Ancient Rome
In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, conventionally founded in 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed; the Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117. In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and to an autocratic semi-elective empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it dominated the North African coast and most of Western Europe, the Balkans and much of the Middle East.
It is grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, society, law, government, art, literature and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France, it achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments and public facilities. The Punic Wars with Carthage were decisive in establishing Rome as a world power. In this series of wars Rome gained control of the strategic islands of Corsica and Sicily. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa.
The Roman Empire emerged with the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman–Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, it stretched from the entire Mediterranean Basin to the beaches of the North Sea in the north, to the shores of the Red and Caspian Seas in the East. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would temporarily divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke up into independent "barbarian" kingdoms in the 5th century; this splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of universal history from the pre-medieval "Dark Ages" of Europe.
The eastern part of the empire endured through the 5th century and remained a power throughout the "Dark Ages" and medieval times until its fall in 1453 AD. Although the citizens of the empire made no distinction, the empire is most referred to as the "Byzantine Empire" by modern historians during the Middle Ages to differentiate between the state of antiquity and the nation it grew into. According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC on the banks of the river Tiber in central Italy, by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas, who were grandsons of the Latin King Numitor of Alba Longa. King Numitor was deposed by his brother, while Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, gave birth to the twins. Since Rhea Silvia had been raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine; the new king, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, so he ordered them to be drowned. A she-wolf saved and raised them, when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor.
The twins founded their own city, but Romulus killed Remus in a quarrel over the location of the Roman Kingdom, though some sources state the quarrel was about, going to rule or give his name to the city. Romulus became the source of the city's name. In order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent and unwanted; this caused a problem, in that Rome was bereft of women. Romulus visited neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables he was refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins with the Sabines. Another legend, recorded by Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, says that Prince Aeneas led a group of Trojans on a sea voyage to found a new Troy, since the original was destroyed at the end of the Trojan War. After a long time in rough seas, they landed on the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, but the women who were traveling with them did not want to leave.
One woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent their leaving
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains, it has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region, as of 2016, was 1,347,359, the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806. There is archaeological debate regarding where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion; the city expanded from the 17th century and was the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State renamed Ireland. Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts and industry; as of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.
The name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, from dubh meaning "black, dark", lind "pool", referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, Irish rhymes from County Dublin show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn; the original pronunciation is preserved in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn as well as Welsh Dulyn. Other localities in Ireland bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin and Difflin. Scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b, rendering Duḃlinn or Duiḃlinn; those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh, part of Loch Linnhe.
It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements; the Viking settlement of about 841, a Gaelic settlement, Áth Cliath further up river, at the present day Father Mathew Bridge, at the bottom of Church Street. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a place name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church. There are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Anglicised as Hurlford; the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times, but the writings of Ptolemy in about AD 140 provide the earliest reference to a settlement there.
He called it Eblana polis. Dublin celebrated its'official' millennium in 1988, meaning the Irish government recognised 988 as the year in which the city was settled and that this first settlement would become the city of Dublin, it is now thought the Viking settlement of about 841 was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements which became the modern Dublin; the subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay. The Dubhlinn was a pool on the lowest stretch of the Poddle, used to moor ships; this pool was fully infilled during the early 18th century, as the city grew. The Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library within Dublin Castle. Táin Bó Cuailgne refers to Dublind rissa ratter Áth Cliath, meaning "Dublin, called Ath Cliath". Dublin was established as a Viking settlement in the 10th century and, despite a number of attacks by the native Irish, it remained under Viking control until the Norman invasion of Ireland was launched from Wales in 1169.
It was upon the death of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn in early 1166 that Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht, proceeded to Dublin and was inaugurated King of Ireland without opposition. According to some historians, part of the city's early economic growth is attributed to a trade in slaves. Slavery in Ireland and Dublin reached its pinnacle in the 10th centuries. Prisoners from slave raids and kidnappings, which captured men and children, brought revenue to the Gaelic Irish Sea raiders, as well as to the Vikings who had initiated the practice; the victims came from Wales, England and beyond. The King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, after his exile by Ruaidhrí, enlisted the help of Strongbow, the Earl of Pembroke, to conquer Dublin. Following Mac Murrough's death, Strongbow declared himself King of Leinster after gaining control of the city. In response to Strongbow's successful invasion, King Henry II of England affirmed his ultimate sovereignty by mou
Somerset Light Infantry
The Somerset Light Infantry was a light infantry infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry, again amalgamated, in 1968, with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and the Durham Light Infantry to form The Light Infantry. In 2007, The Light Infantry was amalgamated further with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Royal Green Jackets to form The Rifles; the regiment was one of nine regiments of foot raised by James II when he expanded the size of the army in response to the Monmouth Rebellion. On 20 June 1685, Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon was issued with a warrant authorising him to raise a regiment, accordingly the Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot was formed recruiting in the county of Buckinghamshire.
The regiment remained in existence when William III came to the throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Ferdinando Hastings took over the colonelcy of the regiment, which accordingly became Hastings's Regiment of Foot. Hastings's Regiment first saw action at the Battle of Killiecrankie, where they failed to halt the advance of Jacobite rebels, although they were defeated at the Battle of Dunkeld; the regiment accompanied William to Ireland in the following year, fighting in the decisive Williamite victories at the Boyne and Cork. The Jacobite struggles in Scotland and Ireland were part of a wider European conflict that became known as the Nine Years' War. In 1692, Hastings' Regiment sailed to Flanders and, in 1694, took part in the disastrous amphibious assault at Camaret on the French coast. In 1695, Colonel Fernando Hastings was found guilty of extortion, dismissed. Sir John Jacob became the colonel, it was as Jacob's Regiment of Foot that they returned to England at the end of the war in 1697.
After a period of garrison duty in Ireland, Jacob's Regiment returned to Flanders in 1701. In the following year, the colonelcy again changed, with Sir John Jacob choosing to retire, he sold the colonelcy to his brother-in-law, Lieutenant-General James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore, for 1,400 guineas. With the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Earl of Barrymore's Regiment of Foot saw action at the sieges or battles of Kaiserwerth, Roermond, Limburg and Liège. In 1704, Barrymore's Regiment moved to the Iberian Peninsula taking part in the defence of the recently-captured Gibraltar and the Siege of Barcelona. In 1706, the bulk of the regiment was converted into a regiment of dragoons due to a shortage of cavalry. Barrymore returned to England with a small cadre; the unit fought at the Battle of Almanza, the Battle of La Caya, the Battle of Tortosa and the Battle of St Mateo. In 1711, the regiment started a long period of garrison duty at Gibraltar. In 1715, they became Cotton's Regiment of Foot.
When war broke out with Spain in 1727, Cotton's were part of the force that resisted the Spanish Siege of Gibraltar. The regiment returned to England in the following year, it remained there until 1742, with the name changing with the colonelcy: Kerr's Regiment of Foot in 1725, Middleton's Regiment of Foot in 1732 and Pulteney's Regiment of Foot in 1739. In 1742, Pulteney's Regiment sailed to Flanders, in the following year was part of the joint British and Austrian force that secured a victory over the French at the Battle of Dettingen in June 1743. In May 1745, the situation was reversed when they were part of the allied army decisively defeated at the Battle of Fontenoy. In 1745, Pulteney's Regiment returned to Britain, moving to Scotland to suppress the Jacobite rising of 1745, they formed part of the defeated forces at the Battle of Falkirk in January 1746. Three months they took part in the final defeat of the Jacobites in Culloden. Following the ending of the Jacobite rising, Pulteney's Regiment returned to Flanders, where they fought at the Battle of Rocoux and the Battle of Lauffeld or Val.
In both cases, the allied forces were defeated by the French. The regiment returned to England in 1747, the war was formally ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. By the late seventeenth century, each regiment of the standing army had been allotted a "rank" in the order of precedence; these numbers came to be used until a royal warrant of 1751 decreed that regiments should in future be known by their numbers only. Accordingly, Pulteney's Regiment became the 13th Regiment of Foot; the redesignated 13th Foot entered a thirty-year period of garrison service in England, Ireland and Minorca. In 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out, widening into war with France from 1778 and Spain in 1779; the 13th Foot sailed for the West Indies. They saw little active service, returning to England in 1782, moving on to Ireland in 1783, it was at this time. On 21 August 1782, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Henry Seymour Conway, issued a regulation giving an English county designation to each regiment of foot other than those with a royal title or highland regiments.
The intention was to improve recruitment during the unpopular war, the Secretary at War, Thomas Townshend issued a circular letter to the lieutenants of each county in England in the following terms: My Lord, The great deficiency of men in the regiments of infantry being so detrime
De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined high-wing propeller-driven short takeoff and landing aircraft developed and manufactured by de Havilland Canada. It has been operated as a bush plane and has been used for a wide variety of utility roles, such as cargo and passenger hauling, aerial application, civil aviation duties. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, de Havilland Canada made the decision to orient itself towards civilian operators. Based upon feedback from pilots, the company decided that the envisioned aircraft should have excellent STOL performance, all-metal construction, accommodate many features sought by the operators of bush planes. On 16 August 1947, the maiden flight of the aircraft, which had received the designation DHC-2 Beaver, took place. In April 1948, the first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests. In addition to its use in civilian operations, the Beaver has been adopted by armed forces as a utility aircraft.
The United States Army purchased several hundred aircraft. S. Air Force Auxiliary for search and rescue. By 1967, in excess of 1,600 Beavers had been constructed prior to the closure of the original assembly line. Various aircraft have been upgraded. Additionally, various proposals have been mooted to return the Beaver to production; the Beaver has become one of the more iconic aircraft to have been produced in Canada. One of the more significant events involving the type occurred in 1958, when a Royal New Zealand Air Force Beaver played a supporting role in Sir Edmund Hillary's famous Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole. Due to its success, the Royal Canadian Mint commemorated the aircraft on a special edition Canadian quarter in November 1999. In 1987, the Canadian Engineering Centennial Board named the DHC-2 one of the top ten Canadian engineering achievements of the 20th century. Large numbers continue to be operational into the 21st century, while the tooling and type certificate for the Beaver have been acquired by Viking Air who continue to produce replacement components and refurbish examples of the type.
Following the end of the Second World War, de Havilland Canada's management team, recognising that there were would be a corresponding downturn in military orders in the immediate post-war climate, decided to focus the company's energies upon finding work within the civilian sector. The company had hired Punch Dickins as Director of Sales, it was on the basis of this information from the prospective operators themselves, as opposed to aerodynamic research or fiscal data, that the future aircraft has its origins. In response without exception, these pilots specified their desire for tremendous extra power and STOL performance, in a design that could be fitted with wheels, skis or floats; when de Havilland engineers noted this would result in poor cruise performance, one pilot replied, "You only have to be faster than a dog sled to be a winner". Other suggestions that were mundane, but important in the bush plane world, included the installation of full-sized doors on both sides of the aircraft, which meant that it could be loaded no matter which side of a dock it tied up on.
On 17 September 1946, de Havilland put together a design team consisting of Fred Buller, Dick Hiscocks, Jim Houston and W. Jakimiuk, led by Phil Garratt; the new aircraft was designed to be all-metal, using "steel from the engine to the firewall, heavy aluminum truss frames with panels and doors throughout the front seat area, lighter trusses toward the rear and all monocoque construction aft". At the time, de Havilland Canada was still a British-owned company and there were plans to fit the evolving design with the British de Havilland Gipsy engine; as a result of its comparatively limited power, the wing area was increased in order to maintain STOL performance. When Pratt & Whitney Canada offered to supply war-surplus 450 hp Wasp Junior radial engines at a low price, the aircraft ended up with extra power as well as the original long wing; the result was unbeatable STOL performance for an aircraft of its size. In line with the convention for aircraft produced by de Havilland Canada being named after animals, it was decided that the new bush plane would be named after the beaver, known for its hard-working nature.
On 16 August 1947, the maiden flight of the DHC-2 Beaver was in Ontario. After completing its flight test programme, the prototype received several adjustments and improvements in order for it to serve as a flying demonstration model ready for the sales circuit; the prototype was sold to Central British Columbia Airways, as a routine day-to-day working air-taxi airplane and continued to fly as such with various until 1980, after which it was retired and preserved. In April 1948, the first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, a design partner. Initial sales were slow two or three a month but as the plane was demonstrated sales started to improve. A key event in the Beaver's history occurred the next year, when the US Army commenced its search for a new utility aircraft to replace their fleet of Cessnas; the competition boiled down to the Bea
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest simply called Eurovision, is an international song competition held among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner. At least 50 countries are eligible to compete as of 2018, since 2015, Australia has been allowed as a guest entrant. Winning the Eurovision Song Contest provides a short-term career boost for artists, but results in long-term success. Exceptions include ABBA, Bucks Fizz, Celine Dion, all of whom launched successful careers. Based on the Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy since 1951, Eurovision has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956, making it the longest-running annual international television contest and one of the world's longest-running television programmes, it is one of the most watched non-sporting events, with audience figures of between 100 million and 600 million internationally.
It has been broadcast in several countries that do not compete, such as the United States, New Zealand, China. Since 2000, it has been broadcast online via the Eurovision website. Ireland holds the record for most victories, with seven wins, including four times in five years in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996. Under the current voting system, in place since 2016, the highest-scoring winner is Salvador Sobral of Portugal who won the 2017 contest in Kiev, with 758 points; as a war-torn Europe was rebuilding itself in the 1950s, the European Broadcasting Union —based in Switzerland—set up an ad hoc committee to search for ways of bringing together the countries of the EBU around a "light entertainment programme". At a committee meeting held in Monaco in January 1955 with Marcel Bezençon of the Swiss television as chairman, the committee conceived the idea of an international song contest where countries would participate in one television programme to be transmitted across all countries of the union; the competition was based upon the existing Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy and was seen as a technological experiment in live television.
In those days it was a ambitious project to join many countries together in a wide-area international network. Satellite television did not exist and the Eurovision Network comprised a terrestrial microwave network; the concept known as "Eurovision Grand Prix", was approved by the EBU General Assembly in a meeting held in Rome on 19 October 1955, it was decided that the first contest would take place in spring 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland. The name "Eurovision" was first used in relation to the EBU's network by British journalist George Campey in the London Evening Standard in 1951; the first contest was held in the town of Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956. Seven countries participated—each submitting two songs, for a total of 14; this was the only contest in which more than one song per country was performed: since 1957, all contests have allowed one entry per country. The 1956 contest was won by Switzerland; the programme was first known as the "Eurovision Grand Prix". This "Grand Prix" name was adopted by Germany, Denmark and the Francophone countries, with the French designation being Le Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne.
The "Grand Prix" was dropped in 1973 and replaced with Concours in French and in 2001 with the English name in German, but not in Danish or Norwegian. The Eurovision network is used to carry many news and sports programmes internationally, among other specialised events organised by the EBU. However, in the minds of the public, the name "Eurovision" is most associated with the Song Contest; the format of the contest has changed over the years, though the basic tenets have always been thus: participant countries submit original songs, performed live on a television programme broadcast across the Eurovision Network by the EBU to all countries. A "country" as a participant is represented by one television broadcaster from that country: but not always, that country's national public broadcasting organisation; the programme is hosted by one of the participant countries, the programme is broadcast from the auditorium in the host city. During this programme, after all the songs have been performed, the countries proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs: nations are not allowed to vote for their own song.
At the end of the programme, the song with the most points is declared as the winner. The winner receives the prestige of having won—although it is usual for a trophy to be awarded to the winning songwriters, the winning country is formally invited to host the event the following year; the programme is invariably opened by one or more presenters. Between the songs and the announcement of the voting, an interval act is performed; these acts can be any form of entertainment. Interval entertainment has included such acts as the Wombles and the first international performance of Riverdance; as national broadcasters join and leave the Eurovision feed transmitted by the EBU, the EBU/Eurovision network logo ident is displayed. The accompanying theme music is the prelude to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum; the same logo was used for both
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a rich landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the foundation and endowment for the college; when de Balliol died in 1269 his widow, Dervorguilla, a woman whose wealth far exceeded that of her husband, continued his work in setting up the college, providing a further endowment, writing the statutes. She is considered a co‑founder of the college. Among the college's alumni are three former prime ministers, Harald V of Norway, five Nobel laureates, numerous literary and philosophical figures, including Adam Smith, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Aldous Huxley. John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English, was Master of the college in the 1360s. In 2018 Balliol had an endowment of £139.3m. Balliol College was founded in about 1263 by John I de Balliol under the guidance of Walter of Kirkham, the Bishop of Durham.
According to legend, the founder had abducted the bishop as part of a land dispute and as a penance he was publicly beaten by the bishop and had to support a group of scholars at Oxford. After de Balliol's death in 1268, his widow, Dervorguilla of Galloway, made arrangements to ensure the permanence of the college in that she provided capital and in 1282 formulated the college statutes, documents that survive to this day. Along with University and Merton, Balliol can claim to be the oldest Oxford college. Balliol’s claim is that a house of scholars was established by the founder in Oxford in around 1263, before Merton in 1274 and University in around 1280. Under a statute of 1881, New Inn Hall, one of the remaining medieval halls, was merged into Balliol College in 1887. Balliol acquired New Inn Hall's admissions and other records for 1831–1887 as well as the library of New Inn Hall, which contained 18th-century law books; the New Inn Hall site was sold and is now part of St Peter's College, Oxford.
In 1880, seven mischievous Balliol undergraduates published The Masque of B-ll--l, a broadsheet of forty quatrains making light of their superiors – the Master and selected Fellows and Commoners – and themselves. The outraged authorities suppressed the collection, only a few copies survived, three of which found their way into the College Library over the years, one into the Bodleian Library. Verses of this form are now known as Balliol rhymes; the best known of these rhymes is the one on Benjamin Jowett. This has been quoted and reprinted in every book about Jowett and about Balliol since. First come I. My name is J-W-TT. There's no knowledge but I know it. I am Master of this College; this and 18 others are attributed to Henry Charles Beeching. The other quatrains are much less well known. William Tuckwell included 18 of these quatrains in his Reminiscences in 1900, but they all came out only in 1939, thanks to Walter George Hiscock, an Oxford librarian, who issued them then and in a second edition in 1955.
For many years, there has been a traditional and fierce rivalry shown between the students of Balliol and those of its immediate neighbour to the east, Trinity College. It has manifested itself on the river; the rivalry reflects that which exists between Trinity College and Balliol's sister college, St John's College, Cambridge. In college folklore, the rivalry goes back to the late 17th century, when Ralph Bathurst, President of Trinity, was observed throwing stones at Balliol's windows. In fact, in its modern form, the rivalry appears to date from the late 1890s, when the chant or song known as a "Gordouli" began to be sung from the Balliol side; the traditional words run: Gordouli Face like a ham,Bobby Johnson says so And he should know. The shouting of chants over the wall is still known as "a Gordouli", the tradition continues as the students gather to sing following boat club dinners and other events; the traditional Gordouli is said to have been sung by Balliol and Trinity men in the trenches of Mesopotamia in the First World War.
Balliol became known for its radicalism and political activism in the 20th century, saw an abortive coup in the 1960s in which students took over the college and declared it "the People's Republic of Balliol". The contrast between the radical tendencies of many Balliol students and the traditional conservatism and social exclusivity of Trinity gave the rivalry an extra edge; the fact that Balliol had admitted a number of Indian and Asiatic students gave many of the taunts from the Trinity side a distinctly racist tone: Balliol students, for example, were sometime referred to as "Basutos". In Five Red Herrings, a Lord Peter Wimsey novel by Somerville alumna Dorothy L. Sayers, Lord Peter is asked whether he remembers a certain contemporary from Trinity. "'I never knew any Trinity men,' said Wimsey.'The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.'" Sayers alludes to the rivalry in Murder Must Advertise: Mr Ingleby, a Trinity man, comments, "If there is one thing more repulsive than another it is Balliolity."One of the wittier raids from Balliol, in 1962 or 1963, involved the turfing of the whole of Trinity JCR.
The last incident suspected to relate to the feud was the vandalisation of Trinity's SCR pond, which led to the death of all but one of the fish. For
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It has been described as the first major military campaign fought by air forces; the British recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July until 31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as The Blitz, that lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. German historians do not accept this subdivision and regard the battle as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to June 1941, including the Blitz; the primary objective of the German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began, with the Luftwaffe targeting coastal-shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth. On 1 August, the Luftwaffe was directed to achieve air superiority over the RAF with the aim of incapacitating RAF Fighter Command.
As the battle progressed, the Luftwaffe targeted factories involved in aircraft production and strategic infrastructure. It employed terror bombing on areas of political significance and on civilians; the Germans had overwhelmed France and the Low Countries, leaving Britain to face the threat of invasion by sea. The German high command knew the difficulties of a seaborne attack and its impracticality while the Royal Navy controlled the English Channel and the North Sea. On 16 July, Adolf Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as a potential amphibious and airborne assault on Britain, to follow once the Luftwaffe had air superiority over the UK. In September, RAF Bomber Command night raids disrupted the German preparation of converted barges, the Luftwaffe's failure to overwhelm the RAF forced Hitler to postpone and cancel Operation Sea Lion. Germany proved unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night-bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz. Historian Stephen Bungay cited Germany's failure to destroy Britain's air defences to force an armistice as the first major German defeat in World War II and a crucial turning point in the conflict.
The Battle of Britain takes its name from a speech given by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons on 18 June: "What General Weygand called the'Battle of France' is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin." Strategic bombing during World War I introduced air attacks intended to panic civilian targets and led in 1918 to the amalgamation of British army and navy air services into the Royal Air Force. Its first Chief of the Air Staff Hugh Trenchard was among the military strategists in the 1920s like Giulio Douhet who saw air warfare as a new way to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare. Interception was nearly impossible with fighter planes no faster than bombers, their view was that the bomber will always get through, the only defence was a deterrent bomber force capable of matching retaliation. Predictions were made that a bomber offensive would cause thousands of deaths and civilian hysteria leading to capitulation, but widespread pacifism contributed to a reluctance to provide resources.
Germany was forbidden a military air force by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, therefore air crew were trained by means of civilian and sport flying. Following a 1923 memorandum, the Deutsche Luft Hansa airline developed designs for aircraft such as the Junkers Ju 52, which could carry passengers and freight, but be adapted into bombers. In 1926, the secret Lipetsk fighter-pilot school began operating. Erhard Milch organised rapid expansion, following the 1933 Nazi seizure of power, his subordinate Robert Knauss formulated a deterrence theory incorporating Douhet's ideas and Tirpitz's "risk theory", which proposed a fleet of heavy bombers to deter a preventive attack by France and Poland before Germany could rearm. A 1933–34 war game indicated a need for fighters and anti-aircraft protection as well as bombers. On 1 March 1935, the Luftwaffe was formally announced, with Walther Wever as Chief of Staff; the 1935 Luftwaffe doctrine for "Conduct of the Air War" set air power within the overall military strategy, with critical tasks of attaining air superiority and providing battlefield support for army and naval forces.
Strategic bombing of industries and transport could be decisive longer term options, dependent on opportunity or preparations by the army and navy, to overcome a stalemate or used when only destruction of the enemy's economy would be conclusive. The list excluded bombing civilians to destroy homes or undermine morale, as, considered a waste of strategic effort, but the doctrine allowed revenge attacks if German civilians were bombed. A revised edition was issued in 1940, the continuing central principle of Luftwaffe doctrine was that destruction of enemy armed forces was of primary importance; the RAF responded to Luftwaffe developments with its 1934 Expansion Plan A rearmament scheme, in 1936 it was restructured into Bomber Command, Coastal Command, Training Command and Fighter Command. The latter was under Hugh Dowding, who opposed the doctrine that bombers were unstoppable: the invention of radar at that time could allow early detection, prototype monoplane fighters were faster. Priorities were disputed, but in December 1937 the Minister in charge of defence coordination Sir Thomas Inskip decided in Dowding's favour, that "The role of our air force is not an early k
