1.
Canton of Geneva
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The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French-speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons, this canton is referred to as a republic within the Swiss Confederation, the canton of Geneva is located in the southwestern corner of Switzerland, and is considered one of the most cosmopolitan areas of the country. As a center of the Calvinist Reformation, the city of Geneva has had a influence on the canton. The Republic of Geneva was proclaimed in 1541, under John Calvin, the Republic of Geneva reinforced its alliance to the Protestant cantons of the Swiss Confederacy, becoming an everlasting ally in 1584. The French Revolution reached Geneva in 1792, and in February 1794, after the death of Robespierre in July of the same year, there was a counter-revolution, which gained the upper hand by 1796. This prompted the French invasion of 1798, and the annexation of Geneva as part of the French département du Léman, Geneva finally joined the Swiss Confederation in 1815 as the 22nd canton, having been enlarged by French and Savoyard territories at the Vienna Congress. The area of the canton of Geneva is 282 square kilometers, the canton is surrounded on almost all sides by France and bordered by the Swiss canton of Vaud on northeast. The adjoining French départements are Ain and Haute-Savoie, the current boundaries of the canton were established in 1815. There are 45 municipalities in the canton, Geneva does not have any administrative districts. There are 10 cities with a population of over 10,000 as of 2007, Genève, Vernier, Lancy, Meyrin, Carouge, Onex, Thônex, Versoix, Grand-Saconnex, Chêne-Bougeries. The constitution of the canton was established in 1847, and has, the cantonal government has seven members who are elected for four years. The legislature, the Grand Council, has 100 seats, with deputies elected for four years at a time, the last elecation was held on 7 October 2013. In a similar way to what happens at the Federal level, in addition, any law can be subject to a referendum if it is demanded by 7,000 persons entitled to vote, and 10,000 persons may also propose a new law. The republique and canton of Geneva has 11 seats in the National Council, on 18 October 2015, in the federal election the most popular party was the The Liberals which received three seats with 20. 5% of the votes. In the federal election, a total of 106,852 votes were cast, and she is part of the Council of States since 2007. Councilor Robert Cramer, member of the Green Party, was re-elected in the round with a majority of 42,075 votes. He is part of the Council of States since 2007, ^a FDP before 2009, FDP. The Liberals after 2009 ^b * indicates that the party was not on the ballot in this canton. ^c Part of the FDP for this election ^d Part of the SD for this election The population of the canton is 484,736, as of 2013, the population included 194,623 foreigners from 187 different nations, or about 40. 1% of the total population
2.
Geneva
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Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
3.
Pope Clement XII
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Pope Clement XII, born Lorenzo Corsini, was Pope from 12 July 1730 to his death in 1740. Clement presided over the growth of a surplus in the papal finances, in his 1738 bull In eminenti apostolatus, he provides the first public papal condemnation of Freemasonry, helping bring about the Catholic Churchs longstanding opposition to the order. Lorenzo Corsini was born in Florence in 1652 as the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano and his wife Elisabetta Strozzi, both of his parents belonged to the old Florentine nobility. He was a distant relative of Saint Andrea Corsini, Corsini studied at the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome and also at the University of Pisa where he earned a doctorate in both civil law and canon law. Corsini practiced law under the direction of his uncle, Cardinal Neri Corsini. After the death of his uncle and his father, in 1685, Corsini, now thirty-three, corsini’s home on the Piazza Novona, was the center of Rome’s scholarly and artistic life. In 1690 he was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and chosen nuncio to Vienna. He did not proceed to the court, because Leopold I. In 1696, Corsini was appointed treasurer-general and governor of the Castel SantAngelo and he advanced still further under Pope Benedict XIII, who made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a judicial branch of the Roman Curia. He was successively appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli, under Benedict XIII, the finances of the Papal States had been delivered into the hands of Cardinal Niccolò Coscia and other members of the curia, who had drained the financial resources of the see. Clement XII was one of the oldest men to be elected pope, as a Corsini, with his mother a Strozzi, the new pope represented a family in the highest level of Florentine society, with a cardinal in every generation for the previous hundred years. His first moves as Pope Clement XII were to restore the papal finances and he demanded restitution from the ministers who had abused the confidence of his predecessor. The chief culprit, Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, was fined and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Papal finances were improved through reviving the public lottery, which had been suppressed by the severe morality of Benedict XIII. A competition for the majestic façade of the San Giovanni in Laterano was won by architect Alessandro Galilei, the façade he designed is perhaps more palatial than ecclesiastic, and was finished by 1735. Clement XII erected in that ancient basilica a magnificent chapel dedicated to his 14th century kinsman and he restored the Arch of Constantine and built the governmental palace of the Consulta on the Quirinal. He purchased from Cardinal Alessandro Albani for 60,000 scudi a famous collection of statues, inscriptions, etc. and he paved the streets of Rome and the roads leading from the city, and widened the Corso. He began the triumphant Baroque Fontana di Trevi, one of the ornaments of Rome
4.
Turin
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
5.
Royal Mint
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The Royal Mint is the body permitted to strike British coins. The Royal Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, producing coins for England, since 2010 it has operated as Royal Mint Ltd, a company owned by HM Treasury, under an exclusive contract to supply all coinage for the UK. Royal Mint Ltd is 100% owned by HM Treasury, which delegates shareholder responsibilities to the Shareholder Executive, responsibility for the security of the site falls to the Ministry of Defence Police, who provide an armed contingent. In 1968 The Royal Mint began to move its operations from Tower Hill in the City of London to Llantrisant, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, and has operated on a single site in Llantrisant since 1980. At Llantrisant it holds a collection of coins dating from the 16th century onwards, housed in eighty cabinets made by Elizabeth IIs cabinet maker. The site occupies 38 acres and employs over 900 people, the annual Trial of the Pyx assays coins produced for the UK government for size, weight and chemical composition. The London Mint first became an institution in 886, during the reign of Alfred the Great. By 1279 it had moved to the Tower of London, and remained there the next 500 years and he unofficially moved the Pound Sterling to the gold standard from silver in 1717. By the time Newton arrived, the Mint had expanded to fill several rickety wooden buildings ranged around the outside of the Tower, in the eighteenth century the processes for minting coins were mechanised and rolling mills and coining presses were installed. The new machinery and the demand on space in the Tower of London following the outbreak of war with France led to a decision to move the Mint to an adjacent site in East Smithfield. The new building, designed by James Johnson and Robert Smirke, was completed in 1809, and included space for the new machinery, the building was rebuilt in the 1880s to accommodate new machinery which increased the capacity of the Mint. During World War II, The Royal Mint was bombed by the Germans, the Royal Mint was hit on several occasions and was put out of commission for three weeks at one point. In 1967 it was announced that the mint would move away from London to new buildings in Llantrisant, smirkes 1809 Building is now used as commercial offices by Barclays Global Investors. On 1 April 1975 The Royal Mint became a trading fund to improve its efficiency by requiring it to become self-financing. In March 2009, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling began planning to sell off The Royal Mint, on 31 December 2009 it ceased to be an executive agency and its assets were vested in a limited company, Royal Mint Ltd. The owner of the new company became The Royal Mint trading fund, the Royal Mint exists principally to mint coins for circulation in the UK. As of 2013, The Royal Mint produces approximately 15% of the coin based currency. From the 1970s to 2009, it produced all Order of the British Empire Insignia, the Royal Mint in London also produced coins for Canada until a branch was opened in the Canadian capital city Ottawa in 1908
6.
Elizabeth of Russia
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Elizabeth Petrovna, also known as Yelisaveta or Elizaveta, was the Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death. She led the country into the two major European conflicts of her time, the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, on the eve of her death Russia spanned almost 16,200,000 square kilometres. Her domestic policies allowed the nobles to gain dominance in government while shortening their terms of service to the state. She encouraged Mikhail Lomonosovs establishment of the University of Moscow and Ivan Shuvalovs foundation of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg and she also spent exorbitant sums of money on the grandiose baroque projects of her favourite architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, particularly in Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo. The Winter Palace and the Smolny Cathedral in Saint Petersburg are among the monuments of her reign. She remains one of the most popular Russian monarchs due to her opposition to Prussian policies. Elizabeth was born at Kolomenskoye, near Moscow, on 18 December 1709, Peter valued Catherine and married her again at Saint Isaacs Cathedral in St. Petersburg on 9 February 1712. On this day his two surviving children by Catherine were legitimized by their father and this circumstance would later be used by Elizabeths political opponents to challenge her right to the throne on grounds of illegitimacy. Of the twelve children born to Peter and Catherine only two daughters, Anna and Elizabeth survived to adulthood, both of them were given the title of Tsarevna on 6 March 1711, and of Tsesarevna on 23 December 1721. They had one surviving sibling, crown prince Alexei Petrovich, who was their fathers son by his first wife Eudoxia Lopukhina. As a child Elizabeth was the favorite of her father. She resembled him both physically and temperamentally and she was a bright girl, if not brilliant, but received only an imperfect and desultory formal education. Even though he adored his daughter Peter did not devote time or attention to her education and he had a son from his first marriage to a noblewoman and did not anticipate that a daughter born to his second wife might one day inherit the throne. Indeed, no woman had ever sat upon the throne of Russia yet and it was therefore left to Catherine to raise the girls, but she was herself too uneducated to be able to superintend the formal education of her daughters. Elizabeth had a French governess and grew fluent in Italian, German and she was also an excellent dancer and rider. Like her father Elizabeth was physically active and loved riding, hunting, sledging, skating, from her earliest years she delighted everyone with her extraordinary beauty and vivacity, and was regarded as the leading beauty of the Russian Empire. The wife of the British minister described Elizabeth as fair, with brown hair, large sprightly blue eyes, fine teeth. She is inclinable to be fat, but is very genteel and she speaks German, French and Italian, is extremely gay and talks to everyone
7.
Royal Society
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Founded in November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as The Royal Society. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Societys President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the members of the society. As of 2016, there are about 1,600 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS, there are also royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members, the last of which are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS. The Royal Society President is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who took up the post on 30 November 2015, since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed building in central London which was previously used by the Embassy of Germany, London. The Royal Society started from groups of physicians and natural philosophers, meeting at variety of locations and they were influenced by the new science, as promoted by Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis, from approximately 1645 onwards. A group known as The Philosophical Society of Oxford was run under a set of rules still retained by the Bodleian Library, after the English Restoration, there were regular meetings at Gresham College. It is widely held that these groups were the inspiration for the foundation of the Royal Society, I will not say, that Mr Oldenburg did rather inspire the French to follow the English, or, at least, did help them, and hinder us. But tis well known who were the men that began and promoted that design. This initial royal favour has continued and, since then, every monarch has been the patron of the society, the societys early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and then by Denis Papin, who was appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their area, and were both important in some cases and trivial in others. The Society returned to Gresham in 1673, there had been an attempt in 1667 to establish a permanent college for the society. Michael Hunter argues that this was influenced by Solomons House in Bacons New Atlantis and, to a lesser extent, by J. V. The first proposal was given by John Evelyn to Robert Boyle in a letter dated 3 September 1659, he suggested a scheme, with apartments for members. The societys ideas were simpler and only included residences for a handful of staff and these plans were progressing by November 1667, but never came to anything, given the lack of contributions from members and the unrealised—perhaps unrealistic—aspirations of the society. During the 18th century, the gusto that had characterised the early years of the society faded, with a number of scientific greats compared to other periods. The pointed lightning conductor had been invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, during the same time period, it became customary to appoint society fellows to serve on government committees where science was concerned, something that still continues. The 18th century featured remedies to many of the early problems
8.
Alexander Pope
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Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare, Alexander Pope was born to Alexander Pope Senior, a linen merchant of Plough Court, Lombard Street, London, and his wife Edith, who were both Catholics. Ediths sister Christiana was the wife of the miniature painter Samuel Cooper. Pope was taught to read by his aunt, and went to Twyford School in about 1698/99 and he then went to two Catholic schools in London. Such schools, while illegal, were tolerated in some areas, in 1700, his family moved to a small estate at Popeswood in Binfield, Berkshire, close to the royal Windsor Forest. This was due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing Catholics from living within 10 miles of either London or Westminster, Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem Windsor Forest. He also studied languages and read works by English, French, Italian, Latin. After five years of study, Pope came into contact with figures from the London literary society such as William Wycherley, William Congreve, Samuel Garth, William Trumbull, at Binfield, he also began to make many important friends. One of them, John Caryll, was twenty years older than the poet and had many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the ageing playwright William Wycherley and to William Walsh, a minor poet and he also met the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha, both of whom would remain lifelong friends. From the age of 12, he suffered health problems, such as Potts disease. His tuberculosis infection caused other problems including respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes. He grew to a height of only 1.37 m. Pope was already removed from society because he was Catholic, although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters. Allegedly, his lifelong friend Martha Blount was his lover, in May,1709, Popes Pastorals was published in the sixth part of Tonsons Poetical Miscellanies. This brought Pope instant fame, and was followed by An Essay on Criticism, published in May 1711, around 1711, Pope made friends with Tory writers John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot, who together formed the satirical Scriblerus Club. The aim of the club was to satirise ignorance and pedantry in the form of the fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus and he also made friends with Whig writers Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In March 1713, Windsor Forest was published to great acclaim, during Popes friendship with Joseph Addison, he contributed to Addisons play Cato, as well as writing for The Guardian and The Spectator
9.
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
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Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield KG PC was a British statesman, man of letters, and wit. He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, and Lady Elizabeth Savile, and known as Lord Stanhope until the death of his father, in 1726. In the course of his tour of Europe, the death of Queen Anne and the accession of King George I opened a political career for Stanhope. In 1715, Philip Dormer Stanhope entered the House of Commons as Lord Stanhope of Shelford, later, when the impeachment of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde came before the House, he used the occasion to put to proof his old rhetorical studies. From Paris, he sent the government valuable information about the Jacobite plot, and in 1716 he returned to Britain, resumed his seat, in that year, King George I quarreled with his son, the Prince of Wales. In 1723, a vote for the government got him the place of Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners, in January 1725, on the revival of the Order of the Bath, the red ribbon was offered to him, but Chesterfield declined the honour. Upon assuming his seat in the House of Lords, Lord Chesterfield the orator met with acceptance, what had been ineffective in the House of Commons, was suddenly appreciated by educated men. In 1728, he was sent to the Hague as ambassador, in 1732, there was born to him, by Mlle Madelina Elizabeth du Bouchet, the son, Philip, for whose advice and instruction at Westminster School Chesterfield wrote the Letters to his Son. He was the British envoy in Den Haag when the second Treaty of Vienna was signed, in 1732, ill health and a reduced personal fortune cast a shadow over Chesterfields resignation as ambassador, so he returned to Britain. Moreover, Chesterfields cook, Vincent la Chapelle, accepted a post at the court of William IV of Orange, a few months rest enabled him to resume his seat in the Lords, of which he was one of the acknowledged leaders. He supported the ministry, but his allegiance was not the blind fealty that Walpole exacted of his followers, the Excise Bill, the great premiers favourite measure, was vehemently opposed by him in the Lords and by his three brothers in the Commons. Walpole bent before the storm and abandoned the measure, but Chesterfield was summarily dismissed from his stewardship, for the next two years, he led the opposition in the Upper House, leaving no stone unturned to effect Walpoles downfall. During this time, he resided in Grosvenor Square and got involved in the creation of a new London charity called the Foundling Hospital for which he was a founding governor, in 1741, he signed the protest for Walpoles dismissal and went abroad on account of his health. He visited Voltaire at Brussels and spent some time in Paris, in 1742 Walpole fell, and Carteret was his real but not his nominal successor. Although Walpoles administration had been largely by Chesterfields efforts, the new ministry did not count Chesterfield either in its ranks or among its supporters. He remained in opposition, distinguishing himself by the bitterness of his attacks on George II. In 1743 a new journal, Old England, or, the Constitutional Journal appeared, Chesterfield wrote under the name of Jeffrey Broadbottom. A number of pamphlets, in some of which Chesterfield had the help of Edmund Waller and his energetic campaign against George II and his government won the gratitude of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, who left him £20,000 as a mark of her appreciation
10.
Edmond Halley
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Edmond Halley, FRS was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of Halleys Comet. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed, Halley was born in Haggerston, in east London. His father, Edmond Halley Sr. came from a Derbyshire family and was a wealthy soap-maker in London, as a child, Halley was very interested in mathematics. He studied at St Pauls School, and from 1673 at The Queens College, while still an undergraduate, Halley published papers on the Solar System and sunspots. While at Oxford University, Halley was introduced to John Flamsteed, influenced by Flamsteeds project to compile a catalog of northern stars, Halley proposed to do the same for the Southern Hemisphere. In 1676, Halley visited the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena, while there he observed a transit of Mercury, and realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the absolute size of the Solar System. He returned to England in May 1678, in the following year he went to Danzig on behalf of the Royal Society to help resolve a dispute. Because astronomer Johannes Hevelius did not use a telescope, his observations had been questioned by Robert Hooke, Halley stayed with Hevelius and he observed and verified the quality of Hevelius observations. In 1679, Halley published the results from his observations on St. Helena as Catalogus Stellarum Australium which included details of 341 southern stars and these additions to contemporary star maps earned him comparison with Tycho Brahe, e. g. the southern Tycho as described by Flamsteed. Halley was awarded his M. A. degree at Oxford, in 1686, Halley published the second part of the results from his Helenian expedition, being a paper and chart on trade winds and monsoons. The symbols he used to represent trailing winds still exist in most modern day weather chart representations, in this article he identified solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions. He also established the relationship between pressure and height above sea level. His charts were an important contribution to the field of information visualisation. Halley spent most of his time on lunar observations, but was interested in the problems of gravity. One problem that attracted his attention was the proof of Keplers laws of planetary motion, Halleys first calculations with comets were thereby for the orbit of comet Kirch, based on Flamsteeds observations in 1680-1. Although he was to calculate the orbit of the comet of 1682. They indicated a periodicity of 575 years, thus appearing in the years 531 and 1106 and it is now known to have an orbital period of circa 10,000 years. In 1691, Halley built a bell, a device in which the atmosphere was replenished by way of weighted barrels of air sent down from the surface
11.
Hans Sloane
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His name was later used for streets and places such as Hans Place, Hans Crescent and Sloane Square in London, and also to Sir Hans Sloane Square in his birthplace, Killyleagh. Sloane was born on 16 April 1660 at Killyleagh in County Down and he was the seventh son of Alexander Sloane, agent for James Hamilton, second Viscount Claneboye and later first Earl of Clanbrassil. Sloanes family had migrated from Ayrshire in Scotland, but settled in the north of Ireland under James I and his father died when he was six years old. As a youth, Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities and this led him to the study of medicine, which he went to London, where he studied botany, materia medica, surgery and pharmacy. His collecting habits made him useful to John Ray and Robert Boyle, after four years in London he travelled through France, spending some time at Paris and Montpellier, and stayed long enough at the University of Orange-Nassau to take his MD degree there in 1683. He returned to London with a collection of plants and other curiosities, of which the former were sent to Ray. Sloane was elected to the Royal Society in 1685, at the same time attracted the notice of Thomas Sydenham, who gave him valuable introductions to practice. Jamaica was fast emerging as a source of profit to British merchants based on the cultivation of sugar. He became secretary to the Royal Society in 1693, and edited the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for twenty years, Sloane married Elizabeth Langley Rose, the widow of Fulke Rose of Jamaica, and daughter of alderman John Langley. They had three daughters, Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth, and one son, Hans, of the four children only Sarah and Elizabeth survived infancy. Sarah married George Stanley of Paultons and Elizabeth married Charles Cadogan, Sloane encountered cacao while he was in Jamaica, where the locals drank it mixed with water, though he is reported to have found it nauseating. Many recipes for mixing chocolate with spice, eggs, sugar, after returning from Jamaica, Sloane may have devised his own recipe for mixing chocolate with milk, though if so, he was not the first. By the 1750s, a Soho grocer named Nicholas Sanders claimed to be selling Sloanes recipe as a medicinal elixir, by the nineteenth century, the Cadbury Brothers sold tins of drinking chocolate whose trade cards also invoked Sloanes recipe. His practice as a physician among the classes was large, fashionable. He served three successive sovereigns, Queen Anne, George I and George II, in 1716, Sloane was created a baronet, making him the first medical practitioner to receive a hereditary title. In 1719 he became president of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1722, he was appointed physician-general to the army, and in 1727 first physician to George II. In 1727 he succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as president of the Royal Society and he was a founding governor of Londons Foundling Hospital, the nations first institution to care for abandoned children. Sloanes fame is based on his judicious investments rather than what he contributed to the subject of science or even of his own profession
12.
Robert Walpole
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Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC, known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Although the exact dates of his dominance are a matter of scholarly debate and he dominated the Walpole–Townshend ministry and the Walpole ministry and holds the record as the longest-serving Prime Minister in British history. Speck says that Walpoles uninterrupted run of 20 years as Prime Minister is rightly regarded as one of the feats of British political history. He was a Whig from the class, who was first elected to Parliament in 1701. He was a squire and looked to country gentlemen for his political base. Hoppit says Walpoles policies sought moderation, he worked for peace, lower taxes, growing exports and he avoided controversy and high-intensity disputes, as his middle way attracted moderates from both the Whig and Tory camps. Dickinson sums up his role, Walpole was one of the greatest politicians in British history. He played a significant role in sustaining the Whig party, safeguarding the Hanoverian succession and he established a stable political supremacy for the Whig party and taught succeeding ministers how best to establish an effective working relationship between Crown and Parliament. Walpole was born in Houghton, Norfolk, in 1676, Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole was his younger brother. As a child, Walpole attended a school at Massingham. Walpole entered Eton College in 1690 where he was considered an excellent scholar and he left Eton on 2 April 1696 and matriculated at Kings College, Cambridge on the same day. On 25 May 1698 he left Cambridge after the death of his only remaining brother, Edward. Walpole had planned to become a clergyman but as he was now the eldest surviving son in the family, in November 1700 his father died, and Walpole succeeded to the estate. A paper in his fathers handwriting, dated 9 June 1700, shows the estate in Norfolk and Suffolk to have been nine manors in Norfolk. As a young man, Walpole had bought shares in the South Sea Company, which monopolized trade with Spain, the speculative market for slaves, rum and mahogany spawned a frenzy that had ramifications throughout Europe when it collapsed. However, Walpole had bought at the bottom and sold at the top, adding greatly to his inherited wealth, Walpoles political career began in January 1701 when he won a seat in the general election at Castle Rising. He left Castle Rising in 1702 so that he could represent the borough of Kings Lynn. Like his father, Robert Walpole was a member of the Whig Party, in 1705, Walpole was appointed by Queen Anne to be a member of the council for her husband, Prince George of Denmark, Lord High Admiral
Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Dassier, James Anthony". Dictionary of National Biography. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Dassier, James Anthony". Dictionary of National Biography. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
