1.
February
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February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month of the year as it is the month to have a length of less than 30 days. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 days in leap years, February is the third month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the last month of summer, February may be pronounced either as. Many people pronounce it as, as if it were spelled Feb-u-ary and this comes about by analogy with January, as well as by a dissimilation effect whereby having two rs close to each other causes one to change for ease of pronunciation. The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius about 713 BC, February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs, when it became the second month. At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, the Straight Dope, How come February has only 28 days
2.
March
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March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the month to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The name of March comes from Latin Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. It was named after Mars, the Roman god of war, who was regarded as a guardian of agriculture. Martius remained the first month of the Roman calendar year perhaps as late as 153 BC, even in late antiquity, Roman mosaics picturing the months sometimes still placed March first. March 1 began the year in Russia until the end of the 15th century. Great Britain and its colonies continued to use March 25 until 1752, many other cultures and religions still celebrate the beginning of the New Year in March. March is the first month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and these dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. In Finnish, the month is called maaliskuu, which is believed to originate from maallinen kuu, during March, in Ukrainian, the month is called березень/berezenʹ, meaning birch tree, and březen in Czech. Historical names for March include the Saxon Lentmonat, named after the March equinox and gradual lengthening of days, saxons also called March Rhed-monat or Hreth-monath, and Angles called it Hyld-monath. In Slovene, the name is sušec, meaning the month when the earth becomes dry enough so that it is possible to cultivate it. The name was first written in 1466 in the Škofja Loka manuscript, other names were used too, for example brezen and breznik, the month of birches. The Turkish word Mart is given after the name of Mars the god, marchs birthstones are aquamarine and bloodstone. Its birth flower is the daffodil, the zodiac signs for the month of March are Pisces and Aries. This list does not necessarily imply either official status nor general observance, in Catholic tradition, March is the Month of Saint Joseph
3.
April
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April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, the fifth in the early Julian and the first month to have the length of 30 days. The Romans gave this month the Latin name Aprilis but the derivation of this name is uncertain, jacob Grimm suggests the name of a hypothetical god or hero, Aper or Aprus. April was the month of the earliest Roman calendar, before Ianuarius and Februarius were added by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. It became the month of the calendar year during the time of the decemvirs about 450 BC. The 30th day was added during the reform of the calendar undertaken by Julius Caesar in the mid-40s BC, the Venerable Bede says in The Reckoning of Time that this month ēastre is the root of the word Easter. He further states that the month was named after a goddess Eostre whose feast was in that month and it is also attested by Einhard in his work, Vita Karoli Magni. In China the symbolic ploughing of the earth by the emperor and princes of the blood took place in their third month, in Finnish April is huhtikuu, meaning slash-and-burn moon, when gymnosperms for beat and burn clearing of farmland were felled. In Slovene, the most established traditional name is mali traven and it was first written in 1466 in the Škofja Loka manuscript. In Ancient Rome, the festival of Cerealia was held for seven days from mid-to-late April, feriae Latinae was also held in April, with the date varying. Other ancient Roman observances include Veneralia, Megalesia, Fordicidia, Parilia, Vinalia Urbana, Robigalia, floralia was held April 27 during the Republican era, or April 28 on the Julian calendar, and lasted until May 3. However, these dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar, the Lyrids meteor shower appears on April 16-April 26 each year, with the peak generally occurring on April 22. Eta Aquariids meteor shower appears in April. It is visible from about April 21 to about May 20 each year with activity on or around May 6. The Pi Puppids appear on April 23, but only in years around the parent comets perihelion date, the Virginids also shower at various dates in April. The birth flower is typically listed as either the Daisy or the Sweet Pea, the zodiac signs for the month of April are Aries and Taurus. This list does not necessarily imply either official status nor general observance, in Catholic tradition, April is the Month of the Resurrection of the Lord. Seharane is celebrated by Kurdish Jews outside of Israel on this date. A. R. E, Day Fast and Prayer Day Air Force Day Kamakura Matsuri at Tsurugaoka Hachiman, lasts until third Sunday
4.
Leap year
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A leap year is a calendar year containing one additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. By inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected, a year that is not a leap year is called a common year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, each year has 366 days instead of the usual 365. In the Bahai Calendar, a day is added when needed to ensure that the following year begins on the vernal equinox. For example, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday in 2001, Wednesday in 2002, the length of a day is also occasionally changed by the insertion of leap seconds into Coordinated Universal Time, owing to the variability of Earths rotational period. Unlike leap days, leap seconds are not introduced on a regular schedule, in the Gregorian calendar, the standard calendar in most of the world, most years that are multiples of 4 are leap years. In each leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28, adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a period of 365 days is shorter than a tropical year by almost 6 hours. Some exceptions to this rule are required since the duration of a tropical year is slightly less than 365.25 days. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 were not leap years, over a period of four centuries, the accumulated error of adding a leap day every four years amounts to about three extra days. The Gregorian calendar therefore removes three leap days every 400 years, which is the length of its leap cycle and this is done by removing February 29 in the three century years that cannot be exactly divided by 400. The years 1600,2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1700,1800,1900,2100,2200 and 2300 are common years, by this rule, the average number of days per year is 365 + 1⁄4 − 1⁄100 + 1⁄400 =365.2425. The rule can be applied to years before the Gregorian reform, the Gregorian calendar was designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter remains close to the vernal equinox. The Accuracy section of the Gregorian calendar article discusses how well the Gregorian calendar achieves this design goal, the following pseudocode determines whether a year is a leap year or a common year in the Gregorian calendar. The year variable being tested is the representing the number of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Care should be taken in translating mathematical integer divisibility into specific programming languages, if then else if then else if then else February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, the Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a calendar and named many of its days after the syzygies of the moon, the new moon. The Nonae or nones was not the first quarter moon but was exactly one nundina or Roman market week of nine days before the ides and this is what we would call a period of eight days
5.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
6.
Babylonia
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Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia. A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained at this time the city of Babylon. Babylon greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC, during the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called Māt Akkadī the country of Akkad in the Akkadian language. It was often involved in rivalry with its older fellow Akkadian-speaking state of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia and it retained the Sumerian language for religious use, but by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis occurred between Sumerian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian and vice versa is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the millennium as a sprachbund. Traditionally, the religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city of Nippur. The empire eventually disintegrated due to decline, climate change and civil war. Sumer rose up again with the Third Dynasty of Ur in the late 22nd century BC and they also seem to have gained ascendancy over most of the territory of the Akkadian kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a time. The states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance, King Ilu-shuma of the Old Assyrian Empire in a known inscription describes his exploits to the south as follows, The freedom of the Akkadians and their children I established. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal, past scholars originally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated the invading Amorites to the south, but there is no explicit record of that. More recently, the text has been taken to mean that Asshur supplied the south with copper from Anatolia and these policies were continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum. During the first centuries of what is called the Amorite period and his reign was concerned with establishing statehood amongst a sea of other minor city states and kingdoms in the region. However Sumuabum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title of King of Babylon, suggesting that Babylon itself was only a minor town or city. He was followed by Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, each of whom ruled in the same manner as Sumuabum. Sin-Muballit was the first of these Amorite rulers to be regarded officially as a king of Babylon, the Elamites occupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were largely held in vassalage to Elam
7.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
8.
Jeconiah
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Jeconiah, also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin, was a king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon in the 6th century BC and was taken into captivity. He was the son and successor of King Jehoiakim, most of what is known about Jeconiah is found in the Hebrew Bible. Records of Jeconiahs existence have been found in Iraq, such as the Jehoiachins Rations Tablets and these tablets were excavated near the Ishtar Gate in Babylon and have been dated to c.592 BC. Written in cuneiform, they mention Jeconiah and his five sons as recipients of food rations in Babylon, Jeconiah reigned three months and ten days, beginning December 9,598. He succeeded Jehoiakim as king of Judah after raiders from surrounding lands invaded Jerusalem and it is likely that the king of Babylon was behind this effort, as a response to Jehoiakims revolt, starting sometime after 601 BC. Three months and ten days after Jeconiah became king, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar II seized Jerusalem, the intention was to take high class Judahite captives and assimilate them into Babylonian society. On March 15/16th,597 BC, Jeconiah, his entire household, the Masoretic Text of 2 Chronicles states that Jeconiahs rule began at the age of eight, while in 2 Kings 24,8 Jeconiah is said to have come to the throne at eighteen. Modern scholars have treated the difference between eight and eighteen as reflecting a copying error on one side or the other of the question, after Jeconiah was deposed as king, Jeconiahs uncle, Zedekiah, was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to rule Judah. Zedekiah was the son of Josiah, Jeconiah would later be regarded as the first of the exilarchs. In the Book of Ezekiel, the author refers to Jeconiah as king, the author identifies himself as Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeconiah, and he never mentions Zedekiah by name. According to 2 Kings 25,27, Jeconiah was released from prison in the 37th year of the exile, Babylonian records show that Amel-Marduk began his reign in October 562 BC. According to 2 Kings 25,27, Jeconiah was released from prison on the 27th day of the twelfth month and this indicates the first year of captivity to be 598/597 BC, according to Judahs Tishri-based calendar. The 37th year of captivity was thus, by Judean reckoning, -- Jeremiah 22,30, NIV Jeconiah was the son of Jehoiakim with Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. He had seven children, Shealtiel, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, Jeconiah is also mentioned in the first book of Chronicles as the father of Pedaiah, who in turn is the father of Zerubbabel. A list of his descendants is given in 1 Chronicles 3, in listing the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matthew 1,11 records Jeconiah as an ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary. The Babylonian Chronicles establish that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem the first time on 2 Adar 597 BC, Thiele said that the 25th anniversary of Jeconiahs captivity was April 25,573 BC, implying that he began the trip to Babylon on 10 Nisan 597,24 years earlier. His reasoning in arriving at this date was based on Ezekiel 40,1. He therefore ended Jehoiachins reign of three months and ten days on this date, the dates he gives for Jeconiahs reign are then,21 Heshvan 598 BC to 10 Nisan 597 BC
9.
Zedekiah
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Zedekiah, also written Tzidkiyahu, was a biblical character, the last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon. Zedekiahs reign ended with the siege and fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar II, the prophet Jeremiah was his counselor, yet he did not heed the prophet and his epitaph is he did evil in the sight of the Lord. When Babylon rose against Assyria it caused upheavals that led to the destruction of Judah, Egypt, concerned about the new threat, moved northward to support Assyria. It set on the march in 608, moving via Judah, king Josiah attempted to block the Egyptian forces, and fell mortally wounded in battle at Megiddo. Josiahs younger son Jehoahaz was chosen to succeed his father to the throne, three months later the Egyptian pharaoh Necho, returning from the north, deposed Jehoahaz in favor of his older brother, Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was taken back to Egypt as a captive, after the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II then besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim changed allegiances to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem and he paid tribute from the treasury, some temple artifacts, and some of the royal family and nobility as hostages. In 599 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Judah and again laid siege to Jerusalem, in 598 BC,9 Jehoiakim died during the siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah. Jeconiah was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, who installed Zedekiah, Jehoiakims brother, according to the Hebrew Bible, Zedekiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II in 597 BC at the age of twenty-one. This is in agreement with a Babylonian chronicle, which states, The seventh year, In the month Kislev the king of Akkad mustered his army and he encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of the month Adar he captured the city seized king. A king of his own choice he appointed in the city taking the vast tribute he brought it into Babylon, the kingdom was at that time tributary to Nebuchadnezzar II. Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Jerusalem in December 589 BC, during this siege, which lasted about thirty months, every worst woe befell the city, which drank the cup of Gods fury to the dregs. At the end of Zedekiahs eleven-year reign, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in capturing Jerusalem, Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the plains of Jericho, and were taken to Riblah. There, after seeing his sons put to death, his own eyes were put out, and, being loaded with chains, he was carried captive to Babylon, after the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuzaradan was sent to destroy it. The city was plundered and razed to the ground, only a small number of vinedressers and husbandmen were permitted to remain in the land. Gedaliah, with a Chaldean guard stationed at Mizpah, was governor to rule over the remnant of Judah. On hearing this news, all the Jews that were in Moab, Ammon, Edom, however, before long Gedaliah was assassinated, and the population that was left in the land and those that had returned fled to Egypt for safety. In Egypt, they settled in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, the Babylonian Chronicles give 2 Adar,597 BC, as the date that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, thus putting an end to the reign of Jehoaichin
10.
Valentinian III
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Valentinian III was Western Roman Emperor from 425 to 455. His reign was marked by the dismemberment of the Western Empire. Valentinian was born in the capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia. His mother was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, while his father was at the time a Patrician and the power behind the throne. Through his mother, Valentinian was a descendant both of Theodosius I, who was his grandfather, and of Valentinian I, who was the father of his maternal grandmother. It was also through his mothers side of the family that he was the nephew of Honorius and first cousin to Theodosius II, Valentinian had a full sister, Justa Grata Honoria, who was probably born in 417 or 418. When Valentinian was less than two years old, Honorius appointed Constantius co-emperor, a position he would hold until his death seven months later, as a result of all these family ties, Valentinian was the son, grandson, great-grandson, cousin, and nephew of Roman Emperors. In either 421 or 423, Valentinian was given the title of Nobilissimus by Honorius, in 423, Honorius died, and the usurper Joannes took the power in Rome. To counter this threat to his power, Theodosius belatedly recognised Valentinian’s father as Augustus, Theodosius also betrothed him to his own daughter Licinia Eudoxia. Given his minority status, the new Augustus ruled under the regency of his mother Galla Placidia and her regency lasted until 437, and, for the duration, Theodosius II gave her his full support. This period was marked with an imperial policy and an attempt to stabilize the western provinces as far as the stretched resources of the empire could manage. In 425, the court at Ravenna negotiated with the Huns who had accompanied Flavius Aëtius to Italy in support of Joannes and they agreed to leave Italy, and to evacuate the province of Pannonia Valeria, which was returned to the empire. This allowed Felix and the government to restructure the defences along the Danubian provinces in 427 and 428. In addition, there were significant victories over the Visigoths in Gaul in 426/7 and 430, nevertheless, there were significant problems that threatened the viability of the Roman state in the west. The Visigoths were a constant presence in south-eastern Gaul and could not be dislodged, the Vandals in Hispania continued their incursions, and, in 429, they commenced their invasion of Mauretania Tingitana. The loss of these territories seriously impacted the ability to function. The burden of taxation became more and more intolerable as Romes power decreased, in 427, Felix accused Bonifacius of being a traitor and demanded that he return to Italy. Bonifacius refused and defeated an army sent by Felix to capture him, weakened, Felix was unable to resist Aëtius who, with the support of Galla Placidia, replaced him as Magister militum praesentalis in 429, before having him killed in 430
11.
Assassination
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Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, often a political leader or ruler, usually for political reasons or payment. The word assassin is believed to derive from the word Hashshashin. It referred to a group of Nizari Shia Persians who worked against various Arab, founded by the Persian Hassan-i Sabbah, the Assassins were active in the fortress of Alamut in Iran from the 8th to the 14th centuries, and also controlled the castle of Masyaf in Syria. The group killed members of the Persian, Abbasid, Seljuq, the word for murder in many Romance languages is derived from this same root word. Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics and it dates back at least as far as recorded history. The Old Testament story of Judith illustrates how a woman frees the Israelites by tricking and assassinating Holofernes, a warlord of the rival Assyrians, with whom the Israelites were at war. King Joash of Judah was recorded as being assassinated by his own servants, Joab assassinated Absalom, King Davids son, chanakya wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra. His student Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies, other famous victims are Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, and Roman consul Julius Caesar. Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Muslim Shia Imams hundreds of years later, the practice was also well known in ancient China, as in Jing Kes failed assassination of Qin king Ying Zheng in 227 BC. Whilst many assassination were performed by an individual or a small group, the earliest were the sicarii in 6 A. D. who predated the Middle Eastern assassins and Japanese ninjas by centuries. In the Middle Ages, regicide was rare in Western Europe, blinding and strangling in the bathtub were the most commonly used procedures. With the Renaissance, tyrannicide—or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe and this account is, however, contentious among historians, it being most commonly asserted that he died of natural causes. The myth of the Curse of King Zvonimir is based on the legend of his assassination, in 1192, Conrad of Montferrat, the de facto King of Jerusalem, was killed by an assassin. The reigns of King Przemysł II of Poland, William the Silent of the Netherlands, in Russia alone, two emperors, Paul I and his grandson Alexander II, were assassinated within 80 years. In the United Kingdom, only one Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has ever been assassinated—Spencer Perceval on May 11,1812. In the United States, within 100 years, four presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, there have been at least 20 known attempts on U. S. presidents lives. Huey Long, a Senator, was assassinated in September of 1935, the Polish Home Army conducted a regular campaign of assassinations against top Nazi German officials in occupied Poland. Adolf Hitler, meanwhile, was almost killed by his own officers, indias Father of the Nation, Mohandas K. Gandhi, was shot to death on January 30,1948, by Nathuram Godse
12.
Huns
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The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia between the 1st century AD and the 7th century AD. In 91 AD, the Huns were said to be living near the Caspian Sea, by 370, the Huns had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe. In the 18th century, the French scholar Joseph de Guignes became the first to propose a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu people, who were neighbours of China in the 3rd century BC. Since Guignes time, considerable effort has been devoted to investigating such a connection. However, there is no consensus on a direct connection between the dominant element of the Xiongnu and that of the Huns. Numerous other ethnic groups were included under Attilas rule, including very many speakers of Gothic and their main military technique was mounted archery. The Huns may have stimulated the Great Migration, a factor in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. They formed an empire under Attila the Hun, who died in 453. Variants of the Hun name are recorded in the Caucasus until the early 8th century, the Huns were a confederation of warrior bands, ready to integrate other groups to increase their military power, in the Eurasian Steppe in the 4th to 6th centuries AD. Most aspects of their ethnogenesis are uncertain, walter Pohl explicitly states, All we can say safely is that the name Huns, in late antiquity, described prestigious ruling groups of steppe warriors. Jerome associated them with the Scythians in a letter, written four years after the Huns invaded the eastern provinces in 395. The equation of the Huns with the Scythians, together with a fear of the coming of the Antichrist in the late 4th century. This demonization of the Huns is also reflected in Jordaness Getica, written in the 6th century, otto J. Maenchen-Helfen was the first to challenge the traditional approach, based primarily on the study of written sources, and to emphasize the importance of archaeological research. Thereafter the identification of the Xiongnu as the Huns ancestors became controversial among some, the similarity of their ethnonyms is one of the most important links between the two peoples. A Sogdian merchant described the invasion of northern China by the Xwn people in a letter, Étienne de la Vaissière asserts both documents prove that Huna or Xwn were the exact transcriptions of the Chinese Xiongnu name. Christopher P. Atwood rejects that identification because of the very poor match between the three words. For instance, Xiongnu begins with a velar fricative, Huna with a voiceless glottal fricative, Xiongnu is a two-syllable word. However, according to Zhengzhang Shangfang, Xiongnu was pronounced in Late Old Chinese, the Chinese Book of Wei contain references to the remains of the descendants of the Xiongnu who lived in the region of the Altai Mountains in the early 5th century AD
13.
Bow and arrow
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The bow and arrow is a projectile weapon system that predates recorded history and is common to most cultures. Archery is the art, practice, or skill of applying it, a bow is a flexible arc that shoots aerodynamic projectiles called arrows. A string joins the two ends of the bow and when the string is drawn back, the ends of the bow are flexed, when the string is released, the potential energy of the flexed stick is transformed into the kinetic energy of the arrow. Archery is the art or sport of shooting arrows from bows, today, bows and arrows are used primarily for hunting and for the sport of archery. Someone who makes bows is known as a bowyer, and one who makes arrows is a fletcher —or in the case of the manufacture of arrow heads. The bow and arrow appears around the transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, at the site of Nataruk in Turkana County, Kenya, obsidian bladelets found embedded in a skull and within the thoracic cavity of another skeleton, suggest the use of stone-tipped arrows as weapons. After the end of the last glacial period, use of the bow seems to have spread to every inhabited continent, including the New World, the oldest extant bows in one piece are the elm Holmegaard bows from Denmark which were dated to 9,000 BCE. High-performance wooden bows are made following the Holmegaard design. Microliths discovered on the south coast of Africa suggest that arrows may be at least 71,000 years old, the bow was an important weapon for both hunting and warfare from prehistoric times until the widespread use of gunpowder in the 16th century. Organised warfare with bows ended in the mid 17th century in Europe, the British upper class led a revival of archery from the late 18th century. Sir Ashton Lever, an antiquarian and collector, formed the Toxophilite Society in London in 1781, under the patronage of George, the basic elements of a bow are a pair of curved elastic limbs, traditionally made from wood, joined by a riser. Both ends of the limbs are connected by a known as the bow string. By pulling the string backwards the archer exerts compressive force on the section, or belly, of the limbs as well as placing the outer section, or back. While the string is held, this stores the energy released in putting the arrow to flight. The force required to hold the string stationary at full draw is used to express the power of a bow. Other things being equal, a draw weight means a more powerful bow. The various parts of the bow can be subdivided into further sections, the topmost limb is known as the upper limb, while the bottom limb is the lower limb. At the tip of each limb is a nock, which is used to attach the bowstring to the limbs, the riser is usually divided into the grip, which is held by the archer, as well as the arrow rest and the bow window
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Campus Martius
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The Campus Martius, was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about 2 square kilometres in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome, the IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers a smaller section of the original area, bears the same name. Washing ashore further downriver, the brothers would return later to found a new city. Romulus, who became Rome’s sole king, ruled for years until sometime in the seventh century B. C. As he came to the end of his life, a cloud descended upon the center of the open field outside the city’s pomerium in order to lift the elderly king to heaven. This land, “between the city and the Tiber, ” became the property of Rome’s last Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus, after his defeat and exile, the plain was dedicated to the god Mars. Roman men assembled every spring before heading off to fight hostile tribes, surrounding Rome, with the exception of a small altar to Mars near the center of the field, it wasn’t until the fifth century B. C. that any visible changes were made to the field. In 435 B. C. the Villa Publica was established in a prepared 300m clearing, the area was meant to be a gathering space for citizens to congregate every five years, to be counted in a census. Free from any permanent structures, no additions would be made for two centuries. With the advent of the Punic Wars in the mid-third century B. C. Roman military expansion moved out of the Italian peninsula, the number of foreign wars, however, greatly increased the amount of wealth flowing into Rome. Generals who had sworn to various deities to build temples in their honor if victorious, besides temples and wooden markets, entertainment venues were built also, though they were to be temporary. Starting in the time of Sulla, building lots were sold or granted to influential Romans and it later became the place for comitia centuriata, civic meetings with weapons, and for the citys militia. In 55 BC, Pompey constructed a permanent theater made of stone, when the Curia Hostilia burnt down in 52 BC, the theater was sometimes used as a meeting place for the Senate. The area was used as the assembling ground for elections. Julius Caesar planned for the Saepta to be placed there, they were completed by his heir Augustus. In 33 BC, Octavian dedicated the Porticus Octaviae, built from spoils of the Dalmatian War, the Campus Martius also held the Ara Pacis, built by the Senate to mark the establishment of peace by Augustus. It was intended to symbolize the successful completion of Augustus efforts to stabilize the Empire, Marcus Agrippa had the original swampy ground made into a pool and baths in a setting of parkland and temples, the Laconicum Sudatorium or Baths of Agrippa. Also, he built the Porticus Argonautarum and the Pantheon, which was rebuilt by Hadrian as it still stands today
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Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
