1.
DBE
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not Head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
2.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
3.
Asolo
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Asolo is a town and comune in the Veneto Region of Northern Italy. It is known as The Pearl of the province of Treviso, the town was originally a settlement of the Veneti, and was mentioned as Acelum in the works of Pliny. Its citizens were inscribed into the Roman tribe, Claudia, in 969, Emperor Otto I assigned the territory of the diocese of Acelum/Asolo to the diocese of Treviso. This action may be related to the destruction caused by the Hungarian raiders who in 899 defeated Berengar I of Italy near the town, however, one of the bishops at a synod at Rome under Pope Leo IX in 1049 was called Ugo of Asolo. No longer a residential bishopric, Acelum is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, in the early Middle Ages Asolo was a possession of the Ezzelino family. Under her reign, the painter Gentile Bellini and the humanist Cardinal Pietro Bembo were part of the court, in 1798, the Italian impresario Antonio Locatelli built the Asolo Theatre in the former audience hall of the castle of Caterina Cornaro. The theatre was purchased by Florida, for the John. The theatre was disassembled, shipped to Sarasota, Florida, and it was then decided that the theatre should be reassembled into a usable theatre, on the museums grounds in the late 1950s. The newly constructed theatre opened in 1958, and is now the home of both the Asolo Repertory Theatre and the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. The town was home to the English poet Robert Browning, the actress Eleonora Duse, the explorer Freya Stark, the violinist Wilma Neruda. The earliest evidence of Jews in Asolo dates back to the middle of the sixteenth century, at that time,37 Jews were living in Asolo. The community had owned a cemetery, from two ancient tombstones are presented in the local gallery. On November 22,1547,10 Jews belonging to the community of Asolo, five Jewish families houses were destroyed. A number of the attackers were put to justice and sentenced to death or exile, one of the survivors was Marco Cohen, who founded the Cantarini family, known for several of its members such as Hayyim Moses Cantarini, and others. Other documentations of the Jewish community of Asolo mentions the prohibition of Jews bearing weapons, there is evidence to Jewish presence after the 1546 attack, dating from the middle of the 17th century. The Jewish quarter was situated at the turn of Colmarion street, bounded on the north by the old road Colmarion, on the south by Piazza del Pavion, Caterina and crossed by the short Belvedere alley - this area was called the Ghetto, housing about six houses. Remains of an amphitheatre and of an aqueduct, the Castle of Caterina Cornaro, now home to the Eleonora Duse theatre. Palazzo della Ragione, housing the citys museum, in the interior is the Assunta altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto
4.
Order of the British Empire
–
There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
5.
Middle East
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The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous
6.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
7.
Arabian Desert
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The Arabian Desert is located in Western Asia. It is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and it occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula, with an area of 2,330,000 square kilometers. At its center is the Rubal-Khali, one of the largest continuous bodies of sand in the world. Gazelles, oryx, sand cats, and spiny-tailed lizards are just some of the species that survive in this extreme environment. The climate is dry, and temperatures oscillate between very high heat and seasonal night time freezes. It is part of the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome and the Palearctic ecozone and this ecoregion holds little biodiversity, although a few endemic plants grow here. Many species, such as the hyena, jackal and honey badger have become extinct in this area due to hunting, human encroachment. Other species have been successfully re-introduced, such as the sand gazelle, overgrazing by livestock, off-road driving, and human destruction of habitat are the main threats to this desert ecoregion. Detailed geological features, A corridor of sandy terrain known as the Ad-Dahna desert connects the large An-Nafud desert in the north of Saudi Arabia to the Rub Al-Khali in the south-east, the Tuwaiq escarpment is a region of 800 km arc of limestone cliffs, plateaux, and canyons. At an altitude of 1,000 metres, the rock landscapes yield the place to the Rub al Khali, vast wide of sand of the Arabian desert, the sand overlies gravel or gypsum plains and the dunes reach maximum heights of up to 250 m. The sands are predominantly silicates, composed of 80 to 90% of quartz and the feldspar, whose iron oxide-coated grains color the sands in orange, purple. Some of natural resources available in the Arabian Desert are oil, natural gas, phosphates, the Rubal-Khali has very limited floristic diversity. There are only 37 species,20 recorded in the body of the sands and 17 around the outer margins. Among these 37 species, only one or two are endemic, vegetation is very diffuse but fairly evenly distributed, with some interruptions of near sterile dunes. Some typical plants are, Calligonum crinitum on dune slopes Cornulaca arabica Cyperus conglomeratus, other widespread species are, Dipterygium glaucum Limeum arabicum Zygophyllum mandavillei. Very little trees may be found except at the outer margin, in fact, the Arabian Desert is an extension of the Sahara Desert over the Arabian peninsula. The climate is hot and dry with plenty of sunshine throughout the year. The rainfall amount is generally around 100 mm, and the driest areas can receive between 30 and 40 mm of annual rain, such dryness remains very rare throughout the desert, however
8.
Robert Barrett Browning
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Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, known as Pen Browning, was an English painter. He also bought and restored the Baroque palace Ca Rezzonico in Venice, Browning was the only child of the poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings had lived in Italy for three years when their son was born at Casa Guidi in Florence and his mother, who had miscarried three earlier pregnancies, described him as so fat and rosy and strong that almost I am sceptical of his being my child. His nickname Pen derived from his infant attempts to pronounce his given name Wiedeman, as a cherished only child, he was, some felt, over-protected. His face is pretty and most intelligent, and exceedingly like his mothers. He is nine years old, and seems at once less childlike, I should not quite like to be the father of such a boy, and should fear to stake so much interest and affection on him as he cannot fail to inspire. I wonder what is to become of him, – whether he will grow to be a man. His parents ought to turn their attention to making him robust and earthly. Browning was educated with anxious care by his father and private tutors at the Brownings home in Florence, Robert was anxious that his son should attend a university, and sought the help of Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, the leading Oxford academic of the day. With Jowetts help, Pens Greek and Latin were brought up to the requisite standard, but Jowett was obliged to tell the poet that his sons command of English left much to be desired. Because Balliol was too demanding for Pen, he went to Christ Church, Oxford and he did not, however, take to academic study and left without taking a degree. Encouraged by Robert Brownings friend the painter John Everett Millais, Browning studied painting and sculpture in Antwerp, among his teachers was Auguste Rodin, among his fellow-students was John Singer Sargent. As a painter, Browning was proficient, but his penchant for painting female nudes did not encourage sales in Victorian England. An example can be seen here, despite this, he achieved reasonable success, partly because of his fathers continual efforts to promote his work. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Grosvenor Gallery, the Paris Salon, the Times wrote that his works showed considerable ability and force. Some of them are still well remembered…including busts of his father, in October 1887 Browning married an American heiress, Fannie Coddington. They bought and restored Ca Rezzonico, one of the palaces on the Grand Canal in Venice. With no need to earn an income from painting, Browning continued to paint for pleasure for the rest of his life until failing eyesight finally prevented it, in October 1889, Robert Browning visited his son and daughter-in-law at Ca Rezzonico
9.
Genoa
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Genoa is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015,594,733 people lived within the administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of Genoa, over 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera. Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba due to its glorious past, part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2006. The citys rich history in notably its art, music. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, Niccolò Paganini, Giuseppe Mazzini, Genoa, which forms the southern corner of the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle of north-west Italy, is one of the countrys major economic centres. The city has hosted massive shipyards and steelworks since the 19th century, the Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, is among the oldest in the world and has played an important role in the citys prosperity since the middle of the 15th century. Today a number of leading Italian companies are based in the city, including Fincantieri, Selex ES, Ansaldo Energia, Ansaldo STS, Edoardo Raffinerie Garrone, Piaggio Aerospace, the Genoa area has been inhabited since the fifth or fourth millennium BC. In ancient times this area was frequented and inhabited by Ligures, Phoenicians, Phocaeans, Greeks, and Etruscans. The city cemetery, dating from the 6th and 5th centuries BC, testifies to the occupation of the site by the Greeks, but the fine harbour probably saw use much earlier, perhaps by the Etruscans. In the 5th century BC was founded the first oppidum at the foot of the today called the Castle Hill which now is inside the medieval old town. The ancient Ligurian city was known as Stalia, so referred to by Artemidorus Ephesius and Pomponius Mela, Ligurian Stalia was overshadowed by the powerful Marseille and Vada Sabatia, near modern Savona. Stalia had an alliance with Rome through a foedus aequum in the course of the Second Punic War, the Carthaginians accordingly destroyed it in 209 BC. The town was rebuilt and, after the Carthaginian Wars ended in 146 BC. it received municipal rights, the original castrum thenceforth expanded towards the current areas of Santa Maria di Castello and the San Lorenzo promontory. Trades included skins, wood, and honey, goods were shipped to the mainland, up to major cities like Tortona and Piacenza. Among the archeological remains from the Roman period, an amphitheatre was also found, another theory traces the name to the Etruscan word Kainua which means New City and still another from the Latin word ianua, related to the name of the God Janus, meaning door or passage. The latter is in reference to its position at the centre of the Ligurian coastal arch. The Latin name, oppidum Genua, is recorded by Pliny the Elder as part of the Augustean Regio IX Liguria, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths occupied Genoa
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