1.
Wexford
–
Wexford is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 National Primary Route, and it has a population of 19,913 according to the 2011 census. The town was founded by the Vikings in about 800 AD and they named it Veisafjǫrðr, meaning inlet of the mud flats, and the name has changed only slightly into its present form. Veisa in modern Norwegian means Way, so Veisafjǫrðr could have meant inlet of the way or Way Fjord. The resulting loch was thus named Loch Garman, for about three hundred years it was a Viking town, a city state, largely independent and owing only token dues to the Irish kings of Leinster. However, in May 1169 Wexford was besieged by Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster and his Norman ally, the Norse inhabitants resisted fiercely, until the Bishop of Ferns persuaded them to accept a settlement with Dermot. Wexford was an Old English settlement in the Middle Ages, an old dialect of English, known as Yola, was spoken uniquely in Wexford up until the 19th century. The Yola name for Wexford was Weiseforthe, following the Crusades, the Knights Templar had a presence in Wexford. Up to the present, their name is perpetuated in the old Knights Templars chapel yard of St. Johns Cemetery, County Wexford produced strong support for Confederate Ireland during the 1640s. A fleet of Confederate privateers was based in Wexford town, consisting of sailors from Flanders and their vessels raided English Parliamentarian shipping, giving some of the proceeds to the Confederate government in Kilkenny. As a result, the town was sacked by the English Parliamentarians during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649, many of its inhabitants were killed and much of the town was burned. In 1659 Solomon Richards was appointed Governor, but he was dismissed and imprisoned following the Restoration the next year, County Wexford was the centre of the 1798 rebellion against British rule. Redmond Square, near the station, commemorates the elder John Edward Redmond who was Liberal MP for the city of Wexford. The inscription reads, My heart is with the city of Wexford, nothing can extinguish that love but the cold soil of the grave. His nephew William Archer Redmond sat as an MP in Isaac Butts Home Rule Party from 1872 until 1880, Willie Redmond sat as an MP for Wexford from 1883 until 1885. The younger John Redmond, was a follower of Charles Stewart Parnell. He is interred in the Redmond family vault, at the old Knights Templars chapel yard of St. Johns Cemetery, Upper St. Johns Street
2.
Ireland
–
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
3.
Wesley College (Dublin)
–
Wesley College is a fee-paying co-educational secondary school for day-pupils and boarders in Dublin, Ireland. Wesley College is under the control of a Board of Governors, Wesley College was founded on 1 October 1845 and counts two Nobel laureates among its alumni. Strong emphasis is put on education for all denominations and both extra-curricular activities and sport play an important part in this school. The College offers pupils an opportunity to explore the humanities, sciences, technology, business studies, English literature, music, Wesley College offers a range of extracurricular and sporting activities in the belief that these assist a sound general education and contribute to the whole person. A large dilapidated dwelling house, No.79 St. Stephens Green, the Wesleyan Connexional School was founded in 1845 in St. Stephens Green, Dublin by a group of Methodist Ministers and other men for the Methodist Community in Ireland. In 1879 the Methodist Conference granted the request of the Schools Trustees that it would be named Wesley College, the Conference responded favourably and the Trustees purchased No.110 St. Stephens Green as a girls hostel. It had formerly known as The Epworth Club, a boarding house for young Epworth business men coming to Dublin. The hostel was called Epworth House, six boarder girls and fifteen day-girls, together with the new boys, joined the 175 boys already in the College in September 1911. Right up to the 1940s co-education was narrowly interpreted and strictly supervised, the boys were always called by their surnames, while the girls had their surnames prefixed by Miss. Casual conversation between the boys and girls was discouraged and they did not have meals together until the 1950s, in 1969 Wesley College moved to its present 50 acres site in Ballinteer, a suburb of Dublin, at the foothills of the Dublin mountains. The final school activity on the old College site was the service in the Large Schoolroom on 14 June 1969. The official opening and dedication of the new buildings at Ludford Park took place at 3.00 p. m. on Saturday,7 June 1969, opened by Éamon de Valera, President of Ireland. In 1959 the College obtained from the Chief Herald an official grant of arms, the upper part of the shield has a red ground, and bears the Bible, surmounted by a Maltese cross, an old Wesley College symbol. To the right is a shell from the arms of John Wesleys family. The lower part of the shield has a ground and on it a flaming castle from the Dublin City arms. The scroll below the shield contains the College motto in Greek, Prove all things, extracurricular activities include drama, debating, Amnesty International, Christian Union, and many others. In 2010 Carin Hunt, a year, travelled to Qatar as part of the Irish debating team for the Worlds Debating. Former student Mark Haughton was the Irish Teams debating coach, and had achieved second as part of the Irish team, Carin went on to captain the team in the Schools finals in Dundee the following year, taking them to the semi-finals
4.
The Illustrated London News
–
The Illustrated London News appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the worlds first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, the company continues today as Illustrated London News Ltd, a publishing, content and digital agency in London, which holds the publication and business archives of the magazine. As a newsagent, Ingram was struck by the increase in newspaper sales when they featured pictures. Ingram began to plan a weekly newspaper that would contain pictures in every edition, Ingram rented an office, recruited artists and reporters, and employed as his editor Frederick William Naylor Bayley, formerly editor of the National Omnibus. The first issue of The Illustrated London News appeared on Saturday,14 May 1842, Ingram hired 200 men to carry placards through the streets of London promoting the first edition of his new newspaper. Costing sixpence, the first issue sold 26,000 copies, despite this initial success, sales of the second and subsequent editions were disappointing. Its circulation soon increased to 40,000 and by the end of its first year was 60,000, in 1851, after the newspaper published Joseph Paxtons designs for the Crystal Palace before even Prince Albert had seen them, the circulation rose to 130,000. Andrew Spottiswoodes Pictorial Times lost £20,000 before it was sold to Ingram by Henry Vizetelly, Ingram folded it into another purchase, The Ladys Newspaper, which became The Ladys Newspaper and Pictorial Times. Vitezelly was also behind a competitor, The Illustrated Times in 1855. Ingrams other early collaborators left the business in the 1850s, nathanial Cooke, his business partner and brother-in-law, found himself in a subordinate role in the business and parted on bad terms around 1854. 1858 saw the departure of William Little, who, in addition to providing a loan of £10,000, was printer and publisher of the paper for 15 years, littles relationship with Ingram deteriorated over Ingrams harassment of their mutual sister-in-law. By 1863, The Illustrated London News was selling more than 300,000 copies every week, the death of Herbert and his eldest son left the company without a director and manager. Control passed to Ingrams widow Ann, and his friend Sir Edward William Watkin, once Ingrams two younger sons, William and Charles, were old enough, they took over as managing directors, although it was William who took the lead. It was also a period of expansion and increased competition for the ILN, as reading habits and the illustrated news market changed, the ILN bought or established a number of new publications, evolving from a single newspaper to a larger-scale publishing business. As with Herbert Ingrams purchases in the 1850s, this expansion was also a way of managing competition, dominating markets. As too with the acquisitions of the 1850s, several similar illustrated publications were established in this period by former employees of The Illustrated London News. Serious competition for the ILN appeared in 1869, with the establishment of The Graphic, Thomas was a former wood engraver for The Illustrated London News, and brought his expertise in illustrated publishing to his new magazine. The Graphic was highly popular, particularly for its coverage of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, William Ingram became chief proprietor of The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, and The Ladys Pictorial, which may have been a later title of The Ladys Newspaper and Pictorial Times
5.
The Boat Race
–
The Boat Race is an annual rowing race between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between mens open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the University Boat Race and the Oxford, although The Boat Race crews are male, the coxes can be men or women. In the 2017 race, which place on Sunday 2 April 2017. The first race was in 1829 and the event has been held annually since 1856, except during the First, a reserve boat race has been held since 1965. The course covers a 4. 2-mile stretch of the Thames in West London, members of both teams are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a Blue Boat, with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue. As of 2016 Cambridge has won the race 82 times and Oxford 80 times, Cambridge has led Oxford in cumulative wins since 1930. Upwards of 250,000 people watch the race from the banks of the each year. In 2009, a record 270,000 people watched the race live, a further 15 million or more watch it on television, currently no other non-country-representative rowing races are broadcast by a television station. The tradition was started in 1829 by Charles Merivale, a student at St Johns College, Cambridge, the University of Cambridge challenged the University of Oxford to a race at Henley-on-Thames but lost easily. Oxford raced in dark blue because five members of the crew, including the stroke, were from Christ Church, then Head of the River, there is a dispute as to the source of the colour chosen by Cambridge. The second race was in 1836, with the moved to a course from Westminster to Putney. Over the next two years, there was disagreement over where the race should be held, with Oxford preferring Henley, the race in 1877 was declared a dead heat. Both crews finished in a time of 24 minutes and 8 seconds in bad weather, the verdict of race judge, John Phelps, is suspect because he was reportedly over 70 and blind in one eye. Phelpss nickname Honest John was not a one, and he was not drunk under a bush at the time of the finish. He did have to judge who had won without the assistance of finish posts, with no clear way to determine who had surged forward at the exact finish line, Phelps could only pronounce it a dead heat. Koch believes that the press and Oxford supporters made up the stories about Phelps later, thus struggling over the remaining portion of the course, the two eights raced past the flag alongside one another, and the gun fired amid a scene of excitement rarely equalled and never exceeded. Cheers for one crew were succeeded by counter-cheers for the other, John Phelps, the waterman, who officiated, replied that the noses of the boats passed the post strictly level, and that the result was a dead heat. In 1959 some of the existing Oxford blues attempted to oust president Ronnie Howard, however, their attempt failed when Cambridge supported the president
6.
Goodwood Racecourse
–
Goodwood Racecourse is a horse-racing track five miles north of Chichester, West Sussex, in England controlled by the family of the Duke of Richmond, whose seat is nearby Goodwood House. It is considered to enjoy an attractive setting to the north of Trundle Iron Age hill fort. One problem is that its proximity to the coast means that it can get very foggy and this is an unusual, complex racecourse with a straight six furlongs — the Stewards Cup Course — which is uphill for the first furlong and mostly downhill thereafter. There is a tight right-handed loop at the far end of the straight on which there are starts for various longer distance courses and these include the 1 mile 2 furlongs Craven Course, the 1m 4f Gratwicke Course and the 1m 6f Bentinck Course. The start for the 2m 5f Cup Course is quite close to the winning post – horses travel outwards on the straight, around the loop, throughout the loop there are severe undulations and sharp turns. The course is used for racing only. In 2007 the rights passed to Channel 4 Racing, from 2017 races will be live on ITV Racing after the channel won the rights to televise horse racing from Channel 4. Other races Conqueror Stakes Festival Stakes On The House Stakes Starlit Stakes Tapster Stakes Official website Course guide on GG
7.
Gertrude Elizabeth Blood
–
Gertrude Elizabeth, Lady Colin Campbell was an Irish-born journalist, author, playwright, and editor. She was married to Lord Colin Campbell, a brother-in-law of Princess Louise and her parents were Irish landowner Edmund Maghlin Blood and Mary Amy Fergusson who had married in 1851. The Blood family had estates in County Clare since the reign of Elizabeth I. Edmund and Mary produced three children, Neptune William, Mary Beatrice and Gertrude Elizabeth, Gertrude, a statuesque dark-eyed and celebrated beauty, met Lord Colin Campbell in October 1880 while visiting friends in Scotland, and they had become engaged within days. The couple married on 21 July 1881, Lord Colin had been born on 9 March 1853, the fifth son of George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll and Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Sutherland-Leveson-Gower. He graduated as a Bachelor of Laws, was the Member of Parliament for Argyllshire from 1878 to 1885, gertrudes mother, though, wanted wedding plans to proceed, perhaps because it would provide an entrée to what she regarded as elevated social circles. The Duke of Argyll opposed the match, feeling that his son would be marrying below his station, the wedding took place in July 1881, the Campbells subsequently taking up residence at 79 Cadogan Place in London. It was later discovered that Lord Colin did indeed have a disease and had infected Gertrude. It is generally assumed that he had syphilis, but there is no conclusive proof as to the nature of the disease, Gertrude was granted a judicial separation from Lord Colin in 1884, on the grounds of cruelty, that he had knowingly infected her. In late 1884 both parties filed for divorce, although the trial did not take place until the end of 1886, William Court Gully, future Speaker of the House of Commons, acted as his counsel. Gertrude was defended by Sir Charles Russell, harry Furniss the illustrator was kept busy during the notorious trial, producing numerous portraits of the personalities involved for the daily newspapers. Proceedings including a visit by the jury to the Campbells London home to verify the butlers testimony about witnessing through a keyhole Lady Colins meetings with other men, with her divorce denied, the couple remained married until Lord Colins death in 1895 of his loathsome disease. The Blood parents had enjoyed a quiet, respectable lifestyle which was thrown into turmoil by the lengthy and that Gertrude Blood had been denied a divorce must be seen in the light of the double standards prevalent in Victorian England. Christabel Pankhurst had the following to say, According to man-made law a wife who is even once unfaithful to her husband has done him an injury which entitles him to divorce her, with the trial over, Blood set about reshaping her life. She had always been fond of writing and turned easily to journalism, writing columns on art and travel, fashion, music and she contributed regularly to the columns of the Saturday Review and the Pall Mall Gazette and later edited the Ladies Field. During her career she used the pseudonyms Véra Tsaritsyn, G. E. Brunefille and she was a confidante of Whistler who described her from his first meeting as the very handsome and exceedingly amiable lady, and George Bernard Shaw saw her as a goddess. Her relationship with Frank Harris and Oscar Wilde, whom she called the white slug, was less cordial. Gertrude knew Duveneck well enough to send some of his Venetian etchings to the New Societys first exhibition in 1881
8.
William Ewart Gladstone
–
William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS was a British Liberal and earlier conservative politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times, more than any other person, Gladstone was also Britains oldest Prime Minister, he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old. Gladstone first entered Parliament in 1832, beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. After the split of the Conservatives Gladstone was a Peelite – in 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs, as Chancellor Gladstone became committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, earning him the sobriquet The Peoples William. Gladstones first ministry saw many reforms including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, after his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, but from 1876 began a comeback based on opposition to Turkeys reaction to the Bulgarian April Uprising. Gladstones Midlothian Campaign of 1879–80 was an example of many modern political campaigning techniques. The government also passed the Third Reform Act, Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep out of office, with one short break. In 1892 Gladstone formed his last government at the age of 82, the Second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. Gladstone resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure and he left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as The Peoples William or the G. O. M, Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of Britains greatest Prime Ministers. Born in 1809 in Liverpool, at 62 Rodney Street, William Ewart Gladstone was the son of the slave-owning merchant Sir John Gladstone. Although born and brought up in Liverpool, William Gladstone was of purely Scottish ancestry, in 1814 young Willy visited Scotland for the first time, as he and his brother John travelled with their father to Edinburgh, Biggar and Dingwall to visit their relatives. William and his brother were both made freemen of the burgh of Dingwall, in 1815 Gladstone also travelled to London and Cambridge for the first time with his parents. In London he attended a service of thanksgiving with his family at St Pauls Cathedral following the Battle of Waterloo, William Gladstone was educated from 1816 to 1821 at a preparatory school at the vicarage of St Thomass Church at Seaforth, close to his familys residence, Seaforth House. In December 1831 he achieved the double first-class degree he had long desired, Gladstone served as President of the Oxford Union debating society, where he developed a reputation as an orator, which followed him into the House of Commons. At university Gladstone was a Tory and denounced Whig proposals for parliamentary reform, following the success of his double first, William travelled with his brother John on a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. On his return to England, William was elected to Parliament in 1832 as Tory Member of Parliament for Newark, partly through the influence of the local patron, the Duke of Newcastle
9.
Pears (soap)
–
Pears transparent soap is a brand of soap first produced and sold in 1807 by Andrew Pears at a factory just off Oxford Street in London, England. It was the worlds first mass-market translucent soap, under the stewardship of Thomas J. Barratt, A. & F. Pears initiated a number of innovations in sales and marketing, Andrew Pears, the son of a farmer, was born about 1770 in Cornwall and moved from his native Mevagissey to London around 1787. He completed his apprenticeship in 1789, established a shop in Gerrard Street in Soho. At that time Soho was a residential area, and Pears clientele included many wealthy socialites who took pride in their appearance. The fashion among the wealthy of the period was for pristine white complexions, Pears found that his powders and creams were frequently being used to cover up damage caused by the harshness of the soaps and other beauty products that were in general use at the time. Pears began to experiment with soap purification and eventually managed to produce a gentle soap based on glycerine, the clarity of the soap gave it a novel transparent appearance which provided a marketing advantage. To add to the appeal, Pears gave the soap an aroma reminiscent of an English garden, during the nineteenth century, Pears built a large market for its soap in the United States. In 1835 when his grandson, Francis Pears, joined the business the firm was renamed A & F Pears, after three years, Andrew retired leaving Francis in charge. At The Great Exhibition of 1851 A & F Pears was awarded the medal for soap. Production moved to Isleworth in 1862, 23-year-old Thomas J. Barratt, sometimes referred to as the father of modern advertising, was appointed bookkeeper in 1864. The next year Francis son, Andrew, joined A. & F, Pears as joint proprietor and ran the Isleworth factory. The same year Thomas married Mary Pears, Franciss eldest daughter, Thomas J Barratts remarkable achievements are recorded in his own article and under Marketing below. Following Barratts death in April 1914 Lever Brothers took a shareholding in A & F Pears. The takeover process was completed in 1920 and marketing and other secondary functions moved to Port Sunlight in north-west England, in the mid to late 1950s each batch of soap, about 12 a day, was tested to ensure the absence of excess alkali or free fatty acid. Production moved to Port Sunlight in the 1960s when Unilever, successor to Lever Brothers, a major fire on the site completely destroyed the original factory. Pears soap is now made in India by Hindustan Unilever, a company in which Unilever now controls a 67 percent share, Pears soap was made using a process entirely different from that for other soaps. A mixture of tallow and other fats was saponified by an alkali in industrial methylated spirits, after saponification was completed, the resulting glycerol was left in the batch
10.
Lewis Carroll
–
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, and photographer. He is noted for his facility at word play, logic, There are societies in many parts of the world dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life. Dodgsons family was predominantly northern English, with Irish connections, conservative, most of Dodgsons male ancestors were army officers or Church of England clergy. His great-grandfather, also named Charles Dodgson, had risen through the ranks of the church to become the Bishop of Elphin. His paternal grandfather, another Charles, had been an army captain, the older of these sons – yet another Charles Dodgson – was Carrolls father. He went to Westminster School and then to Christ Church, Oxford and he reverted to the other family tradition and took holy orders. He was mathematically gifted and won a double first degree, which could have been the prelude to a brilliant academic career, instead, he married his first cousin Frances Jane Lutwidge in 1830 and became a country parson. Dodgson was born in the parsonage at Daresbury in Cheshire near the towns of Warrington and Runcorn. When Charles was 11, his father was given the living of Croft-on-Tees in North Yorkshire, and this remained their home for the next 25 years. He was High Church, inclining to Anglo-Catholicism, an admirer of John Henry Newman and the Tractarian movement, Young Charles was to develop an ambiguous relationship with his fathers values and with the Church of England as a whole. During his early youth, Dodgson was educated at home and his reading lists preserved in the family archives testify to a precocious intellect, at the age of seven, he was reading books such as The Pilgrims Progress. He also suffered from a stammer – a condition shared by most of his siblings – that often influenced his life throughout his years. At the age of twelve, he was sent to Richmond Grammar School at nearby Richmond, in 1846, Dodgson entered Rugby School where he was evidently unhappy, as he wrote some years after leaving, I cannot say. That any earthly considerations would induce me to go through my three years again, I can honestly say that if I could have been. Secure from annoyance at night, the hardships of the daily life would have been comparative trifles to bear, scholastically, though, he excelled with apparent ease. I have not had a promising boy at his age since I came to Rugby. He left Rugby at the end of 1849 and matriculated at Oxford in May 1850 as a member of his fathers old college, after waiting for rooms in college to become available, he went into residence in January 1851. He had been at Oxford only two days when he received a summons home and his mother had died of inflammation of the brain – perhaps meningitis or a stroke – at the age of 47
11.
United States
–
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
12.
Thomas Edison
–
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as Americas greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Edison was an inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France. Edisons inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications and these included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of generation and distribution to homes, businesses. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. His father, the son of a Loyalist refugee, had moved as a boy with the family from Nova Scotia, settling in southwestern Ontario, in a known as Shewsbury, later Vienna. Samuel Jr. eventually fled Ontario because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 and his father, Samuel Sr. had earlier fought in the War of 1812 as captain of the First Middlesex Regiment. By contrast, Samuel Jr. s struggle found him on the losing side, once across the border, he found his way to Milan, Ohio. His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey and his mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R. G, parkers School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age, the cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, Edisons family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit and he briefly worked as a telegraph operator in 1863 for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, Ontario railway at age 16. He was held responsible for a near collision and he also studied qualitative analysis and conducted chemical experiments on the train until he left the job. Edison obtained the right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald
