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15783 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam | Guam | Guam is an island in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean and is part of the United States. It is a territory and not part of the fifty states. The Chamorro people are the native people from Guam. The capital of Guam is the city of Hagåtña and the largest city is Dededo. Guam has important United States Air Force and Naval bases, which occupy a major part of Guam's land area. Guam is also a popular tourist destination.
History
Guam was one of the first islands in the Pacific Ocean to be visited by the Europeans. In 1521, while leading the Spanish expedition, Ferdinand Magellan became one of the first European to set foot on Guam. From then on, Guam became an important part of the trade route followed by the Spanish trading ships called Manila Galleon, which sailed between Mexico and the Philippines every year. And in 1668, Spain took over Guam as one of its territory. During this time, the natives assimilated the Spanish culture to a large extent.
In the 1898, Spanish–American War, Spain lost most of its territories to the United States under the Treaty of Paris, including Guam, Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Guam continued to be important due to its strategic location for shipping, and later for air travel in the Pacific. During World War II, Japan occupied Guam in 1941 for 31 months, but lost the territory to the United States soon after. The Chamorro people are spread across Guam and Northern Mariana Islands- which is also a United States territory. However, the Chamorro people from Northern Mariana Islands have not integrated well into the territory as they were under Japanese occupation for about 30 years.
In 1950, the United States Congress passed a law to incorporate the people of Guam as American citizens.
In August 2017, North Korea warned that it might launch mid-range ballistic missiles into waters within 18 to 24 miles of Guam, following an exchange of threats between the governments of North Korea and the United States.
Money
Guam gets most of its money from the United States government. Much of that money is spent on the military bases, but there are also federal grants given to the Guam government for various programs. Because it is only a territory, federal income taxes paid by Guam residents are given to the Guam government for its operations.
Guam is a sought after travel destination. Almost all of these visitors are from Japan. Japanese tourists like Guam because it is closer to Japan than other American places. Guam has lots of hotels and other fun places for people to visit. Tumon Bay is Guam's biggest beach. It has lots of pretty white sand, and the water has lots of fish. Tumon is becoming a busy city.
The number of visitors to Guam has decreased significantly mainly because of economic slowdown in most parts of Asia, which is also the cause for lost jobs in Guam.
Land and water
Guam is 212 square miles (549 square kilometers) large. In the north part, it has a flat area of coral and limestone rock. The south part has mountains. Around the island is a coral reef.
Guam is next to the Marianas Trench, which is the deepest part of the Earth and underwater. It sometimes has earthquakes, some of which have been very strong.
Guam is a tropical island. It is usually quite warm and wet and the temperature does not change very much. From February to July it is dry, but the rest of the year it is rainy. Sometimes Guam has very strong and dangerous storms in October and November.
References
Other websites
Guampedia, Guam's Online Encyclopedia
The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands, PBS documentary film & website
Official Portal for the Island of Guam
U.S. Census Bureau: Island Areas Census 2000
Portals to the World: Guam from the U.S. Library of Congress
KUAM TV/AM/FM
War in the Pacific – Liberation of Guam
Maps – Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Military: Naval Air Station, Agana (Tiyan) (closed). GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
Goetzfridt, Nicholas J. (2011) Guahan: A Bibliographic History. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press
NOAA's National Weather Service - Guam
Guam -Citizendium
Micronesia |
15786 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren%20G.%20Harding | Warren G. Harding | Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923. Before becoming president, he was a senator and the assistant governor of Ohio. Before he was in government, he was an important newspaper manager. He was a Republican.
Presidency
After World War I, he was elected on the promise to return the United States back to normal. He supported limited government in the economy. During his term, he lowered taxes and believed that the economy should not be regulated too much.
Warren G. Harding made the mistake of appointing his friends to high political positions. As a result, they corruptly abused their power for their personal gain and several scandals happened during his presidency, including the infamous Teapot Dome scandal based in Teapot Dome in Wyoming and involving Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall. Other untrustworthy people included Edward Doheny and Harry Sinclair.
Death
He died in office of a heart attack in 1923 while he was visiting Alaska.
Personal life
Harding cheated on his wife with Carrie Phillips, a family friend. She supported Germany during World War I. In fact, many people thought she was a spy.
He also cheated with Nan Britton, who was over 30 years younger than him. He fathered a child with Britton. Afterward, she wrote a book called The President's Daughter, telling her story, but most people didn't believe her. However, in 2015, DNA testing confirmed that she was telling the truth about the baby.
What happened after his death
His vice president Calvin Coolidge became president after he died.
Historians generally consider him one of the worst presidents because of all the scandals he was a part of.
Other websites
Harding's White House biography
1865 births
1923 deaths
Deaths from myocardial infarction
United States senators from Ohio
US Republican Party politicians
20th-century American politicians
Lieutenant Governors of Ohio |
15789 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honduras | Honduras | Honduras is a country in Central America. Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Most people of Honduras speak the Spanish language (while English has mostly widely spoken). 7,483,763 people live in Honduras and it is in size. It is next to El Salvador. To one side is the Caribbean Sea and to the other in the Pacific Ocean.
The ethnic makeup of Honduras is 90% mestizo, 7% amerindian, 2% black, and 1% white.
Honduras has the world's 4th highest murder rate.
Departments
Honduras is divided into 18 departments. The capital city is Tegucigalpa in the Central District.
Atlántida
Choluteca
Colón
Comayagua
Copán
Cortés
El Paraíso
Francisco Morazán
Gracias a Dios
Intibucá
Islas de la Bahía
La Paz
Lempira
Ocotepeque
Olancho
Santa Bárbara
Valle
Yoro
Related pages
Honduras at the Olympics
Honduras national football team
List of rivers of Honduras
References
Spanish-speaking countries |
15790 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh | Bangladesh | Bangladesh (officially called People's Republic of Bangladesh) is a country in South Asia. To its west is Northeast India, to its east is the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar. Bangladesh's capital and largest city is Dhaka (formerly "Dacca"). Countries that are near Bangladesh include the People's Republic of China, Bhutan, and Nepal. To the south of Bangladesh is the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh became an independent country in 1971, breaking away from Pakistan after fighting a war in which over a million people died. Most people in Bangladesh are Muslim. Bangladesh has has an area of 57,320 mi² or (142,576 km²). It is slightly smaller than Tajikistan. It ranks 92 out of 195 sovereign countries by area. There are two main rivers in Bangladesh: The Ganges and the Brahmaputra River. They are important to Hindu people. There are often floods in Bangladesh because of these two rivers.
Bangladesh has a population of 174.3 million people.
History
For much of its history, the Bangladesh was simply just called Bengal and was considered a part of India. The Bengal delta has been ruled by Hindu rulers, Muslim rulers, and even the British empire. People have lived in Bangladesh for thousands of years. Farming developed in Bangladesh very early on. By 500 BC, people grew rice there. Farming lead to the development of urban areas like cities. Early houses in Bangladesh were likely built of wood and mud, and adobe. Because Bangladesh has monsoons, there is not a lot of evidence of ancient people living there. From about 300 BC to the 1700s AD, technology like writing and the Bengali language developed. During this time, many religions were popular and many states were founded. By the 1500s, the area was rich and even peasants had plenty to eat.
Bengal under Mughal rule
In the 13th century, Turkic armies took over the Bengal delta. During this time, the delta was ruled by Hindu leaders. In 1202, the last major Hindu Sena leader was pushed out from his capital in Western Bengal, but they stayed for a short time in East Bengal.
In 1206, a Muslim kingdom called the Delhi Sultanate was founded. The rulers of the Bengal delta became friendly with the sultanate, and to stay separately ruled the Bengal rulers would pay tribute to the sultanate using war elephants. In 1341, Bengal became independent from Delhi, and Dhaka became the capital of independent Bengal. In 1576, Bengal was taken over by Akbar the Great, a Mughal emperor. Bengal stayed part of the Mughal Empire until the eighteenth century.
When the Mughals ruled the Bengal, they began to make Bengal part of India politically. Bengal, however, was too far away from the Mughal capital in Delhi. Because it was hard to talk to Bengal, local governors found it easy to ignore what the Mughals wanted for Bengal. Although Bengal remained a province, religious leaders and scientists from Mughal-ruled Bengal have been famous throughout India.
As Bengal was part of their empire, the Mughals helped it grow. They built a road from Delhi to Dhaka, started a postal service, and helped make their calendar better. This calendar is still used in Bangladesh today. The Mughals also collected taxes in Bengal. Soon, Bengal was the richest province and was called the "Breadbasket of India". The Mughals used Bengali resources to help maintain their army, but they did not help protect the Bengali people from pirates. This made the Bengali people angry, and the Mughals had to appoint powerful generals to help rule Bengal. Despite this, Bengal became a center of the textile trade in South Asia.
In 1704, the capital of Bengal was moved from Dhaka to Murshidabad. In 1707, Aurangzeb, who people think is the last great Mughal emperor, died. After this, governors in Bengal still paid tribute to the Mughal empire, but were mostly left alone. These governors protected Bengal from Hindu Marathas during the eighteenth century. When the Mughal governor Alivardi died in 1756, he left rule of Bengal to his grandson, who would lose Bengal to the British in 1757.
Bengal under British rule
Bengal was under British rule from 1757-1947. It was part of British India. English was made one of the official languages of the Bengal Presidency.
Bengal as East Pakistan
In 1947, East Bengal and the Dominion of Pakistan were separated from India, becoming Pakistan. Pakistan was cut in half, its east and west parts separated by 930 miles (1,500 km) of India. In 1949, the Bangladesh Awami League formed, wanting the east and west parts of Pakistan separated. In 1955, East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan, with Dacca becoming the capital. The people living in East Pakistan were mostly ethnically Bengali, spoke Bengali, and had a different culture compared to the people of western Pakistan. These differences eventually led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Independence from Pakistan
Bangladesh declared itself as independent from Pakistan in 1971 after a liberation war in which over a million people died. After Indian military intervention, the provisional government returned from exile in Calcutta, Bengal (India). After the Instrument of Surrender, the Bengali peoples became a sovereign nation.
After Bangladesh became independent, Bengal replaced Urdu and English as the only national and official language. Bengal is used in government, business, and schools. Private English-language schools for upper-class students existed into the 1980s. English is now taught in higher education and is offered as a university subject.
At first, people began to stop speaking Arabic in Bangladesh. In 1983, after Bangladesh strengthened its ties with Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries, people tried to make Arabic a required language to learn in school. Arabic is widely studied today in Madrassas and Islamic schools so people can understand Islamic texts better.
Despite gaining independence in 1971, Bangladesh is a poor country and has problems with political corruption. Presently, more than half the population can read and write.
Politics
The President of Bangladesh acts as Head of state, but the Prime Minister of Bangladesh acts as Head of government. The president is elected by lawmakers every 5 years, and has limited powers. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but sometimes the president has do more than usual. This is called a Caretaker government.
The prime minister is chosen by the president and must be a member of parliament (MP). The Cabinet is made up of people chosen by the prime minister, and is appointed by the president.
Bangladesh's parliament is called the House of the Nation, or the Jatiya Sangsad, and has only one chamber. The Jatiya Sangsad has 300 members who are elected by popular vote, and they have 5-year terms of office. The highest judiciary body in Bangladesh is the Supreme Court, whose members are chosen by the president.
After famines in 1973 and 1974, the prime minister of Bangladesh instituted a one-party socialist state. After this, a military junta ruled Bangladesh until 1990. Since then, Bangladesh has become a parliamentary democracy. In 2007, a caretaker government was appointed to help end corruption in Bangladeshi politics. Many politicians were arrested on corruption charges.
Geography
Bangladesh is in the Ganges Delta. This is where the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna come together. Most parts of Bangladesh are less than above the sea level. The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to the southeast of the country. Cox's Bazar, south of the city of Chittagong, has a beach that is uninterrupted over .
A large part of the coastline is a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans. They are the largest mangrove forest in the world.
Bangladesh has heavy cyclones and natural disasters, due to this many lives are often lost. The country is one of the most densely populated in the world. Cyclones are very common in the Bay of Bengal during the middle of the year, particularly in the south of country in areas like Sundarban, Chittagong, Cox's Bazaar, or in neighboring Myanmar and Republic of India. Despite the many storms, Bangladesh does not have a very effective storm prevention system, and cyclones usually inflict heavy damage.
Divisions
Bangladesh is divided into eight administrative divisions: Barisal (বরিশাল), Chittagong (চট্টগ্রাম), Dhaka (ঢাকা), Khulna (খুলনা), Rajshahi (রাজশাহী), Sylhet (সিলেট), and Rangpur (রংপুর).
Divisions are divided into districts. There are 64 districts in Bangladesh.
Dhaka is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. Other major cities include Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barisal, Bogra, Comilla, Mymensingh and Rangpur. For more locations see List of settlements in Bangladesh.
Religion
The main religion in Bangladesh is Islam at (91.57%), while the second largest religion is Hinduism at (7.26%). Most Muslims in Bangladesh are Sunni. Islam was made the state religion in the 1980s. Buddhists and Christians together make up 1% of the population.
Bangladesh have a population of 174.3 million as per 2021 census official survey.
Culture
The earliest literary text in Bengali is the 8th century Charyapada. Medieval Bengali literature was often either religious or from other languages. The 19th century had poets such as Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Kazi Nazrul Islam.
The musical tradition of Bangladesh is lyrics-based with few instruments. Folk music is often accompanied by the ektara, an instrument with only one string. Bangladeshi dance forms are from folk traditions.
Bangladesh makes about 80 films a year. Mainstream Hindi films are also quite popular. Around 200 daily newspapers are published in Bangladesh, along with more than 500 magazines.
Rice and fish are traditional favorite foods. Biryani is a favorite dish of Bangladeshis.
The sari is popularly worn by Bangladeshi women. The salwar kameez (shaloar kamiz) is also commonly worn. In urban areas, many people wear western clothing.
Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are major religious festivals in Bangladesh. Buddha Purnima, which marks the birth of Gautama Buddha, and Christmas, called Bôŗodin (Great day), are both national holidays. The most important non-religious festival is Pohela Boishakh or Bengali New Year, the beginning of the Bengali calendar year.
Sports
Cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh. Next is football (soccer). The national cricket team was in their first Cricket World Cup in 1999. In 2011, Bangladesh successfully co-hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 with India and Sri Lanka.
Hadudu (kabaddi) is the national sport in Bangladesh. Other popular sports include field hockey, tennis, badminton, handball, basketball, volleyball, chess, shooting, angling, and carrom.
State symbols of Bangladesh
The National symbols of the Bangladesh consist of symbols to represent Bengali traditions and ideals that reflect the different aspects of the cultural life and history of the country.
Related pages
Bangladesh at the Olympics
Bangladesh national football team
List of rivers of Bangladesh
Bangladesh War
References
Other websites
Government website of Bangladesh Bangladesh national portal.
Website of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority
Bangladesh -Citizendium
1972 establishments in Asia
Least developed countries
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation |
15796 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/West%20Germany | West Germany | West Germany (German: West Deutschland) is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; , BRD; ), retrospectively designated the Bonn Republic. It was a country in Central Europe. It was created on May 23, 1949. It ended on October 3, 1990 due to German Reunification. During the Cold War, West Germany was part of the Western bloc. It was created from the eleven states in Allied-occupied Germany after World War II. The capital city was Bonn.
West Germany was very important in the Cold War. The last capital city of Germany Berlin was also split into West Berlin and East Berlin.
History
After World War II, Germany was split into four zones. These zones were controlled by the British, French, Americans, and Soviets (Russians). From 1946 to 1949, the British, French, and American zones combined (came together) to create West Germany. The Soviet zone became East Germany. The two zones would not come together again until 1990.
Konrad Adenauer was called in as chancellor from 1947 until 1962. He was not meant to be the chancellor for a long time, but he stayed longer than expected. As chancellor, he helped West Germany recover (get better) from World War II and improved the economy.
After Adenauer left, he was followed by Ludwig Erhard, who was also followed by Kurt Georg Kiesinger. In 1968 the West German student movement protests began.
In 1969 Willy Brandt became chancellor. Under him, West Germany was nicer to the Eastern countries, and he managed to sign agreements with East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, who had been more hostile to West Germany. Brandt had to resign in May 1974 when it was found out that one of his staff members was a spy.
Helmut Schmidt served as chancellor until 1982. He helped launch the European Monetary System (EMS). Schmidt was followed by Helmut Kohl, who was chancellor when the Berlin Wall collapsed and Germany reunified in 1990.
Notes
References
Other websites
History of Germany
Cold War |
15797 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia | Yugoslavia | Yugoslavia was a country in Europe that lied mostly in the Balkan Peninsula. It existed in one of three forms from 1918 to 2006. Yugoslavia means “land of the south Slavs”. The name derives from those who came in the 7th century from the area that is now Poland.
From 1918 until 1928 it was called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. From 1928 until World War II it was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After WWII it was renamed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with six republics, 2 autonomous provinces: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia and two autonomous provinces in Serbia: Vojvodina in the north, and Kosovo, next to Albania.
In 1991, came the independence of Slovenia, Croatia, in 1992, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, causing the end of the country. Serbia and Montenegro, were the last two republics in the Socialist Yugoslavia. In 1992, they formed a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) which ended in 2006 with Montenegro declaring independence.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1945)
In 1903 the Serbian king was murdered and replaced with Peter I. After this Serbia became more nationalist. Tensions with Austria-Hungary heightened when it conquered Bosnia in 1908. During this period Serbia managed to extend its borders and capture Kosovo and North Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire. Many Serbian nationalists wanted to create a unified state for the Slavs of the Balkans. Covert gangs attempted to assassinate Austro-Hungarian officials, like the Bosnian governor. In June 1914 a Bosnian Serb called Gavrilo Princip killed Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This event eventually led to the outbreak of the Great War (World War One).
Yugoslavia came into existence in 1918 after World War I. The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which came from of a part of Austria-Hungary, joined with the Kingdom of Serbia. The King of Serbia became the king of the new country. Southern territories of Yugoslavia were taken by Serbia from the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars (1912-13).
For ten years it was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It began using the name 'Yugoslavia' in 1929. The name 'Yugoslavia' is Serbo-Croatian for 'Land of the Southern Slavs'. The Kingdom was invaded by axis powers in 1941 and quickly fell during World War II. A Federal Democratic Republic was declared in 1943 with the King's approval, but the monarchy was abolished shortly after.
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1992)
A People's republic was created in 1945 by a newly established communist government. It was ruled by Josip Tito from then until 1980. The country renamed itself SFR Yugoslavia in 1963. It was made up of six individual Socialist Republics: SR Croatia, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia and SR Slovenia. The SFR Yugoslavia was different to other socialist states of the Cold War, deciding to keep itself out of it. Yugoslavia was the only socialist state to have open borders and allowed Yugoslavs and tourists to freely move around the country. Yugoslavia also kept warm relations with the West. It was also an enemy of the Soviet Union after the Tito-Stalin split as Stalin considered him a traitor. In 1968 the Soviet Union invaded socialist Czechoslovakia to stop its leader from making the country more free. Tito told the Czechoslovak leader that he was willing to fly to Prague to help him face the Soviets if he wanted.
The Yugoslav republics began turning against one another in the 1970s and 1980s. Josip Tito ruled Yugoslavia with an iron fist and crushed any nationalist movements that wanted to see the country break up. His government forced the six republics to stay part of Yugoslavia. When he died in 1980, the new leaders were less strict and let nationalist feelings to grow in the republics of Yugoslavia. The breakup was caused by many things like nationalism, economic difficulty and ethnic problems. The Socialist state was dissolved in 1992 during the Yugoslav wars. Serbia and Montenegro stayed together as FR Yugoslavia.
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Serbia & Montenegro (1992-2006)
After the dissolution of the SFR Yugoslavia only Serbia and Montenegro were willing to remain in union. They renamed themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. The country was led by the controversial statesman Slobodan Milosevic from 1996 until 2000. He was widely accused of having his opposition assassinated in 2000. Yugoslavia applied for UN membership in October 2000 and was granted the following month. For most of its existence the country was involved with what was called the Yugoslav Wars. There was much ethnic violence including mass genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995) and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (1998). It was the worst acts of war seen in Europe since World War II. The country was bombed by NATO forces in 1999 during the Kosovo war. In the late 1990s separatism was growing in Yugoslavia and the country dropped the name Yugoslavia in favour of a state union in 2003. Serbia and Montenegro became independent states in 2006, formally ending the last remaining parts of Yugoslavia
Now, Yugoslavia has been split up and made into these countries:
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
Serbia
North Macedonia
References |
15798 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major%20League%20Baseball | Major League Baseball | Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league in North America. It is often considered to be the highest level of professional baseball in the world. There are two leagues that make up the MLB: the American League, also called AL, and National League, also called NL. There are currently 30 teams in the MLB, 29 from the United States and one from Canada, the Toronto Blue Jays.
The official website of MLB is known as "MLB.com" (www.mlb.com).
Major League Format
The 30 teams in MLB are divided into two leagues: American and National. Each league is divided into three divisions: East, Central, West. Since the 2013 season, each division has had five teams. The most recent change took place after the 2012 season, when the Houston Astros moved from the NL Central to the AL West.
Each team in Major League Baseball is scheduled to play a 162-game season. The season begins in April (or sometimes the end of March) and ends in October. The teams play other teams in their own division the most, and play very few (no more than six) games against teams in the other league. Teams usually play each other in series of three or four games at a time. If a game is canceled because of bad weather, it may be held later, sometimes as part of a doubleheader (two games in one day). Sometimes these games are not held again if it would not affect either team's place in the standings (the list of teams ordered by their number of wins and losses).
Highest ranking teams after this regular season enter a post-season of "playoff" games. Teams that are tied at the end of a season may play another game to decide which team(s) will enter the playoffs. The playoff games determine the champion for each of the two leagues.
In July, there are three days where teams do not play normal games, and a group of the best players play in the "Major League Baseball All-Star Game". This period is called the "All-Star Break", and it is thought of as the point where half of the season is over. Some games at the beginning of the regular season have been played in other countries, such as Japan.
There is one difference between games played in the American League and games played in the National League. The American League teams play with a "designated hitter", a player who bats in place of the pitcher and does not play in the field. In the National League, the pitcher must bat along with the other players. In games played in teams from both leagues, the rule that the home team usually plays by is used.
Playoffs
At the end of every season, ten teams play in the playoffs. Five teams from the AL, and five teams from the NL are in the playoffs. The team from the West, Central, or East division from each league with the most wins makes the playoffs (a team with the best record in its division is said to have "won its division"). The next two best teams in the AL and the next two best teams in the NL also get to play in the playoffs. They are called "wild card" teams. The first playoff round is called the Wild Card game. The two wild card teams from each league play each other in a one-game playoff. The winner of each game moves on to the Division Series. The team with the best record in each league plays the winner of its league's Wild Card game. The division winner with the second best record plays against the division winner with the third best record.
In the Division Series, teams play "best out of 5". Once one team beats the other three times, the winning team moves onto the next round of the playoffs, the Championship Series. The teams that lose are out of the playoffs. The AL teams that win play in the AL Championship Series. The NL teams that win play in the NL Championship Series. The Championship series is "best out of 7 games". Once one team beats the other four times, the winning team moves onto the next round of the playoffs. After the Championship Series, there are only two teams left.
World Series
These two teams play each other in the World Series, which is also a "best out of 7 games" series. The winner of the World Series is the champion of the league. They receive a trophy, depicting flags at different heights.
History
The first league of professional baseball teams began in 1871 and was called the National Association. This league did not play baseball the same way MLB does. For example, batters would walk after nine pitches instead of four. Many of the teams had problems with money and split up after only one or two seasons. However two teams are still playing today. Those teams were the Boston Red Stockings, which today are the Atlanta Braves, and the Chicago White Stockings, which today are the Chicago Cubs.
In 1876, the National League began, and included the Red and White Stockings as well as six other teams. This league was run better, but many teams still would split up after only a few seasons. Some, like the teams that are now called the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants, are also still playing today. There were other leagues also. The American Association started in 1882 and was almost as good as the National League. However many of its teams would go to the National League, and the American Association disappeared in 1891. The National League had problems, though. Players and fans did not behave well, and in 1894 a fire started during a game and destroyed the stadium and part of Roxbury, Boston.
Teams
A star (*) means a relocation of a franchise. See team articles for more information.
References
Other websites
Official website
1871 establishments in the United States |
15799 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou%20Gehrig | Lou Gehrig | Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American baseball player. Due to his reliability and stamina, he was nicknamed the Iron Horse. He played with Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees who were thought the best team of that time. He played with the Yankees for most of his playing time which started in 1923 and ended in 1939. He played in 2,130 games without a rest, which was the most of any player until Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995. When he stopped playing as well, he went to a doctor who found out Gehrig had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS – which is now sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease). The doctor told Gehrig he had only a short time to live. On July 4, 1939, there was a celebration of Gehrig by the other Yankees, and Gehrig gave a speech that became well-known. When he spoke that day he said he was "the luckiest man on the face of the earth". The mayor of New York City congratulated him for his teamwork. He died less than two years later in New York City.
References
Other websites
1903 births
1941 deaths
American baseball players
Deaths from motor neurone disease
Disease-related deaths in New York City
New York Yankees players
Sportspeople from New York City
National Baseball Hall of Fame members |
15800 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20States%20Senate | United States Senate | The United States Senate is the upper house of the United States Congress, which is a small group of elected people who decide the laws of the country. Every U.S. state elects two people to represent them in the US Senate. These people are called senators. Since there are 50 US states, there are 100 senators. Senators only serve six years at a time, and one-third of them are picked every two years. Originally the legislature of each state decided who their senators would be. After 1913, all the people of the state chose their senators by vote. The Vice President of the United States is in charge of the Senate, but only does anything when there is a tie vote or a special event.
In order to be a senator, a person has to be 30 years old or older, and has to be a citizen of the United States for 9 years or more. They must also live in the state they represent at election time.
Functions
The Senate, along with the United States House of Representatives, votes on which laws the United States should have. In most cases, both of these groups have to agree on the suggested law and the President has to sign it before it becomes a law.
The Senate is the side of Congress where every state has the same number of votes (two). This is different from the House of Representatives, where states with more people have more votes than states with fewer people. This was decided at the Constitutional Convention, because small states like Delaware did not want the larger states to be able to decide everything. Also, only part of the Senate runs for election during elections. Every two years, 33 (two elections) or 34 (one election) senators are elected. For each state, this means that after two elections to the Senate, during one election no one will be elected to the Senate.
Also, like the House, the Senate can override the president's veto with a ⅔ (67 votes) vote. But unlike the house, some bills require a 3/5 (60 votes) vote (it used to be ⅔ of the vote) to overcome the filibuster. A filibuster is when senators band together, they can stop bills from going through the senate.
The United States Senate was formerly the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which, along with the United States House of Representatives ― the lower chamber ― comprised the legislature of the United States.
Confirmation powers
The Senate is also in charge of agreeing to treaties with other countries. The Senate has the sole responsibility for confirming presidential appointments. These include federal judges, foreign ambassadors and Cabinet members. If the Senate and President do not agree, the President has to pick someone else the Senate will agree to.
Political parties
Committees of the United States Senate and other important jobs in the Senate are assigned by the majority political party. Right now, the Senate is made up of 48 Democrats with 2 Independents who sides with the Democrats which make them the Senate Majority. The minority of the Senate is made up of 50 Republicans.
Notes
References
Other websites
The United States Senate Official Website
Sortable contact data
Senate Chamber Map
[ Standing Rules of the Senate]
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present
List of Senators who died in office, via PoliticalGraveyard.com
Chart of all U.S. Senate seat-holders, by state, 1978–present, via Texas Tech University
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825 , via Tufts University
Bill Hammons' American Politics Guide – Members of Congress by Committee and State with Partisan Voting Index
First U.S. Senate session aired by C-SPAN via C-SPAN
Senate Manual via govinfo.gov (U.S. Government Publishing Office)
United States Senate Calendars and Schedules
Information about U.S. Bills and Resolutions |
15803 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair%20use | Fair use | Fair use is the idea that it should be okay for a person to reuse something that another person has created, in certain amounts and for certain purposes, without breaking the law.
Usage
In most countries, art and other made-up things, like stories, books, TV shows, and pictures, are owned by the person that first made them. This person can let someone else own the things they make, sometimes for money. The person that owns these things has a copyright for them, which means that person can decide who can copy their work. If someone else copies that work without asking the owner first, that person is breaking the law. The owner can take the person to court and try to get money from them because of what they did.
Since a lot of creative work is popular, people want to talk about them, and they may want to talk about them on TV or in a book. This might mean that they want to use a little bit of it when they talk about it. The idea of "fair use" was added to most copyright laws to make sure that it would be OK do to this, as long as only a little bit of someone's work is used.
Software programs
Since a lot of creative work is now on computers and on the Internet, it is very easy to copy things and send them to lots of people. To make sure that people cannot always do this, there are computer programs that try to stop people from copying other people's work (known as digital rights management). One problem with these programs is that they also mean that you cannot copy even a small part of someone's work, so you cannot do "fair use" without cheating the program. In some countries, cheating those software programs is also breaking the law.
Copyright
Intellectual property law |
15860 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodenum | Duodenum | The duodenum is a short section of the small intestine, and is where most digestion in the small intestine takes place. It receives secretions, including bile and juice, from the pancreas and the liver through the pancreatic and common bile ducts. These secretions limit, or neutralise, the stomach acidity. Also, enzymes help to digest the food.
Anatomy of the digestive system |
15861 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil%20erosion | Soil erosion | Soil erosion is the washing or blowing away (by water or wind) of the top layer of soil (dirt). This is a serious problem for farmers. If the soil has eroded, the crops that make food will not grow very well.
Soil erosion was a big problem in the Midwestern United States in the 1930s dust bowl.
Erosion also leaves large sinkholes in the ground, which can weaken buildings and even cause them to collapse. Urban areas are usually protected from soil erosion, so not many buildings collapse from erosion.
Steps for conserving soil from eroding
Soil erosion can be conserved in several ways:
A wind break is a line of plants that are planted to stop or slow the wind. A thick row of bushes or shrubs planted next to a field of crops can stop the wind from blowing the soil away. This method also helps against water erosion, as the soil gets caught up against the roots of the bushes, rather than washing away.
Terraces are level places that have been made on hill sides. They are used for Terrace farming.
If the crops are growing on a slope, then one should plant them in contour lines that run across the slope, rather than up and down. So, if the slope goes downhill to the south, then the plants should be in rows that run from east to west.
Groynes (wooden planks) along the beaches can resist erosion, or sea walls against cliffs can protect the cliffs.
Agriculture
Soil |
15862 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost | Compost | Compost is a type of fertilizer that is made from rotting plants. It is easy and cheap to make, as all it really requires is vegetable waste. The vegetable waste is broken down by bacteria (germs), and made into compost.
Making a compost heap
To make a compost heap, you need some space fairly far from anyone who might have a problem with the smell. The bottom corner of a garden, or some other place a distance from the house is a good place. Compost heaps should also be placed on soil, or grass: a paved yard or concrete are bad places.
The compost heap should not be in a dark or closed corner.
The best base for a compost heap is a layer of sand, bricks or gravel about 1m long by 1m wide. This is not needed, but it can be a good idea. If using bricks, leave spaces to allow the air to move through. It also allows for the water to run away. The best compost heaps have lots of little spaces inside, to allow air to move around.
Once the first layer is down, one can begin adding the waste.
Some good types of waste are:
Vegetable/fruit peels and scraps
Spoiled, rotten or moldy fruit
Cut grass
Leaves
Straw
Sawdust
Eggshells
Adding meat scraps is a bad idea, as they rot slowly, smell bad and attract rats and other vermin. Human or pet feces is also a very bad idea, as this can transmit disease. Waste from plants that have died of disease is also bad. The disease can spread to the plants that the compost is used with.
When making a compost heap, different types of waste should be layered. A layer of cut grass can be followed by a layer of vegetable waste and table scraps.
Watering the compost heap is a good idea, especially in dry areas. The water helps encourage the waste to rot and turn into compost.
In anywhere from 3 to 6 months, the compost will be ready. The compost is ready when it smells like thick earth, with no smell of decay or rot. Of course, if you have been adding waste all this time, the compost will all be at the bottom of the heap, and will have to be dug out.
The stuff that has not rotted can be used as part of a new compost heap.
Other websites
The Look of Compost
Cré, the Irish Composting Association Contains information on composting in Ireland.
Composting Basics Canadian Gardening Magazine
An automatic composter
Agriculture |
15863 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti | Haiti | Haiti (French: Haïti; Haitian Creole: Ayiti), officially the Republic of Haiti (French: République d'Haïti; Haitian Creole: Repiblik d Ayiti) is a country on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The other country on the island is the Dominican Republic. Haiti has two official languages: French and Haitian Creole, or "Kreyol", which is a simple version of French mixed with African languages. Its capital city is Port-au-Prince.
Haiti has a tropical climate. In French, the country is called "La Perle des Antilles" (The pearl of the Antilles), because of its natural beauty. There are many mountains in Haiti. The country used to be covered with forests. However, it no longer is, because of deforestation. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Haiti is divided into ten departements. The main religion is Roman Catholicism. However, many Haitians also practice Voodoo. This is a religion which came from African folk beliefs in Benin. Haiti has many holidays; the largest and most important is the Mardi Gras.
Geography
Haiti has a total area of 27,750 km². Most of it is in the western third of the Hispaniola island. There are also smaller islands near the Haitian coast, like Gonâve, Île de la Tortue, Les Cayemites, Île-à-Vache and La Navase.
Haiti has many mountains. There are only some coastal plains and few valleys. The largest valley is the Cul-de-Sac. Port-au-Prince is in the western end of this valley. The country's main river is the Artibonite, which is also the longest in Hispaniola. Haiti's biggest city is Port-au-Prince, with more than 3 million people in its metropolitan area. The second largest city is Cap-Haïtien.
Haiti has a tropical climate. The rainy season lasts from April to June, and from October to November. Hurricanes are common during summer. In the past, hurricanes have caused a lot of damage and killed many people.
History
The Taino people were a tribe of Arawak Amerindians. They lived on the island of Hispaniola before Christopher Columbus found the island and started a European colony there. Columbus found the island of Hispaniola on his first trip to the Americas. Within twenty-five years after Columbus arrived, all of the Arawaks had been killed by Spanish conquistadors.
In the early 17th century, the French set up a colony on Hispaniola. In 1697, Spain sold the western third of the island - Haiti - to the French. The French colony was based on forestry and making sugar. It became one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean. However, to do this, the colony brought many slaves over from Africa and destroyed much of the environment.
By the late 18th century, there were nearly half a million slaves in Haiti. They revolted, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. After a hard and bloody struggle, they won their independence. In 1804, Haiti became the first independent black republic in the world. Today there are many monuments in Haiti remembering the Haitian Revolution. One of the largest is La Citadelle Laferriere.
On January 12, 2010, in the afternoon of a Tuesday, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake. This was the worst earthquake to hit the country in the past 200 years. The quake's epicenter was just outside the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The quake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince and nearby areas. Over 200,000 people were thought to have been killed, but it was hard to be sure because many people were buried in mass graves before they could be identified.
Departments
Haiti is made of ten regions known as departments (, singular départment). These departments are further divided into 41 arrondissements, and 133 communes. These are the second and third level units of administration.
The 10 departments, with their capital cities in parentheses, are:
.
Artibonite (Gonaïves)
Centre (Hinche)
Grand'Anse (Jérémie)
Nippes (Miragoâne)
Nord (Cap-Haïtien)
Nord-Est (Fort-Liberté)
Nord-Ouest (Port-de-Paix)
Ouest (Port-au-Prince) *national capital*
Sud-Est (Jacmel)
Sud (Les Cayes)
Politics
The Republic of Haiti is divided into 10 departments, but the central government has control over most political affairs. The president is head of state and is normally elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The president cannot serve consecutive terms. However, because of inconclusive election results in 2015, Haiti's current interim president was elected by the legislature. The prime minister is head of government and is appointed by the president and confirmed by the bicameral National Assembly. The National Assembly's upper house is the 30-seat Senate, and the lower house is the 118-seat Chamber of Deputies. Members of both houses are elected through a majoritarian system. Senators serve six-year terms and deputies serve four-year terms. There have been efforts toward constitutional reform to ensure that more women are represented in politics on the national level, but these reforms have not yet resulted in concrete changes.
Holidays
Official holidays (on the same day every year)
1 January: Jour de l'Indépendance ("Independence Day")
2 January: Jour des Aïeux ("Ancestors' Day")
1 May: Fête de l'Agriculture et du Travail ("Agriculture and Labor Day")
18 May: Fête du Drapeau et de l'Université ("Flag and University Day")
17 October: Anniversary of the Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines
1 November: All Saint's Day
2 November: All Soul's Day
18 November: Battle of Vertières' Day and Armed Forces Day
25 December: Christmas Day
Traditional and religious holidays (dates vary according to the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church)
Carnival (Only Mardi Gras is an official holiday)
Good Friday
Corpus Christi
Economy
Haiti is the least developed country in the Americas. It is also one of the least developed and poorest countries in the world.
There are indicators that can be used to compare social and economic situations between countries. Some indicators show that Haiti has fallen behind other poor developing countries since the 1980s. In 2006, Haiti ranked 146th of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index (2006). About 90% of the Haitian people were living in poverty in 2003. Haiti is the only country in the Americas on the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries and it is the poorest country in the Americas. The economy was staying even or falling behind even before their big earthquake.
About 66% of all Haitians work in agriculture. Most of them do small-scale subsistence farming (meaning that they are able to grow just enough to survive). This does not bring in much money.
Very few jobs were created in the last ten years. However, the informal economy is growing. Mangoes and coffee are two of Haiti's most important exports. Haiti has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
About one third of the national government's budget is money given to them by other countries. The United States gives the most money. Canada gives the second largest amount of money. The European Union, Venezuela and Cuba also give and help Haiti's economy in different ways. Haiti has renewed its alliances with Venezuela and Cuba in 2006 and 2007.
From 2001-2004, the United States stopped giving aid to Haiti completely. The aid was cut off after Haiti's 2000 election. The election's results were questioned, and President Aristide was accused of cheating to win the election. Aristide was overthrown in 2004. After that, the United States started giving aid to Haiti again. The United Nations led a peacekeeping operation called the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. (The Mission is called called MINUSTAH in Haiti; this is an acronym for the Mission's name in French). The Brazilian army led the peacekeeping operation.
Even after President Aristide was overthrown, corruption continued to be very common in Haiti.
Haiti has a large amount of foreign debt (money owed to other countries and international institutions to repay loans). The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program planned to forgive about $525 million of Haiti's debt by mid-2009.
Demographics
In 2009, the population of Haiti (the number of people living in the country) was about 10,090,190. Figures from the DNA Nationwide Studies Institute say that the racial makeup of the population is:
94.2%: Black (Descendants mainly from the Fon, Ewe, Yoruba, and Bantu tribes of West/Central Africa)
5.4%: Mulatto (European and African descent).
0.4%: White (mainly of French, Polish, and Arab origin)
Some East Asians also live in the country.
Related pages
Haiti at the Olympics
Haiti national football team
List of rivers of Haiti
References
French-speaking countries
Caribbean Community
Least developed countries |
15864 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500s | 1500s |
Events
People begin to make cutlery in Sheffield, England.
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Spanish arrive in present-day Gulf of Mexico
Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal. |
15865 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1901 | 1901 | 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday in the Gregorian calendar, and starting on a Monday in the Julian calendar. It was also the first year of the 20th century.
Big Events of 1901
On January 1, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania form the Commonwealth of Australia. John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow becomes the first Governor-General and Edmund Barton becomes the 1st Prime Minister of Australia. The first Australian parliament meets in Melbourne on May 9.
In the United Kingdom, on January 22, Queen Victoria dies at the age of 81, having reigned for 63 years, 7 months and 2 days, longer than any British monarch before her. In the United Kingdom and the British Empire, her death marks the end of the Victorian era. Her 59-year-old son succeeds her as King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.
In China, the Boxer Rebellion is crushed and China is forced to accept Peace terms decided by Western Powers, Japan and Russia.
25th President of the United States, William McKinley, is shot by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo, New York and dies 8 days later. Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him as president.
The first Nobel Prizes are given in Stockholm on December 10, the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen wins the Prize in Physics for the discovery of X-rays, and the Nobel Peace Prize is shared between Frederic Passy and Jean-Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross.
Events
January - June
January 1 First day of the 20th century.
January 1 Australia becomes a country, as New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania form the Commonwealth of Australia.
January 1 Nigeria becomes a British Protectorate.
January 5 A typhoid outbreak occurs in a Seattle jail.
January 10 China accepts Peace terms by Western Powers, Japan and Russia, as the Boxer Rebellion is crushed.
January 22 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies on the Isle of Wight at the age of 81. Her son, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, succeeds her.
January 28 Baseball's American League declares itself a Major League.
February 2 The funeral of Queen Victoria takes place.
February 6 The first public telephones are installed at railway stations in Paris.
February 14 Edward VII of the United Kingdom opens his first parliament.
February 22 A Pacific Mail Steamer sinks in the Golden Gate Harbor, killing 128 people.
February 23 The United Kingdom and Germany agree on the border between German East Africa (present-day Tanzania) and the British colony of Nyasaland (present-day Malawi).
March 4 William McKinley starts his second term as President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt becomes Vice President of the United States.
March 6 Wilhelm II of Germany survives an assassination attempt in Bremen.
March 17 The showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris creates a sensation.
March 31 The United Kingdom's 1901 census is held.
April 25 The State of New York becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
April 29 Hirohito is born. He later becomes the longest-reigning Japanese Emperor, dying in 1989.
May 3 Jacksonville, Florida is destroyed by fire, as 10,000 people are made homeless.
May 9 Australia opens its first Parliament in Melbourne.
May 17 The US Stock Market crashes.
May 24 78 miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.
May 25 River Plate football club, in Buenos Aires, is founded.
June 2 Katsura Taro becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
June 12 Cuba becomes a US protectorate.
July - December
July 4 The Covered Bridge at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada, is opened. At 390 metres long, it is the longest covered bridge in the world.
July 4 William Taft becomes Governor-General of the Philippines.
August 6 Robert Falcon Scott, on board the RRS Discovery, sets sail on his expedition to the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
August 11 Under Erich von Drygalski, Germany's first Antarctic expedition begins.
August 30 Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner.
September 6 Assassination of William McKinley: US President William McKinley is shot by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
September 7 The Boxer Rebellion officially ends in China.
September 14 William McKinley, 8 days after being shot, dies of his injuries. Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th President of the United States.
October 2 The first Royal Navy submarine is launched.
October 24 Michigan school teacher Annie Taylor goes down Niagara Falls in a barrel, and survives.
October 29 Leon Czolgosz is executed at Auburn State Prison, New York, for the assassination of William McKinley.
November 9 Future King George V of the United Kingdom is made Prince of Wales.
November 25 Auguste Deter is first examined by Alois Alzheimer in Germany. She becomes the first-known sufferer of what is later called Alzheimer's disease.
December 10 The first Nobel Prizes are given in Stockholm on the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
December 12 Guglielmo Marconi receives the first Trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu, England to Newfoundland, Canada.
December 13 Modern 32-bit computers will incorrectly set their clocks to this time on January 19, 2038
December 20 The final spike is driven into the Mombasa-Victoria-Uganda railway in what is now Kisumu, Kenya.
Other Events
Boer War (1899 - 1902)
Norway allows women to vote in local elections.
Pablo Picasso creates the first paintings of his Blue Period.
Rudyard Kipling's ''Kim (book) published.
Births
January - June
January 3 Ngo Dinh Diem, 1st President of South Vietnam (d. 1963)
January 9 Chic Young, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
January 9 Ishman Bracey, American blues singer and guitarist (d. 1970)
January 10 Toshio Irie, Japanese politician and bureaucrat (d. 1972)
January 14 Bebe Daniels, American actress (d. 1971)
January 14 Alfred Tarski, Polish logician and mathematician (d. 1983)
January 16 Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
January 16 Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)
January 21 Ricardo Zamora, Spanish footballer (d. 1979)
January 24 A. M. Cassandre, Ukrainian-born artist, designer and teacher (d. 1968)
January 29 Arcady Aris, Russian Chuvash writer and literary critic (d. 1941)
January 30 Rudolf Caracciola, German racing driver (d. 1959)
February 1 Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
February 1 Frank Buckles, last-surviving American World War I veteran (d. 2011)
February 10 Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)
February 17 Philotheus Boehner, German monk and medieval scholar (d. 1955)
February 19 Florence Green, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran (d. 2012)
February 20 Muhammad Naguib, President of Egypt (d. 1984)
February 22 Ken G. Hall, Australian movie director (d. 1994)
February 25 Zeppo Marx, American comedian (d. 1979)
February 28 Linus Pauling, American chemist (d. 1994)
March 3 Claude Choules, British-Australian supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I combat veteran (d. 2011)
March 3 Gino Cervi, Italian movie actor (d. 1974)
March 7 Beatrice Roberts, American actress (d. 1970)
March 18 Helmut Fink, German World War I veteran (d. 2009)
March 18 Manly Hall, Canadian writer (d. 1990)
March 21 Karl Arnold, German politician (d. 1958)
March 24 Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (d. 1971)
March 25 Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)
March 27 Carl Barks, American cartoonist (d. 2000)
March 27 Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
March 27 Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1975)
March 27 Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (d. 1971)
March 28 Martha of Sweden, mother of King Harald V of Norway (d. 1954)
April 1 Francisco Ascaso, Spanish anarcho-syndicalist (d. 1936)
April 13 Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist (d. 1981)
April 18 Elene Akhvlediani, Georgian painter (d. 1975)
April 18 Al Lewis, American songwriter (d. 1967)
April 23 E.B. Ford, British ecological geneticist (d. 1988)
April 29 Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (d. 1989)
April 30 Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian-born economist (d. 1985)
May 5 Blind Willie McTell, American musician (d. 1959)
May 7 Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
May 9 Fuzzy Knight, American actor (d. 1976)
May 17 Werner Egk, German composer (d. 1983)
May 18 Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist (d. 1978)
May 20 Max Euwe, Dutch chess player (d. 1981)
May 21 Manfred Aschner, German-born Israeli microbiologist and entomologist (d. 1989)
May 21 Sam Jaffe, American movie producer (d. 2000)
May 21 Suzanne Lilar, Belgian writer (d. 1992)
May 24 Jose Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1968)
June 6 Sukarno, 1st President of Indonesia (d. 1970)
June 10 Frederick Loewe, German-born composer (d. 1988)
June 13 Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
June 16 Henri Lefebvre, French sociologist and philosopher (d. 1991)
June 18 Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
June 19 Piero Gobetti, Italian publicist and political activist (d. 1926)
June 24 Harry Partch, American composer (d. 1974)
July - December
July 9 Barbara Cartland, British novelist (d. 2000)
July 28 Rudy Vallee, American singer, actor, bandleader and entertainer (d. 1986)
August 4 Louis Armstrong, American jazz musician (d. 1971)
August 5 Thomas Ryan, American naval officer (d. 1970)
August 8 Ernest Lawrence, American physicist (d. 1958)
August 10 Franco Dino Rasetti, Italian scientist (d. 2001)
August 18 Jean Guitton, French writer and philosopher (d. 1999)
August 20 Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer (d. 1968)
August 26 Chen Yi, Chinese military commander and politician (d. 1972)
September 2 Adolph Rupp, college basketball coach (d. 1977)
September 9 Agostinho Fortes Filho, Brazilian footballer (d. 1966)
September 9 Hendrik Verwoerd, South African politician (d. 1966)
September 13 James McCoubrey, Canadian-American supercentenarian, oldest-living man
September 17 Francis Chichester, British adventurer (d. 1979)
September 22 Charles B. Huggins, Canadian cancer researcher and Nobel Prize winner (d. 1997)
September 23 Jaroslav Seifert, Czech politician (d. 1986)
September 28 Ed Sullivan, American television personality (d. 1974)
September 28 William S. Paley, American businessman (d. 1990)
September 29 Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist (d. 1954)
October 1 Jose Leandro Andrade, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1957)
October 6 Aslak Brekke, Norwegian singer (d. 1978)
October 7 Souvanna Phouma, Laotian leader (d. 1984)
October 7 Frank Boucher, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1977)
October 10 Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (d. 1966)
October 24 Gilda Gray, Polish-born dancer and actress (d. 1959)
November 3 Leopold III of Belgium (d. 1983)
November 4 Masako Nashimoto, Crown Princess of Korea (d. 1989)
November 4 Max Wagner, Mexican-born American actor (d. 1975)
November 9 Marvel Rea, American actress (d. 1937)
November 11 Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph Goebbels (d. 1945)
November 15 Bunny Roser, American baseball player (d. 1979)
November 16 Ernest Nagel, Czech-born philosopher (d. 1985)
November 17 Lee Strasberg, Austrian-American actor (d. 1982)
November 18 George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (d. 1984)
November 22 Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer (d. 1999)
November 29 Mildred Harris, American actress (d. 1944)
December 2 Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-Italian footballer (d. 1986)
December 5 Walt Disney, American animator and movie producer (d. 1966)
December 5 Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
December 9 Odon von Horvath, Austro-Hungarian writer (d. 1938)
December 14 King Paul of Greece (d. 1964)
December 16 Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
December 19 Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
December 25 Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, British royal (d. 2004)
December 27 Marlene Dietrich, German actress (d. 1992)
December 31 Karl-August Fagerholm, Prime Minister of Finland (d. 1984)
Deaths
January - June
January 11 Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (b. 1866)
January 14 Victor Balaguer, Spanish politician and writer (b. 1824)
January 17 Frederic William Henry Myers, English scholar, poet, philosopher and psychologist (b. 1843)
January 20 Zenobe Gramme, Belgian electrical engineer (b. 1826)
January 21 Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
January 22 Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (b. 1819)
January 27 Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)
February 11 Milan I of Serbia (b. 1854)
February 17 Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (b. 1862)
March 13 Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
April 3 Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (b. 1844)
April 4 George T. Anderson, American Confederate general (b. 1824)
May 1 Lewis Waterman, American inventor and businessman (b. 1837)
May 5 Mariano Ignacio Prado, former President of Peru (b. 1826)
May 13 Leopoldo Alas, Spanish writer (b. 1851)
May 22 Gaetano Bresci, Italian anarchist (b. 1869)
May 24 Charlotte Mary Yonge, English novelist (b. 1823)
June 15 Max Weber, German-American general (b. 1824)
July - December
July 6 Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1819)
July 7 Johanna Spyri, Swiss writer (b. 1827)
August 5 Victoria, Princess Royal (b. 1840)
August 12 Francesco Crispi, former Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1819)
August 12 Adolf Erik Nordenskiold, Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
September 9 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (b. 1864)
September 14 William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1843)
October 1 Abdor Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (b. 1844)
October 10 Lorenzo Snow, American Mormon leader (b. 1814)
October 29 Leon Czolgosz, Polish-American assassin (b. 1873)
November 6 Kate Greenaway, English writer (b. 1846)
November 30 Edward John Eyre, English explorer of Australia and colonial Governor of Jamaica (b. 1815)
December 12 Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan, British Indian administrator (b. 1833)
December 16 William Gregory, American politician (b. 1849)
December 17 Josep Manyanet i Vives, Catalan Saint and priest (b. 1833)
December 24 Lev Ivanov, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1834)
Nobel Prizes
Physics Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
Chemistry Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
Physiology or Medicine Emil Adolf von Behring
Literature Sully Prudhomme
Peace Jean-Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy |
15866 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1880 | 1880 |
Births
January 29 – W.C. Fields, American comedian
Events
Volapük created.
Deaths
Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger (b. 1854) |
15867 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1864 | 1864 |
Events
Fort Baker built near Las Vegas, Nevada
Father Damien comes to Hawaii
The Great Central Fair is held in June in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 5 – The American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness startes in Virginia.
August 21 – American Civil War: In the Lawrence Massacre, Confederate guerillas attacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas and killed 150 men.
September 1 – Canada: The Charlottetown Conference starts.
Deaths
May 19 – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Books
Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne |
15868 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1897 | 1897 | The year 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday on the Gregorian calendar.
Events
March 4 – William McKinley becomes the 25th President of the United States, a title which he held from the retirement of Grover Cleveland until his assassination on September 14, 1901.
March 13 – San Diego State University is founded.
June 22 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria is celebrated in the United Kingdom, marking her 60th year as the Queen of the United Kingdom. She was the only British monarch to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee until Queen Elizabeth II celebrated hers on June 2, 2012.
July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins.
August 21 – The Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, Michigan by Ransom E. Olds.
September 1 – The Boston subway opens as the first rapid transit in North America.
November 1 – The Juventus F.C. football club is founded.
Births
January 23 - Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1945?)
February 4 – Ludwig Erhard, German politician (d. 1977)
March 1 – Shoghi Effendi (d. 1957)
March 24 – Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychiatrist & psychoanalyst (d. 1957)
March 28 – Sepp Herberger, German football player (d. 1977)
April 4 – Dina Manfredini, Italian-American supercentenarian (d. 2012)
April 19 – Jiroemon Kimura, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
April 23 – Lester B. Pearson, Canadian Prime Minister (1963-1968) (d. 1972)
April 26 – Douglas Sirk, German movie director (d. 1987)
April 30 – Walt Walsh, American baseball player (d. 1966)
May 30 – Frank Wise, 16th Premier of Western Australia (1945-1947) (d. 1986)
June 7 – George Szell, Hungarian-born conductor (d. 1970)
June 10 – Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
June 12 – Anthony Eden, British Prime Minister (1955-1957) (d. 1977)
June 19 – Moe Howard, American actor & comedian (d. 1975)
July 4 – Jake Forbes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1985)
July 9 – Albert Coady Wedemeyer, American army officer (d. 1989)
July 20 – Tadeus Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist (d. 1996)
July 24 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (d. 1937)
August 2 – Max Weber Swiss politician (d. 1974)
August 11 – Enid Blyton, children's writer (d. 1968)
August 12 – Otto Struve, Russian astronomer (d. 1963)
August 16 – Hersch Lauterpacht, Polish politician & judge (d. 1960)
August 19 – Roman Vishniac, Russian-American photographer (d. 1990)
August 26 – Yun Poson, President of South Korea (1960-1962) (d. 1990)
August 31 – Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
September 12 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French scientist (d. 1956)
September 23 – Paul Delvaux, Belgian painter (d. 1994)
September 23 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984)
September 25 – William Faulkner, American writer (d. 1962)
September 26 – Pope Paul VI, (d. 1978)
October 8 – Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian-American movie director (d. 1987)
October 22 – Ettore Boiardi, Italian-American chef (d. 1985)
October 29 – Joseph Goebbels, German politician (d. 1945)
November 16 – Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, known for coining the name "Pakistan" (d. 1951)
November 22 – Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (d. 1989)
November 24 – Lucky Luciano, Sicilian mobster (d. 1962)
December 7 – Lazare Ponticelli, French World War I veteran (d. 2008)
December 14 – Kurt Schuschnigg, 15th Chancellor of Austria (d. 1977)
December 24 – Koto Okubo, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
A.R. Chughtai – Pakistani artist (d. 1975)
Frank O'Connor – American actor & painter (d. 1979)
Thích Quảng Đức – Buddhist monk (d. 1963)
Deaths
February 19 – Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician (b. 1815) |
15872 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodgenville%2C%20Kentucky | Hodgenville, Kentucky | Hodgenville is a town in the American state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Larue County. It is most famous as the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. A memorial featuring a replica (copy) of the cabin Lincoln was born in is near the town.
Cities in Kentucky
County seats in Kentucky
LaRue County, Kentucky |
15874 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%20of%20Oxford | University of Oxford | The University of Oxford is a university in Oxford, England. It is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings said it is the best university in the world.
The university is 38 colleges and six private halls. All of these colleges have their own buildings and their own staff. Oxford is quite different from most modern universities where all the students live on a campus. Oxford does not have a campus, although it does have some central places where students from different colleges can come together (for example, libraries).
The Bodleian Library (founded in 1602) is the main library of the University of Oxford, and one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It is the second largest library in the United Kingdom after the British Library.
History
Oxford is the world's third-oldest university after the University of Bologna, and the world's second-oldest surviving university.
There is no known date of foundation, but there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. English students were not allowed to continue studying in Paris after Thomas Becket was murdered.
There were fights between the students in Oxford and the people who lived there in the early 13th century. Some students and teachers left the university in 1209, and made a new university in Cambridge. These two universities are now great rivals, and together are sometimes known as "Oxbridge".
Until 1920, women were not allowed to take degrees at Oxford, although some women studied at Oxford before that time. Nowadays, all the colleges allow both men and women as students, and the number of male and female students is roughly equal.
One of the most famous teachers at the university was Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, stories for children.
Colleges and halls
There are 38 colleges at Oxford and 6 permanent private halls.
A college will normally offer the students accommodation (a room to sleep and study in) for the first and last years of their time at University. Many also offer accommodation for other years. A college will also have space for teaching and socializing. When most of the older colleges started they were only for people of one sex, but St Hilda's College, the last college to allow only women to study there, recently allowed men as well.
A permanent private hall is slightly different to a college. They were normally started by religious groups to educate their members in philosophy and theology, but some have since grown and offer a broader range of subjects. Some halls are run by monks, and one of them – St Benet's Hall – will only accept male students.
Most colleges will teach at both undergraduate (the more basic first degree that a student takes) and postgraduate (a higher level of study) level. There are also some special colleges that are more restrictive. Five colleges only offer space to postgraduate students. Harris Manchester College is only for "mature students" (those who are over 21 when they start their degree). All Souls College does not take students – all of its members teach students or do research.
Getting into Oxford
Oxford, like Cambridge, is very popular, but there are only a limited number of spaces for students. It is therefore harder for students to get into these universities. The colleges look for the students with the best school results in the subjects for which they are applying, typically A marks on A-levels.
Related pages
The Boat Race
References
More information
Jan Morris (ed.) The Oxford Book of Oxford. Oxford University Press
Other websites
University of Oxford website
Overview of Master's programmes at the University of Oxford
1096 establishments |
15876 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def%20Leppard | Def Leppard | Def Leppard was one of the first hard rock bands. They formed in Sheffield, England in 1977. Its founding members include: lead singer Joe Elliot, bassist Rick Savage, guitarist Pete Willis, and drummer Tony Kenning. When Kenning was fired from the band in 1978, he was replaced by Frank Noon. The same year, Def Leppard had their first recording. They recorded The Def Leppard EP. Frank Noon was replaced by drummer Rick Allen the same year and guitarist Steve Clark joined the band shortly after. They played their first show at Westfield School in Sheffield in the same year.
Their first album, On Through the Night (1980), was a hit in many parts of England. In April 1980, Def Leppard signed with Leber Krebs management. In the same year they went of their first U.S. tour with Ted Nugent, AC/DC, and Judas Priest. In 1981 the band released their second album, High ‘n’ Dry. At that time, MTV aired Def Leppard for the first time. MTV aired their hit “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak.”
In 1982, Pete Willis was replaced by Phil Collen. The same year, the recording with Mutt Lange for their third album takes place. In 1983, their third album Pyromania is released. The single “Photograph” was released and the album sells 100,000 copies a week for that year. In 1984, drummer Rick Allen suffers the loss of an arm due to a car accident. He soon mastered an electronic drum kit and teaches himself how to play with one arm. In 1986, Rick Allen plays his first gig out with the band since his accident. In 1987, the band’s fourth album, “Hysteria” is released. The album has 12 hit singles and sells 16 million copies.
In 1991, guitarist Steve Clark passes away. His death was due to a mixture of alcohol and a drug overdose of prescription pain killers. In 1992 Vivian Campbell joins the band. Vivian Campbell was the former guitarist for Dio and Whitesnake. That year, the album “Adrenalize” is released. This album remains number one for five weeks and sells six million copies.
In 1993 the band has their first expirence having their music in movies. Their song “Two Steps Behind” was used for the end credits of “Last Action Hero”. The same year the album “Retro Active” is released. In 1995 “The Vault” is released. It is a compilation of all of Def Leppard’s biggest hits. “The Vault” hits number two on the charts. In 1996, the album “Slang” is released.
In 1998, Def Leppard had their first taste of TV. VH1 produced a “Behind the Music” episode on Def Leppard. Other TV exposure followed such as “Storytellers”, and “Ultimate Albums.” In 1999, they receive the Diamond Award in the U.S. Also in 1999, the album “Euphoria” is released. In the year 2000, the band is inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame.
In 2001, the band releases their first DVDs, “In the Round, In your Face” and “Historia”. The same year, VH1 broadcasts the movie “Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story.” n 2002 the album “X” is released. In 2004 the band releases a newer version of the album “The Vault”. In 2005 the album and DVD “Rock of Ages” is released. In 2006, Def Leppard releases their album “Yeah”. The album “Yeah” is a cover album. In 2008 the band’s 12th album “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge” is released. The same year the band crosses genres with the country hit “Nine Lives.”
Discography
Studio albums
On Through the Night (1980)
High 'n' Dry (1981)
Pryomania (1983)
Hysteria (1987)
Adrenalize (1992)
Slang (1996)
Euphoria (1999)
X (2002)
Yeah! (2006)
Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
Def Leppard (2015)
Other websites
Official Def Leppard website
The Def Leppard World - Discography
References
1977 establishments in the United Kingdom
1970s British music groups
1980s British music groups
1990s British music groups
2000s British music groups
2010s British music groups
English hard rock bands
English heavy metal bands
Musical groups established in 1977
Musical groups from Sheffield |
15878 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husband%20%28disambiguation%29 | Husband (disambiguation) | A husband is the male spouse in a marriage.
Husband may also refer to:
a kind of pillow.
husbandry, the breeding of livestock, such as conservation or agriculture. |
15879 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/46%20BC | 46 BC | Year 46 BC was the last year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Lepidus.
Events
Titus Labienus defeated Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.
Julius Caesar defeated the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians at Thapsus.
Caesar leaves for Farther Hispania to deal with rebellion in Rome.
Caesar changes the Roman calendar to create the Julian calendar. The Julian Calendar remains the standard in the western world until the Gregorian Calendar in 1582.
Caesar appoints his nephew Octavian his heir.
Births
Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman politician (d. 9 AD)
Deaths
Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato) (b. 95 BC)
Metellus Scipio (b. c. 100 BC)
Vercingetorix, Gaul leader |
15880 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter%20storm | Winter storm | Winter storms or snowstorms happen when warm, wet air meets with cold air. The warm, wet air mass and the cold air mass can each be or more in diameter. Snowstorms affecting Northeastern United States often get their moisture from air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico and cold air from air masses coming down from the Arctic. In the Northwest United States warm, wet air from the Pacific Ocean cools when it is pushed upward by the mountains. Many different things can affect the direction of movement, moisture content and temperature of air masses. All of these differences affect the type and severity of the snowstorm.
Winter storms and blizzards can make several meters of snow that blow into big drifts. Sometimes the drifts can be over tall. They could even cover a house.
History
Lots of popular winter storms are part of North America's history. In 1846 the Donner Party traveled away by covered wagons from Illinois headed for Sutter's Fort near Sacramento, California. As an answer of bad decisions and slow going, they tried to go across the big Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late October. Usually, California is still warm at that time of the year. As the party crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, they did not see any snow and was not worried.
However, after they left, a huge snowstorm hit. The party was forced to camp near Truckee, California. The snow was so deep that the wagon wheels became stuck, so they could not move anyplace. They tried to wait the storm out, but when one blizzard ended, another began immediately before they had time to escape.
Their food became short, so some of the people decided to hike out and find help rather than to starve to death. Most of them died in the freezing weather, and many of those who stayed behind in the camp survived. Of the 87 people who started in Illinois, only 47 lived.
References
Severe weather
Natural events |
15886 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri%20Lanka | Sri Lanka | The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala, இலங்கை in Tamil) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. The capital of the country is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte while the largest city is Colombo.
It was known as Ceylon before 1972, and Serendib and Sinhale, among other names, before that. It was South Asia's oldest democracy.
Ethnic make-up
Sri Lanka has three main ethnic groups. They differ in their religions and origins, and there has often been difficulties between the groups. The total population of the island is over 20 million people, and rapidly expanding.
The largest of the three groups is the population of Sinhalese people. Most of them are Buddhist. Their language is Sinhala. They make up about 75% of the population.
The second largest group is the Tamil people. They are Hindu. There are about 2,271,000 Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Civil War against Tamil separatists lasted 28 years.
The third largest group is the Sri Lankan Moors. They are Muslim. There are over one and a half million people in this group. They use Tamil as their language today.
Other than these three main groups, there are burghers (descendants of colonial ancestors), malays and chinese.
In areas such as Dabana , Mahiyangaya ; lives the indigenous group called 'veddas' who are said to descend from Kuweni and Vijaya's son 'Jeewahaththa'.
History
Buddhist missionaries arrived from India in 250 BC during the time period of King Devanampiyatissa. The kings of the island, and eventually most of the Sinhalese people, became Buddhists. Legend has it that Buddha visited the island three times.
The island was subject to waves of European settlement and eventually colonisation. The Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries, and lastly the British from 1796 to 1948. The British traded as the others had done, but also developed plantations of coffee and tea. Tea was planted after a fungus destroyed the coffee plantations in 1869. The tea plantations were the basis of Sri Lankan prosperity for a hundred years. Lastly, rubber plantations were started in the early 20th century. In 1965, Ceylon became the world's leading exporter of tea, with 200,000 tonnes of tea being shipped internationally annually.
Independence from the British was got in 1948, together with Dominion status in the British Commonwealth of Nations. In 1972, Ceylon changed its name officially to the Republic of Sri Lanka, and is still a member of the Commonwealth.
In 2009 came the end of a long Sri Lankan Civil War between Sinhalese and Tamils. Since then, tourism has rapidly grown as a source of foreign investment and currency.
National symbols of Sri Lanka
Flag
The Sri Lanka flag is also known as the Lion flag because of the Lion on it. The Lion is holding a sword in its right paw. There is a crimson background with four leaves in each corner. There is a yellow border. On the left of the flag, there are the colors green and saffron.
The lion represents bravery. The four leaves represent Karuna, Meththa, Muditha and Upeksha. The orange stripe represents the Sri Lankan Tamils and the green stripe represents the Sri Lankan Moors.
Provinces
Sri Lanka has 9 provinces.
Central
North Central
North
Eastern
North Western
Sabaragamuwa
Southern
Uva
Western
Related pages
List of rivers of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka at the Olympics
Sri Lanka national football team
History of Sri Lanka
Burning of Jaffna library
Easter Sunday bombings
On April 21, 2019, bombings hit churches and hotels and left at least 290 people dead and 500 injured in the cities of
cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. According to officials a Sri Lankan group called National Thowheed Jamath was behind the attacks.
Most of those killed were Sri Lankan nationals, but there were also thirty-one foreigners who died, including
eight British, eight Indian, two Turkish, two Australian, one Bangladeshi, one Portuguese and four American nationals.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48002169
Notes
Other websites
Government
Official web portal of the Government of Sri Lanka
Office of the President of Sri Lanka
Ministry of Defence, Sri Lanka
Central Bank of Sri Lanka
World Terrorism Blog On Sri Lanka
Business
Board of Investment of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Export Development Board
Colombo Stock Exchange
Sri Lankan Business Directory
Other
Virtual Library Sri Lanka
The CIA World Factbook - Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Collection of slides of Sri Lanka, University of Pennsylvania library
NIGHANTAYA | The Environment Friendly E Community | Sri Lanka
1948 establishments in Asia |
15887 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptile | Reptile | Reptile is the common name for one of the main groups of land vertebrates. It is not used so much by biologists, who use more accurate terms.
The name "reptile" comes from Latin and means "one who creeps". All living reptile species are cold blooded, have scaly skin, and lay cleidoic eggs. They excrete uric acid (instead of urea), and have a cloaca. A cloaca is a shared opening for the anus, urinary tract and reproductive ducts. Reptiles also share an arrangement of the heart and major blood vessels which is different from that of mammals.
Many important groups of reptiles are now extinct, for example the mosasaurs. We used to say the dinosaurs were extinct, but they survive in the form of their feathered descendants (birds). Ancient reptiles that do survive include the turtles, the crocodiles and the Tuatara, the lone survivor of its group. The great majority of present-day reptiles are snakes and lizards.
The study of living reptiles is called herpetology.
Birds in relation to reptiles
Some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles. Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards. Theropod dinosaurs are even more closely related, because birds evolved from them.
Cladistic writers prefer a more unified (monophyletic) grouping. This puts the birds (over 10,000 species) with what people normally call reptiles. (see Sauropsida)
Taxonomy
Reptilia is an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. The main reason is that the term 'reptile' does not include birds, the descendents of theropod dinosaurs. Another reason is that the word 'reptile' is misleading because many extinct types were very different from living reptiles.
So instead of Reptilia as a taxonomic class, today many experts use Class Sauropsida (which includes all reptiles and birds, living and extinct). Class Synapsida includes mammals and all their forebears. Reptile is still the usual informal term to describe living snakes and lizards. Mammals are a genuine clade, and so Mammalia is still the taxonomic term.
Since reptiles are not monophyletic, reclassifying them is one of the key aims of researchers. Some taxonomists, such as Benton, make Sauropsida and Synapsida as class-level taxa. The two groups split in the Carboniferous, from stem-group Amniotes (the early tetrapods, which laid cleidoic eggs).
Eye feature
A membrane forms an inner eyelid in reptiles and birds. Whitish or translucent, it can be drawn across the eye to protect it from dust and keep it moist. It is called the nictitating membrane.
Size
Reptiles can live in large and small sizes. Their land sizes can be both bigger and smaller than mammals. Titanosaurs were the largest land reptiles, and the smallest land reptile is a chameleon 13.5mm long.
Living reptiles
Reptiles (living groups only)
Order Crocodilia (crocodiles, gavials, caimans, and alligators): 23 species
Order Sphenodontia (Tuatara from New Zealand): 2 species
Order Squamata (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenids ("worm-lizards"): about 7,000 species.
Order Testudines (turtles, tortoises, and terrapins): approximately 300 species
References |
15890 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake | Snake | Snakes are reptiles. They are part of the order Squamata. They are carnivores, with long narrow bodies and no legs. There are at least 20 families, about 500 genera and 3,400 species of snake.
The earliest known fossils are from the Jurassic period. This was between 143 and 167 million years ago.
Their long, slender body has some special features. They have overlapping scales which protect them, and help them move and climb trees. The scales have colours which may be camouflage or warning colours.
Many species have skulls with more joints than the skulls of their lizard ancestors. This allows the snakes to swallow prey much larger than their heads. In their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side. Most have only one working lung. Some species have kept a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. They have no eyelids or external ears. They can hiss, but otherwise make no vocal sounds.
They are very mobile in their own way. Most of them live in the tropics. Few snake species live beyond the Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn, and only one species, the common viper (Vipera berus) lives beyond the Arctic Circle. They can see well enough, and they can taste scents with their tongues by flicking them in and out. They are very sensitive to vibrations in the ground. Some snakes can sense warm-blooded animals by thermal infrared.
Most snakes live on the ground, and in the trees. Others live in the water, and a few live under the soil. Like other reptiles, snakes are ectotherms. They control their body temperature by moving in and out of the direct sunshine. That is why they are rare in cold places.
Snakes range in size from the tiny, 10.4 cm (4 inch)-long thread snake to the reticulated python of in length. The extinct snake Titanoboa was long.
Evolution
Snakes are thought to have evolved from lizards. The earliest snake fossils are from the Lower Cretaceous. A wide range of snakes appeared during the Paleocene period (c 66 to 56 million years ago).
Not a clade
The Squamata are definitely a monophyletic group: it is a sister group to the Tuatara. Judged by their fossil record, the squamates were present in the Mesozoic, but had a minor place in the land ecology. Three of the six lines are recorded first in the Upper Jurassic, the others in the Cretaceous. Probably all, certainly the lizards, arose earlier in the Jurassic. The Mosasaurs of the Upper Cretaceous were by far the most successful of all the lizards, becoming the top predator in their ecosystem.
Although snakes and lizards look very different, neither is a proper clade. Snakes did descend from early lizards, not once, but a number of times.
There is a monophyletic clade within the Squamata. It is the Toxicofera. It includes all venomous snakes and lizards, and many related non-venomous species. The evidence for this is in recent molecular analyses.
Fossil snakes
The fossil of a primitive snake from the Lower Cretaceous has been found. It lived about 113 million years ago. It had rather small front and rear legs. Several other fossil snakes have been found with small rear legs, but this is the first one with all four legs. The snake, Tetrapodophis amplectus, lived on land and was adapted to burrowing. The researcher said there were "a lot of very advanced snake features, including its hooked teeth, flexible jaw and spine – and even snake-like scales. And there's the gut contents – it's swallowed another vertebrate. It was preying on other animals, which is a snake feature". The snake came from the Crato Formation in Brazil, and lay in a private collection for many years. It was re-discovered in a museum at Solnhofen, Bavaria.
Venom
Most snakes are nonvenomous. Those that have venom use it mainly to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some have venom potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by squeezing.
Two taxonomic families are entirely venomous:
Elapids – cobras including king cobras, kraits, mambas, Australian copperheads, sea snakes, and coral snakes.
Viperids – vipers, rattlesnakes, copperheads/cottonmouths, and bushmasters.
A third family with the "rear-fanged" snakes (and most of the other snake species) is the
Colubrids – boomslangs, tree snakes, vine snakes, mangrove snakes, but not all colubrids are venomous.
Anatomy
Many snakes have skulls with more joints than their lizard ancestors. This helps them swallow prey much larger than their heads. The bones of the head and jaws can move apart to let large prey move into their body. The throat, stomach and intestines can also expand in a most extraordinary manner. In this was, a thin-looking snake can swallow and digest a larger animal.
To fit their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) are one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most snakes have only one working lung. Some species have a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. This is a relic of the legs which do not appear in modern snakes.
Shedding
Snakes need to shed their skin regularly while they grow. This is called moulting. Snakes shed their skin by rubbing their head against something rough and hard, like a piece of wood or a rock. This causes the skin, which is already stretched, to split open. The snake keeps on rubbing its skin on various rough objects until the skin peels off from its head. This lets it crawl out, turning the skin inside out.
Feeding
All snakes are carnivorous; they eat other animals. Some are venomous; they inject poison along grooves in their teeth. Some snakes are constrictrors. Constrictors are not venomous, so they squeeze their prey to death. Snakes swallow their food whole, and they cannot chew. Because snakes are cold-blooded, they do not have to eat as regularly as mammals. People who own pet snakes feed them as infrequently as once per month. Some snakes can go as long as six months without a good meal.
Snakes have a very flexible lower jaw, the two halves of which are not rigidly attached, and many other joints in their skull. They can open their mouths wide enough to swallow their prey whole, even if the prey is larger in diameter than the snake itself.
Movement
Not having arms and legs doesn't stop snakes from moving. They have developed several different ways of moving to deal with particular environments. Each type of snake movement is discrete and distinct from the others.
Lateral undulation
Lateral undulation is a snake's only way of moving in water, and the most common way of moving altogether. In this mode, the body of the snake alternately bends to the left and right, resulting in a series of rearward-moving "waves". While this movement appears rapid, snakes have rarely been seen moving faster than two body-lengths per second, often much less. This mode of movement has the same amount of calories burned per meter moved as running in lizards of the same mass.
Terrestrial
Terrestrial lateral undulation is the most common mode of moving for most snake species. In this mode, the posteriorly moving waves push against contact points in the environment, such as rocks, twigs, irregularities in the soil, etc. Each of these environmental objects, in turn, generates a reaction force directed forward and towards the midline of the snake, resulting in forward thrust while the lateral components cancel out. The speed of this movement depends upon the density of push-points in the environment, with a medium density of about 8 along the snake's length being ideal. The wave speed is precisely the same as the snake speed, and as a result, every point on the snake's body follows the path of the point ahead of it, allowing snakes to move through very dense vegetation and small openings.
Aquatic
Snakes move forward in water by moving their bodies in a wave-like motion. The waves become larger as they move down the snake's body, and the wave travels backwards faster than the snake moves forwards. Thrust is got by pushing their body against the water: this results in the observed slip. In spite of overall similarities, studies show that the pattern of muscle activation is different in aquatic versus terrestrial lateral undulation, which justifies calling them separate modes. All snakes can laterally undulate forward (with backward-moving waves), but only sea snakes have been observed reversing the motion (moving backwards with forward-moving waves).
Sidewinding
This is most often used by colubroid snakes (colubrids, elapids, and vipers). They use it when the environment lacks anything firm to push against, such as a slick mud flat, or a sand dune. Sidewinding is a modified form of lateral undulation in which all of the body segments oriented in one direction remain in contact with the ground, while the other segments are lifted up. This results in a peculiar "rolling" motion. This mode of moving overcomes the slippery nature of sand or mud by pushing off with only static portions on the body, thereby minimizing slipping. The static nature of the contact points can be shown from the tracks of a sidewinding snake, which show each belly scale imprint, without any smearing. This mode of moving has very low caloric cost, less than ⅓ of the cost for a lizard or normal snake to move the same distance.
Concertina
When push-points are absent, but the space is too narrow for sidewinding, such as in tunnels, snakes rely on concertina moving. In this mode, the snake braces the back part of its body against the tunnel wall while the front of the snake extends and straightens. The front portion then flexes and forms an anchor point, and the back part is straightened and pulled forwards. This mode of moving is slow and very demanding, needing up to seven times the energy of laterally undulating over the same distance. This high cost is due to the repeated stops and starts of portions of the body as well as the need to use the muscles to brace against the tunnel walls.
Rectilinear
The slowest mode of snake moving is rectilinear moving, which is also the only one where the snake does not need to bend its body laterally, though it may do so when turning. In this mode, the belly scales are lifted and pulled forward before being placed down and the body pulled over them. Waves of movement and stasis pass posteriorly, resulting in a series of ripples in the skin. The ribs of the snake do not move in this mode of moving and this method is most often used by large pythons, boas, and vipers when stalking prey across open ground as the snake's movements are subtle and harder to detect by their prey in this manner.
Other
The movement of snakes in trees has only recently been studied. While on tree branches, snakes use several modes of moving depending on species and bark texture. In general, snakes will use a modified form of concertina moving on smooth branches, but will laterally undulate if contact points are available. Snakes move faster on small branches and when contact points are present, in contrast to limbed animals, which do better on large branches with little 'clutter'.
Gliding snakes (Chrysopelea) of Southeast Asia launch themselves from branch tips, spreading their ribs and laterally undulating as they glide between trees. These snakes can perform a controlled glide for hundreds of feet depending upon launch altitude and can even turn in midair.
Related pages
Echidna (mythology)
Ouroboros
References
Other websites
Snake (organism) -Citizendium
Basic English 850 words
Venomous animals
Reptiles |
15892 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie%20Mercury | Freddie Mercury | Farrokh Bulsara (5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991), better known as Freddie Mercury, was a British singer, songwriter, record producer, and lead singer of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest lead singers in popular music history, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury wrote numerous hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and "We Are the Champions". He led a solo career while performing with Queen, and occasionally served as a producer and guest musician for other artists.
He formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 due to complications from AIDS, having confirmed the day before his death that he had contracted the disease. In 1992, Mercury was posthumously awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and a tribute concert was held at Wembley Stadium, London. As a member of Queen, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2002, he was placed number 58 in the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He is consistently voted one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music.
Life and career
Childhood
Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on 5 September 1946 in Stone Town in the British protectorate of the Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). His parents were Jer and Bomi Bulsara. They were both Parsi. His father worked as a cashier in the British Colonial Office, a branch of the government. Mercury had a younger sister named Kashmira. His friends at school gave him the name "Freddie." His family then began calling him Freddie, too.
At age eight, Mercury was sent to a boarding school in India. The school, St. Peters English Boarding school in Panchgani, was about 50 miles outside the city of Bombay (now called Mumbai). He began to show talent as an artist and a sportsman. At age ten, he was named the school champion of Table Tennis. When he was twelve, he received a trophy called the Junior All-rounder.
Music career, personal life, and death
While in school he joined a choir and began to learn to play the piano. He had a four-octave vocal range.
In 1964, Mercury moved to London with his family. He studied art at Ealing Art College. While in London, he became fond of Mary Austin, a woman he met through his guitarist, Brian May. They lived together for several years before and after the band became famous. They moved into a house in London nicknamed "The Court of King Freddie". Mary still lived in that house after she and Mercury broke up.
Mercury was in love with a local barber when he died. He had been with him in a relationship for six years when it was learned by the media that Mercury had AIDS, which he was tested positive for in 1987. One day after the news was broadcast, Mercury died of Bronchopneumonia caused by AIDS on 24 November 1991 at the age of 45.
References
Other websites
Queen Archives: Interviews
1946 births
1991 deaths
Bisexual people
British LGBT people
British pianists
British rock singers
British singer-songwriters
Deaths from AIDS
Deaths from bronchopneumonia
Deaths from pneumonia
Infectious disease deaths in England
LGBT singers
LGBT songwriters |
15893 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun%20Tzu | Sun Tzu | This article is about the military strategist Sun Tzu. For the mathematician of the same name, see Sun Tzu (mathematician).
Sun Tzu (544 BC – 496 BC) also called Sun Wu, was an ancient Chinese general, military expert and philosopher. He is widely believed to have been the author of the most important work of military strategy and theory, The Art of War. His name means 'Master Sun'. His family name is Sun, Tzu is an honorific (title of respect) meaning 'master'.
Most of what we know about Sun Tzu comes from Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi, also called the Records of the Grand Historian. According to the Grand Historian, Sun Tzu lived during the period called 'The Spring and Autumn Period of China'. This era dates from 770 BC to 476 BC.
Life
Sun Tzu was born in the State of Qi (modern Shandong province). This is according to the Records of the Grand Historian. However, the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yueh claim he was born in Wu. Sun Tzu lived during the turbulent period of the late Chou dynasty. He grew up in a military family and he studied military science. Not much is known about his childhood or early life. It is known that at some point in his life he became known as a great general and a military strategist. He became a general for King Helü of Wu.
Sun Tzu won battles by not actually fighting his enemy when it wasn't necessary. He recommended spies, deception and a commander having complete control of his soldiers. When he did fight, he understood warfare better than most of his opponents. Sun Tzu learned to win battles with the least loss of his own men.
Many historians believe he was the victor at the Battle of Boju in 506 BC. The great historian Sima Qian (145/135–86 BC), author of Shiji (Historical Record), called Sun Tzu an exceptional strategic battlefield commander. He also said Sun Tzu was both flexible and had unlimited surprises for his enemies. Sima Qian wrote that in his nearly 40-years as a general, Sun Tzu never lost a battle, a campaign or a war.
The Art of War
The Art of War was one of the earliest books on Chinese warfare. It remains one of the best known and most influential books ever written. The book was widely copied in the ancient world. An early copy was discovered in 1972. It was written on bamboo slats that were sewn together. It became known in the western world during the late 18th century. It wasn't translated into English until the 20th century.
At that time the rules for warfare were based on chivalry. War was the sport of rich noblemen. Sun Tzu refused to see war as a sport. He used Taoist principles and applied them to warfare. In doing this he changed the rules of war. Unlike generals who enjoyed long campaigns, he understood war was serious. Sun Tzu believed that once a war started, the goal was to defeat the enemy. Sun Tzu was unconventional in that he didn't follow the prevailing wisdom of his time. Other generals were simply unprepared for Sun Tzu's tactics.
Legacy
For at least the last two thousand years, Sun Tzu has had a tremendous influence on military thinking. The Art of War is credited by Mao Zedong as having helped him defeat Chiang Kai-Shek in the Chinese Civil War. Ho Chi Minh was a fan of Sun Tzu. He led the Communist Vietnamese in their fight against American-backed South Vietnam. American generals Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. and Colin Powell followed principals in the Art of War in the Gulf War.
References
544 BC births
496 BC deaths |
15897 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western%20world | Western world | Western world has meant various things at various times. In the earliest history of Europe it referred to Ancient Greece and the Aegean. During the Roman Empire, it meant the Western Roman Empire (covering the area from Croatia to Britain). At other times, it has meant Western Europe or Europe or Christendom. During the Cold War, it sometimes meant the democratic countries or those allied with the various NATO powers.
In this day and age, it often refers to the places that have a European heritage culture. This European heritage itself is a combination of, Judeo-Christian ethic, Classical Greco-Roman thinking and the cultural practices of the "barbarian" peoples of Northern Europe. Under the strictest definition, it would include North America, Australia and Western/Central Europe: with the identities of Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, Singapore, Israel and South Africa being disputed due to the mix of both western and non western culture.
Geography |
15901 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse | Mouse | A mouse (plural mice) is a small rodent, which is a kind of mammal.
It has a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail and a high breeding rate. Most belong to the mus genus. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Usually, house mice are brownish-gray. It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. They are known to invade homes for food and occasionally shelter.
These small animals are often used in science experiments, or sometimes kept as pets. Some mice carry diseases. In some places they damage crops. This causes some people to think of mice as vermin or pests. Many other people think mice are cute and fun animals.
Mice are rodents, therefore they are related to squirrels, rats, and beavers. Mice eat weeds, seeds, berries, and more. They are eaten by owls, foxes, and cats, amongst others.
Types of mice
The word "mouse" should only be used for small murines, but does get used for other distantly-related small rodents. The murines are the largest subfamily of mammals. In fact, it is larger than almost all mammal orders.
House mouse
The common house mouse is thought of as a pest. They are found in the homes of humans.
Vole
Voles are not mice, they are in a different family of rodents.
Deer mouse
These are not mice either, or only distantly related. These mice live in forests. They can run and jump better than mice, and they get their common name from this.
The aggressive grasshopper mouse rarely eats other mice, but it does like grasshoppers and insects. It is also only a distant relative.
Mice in media
Anthropomorphism makes cartoon mice look and act more like people than like real mice. For example, the Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse walk, talk, and act like people. Jerry, the mouse star of Tom and Jerry cartoons, is similarly humanized.
References
Old World rats and mice |
15902 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance%20Wars | Advance Wars | Advance Wars is a video game for the Game Boy Advance. It is based on earlier games for Nintendo systems such as the Famicom and Game Boy. It is a strategy game: players must think of ways to win.
The game can be played with two, three, or four players at a time. Each player takes turns controlling their military-style playing pieces, called "units." Every unit can move along the playing field, which is split up into squares. The amount of squares a unit can move in one turn is different for each unit.
Most units can attack other units. Each unit has its own strength and defense. Strength is how much damage the unit can do to another unit. Defense is how much damage it can avoid taking whenever it is attacked. For example, the tank unit has more defense than the soldier, so even though the helicopter always has the same amount of attacking power, it can do more damage to the soldier than the tank.
References
2001 video games
Game Boy Advance-only games
Intelligent Systems games
Wars series |
15905 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon%20Islands | Solomon Islands | The Solomon Islands () are a group of islands in the South Pacific that make up a country. They are known for their beauty and for the many languages spoken there. The capital of the Solomon Islands is Honiara.
History
In the 1890s the islands became a protectorate of the British Empire.
Empire of Japan forces arrived in early 1942 and the United States Marine Corps attacked them, starting the Guadalcanal Campaign.
Civil unrest
There was civil untrest between 1998 and 2003, commonly called the tensions or the ethnic tension; it included fighting between the Isatabu Freedom Movement (also known as the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army) and the Malaita Eagle Force (as well as the Marau Eagle Force). (Although much of the conflict was between Guales and Malaitans, two research papers say that the 'ethnic conflict' label is an oversimplification.
In 2006, riots broke out following the election of Snyder Rini as Prime Minister, destroying part of the capital's Chinatown and displacing more than 1,000 Chinese residents; The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), the 16-country Pacific Islands Forum initiative set up in 2003 with assistance from Australia, intervened, sending in additional police and army officers to bring the situation under control. A motion of no confidence was passed against the Prime Minister. Following his resignation, a five-party Grand Coalition for Change Government was formed in May 2006, with Manasseh Sogavare as Prime Minister, quelling the riots and running the government. The army part of RAMSI was removed and rebuilding took shape.
2007 change of Prime Minister
On 13 December 2007, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was toppled by a vote of no confidence in Parliament, following the defection of five ministers to the opposition. It was the first time a prime minister had lost office in this way in Solomon Islands. On 20 December, Parliament elected the opposition's candidate (and former Minister for Education) Derek Sikua as Prime Minister, in a vote of 32 to 15.
Earthquakes
On 2 April 2007 at 07:39:56 local time (UTC+11) an earthquake with magnitude 8.1 occurred at hypocenter S8.453 E156.957, 349 kilometres (217 miles) northwest of the island's capital, Honiara and south-east of the capital of Western Province, Gizo, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). More than 44 aftershocks with magnitude 5.0 or greater occurred up until 22:00:00 UTC, Wednesday, 4 April 2007. A tsunami followed killing at least 52 people, destroying more than 900 homes and leaving thousands of people homeless. Land upthrust extended the shoreline of one island, Ranongga, by up to 70 metres (230 ft) exposing many once pristine coral reefs.
On February 6, 2013, an earthquake with magnitude of 8.0 occurred at epicentre S10.80 E165.11 in the Santa Cruz Islands followed by a tsunami up to 1.5 metres. At least nine people were killed and many houses demolished. The main quake was preceded by a sequence of earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 6.0.
Provinces
The country is divided into nine provinces and the town of Honiara.
Central
Choiseul
Guadalcanal
Isabel
Makira-Ulawa
Malaita
Rennell and Bellona
Temotu
Western
Honiara City
References
Current monarchies
English-speaking countries
Commonwealth realms
Least developed countries
1978 establishments in Oceania |
15908 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intestine | Intestine | The intestines, divided into the small intestine and the large intestine, of an animal are like a tube through which food and bile from the stomach move.
The first part of the small intestine is called the duodenum, where most food is broken down by enzymes. Later, the small intestine absorbs useful compounds from the digested food, which is done using small villi or tiny microvilli - hair-like structures in the walls of the intestine.
The large intestine, also called the bowel, absorbs water and any other nutrients, as well as vitamins made by the gut flora in the colon. Finally, waste is expelled through the anus.
References
Anatomy of the digestive system |
15909 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical%20equation | Chemical equation | A chemical equation is a way to predict the way that two or more chemicals will work together. Using what chemists know about the way chemicals act, we add the letter symbols together just like a math problem. In this way we can correctly guess if we will get a new chemical when we mix two or more chemicals together, and what that chemical will be.
Chemical equations are either worded or written using the elements' symbols, how much of the element and in what state (solid[s], liquid[l], gas[g]) it is in.
For example: An aqueous solution of sodium chloride (NaCl[aq]) and another aqueous solution of silver nitrate (AgNO3[aq]). These mixed together form sodium nitrate (NaNO3[aq]) and silver chloride (AgCl[s])
Which in symbols is:
NaCl(aq) + AgNO3(aq) → NaNO3(aq) + AgCl(s)
The solutions formed the solid AgCl. This formation can be called a precipitate and the reaction between the two solutions a precipitation reaction, because the solid produced is not dissolved, whereas all the other products are dissolved.
More about chemical equations
Chemical equations need to be balanced to satisfy the law of conservation of matter. Chemical equations tell that in a closed system matter is neither created nor destroyed. The chemical equation needs to be balanced so that it follows the law of conservation of mass. A balanced chemical equation happens when the number of the different atoms of elements on the reactants side is equal to that of the products side.
Balancing chemical equations is a process of trial and error. To balance the equation, the amounts of the reactants and products must be changed. As necessary, by adding coefficients in front of the appropriate formulas. When balancing an equation, never change the subscripts, because that changes the substance. To determine the number of atoms of each element, the coefficient is multiplied times the subscripts in each formula.
Methods of balancing chemical equations
A chemical equation is a written symbolic representation of a chemical reaction. The reactant chemicals are given on the left-hand side and the product chemical on the right-hand side. The law of conservation of mass says that no atoms can be made in a chemical reaction. Also, it cannot be destroyed. So the number of atoms that are present in the reactants has to balance the number of atoms that are present in the reaction.
There are two practices of balancing a chemical equation. The first one is balancing by Inspection. Balancing by inspection is the most basic method used. It works best for simple problems. More complicated ones require experience. The second one is Balancing by Numerical Method. The most important parts of the numerical methotrexate, contrary to the inspection method, it gives the answer. If the reaction can be balanced, coefficients can be seen. If the reaction can't be balanced, it means that there are more unidentified than independent statements, or that statements are opposite. With inspection method, it won't prove that the equation can't be balanced.
why do we need to balance a chemical equation?
we need to balance a chemical equation because "law of conservation of mass" state that mass can neither be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction.
So number of elements involved in a chemical reaction should remain same at reactant and product side.
(reactant = product)
References
Other websites
Master of Chemical Equations - Real chemical equation balancer.
Chemical Equation Balancer - An open source chemical equation balancer.
Classic Chembalancer - Play Chembalancer, a free online game at FunBasedLearning.com, to learn how to balance equations
Online calculator, determines of the coefficients of a chemical equation
Online Chemical Equation Balancer Balances equation of any chemical reaction (full or half-cell) in one click.
Balance chemical equations Teaches how to balance chemical equations
Stoichiometry Add-In for Microsoft Excel for calculation of molecular weights, reaction coëfficients and stoichiometry.
Chemical reactions
Equations |
15925 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer | Lucifer | Lucifer is another name for Satan. This is because people interpret a passage in the Book of Isaiah of the Bible in a certain way. Lucifer is Latin. It is made of two parts, lux-lucis (light) and ferre (to bring).
There are two mentions of Lucifer in the Latin Vulgate. is used to refer to the morning star, the planet Venus that appears at dawn: once in to translate the Greek word "Φωσφόρος" (Phosphoros), which has exactly the same literal meaning of "Light-Bringer" that "Lucifer" has in Latin; and once in to translate "הילל" (Hêlēl), which also means "Morning Star".
Latin name for the Morning Star
Lucifer is the Latin name for the "Morning Star", both in prose and poetry, as seen in works by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), Cicero (106-43 BC) and other early Latin writers
Cicero wrote:
Stella Veneris, quae Φωσφόρος Graece, Latine dicitur Lucifer, cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem Hesperos
The star of Venus, called Φωσφόρος in Greek and Lucifer in Latin when it precedes, Hesperos when it follows the sun.
And Pliny the Elder:
sidus appellatum Veneris … ante matutinum exoriens Luciferi nomen accipit … contra ab occasu refulgens nuncupatur Vesper
The star called Venus … when it rises in the morning is given the name Lucifer … but when it shines at sunset it is called Vesper
Poets also used the word "Lucifer". Ovid has at least eleven mentions of the Morning Star in his poetry. Virgil wrote:
Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura
carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent
Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears,
To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy
And Statius:
et iam Mygdoniis elata cubilibus altoimpulerat caelo gelidas Aurora tenebras,
rorantes excussa comas multumque sequentisole rubens; illi roseus per nubila seras
aduertit flammas alienumque aethera tardoLucifer exit equo, donec pater igneus orbem
impleat atque ipsi radios uetet esse sorori
And now Aurora rising from her Mygdonian couch had driven the cold darkness on from high in the heavens, shaking out her dewy hair, her face blushing red at the pursuing sun – from him roseate Lucifer averts his fires lingering in the clouds and with reluctant horse leaves the heavens no longer his, until the blazing father make full his orb and forbid even his sister her beams
Lucifer as Devil character of the Bible
Lucifer is the epitome of evil in the Christian religion. Lucifer is believed by some to be Satan's name when he was still an angel, but it is Latin for 'light bringer' and not originally in the Bible.
The word Lucifer was also used in Latin to mean the "morningstar", the planet Venus, and this word was used in the Latin version of Isaiah 14, where the Hebrew version was speaking to a king of Babylonia.
References
Demons
ro:Luceafăr |
15927 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology | Astrobiology | Astrobiology is the study of life in outer space. The field of astrobiology looks for conditions necessary for life, like liquid water, a good temperature, or the presence of oxygen.
Some possible places to find life in the solar system are Europa, Ganymede, moons of Jupiter, or Titan, and Enceladus, moons of Saturn. These places may have liquid water. They may be too cold to support life on their surfaces, but if they have liquid water, the water must be warm enough to support life. Astrobiologists suggest that there may be a liquid water ocean under their surfaces.
Related pages
Abiogenesis
Astronomy
Earliest known life forms
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial sky
Panspermia
References
Other websites
Astrobiology.nasa.gov
Spanish Centro de Astrobiología
UK Centre for Astrobiology
Astrobiology Research at The Library of Congress
Astrobiology Survey – An introductory course on astrobiology
Astronomy
Branches of biology |
15933 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle | Castle | Castles are medieval buildings which were defensive homes for powerful people. They could be made from wood, stone, or brick, and some were used for hundreds of years. Thousands of castles were built across Europe, the Middle East, and Japan with different designs. Today, most castles are ruins and many are popular tourist attractions.
In England and Wales castles were first used by the invading Normans led by Duke William in 1066. They provided a base for lord of the castle to control the surrounding area and govern their land. Castles were designed to be imposing: their massive defenses deterred attackers and showed the owner's strength.
A few troops in a castle could defend themselves against a much larger army. The most common method for taking a castle would be to besiege or storm it. Each had problems. Storming a castle would kill many of the attackers, but a siege would take a long time. Both methods sometimes failed.
Time of building
Castles were first built in the 9th century and the practice continued up to the 16th century. A castle was both a home for someone important like a king or noble, and a fort. Castles were designed to keep people out and show how powerful the people inside were. They were sometimes used in war, with many famous sieges like the siege of Kenilworth in 1266 which lasted for six months, or Stirling Castle which was besieged eight times.
Castles could look very strong, but sometimes the defences were mostly for show. The moat around Bodiam Castle is not very deep and could be drained by an attacking army, so was not very practical as a defence. But it made the castle look very impressive, and look bigger than it really is. If the owner of a castle rebelled against their ruler they might be punished by having their castle demolished, known as slighting.
Where to find them
Castles were built in Europe and the Middle East, with similar buildings developing separately in Japan in the 15th century. Castles were usually built from either wood or stone, and sometimes brick. Some castles started off as wooden and were then rebuilt in stone, which was more expensive and a stronger so that the castles could be bigger. They could be built on hills or low areas like the edge of towns or at river crossings. There is the widely held idea that castles were always built on high hills; while there are some castles which make dramatic use of the landscape and are highly visible, there were a lot of factors in choosing where to build castles and only a minority were on hills. For example, many castles were built along the Rhine River so they could stop people using the river without permission.
Depending on the exact definition, the number of castles varies and more castles are still being discovered. The numbers below are rough, and it is difficult to find estimates for some countries like Italy and Spain though they have many castles. Imitation castles have been built in the 19th and 20th century, like Neuschwanstein or some places in the United States but these are not considered genuine castles as they were not meant to be defensive.
Austria: 160
Czech Republic: 60
Denmark: 20
England: about 2,700
Finland: 6
Germany: 6,300
Hungary: 80
Japan: 5,000
Latvia: 30
Netherlands: 140
Scotland: 3,000
Slovakia: 50
Switzerland: 4,000
Wales: 700
Life in a castle
The powerful people who built castles also lived in them with their families. They would have servants and a group of people to make sure the castle worked: people fetching water, cooking, clearing the stables, looking after animals, cooking, lighting fires, and checking who was coming into the castle. In peacetime, most castles only had a few soldiers who would guard the place.
Today, most castles have bare stone walls inside but in the Middle Ages they looked very different. Important rooms had colourful tapestries hanging on the walls, and paintings on the ceiling. Other rooms like kitchens or cupboards had plain white walls. Fireplaces kept rooms warm, and candles were used for light at night or in dark rooms. Glass was used later in the Middle Ages, but windows had shutters to keep out the cold and the weather. Religion was an important of the Middle Ages, and castles usually had chapels so that the people who lived there could pray.
The end of castles
Later in the Middle Ages, important people wanted more privacy and larger homes. It was easier to build new homes instead of trying to make the castles bigger, so some people moved out of castles into new homes. The use of gunpowder weapons also changed warfare and made castles less effective. Guns were introduced in the 14th century, and by the 15th and 16th centuries they were powerful enough to break castle walls. New types of fortification were invested, with shorter thicker walls, and using earth to absorb hits from cannonballs.
Though cannons were powerful, castles were still used in war. In the 17th century, lots of castles were used in the English Civil War, though many of them had not been lived in for decades and needed repairs.
Castles today
As castles were built hundreds of years ago, most of them are ruins. Some are still lived in by wealthy families, or are still used by governments or armies. Because of this they might have changed and look different to old castles which were abandoned. Many castles have been turned into museums so the public can visit and learn about the past. Some castles are owned by the state, and others are owned by private people. Castles are expensive to run, so many are falling down. Every so often lightning strikes, flooding, or earthquakes damage castles.
People have been interested in castle for centuries. Historians and archaeologists have searched old documents and dug into castles to find out more about them. Because of this, for some castles we know who owned them, when they were used, when bits were built, what people ate, and what kind of things happened at castles. But there are lots of places where we know very little, not even when they were built. This is because a lot of medieval documents do not survive.
Some castle ruins have been rebuilt to look like they did originally.Also,many "mock" castles have been built ( primarily in Europe and North America ), predominantly during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Glossary
Some terms you might find people using when they talk about castles:
bailey – an area of a castle surrounded by a wall or bank to keep people out
keep – a large tower
motte – a mound of earth which had a tower on top
motte and bailey – a castle with a mound of earth with an enclosed area next to it
rampart – a bank of earth, usually next to a ditch
ringwork – a circular castle with a bank and ditch
slighting – deliberately damaging a castle
turret – a small tower
Notes and references
Books used
More resources
Other websites |
15935 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%20Commons | Wikimedia Commons | Wikimedia Commons is a website owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, based on a wiki. Anybody can upload images, sounds, videos, and other multimedia files to the website. The files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons can be used by any other Wikimedia Foundation project, like Wikipedia or Wiktionary. For example, Wikipedia uses images on Wikimedia Commons to include pictures in their encyclopedia articles. The files can also be freely used by anyone else because they have free licenses.
Wikimedia Commons has categories, which are groups of files that have something in common or similar. For example, there is a category for pictures of cats. Wikimedia Commons is a multilingual website, meaning that it can be used in every language. However, some parts of Wikimedia Commons are only in English, like names of categories.
Wikimedia Commons also has sound files. Not all of these are music. For example, there are recordings that read words out loud. These files are used in Wiktionary, a free dictionary, to teach people how to say words.
For every file on Wikimedia Commons, the person who made it has to let everybody use it and change it as much as they want, including companies (see Creative Commons).
Wikimedia Commons reached 10 million files on April 15, 2011.
Improvements
The Wikimedia Foundation was given money to make it easier for people to use their websites. They used some of this money to make the UploadWizard, a new system for uploading files on Wikimedia Commons. People started using the UploadWizard in December 2010.
The UploadWizard also teaches new uploaders about copyright law. It has a tutorial for users to read so that they can check if the file they are uploading is violating copyright. Most uploads are by the UploadWizard.
Before, Wikimedia Commons only let people upload one file at a time. The UploadWizard lets people upload multiple files at the same time and include all the required information about each one.
Logo
The logo of Wikimedia Commons has a red circle inside a blue circle. There are many small blue arrows pointing from the blue circle to the red circle in the middle, and one big blue arrow pointing upwards. The small blue arrows represent the different projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. The large arrow is to show that Wikimedia Commons is constantly improving.
This logo was chosen in a vote in 2004.
References
Other websites
Wikimedia Commons
Simple English version of the Main Page
2004 logo vote
Wikimedia
Wikis
Free content
Websites established in 2004 |
15937 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria | Bulgaria | Bulgaria (officially called the Republic of Bulgaria) is a country in south-eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bulgaria is the south of the River Danube and west of the Black Sea. To the south of Bulgaria is European Turkey, Greece, and North Macedonia. To the north of the Danube is Romania, while to the west of Bulgaria is Serbia.
The capital and the biggest city is Sofia. Their money is called the lev. The Bulgarian government is a member of the European Union and NATO. Rumen Radev became President in 2017. The population of Bulgaria is a little more than 7 million people.
Bulgaria has its own language, called Bulgarian. It is a type of Slavic language. It is related to languages like Serbian and Russian. Bulgaria borders Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. One of the national heroes of Bulgaria is Vasil Levski who led the fight for independence in the late 1800s.
Prehistory
In what is now Bulgaria, many different people and different cultures lived over time. This includes Neolithic, Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, eneolithic, Varna culture (5th millennium BC) and the Bronze Age Ezero culture.
History
Classical Antiquity
The Thracians lived in the area of modern Bulgaria (in Thrace or ). King Tere united the people in Odrysian Kingdom around 500 BC.
Alexander the Great had influence over the people in the 4th century BC.
The last Hellenistic Thracian kingdom became part of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. The lands of Bulgaria were then part of the Roman Empire.
Eurasian Avars, South Slavs and Huns settled all over the territory of modern Bulgaria during the 6th century.
Medieval Bulgaria
The Bulgars arrived in Thracia in the 7th century. The Bulgars established the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 AD, after a war with the Romans in which the Bulgarians had success. In 1018, the Romans overcame the Bulgarians in war, the Bulgarian state ended, and Bulgaria became part of the Roman Empire again.
The Second Bulgarian Empire started in a rebellion about 1185 AD. The state had Tarnovo as the capital.
Ottoman Bulgaria
The Ottoman Empire took over in 1396 and ruled Bulgaria for about 500 years. The Ottomans had very strict rules and the Bulgarians suffered. The Bulgarians rebelled several times against the Turkish rulers.
Under the Ottoman Rule Turks and Muslim Gypsys was settled elswhere in Bulgaria, also some of the Rhodope Mountains Bulgarians became Muslim and called Pomak. After the loss of the Crimean Khanate in 1783 Muslim Crimean Tatars and Muslim Crimean Gypsys who called themself Turkoman went to Ottoman Bulgaria in Dobruja part.
19th century
In 1876, there was the April Uprising, a Bulgarian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. In the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the Russian Empire overcame the Ottomans. In 1878, Bulgaria became, in part, independent, although the Ottomans controlled its foreign policy.
20th century
Bulgaria pulled away from Ottoman Empire's influence with the help of the Russian Empire who were already fighting the Ottomans. But it was not until 1908 that the whole country of Bulgaria was united as modern Bulgaria.
Bulgaria joined the side of Germany in World War I and lost. Bulgaria had hoped to get part of the lands Bulgaria lost in the Balkan Wars.
During the first year of World War II Bulgaria said it was neutral and refused to join sides with Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Bulgaria's military and economy were had a close connection with Germany. Bulgaria's leaders signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany in March 1941. This let German forces go through Bulgaria to reach Greece.
Bulgaria's troops invaded Greece and Yugoslavia just after the governments of those countries surrendered. Bulgaria occupied the lands of modern North Macedonia and parts of Greece. (Both areas had been part of Bulgaria before the Balkan Wars.) The Bulgarian government also sent Jews to concentration camps and ghettoes in the Holocaust. The king of Bulgaria, Tsar Boris III, died after talking to Hitler in August 1943. Before the Tsar died, the Kingdom of Bulgaria had sent at least 11,343 Jews to the extermination camps.
In 1944 when it became clear that the Allied Powers would win the war, Bulgaria had to find another solution. Their leaders declared that they withdrew from the Axis forces and helped the German army leave the Balkans through Bulgaria. The Soviet Union didn't respect Bulgaria's claim to be neutral. The Red Army invaded Bulgaria in September 1944. At the same time, a new pro-Soviet government took power in Sofia. At this point, the Jews were released from the ghettoes and concentration camps in Bulgaria. The new government joined the Allies, and the military started to attack the German army, which the Bulgarian government had helped to leave Bulgarian lands.
The Soviets replaced the royal monarchy with Communism in 1947 before they withdrew from Bulgaria in 1949. For 40 years, under their leader Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria was very close to the Soviet Union and followed their instructions. Bulgaria invaded Czechoslovakia to stop the Prague Spring in 1968.
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on 10 November 1989, the Bulgarian Communist Party gave up their rule and allowed the country to elect leaders of their own choice. But in a few years, Bulgaria had serious money problems under the new socialist government. Since that time Bulgaria has recovered in many ways and is much more stable. It is still one of the poorest countries in Europe. Problems in the administration, a weak court system, and organized crime are the biggest issues for Bulgaria.
Economy and Social Welfare
Bulgaria's economy was dependent on the COMECON market. This was a group of communist countries (Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) that agreed to work together. This group fell apart in 1989 with the fall of communism in Europe. While this was good for personal freedom, it was too much of a change for the businesses and jobs. Also, Yugoslavia, their neighbor, fell into a civil war as their country broke apart, and that did not help Bulgaria. Living standards fell by 40 percent as people lost their jobs and their savings were not worth much, and even some newborn babies were sent to orphanages when their parents could not take care of them.
In 1994 Bulgaria had a short economic boom. But that slowed down in 1996 from bad finance deals and other banking problems. In 1997 there was high inflation (the money could not buy as much as it did before). Retired people had little income (their pension did not go up as fast as inflation did) and their savings were not worth very much. Many retired people were begging in the streets for food. But since then the economy has grown steadily. People from outside the country started putting money into businesses and houses, and Bulgarians learned how to make their own businesses.
Today Bulgaria has Europe's lowest income and corporate tax, 10 percent for both individuals and businesses. This makes Bulgaria a very good place for business. Bulgaria also has skilled and educated workers. The average monthly salary in Bulgaria is still cheap at 400 euro or $541 USD.
The state no longer has free health care. This system has been replaced by an insurance plan that people pay for, and drug costs are based on income. Private health care is encouraged nowadays. Help for people who lose their jobs is no longer automatic, but some help is available, based on family status and length of unemployment.
The retirement age for men is 64 years and for women 61 years. It will be 63 years and 9 months for woman and 65 years and 3 months for man in 2032.
Provinces
Since 1999, Bulgaria has been divided into 28 provinces or regions. Each province is named after its local capital. The provinces are divided into municipalities, there are 264 in total.
Society
There are 6 Bulgarian development regions of 27 smaller provinces. See List of settlements in Bulgaria for a list of all large locations.
In Bulgaria there are 5,664,624 citizens of Christian Bulgarians and Muslim Pomaks, 1,200,000 citizens of Muslim Turks and Crimean Tatarians and 800,000 Citizens of Christian and Muslim Roma/Gypsies.
Bulgaria is classified as a developing country by the EU.
Number of people living in Bulgaria: 7,351,234
Female: 3,770,897 (51%)
Male: 3,580,337 (49%)
Those living in cities: 5,357,633 (73%)
Those living in villages: 1,993,601 (27%)
Number of dwellings (houses, apartments, summer house/villa, any place where people can live): 3,898,688
Number of households (people living together - families, roommates, etc.): 2,826,740
Related pages
List of rivers of Bulgaria
References
European Union member states |
15938 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alps | Alps | The Alps (, , , , , , ) is the greatest mountain range of Europe. It reaches from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west. The original meaning of the word was 'white'.
The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc, at , on the Italian–French border.
Geography
The Alps stretch from Austria and Slovenia in the east, through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west.
The mountains are divided into the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps. The division is along the line between Lake Constance and Lake Como, following the Rhine. The Western Alps are higher, but their central chain is shorter and curved; they are located in Italy, France and Switzerland.
The Eastern Alps (main ridge system elongated and broad) belong to Austria, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland. The highest peaks of the Western Alps are Mont Blanc, 4,808 metres (15,774 ft), Mont Blanc de Courmayeur 4,748 metres (15,577 ft), the Dufourspitze 4,634 metres (15,203 ft) and the other summits of the Monte Rosa group, and the Dom, 4,545 metres (14,911 ft). The highest peak in the Eastern Alps is Piz Bernina, 4,049 metres (13,284 ft). Perhaps the most famous location for tourist to the Alps are the Swiss Alps.
Main chain
The main chain of the Alps follows the watershed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Wienerwald, defining the northern border of Italy. It then passes over many of the highest and most famous peaks in the Alps. From the Colle di Cadibona to Col de Tende it runs to the west before turning to the northwest and then, to the north, near the Colle della Maddalena. Upon reaching the Swiss border, the line of the main chain goes about northeast, a heading it follows until its end near Vienna.
Common passes
The Alps do not make an impassable block; they have been traveled by for war and commerce, and later by pilgrims, students and tourists. Mountain passes give paths between mountains, for road, train or foot traffic. Some are famous, being used for thousands of years.
Four-thousanders
The Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) has defined a list of 82 "official" Alpine 4,000-meter (13,123 ft) peaks. The list has many sub-peaks with little prominence, but good for mountaineering. Here are the twelve four-thousanders with at least 1 km prominence.
Karl Blodig was the first person to climb all the main four-thousand meter peaks, round 1900.
Geology and orogeny
The reason mountains form is usually the moving together of continental plates of the Earth's crust. The Alps rose as a result of the slow but gigantic pressure of the African plate as it moved north against the stable Eurasian landmass. In particular, Italy (which had been a separate island) got pushed into Europe.
This all took place in the Tertiary period, mostly in the Miocene and Pliocene. That's about 35 to 5 million years ago.
The Alps are just a part of a larger orogenic belt of mountain chains, called the Alpide belt. It reaches through southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic Ocean most of the way to the Himalayas.
A gap in these mountain chains in central Europe separates the Alps from the Carpathians off to the east. Subsidence is the cause of the gaps in between.
A great and ancient ocean was once between Africa and Europe, the Tethys Ocean. Now sediments of the Tethys Ocean basin and its Mesozoic and early Cenozoic strata sit high above sea level. Even metamorphic basement rocks are found high on Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and other high peaks in the Pennine Alps and Hohe Tauern.
The formation of the Mediterranean Sea is a more recent development.
Travel and visitors
The Alps are popular both in summer and in winter. The Alps as a place for sightseeing and sports. Winter sports (Alpine and Nordic skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, snowshoeing, ski tours) can be learned in most regions from December to April. In summer, the Alps are popular with hikers, mountain bikers, paragliders, and mountaineers. There are also alpine lakes which attract swimmers, sailors and surfers. The lower places and bigger towns of the Alps are well served by motorways and main roads, but higher passes and by-roads can be bad even in the summer. Many passes are closed in winter. Many airports around the Alps (and some within), as well as long-distance rail links from all bordering countries, afford large numbers of travelers easy access from abroad. The Alps normally has more than 100 million visitors a year.
Climate
The Alps is split into five climate zones, each with a different kind of environment. The climate, plant life and animal life vary on different sections or zones of the mountain.
The section of the Alps that is above 3,000 metres is called the névé zone. This area, which has the coldest climate, is permanently coated with compressed snow. Plants are therefore scarce in the névé zone.
The alpine zone lies between the height of 2,000 and 3,000 metres. This zone is less cold than in the névé zone. Wildflowers and grasses grow here.
Just below the alpine zone is the subalpine zone, 1,500 to 2,000 metres high. Forests of fir trees and spruce trees grow in the subalpine zone as the temperature slowly goes up.
At about 1,000 to 1,500 metres high is the arable zone. Millions of oak trees sprout in this area. This is also where farming takes place.
Below 1,000 metres are the lowlands. Here, a larger variety of plants are produced. Aside from plants, villages are also in the lowlands because the temperature is easier for humans and farm animals.
The Alps is a classic example of what happens when a temperate area at lower altitude gives way to higher land. A rise from sea level into the upper regions causes the temperature to decrease. The effect of mountain chains on winds is to carry warm air belonging to the lower region into an upper zone, where it expands and loses heat, and drops snow or rain.
Plants
The typical trees—oak, beech, ash and sycamore maple have a natural height limit: the 'tree line'. Their upper limit matches the change in climate which comes with increasing height. The change from a temperate to a colder climate is also shown true by a change in the wild flowering plant life. This limit normally lies about above the sea on the north side of the Alps. On the southern slopes, it often reaches to , sometimes even to .
The Alps do not always have the typical trees. People have felled them in many places. Except for the beech forests of the Austrian Alps, forests of the typical deciduous trees are hardly found. Where such woods were, Scots pine and Norway spruce now grow. These trees are less sensitive to the attacks of goats who eat the saplings of deciduous trees.
Above the tree line, there is often a band of dwarf pine trees (Pinus mugo), which is taking place of dwarf shrubs. These shrubs are Rhododendron ferrugineum (on acid soils) or Rhododendron hirsutum (on non-acid soils).
Above this is the alpine meadow. Above the alpine meadow is where plant life becomes less and less common. At these great heights, the plants are likely to make separate groups. In the Alps, many species of flowering plants have been recorded above . These are like Ranunculus glacialis, Androsace alpina and Saxifraga biflora.
Animals
Species common to the Alps.
References |
15939 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda | Rwanda | Rwanda is a country in Africa. It is near Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Uganda, and Tanzania. In the Rwandan genocide of 1994, over one million (1,000,000) people were killed.
History
Colonialism
During the Scramble for Africa, Belgium conquered Rwanda. The Belgians then began to divide Rwandans into groups: Hutu, and Tutsi. The Belgians picked people that they thought looked more European to be Tutsi. The rest became Hutu. The Belgians told Rwandans that Tutsi were superior to Hutu. They helped Tutsi rule over Hutu using their army.
After independence
On July 1, 1962, Rwanda became independent and Hutu were given power. Thus, anti-Tutsi purges occurred frequently. Many Tutsi fled to Uganda, where they formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, which tried to invade Rwanda in 1990.
The genocide against Tutsi
On the night of April 6, 1994, dictator Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down, but it is still not clear who did it. Within half an hour, roadblocks manned by the Interahamwe militia were seen all over the capital, Kigali. The genocide against Tutsi had begun. It lasted for about 100 days, and it left over one million (1,000,000), Tutsi and moderate Hutu dead. The main weapon used was the machete, or umupanga. Other countries paid little attention to the killing. On July 2, 1994, the RPF captured Kigali.
Provinces
There are five provinces in Rwanda. These are Northern Province, Southern Province, Eastern Province, Western Province, and the Kigali City in the centre.
Districts
This is a list of districts in Rwanda.
Huye
Nyamagabe
Nyaruguru
Gisagara
Nyanza
Ruhango
Musanze
Gicumbi
Rulindo
Gakenke
Rusizi
Nyamasheke
Karongi
Rubavu
Rutsiro
Nyabihu
Bugesera
Rwamagana
Gatsibo
Kirehe
Nyagatare
Ngoma
Kicukiro
Gasabo
Nyarugenge
Geography
At , Rwanda is the world's 149th-largest country. The entire country is at a high altitude. The lowest point is the Rusizi River at above sea level. Rwanda is in Central/Eastern Africa. It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south. It is a few degrees south of the equator and is landlocked. The capital, Kigali, is near the centre of Rwanda.
The country's longest river is the Nyabarongo. The Nyabarongo-Kagera eventually drains into Lake Victoria. Rwanda has many lakes, the largest being Lake Kivu. It is one of the twenty deepest lakes in the world. Other sizeable lakes include Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi, Rweru, and Ihema. Ihema is the largest of a string of lakes in the eastern plains of Akagera National Park.
There are many mountains in central and western Rwanda. The highest peaks are found in the Virunga volcano chain in the northwest. This includes Mount Karisimbi, Rwanda's highest point, at . The centre of the country is mostly rolling hills. The eastern border area has savanna, plains and swamps.
Rwanda has a temperate tropical highland climate. It has lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries. This is because of its high elevation. Kigali, in the centre of the country, has a typical daily temperature range between and . There is little change through the year. There are two rainy seasons in the year. The first runs from February to June and the second from September to December. These are separated by two dry seasons. The major one is from June to September, during which there is often no rain at all. There is a shorter and less severe one from December to February.
Biodiversity
In prehistoric times montane forest covered one third of the land of present-day Rwanda. Naturally occurring vegetation is now mostly in the three National parks, with terraced agriculture in the rest of the country. Nyungwe, the largest remaining forest, has 200 species of tree as well as orchids and begonias. Vegetation in the Volcanoes National Park is mostly bamboo and moorland, with small areas of forest. Akagera has a savanna ecosystem. Here there are mostly acacia. There are several rare or endangered plant species in Akagera, including Markhamia lutea and Eulophia guineensis.
The greatest diversity of large mammals is found in the three National Parks. Akagera has typical savanna animals such as giraffes and elephants, while Volcanoes is home to about one third of the worldwide mountain gorilla population. Nyungwe Forest has thirteen primate species including chimpanzees and Colobus monkeys. The Ruwenzori colobus move in groups of up to 400, the largest troop size of any primate in Africa.
There are 670 bird species in Rwanda. There is a difference between the east and the west. Nyungwe Forest, in the west, has 280 recorded species. Species include the Ruwenzori Turaco and Handsome Francolin. Eastern Rwanda, by contrast, has savanna birds such as the Black-headed Gonolek and those who live near swamps and lakes, including storks and cranes.
Related pages
List of rivers of Rwanda
Rwanda at the Olympics
Rwanda national football team
References
1962 establishments in Africa
English-speaking countries
French-speaking countries
Least developed countries
States and territories established in the 1960s |
15940 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake%20Ontario | Lake Ontario | Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in North America, but its maximum depth (802ft; 244m) is deeper than lake Erie's (210ft) and Lake Huron's (750ft).
It forms most of the border between Ontario in Canada and New York in the United States of America. Its inlet is the Niagara River (from Niagara Falls), and its outlet is the Saint Lawrence River. Nearly 9 million Canadians live near Lake Ontario. It is the only Great Lake that does not touch the U.S. state of Michigan, the "Great Lakes State".
Great Lakes
Lakes of Canada
Geography of Ontario |
15941 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake%20Superior | Lake Superior | Lake Superior is a lake in Canada and the United States.
The Ojibwe Native Americans call it Gitchigume. Lake Superior is in between Ontario and Minnesota to the north and Wisconsin and Michigan in the south, and is the largest of North America's Great Lakes. It is the world's third largest lake, and the world's largest freshwater lake (by area). Its outlet is the St. Marys River to Lake Huron. The Soo Locks allow carrying large amounts of iron ore and other cargo to the other Great Lakes.
Over 80 species of fish live in Lake Superior.
Great Lakes
Lakes of Canada
Geography of Ontario
Lakes of the United States |
15942 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS%20Edmund%20Fitzgerald | SS Edmund Fitzgerald | SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an ore carrier on Lake Superior, carrying iron ore, which sank on November 10, 1975 at around 7:30 PM. The ship was known for being the biggest of its time weighing in at around 13, 600 tons, Edmund Fitzgerald was one of the largest “iron boats” working the Great Lakes. Nobody knows how the boat sunk, however it is very possible that the dangerously high weight of its cargo, and the violent winds and waves caused the ship to sink. All 29 men aboard the boat died and to this day no body's have been recovered. To remember the men on the S.S Fitzgerald a song was written by the Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot the song was titled The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The song describes what the ship itself and touches on some theory's on how it may have sunk, interestingly enough the original song contained the passage:
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya. At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in. He said Fellas, it's been good to know ya
This passage was proven to be false as a dive team sent in to recover the bodies found the main hatch way to be in perfect condition. When informed of this Gordon Lightfoot rewrote the verse to:
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya. At 7 p.m., it grew dark, it was then he said, Fellas it's been good to know ya.
References
Other websites
News story from CBC
SS Edmund Fitzgerald Online
Ships of Canada |
15944 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon%20Lightfoot | Gordon Lightfoot | Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr., born November 17, 1938, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. He is famous around the world for his folk, country, and pop music songs. He was first heard in the 1960s and had hit radio songs in the 1970s such as: "If You Could Read My Mind", "Sundown", "Carefree Highway"', "Rainy Day People" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
Some of his songs have been recorded by other famous singers including: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barbra Streisand and Tony Rice.
Robbie Robertson of the Canadian music group called the Band said Gordon Lightfoot was his "favourite Canadian songwriters."
Gordon Lightfoot's music career has lasted almost fifty years and he has recorded more than 200 songs. His folk music of the 1960s and 1970s influenced many famous singers including Bob Dylan and Jim Croce. Like Robertson, Bob Dylan called Lightfoot one of his favourite songwriters.
In his career Gordon Lightfoot has received sixteen Juno Awards. He won Junos as "top folk singer" in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977. He won a Juno as "top male vocalist" in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973 And he won in 1972 and 1976 for being "composer of the year." He received ASCAP awards for songwriting in 1971, 1974, 1976 and 1977. And he has been nominated for five Grammy Awards. In 1980 Gordon Lightfoot was named "Canadian Male Recording Artist of the Decade" for his music of the 1970s.
Gordon Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and he was added to Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998. He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001.
In May 2003 he was made a Companion of the which is one of Canada's highest awards.
Music
1966 Lightfoot!
1967 The Way I Feel
1968 Did She Mention My Name
1968 Back Here on Earth
1969 Sunday Concert'
1970 Sit Down Young Stranger1971 Summer Side of Life1972 Don Quixote1972 Old Dan's Records1974 Sundown1975 Cold on the Shoulder1976 Summertime Dream1978 Endless Wire1980 Dream Street Rose1982 Shadows1983 Salute1986 East of Midnight1993 Waiting for You1998 A Painter Passing Through2004 Harmony2012 All Live2020 Solo''
Notes
Other websites
Lightfoot.ca (official site)
Order of Canada Citation
Lightfoot page at Canadian Encyclopedia
CBC Digital Archives: Gordon Lightfoot: Canada's Folk Laureate
Clips and more about Gordon from CBC
Additional clips
1938 births
Living people
Canadian pop musicians
Canadian singers
Canadian songwriters
Canadian guitarists
People from Ontario
Folk musicians
Country musicians
Warner Bros. Records artists |
15949 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish | Cornish | Cornish might mean:
Anything related to Cornwall, a county in England
Cornish people
Cornish language, a language from Cornwall
Cornish dialect, a dialect of English spoken in Cornwall
Cornish cookery, the cooking traditions of Cornwall
Cornish, Maine, a town in the U.S. state of Maine |
15957 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chameleon | Chameleon | Chameleons are a family of lizards. Most can change the colour of their skins for camouflage, or to signal mood to other chameleons.
They are a distinct clade of lizards. They have parrot-like zygodactylous feet, separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, very long tongues they can flick out, a swaying gait, their prehensile tail, crests or horns on their strange-shaped heads, and many can change colour.
There are about 160 species, living in Africa, Madagascar, Spain and Portugal, across south Asia, Sri Lanka. They have been introduced to Hawaii, California and Florida, and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest to desert conditions. Chameleons are often kept as household pets.
Chameleons have long sticky tongues that they can fire out in a fraction of a second. They stretch up to twice their body size. Their eyes can move independently. The largest species is about 1.5 feet when fully grown. They are mainly insectivores, but larger species may take occasional smaller lizards and young birds.
Tiny chameleons
The world's tiniest reptile has been found on Madagascar. It is a chameleon 13.5mm long. It hunts for mites on the rainforest floor and hides from predators at night in blades of grass. Other species of tiny chameleons have been found.
Vision
Chameleons have 360-degree eye-turning, the ability to zoom in and out, and binocular vision.
Each of the chameleon's eyes can move separately, allowing them to see all around them at all times.
Chameleons have two eyes whose vision overlaps. This gives them 3D vision. They can switch to monocular vision, which is seeing with each eye independently. This gives them more flexible sight.
In popular fiction
In Disney's Tangled (2010 movie), the main character, Rapunzel, has a green chameleon named Pascal
In Rango (2011 movie), the main character, voiced by Johnny Depp, is a chameleon
References
Other websites
Chameleons! Online E-zine
Chameleon Care and Information Center website
The Chameleon Forums |
15961 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interjection | Interjection | An interjection is a spoken or written expression of emotion like "Wow!" for surprise, "Ouch!" for pain, or "Damn!" for anger, or "Argh!" for frustration. These phrases can stand alone, and are usually capitalized and punctuated.
Parts of speech |
15962 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard%20Fillmore | Millard Fillmore | Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States. He was President from 1850 to 1853. He was the last Whig president, and the last president who was not a Democrat or Republican.
Fillmore became president in 1850 when the previous president, Zachary Taylor, died. The Whig party did not pick him to run for president in 1852. He ran for president in 1856 for the American Party but lost.
Early life
Millard Fillmore grew up in a poor family. He worked hard to do well in school, and went to college. He got a job as a lawyer in 1823. In 1828 he was voted to be part of the New York congress, and made friends in the Whig Party. This helped him get chosen to run for vice president in 1848.
Presidency
When he was vice president, Millard Fillmore was in charge of the United States Senate while it was fighting over a decision about slavery involving Texas and New Mexico.
When he became president, the slavery issue was very intense (to the point where the southern states were close to choosing to not be a part of the United States anymore).
Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850 (five laws which would calm down the slavery issue by pleasing both the northern states and the southern states). Although the Compromise of 1850 made the northern states and the southern states get along, the peace did not last forever. In the late 1850s, the north and the south stopped getting along.
California was made a part of the U.S. on September 9, 1850. It became the 31st state.
His decision to sign the Compromise of 1850 made many of the people in his Whig Party upset at him. They stopped him from running for president in 1852.
He started the first library at the White House.
After being president
After Fillmore, Franklin Pierce became the 14th president. Fillmore got a job in charge of the University of Buffalo. Fillmore joined the Know-Nothing Party and tried to run for president again, but the Know Nothing Party was not very successful.
There is a statue of Millard Fillmore at City Hall in Buffalo, New York.
References
Other websites
Fillmore's White House biography
1800 births
1874 deaths
Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage
Presidents of the United States
Vice Presidents of the United States
United States representatives from New York
Lawyers from New York
Deaths from cerebral infarction
Deaths from stroke
Politicians from Buffalo, New York
Unitarians
Whig party (US) politicians
19th-century American politicians
American mayors |
15963 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%20Tyler | John Tyler | John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the 10th president of the United States of America, from 1841 to 1845. He was the first vice president to become president after the president before him died. He was also the first president born after the United States Constitution was ratified.
Before presidency
Tyler grew up in Virginia and became a lawyer. His father was also a lawyer who later became governor of Virginia. Tyler became a state representative in the United States Congress, and then also became governor of Virginia like his father.
Tyler started in government as a member of the Democratic Party, but later he changed to the Whig Party, which was very new. He was chosen to run as vice president next to William Henry Harrison. Whig Party people used to say "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" to get people to vote for them. (William Henry Harrison was famous for being a general in a battle in a place called Tippecanoe, and that was his nickname.)
Harrison and Tyler won the election, but Harrison died one month later. Tyler then became president.
Presidency
Because Tyler had not been elected to hold the office of President, some people thought that he lacked a claim to the position. But as the United States Constitution says that the Vice President is vested with the responsibilities of the Presidency in case of "Death, Resignation or Inability" of the former, Tyler said this meant the position was his to fill. A majority of the government agreed and he was sworn in as the new President, however, the Whig Party did not want Tyler, and a lot of Whigs ended up calling him "the accidental president" or "His Accidency".
This was after Tyler had angered the Whigs when he decided to mainly pick people from the Democratic Party to work in his government. He wanted to bring the two parties to together, but instead this ended up making him unpopular. He also rejected many of the Whigs' ideas. This all lead to the Whig Party deciding not to back his run for the presidency in 1844.
While he was president, Florida became a new state. After winning their independence in the Texas Revolution against Mexico, Texas had become its own country. Tyler sought to annex Texas and turn it into a new U.S. state while in office, but this did not come to fruition until a few months after his term had ended.
After presidency
The Whig Party did not want Tyler to be president again, and did not pick him to run for president in 1844. He had some friends in the Democratic Party who sometimes asked him for ideas, but that party did not like him enough to be president, either. Tyler was sometimes called "the President without a party" since both groups did not want him.
When the Confederate States of America was created, Tyler thought that states should be allowed to make their own laws, even about slavery. He did not want a civil war. Instead, he tried to get the United States to agree to let the southern states keep slavery. But the United States Congress said no, and Tyler decided that Virginia had to join the Confederacy. He later was elected to the Confederate congress, but died before taking the job.
Tyler died in Richmond, Virginia on January 18, 1862 of a stroke. Tyler's death was the only one in Presidential history not to be officially recognized in Washington, D. C. because of his loyalty to the Confederacy. His coffin was covered with the Confederate flag. He is the only United States President ever to be buried and honored ceremoniously under a foreign flag that is not the United States flag.
Other websites
Tyler's White House biography
References
1790 births
1862 deaths
Deaths from stroke
Vice Presidents of the United States
Chancellors of the College of William & Mary
United States senators from Virginia
United States representatives from Virginia
Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
19th-century American politicians |
15964 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter%20Davison | Peter Davison | Peter Davison (born Peter Moffett 13 April 1951) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Tristan on All Creatures Great and Small, and as the Fifth Doctor on Doctor Who from 1981 to 1984.
1951 births
Living people
English television actors |
15965 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballerina | Ballerina | A ballerina is a name given to a female ballet dancer. Only very good female ballet dancers are called ballerinas. A ballerina is a principal dancer in a classical ballet company. The highest ranking female dancer in a company was usually called the prima ballerina.
Today the term 'ballerina' has gone rather out of fashion. Now they are simply called 'Principal dancers'. Dancers in a company are ranked by the company, and paid accordingly. They have to prove themselves in lesser parts before they can get promoted.
Example of the ranks in a modern dance company:
Corps de ballet (these do not dance named individual parts)
Coryphées (minor soloists)
Principal character artists (dance roles with significant acting)
Second soloists (dancers who take named solo roles)
First soloists (one rank up from the previous)
Principal dancers (if female, same as 'ballerinas'; they dance leading roles)
Principal guest artist (a well-known and sometimes famous dancer, usually from abroad)
References
Ballet
Entertainment occupations |
15966 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo%2C%20New%20York | Buffalo, New York | Buffalo is a city in the U.S. state of New York. Buffalo is the second-biggest city in New York State.
There are about 278,000 people in the city of Buffalo. There are more than a million people in the surrounding area.
Buffalo is on the east end of Lake Erie near the Niagara River. It is close to Niagara Falls, and to Canada. Buffalo was a small village when the Erie Canal connected it to the Hudson River and New York City. It became a city.
Sports
Buffalo has an NFL team called the Buffalo Bills (who play in the suburb of Orchard Park, NY) and an NHL team called the Buffalo Sabres.
Gallery
County seats in New York |
15975 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1394 | 1394 |
Events
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales.
Births
November 24 – Charles, Duke of Orléans, French poet |
15977 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertford | Hertford | Hertford (pronounced Hart-fud) is a town in Hertfordshire, England. In 2011, it had a population of 26,783 people.
It is Hertfordshire's county town, but the largest town is Watford.
The town centre is 19.2 miles (30.9 km) north of Central London and 16.7 miles (27.02 km) north east of Watford.
Transport
Rail
Hertford is served by two train stations, these are Hertford East and Hertford North.
Road
The A414 is just south of the town centre and runs to Harlow, Essex. The A10 is just east of the town.
Twin towns
Hertford is twinned with:
Évron, France
Wildeshausen, Germany
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Gallery
County towns in England
Towns in Hertfordshire |
15978 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie%20Chan | Jackie Chan | Jackie Chan (成龍) (born Chan Kong-Sang on 7 April 1954) SBS, MBE, PMW is a famous and well-renown martial artist, stuntman, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, singer and entrepreneur who hails from Hong Kong. He is perhaps most famous and best known for his uncanny combination and twist of both action and comedy in his films. He has also appeared and provided the voice for his character's animated counterpart in the animated TV series Jackie Chan Adventures which originally aired from 2000-2005. He is also the famous and well-renown legendary and rich father of actor and singer Jaycee Chan.
In his earlier roles, Chan did all of the dangerous stunts without safety equipment. Possibly the role where this was taken farthest is Rumble in the Bronx, which was his ultimate breakthrough American movie, where he subjected his already aging body to several leaps and falls, which while finally gaining his American stardom, led to injuries including a broken ankle.
His 2 worst injuries occurred during the making of Armour of God and Police Story. Footage of the former's aftermath was shown over the credits and showed a subdued and bloodied Chan in a spinal injury stretcher. Also, a tree branch in which he was to swing off had snapped just when he did jump upon and over for it. Chan fell 10 meters onto the rocky ground.
In Police Story, Chan was doing a stunt when and where he fell off from about 5 to 6 stories through a series of window canopies. Chan nearly became disorientated about halfway through down. Instead of landing on upon his feet, Chan fell in a head-down position. His arms became caught in the material of the last canopy. He landed on his head first and his head was then forced on to the side as he could not break his fall up with his arms.
While the Police Story fall looked worse, Chan has also said that the Armour of God fall was the closest he has come to death while filming.
Filmography
Chinese Zodiac (2012)
1911 (2011)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special (2010)
The Karate Kid (2010)
Little Big Soldier (2010)
The Spy Next Door (2010)
Shinjuku Incident (2009)
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
Rush Hour 3 (2007) with Chris Tucker
Rob-B-Hood (2006) (Original Working Title, Project BB)
The Myth (2005)
New Police Story (2004)
The Twins Effect 2 (2004) (also known as The Huadu Chronicles: Blade of the Rose)
Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
The Medallion (2003)
The Twins Effect (2003)
Shanghai Knights (2003) with Owen Wilson
The Tuxedo (2002)
Rush Hour 2 (2001) with Chris Tucker
The Accidental Spy (2001)
Shanghai Noon (2000) with Owen Wilson
The King of Comedy (1999)
Gorgeous (1999)
Rush Hour (1998) with Chris Tucker
Who Am I? (1998)
Mr. Nice Guy (1997)
An Alan Smithee Movie: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) (Cameo)
Police Story 4: First Strike (1996) (also known as Jackie Chan's First Strike)
Thunderbolt (1995) (also known as Dead Heat)
Rumble in the Bronx (1995)
Drunken Master II (1994) (known in the U.S. as The Legend of Drunken Master, 2000)
Once a Cop (1993), aka Supercop 2 and Police Story V
Crime Story (1993), also known as Police Story IV and The New Police Story
City Hunter (1993)
Police Story 3 (1992) aka Super Cop
Twin Dragons (1992) (also known as Brother vs. Brother and When Dragons Collide)
A Kid from Tibet (1991)
Island of Fire (1990) (also known as The Burning Island)
Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1990)
Miracles (1989) (also known as The Canton Godfather' and 'Black Dragon')
Police Story 2 (1988)
Dragons Forever (1988)
Project A Part II (1987), (also known as Jackie Chan's Project A2, Project B)
Dirty Boys (1986) (also known as Naughty Boys)
Armour of God (1986)
Police Story (1985)
Ninja and the Thief (1985) (also known as Ninja Thunderbolt)
The Protector (1985)
Heart of Dragon (1985)
Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars (1985) (also known as My Lucky Stars 2)
My Lucky Stars (1985)
Wheels on Meals (1984)
Dragon Attack (1984)
Pom Pom (1984) (also known as Motorcycle Cop 2)
Two in a Black Belt (1984)
Cannonball Run II (1983)
Fearless Hyena Part II (1983)
Winners and Sinners (1983) (also known as Five Lucky Stars)
Project A (also known as Jackie Chan's Project A) (1983)
Dragon Lord (1982)
Black Magic Wars (1982)
Fantasy Mission Force (1982)
Cannonball Run (1981)
The Big Brawl (1980)
The Young Master (1980)
Dragon Fist (1979)
Fearless Hyena (1979)
Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978)
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978)
Spiritual Kung-Fu (1978) (also known as Karate Ghostbuster)
Drunken Master (1978)
Magnificent Bodyguards (1978)
Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978)
The 36 Crazy Fists (1977)
To Kill with Intrigue (1977)
The Killer Meteors (1976)
Shaolin Chamber of Death (1976) (also known as 36 Wooden Men, Shaolin Wooden Men, Shaolin Wooden Men - Young Tiger's Revenge, Wooden Man)
Countdown in Kung Fu (1976)
New Fist of Fury (1976)
Mr. Boo 2 : The Private Eyes (1976)
All in the Family (1975)
No End of Surprises (1975)
Master with Cracked Fingers (1974)
Fists of the Double K (1974)
The Golden Lotus (1974)
Police Woman (1974)
Supermen Against the Orient (1974)
Facets of Love (1973)
Eagle Shadow Fist (1973)
Attack of the Kung Fu Girls (1973)
Lady Kung Fu (1972)
Bruce Lee and I (1972)
Little Tiger of Canton (1971)
Come Drink with Me (1966)
The Story of Qin Xianglian (1964)
Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962)
References
Other websites
Jackiechan.com- Jackie Chan's official website
Jackie Chan Injury Map- Official Jackie Chan injury map
1954 births
Living people
Singers from Hong Kong
Actors from Hong Kong
Chinese voice actors
Members of the Order of the British Empire
Chinese movie actors
Chinese movie directors
Chinese movie producers
Chinese screenwriters
Stuntmen |
15985 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron%20Weasley | Ron Weasley | Ronald Bilius "Ron" Weasley (1980-?) is a fictional character from the Harry Potter stories.
Story
He is a red-haired child with freckles. He comes from a poor background. He lives at The Burrow with his family of nine people. He is the youngest son in his family. He was a humorous and loyal boy. He wishes he had money, since he was born from the notoriously poor Weasley family. He is the sixth of seven children born to Molly Weasley (née Prewett) and Arthur Weasley, with five brothers and one sister, Ginny. He is Harry Potter's best friend.
It is revealed in later books, that Ron is romantically interested in Hermione Granger. The two are hinted to be romantically involved in the Deathly Hallows.
In movies, he is played by actor Rupert Grint. Ron marries Hermione and they have two children: Rose Weasley and Hugo Weasley. He is the manager of the joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
References
Fictional characters introduced in 1997
Harry Potter characters
de:Figuren der Harry-Potter-Romane#Ron Weasley |
15986 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermione%20Granger | Hermione Granger | Hermione Jean Granger (born September 19, 1979) is a character from the Harry Potter series. She met Harry and Ron for the first time on the Hogwarts Express. She was then looking for Neville's toad. She is referred to as the brightest witch of her age.
Character
Hermione is one of Harry Potter's best friends. She spends a lot of time with Harry and Ron. Her parents are Muggles (not magical) but she is the brightest witch of her class. She was born on September 19, 1979 and when she arrived at Hogwarts for the very first time, she was almost 12, since she was borned after September 1st, she has to wait a year later. Her parents are dentists. She is intelligent and her special skill is the ability to remember all that she has read. Because of this, Hermione is successful in her tests. Although she is smart, she also is brave and has street-smarts. She cares about house-elves and has made the club S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, which Ron mockingly calls "Spew." She made scarfs and garments to liberate the elves of the slavery of the wizards. But none of the elves took the garments and Dobby (the old house elf of the Malfoy family) gathered them. She is one of the prefects of Gryffindor with Ron. Her appearance is made up of bushy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and huge front teeth, which Draco Malfoy enlarged it in her fourth year. It is also noted at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that she marries Ron and they have two children together called Rose and Hugo, to which the children has taken after their parents' initials. Although in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire she was the dance partner of Viktor Krum. She belongs to Gryffindor house, which is known for bravery. The Sorting Hat thought about putting her in Ravenclaw house, which is known for wisdom, but finally it put her in Gryffindor. Hermione has a pet cat named Crookshanks, which Ron told her it was like a hairy pig.
In the first book Hermione had the personality of a snob, and a geek, and she is not very friendly but with the time she improves that. Hermione was teased as Mudblood (Witch/ Wizard born with no Magical parents, also known as an offensive insult on Muggle Born Witch/ Wizard) by many Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy. Her name refers to The Winter's Tale, by William Shakespeare, and was the daughter of Helen of Troy from Ancient Greek Mythology.
References
Fictional characters introduced in 1997
Harry Potter characters |
15989 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk%20shake | Milk shake | A milk shake, or milkshake, is a cold drink made by mixing milk, ice cream, and sweet syrups like chocolate syrup. Usually a blender is used for the mixing. People usually drink milkshakes with a drinking straw and from a tall glass or cup.
Comparison between smoothies and milkshakes
Milk shakes are similar to smoothies. Smoothies are a type of cold drink made with an electric blender. Smoothies are made with a liquid (either milk, fruit juice, or water), crushed ice or ice cubes, different fruits, and honey or maple syrup.
In popular culture
Milk shakes and other cold drinks such as "ice cream floats" (a scoop of ice cream placed in a glass of cola or other carbonated soda drink) or "malts" (a milk shake with malt powder added to it) were popular among teenagers in the 1950s. Teenagers would go to ice cream parlors and order cold drinks.
Dairy products
Ice cream
American food |
16003 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollington | Bollington | Bollington is a town and civil parish in Cheshire. The village is home to over twenty pubs. Bollington was home to the biggest water wheel in England and only second in Britain to the Laxey wheel in the Isle of Man. The wheel powered huge mills for the production of cotton. Two of the huge mills were the Adelphi and Clarence.
By 1914 Bollington had a population of around 6000 people and was dominated by fine cotton spinning. The symbol of Bollington has to be White Nancy. A small white cone-like house stands alone on top of a hill overlooking all of Bollington. It was built by the Gaskell family early in the nineteenth century. It has now been sealed.
Sport has been important in the life of Bollington. Even though the village did not have a football team successful enough to rival the cricket team it was still very popular amongst the people of Bollington. The most popular team was St Johns team which was quite successful in the lower leagues. Today there are good teams competing in the amateur leagues such as Bollington United.
Towns in Cheshire
Civil parishes in England |
16006 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFC | KFC | KFC (abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken) is a chain of fast food restaurants known for their fried chicken. It was started by Colonel Sanders in Corbin, Kentucky in 1952. They are now all over the world. They not only sell chicken, but also other food like salads and french fries. KFC, also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald's, with almost 20,000 locations globally in 123 countries and territories as of December 2015.
Advertising
KFC is well known for their "finger lickin' good" slogan. It was first used, along with others, beginning in 1956. It is the current slogan.
Upon the corona virus pandemic in 2020, the slogan was temporarily changed to "fork licking good" to discourage the spread of the virus from eating with potentially contaminated hands.
Other early slogans included "North America's Hospitality Dish" (1956–1966) and "We fix Sunday dinner seven nights a week" from 1957 until 1968. The two slogans were phased out in favor of the "finger lickin' good" slogan. It was trademarked in 1956.
After a local KFC TV ad showed an employee licking his fingers in the background, a viewer phoned the station to complain. The main actor in the ad answered back: "Well, it's finger lickin' good." The phrase was adopted nationally by the company in the 1960s. It became one of the best-known slogans of the twentieth century.
When the trademark expired in the United States in 2006, it was replaced with "Follow your taste" until 2010. In 2011, the "finger lickin' good" slogan was dropped in favor of "So good", to be used around the world. The meaning was supposed to include employees and service, as well as food.
The slogan "Nobody does chicken like KFC" was first started by KFC Australia in 1998. It is still used by KFC in some worldwide markets.
Criticism
KFC has been criticised on different issues. Greenpeace accused KFC of destroying the Amazon Rainforest. This is because KFC bought their soy they use for chicken food from Cargill. The soy has been traced back to the European KFC. Cargill has reportedly been exporting soy illegally for several years. The Greenpeace organization researched the issue and brought it to the attention of the parent company YUM! Brands, Inc. The parent company denied the illegal operation, and said that their supply of soy is grown in parts of Brazil. Greenpeace has called on KFC to stop purchasing soy from Cargill, to avoid contributing to the destruction of the Amazon.
Since 2003, animal rights and welfare organizations, led by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have been protesting KFC’s treatment of the animals used for its products. These groups claim that the recommendations of the KFC Animal Welfare Advisory Council have been ignored. Adele Douglass, a former member of the council, said in an SEC filing reported on by the Chicago Times, that KFC "never had any meetings. They never asked any advice, and then they touted to the press that they had this animal-welfare advisory committee. I felt like I was being used."
KFC responded by saying the chickens used in its products are bought from suppliers like Perdue Farms, Tyson Foods, and Pilgrim's Pride, and that these suppliers are routinely monitored for animal welfare violations. Several PETA undercover investigations and videos of these and other KFC suppliers purport to show chickens being beaten, ripped apart, and thrown against walls contradict KFC’s claims. PETA has criticised some of the practices of chicken breeders, such as beak trimming and overcrowding, but KFC says its suppliers meets UK legal requirements. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recommends a maximum stocking density of 34 kg—around 30 chickens—per square metre, and say that in circumstances where beak trimming needs to be carried out to prevent the birds injuring each other, only one third of the beak should be trimmed "measured from the tip towards the entrance of the nostrils". PETA states that they have held more than 12,000 demonstrations at KFC outlets since 2003 because of this alleged mistreatment of chickens by KFC suppliers.
In June 2008, KFC Canada agreed to PETA's demands for better welfare standards, including favoring suppliers who use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK) of chickens, and other welfare standards as well as introducing a vegan sandwich at 65% of its outlets. PETA has called off its campaign against KFC Canada, but continues to demonstrate against KFC elsewhere in the world.
References
Other websites
KFC owner Success Story In English
KFC website
1952 establishments in the United States
American fast food restaurants
Companies based in Kentucky
20th-century establishments in Kentucky |
16025 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytoplasm | Cytoplasm | The cytoplasm (not to be confused with cytosol) is the protoplasm of a cell outside the cell nucleus. It is the jelly-like material plus the organelles outside the nucleus, and inside the cell membrane.
Many important functions of a cell take place in organelles, which are like bits of machinery for doing many jobs. The cytoplasm is highly structured: it is not some kind of soup, even though it is made out of 7580% water.
The cytosol contains a complex mixture of cytoskeleton filaments, including the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus. It includes dissolved molecules, and water that fills much of the cell. Due to this network of fibres, membranes and the many dissolved macromolecules such as proteins, the cytosol does not act like a simple liquid. The main function of the cytoplasm is to hold the organelles in place.
Cells |
16026 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades | Crusades | The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims. The eight big crusade expeditions occurred between 1096 and 1291, mostly in the Middle East.
The crusades started as a fight for control over the Holy Land. This is the land now called Israel. The Holy Land is very important for the three major monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed visited the Holy Land and rose to Heaven from Jerusalem. Christians believe Jesus was born, crucified, and resurrected in the Holy Land. The Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, and the Mount of Olives are all located there. So are many other important religious sites.
During the Caliphate of Umar in the 7th century, Muslim forces had taken control of Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and other important religious sites. In the crusades, Christian forces tried to re-take control of the Holy Land.
There were many different crusades. The biggest and most important happened between the 11th century and the 13th century. During this time, there were 9 large crusades. They are numbered 1 through 9.
There were also many smaller crusades. These continued through the 16th century, until the Renaissance and Reformation. Some crusades even happened within Europe (for example, in Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia).
The word "crusade" is related to the word "cross", and means a Christian holy war. Muslims sometimes use the Arabic word “jihad" to describe the crusades.
First Crusades
In 1095 the ruler of the Byzantine Empire, Alexius I, called for help to defend his empire against the Seljuk Turks. Pope Urban II asked all Christians to join a war against the Turks. The Pope told Christians that fighting the war would repay God for their sins. He said that anyone who died on a crusade would go straight to heaven.
The Christian soldiers who joined the crusade were called "crusaders". They marched to Jerusalem, attacking several cities on their way. In 1099 they won the battle for Jerusalem.
As a result of the First Crusades, four crusader states were created. These were the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Second Crusade
After about 50 years of peace, Bernard of Clairvaux called for a new crusade after the Turks attacked the town of Edessa. French and German armies marched to the Holy Land in 1147, but were defeated. However, on the way, the Crusaders helped the Portuguese capture Lisbon from Al-Andalus as part of the Reconquista.
Third Crusade
In 1187, after Saladin recaptured Jerusalem, Pope Gregory VIII called for a new crusade. Three of Europe's kings led this Third Crusade: Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor.
The Third Crusade was partially successful. The Crusaders took back control of Arsuf and Jaffa, two important cities in the Holy Land. However, they did not have enough soldiers to try to recapture Jerusalem. Instead, they made a truce with Saladin that let Christians travel safely through Jerusalem. The Crusaders then re-established the Kingdom of Jerusalem in Acre.
In 1190, Frederick drowned in Cilicia. In 1192, Richard left the Holy Land. On his way home, his ship was wrecked, leading him to Austria. There, he was captured and ransomed by his enemy, Duke Leopold.
Fourth Crusade
Pope Innocent III started the Fourth Crusade in 1202. His plan was to attack the Holy Land through Egypt. To do this, he needed a fleet of ships. The Venetians agreed to build ships and train sailors for the crusade. The Venetians then changed the goal of the crusade, and went to the Christian city of Constantinople, where they tried to place a Byzantine exile on the throne. After a series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence, the city was sacked in 1204.
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade was started in 1209 to eliminate the Cathars of southern Europe
Children's Crusade
The Children's Crusade is a crusade of 1212. An outburst of the old popular enthusiasm led a gathering of children in France and Germany. A boy, from either France or Germany, said that Jesus had visited him, and told him to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity. Following this vision, many children formed bands, and marched to Italy. There, they were put onto ships which either capsized in a storm, or which went to Morocco. Most of the children either starved to death or were sold into slavery.
More recent research
In the first movement, Nicholas, a shepherd from Germany, led a group across the Alps and into Italy in the early spring of 1212. About 7,000 arrived in Genoa in late August. However, their plans did not bear fruit when the waters failed to part as promised and the band broke up. Some left for home, others may have gone to Rome, while still others may have travelled down the Rhône to Marseille where they were probably sold into slavery. Few returned home and none reached the Holy Land.
The second movement was led by a "shepherd boy" named Stephen de Cloyes near the village of Châteaudun. In June of that year, the boy said that he had a letter for the king of France from Jesus. He could gather a crowd of over 30,000 and went to Saint-Denis. There he was seen to work miracles. On the orders of Philip II, on the advice of the University of Paris, the crowd was sent home, and most of them went. None of the contemporary sources mentions plans of the crowd to go to Jerusalem.
Later chroniclers elaborated on these events. Recent research suggests those taking part were not children, at least not the very young. In the early 1200s, bands of wandering poor started cropping up throughout Europe. These were people displaced by economic changes at the time which forced many poor peasants in northern France and Germany to sell their land. These bands were referred to as pueri (Latin for "boys") in a condescending manner, in much the same way that people from rural areas in the United States are called "country boys."
In 1212, a young French puer named Stephen and a German puer named Nicholas separately began claiming that they had each had similar visions of Jesus. This resulted in these bands of roving poor being united into a religious protest movement which transformed this forced wandering into a religious journey. The pueri marched, following the Cross. They associated themselves with Jesus's biblical journey. This, however, was not a prelude to a holy war.
At that time, chronicles were mostly kept by the Catholic Church. They were written in Latin.
Thirty years later, chroniclers read the accounts of these processions and translated pueri as "children" without understanding the usage. So, the Children's Crusade was born. The resulting story illustrates how ingrained the concept of Crusading was in the people of that time— the chroniclers assumed that the pueri must have been Crusaders. In their innocence, they returned to the foundations of crusading characteristic of Peter the Hermit, and met the same sort of tragic fate.
According to Matthew Paris, one of the leaders of the Children's Crusade became "Le Maître de Hongrie," the leader of the Shepherds' Crusade in 1251.
Fifth Crusade
During 1213, Pope Gregory IX pushed Frederick II into leading the Fifth Crusade.
The Church tried another crusade to retake the Holy Land. A crusading force from Hungary, Austria, and Bavaria captured Damietta, a city in Egypt, in 1219. The crusaders had to surrender, due to losing the battle for Cairo.
Sixth Crusade
In 1228, Emperor Frederick II set sail from Brindisi for Syria. He did this after the Pope excommunicated him. By talking to the Turks he had success, and Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem was given to the Crusaders for ten years without fighting. This was the first major crusade not initiated by the Papacy, a trend that was to continue for the rest of the century. This crusade only lasted for a year, from 1228 to 1229.
Seventh Crusade
The Templars argued with Egypt in 1243. In 1244, Egypt attacked Jerusalem. Louis IX of France started a crusade against Egypt from 1248 to 1254. It was a failure and Louis spent much of the crusade living in the city of Acre. In the midst of this crusade was the first Shepherds' Crusade in 1251.
Eighth Crusade
The Eighth Crusade was organized by Louis IX of France in 1270, to help the Crusader states in Syria. However, the crusade got as far as Tunis, where Louis died a month later.
Ninth Crusade
Before he was the king, Edward I of England started a crusade in 1271. He retired the following year after a truce.
The end of the Crusades
In time, the people went on Crusades for other purposes. The Crusades ended two centuries after they had begun, achieving mixed results. The crusades ended with the Mamluk Fall of Acre in 1291. (the link is not yet started).
References
Books and texts
Frederick Russell, "Children's Crusade", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 1989,
Peter Raedts, "The Children's Crusade of 1212", Journal of Medieval History, 3 (1977), summary of the sources, issues and literature.
Chronica Regiae Coloniensis, a (supposedly) contemporary source for the Children's crusade. From the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
The Children's Crusade: Fact or fable? , from The Straight Dope.
Other websites
Crusade Siege Siege of a Mohammedan fortification during the crusades
Crusades Citizendium
Crusades |
16028 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin | Saladin | Saladin, or Sultan Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (25 December 1138–1193) was a famous Sultan of Egypt and Syria during the Crusades.
A Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin led the Muslim opposition to the European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa.
His father, who worked for the Turkish governor, decided to raise him in Syria where he received his education. Another influential figure in his life was his uncle Shirkuh who was a military leader and later commanded for Saladin during the wars. Many Muslims consider him a hero for defeating the Crusaders over 20 years of battles. The Crusades were series of battles between Christian Europe and Islamic Near East over holy land in what is now known as Palestine. Saladin’s army protected Egypt from the Crusaders in 1168.
The ruler of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt made him Vizier, meaning prime minister, even though he was not Shi'ite. Just before the Caliph died, Saladin was crowned Sultan of Egypt and Syria. His greatest victory was at the Horns of Hattin in July 1187 AD, after which Jerusalem fell to the Muslims (October 1187) and was never again recovered by the Crusaders. He is also remembered for his series of battles and wins and losses against King Richard I of England. These were inconclusive and in the end resulted in a moral victory for Sultan Salah ad-Din, when Richard's Crusade failed and returned to Europe.
He founded the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, Syria, Yemen (except for the Northern Mountains), Iraq, Mecca Hejaz and Diyar Bakr. Salah ad-Din is a title which translates to The Righteousness of the Faith from Arabic.
Many books were written about Saladin, the things he did and the battles he won. Daastaan Imaan Farooshoon Ki is one book in Urdu written by Althamash that says very good things about Saladin and compares and contrasts him to other kings and princes, in a favourable light.
References
1138 births
1193 deaths
Crusades
Kurdish people
Muslims |
16034 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1889 | 1889 |
Events
Brazil becomes a republic
100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Paris Exhibition, where the Eiffel tower was first open to the public
June 14 – the Treaty of Berlin (1889) is signed
Births
April 9 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist
September 14 – Maria Esther de Capovilla, Worlds oldest woman (d. 2006)
Alfonso Reyes
April 20 – Adolf Hitler
December 3 - Kshudiram Bose - Indian patriot against British Raj (d. 1908) |
16050 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877 | 1877 |
Births
October 29 – Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer
November 9 – Muhammad Iqbal, national poet of Pakistan (d. 1938)
Khan Sahib Abdul Majid Khan Tarin, OBE, British Indian judge, legislator and philanthropist (d. 1939)
November 24 – Alben W. Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States (d. 1956)
Deaths
October 29 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan
Art, music, theatre, and literature
February 20 - premiere of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake in Moscow |
16051 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860 | 1860 |
Events
October 6 – The Introduction of the so-called Section 377 of the British Indian penal code (Law) was enacted on the 6th of October, in British India respectively.
Births
January 29 – Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (d. 1904)
May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (d. 1909)
August 13 – Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter (d. 1926)
December 7 – Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947) |
16058 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex%20Twin | Aphex Twin | Aphex Twin (born Richard David James, 18 August 1971, in Limerick, Ireland) is an Irish-born Cornish musician. He lives and works in the UK. He is a famous electronic musician.
Aphex Twin is not his real name. His real name is Richard David James. His name is a combination of Aphex Systems Limited, a brand of audio signal processing equipment and the word Twin to remember his brother. His brother was stillborn, but given the name Richard James.
Early life
Aphex Twin was born in Limerick, Ireland. He grew up in Cornwall, U.K. He started to make music when he was a teenager. In 1991, he formed a record label called Rephlex Records.
After he became well known, he moved to London. This was so he could be in a place that was closer to other people. He however returned to Cornwall a few years later after meeting his wife. He still makes a lot of music today and uses many different pseudonyms (names). He lives in an old bank. He has bought interesting things like a tank and a submarine.
Selected works
Albums
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)
Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994)
...I Care Because You Do (1995)
Richard D. James Album (1996)
Drukqs (2001)
Syro (2014)
EPs and Singles
Digeridoo (1992)
Xylem Tube EP (1992)
On/On Remixes (1993)
Ventolin/Ventolin Remixes EP (1995)
Donkey Rhubarb (1995)
Girl/Boy EP (1996)
Come to Daddy EP (1997)
Windowlicker (1999)
Analord 10 in the Analord Series (2004)
Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments (2015)
Promotions and Compilations
Words & Music (1994) (Interview and tracks from Selected Ambient Works Volume II)
Classics (1994) (Many early singles, rare and live tracks)
51/13 Singles Collection (1996) (Australia-only release)
Cock 10/54 Cymru Beats (drukqs promo)
26 Mixes for Cash (2003), a lot of music remade for other artists (and four original songs)
2 Mixes on a 12" for Cash (2003), a 26 Mixes promo
Falling Free, Curve Remix (2005), a 26 Mixes LP
Discography using other names
AFX
Analogue Bubblebath (1991)
Analogue Bubblebath 2 (1992)
Analogue Bubblebath 3 (1993)
Analogue Bubblebath 4 (1994)
Analogue Bubblebath 5 (1995 unreleased)
Analogue Bubblebath 3.1 (1997)
Hangable Auto Bulb (1995, re-released 2005)
Hangable Auto Bulb 2 (1995, re-released 2005)
2 Remixes By AFX (2001)
Smojphace EP (2003)
"Mangle 11 (Circuit Bent V.I.P. Mix)" (this is on the Rephlexions album that was worked on by many people (2003))
Analord (EP series, mostly as AFX) (2005)
AFX/LFO (split 12" between AFX/LFO) (2005)
Bradley Strider
Bradley's Beat (1991)/(1995 re-issue)
Bradley's Robot (1993)
Caustic Window
Joyrex J4 (1992)
Joyrex J5 (1992)
Joyrex J9 (1993)
CAT 023 (unreleased, only 4 copies pressed)
Caustic Window Compilation (1998)
Gak
GAK (1994)
Martin Tressider
In the Universal Indicator series:
Universal Indicator: Red (1989)
Universal Indicator: Green (1995)
Polygon Window
(Surfing on Sine Waves) (1993, re-released 2001)
(Quoth) (1993)
Power Pill
Pac-Man (1992)
Q-Chastic
Q-Chastic EP (1992 unreleased)
Universal Indicator
Universal Indicator: Blue (1992)
Universal Indicator: Yellow (1993)
References
Other websites
Rephlex Records. This is Aphex Twin's record label.
1971 births
Living people
Aphex Twin |
16065 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara%20Falls | Niagara Falls | Niagara Falls is the collective, name of three big waterfalls on the Niagara River in eastern North America, on the border between the United States and Canada. The three waterfalls are: the Horseshoe Falls, sometimes called the Canadian Falls, the American Falls, and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls. The American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls are separated with Goat Island, and the Bridal Veil Falls separated from the other waterfalls with Luna Island. Niagara falls is very well known for both its beauty and hydroelectric power. It has been a tourist attraction, commercial site and hydroelectricity source since the 19th century.
It is located near Niagara Falls, New York in the United States and Niagara Falls, Ontario in Canada.The volume of water approaching the falls during peak flow season may sometimes be as much as 225,000 cubic feet (6,400 m3) per second. The cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York, United States, are connected by two international bridges.
Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age). Water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean. The Escarpment has hard limestone on top and soft shale below.
Although not very high, Niagara Falls is very wide, and is probably the most popular waterfall in the world. The Horseshoe Falls are the largest out of the three falls. It is named the Horseshoe Falls because it looks like a horse shoe.
Niagara Falls is a very popular tourist destination and many people visit it on holiday in Canada.
Gallery
Related pages
Iguaçu Falls
Waterfalls
Bodies of water of North America
Bodies of water of the United States
Geography of Ontario |
16125 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1831 | 1831 |
Events
June 13 – James Clerk Maxwell born in Edinburgh
October 30 – In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history. |
16126 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842 | 1842 |
Art, music, theatre, literature
March 26 - August Bournonville's Napoli is first performed in Copenhagen by the Royal Danish Ballet
Births
January 11 – William James, American philosopher and psychologist
Deaths
October 30 – Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet and writer. |
16129 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard | Custard | Custard is a kind of food prepared with milk and eggs. Custard can be the dessert or its sauce.
Custard is an important part of dessert recipes from many countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Malaysia.
Desserts |
16130 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckleberry | Huckleberry | Huckleberry is a name used in North America for several plants in two closely related genera in the family Ericaceae: Gaylussacia and Vaccinium. The huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho.
Some Vaccinium species, such as the red huckleberry, are always called huckleberries. Other species may be called blueberries or huckleberries in different locations.
There is much confusion in naming of berries in American English. The 'garden huckleberry' (Solanum melanocerasum) is not a true huckleberry but a member of the nightshade family.
The fruit of most species of huckleberry can be eaten. The berries are small and round. They are usually less than 5 mm in diameter and contain 10 seeds. Berries range in color from bright red, through dark purple, and into the blues. In taste the berries range from tart to sweet. They have a flavor similar to that of a blueberry. Huckleberries are well liked by many mammals such as bears and humans.
References
Berries
Ericaceae |
16131 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesecake | Cheesecake | A cheesecake is a dessert cake made of cheese (usually cream cheese but sometimes ricotta), eggs, and sugar. It often has a graham cracker crumb crust, sometimes held together by melted butter. The filling has a very heavy, smooth texture. It sometimes has sour cream to make it easier to shape and may have fruit flavoring such as strawberry, blueberry, or lemon. It is often topped with fresh fruit or chocolate.
History
Cheesecake is now often thought to be part of American cooking, but it has a long history. Cheese making began around 2000, and scientists who study people in the past have found cheese molds almost as old.
Cheesecakes are known to go back to at least Greece. In the 100s, the writer Athenaeus's Dinner-Table Philosophers mentioned the poet Callimachus (around the 200s) used to have a book by an "Aegimius" about the art of making cheesecakes (, Plakountopoukón Sýngramma). Cheesecake may have been given to the sportspeople during the Olympic Games, which started in 776.
Even before the Romans took over Greece, they had begun making cheesecakes as well. M. Porcius Cato's Book on Farming (written around 160) mentions three kinds of cakes, , and for use as offerings to the gods. Placenta cakes were the closest to today's cheesecakes, since its crust and filling are made separately.
Europeans stopped using yeast and started adding beaten eggs to their cheesecakes around the 1700s. This made it taste more like a dessert than a cheesebread.
Cheesecake recipes were brought to the United States as people moved there from Europe. Most of today's kinds of cheesecake ("New York-style cheesecake") come from the kind created by William Lawrence of Chester, New York, in 1872. He was trying to make something like the soft French Neufchâtel cheese and ended up with a heavy, creamy "unripened cheese".
Types
There is an all-garlic restaurant in Stockholm where they offer a garlic cheesecake.
Other
Sonya Thomas holds the world record for eating the most cheesecakes in a given time. She ate 11 pounds of cheesecake in nine minutes.
References
Desserts
Pies |
16132 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb | Rhubarb | Rhubarb is one of about 60 plants in the genus Rheum, family Polygonaceae. The vegetable rhubarb is Rheum rhabarbarum (or Rheum x hybridum). The leaves are somewhat toxic because they have oxalic acid, but the red stalks are baked in pies, with sugar to soften their tart flavor.
There are many varieties grown for eating. The drug rheum is prepared from the rhizomes and roots of another species, R. officinale or medicinal rhubarb.
Caryophyllales |
16133 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey | Monkey | Monkeys are tree-dwelling (arboreal) simians. They are in the primate order. Monkeys are intelligent, social animals. Monkeys have a tail, even if it is a short one.
The word "monkey" is a common-language term. It includes two rather different groups of primates. The big distinction is between Old World monkeys and New World monkeys. Some examples of monkeys are macaques, baboons, guenons and marmosets.
Old World monkeys: Cercopithecidae. Apes are the descendants of Old World monkeys.
New World Monkeys: Platyrrhini or Ceboidea (same thing in effect)
Both these groups are in the infraorder Simiiformes. That infraorder also includes the great apes and man.
Some monkeys live almost entirely in trees. Others live partly on the ground. Monkeys are mainly vegetarian, with a strong preference for fruit. However, they may eat a wide range of other food, including insects. Monkeys can live in forests and savannahs, but not in deserts. Some can live in snowy mountains, but more live in rainforests. There are none in the rainforests of Australia and New Guinea. Apparently, they never reached those islands.
Some monkeys are small, about long and in weight. Other monkeys are much larger, about long and in weight. A group of monkeys is called a "troop" of monkeys or a "tribe" of monkeys.
The two groups of monkeys live in different places: the New World Monkeys in South America and the Old World Monkeys live mainly in Africa and Asia. New World Monkeys are often smaller than Old World Monkeys. Monkeys have long arms and legs to help them swing from trees. Some monkeys' tails can wrap tightly around branches, almost like a "fifth limb". This type of tail is 'prehensile'.
The smallest known monkey is the pygmy marmoset. It is between and in size (without the tail). It weighs about 120 grams. It lives in the treetops of rainforests in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. The largest known monkey is the mandrill. It can grow to about in size. Adults weigh up to . The monkeys often climb with the help of their tails.
The word monkey might have come from a popular German story, "Roman de Renart" (Reynard the Fox). In there, the name of the son of Martin the Ape is Moneke.
In Africa, monkeys can be sold as "bushmeat" (meat of wild animals). Monkey brains are eaten in some parts of Africa, South Asia, and China.
References
Notes
Related pages
Primate
Simian
Other websites
"The impossible housing and handling conditions of monkeys in research laboratories", by Viktor Reinhardt, International Primate Protection League, August 2001
The problem with pet monkeys: reasons monkeys do not make good pets, an article by veterinarian Lianne McLeod on About.com
Helping hands: monkey helpers for the disabled, a U.S. national non-profit organization based in Boston Massachusetts that places specially trained capuchin monkeys with people who are paralyzed or who live with other severe mobility impairments.
Basic English 850 words
Monkeys |
16146 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization | Civilization | Civilization (or civilisation) comes from the Latin word civis meaning someone who lives in a town. The Romans usually wanted conquered people to live in towns. When people are civilized, they have learned from the wisdom, skill and knowledge gained over centuries of human progress. The opposite of civilization is sometimes said to be entropy, barbarity, rudeness, or animal-like behavior.
A civilization is generally an advanced stage of organization. That means it has laws, culture, a regular way of getting food and protecting the people. Most civilizations have agriculture, and a system of government like monarchs or elections. They speak a common language, and usually have a religion of some kind. They teach their young the knowledge they need. All civilizations since the Sumerians and the Egyptians have had some kind of writing. This is because writing lets people store and build up knowledge.
Past societies that would be called more primitive compared to today, are still often referred to as civilizations for their time. The Roman Empire is an example of a past large civilization. It was governed from Rome. This empire once stretched from the Scottish borders to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. Their language was Latin.
Latin remained the preferred way of communication among educated people, long after their civilization had vanished. Some scientists, scholars and others still use Latin in the course of everyday work, even though the Roman civilization fell apart more than 1,500 years ago. The Roman civilization lasted almost 1000 years.
One way a civilization ends is to become part of another civilization. For example, Ancient Egypt was conquered by foreigners who changed the country. It became part of Persian, Greek, Roman, and Islamic civilization. Another way is to go back to an earlier, simpler way of life. For example, Roman civilization collapsed in the Dark Ages. When people became more civilized again, it was the Medieval civilization.
References
Society |
16150 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment%20%28Buddhism%29 | Enlightenment (Buddhism) | In Buddhism, enlightenment (called bodhi in Indian Buddhism, or satori in Zen Buddhism) is when a Buddhist finds the truth about life and stops being reborn because they have reached Nirvana. Once you get to Nirvana you are not born again into samsara (which is suffering). Buddhists believe a person can become enlightened by following the Middle Way; the Middle Way is not too extreme in either way of living, neither an extremely luxurious life of ease and enjoyment nor an extremely harsh life on living on the minimum of the most basic necessities. One develops Sila (morality), Samadhi (concentration), and Prajna (insight or wisdom). This is thought to take a very long time, according to many buddhist monks and nuns.
Method
After establishing a strong foundation of Sila (morality), Buddhists become enlightened by using meditation. While they practice Vipassana meditation, they relax their mind with clear understanding of the law of impermanence, which clears their minds of all attachments; craving, aversion, and delusion are destroyed.
The Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) is described as the first known (historical) person to have reached enlightenment and was the founder of Buddhism. (Buddhists know him as the Shakyamuni Buddha, and believe there were Buddhas before him and will be after him.) The story of his life is told as an example of what he learned.
Life at the Palace
Siddhartha was a rich aristocrat and the son of a ruler of a republic. His father went to a fortune teller who predicted that Siddhartha would either become a king or a religious leader. If Siddhartha saw any suffering then he would become a great religious leader. His father wanted him to become a king, so he gave Siddhartha many things and did not let him see any suffering. Siddhartha married a woman and had a son. He named his son Rahula. Some say Siddhartha left the palace to pursue a spiritual path on the day his son was born.
Four Sights
Siddhartha went to the Shramana teachers to ask for help. Siddhartha traveled for four days. On the first day, he saw an old man. On the second day, he saw a sick woman. On the third day, he saw a funeral. It was his first time seeing death. On the fourth day he saw a sadhu (holy man). This man was very poor. Siddhartha thought that the man was happy even though he was poor. Siddhartha also knew that he was not happy even though he was rich. He decided to leave the palace and never go back.
Asceticism
Siddhartha walked through the forest. In the forest, he found a group of ascetics. He watched them and thought this was the way to be enlightened. For six years he lived with the ascetics. For some time, he ate one grain of rice and drank from the river every day. One day a boat was on the river with a musician and his students on it. Siddhartha heard the musician say, "If the string is too tight, it will snap. If it is too loose, it will not play." After hearing that, Siddhartha knew that he wanted to find a middle way, something more effective than asceticism. He took a bowl of rice with milk from a village woman. He then had the strength, to meditate until Enlightenment.
Enlightenment
Siddhartha sat at the bottom of the Bodhi tree. He made a promise to keep meditating until he was enlightened. For forty days Devaputra Mara, the leader of demons, tried to stop Siddhartha. He made Siddhartha think of scary things. He made demons try to hurt Siddhartha with spears, arrows, fire, and rocks. Siddhartha did not fear them and kept his mind relaxed and the hurtful things became like flowers and many coloured lights. From Sila (morality), Samadhi (concentration), and Prajna (insight; wisdom), he became enlightened. After he was enlightened, he taught people about what he had learned for 45 years. He died when he was 80 years old.
References
Buddhist terminology |
16155 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail | Mail | Mail is part of the postal system. The postal system is a system where written documents and small to medium packages are sent (delivered) to places around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.
A postal service can be private or public. Governments often make rules about private postal delivery systems. Since the early 19th century, most national postal systems have been controlled entirely by governments. The governments make people pay a fee to send something. This fee is usually in the form of stamps. Some governments only let private postal services deliver parcel (non-mail) packages.
Postal systems often do things other than sending letters. In some countries, the postal system is also in charge of telephone and telegraph systems. The postal systems in other countries can help people apply for government papers such as passports and driver's licenses. Many places the post offices also work like banks. This is so that people can take out money or pay bills at a nearby post office, instead of travelling to a big bank in the nearest town.
People drop letters in a post box to be collected and delivered by the post office.
Related pages
Clapper Post
Electronic mail
Envelope
Letter (paper)
Letter box
Postcard
Telegram
Postal service |
16156 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Righteous%20Brothers | The Righteous Brothers | The Righteous Brothers were an American pop group consisting of two men named Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They formed in California in 1962. Some of their hits include "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Unchained Melody". Phil Spector produced those songs.
Albums
Right Now (1963)
Some Blue-Eyed Soul (1964)
This is New (1965)
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (1965)
Just Once in My Life… (1965)
Back to Back (1965)
Soul & Inspiration (1966)
Go Ahead an Cry (1966)
Sayin' Somethin' (1967)
Souled Out (1967)
One for the Road (1968)
Re-Birth (1969)
Give it to the People (1974)
Sons of Mrs Righteous (1975)
The Righteous Brothers (2016)
Notes
American pop music groups
Soul bands
Musical groups from Los Angeles |
16157 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene%20Pitney | Gene Pitney | Gene Francis Alan Pitney (17 February 1940 – 5 April 2006) was an American rock singer and songwriter. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Some of his most well-known songs are "Town Without Pity", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa". He died of a heart attack in Cardiff in 2006 while on tour in the UK.
American rock singers
American singer-songwriters
Cardiovascular disease deaths in the United Kingdom
Writers from Hartford, Connecticut
Singers from Connecticut
1940 births
2006 deaths |
16166 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal%20Bureau%20of%20Investigation | Federal Bureau of Investigation | The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is an agency of the US government that investigates crime across the country. It is dedicated to national security and to law enforcement.
The Bureau of Investigation was founded in 1908 and was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935. J. Edgar Hoover was the Director of the Bureau from 1924 to his death, in 1972. Although the FBI works worldwide, its headquarters are in Washington DC. It has 56 main offices in cities throughout the United States.
Mission and priorities
The FBI's mission is to protect the USA and maintain justice. They do this in many ways:
They protect the United States from terrorist attacks.
They protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage.
They protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes like hacking.
They protect civil rights.
They combat all national and international criminal organizations.
They combat major white-collar crime and fraud.
They combat important violent crime.
They also support international partners.
Organization
Organizational structure
The FBI is organized into branches and the Office of the Director. This office contains most administrative offices. An executive assistant director manages each branch. Each branch is then divided into offices and divisions. Each division is headed by an assistant director. The various divisions are further divided into sub-branches. Each sub-branch is led by deputy assistant directors. Within these sub-branches there are various sections headed by section chiefs. Section chiefs are ranked analogous to special agents in charge.
Four of the branches report to the deputy director while two report to the associate director. The functions branches of the FBI are:
FBI Intelligence Branch
FBI National Security Branch
FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch
FBI Science and Technology Branch
FBI Information and Technology Branch
FBI Human Resources Branch
FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit
The FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit (FCNU) is a 24/7 operational response to crisis and to negotiate person(s) who are threatening to commit suicide or other harmful situations after a crime has been committed. The FBI's lead negotiator contacts the person(s) involved, with a hard-wire phone line to communicate with the person(s) to try convincing them to give themselves up to local police who are on stand-by.
References
Other websites
1908 establishments in the United States |
16167 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1596 | 1596 | 1596 was a year in the 16th century. It was a leap year.
Births
March 31 – René Descartes, French philosopher and physicist
June 29 – Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan
Micheal I of Russia, Russian Tsar
Deaths
January 28 – Sir Francis Drake, English explorer
Events
Warsaw becomes the capital of Poland.
The Cudel War starts in Finland |
16170 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus | Nothofagus | Nothofagus is a kind of plant, also called southern beech. It is a tree which can reach 35 m tall. Nothofagus is found in South America, New Zealand, Australia and New Guinea.
There are 34 species, considering pollen morphology four sections are recognized, i.e. Brassospora, Fuscospora, Lophozonia, and Nothofagus.
Nothofagus, Southamerican species;
Nothofagus Antarctica
Nothofagus betuloides
Nothofagus dombeyi
Nothofagus nitida
Nothofagus pumilio
Brassospora, New Guinea and New Caledonia species;
Nothofagus aequilateralis
Nothofagus balansae
Nothofagus baumanniae
Nothofagus brassii
Nothofagus carrii
Nothofagus codonandra
Nothofagus crenata
Nothofagus discoidea
Nothofagus flaviramea
Nothofagus grandis
Nothofagus nuda
Nothofagus perryi
Nothofagus pseudoresinosa
Nothofagus pullei
Nothofagus resinosa
Nothofagus rubra
Nothofagus starkenborghii
Nothofagus stylosa
Nothofagus womersleyi
Fuscospora, Southamerican, Australian and in some Oceania Island;
Nothofagus alessandri
Nothofagus fusca
Nothofagus gunnii
Nothofagus solandri
Nothofagus truncata
Lophozonia, in places of Southamerica and Oceania.
Nothofagus alpina
Nothofagus cunninghamii
Nothofagus glauca
Nothofagus macrocarpa
Nothofagus menziesii
Nothofagus moorei
Nothofagus obliqua
Fagales |
16174 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient%20Greek | Ancient Greek | Ancient Greek was an Indo-European language spoken in Ancient Greece from about 1500 BC to about 300 BC. Ancient Greek and Latin are very important languages. Although they are no longer spoken, they influenced almost all modern European languages.
Greek had many different dialects. Attic Greek was spoken in Athens, the largest city, and was thought to be the purest form of Greek. Later, in the educated Roman world, children were taught Greek as a second language just as many people now learn English as their second language. Koine Greek was the common language of Greeks. It was Attic Greek mixed with several other dialects.
Homer spoke and wrote in an old dialect that was somewhat different from Attic Greek. The Iliad and the Odyssey are long poems that tell exciting stories about warfare, travel and the Greek gods. In the 5th century BC, some great plays were written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The Golden Age of Ancient Greece inspired literature that has been read for centuries.
Attic Greek
Attic Greek was the dialect that was spoken in Athens and the rest of the region of Attica. It was the dialect most similar to later forms of Greek since it was the standard form of the language. It is studied in Ancient Greek courses because it was the most common dialect.
Changes
All languages change with time, and Greek has changed a great deal over 2500 years. Modern Greek is often said to have started in the year 1453 AD.
Unlike Latin, Ancient Greek did not split into many languages, but it is still considered to be a separate language from Modern Greek. The pronunciation has changed; for instance, beta was pronounced "b" in Ancient Greek, but it is pronounced "v" and is called "vita" in Modern Greek. The spelling has not changed much, which gives the appearance of less change than has actually happened. Also, many different vowels and diphthongs merged into "i", the vowel sound in the English word "ski". The tonal system of Ancient Greek has disappeared, but modern Greek had only recently changed its spelling to match that change.
Despite these changes, much of the language has remarkably survived intact through the centuries. There is a community near Trabzon, Turkey, that speaks a dialect that is closer to Ancient Greek than to Standard Modern Greek.
Related pages
Greek alphabet
Greek language
References
Greek language
Ancient Greece |
16190 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn | Autobahn | Autobahn (engl. motorway) is the controlled-access highway system in Germany. They are famous because in many parts of the roads, there are no speed limits and drivers can drive as fast as they want to.
An autobahn has at least two lanes in each direction, with a barrier between the directions. Sometimes there may be more than two lanes for one direction (or another lane for cars with mechanical failures). All drivers are supposed to drive on the outer-most right lane except when they move past other cars or trucks that are going slower.
Many autobahns in Germany have no speed limit. There is only a speed recommendation of per hour. However, drivers going faster than 130 km/h can be made responsible for an accident that they are involved in. The German traffic law says that it is only permitted to drive as fast as the track conditions allow.
German Road Safety Council (DVR) has established that on average, there are 25% more deaths on sections of the autobahn without speed limits compared to those with a limit. Data analysis performed by Der Spiegel has established that a speed limit applied across all German motorways would save 140 lives a year.
An emergency telephone is located at a German autobahn every . Junctions between two autobahns are called Dreieck (Triangle), if one autobahn ends there or Kreuz (Cross). Junctions with normal roads are called Anschlussstelle. All junctions of an autobahn are numbered sequentially.
Driving on a German autobahn is free for cars. Trucks (12.5 tons and above) do have to pay a toll of about a twelve cents (0.12 €) per kilometre.
References
Transport in Germany
Roads |
16191 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%20Schoenberg | Arnold Schoenberg | Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg (originally written 'Schönberg') (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian-born composer. He was known for his twelve-tone system of writing music.
History
Schoenberg came from a strict Jewish family who had moved to Austria from Hungary. They were quite poor and Schoenberg taught himself about music. When he was grown up he had to do a lot of teaching to try and earn enough money to live. In later life he went to live in the United States. It took a long time before he was recognized world-wide as a great composer. His two most famous pupils were Alban Berg (1885-1935) and Anton Webern (1883-1945). He taught them how to write twelve-tone music and they became famous composers.
When Arnold Schoenberg was a young man he was living in the late 19th century. If you look at the way composers wrote music at this time you will find that their compositions became more and more chromatic. This means that more and more sharps and flats were used during the piece, and the music went from one key to another (modulated) very quickly. Richard Wagner wrote very chromatic music, especially in his opera Tristan and Isolde.
Religion
In 1898 Schoenberg converted to Christianity in the Lutheran church. According to MacDonald, this was partly to connect with Western European cultural traditions, and partly as a means of self-defence "in a time of resurgent anti-Semitism".
In 1933, after long thought, he returned to Judaism, because he realised that "his racial and religious heritage was inescapable", and to take up an unmistakable position on the side opposing Nazism. He would self-identify as a member of the Jewish religion later in life.
Early work
Schoenberg’s early works are mostly Late Romantic. His piece Verklärte Nacht (which can be played by six string instruments or by a whole orchestra) has very beautiful harmonies which go quickly from one key to another. Gradually Schoenberg’s music changed. It became so chromatic that it was no longer in any key at all. Music like this (called “atonal”) is much harder to understand. His Five Orchestral Pieces were played by the conductor Sir Henry Wood at a Promenade Concert in 1912. The audience did not like it at first and took some time to get used to the sound.
Twelve-tone system
In 1923 Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone system for which he is famous. This is music which is based on a particular row of notes. Twelve-tone music is atonal because there is no feeling of being in any key, because of the equal use of every pitch.
References
1874 births
1951 deaths
Austrian composers
20th-century composers |
16195 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/War%20of%20the%20Roses | War of the Roses | War of the Roses may refer to:
Wars of the Roses, a civil war in England between the House of York and the House of Lancaster
The War of the Roses (movie), a 1989 movie |
16213 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full%20Metal%20Jacket | Full Metal Jacket | Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 British-American war drama movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the Gustav Hasford book The Short-Timers. The name of the movie comes from the full-metal jacketed bullets used in the military. The movie follows soldiers who are drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. The story is set in the late 1960s and follows the characters from their time in recruit training and them fighting in the war.
Release dates
Other websites
Full Metal Jacket at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Full Metal Jacket screenplay
1987 drama movies
1980s war movies
American drama movies
American war movies
British drama movies
British war movies
English-language movies
Movies based on books
Movies directed by Stanley Kubrick
Movies set in the 1960s
Murder-suicide in movies
Multilingual movies
Vietnam War movies
Warner Bros. movies |
16226 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire | Cambridgeshire | Cambridgeshire is a county in England. It is located in the East part of the country. The counties around Cambridgeshire are Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. The county town is Cambridge.
Ceremonial counties of England |
16227 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1468 | 1468 |
Births
February 29 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
Deaths
February 3 – Johann Gutenberg |
16228 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/English%20Channel | English Channel | The English Channel is a body of water that separates the island of Great Britain from the rest of Europe. People who live in the UK and want to visit Europe, or people from Europe who want to visit the UK, can take a ferry across or ride a train under the channel in a special tunnel called the Channel Tunnel (nicknamed the Chunnel). Both the ferries and trains carry cars. It is 563 km long, 246 km wide, and its narrowest part (34 km) is the Strait of Dover. On a clear day, it is possible to see the cliffs of Dover from Calais on the French side.
In 1875, Matthew Webb became the first known person to swim the English Channel, crossing it in just under 22 hours. The first woman to do this was Gertrude Ederle. In 2004, over 600 people were recorded making the crossing. The fastest time was achieved by Bulgarian swimmer Peter Stoychev in 2007, who managed it in 7 hours. Recently, officials have outlawed swimming in the English Channel.
In France, it is known as La manche (The Sleeve).
Waterways |
16256 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upminster | Upminster | Upminster is a place in the east London Borough of Havering, England. It is the eastern end of the London Underground system, on the District line which is green. It is also a station on the c2c line, but Oyster cards and travel cards are not valid beyond Upminster. Nearby places include Hornchurch, Upminster Bridge and Cranham.
Saint Laurence Church in Upminster is where William Derham measured the speed of sound.
Areas of London
London Borough of Havering |
16258 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin%20Baker | Colin Baker | Colin Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor. He is most famous as the Sixth Doctor on Doctor Who from 1984 to 1986. He has no relation to Tom Baker, who played the fourth incarnation of the Doctor.
1943 births
Living people
English stage actors
English television actors |
16259 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing | Boxing | Boxing is one of the world's oldest combat sports. It is held in a ring and two boxers (people who fight in boxing fights) wear padded gloves and try to hit one another.
There are a few different ways to win in boxing. One is by a way of a knockout, which is when a fighter is punched and falls to the ground and cannot get back up within ten seconds. Another way is by a technical knockout, which is when the fighter can not continue fighting thus the referee stops the fight. Technical knockout wins and losses are also knockout wins or losses for a boxer. Another possibility is winning on points, which a boxer gets by outboxing his or her opponent by hitting the opponent more often, harder, and more accurately. There are also draws in boxing. What in other sports are called "tie" in boxing it's called "draw". A referee can announce a technical draw due to an accidental cut or an accidental wound like a headbutt. Generally, it is considered a "no contest" (NC)-in which case, the fight is considered as not having taken place at all and not counting as a fight. However, after the fourth round, if the score cards for both fighters are equal, the fight could be called a draw. It is a way to defeat your enemy by brute physical force. Each round lasts 3 minutes for men, 2 minutes for women.
Famous boxers
Muhammad Ali
Mike Tyson
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
Nonito Donaire
Jack Dempsey
George Foreman
Joe Frazier
Evander Holyfield
Lennox Lewis
Joe Louis
Rocky Marciano
Manny Pacquiao
Willie Pep
Sugar Ray Robinson
Max Schmeling
Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Wilfredo Gómez
Wilfred Benitez
Sugar Ray Leonard
Roberto Duran
Oleksandr Usyk
Vasiliy Lomachenko
Related pages
Punching bag
Summer Olympic sports |
16260 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900s | 1900s | The 1900s was the decade that started on January 1, 1900, and ended on December 31, 1909.
Events
1901 – Independence of Australia.
1903 – Orville Wright of the Wright brothers flies an airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the United States.
1904-1905 – Russo-Japanese War.
1905 – First Russian Revolution.
World leaders
Prime Minister Edmund Barton (Australia)
Prime Minister Alfred Deakin (Australia)
Prime Minister Chris Watson (Australia)
Prime Minister Sir George Reid (Australia)
President William McKinley (United States)
President Theodore Roosevelt (United States)
President William Howard Taft (United States)
Shahs of Persia (Qajar dynasty)
Mozzafar-al-Din Shah, 1896–1907
Mohammad Ali Shah, 1907–1909
Ahmad Shah Qajar, 1909–1925 |
16261 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tux%20Racer | Tux Racer | Tux Racer is a video game made by Sunspire Studios where the player moves Tux, the Linux Penguin . In the game, Tux goes down a hill on his belly and collects fish. There are many things that slow Tux down. There are also things that may be hard for Tux to get past.
Controls
Turning: Left and Right buttons
Paddling (makes Tux go faster): Up button
Braking (makes Tux slow down): Down button
Jumping: Hold down the "E" button, then let go
Hard Turn (makes Tux turn when he is moving fast or when you want him to turn a lot): Down and Right or Left buttons at the same time
Reset (makes Tux Get out when he is stuck): Backspace Button
Quit (exits the game): "Q" Button
Updated version
The developers of Tux Racer have long abandoned making and programing the game. But some programmers took the source code and they call their new version Extreme Tux Racer, it is much newer and has many improvements over the old Tux Racer.
Other websites
Official website
2000 video games |
16264 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest%20Territories | Northwest Territories | The Northwest Territories is a territory in Northern Canada. 44,541 people live there as of 2018. It is 1,171,918 square kilometers.
The capital of the Northwest Territories is Yellowknife. Yellowknife was the capital since 1967. The Northwest Territories have many geographical features, like the Great Bear Lake, the Mackenzie River and Nahanni River, which is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Northwest Territories entered the Canadian Confederation in 1870. The Hudson's Bay Company gave the land to the Dominion of Canada. The Northwest Territories have one person in the House of Commons and the Canadian Senate. A lot of parts of the Northwest Territories were given to other provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. In 1999, the eastern part of the Northwest Territories became the territory of Nunavut.
References
Other websites
Provinces and territories of Canada |
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