1.
Plymouth
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Plymouths early history extends to the Bronze Age, when a first settlement emerged at Mount Batten. This settlement continued as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until it was surpassed by the prosperous village of Sutton founded in the ninth century. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers departed Plymouth for the New World, during the English Civil War the town was held by the Parliamentarians and was besieged between 1642 and 1646. The combined town took the name of Plymouth which, in 1928, the citys naval importance later led to its targeting and partial destruction during World War II, an act known as the Plymouth Blitz. After the war the city centre was rebuilt and subsequent expansion led to the incorporation of Plympton. The city is home to 262,700 people, making it the 30th most populous area in the United Kingdom. It is governed locally by Plymouth City Council and is represented nationally by three MPs, Plymouths economy remains strongly influenced by shipbuilding and seafaring including ferry links to Brittany and Spain, but has tended toward a service-based economy since the 1990s. It has the largest operational base in Western Europe – HMNB Devonport and is home to Plymouth University. An unidentified settlement named TAMARI OSTIA is listed in Ptolemys Geographia and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city, at the time this village was called Sutton, meaning south town in Old English. The name Plym Mouth, meaning mouth of the River Plym was first mentioned in a Pipe Roll of 1211, the name Plymouth first officially replaced Sutton in a charter of King Henry VI in 1440. See Plympton for the derivation of the name Plym, during the Hundred Years War a French attack burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town. In 1403 the town was burned by Breton raiders, on 12 November,1439, the English Parliament made Plymouth the first town incorporated. The castle served to protect Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of Plymouth Dockyard. In 1512 an Act of Parliament was passed for further fortifying Plymouth, defences on St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery blockhouses were built, including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe. This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort in 1596, during the 16th century locally produced wool was the major export commodity. According to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the Hoe before engaging the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World from Plymouth, during the English Civil War Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians and was besieged for almost four years by the Royalists. The last major attack by the Royalist was by Sir Richard Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, the civil war ended as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by King Charles II in 1660, who imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on Drakes Island
2.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
3.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Plymouth Argyle F.C.
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Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. They have played in League Two, the tier of the English football league system. They are one of two teams in Devon currently competing in the Football League, the other being Exeter City – Argyles local rivals, since becoming professional in 1903, the club has won five Football League titles, five Southern League titles and one Western League title. The 2009–10 season was the clubs 42nd in the tier of English football. The team set the record for most championships won in the tier, having finished first in the Third Division South twice, the Third Division once. The club takes its nickname, The Pilgrims, from an English religious group that left Plymouth for the New World in 1620, the club crest features the Mayflower, the ship that carried the pilgrims to Massachusetts. The club have played in dark green and white throughout their history, with a few exceptions in the late 1960s. The city of Plymouth is the largest in England never to have hosted top-flight football and they are the most southerly and westerly League club in England. Home Park is the 37th biggest stadium in England, the original ground of the professional club at Home Park was destroyed by German bombers during the Blitz on Plymouth in World War II. Having been rebuilt after the war, Home Park was largely demolished as part of a process of renovation. The new Devonport End was opened for the 2001 Boxing Day fixture with Torquay United, the other end, the Barn Park End, opened on the same day. The Lyndhurst stand reopened on 26 January 2002 for the game against Oxford United, plans are currently under discussion regarding the completion of the refurbishment of the ground with the replacement of the Mayflower stand. The ground is situated in Central Park, very near to the area of Peverell. Towards the end of the 2005–06 Championship season, the decided to buy the stadium for £2.7 million from Plymouth City Council. This purchase was concluded in December 2006, in December 2009 it was announced that the stadium was to be one of 12 chosen to host matches during the World Cup 2018, should Englands bid be successful. The then Argyle chairman Paul Stapleton stated that work on a new South Stand at Home Park would start in 2010, however, England failed to be chosen for the 2018 tournament, and Plymouth Argyle entered administration in March 2011. After selling the back to the council on 14 October 2011 for £1.6 million. The club was taken over by local business owner James Brent, who submitted fresh plans to build a new Mayflower Grandstand with a 5,000 seating capacity
7.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
8.
Metre
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The metre or meter, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units. The metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds, the metre was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. In 1799, it was redefined in terms of a metre bar. In 1960, the metre was redefined in terms of a number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86. In 1983, the current definition was adopted, the imperial inch is defined as 0.0254 metres. One metre is about 3 3⁄8 inches longer than a yard, Metre is the standard spelling of the metric unit for length in nearly all English-speaking nations except the United States and the Philippines, which use meter. Measuring devices are spelled -meter in all variants of English, the suffix -meter has the same Greek origin as the unit of length. This range of uses is found in Latin, French, English. Thus calls for measurement and moderation. In 1668 the English cleric and philosopher John Wilkins proposed in an essay a decimal-based unit of length, as a result of the French Revolution, the French Academy of Sciences charged a commission with determining a single scale for all measures. In 1668, Wilkins proposed using Christopher Wrens suggestion of defining the metre using a pendulum with a length which produced a half-period of one second, christiaan Huygens had observed that length to be 38 Rijnland inches or 39.26 English inches. This is the equivalent of what is now known to be 997 mm, no official action was taken regarding this suggestion. In the 18th century, there were two approaches to the definition of the unit of length. One favoured Wilkins approach, to define the metre in terms of the length of a pendulum which produced a half-period of one second. The other approach was to define the metre as one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant along the Earths meridian, that is, the distance from the Equator to the North Pole. This means that the quadrant would have defined as exactly 10000000 metres at that time. To establish a universally accepted foundation for the definition of the metre, more measurements of this meridian were needed. This portion of the meridian, assumed to be the length as the Paris meridian, was to serve as the basis for the length of the half meridian connecting the North Pole with the Equator
9.
Yard
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The yard is an English unit of length, in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement, that comprises 3 feet or 36 inches. It is by international agreement in 1959 standardized as exactly 0.9144 meters, a metal yardstick originally formed the physical standard from which all other units of length were officially derived in both English systems. In the 19th and 20th centuries, increasingly powerful microscopes and scientific measurement detected variation in these prototype yards which became significant as technology improved. In 1959, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the name derives from the Old English gerd, gyrd, &c. which was used for branches, staves, and measuring rods. It is first attested in the late-7th century laws of Ine of Wessex, where the yard of land mentioned is the yardland, an old English unit of tax assessment equal to 1⁄4 hide. Around the same time, the Lindisfarne Gospels account of the messengers from John the Baptist in the Book of Matthew used it for a branch swayed by the wind. In addition to the yardland, Old and Middle English both used their forms of yard to denote the lengths of 15 or 16 1⁄2 ft used in computing acres. A unit of three English feet is attested in a statute of c. 1300 but there it is called an ell, the use of the word yard to describe this length is first attested in Langlands poem on Piers Plowman. The usage seems to derive from the prototype standard rods held by the king, the word yard is a homonym of yard in the sense of an enclosed area of land. This second meaning of yard has a related to the verb to gird and is probably not related. The origin of the measure is uncertain, both the Romans and the Welsh used multiples of a shorter foot, but 2 1⁄2 Roman feet was a step and 3 Welsh feet was a pace. The Proto-Germanic cubit or arms-length has been reconstructed as *alinâ, which developed into the Old English ęln, Middle English elne and this has led some to derive the yard of three English feet from pacing, others from the ell or cubit, others from Henry Is arm standard. Based on the etymology of the yard, others suggest it originally derived from the girth of a persons waist. But the yard was the standard adopted by the early English soverigns. The yard continued till the reign of Henry VII. when the ell was introduced, that being a yard, the ell was borrowed from the Paris drapers. Subsequently, however, Queen Elizabeth re-introduced the yard as the English standard of measure, the earliest record of a prototype measure is the statute II Edgar Cap. 8, which survives in several variant manuscripts, in it, Edgar the Peaceful directed the Witenagemot at Andover that the measure held at Winchester should be observed throughout his realm. The statutes of William I similarly refer to and uphold the measures of his predecessors without naming them
10.
Pound sterling
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It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have called the pound. At various times, the sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold. The pound sterling is the worlds oldest currency still in use, the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling, the Guernsey pound and the Jersey pound. The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, Sterling is also the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The full, official name, pound sterling, is used mainly in formal contexts, otherwise the term pound is normally used. The abbreviations ster. or stg. are sometimes used, the term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. The pound sterling is also referred to as cable amongst forex traders, the origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as cable dealers, as another established source notes, the compound expression was then derived, silver coins known as sterlings were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,240 of them being minted from a pound of silver. Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in pounds of sterlings, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. And because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. For further discussion of the etymology of sterling, see sterling silver, the currency sign for the pound sign is £, which is usually written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is also sometimes seen. The ISO4217 currency code is GBP, occasionally, the abbreviation UKP is used but this is non-standard because the ISO3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes, GGP, JEP, stocks are often traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, since decimalisation in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is p, hence an amount such as 50p properly pronounced fifty pence is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced fifty pee /fɪfti, pi and this also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system
11.
Barr Construction
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Barr Construction was a major Scottish contracting organisation operating throughout the United Kingdom. The Company began life at the end of the century as a joinery firm known as W & J Barr & Sons. The firm was incorporated in 1976 as Barr began to grow its operations out of its native Ayrshire, firmly established in the civil engineering sector at the start of the 1990s, Barr looked to broaden its skillbase by developing its portfolio in building projects. During the next decade, Barr developed its skills across a number of core sectors and these sectors included Retail, Leisure and Education. The current structure has evolved to reflect the strengths in these sectors. The company is best known perhaps for its stadia work which includes new facilities for Southampton, Fulham, Celtic, the projects at Airdrieonians and Raith Rovers excited controversy when the resulting debts to Barr Construction caused financial problems for the clubs. In 2001 the company won the contract to upgrade the A830 road between Mallaig and Fort William in the Scottish highlands, Barr were also involved in the renovation of Home Park, the stadium home to English football club, Plymouth Argyle F. C. In 2006 Barr built the first eco-store for Tesco at Wick in Scotland, in 2007 the company was bought by McLaughlin & Harvey. For the 2012 London Olympic games, Barr won the contact to construct the Olympic Park Basketball arena
12.
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
13.
Stadium
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Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event at the ancient Greek Olympic festival was the race that comprised one length of the stade at Olympia, where the word stadium originated. In modern times, a stadium is officially a stadium when at least 50% of the capacity is an actual building. If the majority of the capacity is formed by grasshills, the venue is not officially considered a stadium. Most of the stadiums with a capacity of at least 10,000 are used for football, or soccer. A large amount of sports venues are also used for concerts. Stadium is the Latin form of the Greek word stadion, a measure of length equalling the length of 600 human feet, as feet are of variable length the exact length of a stadion depends on the exact length adopted for 1 foot at a given place and time. Although in modern terms 1 stadion =600 ft, in a historical context it may actually signify a length up to 15% larger or smaller. The equivalent Roman measure, the stadium, had a similar length — about 185 m -, the English use of stadium comes from the tiered infrastructure surrounding a Roman track of such length. Most dictionaries provide for both stadiums and stadia as valid English plurals, although etymological purists sometimes apply stadia only to measures of length in excess of 1 stadium. The oldest known stadium is the one in Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, Greece, initially the Games consisted of a single event, a sprint along the length of the stadium. The stadion, a measure of length, may be related to the Stadium, Greek and Roman stadiums have been found in numerous ancient cities, perhaps the most famous being the Stadium of Domitian, in Rome. The excavated and refurbished ancient Panathenaic stadium hosted a version of the Olympic Games in 1870,1875,1896 and 1906. The excavation and refurbishment of the stadium was part of the legacy of the Greek national benefactor Evangelos Zappas, the first stadiums to be built in the modern era were basic facilities, designed for the single purpose of fitting as many spectators in as possible. One such early stadium was the Lansdowne Road Stadium, the brainchild of Henry Dunlop, banned from locating sporting events at Trinity College, Dunlop built the stadium in 1872. Some 300 cartloads of soil from a trench beneath the railway were used to raise the ground, other early stadiums from this period in the UK include the Stamford Bridge stadium and Anfield stadium. In the U. S. However, many of these caught fire. All of the 19th-century wooden parks were replaced, some only a few years. Goodison Park was the first purpose-built football stadium in the world, walton-based building firm Kelly brothers were instructed to erect two uncovered stands that could each accommodate 4,000 spectators
14.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
15.
English Football League
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The English Football League is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in world football and it was the top-level football league in England from its foundation in the 19th century until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League. The league has 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are known as the Championship, League One and League Two, with 24 clubs in each division, the Football League has been associated with a title sponsor between 1983 and 2016. As this sponsor changed over the years the league too has been known by various names, the English Football League is also the name of the governing body of the league competition, and this body also organises two knock-out cup competitions, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy. The operations centre of the Football League is in Preston, while its commercial office is in London, the commercial office was formerly based in Lytham St Annes, after its original spell in Preston. The Football League consists of 70 professional association football clubs in England and 2 in Wales and it runs the oldest professional football league competition in the world. It also organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League Cup and Football League Trophy, the Football League was founded in 1888 by then Aston Villa director William McGregor, originally with 12 member clubs. Steady growth and the addition of more divisions meant that by 1950 the League had 92 clubs, the Football League therefore no longer includes the top 20 clubs who belong to this group, although promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Premier League continues. In total,136 teams have played in the Football League up to 2013, the Football Leagues 72 member clubs are grouped into three divisions, the Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football League Two. Each division has 24 clubs, and in any season a club plays each of the others in the same division twice, once at their home stadium. This makes for a total of 46 games played each season, clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. At the end of the season, clubs at the top of their division may win promotion to the higher division. At the top end of the competition, three Championship clubs win promotion from the Football League to the Premier League, with the bottom three Premier League clubs taking their places, reserve teams of Football League clubs usually play in the Central League or the Football Combination. Since the 2004–05 season, penalties have existed for clubs entering financial administration during the season and it is also required that a club exiting administration agree a Creditors Voluntary Agreement, and pay in full any other footballing creditors. Failure to do either of these result in a second. The other main situation in which is a club may lose points is by fielding an improperly registered or otherwise ineligible player. If a club is found to have done this, then any points earned from any match that player participated in will be deducted, the EFL organises two knock-out cup competitions, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy. The EFL Cup was established in 1960 and is open to all EFL and Premier League clubs, the EFL Trophy is for clubs belonging to EFL League One and EFL League Two
16.
Floodlight
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Floodlights are broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial lights. They are often used to outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are used as a stage lighting instrument in live performances such as concerts. In the top tiers of professional sports, it is a requirement for stadiums to have floodlights to allow games to be scheduled outside daylight hours. Evening or night matches may suit spectators who have work or other commitment earlier in the day, one motivation for this is television marketing, especially in sports such as gridiron football which rely on TV rights money to finance the sport. Some sports grounds which do not have permanent floodlights installed may make use of portable temporary ones instead, many larger floodlights will have gantries for bulb changing and maintenance. These will usually be able to one or two maintenance workers. The most common type of floodlight is the lamp, which emits a bright white light. Sodium-vapor lamps are commonly used for sporting events, as they have a very high lumen-to-watt ratio. In the recent years there have been new developments, and LED technology has come a long way, now LED flood lights are bright enough to be used for illumination purposes on large sport fields. The main reason for the use of LEDs is the power consumption. The first LED lit sports field in the United Kingdom was switched on at Taunton Vale Sports Club on 6 September 2014, the first sport to play under floodlights was polo, on 18 July 1878. Ranelagh Club hosted a match in Fulham, London, England against the Hurlingham Club, Cricket was first played under floodlights on Monday,11 August 1952 in England which was watched by several million people on their television sets. Since then most test playing countries have installed floodlights in some or all of their stadiums, traditional Cricket floodlights have a long pole on which lights are fixed. This is done several times, the ball travels too high when a batsman hits it. However, many cricket stadiums have different types of floodlights like the ANZ Stadium in Australia, the DSC Cricket Stadium in Dubai recently installed Ring of Fire system of floodlights which is latest and smartest system of floodlight in the world. Bramall Lane was reportedly the first floodlit stadium, floodlighting in association football dates as far back as 1878, when there were floodlit experimental matches at Bramall Lane, Sheffield during the dark winter afternoons. With no national grid, lights were powered by batteries and dynamoes, lights were later be used by clubs such as Thames Ironworks, but they stopped the practice after joining the Southern League in 1888
17.
Grandstand
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A grandstand is a large and normally permanent structure for seating spectators, most often at a racetrack. This includes both auto racing and horse racing, the grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap all or most of the way around. Grandstands may have basic bench seating, but usually have individual chairs like a stadium, grandstands are also usually covered with a roof, but are open on the front. Grandstands are found at places like Epsom Downs Racecourse and Atlanta Motor Speedway and they may also be found at fairgrounds, circuses, and outdoor arenas used for rodeos. In the United States, smaller stands are called bleachers, and are far more basic. Early baseball games were staged at fairgrounds, and the term grandstand came along when standalone baseball parks began to be built. A covered bleacher may be called a pavilion, also to distinguish from the main grandstand, the pejorative verb grandstanding is often applied to politicians or other public figures perceived to be using tactics designed to call attention to themselves instead of the issues
18.
Aston Villa F.C.
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Aston Villa Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aston, Birmingham, that plays in the Championship, the second level of English football. Founded in 1874, they have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, Aston Villa were one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888. They were also one of the members of the Premier League in 1992. Aston Villa are one of only five English clubs to be crowned champions of Europe and they have also won the First Division Championship seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the Football League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. They have a local rivalry with Birmingham City and the Second City derby between the sides has been played since 1879. The clubs traditional kit colours are claret shirts with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and their traditional badge is of a rampant lion, which was introduced by the clubs Scottish chairman William McGregor in honour of the Royal Standard of Scotland. The club is owned by Recon Group Limited, a company chaired by Chinese businessman Tony Xia. Aston Villa Football Club were formed in March 1874, by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth which is now part of Birmingham, the four founders of Aston Villa were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. Aston Villas first match was against the local Aston Brook St Marys Rugby team, as a condition of the match, the Villa side had to agree to play the first half under Rugby rules and the second half under Association rules. The club won their first FA Cup in 1887 with captain Archie Hunter becoming one of the games first household names. Aston Villa were one of the teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the clubs directors. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era, winning no fewer than five League titles, in 1897, the year Villa won The Double, they moved into their present home, the Aston Lower Grounds. Supporters coined the name Villa Park, no official declaration listed the ground as Villa Park. This was largely the result of a defensive record, they conceded 110 goals in 42 games,7 of them coming from Arsenals Ted Drake in an infamous 1–7 defeat at Villa Park. Like all English clubs, Villa lost seven seasons to the Second World War, the team was rebuilt under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. The team struggled in the league though and were relegated two seasons later, due in part to complacency. However, under the stewardship of manager Joe Mercer Villa returned to the top-flight in 1960 as Second Division Champions, the following season Aston Villa became the first team to win the Football League Cup. Mercers forced retirement from the club in 1964 signalled a period of deep turmoil, the most successful club in England was struggling to keep pace with changes in the modern game, with Villa being relegated for the third time, under manager Dick Taylor in 1967
19.
England 2018 FIFA World Cup bid
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England 2018 was the Football Associations unsuccessful bid for the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. FIFA invited bidding countries to bid for either the 2018 or the 2022 finals, Englands bid was managed by England 2018/2022 Bidding Nation Ltd. This company was established by The FA for the purpose of bringing the World Cup tournament to England for the first time since 1966, England attempted to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup but lost out to Germany. England hosted the 1966 FIFA World Cup and had the campaign been successful and it won the right to host Euro 96. Anson stated that the tone of this campaign has to be different, the board of England 2018 was chaired by Lord Triesman, chairman of The FA, who has since resigned. The chief executive of England 2018 was Andy Anson, formerly chief executive for Europe of the ATP, the bid had the support of Prince William, the FAs president. The England World Cup bid also received the assistance of Ronnie Flanagan as an advisor on safety and security, the FA announced its intention to bid on 31 October 2007, and the Bid Registration Form was issued to FIFAs headquarters in Zurich on 17 March 2009. Detailed applications needed to be submitted to FIFA by December 2009, the host countries of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments were announced in December 2010. Englands bid was presented for the first time on 18 May 2009 by Adrian Chiles in the Bobby Moore Room at Wembley Stadium. The presentation also received an endorsement from West Hams Italian manager Gianfranco Zola, after the presentation, the bid team spoke with representatives from each of the fifteen potential host cities. One host city may have two designated World Cup stadiums though all others may have one stadium in use. However, Englands bid can contain more than one city with two stadiums or more. Now that the England bid team has put forward a number of potential host cities and venues, it is now the decision of FIFA to choose the final list of cities and this would outline the venues of the World Cup if England were chosen to host the tournament. Stadiums must also be able to accommodate a 20,000 square feet hospitality village no more than 150 metres from the stadium. They must have a capacity of at least 40,000 for group and second round matches and 60,000 for quarter finals and beyond, had Englands bid been successful, the final decision on which would host matches would have been made in 2013. Three stadia would have been forwarded from London, Wembley Stadium, Arsenals Emirates Stadium and it was not made clear during the bid which stadium would have been preferred had both stadia been viable candidates in 2013. Many of the stadia selected would have required minor modernisation in order to meet the requirements for holding World Cup tournament games. The grounds in Leeds, Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Plymouth in particular were all set for an increase in capacity, whilst new stadiums proposed in Nottingham, the rights to host the 2018 World Cup were eventually awarded to Russia
20.
The Football Association
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The Football Association, also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of association football in England, and the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur, the FA sanctions all competitive football matches within its remit at national level, and indirectly at local level through the County Football Associations. It runs numerous competitions, the most famous of which is the FA Cup, the FA is a member of both UEFA and FIFA and holds a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board which is responsible for the laws of the game. As the first football association, it not use the national name English in its title. The FA is based at Wembley Stadium, London, the FA is a member of the British Olympic Association, meaning that the FA has control over the mens and womens Great Britain Olympic football team. All of Englands professional football teams are members of the Football Association, although it does not run the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, it has veto power over the appointment of the League Chairman and Chief Executive and over any changes to league rules. The English Football League, made up of the three professional divisions below the Premier League, is self-governing, subject to the FAs sanctions. Another set of rules, the Sheffield Rules, was used by a number of clubs in the North of England from the 1850s, eleven London football clubs and schools representatives met on 26 October 1863 to agree on common rules. The founding clubs present at the first meeting were Barnes, Civil Service, Crusaders, Forest of Leytonstone, many of these clubs are now defunct or play rugby union. Civil Service FC, who now plays in the Southern Amateur League, is the one of the original eleven football clubs still in existence. There are only three institutions which have been members of the F. A. since 1863, those being Civil Service, Forest School and Kings College. Central to the creation of the Football Association and modern football was Ebenezer Cobb Morley and he was a founding member of the Football Association in 1863. In 1862, as captain of Barnes, he wrote to Bells Life newspaper proposing a governing body for the sport led to the first meeting at The Freemasons Tavern that created the FA. He was the FAs first secretary and its president and drafted the Laws of the Game generally called the London Rules at his home in Barnes. As a player, he played in the first ever match in 1863, the first version of the rules for the modern game was drawn up over a series of six meetings held in The Freemasons Tavern from October till December. Of the clubs at the first meeting, Crusaders, Surbiton and Charterhouse did not attend the subsequent meetings, replaced instead by the Royal Navy School, Wimbledon School, at the final meeting, F. M. Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA, the term soccer dates back to this split to refer to football played under the association rules. The Richmond side were obviously unimpressed by the new rules in practice because they helped form the Rugby Football Union in 1871
21.
England national football team
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The England national football team represents England in international football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England are one of the two oldest national teams in football, alongside Scotland, whom played in the worlds first international football match in 1872. Englands home ground is Wembley Stadium, London, and the current manager is Gareth Southgate, England contest the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, which alternate biennially. In contesting for the World Cup seventeen times over the past sixty four years, England won the 1966 World Cup, when they hosted the finals, the England national football team is the joint-oldest in the world, it was formed at the same time as Scotland. A representative match between England and Scotland was played on 5 March 1870, having been organised by the Football Association, a return fixture was organised by representatives of Scottish football teams on 30 November 1872. Over the next forty years, England played exclusively with the other three Home Nations—Scotland, Wales and Ireland—in the British Home Championship, to begin with, England had no permanent home stadium. They joined FIFA in 1906 and played their first ever games against countries other than the Home Nations on a tour of Central Europe in 1908, Wembley Stadium was opened in 1923 and became their home ground. The relationship between England and FIFA became strained, and this resulted in their departure from FIFA in 1928 and their first ever defeat on home soil to a foreign team was a 0–2 loss to the Republic of Ireland, on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park. A 6–3 loss in 1953 to Hungary, was their defeat by a foreign team at Wembley. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7–1 and this still stands as Englands worst ever defeat. After the game, a bewildered Syd Owen said, it was like playing men from outer space, in the 1954 FIFA World Cup, England reached the quarter-finals for the first time, and lost 4–2 to reigning champions Uruguay. Although Walter Winterbottom was appointed as Englands first ever manager in 1946. In UEFA Euro 1968, the reached the semi-finals for the first time. England qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico as reigning champions, and reached the quarter-finals, England had been 2–0 up, but were eventually beaten 3–2 after extra time. They failed in qualification for the 1974, leading to Ramseys dismissal, under Ron Greenwood, they managed to qualify for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, despite not losing a game, they were eliminated in the second group stage. Despite losing to Italy in the third place play-off, the members of the England team were given bronze medals identical to the Italians’, the England team of 1990 were welcomed home as heroes and thousands of people lined the streets, for a spectacular open-top bus parade. However, the team did not win any matches in UEFA Euro 1992, drawing with tournament winners Denmark, the 1990s saw four England managers, each in the role for a relatively brief period. Graham Taylor was Robsons successor, but resigned after England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, at UEFA Euro 1996, held in England, Terry Venables led England, equalling their best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semi-finals as they did in 1968
22.
Manchester United F.C.
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Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Nicknamed the Red Devils, the club was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to its current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910. Manchester United have won a record 20 League Titles, a joint-record 12 FA Cups,5 League Cups, the club has also won three European Cups, one UEFA Cup Winners Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. In 1998–99, the became the first in the history of English football to achieve the treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup. The 1958 Munich air disaster claimed the lives of eight players, in 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United became the first English football club to win the European Cup. Alex Ferguson won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles,5 FA Cups and 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, José Mourinho is the clubs current manager, having been appointed on 27 May 2016. As of June 2015, it is the worlds most valuable football brand and it is one of the most widely supported football teams in the world. In August 2012, Manchester United made a public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The club holds several rivalries, most notably with Liverpool, Manchester City and Leeds United, Manchester United was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. By 1888, the club had become a member of The Combination. Following the leagues dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance and this resulted in the club starting the 1892–93 season in the First Division, by which time it had become independent of the railway company and dropped the LYR from its name. After two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division, in January 1902, with debts of £2,670 – equivalent to £260,000 in 2017 – the club was served with a winding-up order. The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield, Manchester United won the First Division for the second time in 1911, but at the end of the following season, Mangnall left the club to join Manchester City. In 1922, three years after the resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to the Second Division, relegated again in 1931, Manchester United became a yo-yo club, achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in 1934. Gibson, who, in December 1931, invested £2,000, in the 1938–39 season, the last year of football before the Second World War, the club finished 14th in the First Division. Busby led the team to second-place league finishes in 1947,1948 and 1949, in 1952, the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years. With an average age of 22, the title winning side of 1956 were labelled the Busby Babes by the media. In 1957, Manchester United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup, despite objections from The Football League, who had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous season
23.
Rugby union
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Rugby union, known in some parts of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using a ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Historically an amateur sport, in 1995 restrictions on payments to players were removed, World Rugby, originally the International Rugby Football Board and from 1998 to 2014 the International Rugby Board, has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886. Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland, early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Rugby union is played in over 100 countries across six continents, there are 101 full members and 18 associate members of World Rugby. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, takes place four years with the winner of the tournament receiving the Webb Ellis Cup. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are major annual competitions. The origin of football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823. Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895, despite the doubtful evidence, the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of game played at Rugby School, Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first football team. During this early period different schools used different rules, with pupils from Rugby. Other important events include the Blackheath Clubs decision to leave the Football Association in 1863, despite the sports full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world. The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England, by 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams, and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby tournament, the Melrose Sevens. During the early history of union, a time before commercial air travel. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia, followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe, All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics, and were far more successful than critics had expected. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in, the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event, in 1905 France played England in its first international match
24.
Track and field
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Track and field is a sport which includes athletic contests established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing. The name is derived from the sports venue, a stadium with an oval running track enclosing a grass field where the throwing and jumping events take place. Track and field is categorised under the sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running. The foot racing events, which include sprints, middle- and long-distance events, the jumping and throwing events are won by the athlete who achieves the greatest distance or height. Regular jumping events include long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault, while the most common throwing events are shot put, javelin, discus and hammer. There are also combined events or multi events, such as the pentathlon consisting of five events, heptathlon consisting of seven events, in these, athletes participate in a combination of track and field events. Most track and field events are individual sports with a victor, the most prominent team events are relay races. Events are almost exclusively divided by gender, although both the mens and womens competitions are held at the same venue. It is one of the oldest sports, in ancient times, it was an event held in conjunction with festivals and sports meets such as the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the city of Elis, won the stadium race. According to some traditions, this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals. In modern times, the two most prestigious track and field competitions are athletics competition at the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The International Association of Athletics Federations is the governing body. Records are kept of the best performances in specific events, at world and national levels, however, if athletes are deemed to have violated the events rules or regulations, they are disqualified from the competition and their marks are erased. In North America, the track and field may be used to refer to other athletics events, such as the marathon. The sport of track and field has its roots in human prehistory, Track and field-style events are among the oldest of all sporting competitions, as running, jumping and throwing are natural and universal forms of human physical expression. The first recorded examples of organized track and field events at a festival are the Ancient Olympic Games. At the first Games in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, only one event was contested, Track and field events were also present at the Panhellenic Games in Greece around this period, and they spread to Rome in Italy around 200 BC
25.
George Michael
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Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, known professionally as George Michael, was an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and philanthropist who rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham. He was best known for his work in the 1980s and 1990s, including hit singles such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas, and albums such as Faith and Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1. Up to the time of his death, Michael sold more than 115 million records worldwide and his breakthrough duo Wham. sold 28 million records between 1982 and 1986, and his debut solo album Faith sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Michael achieved seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, including Careless Whisper and Praying for Time. He ranks among the best-selling British acts of all time, Michael, who came out as gay in 1998, was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. In 2004, the Radio Academy named Michael the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004, the documentary A Different Story covered his career and personal life. Michaels first tour in 15 years, the worldwide 25 Live tour, in the early hours of 25 December 2016, Michael, aged 53, was found dead in bed at his Oxfordshire home. A coroners report attributed his death to natural causes, Michael was born in East Finchley on 25 June 1963. His father, Kyriacos Jack Panayiotou, a Greek Cypriot restaurateur, had emigrated to Britain in the 1950s, Michaels mother, Lesley Angold, was an English dancer, and his maternal grandmother was Jewish. Michael spent most of his childhood in Kingsbury, London, in the home his parents soon after his birth. His older sisters are Yioda and Melanie, while he was in his early teens, the family moved to Radlett. There, Michael attended Bushey Meads School in Bushey, where he befriended his future Wham. partner Andrew Ridgeley, the two had the same career ambition of being musicians. Michael busked on the London Underground, performing such as 39 by Queen. His involvement in the business began with his working as a DJ, playing at clubs and local schools around Bushey, Stanmore. This was followed by the formation of a ska band called The Executive, with Ridgeley, Ridgeleys brother Paul, Andrew Leaver. Michael formed the duo Wham. with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981, the bands first album Fantastic reached No.1 in the UK in 1983 and produced a series of top 10 singles including Young Guns, Wham Rap. and Club Tropicana. Their second album, Make It Big, reached No.1 on the charts in the US, Michael sang on the original Band Aid recording of Do They Know Its Christmas. And donated the profits from Last Christmas/Everything She Wants to charity and he also contributed background vocals to David Cassidys 1985 hit The Last Kiss, as well as Elton Johns 1985 successes Nikita and Wrap Her Up
26.
Rod Stewart
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Sir Roderick David Rod Stewart, CBE is a British rock singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry, Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. He has had six number one albums in the UK and his tally of 62 UK hit singles includes 31 that reached the top ten. Stewart has had 16 top ten singles in the US, with four reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music and charity. In October 1963, he joined the Dimensions as a harmonica player, in 1964, Stewart joined Long John Baldry and the All Stars, and in August, Stewart signed a solo contract, releasing his first single, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, in October. He maintained a career alongside a group career, releasing his debut solo album. Stewarts early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music, in 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists. A Grammy and Brit Award recipient, he was voted at #33 in Q Magazines list of the Top 100 Greatest Singers of all time, and #59 on Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Singers of all time. Roderick David Stewart was born at 507 Archway Road, Highgate, North London on 10 January 1945 and his father was Scottish and had been a master builder in Leith, Edinburgh, while Elsie was English and had grown up in Upper Holloway in North London. Married in 1928, the couple had two sons and two daughters living in Scotland, and then they moved to Highgate. Stewart came after a gap following his youngest sibling, he was born at home during World War II. The family was neither affluent nor poor, Stewart was spoiled as the youngest and he had an undistinguished record at Highgate Primary School and failed the eleven plus exam. He then attended the William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School, Muswell Hill and his father retired from the building trade at age 65, buying a newsagents shop on the Archway Road when Stewart was in his early teens, the family lived over the shop. Stewarts main hobby was railway modelling, Stewart was the most talented footballer in the family and was a strong supporter of Arsenal F. C. at the time. Combining natural athleticism with near-reckless aggression, he became captain of the football team. The family were great fans of the singer Al Jolson and would sing. Stewart collected his records and saw his films, read books about him and his introduction to rock and roll was hearing Little Richards 1956 hit The Girl Cant Help It, and seeing Bill Haley & His Comets in concert. In 1960, he joined a group with schoolfriends called the Kool Kats, playing Lonnie Donegan
27.
Cinder
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A cinder is a pyroclastic material. Cinders are similar to pumice, which has so many cavities and is such low-density that it can float on water, Cinder is typically brown, black, or red depending on its chemical content. A more modern name for cinder is scoria, contain numerous gas bubbles frozen into place as magma exploded into the air and then cooled quickly. Cinders have been used on surfaces and roads to provide additional traction in winter conditions. Cinders are also employed as inorganic mulch in xeriscaping, because of excellent drainage properties, in this context, they are referred to frequently with the name lava rock. This is why cinder is used in roads, Cinder block Cinder cone Cinder track Lapilli Scoria Tephra Ye Olde Cinder House
28.
Allotment (gardening)
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An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, or a community garden is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundred land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families. Such parcels are cultivated individually, contrary to other community garden types where the area is tended collectively by a group of people. In countries that do not use the allotment, a community garden can refer to individual small garden plots as well as to a single. The term victory garden is still sometimes used, especially when a community garden dates back to World War II or I. The individual size of a parcel typically suits the needs of a family, and often the plots include a shed for tools and shelter, the gardeners have to pay a small membership fee to the association, and have to abide by the corresponding constitution and by-laws. However, the membership entitles them to certain democratic rights, for children, gardens offer places to play and to learn about nature, while for the unemployed, they offer a feeling of doing something useful as well as low-cost food. For the elderly and disabled, gardens offer an opportunity to people, to share in activity with like-minded people. In Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, these are called Community Gardens, Allotment gardening used to be widely popular in the former Czechoslovakia under the communist regime. It gave people from suburban prefab apartment blocks - called paneláky in Czech - a chance to escape from city chaos, pollution, holiday houses and gardens served also as the only permitted form of investment of savings for common middle-class citizens. Since then allotment gardens have spread to most Danish towns, in 1904 there were about 20,000 allotment gardens in Denmark. 6,000 of them were in Copenhagen, during the interwar years the number of allotment gardens grew rapidly. In 2001 the number of allotment gardens was estimated to be about 62,120, in 1908 twenty allotment associations in Copenhagen formed the Allotment Garden Union which in 1914 was expanded to cover all of Denmark. The Allotment Garden Federation was founded to negotiate more favourable deals with the state, today the federation represents roughly 400 allotment associations in 75 municipalities. The Danish tradition for allotment gardens later spread to the other Scandinavian countries, first Sweden, then Norway, today most allotment gardens are on land owned by the municipality which rents the land to an allotment association. The association in turn gives each member a plot of land, to preserve allotment gardens as something that is available for all kinds of people the membership charge is set significantly below what a market price would be. Since allotments are often placed on attractive plots of land, this has led to waiting lists for membership in many allotment associations. Although the main purpose of the allotment is gardening, most allotment gardens have a built in them
29.
Whit Monday
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Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday is the holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost, a moveable feast in the Christian calendar. It is moveable because it is determined by the date of Easter, Whit Monday gets its English name from Whitsunday, an English name for Pentecost, one of the three baptismal seasons. The origin of the name Whit Sunday is generally attributed to the white garments worn by those newly baptized on this feast. In many of countries, Whit Monday is known as the second day of Pentecost or the second Whitsun. In France, it became a day for many workers from 2005 to 2007. This was to raise extra funds following the lack of preparation for a summertime heat wave. It continues to be a public holiday in France. In Liechtenstein, Whit Monday is considered to be a favorite holiday, in Germany, Whit Monday is a Holy Day of Obligation for Roman Catholics. In South Tyrol, it replaces the holiday of the patron saint celebrated elsewhere in Italy. Until 1973, Whit Monday was a holiday in Ireland. It was a holiday in the United Kingdom until 1967. It was formally replaced by the fixed Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May in 1971 and it was also a public holiday in various former British colonies, especially in the Pacific. It remains a holiday in some of the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean. In Sweden, Whit Monday was a holiday until 2004 as it was replaced by the National Day of Sweden from 2005. Although Whit Monday is a holiday in many countries, it is not a Catholic religious holiday any more than the other weekdays that follow Pentecost Sunday. Until the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, they were part of the octave of Pentecost, the Monday after Pentecost is now the first day of the resumption of Ordinary Time. While the details differ from diocese to diocese, the most widespread practice in Germany is to have a compulsory votive Mass of the Holy Spirit outranking even solemnities, the day following is known as Third Day of the Trinity. In the services on the Monday of the Holy Spirit many of the hymns are sung as on the day of Pentecost itself
30.
Northampton Town F.C.
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Northampton Town Football Club /nɔːrˈθæmptən ˈtaʊn/ is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. The team play in League One, the tier of English football. They hold the record for the shortest time taken to be promoted from the tier to the top tier. Northampton were formed in 1897, after meetings between the town’s schoolteachers and local solicitor A. J. They play their games at the 7,724 capacity all-seater Sixfields Stadium, having moved in 1994 from the County Ground which they shared with the owners. The club’s main rivals are Peterborough United, a rivalry which has endured since the 1960s, other recent rivals include Rushden & Diamonds and Oxford United. The clubs colours have traditionally been claret and white, the club nickname is The Cobblers, a reference to the towns historical shoe-making industry. In 1919–20, the first season after the war, Town conceded a club record 103 goals, nonetheless, the club was allowed to join the Football League for the following season, in Division Three. 1922–23 saw the club become a company and 8,000 shares were released at £1. The season produced a record crowd of 18,123 against Plymouth on Boxing day, 1923–24 started with the club raising £5,000 to build a stand with a players tunnel underneath and also improved terracing in the Hotel End. The following season saw the formation of the supporters club, in 1925 the clubs first foreign transfer took place as William Shaw was signed from Barcelona. A new ground record was set for the F. A, Cup third-round replay with Sunderland,21,148 turned up to see the Cobblers lose 3–0. However, disaster occurred at the County Ground during December 1929, only one stand was saved although this was charred. The source of the fire was thought to be in the dressing room. By August 1930, the stands were rebuilt, in 1932–33, the club created history when brothers Fred and Albert Dawes both scored in an 8–0 win over Newport County. The latter finished the season scoring 32 league goals and even scored all four in a 4–0 win over the Netherlands national football team while the club was on tour. Cup fifth round was reached for the first time courtesy of a round win away to Huddersfield Town who. The Cobblers lost to Preston North End 4–0 at Deepdale, setting a new record of 40,180
31.
Tailings
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Tailings are distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlies an ore or mineral body and is displaced during mining without being processed. The amount of tailings can be large, ranging from 90–98% for some copper ores to 20–50% of the other minerals. In the latter, the extraction of minerals from ore requires comminution, because of this comminution, tailings consist of a slurry of fine particles, ranging from the size of a grain of sand to a few micrometres. Mine tailings are usually produced from the mill in slurry form, the effluent from the tailings from the mining of sulfidic minerals has been described as the largest environmental liability of the mining industry. These tailings contain large amounts of pyrite and Iron sulfide, which are rejected from the ores of copper and nickel. Although harmless underground, these minerals are reactive toward air in the presence of microorganisms, when applied to coal mining tailings ponds and oil sands tailings ponds, the term tailings refers to fine waste suspended in water. Bauxite tailings is a waste product generated in the production of aluminium. Making provision for the approximately 77 million tons that is produced annually is one of the most significant problems for the mining industry. Early mining operations often did not take steps to make tailings areas environmentally safe after closure. Tailings dams are often the most significant environmental liability for a mining project, the rejected minerals and rocks liberated through mining and processing are not part of the aerobic ecological systems and are unstable. They have the potential to damage the environment by releasing toxic metals, by acid drainage, the greatest danger of tailings ponds is dam failure, with the most publicized failure in the U. S. On average, worldwide, there is one big accident involving a tailings dam each year, other disasters caused by tailings dam failures are, the 2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill and the Ajka alumina plant accident. Historically, tailings were disposed of in the most convenient manner, because of concerns about these sediments in the water and other issues, tailings ponds came into use. Bounded by impoundments, these dams typically use local materials including the tailings themselves, traditionally, the only option for tailings storage was to deal with a tailings slurry. This slurry is a stream of the tailings solids within water that was sent to the tailings storage area. The modern tailings designer has a range of products to choose from depending upon how much water is removed from the slurry prior to discharge. The removal of not only can create a better storage system in some cases. In a 1994 description of tailings impoundments, however, the U. S. EPA stated that dewatering methods may be prohibitively expensive except in special circumstances, subaqueous storage of tailings has also been used
32.
Bank (geography)
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In geography, the word bank generally refers to the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as banks in different fields of geography, in limnology, a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream. The bank consists of the sides of the channel, between which the flow is confined, stream banks are of particular interest in fluvial geography, which studies the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. The shoreline of ponds, swamps, estuaries, reservoirs, or lakes are also of interest in limnology, the grade of all these banks or shorelines can vary from vertical to a shallow slope. In freshwater ecology, banks are of interest as the location of riparian habitats, riparian zones occur along upland and lowland river and stream beds. The ecology around and depending on a marsh, swamp, slough, or estuary, banks are also of interest in navigation, where the term can refer either to a barrier island or a submerged plateau, such as an ocean bank. A barrier island is a narrow island composed of sand. A submerged plateau is a flat topped elevation of the sea floor at shallow depth
33.
Aston Villa
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Aston Villa Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aston, Birmingham, that plays in the Championship, the second level of English football. Founded in 1874, they have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, Aston Villa were one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888. They were also one of the members of the Premier League in 1992. Aston Villa are one of only five English clubs to be crowned champions of Europe and they have also won the First Division Championship seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the Football League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. They have a local rivalry with Birmingham City and the Second City derby between the sides has been played since 1879. The clubs traditional kit colours are claret shirts with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and their traditional badge is of a rampant lion, which was introduced by the clubs Scottish chairman William McGregor in honour of the Royal Standard of Scotland. The club is owned by Recon Group Limited, a company chaired by Chinese businessman Tony Xia. Aston Villa Football Club were formed in March 1874, by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth which is now part of Birmingham, the four founders of Aston Villa were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. Aston Villas first match was against the local Aston Brook St Marys Rugby team, as a condition of the match, the Villa side had to agree to play the first half under Rugby rules and the second half under Association rules. The club won their first FA Cup in 1887 with captain Archie Hunter becoming one of the games first household names. Aston Villa were one of the teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the clubs directors. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era, winning no fewer than five League titles, in 1897, the year Villa won The Double, they moved into their present home, the Aston Lower Grounds. Supporters coined the name Villa Park, no official declaration listed the ground as Villa Park. This was largely the result of a defensive record, they conceded 110 goals in 42 games,7 of them coming from Arsenals Ted Drake in an infamous 1–7 defeat at Villa Park. Like all English clubs, Villa lost seven seasons to the Second World War, the team was rebuilt under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. The team struggled in the league though and were relegated two seasons later, due in part to complacency. However, under the stewardship of manager Joe Mercer Villa returned to the top-flight in 1960 as Second Division Champions, the following season Aston Villa became the first team to win the Football League Cup. Mercers forced retirement from the club in 1964 signalled a period of deep turmoil, the most successful club in England was struggling to keep pace with changes in the modern game, with Villa being relegated for the third time, under manager Dick Taylor in 1967
34.
HMNB Devonport
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Her Majestys Naval Base, Devonport, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, having begun as Royal Navy Dockyard in the late-17th century, it is now the largest naval base in Western Europe and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. From 1934 until the early 21st century the barracks on the site was named HMS Drake. Recently, the name HMS Drake has been extended to cover the entire base, in the early 1970s the newly-styled Fleet Maintenance Base was itself commissioned as HMS Defiance, it remained so until 1994, at which point it was amalgamated into HMS Drake. HM Naval Base Devonport is the port of the Devonport Flotilla which includes the largest ship in the Royal Navy, HMS Ocean. In 2009 the Ministry of Defence announced the conclusion of a review of the long-term role of three naval bases. Devonport will no longer be used as a base for submarines after these move to Faslane by 2017. However, Devonport retains a role as the dedicated home of the amphibious fleet, survey vessels. In 1588, the ships of the English Navy set sail for the Spanish Armada through the mouth of the River Plym, Sir Francis Drake is now an enduring legacy in Devonport, as the naval base has been named HMS Drake. In 1689 Prince William of Orange became William III and almost immediately he required the building of a new Royal Dockyard west of Portsmouth, having dismissed the Plymouth site as inadequate, he settled on the Hamoaze area which soon became known as Plymouth Dock, later renamed Devonport. On 30 December 1690, a contract was let for a dockyard to be built, having selected the location, Dummer was given responsibility for designing and building the new yard. At the heart of his new dockyard, Dummer placed a stone-lined basin, previously the Navy Board had relied upon timber as the major building material for dry docks, which resulted in high maintenance costs and was also a fire risk. The docks Dummer designed were stronger with more secure foundations and stepped sides that made it easier for men to work beneath the hull of a docked vessel and these innovations also allowed rapid erection of staging and greater workforce mobility. He discarded the earlier three-sectioned hinged gate, which was labour-intensive in operation, Dummer wished to ensure that naval dockyards were efficient working units that maximised available space, as evidenced by the simplicity of his design layout at Plymouth Dock. He introduced a centralised storage area alongside the basin, and a positioning of other buildings around the yard. His double rope-house combined the previously separate tasks of spinning and laying while allowing the floor to be used for the repair of sails. On high ground overlooking the rest of the yard he built a terrace of houses for the senior dockyard officers. Most of Dummers buildings and structures were rebuilt over ensuing years, including the basin, the terrace survived into the 20th century, but was largely destroyed in the Blitz along with several others of Devonports historic buildings
35.
Plymouth Sound
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Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a bay on the English Channel at Plymouth in England. Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon and its northern limit is Plymouth Hoe giving a north-south distance of nearly 3 nautical miles. The Sound has three water entrances, the marine entrance is from the English Channel to the south, with a deep-water channel to the west of the Plymouth Breakwater. There are two inlets, one, from the northwest, is from the River Tamar via the Hamoaze and Devonport Dockyard. The other, at northeast, is from the River Plym disgorging into its narrow estuary, in addition to ships of the Royal Navy, large commercial vessels, including ferries to France and Spain use the Sound from Millbay Docks. Fishing vessels use it from Sutton Harbour beside the old town of Plymouth, there are marinas at Sutton Harbour, Mount Wise in the Hamoaze and at Turnchapel. Waterborne traffic in the Sound is controlled by the Queens Harbour Master for Plymouth, in the centre of the Sound, midway between Bovisand Bay and Cawsand Bay, is Plymouth Breakwater, which creates a harbour protecting anchored ships from the frequent south-western storms. The breakwater is around 1,700 yards long, stands in around 11 metres /36 feet of water and was built by John Rennie, the breakwater has a 23-metre-tall lighthouse on its western end and a 9-metre-tall beacon with a spherical cage on top at the eastern end. It is said that the cage is a device designed to keep wrecked sailors from drowning in the huge waves of a storm on the low-lying breakwater. Drakes Island is 400 metres long and around 100 metres wide and it was fortified to defend Drakes Channel, the only deep-water route to Devonport. The Bridge is a reef that links Drakes Island and the Cornish mainland. At low water the depth of the Bridge can be less than one metre, in World War I this natural barrier was supplemented by other obstructions to prevent submarines and small ships attacking the naval base. Mount Batten, a former Royal Air Force flying boat and search, T. E. Lawrence was stationed here as Aircraftman Shaw. Over the years, the Sound has been defended by Drakes Island, Picklecombe Fort, Cawsand Fort, a harbour and reservoir were built at Bovisand before the fort existed to supply men-o-war anchored in the Sound with fresh water. Joseph Whidbey supervised the building of the Breakwater from Bovisand Lodge, the Titanic was supposed to have docked here briefly on its return voyage to Britain, and the ship had a painting of Plymouth sound on board. This event caused a local and national sensation as thousands took to the water, several paintings in Londons National Maritime Museum document the event, such as the one shown here. The Sound has been the site of a number of crashes and shipwrecks, Die Fraumetta Catharina von Flensburg. The P&O ship Nepaul sank on the Shagstone in December 1890, a Short Sunderland flying boat crashed in March 1942 between the Breakwater Fort and the breakwater lighthouse killing five passengers
36.
Luftwaffe
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base, with the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was officially established on 26 February 1935. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a testing ground for new doctrines. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders, during World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely, the Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm, in addition to its service in the West, the Luftwaffe operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. In January 1945, during the stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority. After the defeat of Germany, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946, the Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history, Hermann Göring and later Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. Throughout the war, the force was responsible for war crimes, one of the forerunners of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, most often shortened to Fliegertruppe. It was renamed Luftstreitkräfte on 8 October 1916, after the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, to train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. This base was known as 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of Luftwaffe pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in locations in Central Russia. The first steps towards the Luftwaffes formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power, in April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was established. Görings control over all aspects of aviation became absolute, on 25 March 1933 the Deutschen Luftsportverband absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its sports title. On 15 May 1933, all military organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the Luftwaffe. The |Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, military-age members of the NSFK were drafted to the Luftwaffe. As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, the absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate
37.
Plymouth Blitz
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The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz, the royal dockyards at HMNB Devonport were the main target in order to facilitate Nazi German efforts during the Battle of the Atlantic. Despite this, civilian casualties were high and the dockyards continued in operation. The first bombs fell on the city on Saturday 6 July 1940 at Swilly, in early 1941, five raids reduced much of the city to rubble. Attacks continued as late as May 1944 with two air raids in that month. During the 59 bombing attacks,1,172 civilians were killed and 4,448 injured, the resident population fell from 220,000 at the outbreak of war to, at one point, only 127,000. In 1941 most of the children were evacuated and on any night that a raid was expected thousands of people were taken by lorry into the countryside, in March 1941, St Andrews Parish Church was bombed and badly damaged. Amidst the smoking ruins a headmistress nailed over the door a wooden sign saying simply Resurgam, indicating the wartime spirit and that entrance to St Andrews is still referred to as the Resurgam door and a carved granite plaque is now permanently fixed there. Charles Church, destroyed by incendiaries on the nights of 20–21 March 1941, has preserved in its ruined state as a memorial to civilian victims of the Blitz. The Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association on the Hoe was also damaged on the evening of 20 March 1941. The bombardment is described in the obituary of Stanley Wells Kemp who was the director of the Association at the time, the seminal work by Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley on the ionic basis of nerve conduction resumed there in June 1947. On the evening of 22 April 1941 during an attack on the central area, during the Blitz the two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, along with 26 schools, eight cinemas and 41 churches. In total,3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged, masters, Warren Plymouth in the Blitz
38.
Nissen hut
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A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel. Originally designed during the First World War by the engineer and inventor Major Peter Norman Nissen, a Nissen hut is made from a sheet of metal bent into half a cylinder and planted in the ground with its axis horizontal. The cross-section is not precisely semi-circular, as the bottom of the hut curves in slightly. The exterior is formed from curved corrugated steel sheets 10 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 2 inches, laid with a lap at the side. Three sheets cover the arc of the hut and these are attached to five 3 ×2 inch wooden purlins and 3 ×2 inch wooden spiking plates at the ends of the floor joists. The purlins are attached to eight T-shaped ribs set at 6 feet 0.5 inch centres, each rib consists of three sections bolted together using splice plates, and each end is bolted to the floor at the bearers. With each rib are two straining wires, one on side, and a straining ratchet. The wires are strained during construction, the straining wires do not appear in the original Nissen patent. The purlins are attached to the using a hook bolt. The hook bolt is a feature of the Nissen design. Interior lining could be horizontal corrugated iron or material like Masonite attached to the ribs, sometimes corrugated asbestos cement sheeting is used. The space between the lining and the exterior may be used for insulation and services, if required, the walls and floors rest on foundations consisting of 4 ×4 inch stumps with 15 ×9 inch sole plates. On these are 4 ×3 inch bearers and 4 ×2 inch joists at 2 feet 10 inch centres, the floor is made from tongue and groove floorboards. At either end the walls are made from a frame with weatherboards nailed to the outside. Nissen huts come in three internal spans—16 ft,24 ft or 30 ft, the longitudinal bays come in multiples of 6 ft. The corrugated steel half-circles used to build Nissen huts can be stored efficiently, however, there is no standard model of Nissen huts, as the design was never static but changed according to demand. Between 16 and 18 April 1916, Major Peter Norman Nissen of the 29th Company Royal Engineers of the British Army began to experiment with hut designs, Nissen, a mining engineer and inventor, constructed three prototype semi-cylindrical huts. The semi-cylindrical shape was derived from the roof at Queens University, Kingston
39.
Railroad tie
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A railroad tie/railway tie/crosstie or railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright, railroad ties are traditionally made of wood, but pre-stressed concrete is now also widely used, especially in Europe and Asia. Steel ties are common on secondary lines in the UK, plastic composite ties are also employed, as of January 2008, the approximate market share in North America for traditional and wood ties was 91. 5%, the remainder being concrete, steel, azobé and plastic composite. Approximately 3,520 wooden crossties are used per mile of railroad track in the US,2,640 per mile on main lines in the UK. The type of railroad tie used on the predecessors of the first true railway consisted of a pair of stone blocks laid into the ground, one advantage of this method of construction was that it allowed horses to tread the middle path without the risk of tripping. In railway use with heavier locomotives, it was found that it was hard to maintain the correct gauge. The stone blocks were in any case unsuitable on soft ground, such as at Chat Moss, bi-block ties with a tie rod are somewhat similar. Historically wooden rail ties were made by hewing with an axe, a variety of softwood and hardwoods timbers are used as ties, oak, jarrah and karri being popular hardwoods, although increasingly difficult to obtain, especially from sustainable sources. Sometimes non-toxic preservatives are used, such as copper azole or micronized copper, New boron-based wood preserving technology is being employed by major US railroads in a dual treatment process in order to extend the life of wood ties in wet areas. Some timbers are durable enough that they can be used untreated, problems with wooden ties include rot, splitting, insect infestation, plate-cutting, also known as chair shuffle in the UK and spike-pull. For more information on wooden ties the Railway Tie Association maintains a website devoted to wood tie research. Wooden ties can, of course, catch fire, as they age they develop cracks that allow sparks to lodge so that they catch fire more easily, concrete ties are cheaper and easier to obtain than timber and better able to carry higher axle-weights and sustain higher speeds. Their greater weight ensures improved retention of track geometry, especially when installed with continuous-welded rail, concrete ties have a longer service life and require less maintenance than timber due to their greater weight, which helps them remain in the correct position longer. Concrete ties need to be installed on a well-prepared subgrade with a depth on free-draining ballast to perform well. Concrete ties amplify wheel noise, so wooden ties are used in densely populated areas. On the highest categories of line in the UK, pre-stressed concrete ties are the only permitted by Network Rail standards. Steel ties are formed from pressed steel and are trough-shaped in section, the ends of the tie are shaped to form a spade which increases the lateral resistance of the tie. Housings to accommodate the system are welded to the upper surface of the tie
40.
West Ham United F.C.
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West Ham United Football Club is a professional football club based in Stratford, East London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, in 2016 the club re-located to the London Stadium. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United and they moved to the Boleyn Ground in 1904, which remained their home ground for more than a century. The team initially competed in the Southern League and Western League before joining the Football League in 1919 and they were promoted to the top flight in 1923, when they also losing finalists in the first FA Cup Final held at Wembley. In 1940, the won the inaugural Football League War Cup. West Ham have been winners of the FA Cup three times, in 1964,1975, and 1980, and have also been runners-up twice, in 1923, and 2006. The club have reached two major European finals, winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1965 and finishing runners up in the competition in 1976. West Ham also won the Intertoto Cup in 1999 and they are one of eight clubs never to have fallen below the second tier of English football, spending 59 of 91 league seasons in the top flight, up to and including the 2016–17 season. The clubs highest league position to date came in 1985–86 when they achieved third place in the then First Division, three West Ham players were members of the 1966 World Cup final-winning England team, captain Bobby Moore and goalscorers Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. The club, Thames Ironworks were the first ever winners of the West Ham Charity Cup in 1895 contested by clubs in the West Ham locality and they turned professional in 1898 upon entering the Southern League Second Division, and were promoted to the First Division at the first attempt. The following year they came second from bottom, but had established themselves as a fully fledged competitive team and they comfortably fended off the challenge of local rivals Fulham in a relegation play-off, 5–1 in late April 1900 and retained their First Division status. In 1899, they acquired their now-traditional home kit combination of claret shirts and sky blue sleeves in a wager involving Aston Villa players, because of the original works team roots and links, they are still known as the Irons or the Hammers amongst fans and the media. West Ham Utd joined the Western League for the 1901 season while continuing to play in the Southern Division 1. In 1907, West Ham were crowned the Western League Division 1B Champions, the reborn club continued to play their games at the Memorial Grounds in Plaistow but moved to a pitch in the Upton Park area in the guise of the Boleyn Ground stadium in 1904. The Cup Final match itself ended 2–0 to Bolton, the team enjoyed mixed success in Division 1 but retained their status for ten years and reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1933. In 1932, the club was relegated to Division Two and long term custodian Syd King was sacked after serving the club in the role of manager for 32 years, following relegation, King had mental health problems. He appeared drunk at a meeting and soon after committed suicide. The club spent most of the next 30 years in division, first under Paynter
