1.
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar
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For many the new style calendar is only used for civil purposes and the old style calendar remains used in religious contexts. In the western world, the change was a date shift from the previous Julian Calendar. Today, the Gregorian calendar is internationally the worlds most widely used civil calendar. During – and for some time after – the change between systems, it has been common to use the terms Old Style and New Style when giving dates, to indicate which calendar was used to reckon them. Although Gregorys reform was enacted in the most solemn of forms available to the Church, the bull had no authority beyond the Catholic Church, the changes that he was proposing were changes to the civil calendar, over which he had no authority. They required adoption by the authorities in each country to have legal effect. The bull became the law of the Catholic Church in 1582, but it was not recognised by Protestant churches, Orthodox churches. Consequently, the days on which Easter and related holidays were celebrated by different Christian churches again diverged, when converting a date that occurs in a leap year on one calendar but not the other, include 29 February in the calculation if the conversion spans the February/March month change. A month after having decreed the reform, the granted to one Antoni Lilio the exclusive right to publish the calendar for a period of ten years. The papal brief was revoked on 20 September 1582, because Antonio Lilio proved unable to keep up with the demand for copies. Catholic states such as France, the Italian principalities, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Thursday,4 October 1582 was followed by Friday,15 October 1582, with ten days missing. Countries that did not change until the 18th century had by then observed an additional leap year, some countries did not change until the 19th or 20th century, necessitating one or two more missing days. France adopted the new calendar with Sunday,9 December 1582, the seven Catholic Swiss cantons adopted the new calendar in January 1684 while Geneva and several Protestant cantons adopted it in January 1701 or at other dates throughout the 18th century. The two Swiss communes of Schiers and Grüsch there the last areas of Western and Central Europe to switch to the Gregorian calendar in 1812. Many Protestant countries initially objected to adopting a Catholic innovation, some Protestants feared the new calendar was part of a plot to return them to the Catholic fold, in the Czech lands, Protestants resisted the calendar imposed by the Habsburg Monarchy. They finally adopted the Gregorian calculation of Easter in 1774, the remaining provinces of the Dutch Republic adopted the Gregorian calendar on 12 July 1700,12 December 1700,12 January 1701 and 12 May 1701. Swedens relationship with the Gregorian calendar was a difficult one and this system had potential for confusion when working out the dates of Swedish events in this 40-year period. To add to the confusion, the system was administered
2.
The London Gazette
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The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette. This claim is made by the Stamford Mercury and Berrows Worcester Journal. It does not have a large circulation, in turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette, the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO on behalf of Her Majestys Stationery Office. They are subject to Crown Copyright, the London Gazette is published each weekday, except for Bank Holidays. The official Gazettes are published by The Stationery Office, the content, apart from insolvency notices, is available in a number of machine-readable formats, including XML and XML/RDFa via Atom feed. The London Gazette was first published as The Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665. Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London, the Gazette was Published by Authority by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, the Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense, it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public. Her Majestys Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889, publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector, under government supervision, in the 1990s, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office. In time of war, dispatches from the conflicts are published in The London Gazette. People referred to are said to have mentioned in dispatches. When members of the forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here. Man tally-ho, Miss piano, Wife silk and satin, Boy Greek and Latin, the phrase gazetted fortune hunter is also probably derived from this. Notices of engagement and marriage were also published in the Gazette. Gazettes, modelled on The London Gazette, were issued for most British colonial possessions
3.
Lady Day
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It is the first of the four traditional English quarter days. The Lady is the Virgin Mary, the term derives from Middle English, when some nouns lost their genitive inflections. Lady would later gain an -s genitive ending, and therefore the name means Ladys day, in England, Lady Day was New Years Day between 1155 and 1752, when 1 January was declared to be the official start of the year. A vestige of this remains in the United Kingdoms tax year, until this change Lady Day had been used as the start of the legal year. This should be distinguished from the liturgical and historical year and it appears that in England and Wales, from at least the late 14th century, New Years Day was celebrated on 1 January as part of Yule. Before 1751 the year began in March, farmers time of entry into new farms and onto new fields was often this day. As a result, farming families who were changing farms would travel from the old farm to the new one on Lady Day, after the calendar change, Old Lady Day, the former date of the Annunciation, largely assumed this role. The date is significant in some of the works of Thomas Hardy, such as Tess of the dUrbervilles, in Ireland, however, Ladys Day means 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, and is a day when fairs are celebrated in many country towns. New Year International Womens Day —8 March Mothers Day Mothering Sunday National Womens Day
4.
Julian calendar
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The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC, by edict, the Julian calendar gains against the mean tropical year at the rate of one day in 128 years. For the Gregorian the figure is one day in 3,030 years, the difference in the average length of the year between Julian and Gregorian is 0. 002%. The Julian calendar has a year of 365 days divided into 12 months. A leap day is added to February every four years, the Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. It was intended to approximate the tropical year, as a result, the calendar year gains about three days every four centuries compared to observed equinox times and the seasons. This discrepancy was corrected by the Gregorian reform of 1582, consequently, the Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Egypt converted on 20 December 1874/1 January 1875, turkey switched on 16 February/1 March 1917. Russia changed on 1/14 February 1918, Greece made the change for civil purposes on 16 February/1 March 1923 - the national day, which was a religious holiday, was to remain on the old calendar. Most Christian denominations in the west and areas evangelised by western churches have replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian as the basis for their liturgical calendars. However, most branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church still use the Julian calendar for calculating the date of Easter, some Orthodox churches have adopted the Revised Julian calendar for the observance of fixed feasts, while other Orthodox churches retain the Julian calendar for all purposes. The Julian calendar is used by the Berbers of the Maghreb in the form of the Berber calendar. In the form of the Alexandrian calendar, it is the basis for the Ethiopian calendar, during the changeover between calendars and for some time afterwards, dual dating was used in documents and gave the date according to both systems. In contemporary as well as texts that describe events during the period of change. The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, in addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, some say the mensis intercalaris always had 27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia. According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, alternately 377 and 378 days long. In this system, the average Roman year would have had 366 1⁄4 days over four years, Macrobius describes a further refinement whereby, in one 8-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days
5.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
6.
Dual dating
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Dual dating is the practice, in historical materials, to indicate some dates with what appears to be duplicate, or excessive digits, sometimes separated by a hyphen or a slash. This is also referred to as double dating. The need for double dating arose from the transition from a calendar to a newer one. In English language histories and some documents, the terms Old Style. The Latin abbreviations may be capitalised differently by different users, e. g. St. n. or St. N. for stili novi, there are equivalents for these terms in other languages as well, such as the German a. St. Old Style and New Style are sometimes added to dates to identify which date corresponds to an OS calendar that was used prior to a NS calendar. Eventually, the NS supplanted the OS, but the transition from the OS to the NS varied greatly by geography and the date of transition. Consequently, in places that have transitioned from an OS calendar to a NS calendar, dual dates appear in documents over an extended period of time. There is some confusion as to which calendar alteration OS or NS refers to, historically, OS referred only to the start of the year change to 1 January from March 25, and some historians still believe this is the best practice. However, OS and NS may refer to both alterations of the calendar, also, even before 1582, the year sometimes had to be double dated because different countries began the year on different dates. For instance, the calendar in the British Empire did not immediately change, woolley, writing in his biography of John Dee, notes that immediately after 1582 English letter writers customarily used two dates on their letters, one OS and one NS. The Calendar Act 1750 altered the start of the year, japan, Korea, and China started using the Gregorian calendar on 1 January 1873,1896, and 1912, respectively. They had used lunisolar calendars previously, none of them used the Julian calendar, the Old Style and New Style dates in these countries usually mean the older lunisolar dates and the newer Gregorian calendar dates respectively. In these countries, the old style calendars were similar, the Arabic numerals may be used for both calendar dates in modern Japanese and Korean languages, but not Chinese. Japan started using the Gregorian calendar on 1 January 1873, locally known as the first day of the first month of Meiji 6, the preceding day,31 December 1872, was the second day of the twelfth month of Meiji 5. Japan currently employs two calendar systems, Gregorian and the Japanese era name calendar, specifically, the months and days now correspond to those of the Gregorian calendar, but the year is expressed as an offset of the era. For example, the Gregorian year 2007 corresponds to Heisei 19, an era does not necessarily begin on January 1. For example,7 January Shōwa 64—the day of the death of Emperor Shōwa—was followed by 8 January Heisei 1, which lasted until 31 December
7.
Reformation
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The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable
8.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
9.
England and Wales
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The devolved National Assembly for Wales was created in 1999 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under the Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales. The powers of the Assembly were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006, which allows it to pass its own laws, there is no equivalent body for England, which is directly governed by the Parliament and the government of the United Kingdom. During the Roman occupation of Britain, the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, at that time, most of the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages, and were all regarded as Britons, divided into numerous tribes. After the conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit and this aimed to replace Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 then consolidated the administration of all the Welsh territories and incorporated them fully into the legal system of the Kingdom of England. Prior to 1746 it was not clear whether a reference to England in legislation included Wales and this specified that in all prior and future laws, references to England would by default include Wales. The Wales and Berwick Act was repealed in 1967, although the definition of England it created is preserved for acts passed prior to its repeal. Since the Acts repeal what was referred to as England is now England and Wales, while references to England, England and Wales are treated as a single unit, for most purposes, because the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The continuance of Scots law was guaranteed under the 1706 Treaty of Union that led to the Acts of Union 1707, thus, most laws applicable to England also applied to Wales. However, Parliament now passes laws applicable to Wales and not to England, examples are the Welsh Language Acts 1967 and 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998. Measures and Acts of the National Assembly for Wales passed since the Government of Wales Act 2006 also apply in Wales, following the Government of Wales Act, effective since May 2007, the National Assembly for Wales can legislate on matters devolved to it. Following a referendum on 3 March 2011, the Welsh Assembly gained direct law-making powers and this was the first time in almost 500 years that Wales had its own powers to legislate. Each piece of Welsh legislation is known as an Act of the Assembly, outside of the legal system the position is mixed. Some organisations combine as England and Wales, others are separate, some religious denominations organise on the basis of England and Wales, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, but also small denominations, e. g. the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Prior to the disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920, the Electoral Commission maintains a register of political parties, organised according to where the party operates. The order of precedence in England and Wales is distinct from those of Northern Ireland and Scotland, the national parks of England and Wales have a distinctive legislative framework and history. Courts of England and Wales Judiciary of England and Wales Cultural relationship between the Welsh and the English Geography of Wales Geography of England British Isles
10.
Kingdom of Ireland
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The Kingdom of Ireland was a client state of the Kingdom of England that existed on Ireland from 1542 until 1800. It came into being when the Parliament of Ireland passed the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, the territory of the Kingdom had previously had the status of a lordship of the Crown. The Parliament of Ireland passed the Acts of Union 1800 by which it abolished itself, the act was also passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. The act also had the effect of establishing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the first day of 1801 by uniting the Crowns of Ireland, in its early years, the Kingdom of Ireland had limited recognition. While some Protestant powers in Europe recognised Henry and his heir Edward as monarch of Ireland, Henrys daughter, Queen Mary I of England, was recognised as Queen of Ireland by Pope Paul IV in 1555. The papal bull Laudabiliter of Pope Adrian IV was issued in 1155 and it granted the Angevin King Henry II of England the title Dominus Hibernae. Laudabiliter authorised the king to invade Ireland, to bring the country into the European sphere, in return, Henry was required to remit a penny per hearth of the tax roll to the Pope. This was reconfirmed by Adrians successor Pope Alexander III in 1172, when Pope Clement VII excommunicated the king of England, Henry VIII, in 1533, the constitutional position of the lordship in Ireland became uncertain. Henry had broken away from the Holy See and declared himself the head of the Church in England and he had petitioned Rome to procure an annulment of his marriage to Queen Catherine. The Treason Act 1537 was passed to counteract this, following the failed revolt of Silken Thomas in 1534–35, Grey, the lord deputy, had some military successes against several clans in the late 1530s, and took their submissions. By 1540 most of Ireland seemed at peace and under the control of the kings Dublin administration, Henry was proclaimed King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, an Act of the Irish Parliament. The new kingdom was not recognised by the Catholic monarchies in Europe, after the death of King Edward VI, Henrys son, the papal bull of 1555 recognised the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I as Queen of Ireland. The link of personal union of the Crown of Ireland to the Crown of England became enshrined in Catholic canon law, in this fashion, the Kingdom of Ireland was ruled by the reigning King of England. This placed the new Kingdom of Ireland in personal union with the Kingdom of England, in line with its expanded role and self-image, the administration established the Kings Inns for barristers in 1541, and the Ulster King of Arms to regulate heraldry in 1552. Proposals to establish a university in Dublin were delayed until 1592, in 1603 James VI King of Scots became James I of England, uniting the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in a personal union. The political order of the kingdom was interrupted by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms starting in 1639, during the subsequent interregnum period, England, Scotland and Ireland were ruled as a republic until 1660. This period saw the rise of the loyalist Irish Catholic Confederation within the kingdom and, from 1653, the kingdoms order was restored 1660 with the restoration of Charles II. Without any public dissent, Charless reign was backdated to his fathers execution in 1649, Poynings Law was repealed in 1782 in what came to be known as the Constitution of 1782, granting Ireland legislative independence
11.
Calendar (New Style) Act 1750
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The Calendar Act 1750 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The year 1752 was thus a short year as well, as well as adopting the Gregorian rule for leap years, Pope Gregorys rules for the date of Easter were also adopted. The algorithm, set out in the Book of Common Prayer as required by the Act, includes calculation of the Golden Number and the Sunday Letter, which were presumed to be already known. The Annexe to the Act includes the definition, Easter-day is always the first Sunday after the Full Moon, and if the Full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after. The Annexe subsequently uses the terms Paschal Full Moon and Ecclesiastical Full Moon, Scotland had already partly made the change, the year began on 1 January in 1600. As a result of the Act, Scotland adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, some history books say that some people rioted after the calendar change, asking that their eleven days be returned. However this is likely a myth, based on only two primary sources, The World, a satirical journal of Lord Chesterfield, and a painting by William Hogarth. He wrote to his son, Every numerous assembly is a mob, mere sense is never to be talked to a mob, their passions, their sentiments, their senses and their seeming interests alone are to be applied to. Here, he was boasting of his skill in having the Bill passed through the Lords, the mob in question was his fellow peers. When the son of the Earl of Macclesfield stood for Parliament in Oxfordshire as a Whig in 1754, in 1755, William Hogarth produced a painting loosely based on these elections, entitled An Election Entertainment, which shows a placard carrying the slogan Give us our Eleven Days. Thus the calendar riot fiction was born, the election campaign depicted concluded in 1754, after a very lengthy contest between Court Whigs and Jacobite Tories. Every issue between the two factions was brought up, including the question of calendar reform, the Tories attacked the Whigs for every deviation, including their alleged favouritism towards foreign Jews and the Popish calendar. Hogarths placard, part of a satire on the character of the debate, was not an observation of actual crowd behaviour, there were, however, legitimate concerns about tax and other payments under the new calendar. Several theories have proposed for the odd beginning of the British tax year on 6 April. One is that from 1753 until 1799, the tax began on 5 April. After the twelfth skipped Julian leap day in 1800, it was changed to 6 April, however it was not changed when a thirteenth Julian leap day was skipped in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins on 6 April. However Poole thought that quarter days, such as Lady Day on 25 March, thus, although 25 March Old Style marked the beginning of the civil year, the next day,26 March Old Style was until 1752 the beginning of the tax year. After removing eleven days in 1752, this corresponded to 6 April New Style, in Appalachia, some Scots-Irish settlers resisted the changeover mandated by the Calendar Act by continuing to celebrate Christmas on January 6, referring to the day as Old Christmas
12.
Kingdom of Scotland
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The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843, which joined with the Kingdom of England to form a unified Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the third of the island of Great Britain. It suffered many invasions by the English, but under Robert I it fought a war of independence. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, in 1707, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union. The Crown was the most important element of government, the Scottish monarchy in the Middle Ages was a largely itinerant institution, before Edinburgh developed as a capital city in the second half of the 15th century. The Scottish Crown adopted the conventional offices of western European courts, Parliament also emerged as a major legal institution, gaining an oversight of taxation and policy, but was never as central to the national life as its counterpart in England. In the 17th century, the creation of Justices of Peace, the continued existence of courts baron and the introduction of kirk sessions helped consolidate the power of local lairds. Scots law developed into a system in the Middle Ages and was reformed and codified in the 16th and 17th centuries. Under James IV the legal functions of the council were rationalised, in 1532, the College of Justice was founded, leading to the training and professionalisation of lawyers. David I is the first Scottish king known to have produced his own coinage, Early Scottish coins were virtually identical in silver content to English ones, but from about 1300 their silver content began to depreciate more rapidly than the English coins. At the union of the Crowns in 1603 the Scottish pound was fixed at only one-twelfth the value of the English pound, the Bank of Scotland issued pound notes from 1704. Scottish currency was abolished by the Act of Union, Scotland is half the size of England and Wales in area, but has roughly the same length of coastline. Geographically Scotland is divided between the Highlands and Islands and the Lowlands, the Highlands had a relatively short growing season, which was further shortened during the Little Ice Age. From Scotlands foundation to the inception of the Black Death, the population had grown to a million, following the plague and it expanded in the first half of the 16th century, reaching roughly 1.2 million by the 1690s. Significant languages in the kingdom included Gaelic, Old English, Norse and French. Christianity was introduced into Scotland from the 6th century, in the Norman period the Scottish church underwent a series of changes that led to new monastic orders and organisation. During the 16th century, Scotland underwent a Protestant Reformation that created a predominately Calvinist national kirk, there were a series of religious controversies that resulted in divisions and persecutions. The Scottish Crown developed naval forces at various points in its history, Land forces centred around the large common army, but adopted European innovations from the 16th century, and many Scots took service as mercenaries and as soldiers for the English Crown
13.
All Saints' Church, North Street, York
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All Saints Church is a Church of England parish church on North Street, York, North Yorkshire. The church is a Grade I listed building, the earliest part of the church is the nave dating from the 12th century. The arcades date from the 13th century and the east end was rebuilt in the 14th century, an anchorite building was erected at the west end in the fifteenth century and a squint made through the wall so that Dame Emma Raughton could observe and hear the mass being said. Brumby of Skeldergate, the carpentry by Mr. Dennison, the plumbing and glazing by Messrs, hodgson and the painting by Mr. Lee of Gillygate. The chancel ceiling and reredos were decorated by Mr. Knowles, the chancel was laid with Minton tiles. The total cost of the restoration, including the new organ, was £1,500, the chancel screen was installed in 1906, and designed by Edwin Ridsdale Tate. He also rebuilt the house in 1910. The church was restored again in 1991 by the architect Peter Marshall, the church is noted as containing the finest collection of medieval glass in York, mostly dating from the early 14th century. Perhaps the most famous is that depicting the Prick of Conscience dating from c, john Stoddart Joan Stoddart James Pennyman Joshua Witton. William Stockton Robert Colynson Thomas Clerk Thomas Askwith Charles Townley The pipe organ was built by Forster and Andrews, a specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register
14.
Charles I of England
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Charles I was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was the son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England. He became heir apparent to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones on the death of his brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France instead, after his succession, Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. Charles believed in the right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent and he supported high church ecclesiastics, such as Richard Montagu and William Laud, and failed to aid Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years War. From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War, after his defeat in 1645, he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament. Charles refused to accept his captors demands for a constitutional monarchy, re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight, Charles forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwells New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished and a called the Commonwealth of England was declared. The monarchy was restored to Charless son, Charles II, in 1660, the second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, Charles was born in Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 November 1600. James VI was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I of England, in mid-July 1604, Charles left Dunfermline for England where he was to spend most of the rest of his life. His speech development was slow, and he retained a stammer, or hesitant speech. In January 1605, Charles was created Duke of York, as is customary in the case of the English sovereigns second son, Thomas Murray, a Presbyterian Scot, was appointed as a tutor. Charles learnt the usual subjects of classics, languages, mathematics, in 1611, he was made a Knight of the Garter. Eventually, Charles apparently conquered his physical infirmity, which might have been caused by rickets and he became an adept horseman and marksman, and took up fencing. Even so, his public profile remained low in contrast to that of his stronger and taller elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. However, in early November 1612, Henry died at the age of 18 of what is suspected to have been typhoid, Charles, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent
15.
William Hogarth
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William Hogarth FRSA was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic series of pictures called modern moral subjects. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are referred to as Hogarthian. William Hogarth was born at Bartholomew Close in London to Richard Hogarth, a poor Latin school teacher and textbook writer, in his youth he was apprenticed to the engraver Ellis Gamble in Leicester Fields, where he learned to engrave trade cards and similar products. Young Hogarth also took a lively interest in the life of the metropolis and the London fairs. Around the same time, his father, who had opened an unsuccessful Latin-speaking coffee house at St Johns Gate, was imprisoned for debt in Fleet Prison for five years, Hogarth never spoke of his fathers imprisonment. Hogarth became a member of the Rose and Crown Club, with Peter Tillemans, George Vertue, Michael Dahl, by April 1720, Hogarth was an engraver in his own right, at first engraving coats of arms, shop bills, and designing plates for booksellers. In 1727, he was hired by Joshua Morris, a tapestry worker, Morris heard that he was an engraver, and no painter, and consequently declined the work when completed. Hogarth accordingly sued him for the money in the Westminster Court, in 1757 he was appointed Serjeant Painter to the King. In the bottom corner, he shows Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish figures gambling, while in the middle there is a huge machine, like a merry-go-round. At the top is a goat, written below which is Whol Ride, Other early works include The Lottery, The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by the Gormogons, A Just View of the British Stage, some book illustrations, and the small print Masquerades and Operas. He continued that theme in 1727, with the Large Masquerade Ticket, in 1726 Hogarth prepared twelve large engravings for Samuel Butlers Hudibras. These he himself valued highly, and they are among his best book illustrations, in the following years he turned his attention to the production of small conversation pieces. One of his real low-life and real-life subjects was Sarah Malcolm who he sketched two days before her execution and he might also have printed Burlington Gate, evoked by Alexander Popes Epistle to Lord Burlington, and defending Lord Chandos, who is therein satirized. This print gave great offence, and was suppressed, however, modern authorities such as Ronald Paulson no longer attribute it to Hogarth. In 1731 Hogarth completed the earliest of his series of moral works, the collection of six scenes was entitled A Harlots Progress and appeared first as paintings before being published as engravings. The inaugural series was a success and was followed in 1735 by the sequel A Rakes Progress. The original paintings of A Harlots Progress were destroyed in the fire at Fonthill House in 1755, while A Rakes Progress is displayed in the room at Sir John Soanes Museum, London
16.
Humours of an Election
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The Humours of an Election is a series of four oil paintings and later engravings by William Hogarth that illustrate the election of a member of parliament in Oxfordshire in 1754. The oil paintings were created in 1755, the last painting, Chairing the Member, shows the celebrations of the victorious Tory candidates and their supporters. At this time each constituency elected two MPs, and there was a property qualification for voters, so only a minority of the population was enfranchised. There was no ballot, so bribery and intimidation were rife. However, this view has been questioned by recent historians who observed a lively local political participation in this time. The originals are held by Sir John Soanes Museum, London, the painting depicts a tavern dinner organised by the Whig candidates, while the Tories protest outside. The Tories are carrying an antisemitic caricature of a Jew, a reference to recent legislation passed by the Whig government which allowed freedom to Jews. A banner containing the words Give us our Eleven days, a protest against the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, in the tavern the two Whig candidates are ingratiating themselves with supporters. One candidate is kissing an ugly pregnant woman, the other is listening to a drunken bore. At the other end of the table the Mayor is collapsing from over indulgence in oysters, other supporters throw furniture at the Tories. The composition of the scene parodies traditional images of the Last Supper and other Biblical feasts and this scene depicts Tory and Whig agents, both attempting to bribe an innkeeper to vote for them. The crowd outside the tavern is visible in the background, in a reference to the antisemitism of the crowd behind, a Jewish peddler is being employed by another agent who is offering jewels and ribbons to the wives of voters. On the margins of the composition a soldier and two old sailors represent uncorrupted patriotism, the soldier peeps out from behind a now-impotently decorative figurehead depicting the British lion devouring the French fleur-de-lis. A woman sits on it looking at her bribes, the sailors on the right are re-enacting a naval victory using pieces of broken clay pipe. Voters are shown declaring their support for the Whigs or Tories, agents from both sides are using unscrupulous tactics to increase their votes or challenge opposing voters. A Whig voter with a hook instead of his hand is being challenged because he is placing his hook, rather than his hand, as legally prescribed. Meanwhile, the Tories are bringing a mentally disabled man to vote, a dying man is being carried in behind him. In the background a woman in a carriage with a broken axle stands for Britannia and her coachmen are gambling, ignoring the fact that the carriage is broken
17.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
18.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
19.
Americas
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The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago, a second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is regarded as the settlement by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson, however, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with European powers, diseases introduced from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European powers colonized the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including numbers of indentured servants. Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776, the population is over 1 billion, with over 65% of them living in one of the three most populous countries. As of the beginning of the 2010s, the most populous urban agglomerations are Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, all of them megacities. The name America was first recorded in 1507 in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written by Matthias Ringmann and it first applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. Amerigen means land of Amerigo and derives from Amerigo and gen, America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. When conceived as a continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. In some countries of the world, America is considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, the first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the glacial maximum
20.
Alaska
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Alaska is a U. S. state located in the northwest extremity of North America. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the southern parts of the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 3rd least populous, approximately half of Alaskas residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaskas economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, the area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11,1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U. S. on January 3,1959, the name Alaska was introduced in the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the peninsula. It was derived from an Aleut, or Unangam idiom, which refers to the mainland of Alaska. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed, Alaska is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States and has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere. Alaska is the only non-contiguous U. S. state on continental North America and it is technically part of the continental U. S. but is sometimes not included in colloquial use, Alaska is not part of the contiguous U. S. often called the Lower 48. The capital city, Juneau, is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system. Alaskas territorial waters touch Russias territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island, Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U. S. states combined. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by total area at 663,268 square miles, over twice the size of Texas, Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign countries. Counting territorial waters, Alaska is larger than the area of the next three largest states, Texas, California, and Montana. It is also larger than the area of the 22 smallest U. S. states. Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage, this is the region of Alaska closest to the rest of the United States, as such, this was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the years following the Alaska Purchase. The region is dominated by the Alexander Archipelago as well as the Tongass National Forest and it contains the state capital Juneau, the former capital Sitka, and Ketchikan, at one time Alaskas largest city. The Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital transportation link throughout the area. The Interior is the largest region of Alaska, much of it is uninhabited wilderness, Fairbanks is the only large city in the region
21.
Alaska Purchase
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The Alaska Purchase was the United States acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, by a treaty ratified by the United States Senate, and signed by president Andrew Johnson. Russia wanted to sell its Alaskan territory, fearing that it might be seized if war broke out with the United Kingdom, Russias primary activities in the territory had been fur trade and missionary work among the Native Alaskans. The land added 586,412 square miles of new territory to the United States, the purchase threatened British control of its Pacific coast colony, giving added impetus to Canadian Confederation, which was realized just three months later, in July 1867. The Dominion of Canada would welcome British Columbia to confederation in 1871, ending US hopes of annexation and an uninterrupted connection of Alaska to the United States. Russia was in a financial position and feared losing Russian America without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British. The Russians decided that in any war with Britain, their hard-to-defend colony might become a prime target. Therefore, the Russian emperor, Alexander II, decided to sell the territory, perhaps in the hope of starting a bidding war, both the British and the Americans were approached. However, the British expressed little interest in buying Alaska, in 1859 the Russians offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Russias greatest regional rival, Great Britain. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a pressing concern in Washington. Grand Duke Konstantin, a brother of the Tsar, began to press for the handover of Russian America to the United States in 1857. This proposal was a topic in the echelons of the Russian government throughout 1857 and 1858. Konstantins letter was shown to his brother, Tsar Alexander II, supporters of Konstantins proposal to immediately withdraw from North America included Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl. Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America, but argued for a process leading to its sale. He found a supporter in the minister and former chief manager of the Russian-American Company. Wrangel pressed for some proceeds to be invested in the development of Kamchatka. The Emperor eventually sided with Gorchakov, deciding to postpone negotiations until the end of the RACs patent, over the winter of 1859–1860 de Stoeckl held meetings with American officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about the sale of the RAC assets. Communicating primarily with Assistant Secretary of State John Appleton and Senator William M. Gwin, while President James Buchanan kept these hearings informal, preparations were made for further negotiations. Senator Gwin tendered an offer of five million dollars for the Russian colony
22.
International Date Line
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The International Date Line is an imaginary line of navigation on the surface of the Earth that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole and demarcates the change of one calendar day to the next. It passes through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180° line of longitude but deviating to pass around some territories and this description is based on the most common understanding of the de facto International Date Line. See § De facto and de jure date lines below, the IDL is roughly based on the meridian of 180° longitude, roughly down the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and halfway around the world from the Greenwich meridian. In many places, the IDL follows the 180° meridian exactly, in other places, however, the IDL deviates east or west away from that meridian. These various deviations generally accommodate the political and/or economic affiliations of the affected areas, proceeding from north to south, the first deviation of the IDL from 180° is to pass to the east of Wrangel Island and the Chukchi Peninsula, the easternmost part of Russian Siberia. It then passes through the Bering Strait between the Diomede Islands at a distance of 1.5 kilometres from each island at 168°5837 W and it then bends considerably west of 180°, passing west of St. Lawrence Island and St. Matthew Island. The IDL crosses between the U. S. Aleutian Islands and the Commander Islands, which belong to Russia and it then bends southeast again to return to 180°. Thus, all of Russia is to the west of the IDL, and all of the United States is to the east except for the areas of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands. The IDL remains on the 180° meridian until passing the equator, two US-owned uninhabited atolls, Howland Island and Baker Island, just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, have the latest time on Earth. The IDL circumscribes Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian, kiribatis easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth, UTC+14 hours. South of Kiribati, the IDL returns westwards but remains east of 180°, in much of this area, the IDL follows the 165°W meridian. Accordingly, Samoa, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu and New Zealands Kermadec Islands, American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, and French Polynesia are east of the IDL and one day behind. The IDL then bends southwest to return to 180° and it follows that meridian until reaching Antarctica, which has multiple time zones. Conventionally, the IDL is not drawn into Antarctica on most maps, in contrast, a west-to-east circumnavigation of the globe loses an hour for every 15° of longitude crossed but gains back a day when crossing the IDL. The IDL must therefore be observed in conjunction with the Earths time zones, on crossing it in either direction, the calendar date is adjusted by one day. For the two hours between 10,00 and 11,59 UTC each day, three different calendar dates are observed at the time in different places on Earth. For example, at 10,15 UTC Thursday, it is 23,15 Wednesday in American Samoa, Thursday in most of the world, during the first hour, all three calendar dates include inhabited places. During the second one of the calendar dates is limited to an uninhabited maritime time zone twelve hours behind UTC
23.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
24.
Epitaph
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An epitaph is a short text honouring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves before their death, while others are chosen by those responsible for the burial. An epitaph may be written in prose or in verse, poets have been known to compose their own epitaphs prior to their death. Most epitaphs are brief records of the family, and perhaps the career, of the deceased, often with an expression of love or respect—for example. Notably, the Laudatio Turiae, the longest known Ancient Roman epitaph, exceeds almost all of these at 180 lines, it celebrates the virtues of an honored wife, some are quotes from holy texts, or aphorisms. One approach of many epitaphs is to speak to the reader, a wry trick of others is to request the reader to get off their resting place, inasmuch as the reader would have to be standing on the ground above the coffin to read the inscription. Nearly all note name, year or date of birth, many list family members and the relationship of the deceased to them. Heroes and Kings your distance keep, In peace let one poor poet sleep, Who never flattered folks like you, Let Horace blush, — Alexander Pope Wir müssen wissen. — David Hilbert He never killed a man that did not need killing, — Clay Allison Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water — John Keats Undefeated — Hans-Joachim Marseille And the beat goes on. — Sonny Bono Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas, Ease after warre, death after life, — Joseph Conrad Thats all folks. — Mel Blanc Ive finally stopped getting dumber, — Paul Erdős Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by that here, obedient to their law, we lie. — Simonidess epigram at Thermopylae I told you I was ill, — Spike Milligan Here sleeps at peace a Hampshire Grenadier Who caught his early death by drinking cold small beer. Soldiers, be wise at his fall, And when youre hot. — Thomas Thetcher tombstone epitaph in Winchester Cathedral To save your world you asked this man to die, Would this man, could he see you now, ask why. — Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier, written by W. H. Auden There is borne an empty hearsecovered over for such as appear not. Heroes have the earth for their tomb. — Unknown Soldiers epitaph, Athens, passages taken from Pericles Funeral Oration Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death. — Virginia Woolf Good frend for Iesvs sake forebeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be man spares thes stones, Good friend for Jesus sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he moves my bones
25.
Battle of Agincourt
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The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years War. The battle took place on Friday,25 October 1415 in the County of Saint-Pol, Artois, Henry V led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. The French king of the time, Charles VI, did not command the French army himself as he suffered from severe psychotic illnesses with moderate mental incapacitation, instead, the French were commanded by Constable Charles dAlbret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party. This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, the battle is the centrepiece of the play Henry V by William Shakespeare. The Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, the approximate location of the battle has never been in dispute and the place remains relatively unaltered even after 600 years. Two of the most frequently cited accounts come from Burgundian sources, one from Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy, who was present at the battle, Henry V invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. He initially called a Great Council in the spring of 1414 to discuss going to war with France, Henry would marry Princess Catherine, the young daughter of Charles VI, and receive a dowry of 2 million crowns. The French responded with what they considered the terms of marriage with Princess Catherine, a dowry of 600,000 crowns. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. In December 1414, the English parliament was persuaded to grant Henry a double subsidy, on 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed. The siege took longer than expected, the town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease and he also intended the manoeuvre as a deliberate provocation to battle aimed at the dauphin, who had failed to respond to Henrys personal challenge to combat at Harfleur. The French had raised an army during the siege which assembled around Rouen and this was not strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to the English. The French hoped to raise 9,000 troops, but the army was not ready in time to relieve Harfleur, after Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, the English finally crossed the Somme south of Péronne, at Béthencourt and Voyennes and resumed marching north. Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle and they shadowed Henrys army while calling a semonce des nobles, calling on local nobles to join the army. By 24 October, both faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground, the English had very little food, had marched 260 miles in two and a half weeks, were suffering from sickness such as dysentery, and faced much larger numbers of well equipped French men at arms
26.
Saint Crispin's Day
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Saint Crispins Day falls on 25 October and is the feast day of the Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian, twins who were martyred c. It is a day most famous for the battles that occurred on it, other notable battles include the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War in 1854 and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific theatre in 1944. The feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian is 25 October, the feast remains as a Black Letter Saints Day in the calendar of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and a commemoration in Common Worship. The contrast between the two battles, one a complete victory, the indecisive and notorious for the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade, has also been noted. The Battle of Shangani in the First Matabele War was also fought on that date, several battles of World War II were fought on St Crispins day. In 1942, this day was the day of the Second Battle of El Alamein, and, on the other side of the world. Two years later, in 1944, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was being fought at Cape Engaño, Samar Island and in the Straits of Surigao, in the latter, the Japanese fleet was effectively destroyed. Other battles have also fought on the day, but were not associated with its symbolism at the time. In 1315, a century before Agincourt, Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea and William Bradshaw, an early battle of the U. S. Civil War, the Second Battle of Springfield, Missouri, was fought on October 25,1861, and was a Union victory. Another forgotten battle in that war, the Battle of Marais des Cygnes, Kansas, was fought on that day in 1864
27.
Battle of Blenheim
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The Battle of Blenheim, fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. The overwhelming Allied victory ensured the safety of Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army, Louis XIV of France sought to knock Emperor Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement. Vienna was also pressure from Rákóczis Hungarian revolt from its eastern approaches. Realising the danger, the Duke of Marlborough resolved to alleviate the peril to Vienna by marching his forces south from Bedburg, after securing Donauwörth on the Danube, Marlborough sought to engage the Electors and Marsins army before Marshal Tallard could bring reinforcements through the Black Forest. However, with the Franco-Bavarian commanders reluctant to fight until their numbers were deemed sufficient, the battle has gone down in history as one of the turning points of the War of the Spanish Succession. Bavaria was knocked out of the war, and Louis hopes for a victory came to an end. France suffered over 30,000 casualties including the commander-in-chief, Marshal Tallard, before the 1704 campaign ended, the Allies had taken Landau, and the towns of Trier and Trarbach on the Moselle in preparation for the following years campaign into France itself. By 1704, the War of the Spanish Succession was in its fourth year, Vienna had been saved by dissension between the two commanders, leading to the brilliant Villars being replaced by the less dynamic Marshal Marsin. In the courts of Versailles and Madrid, Viennas fall was confidently anticipated, a scarlet caterpillar, upon which all eyes were at once fixed, began to crawl steadfastly day by day across the map of Europe, dragging the whole war with it. Marlboroughs march started on 19 May from Bedburg,20 miles north-west of Cologne, the army consisted of 66 squadrons,31 battalions and 38 guns and mortars totalling 21,000 men. This force was to be augmented en route such that by the time Marlborough reached the Danube, whilst Marlborough led his army, General Overkirk would maintain a defensive position in the Dutch Republic in case Villeroi mounted an attack. In this assumption Marlborough proved correct, Villeroi shadowed the Duke with 30,000 men in 60 squadrons and 42 battalions, such a long march would almost certainly involve a high wastage of men and horses through exhaustion and disease. However, Marlborough was convinced of the urgency – I am very sensible that I take a deal upon me, he had earlier written to Godolphin, but should I act otherwise. Whilst Allied preparations had progressed, the French were striving to maintain, Tallard then returned with his own force to the Rhine, once again side-stepping Thüngens efforts to intercept him. The whole operation was a military achievement. On 26 May, Marlborough reached Coblenz, where the Moselle meets the Rhine, If he intended an attack along the Moselle the Duke must now turn west, but, instead, the following day the army crossed to the right bank of the Rhine. There will be no campaign on the Moselle, wrote Villeroi who had taken up a position on the river. A second possible objective now occurred to the French – an Allied incursion into Alsace, with Villeroi shadowing Marlboroughs every move, Marlboroughs gamble that the French would not move against the weakened Dutch position in the Netherlands paid off
28.
William III of England
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It is a coincidence that his regnal number was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II and he is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as King Billy. William inherited the principality of Orange from his father, William II and his mother Mary, Princess Royal, was the daughter of King Charles I of England. In 1677, he married his fifteen-year-old first cousin, Mary, a Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith, in 1685, his Catholic father-in-law, James, Duke of York, became king of England, Ireland and Scotland. Jamess reign was unpopular with the Protestant majority in Britain, William, supported by a group of influential British political and religious leaders, invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. On 5 November 1688, he landed at the southern English port of Brixham, James was deposed and William and Mary became joint sovereigns in his place. They reigned together until her death on 28 December 1694, after which William ruled as sole monarch, Williams reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. Williams victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by the Orange Order and his reign in Britain marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover. William III was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 4 November 1650, baptised William Henry, he was the only child of stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal. Mary was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, eight days before William was born, his father died of smallpox, thus William was the Sovereign Prince of Orange from the moment of his birth. Immediately, a conflict ensued between his mother the Princess Royal and William IIs mother, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, over the name to be given to the infant. Mary wanted to name him Charles after her brother, but her mother-in-law insisted on giving him the name William or Willem to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder. William II had appointed his wife as his sons guardian in his will, however, Williams mother showed little personal interest in her son, sometimes being absent for years, and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society. Williams education was first laid in the hands of several Dutch governesses, some of English descent, including Walburg Howard, from April 1656, the prince received daily instruction in the Reformed religion from the Calvinist preacher Cornelis Trigland, a follower of the Contra-Remonstrant theologian Gisbertus Voetius. The ideal education for William was described in Discours sur la nourriture de S. H. Monseigneur le Prince dOrange, in these lessons, the prince was taught that he was predestined to become an instrument of Divine Providence, fulfilling the historical destiny of the House of Orange. From early 1659, William spent seven years at the University of Leiden for a formal education, under the guidance of ethics professor Hendrik Bornius. While residing in the Prinsenhof at Delft, William had a personal retinue including Hans Willem Bentinck, and a new governor, Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein
29.
Brixham
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Brixham /ˈbrɪksəm/ is a small fishing town and civil parish in the district of Torbay in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. Brixham is at the end of Torbay, across the bay from Torquay. At the time of the 2011 census it had a population of 16,693 and it is thought that the name Brixham came from Briocs village. Brioc was an old English or Brythonic personal name and -ham is an ancient term for home derived from Old English, the town is hilly and built around the harbour which remains in use as a dock for fishing trawlers. It has a focal tourist attraction in the replica of Sir Francis Drakes ship Golden Hind that is moored there. In summer the Cowtown carnival is held, a reminder of when Brixham was two communities with only a marshy lane to connect them. Cowtown was the area on top of the hill where the farmers lived, while a mile away in the harbour was Fishtown where the seamen lived. Cowtown, the St Marys Square area, is on the road leaving Brixham to the south west, in the direction of Kingswear, the town holds a yearly pirate event which competes for the title of most pirates in one place and this draws visitors from far and wide. Although there is evidence of Ice age inhabitants here, and probable trading in the Bronze Age and it is possible that Saxon settlement originated by sea from Hampshire in the 6th century, or overland around the year 800. Brixham was called Briseham in the Domesday Book, Brixham was part of the former Haytor Hundred. The population was 3,671 in 1801 and 8,092 in 1901, in 1334, the towns value was assessed at one pound, twelve shillings and eightpence, by 1524, the valuation had risen to £24 and sixteen shillings. It is recorded as a borough from 1536, and a market is recorded from 1822, William de Whithurst, a distinguished Crown official and judge in Ireland, became parish priest of Brixham in 1350. Many local people still have Dutch surnames, being descendants of soldiers in that army. A road leading from the harbour up a hill, to where the Dutch made their camp, is still called Overgang. The coffin house reflects Brixham humour, it is coffin-shaped and when a father was asked for the hand in marriage of his daughter, he said he would see her in a coffin, amazed by this, the father gave his blessing. The street names reflect the towns history, pump Street is where the village pump stood. Monksbridge was a built by the monks of Totnes Priory. Lichfield Drive was the route that the dead were taken for burial at St Mary’s churchyard, salutation Mews, near the church, dates from when England was Catholic, and the salutation was to the Virgin Mary
30.
Battle of the Boyne
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The battle took place across the River Boyne near the town of Drogheda in the east of Ireland, and resulted in a victory for William. This turned the tide in Jamess failed attempt to regain the British crown, the battle took place on 1 July 1690O. S. Williams forces defeated Jamess army, which consisted mostly of raw recruits, although the Williamite War in Ireland continued until October 1691, James fled to France after the Boyne, never to return. The symbolic importance of this battle has made it one of the battles in the history of the British Isles. Its commemoration today is principally by the Protestant Orange Institution, which records the first commemorative parades as having held in 1791. It is regarded as a moment in the struggle between Irish Protestant and Catholic interests. The previous year William had sent the Duke of Schomberg to take charge of the Irish campaign and he was a 75-year-old professional soldier who had accompanied William during the Glorious Revolution. Under his command, affairs had remained static and very little had been accomplished, William, dissatisfied with the state of affairs in Ireland, decided to take charge in person. In an Irish context, the war was a sectarian and ethnic conflict, for the Jacobites, the war was fought for Irish sovereignty, religious tolerance for Catholicism, and land ownership. The Catholic upper classes had lost almost all their lands after Cromwells conquest, as well as the right to public office, practice their religion. They saw the Catholic King James as a means of redressing these grievances, to these ends, under Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, they had raised an army to restore James after the Glorious Revolution. By 1690, they controlled all of Ireland except for the province of Ulster, most of James IIs troops at the Boyne were Irish Catholics, however, there were also Scots-Irish Presbyterians fighting for James II. Conversely, for the Williamites, the war was about maintaining Protestant, in particular, they dreaded a repeat of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which had been marked by widespread killing. For these reasons, Protestants fought en masse for William of Orange, Jamess supporters controlled much of Ireland and the Irish Parliament. James also enjoyed the support of his cousin, Louis XIV, Louis sent 6,000 French troops to Ireland to support the Irish Jacobites. William was already Stadtholder of the Netherlands and was able to call on Dutch, James was a seasoned officer who had proven his bravery when fighting for his brother – King Charles II – in Europe, notably at the Battle of the Dunes. William, although a seasoned commander, was one of historys great generals and had yet to win a major battle. Many of his battles ended in stalemates, prompting at least one historian to argue that William lacked an ability to manage armies in the thick of conflict
31.
Battle of Aughrim
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The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the Jacobites and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691, near the village of Aughrim, the battle was one of the more bloody recorded fought on Irish soil – over 7,000 people were killed. It meant the end of Jacobitism in Ireland, although the city of Limerick held out until the autumn of 1691. The Jacobite position in the summer of 1691 was a defensive one, from this position, the Jacobites hoped to receive military aid from Louis XIV of France via the port towns and eventually be in a position to re-take the rest of Ireland. Godert de Ginkell, the Williamites Dutch general, had breached this line of defence by crossing the Shannon at Athlone - taking the town after a bloody siege. Ginkel marched through Ballinasloe, on the road towards Limerick and Galway. Both armies were about 20,000 men strong, the soldiers of St Ruth’s army were mostly Irish Catholic, while Ginkels were English, Scottish, Danish, Dutch and French Huguenot and Irish Protestants. The Jacobite position at Aughrim was quite strong, St Ruth had drawn up his infantry along the crest of a ridge known as Kilcommadan Hill. The left of the position was bounded by a bog, through there was only one causeway, overlooked by Aughrim village. On the other, open, flank, St Ruth placed his best infantry under his second-in-command, the chevalier de Tessé, the battle started with Ginkel trying to assault the open flank of the Jacobite position with cavalry and infantry. This attack ground to a halt after determined Jacobite counter-attacks and the Williamites halted, the French Huguenot forces committed here found themselves in low ground exposed to Jacobite fire and took a great number of casualties. Contemporaneous accounts speak of the grass being slippery with blood, to this day, this area on the south flank of the battle is known locally as the Bloody Hollow. In the centre, the Williamite infantry under Hugh Mackay tried a frontal assault on the Jacobite infantry on Kilcommadan Hill. The Williamite troops, mainly English and Scots, had to each line of trenches. The Williamite infantry attempted three assaults, the first of which penetrated furthest, eventually, the final Williamite assault was driven back with heavy losses by cavalry and pursued into the bog, where more of them were killed or drowned. In the rout, the pursuing Jacobites manage to spike a battery of Williamite guns and this left Ginkel with only one option, to try to force a way through the causeway on the Jacobite left. This should have been a position, with the attackers concentrated into a narrow lane. However, the Irish troops there were short on ammunition, Mackay directed this fourth assault, consisting mainly of cavalry, in two groups - one along the causeway and one parallel to the south
32.
Guy Fawkes Night
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Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, Puritans delivered sermons regarding the perceived dangers of popery, while during increasingly raucous celebrations common folk burnt effigies of popular hate-figures, such as the pope. Towards the end of the 18th century reports appear of children begging for money with effigies of Guy Fawkes and 5 November gradually became known as Guy Fawkes Day. Towns such as Lewes and Guildford were in the 19th century scenes of increasingly violent class-based confrontations, fostering traditions those towns celebrate still, albeit peaceably. In the 1850s changing attitudes resulted in the toning down of much of the days anti-Catholic rhetoric, eventually the violence was dealt with, and by the 20th century Guy Fawkes Day had become an enjoyable social commemoration, although lacking much of its original focus. The present-day Guy Fawkes Night is usually celebrated at large organised events, centred on a bonfire, settlers exported Guy Fawkes Night to overseas colonies, including some in North America, where it was known as Pope Day. Those festivities died out with the onset of the American Revolution and this made 1605 the first year the plots failure was celebrated. The following January, days before the conspirators were executed, Parliament passed the Observance of 5th November Act. A new form of service was added to the Church of Englands Book of Common Prayer. Little is known about the earliest celebrations, in settlements such as Carlisle, Norwich and Nottingham, corporations provided music and artillery salutes. According to historian and author Antonia Fraser, a study of the earliest sermons preached demonstrates an anti-Catholic concentration mystical in its fervour. Delivering one of five 5 November sermons printed in A Mappe of Rome in 1612, Thomas Taylor spoke of the generality of his cruelty, which had been almost without bounds. By the 1620s the Fifth was honoured in market towns and villages across the country, Gunpowder Treason Day, as it was then known, became the predominant English state commemoration. Some parishes made the day a festive occasion, with public drinking, what unity English Protestants had shared in the plots immediate aftermath began to fade when in 1625 Jamess son, the future Charles I, married the Catholic Henrietta Maria of France. During Charless reign Gunpowder Treason Day became increasingly partisan, between 1629 and 1640 he ruled without Parliament, and he seemed to support Arminianism, regarded by Puritans like Henry Burton as a step toward Catholicism. By 1636, under the leadership of the Arminian Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud, the English church was trying to use 5 November to denounce all seditious practices, Puritans went on the defensive, some pressing for further reformation of the Church. Bonfire Night, as it was known, assumed a new fervour during the events leading up to the English Interregnum. Although Royalists disputed their interpretations, Parliamentarians began to uncover or fear new Catholic plots, effigies of Fawkes and the pope were present, the latter represented by Pluto, Roman god of the underworld
33.
The Twelfth
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The Twelfth is an Ulster Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It originated during the late 18th century in Ulster and it celebrates the Glorious Revolution and victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne, which began the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. On and around the Twelfth, large parades are held by the Orange Order and Ulster loyalist marching bands, streets are bedecked with British flags and bunting, and large towering bonfires are lit. Today the Twelfth is mainly celebrated in Northern Ireland, but smaller celebrations are held in parts of the world where Orange lodges have been set up. The Twelfth involves thousands of participants and spectators, although not all Protestants celebrate it, in Ulster, where about half the population is from a Protestant background and half from a Catholic background, the Twelfth has been accompanied by violence since its beginning. Many Catholics and Irish nationalists see the Orange Order and its marches as sectarian, the Order is also politically a unionist/loyalist organisation. Violence related to the Twelfth in Northern Ireland worsened during the 30-year ethno-political conflict known as the Troubles, the Drumcree conflict is the most well-known dispute involving Orange marches. Attempts have recently made to downplay the political aspects of the marches and present the Twelfth as a cultural. Although most events pass off peacefully, some continue to result in violence, when 12 July falls on a Sunday, the parades are held on the 13th instead. The first such commemoration was the anniversary of the 1641 rebellion on 23 October, the second major day was the birthday of William of Orange, Protestant victor of the Williamite war in the 1690s, on 4 November. Both of these anniversaries faded in popularity by the end of the 18th century, the Twelfth itself originated as a celebration of the Battle of Aughrim, which took place on 12 July 1691 in the Julian calendar then in use. Aughrim was the battle of the Williamite war, in which the predominantly Irish Catholic Jacobite army was destroyed. The Twelfth in the early 18th century was a commemoration of this battle. The Battle of the Boyne was commemorated with smaller parades on 1 July, however, the two events were combined in the late 18th century. The second reason was the foundation of the Orange Order in 1795, the Order preferred the Boyne, due to William of Oranges presence there. It has also suggested that in the 1790s the Boyne, where the Jacobites were routed, was more appealing to the Order than Aughrim. The Orders first ever took place on 12 July 1796 in Portadown, Lurgan. The Twelfth parades of the early 19th century often led to disorder, so much so that the Orange Order
34.
John Coke
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Sir John Coke was an English office holder and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. Coke was the son of Richard and Mary Coke of Trusley and he was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Coke was also acquainted with Essex from his university days, in 1621 Coke was elected Member of Parliament for Warwick. He was appointed a Master of Requests in 1622 and was knighted in 1624, in 1624 he was elected MP for St Germans and was re-elected for the seat in 1625. His actual appointment as secretary dates from September 1625 and he was elected MP for Cambridge University in 1626 and 1628. Disliked by the leaders of the party, his speeches in the House of Commons did not improve the kings position. King Charles ruled without a parliament from 1628 and he found Cokes industry very useful to him, Coke kept his post until 1640, Dismissed from office, he retired to his estate at Melbourne in Derbyshire. He died at his house in Tottenham] near London, on 8 September 1644, Coke in his earlier years had been a defender of absolute monarchy and greatly disliked the papacy. He was described by Clarendon as a man of very dumb education and a narrower mind, Cokes elder son, Sir John Coke was a Parliamentarian in the English Civil War, while his younger son Thomas Coke was a Royalist. The Coke family continued to own Melbourne Hall until George Lewis Coke and his sister married the familys lawyer and the Coke name was lost. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Coke
35.
The Hague
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The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
36.
John Dee
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John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and he was also an advocate of Englands imperial expansion. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable, one of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on the geometry of Euclid at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and an astronomer, as well as a leading expert in navigation. Simultaneously with these efforts, Dee immersed himself in the worlds of magic, astrology, in his lifetime, Dee amassed one of the largest libraries in England. His high status as a scholar also allowed him to play a role in Elizabethan politics and he served as an occasional advisor and tutor to Elizabeth I and nurtured relationships with her ministers Francis Walsingham and William Cecil. Dee also tutored and enjoyed patronage relationships with Sir Philip Sidney, his uncle Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and he also enjoyed patronage from Sir Christopher Hatton. Dee was born in Tower Ward, London, to Rowland Dee of Welsh descent and his surname Dee derived from the Welsh du, his grandfather was Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes, Pilleth, Radnorshire, and John retained his connection with the locality. His father Roland was a mercer and gentleman courtier to Henry VIII, John Dee claimed to be a descendant of Rhodri the Great, Prince of Wales and constructed a pedigree showing his descent from Rhodri. Dees family arrived in London in the wake of Henry Tudors coronation as Henry VII, Jane Dee was the daughter of William Wild. Dee attended the Chelmsford Chantry School from 1535 to 1542 and he entered St Johns College, Cambridge, in November 1542, aged 15, graduating BA in 1545 or early 1546. His abilities recognised, he became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. At Trinity, the stage effects he produced for a production of Aristophanes Peace procured him the reputation of being a magician that clung to him through life. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Louvain and Brussels, in 1552, he met Gerolamo Cardano in London, during their acquaintance they investigated a perpetual motion machine as well as a gem purported to have magical properties. Rector at Upton-upon-Severn from 1553, Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford in 1554, in 1555, Dee became a member of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through the companys system of patrimony. That same year,1555, he was arrested and charged with calculating for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth, Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the Catholic Bishop Bonner for religious examination. His strong and lifelong penchant for secrecy perhaps worsening matters, this episode was only the most dramatic in a series of attacks. Clearing his name yet again, he became a close associate of Bonner
37.
George Washington
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George Washington was an American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is popularly considered the driving force behind the nations establishment and came to be known as the father of the country, both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely admired for his leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. Washingtons incumbency established many precedents still in use today, such as the system, the inaugural address. His retirement from office two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment now limits the president to two elected terms and he was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became an officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, in that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776 but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause and his strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies, after victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation and he supported Alexander Hamiltons programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795 and he remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he largely supported its policies. Washingtons Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home, upon his death, Washington was eulogized as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia. He was revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history and he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, public works, currency, and other dedications to the present day. He was born on February 11,1731, according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22,1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave and his great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, Georges father Augustine
38.
Leap year
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A leap year is a calendar year containing one additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. By inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected, a year that is not a leap year is called a common year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, each year has 366 days instead of the usual 365. In the Bahai Calendar, a day is added when needed to ensure that the following year begins on the vernal equinox. For example, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday in 2001, Wednesday in 2002, the length of a day is also occasionally changed by the insertion of leap seconds into Coordinated Universal Time, owing to the variability of Earths rotational period. Unlike leap days, leap seconds are not introduced on a regular schedule, in the Gregorian calendar, the standard calendar in most of the world, most years that are multiples of 4 are leap years. In each leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28, adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a period of 365 days is shorter than a tropical year by almost 6 hours. Some exceptions to this rule are required since the duration of a tropical year is slightly less than 365.25 days. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 were not leap years, over a period of four centuries, the accumulated error of adding a leap day every four years amounts to about three extra days. The Gregorian calendar therefore removes three leap days every 400 years, which is the length of its leap cycle and this is done by removing February 29 in the three century years that cannot be exactly divided by 400. The years 1600,2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1700,1800,1900,2100,2200 and 2300 are common years, by this rule, the average number of days per year is 365 + 1⁄4 − 1⁄100 + 1⁄400 =365.2425. The rule can be applied to years before the Gregorian reform, the Gregorian calendar was designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter remains close to the vernal equinox. The Accuracy section of the Gregorian calendar article discusses how well the Gregorian calendar achieves this design goal, the following pseudocode determines whether a year is a leap year or a common year in the Gregorian calendar. The year variable being tested is the representing the number of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Care should be taken in translating mathematical integer divisibility into specific programming languages, if then else if then else if then else February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, the Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a calendar and named many of its days after the syzygies of the moon, the new moon. The Nonae or nones was not the first quarter moon but was exactly one nundina or Roman market week of nine days before the ides and this is what we would call a period of eight days
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Tropical year
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Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the seasonal cycle does not remain exactly synchronized with the position of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. As a consequence, the year is about 20 minutes shorter than the time it takes Earth to complete one full orbit around the Sun as measured with respect to the fixed stars. Since antiquity, astronomers have progressively refined the definition of the tropical year, the entry for year, tropical in the Astronomical Almanac Online Glossary 2015 states, the period of time for the ecliptic longitude of the Sun to increase 360 degrees. The mean tropical year is approximately 365 days,5 hours,48 minutes,45 seconds, an equivalent, more descriptive, definition is The natural basis for computing passing tropical years is the mean longitude of the Sun reckoned from the precessionally moving equinox. Whenever the longitude reaches a multiple of 360 degrees the mean Sun crosses the vernal equinox, the mean tropical year in 2000 was 365.24219 ephemeris days, each ephemeris day lasting 86,400 SI seconds. This is 365.24217 mean solar days, the word tropical comes from the Greek tropikos meaning turn. Thus, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn mark the north and south latitudes where the Sun can appear directly overhead. Because of this connection between the tropics and the cycle of the apparent position of the Sun, the word tropical also lent its name to the tropical year. The early Chinese, Hindus, Greeks, and others made approximate measures of the tropical year, in the 2nd century BC Hipparchus measured the time required for the Sun to travel from an equinox to the same equinox again. He reckoned the length of the year to be 1/300 of a day less than 365.25 days, Hipparchus used this method because he was better able to detect the time of the equinoxes, compared to that of the solstices. He reckoned the value as 1° per century, a value that was not improved upon until about 1000 years later, since this discovery a distinction has been made between the tropical year and the sidereal year. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance a number of progressively better tables were published that allowed computation of the positions of the Sun, Moon, an important application of these tables was the reform of the calendar. The length of the year was given as 365 solar days 5 hours 49 minutes 16 seconds. This length was used in devising the Gregorian calendar of 1582, in the 16th century Copernicus put forward a heliocentric cosmology. This was actually less accurate than the value of the Alfonsine Tables. Major advances in the 17th century were made by Johannes Kepler, in 1609 and 1619 Kepler published his three laws of planetary motion. In 1627, Kepler used the observations of Tycho Brahe and Waltherus to produce the most accurate tables up to that time and he evaluated the mean tropical year as 365 solar days,5 hours,48 minutes,45 seconds. Newtons three laws of dynamics and theory of gravity were published in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687 and these effects did not begin to be understood until Newtons time
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Computus
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Computus is a calculation that determines the calendar date of Easter. The name has been used for this procedure since the early Middle Ages, for most of their history Christians have calculated Easter independently of the Jewish calendar. In principle, Easter falls on the Sunday following the moon that follows the northern spring equinox. However, the equinox and the full moon are not determined by astronomical observation. The vernal equinox is fixed to fall on 21 March, the full moon is an ecclesiastical full moon determined by reference to a lunar calendar, which again varied in different areas. The last limit arises from the fact that the crucifixion was considered to have happened on the 14th, the synodic month had already been measured to a high degree of accuracy. The schematic model that eventually was accepted is the Metonic cycle, in 1583, the Catholic Church began using 21 March under the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date of Easter, while the Eastern Churches have continued to use 21 March under the Julian calendar. The Catholic and Protestant denominations thus use a full moon that occurs four. The earliest and latest dates for Easter are 22 March and 25 April, in the Gregorian calendar those dates are as commonly understood. Easter is the most important Christian feast, and the date of its celebration has been the subject of controversy as early as the meeting of Anicetus. The rest of the Christian world at time, according to Eusebius, held to the view which still prevails. Eusebius does not say how the Sunday was decided, by the end of the 3rd century some Christians had become dissatisfied with what they perceived as the disorderly state of the Jewish calendar. The chief complaint was that the Jewish practice sometimes set the 14th of Nisan before the spring equinox, and it was explicitly stated by Peter, bishop of Alexandria that the men of the present day now celebrate before the equinox. through negligence and error. Another objection to using the Jewish computation may have been that the Jewish calendar was not unified, Jews in one city might have a method for reckoning the Week of Unleavened Bread different from that used by the Jews of another city. Because of these perceived defects in the practice, Christian computists began experimenting with systems for determining Easter that would be free of these defects. At the First Council of Nicaea in 325, it was agreed that the Christians should observe a common date, because of the divergence of tables mentioned above it was usual to negotiate a common date when discrepancies arose. It took several centuries before a common method was accepted throughout Christendom, the process of working out the details generated still further controversies. The method from Alexandria became authoritative, in its developed form it was based on the epacts of a reckoned moon according to the 19-year Metonic cycle
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March equinox
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In the Northern Hemisphere the March equinox is known as the vernal equinox, and in the Southern Hemisphere as the autumnal equinox. On the Gregorian calendar the Northward equinox can occur as early as 19 March or as late as 21 March. For a common year the computed time slippage is about 5 hours 49 minutes later than the previous year, and for a leap year about 18 hours 11 minutes earlier than the previous year. Balancing the increases of the years against the losses of the leap years keeps the calendar date of the March equinox from drifting more than one day from 20 March each year. The March equinox may be taken to mark the beginning of spring and the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere but marks the beginning of autumn, in astronomy, the March equinox is the zero point of sidereal time and, consequently, right ascension. It also serves as a reference for calendars and celebrations in many human cultures, the March equinox is one point in time commonly used to determine the length of the tropical year. The mean tropical year is the average of all the tropical years measured from every point along the Earths orbit. The following table shows the small variations in timing over a period of time. The point where the Sun crosses the equator northwards is called the First Point of Aries. However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, this point is no longer in the constellation Aries, by the year 2600 it will be in Aquarius. The Earths axis causes the First Point of Aries to travel westwards across the sky at a rate of one degree every 72 years. It passed by a corner of Cetus at 0°10′ distance in the year 1489. In its apparent motion on the day of an equinox, the Suns disk crosses the Earths horizon directly to the east at dawn—rising, the March equinox, like all equinoxes, is characterized by having an almost exactly equal amount of daylight and night across most latitudes on Earth. Due to refraction of light rays in the Earths atmosphere the Sun will be visible above the horizon even when its disc is completely below the limb of the Earth and these conditions produce differentials of actual durations of light and darkness at various locations on Earth during an equinox. This is most notable at the extreme latitudes, where the Sun may be seen to travel sideways considerably during the dawn. The Persian calendar begins each year at the equinox, observationally determined at Tehran. The Indian national calendar starts the year on the day next to the equinox on 22 March with a 30-day month. The Julian calendar reform lengthened seven months and replaced the intercalary month with a day to be added every four years to February
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First Council of Nicaea
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The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD325. Constantine I organized the Council along the lines of the Roman Senate and presided over it and this ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the Church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. Hosius of Cordoba, who was one of the Papal legates. The First Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council of the Church, St. Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius took the first position, the popular presbyter Arius, from whom the term Arianism comes, took the second. The council decided against the Arians overwhelmingly, through it a precedent was set for subsequent general councils to adopt creeds and canons. This council is considered the beginning of the period of the First seven Ecumenical Councils in the History of Christianity. The First Council of Nicaea was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great upon the recommendations of a synod led by Hosius of Córdoba in the Eastertide of 325 and this synod had been charged with investigation of the trouble brought about by the Arian controversy in the Greek-speaking east. To most bishops, the teachings of Arius were heretical and dangerous to the salvation of souls and this was the first general council in the history of the Church summoned by emperor Constantine I. In the Council of Nicaea, The Church had taken her first great step to define revealed doctrine more precisely in response to a challenge from a heretical theology. Constantine had invited all 1,800 bishops of the Christian church within the Roman Empire, Eusebius of Caesarea counted more than 250, Athanasius of Alexandria counted 318, and Eustathius of Antioch estimated about 270. Later, Socrates Scholasticus recorded more than 300, and Evagrius, Hilary of Poitiers, Jerome, Dionysius Exiguus and this number 318 is preserved in the liturgies of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Delegates came from every region of the Roman Empire, including Britain, the participating bishops were given free travel to and from their episcopal sees to the council, as well as lodging. These bishops did not travel alone, each one had permission to bring him two priests and three deacons, so the total number of attendees could have been above 1,800. Eusebius speaks of an almost innumerable host of accompanying priests, deacons, the Eastern bishops formed the great majority. Of these, the first rank was held by the three patriarchs, Alexander of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Macarius of Jerusalem and this position is supported by patristic scholar Timothy Barnes in his book Constantine and Eusebius. Historically, the influence of these marred confessors has been seen as substantial, Athanasius of Alexandria, a young deacon and companion of Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, was among the assistants. Athanasius eventually spent most of his life battling against Arianism, Alexander of Constantinople, then a presbyter, was also present as representative of his aged bishop. The supporters of Arius included Secundus of Ptolemais, Theonus of Marmarica, Zphyrius, other supporters included Eusebius of Nicomedia, Paulinus of Tyrus, Actius of Lydda, Menophantus of Ephesus, and Theognus of Nicaea
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Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
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Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
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Gerard, John (1908). "General Chronology § Beginning of the year". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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