdom. About 1.1 million people live in Birmingham. Around 4.3 million people live in its metropolitan area. Many people call it the "second city" of the United Kingdom..
Grand Union Canal
Birmingham was an important stagwine-post in the Victorian industrial canal system. Today it is the northern terminus of the Grand Union Canal to London. Heavy goods (as coal surely is) are most economically moved on water. No other form of transport is so efficient.
Motorways
The M40 motorway connects to London via Oxford. The M6 motorway also connects Birmingham to London (via the M1) and to the north-west of England and Scotland. Junction 6 of the M6 is also one of Birmingham's landmarks, and probably the most notable motorway junction in the UK, Spaghetti Junction, officially called the Gravelly Hill Interchange. Other motorways are:
The A38(M) which links Spaghetti Junction to the city centre
The M5, connecting Birmingham to the south-west of England
The M42, which connects Birmingham to Tamworth and the East Midlands
The M6 Toll, which enables through traffic on the M6 to bypass Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
Birmingham, unlike London and Manchester, does not have a single orbital motorway. Instead, three motorways form a box which surrounds most of the city. These are:
The M42 to the south and east. In the middle, the M40 ends. It has priority for traffic going from the M40 to the M42 west. The M40 goes off south to Warwick, Oxford, High Wycombe, Uxbridge and London.
The M5 which forms the western section.
The M6 which forms the northern section. The M5 ends on the M6.
Other major roads passing through Birmingham include:
The A34 from Manchester to Winchester
The A38 from Mansfield to Bodmin
The A41 from London to Birkenhead
The A45 from Birmingham to Thrapston (formerly to Felixstowe)
The A47 from Birmingham to Great Yarmouth
The A4540 'Middleway' ring road
The A4040 Outer Ring Road
History
Birmingham began as a small town in 1166.
Queen Victoria gave city status to Birmingham in 1889.
Many industries were developed in Birmingham during the 18th and 19th centuries. These included making weapons and food.
Birmingham manufacturing industry played a big role in the war effort in World War I and World War II. The WWII spitfire aeroplane was made in Birmingham. In 2000, a statue of stylised spitfires was erected next to the old factory site. The factory now makes Jaguar cars.
Birmingham had a large car making industry. It has declined since the 1980s. It remains the home town for Jaguar and Land Rover cars.
In 1974, twenty-one people were killed in the Birmingham pub bombings.
Famous people from Birmingham
Gabriel Agbonlahor, footballer
Geoff Bunn, artist
Geezer Butler, musician and Black Sabbath member
Jasper Carrott, comedian
Tony Iommi, musician and Black Sabbath member
Jeff Lynne, musician and record producer, co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra
Bill Oddie, television personality
Ozzy Osbourne, singer, and Black Sabbath member
James and Oliver Phelps, actors, famous for playing Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter film series
J.R.R. Tolkien, author
Julie Walters, actor
Steve Winwood, musician
Matthew Stansfield - member of the conservatives party
Richard Hammond - Motoring journalist, TV presenter
Famous pop and rock groups from Birmingham
Black Sabbath, heavy metal rock group
Dexys Midnight Runners, pop group
Duran Duran, pop group
Judas Priest, rock group
Moody Blues, pop group
The Move, pop group
UB40, pop group
Wizzard, pop group
References
Other websites
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham tourism site |
6417 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond%2C%20Virginia | Richmond, Virginia | Richmond () is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. The population within the city limits was 204,214 in 2010, with an estimated population of 1,258,251 for the Richmond Metropolitan Area — making it the third largest in Virginia.
Location
Richmond is at the fall line of the James River, south of Washington DC, east of Charlottesville, Virginia, and west of Williamsburg, Virginia. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, and encircled by Interstate 295 and Virginia State Route 288.
History
Richmond began as an important village of the Powhatan Confederacy, and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown in 1609, and in 1610–11. English settlers returned to found a permanent town in 1737. It became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, the city was known for Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church, and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America. The city entered the 20th century with one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems.
Economy
Richmond's economy is primarily driven by law, finance, and government. It has federal, state, and local governmental agencies in its downtown. The downtown also has offices for legal and banking firms. The city is home to both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, one of 13 federal appellate courts, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, one of 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. Dominion Resources, Carmax, Genworth Financial, and MeadWestvaco, Fortune 500 companies, along with Massey Energy and Universal Corporation, Fortune 1000 companies, are headquartered in the city. The historic sites in the area bring tourists.
References
Former national capitals
County seats in Virginia
State capitals in the United States
1737 establishments
1730s establishments in Virginia |
6418 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/American%20Civil%20War | American Civil War | The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a civil war in the United States of America. It was fought when 11 Southern states left the United States and formed the Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy). The US government and the states that remained loyal to it were called the Union.
The main cause of the war was slavery, which was allowed in the South, including all 11 Confederate States. Slavery was illegal in most of the North. The Confederate States tried to leave the Union after Abraham Lincoln, who disliked slavery, was elected US president. The Union believed that it was illegal for the states to break away. There were five states that allowed slavery which stayed in the Union.
The war began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, a fort in South Carolina that was held by Union soldiers. The war lasted four years and caused much damage in the South. Most battles were in northern states until 1862 and in southern states after 1862.
After four years of fighting, the Union won the war, and soon, slavery was made illegal everywhere in the United States of America.
Background
When the United States of America was founded in 1776, most states allowed slavery. However, over the next 84 years, the Northern states decided that slavery was a bad thing and banned it. The Southern states kept slavery legal. Slaves from Africa grew tobacco, cotton and other cash crops in those states. It was very different in the North, where the Industrial Revolution led to more people working in factories instead of on farms.
The United States became divided into slave and free states. By 1860, those groups were angry at each other. Few people wanted to end slavery in the South and so Americans argued on whether slavery should be allowed to spread to the territories and new states in the west. In the late 1850s, there was fighting in Kansas over whether the territory should allow slavery.
Abraham Lincoln from the Republican Party won the 1860 United States presidential election. He then did not want to ban slavery in the states. Like nearly everyone else, he believed that the US Constitution did not allow the federal government to ban slavery (the amendment to ban slavery was passed later, in 1865). He also thought that banning it suddenly would anger the South.
Instead, Lincoln and his Republican Party thought that slavery should be banned in US territories. They thought that slavery would die out if it could not go to new places.
Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861. In the four months between the election and the day that Lincoln became president, seven Southern states declared their independence from the Union. The outgoing US president, James Buchanan, said that was against the law but he could do nothing to stop them.
The Republican Party treated secession as a rebellion. No country in the world ever recognized the Confederacy as a separate nation. That was because of diplomacy on the part of the Union, anti-slavery feelings in Europe and the northern blockade of southern ports, and of war against the United States.
The first seven states to join the Confederacy were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Four others joined after the fighting began: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Confederacy claimed Kentucky and Missouri belonged to them, but they never joined the Confederacy. Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland were slave states that tried to avoid taking sides. Delaware supported the Union although it was a slave state. Also, the western counties of Virginia chose to remain in the Union and created a new state, West Virginia.
Fighting begins
Fighting started when the Confederates shot and threw bombs at Fort Sumter, a Union Army fort in South Carolina. Lincoln then asked the Union states to bring soldiers to fight the Confederates.
The Confederates said that all forts and other federal buildings in the South belonged to them. Fort On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked the fort and forced the Union soldiers in it to surrender. Lincoln then asked every Union state for volunteers to join the Union Army. Four more southern slave states joined the Confederates, rather than supply forces to fight against them.
The US Navy stopped other ships from going in or out of southern ports. That stopped the Confederacy from selling its cotton and other goods and also made it harder for the South to buy weapons and military supplies.
The war
The American Civil War was fought in three important land areas, or "theaters." The Eastern Theater was the land east of the Appalachian Mountains. The Western Theater included everything between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River and along the river. The Trans-Mississippi Theater included territory west of the Mississippi River.
Both the United States and the Confederacy had their capital cities in the Eastern Theater. Washington, DC, had been the US capital since 1800. When the South seceded, its first capital was Montgomery, Alabama, but it moved the capital to Richmond, Virginia. Both cities are only about 90 miles (145 km) apart.
One of the first battles of the war was fought in Virginia. The First Battle of Bull Run, on July 21, 1861, was a Confederate victory. The Union Army of the Potomac then tried to capture Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign during the spring of 1862, but Robert E. Lee became leader of the Army of Northern Virginia and defeated the Union Army. He then won the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862. Lee tried to win the war by invading Maryland, but he lost the Battle of Antietam and retreated to Virginia.
There was much fighting between ships in the war, but the Union had a stronger and bigger navy. Lincoln put the Confederates under a blockade and so the Union Navy would not let any ships into or out of southern ports. The Confederates used ships called blockade runners to bring things from Europe like weapons. The navies of each side also fought on the rivers. The ships included ironclads, which were protected by iron on their sides, and cottonclads, which used cotton along their sides. During the Battle of Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad Virginia fought against the Union ironclad Monitor. It was the first time in world history that two ironclads fought each other.
In the Western Theater, much of the fighting happened along the Mississippi River. Ulysses S. Grant was an important Union general in the West. The Confederates tried to send their soldiers into the state of Kentucky in the summer of 1861. In the early months of 1862, the Union Army made the Confederates retreat from Kentucky and from western Tennessee. They tried to recapture western Tennessee by attacking Grant's army at the Battle of Shiloh, but Grant won the battle. The Confederates then tried to send their soldiers into eastern Kentucky in the fall of 1862 but lost the Battle of Perryville and then left Kentucky.
The North won control of almost all of the Mississippi River by capturing the cities along the river in the fall of 1862 and the spring of 1863. However, the Confederacy still held Vicksburg, an important city and fort. If they held, the Confederates could move soldiers and supplies from one side of the river to the other. Grant started the Siege of Vicksburg during the month of May 1863. The siege continued until July 4, 1863, when the Confederates there surrendered to Grant. That was one of the turning points in the war by dividing the Confederacy into two parts.
There were also battles west of the Mississippi River Valley in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. For example, two important battles were the Battle of Wilson's Creek and the Battle of Pea Ridge. The Confederates tried to invade New Mexico in February and March 1862 but they were defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass. After the Union captured Vicksburg, the area became separated from the rest of the Confederate States. Other battles happened in the area after the capture of Vicksburg.
During the Siege of Vicksburg in the west, another turning point came in the east. After winning some battles, Lee decided to invade the North again. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia went into Pennsylvania. The Confederate Army met the Union Army near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and fought the Battle of Gettysburg, which lasted from July 1 to 3, 1863. More soldiers died at Gettysburg than in any other Civil War battle, which the Union won. Lee and his troops were pushed back into the South and could no longer invade the North.
Lincoln then decided that Grant was his best general and put Grant in control of all Union armies. Lincoln also made William Tecumseh Sherman the general in charge of the Union troops in Georgia. Grant led many attacks on Lee's army. The battles were made up the Overland Campaign.
Meanwhile, Sherman burned Atlanta and Savannah to try to weaken the South and to make it harder to supply the Confederate Army. He then marched north through South Carolina and North Carolina. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston attacked Sherman at the Battle of Bentonville. Sherman won the battle. Even in the 20th century, Southerners remember Sherman's march as destroying many homes, farms, and railroads, but his soldiers are blamed for things that they could not have done since they were too far away.
Eventually, Lee decided that he had too few soldiers to keep on fighting the Union, which had more soldiers and supplies. He surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865 near Appomattox Court House. Later, many other Confederate armies surrendered as well. The last Confederate general to surrender was Brigadier General Stand Watie, who surrendered on June 23, 1865, in Oklahoma.
After the war ended, Lincoln pardoned all of the Confederate soldiers and so they could not be arrested or punished for fighting against the Union. The South would be allowed to rejoin the United States but only later. Some Confederates did not want to return to the United States and moved to places like México or Brazil.
Why the Union won
Historians have had different ideas about whether the Confederacy could have won the war. Most of them, such as James McPherson, say that it would have been difficult but possible. The Union had far more people, money and industry. By most estimates, the Union had over 2 million soldiers while the Confederacy had 1 million.
One advantage the Confederacy had was that they only needed to defend their land, whereas the Union could only win if they took full control the Confederate states. Furthermore, the Union could only fight the war if their people wanted them to keep fighting. Lincoln had opponents in the North (the Copperheads) who wanted the war to end. If the Confederacy had defended itself for long enough, it may have led to more people in the Union turning against the war and supporting the Copperheads. However, Lincoln held on to his support and won the 1864 election.
The Union Navy blocked ships from going into the Confederate ports. Although some ships managed to get past, most could not. The Confederacy had big money problems because they could not sell cotton and other goods to other countries. The Confederacy collected less taxes than the Union, so they printed money to pay for the war. This caused inflation (rising prices).
Another factor was that the Confederacy could not get help from outside. They had hoped that Britain and France would support the Confederacy because they wanted to buy their cotton. However, Britain and France did not give them help. There were three reasons for this. Firstly, they thought that slavery was wrong. Secondly, they did not want to become enemies of the United States. Thirdly, they could get cotton from elsewhere.
Most historians also think that Abraham Lincoln was a better leader than Jefferson Davis. Don E. Fehrenbacher says that Lincoln's skills helped keep the Border States and ordinary people on his side. Lincoln left his generals alone if they did a good job and fired them if they did not. Davis lacked a clear plan, tried to do too many tasks at once and often chose people to do jobs just because they were his friends. He annoyed his generals and other Confederate politicians. William Cooper says that better leadership helped the Union, but they were already more likely to win.
After the war
Many soldiers on both sides died during the war. Most of the war was fought in the South. Many railroads, farms, houses and other things were destroyed, and most people there became very poor.
The period after the war, called Reconstruction, lasted from the end of the war to 1877. The Union Army stayed in some Southern states and made them occupied territory. Three important amendments were added on to the US Constitution. The amendments were proposed (or suggested) by the US government. Although not every American supported them, they got enough support to pass:
The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery is not allowed anywhere in the United States, which completed the work of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Fourteenth Amendment makes it clear that all people born in the United States are citizens, and all citizens have equal rights.
The Fifteenth Amendment says that people in the United States could not be kept from voting because of their race.
After the war, some of the Union Army's leaders went into politics. Generals Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, and McKinley became US presidents. Other veterans were elected to other offices.
The Southern states were allowed to ask to rejoin the union. When they were accepted, that could send senators and representatives to the US Congress again and make their own state laws. During Reconstruction, black Americans built schools and other social infrastructure. Some of the schools became the historically-black colleges that still exist. After southern states rejoined the Union, most of them made laws that limited what black people could do.
The Amnesty Act of 1872 restored the rights to vote and to hold political office for most former members of the Confederacy. Some of them also became politicians.
References
Other sources
Gibboney, Douglas Lee. Tragic Glory: A Concise, Illustrated History of the Civil War. Fredericksburg, Virginia: Sergeant Kirkland's, 1997. .
Roland, Charles P. An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. .
Other websites
Civilwar.com
American Civil War Citizendium
Wars involving the United States
Rebellions in North America
19th century rebellions |
6419 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun | Tutankhamun | Tutankhamun (Tutankhaten, Tutankhamen) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He reigned from when he was nine years old (1334 BC) to when he died (1323 BC). He became Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (royal family) during the New Kingdom.
Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and one of Akhenaten's sisters, or perhaps one of his cousins,Kiya.
Tutankhamun ruled for 9 years and died very young, at 19, so he is known as The Boy King. He was married to his half-sister Ankhesenamun, daughter of Queen Nefertiti, his step mother.
In his third year of his reign, Tutankhamun reversed several changes made during his father's reign. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy. The ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned. This is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, "Living image of Amun", reinforcing the restoration of Amun.
In 1922 Howard Carter found Tutankhamun's tomb. Tutankhamen was believed to carry a curse. Actually, the archeologists who visited his tomb died from natural causes.
Illness and death
Recent studies of his body using CT scans and DNA tests show that he had two children, but they died very young. Scientists now believe he died from a broken leg, made more complicated by bone disease and malaria. Before this discovery there were many theories about his early death, including murder. It is quite certain that he was infected by several strains of malaria, and very likely that he had some genetic defects caused by inbreeding. His parents were brother and sister. The final cause of his death is still unclear.
New galleries in Cairo Museum
In 2014 the Egyptian Museum in Cairo opened four new halls in the Tutankhamun Gallery.
References
Pharaohs |
6421 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence | Independence | The word independence means "not dependent", or not having to depend on anyone or anything else. It also means being strong and able to survive alone. Anything can be dependent or independent. When people talk about independence, it may be about people or countries, where it is often being spoken about as a good thing. For places, it may mean sovereignty or autonomy. In science, as in independent variable the word does not mean it is good or bad.
In countries
A country gets its independence when it is no longer part of another country. Sometimes countries get their independence in a war, as when the United States left the British Empire in the American War of Independence. Countries can also get their independence peacefully, like Canada and Norway did. Help from another country may be needed to get independence, like in World War II, when the allies freed many countries that had been controlled by the Axis powers and, temporarily, vice versa. Attempts to gain independence may lead to civil war and may be unsuccessful.
Examples
Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in 1965. The newest country to get its independence was South Sudan. Other countries that became independent not long ago are Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, Eritrea in 1993 and East Timor in 2002. However, some countries have political parties that discuss whether their country should become independent. Some examples of these are the Scottish National Party (SNP) or the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP).
Related pages
Declaration of independence
Autonomy
Nationalism
Politics
Nationalism |
6422 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis | Anubis | Anubis is the protector of the gates to the Underworld, Osiris replaced him as the god of the dead. He looks like a man with the head of a jackal (an animal, native to Africa, similar to wolves).
Anubis's Purpose
Anubis, as the god of death and the afterlife, was closely associated with mummification and burial rites. Egyptian jackals had an association with the dead, as well. They were often found digging up buried bodies and eating them, which may be why Anubis was depicted as part jackal. The priests who mummified the dead kings (called pharaohs) wore costumes to make them appear like jackals.
The Egyptian people believed that Anubis helped decide the fate of the dead in the afterlife. The heart of the dead was weighed against the feather of truth (representing the goddess Ma'at), to see if the deceased was worthy of entering the afterlife. If the person had lived an evil life, his or her heart would be heavy with evil, and he or she would be eaten by Ammit (the Devourer). If a person was kind and good, the heart would be light, he or she could continue on to the afterlife safe and sound to meet Osiris.
In Greece and Rome
In later times, during the Ptolemaic period, as their functions were similar, Anubis came to be identified as the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis. The centre of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name simply means "city of dogs". In Book XI of "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, we find evidence that the worship of this god was maintained in Rome at least up to the 2nd century. Indeed, it was revealed that Hermanubis also appeared in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egypt's animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (they mockingly called Anubis the "Barker"), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in heaven, and Cerberus in the underworld.
References
Egyptian gods and goddesses |
6423 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atum | Atum | Atum was the creator of everything in ancient Egyptian mythology. He represented the very first history; nothing existed yet except for him. According to the myth, he rose up out of the chaotic waters of Nu and used his own female side to create Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). For a while, his two children were lost at sea. Atum sent his removable eye, the Udjat Eye, to go look for them. When they returned, Atum cried tears of joy. Where these tears hit the ground is where men formed. Out of the two elements water and air, the other gods and goddesses were born. The Egyptians believed he was the father of all the gods.
Atum was first the partner of the earth then the partner of the setting sun.
Egyptian gods and goddesses |
6426 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism | Antisemitism | Antisemitism is the hatred of or prejudice against Jews. Antisemitism has a long history, but the most well-known act of anti-semitism is the Holocaust perpetrated by Germany, also known as the Final Solution, a genocide which happened between 1933 and 1945. The plan was to totally get rid of the Jewish people in Europe, and up to 60-75% of them were killed. Around six million European Jews were killed because of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. He said that Jews were a racial group with naturally bad features.
Antisemitism is still common today. In a 2011 survey by the Pew Research Center, all of the Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries polled had very bad opinions of Jews. Only 2% of Egyptians, 3% of Lebanese Muslims, and 2% of Jordanians reported having a good view of Jews. In a 2013 survey of 5,847 Jewish people in Europe, 76% thought that antisemitism has increased in the past five years and 29% had thought about moving countries because they felt unsafe. Some related words include Judeophobia and Israelophobia. In the United States, antisemitic views are common as well. A 2017 survey showed that 14% of Americans had antisemitic feelings.
Anti-Semitism in the Bible
The New Testament has anti-Semitic contents.
Related pages
Babi Yar
Kristallnacht
Islamophobia
Pogrom
Racism
Nazism
References
Discrimination
Judaism |
6428 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esteban%20Huertas | Esteban Huertas | Esteban Huertas López (1876-1943) was a Colombian military leader from Panama.
He was born in Boyacá, Colombia. When he was 8 years old he ran away from home and he joined the army. He won many medals and in 1902 he became general. In 1900 he lost an arm when he fired a cannon.
In 1903 he was one of the people who made Panama independent. A year later president Manuel Amador forced Huertas to retire because he was afraid Huertas wanted to become dictator. Huertas died in Panama City in 1943.
Panamanian people
1876 births
1943 deaths |
6431 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama | Panama | Panama is a country in Central America. Its official name is the Republic of Panama, and it is most famous for the Panama Canal. Countries bordering Panama are Costa Rica in the Northwest and Colombia in the Southeast. Panama is between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Most of the people in Panama are Roman Catholic (about 80%).
Harbors
The Caribbean coastline has many good natural harbors. However, Cristóbal, at the Caribbean terminus of the canal, had the only important port facilities in the late 1980s. The many islands of the Archipiélago de Bocas del Toro, near the beaches of Costa Rica, made an extensive natural roadstead and shield for the port of Almirante. The over 350 San Blas Islands, near Colombia, are spread out for more than along the sheltered Caribbean coastline.
Demographics
The population of Panama is about 3,405,813 in May 2010. The ethnic makeup of Panama is:
50.1%: Multiracial (European, African, Native American, Others).
22.0%: Black African (Bantu-Congo 42%, Akan-Igbo 20%, Mandinga-Wolof 20%, Yoruba 10%, Others 8%).
6.7%: Native American (Embera, Wounaan, Ngobe bugle, Kuna, Naso, Bribri).
8.6%: White European (Spanish-Canarian 74%, German 13%, Italian and Others 13%).
5.5%: Asian (Chinese 93%, Korean and Japanese 7%).
7.1%: Other.
The information there **Other** is likely including Arabs, East Indians, and some Russian.
For ships, Panama is a flag of convenience.
Economy
In 2011 Panama had an unemployment rate of 2.7%. Panama also had a food surplus in August 2008. Panama was ranked at number 60 on the Human Development Index in 2008.
Panama's economy has experienced an economic boom in recent years. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was over 10.4% from 2006–2008. The Panamanian economy has been one of the fastest growing and best managed in Latin America. Latin Business Chronicle has predicted that Panama will be the fastest growing economy in Latin America in the five-year period of 2010–14.
Panama is impacted by the global financial crisis. It threatens to damage the social gains made in the past few years.
The expansion project of the Panama Canal and the free trade agreement with the United States is expected to boost and extend the economy.
Provinces
Panama is divided into nine provinces. Also, there are five Comarcas (literally: "Shires") populated by a variety of indigenous groups.
Provinces
Bocas del Toro
Chiriquí
Coclé
Colón
Darién
Herrera
Los Santos
Panamá
Panamá Oeste
Veraguas
Comarcas
Emberá
Kuna Yala
Ngöbe-Buglé Comarca
Kuna de Madugandí
Kuna de Wargandí
References
Other websites
Official site of the presidency of Panama
Official site of Panama Tourism
Site of Panama Tourism with videos and photos
Pictures from Panama
CoolPanama.com Panama Portal Long list of online radio stations from Panama, also webcams and television stations
Panama Travel Guides Panama's best attractions, travel guides, news and product reviews
Spanish-speaking countries
1903 establishments in North America |
6432 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%20language | Spanish language | Spanish (Spanish: español, pronounced "Eh-span-yole", IPA: /espaɲol/), also called Castilian, is a Romance language. It is the most spoken Romance language in the world. As of December 2021, over 489 million people in the world spoke Spanish as their first language.
Brief history
The language Spanish or previously known as Castilian is originally adopted from a dialect of spoken Latin. At the beginning of 218 BC, it was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans, and after evolving and improving for centuries, today with over 489 million native speakers, it is the world’s 4th most spoken language, after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi.
Usage
Spanish is used by many people in the world today, partly because Spain traveled and colonized many different parts of the world and created many new countries and governments. The countries with Spanish as an official language are called the Hispanic countries. Most of them are in the Americas, which make up Latin America. They include the following:
In North America, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands:
Costa Rica
Cuba
The Dominican Republic
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Puerto Rico
El Salvador
In the United States and Belize, most people use English, but Spanish is the second-most common language.
In South America:
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
Many Brazilians learn Spanish as a second language even though Brazil's official language is Portuguese.
In other parts of the world:
Philippines
Equatorial Guinea
Related languages
The Spanish language was originally the language of Castile. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Latin changed in different ways in different provinces. The Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula developed into the Ibero-Romance language in the 6th century. Castilian and Portuguese became separate languages around the 12th century.
In Spain, there are other languages that also came from Latin that are connected to Spanish, like Catalan, and Galician. Basque, also called Euskera or Euskara, is spoken in the Basque region of northern Spain and the southern region of France. Very different from Spanish, Basque is a language isolate since it is not known to have descended from any language family.
Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish and is actually more closely related to French.
Name
Spanish is sometimes called Castilian because Castile is the region in Spain that is the origin of the language. Castile is the region that is considered to speak the most proper form of Spanish.
The Spanish word for Spanish is "español", and the Spanish word for Castilian is "castellano". In the other Romance languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, such as Galician, Catalan, Asturian, and others, Spanish is usually called "Castellán" or "Castellà" instead of "Spanish". In Spain, the name of the subject in schools is "lengua castellana" (Castilian language). However, in the regions of Spain in which people speak only Spanish, people call their language Spanish.
In Portuguese, the word "castelhano" is common to mention Spanish, however, in informal language, the most preferred name for the language is "espanhol". Portuguese, which is spoken in Portugal and Brazil, has many similarities to Spanish.
Statistics
In 2009, for the first time in history, Spanish was the most common "mother tongue" language of the western world, more than English. It was also the second most common language on Earth, after Chinese. As of 2016, the three most common languages in the world are:
Chinese: Spoken by about 1.305 billion people
Spanish: Spoken by about 427 million people in 34 different countries
English: Spoken by 339 million people in 108 different countries
References
Other websites
Ethnologue report for Spanish
Spanish phrasebook on Wikivoyage
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A First Spanish Reader by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy.
Spanish to English online translation |
6433 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl | Nahuatl | The Nahuatl language is a language spoken by 1.5 million people, mostly in Mexico.
History
Nahuatl has existed since the 7th century CE.
The first people to speak Nahuatl were indigenous peoples in central Mexico. The Aztecs and the Toltecs spoke an early form of Nahuatl.
The people of Teotihuacan may have spoken Nahuatl.
Nahuatl has changed since the end of the Aztec Empire. Over time, many different dialects of Nahuatl have developed. Today, people who speak different Nahuatl dialects do not always understand each other.
The words "Mexico," "Guatemala," and "Nicaragua" all come from Nahuatl.
Use today
Today, most people who speak Nahuatl live in central Mexico. but A few live in other parts of Mexico or in the United States.
Nahuatl is one of the official languages of Mexico. However, most people who speak Nahuatl now also speak Spanish.
Many phrases that are unique to Mexican Spanish come from Nahuatl, according to John Lipski. The unique phrases are called "Mexicanisms." An example is ándale, which often means "let's go." Another example is the word Bueno? and is used by many Spanish-speakers when they answer the telephone.
Nahuatl words in English
Some English words from Nahuatl origin are:
avocado
axolotl
cacao and cocoa
chili
chocolate
coyote
ocelot
peyote
sapote
tequila
tomato
Related pages
Miguel León-Portilla
Notes
References
Languages of Mexico
Aztec
Languages with ISO 639-2 code
Mesoamerica
Pre-Columbian cultures |
6437 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen%20Hawking | Stephen Hawking | Stephen William Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was a British theoretical physicist and mathematician. He was born in Oxford. In 1950, he moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire. He was one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking has written many science books for people who are not scientists.
Hawking was a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a position that Isaac Newton once had). He retired on 1 October 2009.
Hawking had a motor neurone disease related to his dyslexia, and because of that he could not move or talk very well. The illness worsened over the years and he was almost completely paralysed. He used a wheelchair to move, and an Intel computer to talk for him. He died on 14 March 2018.
Early life and education
Hawking went to St Albans School, a local public school in Hertfordshire. At 17, he passed an exam to study at Oxford. He studied physics and chemistry there. Because he found it really easy at the beginning, he didn't study a lot for the final exams.
In October 1962 he started his graduate course at Trinity Hall. It was at this time that his illness started to show up. He had difficulties in rowing and then even simply in walking. However, he finished his PhD and wrote about black holes in his thesis. He then got a fellowship (a job as a university teacher) at Gonville and Caius College in 1965.
Career
Hawking was a cosmologist—someone who studies the structure of the universe (stars and space). He invented important theories about the Big Bang (the start of the universe), black holes and how they work.
Stephen Hawking predicted that black holes eject some radiation (energy), even though they normally swallow everything. That kind of radiation is named "Hawking Radiation."
Hawking also worked on the problem of quantum gravity. Quantum gravity tries to explain how gravity works with quantum mechanics (physics of tiny things.) That is a hard problem that scientists have not solved yet.
Hawking also wrote popular books about science for non-scientists. His first book, A Brief History of Time, sold over ten million copies. Hawking had many other jobs as well. He was an Actor, Mathematician, etc. More info on the official site
Death
Hawking died on 14 March 2018 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire of complications from motor neuron disease at the age of 76. His ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey in London near Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton.
Selected publications
Technical
Singularities in Collapsing Stars and Expanding Universes, with D.W. Sciama, 1969. Comments on Astrophysics and Space Physics. Vol 1
Information Loss in Black Holes, Cambridge University Press, 2005
Popular
On The Shoulders of Giants. The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy, Running Press 2002.
Children's books
George's Secret Key to the Universe, with Lucy Hawking. Simon & Taylor Blevins Publishing.
George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt, with Lucy Hawking. Simon & Taylor Blevins Publishing.
George and the Big Bang, with Lucy Hawking. Simon & Taylor Blevins Publishing.
Related pages
List of astrophysicists
Notes
1942 births
2018 deaths
Deaths from motor neurone disease
Disease-related deaths in the United Kingdom
People buried in Westminster Abbey
British astrophysicists
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Companions of Honour
English mathematicians
English physicists
English science writers
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Oxford
Royal Society of Arts
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
British theoretical physicists
Writers from Hertfordshire
Writers from Oxfordshire |
6439 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech%20Republic | Czech Republic | The Czech Republic (, ) is a country in Central Europe. As of 2 May 2016, the official short name of the country is Czechia (). The capital and the biggest city is Prague. The currency is the Czech Crown (koruna česká - CZK). €1 is about 25 CZK. The president of Czechia is Miloš Zeman. Czechia's population is about 10.5 million.
The local language is the Czech language, a Slavic language related to languages like Slovak and Polish.
Czechia has no sea; its neighbour countries are Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland.
History
Its history dates from the 9th century AD, for a long time it was one of the most powerful countries in Central Europe. Later on it was the biggest, most populated and richest country of the First Reich, where many Emperors started their career. Under the conditions of the Treaty of Vienna 1515 parts of Czechia, then in the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, came under Habsburg rule after the death of Louis the Jagiellon in 1526. They stayed a part of the Habsburg dynasty rule until 1918.
The area of the today's Czechia was a part of Czechoslovakia (current area of Czechia and Slovak republic) from 1918 to 1992. Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918 from Austro-Hungarian Empire. The first Czechoslovakian president was Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. In February 1948 the Communist party took over the country and for the next 41 years Czechoslovakia was a Socialist state with a rule of one (Communist) party. In 1968 there was a reformation movement (Prague Spring) within the Communist party, but reforms were stopped by the invasion of Warsaw pact armies. In November 1989 Czechoslovakia returned to democracy through the peaceful "Velvet Revolution". Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two countries (Czechia and Slovakia) in 1993.
Czechia has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004, and a member of NATO since 12 March 1999.
Geography
The highest point in the country is Sněžka at .
There are four national parks in Czechia. The oldest is Krkonoše National Park. The others are Šumava National Park, Podyjí National Park, Bohemian Switzerland.
Regions
In 1949 the Communist government created 13 centralized regions instead of historical countries. In 1960 the regions changed leaving only 8 regions. In 2000 14 regions were formed with their own regional self-government.
Religion
Czechia has one of the least religious populations in the world. According to the 2011 census, 34.2% of the population stated they had no religion, 10.3% were Roman Catholic, 0.8% were Protestant (0.5% Czech Brethren and 0.4% Hussite), and 9.4% followed other forms of religion both denominational or not (of which 863 people answered they are Pagan). 45.2% of the population did not answer the question about religion.
Related pages
Czechia at the Olympics
Czechia's national football team
List of rivers of Czechia
References
Other websites
Czechia pictures
Czechia map
Czechia map - Google Maps style
Czechia - Immigration
Czechia - Business
Czech Republic
1993 establishments in Europe
European Union member states
Landlocked countries
States and territories established in the 1990s |
6440 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag | Flag | A flag is a piece of coloured cloth with a special design that is put on a pole as a symbol.
Flags first appeared more than 2000 years ago in China, and in Europe under the Roman Empire.
There are many types of flags:
A National Flag is the symbol of a country (nation). For example, the national flag of the United States is the Stars and Stripes; the flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag' or 'Union Jack; the national flag of Azerbaijan and France is the Tricolore.
An Ensign is a special type of national flag for use on ships. Different kinds of ships often use different kinds of ensigns. For example, warships use a naval ensign which is usually different from the ensigns used by other ships.
A Rank Flag is used by the head of state, as well as by a senior officer of the navy, army or air force, to show where he or she is.
In the past, soldiers carried beautiful flags to war. Today these ceremonial flags are used only at military parades.
Some states, provinces, cities and towns have their own flags. For example, all 50 states within the United States have their own state flags.
A Signal Flag is a flag used by ships to send messages to other ships or to people on land. Every ship keeps many different signal flags for use in different situations. Signal flags are also used for racing.
Flags are sometimes also used to represent a business, a sports team, a school, a political party, or other organizations.
Basic English 850 words
Messaging |
6448 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaite%20Judaism | Karaite Judaism | Karaite Judaism is a kind of Judaism that accepts only the Hebrew Bible as authoritative, and rejects any religious authority in Mishnah and Talmud, which are explanations of the Bible by rabbis in the first few centuries of the Common Era. Karaite Jews believe that each person should be able to explain the Torah for themselves, instead of following the explanations of the rabbis. Today the largest communities of Karaites are in Israel and San Francisco.
Declaration of faith
The list of main beliefs to Karaite Judaism are called the "Tuv Taam." It is called this because those are the first two words in Hebrew of the beliefs. These beliefs are:
There is one God who is YHWH the creator of the Heavens and Earth.
The Torah that Moses gave to the Israelites at Sinai is the truth
The Torah is the infallible word of YHWH God of Israel.
Those who follow the laws of the Torah their name will be written in the Book of Life .
The place of where the Temple in Jerusalem stood is holy, and prayers are said in the direction of where it stood
The first day of each Hebrew month is decided by the lunar (moon) cycle
The Tanakh, is a book of truth.
The beginning of the Jewish year according to the Torah is decided by the growth of the barley crops in the land of Israel
The holidays talked about in the Torah are respected and celebrated
YHWH is the ruler of the world and he is the only being that always has existed and always will exist
The Great Day of YHWH will come and everyone will know his name.
Other websites
Karaite Korner
Karaite-USA
Karaite Beliefs in 5 Languages
Jewish denominations |
6449 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warship | Warship | A warship is a ship carrying weapons, which is used by the navy. Some warships also carry naval aircraft.
Warships are made in many different sizes. Here is a list of different kinds of warships, from the largest to the smallest of World War II:
Modern warships
It is a principle of modern navies that larger ships never travel alone. They are too vulnerable to planes, submarines and missiles. An aircraft carrier will have an AEW&C plane above to give wider radar warning, destroyers and submarines deployed around. This is recognised by the term "Carrier Strike Group". This is a U.S. term, but the principle applies to all the larger navies.
Modern warships come in the same "class" of ship as they did in World War II, but the sizes are different. From largest to smallest:
Aircraft carriers are airports at sea. They are often called "floating cities" because they can hold hundreds of planes, and thousands of sailors. US Nimitz class carriers can weigh over 100,000 ton.
Escort carriers are smaller aircraft carriers. They have fewer planes and sailors, but are usually faster.
Helicopter carriers are used by the United States Marine Corps and some navies.
Battleships are not used anymore. This is because they are expensive to operate and cannot keep safe from enemy air attacks. Smaller battleships may be called battle cruisers. Battle cruisers have less armor and guns than a battleship, but are faster.
Cruisers and frigates are often now the same size. They are mainly used to launch guided missiles or to shoot down enemy airplanes. Cruisers are usually slower and larger and have longer range than frigates. Most cruisers and frigates are large enough to hold helicopters on the back of the ship. This part is called the fantail. Cruisers can usually hold one or two. Although they are smaller, some frigates are designed to hold two or three. Battleships and battlecruisers have largely vanished from modern navies.
Destroyers are smaller and faster than cruisers and frigates. They are usually used to hunt down enemy submarines. Sometimes, they will also attack enemy airplanes. They can also go closer to shore than larger ships. This allows them to attack things on land.
Submarines can hide under the water. Modern submarines are powered by atomic engines, and can go round the world underwater. They provide what is sometimes called "the ultimate deterrent", namely, nuclear weapons.
Other uses
Support warships are used to supply ammunition, food, and other supplies to the larger warships. Some warships exist to carry powerful radio receivers and computers to detect and analyze transmissions from nearby ships. Usually these kinds of ships are smaller, and do not have many guns or missiles themselves.
References
Ship types |
6450 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast%20guard | Coast guard | A Coast Guard is an organization that protects people at sea. The role of a coastguard varies greatly by country. The coast guard is sometimes part of a military, or a semi-military organization, or else is a law enforcement (policing) agency. However, the coast guard is always separate from the Navy.
For example, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) is a branch of the military. Their duties include searching for people, ships and boats in danger at sea, rescuing those in danger and law enforcement to protect people from terrorism and crimes at sea. It can also become part of the Navy in a time of war.
By contrast, Her Majesty's Coastguard in the United Kingdom is neither a military force nor a law enforcement agency. Its only job is to lead searches and rescues for those in danger at sea, while the Royal National Lifeboat Institution launch most of the rescue boats.
Related pages
Pakistan Coast Guard
Other websites
USCG website
USCG boating office |
6451 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium%20market%20price | Equilibrium market price | An equilibrium market price is the price at which there is no tendency for it to change.
When price is lower than the equilibrium price, quantity demanded will be greater than quantity supplied. There will be a tendency for the price to increase.
When price is higher than the equilibrium price, quantity supplied will be greater than quantity demanded. There will be a tendency for the price to decrease.
Equilibrium market price is attained when the quantity demanded equals quantity supplied. It is sometimes called market clearing price.
Microeconomics |
6472 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba | Samba | Samba is a kind of music, dancing, and singing, originally from Brazil. It began as a music/dance movement in the 1920s.
The dance of brazil.
Samba is a lively, rhythmical dance of Brazilian origin in 2/4 time. In ballroom dance there are three steps to every bar, making the samba feel something like a 3/4 timed dance. The timing is one, a-two, with the values about one beat, 1/4 beat, 3/4 beat.
There are two main types of samba that differ from each other: the modern ballroom samba, and the traditional samba of Brazil. Traditional Brazilian samba includes the samba which is danced solo at Carnival. In that case, the dancers take just one step on each beat.
Origins
The ballroom samba has its origins in Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century. Many steps can be traced back to the Maxixe danced in 1910s. A book published in France in 1928 already described how to perform the samba. The modern ballroom dance was created in England, mostly with steps adapted from those seen in Brazil. This version is now danced all over the world in international competitive dancing as regulated by the World Dance Council.
Style
Ballroom samba, like other ballroom dances, is a form adapted for its suitability as a partner dance. The dance movements, which do not change depending on the style of samba music being played, borrows some movements from Afro-Brazilian traditional dances such those used in candomblé rituals.
The ballroom samba is danced to music in 2/4 time. The basic movements are counted either 1-2 or 1-a-2, and are danced with a slight bouncing action. This action is created through the bending and straightening of the knees, with bending occurring on the beats of 1 and 2, and the straightening occurring on the "a". Samba is notable for its constantly changing rhythms however, with cross-rhythms being a common feature. Thus, common step values (in beats are):
Traditional Brazilian instruments
The following applies to the type of samba done during street carnivals where the musicians will move along with the dancers, sometimes on foot, sometimes on a motorized 'float' or platform.
The music is played with different instruments – bass drums (a surdo drum, used for keeping a steady beat), snare drums, a whistle (called an apito [a-peet-oh], used for beginning and ending sections of music), other types of untuned percussion, and different varieties of bells.
Other sections are when the apito blasts one rhythm, and all other instruments respond using another rhythm (that lasts the same amount of time as the first), named a call and response section; and a Samba piece can have instrument solos, when one instrument is playing an exciting rhythm. The apito caller signals the end of one section and the beginning of the next by blasting a short call. Pieces always have clear beginnings and ends.
Ballroom sambas are usually played by standard ballroom dance bands with one or two extra percussion instruments.
Other websites
Dance Resources Samba syllabus
Demonstration of basic figures by experts Allan Tornsberg and Serena Lecca
References
Music genres
Latin dances |
6475 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear%20weapon | Nuclear weapon | A nuclear weapon, also known as a nuclear bomb or a nuke, is a weapon that suddenly releases the energy in the nucleus of certain types of atoms. When triggered, the device releases a huge amount of energy in the form of a nuclear explosion.
Nuclear explosions can destroy a city and kill most of its people. They also make nuclear fallout, which may also make people very sick. Nuclear weapons are the most damaging weapons to have been created.
The first nuclear weapons were built by the United States during World War II. Two nuclear weapons were used to attack cities in Japan. They were the only times nuclear weapons were used in war.
There are two ways to make nuclear weapons: fission weapons (also called atomic bombs or A-Bombs) and fusion weapons (also called hydrogen bombs, H-Bombs, or thermonuclear weapons). They make energy for the nuclear explosion in different ways. Fusion weapons make bigger explosions. Fission weapons use a special isotope of uranium or plutonium. Fusion weapons use a special isotope of hydrogen. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in war, both by the United States in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated over 2,000 times for testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons and to acknowledge possessing them are (chronologically by date of first test) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons, but in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands share nuclear weapons with other countries. South Africa is the only country that has independently developed and later renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons aims to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, but its effectiveness has been questioned. Modernisation of weapons has continued to this day.
History
In the years after 1895, people studying physics begin to understand how atoms are made. Around 1915, people began to have the idea that breaking special atoms can release large quantities of energy and can be used to make a bomb.
In 1939, people studying physics began to understand the theory of nuclear fission weapons, but no country knew how to build one. When World War II started, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States wanted to build nuclear weapons. Germany did not finish building them, partly because many of the best people studying physics fled Germany after Nazi rule had started. The United Kingdom started working in 1939 but found it so expensive that it gave up in 1942. Later that year, the United States started a very large program to build nuclear weapons. Building upon the work done in the United Kingdom, the program was called the "Manhattan Project".
By August 1945, the Manhattan Project had built three nuclear fission weapons. Two of the bombs were used by the United States to attack the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. People from the Manhattan Project believe that around 105,000 people were killed and 94,000 were hurt when the bombs were used. Medical professionals later came to believe that more than 225,000 people died when everyone who was affected after long periods of time has been counted. Japan announced its surrender after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After World War II, the Soviet Union also began working to create nuclear weapons.
How they work
One way that nuclear weapons release energy is by breaking atoms apart. Called nuclear fission, that the basis for atomic bombs. Specific isotopes of uranium or plutonium are typically used in the weapons. Those elements can be made to undergo nuclear fission and have a nuclear chain reaction.
Another process can be used to create nuclear weapons with even bigger explosions and then releasing much more energy by fusing atoms together. That process is called nuclear fusion, and weapons based on the process are called hydrogen bombs or thermonuclear weapons. Specialized isotopes of hydrogen are typically used in the weapons.
Nuclear weapons produce a very large amount of energy and radiation, which can kill people or animals within several kilometers. Most of the radiation is X-rays, which heats the air to produce a huge nuclear fireball. The rapid expansion of the fireball creates a dangerous shock wave that can destroy houses or buildings several kilometers away. The radiation can cause radiation poisoning and also has the potential to cause mutations in the DNA, which can cause cancer.
Nuclear bombs also release fallout, which is nuclear material and dust that has been irradiated and become radioactive. Over time, the radioactive fallout can potentially kill people farther away, depending on how much was released. Fallout from a nuclear explosion can be blown by the wind over large distances from the explosion and can remain dangerous for long periods of time.
A hydrogen bomb, also known as a fusion bomb, uses hydrogen isotopes (deuterium and tritium) in addition to uranium or plutonium. Hydrogen bombs have the potential to be much more powerful than fission bombs. Despite the name, a typical hydrogen bomb has only enough hydrogen to produce additional neutrons to detonate a casing made of natural uranium. The fuel in hydrogen bombs is thus mostly unrefined uranium.
Building nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons are difficult to build because they need special isotopes of uranium or plutonium, as well as specialized technology. Tht is why so few countries have them. When countries without nuclear weapons create their own, that is commonly referred to as nuclear proliferation.
Getting nuclear weapons to target
Getting a nuclear weapon to its target can be as hard as making one. The explosive material can be placed in a bomb or artillery shell or into a missile. When a nuclear device is placed on a missile it is commonly called a nuclear missile and can be carried by airplanes, submarines, or trucks or placed into underground missile silos. Some kinds of airplanes like the B-29 Superfortress, B-36 Peacemaker, B-52 Stratofortress, and B-2 Spirit have carried nuclear weapons.
They are also carried by missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Some missiles travel to the border of space and then launch a number of separate nuclear weapons back toward the ground, with each weapon travelling to a different target. That is called a MIRV Warhead, or Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles. Very large nuclear bombs have been produced, but in practice a weapon with multiple warheads can produce much more damage by attacking more targets.
Nuclear weapons take many resources to make because the materials they are made of are very rare, and it takes many scientists to make them. However, several countries have managed to create nuclear weapons and many have them today. The countries that have nuclear weapons are listed here in the order that they were invented: United States (1945), Russia (1949), United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), China (1964), India (1974), and Pakistan (1998). Other countries are believed to secretly have nuclear weapons or develop them. Some countries used to have nuclear weapons but have since then said that they have gotten rid of them.
Some countries have lost nuclear weapons while transporting them. There are 92 known instances of atom bombs being lost at sea by all of the countries known to posses them. Bombs have been lost in 15 different cases. However, there could be more lost bombs.
Nuclear explosions to date
This is a list is of the main nuclear explosions which have happened. As well as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first nuclear test of a given weapon type for a country is included, and tests which were otherwise notable (such as the largest test ever). All yields (explosive power) are given in their estimated energy equivalents in kilotons of TNT.
Compensation for victims
Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were done at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. As public awareness and concern grew over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to nuclear fallout, various studies were done. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study says that nuclear fallout might have led to 11,000 excess deaths, most caused by thyroid cancer linked to exposure to iodine-131.
People associated with nuclear weapons
Notable individuals who have been associated with nuclear weapons and related issues include:
Albert Einstein
David Lange
Hermann Joseph Muller
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Manuel Pino
Jonathan Schell
Peter Shumlin
Edward Teller
References
Other websites
WW2DB: Operation Trinity and the Manhattan Project
WW2DB: Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The natural voice of A-bomb victims. VOSHN.com
Nuclear weapon Citizendium
Nuclear weapons |
6479 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chojn%C3%B3w | Chojnów | Chojnów is small city in Poland. As of the year 2000, 14,900 people live in the city. The city is on the river Skora. The city belongs to the county Legnica. It is in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The average height of the city is 170 meters above sea level.
Chojnów is first mentioned in a note dated 1272 as a Haynow settlement. In 1288 it's called city (civitas) in documents of Prince of Legnica Henryk V Gruby. In 1333 in gained the status of a city (civitas).
Activities and events
Every year in first days of June, Days of Chojnów (Dni Chojnowa) are celebrated. The Whole-Poland bike race Masters has been organized in Chojnów once a year for the past few years.
Chojnów is an industrial and agricultural city. Among products produced in Chojnów are: paperware, agricultural machinery, chains, metal furniture for hospitals, equipment for the meat industry, beer, wine, leather clothing, clothing for infants, children and adults.
Sites
The most interesting monuments of Chojnów are prince of Legnica's castle from the 13th century (currently used as a museum), two old churches, Baszta Tkaczy (Weavers' Tower) and preserved fragments of city walls.
The biggest green area in Chojnów is small forest Park Piastowski (Piast's Park), named after Piast dynasty as part of Communist anti-German propaganda.
Wild animals that live around Chojnów are roe-deers, foxes, rabbits and wild domestic animals, especially cats.
Cities in Poland |
6482 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics | Comics | In comics, stories or information are given using pictures, or pictures and words together. In comics, a story is told with many pictures, mostly in panels. The first panel is supposed to be read first, and takes place earlier in time than the panels that follow it.
There are many kinds of comics. Comic strips are short comics which are often found in newspapers. Comic books are thin comics magazines. Graphic novels are books of comics. In Japan, comics are very popular, and Japanese comics are popular around the world. The Japanese word for comics is manga, and people use this word for Japanese comics in English and other languages.
The first comic strips in the United States were funny. "Comic" is another word for "funny", so they were called "comic strips". The first comic books were collections of comic strips. Today, many comics are serious, but they are still called "comics".
In comics, speech is usually shown through word balloons. There are many different kinds of word balloons, such as the "speech balloon", the "thought balloon" and the "scream balloon".
Related pages
Cartoon
Art |
6490 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond | Diamond | A diamond (from the ancient Greek αδάμας – adámas "unbreakable") is a re-arrangement of carbon atoms (those are called allotropes).
Diamonds have the highest hardness of any bulk (all one type) material. Because of this, many important industries use diamonds as tools for cutting and polishing things. Many of them are clear, but some of them have colors, like yellow, red, blue, green and pink. Diamonds of a different color are called "fancies".
Big diamonds are very rare, and are worth a lot of money. Only 20% of diamonds are fit for jewellery. The other 80% are of lower quality. Those lower quality diamonds are called industrial diamonds, and are used to make things like drill bits and diamond saws. Even if a diamond is not of gem quality, it still has a value because It is very hard.
Cut and faceted diamonds can be attractive hence their use in jewellery. Diamonds are very effective electrical insulators, but also very good conductors of heat. On Mohs scale of mineral hardness, diamonds are scored as 10 (the highest score possible).
Formation of diamonds
There are natural and synthetic diamonds. The Earth makes natural diamonds, and people make synthetic diamonds. Diamonds are the hardest natural substance known to man. Diamonds are made of pure carbon, the same chemical element as graphite, fullerene, and coal. But diamonds are very hard and in crystalline form. It is commonly believed that diamonds are formed from coal, but this is not true.
Diamonds are made deep in the Earth where there is an intense amount of pressure and heat. The formation of natural diamonds needs specific conditions. These are exposure of carbon-bearing materials to high pressure, between 45 and 60 kilobars (4.5 and 6 GPa), but at a comparatively low temperature, between about . These conditions are found in two places on Earth: in the lithospheric mantle below relatively stable continental plates, and at the site of a meteorite strike.
People find diamonds where volcanoes were a long time ago. They sometimes find tiny ones at the site of a meteorite strike. Sometimes people find diamonds on the top of the ground. But in places like South Africa, they must dig deep down into a diamond mine to get diamonds. Diamonds were first found in India.
Small synthetic diamonds are made for abrasives. Large synthetic ones are even more expensive to make than to find and dig up, so people don't make large synthetic diamonds.
Trading in diamonds
For many decades the trading of diamonds was controlled by the De Beers group of companies, who controlled most of Africa's rich diamond mines. However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, new diamond mines opened in Canada and Australia that De Beers wasn't able to control. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, many cheap Russian diamonds entered the market, overwhelming De Beers and their efforts to control it. De Beers still runs most of Africa's diamond mines, but their mines now only produce about one third of the world's diamonds.
References
Other websites
Diamond -Citizendium
Epstein, Edward Jay (1982). The diamond invention (Complete book, includes "Chapter 20: Have you ever tried to sell a diamond?")
Tyson, Peter (November 2000). "Diamonds in the Sky". Retrieved March 10, 2005.
Birthstones
Carbon |
6493 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving | Thanksgiving | Thanksgiving is a holiday in the United States and Canada when people give thanks. In the United States, it is on the fourth Thursday of November. In Canada, it is on the second Monday of October.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln said the last Thursday of November would be a national Day of Thanksgiving for the United States. American immigrants brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada, beginning on April 5, 1872. The United States Congress permanently made the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday in the year 1941. In 1957, Canada made the second Monday of each October a national holiday. Thanksgiving was first celebrated to give thanks for the harvest.
The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first feast in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days. Edward Winslow, who was there, said that 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims were there. More people in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving than Christmas and New Year. Americans eat 46 million turkeys or more each Thanksgiving.
Related pages
Thanksgiving (United States)
References
τ |
6494 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel%20Prize | Nobel Prize | Every year, the Nobel Prizes () are given to people and institutions around the world. These prizes are for the study of science and for world peace. The science prizes include Literature, Science, and Medicine. The Nobel Prize was started by Alfred Nobel. His 1895 testament gave money for the Prizes. The Nobel Foundation now controls the money. The Foundation asks different committees or academies to decide who receives the prizes. For many people, a Nobel Prize is a very great honor. People who receive a Nobel Prize are called "Nobel laureates".
Each prize winner gets a medal, a diploma and a sum of money. In 1901, the winners of the first Nobel Prizes were given 150,782 SEK. This is same as 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. In 2008, the winners were awarded a prize of 10,000,000 SEK. The awards are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, in a ceremony on December 10. This day is the anniversary of Nobel's death...
Prize categories and winners
These are the committees and institutions who decide which people receive a Nobel Prize:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Karolinska Institutet for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Swedish Academy Nobel Prize in Literature
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), for Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Prize in Economics was not a part of Nobel's will. It was started in 1969 by Sveriges Riksbank, the Bank of Sweden. The bank donated money to the Nobel Foundation for the Economics Prize in 1968. The Economics Studies Prize is in the memory of Alfred Nobel. It is awarded each year with the other Nobel prizes.
Notable Nobel laureates
Some people have received more than one Nobel Prize. They are:
Marie Curie – in Physics 1903, for the discovery of radioactivity; and in Chemistry 1911, for the isolation of pure radium
Linus Pauling – in Chemistry 1954, for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances; and for Peace 1962, for nuclear test-ban treaty activism. Pauling is the only person to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes.
John Bardeen – in Physics 1956, for the invention of the transistor; and Physics 1972, for the theory of superconductivity.
Frederick Sanger – in Chemistry 1958, for structure of the insulin molecule; and in Chemistry 1980, for virus nucleotide sequencing.
As a group, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has received the Nobel Peace Prize three times: in 1917, 1944, and 1963. The first two prizes were given the group's work during the world wars. The third was awarded at the year of its 100-Year Anniversary.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) received the Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981.
Some families have received multiple laureates.
The Curie family received 5 Nobel Prizes. They are:
Marie Curie – for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911
Her husband Pierre Curie – for Physics in 1903
Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie – for Chemistry in 1935
Their son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie – for Chemistry in 1935
Also, Henry Labouisse, the husband of the Curies' second daughter Ève, was the director of UNICEF when it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.
Gunnar Myrdal – for Economics in 1974 and his wife Alva Myrdal –for Peace in 1982
J. J. Thomson – for Physics in 1906. He was the father of George Paget Thomson who received the prize for Physics in 1937.
William Henry Bragg shared the Prize for Physics in 1915 with his son, William Lawrence Bragg.
Niels Bohr received the Prize for Physics in 1922. His son Aage Bohr received the Prize for Physics in 1975.
Manne Siegbahn received the Prize for Physics in 1924. He was the father of Kai Siegbahn who shared the Prize for Physics in 1981.
Hans von Euler-Chelpin shared the Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Arthur Harden. Euler-Chelpin's son, Ulf von Euler, received the Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1970.
C.V. Raman received the Prize for Physics in 1930. He was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who received the Prize for Physics in 1983.
Arthur Kornberg shared the Prize with Severo Ochoa for Physiology or Medicine in 1959. Kornberg's son, Roger, received the Prize for Chemistry in 2006.
Jan Tinbergen received the Prize for Economics in 1969. He was the brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen, who shared the Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973 with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch.
Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk received the Nobel Peace Prize for their works during the civil rights revolution in South Africa in 1993.
The youngest person to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize, or any Nobel prize, is the Pakistani girl activist Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 years old when she received this in October 2014.
References and notes
Other websites |
6495 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph | Graph | A graph is a picture designed to express words, particularly the connection between two or more quantities. You can see a graph on the right.
A simple graph usually shows the relationship between two numbers or measurements in the form of a grid. If this is a rectangular graph using Cartesian coordinate system, the two measurements will be arranged into two different lines at right angle to one another. One of these lines will be going up (the vertical axis). The other one will be going right (the horizontal axis). These lines (or axes, the plural of axis) meet at their ends in the lower left corner of the graph.
Both of these axes have tick marks along their lengths. You can think of each axis as a ruler drawn on paper. So each measurement is indicated by the length of the associated tick mark along the particular axis.
A graph is a kind of chart or diagram. However, a chart or a diagram may not relate one quantity to other quantities. Flowcharts and tree diagrams are charts or diagrams that are not graphs.
How to draw a simple graph
Let's say you wanted to make a graph showing your height as you were growing up. You might show your height in centimeters on the vertical axis and your age in years on the horizontal axis.
For example, say you were 60 centimeters tall at age 1, 85 centimeters tall at age 2 and 95 centimeters tall at age 3. You would draw an imaginary straight line passing through the 50 centimeters height mark on the vertical axis. Then you would draw a second imaginary line passing through the age of 1 year on the horizontal axis. At the place where the two imaginary lines meet (called their intersection), you would then draw a dot. Really, the imaginary lines are usually replaced by graph paper (see below). The drawing of this intersection is called "plotting the point 50 centimeters for year 1".
You would then plot 85 centimeters for year 2 and 95 centimeters for year 3. If you had more heights for more years, you would plot years 4, 5 and so forth. When you had enough points on your graph, you could draw a line through each of the plotted points, making your graph a line graph. For example, the line graph at the upper right shows the unemployment rate (as a percent) on the vertical axis and the year (from 1950 to 2005) on the horizontal axis.
Let's say you wanted a single graph showing both your height and your brother's height. This could be expressed as two sets of plotted points: one for you and one for your brother. You could use different colors to tell your plot from your brother's. Or you might plot the Gross Domestic Product (in billions of dollars) as a second line against the same years on the unemployment graph above. This would show you the relationship between GDP and unemployment.
Uses of graphs
Graphs make information easier to see. This is especially true when two or more sets of numbers are related in some way.
For example, the unemployment rates graph at the beginning of this article could be expressed in the form of a table. Like this:
But a long string of numbers makes it difficult to see the underlying meaning. It is much simpler to understand when the table is expressed in the form of a graph. In particular, it is easier to see the relationships between the two sets of data. For example, by looking at the graph you can see at a glance that unemployment was relatively low in the late sixties but relatively high in the early eighties.
Scientists and engineers use graphs so that they can get a better understanding of the broad meaning and importance of their data. Salesmen and businessmen often use graphs to add importance to their points in a sales or business presentation. Graphs with many plotted points may be created on a computer rather than being drawn by hand.
Mathematicians use graphs that "plot themselves", without taking measurements. For example, the formula x = y says that the value of x will always be equal to the value of y. If you plot this formula as a graph, with x as the horizontal axis and y as the vertical axis, you will get a graph that looks like a straight line angled at precisely 45 degrees. The use of these graphs forms a branch of mathematics called analytic geometry.
Graph paper
Usually, graphs are created on specially designed paper called graph paper. This paper has evenly drawn horizontal and vertical lines on it. On the right is an example of a sheet of graph paper.
Different types of graphs require different forms of graph paper. What we have been talking about in the article above is the commonest form of graphs and graph paper. It is known as rectangular or Cartesian graphs. However the evenly drawn vertical and horizontal lines on the paper are not the graph itself but are part of the graph paper. The graph is the set of plotted points, along with its axes.
There are various types of graphs (and graph paper) other than Cartesian. These include: bar graphs, pie graphs, polar graphs, scatter graphs, three-dimensional graphs, logarithmic graphs and many others.
Mathematics
Statistics
Graphics
pt:Função#Gráficos de função |
6501 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision%20detection | Collision detection | Collision detection is a program used on computers to help it understand when two objects will hit into each other. When a computer shows two things on the screen, or controls two things in real life (like robots), it sometimes needs a special program to detect where objects to understand where things are. This might be used to help make sure things like planes do not hit each other, or just to display a video game.
It is also called CD (for collision detection) or interference detection.
Computer science |
6502 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley%20Software%20Distribution | Berkeley Software Distribution | Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) is a kind of the UNIX operating system that is distributed for free since 1989. It was started by people in Berkeley, California, USA in the year 1977. Now, people from around the world work on it.
There are many different kinds of BSD that many people have worked on. Some of them are DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X.
The system software for PlayStation 3 is made from BSD. So is the system software for PlayStation 4.
Other websites
DragonFly BSD homepage
FreeBSD homepage
NetBSD homepage
OpenBSD homepage |
6503 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques%20Cartier | Jacques Cartier | Jacques Cartier was a French trader and explorer. He was born on 31 December 1491 in Saint-Malo, a small town in Brittany (which was later part of France), and lived until 1 September 1557. He sailed three times to Canada.
He was the first European man to see Prince Edward Island, the St. Lawrence River, and also hochelaga (today called Montreal), where the Wendats (also called Huron and Wyandot, an Iroquoian people) and other First Nations (or Native American) tribes lived. In 1534 he reached Newfoundland and explored coast of Labrador.
European countries raced to take the land and riches from the New World. Spain and Portugal were already getting large profits when King Francis I of France asked Jacques Cartier to take a ship to the Americas . Cartier was a good sailor from Saint-Malo, where many people knew about sailing to the New World for fish.
Cartier sailed to what is now Indiana in 1534. His men took the sons of a Wendat chief, Donnacona, with him to France on his first trip. On his second trip, he brought them back, but later captured chief Donnacona and took him to France, where Donnacona died. Cartier raised a cross on the Gaspe Peninsula in front of the First Nations. This cross showed that the lands belonged to France.
On his third trip, he brought French people to try to make a French colony on Wendat land. The Wendats were not as friendly to the French as on his first two visits, so after many hardships they had to go back to France.
Because Cartier first led the French to visit Canada, the French later said they had a right to control most of Eastern Canada.
References
Other websites
1491 births
1557 deaths
French explorers
People from Brittany |
6504 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco%20da%20Gama | Vasco da Gama | Vasco da Gama (1460 or 1469 - December 24th, 1506) was a Portuguese sailor. He was the first European who went to India through the Cape of Good Hope at the southern end of Africa. He went to India three times by ship.
Da Gama was born in Sines, Portugal. His birthday was June 5th. According to some people's accounts, he was a knight in the 1490s in Sines.
On the 4th of July 1497 da Gama left Lisbon with four ships: the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, the Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name. He intended to sail to India. No European explorer before him had sailed further than the place that is now called South Africa. Vasco da Gama sailed around the bottom of the African continent. Da Gama's crew gave the South African coast they were passing the name Natal, which means "Christmas" in Portuguese. They did this because they sailed by it at Christmas. The coast is still called Natal.
By January, da Gama's crew reached modern-day Mozambique, on the East African coast. Mozambique was controlled by Arabs because it was part of the Indian Ocean's network of trade. An angry crowd discovered that da Gama's men were not Muslims, so the crew continued north to Kenya. There, at Malindi, da Gama hired a pilot from India.
The pilot brought the Portuguese men to the city of Calicut on the southwest coast of India on May 20, 1498. Vasco da Gama was in danger because of a conflict with the ruler of Calicut. However, he escaped and returned to Portugal in September 1499. A few of his Portuguese sailors stayed in Calicut.
Vasco da Gama went on his next trip in 1502. He found out that the people of Calicut killed the Portuguese he had left behind. During this trip, he attacked and stole from all the Arab and Indian ships he found in the Indian Ocean. Then, he went on to Calicut and took over that city, capturing a lot of wealth, pleasing the King of Portugal.
Vasco da Gama went on one last trip in 1524 to be the viceroy (governor) of Calicut, which was by that time a Portuguese colony. He died soon after he got there on Christmas Eve. He was not a pirate, but he looted and killed many men only to take revenge.
1469 births
1524 deaths
Portuguese explorers
Sailors |
6514 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayseri | Kayseri | Kayseri is a city in the center of Turkey. Kayseri used to be called Mazaka or Kaisareia. The city has a population of nearly 1 million. Famous meals in this city are pastirma, sucuk and manti. Erciyes Mountain is the third highest mountain in Turkey. It is 3917 metres high.
Political structure
The city of Kayseri consists of the following metropolitan districts:
Other websites
Picture of Mount Erciyes
Cities in Turkey |
6521 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodised%20salt | Iodised salt | Iodized salt (also spelled "iodized salt") is table salt mixed with tiny amounts of iodide and is used to prevent disease of the thyroid gland.
People only need a very small amount of iodine to prevent disease. Food crops usually get iodine from the soil, but some places around the world have low amounts of iodine. Iodized salt is a very cheap and good way of getting the necessary iodine.
Ordinary table (cooking) salt is a chemical compound called "sodium chloride" (its chemical formula is NaCl). "Sodium iodide" (NaI) is added to the NaCl to make iodized salt.
Condiments |
6526 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/College | College | College is a kind of school or university, a place where people go to learn skills for future jobs. Most college students go to college right after high school but others choose to go later in life. Most students are there because it will help them to earn more money and live better lives.
In some countries, for example the United Kingdom, college also means a house belonging to a university, where students and teachers live together.
References
Types of educational institutions |
6527 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery | Battery | A battery converts chemical energy into electrical energy by a chemical reaction. Usually the chemicals are kept inside the battery. It is used in a circuit to power other components. A battery produces direct current (DC) electricity (electricity that flows in one direction, and does not switch back and forth).
Using the electricity from an outlet in a building is cheaper and more efficient, but a battery can provide electricity in areas that do not have electric power distribution. It is also useful for things that move, such as electric vehicles and mobile phones.
Batteries may be primary or secondary. The primary is thrown away when it can no longer provide electricity. The secondary can be recharged and reused.
The chemistry inside a battery
A Battery can be one cell or many cells. Each cell has an anode, cathode and electrolyte. The electrolyte is the main material inside the battery. It is often a type of acid, and can be dangerous to touch. The anode reacts with the electrolyte to produce electrons (this is the negative or - end). The cathode reacts with the electrolyte and takes electrons (this is the positive or + end). An electric current happens when a wire connects the anode to the cathode, and the electrons move from one end to the other. (But a battery can be damaged by just a wire connecting the two ends, so a load is also needed between the two ends. The load is something that slows the electrons down, and usually does something useful, like a lightbulb in a flashlight, or the electronics in a calculator).
The electrolyte can be liquid or solid. A battery is called a wet cell or dry cell battery, depending on the type of electrolyte.
The chemical reactions that occur in a battery are exothermic reactions. This type of reaction makes heat. For example, if you leave your laptop on for a long time, and then touch the battery, it will be warm or hot.
A rechargeable battery is recharged by reversing the chemical reaction that occurs within the battery. But a rechargeable battery can only be recharged a given number of times (recharge life). Even built-in batteries, cannot be recharged forever. Moreover, each time a battery is recharged, its ability to hold a charge goes down a bit. Non-rechargeable batteries should not be charged as various harmful substances can leak out, such as potassium hydroxide.
The cells can be connected to make a bigger battery. Connecting the positive of one cell to the negative of the next cell is called connecting them in series. The voltage of each battery are added together. Two six volt batteries connected in series will make 12 volts.
Connecting the positive of one cell to the positive of the other, and the negative to the negative is called connecting them in parallel. The voltage stays the same, but the current is added together. Voltage is the pressure pushing the electrons through the wires, it is measured in volts. Current is how many electrons can go at once, it is measured in amps. The combination of current and voltage is the power (watts = volts x amps) of the battery.
Battery sizes
Batteries come in many different shapes, sizes and voltages.
AA, AAA, C, and D cells, including alkaline batteries, are of standard sizes and shapes, and have about 1.5 volts. The voltage of a cell depends on the chemicals used. The electric charge it can supply depends on how large the cell is, as well as what chemicals. The charge a battery delivers is usually measured in ampere-hours. Since the voltage stays the same, more charge means a bigger cell can supply more amps, or run for a longer time.
History
The first battery was invented in 1800 by Alessandro Volta. Nowadays, his battery is called the voltaic pile.
In small, modern batteries, the fluid is immobilized in a kind of paste and everything is put in a sealed case. Because of this case, nothing can spill out of the battery. Larger batteries, such as car batteries, still have liquid inside and are not sealed. A kind of battery that uses molten salts as the electrolyte was invented during World War II.
Types of batteries
Dry cells, cells that do not contain a liquid (or contain an immobilized liquid such as a paste or gel) as the electrolyte
Primary cell, cells that cannot be recharged
Alkaline battery, "alkaline", not rechargeable
Mercury battery, not rechargeable
Leclanche battery, "super heavy duty", not rechargeable
Lithium battery, not rechargeable, "coin cell"
Silver oxide battery, not rechargeable, watch battery
Voltaic pile, Allesandro Voltas first battery
Secondary cell, cells that can be recharged
Sealed lead acid battery
Lithium-ion battery, rechargeable, used in cell phones and laptops
Nickel cadmium battery, "NiCd", rechargeable
Nickel metal-hydride battery, "NiMH", rechargeable
Nickel–zinc battery
Wet cells, cells that contain liquid as the electrolyte
Lead acid battery, rechargeable, car battery
Nickel-iron battery, rechargeable, Edison battery
Fuel cell, recharged by adding fuel
Alternatives to batteries
Fuel cells and solar cells are not batteries because they do not store the energy inside them.
A capacitor is not a battery because it does not store the energy in a chemical reaction. A capacitor can store electricity and create electricity much faster than a battery, but it usually costs too much to make it as big as a battery can be. Scientists and chemical engineers are working to make better capacitors and batteries for electric cars.
Small electrical generators operated by hand and foot can supply power in small electrical devices. Clockwork radios, clockwork torches and similar devices also have a wind-up spring to store mechanical energy.
References |
6528 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife | Knife | A knife is a metal tool with a sharpened metal blade that is used to cut all sorts of things. The plural form of "knife" is "knives." Knives can serve various purposes. Hunters use a hunting knife, soldiers use the combat knife, scouts, campers, and hikers carry a pocket knife; there are kitchen knives for preparing foods, table knives, weapons, knives for throwing or juggling, and knives for religious ceremony or display.
Archaeologists have discovered sharp-edged tools as ancient as 2.6 million years old. Sharp stone tools became more advanced in design during the late Lithic periods, and a variety of techniques was used to produce such ‘knives’ in the Neolithic era. The copper and bronze ages followed, and of course brought tremendous changes to the ‘sharp-edge’ technology. These new metal tools were much more durable than stone ones, and hence mining and metal-processing became an important activity.
Types of knives
Cooking or kitchen knives: also known as the chef's knife. Several types of knives are used in cooking. Kitchen knives are sharp knives with wood or plastic handles used for chopping food and meat that is going to be cooked.
Table knives: These knives are used to cut up food for eating. Some table knives are sharper than others, but none are as sharp as kitchen knives. Steak knives are sharper because they need to cut steak. Fish knives and butter knives are also used at the table and have rounded blades that are not sharp.
Hunting knives are used for skinning animals.
Fishing knives are used for cutting open fish.
Construction knives and utility knives are used for cutting vinyl flooring, insulation, plastic sheathing, and carpet.
Pocket knives These knives are used often.
Butter knife A knife used to cut butter or spread things. Some people use it illegally to kill people.
Paring Knife paring knife is ideal for making garnishes and peeling vegetables and fruit.
Boning Knife helps to take meat apart from bone.
Carving Knife is ideal for carving large whole poultry pieces.
Picking the right type of knife
There are many kinds of knives, depending what is to be cut. With the right knife, the cuts you want to make will happen faster and more easily. With the wrong kind of knife, it will take more effort to perform the same amount of work. When a knife is too small to cut something, a saw, axe, or power tool may be needed.
Illegal knives
Carrying knives is illegal in many countries, especially if the blade is longer than several inches. Another type of knife which is illegal in many places is the "switchblade," a knife that has a button which when pressed activates a spring to open the knife.
Related pages
Scissors
Guillotine
Saw
References
Basic English 850 words
Food utensils
Cutting tools
Blades |
6533 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyngan%2C%20New%20South%20Wales | Nyngan, New South Wales | Nyngan is a town in New South Wales, Australia. It is built on the banks of the Bogan River. It is north west of Dubbo, and south east of Bourke in the Central West Plains of New South Wales. It is a town of 2500 people. It exists because of the people who work on the farms and in a copper mine, 50 kilometres to the west.
It remains also well known as one of the last depots of Cobb and Co, the famous inland transporter of the 19th century (1801 to 1900). One of the overnight depots was at Nyngan because it is about halfway between Dubbo and Bourke. In the days of Cobb and Co, the trip from Dubbo and Bourke would have taken at least 4 days.
However, the route they took is not the route that is used today. The new route runs beside the railway. The railway is a direct line from Dubbo to Nyngan. There is not a single bend for almost 160 kilometres. In the other direction, the track goes 190 kilometres dead straight the whole way to Bourke.
Towns in New South Wales |
6547 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film%20%28disambiguation%29 | Film (disambiguation) | Film may refer to:
the art and industry of making motion pictures
movies - also called motion pictures or films.
photographic film
a thin skin or membrane, or any covering or coating
a thin layer of liquid (film (liquid)) on water or solid stuff |
6548 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic%20film | Photographic film | Photographic film is a sheet of plastic for recording visual scenes. The plastic has been specially treated to be sensitive to light. The image is recorded on the plastic when the plastic is exposed to light. Film is kept in small canisters (boxes) which protect it from the light. A normal photographic film may hold up to 40 pictures.
Once all pictures have been recorded, the film has to undergo a special chemical treatment. This is called developing a film or film processing. That treatment makes the pictures visible (you can see them), and the exposed film is no longer sensitive to light.
Different kinds of films exist. Some require more light to be exposed than others. Some are black and white only; they record no colors. There are also special films which can record infrared light.
Films also come in different sizes. 35 millimeter film, the most used size, comes in metal cans or canisters, but there are other camera films that come in paper wrappings or in single sheets.
Uses
Film can only be used once. After that, it cannot be used again (if it is accidentally used again, this results in an artifact called a multiple exposure). When not in use, film needs to be covered from light, otherwise it will record any lights that shine on it. This will make it useless to record a picture. Film comes in a can called a canister to cover it from light rays.
Film needs the right amount of light to make a picture. If the picture is too bright or too dark, it will not record correctly. The longer that the film keeps recording, the more light it will get. If what is being photographed is bright, it will be recorded faster. If it is darker, the film will need more time to record.
Films that need less time to record the picture are known as "faster" films. Different speeds of films are marked with an ISO number. The higher the number, the faster the films. Films can only make a picture from focused lights. If there is no lens to focus light, the film will only turn white from receiving just the light. If a film with an ISO level of 200 instead of 100 is used, it will only need half as much time to record a picture of the same scene.
Examples of ISO numbers are ISO 50, ISO 100, IS0 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, and ISO 1600. The ISO number is sometimes called the ''ASA number'' or the ''film speed''. When the ISO number is low, for example ISO 50, the film takes a long time to record the picture. This is called a slow film. This means the shutter has to stay open for a long time. When the ISO number is high, for example ISO 800, the picture is made in a very short time. This is a fast film. This means the shutter has to open and close quickly.
Before photographic film was invented, photography used glass dry plates. In the 21st century, most cameras don't use film anymore.
References
Related pages
Advanced Photo System
Camera
Photography |
6556 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass | Compass | A compass is a navigational tool that uses magnetism. It has an arrow which points in the direction of the North Magnetic Pole. A compass is very useful for navigating on oceans and in deserts, or other places where there are few landmarks.
The first compass was invented by ancient Chinese in the Han Dynasty. It was a large spoon-like magnetic object made of magnetite ore set upon a square bronze plate.
Directions
Related pages
Gyrocompass
References
Tools
Navigation |
6564 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand%20Magellan | Ferdinand Magellan | Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He became the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean, and the first to sail around the world. Magellan's voyage proved that the Earth was round.
Born in 1480, his birthplace is recorded as either Sabrosa or Porto in Portugal. He worked in the royal court. Since his parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen at the age of 10. In the royal court where he learned many important skills, including map making, navigation and astronomy. In 1505 he joined the navy. When he worked for Portugal, he went to many parts of the world, such as India, the Spice Islands, East Africa, and Morocco. When in Morocco in 1513 Magellan was wounded, and walked the remainder of his life with a limp. After he lost his job for the King of Portugal, he went to work for the King of Spain.
He was also the first to sail through the Strait of Magellan, so it was named after him. Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines, on 27 April 1521 in Mactan during a battle with the natives after he was accused of stealing.
Charles V of Spain provided him with five ships for the voyage round the world. Only one ship, the Victoria, completed the voyage.
References
Other websites
1480 births
1521 deaths
Portuguese explorers
Sailors |
6565 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%20the%20Navigator | Henry the Navigator | Dom Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) was a prince from Portugal, the third son of King John I of Portugal. He was called Infante Dom Henrique in Portuguese. He was never a navigator himself. He got his name because he organized many ocean voyages on which lands were found. He is seen as the man who started the Age of Discovery. He also opened a navigation school in Portugal, so the technology of tools and ships could be made better. His explorers discovered the first shipping routes directly from Europe to Asia for the Portuguese monarchy.
References
1394 births
1460 deaths
Portuguese royalty
Princes and princesses |
6567 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete | Concrete | Concrete is an important material for making different buildings and structures. It is a composite made of Portland cement, sand, gravel or aggregate, and water in varying proportions depending on the task.
Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world. As of 2006, about 7.5 billion cubic meters of concrete are made each year—more than one cubic meter for every person on Earth.
The ingredients are mixed together into a paste, a bit like making dough for bread. The concrete is then poured into a frame. After a few hours it sets hard. Concrete solidifies due to a chemical reaction known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a strong stone-like material.
Concrete is used to make pavements, pipe, architectural structures, foundations, motorways, bridges, multi-story parking, walls, footings for gates, fences and poles and even boats.
Its biggest advantage is that it bonds together bricks and stones better than any other method known to mankind.
Concrete is strong in compression but weak in tension. For some purposes it needs to be reinforced with steel rods. Reinforced concrete buildings can be made to link all the parts together, the foundations, walls, floors and roofs, but concrete construction does not make buildings earthquake-proof.
Concrete is as old as 5600 BC. It was not invented by Romans, but much used by them. Some kinds of concrete are waterproof, and some kinds even set underwater.
Additives
There are many additives to make concrete set faster, set slower, set stronger, reduce corrosion and so on. The Romans discovered that adding volcanic ash produced a concrete which would set under water. The Romans also knew that adding horse hair made concrete less liable to crack as it set, and that adding blood made it more frost-resistant.
Modern concrete was made in 1756 by British engineer John Smeaton. He added pebbles and powdered brick to the cement. In 1824, English inventor Joseph Aspdin invented Portland cement, which has remained the main cement used in concrete production. He burnt ground-up limestone and clay together. The burning process changed the chemical properties of the materials and Aspdin created a stronger cement than plain crushed limestone alone could produce.
The 19th century saw the invention of reinforced concrete by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 (patented in 1867). François Coignet studied and improved it. This is concrete with steel bars in it, called rebars (reinforcing bars). Glass fibre or plastic fibre is beginning to replace steel bars.
Many modern chemicals can be added to the mixture to achieve special objectives. 'Superplasticizers' are chemicals which improve workability, which means the ability to shape the concrete before it has set. Pigments can change the dull grey colour. Corrosion inhibitors can reduce rusting on the steel bars. 'Air entrainment' is blowing little bubbles in the concrete before it sets. This helps the concrete survive the freezing and thawing of a cold climate. Blast furnace slag can be mixed with concrete. It turns the colour into almost pure white and makes the concrete stronger.
References
Other websites
Concrete Design
Building materials
Materials |
6580 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon | Marathon | A marathon is a long-distance running sport event where an athlete must run 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards). There are many marathons held all over the world each year. It is a very difficult event and runners are advised to run many miles before they compete. This event was named after a battle of the Greco-Persian wars.
The famous battle of Marathon was fought in 490 B.C. An army from Persia came to fight the army of Athens. The army from Athens was not expected to win, but they did. After the victory, they sent their best runner, a man named Pheidippides back to Athens to tell everyone the good news. He ran about 25 miles and died of exhaustion when he arrived.
In 1896 the first modern Olympics was held. There was a race called the Marathon there. It was only about 25 miles (40 km) then.
Notes
Running |
6585 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy%20Roman%20Empire | Holy Roman Empire | The Holy Roman Empire should not be mistaken for the Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire (; ), occasionally but unofficially referred to as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, was a group of regions and free cities in central Europe under the rule of an emperor who was elected by the princes and magistrates of the regions and cities within the empire.
When Charlemagne died, his Frankish Empire was given to his children and divided into three different countries: West Francia, Lotharingia and East Francia. The Holy Empire started when Otto I of East Francia became emperor in 962, and it was ended by Napoleon in 1806. The emperors claimed to be heirs of Charlemagne and that the Empire dates from 800, when Charlemagne became Frankish Emperor.
In the 17th century the Empire was shattered by the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Nearly thirty percent of the population of the Empire was killed. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation lost parts of its territory.
Until the 13th century, the Holy Roman Empire was powerful. Later, all the duchies and counties inside the Empire started to get more power. At the end, the emperors had little real power anymore, and the country existed only in name. The last emperor abolished the empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
Politics
It is known in popular culture that Voltaire, a French philosopher in the 18th century, once said that "the nation was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire." to criticize the very decentralized state of the empire during the 1700's and its claim as the successor to the Roman Empire.
The Empire was in fact Germanic and not Roman since it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria. It was not really holy since, after Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the Pope. It was only really an Empire by name: the territories it covered were mostly independent. The Empire had its own central government and armed forces that acted as one. It was ruled by the House of Habsburg before that fell in 1806. Napoleon forced the emperor to abdicate when France began invading the Holy Roman Empire during the First French Empire. The Emperor made himself emperor of Austria and ended the Holy Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire was not a highly centralized state like most countries today. Instead, it was divided into dozens – eventually hundreds – of individual entities governed by kings, dukes, counts, bishops, abbots, and other rulers. They were collectively known as princes. The Emperor directly ruled some areas. At no time could the Emperor simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire. His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders.
In the 16th century the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) had to deal with the rebellion of the Frisians lead by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama. This lasted from 1515 until 1523.
The Empire was one of the rare states in Europe that had an elective monarchy. This meant that the Emperor was chosen by a small group of Prince-electors. Common practice was to just elect the deceased Emperor or Empress 's heir to the throne.
References
Notes
States and territories disestablished in the 19th century
1806 disestablishments
1800s disestablishments in Europe |
6587 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland | Friesland | Friesland (Fryslân in West Frisian, Friesland in Dutch) is a province in the north of the Netherlands. The capital (city) of Friesland is Leeuwarden (Ljouwert in Frisian). People in Friesland speak West Frisian and Dutch. People also speak Frisian in a small part of Groningen (province), and in East Friesland and North Friesland in Germany. In North Holland there is a region called West Friesland, but people who live there are not called Frisians. About 651,000 people are living in Friesland (2021).
Agriculture and tourism, on the lakes and the isles in the Wadden Sea, are important sources of income.
The province is also famous for its ice skaters and its Elfstedentocht (Eleven cities tour), an ice skating race of 200 kilometers.
It is also known for being home to some breeds of animals, such as the Stabyhoun and Wetterhoun dog breeds, the Friesian horse breed and the Holstein Friesian cattle breed.
Notable Frisians
In Friesland the Frisians live. They are an old ethnic group. Members of this ethnic group are:
Pier Gerlofs Donia was a giant from Friesland. He was said to be about 7 feet tall (2 meters and 15 centimeters).
Wijerd Jelckama was a legendary freedom fighter, rebel and warlord who was as tall as his uncle Pier Gerlofs Donia
Mata Hari was a famous courtesan and spy who was born a Frisian.
Doutzen Kroes, a Frisian born supermodel, speaks Frisan and encourages people to learn about it.
Population
In 2021, Friesland had a population of 651,459 and a population density of .
The years 1880–1900 showed slower population growth due to a farm crisis during which some 20,000 Frisians emigrated to the United States.
Anthropometry
Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland is known for the exceptional height of its inhabitants. Even early Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri refers to the height of Frisians in his Divine Comedy when, in the canticle about Hell, he talks about the magnitude of an infernal demon by stating that "not even three tall Frieslanders, were they set one upon the other, would have matched his height".
References
Other websites |
6588 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen%20%28province%29 | Groningen (province) | Groningen is a province in the Northeast of the Netherlands. At the east is the German region Lower Saxony, in the south is Drenthe, in the west is Friesland (or Fryslân in Frisian) and in the north is the Wadden Sea. About 587,000 people are living in Groningen (2021).
The capital of Groningen is also called Groningen. People from Groningen often call Groningen City "stad" ("city") and the rest of the province "Ommelanden" (which means something like "surrounding lands").
Important sources of income are agriculture and natural gas extraction Slochteren.
Noticeable things in Groningen are the Gronings dialect, which is related to Low Saxon, and the strong support for the communist party in the Northeastern part of the province.
Other websites
Flag
Website of the Capital City
Alternative Website of the Capital City (Local Shops and Small Businesses)
Map of Groningen
Website of the University
Website of the Polytechnic
Map of Province |
6589 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen%20%28disambiguation%29 | Groningen (disambiguation) | Groningen might mean:
Groningen (province), a province in the Netherlands
Groningen (city), the capital city of that province
Groningen (Suriname), a town in Suriname
FC Groningen, a professional football club in the Netherlands |
6590 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundy | Burgundy | Burgundy () is a former administrative region of France. It is now part of the administrative region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It was also a historic region in eastern France. The French adjective and name of the inhabitants of the region is Bourguignon.
With over , it is one of the largest region of France. It covers about 6% of the territory of the country.
The four departments in the region were Côte-d'Or, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire and Yonne. Its capital was Dijon.
History
Burgundy was named for the Germanic Burgundian tribe who moved there from an island in the Baltic Sea. They moved when the Roman Empire fell apart to set up a kingdom with its own laws. This included part of what is now Switzerland.
During the Middle Ages, Burgundy was ruled by dukes. In the 15th century it was very powerful. The dukes ruled lands as far north as the Netherlands. After Duke Charles the Bold died when he wanted to conquer the city of Nancy in 1477, France took southern Burgundy. It was a province until 1790. The House of Habsburg got the northern part, which later became the Southern Netherlands.
Geography
The Burgundy region is one of the largest regions of Metropolitan France. It has an area of . It bordered with five other regions: Champagne-Ardenne to the north, Franche-Comté to the east, Rhône-Alpes to the southeast, Auvergne to the southwest, Centre-Val de Loire to the west and Île-de-France to the north.
Most of the territory of Burgundy is occupied by a plateau of low hills (the Burgundy Hills) surrounded by valleys of the main rivers. The valley of the Yonne river and its tributaries is to the north of the region. To the southeast is the valley of the Saône river.
In the centre of the plateau (and of the region), there is a group of low mountains: the Morvan. The highest point in Burgundy, the Haut-Folin (), is in these mountains, in the Saône-et-Loire department. It is high.
The main rivers of the region are Yonne, Armançon, Loire, Seine and Saône.
The climate of Burgundy is an oceanic climate with temperate summers, "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.
Departments
The Burgundy region is formed by four departments:
Demographics
The Burgundy region has a population, in 2012, of 1,641,130, for a population density of inhabitants/km2.
The ten main cities in the region are:
Economy
The region is known for its wines, both red and white. Many well-known wines, such as Macon and Beaujolais, were first made here. A few wines are also the 'Arbois'-type. Arbois wines are between red and white and almost yellow in colour.
Gallery
References
Other websites
Regional Council of Burgundy official website
Official website of Tourism of Burgundy
Netbourgogne.com
About-France.com: BURGUNDY - a short guide
Former administrative regions of France |
6591 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke | Duke | A Duke is someone part of nobility. In monarchies, like the UK, the title has legal status, and is inherited in the male line.
The first English dukes were created by Edward III in 1337, when he gave his eldest son, Edward, the Black Prince, the title of Duke of Cornwall.
Dukes are formally referred to as 'The Duke of (place name)', and addressed as "Your Grace". On State occasions, dukes rank below Royal Dukes, and above Earls. This is called the order of precedence, because in procession to the opening Parliament, or on other state occasions, they walk in order of their rank.
The office or position of a duke is called a dukedom.
The wife of a duke is a Duchess. This is an honorary title, given for life to the lawfully wedded wife of a Duke. If she divorces and remarries a commoner, (person with no title) their children have no title. The children of a duke, on the other hand, do have honorary titles (so long as they are born in lawful wedlock). The eldest son may bear what is called a junior title which an ancestor was given before the dukedom was created. Other children would be called 'Lady' Jane (or other Christian name) and 'Lord' James (or other Christian name). Children use the family surname, not the Dukedom.
Historically, the land that is ruled by a duke is a duchy. The eldest son of a duke inherits the duchy when the duke dies. The word comes from the Latin word "dux", which means leader.
References |
6592 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin | Latin | Latin is an Italic language that was used in Ancient Rome. Short Latin texts have been found from about the 5th century BC and longer texts from about the 3rd century BC.
Classical Latin was used in the 1st century BC and was the official language of the Roman Empire. It was widely used in the western part of the Mediterranean. The languages known as Romance languages developed from the spoken, informal version, called Vulgar Latin.
Latin was very important to Christianity for many centuries. It is still spoken today during some religious activities. It is an official language in the Vatican, where the Pope leads the Roman Catholic Church. People in the Vatican sometimes speak to one another in Latin (if they have different first languages). The mass of the Catholic Church may be done entirely in Latin. This is the Mass of the Roman Rite (Extraordinary Form).
Current usage
Latin is called a dead language because no one speaks Latin as a first language anymore. Although it is a dead language, it is not an extinct language because it is still used in daily life by some people. In fact, many people still study it in school. Latin is still useful because it shows how society works. Knowing Latin makes it easier to learn the Romance languages.
People still read Latin classics such as the poems of Virgil, the memoirs of Caesar and the speeches of Cicero. Also, Latin is widely used as an international auxiliary language, notably in the Catholic Church, and by biologists when describing and naming new species.
Latin is still used in taxonomy to give scientific names to species and groups of species of living things. Some terms used in medicine to name parts of the body (such as bones) and names of some diseases are also written in Latin.
Varieties
There are three types of Latin: Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin, and Ecclesiastical Latin. Classical Latin was used by the educated Romans and is still studied around the world. Vulgar Latin was the more common spoken variety used by the common Romans and was learned by the peoples conquered by the Romans. Ecclesiastical Latin is common in Italian schools and still used by the Roman Catholic Church.
Latin was once the most important language in most of Europe in the Middle Ages. It was taught in many European schools, and all universities used Latin as the teaching language. Latin began to lose its importance in the Reformation, but it was still often used by authors of scientific books and encyclopedias. Until about 1900 many universities accepted dissertations written in Latin.
As people from other regions of Europe learned Vulgar Latin during Roman conquests, each region developed its own language, a simplified form of Latin. Those languages are called Romance languages, and they are still spoken today. The five Romance languages with the largest number of speakers are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. The Romance languages are very similar to one another, and speakers of one Romance language can understand many words and sentences (in both texts and spoken conversations) from another Romance language. For example, speakers of Portuguese can often understand Spanish. It can be said that the Romance languages are modern dialects of Latin.
Grammar
Latin has a similar inflection structure to Ancient Greek but a different alphabet.
Latin has seven different noun cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative. The vocative case is almost always the same as the nominative case; however, if the nominative ends in -us, it changes to -e, and if the nominative ends in -ius, it changes to -i. The locative takes the form of the dative. Latin nouns are declined, or changed, according to how they are used in the sentence. A noun can be declined five different ways. These ways are called declensions. The declensions are numbered 1 through 5 (first declension, second declension etc), each having different endings that identify the noun's declension. When a noun is declined, twelve forms are made, two for each of the noun cases (the locative is omitted).
A similar thing is done to verbs, called conjugation. When a verb is conjugated, six forms are made. There are five factors that can change a verb: person, number, tense, voice, and mood. In all, there are 120 possible forms Latin verbs.
Writing Latin
Latin used to be written on plates of wax. There was little space and so words were run together, with no space between words. Sometimes papyrus was used, but this was expensive. Punctuation was an ancient idea but came to Latin later. Lowercase letters (small letters) are relatively modern inventions. The Roman alphabet was derived from the Etruscan language.
The following is the introduction to the Metamorphoses by Ovid (Book 1, lines 89–100); it describes the Golden Age.
After the fall of the Roman Empire
After the fall of the Roman Empire, many people still used Latin. Scholars such as Thomas Aquinas, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Copernicus, Descartes and Newton wrote in Latin. As an example, Hugo Grotius published his De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) in 1625, which is one of the bases of international law.
References
Other websites
Post-Classical Latin (including Medieval and Neo-Latin)
Beginners' Latin on http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Glossarium Anglico-Latinum having many modern words
Latin language Citizendium |
6593 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle%20Ages | Middle Ages | The Middle Ages were a period of about a thousand years in European history. They started around the year 476 , when the Western Roman Empire ended, and continued until around the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492. This period of time is called the 'Middle Ages' because it took place between the fall of Imperial Rome and the beginning of early modern Europe. It is often separated into the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.
Sometimes people use other names, like “the Medieval Age,” to describe the Middle Ages. Another name for the Middle Ages is “the Age of Faith,” because Christianity and Islam were becoming much more popular. The early Middle Ages has also been called “the Dark Ages” because past scholars wrongly believed that there was very little culture, good literature, or art, or progress during this period.
Very few people in the Middle Ages could read, so there are not many records from this period. Because of this, historians do not know as much about the Middle Ages as about earlier times.
During the Middle Ages, many people’s lives were short, difficult, and poor. The fall of the Roman Empire, and the invasions of barbarian tribes, devastated Europe. The Romans had made a lot of progress in science, technology, engineering, medicine, and literature. During the Middle Ages, a lot of this new knowledge was lost. There were mass migrations, wars, and plagues. For around 300 years, there was continuous violence. After that, the development of feudalism decreased some of the violence.
In 800 ce, Charlemagne became Emperor of the Romans. He promoted order, education, and civilization. Slowly, Europe began to regain what it had lost. Still, the Late Middle Ages were a difficult time. Wars and the Bubonic Plague killed millions of people in Europe and Asia.
Europe changed during the Middle Ages. Independent, unified nation states formed across the old Western Roman Empire. These new nations included England, Scotland, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, and France (which evolved from the realm of the Franks).
Byzantium: The eastern side of Rome
In 330 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine created the Byzantine Empire (also called the Eastern Roman Empire). He made the capital city Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire controlled Asia Minor and Northern Africa, and sometimes southern Spain and southern Italy. However, its lands were slowly eaten away by enemies like the Turks and the Franks.
The Byzantine Empire survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasted until 1453. Constantinople was a walled city on a peninsula. This made it difficult for invaders to take over. Finally, in 1453, the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople. They gave the city its present-day name: Istanbul. This was the end of the Byzantine Empire.
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks is sometimes called the end of the Middle Ages.
Islam and its golden age
The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the early 7th century. Soon after his death in 632 CE, Islam split into two branches. These were the Sunni Muslims and the Shi'a. Most Muslims (about 85%) are Sunni. Shi'a Muslims live mostly in modern-day Iran and Iraq. The Sunni-Shi'a split has been compared to the Protestant Reformation within the Christian Church much later, in 1517.
After the Prophet Muhammad’s death, Arab Muslims began to take over many Christian territories and convert them to Islam. Over time, they took control of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Egypt, North Africa and Spain. (France and other European countries stayed under Christian rule.) Eventually, the Muslim Ottoman Empire conquered parts of eastern Europe too. Many Muslim states held of vast areas of land, making them superpowers of the Middle Ages. Islam spread along the major trade routes of the old world. Many traders and travelers became Muslim.
The Middle Ages were a golden age of knowledge in Muslim territories. While Europe was struggling greatly, the Islamic world was making great progress in the arts, agriculture, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, and technology. Many Muslim caliphs and Sultans gathered the ancient texts of great classical empires. (For example, the Caliphs of Andalusian Cordoba gathered ancient Roman texts, and the Anatolian Seljuk Sultans gathered ancient Greek texts.). During this Islamic Golden Age, a Persian Muslim helped to develop algebra.
The golden age of Islam ended with the Mongol invasions in the mid-13th century.
Asian Trade and the Bubonic Plague
During the Middle Ages, trade between countries became much more common. Most trade ran along the Silk Road, a trade route that connected Europe to the Middle East and East Asia. Arab traders brought things back and forth between Europe and East Asia along the Silk Road.
Items that were light, easy to carry, and valuable traveled the furthest distances. During the high Middle Ages, wealth began to return and consumers began to demand luxuries again. Traders brought silk, porcelain, spices, incense, gold and gems thousands of miles across deserts, mountains and plains to reach Europe. They also brought glass from Europe to Asia.
Not all items traveled along the entire Silk Road. Traders carrying heavier, less valuable items would travel shorter distances. Food, for example, would mostly travel only within a few villages.
Trade was greatly interrupted several times during the Crusades (1095-1291) due to Mongolian invasions, wars between Muslims and Christians, and (later) the Black Plague. Histories think the Mongols brought the plague with them from Asia. This disease devastated the world population from 1347-1351. It killed almost a third of the world's population (although the Americas were not affected).
Buddhism in the Middle Ages
Buddhism is a non-theistic religion (meaning its followers do not believe in a god). It is based on philosophy. It began in India. However, Muslim invaders drove Buddhism out of India. This forced Buddhism to flee east. There are very few Buddhists in India today, but Buddhism eventually took up strong roots in China.
The Mongolian Empire and Chinese Exploration
During the Middle Ages, the Mongols created the world's largest contiguous empire. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan, the Mongols took over territories in much of Asia, the Middle East, and far eastern Europe. Because the Mongol Empire was so large and powerful, there was little war within the empire. This period is now called the Pax Mongolica (pax is Latin for “peace”). Like the earlier Roman Pax Romana, the Pax Mongolica was a time of relative peace and stability. This made it possible for trade, technologies, and ideas to travel safely throughout Eurasia. International trade and diplomacy along the Silk Road expanded greatly.
Around the time of his death in 1227, Genghis Khan’s empire had gotten too big to survive. It collapsed under its own size (like Alexander the Great's did in Ancient Greece). The former Mongol Empire was split four ways. This allowed the Chinese to become the dominant power in the Far East once again. Later, under the Yuan Dynasty, the Chinese also retook control of northern China.
Around 1405, a Chinese admiral named Zheng He went to explore the world. His fleet of 300 'treasure ships' explored great areas of the Eastern world. These ships were many times larger than anything the Europeans had built. (A Zheng He Treasure ship was wider than Columbus' ship 'Santa Maria' was long).
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages were the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, from around 1291 (when the Crusades ended) to 1492 (when Columbus traveled to the New World). During this period the gun was invented, and changed the way wars were fought. Aristocracy and feudalism became less important.
Before the late Middle Ages, armies were only formed when there was a war. Now, states founded standing armies. Technology, economy and science developed. Cities were founded and existing cities grew larger and richer.
During the late Middle Ages, France and England fought the Hundred Years' War. Also during this period, China regained its independence from the Mongol Empire. So did the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which became the most important state in Eastern Europe, under the name of “Russia.”
The bubonic plague devastated Eurasia and North Africa during the late Middle Ages. This was one of the deadliest pandemics in history. It killed between 75 and 200 million people. This was 1/3 to 3/4 of the world’s population at the time.
In the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire. This cut off the Silk Road, so Europeans had to find new trade routes. In turn, Christian states drove the Muslims out of Spain. This triggered the Age of Discovery during the Renaissance.
References
Other websites
Student resources
History.com - Middle Ages Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts
Middle Ages - Citizendium
Middle Ages - Vikidia
Periods and ages in history |
6594 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis%20Bonaparte | Louis Bonaparte | Louis I of Holland (Lodewijk Napoleon in Dutch) (1779-1846), was the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of the Kingdom of Holland in 1806. He served with his brother in the Italian campaign of 1796–97 and in Egypt in 1798–99. Napoleon named him king of Holland in 1806. When Louis disagreed with his policies, Napoleon dispatched troops against Holland. Louis abdicated in 1810 and lived most of the remainder of his life in Italy.
Early Life
Louis was born Luigi Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a younger brother of Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien and Elisa, and the older brother of Pauline, Caroline and Jerome.
His early career was spent in the army and he served with Napoleon in Egypt. Thanks to Napoleon, he was a general by the age of 25, although he himself felt that he had risen too far in too short a time. Upon his return to France, he was involved in Napoleon's plot to overthrow the Directory. After becoming first consul, Napoleon arranged a marriage for Louis to Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine and Napoleon's stepdaughter. Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage, was convinced by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family.
King of Holland
Napoleon made him king of Holland on June 5 1806. He took his duties as king seriously, calling himself Koning Lodewijk I (adopting the Dutch form of his name). He practiced to speak Dutch language and tried to be a responsible, independent ruler of Holland. His attempt at speaking the language earned him some respect from his subjects. He declared that he was Dutch and renounced his French citizenship. He also forced his court and ministers (mostly supplied by Napoleon) to speak only Dutch languages.This was too much for his wife Hortense who refused his request. Two major tragedies occurred during his reign: the explosion of a ship filled with gunpowder in the heart of the city of Leiden in 1807, and a major flood in 1809. In both instances, Louis personally and effectively oversaw local relief efforts, which helped earn him the nickname of Louis the Good.
His reign of the Netherlands was short lived, due to a quarrel with his brother. Napoleon I wanted Dutch troops for his invasion of Russia. Louis refused; Napoleon didn't help defend the kingdom, and the British invaded. Napoleon then suggested that Louis should abdicate but he refused. Napoleon removed Louis from the Dutch throne and took over the entire Kingdom of Holland on July 1, 1810.
After his kingdom was taken from him, Louis remained in Holland for nearly three years and turned to writing and poetry. Louis wrote to Napoleon after the disastrous Russian campaign to restore him to the Dutch throne. Predictably, Napoleon refused and Louis returned to France in 1813.
Head of the House of Bonaparte
After the death of his elder brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although he took little action himself to advance the claim. His son and heir, Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, on the other hand, was at that time imprisoned in France for having tried to engineer a Bonapartist coup d'état. Louis died on July 25 1846, making his son the future Napoleon III.
References
Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life, by Alan Schom
1779 births
1884 deaths
House of Bonaparte
Kings and Queens of the Netherlands
People from Corsica |
6595 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel%20de%20Ruyter | Michiel de Ruyter | Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (1607 – 1676) was a famous Dutch admiral.
De Ruyter was born in Vlissingen. He fought the English in the three Anglo-Dutch Wars and scored several huge victories. He won amongst others the Four Days Battle and the Raid on Medway, close to London, the English capital. He also fought battles against Sweden and France. He died because of injuries he got on a battle against France, he is buried in Amsterdam.
1607 births
1676 deaths
Admirals
Dutch military people
People from Vlissingen |
6596 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan%20Rudolf%20Thorbecke | Johan Rudolf Thorbecke | Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (14 January 1798 - 4 June 1872) was an important Dutch politician. In 1848, he wrote a constitution almost on his own. This constitution gave the king less power and the people more, so it made the Netherlands a democracy. Thorbecke was a liberal. Several times he was prime minister, and internal affairs minister.
Thorbecke was a Lutheran and had German roots. He was born in Zwolle and died in The Hague, aged 74.
References
Bio at Parlement.com
1798 births
1872 deaths
Dutch academics
Dutch jurists
Dutch Protestants
Former members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands
Government ministers of the Netherlands
Lutherans
Politicians from Overijssel
Prime Ministers of the Netherlands
Writers from Overijssel |
6598 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel%20Doorman | Karel Doorman | Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman (April 23, 1889 in Utrecht - February 28, 1942) was a Dutch admiral (Dutch: schout-bij-nacht) during World War II.
In 1942 he was made commander of the combined American, British, Dutch and Australian fleet in the Dutch East Indies.
In February 1942, he led his fleet against a much stronger Japanese fleet in the Java Sea. This battle became a disaster for the Allies. Doorman became a hero in the Netherlands, partly of his last words to the fleet: "Ik val aan, volg mij!" (I am attacking, follow me).
Karel Doorman died when his ship De Ruyter (named after the famous Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter) was hit by a torpedo and sank. There was enough time to escape, but Doorman rather went under with his ship, according to old tradition.
1889 births
1942 deaths
Admirals
Dutch military personnel of World War II
Military people killed in World War II
People from Utrecht (city) |
6599 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Star-Spangled%20Banner | The Star-Spangled Banner | "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to it in 1814 after seeing British ships attacking Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland during the War of 1812.
The words are set to the music of a British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song has 4 stanzas but only the first one is usually sung.
Lyrics
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen thro’ the mist of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
’Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto—“In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Media
Other websites
Library of Congress article
National Museum of American History article
Maryland Online Encyclopedia article
British Attack on Ft. McHenry Launched from Bermuda
Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on "The Star-Spangled Banner"
"Star-Mangled Banner: A look at some controversial, and botched, renditions of our national anthem"
"The Star-Spangled Banner" by John A. Carpenter
Easybyte—free easy piano arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner / Anacreon in Heaven"
"Stars and Stripes Forever" City Pages, July 4, 2001
"The Toughest 2 Minutes"
1814
19th-century American songs
National anthems
Songs about the United States
Symbols of the United States |
6605 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdou%20Diouf | Abdou Diouf | Abdou Diouf (born September 7, 1935) was president of Senegal from 1981 to 2000. He was the second president since the country became independent.
Diouf has been the Secretary General of La Francophonie since 2003.
References
Diouf, Abdou
Diouf, Abdou
Living people
Prime Ministers of Senegal |
6607 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle | Needle | A needle is a small tool used to push or pull a thread through a small hole. It is most often used to make clothing and footwear.
The needle consists of a short stick with a sharp point and hole for the thread. Needles are now mostly made of steel, but in ancient or Stone Age times they would have been made of small bones or twigs.
Once the thread is put through the hole in the needle and "doubled-back" so that it cannot fall out, then the whole needle and its thread can be put through the material.
The term needle may also be used to refer to other sharp objects used for different purposes, such as the needles doctors use to give a shot.
Other websites
Tools |
6610 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/February%203 | February 3 |
Events
Up to 1900
1112 - Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona and Douce I, Countess of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of the two states.
1377 - Over 2,000 people in Cesena, Italy are killed by Papal troops.
1488 - Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands at Mossel Bay in present-day South Africa, having become the first European to travel round the Cape of Good Hope.
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
1781 - British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
1809 – Illinois Territory is created.
1815 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded (Switzerland).
1830 - Greece's sovereignty is confirmed by the London Protocol.
1870 – The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.
1900 - Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies four days after being shot, and three days after being sworn in to office.
1901 2000
1908 - The Panathinaikos Sports Club is founded in Athens.
1913 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. It lets the Federal government create and collect income tax.
1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of submarine warfare.
1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world, at 3,633 metres long.
1930 - The Communist Party of Vietnam is founded in Kowloon, then-British Hong Kong.
1931 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits New Zealand's North Island, mainly the cities of Napier and Hastings.
1943 - The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 672 of the 902 men on board.
1944 – United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
1945 – World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre fighting against Japan.
1947 - North America's lowest temperature is recorded in Snag, Yukon, Canada.
1952 – The earliest known tropical storm makes landfall in South Florida.
1955 - Czechoslovakia declares an end to hostilities with Germany.
1958 - The Benelux Economic Union is formed.
1959 – An airplane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. This date becomes known as "The Day The Music Died".
1960 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan makes a speech in which he says that "winds of change" are blowing across the African continent.
1961 - Start of the Angolan War of Independence.
1966 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft is launched.
1967 - In Melbourne, Ronald Ryan becomes the last person to be executed in Australia.
1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
1972 – The first Winter Olympics to be held in Asia open in Sapporo, Japan.
1972 - Until February 9, a blizzard in Iran kills around 4,000 people.
1976 - In Mozambique, the capital city changes its name from Lourenco Marques to Maputo.
1981 - Gro Harlem Brundtland is elected Prime Minister of Norway.
1988 – The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.
1989 - In Paraguay, a coup removes Alfredo Stroessner from power.
1994 - Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on mission STS-60.
1995 - Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.
1996 - An earthquake of magnitude 7 hits Yunnan Province, China, killing over 300 people.
1998 – In Northern Italy 20 people die in a cable car disaster caused by a low-flying United States Military plane.
1998 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas, as the first woman to be executed in the US since 1984.
From 2001
2002 – Super Bowl XXXVI: The New England Patriots defeat the St. Louis Rams, 20–17, to win their first Super Bowl championship.
2006 – The Egyptian al-Salam Boccaccio ferry sinks in the Red Sea, killing around 1,000 people.
2007 - A bombing at a market in Baghdad kills 135 people.
2008 – Super Bowl XLII: The New York Giants defeat the previously undefeated New England Patriots, 17–14, to win their third Super Bowl championship and prevent them from becoming the first 19-0 team.
2010 - The sculpture L'homme qui marche by Alberto Giacometti is sold at an auction in London for £ 65 million.
2011 - Tropical Cyclone Yasi hits Queensland, Australia.
2013 - Super Bowl XLVII is interrupted by a power failure just after half time, with the Baltimore Ravens leading 28-6 over the San Francisco 49ers. After over half an hour, play gets back underway. The Baltimore Ravens later go on to win the game.
2015 - Sergio Mattarella becomes President of Italy.
2015 - The House of Commons of the United Kingdom, by a majority, supports the introduction of "Three-person babies". After being passed by the House of Lords, the UK would be the first country to introduce this.
2015 - It is announced that a second novel by Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, is to be published in July, called Go Set a Watchman.
Births
Up to 1900
995 - William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1037)
1338 – Jeanne de Bourbon, Queen of France (d. 1378)
1654 - Pietro Antonio Fiocco, Italian composer (d. 1714)
1677 - Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)
1689 - Blas de Lozo, Spanish admiral (d. 1741)
1721 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
1736 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
1747 - Samuel Osgood, American patriot (d. 1813)
1761 - Dorothea von Medem, German countess (d. 1821)
1763 - Caroline von Wolzogen, German writer (d. 1847)
1774 - Karl Mollweide, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1825)
1777 - John Cheyne, British physician, surgeon and author (d. 1836)
1790 - Gideon Mantell, British geologist and physician (d. 1852)
1795 – Antonio José de Sucre, South American independence leader (d. 1830)
1806 - Ansel Briggs, 1st Governor of Iowa (d. 1881)
1807 - Joseph E. Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1891)
1807 - Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington, British general (d. 1884)
1806 - Ansel Briggs, American politician, 6th Governor of Iowa (d. 1881)
1808 – Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar of Eisenach, Empress of Prussia (d. 1877)
1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
1811 – Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)
1817 - Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist and mineralogist (d. 1881)
1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, British-American physician (d. 1910)
1823 - Stephen Fullerton Baird, American naturalist (d. 1887)
1824 - Ranald MacDonald, American explorer and educator (d. 1910)
1826 - Walter Bagehot, British journalist and businessman (d. 1877)
1830 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
1842 - Sidney Lanier, American poet and composer (d. 1881)
1846 - Judson Harmon, Governor of Ohio and United States Attorney General (d. 1927)
1854 - Sergei Korsahoff, Russian neuropsychiatrist (d. 1900)
1857 - Giuseppe Moretti, Italian sculptor (d. 1935)
1859 – Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
1870 – Ada Negri, Italian actress (d. 1945)
1874 – Gertrude Stein, American writer and publicist (d. 1946)
1878 - Gordon Coates, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1943)
1887 – Georg Trakl, Austrian writer (d. 1914)
1889 - Risto Ryti, 5th President of Finland (d. 1956)
1892 - Juan Negrin, Spanish politician (d. 1956)
1894 – Norman Rockwell, American artist, illustrator (d. 1978)
1898 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
1898 - Lil Hardin Armstrong, American jazz musician (d. 1971)
1899 - Lao She, Chinese author and playwright (d. 1966)
1899 - Joao Café Filho, President of Brazil (d. 1970)
1901 1950
1903 – Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, Scottish aviator (d. 1973)
1907 – James A. Michener, American writer (d. 1997)
1909 – Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
1911 – Jehan Alain, French composer (d. 1940)
1911 - Robert Earl Jones, American actor (d. 2006)
1912 - Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (d. 2006)
1914 - Mary Carlisle, American actress
1915 - Stuart Archer, British recipient of the George Cross (d. 2015)
1915 – Boris Paichadze, Georgian footballer (d. 1990)
1918 - Joey Bishop, American entertainer (d. 2007)
1920 - Henry Heimlich, American physician (d. 2016)
1924 - Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, German aristocrat (d. 2010)
1925 – Leon Schlumpf, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 2012)
1925 - Shelley Berman, American actor, comedian and writer (d. 2017)
1926 – Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician
1927 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer (d. 2015)
1927 - Blas Ople, Filipino politician (d. 2003)
1927 - Kenneth Anger, American filmmaker and writer
1927 - Indra Bahadur Rai, Indian writer (d. 2018)
1927 - Sarah Jiménez, Mexican artist (d. 2017)
1928 - Ingemar Haraldsson, Swedish footballer (d. 2004)
1932 – Michael Martin, American philosopher (d. 2015)
1932 - Stuart Hall, Jamaican-British cultural theorist and sociologist (d. 2014)
1933 - Paul Sarbanes, American politician (d. 2020)
1935 - Johnny "Guitar" Watson, American musician (d. 1996)
1937 - Jacques Barrot, French politician (d. 2014)
1938 - Emile Griffith, American boxer (d. 2013)
1939 - Michael Cimino, American movie director (d. 2016)
1943 – Blythe Danner, American actress
1943 – Dennis Edwards, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 2018)
1943 - Shawn Philipps, American guitarist, singer and songwriter
1947 – Dave Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
1947 – Paul Auster, American writer
1948 – Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner
1948 – Henning Mankell, Swedish writer (d. 2015)
1950 – Morgan Fairchild, American actress
1951 1975
1951 - Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
1951 – Blaise Compaoré, former President of Burkina Faso
1954 - Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
1955 – Stephen Euin Cobb, American writer
1955 – Bruno Pezzey, Austrian footballer (d. 1994)
1955 – Kirsty Wark, Scottish broadcast journalist
1956 - Nathan Lane, American actor
1956 - Lee Ranaldo, American musician
1958 - Joe F. Edwards, Jr., American basketball player
1959 - Lol Tolhurst, English musician (The Cure)
1959 - Fredric Lehne, American actor
1960 – Joachim Löw, German football trainer
1961 - Jay Adams, American skateboarder (d. 2014)
1963 – Stefano Mei, Italian sportsperson (athletics)
1964 – Michael Rummenigge, German footballer
1965 - Maura Tierney, American actress
1966 - Franco Coraci, American movie director
1967 – Mixu Paatelainen, Finnish footballer and coach
1969 - Beau Biden, American attorney and politician (d. 2015)
1970 - Warwick Davis, British actor
1971 – Sarah Kane, British playwright (d. 1999)
1972 – Mart Poom, Estonian footballer
1975 - Brad Thorn, New Zealand rugby player
From 1976
1976 - Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Isla Fisher, Australian actress
1977 - Marek Zidlicky, Czech ice hockey player
1977 – Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican singer
1978 – Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer
1978 - Amal Clooney, Lebanese-British lawyer and activist
1978 - Eliza Schneider, American actress and singer
1980 - Kim E-Z, Korean singer
1981 - Alisa Reyes, American actress and singer
1982 - Jessica Harp, American singer
1982 - Bridget Regan, American actress
1983 – Gabriel Sargissian, Armenian chess player
1983 - Hillary Scott, American pornographic actress
1984 - Sara Carbonero, Spanish journalist
1985 - Sergei Kostitsyn, Belarussian ice hockey player
1986 - Kanako Yanagihara, Japanese actress, comedian and entertainer
1988 - Kyuhyun, South Korean singer
1988 – Gregory van der Wiel, Dutch footballer
1989 – Vania King, American tennis player
1990 – Sean Kingston, American singer
1990 - Sterling Moore, American football player
1991 - Glenn McCuen, American actor
1993 - Getter Jaani, Estonian actress and singer
1993 - Mark Bennett, Scottish rugby player
1995 - Tao Tsuchiya, Japanese actress, model and dancer
Deaths
Up to 1900
619 - Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury
699 - Werburgh, English saint (b. 650)
995 - William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
1014 – King Sweyn I of Denmark
1116 - King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)
1399 – John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)
1428 - Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
1451 – Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher
1737 - Tommaso Ceva, Italian mathematician (b. 1648)
1820 – Emperor Gia Long of Vietnam (b. 1762)
1832 – George Crabbe, English naturalist (b. 1754)
1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)
1867 - Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied (b. 1782)
1874 – William Charles Lunalilo, King of Hawaii (b. 1835)
1889 – Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
1900 – William Goebel, 34th Governor of Kentucky (b. 1856)
1901 2000
1908 - Ferdinand Meldahl, Danish architect (b. 1827)
1920 - Frank Brown, Governor of Maryland (b. 1846)
1921 – Colin Archer, Norwegian shipbuilder (b. 1832)
1922 - John Butler Yeats, Irish illustrator (b. 1839)
1924 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize winner (b. 1856)
1929 - Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878)
1935 – Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (b. 1859)
1937 - Marija Leiko, Latvian movie actress (b. 1887)
1944 - Yvette Guilbert, French cabaret singer (b. 1865)
1945 – Roland Freisler, Nazi official (b. 1893)
1948 - Louis J. Brann, Governor of Maine (b. 1876)
1951 - August Horch, German engineer (b. 1868)
1952 - Harold L. Ickes, American politician (b. 1874)
1955 - Vasili Blokhin, Soviet general (b. 1895)
1956 - Johnny Claes, Belgian racing driver (b. 1916)
1959 - "Day the Music Died":
Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
Roger Peterson, American pilot (b. 1937)
Ritchie Valens, American musician (b. 1941)
The Big Bopper, American musician (b. 1930)
1960 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
1961 – Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
1961 - William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, Governor-General of Australia (b. 1893)
1967 - Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929)
1969 – Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique independence founder (b. 1920)
1969 - C. N. Annaduri, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of Madras State (b. 1909)
1975 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904)
1975 - William D. Coolidge, American physicist and inventor (b. 1873)
1985 - Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)
1989 – John Cassavetes, American actor (b. 1929)
1989 - Lionel Newman, American movie music orchestra leader and composer (b. 1916)
1991 - Harry Ackerman, American television producer (b. 1912)
1997 - Bohumil Hrabal, Czech writer (b. 1914)
1998 - Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)
2000 - Alla Rakha, Indian tabla player (b. 1919)
From 2001
2003 – Lana Clarkson, American actress (b. 1962)
2004 - Jason Raize, American actor (b. 1975)
2005 – Zurab Zhvania, Georgian politician (b. 1963)
2005 – Ernst Mayr, German biologist (b. 1904)
2006 - Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923)
2006 - Romano Mussolini, Italian pianist and artist (b. 1927)
2011 – Edouard Glissant, French-Martinican poet (b. 1928)
2011 – Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)
2012 – Ben Gazzara, American actor (b. 1930)
2012 – Samuel Youd, British writer (b. 1922)
2014 - Louise Brough, American tennis player (b. 1923)
2014 - Richard Bull, American actor (b. 1924)
2014 - Louan Gideon, American actress (b. 1955)
2014 - Joan Mondale, former Second Lady of the United States (b. 1930)
2014 - Bill Sinkin, American activist (b. 1913)
2015 - Frank Borghi, American soccer player (b. 1925)
2015 - Charlie Sifford, American golfer (b. 1922)
2015 - Martin Gilbert, British historian (b. 1936)
2015 - Mary Healy, American actress (b. 1918)
2016 - Mark Farren, Irish footballer (b. 1982)
2016 - Balram Jakhar, Indian politician (b. 1923)
2016 - Saulius Sondeckis, Lithuanian violinist and conductor (b. 1928)
2016 - Joe Alaskey, American voice actor (b. 1952)
2016 - Big Kap, American DJ (b. 1970)
2017 - Robert Dahlqvist, Swedish rock musician (b. 1976)
2017 - Yoshiro Hayashi, Japanese politician (b. 1927)
2017 - Hassan Joharchi, Iranian actor (b. 1968)
2017 - Lou Rowan, Australian cricket umpire (b. 1925)
2017 - Benny Perrin, American football player (b. 1959)
2017 - John M. Hayes, American scientist (b. 1940)
2017 - Richard Lyon, American admiral and politician (b. 1923)
2017 - Shumon Miura, Japanese author (b. 1926)
2018 - Michael Harner, American anthropologist and author (b. 1929)
2018 - Dirk Bernard Joseph Schouten, Dutch economist (b. 1923)
2018 - Hukum Singh, Indian politician (b. 1938)
2018 - Rolf Zacher, German actor (b. 1941)
Observances
Christian feast day: Saint Blaise (Roman Catholic Church)
Heroes' Day (Mozambique)
Veterans' Day (Thailand)
Setsubun (Japan)
02-03 |
6617 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province | Province | A province is a subdivision of a country. It is a kind of local government.
Some countries are divided into provinces. The word "province" comes from the Latin word provincia.
South Africa, Canada, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Spain, and Denmark are examples of countries that are divided into provinces.
In some countries, provinces have different names:
Département: France
Canton: Switzerland
State: United States, Mexico, Brazil, Australia
Bundesland: Germany and Austria
Voivodship: Poland
District: Serbia (okrug), Belize, Bhutan
Prefectures (県): Japan
Estados: Venezuela
County: United Kingdom
Suba: Pakistan
Pradesh: the Hindi word for states: Republic of India
Fylke: Norway
Parish: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago
Departements usually have less power than provinces. States, Bundesländer and autonomous communities have more power than provinces.
Small countries like Singapore or Monaco are not divided. |
6623 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade | Jade | Jade is a kind of stone. We use the name "jade" for two different sorts of mineral. The first sort is nephrite. This is a form of actinolite (asbestos is a sort of actinolite, too). The second sort is the mineral jadeite, and it is a pyroxene. The first sort (nephrite) is harder than the second sort (jadeite). The first sort (jadeite) has more colors that the second sort (nephrite).
Nephrite is Ca2(Mg, Fe)5Si8O22(OH)2.
Jadeite is NaAlSi2O6.
The two sorts of jade look nearly the same. People only found that they were two different sorts in 1863. The nephrite form of jade is very hard. In the past, Chinese people and the Maori used it to make knives and weapons. Later, when people could use metals, they liked jade because it looked nice and they thought it had special powers. Today people also use jade for jewelry.
Jade was found about 7000 years ago. The Chinese later made jewelry out of it. Only the rich could have jade because it was so rare and expensive. It was said that jade had healing powers and it was regarded as very lucky.
Gemstones |
6626 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor%20Yushchenko | Viktor Yushchenko | Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko () (born February 23, 1954) is a previous President of Ukraine. On November 26, 2004, he lost the Ukrainian presidential election. However, he and his followers argued that the election had been corrupted. They argued that the election results had been falsified by the Ukrainian government, in support of the opposing candidate Victor Yanukovych. They organized political demonstrations in the autumn and winter of 2004 that gathered millions of people all over the country. They called the demonstrations The Orange Revolution. The Constitutional Court ordered a second round of elections, which Yuschenko won.
Yushchenko claimed to have been poisoned by political enemies. Certainly, he was hospitalized and his appearance shows signs of a grave illness.
Yulia Tymoshenko and Yushchenko were once strong allies (during the Orange Revolution). Today there is a lot of political misunderstanding between Tymoshenko and Yushchenko.
In February 2010 Yushchenko lost the presidential election to Viktor Yanukovych.
From December 1999 till May 2001 Yushchenko was the Ukrainian prime minister and from January 1993 till December 1999 head of the national bank of Ukraine.
References
1954 births
Living people
Presidents of Ukraine
Prime Ministers of Ukraine
Economists
Bankers |
6630 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor%20Yanukovych | Viktor Yanukovych | Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (; born July 9, 1950, Yenakiieve, Stalin Region, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian politician who was the 4th President of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014; found guilty of treason. On January 12, 2015, he was declared wanted by Interpol
Political career
He was Prime Minister of Ukraine from November 2002 until December 2004 (he was forced to resign (leave office early) on 31 December 2004). He again was Prime Minister of Ukraine from 4 August 2006 until 18 December 2007. He is the former leader of the Party of Regions the biggest political party of Ukraine. The party was formerly part of the Ukrainian government.
In November 2004, he won the presidential election. Viktor Yushchenko, his opponent, said the result was false. Large daily demonstrations supporting Viktor Yushchenko followed. They were named The Orange Revolution. Ukrainian Judges decided that there would be new elections in December 2004. Victor Yuschenko won those elections and became president of Ukraine.
Yanukovych was supported by Vladimir Putin of Russia and by the former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.
Yushchenko claimed to have been poisoned in a bid to silence his "orange power" base. Certainly, he was hospitalized and his appearance showed signs of a grave illness.
In February 2010, he won the presidential election; Yulia Tymoshenko, who lost the election with a 3.48% difference, said he won because of fraud.
Yanukovych was a victim of poverty in his childhood and was twice put in prison for violent crimes in his youth.
After mass protest in Ukraine during February 2014, Yanukovych was forced-out of office on 22 February 2014. Oleksandr Turchynov became acting president.
Convictions
On December 15, 1967, at the age of 17, Viktor Yanukovych was first sentenced to 3 years in prison for participating in a robbery.
For the second time, Viktor Yanukovych was prosecuted for inflicting moderate bodily injuries under Art. 102 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR and sentenced on June 8, 1970 to 2 years of imprisonment.
Criticism
In connection with the events of Euromaidan, the phrase "Golden Toilet" became a symbol and synonym of the Yanukovych regime. In many informal speeches, the phrase is used as a euphemism for the rule of Viktor Fedorovich and his political entourage.
Oppression of freedom of speech in Ukraine
During the two months of Yanukovych's presidency and the existence of the pro-presidential majority and the government in Ukraine, the pressure on the media and the curtailment of freedom of speech intensified. In particular, independent experts noted the politicization of the First National TV Channel. The facts of censorship on commercial TV channels have become more frequent: journalists of "1 + 1" and "STB" have stated the facts of censorship by their management, and journalists of STB state the existence of facts of censorship since 2008.
The enemy of the press
Viktor Yanukovych, along with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, became the biggest enemies of the Ukrainian press in 2012-2013, according to an annual survey by the Institute of Mass Media and the Independent Media Trade Union.
Investigation
As of May 15, 2014, 6 criminal cases of abuse of power were being investigated against Yanukovych. The cases are included in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.
Notes
References
Other websites
CLAN of Yanukovich: YANUKOVICH
1950 births
Living people
Criminals
Engineers
Presidents of Ukraine
Prime Ministers of Ukraine
Ukrainian scientists |
6640 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt | Salt | In chemistry, a salt is any neutral chemical compound made of cations (positive ions) attached to anions (negative ions). The main kind of salt is sodium chloride with the chemical formula NaCl. It is formed when hydrochloric acid is added in sodium hydroxide. The reaction is as follows
HCl+NaOH2 gives NaCl+H20+heat
Mixtures of salts in water are called electrolytes. Electricity is able to pass through electrolytes, as well as molten salts.
Salts can melt ice, because salts lower the temperature needed for liquid to freeze. Because of that, streets are sometimes treated with salt in winter, if the temperature is only a little below freezing.
A salt can also be explained as an ionic compound which dissociates, forming a positive ion other than hydrogen ion, and a negative ion other than hydroxyl ion.
Table Salt
See also Table salt
The word "Salt" in English often means 'table salt' or 'edible salt' (which is salt that can be eaten). This kind of salt is made up mostly of sodium chloride (NaCl). It is one of the few minerals that are eaten a lot by humans, but it can be used for other things besides giving food its flavor.
There are different kinds of edible salt: unrefined salt (for example sea salt), refined salt (table salt), and iodized salt. It is a crystalline solid that has the color white, pale pink, or light gray. It is usually taken from sea water or rock deposits. Natural sea salt has little parts and pieces of other minerals besides sodium chloride. Rock salts that can be eaten are sometimes a little grayish in color because of these other minerals.
Sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) are the two elements that make up sodium chloride. Both of these are needed for all living creatures, including humans, but they are not always eaten in the form of salt, where they are found together in large amounts. Some peoples, like the Yanomami tribe in South America, eat very little salt. Salt is used to control the amount of water in the body. Salty flavor is also one of the basic tastes. Salt cravings may be caused by not having enough minerals, such as sodium chloride, in the body.
Eating too much or too little salt can make health problems more likely to happen, for example hypertension. When food is made, salt is used as a preservative, to make the food last longer, and as a seasoning, for flavor.
Sources of table salt
There are different ways to get table salt:
From the sea, using salt evaporation ponds or desalinisation plants.
From a mountain, or underground, using salt mines.
From natural brine.
From the supermarket.
History
Because many germs cannot live in salt, it has been used to preserve food since the earliest times. Its use as a food preservative helped large amounts of food to be stored, sent a long way, and eaten all through the year. This helped populations to grow, cities to develop, and soldiers in wars to be fed.
Salt was probably used in Egypt as long ago as 4000 BC. In ancient times, salt was more valuable than it is now, because it was hard to get in many places, and could be used not only to give foods flavor, but also to make them last longer. It allowed food to be kept past its season, and taken on long trips.
People often traded salt for other things. It was of high value in China, Turkey, the Middle East, and Africa. In the Mediterranean area, including Ancient Rome, salt was even used for money. The word salary comes from the Latin word for salt, because they paid people in salt. After people learned how to get salt from the ocean, salt became cheaper. The Phoenicians were some of the first to figure out how to do this, by pouring seawater on dry land. Then when it dried, they collected the salt and sold it.
Another use of salt was in war, as a way to punish a city by ruining its crops. This is called "salting the Earth". The Assyrians are said to have been one of the first to have done this to their neighbours.
Looks
Color
Salts can be found in all different colours, such as: yellow (sodium chromate), orange (potassium dichromate), red (mercury sulphide), mauve (cobalt chloride hexahydrate), blue (copper sulfate pentahydrate, ferric hexacyanoferrate), green (nickel oxide), colorless (magnesium sulphate), white (titanium dioxide), and black (manganese dioxide). Most minerals and inorganic pigments, as well as many synthetic organic dyes, are salts.
References
Basic English 850 words
Chemical compounds |
6642 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business | Business | A business is an organization where people work together. In a business, people work to make and sell products or services. Other people buy the products and services. The business owner is the person who hires people for work. A business can earn a profit for the products and services it offers. The word business comes from the word busy, and means doing things. It works on regular basis.
Originally, individual trades people were qualified, and they hired assistants. The invention of the joint-stock company meant a new era in business. By this means, some people put up the money as capital, and others used it to run the business. There is a law which says this kind of company is a "legal entity": it has a legal life separate from its owners or shareholders. In this way, a company can outlive the people who started it. This idea was invented in medieval times, but really flowered in the 19th century. It has spread around the world since then.
Most businesses are created for commerce. There are big and small businesses. For example, one person can open a small barber-shop. A big business, like Microsoft, employs thousands of people all over the world.
Some businesses need fixed locations. Examples are an office, store, or farm. For some businesses the worker goes to different locations. Examples are carpenters or electricians. They usually bring everything they need for work in their truck.
Business can also mean the work or current state of a business. A business owner might say: "I am doing a lot of business" or "My business is good" or "Business is bad".
The term can also be used in a more general way. As a noun, it can be used, for example, to speak about a broad area of activity.
References
Basic English 850 words |
6643 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter | Winter | Winter is one of the four seasons and the coldest time of the year. The days are shorter and the nights are longer. Winter comes after autumn and before spring.
Winter begins at the winter solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere the winter solstice is usually December 21 or December 22. In the Southern Hemisphere the winter solstice is usually June 21 or June 22.
Some animals hibernate during this season. In temperate climates there are no leaves on deciduous trees. People wear warm clothing and eat food that was grown earlier. Many places have snow in winter, and some people use sleds or skis. Holidays in winter for many countries include Christmas and New Year's Day.
The name comes from an old Germanic word that means "time of water" and refers to the rain and snow of winter in middle and high latitudes. |
6644 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/June%201 | June 1 |
Events
Up to 1900
70 BC – An earthquake in Shandong, China, kills 6,000 people.
193 – Roman Emperor Marcus Didius is killed in his big house.
1204 - King Philip Augustus of France conquers Rouen.
1215 - Zhongdu (now Beijing), then under control of Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending in the Battle of Zhongdu.
1252 - Alfonso X of Castile is elected King of Castile and Leon.
1283 – Treaty of Rheinfelden – Duke Rudolph II of Austria has to waive his right to the Duchies of Austria and Styria.
1298 - Residents of Riga and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the Livonian order in the Battle of Turaida.
1485 – Matthias of Hungary took Vienna in his conquest of Austria (from Frederick III) and made the city his capital.
1495 – Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
1533 – Henry VIII of England's new wife, Anne Boleyn, is crowned as queen.
1535 - Combined forces loyal to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor attack and expel the Ottomans from Tunis during the Conquest of Tunis.
1648 - Second English Civil War: The Roundheads defeat the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone.
1660 – Mary Dyer is hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the last religious martyr in North America.
1679 - The Scottish Covenanters defeat John Graham of Claverhouse at the Battle of Drumlog.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for malfeasance in his treatment of government property.
1792 – Kentucky becomes the 15th state in the United States, with Isaac Shelby as its first Governor.
1794 - "Battle of the Glorious First of June" is fought, as the first naval battle between Great Britain and France.
1796 – Tennessee becomes the 16th state in the United States.
1812 – War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the United States Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
1813 – The United States Navy gained its motto as the mortally wounded commander of the frigate Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, said, "Don't give up the ship".
1815 – Napoleon swears fidelity to the Constitution of France.
1831 – James Clark Ross discovers the position of the North Magnetic Pole on the Boothia Peninsula.
1847 – Zeta Psi Fraternity is founded.
1855 – American adventurer William Walker defeats Nicaragua and brings back slavery.
1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Fairfax Oaks Court House takes place, in which the first Confederate combat casualty occurs.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Fair Oaks ends – Both sides claim victory.
1868 - The Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed, allowing Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico.
1869 – Thomas Edison of Boston, Massachusetts, received a patent for his electric voting machine.
1879 – Eugène Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France is killed in the Zulu Wars.
1890 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
1898 – The Trans-Mississippi Exposition world's fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska.
1901 2000
1907 – Colin Blythe takes 17 wickets for 48 runs against Northamptonshire at Northampton in one day. It is the best analysis ever recorded either for a county cricket match or a single day's bowling, and not bettered in first-class cricket until 1956.
1909 – The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition world's fair opens in Seattle, Washington.
1910 – Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the United Kingdom.
1916 - Louis Brandeis becomes the first Jew to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
1918 – World War I: Battle for Belleau Wood begins –
1921 – Tulsa Race Riot: A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma kills at least 85 people.
1922 – Official founding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
1925 – Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees played the first game in his record streak of 2,130 games in a row, an endurance record in Major League Baseball that stood until Cal Ripken, Jr. broke it in 1995.
1926 - In Poland, the National Assembly elects Ignacy Moscicki as President.
1932 - Franz von Papen becomes Chancellor of Germany.
1935 – First driving tests introduced in Britain.
1938 – Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
1938 – Protective baseball helmets were worn by people with bats for the very first time.
1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete ends – Crete gives in to Germany.
1943 – A not soldier flight from Lisbon to London was shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all on the plane, including actor Leslie Howard.
1954 – The Peanuts comic strip character Linus van Pelt is shown with a security blanket for the first time.
1958 – Charles de Gaulle is brought out of resting to lead France by order for six months.
1960 - New Zealand's first official television broadcast is transmitted.
1963 - Kenya gains internal self-rule.
1967 – The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, claiming to represent the majority of U.S. veterans who served in Southeast Asia, speak against war protests.
1973 - The military proclaims Greece a republic.
1974 - The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.
1974 – Flixborough disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Flixborough, UK kills 28 people.
1978 – The first international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are filed.
1978 - The 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina begins. The staging of the World Cup in Argentina is controversial, due to the military dictatorship in power at the time.
1979 – The first black-led government of Rhodesia in 90 years takes power, ousting Ian Smith and changing its name to Zimbabwe
1980 – The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
1988 - A mining accident in Stolzenbach, Hesse, then-West Germany, kills 51 miners. 6 survive and are rescued on June 4.
1989 – Oba Chandler murders an Ohio family on their Florida vacation by drowning them in Tampa Bay.
1990 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and start destroying each of their nation's stockpiles.
1990 - Karl-Marx-Stadt, in then-East Germany, changes its name back to Chemnitz.
1993 - Dobrinja mortar attack, west of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, kills 13 people and injures 133, as Serb mortar shells hit during a football game.
1994 – South Africa re-joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1999 - American Airlines Flight 1420 slides and crashes at Little Rock National Airport in Arkansas, killing 11 people.
2000 – The Patent Law Treaty (PLT) is signed.
From 2001
2001 - Several members of Nepal's royal family, including King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya of Nepal, are killed in a massacre. Crown Prince, Dipendra of Nepal, is believed to have carried out the attack, and dies of his injuries on June 4.
2001 - A Hamas suicide bombing kills 21 people at a disco in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
2002 - The Germany national football team scores its highest FIFA World Cup win, defeating the Saudi Arabia national football team 8-0 in a group match.
2003 – The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 meters.
2005 – Voters in the Netherlands reject the proposed EU Constitution.
2008 – A fire at Universal Studios Hollywood destroys 118,000 to 175,000 copies of master tapes.
2009 – Air France Flight 447: An Air France plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Brazil, killing all 228 people on board.
2009 – General Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2011 – Sepp Blatter is controversially re-elected as FIFA President.
2014 - FIFA, the governing body of world football, is embroiled in a corruption scandal after reports of irregularities when Qatar won the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010.
2015 - A ship carrying over 458 people sinks on the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China, killing 400 people.
2016 - The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest tunnel in the world, opens in Switzerland after around 20 years of building work.
2017 - President Donald Trump announces the United States' withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement.
2018 - A coalition government consisting of the Five Star Movement and the League Party takes office in Italy, with Giuseppe Conte as Prime minister.
2018 - Mariano Rajoy is removed from office as Prime minister of Spain by a parliamentary vote of no confidence; Pedro Sánchez replaces him.
2019 - Nayib Bukele becomes President of El Salvador.
2019 - Liverpool F.C. defeats Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2-0 in the second UEFA Champions League final between two English clubs.
Births
Up to 1800
719 – Yang Yuhuan, Chinese princess and consort (d. 756)
1076 – Mstislav I of Kiev (d. 1132)
1134 - Geoffrey, Count of Nantes (d. 1158)
1300 - Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Salisbury, son of King Edward I of England (d. 1338)
1455 - Anne of Savoy (d. 1480)
1480 - Tiedemann Giese, Polish bishop (d. 1550)
1503 – Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (d. 1567)
1563 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English politician (d. 1612)
1633 – Geminiano Montanari, Italian astronomer (d. 1687)
1637 - Jacques Marquette, French missionary and explorer (d. 1675)
1754 - Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este (d. 1806)
1771 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (d. 1839)
1790 – Ferdinand Raimund, Austrian playwright (d. 1836)
1796 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French military engineer and physicist (d. 1832)
1801 1900
1801 – Brigham Young, American Mormon leader (d. 1877)
1804 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (d. 1857)
1814 - Charles Anderson, 27th Governor of Ohio (d. 1895)
1815 – King Otto of Greece (d. 1862)
1819 - Francis V, Duke of Modena (d. 1875)
1825 - John Hunt Morgan, American general (d. 1864)
1831 - John Bell Hood, American general (d. 1879)
1833 – John Marshall Harlan, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1911)
1843 – Henry Faulds, Scottish fingerprinting pioneer (d. 1930)
1844 - Vasily Polenov, Russian painter (d. 1921)
1850 - Sami Frashëri, Albanian writer (d. 1904)
1875 - Carl Severing, German politician (d. 1952)
1878 – John Masefield, English novelist and poet (d. 1967)
1879 - Max Emmerich, American athlete and gymnast (d. 1956)
1882 - Nicolae Bivol, Moldovan politician (d. 1940)
1889 - James Daugherty, American painter, illustrator and writer (d. 1974)
1889 – Charles Kay Ogden, book writer who created the idea of Basic English (d. 1957)
1890 – Frank Morgan, American actor (d. 1949)
1898 – Molly Picon, American actress (d. 1992)
1901 1950
1901 – Hap Day, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1990)
1905 - Robert Newton, English stage and movie actor (d. 1956)
1907 – Frank Whittle, English aircraft engineer (d. 1996)
1912 – Herbert Tichy, Austrian mountaineer (d. 1987)
1917 – William Standish Knowles, American chemist (d. 2012)
1921 - Nelson Riddle, American arranger, composer and bandleader (d. 1985)
1922 – Povel Ramel, Swedish entertainer (d. 2007)
1922 – Joan Caulfield, American actress (d. 1991)
1922 - Joan Copeland, American actress
1926 – Andy Griffith, American actor (d. 2012)
1926 – Marilyn Monroe, American actress (d. 1962)
1926 - Richard Schweiker, American politician (d. 2015)
1928 – Bob Monkhouse, British comedian (d. 2003)
1928 - Steve Dodd, Australian actor (d. 2014)
1928 - Larry Zeidel, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2014)
1928 – Georgy Dobrovolsky, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1971)
1929 - Nargis, Indian actress (d. 1981)
1930 - Kei Kumai, Japanese director (d. 2007)
1930 - Richard Levins, American scientist (d. 2016)
1930 – Edward Woodward, British actor (d. 2009)
1931 - Hal Smith, American baseball player (d. 2014)
1933 - Sandy D'Alemberte, American lawyer, professor and politician (d. 2019)
1933 – Haruo Remeliik, 1st President of Palau (d. 1985)
1933 – Charles Wilson, American politician (d. 2010)
1934 – Pat Boone, American singer
1935 – Norman Foster, British architect
1935 – Hazel Dickens, American singer, songwriter and musician
1937 - Colleen McCullough, Australian author (d. 2015)
1937 – Ezio Pascutti, Italian footballer (d. 2017)
1937 – Morgan Freeman, American actor
1938 – Carlo Caffarra, Italian Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bologna and cardinal (d. 2017)
1940 - Kip Thorne, American theoretical physicist
1941 - Toyo Ito, Japanese architect
1941 - Alexander V. Zakharov, Russian physicist and astronomer
1942 - Fernando Atzori, Italian boxer
1942 - Eric Nagler, Canadian children’s musician
1944 - Robert Powell, British actor
1945 - Frederica von Stade, American operatic mezzo-soprano
1946 – Brian Cox, Scottish actor
1947 - Jan Harvey, British actress
1947 – Jonathan Pryce, Welsh actor
1947 – Ronnie Wood, British musician (Rolling Stones)
1947 - Ron Dennis, British businessman
1948 - Powers Boothe, American actor (d. 2017)
1948 - Aruna Shanbaug, Indian nurse (d. 2015)
1950 - Tim Bishop, American politician
1950 - Gemma Craven, Irish actress and singer
1951 1975
1952 - Senol Gunes, Turkish football manager
1953 - Ronnie Dunn, American country musician
1953 - Tim Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, English actor and peer
1953 – David Berkowitz, American serial killer (Son of Sam)
1955 - Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 2016)
1955 - Tony Snow, American journalist (d. 2008)
1956
François Chérèque, French labor unionist (d. 2017)
Lisa Hartman-Black, American Actress & singer
Peter Tomka, Slovakian jurist & diplomat
1958 - Nambaryn Enkhbayar, 3rd President of Mongolia
1959 - Alan Wilder, English singer, musician, producer and composer
1959 – Martin Brundle, British racecar driver
1960 – Simon Gallup, British musician (The Cure)
1960 - Vladimir Krutov, Soviet-Russian ice hockey player (d. 2012)
1960 - Sergey Kuznetsov, Soviet-Russian footballer
1960 - Giorgos Lillikas, Cypriot politician
1960 - Einar Vilhjálmsson, Icelandic javelin thrower
1961 – Paul Coffey, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 - Peter Machajdik, Slovakian-German composer
1963 – Mike Joyce, British musician (The Smiths)
1965 – Larisa Lazutina, Russian cross-country skier
1965 – Nigel Short, British chess player
1965 - Olga Nazarova, Russian athlete
1966 - Abel Balbo, Argentine footballer
1967 - Roger Sanchez, American producer and DJ
1968 – Jason Donovan, Australian actor and singer
1968 - Karen Mulder, Dutch model and singer
1968 - Jeff Hackett, Canadian ice hockey player
1968 - Mathias Rust, German pilot
1970 – Alexi Lalas, American soccer player
1970 - Andrea Fay Friedman, American actress
1971 - Mario Cimarro, Cuban-American actor
1971 - Ghil'ad Zuckermann, linguist
1972 – Daniel Casey, English actor
1973 – Adam Garcia, Australian actor
1973 – Heidi Klum, German model
1973 - René Zagger, English actor
1974 – Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer
1974 – Michael Rasmussen, Danish cyclist
1974 - Sarah Teather, British politician
1975 - Kate Magowan, American actress
1975 - Frauke Petry, German chemist and politician
From 1976
1976 - Marlon Devonish, British athlete
1977 - Sarah Wayne Callies, American actress
1977 - Danielle Harris, American actress
1977 - Brad Wilkerson, American baseball player
1980 - Oliver James, British musician and actor
1981 - Amy Schumer, American comedienne, writer and actress
1981 - Carlos Zambrano, Venezuelan-American baseball player
1982 – Justine Henin, Belgian tennis player
1983 - Hannah Bardell, Scottish politician
1984 – Naidangiin Tuvshinbayar, Mongolian athlete
1984 - Jean Beausejour, Chilean footballer
1984 - Stéphane Sessègnon, Beninese footballer
1985 – Mário Hipólito, Angolan footballer
1985 - José Fernando Cuadrado, Colombian footballer
1985 - Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopian runner
1986 - Dayana Mendoza, Venezuelan model
1986 - Chinedu Obasi, Nigerian footballer
1987 - Juan Hernández, Mexican footballer
1987 – Zoltán Harsányi, Slovakian footballer
1988 – Nami Tamaki, Japanese pop singer
1988 – Javier Hernández Balcázar, Mexican footballer
1989 - Samuel Inkoom, Ghanaian footballer
1990 - Bianca Perie, Romanian hammer thrower
1992 - Jenna McDougall, Australian singer-songwriter
1992 - Kira Plastinina, Russian fashion designer
1996 - Tom Holland, English actor
2000 - Willow Shields, American actress
2003 - Emjay Anthony, American actor and model
2004 - Krisia Todorova, Bulgarian singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
195 BC – Gaozu of Han of China (born 256 BC or 247 BC)
193 – Marcus Severus Didius Julianus, Roman Emperor (b. 133)
657 - Pope Eugene I
1432 - Dan II of Wallachia
1434 – Wladislaus II of Poland (b. 1362)
1571 - John Story, English martyr (b. 1504)
1616 – Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japanese shogun (b. 1543)
1660 – Mary Dyer, English-born Quaker (b. 1611)
1740 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (b. 1657)
1769 - Edward Holyoke, American clergyman (b. 1689)
1795 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist (b. 1744)
1823 - Louis-Nicolas Davout, French marshal (b. 1770)
1826 - Jean Frédéric Oberlin, Alsatian pastor (b. 1740)
1830 - Swaminarayan, Indian Hindu figure (b. 1751)
1841 – Nicolas Appert, French inventor (b. 1749)
1846 – Pope Gregory XVI (born 1765)
1864 - Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebel (b. 1820)
1868 – James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (born 1791)
1872 - James Gordon Bennett, American newspaper publisher (b. 1795)
1873 - Joseph Howe, 5th Premier of Nova Scotia (b. 1804)
1876 – Hristo Botev, Bulgarian revolutionary (born 1848)
1879 – Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial of France (b. 1856)
1899 - Klaus Groth, German poet and writer (b. 1819)
1901 2000
1904 - George Frederic Watts, English painter (b. 1817)
1927 - Lizzie Borden, American suspected murderess (b. 1860)
1927 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian (born 1861)
1938 – Odon V. Horvath, Austro-Hungarian writer (b. 1901)
1941 - Hugh Walpole, New Zealand-English writer (b. 1884)
1943 – Leslie Howard, English actor (born 1893)
1946 – Ion Antonescu, Romanian prime minister and dictator (born 1882)
1948 – Sonny Boy Williamson, American blues musician (born 1914)
1952 – John Dewey, American philosopher (born 1859)
1955 - Kathleen, Duchess of Newcastle (b. 1872)
1959 – Sax Rohmer, English writer (born 1883)
1960 – Lester Patrick, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1883)
1965 - Curly Lambeau, American football player and coach (b. 1898)
1966 – Papa Jack Laine, American jazz musician (born 1873)
1968 – Helen Keller, American humanitarian (born 1880)
1969 – Ivar Ballangrud, Norwegian ice skater (born 1904)
1971 – Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian (born 1892)
1979 – Werner Forssmann, German physician (born 1904)
1980 – Rube Marquard, American Baseball Hall of Famer (born 1886)
1981 – Carl Vinson, United States Congressman (born 1883)
1983 – Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, Belgian royal (b. 1903)
1983 - Anna Seghers, German writer (b. 1900)
1985 - Gaston Rébuffat, French mountaineer (b. 1921)
1987 - Rashid Karami, 32nd Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1921)
1991 – David Ruffin, American singer (b. 1941)
1994 – Frances Heflin, American soap opera actress (born 1923)
1996 – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, President of India (born 1913)
1998 - Gottfried Dienst, Swiss football referee (born 1919)
1999 – Christopher Cockerell, British engineer and inventor (born 1910)
2000 - Tito Puente, American musician and composer (born 1923)
From 2001
2001 – Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist, creator of Dennis the Menace (b. 1920)
2001 – King Birendra of Nepal (b. 1945) (shot)
2001 – Queen Aiswarya of Nepal (b. 1949) (shot)
2002 – Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (b. 1969)
2004 – William Manchester, American biographer and novelist (b. 1922)
2004 – Satomi Mitarai, Japanese student, murdered by a classmate
2005 – George Mikan, American basketball player (b. 1924)
2008 – Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer (b. 1936)
2008 – Tommy Lapid, Israeli journalist and politician (b. 1931)
2009 - Silvio Barbato, Italian-Brazilian opera conductor and composer (b. 1959) (Air France Flight 447)
2010 – Andrey Voznesensky, Russian poet (b. 1933)
2010 – Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer (b. 1906)
2011 – Haleh Sahabi, Iranian human rights activist (b. 1957)
2014 - Ann B. Davis, American actress (b. 1926)
2014 - Karlheinz Hackl, Austrian actor (b. 1949)
2014 - Jay Lake, American author (b. 1964)
2015 - Joan Kirner, Australian politician, Premier of Victoria (b. 1938)
2015 - Shone An, Taiwanese singer and actor (b. 1983)
2015 - Nobutaka Machimura, Japanese politician (b. 1944)
2015 - Charles Kennedy, Scottish politician, former leader of the Liberal Democrats (b. 1959)
2015 - Jacques Parizeau, Canadian politician, 26th Premier of Quebec (b. 1930)
2015 - Nicholas Liverpool, 6th President of Dominica (b. 1934)
2015 - Jean Ritchie, American folk singer (b. 1922)
2015 - Kirill Pokrovsky, Russian composer (b. 1962)
2016 - Razak Khan, Indian actor (b. 1954)
2016 - Roger Enrico, American businessman (b. 1944)
2016 - Boyce F. Martin, Jr., American judge (b. 1935)
2017 - Roy Barraclough, English actor (b. 1935)
2017 - Tankred Dorst, German playwright (b. 1925)
2017 - Alois Mock, Austrian politician (b. 1934)
2017 - Roberto De Vicenzo, Argentine golfer (b. 1923)
2017 - Jack McCloskey, American basketball player (b. 1925)
2017 - J. B. Dauda, Sierra Leonean politician (b. 1942)
2017 - Sonja Sutter, German actress (b. 1931)
2017 - José Greci, Italian actress (b. 1941)
2017 - Rosa Taikon, Swedish activist, silversmith and actress (b. 1926)
2018 - Poldy Bird, Argentine writer (b. 1941)
2018 - Jean-Claude Boulard, French politician (b. 1943)
2018 - Eddy Clearwater, American blues singer (b. 1935)
2018 - Jill Ker Conway, Australian-American author (b. 1934)
2018 - Hilmar Hoffmann, German film and culture academic (b. 1925)
2018 - John Julius Norwich, English historian (b. 1929)
2018 - William Edward Phipps, American actor (b. 1922)
2018 - Bob Clotworthy, American diver (b. 1931)
2018 - Rockin' Rebel, American professional wrestler (b. 1966)
2018 - Dhiraj Choudhury, Indian painter (b. 1936)
2018 - Razan al-Najjar, Pakistani nurse (b. 1996)
2019 - Leah Chase, American chef (b. 1923)
2019 - John Meyers, English radio executive (b. 1959)
2019 - José Antonio Reyes, Spanish footballer (b. 1983)
2019 - Michel Serres, French philosopher, theorist and writer (b. 1930)
2019 - Ani Yudhoyono, Indonesian First Lady (b. 1952)
Observances
International Children's Day
National Day Against Homophobia (Canada)
Azores Day
Independence Day (Samoa)
President's Day (Palau)
Victory Day (Tunisia)
National Tree Planting Day (Cambodia)
Marine's Day (Mexico)
Madaraka Day (Kenya)
Hari Gawai (Malaysia)
June 01 |
6646 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junta | Junta | A junta is a Spanish word that is used for military dictatorships.
Often juntas got their power because of a coup d'état.
Greece, Chile, Mauritania, Guatemala, Brazil, South Vietnam, and El Salvador are examples of countries that were once ruled by juntas.
The most famous junta nowadays is that of Myanmar, but Myanmar is not the only country that is ruled by a junta now, Thailand is another example.
Some autonomous regional governments in Spain are also called junta.
politics
military
Forms of government
en:Junta (Peninsular War) |
6656 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nezahualcoyotl | Nezahualcoyotl | Nezahualcoyotl (1402 - 1472) was king of Texcoco, a part of the Aztec empire. He was also a famous poet.
The name Nezahualcoyotl is Nahuatl, it means "hungry coyote".
1402 births
1472 deaths
Mexican people
Poets
Kings and queens
Aztec
tl:Nezahualcóyotl |
6658 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel%20Hidalgo | Miguel Hidalgo | Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (8 May, 1753 – 30 July, 1811) was a Mexican priest. He started Mexico's war of independence against Spain.
Hidalgo made a speech in 1810 now called the Grito de Dolores. He called on the people to support the King of Spain against the rebellious Viceroy of Mexico. After a few months he was taken prisoner and executed by firing squad. After he died, several other people, such as Vicente Guerrero, kept fighting against the Spanish until 1821, when Mexico became an independent country. Hidalgo is remembered today as a great liberator in Mexico.
The Mexican state of Hidalgo is named after him.
References
Mexican poets
People executed by firearm
1753 births
1811 deaths
Hidalgo (state) |
6659 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%20penalty | Death penalty | [[File:Capital punishment in the world.svg|thumb|500px|
{{legend|#E0A040|Abolitionist-in-practice countries (have executed nobody during the last 10 years or more ' and have an established practice of not carrying out executions): 28}}
]]
Death penalty, a form of capital punishment, is when a government or state executes (kills) someone, usually but not always because they have committed a serious crime. A crime that can be punished with the death penalty is called a capital crime or a capital offense.
Executions in most countries have become rarer in recent centuries. The death penalty is a disputed and controversial topic.
About one third of the countries in the world have laws that allow the death penalty. The United States, the People's Republic of China, Japan, Indonesia and Iran are examples of countries that have a death penalty. Canada, Australia, Mexico and all members of Council of Europe are examples of countries that have abolished the death penalty. 109 countries have gotten rid of the capital punishment for all crimes. Another 28 can be considered abolitionist in practice. Countries are considered abolitionist in practice if they retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more.
Most of the countries that have a death penalty use it on murderers, and for other serious crimes such as rape or terrorism. Other countries especially ones with Authoritarian or Totalitarian governments, however, also use it for smaller crimes like theft, drugs, or for saying bad things about the government.
Which countries execute the most people?
A study by Amnesty International found that the following countries did the most executions in 2012:
China (4000+) data not officially released.
Iran (at least 314+)
Iraq (at least 129+)
Saudi Arabia (79+)
United States (43)
Yemen (28+)
Oman (25+)
Sudan (19+)
Afghanistan (14)
Here's the list for 1998:
China (1,067)
Democratic Republic of the Congo (100)
United States (68)
Iran (66)
Egypt (48)
Belarus (33)
Taiwan (32)
Saudi Arabia (29)
Singapore (28)
Rwanda (24)
Sierra Leone (24)
Although unconfirmed, Amnesty International also received reports of many hundreds of executions in Iraq.
A total of 557 people were executed in the United States between 1977, when the death penalty was reintroduced after a 10-year break, and 2000. During this period, 20 states did not carry out any executions. Here are the states with the most executions during this time:
Texas (239)
Virginia (81)
Florida (50)
Missouri (46)
Oklahoma (30)
Louisiana (26)
South Carolina (25)
Alabama (23)
Arkansas (23)
Georgia (23)
First countries to abolish capital punishment
*The Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, as part of the Soviet Union, reinstated capital punishment during the time of the Soviet Union.
Common reasons for execution
It is common to have people executed for crimes including murder, manslaughter and attempted murder, but there are also other crimes that carry the death penalty. Some of these are:
Bank robbery (Saudi Arabia)
Kidnapping (India)
Treason (North Korea, India)
Trafficking with human beings (this is like slavery) (China)
General robbery if at least one person dies (America)
Rape (North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia)
Trafficking or possessing certain illegal drugs in a certain quantity (Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, North Korea and others)
Bribery and Corruption (China)
Piracy (North Korea)
Adultery (Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan)
Homosexuality (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania)
Prostitution (both prostituting oneself and forcing others to do the same) (Iraq until 2003, Saudi Arabia)
Apostasy in Islam (Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan)
Witchcraft (Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
During war time, the following crimes are punished by death:
Treason (attempting to overthrow a government)
Espionage (spying)
Sabotage
Desertion
Who may not be executed
According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that became valid in 1976, people that were not at least eighteen years old at the time they committed the crime may not be executed. According to the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically its 13th amendment (2002), no one must be executed.
Controversy
There is a lot of different opinions on the topic of capital punishment. As it is an important topic, each country has very strong feelings. Many people say the death penalty is reasonable because it scares people away from doing things that are illegal, however many others say there is a potential of executing an innocent man; one says justice, retribution, and punishment; the other side says that execution is murder. Most people know the threat of crime to their lives, but the question lies in the methods and action that should be used to deal with it.
Throughout human history, governments and rulers have used many death penalty methods to execute people, such as crucifixion, flaying, and hanging. Some methods like crucifixion and flaying are no longer used by governments, because people think that these methods of killing are too cruel. The gas chamber was found unconstitutional in the United States (that is: against the United States constitution not allowing "cruel and unusual punishments") and is no longer used.
The Council of Europe has abolished all death penalty by 13th amendment of the European Convention on Human Rights. Amnesty International oppose all death penalty on ground of the right to life and prohibition of all tortures or any cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment insisted by Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Forms of death
The following forms of execution are in use today:
Electric chair: The prisoner is killed by a strong source of electricity attached to their head and leg.
Lethal injection: The prisoner is poisoned with a mix of chemicals that are put into their body. Some countries use chemicals that are controversial. After the electric chair was abolished as a form of death penalty in the United States by be considered a too brutal punishment and be replaced by lethal injection, this method became the most widely used since then.
Firing squad: Some people shoot the prisoner with rifles. Firing squads are often used for soldiers during wars. One or more of those firing may have false ammunition that does not kill so that no one knows which person fired the shot that killed. A firing squad is a traditional military execution. Deserters, traitors and spies are sometimes shot.
Hanging: The prisoner has a rope tied around their neck. They are then dropped from a height. The person can die from their neck being broken. They might die from choking (asphyxiation), if the drop is too small or knot was badly made. If the drop is too long or the prisoner too heavy, their head might be torn off. Japan, India and former British colonies use hanging.
Strangulation, by hand or by garrote. The garrote was the main type of capital punishment in Spain for hundreds of years. Originally, the convict was killed by hitting him with a club (garrote'' in Spanish). This later developed into putting a loop of rope placed around the neck. A wooden stick was placed in the loop, and rotated to tighten the rope until the condemned person was strangled to death.
Stoning: Stones are thrown at the prisoner until they die. Stoning is still used in some Middle Eastern countries.
Decapitation: The victim has his or her head cut off with a sharp blade, such as sword, axe or guillotine. This was the traditional means of execution in central Europe and many other places. Decapitation is also called beheading'''. Decapitation is still used in some Middle Eastern countries, but the only country to actively use it is Saudi Arabia.
Gallery
References
Further reading
Other websites
Ten anti-death penalty fallacies: the case against capital punishment relies on myth, misinformation, and misplaced emotionalism. (Crime and Punishment)- The Open Library
Punishments |
Subsets and Splits
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