Bhopal is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. Bhopal is known as the City of Lakes for its various natural and artificial lakes and is one of the greenest cities in India, it is 131st in the world. Founded in 1707, the city was the capital of the former Bhopal State, a princely state of the British ruled by the Nawabs of Bhopal. Numerous heritage structures from this period include the Taj Mahal palace. In 1984, the city was struck by the Bhopal disaster, one of the worst industrial disasters in history. A Y-class city, Bhopal houses various educational and research institutions and installations of national importance, including ISRO's Master Control Facility, BHEL, AMPRI. Bhopal is home to the largest number of institutes of National Importance in India, namely IISER, MANIT, SPA, AIIMS, NLIU and IIIT; the city attracted international attention in December 1984 after the Bhopal disaster, when a Union Carbide India Limited pesticide manufacturing plant leaked a mixture of deadly gases composed of methyl isocyanate, leading to one of the worst industrial disasters in the world's history.

The Bhopal disaster continues to be a part of the socio-political debate and a logistical challenge for the people of Bhopal. Bhopal was selected as one of the first twenty Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi's flagship Smart Cities Mission. Bhopal has been rated as the cleanest capital city for three consecutive years, 2017, 2018 and 2019. According to folklore, Bhopal was founded in the 11th century by the Paramara king Bhoja, who ruled from his capital at Dhar; this theory states that Bhopal was known as Bhojpal after a dam constructed by the king's minister. No archaeological evidence, inscriptions or historical texts support the claim about an earlier settlement founded by Bhoja at the same place. An alternative theory says. In the early 18th century, Bhopal was a small village in the Gond kingdom; the modern Bhopal city was established by a Pashtun soldier in the Mughal army. After the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, Khan started providing mercenary services to local chieftains in the politically unstable Malwa region.

In 1709, he took on the lease of Berasia estate and annexed several territories in the region to establish the Bhopal State. Khan received the territory of Bhopal from the Gond queen Kamlapati in lieu of payment for mercenary services and usurped her kingdom after her death. In the 1720s, he built the Fatehgarh fort in the village, which developed into the city of Bhopal over the next few decades. Bhopal became a princely state after signing a treaty with the British East India Company in 1818. Between 1819 and 1926, the state was ruled by four women, Begums — unique in the royalty of those days — under British suzerainty. Qudsia Begum was the first woman ruler, succeeded by her granddaughter, Shah Jehan. Between the years 1844–1860, when Shah Jehan was a child, her mother Sikandar ruled as regent, was recognised as ruler in 1860, she ruled until 1868, when Shah Jehan succeeded her and was Begum until 1901. In 1901, Shah Jehan's daughter Kaikhusrau Jahan became Begum, ruled until 1926, was the last of the female line of succession.

In 1926, she abdicated in favour of her son, Hamidullah Khan, who ruled until 1947, was the last of the sovereign Nawabs. The rule of Begums gave the city its waterworks, railways, a postal system, a municipality constituted in 1907. Bhopal State was the second-largest Muslim-ruled princely state: the first being Hyderabad. After the independence of India in 1947, the last Nawab expressed his wish to retain Bhopal as a separate unit. Agitations against the Nawab broke out in December 1948, leading to the arrest of prominent leaders including Shankar Dayal Sharma; the political detainees were released, the Nawab signed the agreement for Bhopal's merger with the Union of India on 30 April 1949. The Bhopal state was taken over by the Union Government of India on 1 June 1949. In early December 1984, a Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked around 32 tons of toxic gases, including methyl isocyanate gas which led to the worst industrial disaster in the world to date; the official death toll was recorded as around 4,000.

A Madhya Pradesh government report stated 3,787 deaths, while other estimates state the fatalities were higher from the accident and the medical complications caused by the accident in the weeks and years that followed. The higher estimates have been challenged; the impact of the disaster continues to this day in terms of psychological and neurological disabilities, skin, vision and birth disorders. The soil and ground water near the factory site have been contaminated by the toxic wastes; the Bhopal disaster continues to be the part of the socio-political debate. Bhopal has an average elevation of 500 metres and is located in the central part of India, just north of the upper limit of the Vindhya mountain ranges. Located on the Malwa plateau, it is higher than the north Indian plains and the land rises towards the Vindhya Range to the south; the city has small hills within its boundaries. The prominent hills in Bhopal are the Id

Dead Eagle Owl is an 1881 oil-on-canvas painting by Édouard Manet. One of the few hunting still lifes in Manet's oeuvre, it depicts a dead Eurasian eagle-owl hanging upside down on a board as a hunting trophy. Dead Eagle Owl is one of a series of comparable still lifes that Manet painted in the same year in Versailles, during his recuperation from a serious illness. There are precedents for this morbid work in French still-life painting of the 18th century and Dutch still-life painting of the 17th century; the painting is in the collection of the Foundation E. G. Bührle in Zürich. Hans Jucker, Theodor Müller, Eduard Hüttinger: Sammlung Emil G. Bührle. Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich 1958. George Mauner: Manet – the still life paintings. Harry N. Abrams, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8109-4391-3

Corporal Mat Aznan Awang was a Malaysian Army soldier who served in the Malaysian Battilion of the United Nations Operation in Somalia II. Mat Aznan was posthumously awarded the Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa for his actions during the Battle of Mogadishu on October 1993, he was a Royal Malay Regiment soldier and hailed from Kampung Parit Panjang, Kedah. On October 4, 1993, Mat Aznan was involved in the rescue mission of seventy US Rangers and five members of the US Air Force who were surrounded in the Bakaara Market area of Mogadishu, Somalia. During the rescue operation, Mat Aznan acted as a driver of a Condor Armoured Personnel Carrier. While in transit, the rescue convoy was ambushed and the armored car driven by him was shot at by anti-tank weapons from the front; this penetrated the bullet-proof window, wounding nine others. In this incident, four Condor APC vehicles were destroyed. However, the rescue efforts of US military personnel was executed by MALBATT. Mat Aznan Awang was awarded the Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa from the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Almarhum Tuanku Jaafar of Negeri Sembilan on 4 June 1994.

He was posthumously promoted to Corporal by the Malaysian Army. One of Mat Aznan's daughters continues the legacy by serving in the same battalion

The 2005–06 Scottish First Division was won by St Mirren. As league champions, St Mirren were promoted to the Scottish Premier League. Allan Jenkins scored the Stranraer winner on a 2 January South West relegation derby leaving Queen of the South in the play off spot, ninth place; however Jenkins was sold to Gretna 10 days later. Stranraer's league form imploded recording only one other league win from until the season's end. Queens over hauled Stranraer who subsequently lost in a relegation playoff Semi-Final to be relegated along with Brechin City to the Scottish Second Division. Scottish Second Division winners Gretna and playoff winners Partick Thistle were promoted; the average attendances for First Division clubs for season 2005/06 are shown below: The playoff semi-finals took place on 3 May 2006 and 6 May 2006. The final took place on 10 May 2006 and 14 May 2006. Semi-finals Stranraer 1–3 Partick Thistle Partick Thistle 1–2 StranraerMorton 0–0 Peterhead Peterhead 1–0 MortonFinal Partick Thistle 1–2 Peterhead Peterhead 1–2 Partick Thistle

The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass production evolved into the largest in the world. However, the United States was overtaken as the largest automobile producer by Japan in the 1980s, subsequently by China in 2008; the U. S. is second among the largest manufacturer in the world by volume, with 8-10 million manufactured annually. Notable exceptions were 5.7 million automobiles manufactured in 2009, peak production levels of 13-15 million units during the 1970s and early 2000s. The motor vehicle industry began with hundreds of manufacturers, but by the end of the 1920s it was dominated by three large companies: General Motors and Chrysler, all based in Metro Detroit. After the Great Depression and World War II, these companies continued to prosper, the U. S. produced nearly three quarters of all automobiles in the world by 1950. Beginning in the 1970s, a combination of high oil prices and increased competition from foreign auto manufacturers affected the companies.

In the ensuing years, the companies periodically bounced back, but by 2008 the industry was in turmoil due to the aforementioned crisis. As a result, General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy reorganization and were bailed out with loans and investments from the federal government, but according to Autodata Corp, June 2014 seasonally adjusted annualized sales is the biggest in history with 16.98 million vehicles and toppled previous record in July 2006. Prior to the 1980s, most manufacturing facilities were owned by the Big Three and AMC, their U. S. market share has dropped as numerous foreign-owned car companies have built factories in the U. S. Toyota had 31,000 direct employees in the U. S. in 2012, meaning a total payroll of about $2.1 billion, compared to Ford's 80,000 U. S. employees supplying their 3,300 dealerships and Chrysler's 71,100 U. S. employees supplying their 2,328 dealerships. The development of self-powered vehicles was accompanied by numerous technologies and components giving rise to numerous supplier firms and associated industries.

Various types of energy sources were employed by early automobiles including steam and gasoline. Thousands of entrepreneurs were involved in developing and marketing of early automobiles on a small and local scale. Increasing sales facilitated production on a larger scale in factories with broader market distribution. Ransom E. Olds and Thomas B. Jeffery began mass production of their automobiles. Henry Ford focused on producing an automobile. Purchased by wealthy individuals, by 1916 cars began selling at $875. Soon, the market widened with the mechanical betterment of the cars, the reduction in prices, as well as the introduction of installment sales and payment plans. During the period from 1917 to 1926, the annual rate of increase in sales was less than from 1903 to 1916. In the years 1918, 1919, 1921, 1924 there were absolute declines in automotive production; the automotive industry caused a massive shift in the industrial revolution because it accelerated growth by a rate never before seen in the U.

S. economy. The combined efforts of innovation and industrialization allowed the automotive industry to take off during this period and it proved to be the backbone of United States manufacturing during the 20th century; the practicality of the automobile was limited because of the lack of suitable roads. Travel between cities was done by railroad, waterways, or carriages. Roads were dirt and hard to travel in bad weather; the League of American Wheelmen maintained and improved roads as it was viewed as a local responsibility with limited government assistance. During this time, there was an increase in production of automobiles coupled with a swell of auto dealerships, marking their growth in popularity. State governments began to use the corvee system to maintain roads, an implementation of required physical labor on a public project on the local citizens. Part of their motivation was the needs of farmers in rural areas attempting to transport their goods across rough functioning roads; the other reason was the weight of the wartime vehicles.

The materials involved altered during World War I to accommodate the heavier trucks on the road and were responsible for widespread shift to macadam highways and roadways. However, rural roads were still a problem for military vehicles, so four wheel drive was developed by automobile manufacturers to assist in powering through; as the prevalence of automobiles grew, it became clear funding would need to improve as well and the addition of government financing reflected that change. The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 allocated $75 million for building roads, it was responsible for approving a refocusing of military vehicles to road maintenance equipment. It was followed by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 provided additional funding for road construction. By 1924, there were 31,000 miles of paved road in the U. S. About 3,000 automobile companies have existed in the United States. In the early 1900s, the U. S. saw the rise of the Big Three automakers. In the late 19th century Thorstein Veblen introduced his Theory of the Leisure Class which introduced conspicuous consumption and demonstrated that wealth was the basis for social status.

Ford and General Motors each played a role in their target market and what social status each consumer belonged to. Henry Ford began building cars in 1896 and started his own company in 1903; the Ford Motor Company improved mass-production with the first conveyor belt-based assembly line in 1913

Moulsecoomb Place is a large 18th-century house in the Moulsecoomb area of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. A farmhouse based in an agricultural area in the parish of Patcham, north of Brighton, it was bought and extensively remodelled in 1790 for a long-established local family, it was their seat for over 100 years, but the Neoclassical-style mansion and its grounds were bought by the local council in the interwar period when Moulsecoomb was transformed into a major council estate. Subsequent uses have varied, Moulsecoomb Place became part of the University of Brighton's range of buildings. Student housing has been built to the rear; the house is a Grade II Listed building. At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Moulsecoomb was an outlying part of the large parish of Patcham, centred on Patcham village north of Brighton. Spelt Mulescumba at that time, the name varied over the centuries and was not standardised to its current spelling until the 1960s; the manor and estate of Moulsecoomb belonged to Lewes Priory, Mouscombe Farm was first named in the early 17th century when it was owned by Sir Edward Culpepper.

On his death in 1730, it was left to Sir William Culpeper, 1st Baronet of Preston Hall, the first of the Culpeper baronets. By this time, nothing more than a farming hamlet had developed in the steep-sided valley: it had no church of its own, was dependent on Patcham. In the early 16th century, a timber-framed hall house was built on the estate near the farm. A wooden tithe barn was erected next to it in the 16th century, was subsequently extended in flint; the hall house is the oldest secular building in Brighton, is presumed to be a remnant of a larger medieval manor house—perhaps the forerunner of the present Moulsecoomb Place, which has its origins in the early 18th century. At that time, when the farm was still in agricultural use, a farmhouse was built adjoining the hall house. In 1790, Benjamin Tillstone bought the farm and converted it into a rural retreat with the farmhouse as its centrepiece, he commissioned a major overhaul of Moulsecoomb Place, extending the façade and refacing it in yellow brick.

The building was thereafter the seat of the locally important Tillstone family for more than a century, was the centrepiece of an estate extending to 1,000 acres. A wide verandah was added to the house at ground-floor level by 1810, the hall house was converted into stables. A regular visitor around this time was a friend of the family, he had his own bedroom above the drawing room, a dovecote near the house was adapted into a summer house, in which the prince would sit and practise playing a silver flute he had received from Tillstone. The dovecote was accordingly known as Prince's Tower, but was vandalised beyond repair in 1942. Three "huge mahogany doors" in the house were given by the prince in return. More work was carried out on the building in 1906 or 1913, when a further two bays were added to the south side of the seven-bay façade; the final Tillstone family owner, Mr. B. T. Rogers-Tillstone, sold Moulsecoomb Place and the family's estate to Brighton Corporation in February 1925. Much of the land, transferred from the parish of Patcham into the borough of Brighton in October 1923, was used to develop the Moulsecoomb housing estates, collectively the largest area of council housing in Brighton.

Hundreds of "homes fit for heroes" were built to replace unsuitable inner-city slums. Moulsecoomb Place and its grounds were retained, the building was used by the Corporation to house its Parks and Recreation Department, it housed Moulsecoomb's first library and was used to provide extra capacity for a local school. By 1971 most of the interior was used for offices, a social club and bar occupied the hall house; the building is next to the main campus of the University of Brighton. In 1993, the university submitted a plan to buy Moulsecoomb Place and its grounds, build accommodation for 163 students on the former plant nursery to the rear, convert the building itself and the old tithe barn into the headquarters of its Student Services division and a children's nursery. Permission for this was granted in the same year; the student residences consist of flats accommodating six to eight people, each with their own bedroom but with shared bathroom and laundry facilities. Breakfast and evening meals are provided on site.

As of 2012, rent was £ 5,538 for a 39-week academic year tenancy. Moulsecoomb Place was designated a Grade II Listed building on 20 August 1971; the timber-framed hall house to the rear had been listed on its own on 13 October 1952. Moulsecoomb Place is the only building in the Moulsecoomb area mentioned by Ian Nairn and Nikolaus Pevsner in the Sussex edition of their Buildings of England architectural guides, they describe it as "an early 19th-century seven-bay house of yellow brick", note that the hall house attached to the rear is "the only worthwhile timber-framed cottage in Brighton". The seven-bay façade, which faces east, is the original part dating from 1790; the original section has yellow brickwork in a Flemish bond pattern to the main elevation and brown and ye