1.
Brownsville, Texas
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Brownsville is the county seat of Cameron County, Texas. It is the sixteenth most populous city in the state of Texas, with a population at the 2010 census of 175,023 and an estimated population in 2014 of 183,046. It is located at the southernmost tip of Texas, on the bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The 2014 U. S. Census Bureau estimate placed the Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area population at 420,392, in addition, the international Matamoros–Brownsville Metropolitan Area was estimated to have a population of 1,136,995. Brownsville has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, the Brownsville urban area is one of the fastest growing in the United States. The citys population increased after it experienced a boom in the steel industry during the first decade of the 1900s. In recent times, the Port of Brownsville has become an economic hub for South Texas, where shipments arrive from other parts of the United States, from Mexico. In April 1846, construction of a fort on the Mexican border by was begun by American forces due to increased instability in the region on the eve of the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. Before the completion of the construction, the Mexican Army began the Siege of Fort Texas, during the first active campaign in the Mexican–American War, the first battle of the war occurred on May 8, when General Zachary Taylor received word of the siege of the fort. Taylors forces rushed to help, but Mexican troops intercepted them, resulting in the Battle of Palo Alto, approximately 5 miles north of present-day Brownsville. The next morning the Mexican forces had retreated, and Taylors troops caught up with them, resulting in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, which took place within the present city limits. When Taylor finally arrived at the besieged Fort Texas, it was found that two soldiers had died, one of them the commander, Major Jacob Brown. In his honor, General Taylor renamed the fort Fort Brown, an old cannon at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College marks the spot where Major Brown received his fatal wound. The city of Brownsville was originally established late in 1848 by Charles Stillman, the state originally incorporated the city on January 24,1850. This was repealed on April 1,1852, due to a dispute between Stillman and the former owners. The state reincorporated the city on February 7,1853, which remains in effect, the issue of ownership was not decided until 1879, when the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Stillman. On July 13,1859, the First Cortina War started, juan Nepomuceno Cortina became one of the most important historical figures of the area, and continued to exert a decisive influence in the local events until his arrest in 1875. The First Cortina War ended on December 27,1859, in May 1861, the brief Second Cortina War took place
2.
Capital punishment
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Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence, etymologically, the term capital in this context alluded to execution by beheading. Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment,103 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes, six have abolished it for ordinary crimes. Capital punishment is a matter of controversy in various countries and states. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment, also, the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, prohibits the use of the death penalty by its members. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007,2008,2010,2012 and 2014, non-binding resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions. Although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India. Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime, in most countries that practise capital punishment it is reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, defection or as part of military justice. In many countries use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty, in militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history, most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishment for wrongdoing generally included compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning, banishment, usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form of justice. The response to crime committed by neighbouring tribes or communities included a formal apology, a blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails or an arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of a system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour, acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished. However, in practice, it is difficult to distinguish between a war of vendetta and one of conquest. Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in a religious context, compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, the person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of the crime because the system was based on tribes, not individuals
3.
Hanging
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Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck. Hanging has been a method of capital punishment since medieval times. The first account of execution by hanging was in Homers Odyssey, in this specialised meaning of the common word hang, the past and past participle is hanged instead of hung. Hanging is also a method of suicide in which a person applies a ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness. There are four ways of performing a judicial hanging, suspension hanging, the drop, the standard drop. A mechanised form of hanging, the upright jerker, was experimented with in the 18th century. Suspension, like the drop, causes death by using the weight of the body to tighten the noose around the trachea. Prisoners are reported to have little or no struggle before they go limp because their jugular vein and carotid arteries are blocked and blood flow to the brain is reduced. The short drop is performed by placing the condemned prisoner on the back of a cart, horse, or other vehicle, the object is then moved away, leaving the person dangling from the rope. A ladder was also used with the condemned being forced to ascend, after which the noose was tied. Another method involves using a stool, which the condemned is required to stand on, the executioner stands on a stepped platform approximately 4 feet high beside the condemned, and guides the head downward with his hand simultaneous to the efforts of his assistants. Nazi war criminal Karl Hermann Frank was also executed in this manner in 1946 in Prague and its use rapidly spread to English-speaking countries and those where judicial systems had an English origin. It was considered an improvement on the short drop because it was intended to be enough to break the persons neck, causing immediate paralysis. This method was used to execute condemned Nazis under United States jurisdiction after the Nuremberg Trials including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. In the execution of Ribbentrop, historian Giles MacDonogh records that, The hangman botched the execution, a Life magazine report on the execution merely says, The trap fell open and with a sound midway between a rumble and a crash, Ribbentrop disappeared. The rope quivered for a time, then stood tautly straight and this process, also known as the measured drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advance on the standard drop. The careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose contributed to breaking the neck, between 1892 and 1913, the length of the drop was shortened to avoid decapitation. After 1913, other factors were taken into account
4.
Rope
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A rope is a group of yarns, plies, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting, as a result, they cannot be used for pushing or similar compressive applications. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly constructed cord, line, string, fiber rope is made from fiber, whereas wire rope is made from wire. Rope may be constructed of any long, stringy, fibrous material, synthetic fibre ropes are significantly stronger than their natural fibre counterparts, but also possess certain disadvantages, including slipperiness. Common natural fibres for rope are manila hemp, hemp, feathers, linen, cotton, coir, jute, straw, synthetic fibres in use for rope-making include polypropylene, nylon, polyesters, polyethylene, Aramids and acrylics. Some ropes are constructed of mixtures of several fibres or use co-polymer fibres, wire rope is made of steel or other metal alloys. Ropes have been constructed of fibrous materials such as silk, wool, and hair. Rayon is a fibre used to make decorative rope. The twist of the strands in a twisted or braided rope serves not only to keep a rope together, without any twist in the rope, the shortest strand would always be supporting a much higher proportion of the total load. Rope is of paramount importance in fields as diverse as construction, seafaring, exploration, sports, theatre, and communications, to fasten rope, many types of knots have been invented for countless uses. Pulleys redirect the force to another direction, and can create mechanical advantage so that multiple strands of rope share a load. Winches and capstans are machines designed to pull ropes, such ropes normally use a kernmantle construction, as described below. Static ropes, used for example in caving, rappelling, and rescue applications, are designed for minimal stretch, the UIAA, in concert with the CEN, sets climbing-rope standards and oversees testing. Any rope bearing a GUIANA or CE certification tag is suitable for climbing, climbing ropes, however, do cut easily when under load. Keeping them away from sharp rock edges is imperative, rock climbing ropes come with either a designation for single, double or twin use. A single rope is the most common and it is intended to be used by itself, single ropes range in thickness from roughly 9mm to 11mm. Smaller ropes are lighter, but wear out faster, double ropes are thinner ropes, usually 9mm and under, and are intended for use as a pair. These ropes offer a margin or security against cutting, since it is unlikely that both ropes will be cut, but they complicate belaying and leading
5.
Street light
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A street light, light pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or walkway. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells that activate automatically when light is or is not needed, dusk, dawn and this function in older lighting systems could have been performed with the aid of a solar dial. Many street light systems are being connected underground instead of wiring from one utility post to another, at that time oil lamps were used predominantly as they provided a long-lasting and moderate flame. The Romans had a word lanternarius, which was a term for a responsible for lighting the oil lamps in front of their villas. Before incandescent lamps, candle lighting was employed in cities, the earliest lamps required that a lamplighter tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lamps. According to some sources, illumination was ordered in London in 1417 by Sir Henry Barton, in 1524, Paris house owners were required to have lanterns with candles lit in front of their houses at night, but the law was often ignored. Following the invention of lanterns with glass windows, which improved the quantity of light. Still, in 1662, it was a practice for travelers to hire a lantern-bearer if they had to move at night through the dark. Lantern bearers were still common in Paris until 1789, in 1667, under King Louis XIV, the royal government began installing lanterns on all the streets. There were three thousand in place by 1669, and twice as many by 1729, lanterns with glass windows were suspended from a cord over the middle of the street at a height of twenty feet and were placed twenty yards apart. A much-improved oil lantern, called a réverbère, was introduced between 1745 and 1749 and these lamps were attached to the top of lampposts, by 1817, there were 4694 lamps on the Paris streets. During the French Revolution, the found that the lampposts were a convenient place to hang aristocrats. The first widespread system of lighting used piped coal gas as fuel. William Murdoch was the first to use the flammability of gas for the application of lighting. He first lit his own house in Redruth, Cornwall in 1792, in 1798, he used gas to light the main building of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting, the lights astonishing the local population. In Paris, gas lighting was first demonstrated in November 1800 at a residence on the rue Saint-Dominique, and was installed on a covered shopping street. The gaslights installed on the boulevards and city monuments in the 19th century gave the city the nickname The City of Light, the first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on January 28,1807 by Frederick Albert Winsor. In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, less than two years later, on December 31,1813, the Westminster Bridge was lit by gas
6.
Lynching
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Lynching is an extrajudicial punishment by an informal group. It is most often used to characterise informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate a group. It is a form of informal group social control such as charivari, skimmington, riding the rail, and tarring and feathering. Lynchings have been frequent in times of social and economic tension. However, it has resulted from long-held prejudices and practices of discrimination that have conditioned societies to accept this type of violence as normal practices of popular justice. Indeed, instances of it can be found in societies long antedating European settlement of North America, the legal and cultural antecedents of American lynching were carried across the Atlantic by migrants from the British Isles to colonial North America. Collective violence was an aspect of the early modern Anglo-American legal landscape. In the United States, during the decades before the Civil War, assertive free-Blacks, Latinos in the South West, Violence rose even more at the end of the 19th century, after southern white Democrats regained their political power in the South in the 1870s. Nearly 3,500 African Americans and 1,300 whites were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968, mostly from 1882 to 1920, the origins of the word lynch are obscure, but it likely originated during the American revolution. The verb comes from the phrase Lynch Law, a term for a punishment without trial, two Americans during this era are generally credited for the phrase, Charles Lynch and William Lynch, who both lived in Virginia in the 1780s. Charles Lynch has the claim, as he was known to have used the term in 1782. There is no evidence that death was imposed as a punishment by either of the two men, in 1782, Charles Lynch wrote that his assistant had administered Lynchs law to Tories for Dealing with negroes, &c. In the United States, the origin of the terms lynching, Charles Lynch was a Virginia planter and American Revolutionary who headed a county court in Virginia which incarcerated Loyalist supporters of the British for up to one year during the war. While he lacked proper jurisdiction, he claimed this right by arguing wartime necessity, subsequently, he prevailed upon his friends in the Congress of the Confederation to pass a law which specifically exonerated him and his associates from wrongdoing. He was concerned that he might face legal action from one or more of those so incarcerated, Lynch was not accused of racist bias, and indeed acquitted blacks accused of murder on three separate occasions, as dictated by the facts brought before him. He was accused, however, of ethnic prejudice in his abuse of Welsh miners, William Lynch from Virginia claimed that the phrase was first used for a 1780 compact signed by him and his neighbors in Pittsylvania County. While Edgar Allan Poe claimed that he found this document, this was likely a hoax, however, linguistic evidence is strongly against it, and the story was likely invented in the 19th century. Racist extremism with an eye to viciousness and public spectacle was frequently evident, in the South, members of the abolitionist movement or other people opposing slavery were usually targets of lynch mob violence before the Civil War
7.
Taliban
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Until his death in 2013, Mullah Mohammed Omar was the supreme commander and spiritual leader of the Taliban. Mullah Akhtar Mansour was elected as his replacement in 2015, and following Mansours killing in a May 2016 U. S. drone strike, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada became the groups leader. The Taliban emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War, under the leadership of Mohammed Omar, the movement spread throughout most of Afghanistan, sequestering power from the Mujahideen warlords, whose corruption and despotism Afghans had tired of. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was established in 1996 and the Afghan capital transferred to Kandahar and it held control of most of the country until being overthrown by the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in December 2001 following the September 11 attacks. At its peak, formal recognition of the Talibans government was acknowledged by only three nations, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The group later regrouped as a movement to fight the American-backed Karzai administration. The Taliban have been condemned internationally for the enforcement of their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. In its post-9/11 insurgency, the group has accused of using terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals. According to the United Nations, the Taliban and their allies were responsible for 76% of Afghan civilian casualties in 2010, 80% in 2011, Pakistan states that it dropped all support for the group after the September 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda also supported the Taliban with fighters from Arab countries and Central Asia, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee to United Front-controlled territory, Pakistan, and Iran. The word Taliban is Pashto, طالبان ṭālibān, meaning students and this is a loanword from Arabic طالب ṭālib, using the Persian plural ending -ān ان. In Arabic طالبان ṭālibān means not students but two students, as it is a form, the Arabic plural being طلاب ṭullāb—occasionally causing some confusion to Arabic speakers. Since becoming a loanword in English, Taliban, besides a plural noun referring to the group, has also used as a singular noun referring to an individual. For example, John Walker Lindh has been referred to as an American Taliban, in the English language newspapers of Pakistan, the word Talibans is often used when referring to more than one Taliban. The spelling Taliban has come to be predominant over Taleban in English, in the meantime, the United States and Saudi Arabia joined the struggle against the Soviet Union by providing all the funds. Zia-ul-Haq aligned himself with Pakistans Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and later picked General Akhtar Abdur Rahman to lead the insurgency against the Soviet Union inside Afghanistan, about 90,000 Afghans, including Mohammed Omar, were trained by Pakistans ISI during the 1980s. After the fall of the Soviet-backed regime of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, several Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the accord created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period. With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyars Hezb-e Islami, all of the parties, were ostensibly unified under this government in April 1992
8.
Association football
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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies making it the worlds most popular sport, the game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal, players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, the first written reference to the inflated ball used in the game was in the mid-14th century, Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the word soccer was split off in 1863, according to Partha Mazumdar, the term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford -er abbreviation of the word association. Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. People in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand use either or both terms, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now primarily use football for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence, cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to football, though similarities to rugby occurred. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established, phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup, athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence and they all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all football codes. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia, Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other games played around the world FIFA have recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England
9.
Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park
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Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park is a state park of Arizona in the United States. Located in Tombstone, the park preserves the original Cochise County courthouse, the park was one of the first to be designated as a state park and in 1959 was the first to open following the 1957 establishment of the Arizona State Parks Board. The town of Tombstone was incorporated in 1879, by 1881 the town had grown to more than 7,000 population, stage robberies were no longer novel events. But more important than the lawlessness, Tombstone miners and merchants had to travel 150 dusty roundtrip miles to Tucson to record mining claims, deeds, contracts, etc. at the Pima County Courthouse. At the time, the area was part of Pima County with the county seat Tucson being a rugged two-day, Cochise county was formed in 1881 from the eastern part of Pima County, and Tombstone became its seat. A new courthouse was built the year and housed all of the county’s offices. The Sheriff of Cochise County had his office on the floor, first door to the right. Sheriff John Behan and his successors gradually instilled the idea that the arena for conflict was the courtroom upstairs rather than the street. Except for the Earp - Clanton feud, which gave Tombstone an extremely bad press from which it has no interest in recovering, the Tombstone courthouse represents a practical solution to the problem of securing lives and property in unorganized or poorly governed territory. It was put into effect quickly, without fumbling by men practiced in the process through their experience in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Tombstone remained the county seat until 1929, when outvoted by a growing Bisbee, and the county seat was moved there. The last county office left the courthouse in 1931, except for an ill-fated attempt to convert the courthouse into a hotel during the 1940s, the building stood vacant until 1955. When the Tombstone Restoration Commission acquired it, they began the courthouse rehabilitation and it features exhibits and thousands of artifacts which tell of Tombstones colorful past. The courthouse in Tombstone is an elegant example of Territorial Victorian, the Tombstone courthouse is the oldest courthouse still standing in Arizona, At the time it was built it was one of the largest buildings in Arizona Territory. The building measures 76 feet in width, the shaft of the cruciform structure measures 40 feet wide. The first segment to be built is 88 feet long overall, the addition to the jail and courtroom brought the total to 116 feet in length. The building is a red brick structure built with five courses of runners. Exterior angles are quoined with white stone and/white stone dripstone course separates the lower and upper half of the building, a one story cupola or observation tower with a mansard roof wears a lacy gingerbread cresting that creates a kind of widows walk atop all. The double-hung eight-pane windows, are set in heavy frames topped by a bracketed, the eave-line is deeply recessed and strongly accented with simple dentils as are the pediments of the gable ends
10.
Piracy
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Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship- or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates, the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, a land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land, or in major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the vessel as the perpetrator. Piracy or pirating is the name of a crime under customary international law. They also use larger vessels, known as ships, to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice. In the 2000s, a number of nations have used their naval forces to protect ships from pirate attacks. The English pirate is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής, brigand, in turn from πειράομαι, I attempt, from πεῖρα, attempt, the meaning of the Greek word peiratēs literally is one who attacks. The word is cognate to peril. The term is first attested to c, spelling was not standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as pirrot, pyrate and pyrat were used until this period. It may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce, the earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity, the Phoenicians, Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession, it apparently was widespread and regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living. References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence many texts including in Homers Iliad and Odyssey, by the era of Classical Greece, piracy was looked upon as a disgrace to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympos brought impoverishment, among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the Roman Republic and it was not until 229 BC when the Romans finally decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended
