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.
1943 in Norway
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Events in the year 1943 in Norway. The 39 men aboard as well as six Special Operations Executive agents are killed in the sinking, the wreck of the submarine was only discovered in 1985. 22 February - The collaborationist Quisling regime approves the Lov om nasjonal arbeidsinnsats according to all men between ages 18–55 and all women between ages 21–40, are required to enlist. 24 February -158 Norwegian Jews are deported from Norway to German extermination camps,28 February - Operation Gunnerside, Six Norwegian SOE agents led by Joachim Rønneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant at Vemork. 24 July - An allied air raid destroys the aluminium and magnesium plants in Herøya being built by Norsk Hydro in cooperation with Luftwaffe-operated Nordische Aluminium Aktiengesellschaft. 28 July - MTB345, a torpedo boat operated by the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy, is captured by the Germans off Western Norway. 30 September - the sinking of the Hurtigruten passenger ship Sanct Svithun by Allied aircraft leads to protests from the Norwegian resistance movement. 16 November -160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in Vemork,26 December – the German battleship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norways North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces. Kydland, economist 3 December - Ingmar Ljones, politician 5 December - Eva Joly, magistrate in France 6 December - Mette Ravn, diplomat 7 December – Per Fugelli, professor of medicine
3.
1945 in Norway
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Events in the year 1945 in Norway. 9 February -29 Norwegians were executed by the Nazi regime in Norway as reprisal of Marthinsens death, among others Jon Vislie, Kaare Sundby and Haakon Sæthre. The extent and severity of the reprisals shocked the Norwegian population and government-in-exile,9 February - Black Friday, a large air battle between German and British aircraft over Sunnfjord. It was the largest aerial clash over Norway during World War II,7 May - Knut Hamsun released his obituary of Adolf Hitler. 8 May - The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany ended as German forces agreed to an unconditional surrender,8 May - Grini concentration camp was liberated, only to be used later for treason suspects under the name Ilebu. 8 May - Josef Terboven and Wilhelm Rediess committed suicide,9 May - Vidkun Quisling was arrested. 11 May - Sverre Riisnæs gave up his entrenchment at Skallum farm, jonas Lie died during the entrenchment. 11 May - Akershus Fortress surrendered by the Germans to Terje Rollem acting on behalf of the resistance,13 May - Heinrich Fehlis was arrested and committed suicide. 14 May - Henry Rinnan was arrested,31 May - Government returned from exile in London. 6 June - King Haakon VII of Norway returned to Norway,14 June - Knut Hamsun was apprehended. 20 June - Paal Berg gave up plans to form a broad,25 June - Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold resigned as Haakon VII appointed Einar Gerhardsen to head an interim government composed of all political parties. 6 July - Norway declares war on Japan,25 July – Gerhardsens First Cabinet was appointed. 17 August - Reidar Haaland was executed,8 October - The 1945 Parliamentary election takes place. 24 October - Vidkun Quisling was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress,5 November – Gerhardsens Second Cabinet was appointed. 24 December - Henry Rinnan escaped from prison, only to be apprehended later, IG Farben was the largest stock-holder in Norsk Hydro. The two companies first formed a partnership in 1927. The newspaper Verdens Gang was founded, the periodical Kvinnen og Tiden is founded. Municipal and county elections are held throughout the country
4.
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
5.
Vidkun Quisling
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Quisling first came to international prominence as a close collaborator of Fridtjof Nansen, organizing humanitarian relief during the Russian famine of 1921 in Povolzhye. He was posted as a Norwegian diplomat to the Soviet Union and he returned to Norway in 1929, and served as Minister of Defence in the governments of Peder Kolstad and Jens Hundseid, representing the Farmers Party. Although Quisling achieved some popularity after his attacks on the political left, from 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, heading the Norwegian state administration jointly with the German civilian administrator Josef Terboven. His pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime, was dominated by ministers from Nasjonal Samling, the collaborationist government participated in Germanys genocidal Final Solution. He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, the word quisling has since become a synonym for collaborator or traitor, reflecting the very poor light in which Quislings actions were seen, both at the time and since his death. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on 18 July 1887 in Fyresdal, the elder Quisling had lectured in Grimstad in the 1870s, one of his pupils was Bang, whom he married on 28 May 1886, following a long engagement. The newly-wed couple promptly moved to Fyresdal, where Vidkun and his siblings were born. The family name derives from Quislinus, a Latinised name invented by Quislings ancestor Lauritz Ibsen Quislin, based on the village of Kvislemark in Jutland, Denmark, whence he had emigrated. Having two brothers and a sister, the young Quisling was shy and quiet but also loyal and helpful, private letters later found by historians also indicate a warm and affectionate relationship between the family members. From 1893 to 1900, his father was a chaplain for the Strømsø borough in Drammen, here, Vidkun went to school for the first time. He was bullied by students at the school for his Telemark dialect. In 1900, the moved to Skien when his father was appointed provost of the city. Academically Quisling proved talented in humanities, particularly history, and natural sciences, at this point, however, his life had no clear direction. In 1905, Quisling enrolled at the Norwegian Military Academy, having received the highest entrance examination score of the 250 applicants that year. Transferring in 1906 to the Norwegian Military College, he graduated with the highest score since the inception in 1817. On 1 November 1911, he joined the army General Staff, Norway was neutral in the First World War, Quisling detested the peace movement, though the high human cost of the war did temper his views. In March 1918, he was sent to Russia as an attaché at the Norwegian legation in Petrograd, when the legation was recalled in December 1918, Quisling became the Norwegian militarys expert on Russian affairs. In September 1919, Quisling departed Norway to become an officer with the Norwegian delegation in Helsinki
6.
Nasjonal Samling
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Nasjonal Samling, abbreviated NS, was a Norwegian fascist party active from 1933 to 1945. The party celebrated its founding on 17 May, Norways national holiday, the party never gained direct political influence, but it made its mark on Norwegian politics nonetheless. Despite the fact that it never managed to get more than 2. 5% of the vote and failed to even one candidate to the Storting. The established parties in Norway viewed it as a Norwegian version of the German Nazis, several of its marches and rallies before the war were either banned, or marred by violence when communists and socialists clashed with the Hird. A significant trait of the party throughout its existence was a high level of internal conflict. Antisemitism, anti-Masonry, and differing views on religion, as well as the association with the Nazis and Germany were hotly debated. By the time the Second World War broke out, the party had been reduced to a sect with hardly any real activity. Strong belief in Norse Paganism, Romantic nationalism, authoritarianism, republicanism and corporatism dominated NS ideology and it also relied heavily on Nordic symbolism, using Vikings, pre-Christian religion and runes in its propaganda and speeches. It asserted that its symbol, a sun cross on a red background, had been the symbol of St. Olaf. However, King Haakon VII, in unoccupied territory along with the legitimate government, the existing government refused to step down in Quislings favour or serve under him, and confirmed that resistance was to be continued. With no popular support, the German forces of occupation quickly thrust Quisling aside, in April 1940 the party probably only had a few hundred members, but membership rose to 22,000 in December the same year, and peaked with 43,400 in November 1943. After a brief period with a caretaker government appointed by the Supreme Court. He appointed a government responsible to himself, with most ministers from the ranks of Nasjonal Samling, the NS administration had a certain amount of autonomy in purely civilian matters, but it was in reality controlled by the Reichskommissar as head of state, subordinate only to Adolf Hitler. The post-war authorities proscribed the party and prosecuted its members as collaborators, nearly 50,000 were brought to trial, approximately half of whom received prison sentences. The authorities executed Quisling for treason as well as a few other high-profile NS members, another issue of post-war treatment has been the ongoing Hamsun debate in Norway. The internationally renowned author Knut Hamsun, although never a member, was a well-known NS sympathiser, after the war, Hamsun was, however, deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, and the issue of his links to the party has never been properly resolved
7.
German battleship Tirpitz
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Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine during World War II. Work was completed in February 1941, when she was commissioned into the German fleet, like her sister ship Bismarck, Tirpitz was armed with a main battery of eight 38-centimetre guns in four twin turrets. After a series of wartime modifications she was 2,000 tonnes heavier than Bismarck, after completing sea trials in early 1941, Tirpitz briefly served as the centrepiece of the Baltic Fleet, which was intended to prevent a possible break-out attempt by the Soviet Baltic Fleet. In early 1942, the sailed to Norway to act as a deterrent against an Allied invasion. While stationed in Norway, Tirpitz was also intended to be used to intercept Allied convoys to the Soviet Union and this was the only feasible role for her, since the St Nazaire Raid had made operations against the Atlantic convoy lanes too risky. Tirpitz acted as a fleet in being, forcing the British Royal Navy to retain significant naval forces in the area to contain the battleship. In September 1943, Tirpitz, along with the battleship Scharnhorst, bombarded Allied positions on Spitzbergen, shortly thereafter, the ship was damaged in an attack by British mini-submarines and subsequently subjected to a series of large-scale air raids. On 12 November 1944, British Lancaster bombers equipped with 12, a deck fire spread to the ammunition magazine for one of the main battery turrets, which caused a large explosion. Figures for the number of men killed in the range from 950 to 1,204. Between 1948 and 1957 the wreck was broken up by a joint Norwegian and German salvage operation, Tirpitz was ordered as Ersatz Schleswig-Holstein as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Schleswig-Holstein, under the contract name G. The Kriegsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 20 October 1936, the hull was launched on 1 April 1939, during the elaborate ceremonies, the ship was christened by the daughter of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the ships namesake. Adolf von Trotha, an admiral in the Imperial German Navy, spoke at the ships launching. Fitting-out work followed her launch, and was completed by February 1941, British bombers repeatedly attacked the harbour in which the ship was being built, no bombs struck Tirpitz, but the attacks did slow construction work. Tirpitz was commissioned into the fleet on 25 February for sea trials, Tirpitz displaced 42,900 t as built and 52,600 tonnes fully loaded, with a length of 251 m, a beam of 36 m and a maximum draft of 10.60 m. Her standard crew numbered 103 officers and 1,962 enlisted men, as built, Tirpitz was equipped with Model 23 search radars mounted on the forward, foretop, and rear rangefinders. These were later replaced with Model 27 and then Model 26 radars, a Model 30 radar, known as the Hohentwiel, was mounted in 1944 in her topmast, and a Model 213 Würzburg fire-control radar was added on her stern 10.5 cm Flak rangefinders. She was armed with eight 38 cm SK C/34 L/52 guns arranged in four gun turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm L/55 guns, sixteen 10.5 cm L/65 and sixteen 3.7 cm L/83, the number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to 58
8.
Operation Tungsten
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Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship Tirpitz. The operation sought to damage or destroy Tirpitz at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become operational again following a period of repairs. The British decision to strike Kaafjord was motivated by fears that the battleship, upon re-entering service, removing the threat posed by Tirpitz would also allow the Allies to redeploy the capital ships which had to be held in the North Sea to counter her. After four months of training and preparations, the British Home Fleet sailed on 30 March 1944, the raid achieved surprise, and the British aircraft met little opposition. Fifteen bombs hit the battleship, and strafing by fighter aircraft inflicted heavy casualties on her gun crews, four British aircraft and nine airmen were lost during the operation. The German Kriegsmarine decided to repair the battleship, and works were completed by mid-July, the British conducted further carrier raids against Tirpitz between April and August 1944 in the hope of prolonging the period she was out of service, but none was successful. Tirpitz was eventually disabled and then sunk by Royal Air Force heavy bombers in late 1944, the threat Tirpitz had an important influence on British naval strategy during the Second World War. She was commissioned in February 1941 and completed her crew training late that year and these convoys carried large quantities of war material from ports in the UK and Iceland, and were frequently attacked by the German air and naval units stationed in Norway. Tirpitz arrived in Norway in January 1942 and operated from anchorages located in fjords, the British attacked Tirpitz several times during 1942 and 1943. When the battleship sortied to intercept Convoy PQ12 on 6 March 1942 HMS Victorious and these aircraft launched twenty torpedoes at the battleship but all missed. On several occasions during 1942 and 1943 bombers from the Royal Air Force and this attack caused extensive damage to Tirpitz, putting her out of service for six months. Repairs to Tirpitz were carried out using improvised facilities at Kaafjord as it was considered too risky to attempt to move the damaged warship to Germany, instead, equipment and work crews were shipped to the fjord from German ports. On the night of 10/11 February 1944,15 Soviet aircraft attacked the battleship, by 17 March, the repairs to Tirpitzs armament, machinery and hull were complete, but several minor repair tasks were outstanding. During the period the ship was under repair, Scharnhorst, the remaining operational German battleship, was sunk on 26 December during the Battle of the North Cape. Following this engagement the Royal Navy stopped deploying battleships to cover convoys travelling to, by this stage of the war the Allies also had large numbers of anti-submarine and anti-aircraft escort ships available, and were able to assign strong forces to protect all of the Arctic convoys. German submarines operating in the Norwegian Sea were rarely able to evade the convoy escorts, the British Government and Royal Navy were concerned about the threat Tirpitz posed once she re-entered service. Allied intelligence tracked the progress of work on the battleship using decrypted German radio signals, photo reconnaissance flights and it was feared the battleship could sortie and attack convoys in the Norwegian Sea or Atlantic Ocean after the repairs were completed. The need to guard against this possibility would also occupy warships needed to support the invasion of France
9.
Alta, Norway
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Alta is the most populated municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Alta, some of the main villages in the municipality include Kåfjord, Komagfjord, Kvenvik, Langfjordbotn, Leirbotn, Rafsbotn, Talvik, and Tverrelvdalen. The municipality of Alten-Talvig was established on 1 January 1838, on 1 January 1863, the municipality was divided into two, Talvik to the north and Alta to the south. On 1 January 1964, the two municipalities were merged together to form the new, larger municipality of Alta. Prior to the merger, Alta had 6,629 residents, the borders have not changed since that time. The municipality is named after the local Altafjorden. The name possibly comes from the Old Norse which refers to a swan or it is a Norwegianization of the Finnish word which refers to a lowland, prior to 1918, the name was written Alten. The coat-of-arms is from modern times and they were granted on 9 July 1976. The arms show an arrow point on a blue background. The arrow is derived from the findings of quartzite arrow points dating back to the late Stone Age, the quartzite was quarried in the municipality and tools made from it were used all over Northern Norway. The Church of Norway has two parishes within the municipality of Alta and it is part of the Alta deanery in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland. The Rock carvings at Alta, dating from c.4200 BC to 500 BC, are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, the Komsa culture was named after the Komsa mountain in Alta municipality, where the first archeological remains of this culture were discovered. In the aftermath of the Sami Kautokeino rebellion of 1852, rebel leaders Mons Aslaksen Somby and Aslak Jacobsen Hætta were decapitated at Elvebakken in Alta, on 14 October 1854. During World War II, the German battleship Tirpitz used the Kåfjorden, an arm of Altafjorden, as a harbour, the town Alta was seriously destroyed by fire near the end of the World War II. It was rebuilt in subsequent years, the Altasaken in 1979 made headlines for weeks, as many people demonstrated and used civil disobedience to prevent the building of a dam on the river Altaelva in order to produce hydropower. The dam was built, however, and the river offers good salmon fishing. The king of Norway usually visits the river once in the summer to fish, the urban area made up of Bossekop, Elvebakken, and Bukta, also known collectively as Alta became a town on 1 January 2000. The population has been growing steadily for many years, the municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor
10.
Western Norway
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Western Norway is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, the region has a population of approximately 1.3 million people. The largest city is Bergen and the second-largest is Stavanger, historically the regions of Agder, Vest-Telemark, Hallingdal, Valdres and northern parts of Gudbrandsdal have been included in Western Norway. Western Norway, as well as parts of historical regions of Norway, shares a common history with Denmark. For example, the Icelandic horse is a relative of the Fjord horse. In early Norse times, people from Western Norway became settlers at the Western Isles in the Northern Atlantic, so that the Orkneys, Shetland, during the Viking age settlements were made at the Hebrides, Man and Ireland proper. In early modern time, Western Norway has had much emigration to the United States, Canada and this applies particularly to the US states of Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Montana, and South Dakota. The Icelandic and Faroese people, and many people in the British Isles, are descendants of Norsemen, on the other hand, thousands of Western Norwegians are descendants of Dutch and German traders who arrived in the 16th and the 17th centuries, especially in Bergen. Western Norway has the lowest unemployment rates, lowest crime rates, smallest public sector, fewest people on welfare and it is generally regarded as Norways most functional region. Vestlandet is also the chosen for a future administrative region consisting of two of the four counties, viz. Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane. The two counties will be re-merged after having split in 1763. Norways history begins on the west coast, particularly in Rogaland, excavations and rock art tells us that it was in Rogaland that the first humans settled in Norway, when the ice retreated after the last ice age ca.10,000 years ago. There are many artifacts from the Stone Age in Rogaland, the preliminary oldest traces of humans are found in a settlement on Galta, Rennesøy, near the ferry terminal Mortavika and Vista on Randaberg. In the beginning there has been sure short visits by people from the south who hunted along the coast and it is thought that people came from Doggerland, the North Sea land area between Denmark and England, which disappeared when the ice retreated and sea levels rose. The people who lived there must now find a new land, some retreated south again, while a few passed the Norwegian Trench in its hunt for deer and the new country. The region includes most of the scope of the old Gulating and these were Sunnmørafylke, Firda County, Sygna County, Hordafylke, Rygjafylke and Egdafylke. Before the millennium, iron was introduced and used in agriculture, in the same period, the kings’ power increased, and large tax claims caused many to seek freedom and fortune abroad. Many emigrated, and looting became a source of income
11.
Bergen
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Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, the population was 278,121. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway, the municipality covers 465 square kilometres and is on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, the city fjord, many of the extra-municipal suburbs are on islands. Bergen is the centre of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg, Ytrebygda, Årstad. Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, according to tradition, the city was founded in 1070 by king Olav Kyrre, its name was Bjørgvin, the green meadow among the mountains. It served as Norways capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was surpassed by the capital. What remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site, the city was hit by numerous fires over the years. The Bergen School of Meteorology was developed at the Geophysical Institute beginning in 1917, the Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936, from 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county. In 1972 the municipality absorbed four surrounding municipalities and became a part of Hordaland county, the city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, media, tourism and finance. Bergen Port is Norways busiest in both freight and passengers with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, almost half of the passengers are German or British. The citys main team is SK Brann and the citys unique tradition is the buekorps. Natives speak the distinct Bergensk dialect, the city features Bergen Airport, Flesland, Bergen Light Rail, and is the terminus of the Bergen Line. Four large bridges connect Bergen to its suburban municipalities, Bergen is well known for having a mild winter climate, though with a lot of precipitation. In December - March, the difference between Bergen and Oslo can be up to 30 degrees Celsius, despite the fact that both cities are at approximately 60 degrees North. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea relatively warm, considering the latitude, the city of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardråde in 1070 AD, four years after the Viking Age ended with the Battle of Hastings. Modern research has, however, discovered that a settlement was established already during the 1020s or 1030s
12.
Harbor
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A harbor or harbour, or haven, is a body of water where ships, boats and barges seek shelter from stormy weather, or are stored for future use. Ports are often located in harbors, harbors can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys, or they can be constructed by dredging, in contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by prominences of land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour, Australia and Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka, artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The oldest artificial harbor known is the Ancient Egyptian site at Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea coast, the largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai. The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons, a natural harbor is a landform where a part of a body of water is protected and deep enough to furnish anchorage. Natural harbors have long been of great strategic naval and economic importance, having a protected harbor reduces or eliminates the need for breakwaters as it will result in calmer waves inside the harbor. For harbors near the North and South Poles, being ice-free is an important advantage, the worlds southmost harbor, located at Antarcticas Winter Quarters Bay, is potentially ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions. Although the worlds busiest port is a hotly contested title, in 2006 the worlds busiest harbor by cargo tonnage was the Port of Shanghai
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