1.
Joseph Smith
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Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon, by the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religious culture that continues to the present. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, the same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, in 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communalistic American Zion. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, during the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the expensive Kirtland Temple. In 1844, Smith and the Nauvoo city council angered non-Mormons by destroying a newspaper that had criticized Smiths power, after Smith was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, he was killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse. Smith published many revelations and other texts that his followers regard as scripture and his teachings include unique views about the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. Joseph Smith Jr. was born on December 23,1805, in Sharon, Vermont, to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Sr. a merchant, after suffering a crippling bone infection when he was seven, the younger Smith used crutches for three years. During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm, although Smiths parents disagreed about religion, the family was caught up in this excitement. Smith later said he became interested in religion at about the age of twelve, he participated in church classes, as a teenager, he may have been sympathetic to Methodism. With other family members, Smith also engaged in folk magic. Both his parents and his grandfather reportedly had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. Smith said that although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, years later Smith said that in 1820 he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion. While praying in an area near his home, he said that God, in a vision, had told him his sins were forgiven. Smith said he told the experience to a preacher, who dismissed the story with contempt, but the experience was largely unknown, even to most Mormons, until the 1840s. Although Smith may have understood the event as a conversion, this First Vision later grew in importance among Mormons. Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him, Smith reported that during the next four years, he made annual visits to the hill but each time returned without the plates. Meanwhile, the Smith family faced financial hardship due in part to the November 1823 death of Smiths oldest brother Alvin, Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers, a type of magical supernaturalism common during the period
2.
Golden plates
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According to Latter Day Saint belief, the golden plates are the source from which Joseph Smith said he translated the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the faith. Some witnesses described the plates as weighing from 30 to 60 pounds, being golden in color, and being composed of thin metallic pages engraved on both sides and bound with three D-shaped rings. Smith said he found the plates on September 22,1823, at a hill near his home in Manchester, New York, Smith said the angel at first prevented him from taking the plates, but instructed him to return to the same location in a year. In September 1827, on his annual attempt to retrieve the plates, Smith returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock. Though he allowed others to heft the box, he said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had translated from their original reformed Egyptian language. Smith dictated the text of the Book of Mormon over the several years. He did this by using a stone, which he placed in the bottom of a hat. Smith published the translation in 1830 as the Book of Mormon, Smith eventually obtained testimonies from eleven men, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses, who said they had seen the plates. After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the plates to the angel Moroni, therefore the plates cannot now be examined. In the words of Mormon historian Richard Bushman, For most modern readers, the plates are beyond belief, because Smith said he returned the plates to the angel Moroni after he finished translating them, their authenticity cannot be determined by physical examination. The golden plates were reportedly shown to close associates of Smith. Among these topics, the credibility of the plates has been, according to Bushman, the Book of Mormon itself portrays the golden plates as a historical record, engraved by two pre-Columbian prophet-historians from around the year AD400, Mormon and his son Moroni. Mormon and Moroni, the book says, had abridged earlier historical records from other sets of metal plates and their script, according to the book, was described as reformed Egyptian, a language unknown to linguists or Egyptologists. Scholarly reference works on languages do not acknowledge the existence of either a reformed Egyptian language or reformed Egyptian script as it has described in Mormon belief. No archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in ancient America has been discovered. Historically, Latter Day Saint movement denominations have taught that the Book of Mormons description of the origin is accurate. The Community of Christ, however, while accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture, non-believers and some liberal Mormons have advanced naturalistic explanations for the story of the plates. Smith is the source for a great deal of the story because much of it occurred at times when he was the only human witness
3.
Angel Moroni
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The Angel Moroni is, in Mormonism, an angel who visited Joseph Smith on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21,1823. An important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, Moroni is featured prominently in Mormon architecture, besides Smith, the Three Witnesses and several other witnesses also reported that they saw Moroni in visions in 1829. Moroni is thought by Latter Day Saints to be the person as a Book of Mormon prophet-warrior named Moroni. The book states that Moroni buried them before he died after a battle between two pre-Columbian civilizations. After he died, he became an angel who was tasked with guarding the golden plates, according to Smith, he returned the golden plates to Moroni after they were translated and, as of 1838, Moroni still had the plates in his possession. There have been two conflicting accounts as to the name of the angel, initially, Smith merely referred to an angel without identifying its name. Around this time, Cowdery was writing a history of Smith in which he identified the angel as the prophet Moroni from the Book of Mormon. In July 1838, Smith wrote an article for the church periodical Elders Journal, in the form of questions and answers, how, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon. However, on May 2,1838, a few months before Smiths statement in Elders Journal, in this text, Smith identified the angel as Nephi, which is the name of the Book of Mormons first narrator. Smiths 1838 identification as Nephi was left unchanged when the 1838 history was published in 1842 in Times and Seasons, which Smith edited himself, in the latter, an editorial referred to the 1823 vision and praised the glorious ministry and message of the angel Nephi. After Smiths death, the identification as Nephi was repeated when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published its first edition of the Pearl of Great Price and it was also repeated in 1853 when Smiths mother Lucy Mack Smith published a history of her son. The Community of Christ publishes the story, including the identification of Nephi. Descriptions of the angel Moroni vary, in one of Smiths histories, he described him as an angel of light who had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. According to Smiths sister Katharine, the angel was dressed in white raiment, of whiteness beyond anything Joseph had ever seen in his life and he saw his hands and wrists, and they were pure and white. Smith said that on the night of September 21,1823, Moroni appeared to him, in addition to Smith, several other early Mormons said they had visions where they saw the angel Moroni. Three Witnesses said they saw the angel in 1829, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, kimball, Lucy Harris, and Harrison Burgess. Mary Whitmer may also have seen Moroni, although she referred to the angel she saw as Brother Nephi, according to the Book of Mormon, Moroni was the son of Mormon, the prophet for whom the Book of Mormon is named. Moroni may have named after Captain Moroni, an earlier Book of Mormon figure
4.
Tarring and feathering
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Tarring and feathering is a form of public humiliation used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the modern period, as well as the early American frontier. In a typical attack, the mobs victim was stripped to the waist. Liquid tar was poured or painted onto the person while he was immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on him or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar, often, the victim was then paraded around town on a cart or wooden rail. The aim was to inflict pain and humiliation on a person to make him either conform his behavior to the mobs demands or be driven from town. The image of the tarred-and-feathered outlaw remains a metaphor for public humiliation, to tar and feather someone can mean to punish or severely criticize that person. The earliest mention of the punishment appears in orders that Richard I of England issued to his navy on starting for the Holy Land in 1189, concerning the lawes and ordinances appointed by King Richard for his navie the forme thereof was this. A later instance of this penalty appears in Notes and Queries, in 1696, a London bailiff attempted to serve process on a debtor who had taken refuge within the precincts of the Savoy. The bailiff was tarred and feathered and taken in a wheelbarrow to the Strand, in 1766, Captain William Smith was tarred, feathered, and dumped into the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia by a mob that included the towns mayor. A vessel picked him out of the water just as his strength was giving out and he survived and was later quoted as saying that they dawbed my body and face all over with tar and afterwards threw feathers on me. Smith was suspected of informing on smugglers to the British customs agents, the practice appeared in Salem, Massachusetts in 1767, when mobs attacked low-level employees of the customs service with tar and feathers. In October 1769, a mob in Boston attacked a customs service sailor the same way, the tarring and feathering of customs worker John Malcolm received particular attention in 1774. Such acts associated the punishment with the Patriot side of the American Revolution, there is no known case of a person dying from being tarred and feathered in this period. During the Whiskey Rebellion, local farmers inflicted the punishment on federal tax agents, beginning on September 11,1791, western Pennsylvania farmers rebelled against the federal governments taxation on western Pennsylvania whiskey distillers during the Whiskey Rebellion. Their first victim was reportedly a recently appointed tax collector named Robert Johnson and he was tarred and feathered by a disguised gang in Washington County. Other officials who attempted to serve court warrants to Johnsons attackers were whipped, tarred, because of these and other violent attacks, the tax went uncollected in 1791 and early 1792. The attackers modeled their actions on the protests of the American Revolution
5.
Danish Americans
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Danish Americans are Americans who have ancestral roots originated fully or partially from Denmark. There are approximately 1,500,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent, the first Dane known to have arrived in North America was explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering. In 1728, he documented the narrow body of water that separated North America and Asia, Bering was the first European to arrive in Alaska in 1741. In 1666, the Danish West India Company took control of the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean and eventually, the Danes brought African slaves to those islands, where the slaves were put to work in the snuff, cotton and sugar industries. These early settlers began to trade with New England. In 1917, they sold the islands to the United States, in the early seventeenth century, individual Danish immigrants became established in North America. Scandinavians, Danes and Norwegians in particular, made up a portion of the settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. After 1750, Danish families in the Protestant Moravian Brethren denomination immigrated to Pennsylvania, until 1850, most Danes who emigrated to North America were unmarried men. During this period, some Danes achieved notability and recognition, the trail established by Lassen was followed by the forty-niners during the California Gold Rush. Lassen is considered one of the most important early settlers of California, from 1820 and 1850, about 60 Danes settled in the United States every year. The first significant wave of Danish immigrants consisted mainly of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members who settled in United States in 1850 and they settled in the newly acquired state of Utah, which had been under Mexican control until 1848. There were 17,000 such immigrants, many of these settled in farming communities in the Sanpete. Today, these counties respectively have the second and fifth largest percentages of Danish Americans in the United States and they were called North Slesvigers, however, most of these Danes are recorded in the census statistics as immigrants from Germany rather than Denmark. Most Danes who immigrated to the United States after 1865 did so for economic reasons, by 1865, there had been a large increase in the Danish population in Europe because of the improvement in the medicine and food industries. It caused a high rate of poverty and ultimately resulted in a significant, another reason for migration was the sale of lands. Many Danes became farmers in the United States, during the 1870s, almost half of all Danish immigrants to the United States settled in family groups. By the 1890s, family immigration made up only of 25 percent of the total and it has been suggested that many of these immigrants eventually returned to Denmark. C. has the smallest Danish American population, with 1,047 counted in 2000. About 30,000 Danish Americans continue to speak the Danish language, according to the 2000 US Census Bureau,33,400 people spoke Danish at home, that figure was down to 29,467 five years later, a decrease of about 11. 8%
6.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations, according to the church, it has over 70,000 missionaries and a membership of over 15 million. It is ranked by the National Council of Churches as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States and it is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Adherents, often referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, less formally, Mormons, view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion. The church has a canon which includes four scriptural texts, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants. The current president is Thomas S. Monson, individual members of the church believe that they can also receive personal revelation from God in conducting their lives. The president heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations, Bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Male members, after reaching age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood, Women do not hold positions within the priesthood, but do occupy leadership roles in some church auxiliary organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes, faithful members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6,1830, Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion. In 1831, the moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers brutally expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County, the Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections. Smith regrouped with the church in Far West, Missouri. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that the Saints be exterminated or driven from the State, in 1839, the Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the churchs new headquarters. Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo, meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates. He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow people to become gods in the afterlife. He also introduced the church to an accounting of his First Vision. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in history since the resurrection of Jesus
7.
Mormon pioneers
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At the time of the ceasefire and planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory was owned by the Republic of Mexico, which soon after went to war with the United States over the annexation of Texas. Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of this war and these and other reasons caused the body of the Church to move from one place to another--to Ohio, Missouri, and then to Illinois, where church members built the city of Nauvoo. Sidney Rigdon was the First Counselor in the LDS First Presidency, and as its spokesman, Rigdon preached several sermons in Missouri, including the Salt Sermon. These speeches have sometimes seen as contributing to the conflict known as the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. As a result of the conflict, the Mormons were expelled from the state by Governor Boggs, Rigdon was released on a writ of habeas corpus and made his way to Illinois, where he joined the main body of Mormon refugees in 1839. In 1844 Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum Smith were killed by a mob while in custody in the city of Carthage, in 1846, religious tensions reached their peak, and in 1848 mobs burned the Latter-day Saint temple in Nauvoo. During the winter of 1846-47, Latter-day Saint leaders in Winter Quarters and Iowa laid plans for the migration of the number of Saints, their equipment. It was here that Brigham Young first met Thomas L. Kane, Kane obtained permission for the Mormons to winter on Indian territory, and the site was originally called Kanesville. Brigham Young continued to trust Kane throughout his own lifetime, particularly as an intermediary with the often hostile Federal government and this major undertaking was a significant test of leadership capability and the existing administrative network of the recently restructured Church. For his role in the migration, Brigham Young is sometimes referred to as the American Moses. The wary Young insisted the Mormons should settle in a no one else wanted. The initial company would select and break the trail with the expectation that later pioneers would maintain. It was hoped that the group could, wherever possible, establish fords and ferries, in late February, plans were made to gather portable boats, maps, scientific instruments, farm implements and seeds. Techniques for irrigating crops were investigated, a new route on the north side of the Platte River was chosen to avoid major interaction with travelers using the established Oregon Trail on the river’s south side. Given the needs of the volume of Saints who would travel west, Church leaders decided to avoid potential conflicts over grazing rights, water access. In April 1847, Young consulted with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who had returned from the British mission. John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde brought money contributed by the English Saints, fremont’s recent western expedition, and instruments for calculating latitude, elevation, temperature and barometric pressure. Chosen members of the group were gathered together, final supplies were packed
8.
Copenhagen
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Copenhagen, Danish, København, Latin, Hafnia) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. Copenhagen has an population of 1,280,371. The Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants, the city is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand, another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road, originally a Viking fishing village founded in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a centre of power with its institutions, defences. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century and this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later, following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing, since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, Copenhagens economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö. With a number of connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterized by parks, promenades. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC København and Brøndby football clubs, the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, the Copenhagen Metro serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train network connects central Copenhagen to its outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the largest airport in the Nordic countries, the name of the city reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation, from which the contemporary Danish name derives, was Køpmannæhafn, meaning merchants harbour, the literal English translation would be Chapmans haven. The English name for the city was adapted from its Low German name, the abbreviations Kbh. or Kbhvn are often used in Danish for København, and kbh. for københavnsk. The chemical element hafnium is named for Copenhagen, where it was discovered, the bacterium Hafnia is also named after Copenhagen, Vagn Møller of the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen named it in 1954. Excavations in Pilestræde have also led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century, the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen
9.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
10.
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
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The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. The Royal Danish Academy of Portraiture, Sculpture, and Architecture in Copenhagen was inaugurated on 31 March 1754 and its name was changed to the Royal Danish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in 1771. The building boom resulting from the Great Fire of 1795 greatly profited from this initiative, in 1814 the name was changed again, this time to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. It is still situated in its building, the Charlottenborg Palace. The School of Architecture has been situated in former naval buildings on Holmen since 1996, the academy is larger and better funded than the Jutland Art Academy and Funen Art Academy, which offer similar programs. It teaches and conducts research on the subjects of painting, sculpting, architecture, graphics, photography, the academy is under the administration of the Danish Ministry of Culture. The academy’s School of Architecture offers education in the fields of design and restoration, urban and landscape planning and industrial, graphic. The school has nine departments, four research institutes and six affiliated research centres. The undergraduate course, leading to the Bachelor of Architecture diploma, in 2011, the Wall Street Journal named Ingels the Innovator of the Year for architecture. Hansen Medal Thorvaldsen Medal Eckersberg Medal Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal N. L. Høyen Medal The School of Visual Arts C. C
