1.
Living history
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Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is similar to, Living history approach to gain authenticity is less about replaying a certain event according to a planned script as in other reenactment fields. List, himself a right wing neopagan, asked his staff of landlords and he also asked to have any visitors redressed in costumes and described rituals to signify in-game and out-game status to enhance the immersion experience. E. g. the role of the garment is of interest till today, the term living history describes the performance of bringing history to life for the general public in a rather freewheeling manner. The players are confined in their actions, but often have to stay at a certain place or building. The line between amateur and professional presentations at living history museums can be blurred, same as the border to Live action role-playing games. Such events do not necessarily include a battle but aim at portraying the life. This often includes both military and civilian impressions, occasionally, storytelling or acting sketches take place to involve or explain the everyday life or military activity to the viewing public. More common are craft and cooking demonstrations, song and leisure activities, combat training or duels can also be encountered even when larger combat demonstrations are not present. In the United States, The National Park Service land, NPS policy does not allow for battle reenactments on NPS property, there are exceptions i. e. Saylors Creek, Gettysburg. So e. g. the Peter and Paul festival in Bretten, the Landshut Wedding or the Schloss Kaltenberg knights tournament. The majority of combat reenactment groups are battlefield reenactment groups, some of which have become isolated to some degree because of a focus on authenticity. Events with the professional reenactment-group Ulfhednar lead to a controversy in German archaeology, the German Polish living history group was supported by large museums and scholars and, since 2000 has largely coined the image of early history in Germany and international. Among others, a paper with the programmatic title Under the crocheted Swastika, Germanic Living History and that sort of second hand living history is as well part of western Germany folklore and tries for a high level of authenticity. Activities may be confined to wearing period dress and perhaps explaining relevant historical information, while many museums allow their staff to move in and out of character to better answer visitor questions, some encourage their staff to stay in role at all times. Living history portrayal often involves demonstrating everyday activities such as cooking, cleaning, medical care, or particular skills, considerable research is often applied to identifying authentic techniques and often recreating replica tools and equipment. Historical reenactment groups often attempt to organize such displays in an encampment or display area at an event, during the 1990s, reenactment groups, primarily American Civil War groups, began to show interest in this style of interpretation and began using it at their reenactments. Living history can be a used to bridge the gap between school and daily life to educate people on historical topics
2.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
3.
Tank locomotive
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A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. A tank engine may also have a bunker to hold fuel, there are several different types of tank locomotive, distinguished by the position and style of the water tanks and fuel bunkers. The most common type has tanks mounted either side of the boiler and this type originated about 1840 and quickly became popular for industrial tasks, and later for shunting and shorter distance main line duties. Tank locomotives have advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional tender locomotives, the first tank locomotive was the Novelty that ran at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. It was an example of a Well Tank and these were E. B. Wilson and Company, William Fairbairn & Sons, George England, Kitson Thompson and Hewitson and William Bridges Adams. By the mid-1850s tank locomotives were to be performing a variety of main line and industrial roles. There are a number of types of locomotive, based on the location. These include the side tank, the tank, the pannier tank. A configuration very common in the U. K, the water is contained in rectangular tanks mounted on either side of the locomotive, near to the boiler but not quite touching. The tank sides extend down to the platform, if such is present. The length of side tanks was limited in order to give access to the inside motion. If it was desired to extend them to the front of the locomotive for greater capacity, with larger side tanks it was sometimes necessary to taper the tanks slightly at the front end to improve forward visibility. Side tanks almost all stopped at, or before, the end of the boiler barrel, a few designs did reach to the front of the smokebox and these were termed flatirons. The water tank sits on top of the boiler like a saddle sits atop a horse, usually the tank is curved in cross-section, although in some cases there were straight sides surmounted by a curve, or even an ogee shape. Saddle tanks were a popular arrangement especially for smaller locomotives in industrial use and it gave a greater water supply, but limited the size of the boiler and restricted access to it for cleaning. However, the locomotive has a centre of gravity and hence must operate at lower speeds. The drivers vision may also be restricted, again restricting the safe speed, Water in the tank is slightly pre-heated by the boiler, which reduces the loss of pressure found when cold feedwater is injected into the boiler. However if the water becomes too hot, injectors lose efficiency, for this reason, the tanks often stopped short of the hotter and uninsulated smokebox
4.
West Somerset Railway
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The West Somerset Railway is a 22. 75-mile heritage railway line in Somerset, England. The WSR plc operates services using heritage steam and diesel trains. It originally opened in 1862 between Taunton and Watchet, in 1874 it was extended from Watchet to Minehead by the Minehead Railway. Although just a track, improvements were needed in the first half of the twentieth century to accommodate the significant number of tourists that wished to travel to the Somerset coast. The line was closed by British Rail in 1971 and reopened in 1976 as a heritage line and it is the longest standard gauge independent heritage railway in the United Kingdom. Services normally operate over just the 20.5 miles between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard, during special events some trains continue a further two miles to Norton Fitzwarren where a connection to Network Rail allows occasional through trains to operate onto the national network. In 1845, when the Bristol and Exeter Railway had recently completed its line, there were proposals for a number of different. This prompted the promotion of a line from Williton to Minehead and Porlock. Shortly afterwards, a Bristol and English Channels Connection Railway was suggested from Stolford to Bridport which would have passed through the Quantock Hills near Crowcombe. An alternative link to South Devon was proposed by the Exeter, Tiverton and Minehead Direct Railway through Dunster, none of these schemes were pursued and it was to be more than ten years before schemes for railways in the area were to be again proposed. On 9 July 1856, a meeting was held at Williton to discuss a West Somerset Railway from Watchet to join the B&ER at either Taunton or Bridgwater. An alternative route may have been possible north through Wiveliscombe to Washford where it could connect with the West Somerset Mineral Railway which was then under construction, the line would enable the cheap import of coal from south Wales into Somerset. The promoters had approached Isambard Kingdom Brunel for his views as the engineer of the B&ER. This first meeting had been dominated by people from Minehead, Wiveliscombe and Bridgwater but, on 1 August 1856, Brunel explained to those present the advantages of the different routes and gave some weight to the argument for a route to Bridgwater with a long tunnel under the Quantocks. He also suggested that the line should be continued to Minehead or Porlock, Brunel was engaged to undertake a more detailed survey and the B&ER agreed to operate the line for ten years in return for 45% of the receipts. A prospectus was issued to raise the required £120,000, the railways engineer, George Furness of London, started construction on 7 April 1859 at Crowcombe and construction lasted for nearly three years. The railway opened for passengers from Watchet Junction to Watchet on 31 March 1862, trains were operated through to Taunton railway station as no station was provided at the junction. The West Somerset Mineral Railway was intended to link the iron-ore mines of the Brendon Hills with the harbour at Watchet, instead, an Act for a new Minehead Railway was passed on 5 July 1865 to build a line from the WSR at Watchet to Minehead
5.
Truss bridge
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A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements usually forming triangular units. The connected elements may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads, Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges. The basic types of truss bridges shown in this article have simple designs which could be analyzed by 19th-. A truss bridge is economical to construct because it uses materials efficiently, the nature of a truss allows the analysis of the structure using a few assumptions and the application of Newtons laws of motion according to the branch of physics known as statics. For purposes of analysis, trusses are assumed to be pin jointed where the components meet. This assumption means that members of the truss will act only in tension or compression, a more complex analysis is required where rigid joints impose significant bending loads upon the elements, as in a Vierendeel truss. The central vertical member stabilizes the upper member, preventing it from buckling. If the top member is sufficiently stiff then this element may be eliminated. If the lower chord is sufficiently resistant to bending and shear, the vertical elements may be eliminated. The ability to distribute the forces in various ways has led to a variety of truss bridge types. In other cases the appearance of the structure may take on greater importance, a pure truss can be represented as a pin-jointed structure, one where the only forces on the truss members are tension or compression, not bending. This is used in the teaching of statics, by the building of bridges from spaghetti. Spaghetti is brittle and although it can carry a modest tension force, a model spaghetti bridge thus demonstrates the use of a truss structure to produce a usefully strong complete structure from individually weak elements. In 1820 a simple form of truss, Towns lattice truss, was patented, few iron truss bridges were built in the United States before 1850. Truss bridges became a type of bridge built from the 1870s through the 1930s. Examples of these still remain across the US, but their numbers are dropping rapidly. As metal slowly started to replace timber, wrought iron bridges in the US started being built on a scale in the 1870s. Bowstring truss bridges were a common truss design during this time, companies like the Massillon Bridge Company of Massillon, Ohio and the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio became well-known, as they marketed their designs to cities and townships
6.
Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
7.
Railroad switch
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A railroad switch, turnout or points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off. The switch consists of the pair of linked tapering rails, known as points and these points can be moved laterally into one of two positions to direct a train coming from the point blades toward the straight path or the diverging path. A train moving from the end toward the point blades is said to be executing a facing-point movement. Passage through a switch in this direction is known as a trailing-point movement, a switch generally has a straight through track and a diverging route. The handedness of the installation is described by the side that the track leaves. Right-hand switches have a path to the right of the straight track, when coming from the point blades. In many cases, such as yards, many switches can be found in a short section of track. Sometimes a switch merely divides one track into two, at others, it serves as a connection between two or more tracks, allowing a train to switch between them. A straight track is not always present, for example, both tracks may curve, one to the left and one to the right, or both tracks may curve, with differing radii, while still in the same direction. A railroad cars wheels are guided along the tracks by coning of the wheels, only in extreme cases does it rely on the flanges located on the insides of the wheels. When the wheels reach the switch, the wheels are guided along the route determined by which of the two points is connected to the track facing the switch. In the illustration, if the point is connected, the left wheel will be guided along the rail of that point. If the right point is connected, the right wheels flange will be guided along the rail of that point, and the train will continue along the straight track. Only one of the points may be connected to the track at any time. A mechanism is provided to move the points from one position to the other, historically, this would require a lever to be moved by a human operator, and some switches are still controlled this way. However, most are now operated by a remotely controlled electric motor or by pneumatic or hydraulic actuation and this both allows for remote control and for stiffer, strong switches that would be too difficult to move by hand, yet allow for higher speeds. In a trailing-point movement, the flanges on the wheels will force the points to the proper position and this is sometimes known as running through the switch. Some switches are designed to be forced to the position without damage
8.
Token (railway signalling)
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In railway signalling, a token is a physical object which a locomotive driver is required to have or see before entering onto a particular section of single track. The token is clearly endorsed with the names of the section it belongs to, a token system is used for single lines because of the very much greater risk of serious collision in the event of irregular working by signalmen or traincrews, than on double lines. Such a system is known as one engine in steam, such schemes were used, and indeed still are used on some branches of rail networks, and on heritage railways. The main problem with such a scheme is that it is best suited to an isolated branch of single track line. That object is known as a token and is marked to indicate to which single track section it belongs. Tokens have existed in a variety of forms, staff tablet ball key The token system was developed in Britain in the 19th century. If a branch line is an end with a simple shuttle train service. The driver of any entering the branch line must be in possession of the token. For convenience in passing it from hand to hand, the token was often in the form of a staff, typically 800 mm long and 40 mm diameter, and is referred to as a train staff. Such a staff is usually literally a wooden staff with a brass plate stating the two signal boxes between which it is valid, in UK terminology, this method of working on simple branch lines was originally referred to as One Engine in Steam, and later One Train Working. That really does cause a delay because if the staff is not there. Using only a single token does not provide convenient operation when consecutive trains are to be worked in the same direction and he was given a written authority to enter the single line section, referred to as the ticket. He could then proceed, and a train could follow. In the earliest days the train could proceed after a designated time interval. However, following the Armagh rail disaster of 1889, block working became mandatory, seeing the train staff provided assurance that there could be no head-on collision. To ensure that the ticket is not issued incorrectly, a book of numbered tickets is kept in a locked box, the key to which is permanently fastened to the token, or is the token. In addition, the lock prevents the token being removed until the box is closed. Once a ticket is issued, its number is recorded in a Train Register book, and this system is known as staff and ticket
9.
Zaporizhia
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Zaporizhia, or Zaporozhye is a city in southeastern Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the center of the Zaporizhia Oblast. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast significance and serves as a center of Zaporizhia Raion. Currently the city is the sixth largest in Ukraine, until 1921 the city carried the name of Aleksandrovsk after the name of a fortress that was part of the Dnieper Defense Line. Archaeological finds in the area suggest that Scythian nomads were living there two to three years ago. The Scythians were replaced in time by Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Tatars, the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks passed through Khortysia island in old times. In 1552 Dmytro Vyshnevetsky erected wood-earth fortifications on the island Mala Khortytsia in the Dnieper River near the island Khortytsia and these fortifications were a prototype of the Zaporizhian Sich. The Sich was a stronghold of the Cossacks who lived south of the rapids of the Dnieper on the border of the Polish–Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita, the modern city was established in 1770 as the fortress of Aleksandrovskaya in a vicinity the old Ukrainian village Voznesenka that existed since at least 1596. It is uncertain for whom the fortress was named some consider General Aleksander Golitsyn, the fortress was designed to protect the southern territories from Turkish threats as part of the Dnieper Defense Line. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire in 1783, in 1806, it became a town and was named Aleksandrovsk. In 1789, Mennonites from Prussia accepted an invitation from Catherine the Great, the colony included several rural settlements. Mennonite-owned mills and factories were built in Alexandrovsk and later expropriated by the Communist government, after the Russian Revolution many Mennonites emigrated, fled as refugees, or were deported from the area. Currently few Mennonites live in Zaporizhia, Mennonite buildings still exist in the area and in the other main Mennonite colony center, current day Molochansk. The ferry closed when the Kichkas Bridge replaced it in 1904, the original railway bridge over the Dnieper was the Kichkas Bridge, which was designed by Y. D. Construction was supervised by F. W. Lat, the bridge had a span of 336 m, and crossed the river with single arch of 190 m span. The upper tier carried a railway line, whilst the lower tier was a road bridge with pedestrian walkways either side of the bridge. It was built at the narrowest part of the Dnieper river known as Wolf Throat, construction started in 1900, and it opened for pedestrian traffic in 1902. The official opening of the bridge was 17 April 1904, though railway traffic on the bridge commenced on 22 January 1908
10.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
11.
Kongsberg
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Not to be confused with the former Prussian city of Königsberg. Kongsberg is a town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway, the city was founded in 1624 under the name Konings Bierg by Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV as a mining community. In Norways 1749 census, Kongsberg was the most populous town in Eastern Norway and it was granted its royal charter of trade—amounting to official township—in 1802. The municipality of Kongsberg was established on 1 January 1838, the rural municipalities of Ytre Sandsvær and Øvre Sandsvær were merged into the municipality of Kongsberg on 1 January 1964. Today, Kongsberg is perhaps best known for being the home of Norways major defence contractor, Kongsberg Gruppen, two of its well-known products were the Kongsberg Colt and the Krag–Jørgensen rifle. The latter was adopted in the late 19th century as the standard rifle in Denmark, United States of America. The name Konings Bierg, a modern form Kongsberg, is based on the two elements, the genitive case of konge which means king and berg which means mountain. The coat-of-arms is from modern times and was designed by Hallvard Tretteberg and they were granted on 25 August 1972. They are based upon the old seal for the city from 1689 which shows the Roman god Janus dressed as an emperor, the sword, the colour green represents the forests, silver represents the mountains, and gold represents wealth. In the 1769 census, the mines employed about 4,000 workers, with 8,000 inhabitants in total, the town was the second largest in Norway, after Bergen. By 1835, the population had declined to 3,540, during peaceful times, the defence industry gradually evolved into many other kinds of high tech activities as well, now dominating the towns employment. In 1987, however, the state-owned Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk suffered a financial crisis as well as accusations of breaching the CoCom rules by selling sensitive technology to the Soviet bloc. As a result, the company was split into smaller units. Today, the separate firms thrive as one of Norways main high-tech industrial clusters, centering on the defence, Kongsberg is also home to the Mint of Norway, which mints Norwegian coins and also produces circulating and collectors coins for other countries such as Israel. It was established in 1686, and was renamed from the Royal Norwegian Mint in 2004 after having been sold to investors in 2003. The neighbouring municipalities of Kongsberg are Flesberg to the north, Øvre Eiker and Hof to the east, Lardal, Siljan, and Skien to the south, and Sauherad and Notodden to the west. Of these, the two first lie in Buskerud county like Kongsberg, while Hof and Lardal lie in Vestfold, the town is divided by the river Numedalslågen, which has three waterfalls in the town itself. The main highways are the E134, crossing Kongsberg east to west, the Sørland Line stops at Kongsberg station, with connection to local and regional bus lines
12.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
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