1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Warsaw Stock Exchange
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The Warsaw Stock Exchange, Polish, Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie, is a stock exchange located in Warsaw, Poland. It has a capitalization of PLN1123 bln, the WSE is a member of the World Federation of Exchanges and the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. On 17 December 2013, the WSE also joined the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative, Warsaw became the capital and financial center of Poland in the early 17th century. In the Middle Ages other Polish towns, most of members of the Hanse, were the leading economic centers of Poland. Merchants from western and southern Europe settled in Poland since the beginning of Polish statehood and they brought the system of organized exchange trading in securities, mostly bills and currencies, to Poland. The oldest Polish bill was issued in 1243 by the Cuyavien bishop Sambor, the main centers of securities tradings were at the lower Vistula, in the 14th century occupied by the Teutonic Knights. The first marcantile exchanges emerged in Gdańsk, Toruń, Malbork, Kraków, Poznań, Zamość, Królewiec, mediaeval mercantile exchanges might have also existed for a short period in Chełmno, Grudziądz and Braniewo. Early mercantile trade in securities emerged in Warsaw in the 15th and 16th century and was based on privileges by the Masovian Dukes, the original privileges are lost, but they have been mentioned and affirmed by King John II Casimir in 1658. An archetype of the Warsaw Exchange was first mentioned in 1624/1625, in 1643 Adam Zarzebski, the chief architect of King Władysław IV, mentioned a stone building on the Old Market Square as the seat of the Exchange, probabely a part of the Old Town Hall. The securities trading minutes of the Warsaw merchants in the Old Town Hall have been recorded since 1757, the legal framework for the trading in securities was first codified by the Polish Sejm in 1775. As one of the first Polish corporations Kompania Manufaktur Welnianych issued its first 120 shares in 1768, the first Polish bonds were issued in 1782 by King Stanisław August. In 1808 the Duchy of Warsaw adopted the Napoleonic code including the Code de Commerce, the Code de Commerce also regulated stock exchange law and there were efforts made to establish a state-organized exchange on the basis of this code in Warsaw. However, due to the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the first state-organized exchange in Poland, the Warsaw Mercantile Exchange, was established in Warsaw by a decree of viceregent Grand Duke Constantine Romanov dated 12 May 1817. The first trading took place in the Old Town Hall on 16 May 1817, the Warsaw Mercantile Exchange grew rapidly. The number of brokers doubled between 1817 and 1822, in the first half of the 19th century mainly bills, debentures and bonds were traded, while share trading on a broader scale developed in the second half of that century. The first public security to be traded on the Warsaw Mercantile Exchange was the debentures of Towarzystwo Kredytowe Ziemskie issued in 1826, the first shares admitted to trading were issued by railroad companies in the 1840s. Until 1853 trading sessions were twice a week between 1pm and 2pm, in 1873 a new, more liberal, stock exchange act was passed, separating the trade in securities and commodities. A separate Warsaw Commodities Exchange was founded in 1874, central Europe was subject to a big bull market after the Prussian-Franco War of 1870-1871, followed by a harsh crash starting at the Vienna Stock Exchange in the later 1870s
3.
Hilversum
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Hilversum is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called Het Gooi, it is the largest town in that area and it is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilversum is part of the Randstad, one of the largest conurbations in Europe, Hilversum is 31 km south-east of Amsterdam and 19 km north of Utrecht. The town is often called media city since it is the centre for radio. Radio Netherlands, heard worldwide via shortwave radio since the 1920s, is based here. As a result, many old AM radio sets in Europe had a Hilversum dial position marked on their tuning scales, the Dutch voting in the Eurovision Song Contest usually takes place from Hilversum. Hilversum is also known for its architecturally important Town Hall, designed by Willem Marinus Dudok and built in 1931. Hilversum has one library, two swimming pools, a number of sporting halls and several shopping centers In the region, the city centre is called het dorp. Earthenware found in Hilversum gives its name to the Hilversum culture, artifacts from this prehistoric civilization bear similarities to the Wessex Culture of southern Britain and may indicate that the first Hilversum residents emigrated from that area. The first brick settlements formed around 900, but it was not until 1305 that the first official mention of Hilversum is found, at that point it was a part of Naarden, the oldest town in the Gooi area. Farming, raising sheep and some wool manufacturing were the means of life for the Gooi in the Middle Ages, in 1424, on 21 March at 6,30 am, Hilversum received its first official independent status. This made possible further growth in the village because permission from Naarden was no longer needed for new industrial development. The town grew further in the 17th century when the Dutch economy as a whole entered its age of prosperity, in 1725 and 1766 large fires destroyed most of the town, leveling parts of the old townhouse and the church next to it. The town overcame these setbacks and the industry continued to develop. In the 19th century a substantial textile and tapestry industry emerged, aided by a link to Amsterdam in 1874. Despite this growth, Hilversum was never granted city rights so it is referred to by many locals as het dorp. For the 1928 Summer Olympics in neighboring Amsterdam, it hosted all of the non-jumping equestrian, the city was the headquarters of the German ground forces in the Netherlands. By then the industry had started its decline, only one factory, Veneta, managed to continue into the 1960s
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
UEFA Euro 2016
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It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain were the defending champions, having won the 2008 and 2012 tournaments. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France, for the first time, the European Championship final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under the new format, the finalists contested a group consisting of six groups of four teams. France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a process in which they beat Italy. The matches were played in ten stadiums in ten cities, Bordeaux, Lens, Lille Métropole, Décines-Charpieu, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne and it was the third time that France hosted the finals, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. As the winners, Portugal earned the right to compete at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, four bids came before the deadline on 9 March 2009. France, Italy and Turkey put in single bids while Norway, Norway and Sweden eventually withdrew their bid in December 2009. The host was selected on 28 May 2010, Round 1, Each of the thirteen members of the UEFA Executive Committee ranked the 3 bids first, second, and third. First place ranking received 5 points, second place 2 points, Executive members from the countries bidding were not allowed to vote. Round 2, The same thirteen-member committee voted for either of the two finalists, the qualifying draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis in Nice, on 23 February 2014, with the first matches being played in September 2014. A total of 53 teams competed for 23 places in the tournament to join France. Gibraltar competed in a European Championship qualifying for the first time since their affiliation to UEFA in 2013, the seeding pots were formed on the basis of the UEFA national team coefficients, with the Euro 2012 champions Spain and hosts France automatically top seeded. The 53 national sides were drawn into eight groups of six teams, the group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team qualify directly for the final tournament. The remaining eight third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers, in March 2012, Gianni Infantino, the UEFA General Secretary at the time, stated that UEFA would review the qualification competition to ensure that it was not boring. In May 2013, Platini confirmed a similar qualifying format would be discussed during the September 2013 UEFA executive committee meeting in Dubrovnik. Thirteen of the sixteen teams qualified for Euro 2012 qualified again for the 2016 final tournament. Romania, Turkey, Austria and Switzerland all returned after missing out in 2012, with the Austrians qualifying for just their second final Euro tournament, five teams secured their first-ever qualification to a UEFA European Championship final tournament, Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales
6.
2018 FIFA World Cup
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The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the mens national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, the final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities, the final will take place on 15 July in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium. The winners will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup, the bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in January 2009, and national associations had until 2 February 2009 to register their interest. During the bidding process, the three remaining non-UEFA nations gradually withdrew from the 2018 bids, and the UEFA nations were thus ruled out of the 2022 bid. As such, there were four bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium. The twenty-two-member FIFA Executive Committee convened in Zürich on 2 December 2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments, Russia won the right to be the 2018 host in the second round of voting. The Spain/Portugal bid came second, and that from Belgium/Netherlands third, Englands bid to host its second tournament fell at the first hurdle. For the branding, a typeface called Dusha was created by Portuguese design agency Brandia Central in 2014, apart from Russia, who qualified automatically for the tournament as the hosts, all FIFA member associations were eligible to enter the qualification process. On 12 March 2015, prior to the start of qualification, Indonesia were suspended and then expelled before playing a single qualifying match, as part of punishment for government interference in the Football Association of Indonesia. The qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, qualifying matches for AFC and CONCACAF started in March 2015, prior to the qualifying draw. The allocation of slots for each confederation was decided to be unchanged by the FIFA Executive Committee on 30 May 2015 in Zürich, on 13 May 2016, Gibraltar and Kosovo became FIFA members and eligible for the World Cup qualifying. In October 2013, UEFA President Michel Platini proposed that the World Cup finals should be expanded from 32 to 40 teams starting from 2018, the format would have been the same, but in groups of five instead of four. This was in response to FIFA President Sepp Blatters comments that Africa and Asia deserved more spots in the World Cup finals at the expense of European and South American teams. Russia proposed the following host cities, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, and Yekaterinburg. All the cities are in or just outside European Russia to reduce time for the teams in the huge country. The bid evaluation report stated, The Russian bid proposes 13 host cities and 16 stadiums, three of the 16 stadiums would be renovated, and 13 would be newly constructed. In October 2011 Russia decreased the number of stadiums from 16 to 14, the final choice of host cities was announced on 29 September 2012
7.
FIVB Volleyball World League
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The FIVB Volleyball World League is an international mens volleyball competition. Created in 1990, it is the longest and richest of all the events organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball. The womens version of the competition is called FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix and this event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitions, the World Championship, the World Cup and the World Grand Champions Cup. The World League was created in 1990 as part of the intensive marketing programme that would become a mark of the FIVBs activities near the end of the century. The idea was to promote the sport of volleyball by establishing an annual competition that would appeal to all over the world. At that point, international competitions involving top volleyball teams took place only in 4-year cycles, and were usually confined to a host city or nation. By contrast, the World League was designed to be played on a one-year basis, further restrictions on participation, such as mandatory local broadcasting, ensured massive TV & media coverage. The FIVBs strategy eventually proved visionary, at the turn of the century, following the success of the World League, the FIVB launched a sister project in 1993 for womens volleyball, the Grand Prix. It was very effective in East Asia, where this type of event has become tremendously popular, in the 1990s, the Italians dominated the World League, winning the first three tournaments in 1990,1991 and 1992. Playing at home, Brazil, at the time the Olympic champions, managed to take the gold in 1993, in 1998, the winners were Cuba, while in 1999 and 2000 Italy won again. Italys supremacy in the World League began to wane in 2001, the interruptions to Brazils dominance came in 2002, when Russia took the title, and in 2008, with the United States winning gold and gaining positive momentum going into the Beijing Olympics. The FIVB is constantly adapting the World Leagues competition formula to improve competitiveness, nevertheless, a few basic rules and restrictions will probably remain unchanged in the following years. Teams who participate must provide local coverage and live TV broadcasting. The competition is divided in at least two phases, a round, with a system of rotating host cities, and one or more final rounds. In the preliminary round, teams are organized in pools, each team plays a total of four matches against all other teams in its pool, two at home, two as visitors. Each pair of matches is played over a weekend, when all the matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top n teams in each pool qualify for the final round, and the remaining ones leave the competition. The value of n depends on the number of participating teams, host nation automatically qualify for the final round. The FIVB has tried various formats for the round, Top Six, Top Four
8.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
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Extreme Makeover, Home Edition is an American reality television series providing home improvements for less fortunate families and community schools. The show is hosted by model, carpenter and veteran television personality Ty Pennington. Each episode features a family that has faced some sort of recent or ongoing hardship such as a disaster or a family member with a life-threatening illness. The shows producers coordinate with a construction contractor, which then coordinates with various companies in the building trades for a makeover of the familys home. This includes interior, exterior and landscaping, performed in seven days while the family is on vacation, if the house is beyond repair, they replace it entirely. The shows producers and crew film set and perform the makeover, the materials and labor are donated. Many skilled and unskilled volunteers assist in the construction of the house. EM, HE is considered a spin-off of Extreme Makeover, a series providing personal makeovers to selected individuals. Unusual for a spin-off, Home Edition outlasted its mother show by several seasons and this show displays extreme changes to help recreate someones space. EM, HE also has similarities to other home renovation series such as Trading Spaces, the series is produced by Endemol USA in association with Disney-ABC Television Groups Greengrass Television. The current Executive Producers are Brady Connell and George Verschoor, the program originally aired on Sunday evenings but was moved to Friday nights as of October 21,2011. On December 15,2011, ABC announced that Extreme Makeover and it will, however, continue to air as a special on the network. Extreme Makeover, Home Edition premiered as a special on Wednesday, December 3,2003. The show ranked 41st in its first season, averaging 10.6 million viewers per episode, however its ratings soared thereafter with the second season entering the top 20, finishing 15th for the year, averaging 15.8 million viewers per episode. The next four seasons each ranked at least in the top 30, the sixth season, however, fell out of the top 35, and ranked 38th, averaging 10.3 million viewers per episode. The seventh season ranked 39th, averaging 9.1 million viewers, by season eight, the show barely ranked in the top 50 with just over 8.5 million viewers per episode on average. The last season ranked below the top 100 and averaged only 5.8 million viewers per episode, series reruns began airing on TV Land on Tuesday August 7,2007, making it the youngest non-original show to air on the network. The show is also in syndication on CMT, the show is hosted by Ty Pennington, formerly a carpenter on the show Trading Spaces
9.
Let's Make a Deal
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Lets Make a Deal is a television game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created and produced by Stefan Hatos and Monty Hall, the format of Lets Make a Deal involves selected members of the studio audience, referred to as traders, making deals with the host. In most cases, a trader will be offered something of value, the programs defining game mechanism is that the other item is hidden from the trader until that choice is made. The trader thus does not know if he or she is getting something of value or a prize that is referred to as a zonk. Lets Make a Deal is also known for audience members who dress up in outrageous or crazy costumes in order to increase their chances of being selected as a trader. Wayne Brady is the host of the current series, with Jonathan Mangum as his announcer/assistant, tiffany Coyne joined the series as Fioris replacement in 2010 and musician Cat Gray joined the program in 2011. Danielle Demski filled in for Coyne while the latter was on maternity leave for part of the 2013–14 season, Lets Make a Deal first aired on NBC in 1963 as part of its daytime schedule. The show moved to ABC in 1968, where it remained until 1976, the first syndicated edition of Lets Make a Deal premiered in 1971. Distributed by ABC Films, and then by its successor Worldvision Enterprises once the rules were enacted. A revival of the based in Halls native Canada was launched in 1980. This series was produced by Catalena Productions and distributed in America by Rhodes Productions, in the fall of 1984, the series returned for a third run in syndication as The All-New Lets Make a Deal. Running for two seasons until 1986, this series was distributed by Telepictures, NBC revived Lets Make a Deal twice in a thirteen-year span. The first was a series in 1990 that was the first to not be produced or hosted by Monty Hall. Instead, the show was a production of Ron Greenberg and Dick Clark, a primetime edition was launched in 2003 but drew poor ratings and was cancelled after three of its intended five episodes had aired. A partial remake called Big Deal, hosted by Mark DeCarlo, was broadcast on Fox in 1996, in 1998 and 1999, Buena Vista Television was in talks with Stone-Stanley to create a revival hosted by Gordon Elliott, but it was never picked up. The show was one of several used as part of the summer series Gameshow Marathon on CBS in 2006, as noted above, CBS revived Lets Make a Deal in 2009. The revival premiered on October 5,2009, and CBS airs the show daily at 10,00 am and 3,00 pm Eastern time. From September 20 to October 15,2010, Lets Make a Deal, CBS did this to fill a gap between the final episode of As the World Turns, which ended a fifty-four year run on September 17,2010, and the debut of The Talk
