1.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
2.
1905 in Norway
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Events in the year 1905 in Norway. 1905 is the year when Norway regained its independence after the dissolution of the Union between Sweden and Norway, the article Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 covers the events surrounding the break with Sweden in depth. 26 October - Norway was recognized by Sweden as an independent constitutional monarchy,12 November – a referendum confirmed the monarchy and rejected a republican form of government. 18 November – The Norwegian Parliament unanimously elected the Danish Prince Carl to be king,25 November – Haakon VII and his family arrived in Christiania. 4 April – Arne Randers Heen, mountain climber
3.
Monarchy of Norway
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The Norwegian monarch is the monarchical head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The present monarch is King Harald V, who has reigned since 17 January 1991, succeeding his father, the heir apparent is his only son, Crown Prince Haakon. The crown prince undertakes various public functions, as does the kings wife. The crown prince also acts as regent in the kings absence, there are several other members of the Royal Family, including the kings daughter, grandchildren and siblings. Whilst the Constitution of Norway grants important executive powers to the King, formally the King appoints the government according to his own judgement, but parliamentary practice has been in place since 1884. Constitutional practice has replaced the meaning of the word King in most articles of the constitution from the king personally to the elected government. The powers vested in the monarch are significant, but are treated only as reserve powers, the King does not, by convention, have direct participation in government. He ratifies laws and royal resolutions, receives and sends envoys from and to foreign countries and he has a more tangible influence as the symbol of national unity. The annual New Years Eve speech is one occasion when the King traditionally raises negative issues, the King is also Supreme Commander of the Norwegian Armed Forces and Grand Master of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. The King has no role in the Church of Norway. The position of King of Norway has been in existence since the unification of Norway in 872. In recent years members of the Socialist Left party have proposed the abolition of the monarchy during each new session of parliament and this gives the Norwegian monarchy the unique status of being a popularly elected royal family and receiving regular formal confirmations of support from the Storting. Prior to and in the phase of the Viking Age Norway was divided into several smaller kingdoms. Harald Fairhair was the first king of Norway, the boundaries of Fairhairs kingdom were not identical to those of present-day Norway, and upon his death the kingship was shared among his sons. Some historians emphasise the actual control over the country and assert that Olaf II, alias Saint Olaf. Olaf is generally held to have been the force behind Norways final conversion to Christianity. In the 12th and 13th centuries the Norwegian kingdom was at its geographical and cultural peak, the kingdom included Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Shetland, Orkney and other smaller areas in the British Isles. The king had diplomatic relations with most of the European kingdoms and formed alliances with Scotland and Castile, large castles such as Haakons Hall and cathedrals, the foremost being Nidaros Cathedral, were built
4.
Oscar II of Sweden
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Oscar II was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until his dethronement in 1905. He was the third of four sons of King Oscar I, as his eldest brother Charles XV was without heirs and his brother Prince Gustaf died in 1852, it was he who succeeded his brother as king. Oscar II was king during a period when Sweden was undergoing a period of industrialization, the declining Union of Sweden and Norway was finally dissolved in 1905 and Oscar became the last Bernadotte king of Norway. He died in 1907 and was succeed as King of Sweden by his son, at his birth in Stockholm, Oscar Fredrik was created Duke of Östergötland. He entered the navy at the age of eleven, and was appointed lieutenant in July 1845. Later he studied at Uppsala University, where he distinguished himself in mathematics, on 13 December 1848, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On 6 June 1857 he married in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany, Princess Sophia Wilhelmina, from 1859, when his father died, he was first in line to the Swedish throne after his oldest brother King Charles, who then had no male heirs. His middle brother Gustaf had died in 1852 and he succeeded his brother Charles XV / IV on 18 September 1872. At the accession he adopted as his motto Brödrafolkens väl / Broderfolkenes Vel, the political events which led up to the peaceful dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 could hardly have been attained but for the tact and patience of the king himself. He was dethroned on 7 June 1905 by the Norwegian Parliament and he declined, indeed, to permit any prince of his house to become king of Norway, but better relations between the two countries were restored before his death. He died in Stockholm on 8 December 1907 at 9,10 AM and his acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considerations affecting most European sovereigns gave the king considerable weight as an arbitrator in international questions. At the request of Great Britain, Germany and the United States in 1889 he appointed the justice of Samoa. He was the 1, 027th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain, the office of prime minister was instituted in 1876. Louis De Geer became the first head of government in Sweden to use this title, the most known and powerful first minister of the Crown during the reign of Oscar was the conservative estate owner Erik Gustaf Boström. Boström served as Prime Minister in 1891-1900 and 1902-1905 and he was trusted and respected by the king, who had much difficulty approving someone else as prime minister. Over a period of time, the king gave Boström a free hand to select his own ministers without much royal involvement and it was an arrangement that furthered the road to parliamentarism. Himself a distinguished writer and musical amateur, King Oscar proved a friend of learning. In 1858 a collection of his lyrical and narrative poems, Memorials of the Swedish Fleet, published anonymously, obtained the second prize of the Swedish Academy
5.
Oseberg Ship
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The Oseberg ship is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold county, Norway. This ship is commonly acknowledged to be among the artifacts to have survived from the Viking Era. The ship and some of its contents are displayed at the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy on the side of Oslo. The Oseberg burial mound contained numerous grave goods and two human skeletons. The ships interment into its burial mound dates from 834 AD, but parts of the date from around 800. It was excavated by Norwegian archaeologist Haakon Shetelig and Swedish archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson in 1904-1905, the ship is a Karve, clinker built almost entirely of oak. It is 21.58 m long and 5.10 m broad, with a sail of c.90 m², the ship could achieve a speed up to 10 knots. The ship has 15 pairs of oar holes, which means that 30 people could row the ship, other fittings include a broad steering oar, iron anchor, gangplank, and a bailer. The bow and stern of the ship are elaborately decorated with complex woodcarvings in the gripping beast style. During the debate on whether to move the ship to a new proposed museum. During this process, very thorough photo scans and laser scans of both the outside and inside of the ship were made, in 2004, an attempt to build a copy of the Oseberg ship was launched. During this new attempt it was discovered that during the restoration of the ship a breach in one of the beams was made. This fact had not been discovered prior and it is believed this is perhaps the prime reason why several earlier replicas sank, previous attempts at working replicas had failed due to lack of correct data. In 2010, a new reconstruction was started titled Saga Oseberg, using timber from Denmark and Norway and utilizing traditional building methods from the Viking age, this newest Oseberg ship was successfully completed. On the 20th of June 2012 the new ship was launched from the city of Tønsberg, the ship floated very well and in March 2014 it was taken to open seas, with Færder as its destination, under full sail. A speed of 10 knots was achieved, the construction was a success, the ship performing very well. It demonstrated that the Oseberg ship really could sail and was not just a burial chamber on land, the skeletons of two women were found in the grave with the ship. One, probably aged 60–70, suffered badly from arthritis and other maladies, the second was initially believed to be aged 25–30, but analysis of tooth-root translucency suggests she was older
6.
Roald Amundsen
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Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, in 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole. Amundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, as having reached both poles and he is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. In June 1928, while taking part in a mission for the airship Italia. Amundsen was a key leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the class of Douglas Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott. Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge and his parents were Jens Amundsen and Hanna Sahlqvist. Roald was the son in the family. His mother wanted him to avoid the family trade and encouraged him to become a doctor. He promptly quit university for a life at sea, Amundsen had hidden a lifelong desire inspired by Fridtjof Nansens crossing of Greenland in 1888 and Franklins lost expedition. He decided on a life of exploration of wilderness places. Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as first mate and this expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island, the crew endured a winter for which they were poorly prepared. By Amundsens own estimation, the doctor for the expedition, the American Frederick Cook, probably saved the crew from scurvy by hunting for animals and feeding the crew fresh meat. In cases where citrus fruits are lacking, fresh meat from animals that make their own vitamin C contains enough of the vitamin to prevent scurvy and this was an important lesson for Amundsens future expeditions. In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canadas Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and he planned a small expedition of six men in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa, in order to have flexibility. His ship had relatively shallow draft and his technique was to use a small ship and hug the coast. Amundsen had the ship outfitted with a gasoline engine. They traveled via Baffin Bay, the Parry Channel and then south through Peel Sound, James Ross Strait, Simpson Strait and they spent two winters at King William Island in the harbor of what is today Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada
7.
Northwest Passage
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For centuries explorers sought a navigable passage as a possible trade route. Until 2009, the Arctic pack ice prevented regular marine shipping throughout most of the year, Arctic sea ice decline has rendered the waterways more navigable. If, as has been claimed, parts of the end of the Passage are barely 15 metres deep. Fully loaded, Nordic Orion was too large to sail through the Panama Canal, between the end of the 15th century and the 20th century, colonial powers from Europe dispatched explorers in an attempt to discover a commercial sea route north and west around North America. The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the trading nations of Asia. England called the northern route the Northwest Passage. The desire to establish such a route motivated much of the European exploration of both coasts of North America, when it became apparent that there was no route through the heart of the continent, attention turned to the possibility of a passage through northern waters. There was a lack of knowledge about conditions, for instance. Explorers thought that a water route close to the North Pole must exist. The belief that a route lay to the far north persisted for several centuries, many ended in disaster, including that by Sir John Franklin in 1845. While searching for him the McClure Arctic Expedition discovered the Northwest Passage in 1850, in 1906, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen first successfully completed a passage from Greenland to Alaska in the sloop Gjøa. Since that date, several fortified ships have made the journey, from east to west, the direction of most early exploration attempts, expeditions entered the passage from the Atlantic Ocean via the Davis Strait and through Baffin Bay. Five to seven routes have taken through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, via the McClure Strait, Dease Strait, and the Prince of Wales Strait. From there ships passed through waterways through the Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, on August 21,2007, the Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need of an icebreaker. According to Nalan Koc of the Norwegian Polar Institute, this was the first time the Passage has been clear since they began keeping records in 1972, the Northwest Passage opened again on August 25,2008. Thawing ocean or melting ice simultaneously opened up the Northwest Passage, awaited by shipping companies, this historic event will cut thousands of miles off their routes. We are going to see more and more as the years go by. Due to Arctic shrinkage, the Beluga group of Bremen, Germany, however, Canadas Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that ships entering the North-West passage should first report to his government
8.
Viking ships
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Viking ships were marine vessels of unique design, built by the Vikings during the Viking Age. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for and they were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. Some might have had a head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern, for design. Viking ships were not just used for their military prowess but for long-distance trade, in the literature, Viking ships are usually seen divided into two broad categories, merchant ships and warships. These categories are overlapping, some kinds of merchant ships, built for transporting cargo specifically, were regularly deployed as warships. The majority of Viking ships were designed for sailing rivers, fjords and coastal waters, while a few types, such as the knarr, could navigate the open sea and even the ocean. The Viking ships ranged from the Baltic Sea to far from the Scandinavian homelands, to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Newfoundland, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Africa. Scandinavia is a region with relatively high mountain ranges, dense forests. Consequently, trade routes were operated via shipping, as inland travel was both more hazardous and cumbersome. The Viking kingdoms developed into cities, all of which were deeply dependent on the North Sea. Control of the waterways was of importance, and consequently advanced war ships were in high demand. But in fact, because of their importance, ships became a mainstay of the Viking pagan religion, as they evolved into symbols of power. Throughout the first millennium, respectable Viking chieftains and noblemen were commonly buried with an intact, furthermore, the Hedeby coins, among the earliest known Danish currency, have ships as emblems, showing the importance of naval vessels in the area. Through such cultural and practical significance, the Viking ship progressed into the most powerful, a faering is an open rowboat with two pairs of oars, commonly found in most boat-building traditions in Western and Northern Scandinavia, dating back to the Viking Age. Knarr is the Norse term for ships that were built for Atlantic voyages and they were cargo ships averaging a length of about 54 feet, a beam of 15 feet, and a hull capable of carrying up to 122 tons. Because of this, the knarr was used for longer voyages, ocean going transports, the design of the knarr later influenced the design of the cog, used in the Baltic Sea by the Hanseatic League. Longships were naval vessels made and used by the Vikings from Scandinavia and Iceland for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longships design evolved over years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with the Nydam
9.
Edvard Grieg
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Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, the Edvard Grieg Museum in Troldhaugen is dedicated to his legacy. Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway, on 15 June 1843 and his parents were Alexander Grieg, a merchant and vice-consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup, a music teacher and daughter of Edvard Hagerup. The family name, originally spelled Greig, has Scottish origins, after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Griegs great-grandfather, Alexander Greig, traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen. Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical milieu and his mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of six. Grieg studied in schools, including Tanks Upper School, Tanks School. In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, Bull recognized the 15-year-old boys talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory, the piano department of which was directed by Ignaz Moscheles. Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and he disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study. An exception was the organ, which was mandatory for piano students, in the spring of 1860, he survived two life-threatening lung diseases, pleurisy and tuberculosis. Throughout his life, Griegs health was impaired by a left lung. He suffered from respiratory infections, and ultimately developed combined lung. Grieg was admitted many times to spas and sanatoria both in Norway and abroad, several of his doctors became his personal friends. In 1861, Grieg made his debut as a concert pianist in Karlshamn, in 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig and held his first concert in his home town, where his programme included Beethovens Pathétique sonata. In 1863, Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years and he met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He also met his fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak, who became a good friend, Nordraak died in 1866, and Grieg composed a funeral march in his honor. On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin, Nina Hagerup, the next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born. Alexandra died in 1869 from meningitis, in the summer of 1868, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its premiere performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen, Grieg himself was unable to be there due to conducting commitments in Christiania
10.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
11.
Olav V of Norway
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Olav V was King of Norway from 1957 until his death. Olav was the child of Haakon VII and Maud of Wales. He became heir apparent to the Norwegian throne when his father was elected King of Norway in 1905. He was the first heir to the Norwegian throne to be brought up in Norway since Olav IV, in preparation for his future role, he attended both civilian and military schools. In 1929, he married his first cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden, during World War II his leadership was much appreciated and he was appointed Norwegian Chief of Defence in 1944. At his death in 1991, he was the last surviving grandchild of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, due to his considerate, down-to-earth style, King Olav was immensely popular, resulting in the nickname Folkekongen. In a 2005 poll by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Olav was voted Norwegian of the century, Olav was a Danish prince born in Appleton House on the royal Sandringham Estate, Flitcham, United Kingdom. He was named Alexander Edward Christian Frederik, when his father was elected king of Norway, he took the Norwegian name Haakon VII, and on the day he was inaugurated, he gave his son the Norwegian name Olav. Olav was the first heir to the throne since medieval times to have raised in Norway. Unlike his father, who was an officer, Olav chose to complete his main military education in the army. He graduated from the three-year Norwegian Military Academy in 1924, with the fourth best score in his class, Olav then went on to study jurisprudence and economics for two years at Balliol College, Oxford. During the 1930s, Crown Prince Olav was a naval cadet serving on the training ship Olav Tryggvason. Olav moved upwards in the ranks of the Norwegian armed forces, rising in the army from a rank of first lieutenant, to captain in 1931. Olav jumped from the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, and also competed in sailing regattas and he won a gold medal in sailing at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and remained an active sailor into old age. On 21 March 1929 in Oslo, he married his first cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden with whom he had two daughters, Ragnhild and Astrid and one son, Harald. As exiles during World War II, Crown Princess Märtha and the children lived in Washington. She died in 1954, before her husband ascended the throne, as Crown Prince, Olav had received extensive military training and had participated in most major Norwegian military exercises. Because of this he was one of the most knowledgeable Norwegian military leaders and was respected by other Allied leaders for his knowledge
