1.
Federation of International Bandy
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The Federation of International Bandy is the international governing body for the sport of bandy, including the variant called rink bandy. Bandy as we know it today has been played since the later half of the 19th Century, Rules were set up in the 1890s by the National Bandy Association in England and by the corresponding body in Russia. The Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace was founded on May 15,1908 at 34 Rue de Provence in Paris, France, at a time when bandy, the founders of the federation were representatives from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and Bohemia. However, as ice hockey became an Olympic sport while bandy did not, bandy only survived in some of the Nordic countries, LIHG is now the International Ice Hockey Federation. In the 1940s, the Nordic countries Finland, Norway and Sweden set up a joint rules committee, in the early 1950s, the Soviet Union decided to break out of its isolation in international sport and started a friendly exchange with the said Nordic countries. The federation was formed on 12 of February 1955 at Hotell Malmen in Stockholm, Sweden, by representatives from Finland, Norway, the federation has had its base in Sweden since 1979. The present office is situated in Söderhamn, headed by FIB Secretary General Bo Nyman, boris Skrynnik is the FIB President. When FIB was formed in 1955, it introduced the rules for bandy all over the world. Especially in Russia, different rules had been used prior to this, Bandy World Championships have been organized for men since 1957 and for women since 2004. The federation was named the International Bandy Federation between 1957 and 2001, in 2004, FIB was fully accepted by IOC. FIB is a member of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations, the number of bandy playing nations have grown considerably in the last decades. There are 26 national members of the federation as of 2017, in 2011, FIB formulated its purposes as being the following. FIB vows to completely share the principles and articles of the Olympic Charter in its activities, FIB wants to promote the development of the sports of bandy and rink bandy in the member countries and wants to carry on propaganda for the importance and advantages of these sports. FIB also works for bandy to become an Olympic sport, FIB declares itself to be an independent autonomic mainsports organization which mainly is governing bandy activities all over the world. FIB leads and supervises bandy and rink bandy around the world, FIB also sees as its job to settle the rules for the games. One national member association should be entrusted by FIB with arranging an official world championship, FIB means that at least four nations must participate for it to be worth an event. FIB also wants to promote the introduction and the membership of new nations to the organisation, the rules of bandy is set in the Bandy Playing Rules. It is overseen by the Rules and Referee Committee, the following persons harve been presidents of FIB, The federation was founded by the national bandy associations in Finland, Norway, the Soviet Union and Sweden
2.
Association football
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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies making it the worlds most popular sport, the game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal, players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, the first written reference to the inflated ball used in the game was in the mid-14th century, Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the word soccer was split off in 1863, according to Partha Mazumdar, the term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford -er abbreviation of the word association. Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. People in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand use either or both terms, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now primarily use football for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence, cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to football, though similarities to rugby occurred. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established, phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup, athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence and they all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all football codes. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia, Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other games played around the world FIFA have recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England
3.
Cambridgeshire
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The city of Cambridge is the county town. It contains most of the known as Silicon Fen. Local government is divided between Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, which is a unitary authority. Cambridgeshire is noted as the site of Flag Fen in Fengate, one of the earliest-known Neolithic permanent settlements in the United Kingdom, compared in importance to Balbridie in Aberdeen, Scotland. A great quantity of archaeological finds from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, most items were found in Isleham. Cambridgeshire was recorded in the Domesday Book as Grantbridgeshire, covering a large part of East Anglia, Cambridgeshire today is the result of several local government unifications. In 1965, these two counties were merged to form Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Under the Local Government Act 1972 this merged with the county to the west, Huntingdon, the resulting county was called simply Cambridgeshire. Since 1998, the City of Peterborough has been a separately administered area and it is associated with Cambridgeshire for ceremonial purposes such as Lieutenancy, and joint functions such as policing and the fire service. In 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife unofficially designated Cambridgeshires county flower as the Pasqueflower, the Cambridgeshire Regiment, the county-based army unit, fought in the Boer War of South Africa, the First World War and Second World War. Due to the flat terrain and proximity to the continent, during the Second World War the military built many airfields here for RAF Bomber Command, RAF Fighter Command. In recognition of this collaboration, the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial is located in Madingley and it is the only WWII burial ground in England for American servicemen who died during that event. Most English counties have nicknames for their people, such as a Tyke from Yorkshire, the traditional nicknames for people from Cambridgeshire are Cambridgeshire Camel or Cambridgeshire Crane, referring to the wildfowl that were once abundant in the fens. The term Fenners was often applied to those who come from the country to the north of Cambridge. Since the late 20th century, this term is considered to be derogatory and has been discouraged in use, original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies. See also Geology of Cambridgeshire Large areas of the county are extremely low-lying, the highest point is in the village of Great Chishill at 146 m above sea level. Other prominent hills are Little Trees Hill and Wandlebury Hill in the Gog Magog Downs, Rivey Hill above Linton, Rowleys Hill, AWG plc is based in Huntingdon. The RAF has several stations in the Huntingdon and St Ives area, RAF Waterbeach,6 miles north of Cambridge, is a former RAF airfield, now used as an army barracks
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Bandy field
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Bandy Field is also the name of a park in Richmond, Virginia A bandy field or bandy rink is an ice rink used for playing bandy. Originally, bandy was played on naturally frozen ice, mainly on lakes, teams often had to take time to go out and search for the best ice to use. Soon, ice started to be created on soccer pitches in the wintertime and this may be the reason the outer measurements are the same as for a soccer field. The first artificially frozen bandy field was created in Budapest, Hungary, in the 1980s, indoor arenas started to be built, allowing for a longer season. The worlds first indoor arena, the Olimpiyskiy, was built in Moscow for the 1980 Summer Olympics but has hosted many bandy events since. The size of a field is regulated in section 1. For international play, the field must not be smaller than 100 metres times 60 metres, the field is outlined with distinct and unbroken lines according to section 1.1. These lines are red and between 5–8 centimetres wide, according to section 1.1 D, along the sidelines, section 1.2 of the Rules prescribes the use of a 15 cm high border to be placed to prevent the ball from leaving the ice. It should not be attached to the ice, it should be able to glide upon collisions, the top should have soft protection, to avoid players getting hurt if touching it when coming at high speed. The border was only used in Russia, but was introduced to other countries in the 1950s when the rules of the game were standardized. It allows for a game, as the ball stays in play instead of easily leaving the field. If the border is frozen to the ice during play, this can be hazardous to the players, the same applies if strong wind relocates the border, under such circumstances the match can also be started or continued without border. This is regulated in comment section C1.8 of the Rules, the border is made of sections which each should be about 4 metres long according to section 1.2 of the Rules. Section 1.3 of the Rules prescribes where players must and must not enter or leave the field and these four sections are placed at the middle of the side-line on one side of the field, in front of the players benches. All exchange of players from both teams must take place over these red-painted border pieces, i. e. over a part of the border which is about 16 m long. According to comment section C3.3 of the Rules, a player who is to be replaced, section 1.3 also states that the erroneous exchange of players is to be punished with a penalty of 5 minutes for the in-going player. A centre spot denotes the centre of the field and a circle of radius 5 m is centered at it, a centre-line is drawn through the centre spot and parallel with the shortlines. At each of the corners, a 1 m radius quarter-circle is drawn, the dotted line can be replaced with a 0. 5-metre long line starting at the edge of the penalty area and extending towards the sideline,5 metres from the shortline
6.
Olympic Games
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The Olympic Games are considered the worlds foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years. Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in changes to the Olympic Games. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, as a result, the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship, World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916,1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games, the Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations, National Olympic Committees, and organising committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, the IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and symbols, such as the Olympic flag and torch, over 13,000 athletes compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals, gold, silver, the Games have grown so much that nearly every nation is now represented. This growth has created numerous challenges and controversies, including boycotts, doping, bribery, every two years the Olympics and its media exposure provide unknown athletes with the chance to attain national and sometimes international fame. The Games also constitute an opportunity for the host city and country to themselves to the world. The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic but also combat such as wrestling. It has been written that during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or truce and this idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were travelling to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were protected by Zeus
7.
2004 Women's Bandy World Championship
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The Bandy World Championship for women 2004 took place in Lappeenranta, Finland between 18 and 22 February. It was the first World Championship in bandy for women, five teams took part, and firstly, all teams played in a group series, where all teams played each other once. The four best teams continued to the semi-finals, all matches were 2x30 minutes, apart from the final, which was 2 x 45 minutes. Sweden became world champions, winning their six matches a total of 52-0, in the final-game Sweden defeated Russia, 7-0. Finland Norway Russia Sweden United States
8.
Lappeenranta
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Lappeenranta is a city and municipality situated on the shore of the lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, about 30 kilometres from the Russian border. It belongs to the region of South Karelia, with approximately 73,000 inhabitants Lappeenranta is the 13th largest city in Finland. The neighboring municipality of Joutseno was consolidated with Lappeenranta on January 1,2009, Lappeenranta is also a commercial centre of South-East Finland and the meeting point of the EU and Russia,215 km from both Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Location on the shore of Lake Saimaa makes the city the region’s centre for tourism. Lappeenranta is second most visited city by Russian tourists in Finland after Helsinki, Lappeenranta is a model for renewable energies and a clean living environment. Lappeenranta was the only Finnish city among the 14 finalists in the international Earth Hour City Challenge 2014, Lappeenranta was originally formed around a headland pointing to lake Saimaa. In the 16th century, the market moved from Lappees old centre Kauskila to the current fortress headland. The first mention of Lapwes, as it was called, is in a charter from 1542 that subjugated the market place under Viborgs authority. The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden, however, the parliamentary privilege charter and the coat of arms were attested in 1652 after the town layout by Erik Aspegren was affirmed. At the time, Lappeenranta was an important port for tar, between 1721 and 1743, Lappeenranta was the capital of Kymmenegård and Savonlinna province. In 1741, the battle of Villmanstrand was fought between the Swedish and Russian armies in the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743, the battle ended in a Russian victory. The town was pillaged, wooden structures including the provincial chancellery were burnt, the municipalities of Lappee and Lauritsala were annexed to Lappeenranta in 1967. During the financial downturn of 2009 and 2010, Joutseno and Ylämaa respectively merged into Lappeenranta, the name Lappeenranta consists of the genitive of Lappee and the appellative ranta which means shore. The history of Lappeenranta includes the municipality of Lappee and the hundred Lapvesi. The Swedish name Villmanstrand contains the words vildman meaning wildman and strand also meaning shore, the wildman is depicted on Lappeenrantas coat of arms. Lappeenranta is connected to neighbouring cities and municipalities by road, with railways heading north and south from the city, Lappeenranta is located 215 km from Helsinki and 195 km from St. Petersburg. There are multiple daily trains around Finland from the center and to Russia from Vainikkala station, express train connections, to Helsinki in about 2 hours, and to St. Petersburg in about 1.5 hours on the new Allegro train. During the summer, when Lake Saimaa and Saimaa Canal are accessible by water, there is a connection by ship from Lappeenranta to Vyborg, visa-free canal cruises to Vyborg and St. Petersburg are very popular among all nationalities
9.
Team sport
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A team sport includes any sport which involves two or more players working together towards a shared objective. A team sport is an activity in individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win. Examples are basketball, volleyball, water polo, handball, lacrosse, cricket, baseball, Team sports are practiced between opposing teams, where the players interact directly and simultaneously between them to achieve an objective. The objective generally involves teammates facilitating the movement of a ball or similar object in accordance with a set of rules, in order to score points. However, other types of team sports do not involve teammates facilitating the movement of a ball or similar item in accordance with a set of rules, for example, swimming, rowing, sailing, dragon boat racing, and track and field among others are also team sports. In other types of team sports there may not be a team or point scoring, for example. Instead of points scored against a team, the relative difficulty of the climb or walk is the measure of the achievement. In some sports where participants are entered by a team, they do not only compete against members of other teams, for example, motorsport, particularly Formula One. This process is known as team orders and although previously accepted was banned in Formula One between 2002 and 2010, after a controversy involving team orders at the 2010 German Grand Prix however, the regulation was removed as of the 2011 season. Organized sports in athletics, started in Greece in 796 BC, is recorded up to 393 BC and these games, which are Olympic games, were a form to test the skills of warriors, consisted of running, jumping or leaping, wrestling, and javelin throw. In the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia cave paintings dating back to Neolithic age of 7000 BC depict a wrestling match surrounded by crowds, cave paintings of the Prehistoric times in Japan show a sport similar to sumo wrestling. In Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir in Libya, Neolithic in the cave of swimmers shows evidence of swimming in a rock painting, the name athletes is derived from Aethelius, the King of Elis in Olympia, Greece. Before the start of the gods were invoked by offering of mostly fruits. The winner of the race was crowned with a wreath of olive or laurel, in subsequent years monetary attractions were introduced as prize money. However, the practice of offering celery sticks is still in vogue in the 100 m sprint in the Olympics, the present pattern of Olympic Games is akin to the practice followed in the ancient days. The 200 m sprint is known in Greek as short foot race, the 400 m race is equivalent to two stades and called Diaulos in Greek. With the advent of computer gaming and the Internet, Esports which is in vogue for quite a few years was recorded in October 1972 as a video game. A Space war tournament was organized by Stanford University which was titled Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics with an offering of one-year subscription to Rolling Stone
10.
Winter sport
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A winter sport or winter activity is a recreational activity or sport which is played on snow or ice. Most such sports are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding, traditionally such sports were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and artificial ice allow more flexibility. Artificial ice can be used to provide ice rinks for ice skating, ice hockey, common individual sports include cross-country skiing, Alpine skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, speed skating, figure skating, luge, skeleton, bobsleigh and snowmobiling. Common team sports include ice hockey, curling and bandy, based on the number of participants, ice hockey is the worlds most popular winter sport, followed by bandy. Winter sports often have their own tournaments, such as the Winter Olympic Games. Snow and ice during the wintertime has led to other means of transportation, such as sledges, skis and this also led to different pastimes and sports being developed in the winter season as compared to other times of the year. Naturally, winter sports are popular in countries with longer winter seasons. While most winter sports are played outside, ice hockey, speed skating, indoor ice rinks with artificial ice allow ice skating and hockey to be played in hot climates. Note, the Olympic rings next to a sport indicates that particular sport is included in the Winter Olympic Games. The Paralympic logo indicates the same for a sport not in the Olympics but in the Winter Paralympic Games
11.
Ice
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Ice is water frozen into a solid state. Depending on the presence of such as particles of soil or bubbles of air. In the Solar System, ice is abundant and occurs naturally from as close to the Sun as Mercury to as far as away the Oort cloud objects, beyond the Solar System, it occurs as interstellar ice. It falls as snowflakes and hail or occurs as frost, icicles or ice spikes, Ice molecules can exhibit up to sixteen different phases that depend on temperature and pressure. When water is cooled rapidly, up to three different types of ice can form depending on the history of its pressure and temperature. When cooled slowly correlated proton tunneling occurs below 20 K giving rise to macroscopic quantum phenomena, virtually all the ice on Earths surface and in its atmosphere is of a hexagonal crystalline structure denoted as ice Ih with minute traces of cubic ice denoted as ice Ic. The most common phase transition to ice Ih occurs when water is cooled below 0°C at standard atmospheric pressure. It may also be deposited directly by water vapor, as happens in the formation of frost, the transition from ice to water is melting and from ice directly to water vapor is sublimation. Ice is used in a variety of ways, including cooling, winter sports, as a naturally occurring crystalline inorganic solid with an ordered structure, ice is considered a mineral. It possesses a regular crystalline structure based on the molecule of water, an unusual property of ice frozen at atmospheric pressure is that the solid is approximately 8. 3% less dense than liquid water. The density of ice is 0.9167 g/cm3 at 0 °C, liquid water is densest, essentially 1.00 g/cm³, at 4 °C and becomes less dense as the water molecules begin to form the hexagonal crystals of ice as the freezing point is reached. This is due to hydrogen bonding dominating the intermolecular forces, which results in a packing of molecules less compact in the solid, density of ice increases slightly with decreasing temperature and has a value of 0.9340 g/cm³ at −180 °C. When water freezes, it increases in volume and it is also a common cause of the flooding of houses when water pipes burst due to the pressure of expanding water when it freezes. The result of this process is that ice floats on liquid water, sufficiently thin ice sheets allow light to pass through while protecting the underside from short-term weather extremes such as wind chill. This creates an environment for bacterial and algal colonies. When ice melts, it absorbs as much energy as it would take to heat an equivalent mass of water by 80 °C, during the melting process, the temperature remains constant at 0 °C. While melting, any energy added breaks the bonds between ice molecules. Energy becomes available to increase the thermal energy only after enough hydrogen bonds are broken that the ice can be considered liquid water, the amount of energy consumed in breaking hydrogen bonds in the transition from ice to water is known as the heat of fusion
12.
Hockey
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Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponents goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport is referred to simply as hockey. The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word hockey when he translated the proclamation in 1720, the word hockey itself is of unknown origin. One supposition is that it is a derivative of hoquet, a Middle French word for a shepherds stave, the curved, or hooked ends of the sticks used for hockey would indeed have resembled these staves. Another supposition derives from the use of cork bungs, in place of wooden balls to play the game. The stoppers came from barrels containing hock ale, also called hocky, Games played with curved sticks and a ball can be found in the histories of many cultures. In Inner Mongolia, the Daur people have been playing beikou, most evidence of hockey-like games during the Middle Ages is found in legislation concerning sports and games. The Galway Statute enacted in Ireland in 1527 banned certain types of ball games, by the 19th century, the various forms and divisions of historic games began to differentiate and coalesce into the individual sports defined today. Organizations dedicated to the codification of rules and regulations began to form, Bandy is played with a ball on a football field-sized ice arena, typically outdoors, and with many rules similar to association football. It is played professionally in Russia and Sweden and is considered a sport in Russia. The sport is recognised by the IOC, its governing body is the Federation of International Bandy. Bandy World Championships have been played since 1957 and Womens Bandy World Championships since 2004, there are national club championships in many countries and the top clubs in the world play in the Bandy World Cup every year. Field hockey is played on gravel, natural grass, or sand-based or water-based artificial turf, with a small, hard ball approximately 73 mm in diameter. The game is popular among males and females in many parts of the world, particularly in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. In most countries, the game is played between single-sex sides, although they can be mixed-sex, the governing body is the 126-member International Hockey Federation. Mens field hockey has played at each Summer Olympic Games since 1908 except for 1912 and 1924. All sticks are right-handed – left-handed sticks are not permitted, while field hockey in its current form appeared in mid-18th century England, primarily in schools, it was not until the first half of the 19th century that it became firmly established. The first club was created in 1849 at Blackheath in south-east London, field hockey is the national sport of Pakistan
13.
Ice hockey
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Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponents net to score points. Ice hockey teams usually consist of six each, one goaltender. A fast-paced, physical sport, ice hockey is most popular in areas of North America, Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada, where the game enjoys immense popularity. In North America, the National Hockey League is the highest level for mens hockey, the Kontinental Hockey League is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern Europe. The International Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body for international ice hockey. The IIHF manages international tournaments and maintains the IIHF World Ranking, worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 74 countries. Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th century United Kingdom and these games were brought to North America and several similar winter games using informal rules were developed, such as shinny and ice polo. The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, some characteristics of that game, such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck, have been retained to this day. Amateur ice hockey began in the 1880s, and professional ice hockey originated around 1900. The Stanley Cup, emblematic of ice hockey club supremacy, was first awarded in 1893 to recognize the Canadian amateur champion, in international competitions, the national teams of six countries predominate, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Of the 69 medals awarded all-time in mens competition at the Olympics, in the annual Ice Hockey World Championships,177 of 201 medals have been awarded to the six nations. In Russia and the Ukraine, where hockey can also refer to bandy, the name hockey has no clear origin. The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word hockey when he translated the proclamation in 1720, the 1573 Statute of Galway banned a sport called hokie—the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves. A form of this word was thus being used in the 16th century, though much removed from its current usage. According to the Austin Hockey Association, the word derives from the Scots Gaelic puc or the Irish poc. The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his caman or hurley is always called a puck. Stick-and-ball games date back to pre-Christian times, in Europe, these games included the Irish game of hurling, the closely related Scottish game of shinty and versions of field hockey. IJscolf, a game resembling colf on a surface, was popular in the Low Countries between the Middle Ages and the Dutch Golden Age. It was played with a curved bat, a wooden or leather ball
14.
Field hockey
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Field hockey is a team sport of the hockey family. The earliest origins of the date back to the Middle Ages in England, Scotland, France. The game can be played on a field or a turf field as well as an indoor board surface. Each team plays with eleven players, including the goalie, players use sticks made out of wood, carbon fibre, fibre glass or a combination of carbon fibre and fibre glass in different quantities to hit a round, hard, plastic ball. The length of the stick depends on the players individual height, only one end of the stick is allowed to be used. Goalies often have a different kind of stick, however they can use an ordinary field hockey stick. The specific goal-keeping sticks have another curve at the end of the stick, the uniform consists of shin guards, shoes, shorts, a mouth guard and a jersey. Today, the game is played globally, with particular popularity throughout Western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Field Hockey is the national game of India and Pakistan. The term field hockey is used primarily in Canada and the United States where ice hockey is more popular, in Sweden the term landhockey is used. To some degree also in Norway and it is a section of Norways Bandy Association. Until recently they called it hockey, when it was changed to landhockey, during play, goal keepers are the only players who are allowed to touch the ball with any part of their body, while field players play the ball with the flat side of their stick. Goal keepers also cannot play the ball with the back of their stick, whoever scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is tied at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shootout, there are many variations to overtime play that depend on the league and tournament play. In college play, an overtime period consists of a 10-minute golden goal period with seven players for each team. If a tie remains, the game enters a one-on-one competition where each team chooses 5 players to dribble from the 25 yard line down to the circle against the opposing goalie. The player has 8 seconds to score on the goalie keeping it in bounds, the play ends after a goal is scored, the ball goes out of bounds, a foul is committed or time expires. If the tie still persists extra rounds thereafter until one team has scored, the FIH is also responsible for organising the Hockey Rules Board and developing the rules for the game. A popular variant of field hockey is indoor field hockey, which differs in a number of respects while embodying the principles of hockey
15.
Rink bandy
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Not to be confused with Rink hockey, which is another name for Roller hockey on quad skates. Rink bandy and rinkball are two very similar sports, both developed from bandy but played on a significantly smaller ice rink. While a bandy rink is about the size as a football pitch, rink bandy. Rink bandy originated in Sweden in the 1960s and was originally called hockey-bockey, gradually rinkball developed as a sport of its own after being introduced to Finland later that decade. Both games use a ball, but in rinkball it is blue instead of cerise. Rink bandy uses bandy sticks and rinkball uses ice hockey sticks, the rink bandy goalkeeper has no stick, whereas the rinkball counterpart has. Similar to hockey, a game lasts 60 minutes, but is composed of either two 30 minute halves or three 20 minute periods and they use similar rules to normal bandy, but simplifies them to increase the pace of the game. Checking is prohibited, making the sport relatively safer than its relatives, because of the smaller playing area, fewer players are used. In the USA Rink Bandy League, five players are used because of the ice hockey rinks there. As artficially frozen and indoor bandy arenas has become more prevalent, in many countries where bandy is still new and the infrastructure for large ices is not in place, rink bandy is the main form of bandy. Rink bandy is governed by the Federation of International Bandy, with more and more indoor bandy arenas coming in Sweden, rink bandy subsequently becomes less interesting among Swedish bandy clubs. In Russia there are still several rink bandy tournaments, in Russian, the sport may be called either rink bandy or mini bandy. There used to be a European Championship, today there is no international rink bandy championship. A world cup for rink bandy clubs was held every year from 1984-1998 in Hofors, Rink bandy was in the programme of the 2012 European Company Sports Games. An international rink bandy club competition called Dniprobandy has been organised by the Ukrainian Bandy, in the 1970s rinkball grew from being played in local tournaments by villagers around Finland to national-level competitions involving 100 teams or more. The sport first gained attention in 1984 when teams from Finland. The International Rinkball Association was formed soon after, and in the late 1990s included Russia, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland, the Finnish Rinkball Federation has 1000 teams, including women, men and children. Play is divided into eight divisions, two female divisions, and childrens play is divided by age
16.
International Olympic Committee
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The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the worldwide Olympic movement. It is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne and its mission is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to support the development of competitive sport by ethical and environmentally sustainable means. The IOC was created by Pierre de Coubertin, on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president, today its membership consists of 100 active members,32 honorary members, and 1 honour member. The IOC is the authority of the worldwide modern Olympic movement. The IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter, the first Summer Olympics organised by the IOC was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year, the first Summer Youth Olympics were in Singapore in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck in 2012. In 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC Permanent Observer status and this decision enables the IOC to be directly involved in the UN Agenda and to attend UN General Assembly meetings where it can take the floor. This has provided the possibility to promote sport at a new level, during each proclamation at the Olympics, announcers speak in different languages, French is always spoken first followed by an English translation and the dominant language of the host nation. The stated mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote Olympic throughout the world and it is the IOC’s supreme organ and its decisions are final. Extraordinary Sessions may be convened by the President or upon the written request of at least one third of the members, among others, the powers of the Session are, To adopt or amend the Olympic Charter. To elect the members of the IOC, the Honorary President, to elect the President, the Vice-Presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Board. To elect the host city of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Laurel is awarded to individuals for promoting education, culture, development, and peace through sport. For most of its existence, the IOC was controlled by members who were selected by other members, countries that had hosted the Games were allowed two members. When named, they did not become the representatives of their countries to the IOC. The membership of IOC members ceases in the circumstances, Resignation. Non re-election, any IOC member ceases to be a member without further formality if they are not re-elected, age limit, any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which they reach the age of 80. Failure to attend Sessions or take part in IOC work for two consecutive years. Transfer of domicile or of main center of interests to an other than the country which was theirs at the time of their election
17.
Rinkball
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Not to be confused with Rink hockey, which is another name for Roller hockey on quad skates. Rink bandy and rinkball are two very similar sports, both developed from bandy but played on a significantly smaller ice rink. While a bandy rink is about the size as a football pitch, rink bandy. Rink bandy originated in Sweden in the 1960s and was originally called hockey-bockey, gradually rinkball developed as a sport of its own after being introduced to Finland later that decade. Both games use a ball, but in rinkball it is blue instead of cerise. Rink bandy uses bandy sticks and rinkball uses ice hockey sticks, the rink bandy goalkeeper has no stick, whereas the rinkball counterpart has. Similar to hockey, a game lasts 60 minutes, but is composed of either two 30 minute halves or three 20 minute periods and they use similar rules to normal bandy, but simplifies them to increase the pace of the game. Checking is prohibited, making the sport relatively safer than its relatives, because of the smaller playing area, fewer players are used. In the USA Rink Bandy League, five players are used because of the ice hockey rinks there. As artficially frozen and indoor bandy arenas has become more prevalent, in many countries where bandy is still new and the infrastructure for large ices is not in place, rink bandy is the main form of bandy. Rink bandy is governed by the Federation of International Bandy, with more and more indoor bandy arenas coming in Sweden, rink bandy subsequently becomes less interesting among Swedish bandy clubs. In Russia there are still several rink bandy tournaments, in Russian, the sport may be called either rink bandy or mini bandy. There used to be a European Championship, today there is no international rink bandy championship. A world cup for rink bandy clubs was held every year from 1984-1998 in Hofors, Rink bandy was in the programme of the 2012 European Company Sports Games. An international rink bandy club competition called Dniprobandy has been organised by the Ukrainian Bandy, in the 1970s rinkball grew from being played in local tournaments by villagers around Finland to national-level competitions involving 100 teams or more. The sport first gained attention in 1984 when teams from Finland. The International Rinkball Association was formed soon after, and in the late 1990s included Russia, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland, the Finnish Rinkball Federation has 1000 teams, including women, men and children. Play is divided into eight divisions, two female divisions, and childrens play is divided by age
18.
Floorball
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Floorball is a type of floor hockey with five field players and a goalkeeper in each team. Men and women play indoors with 96–115.5 cm-long sticks, matches are played in three twenty-minute periods. It is gaining popularity in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, as of 2014, there are over 300,133 registered floorball players worldwide. Professional leagues include Finlands Salibandyliiga and Swedens Svenska Superligan, the sport is organized internationally by the International Floorball Federation. Events include an annual Euro Floorball Cup for club teams and the biennial World Floorball Championships with separate divisions for men and women. While the IFF contains 58 members, Norway, the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, the sport is relatively new and therefore evolving. The basic rules were established in 1979 when the first floorball club in the world, official rules for matches were first written down in 1981. Most Canadian males born in the 1950s and before could attest to this, similarly, during the 1950s and 1960s many public school systems within Michigan incorporated floorball into their primary and secondary school gym classes. Later, Americans claimed to have invented it, and held interstate tournaments in the 1960s, the game was formally organized as an international and more organised sport in the late 1970s in Gothenburg, Sweden. The sport began as something that was played for fun as a pastime in schools, after a decade or so, floorball began showing up in Nordic countries where the former schoolyard pastime was becoming a developed sport. Formal rules soon were developed, and clubs began to form, after some time, several countries developed national associations, and the IFF was founded in 1986. The game of floorball is also known by other names, such as salibandy, innebandy. The names salibandy and innebandy are derived from bandy, they translate to hall bandy, unihockey is derived from universal hockey since it is meant to be a special and simplified hockey form. When the IFF was founded in 1986, the sport was played in mostly Nordic countries, Japan, by 1990, floorball was recognized in 7 countries, and by the time of the first European Floorball Championships in 1994, that number had risen to 14. That number included the United States, who was the first country outside of Europe, by the time of the first mens world championships in 1996,20 nations played floorball, with 12 of them participating at the tournament. As of 2009, the sport of floorball has been played in almost 80 countries, of those,58 have national floorball associations that are recognized by the IFF. With the addition of Sierra Leone, Africas first floorball nation,10 years after the IFF was founded, the first world championships were played, with a sold out final of 15,106 people at the Globen in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition to that, the two largest floorball leagues, Finlands Salibandyliiga and Swedens Svenska Superligan were formed, in 1986 and 1995 respectively
19.
The Fens
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The Fens, also known as the Fenland, is a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry and it is one of the driest areas in England, thanks to a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers and automated pumping stations. A common misconception is that the fens are damp, in whole it occupies an area of nearly 1,500 sq mi. Most of the Fenland lies within a few metres of sea level, with the support of this drainage system, the Fenland has become a major arable agricultural region in Britain for grains and vegetables. The Fens are particularly fertile, containing half of the grade 1 agricultural land in England. The Fens have been referred to as the Holy Land of the English because of the monasteries, now churches and cathedrals, of Crowland, Ely, Peterborough. Other significant settlements in the Fens include Boston, Cambridge, Spalding, the Fens are very low-lying compared with the chalk and limestone uplands that surround them – in most places no more than 10 m above sea level. Indeed, as a result of drainage and the subsequent shrinkage of the peat fens, within the Fens there are a few hills, which have historically been called islands as they remained dry when the low-lying fens around them were flooded. The largest of the fen-islands is the Isle of Ely, on which the city of Ely was built. Some areas of the Fens were once permanently flooded, creating small lakes or meres, the rest of the Fenland was dedicated to pastoral farming, fishing, fowling and the harvesting of reeds or sedge for thatch. In this way, the medieval and early modern Fens stood in contrast to the rest of southern England, drainage in the Fenland consists of both river drainage and internal drainage of the land between the rivers. The internal drainage was organised by levels or districts, each of which includes the fen parts of one or several parishes, in the 17th century, the Great Level was divided into the North, Middle and South Levels for the purposes of administration and maintenance. In the 20th century, these levels have gained new boundaries, the South Level lies to the southeast of the Ouse Washes and surrounds Ely, as it did in the 17th century. The Middle Level currently lies between the Ouse Washes and the Nene, but historically lay between the Ouse Washes and Mortons Leam, a 15th-century canal which runs north of the town of Whittlesey. Deeping Fen, in the part of Lincolnshire, lies between the River Welland and the River Glen with its tributary the Bourne Eau. The Black Sluice District, much of which was known as the Lindsey Level when it was first drained in 1639, extends from the Glen and its water is carried through to the Haven at Boston. The above were all redrained at one time or another after the Civil War, at the end of the most recent glacial period, known in Britain as the Devensian, ten thousand years ago, Britain and continental Europe were joined by the ridge between Friesland and Norfolk. The topography of the bed of the North Sea indicates that the rivers of the part of eastern England flowed into the Rhine
20.
East Anglia
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East Anglia is a geographical area in the East of England. The area included has varied but the legally defined NUTS2 statistical unit, comprises the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, the name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a tribe that originated in Angeln, northern Germany. Definitions of what constitutes East Anglia vary, the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia, established in the 6th century, originally consisted of the modern counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and expanded west into at least part of Cambridgeshire. The modern NUTS2 statistical unit of East Anglia comprises Norfolk, Suffolk and those three counties have formed the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia since 1976, and were the subject of a possible government devolution package in 2016. Essex has sometimes included in definitions of East Anglia, including by the London Society of East Anglians. However, the Kingdom of Essex to the south, was an element of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England and did not identify as Angles. The county of Essex by itself forms a NUTS2 statistical unit in the East of England region, other definitions of the area have been used or proposed over the years. For example, the Redcliffe-Maud Report in 1969, which followed the Royal Commission on the Reform of Local Government, the proposed East Anglia province would have included northern Essex, southern Lincolnshire and a small part of Northamptonshire as well as Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. The kingdom of East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of the East Anglian princess Etheldreda, the kingdom was formed about the year 520 by the merging of the North and the South Folk and was one of the seven Anglo-Saxon heptarchy kingdoms. However, this did not last and over the forty years East Anglia was defeated by the Mercians twice. Finally, in 794, Offa of Mercia had king Æthelberht killed, although independence was temporarily restored by rebellion in 825, on the 20 November 869 the Danes killed King Edmund and captured the kingdom. By 917, after a succession of Danish defeats, East Anglia was incorporated into the Kingdom of England by Edward the Elder, afterwards becoming an earldom. Despite some engineering work in the form of sea barriers constructed by the Roman Empire, much of East Anglia remained marshland and bogs until the 17th century. In the 1630s thousands of Puritan families from East Anglia settled in the American region of New England, East Anglia was ideally suited to airfield construction as it comprises large areas of open, level terrain and is close to mainland Europe. The reduced flight time to mainland Europe therefore reduced the load required and enabled a larger bomb load to be carried. Building the airfields was a civil engineering project and by the end of the war there was one approximately every 8 miles. Many of these airfields can still be today, particularly from aerial photographs, and a few remain is use today. Pillboxes, which were erected in 1940 to help defend the nation against invasion, can also be found throughout the area at strategic points
21.
Fen skating
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Fen skating is a traditional form of ice skating in the Fenland of England. The Fens of East Anglia, with their easily flooded meadows, skates were introduced into Britain from the Netherlands or France in the seventeenth century. It is not known when the first skating matches were held, the twentieth century saw a decline in the popularity of fen skating. Diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn both recorded seeing skating on the canal in St. Jamess Park in London during the winter of 1662, as a recreation, means of transport and spectator sport, skating in the Fens was popular with people from all walks of life. Racing was the preserve of workers, most of them agricultural labourers and it is not known when the first skating matches were held, but by the early nineteenth century racing was well established and the results of matches were reported in the press. The cold winters of the 1820s and 1830s saw a number of fenmen make a name for themselves as skaters, when it froze, skating matches were held in towns and villages all over the Fens. In these local matches men would compete for prizes of money, during severe winters it is no uncommon thing to see joints of meat hung outside the village pub, to be skated for on the morrow. The winners of matches were invited to take part in the grand or championship matches in which skaters from across the Fens would compete for cash prizes in front of crowds of thousands. The championship matches took the form of a Welsh main or last man standing contest, the competitors,16 or sometimes 32, were paired off in heats and the winner of each heat went through to the next round. The farmers and gentry who organised the matches would raise a subscription for prize money, £10 was a typical purse in the mid-nineteenth century, with about half going to the winner and the rest divided amongst the other runners according to how far they had got in the contest. This was at a time when agricultural labourers typically earnt about 11 shillings a week, a course of 660 yards was measured out on the ice, and a barrel with a flag on it placed at either end. The course was divided down the middle with more barrels, sods of earth or piles of snow. The skaters were drawn in pairs, and started one either side of the barrel, skate down the course, round the barrel and back again, for a one-and-a-half-mile race the skaters completed two rounds of the course, with three barrel turns. If there were 16 competitors the winner and runner-up would have skated a total of 6 miles, there were also matches for women although they didnt attract quite the same attention or prize money as the mens matches. As well as competing in matches, the top skaters issued challenges via the press, brothers Larman and Robert Register announced in the Cambridge Chronicle in 1853 that they could be backed to skate any two skaters in England for £20. And three years later Larman Register had teamed up with his vanquisher Turkey Smart to issue a similar challenge, another challenge for the fastest men was the straight mile with a flying start. In 1821 a Newmarket man made a wager of 100 guineas that a skater could cover a mile in three minutes, John Gittam of Nordelph won him his wager at Prickwillow with 7 seconds to spare. A generation later Turkey Smart was backed to skate a mile in two-and-a-half minutes, in the Fens skates were called pattens, fen runners, or Whittlesey runners
22.
The Crystal Palace
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The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass structure originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990, designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet long, with an interior height of 128 feet. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936, Crystal Palace F. C. were founded at the site in 1905 and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkinss Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854, the Commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, turner was furious at the rejection, and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design was too expensive. Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park, the most outspoken critic was arch-conservative Col. At this point renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in the project, the lily and its house led directly to Paxtons design for the Crystal Palace and he later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as a key inspiration. Paxton left his 9 June 1850 meeting with Henry Cole fired with enthusiasm and he immediately went to Hyde Park, where he walked the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later, on 11 June, while attending a meeting of the Midland Railway, Paxton made his original concept drawing. In the event, Paxtons design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, would cover roughly twenty-five times the ground area of its progenitor. He was exultant, but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the Exhibitions opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, Paxtons modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. These were the largest available at the time, measuring 10 inches wide by 49 inches long, the original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a roof, except for the central transept. Both the flat-profile sections and the transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxtons design - his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took the form of a triangular prism
23.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
24.
Nordic Games
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The Nordic Games was the first international multi-sport event that focused primarily on winter sports, and was held at varying intervals between 1901 and 1926. It was, in ways, a precursor to the modern Winter Olympic Games. He is quoted as saying, “Above all we placed the goal of rendering a service to the fatherland. Many believe that this event led to the implementation of the Winter Olympics as we know them today, the Nordic Games began as an effort to bolster both Swedish national sentiment along with Swedish tourism. The Nordic Games featured not only the snow and ice related sports that the country excelled in but also showcased Swedish cultural events such as theatre, opera, the beautiful countryside and tourist attractions were also highlighted. Some non-winter sports were included like fencing, swimming and a long-distance equestrian ride. The Nordic Games were one of the first to lead to international championships in winter sports, for example, the skating championships raised the international appeal of the Nordic Games. Viktor Balck, the founder of the Nordic Games, was also a member of the International Olympic Committee. He is credited with holding the ISU together through the end of World War I and he also established the World Championship Events for Ladies and Pairs, who were not recognised before this. Balck was known as the ISU President with the longest tenure of 30 years of any President before him and he was elected the first honorary President of the ISU. All of his participation helped the Olympics take hold, the Winter Olympics as we know it today began in Chamonix, France in 1924. Prior to this time, some sports such as figure skating an ice hockey were held during the Summer Olympics. The Nordic Games mainly included only competitors from the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and these countries ended up opposing the establishment of a separate Winter Olympics because it would take away from their nationalistic efforts. Sweden and Norway had political differences during this time which led Norway to not participate in the games, after Viktor Balck died in 1928, there was no one to champion the cause, especially after the 1930 games had to be cancelled due to lack of snow. The Olympics turned out to be successful right from the beginning
25.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
26.
Oslo
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Oslo is the capital and the most populous city in Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality, founded in the year 1040, and established as a kaupstad or trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V of Norway around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814, after being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Fortress during the reign of Christian IV of Denmark and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838, following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, at which time its original Norwegian name was restored. Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway, the city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to companies within the maritime sector, some of which are among the worlds largest shipping companies, shipbrokers. Oslo is a city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme. Oslo is considered a city and ranked Beta World City in studies carried out by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group. It was ranked one in terms of quality of life among European large cities in the European Cities of the Future 2012 report by fDi magazine. A survey conducted by ECA International in 2011 placed Oslo as the second most expensive city in the world for living expenses after Tokyo. In 2013 Oslo tied with the Australian city of Melbourne as the fourth most expensive city in the world, as of January 1,2016, the municipality of Oslo has a population of 658,390, while the population of the citys urban area was 942,084. The metropolitan area had an population of 1.71 million. The population was during the early 2000 increasing at record rates and this growth stems for the most part from international immigration and related high birth rates, but also from intra-national migration. The immigrant population in the city is growing faster than the Norwegian population. As of January 1,2016, the municipality of Oslo has a population of 658,390, the urban area extends beyond the boundaries of the municipality into the surrounding county of Akershus, the total population of this agglomeration is 942,084. To the north and east, wide forested hills rise above the city giving the location the shape of a giant amphitheatre. The urban municipality of Oslo and county of Oslo are two parts of the entity, making Oslo the only city in Norway where two administrative levels are integrated
27.
Helsinki
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Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Helsinki has a population of 629,512, a population of 1,231,595. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia,400 km east of Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities. The Helsinki metropolitan area includes the core of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen. It is the worlds northernmost metro area of one million people. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Nordic countries, Helsinki is Finlands major political, educational, financial, cultural, and research center as well as one of northern Europes major cities. Approximately 75% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region, the nearby municipality of Vantaa is the location of Helsinki Airport, with frequent service to various destinations in Europe and Asia. In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the city was the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest 2007. In 2011, the Monocle magazine ranked Helsinki the most liveable city in the world in its Liveable Cities Index 2011, in the Economist Intelligence Units August 2015 Liveability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in globally, Helsinki placed among the worlds top ten cities. Helsinki is used to refer to the city in most languages, the Swedish name Helsingfors is the original official name of the city. The Finnish name probably comes from Helsinga and similar names used for the river that is known as the Vantaa River. Helsingfors comes from the name of the parish, Helsinge and the rapids, which flowed through the original village. As part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, one suggestion for the origin of the name Helsinge is that it originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Others have proposed that the name derives from the Swedish word helsing, other Scandinavian cities located at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, for example Helsingør and Helsingborg. The name Helsinki has been used in Finnish official documents and in Finnish language newspapers since 1819, the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is how the form Helsinki came to be used in written Finnish, in Helsinki slang the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives to the city, helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki
28.
1913 European Bandy Championships
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1913 European Bandy Championships was the first, and so far the only, European Championship tournament in bandy. The eight-nation competition was held in February 1913 in Davos, Switzerland, matches were played at the 1894 opened Eisstadion Davos. Winner of the tournament was England, austria-Hungary Belgium England France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Modern bandy originated in England and the first rules were published in 1882. It soon became a sport in several Central and Northern European countries as well as in Russia. Since 1901 bandy was played in the Scandinavian Nordic Games, which was the first international event focused on winter sports. Most popular was the 7 vs 7 game but Sweden, Finland, in some countries, like Latvia, bandy was played 9 vs 9. 1913 European Championships was arranged by the 1908 established International Ice Hockey Federation, matches were played with 7 men teams. Number of participating teams was eight, since Sweden and Russia followed the rules of 11 men, they rejected the invitation and competed in the 1913 Nordic Games in Stockholm. The German team consisted mostly of the members of Leipziger-HK, which was supposed to play in Stockholm as well, but as many of its players were selected to the German national team, they decided to travel to Davos. The 1913 tournament was the peak for bandy in all of the participating nations, after the war was over, International Olympic Committee included ice hockey to the 1920 Summer Olympics instead of bandy. This was because bandy was totally unknown in North America and because Antwerp had an ice hockey-sized indoor arena, the IOC decision caused the decline of bandy in Central Europe and Great Britain as the bandy players switched to ice hockey. After the 1920s, bandy was played in the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia. In the 1930s, bandy also disappeared from Estonia and Latvia and it was completely or almost forgotten in England, Italy, France, Switzerland and Belgium, which all took part at the 1913 European Championships. Austria, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia were countries where bandy survived longer, on 6 January 2014 the Federation of International Bandy arranged a four nation tournament in Davos to celebrate the anniversary of the 1913 European Championship. Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Netherlands played at the venue as 101 years ago. The Dutch won this unofficial European Championship, in 2016, a somewhat smaller tournament dubbed the Davos Cup was held with national teams from three European countries
29.
Tajikistan
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Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia with an estimated 8 million people in 2013, and an area of 143,100 km2. It is bordered by Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the south, the Republic of Uzbekistan to the west, the Kyrgyz Republic to the north, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan lies to the south, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Traditional homelands of Tajik people included present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, a civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997. Since the end of the war, newly established political stability, Tajikistan is a presidential republic consisting of four provinces. Most of Tajikistans 8 million people belong to the Tajik ethnic group, many Tajiks also speak Russian as their second language. Mountains cover more than 90% of the country and it has a transition economy that is highly dependent on remittances, aluminium and cotton production. Tajikistan means the Land of the Tajiks, the suffix -stan is Persian for place of or country and Tajik is, most likely, the name of a pre-Islamic tribe. Tajikistan appeared as Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan in English prior to 1991 and this is due to a transliteration from the Russian, Таджикистан. In Russian, there is no single letter j to represent the phoneme /ʤ/ and дж, Tadzhikistan is the most common alternate spelling and is widely used in English literature derived from Russian sources. Tadjikistan is the spelling in French and can occasionally be found in English language texts, the way of writing Tajikistan in the Perso-Arabic script is. The earliest recorded history of the dates back to about 500 BCE when much, if not all. After the regions conquest by Alexander the Great it became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, northern Tajikistan was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scythians and Yuezhi nomadic tribes around 150 BCE. The Silk Road passed through the region and following the expedition of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the reign of Wudi commercial relations between Han China and Sogdiana flourished. Sogdians played a role in facilitating trade and also worked in other capacities, as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers. Later the Hephthalite Empire, a collection of tribes, moved into the region. Central Asia continued in its role as a crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the north. It was temporarily under the control of the Tibetan empire and Chinese from 650–680, the Samanid Empire,819 to 999, restored Persian control of the region and enlarged the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara which became the cultural centres of Iran and the region was known as Khorasan. The Kara-Khanid Khanate conquered Transoxania and ruled between 999–1211, during Genghis Khans invasion of Khwarezmia in the early 13th century the Mongol Empire took control over nearly all of Central Asia
30.
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region
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The Kūhistoni Badakhshon Autonomous Region is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan. Located in the Pamir Mountains, it makes up 45% of the area of the country. The territory was claimed by the Chinese and Russian empires and the Emirate of Afghanistan, the Qing rulers of China claimed control of the entire Pamir Mountains, but Qing military units only controlled the passes just east of Tashkorgan Town. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region was created in January 1925 and it was attached to Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic after the republics creation in 1929. During the 1950s, the inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan, including many ethnic Pamiris, were forcibly relocated to southwestern Tajikistan. Gorno-Badakhshan absorbed some of the territory of the Gharm Oblast when that territory was dissolved in 1955, when the civil war broke out in Tajikistan in 1992, the local government in Gorno-Badakhshan declared independence from the Republic of Tajikistan. During the civil war many Pamiris were targeted for killing by rival groups, later the Gorno-Badakhshan government backed down from its calls for independence. Gorno-Badakhshan remains a region within Tajikistan. In 2012, the region saw a series of clashes between the Tajik military and militants loyal to former warlord Tolib Ayombekov after the latter was accused of murdering a Tajik general, darvoz District is the western beak of the province. West-central Gorno-Badakhshan is mostly a series of east-west mountain ranges separated by valleys of rivers flow into the Panj River. The districts correspond the river valleys, murghob District occupies the eastern half of the province and is mostly a desolate plateau with high mountains on the west. Within Tajikistan the regions western border is with the Districts of Republican Subordination, the population of GBAO increased from 160,900 to 206,000 between the censuses in 1989 and 2000. The population as of January 2008 is estimated at 218,000, according to the State Statistical Committee of Tajikistan, the main ethnic group in GBAO are Pamiris. The remainder of the population is ethnic Kyrgyz and other nationalities, the largest city in GBAO is Khorugh, population 29,000, the second largest is Murghab, with about 4,000 residents. GBAO is home to a number of languages and dialects of the Pamir languages group. The Pamiri language speakers represented in Gorno-Badakshan are speakers of Shughni, Rushani, Wakhi, Ishkashimi, Sarikoli, Bartangi, Khufi, Yazgulyam, vanji, formerly spoken in the Vanj River valley, became extinct in the 19th century. There is a population of Kyrgyz speakers in the Murghab district. Russian and Tajik are also spoken throughout GBAO
31.
Khorugh
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The town of Khorugh, also transliterated as Horog, Khoroq, Khorogh, Khorog, or Xoroq is the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan. It is also the capital of the Shughnon District of Gorno-Badakhshan and it has a population of 28,000. Khorugh is 2,200 metres above sea level in the Pamir Mountains at the confluence of the Ghund, the city is bounded to the south and to the north by the deltas of the Shakhdara and Gunt, respectively. Khorugh is known for its beautiful trees that dominate the flora of the city. Until the late 19th century, Khorugh was in an area disputed between the Emir of Bukhara, Shah of Afghanistan, Russia and Britain. Before 1896, when the Russians arrived and built a fort, following the fall of czarist Russia and the rise of the Soviet Union, Khorugh became the capital of Gorno-Badakhshan in 1925. Soviet leaders encouraged the migration of settlers to the area with promises of pay, medals and automobiles, but with no industry and little arable land, migration is playing an increasingly important role in the life of Khorugh. Historically, migration was part of Soviet policy for development, with regard to Khorugh, migration plays a key role in its expansion and development. Although the youth has a tendency to go to Russia, they do come back or send back to build new houses. As a result of remittances and new migration from rural areas, though still tiny, one sign of this intense migration is that the gap, once existed between Khorugh and village Tem is now filled with newly built houses. The same is true about the gap between village Tem and village Porshinev, Khorugh occupied headlines in July 2012 due to a government forces clash with guerrillas. Over 40 people, including 12 soldiers were killed, the country’s security forces moved in to arrest suspects in the murder of secret services General Abdullo Nazarov. The alleged criminals were linked to former guerrilla leader-turned-border patrol commander Tolib Ayombekov, Ayombekov is alleged to have been involved in drug trafficking and the smuggling of tobacco and precious stones for many years. Modern Khorugh is one of the poorest areas of Tajikistan, with the charitable organization Aga Khan Foundation providing almost the only source of cash income, however, the city does have its own university, founded in 1992), twelve schools, and several hospitals. There is a museum and the second highest botanical garden in the world, Khorugh is also host to one of three campuses of the University of Central Asia. The University was founded in 2000 by the governments of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan and it is the world’s first internationally chartered institution of higher education. The UCA currently operates a School of Professional and Continuing Education, with a School of Arts and Sciences, the Khorog Campus is expected to be operational in 2017 and will offer Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics and Earth and Environmental Sciences. Aga Khan Lycée, Khorugh University of Central Asia Khorugh State University There is a bridge to the Afghan side of the river, Khorugh is situated along the Pamir Highway at the point where it leaves the Panj valley and heads east up the Gunt valley
32.
British North America
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British North America refers to the former territories of the British Empire in mainland North America. The term was first used informally in 1783, but it was uncommon before the Report on the Affairs of British North America and these territories today form modern-day Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. British colonization of North America, began in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1775, on the eve of the American Revolution, the British Empire included 20 territories in the Western Hemisphere northeast of New Spain. Nova Scotia was split into modern-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1784, the part of Quebec retained after 1783 was split into the primarily French-speaking Lower Canada and the primarily English-speaking Upper Canada in 1791. After the War of 1812, the Treaty of 1818 established the 49th parallel as the United States–British North America border from Ruperts Land west to the Rocky Mountains. Britain gave up Oregon south of the 49th parallel, which was part of the Hudsons Bay Companys Columbia District, the boundary of British North America with Maine was clarified by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. The Canadas were united into the Province of Canada in 1841, the former Province of Canada was split back into its pre-1841 parts, with Canada East renamed Quebec, and Canada West renamed Ontario. These were the four provinces of Canada. In 1870, Ruperts Land was annexed to Canada as the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, the British colony on the west coast north of the 49th parallel, joined as Canadas sixth province in 1871, and Prince Edward Island joined in 1873. The boundary of British Columbia with Washington Territory was settled by arbitration in 1872, the Arctic Archipelago was ceded by Britain to Canada in 1880 and added to the Northwest Territories. Subsequently, large sections of the NWT were split off as new territories or provinces, in 1949 the island of Newfoundland, and its associated mainland territory of Labrador, joined Canada as the tenth province. This agreement was implemented when the British Parliament passed the Constitution Act of 1982 at the request of Parliament of Canada. From 1783 to 1801 it was administered by the Home Office and by the Home Secretary, then from 1801 to 1854 under the War Office and Secretary of State for War, when the Colonial Office was re-established it was under the responsibility of the Colonial Secretary. Prince Edward Island Terms of Union, the Peopling of British North America, An Introduction excerpt and text search Cooke, Jacob E. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies Foster, Stephen, ed. British North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries excerpt and text search,11 essays by scholars Garner, the franchise and politics in British North America, 1755–1867 Gipson, Lawrence Henry. The British Empire Before the American Revolution, extremely comprehensive study, Pulitzer Prize Morton, the Kingdom of Canada, A General History from Earliest Times Savelle, Max. Empires To Nations, Expansion In America 1713-1824 online
33.
Nottingham Forest F.C.
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Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottinghamshire, England. The team play in the Championship, the tier of English football. The club, often referred to as Forest, have played matches at the City Ground since 1898. Founded in 1865, Forest were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889, since then, they have mostly competed in the top two League tiers, bar five seasons in the third tier. Forest won the FA Cup in 1898 and 1959, Forest were founded in 1865 as Nottingham Forest Football and Bandy Club by a group of shinty players shortly after their neighbours Notts County, in 1862. They joined the Football Alliance in 1889, and won the competition in 1892, in their early years Forest were a multi-sports club, as well as their roots in bandy and shinty, the baseball club Forest deployed were British champions in 1899. Forests charitable approach to the sport helped teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, in 1886, Forest donated a set of football kits to help Arsenal establish themselves – the North London team still wear red. Forest also donated shirts to Everton and helped secure a site to play on for Brighton, Forest claimed their first major honour when they won the 1898 FA Cup, beating Derby County 3–1 at Crystal Palace. However, for much of the first half of the 20th century the club spent life in the Second Division and had to seek re-election in 1914 after finishing bottom. In 1949 the club were relegated to the Third Division, but were promoted back two years later as champions having scored a record 110 goals in the 1950–51 season. They therefore became the first team to defeat the Wembley hoodoo, by this time Forest had replaced Notts County as the biggest club in Nottingham and went on to become runners-up in the First Division and FA Cup semi-finalists in 1967. However, after a successful period for the club, Forest were relegated from the First Division in 1972. Clough became the most successful manager in the history of Nottingham Forest, cloughs first game in charge was the third round FA Cup replay against Tottenham Hotspur, a 1–0 victory thanks to a goal by Scottish centre-forward Neil Martin. Nottingham Forest became one of the few teams to win the First Division Championship a year after winning promotion from the Second Division and they also won the European Super Cup and two League Cups. The club reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1983–84 but were knocked out by Anderlecht in controversial but uncertain circumstances. The case was dismissed and Anderlecht was acquitted from all charges Nottingham Forests next major trophies came in 1989 when they won the Football League Cup. Cloughs side retained the League Cup in 1990 when they beat Oldham Athletic 1–0, in Forests team that day was young Irish midfielder Roy Keane, who had joined the club the previous summer. In the summer of 1991, Brian Clough broke Forests transfer record fee by signing the top scorer, Millwall striker Teddy Sheringham
34.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
35.
Postage stamp
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Postage stamp may also refer to a formatting artifact in the display of film or video, Windowbox. A postage stamp is a piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are printed on special paper, show a national designation and a denomination on the front. They are sometimes a source of net profit to the issuing agency, stamps are usually rectangular, but triangles or other shapes are occasionally used. The stamp is affixed to an envelope or other postal cover the customer wishes to send, the item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark, sometimes known as a cancellation mark, is usually applied in overlapping manner to stamp and cover. This procedure marks the stamp as used to prevent its reuse, in modern usage, postmarks generally indicate the date and point of origin of the mailing. The mailed item is delivered to the address the customer has applied to the envelope or parcel. Postage stamps have facilitated the delivery of mail since the 1840s, before then, ink and hand-stamps, usually made from wood or cork, were often used to frank the mail and confirm the payment of postage. The first adhesive postage stamp, commonly referred to as the Penny Black, was issued in the United Kingdom in 1840, there are varying accounts of the inventor or inventors of the stamp. The postage stamp resolved this issue in a simple and elegant manner, concurrently with the first stamps, the UK offered wrappers for mail. S. Postal service for priority or express mailing, the postage stamp afforded convenience for both the mailer and postal officials, more effectively recovered costs for the postal service, and ultimately resulted in a better, faster postal system. With the conveniences stamps offered, their use resulted in greatly increased mailings during the 19th and 20th centuries, as postage stamps with their engraved imagery began to appear on a widespread basis, historians and collectors began to take notice. The study of stamps and their use is referred to as philately. Stamp collecting can be both a hobby and a form of study and reference, as government-issued postage stamps. The postage for the item was prepaid by the use of a hand-stamp to frank the mailed item. Though this stamp was applied to a letter instead of a piece of paper it is considered by many historians as the worlds first postage stamp. Rowland Hill The Englishman Sir Rowland Hill began interest in postal reform in 1835, in 1836, a Member of Parliament, Robert Wallace, provided Hill with numerous books and documents, which Hill described as a half hundred weight of material. Hill commenced a study of these documents, leading him to the 1837 publication of a pamphlet entitled Post Office Reform its Importance
36.
Scottish Gaelic
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Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
37.
Shinty
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Shinty is a team game played with sticks and a ball. While comparisons are made with field hockey, the two games have several important differences. In shinty, a player is allowed to play the ball in the air and is allowed to use both sides of the stick, called a caman, which is wooden and slanted on both sides. The stick may also be used to block and to tackle, although a player may not come down on an opponents stick, players may also tackle using the body as long as it is shoulder-to-shoulder. The game was derived from the root as the Irish game of hurling and the Welsh game of bando. These rules are governed by the Camanachd Association, a composite rules shinty–hurling game has been developed, which allows Scotland and Ireland to play annual international matches. Another sport with common ancestry is bandy, which is played on ice, Shinty is older than the recorded history of Scotland and is thought to predate Christianity. Hurling, an Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years similar to shinty, is derived from the historic game common to both peoples, Shinty/Hurling appears prominently in the legend of Cúchulainn, the Celtic mythology hero. A similar game was played on the Isle of Man known as cammag, the old form of hurling played in the northern half of Ireland, called commons, resembled shinty more closely than the standardised form of hurling of today. Like shinty, it was known as camánacht and was traditionally played in winter. The origins of the name shinty are uncertain, in Uist, stalks of seaweed were put to use due to a lack of trees. Modern camans are made from several laminates of ash or hickory, the ball was traditionally a round piece of wood or bone, sometimes called a cnapag, but soon developed into the worsted leather balls used today. The objective of the game is to play a ball into a goal, or hail. The game is played on grass, although as of 2009 the sport may be played on artificial turf. The pitch also has marks indicating a 10 yard area around the goals, the penalty and centre spots, and corner arcs at the corners of the rectangular pitch of 2 yards or 2 metres radius. The goals, at ends of the field, measure 12 feet wide and 10 feet high. The ball is a solid sphere of around half the diameter of a tennis ball. It is very similar to a hurling sliotar in that it resembles an American baseball with more pronounced stitching, with the permitted circumference between seven and a half and eight inches and weight between two and a half and three ounces
38.
Helenelunds IK
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Helenelunds Idrottsklubb, Helenelunds IK, HIK, is a sports club in Sollentuna, Sweden. The team colours are black, white and red, the club was founded in 1928 and is today most well known for its bandy team. The club was originally called Idrottsklubben Stjärnan but changed to its present name as early as in its year,1929. In the 1980s and 1990s, the played for qualification to the Swedish top-tier in bandy many times, was close some times. The club was playing in Allsvenskan, the second level league in Sweden
39.
AIK Bandy
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AIK Bandy is the Bandy section of sports club Allmänna Idrottsklubben, currently located in Solna, which is just north of Stockholm. Former UEFA President and FIFA Vice President Lennart Johansson started as a leader here, the mens team was started in 1905, and won the Swedish national championship in 1931. AIK previously played at Spånga Idrottspark, starting with the 2007 season they play at Bergshamra IP. The clubs also has a team who are called Gnaget BK. The club was successful in the years of the Swedish championship. Swedish masters The womens team is very successful having won the womens championship eleven times, womens Swedish masters Official club website Supporterclub website
40.
Goalkeeper
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In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by intercepting shots at goal. Usually special rules apply to the goalkeeper that do not apply to other players and these rules are often instituted to protect the goalkeeper, being an obvious target for dangerous or even violent actions. In certain sports like ice hockey and lacrosse, goalkeepers are required to wear special equipment like heavy pads, in football, each teams goalkeeper defends his/her teams goal and has special privileges within the game. The goalkeepers main job is to stop any penetration of the ball into the goal, the goalkeeper is the only player in the side who may use his or her hands and arms to catch, throw and save the ball, but only within his/her own penalty area. Goalkeepers are required to wear a distinctive jersey, separate from the referees jersey color and either teams regular jersey color. There are no specific requirements, but goalkeepers are usually allowed to wear additional protective gear such as padded clothing. Most goalkeepers also wear gloves to protect their hands and enhance their grip of the ball, like every player on the pitch, they are required to wear shin guards. The goalkeeper is allowed to catch the ball, and is allowed to punch or deflect the ball away from the goal. The goalkeeper generally has a significant advantage on a high in the air, as he or she can raise their arms. When the keeper picks up the ball, they are allowed to kick it or throw it, or to place it on the ground and play it with his feet. Once the keeper establishes possession of the ball, opposing players are not allowed to attempt to play the ball and must give the goalkeeper room to attempt a kick. Though the goalkeeper is allowed to use their hands in the penalty box area. In such situations, the goalkeeper may play the ball with their feet, the rule applies only to a ball which is actually kicked. A ball which is headed or otherwise not kicked may be picked up by the goalkeeper without penalty, an infringement of this rule results in an indirect kick to the opposing team. The referee has some discretion in making this call, for example, a ball which is merely deflected by a teammate may still be picked up by the goalkeeper. The back-pass rule has been followed in international football and in most professional and amateur leagues since the early 1990s, the back pass rule is listed in Law 12 of the Laws of the Game. As the goalkeeper is usually the only player who can see the entire field, they often act as the organizer of the team when it is defending. This means the goalkeeper needs to be loud, with a voice that can project over the area of the pitch
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