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.
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
3.
Nationaltheatret (station)
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Nationaltheatret is an underground metro station and tram stop serving Vika and the city center of Oslo, Norway. It is located on the Common Tunnel of the Oslo Metro, also located at the same place is Nationaltheatret Station of the Drammen Line. The station is served by all six lines of the metro, in addition, several bus services call at the station. It is named for the National Theatre located nearby, the tram stop in the area opened in 1894. Nationaltheatret was the first underground station in the Nordic Countries, construction of a 1. 6-kilometre tunnel from Majorstuen to the city started in 1912. Until the 1987 opening of Stortinget, Nationaltheatret was the city terminus for the four light rail lines, the Holmenkollen Line, the Røa Line, the Sognsvann Line. The mainline railway station opened in 1980, and in 1993, Nationaltheatret is Norways only underground mainline railway station, located within the Oslo Tunnel on the Drammen Line. At ground level, there are three entrances to the station, on the west side of the station, the entrance is from beneath 7. Juni-plassen and Victoria Terrasse, facing Ruseløkkveien, there is an entrance from Johanne Dybwads plass, from the east, there is an entrance from Henrik Ibsens gate. There is a large, open vestibule near the surface at the entrance to Ruseløkkveien and it has high-mounted windows facing south, giving natural lighting. The area features escalators and elevators to the platforms, manned ticket sale, lockers, kiosks, the station is also equipped with ticket machines and features baggage trolleys, washrooms, automated teller machines and a Western Union bank. Parking is available 300 meters away at Vika, where car rental is also provided, bicycle parking and taxi stands are located at street level. All six lines of the Oslo Metro, numbered 1 through 6, each service has a 15-minute headway, which is reduced to every 30 minutes in the late evening and early on Sundays. Thus the station is served by up to 24 trains per hour per direction and it is served by several Ruter bus lines, including 30 Bygdøy–Nydalen,31 Snarøya–Grorud,32 Ladegården – Voksen skog,70 Vestbanen–Skullerud, and 82 and 83 to Tårnåsen. The railway station located below the station serves trains operating west of Oslo Central Station. All eight lines of the Oslo Commuter Rail stop at Nationaltheatret, however, not all services of all line operate west of Oslo S. The Airport Express Train operates direct, high-speed services to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen every 20 minutes, the tramway past Nationaltheatret was opened on 2 March 1894, when Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei opened the Briskeby ine from Oslo East Station via Briskeby to Majorstuen. In 1898, the Holmenkollen Line was opened, a light rail running from Majorstuen to Holmenkollen, the terminus at Majorstuen was a major hassle for passengers, most people were bound for the city center, and these had to change to the street trams at Majorstuen
4.
Sigrid Undset
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Sigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old, in 1924, she converted to Catholicism. She fled Norway for the United States in 1940 because of her opposition to Nazi Germany and the German invasion and occupation of Norway, but returned after World War II ended in 1945. Her best-known work is Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy about life in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages and its three volumes were published between 1920 and 1922. Sigrid Undset was born on 20 May 1882 in the town of Kalundborg, Denmark, at the childhood home of her mother. Undset was the eldest of three daughters and she and her family moved to Norway when she was two. She grew up in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, when she was only 11 years old, her father, the Norwegian archaeologist Ingvald Martin Undset, died at the age of 40 after a long illness. She joined the Norwegian Authors Union in 1907 and from 1933 through 1935 headed its Literary Council, while employed at office work, Undset wrote and studied. She was 16 years old when she made her first attempt at writing a set in the Nordic Middle Ages. The manuscript, a novel set in medieval Denmark, was ready by the time she was 22. It was turned down by the publishing house, nonetheless, two years later, she completed another manuscript, much less voluminous than the first at only 80 pages. She had put aside the Middle Ages and had produced a realistic description of a woman with a middle-class background in contemporary Kristiania. This book was refused by the publishers at first but it was subsequently accepted. The title was Fru Marta Oulie, and the opening sentence scandalised readers, thus, at the age of 25, Undset made her literary debut with a short realistic novel on adultery, set against a contemporary background. It created a stir, and she found herself ranked as a young author in Norway. During the years up to 1919, Undset published a number of set in contemporary Kristiania. Her contemporary novels of the period 1907–1918 are about the city and they are stories of working people, of trivial family destinies, of the relationship between parents and children. Her main subjects are women and their love, or, as she herself put it—in her typically curt and ironic manner—the immoral kind
5.
Feminism
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Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal, to define and advance political, economic, personal, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish opportunities for women in education. Feminists have also worked to promote autonomy and integrity, and to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment. Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years and represent different viewpoints, some forms of feminism have been criticized for taking into account only white, middle class, and educated perspectives. This criticism led to the creation of specific or multicultural forms of feminism, including black feminism. Charles Fourier, a Utopian Socialist and French philosopher, is credited with having coined the word féminisme in 1837, depending on the historical moment, culture and country, feminists around the world have had different causes and goals. Most western feminist historians assert that all working to obtain womens rights should be considered feminist movements. Other historians assert that the term should be limited to the modern feminist movement and those historians use the label protofeminist to describe earlier movements. The history of the modern western feminist movements is divided into three waves, each wave dealt with different aspects of the same feminist issues. The first wave comprised womens suffrage movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second wave was associated with the ideas and actions of the womens liberation movement beginning in the 1960s. The second wave campaigned for legal and social equality for women, the third wave is a continuation of, and a reaction to, the perceived failures of second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s. First-wave feminism was a period of activity during the 19th century, in the UK and US, it focused on the promotion of equal contract, marriage, parenting, and property rights for women. This was followed by Australia granting female suffrage in 1902, in 1928 this was extended to all women over 21. In the U. S. notable leaders of this movement included Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, anthony, who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to championing womens right to vote. These women were influenced by the Quaker theology of spiritual equality, in the United States, first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote in all states. During the late Qing period and reform movements such as the Hundred Days Reform, Chinese feminists called for womens liberation from traditional roles, later, the Chinese Communist Party created projects aimed at integrating women into the workforce, and claimed that the revolution had successfully achieved womens liberation. According to Nawar al-Hassan Golley, Arab feminism was closely connected with Arab nationalism, in 1899, Qasim Amin, considered the father of Arab feminism, wrote The Liberation of Women, which argued for legal and social reforms for women. He drew links between womens position in Egyptian society and nationalism, leading to the development of Cairo University, in 1923 Hoda Shaarawi founded the Egyptian Feminist Union, became its president and a symbol of the Arab womens rights movement
6.
Nobel Prize in Literature
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Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, here work refers to an authors work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize in any given year, the academy announces the name of the chosen laureate in early October. Although the Nobel Prize in Literature has become the worlds most prestigious literature prize, many authors who have won the prize have fallen into obscurity, while others rejected by the jury remain widely studied and read. The prize has become seen as a political one - a peace prize in literary disguise, whose judges are prejudiced against authors with different political tastes to them. Tim Parks has expressed skepticism that it is possible for Swedish professors, as of 2016,16 of the 113 recipients have been of Scandinavian origin. The Academy has often been alleged to be biased towards European, Nobels vague wording for the criteria for the prize has led to recurrent controversy. In the original Swedish, the word translates as either idealistic or ideal. The Nobel Committees interpretation has varied over the years, in recent years, this means a kind of idealism championing human rights on a broad scale. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets,31 million Swedish kronor, to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes. Due to the level of surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that the Storting approved it. The executors of his will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved. The prize-awarding organisations followed, the Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, the Nobel Foundation then reached an agreement on guidelines for how the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, the Nobel Foundations newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II, according to Nobels will, the Royal Swedish Academy was to award the Prize in Literature. Each year, the Swedish Academy sends out requests for nominations of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature and it is not permitted to nominate oneself. Thousands of requests are sent out each year, and as of 2011 about 220 proposals are returned and these proposals must be received by the Academy by 1 February, after which they are examined by the Nobel Committee. By April, the Academy narrows the field to around twenty candidates, by May, a short list of five names is approved by the Committee. The subsequent four months are spent in reading and reviewing the works of the five candidates. In October, members of the Academy vote and the candidate who receives more than half of the votes is named the Nobel laureate in Literature
7.
Porsgrunn
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Porsgrunn is a city and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Porsgrunn, the municipality of Porsgrunn was established on 1 January 1838. The town of Brevik and the district of Eidanger were merged into the municipality of Porsgrunn on 1 January 1964. The conurbation of Porsgrunn and Skien is considered by Statistics Norway to be the seventh-largest city in Norway, the place is first mentioned in 1576 by the writer Peder Claussøn Friis in his work Concerning the Kingdom of Norway. He writes, Two and a half miles from the sea, the Skien river flows into the fjord, and that place is called Porsgrund. The name was given during medieval times to the then swampy area by the nuns of Gimsøy Abbey, who went here to collect the shrub pors. Prior to 1931, the name was spelled Porsgrund, the coat of arms is from modern times. They were granted on 16 January 1905, the arms were devised in 1905 when the city needed a new city hall. The silver bend is the river running through the city. The upper half shows a branch of bog myrtle on a red background and is thus a canting symbol. The silver anchor on a blue background symbolizes the importance of the local harbor, Porsgrunn has been an important harbor town in the Grenland area since the late 16th century. Moving the Custom House to Porsgrunn added to the flourishing harbor activity, in the 18th century, it was the home of some of Norways most influential families at the time, such as the Aalls, Cappelens, Løvenskiolds, and Deichmans. Also in this period, Porsgrunn was considered the centre of Norway. On the ecclesiastical side, Porsgrunn was separated from the ancient rural parishes of Eidanger, Solum, churches within the Porsgrunn prestegjeld include Østre Porsgrunn Church and Vestre Porsgrunn Church. The city was granted limited city status in 1807, but this was expanded to full city status in 1842, Porsgrunn was once home to Skomvær, the countrys largest sailing ship. In 1985, the sculpture Amphitrite, the wave and the sea birds was unveiled in Porsgrunn, the sculpture, which is one of Jørleif Uthaugs best known works, has a nautical theme in honor of Porsgrunns maritime history. Porsgrunn borders the municipalities of Skien and Siljan to the north, Bamble in the west and it is part of a cluster of municipalities in southern Telemark that constitute the Grenland area of Norway
8.
Norsk Hydro
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Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide and it has operations in some 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state owns 43. 8% of the company through the Ministry of Trade, a further 6. 5% is owned by Folketrygdfond, which administers the Government Pension Fund of Norway. Norsk Hydro employs approximately 12,500 people, Svein Richard Brandtzæg has been the CEO since 2009. The company had a significant presence in the oil and gas industry until October 2007, the technology had been developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland. The method is known as the Birkeland–Eyde process. The process required large amounts of energy, and for this. Later also Rjukan Falls was developed and its power harnessed, in the establishing the city of Rjukan. Hydros first factory was built at Notodden followed up another at Rjukan. Then in 1912 production is established at Glomfjord in Nordland, in 1930 Norsk Hydro opened a plant at Herøya outside Porsgrunn. To begin with it was to function as a port for the fertilizer as well as a point to import limestone. From 1936 Hydro also started producing fertilizer at Herøya, there was also opened a railway, Rjukanbanen, connecting Rjukan with Hærøy. The railway opened in 1909 and consisted of a ferry across Lake Tinn, railway again with the Tinnoset Line. The canal was superseded by the Bratsberg Line in 1916, by 1945, IG Farben had become a majority shareholder in Norsk Hydro. The plant at Herøya was a result of no longer being dependent on immediate proximity to the power sources. This provided the advantage of being able to have the plants, the first steps towards light metal production came in 1940 when Hydro started construction of a magnesium carbonate plant at Herøya, but the German invasion of Norway stopped the plans. In 1941 the Oslo Consortium invested money equivalent to year 2014 Norwegian kroner 172 million, collaboration with the Nazi-German regime, did not result in any company employees being convicted after the war. During the Second World War Norsk Hydro collaborated with IG Farben, the construction was however ended on July 24,1943 when an allied bombardment completely destroyed the facilities, killing 55 construction workers
9.
Haakon VII of Norway
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Haakon VII, known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was a Danish prince who became the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the union with Sweden. He reigned from November 1905 until his death in September 1957, as one of the few elected monarchs, Haakon quickly won the respect and affection of his people. He played a role in uniting the Norwegian nation in its resistance to the Nazi invasion. He became King of Norway before his father and older brother became kings of Denmark, during his reign, he saw his father, his brother and his nephew, Frederick IX, ascend the throne of Denmark, respectively in 1906,1912 and 1947. He died at the age of 85 on 21 September 1957 and he was succeeded by his only son, Olav V. Prince Carl of Denmark was the son of King Frederik VIII of Denmark. Furthermore, he was a brother of Christian X, a paternal grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark. Prince Carl was born at Charlottenlund Palace near Copenhagen and he belonged to the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Oldenburg had been the Danish royal family since 1448, the house was originally from northern Germany, where the Glucksburg branch held their small fief. The family had permanent links with Norway beginning from the late Middle Ages, several of his paternal ancestors had been kings of independent Norway. Christian Frederick, who was King of Norway briefly in 1814, Prince Carl was raised in the royal household in Copenhagen and educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy. Their son, Prince Alexander, the future Crown Prince Olav, was born on 2 July 1903, gradually, Prince Carl became the leading candidate, largely because he was descended from independent Norwegian kings. The new royal family of Norway left Denmark on the Danish royal yacht Dannebrog, at Oscarsborg Fortress, they boarded the Norwegian naval ship Heimdal. After a three-day journey, they arrived in Kristiania early on the morning of 25 November 1905, two days later, Haakon took the oath as Norways first independent king in 518 years. The coronation of Haakon and Maud took place in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on 22 June 1906, King Haakon gained much sympathy from the Norwegian people. Although the Constitution of Norway vests the King with considerable executive powers, Haakon confined himself to non-partisan roles without interfering in politics, a practice continued by his son and grandson. However, his long rule gave him moral authority as a symbol of the countrys unity. Haakon, Maud and Crown Prince Olav became interested in skiing and this sport is often viewed as typically Norwegian
10.
2014 in Norway
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Events in the year 2014 in Norway. Monarch - Harald V Prime Minister - Erna Solberg,28 March – Jens Stoltenberg is named next General Secretary of Nato, assuming the position in October 2014. 1 July-1 September – Schoolteacher strike, 11-13 April – Vossajazz 6-10 May – Norway participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song Silent Storm, performed by Carl Espen. 2-5 July – Kongsberg Jazzfestival 14-19 July – Moldejazz 7–23 February – at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia,23 November – The 2014 Norwegian Football Cup Final was won by Molde FK. 7–21 December – at the 2014 European Womens Handball Championship, Norway won their sixth title after beating Spain 28–25 in the final, 2–13 June – Norway Chess 2014. 1–14 August – the 41st Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, 7–28 November – Magnus Carlsen defended his World Championship title in a match against Viswanathan Anand. 10 January – release of the drama film Kule kidz gråter ikke,21 February – the action film In Order of Disappearance, directed by Hans Petter Moland, was released in Norway. The film premiered on 10 February at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival,26 February – the drama film Blind, written and directed by Eskil Vogt, was released in Norway. The film was screened at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. 14 January –200 years since the Treaty of Kiel,16 February –200 years since the Meeting of Notables. 17 May –200 years since the signing of the Constitution of Norway,26 July –200 years since the outbreak of the Swedish–Norwegian War. 14 August –200 years since the Convention of Moss, which ended the Swedish–Norwegian War,10 October –200 years since the abdication of King Christian Frederik, in the wake of the Swedish–Norwegian War. 4 November –200 years since the signing of the Constitution of Norway,23 July –100 years since the birth of Alf Prøysen. 14 August –200 years since the birth of National Romanticism painter Adolph Tidemand,100 years since the foundation of the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology. 100 years since the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition, ramsrud, politician 16 June - Thore Heramb, painter 25 June - Arvid Jacobsen, newspaper editor 25 June - Ragnhild Hilt, actress 25 June – Audvar Os, jurist
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