1.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
2.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
3.
Treaty
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A treaty is an agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, pact, or exchange of letters, regardless of terminology, all of these forms of agreements are, under international law, equally considered treaties and the rules are the same. A treaty is an official, express written agreement that states use to bind themselves. Since the late 19th century, most treaties have followed a consistent format. A treaty typically begins with a preamble describing the parties and their joint objectives in executing the treaty. Modern preambles are sometimes structured as a very long sentence formatted into multiple paragraphs for readability. The end of the preamble and the start of the agreement is often signaled by the words have agreed as follows. After the preamble comes numbered articles, which contain the substance of the actual agreement. Each article heading usually encompasses a paragraph, a long treaty may further group articles under chapter headings. The date is written in its most formal, longest possible form. For example, the Charter of the United Nations was DONE at the city of San Francisco the twenty-sixth day of June, one nine hundred. If the treaty is executed in multiple copies in different languages, that fact is always noted, the signatures of the parties representatives follow at the very end. Bilateral treaties are concluded between two states or entities, each of these treaties has seventeen parties. These however are still bilateral, not multilateral, treaties, the parties are divided into two groups, the Swiss and the EU and its member states. The treaty establishes rights and obligations between the Swiss and the EU and the member states severally—it does not establish any rights and obligations amongst the EU, a multilateral treaty is concluded among several countries. The agreement establishes rights and obligations between each party and every other party, Treaties of mutual guarantee are international compacts, e. g. the Treaty of Locarno which guarantees each signatory against attack from another. Reservations are essentially caveats to an acceptance of a treaty. Reservations are unilateral statements purporting to exclude or to modify the legal obligation and these must be included at the time of signing or ratification, i. e. a party cannot add a reservation after it has already joined a treaty
4.
NATO
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party, three NATO members are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear-weapon states. NATOs headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries across North America and Europe, an additional 22 countries participate in NATOs Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total, Members defence spending is supposed to amount to 2% of GDP. The course of the Cold War led to a rivalry with nations of the Warsaw Pact, politically, the organization sought better relations with former Warsaw Pact countries, several of which joined the alliance in 1999 and 2004. N. The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the treaty and the Soviet Berlin Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Unions Defence Organization in September 1948. However, participation of the United States was thought necessary both to counter the power of the USSR and to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism. He got a hearing, especially considering American anxiety over Italy. In 1948 European leaders met with U. S. defense, military and diplomatic officials at the Pentagon, marshalls orders, exploring a framework for a new and unprecedented association. Talks for a new military alliance resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty and it included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the goal was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in. Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in a pro-neutrality, the creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought called Atlanticism which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation. The members agreed that an attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an aggressor, although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which they do so. This differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels, which states that the response will be military in nature. It is nonetheless assumed that NATO members will aid the attacked member militarily, the treaty was later clarified to include both the members territory and their vessels, forces or aircraft above the Tropic of Cancer, including some Overseas departments of France. The creation of NATO brought about some standardization of allied military terminology, procedures, and technology, the roughly 1300 Standardization Agreements codified many of the common practices that NATO has achieved
5.
Rio Treaty
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The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was an agreement signed in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many countries of the Americas. The central principle contained in its articles is that an attack against one is to be considered an attack against them all, the treaty was initially created in 1947 and came into force in 1948, in accordance with Article 22 of the treaty. The Bahamas was the most recent country to sign and ratify it in 1982, during the 1930s the US had been alarmed by Axis overtures toward military cooperation with Latin American governments, apparent strategic threats against the Panama Canal were of particular concern. These were discussed in a series of meetings of the International Conference of American States, some countries had signed the Declaration by United Nations in early 1942 and more had signed by the end of 1945. In light of the developing Cold War and following the statement of the Truman Doctrine, the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was the first of many so-called mutual security agreements, and the formalization of the Act of Chapultepec. The treaty was adopted by the signatories on 2 September 1947 in Rio de Janeiro. It came into force on 3 December 1948 and was registered with the United Nations on 20 December 1948, the treaty was invoked numerous times during the 1950s and 1960s, in particular supporting the United States naval blockade unanimously during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the exceptions of Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas, no countries that became independent after 1947 have joined the treaty and this was seen by most Latin American countries as the final failure of the treaty. On 2008, the Union of South American Nations created a new security council to take care of their own defence issues. The treaty has been denounced by Nicaragua on 20 September 2012, Bolivia on 17 October 2012, Venezuela on 14 May 2013, military alliance SICOFAA Mutual Defense Assistance Act Mutual Security Act United States-Latin American relations
6.
Brussels Treaty
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As the Treaty of Brussels contained a mutual defence clause, it provided a basis upon which the 1954 Paris Conference established the Western European Union. It was terminated on 31 March 2010, the Treaty was intended to provide western Europe with a bulwark against the communist threat and to bring greater collective security. The Pact had cultural and social clauses, and concepts for the setting up of a Consultative Council, the basis for this was that a cooperation between Western nations would help stop the spread of Communism. In that it was an effort towards European post-war security cooperation, in September 1948, the parties to the Treaty of Brussels decided to create a military agency under the name of the Western Union Defence Organization. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was appointed permanent Chairman of the Land, Naval and Air Commanders-in-Committee, with headquarters in Fontainebleau, volume 3 of Nigel Hamiltons Life of Montgomery of Alamein gives a good account of the disagreements between Montgomery and de Lattre which caused much ill-feeling in the headquarters. On this occasion it was renamed the Western European Union, Western Europe therefore sought a new mutual defence pact involving the United States, a powerful military force for such an alliance. The United States, concerned with containing the influence of the USSR, was responsive to this idea, there was therefore rapid progress on this idea, and secret meetings had already begun by the end of March, where American, Canadian and British officials negotiated over the concept. Eventually, it would lead to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation by the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington DC in 1949, the Western Union Defence Organization structure was absorbed into NATO from December 1950 to April 1951. NATOs Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe took over the WUDOs defence role, in 1954 West Germany and Italy were invited to join the pact, and accordingly the Brussels Treaty was modified. The Western European Union was established, in 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon took over the WEUs mutual defence clause. After the discussion the ten member states decided to terminate the Treaty of Brussels on 31 March 2010, the activities of WEU were terminated by June 2011. European Navigator The Treaty of Brussels History until the creation of the WEU Brussels Pact
7.
John D. Hickerson
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John Dewey Hickerson was a United States diplomat. John D. Hickerson was born at Crawford, Texas on January 26,1898 and he was educated at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a B. A. in 1920. After college, Hickerson joined the United States Foreign Service and he was a vice consul in Tampico, Tamaulipas from 1920 to 1922, then in Rio de Janeiro from 1922 to 1924. He was then promoted to consul and served in capacity at Pará in 1924-25. He moved to Washington, D. C. in 1928, becoming Assistant Chief of the United States Department of States Division of West European Affairs and he also sat on the State Departments Board of Appeals & Review from 1934 until 1941. In 1940, Hickerson became secretary of the American section of the newly formed Permanent Joint Board on Defense and he held this position for the duration of World War II. He also served as Chief of the State Departments Division of British Commonwealth Affairs in 1944, in this capacity, he was an adviser to the U. S. delegation to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and to the United Nations Conference on International Organization. In 1947, he was promoted to Director of the Office of European Affairs and he then spent the next two years as a faculty adviser at the National War College. President Dwight D. Eisenhower named Hickerson United States Ambassador to Finland in 1955, Hickerson presented his credentials on November 23,1955 and left this post on November 3,1959. Eisenhower then appointed Hickerson as United States Ambassador to the Philippines, in retirement, Hickerson lived in Washington, D. C. He died of cancer on January 18,1989, NNDB Profile John D. Hickerson,91, Foreign Service Officer, New York Times, Jan. 20,1989 Oral history from the Truman Library
8.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
9.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
10.
11 September 2001 attacks
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The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11,2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and it was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively. Suspicion for the attack fell on al-Qaeda. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. Although al-Qaedas leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U. S. support of Israel, the presence of U. S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives. Having evaded capture for almost a decade, bin Laden was located and killed by SEAL Team Six of the U. S. Navy in May 2011. S. many closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed, out of respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, on November 18,2006, construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site. The building was opened on November 3,2014. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen to resist the Soviets. Under the guidance of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden became more radical, in 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā, calling for American soldiers to leave Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden used Islamic texts to exhort Muslims to attack Americans until the stated grievances are reversed, Muslim legal scholars have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries, according to bin Laden. Bin Laden, who orchestrated the attacks, initially denied but later admitted involvement, in November 2001, U. S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. In the video, bin Laden is seen talking to Khaled al-Harbi, on December 27,2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he said, It has become clear that the West in general and it is the hatred of crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, the transcript refers several times to the United States specifically targeting Muslims. He said that the attacks were carried out because, we are free, and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours, Bin Laden said he had personally directed his followers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
11.
The Pentagon
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The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D. C. As a symbol of the U. S. military, The Pentagon is often used metonymically to refer to the U. S. Department of Defense, the Pentagon was designed by American architect George Bergstrom, and built by general contractor John McShain of Philadelphia. Ground was broken for construction on September 11,1941, General Brehon Somervell provided the major motive power behind the project, Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the U. S. Army. The Pentagon is one of the worlds largest office buildings, with about 6,500,000 sq ft, approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 mi of corridors. It was the first significant foreign attack on Washingtons governmental facilities since the city was burned by the British, when World War II broke out in Europe, the War Department rapidly expanded in anticipation that the United States would be drawn into the conflict. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson found the situation unacceptable, with the Munitions Building overcrowded, Stimson told U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1941 that the War Department needed additional space. On July 17,1941, a hearing took place, organized by Virginia congressman Clifton Woodrum. Reybold agreed to back to the congressman within five days. The War Department called upon its construction chief, General Brehon Somervell, Government officials agreed that the War Department building, officially designated Federal Office Building No 1, should be constructed across the Potomac River, in Arlington County, Virginia. Requirements for the new building were that it be no more than four stories tall, the requirements meant that, instead of rising vertically, the building would be sprawling over a large area. Possible sites for the building included the Department of Agricultures Arlington Experimental Farm, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, the site originally chosen was Arlington Farms which had a roughly pentagonal shape, so the building was planned accordingly as an irregular pentagon. Concerned that the new building could obstruct the view of Washington, D. C. from Arlington Cemetery, the building retained its pentagonal layout because a major redesign at that stage would have been costly, and Roosevelt liked the design. Freed of the constraints of the asymmetric Arlington Farms site, it was modified into a pentagon which resembled the star forts of the gunpowder age. While the project went through the process in late July 1941, Somervell selected the contractors, including John McShain, Inc. and Doyle and Russell. In addition to the Hoover Airport site and other government-owned land, construction of the Pentagon required an additional 287 acres, which were acquired at a cost of $2.2 million. The Hells Bottom neighborhood, a slum with numerous pawnshops, factories, approximately 150 homes, Later 300 acres of land were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery and to Fort Myer, leaving 280 acres for the Pentagon. Contracts totaling $31,100,000 were finalized with McShain and the contractors on September 11
12.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
13.
Paul-Henri Spaak
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Paul Henri Charles Spaak was an influential Belgian politician and statesman also considered as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. A convinced socialist, Spaak entered politics in 1932 for the Belgian Workers Party and he became Prime Minister of Belgium in 1938 and held the position until 1939. After the war, he regained the position of Prime Minister, first for under a month in March 1946. He held various further Belgian ministerial portfolios until 1966 and he was Belgiums Foreign Minister for 18 years between 1939 and 1966. Spaak, a supporter of multilateralism, became internationally famous for his support of international cooperation. In 1945, he was chosen to chair the first session of the General Assembly of the new United Nations, a long-running supporter of European integration, Spaak had been an early advocate of customs union and had negotiated the Benelux agreement in 1944. He received the Charlemagne Prize the same year, between 1957 and 1961, he served as the second Secretary-General of NATO. Retiring from Belgian politics in 1966, Spaak died in 1972, Paul-Henri Spaak was born on 25 January 1899 in Schaerbeek, Belgium, to a distinguished Belgian family. The Spaak family originated from Bohuslän in Sweden and his maternal grandfather, Paul Janson was an important member of the Liberal Party. His mother, Marie Janson was a socialist, and the first woman to enter the Belgian Senate, after death of Marguerite in August 1964, he married Simone Dear in April 1965. His brother was the screenwriter Charles Spaak and his niece was the actress Catherine Spaak, and one of his grandsons is the artist Anthony Palliser. During the 1940s, during his time in New York with the United Nations, during World War I, Spaak attempted to join the Belgian Army but was captured by the Germans and spent the next two years in a German prison camp. At the end of the war, Spaak was released from captivity and entered the Université Libre de Bruxelles, during the same period, Spaak was also a tennis star, and played for the Belgian team in the 1922 Davis Cup. He became a member of the Socialist Belgian Labour Party in 1920 and he was elected deputy in 1932. In 1935 he entered the cabinet of Paul Van Zeeland as Minister of Transport, in February 1936 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving first under Zeeland and then under his uncle, Paul-Émile Janson. From May 1938 to February 1939 he was Prime Minister for the first time, in 1938, he allowed Herman Van Breda to smuggle the legacy of Edmund Husserl out of Nazi Germany to Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Berlin. In social policy, a number of reforms were realised during Spaaks first premiership. The Act also removed a previous requirement in which a wage earner had to work for at least a year with the employer in order to earn an annual holiday
14.
Lester B. Pearson
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He was the 14th Prime Minister of Canada from 22 April 1963 to 20 April 1968, as the head of two back-to-back Liberal minority governments following elections in 1963 and 1965. During Pearsons time as Prime Minister, his Liberal minority governments introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and his Liberal government also unified Canadas armed forces. Pearson convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and he kept Canada out of the Vietnam War, Pearson was born in Newtonbrook in the township of York, Ontario, the son of Annie Sarah and Edwin Arthur Pearson, a Methodist minister. He was the brother of Vaughan Whitier Pearson and Marmaduke Pearson, the family lived in the Methodist manse at the corner of Spruce St. and Catherine St. The home still exists but is in private hands, the Methodist church in downtown Aurora became the United Church of Canada. The church was demolished following a fire in 2014. Rev. Pearson was a member of the Aurora Rugby team where young Mike apparently got his inspiration, Pearson graduated from Hamilton Collegiate Institute in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1913 at the age of 16. Later that same year, he entered Victoria College at the University of Toronto and he was later elected to the Pi Gamma Mu social sciences honour societys chapter at the University of Toronto for his outstanding scholastic performance in history and psychology. After Victoria College, Pearson won a scholarship to study at St Johns College, Oxford, at the University of Toronto, he became a noted athlete, excelling in rugby union, and also playing basketball. He later also played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club while on a scholarship at the University of Oxford, Pearson also excelled in baseball and lacrosse as a youth. His baseball talents as an infielder were strong enough for a summer of semi-pro play with the Guelph Maple Leafs of the Ontario Intercounty Baseball League, Pearson toured North American with a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities lacrosse team in 1923. After he joined the University of Toronto History Department as an instructor, he helped to coach the U of Ts football and he played golf and tennis to high standards as an adult. When World War I broke out in 1914, Pearson volunteered for service as an orderly with the University of Toronto Hospital Unit. In 1915, he entered service with the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a stretcher bearer with the rank of private. During this period of service he spent two years in Egypt and in Greece and he also spent time in the Serbian Army as a corporal and a medical orderly. Pearson learned to fly at an air training school in Hendon and he survived an aeroplane crash during his first flight. In 1918, Pearson was hit by a bus in London during a blackout and he was sent home to recuperate. It was as a pilot that he received the nickname of Mike, thereafter, Pearson would use the name Lester on official documents and in public life, but was always addressed as Mike by friends and family
15.
H. H. Wrong
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Humphrey Hume Wrong was a Canadian historian, professor, career diplomat, and Canadas ambassador to the United States. He was born in Toronto and died in Ottawa, Wrong was the grandson of Liberal Party leader Edward Blake and son of historian George MacKinnon Wrong. At age five he suffered the loss of an eye in an accident, Hume Wrong graduated from high school at Ridley College and was a graduate of the University of Toronto where he joined The Kappa Alpha Society. During World War I, Wrong served in the British Expeditionary Force where he was sent to the front before being invalided. After the war, he went to the University of Oxford for graduate study, in April 1927 he became First Secretary to Vincent Massey, head of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. Wrong served in the League of Nations and in 1938 he represented Canada at the Évian Conference, in 1941 he went to Washington when Leighton McCarthy was made Ambassador, then 71 years old. That made Hume the de facto head of the delegation for Canada in Washington, a subsidiary principle is that the influence of the various countries should be greatest in connection with those matters with which they are most directly concerned. Howe on the Combined Production and Resources Board, and of other seats on the Combined Food Board, were evidence of the practice of functionalism, in 1946 Hume Wrong was appointed the Ambassador for Canada and he remained in the post until 1953. He was one of the key architects of the North Atlantic Treaty and he later rose to become the Canadian Undersecretary of External Affairs and was named undersecretary to NATO, but died before he could take up the post. Wrong is buried at Maclaren Cemetery in Wakefield, Quebec with his fellow diplomats and friends Norman Robertson and he is the father of renowned sociologist Dennis Wrong, and the grandfather of documentary filmmaker Terence Wrong. Humphrey Hume Wrong Biography at The Canadian Encyclopedia
16.
Denmark
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth
17.
Henrik Kauffmann
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Henrik Kauffmann was the Danish ambassador to the United States during World War II. The treaty was signed by the United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull, kauffmanns treaty was approved by the local officials on Greenland but declared void by the Danish government in Copenhagen. Kauffmann ignored this protest citing that Denmark was occupied by a power, consequently. The government responded by charging Kauffmann with high treason and stripping him of his rank, kauffmanns line was supported by the Danish consuls general in the United States, as well as by the Danish ambassador to Iran. These diplomats were dismissed as well, Kauffmann replied by urging Danish diplomats around the world not to follow instructions from Copenhagen. Kauffmann was nicknamed the King of Greenland for his independent political moves in the Greenland affair and he was married to Charlotte MacDougall, the daughter of Rear Admiral William D. MacDougall. Revoking the sentence against Kauffmann was one of the first tasks done by the Danish Parliament following the Liberation of Denmark in May 1945, Kauffmann joined the Cabinet of National Unity and served as Minister without Portfolio from 12 May to 7 November 1945. Kauffmanns treaty was adapted in the early 1950s and remains the basis for the U. S. Thule Air Base in Greenland. In June 1963, Kauffmann, suffering from cancer, was killed by his wife in a mercy killing. His wife, Charlotte, then took her own life, henrik Kauffmann i dansk diplomati 1919–1958
18.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
19.
Robert Schuman
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Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman was a Luxembourg-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist, the 1964–1965 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. Schuman was born in June 1886, in Clausen, Luxembourg, Schumans secondary schooling from 1896 to 1903 was at Athénée de Luxembourg, followed in 1904 by the Lycée impérial in Metz. In 1912 Schuman set up practice as a lawyer in Metz, when war broke out in 1914 he was called up for the auxiliary troops by the German army in Metz but excused from military service on health grounds. From 1915 to 1918 he served in the administration of the Boulay district, after the First World War, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France and Schuman became a French citizen in 1919. Schuman became active in French politics, in 1919 he was first elected as député to parliament on a regional list, and later serving as the député for Thionville until 1958 with an interval during the war years. This harmonization of the law with the French law was called Lex Schuman. In 1940, because of his expertise on Germany, Schuman was called to become a member of Paul Reynauds wartime government and he kept that charge during the first Pétain government. On July 10, he voted to give power to Hitlers ally Marshal Pétain. Later that year, on September 14, he was arrested for acts of resistance and he was interrogated by the Gestapo but thanks to the intervention of a German lawyer, he was saved from being sent to Dachau. Transferred as a prisoner of Gauleiter Joseph Buerckel, he escaped in 1942. He addressed large conferences in the Free Zone explaining why the defeat of Germany was inevitable and this was at a time when Nazi Germany was at the peak of its power. The Germans then invaded the Free Zone, although his life was still at risk, he spoke to friends about a Franco-German and European reconciliation that must take place after the end of hostilities, as he had already done in 1939–40. After the war, Schuman rose to great prominence and he initially had difficulties because of his 1940 vote and his tenure as Pétains minister. The Defense minister Andre Diethelm stated that this Vichy product should be kicked out. As all those who had voted for Pétain, he was ineligible and he was stricken with Indignité nationale. On July 24,1945, Schuman wrote to General de Gaulle to ask him to intervene, de Gaulle answered favorably, and on September 15, Schuman regained his full civic rights, becoming able to again play an active role in French politics. He was Minister of Finance, then Prime Minister from 1947–1948, assuring parliamentary stability during a period of revolutionary strikes, in the last days of his first administration, his government proposed plans that later resulted in the Council of Europe and the European Community single market
20.
Henri Bonnet
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Henri Bonnet was a French politician, diplomat, and French ambassador to the United States from 1944 to 1954. The son of J. Th. and Marie Thérèse Bonnet, he was educated at the Lycées of Tours and Paris and he was married to Hellé Zervoudaki. He was foreign editor for Ere Nouvelle in 1919, Director, International Inst. of Intellectual Cooperation and he was a member of the secretariat of the League of Nations from 1921 to 1931. He was Information Commissioner in the French Committee of National Liberation, http, //www. oac. cdlib. org/findaid/ark, /13030/kt5t1nf0v6/ Overview of the Henri Bonnet typescript, The United Nations A film clip Henri Bonnet is available at the Internet Archive
21.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
22.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
23.
Carlo Sforza
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Count Carlo Sforza was an Italian diplomat and anti-Fascist politician. Sforza was born at Lucca, the son of Count Giovanni Sforza, an archivist and noted historian from Montignoso. His father was a descendant of the Counts of Castel San Giovanni, at the death of his older brother in 1936, Carlo inherited the hereditary title of Count granted to their father in 1910. After graduating in law from the University of Pisa, Sforza entered the service in 1896. He served as consular attaché in Cairo and Paris, then as secretary in Constantinople. He was then appointed chargé daffaires in Bucharest in 1905, but an incident caused him to resign in December of the same year. Nevertheless, he was sent as private secretary of Marquis Emilio Visconti-Venosta, visconti-Venostas recommendation earned him the post of first secretary of legation in Madrid, before being sent as chargé daffaires in Constantinople where he witnessed the Young Turk Revolution. Counsellor of Embassy at London in 1909, he made is first experience of government as cabinet secretary of the Italian foreign minister for some months in the Fortis cabinet. Sforza was in favour of an Italian intervention in the First World War on the side of the Allies, from 1915 to 1919, he was sent as ambassador in Corfu to the exiled Serbian government. After the First World War he became Italian foreign minister under Giovanni Giolitti, in 1921 Sforza upset nationalist right-wing forces by signing the Rapallo Treaty which recognised the important port of Fiume as a free city. As minister of Foreign Affairs he was instrumental in breaking the proto-fascist feud led by poet Gabriele DAnnunzio in Fiume and he remained foreign minister until the fall of the Giolitti cabinet on 4 July 1921. Sforza was appointed ambassador to France in February 1922 but resigned from office nine months later on 31 October after Benito Mussolini had gained power and he led the anti-fascist opposition in the Senate until being forced into exile in 1926. After the murder in France in 1937 of Carlo Rosselli, leader of the Giustizia e Libertà movement, count Sforza became the de facto leader of Italian antifascism in exile, Sforza lived in Belgium and France until the German occupation in June 1940. He then settled in England where he lived until moving on to the United States, the conference approved Sforzas agenda and acclaimed him spiritual head of the Italian antifascists. After the surrender in September 1943, he returned to his country, Sforza in 1946 became a member of the Italian Republican Party. As foreign minister he supported the European Recovery Program and the settlement of Trieste and he was a convinced advocate and one of the designers of Italys pro-European policy and with De Gasperi he led Italy into the Council of Europe. On 18 April 1951 he signed the Treaty instituting the European Coal and Steel Community, Count Carlo Sforza died in Rome in 1952. The latter first married Corinne Simon and then Anne Spehner, but did not leave a son, Carlo Sforza was also the alleged biological father of Konstanty Jeleński
24.
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
25.
Joseph Bech
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Joseph Bech was a Luxembourgian politician. He was the 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg, serving for eleven years and he returned to the position after World War II, becoming the 17th Prime Minister, serving for another four years, from 29 December 1953 until 29 March 1958. The 1982–1983 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour, Bech studied Law at Fribourg and Paris, before receiving his doctorate in law in 1912, and qualifying as a lawyer in 1914. The same year, on 30 June, he was elected to the Luxembourgian Chamber of Deputies for the newly founded Party of the Right, on 15 April 1921, Bech was appointed to Émile Reuters cabinet, holding the positions of Director-General for the Interior and Director-General for Education. In 1925, Bech lost these positions, as the Party of the Right was edged out of government by a coalition of all other parties, when Prüms coalition collapsed, in 1926, Bech became Prime Minister, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Education and Wine-growing. He was to remain Foreign and Wine-growing Minister until 1954 and his term as Prime Minister, on the other hand, lasted until 1937, when he resigned over the outcome in the referendum on the Maulkuerfgesetz. At various points he held the portfolios of Agriculture, Arts and Sciences. In World War II Bech was the Foreign Minister of the Luxembourg government-in-exile in London, in this capacity he signed the Benelux Treaty in 1944. Bech is considered to be one of the Founding Fathers of the European Community and he was one of the participants of the Messina Conference in 1955, which would lead to the Treaty of Rome in 1957. He was Prime Minister again from 1953 to 1958, succeeding Pierre Dupong and he remained in the government until 1959, after this he was President of the Chamber of Deputies until 1964
26.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
27.
Dirk Stikker
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Dirk Uipko Stikker, GBE, GCVO was a Dutch banker, industrialist, politician, and diplomat. Born in Winschoten, he studied law at the University of Groningen, after his studies he began a career in the banking sector. In 1935, he director of Heineken International, the famous beer company. He held this post until 1948, in 1945, he was among the organizers of the Stichting van de Arbeid, thus helping to lay the foundation of post-war collective bargaining in the Netherlands. In 1964, Stikker was awarded a doctorate by Brown University. He died in Wassenaar in 1979, aged 82, Stikker entered politics in 1945, when he was elected to the Senate of the States General. On 23 March 1946, he co-founded the Partij van de Vrijheid, on 24 January 1948, the PvdV was absorbed by the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, which is as of 2004 the countrys most important Liberal party. Stikker was the VVDs first chairman, in 1948, Stikker became minister of foreign affairs in the first government led by Willem Drees, holding that position until 1951. After his party adopted a motion over the governments colonial policy in New Guinea, Stikker resigned on 23 January 1951. He returned to that position less than two months later, the Netherlands played an important role in the creation of NATO and the European Coal and Steel Community during Stikkers time in office as minister of foreign affairs. On 21 April 1961, he succeeded Paul-Henri Spaak, to become the third Secretary General of NATO and he resigned due to poor health on 1 August 1964. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe, a biographical dictionary pp. 427-32, NATO Declassified - Dirk Stikker Sports career
28.
Eelco van Kleffens
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Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens was a politician and diplomat of the Netherlands. Eelco van Kleffens descended from an old Frisian family of public servants and he was the son of Henricus Cato and Jeannette Frésine van Kleffens. His younger brother Adrianus van Kleffens would later become a judge at the European Court of Justice and he married Margaret Helen Horstman on 4 April 1935. After receiving a Doctor of Laws degree from Leiden University, van Kleffens worked in the Secretariat of the League of Nations and he became secretary to the Directorate of Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. in 1920. In the early 1930s he was also Secretary-General of the Hague Academy of International Law, van Kleffens was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1939, weeks before World War II began, and was part of the Dutch government in exile over that period. Van Kleffens held the position of foreign minister until the Schermerhorn/Drees cabinet of 1946, in 1950 he became the ambassador to Portugal, and was bestowed the title of Minister of State, a prestigious honour. In 1954 van Kleffens was appointed to the position of President of the United Nations General Assembly for that bodys ninth session, UN biography Speech on foreign policy from 1943
29.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
30.
Halvard Lange
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Halvard Manthey Lange was a Norwegian diplomat, politician and statesman. He became a member of the Norwegian Labour Party in 1927, two years later, in 1929, he earned a Master of Arts degree. He worked as a teacher 1930-35 and lectured at the University of Oslo 1935-38 and he was arrested by the Nazi German occupying forces in 1942 and spent the rest of the war in various concentration camps. He was the Norwegian foreign minister from 1946 till 1965, except for a month in 1963 during the administration of John Lyng and he was viewed as right-wing politician in the Norwegian Labour Party, partially because of his strong support for Western alignment. Mr. Lange was, together with Lester B. Pearson and Gaetano Martino, a result of this work was the formation of the NATO Science Programme in 1957. His father was Nobel Peace Prize winner Christian Lous Lange and his brother Carl Viggo also became a member of Parliament. Nobel committee bio Quotations related to Halvard Lange at Wikiquote
31.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
32.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
33.
Ernest Bevin
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Ernest Bevin was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour politician. He co-founded and served as secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers Union from 1922-40. He succeeded in maximizing the British labour supply, for both the services and domestic industrial production, with a minimum of strikes and disruption. His most important role came as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government and he gained American financial support, strongly opposed Communism, and aided in the creation of NATO. Bevins tenure also saw the end of the Mandate of Palestine, Bevin was born in the village of Winsford in Somerset, England, to Diana Bevin who, since 1877, had described herself as a widow. After his mothers death in 1889, the young Bevin lived with his half-sisters family and he had little formal education, having briefly attended two village schools and then Haywards School, Crediton, starting in 1890 and leaving in 1892. He later recalled being asked as a child to read the newspaper aloud for the benefit of adults in his family who were illiterate. At the age of eleven, he went to work as a labourer, then as a driver in Bristol. In 1910 he became secretary of the Bristol branch of the Dockers Union, Bevin was a physically huge man, strong and by the time of his political prominence very heavy. He spoke with a strong West Country accent, so much so that on one occasion listeners at Cabinet had difficulty in deciding whether he was talking about Hugh and Nye or you and I. He had developed his skills from his time as a Baptist lay preacher. Bevin married Florence Townley, daughter of a wine taster at a Bristol wine merchants and they had one child, a daughter, Queenie. Florence Bevin would be appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1952, in 1922 Bevin was one of the founding leaders of the Transport and General Workers Union, which soon became Britains largest trade union. Upon his election as the general secretary, he became one of countrys leading labour leaders. He took part in the British General Strike in 1926, the National Government landslide resulted in Gateshead being lost by a large margin to the Liberal National Thomas Magnay. Bevin was a trade unionist who believed in getting material benefits for his members through direct negotiations, during the late Thirties, for instance, Bevin helped to instigate a successful campaign by the TUC to extend paid holidays to a wider proportion of the workforce. This culminated in the Holidays with Pay Act of 1938, which extended entitlement to paid holidays to about 11 million workers by June 1939, during the 1930s, with the Labour Party split and weakened, Bevin co-operated with the Conservative-dominated government on practical issues. But during this period he became involved in foreign policy
34.
Oliver Franks, Baron Franks
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Oliver Shewell Franks, Baron Franks OM GCMG KCB CBE PC DL was an English civil servant and philosopher who has been described as one of the founders of the post-war world. Franks was involved in Britains recovery after the Second World War, knighted in 1946, he was the British Ambassador to the United States of America from 1948 to 1952, during which time he strengthened the relationship between the two countries. He was given a peerage on 10 May 1962. Franks was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Queens College, Oxford and he became an Oxford academic, and Provost of Worcester College. He was a philosopher by training, serving as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow between 1936 and 1946. Oliver Shewell Franks married Barbara Tanner in 1931 and she gave birth to three daughters and died in 1987. At the beginning of the war he was employed by the Ministry of Supply, Franks was a Liberal and a great supporter of Clement Attlee. He was admired by Ernest Bevin and he had frequent conversations with Winston Churchill and Jawaharlal Nehru. After a spell as Provost of his alma mater, Queens College and he helped found NATO, and became chairman of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation. He also had the distinction of having on his staff at various times Kim Philby, Guy Burgess. He was made ambassador to the United States in 1948, according to an urban legend there was one minor embarrassment early in his term. In 1948, a Washington radio station contacted ambassadors in the US capital, the French ambassador said he would like to see peace throughout the world. The Russian ambassador wanted freedom for all people enslaved by imperialism, Sir Oliver Franks mistook the request, saying, Well, it’s very kind of you to ask. I’d quite like a box of crystallised fruit, when he returned to England from Washington he took up the post of Chairman of Lloyds Bank which he held only from 1954 to 1962, although he remained a director until 1975. Between 1960 and 1962 he was chairman of Friends Provident. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, Franks presented the BBC Reith Lectures in 1954. In 1960 he came a second to Harold Macmillan in the election of the Chancellor of Oxford University. There were 1,697 votes for Macmillan, and 1,607 votes for Franks and he was the chairman of a Commission of Inquiry at the University of Oxford in 1964-65
35.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
36.
Dean Acheson
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Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, Acheson helped design the Marshall Plan and was a key player in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Achesons most famous decision was convincing President Truman to intervene in the Korean War in June 1950 and he also persuaded Truman to dispatch aid and advisors to French forces in Indochina, though in 1968 he finally counseled President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy called upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee, Dean Gooderham Acheson was born in Middletown, Connecticut. Like his father, Acheson was a staunch Democrat and opponent of prohibition, Acheson attended Groton School and Yale College, where he joined Scroll and Key Society, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. At Groton and Yale he had the reputation of a partier and prankster, he was somewhat aloof, Achesons well-known, reputed arrogance—he disdained the curriculum at Yale as focusing on memorizing subjects already known or not worth knowing more about—was apparent early. At Harvard Law School from 1915 to 1918, however, he was swept away by the intellect of professor Felix Frankfurter, on May 15,1917, while serving in the National Guard, Acheson married Alice Caroline Stanley. She loved painting and politics and served as an influence throughout their enduring marriage. Frankfurter and Brandeis were close associates, and future Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter suggested that Brandeis take on Acheson, when Secretary William H. Woodin fell ill, Acheson suddenly found himself acting secretary despite his ignorance of finance. Because of his opposition to FDRs plan to deflate the dollar by controlling gold prices, he was forced to resign in November 1933, in 1939–1940 he headed a committee to study the operation of administrative bureaus in the federal government. Brought back as assistant secretary of state in 1941, Acheson implemented much of United States economic policy aiding Great Britain, Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets merely to disconcert them. He did not intend the flow of oil to Japan to cease, the president then departed Washington for Newfoundland to meet with Churchill. While he was gone Acheson used those frozen assets to deny Japan oil, upon the presidents return, he decided it would appear weak and appeasing to reverse the de facto oil embargo. In 1944, Acheson attended the Bretton Woods Conference as the delegate from the State department. At this conference the post-war international economic structure was designed, the conference was the birthplace of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the last of which would evolve into the World Trade Organization. And, as late as 1945 or 1946 Acheson sought détente with the Soviet Union, in 1946, as chairman of a special committee to prepare a plan for the international control of atomic energy, he wrote the Acheson–Lilienthal report. At first Acheson was conciliatory towards Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Unions attempts at regional hegemony in Eastern Europe and in Southwest Asia, however, changed Achesons thinking. From this point forward, one writes, Acheson was more than present at the creation of the Cold War
37.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
38.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
39.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
40.
Federal Republic of Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
41.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
42.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
North Atlantic Treaty at Wikisource
Belgium – Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak and Ambassador Baron Robert Silvercruys
Canada – Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson and Ambassador H. H. Wrong
Denmark – Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen and Ambassador Henrik Kauffmann
France – Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and Ambassador Henri Bonnet
Iceland – Foreign Minister Bjarni Benediktsson and Ambassador Thor Thors
Italy – Foreign Minister Carlo Sforza and Ambassador Alberto Tarchiani
Luxembourg – Foreign Minister Joseph Bech and Ambassador Hugues Le Gallais
Netherlands – Foreign Minister Dirk Stikker and Ambassador Eelco van Kleffens
Norway – Foreign Minister Halvard M. Lange and Ambassador Wilhelm von Munthe af Morgenstierne
Portugal – Foreign Minister José Caeiro da Mata and Ambassador Pedro Teotónio Pereira
United Kingdom – Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin and Ambassador Oliver Franks, Baron Franks
United States – Secretary of State Dean Acheson
