1.
Book of Esther
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The Book of Esther, also known in Hebrew as the Scroll, is a book in the third section of the Jewish Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament. It relates the story of a Hebrew woman in Persia, born as Hadassah but known as Esther, the story forms the core of the Jewish festival of Purim, during which it is read aloud twice, once in the evening and again the following morning. Esther is the book in the Bible that does not explicitly mention God. The biblical Book of Esther is set in the Persian capital of Susa in the year of the reign of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Assuming that Ahasuerus is indeed Xerxes I, the events described in Esther began around the years 483–482 BCE, and concluded in March 473 BCE. The Book of Esther consists of an introduction in chapters 1 and 2, the action in chapters 3 to 9,19. The plot is structured around banquets, a word that occurs twenty times in Esther and only 24 times in the rest of the Hebrew bible. This is appropriate given that Esther describes the origin of a Jewish feast, the feast of Purim, the books theme, rather, is the reversal of destiny through a sudden and unexpected turn of events, the Jews seem destined to be destroyed, but instead are saved. The story begins with Ahasuerus, ruler of the Persian Empire, holding a banquet, initially for his court and dignitaries and afterwards for all inhabitants of the capital city. On the seventh day, Ahasuerus orders the queen, Vashti, to come, furious, Ahasuerus has her removed from her position and makes arrangements to choose a new queen from a selection of beautiful young women from throughout the empire. One of these is the Jewish orphan, Esther, after the death of her parents, she was fostered by her cousin, Mordecai. She finds favour in the Kings eyes, and is crowned his new queen, shortly afterwards, Mordecai discovers a plot by two courtiers, Bigthan and Teresh, to assassinate Ahasuerus. The conspirators are apprehended and hanged, and Mordecais service to the King is duly recorded, Ahasuerus appoints Haman as his viceroy. Mordecai, who sits at the gates, falls into Hamans disfavour. Having discovered that Mordecai is Jewish, Haman plans to not just Mordecai. She invites him to a feast in the company of Haman, during the feast, she asks them to attend a further feast the next evening. Meanwhile, Haman is again offended by Mordecai and, at his wifes suggestion, has a built to hang him. Ahasuerus is informed that Mordecai never received any recognition for this, to his surprise and horror, the King instructs Haman to do so to Mordecai
2.
Joan Collins
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Dame Joan Henrietta Collins, DBE is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington, west London, and brought up in Maida Vale, after making her stage debut in the Henrik Ibsen play A Dolls House at the age of nine, she trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She then signed a contract with the Rank Organisation and appeared in various British films. In 1955, at the age of 22, Collins headed to Hollywood and landed roles in several popular films, including The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and Rally Round the Flag. While she continued to make films in the US and the UK throughout the 1960s, she also guest-starred in an episode of Star Trek in 1967 named The City on the Edge of Forever, as Edith Keeler. Her career languished in the 1970s, when she appeared in a number of horror flicks, near the end of the decade, she starred in two softcore pornographic films based on best-selling novels by her younger sister Jackie Collins, The Stud and its sequel The Bitch. She began appearing on stage, playing the role in the 1980 British revival of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Collins also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983 for career achievement, in 2015, Collins was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to charity. Since the late 1970s, Collins has written several books, in 1988, she published her first novel, Prime Time, and she has continued to publish various kinds of writing. A member of the Conservative Party, Collins was one of the handful of guests to be invited to the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in April 2013 and her father, a native of South Africa, was Jewish, and her British mother was Anglican. She has two siblings, Jackie and Bill, a property agent. She was educated at the Francis Holland School, an independent day school for girls in London, at the age of 17, Collins was signed to the J. Arthur Rank Film Company, a British film studio. Collins made her debut as a beauty contest entrant in Lady Godiva Rides Again followed by The Womans Angle in a minor role as a Greek maid. Next was a significant role as a gangsters moll in Judgment Deferred. Her big break came when the Rank Organisation signed her for a role in I Believe in You. Other roles to follow included Cosh Boy, Decameron Nights, Turn the Key Softly, The Square Ring and she was chosen by director Howard Hawks to star in his lavish production of Land of the Pharaohs as the scheming Princess Nellifer opposite Jack Hawkins. She finished her Fox contract with the crime caper Seven Thieves and the biblical epic Esther, One notable film release in the 1960s was The Road to Hong Kong, the last road picture of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. She took a hiatus from her career to concentrate on having a family after marrying Anthony Newley
3.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
6.
Religion
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Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities
7.
Esther
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Esther, born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. According to the Hebrew Bible, Esther was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus, Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid Empire, although Flavius Josephus wrote that Esthers king husband was Xerxes son Artaxerxes. Her story is the basis for the celebration of Purim in Jewish tradition, King Ahasuerus displayed his wealth for 180 days then held a 7 day feast in Susa. While in high spirits from the wine, he ordered his queen, Vashti, to appear before him, but when the attendants delivered the kings command to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. Furious at her refusal to obey, the king asked his men what should be done. One of them said that all the women in the empire would hear that The King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, then these women would despise their husbands, which would cause many problems in the kingdom. Therefore, it would be prudent to depose Vashti, many beautiful maidens were then brought before the king in order that he might choose a successor to the unruly Vashti. The King chose Esther, a daughter of a Benjamite named Abihail. Esther was originally named Hadassah, meaning myrtle and she had spent her life among the Jewish exiles in Persia, where she lived under the protection of her cousin Mordecai. When Cyrus gave permission for the exiles to return to Jerusalem, Mordecai was the son of Jair, a Benjamite, who had been carried into captivity together with Jeconiah by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Mordecai became chief minister of Ahasuerus and lived in the Persian capital of Susa, one day, while sitting at the gate of the kings palace, Mordecai overheard a plot of two eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, to kill the king. Having informed the king through Esther of the conspiracy, Mordecai brought about the execution of the two conspirators, and the event was recorded in the royal chronicles, the grand vizier, Haman the Agagite, commanded Mordecai to do obeisance to him. The king then issued a proclamation ordering the confiscation of Jewish property, Mordecai tore his robes and put ash on his head on hearing this news. Sheltered in the harem, Esther was unaware of the decree until Mordecai advised her of it through Hathach and he informed her that she should not think that she would escape simply because she was in the palace. At the request of Esther, Mordecai instituted at Susa a general fast for three days. Esther could not approach the king without being summoned, on pain of death, nevertheless, at the end of the three days, Esther dressed in her royal apparel and went before the king, who was pleased to see her. When the king asked her what her request was, she invited the king, at the banquet they accepted her invitation to dine with her again on the following day. Haman, carried away by the joy that this gave him
8.
Purim
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Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all the Jews. This took place in the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire, the story is recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing, Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar, the day following the victory of the Jews over their enemies. Today, only Jerusalem and a few other cities celebrate Purim on the 15th of Adar. At this feast Ahasuerus gets thoroughly drunk, and at the prompting of his courtiers, orders his wife Vashti to display her beauty before the nobles and populace and her refusal prompts Ahasuerus to have her removed from her post. Ahasuerus then orders all young women to be presented to him, one of these is Esther, who was orphaned at a young age and was being fostered by her first cousin Mordecai. Some rabbinic commentators state that she was actually Mordecais wife, since the Torah permits an uncle to marry his niece and she finds favor in the kings eyes, and is made his new wife. Esther does not reveal her origins and that she is Jewish, shortly afterwards, Mordecai discovers a plot by two courtiers Bigthan and Teresh to kill Ahasuerus. They are apprehended and hanged, and Mordecais service to the king is recorded in the record of the court. Ahasuerus appoints Haman as his viceroy, Mordecai, who sits at the palace gates, falls into Hamans disfavor as he refuses to bow down to him. Having found out that Mordecai is Jewish, Haman plans to not just Mordecai. Obtaining Ahasuerus permission and funds to execute this plan, he casts lots to choose the date on which to do this – the thirteenth of the month of Adar. Esther discovers what has transpired, there follows an exchange of messages between her and Mordecai, with Hatach, one of the servants, as the intermediary. Mordecai requests that she intercede with the king on behalf of the embattled Jews, she replies that nobody is allowed to approach the king, under penalty of death. Esther has a change of heart, says she will fast and pray for three days and will approach the king to seek his help, despite the law against doing so. She also requests that Mordecai tell all Jews of Shushan to fast, on the third day, she seeks an audience with Ahasuerus, during which she invites him to a feast in the company of Haman. During the feast, she asks them to attend a further feast the next evening, Ahasuerus asks whether anything was done for Mordecai and is told that he received no recognition for saving the kings life. Just then, Haman appears, and King Ahasuerus asks him what should be done for the man that the wishes to honor
9.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
10.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
11.
Hedy Lamarr
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Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian and American film actress and inventor. After an early and brief film career in Germany that included the controversial film Ecstasy, she fled from her husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer, there, she met MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a contract in Hollywood, where she became a film star from the late 1930s to the 1950s. Lamarr appeared in numerous feature films, including Algiers, I Take This Woman, Comrade X, Come Live With Me, H. M. Pulham, Esq. and Samson. Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary and her father was born to a Jewish family in Lemberg and was a successful bank director. Lamarr helped get her out of Austria and to the United States. Her mother later became a United States citizen, Gertrud Kiesler put Hebrew as her race on her petition for naturalization as a United States citizen. In the late 1920s, Lamarr was discovered as an actress, following her training in the theater, she returned to Vienna, where she began to work in the film industry, first as a script girl, and soon as an actress. In early 1933, at age 18, she starred in Gustav Machatýs film, Ecstasy and her role was that of a neglected young wife married to an indifferent older man. The film became both celebrated and notorious for showing Lamarrs face in the throes of orgasm as well as close-up, on 10 August 1933, Lamarr married Friedrich Mandl, an Austrian military arms merchant and munitions manufacturer who was reputedly the third-richest man in Austria. She was 18 years old and he was 33 and she claimed she was kept a virtual prisoner in their castle home, Schloss Schwarzenau. Mandl had close social and business ties to the fascist government of Italy, selling munitions to Mussolini, Lamarr wrote that Mussolini and Hitler attended lavish parties at the Mandl home. Lamarr accompanied Mandl to business meetings, where he conferred with scientists and these conferences were her introduction to the field of applied science and nurtured her latent talent in science. Lamarrs marriage to Mandl eventually became unbearable, and she decided to herself from both him and her country. After arriving in Paris in 1937, she met Louis B, mayer, who was scouting for talent in Europe. Mayer persuaded her to change her name to Hedy Lamarr, choosing the surname in homage to the silent film star. He brought her to Hollywood in 1938 and began promoting her as the worlds most beautiful woman, Lamarr made her American film debut in Algiers, opposite Charles Boyer. The film created a sensation, says Shearer
12.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
