1.
Power-on self-test
–
A power-on self-test is a process performed by firmware or software routines immediately after a computer or other digital electronic device is powered on. The results of the POST may be displayed on a panel that is part of the device, output to an external device, or stored for future retrieval by a diagnostic tool. Since a self-test might detect that the systems usual human-readable display is non-functional, in addition to running tests, the POST process may also set the initial state of the device from firmware. In the case of a computer, the POST routines are part of a devices pre-boot sequence and these other duty-specific programs are generally known collectively as option ROMs or individually as the video BIOS, SCSI BIOS, etc. The first memory location the CPU tries to execute is known as the reset vector, in the case of a hard reboot, the northbridge will direct this code fetch to the BIOS located on the system flash memory. For a warm boot, the BIOS will be located in the place in RAM. During the POST flow of a contemporary BIOS, one of the first things a BIOS should do is determine the reason it is executing, for a cold boot, for example, it may need to execute all of its functionality. The POST flow for the PC has developed from a simple, straightforward process to one that is complex. In earlier BIOSes, up to around the turn of the millennium and this design by IBM was modeled after their larger systems, which would perform a complete hardware test as part of their cold-start process. Beginning with the IBM XT, a count was displayed during POST instead of a blank screen. A modern PC with a bus rate of around 1 GHz and a 32-bit bus might be 2000x or even 5000x faster, but it might have more than 3 GB of memory—5000x more. Most clone PC BIOSes allowed the user to skip the POST RAM check by pressing a key, in addition, modern DRAM is significantly more reliable than DRAM was in the 1980s. As part of the sequence the POST routines may display a prompt to the user for a key press to access built-in setup functions of the BIOS. This allows the user to set various options particular to the board before the operating system is loaded. If no key is pressed, the POST will proceed on to the sequence required to load the installed operating system. The original IBM BIOS made POST diagnostic information available by outputting a number to I/O port 80, using a logic analyzer or a dedicated POST card—an interface card that shows port 80 output on a small display—a technician could determine the origin of the problem. Once an operating system is running on the computer the code displayed by such a board may become meaningless, since some OSes, e. g. Linux, the actual numeric codes for the possible stages and error conditions differ from one BIOS supplier to another. Codes for different BIOS versions from a supplier may also vary
Power-on self-test
–
The first stage of a typical POST operation. (AMI BIOS)
Power-on self-test
–
BIOS
POST card for ISA bus
Power-on self-test
–
BIOS POST card for PCI bus.
Power-on self-test
–
Two POST seven-segment displays integrated on a computer motherboard
2.
Farrer, Australian Capital Territory
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Farrer is a suburb in the Canberra, Australia district of Woden. Named for William James Farrer, who was a wheat-breeding pioneer, the suburbs streets are named after agriculturalists, with the exception of Lambrigg Street, which was the name of Farrers property in Tharwa. It is next to the suburbs of Torrens, Mawson, Isaacs and it is bordered by Beasley Street, Athllon Drive and Yamba Drive. Farrer is a relatively big suburb for Canberra, with over 3,300 residents, the suburbs size resulted in possession of its own oval, located next to the primary school, a scout hall for the local group named Long Gully, and three playgrounds at various locations. Pearces Melrose High School and Wanniassas Erindale College are only 2.4 and 2.7 kilometres away respectively. While the small store is often frequented by locals, Farrer is in proximity to Southlands Shopping Centre at Mawson and Woden Plaza in Phillip. The Canberra Hospital in Garran is nearer still, at 3.8 km, the Farrer Ridge Nature Reserve, part of the Canberra Nature Park and the southern limit of the suburb, provides for bushwalking and stunning vistas. Deakin Volcanics green-grey and purple rhyodacite underlies the whole suburb, deakin Volcanics cream rhyolite occurs on the top of Farrer Ridge. Quaternary alluvium can be found in the valley bottom
Farrer, Australian Capital Territory
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Farrer shops
Farrer, Australian Capital Territory
–
Farrer
Canberra,
Australian Capital Territory
Farrer, Australian Capital Territory
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Farrer Primary School
3.
Numerical digit
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A digit is a numeric symbol used in combinations to represent numbers in positional numeral systems. The name digit comes from the fact that the 10 digits of the hands correspond to the 10 symbols of the common base 10 numeral system, i. e. the decimal digits. In a given system, if the base is an integer. For example, the system has ten digits, whereas binary has two digits. In a basic system, a numeral is a sequence of digits. Each position in the sequence has a value, and each digit has a value. The value of the numeral is computed by multiplying each digit in the sequence by its place value, each digit in a number system represents an integer. For example, in decimal the digit 1 represents the one, and in the hexadecimal system. A positional number system must have a digit representing the integers from zero up to, but not including, thus in the positional decimal system, the numbers 0 to 9 can be expressed using their respective numerals 0 to 9 in the rightmost units position. The Hindu–Arabic numeral system uses a decimal separator, commonly a period in English, or a comma in other European languages, to denote the place or units place. Each successive place to the left of this has a value equal to the place value of the previous digit times the base. Similarly, each place to the right of the separator has a place value equal to the place value of the previous digit divided by the base. For example, in the numeral 10, the total value of the number is 1 ten,0 ones,3 tenths, and 4 hundredths. Note that the zero, which contributes no value to the number, the place value of any given digit in a numeral can be given by a simple calculation, which in itself is a compliment to the logic behind numeral systems. And to the right, the digit is multiplied by the base raised by a negative n, for example, in the number 10. This system was established by the 7th century in India, but was not yet in its modern form because the use of the digit zero had not yet widely accepted. Instead of a zero, a dot was left in the numeral as a placeholder, the first widely acknowledged use of zero was in 876. The original numerals were very similar to the ones, even down to the glyphs used to represent digits
Numerical digit
4.
Address (geography)
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Some addresses also contain special codes, such as a postal code, to make identification easier and aid in the routing of mail. Addresses may have drawbacks, They are a means of representing a location. Until the advent of postal systems around the 18th and 19th centuries, most houses. Streets may have named for landmarks, such as a city gate or market. In many cities in Asia, most minor streets were never named and this is still the case today in much of Japan. A local postman would be familiar with the area and thus able to deliver mail, comprehensive addressing of all buildings is still not complete, even in developed countries. For example, the Navajo Nation in the United States was still assigning rural addresses as of 2015, a third of houses in Ireland lacked unique numbers until the introduction of Eircode in 2014. Many older towns and cities in the UK have up and down numbering where the numbers progress sequentially along one side of the road, Some other cities around the world have their own schemes. In these cases, the name will usually follow the house name. Such an address might read, Smith Cottage, Frog Lane, Barchester, Barsetshire, BZ9 9BA or Dunroamin, Emo, the quadrants are typically identified in the street names, although the manner of doing so varies from city to city. Street names may follow a variety of themes, in many North American cities, such as, San Francisco USA, and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, streets are simply numbered sequentially across the street grid. Washington, D. C. has its streets running north-south and lettered or alphabetically named streets running east-west. In Salt Lake City, and many other Utah cities, streets are in a grid and are numbered in increments of 100 based on their location relative to the center of the city in blocks. A similar system is in use in Detroit with the Mile Road System, in some housing developments in North America and elsewhere, street names may all follow the same theme, or start with the same letter. Streets in Continental Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America are often named after people or significant dates. Postal codes are a recent development in addressing, designed to speed the sorting and processing of mail by assigning unique numeric or alphanumeric codes to each geographical locality. For privacy and other purposes, postal services have made it possible to receive mail without revealing ones physical address or even having a physical address. Examples are post office boxes, service addresses and poste restante, in most of the world, addresses are written in order from most specific to general, i. e. finest to coarsest information, starting with the addressee and ending with the largest geographical unit
Address (geography)
–
Write Your Address Clearly, public service poster,
James Fitton (1958)
5.
Mail
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The mail or post is a system for physically transporting documents and other small packages, or, the postcards, letters, and parcels themselves. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems, since the mid-19th century national postal systems have generally been established as government monopolies with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is often in the form of adhesive postage stamps, modern private postal systems are typically distinguished from national postal agencies by the names courier or delivery service. Postal authorities often have other than transporting letters. In some countries, a postal, telegraph and telephone service oversees the system, in addition to telephone. Some countries postal systems allow for savings accounts and handle applications for passports, the Universal Postal Union, established in 1874, includes 192 member countries and sets the rules for international mail exchanges. The word mail comes from the Medieval English word male, referring to a bag or pack. It was spelled that way until the 17th century, and is distinct from the word male, the French have a similar word, malle for a trunk or large box, and mála is the Irish term for a bag. In the 17th century, the mail began to appear as a reference for a bag that contained letters. Over the next hundred years the word began to be applied strictly to the letters themselves. The U. S. Postal Service delivers the mail, the term email first appeared in the 1970s. The term snail-mail is a retronym to distinguish it from the quicker email, various dates have been given for its first use. Post is derived from Medieval French poste, which stems from the past participle of the Latin verb ponere. The practice of communication by written documents carried by an intermediary from one person or place to another almost certainly dates back nearly to the invention of writing, however, development of formal postal systems occurred much later. The earliest surviving piece of mail is also Egyptian, dating to 255 BC, the first credible claim for the development of a real postal system comes from Ancient Persia, but the point of invention remains in question. He also negotiated with neighbouring countries to do the same and had built from the city of Post in Western Iran all the way up to the city of Hakha in the East. Other writers credit his successor Darius I of Persia, other sources claim much earlier dates for an Assyrian postal system, with credit given to Hammurabi and Sargon II. Mail may not have been the mission of this postal service
Mail
–
Postal wagons at the postal sorting facility in
Sion, Switzerland. Mail between regional cities is transported by rail, to be delivered by postal bus, vans and cycles at a local level.
Mail
–
Many early post systems consisted of fixed courier routes. Here, a post house on a postal route in the 19th century
Finland
Mail
–
The use of the
Scinde Dawk adhesive stamps to signify the prepayment of postage began on 1 July 1852 in the
Scinde /
Sindh district, as part of a comprehensive reform of the district's postal system.
Mail
–
Early stamps of
India were
watermarked with an elephant's head.
6.
Universal Postal Union
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The Universal Postal Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration, the Postal Operations Council and it also oversees the Telematics and EMS cooperatives. Each member agrees to the terms for conducting international postal duties. The UPUs headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland, french is the official language of the UPU. English was added as a language in 1994. The majority of the UPUs documents and publications – including its flagship magazine, prior to the establishment of the UPU, each country had to prepare a separate postal treaty with other nations it wished to carry international mail to or from. In some cases, senders would have to calculate postage for each leg of a journey, to simplify the complexity of this system, the United States called for an International Postal Congress in 1863. This led Heinrich von Stephan, Royal Prussian and later German Minister for Posts and it is currently the third oldest international organization after the Rhine Commission and the ITU. The UPU was created in 1874, initially under the name General Postal Union, four years later, the name was changed to Universal Postal Union. The UPU provides that stamps of nations are accepted for the entire international route. Toward the end of the century, the UPU issued rules concerning stamp design. After the foundation of the United Nations, the UPU became an agency of the UN in 1948. In 1969, the UPU introduced a new system of payment where fees were payable between countries according to the difference in the weight of mail between them. These fees were called terminal dues, ultimately, this new system was fairer when traffic was heavier in one direction than the other. As a matter of example, in 2012, terminal dues for transit from China to the USA was 0.635 SDR/kg, as this affected the cost of the delivery of periodicals, the UPU devised a new threshold system, which it later implemented in 1991. The system sets separate letter and periodical rates for countries which receive at least 150 tonnes of mail annually, for countries with less mail, the original flat rate is still maintained. The United States has negotiated a separate terminal dues formula with thirteen European countries that includes a rate per piece plus a rate per kilogram, the UPU also operates the system of International Reply Coupons and addresses concerns with ETOEs. Standards are important prerequisites for effective operations and for interconnecting the global network
Universal Postal Union
–
In the UPU Monument (Weltpostdenkmal) in Bern, bronze and granite, by
René de Saint-Marceaux, the five continents join to transmit messages around the globe
Universal Postal Union
–
Universal Postal Union
Universal Postal Union
–
100 years of UPU commemorated on a US postage stamp
7.
Cedex (France)
–
Postal codes were introduced in France in 1964, when La Poste introduced automated sorting. They were updated to use the current 5 digit system in 1972, France uses five-digit numeric postal codes, the first two digits representing the département in which the city is located. The département numbers were assigned alphabetically between 1860 and 1870, but later changes mean that the list is no longer in strictly alphabetical order, the system also extends to French overseas departments and territories, and also includes Monaco. Note that postcodes in both départements of Corsica commence with the 20 historically assigned to Corsica before it was split into two départements, which are now numbered 2A and 2B, the last three digits identify a more precise location,000 being in general reserved for the préfecture. However, in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the last two digits indicate the arrondissement, for example,80000 corresponds to Amiens, which is the préfecture of the Somme or département 80, while 69008 corresponds to the 8th arrondissement of Lyon. The postal code consists of five digits, in metropolitan France the first two digits are the number of the département where the post office in charge of delivery to a town is located. There are some places where this is different from the department where the place is located, in the Overseas Departments and Territories, the first three digits identify the département or territory. The digits 00 are used for Military addresses, the digits 20 are used for all of Corsica, the split of the island into two départements was not followed by a change in the postal codes. The next three digits identify the local office in charge of mail delivery. A regular postcode always ends with a 0, with the exception of Paris, Lyon and Marseille – see below –. Postcodes not ending with a 0 may indicate a special code, known as CEDEX, in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the last two digits of the postal code indicate the arrondissement. The sous-préfectures are generally recognized by using a XXX00 postcode. g,64150 can correspond to Abidos, Bésingrand, Lagor, Lahourcade, Mourenx, Noguère, Os Marsillon, Pardies, Sauvelade and Vielleségure. It may happen that a village is associated with a bigger post office in another département, Overseas Départements and Territories use 3-digit codes starting with,971,972,973,974,975,976,984,986,987,988. In March 2008 La Poste proposed allotting 977 to Saint Barthélemy and 978 to Saint Martin due to their new status as overseas collectivities, in this case, the last zero is dropped so as to keep the 5-digit format. It may be followed by a number, if the town has more than one post office, ordinary deliveries would be addressed to,12 rue de Broquedis 64200 Biarritz It is acceptable to include a boîte postale number as well as the street address in CEDEX addresses. However the destination country on inbound mail must be specified as Monaco, not France
Cedex (France)
–
2-digit postcode areas France (defined through the first two postcode digits)
8.
Compound (linguistics)
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In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of formation that creates compound lexemes. That is, in terms, compounding occurs when two or more words are joined to make one longer word. The meaning of the compound may be similar to or different from the meanings of its components in isolation, with very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first component stem. The process occurs readily in other Germanic languages for different reasons, words can be concatenated both to mean the same as the sum of two words or where an adjective and noun are compounded. The addition of affix morphemes to words should not be confused with nominal composition, compound formation rules vary widely across language types. In a synthetic language, the relationship between the elements of a compound may be marked with a case or other morpheme. This latter pattern is common throughout the Semitic languages, though in some it is combined with a genitive case. Agglutinative languages tend to very long words with derivational morphemes. Compounds may or may not require the use of derivational morphemes also, the longest compounds in the world may be found in the Finnic and Germanic languages. German examples include Farbfernsehgerät, Funkfernbedienung, and the jocular word Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmütze, in Finnish, although there is theoretically no limit to the length of compound words, words consisting of more than three components are rare. Even those with less than three components can look mysterious to non-Finnish such as hätäuloskäytävä, compounds can be rather long when translating technical documents from English to some other language, since the lengths of the words are theoretically unlimited, especially in chemical terminology. For example, the English compound doghouse, where house is the head, endocentric compounds tend to be of the same part of speech as their head, as in the case of doghouse. For example, the English compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing, in an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For example, a must-have is not a verb but a noun, the meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as whose B is A, where B is the second element of the compound and A the first. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words, copulative compounds are compounds with two semantic heads. Appositional compounds are lexemes that have two attributes that classify the compound, most natural languages have compound nouns. The positioning of the words according to the language
Compound (linguistics)
–
The German language has many compounds
9.
Eircode
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In Ireland, rural addresses are specified by the county, nearest post town, and the townland. Urban addresses are specified by county, city or town name, street name, house number or name, 35% Irish premises have non-unique addresses due to an absence of house numbers or names. In smaller towns and many townlands, this requires postal workers to remember which family names correspond to which house, for this reason, a postal code system called Eircode was launched in April 2014. Eircode suffixes an identifier that is unique to each premises, the system was criticised at its launch for its estimated ten-year cost of €27 million, omissions and inaccuracy, in addition to not being immediately available with satnav systems or Google Maps. However, since September 2016 the system is available on Google Maps, in Dublin city and its suburbs, a system of postal districts was introduced in 1917 by the Royal Mail with the prefix D, and retained after Ireland became an independent country, without the prefix. However the use of numbers by the public did not begin until 1961. Prior to that time, street signs displayed the street name in Irish and English. The Dublin system had 22 districts — Dublin 1,2,3,4,5,6 and these were incorporated into the new routing keys now being used with the Eircode national postcode system as D01, D02, D12, D22, etc. In Cork, there are also numbered districts, e. g. the Patrick Street sign will display the digit 1, District 1 covers the city centre and large parts of the surrounding city. District 2, administered from the Ballinlough sorting office, covers the south-east, in practice, these numbers are used only internally by An Post and rarely used on mail. The numbers are not used in the new Eircode system, the launch of a national postcode system in Ireland began on 28 April 2014. The system incorporates the existing numbered Dublin postal districts as part of the new code, according to the government the new system made Ireland the first country in the world to have a unique postcode for each address. The codes, known as Eircodes, consist of seven characters, the first three characters, called the Routing Key, are designed to benefit the postal and logistics industry and contain on average 15,000 addresses each. The Routing Key is used to sort mail, however it is not directly linked to counties, towns. The second part of the Eircode, called the Unique Identifier and they are stored in a central database, Eircode Address Database, along with other useful geographic information including addresses, variants/aliases, and geo-coordinates of each address point. Sample product data and pricing details were issued to businesses in March 2015, Dublin City Council, Lord Mayor’s Office, Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2. D02 AF30 Unlike other postcode systems, Eircode is not used for PO Box addresses, an Post did not introduce automated sorting machines until the 1990s. By then, the character recognition systems were advanced enough to read whole addresses, as opposed to just postcodes
Eircode
–
Caroline St is in Cork 1; Clanrickarde Estate is in Cork 2.
Eircode
–
Post-1961 Dublin street sign displaying the street name in
Irish and English, with postal district number
Eircode
10.
Codice di Avviamento Postale
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Codice di Avviamento Postale is the Italian post code numeric system, consisting of five digits, such as 20121 Milan. Created in 1967, they are known as CAP. In main cities like Rome, Milan, Naples, Venice the last digits designate the urban postal district, san Marino and the Vatican City are integrated into the Italian postcode system. List of postal codes in Italy The Italian ZIP Code - nonsoloCAP. it
Codice di Avviamento Postale
–
2-digit postcode areas Italy (defined through the first two postcode digits)
11.
Romandy
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Romandy is the French-speaking part of western Switzerland. In 2010 about 1.9 million people, or 24. 4% of the Swiss population, the bulk of romand population lives in the Arc Lémanique region along Lake Geneva, connecting Geneva, Vaud and the Lower Valais. The adjective romand is a dialectal variant of roman, in Old French used as a term for the Gallo-Romance vernaculars. Suisse romande is used in contrast to Suisse alémanique, Alemannic Switzerland, formed by analogy is Suisse italienne, which is composed of Ticino and of a part of Graubünden. Simple Westschweiz western Switzerland may also be used as a loose synonym, in four Swiss cantons, French is the sole official language, Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura. There are three cantons where French and German have co-official status, Bern, Fribourg and Valais, the linguistic boundary between French and German is known as Röstigraben. The term is humorous in origin and refers both to the division and to perceived cultural differences between the Romandy and the German-speaking Swiss majority. The term can be traced to the WWI period, but it entered mainstream usage in the 1970s in the context of the Jurassic separatism virulent at the time. It then follows the border between Neuchâtel and Bern and turns south towards Morat, again traversing an areal of traditional bilinguism including the communities of Morat and Fribourg. Cutting across the High Alps at Les Diablerets, the boundary separates the French-speaking Lower Valais from the Alemannic-speaking Upper Valais. It then cuts southwards into the High Alps again, separating the Val dAnniviers from the Mattertal, traditionally speaking the Franco-Provençal or Patois dialects of Upper Burgundy, the romand population now speak a variety of Standard French. Today, the differences between Swiss French and Parisian French are minor and mostly lexical, although in rural speakers, in particular, some parts of the Swiss Jura participate in the Frainc-Comtou dialect spoken in the Franche-Comté region of France. Since the 1970s, there has been an amount of linguistic revivalism. In this context, the Franco-Provençal dialects are called Arpitan and their historical area Arpitania, the cultural identity of Romandy is supported by Télévision Suisse Romande, Radio Suisse Romande and the universities of Geneva, Fribourg, Lausanne and Neuchâtel. Historically, most of Romandy has been strongly Protestant, especially Calvinist, however, Roman Catholicism continued to predominate in Jura, Valais, and Fribourg. In recent decades, due to significant immigration from France and Southern European countries, languages of Switzerland Swiss French Röstigraben Jurassic separatism Bernese Jura Lake Geneva region Rhodanic Republic Arpitania Organisation internationale de la Francophonie
Romandy
–
A road sign in
Saint-Gingolph, Valais, spelling a dialectal greeting bondzo! alongside the Standard French bienvenue (2013 photograph).
Romandy
–
Language distribution in Switzerland (2000). Romandy shown in green
12.
Ticino
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Ticino /tᵻˈtʃiːnoʊ/, formally the Republic and Canton of Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. The land now occupied by the canton was annexed from Italian cities in the 15th century by various Swiss forces in the last transalpine campaigns of the Old Swiss Confederacy, in the Helvetic Republic, established 1798, it was divided between the two new cantons of Bellinzona and Lugano. The creation of the Swiss Confederation in 1803 saw these two cantons combine to form the canton of Ticino. The name Ticino was chosen for the newly established canton in 1803, known as Ticinus in Roman times, the river appears on the Tabula Peutingeriana as Ticenum. Johann Kaspar Zeuss attributed Celtic origins to the name, tracing it to the Celtic tek, itself from an Indo-European root tak, in ancient times, the area of what is today Ticino was settled by the Lepontii, a Celtic tribe. Later, probably around the rule of Augustus, it part of the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Western Empire, was ruled by the Ostrogoths, the Lombards, around 1100 it was the centre of struggle between the free communes of Milan and Como, in the 14th century it was acquired by the Visconti, Dukes of Milan. In the fifteenth century the Swiss Confederates conquered the south of the Alps in three separate conquests. Between 1403 and 1422 some of these lands were annexed by forces from the Canton of Uri. Uri conquered the Leventina Valley in 1440, in a second conquest Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden gained the town of Bellinzona and the Riviera in 1500. Some of the land and Bellinzona itself were previously annexed by Uri in 1419, the third conquest was fought by troops from the entire Confederation. In 1512 Locarno, the Maggia Valley, Lugano and Mendrisio were annexed, subsequently, the upper valley of the Ticino River, from the St. Gotthard to the town of Biasca was part of Uri. The remaining territory was administered by the Twelve Cantons and these districts were governed by bailiffs holding office for two years and purchasing it from the members of the League. The lands of the canton of Ticino are the last lands to be conquered by the Swiss Confederation, the Confederation gave up any further conquests after their defeat at the battle of Marignano in 1515 by Francis I of France. The Val Leventina revolted unsuccessfully against Uri in 1755, in February 1798 an attempt of annexation by the Cisalpine Republic was repelled by a volunteer militia in Lugano. During the Napoleonic Wars, many Ticinesi served in Swiss military units allied with the French, the canton minted its own currency, the Ticinese franco, between 1813 and 1850, when it began use of the Swiss franc. In the early 19th century, the contemporary Franco-Danish scholar Conrad Malte-Brun stated that, “The canton of Tesino is the poorest, until 1878 the three largest cities, Bellinzona, Lugano and Locarno, alternated as capital of the canton. In 1878, however, Bellinzona became the only and permanent capital, the current cantonal constitution dates from 1997
Ticino
–
Ticinese franco, currency of Ticino until the introduction of the
Swiss franc in 1850.
Ticino
–
Map of Ticino
Ticino
–
Stone house in
Valle Verzasca
Ticino
–
Hamlet of Brunescio on the left flank of
Vallemaggia
13.
Postal Index Number
–
A Postal Index Number or PIN or Pincode is a code in the post office numbering or post code system used by India Post, the Indian postal administration. The code is six digits long, the PIN Code system was introduced on 15 August 1972 by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, an additional secretary in the Union Ministry of Communications. The system was introduced to simplify the manual sorting and delivery of mail by eliminating confusion over incorrect addresses, similar place names, there are nine PIN zones in India, including eight regional zones and one functional zone. The first digit of the PIN code indicates the region, the second digit indicates the sub-region, and the third digit indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices, a state may have one or more sorting districts depending on the volumes of mail handled. The fourth digit represents the route on which a Delivery office is located in the sorting district and this is 0 for offices in the core area of the sorting district. The last two represent the delivery office within the sorting district starting from 01 which would be the GPO or HO. The numbering of the office is done chronologically with higher numbers assigned to newer delivery offices. If the volume of mails handled at an office is too large, a new delivery office is created. Thus two delivery offices situated next to each other only have the first four digits in common. Each PIN code is mapped to exactly one delivery post office which receives all the mail to be delivered to one or more lower offices within its jurisdiction, all of which share the same code. The delivery office can either be a General Post Office, a Head Office or Sub Office which are located in urban areas. The post from the office is sorted and routed to other delivery offices for a different PIN or to one of the relevant sub offices or branch offices for the same PIN. Branch offices are located in areas and have limited postal services
Postal Index Number
–
A post box with PIN (571120) marked on it
Postal Index Number
–
2-digit postcode areas in India(defined through the first two postcode digits)
14.
German-speaking Switzerland
–
The German-speaking part of Switzerland comprises about 65 percent of Switzerland. The variety of the German language spoken in Switzerland is called Swiss German which refers to any of the Alemannic dialects, the only exception within German-speaking Switzerland is the municipality of Samnaun where an Austro-Bavarian dialect is spoken. In 17 Swiss cantons, German is the official language. In the cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Valais, French is co-official, in the canton of Graubünden, more than half of the population speaks German. In each case, all languages are languages of the respective canton. In Germany Welsch and Welschland refer to Italy, there, the term is antiquated, rarely used, by the Middle Ages, a marked difference had developed between the rural cantons of the German-speaking part of Switzerland and the city cantons, divided by views about trade and commerce. After the Reformation, all cantons were either Catholic or Protestant, and the denominational influences on culture added to the differences
German-speaking Switzerland
–
The German-speaking part of
Switzerland is shown in orange on this map of
Languages of Switzerland.
15.
Liechtenstein
–
Liechtenstein, officially the Principality of Liechtenstein, is a doubly landlocked German-speaking microstate in Central Europe. It is a monarchy with the rank of principality, headed by the Prince of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and it has an area of just over 160 square kilometres and an estimated population of 37,000. Divided into 11 municipalities, its capital is Vaduz and its largest municipality is Schaan, the unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world at 1. 5%. Liechtenstein has been known in the past as a tax haven, however. An alpine country, Liechtenstein is mainly mountainous, making it a winter sport destination, many cultivated fields and small farms are found both in the south and north. The country has a financial sector centered in Vaduz. Liechtenstein is a member of the European Free Trade Association, and while not being a member of the European Union and it also has a customs union and a monetary union with Switzerland. The oldest traces of human existence in Liechtenstein date back to the Middle Paleolithic era, neolithic farming settlements were founded in the valleys around 5300 BC. Hallstatt and La Tène cultures flourished during the late Iron Age from around 450 BC possibly under influence from the Greek. One of the most important tribal groups in the Alpine region were the Helvetii, in 58 BC, at the Battle of Bibracte, Julius Caesar defeated the Alpine tribes, bringing the region under closer control of the Roman Empire. By 15 BC, Tiberius, who was destined to be the second Roman emperor, Liechtenstein was integrated into the Roman province of Raetia. The area was maintained by the Roman military, which maintained a large legionary camp called Brigantium near Lake Constance, a Roman road ran through the territory. In 259/60 Brigantium was destroyed by the Alemanni, a Germanic people who settled in the area in around 450. In the Early Middle Ages, the Alemanni had settled the eastern Swiss plateau by the 5th century, Liechtenstein was at the eastern edge of Alemannia. In the 6th century, the region became part of the Frankish Empire following Clovis Is victory over the Alemanni at Tolbiac in 504. The area that later became Liechtenstein remained under Frankish hegemony until the empire was divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD following the death of Charlemagne. The territory of present-day Liechtenstein belonged to East Francia until it was reunified with Middle Francia under the Holy Roman Empire around 1000 AD
Liechtenstein
–
Gutenberg Castle, Balzers, Liechtenstein.
Liechtenstein
–
Flag
Liechtenstein
–
Vaduz Castle, overlooking the capital, is home to the
Prince of Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
–
Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein from 1805 to 1806 and 1814 to 1836.
16.
ZIP code
–
ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
ZIP code
–
A 1963 U.S. Post Office sign encouraging the use of ZIP codes
ZIP code
ZIP code
–
"Use Zip code" labels were also used to promote the use of a ZIP code.
ZIP code
–
USA postage stamp, 1973: "It all depends on ZIP code".
17.
Built environment
–
In social science, the term built environment refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to parks. It has been defined as the space in which people live, work. The built environment encompasses places and spaces created or modified by people including buildings, parks, in recent years, public health research has expanded the definition of built environment to include healthy food access, community gardens, mental health, walkability and bikeability. The effort was in partnership with others who believed that beautifying American cities would improve the moral compass of the cities and this beautification process included parks and architectural design. For example, community forest user group in Nepal is multidimensional institution, in public health, built environment refers to physical environments that are designed with health and wellness as integral parts of the communities. Research has indicated that the way neighborhoods are created can affect both the activity and mental health of the communities’ residents. Studies have shown that built environments that were designed to improve physical activity are linked to higher rates of physical activity. Neighborhoods with more walkability had lower rates of obesity as well as increased physical activity among its residents and they also had lower rates of depression, higher social capital, and less alcohol abuse. Walkability features in these neighborhoods include safety, sidewalk construction, as well as destinations in which to walk, in addition, the perception of a walkable neighborhood, one that is perceived to have good sidewalks and connectivity, is correlated with higher rates of physical activity. Assessments of walkability have been completed through the use of GIS programs and this example of a walkability assessment tool determines distances to grocery stores and other amenities, as well as connectivity and intersection frequency using specific addresses. Assessments such as the Street Smart Walk Score can be utilized by city, public health also addresses additional components of built environments including “bikeability” and healthy food access such as proximity to grocery stores and community gardens. Bikeability refers to the access that an area has granted to safe biking through multiple bike paths, both walkability and bikeability have been cited as determinants of physical activity. Access to healthy food is also an important component of the built environment, a higher density of convenience stores has been associated with obesity in children. In contrast, improved access to community supermarkets and farmer’s markets is correlated with lower overweight status, specifically in low income neighborhoods, the presence of a local grocery store is correlated with lower BMI/overweight risk. Community gardens are considered a part of the built environment. The intersection of health with other disciplines is evident in the design process of built environments which includes environmental planning, policy development. Research suggests that people are active in mixed-use communities or those that incorporate retail and residential. Those who preferred to walk and live in walkable environments often have lower obesity rates, in landscape architecture, the built environment is understood to mean a human-made landscape, as distinguished from the natural environment, for example, a city park is a built environment
Built environment
–
Part of the built environment –
suburban tract housing in
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Built environment
–
A separated bike lane in New York City.
Built environment
–
A community garden located in Montreal, Canada
18.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
London
–
Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace and
Central London skyline
London
London
London
–
The name London may derive from the
River Thames
19.
Liverpool
–
Liverpool is a major city and metropolitan borough in North West England.24 million people in 2011. Liverpool historically lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the south west of the county of Lancashire and it became a borough from 1207 and a city from 1880. In 1889 it became a county borough independent of Lancashire, Liverpool sits on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary and its growth as a major port is paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, raw materials such as coal and cotton, the city was also directly involved in the Atlantic slave trade. Liverpool was home to both the Cunard and White Star Line, and was the port of registry of the ocean liner RMS Titanic and others such as the RMS Lusitania, Queen Mary, and Olympic. The city celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007, and it held the European Capital of Culture title together with Stavanger, Norway, several areas of Liverpool city centre were granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2004. The Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City includes the Pier Head, Albert Dock, tourism forms a significant part of the citys economy. Liverpool is also the home of two Premier League football clubs, Liverpool and Everton, matches between the two being known as the Merseyside derby, the world-famous Grand National horse race takes place annually at Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of the city. The city is home to the oldest Black African community in the country. Natives of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians and colloquially as Scousers, a reference to scouse, the word Scouse has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Pool is a place name element in England from the Brythonic word for a pond, inlet, or pit, cognate with the modern Welsh. The derivation of the first element remains uncertain, with the Welsh word Llif as the most plausible relative and this etymology is supported by its similarity to that of the archaic Welsh name for Liverpool Llynlleifiad. Other origins of the name have suggested, including elverpool. The name appeared in 1190 as Liuerpul, and it may be that the place appearing as Leyrpole, in a record of 1418. King Johns letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool, the original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in an H shape, Bank Street, Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street, Moor Street, in the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for the town were waged during the English Civil War, in 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. Since Roman times, the city of Chester on the River Dee had been the regions principal port on the Irish Sea
Liverpool
–
From top left:
Pier Head and the
Mersey Ferry;
St George's Hall and the
Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool Catholic Cathedral;
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral;
Georgian architecture in
Canning;
Princes Dock
Liverpool
–
"Liverpool in 1680" the earliest known image of Liverpool
Liverpool
–
A map of Liverpool's original seven streets (north to the left)
Liverpool
–
Inaugural journey of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, the first ever commercial railway line.
20.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
World War I
–
Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the
Battle of the Somme,
Mark V tanks cross the
Hindenburg Line,
HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a
mine in the
Dardanelles, a British
Vickers machine gun crew wears
gas masks during the Battle of the Somme,
Albatros D.III fighters of
Jagdstaffel 11
World War I
–
Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the
Austrian annexation in 1908.
World War I
–
This picture is usually associated with the arrest of
Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.
World War I
–
Serbian Army
Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.
21.
United States Post Office Department
–
The Post Office Department was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the Postmaster General, the Postal Service Act signed by President George Washington on February 20,1792, established the Department. Postmaster General John McLean, in office from 1823 to 1829, was the first to call it the Post Office Department rather than just the Post Office. The organization received a boost in prestige when President Andrew Jackson invited his Postmaster General, William T. Barry, the Post Office Act of 1872 elevated the Post Office Department to Cabinet status. The Postal Reorganization Act was signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12,1970 and it replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service on July 1,1971. The regulatory role of the services was then transferred to the Postal Regulatory Commission. Postage stamps and postal history of the United States
United States Post Office Department
–
United States Post Office Department
22.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
23.
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. From the start, the city of Kharkiv served as the republics capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was moved to the city of Kyiv. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, the Ukrainian SSRs border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Unions western-most border point. According to the Soviet Census of 1989 the republic had a population of 51,706,746 inhabitants, the name Ukraine, derived from the Slavic word kraj, meaning land or border. It was first used to part of the territory of Kievan Rus in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century, after the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of the destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of war from 1917-23 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters. The two most prominent of them were the government in Kyiv and the government in Kharkiv, the former being the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the latter the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This government of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917, in its publications it names itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants Deputies or the Ukrainian Peoples Republic of Soviets. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog, in July 1918 the former members of the government formed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second, during its existence, the Ukrainian SSR was commonly referred to as Ukraine or the Ukraine. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence, since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in June 1996, the country became known simply as Ukraine, which is the name used to this day. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, the most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus, immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kyiv. Due to a lack of support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however. Most moved to Kharkiv and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities, later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the Peoples Commissars
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
Territories claimed by the
Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1920).
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
Flag
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
Soviet soldiers preparing rafts to cross the
Dnieper during the
Battle of the Dnieper (1943). The sign reads "To Kiev!".
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
"Eternally Together": a Soviet poster made for the 300th anniversary of the
Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1954.
24.
Arabic numerals
–
In this numeral system, a sequence of digits such as 975 is read as a single number, using the position of the digit in the sequence to interpret its value. The symbol for zero is the key to the effectiveness of the system, the system was adopted by Arab mathematicians in Baghdad and passed on to the Arabs farther west. There is some evidence to suggest that the numerals in their current form developed from Arabic letters in the Maghreb, the current form of the numerals developed in North Africa, distinct in form from the Indian and eastern Arabic numerals. The use of Arabic numerals spread around the world through European trade, books, the term Arabic numerals is ambiguous. It most commonly refers to the widely used in Europe. Arabic numerals is also the name for the entire family of related numerals of Arabic. It may also be intended to mean the numerals used by Arabs and it would be more appropriate to refer to the Arabic numeral system, where the value of a digit in a number depends on its position. The decimal Hindu–Arabic numeral system was developed in India by AD700, the development was gradual, spanning several centuries, but the decisive step was probably provided by Brahmaguptas formulation of zero as a number in AD628. The system was revolutionary by including zero in positional notation, thereby limiting the number of digits to ten. It is considered an important milestone in the development of mathematics, one may distinguish between this positional system, which is identical throughout the family, and the precise glyphs used to write the numerals, which varied regionally. The glyphs most commonly used in conjunction with the Latin script since early modern times are 0123456789. The first universally accepted inscription containing the use of the 0 glyph in India is first recorded in the 9th century, in an inscription at Gwalior in Central India dated to 870. Numerous Indian documents on copper plates exist, with the symbol for zero in them, dated back as far as the 6th century AD. Inscriptions in Indonesia and Cambodia dating to AD683 have also been found and their work was principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle East and the West. In the 10th century, Middle-Eastern mathematicians extended the decimal system to include fractions. The decimal point notation was introduced by Sind ibn Ali, who wrote the earliest treatise on Arabic numerals. Ghubar numerals themselves are probably of Roman origin, some popular myths have argued that the original forms of these symbols indicated their numeric value through the number of angles they contained, but no evidence exists of any such origin. In 825 Al-Khwārizmī wrote a treatise in Arabic, On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, Algoritmi, the translators rendition of the authors name, gave rise to the word algorithm
Arabic numerals
–
Numeral systems
Arabic numerals
–
Modern-day Arab telephone keypad with two forms of Arabic numerals: Western Arabic/European numerals on the left and
Eastern Arabic numerals on the right
Arabic numerals
–
The numerals used in the
Bakhshali manuscript, dated between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD.
Arabic numerals
–
Woodcut showing the 16th century
astronomical clock of
Uppsala Cathedral, with two clockfaces, one with Arabic and one with Roman numerals.
25.
Schutzstaffel
–
The Schutzstaffel was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party in Nazi Germany. It began with a guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich. In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed, under his direction, it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. From 1929 until the collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, surveillance. The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS and Waffen-SS, the Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of combat units of troops within Nazi Germanys military. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände, ran the concentration camps, additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst organizations. The SS was the organization most responsible for the killing of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews. Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II, the SS was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labor. After Nazi Germanys defeat, the SS and the NSDAP were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organizations, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking surviving SS officer at the time, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946. By 1923, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz to provide security at their meetings in Munich. The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the mass of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung. The new formation was designated the Stabswache, originally the unit was composed of eight men, commanded by Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold, and was modeled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade, a Freikorps of the time. The unit was renamed Stoßtrupp in May 1923, the Stoßtrupp was abolished after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by the NSDAP to seize power in Munich. In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organize a new bodyguard unit and it was tasked with providing personal protection for Hitler at NSDAP functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to an organization and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel. Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925, the new SS was to provide protection for NSDAP leaders throughout Germany. Hitlers personal SS protection unit was enlarged to include combat units
Schutzstaffel
–
Adolf Hitler inspects the
Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler upon arrival at
Klagenfurt, April 1938.
Heinrich Himmler is standing slightly behind Hitler's right
Schutzstaffel
–
SS flag
Schutzstaffel
–
Nazi supporters and stormtroopers in Munich during the
Beer Hall Putsch, 1923
Schutzstaffel
–
Heinrich Himmler, head of all SS organisations, stated, "Once the Führer himself has made a decision and given the order, it must be carried out, not only according to the word and the letter, but also in spirit."
26.
Sicherheitsdienst
–
Sicherheitsdienst, full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was considered an organization with the Gestapo. Between 1933 and 1939, the SD was administered as an independent SS office, after which it was transferred to the authority of the Reich Main Security Office, as one of its seven departments/offices. Its first director, Reinhard Heydrich, intended for the SD to bring every single individual within the Third Reichs reach under continuous supervision. Heydrichs successor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials, sentenced to death and hanged in 1946. The SD was one of the oldest security organizations of the SS and was first formed in 1931 as the Ic-Dienst, operating out of a single apartment, Himmler appointed a former naval officer, Reinhard Heydrich, to organise the small agency. The office was renamed Sicherheitsdienst in the summer of 1932, the SD became more powerful after the Nazis took control of Germany and the SS started infiltrating all leading positions of the security apparatus of the Reich. Once Hitler was appointed Chancellor by German President Paul von Hindenburg, Himmlers SS and SD made their presence felt at once by helping rid the regime of its known political enemies and its perceived ones, as well. As far as Heydrich and Himmler were concerned, the SD left their mission somewhat vaguely defined so as to remain an instrument for all eventualities, one of those eventualities would soon arise. For a while, the SS was in ‘competition’ with the Sturmabteilung for influence within Germany, Himmler distrusted the SA and came to deplore the ‘rabble-rousing’ brownshirts and what they considered to be the indecent sexual deviants amid its leadership. On 20 April 1934 Hermann Göring handed over control of the Geheime Staatspolizei to Himmler, Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SD. Thereafter, the SD was made the sole Party information service on 9 June 1934, additionally, reports were coming in to the SD and Gestapo that the vulgarity of the SAs behavior was damaging the party and was even making antisemitism less palatable. Moreover, the crushing of the SA and its leadership sent a clear message to everyone that opposition to Hitler’s regime could be deadly. During the autumn of 1937, Hitler secured Mussolini’s support to annex Austria, nonetheless, to facilitate the incorporation of Austria into the greater Reich, the SD and Gestapo went to work arresting people right away using lists compiled by Heydrich. Heydrich’s SD and Austrian SS members received financing from Berlin to harass Austrian Chancellor von Schuschnigg’s government all throughout 1937, one section of the SD that was nothing more than a front for subversive activities against Austria ironically promoted “German-Austrian peace. Once the annexation was official, the Austrian police was immediately subordinated to Heydrich’s SD, SS and the Gestapo. Machinations by the SD, the Gestapo, and the SS helped to bring Austria fully into Hitlers grasp and on 13 March 1938, concomitant to their machinations against Austria, the SD was also involved in subversive activities throughout Czechoslovakia. This SD intelligence operation was akin to their efforts in Austria, however, unlike Austria
Sicherheitsdienst
–
Reinhard Heydrich
Sicherheitsdienst
–
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Sicherheitsdienst
–
Uniform jacke of a SD
Unterscharführer of the SS with the typical SD sleeve insignia and the shoulder boards of the Schutzpolizei
Sicherheitsdienst
–
SD personnel in Poland
27.
Sturmabteilung
–
The Sturmabteilung, literally Storm Detachment, functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitlers rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s, the SA have been known in contemporary times as Brownshirts from the color of their uniform shirts, similar to Benito Mussolinis blackshirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, the SA ranks were adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief amongst them the Schutzstaffel, which originated as a branch of the SA before being separated. The SA became disempowered after Adolf Hitler ordered the purge of 1934. This event became known as the Night of the Long Knives, the SA was effectively superseded by the SS, although it was not formally dissolved until after the Third Reichs final capitulation to the Allied powers in 1945. The term Sturmabteilung predates the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919, originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of Imperial Germany in World War I who used Hutier infiltration tactics. Instead of large mass assaults, the Sturmabteilung were organised into small squads of a few soldiers each, on 2 October 1916, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroops. They were first used during the 8th Armys siege of Riga, wider use followed on the Western Front in the Spring Offensive in March 1918, where Allied lines were successfully pushed back tens of kilometers. The DAP was formed in Munich in January 1919 and Adolf Hitler joined it in September of that year. His talents for speaking, publicity and propaganda were quickly recognized, and by early 1920 he had gained authority in the party, the precursor to the SA had acted informally and on an ad hoc basis for some time before this. Some 70 people attended, and a second meeting was advertised for 13 November in the Eberlbrau beer hall. Some 130 people attended, there were hecklers, but Hitlers military friends promptly ejected them by force, the next year, on 24 February, he announced the partys Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2000 people at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his former companions, armed with rubber truncheons. The basis for the SA had been formed, a permanent group of party members who would serve as the ruffian Saalschutzabteilung for the DAP gathered around Emil Maurice after the February 1920 incident at the Hofbräuhaus. There was little organization or structure to this group, the group was also called the Ordnertruppen around this time. More than a later, on 3 August 1921, Hitler redefined the group as the Gymnastic and Sports Division of the party. It was by now recognized as an appropriate, even necessary. By September 1921 the name Sturmabteilung was being used informally for the group, Hitler was the official head of the Nazi Party by this time
Sturmabteilung
–
Adolf Hitler and
Ernst Röhm inspecting the SA in
Nuremberg in 1933.
Sturmabteilung
–
Hitler and
Hermann Göring with SA stormtroopers at
Nuremberg in 1928.
Sturmabteilung
–
Poster for
Triumph of the Will by
Leni Riefenstahl in 1934. The SA were featured strongly in the 1934 Nuremberg rally, including replacement leader
Victor Lutze, so as to draw attention away from their recent leader, Ernst Röhm
Sturmabteilung
–
The architects of the purge: Hitler,
Göring,
Goebbels, and
Hess. Only
Himmler and
Heydrich are missing.
28.
Ireland
–
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
Ireland
–
Satellite image of Ireland on 11 October 2010
Ireland
–
The
Gowran Ogham Stone,
Christianised c.6th Century. On display in
St. Mary's Collegiate Church Gowran.
Ireland
–
The Uragh Stone Circle a
Neolithic stone circle in Gleninchaquin Park,
County Kerry
29.
Argentina
–
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
Argentina
–
The
Cave of the Hands in
Santa Cruz province, with indigenous artwork dating from 13,000–9,000 years ago
Argentina
Argentina
–
The surrender of Beresford to
Santiago de Liniers during the
British invasions of the Río de la Plata
Argentina
–
Portrait of General
José de San Martin,
Libertador of Argentina,
Chile and
Peru
30.
Brunei
–
Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace, is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is surrounded by the state of Sarawak. It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang, Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, the remainder of the islands territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Bruneis population was 408,786 in July 2012, the maritime state was visited by Spains Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in the 1578 Castille War. During the 19th century, the Bruneian Empire began to decline, the Sultanate ceded Sarawak to James Brooke and installed him as the White Rajah, and it ceded Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. In 1888, Brunei became a British protectorate and was assigned a British resident as colonial manager in 1906, after the Japanese occupation during World War II, in 1959 a new constitution was written. In 1962, an armed rebellion against the monarchy was ended with the help of the British. Brunei gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984, Economic growth during the 1990s and 2000s, with the GDP increasing 56% from 1999 to 2008, transformed Brunei into an industrialised country. It has developed wealth from petroleum and natural gas fields. Brunei has the second-highest Human Development Index among the Southeast Asian nations, after Singapore, according to the International Monetary Fund, Brunei is ranked fifth in the world by gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. The IMF estimated in 2011 that Brunei was one of two countries with a debt at 0% of the national GDP. Forbes also ranks Brunei as the fifth-richest nation out of 182, based on its petroleum, according to legend, Brunei was founded by Awang Alak Betatar, later to be Sultan Muhammad Shah. He moved from Garang, a place in the Temburong District to the Brunei River estuary, according to legend, upon landing he exclaimed, Baru nah, from which the name Brunei was derived. He was the first Muslim ruler of Brunei, before the rise of the Bruneian Empire under the Muslim Bolkiah Dynasty, Brunei is believed to have been under Buddhist rulers. It was renamed Barunai in the 14th century, possibly influenced by the Sanskrit word varuṇ, the word Borneo is of the same origin. In the countrys name, Negara Brunei Darussalam, darussalam means abode of peace. The people are pagans and are men of goodwill and their colour is whiter than that of the other sort. in this island justice is well administered. One of the earliest Chinese records is the 977 AD letter to Chinese emperor from the ruler of Po-ni, which some scholars believe to refer to Borneo
Brunei
–
The tomb of a ruler of Po-ni in
Nanjing,
China.
Brunei
–
Flag
Brunei
–
Ahmad Tajuddin, the
27th Sultan of Brunei with members of his court in April 1941, eight months before the Japanese invaded Brunei.
Brunei
–
Japanese battleships at Brunei in October 1944.
31.
Postal addresses in the Republic of Ireland
–
In Ireland, rural addresses are specified by the county, nearest post town, and the townland. Urban addresses are specified by county, city or town name, street name, house number or name, 35% Irish premises have non-unique addresses due to an absence of house numbers or names. In smaller towns and many townlands, this requires postal workers to remember which family names correspond to which house, for this reason, a postal code system called Eircode was launched in April 2014. Eircode suffixes an identifier that is unique to each premises, the system was criticised at its launch for its estimated ten-year cost of €27 million, omissions and inaccuracy, in addition to not being immediately available with satnav systems or Google Maps. However, since September 2016 the system is available on Google Maps, in Dublin city and its suburbs, a system of postal districts was introduced in 1917 by the Royal Mail with the prefix D, and retained after Ireland became an independent country, without the prefix. However the use of numbers by the public did not begin until 1961. Prior to that time, street signs displayed the street name in Irish and English. The Dublin system had 22 districts — Dublin 1,2,3,4,5,6 and these were incorporated into the new routing keys now being used with the Eircode national postcode system as D01, D02, D12, D22, etc. In Cork, there are also numbered districts, e. g. the Patrick Street sign will display the digit 1, District 1 covers the city centre and large parts of the surrounding city. District 2, administered from the Ballinlough sorting office, covers the south-east, in practice, these numbers are used only internally by An Post and rarely used on mail. The numbers are not used in the new Eircode system, the launch of a national postcode system in Ireland began on 28 April 2014. The system incorporates the existing numbered Dublin postal districts as part of the new code, according to the government the new system made Ireland the first country in the world to have a unique postcode for each address. The codes, known as Eircodes, consist of seven characters, the first three characters, called the Routing Key, are designed to benefit the postal and logistics industry and contain on average 15,000 addresses each. The Routing Key is used to sort mail, however it is not directly linked to counties, towns. The second part of the Eircode, called the Unique Identifier and they are stored in a central database, Eircode Address Database, along with other useful geographic information including addresses, variants/aliases, and geo-coordinates of each address point. Sample product data and pricing details were issued to businesses in March 2015, Dublin City Council, Lord Mayor’s Office, Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2. D02 AF30 Unlike other postcode systems, Eircode is not used for PO Box addresses, an Post did not introduce automated sorting machines until the 1990s. By then, the character recognition systems were advanced enough to read whole addresses, as opposed to just postcodes
Postal addresses in the Republic of Ireland
–
Caroline St is in Cork 1; Clanrickarde Estate is in Cork 2.
Postal addresses in the Republic of Ireland
32.
Jamaica
–
Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as labourers. Named Santiago, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations, the island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, Kingston is the countrys capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans predominately have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016, the indigenous people, the Taíno, called it Xaymaca in Arawakan, meaning the Land of Wood and Water or the Land of Springs. Colloquially Jamaicans refer to their island as the Rock. Slang names such as Jamrock, Jamdown, or briefly Ja, have derived from this, the Arawak and Taíno indigenous people, originating in South America, settled on the island between 4000 and 1000 BC. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1494, there were more than 200 villages ruled by caciques, the south coast of Jamaica was the most populated, especially around the area now known as Old Harbour. The Taino still inhabited Jamaica when the English took control of the island in 1655, the Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any evidence of the Taino/Arawak. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain after landing there in 1494 and his probable landing point was Dry Harbour, now called Discovery Bay, although there is some debate that it might have been St. Anns Bay. St. Anns Bay was named Saint Gloria by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534. Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean, the Spanish were forcibly evicted by the English at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. In 1655, the English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, the English continued to import African slaves as labourers
Jamaica
–
Henry Morgan was a famous
Caribbean pirate and privateer; he had first come to the West Indies as an indentured servant, like most of the early English colonists.
Jamaica
Jamaica
–
Prince Charles and the
Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to Jamaica in 2008.
Jamaica
–
Inside the
Jamaican Parliament.
33.
Kazakhstan
–
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan is the worlds largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the regions GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people as of 2014, Given its large area, its population density is among the lowest. The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire, following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times, in 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Kazakhstans 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, the Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. The name Kazakh comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, to wander, the name Cossack is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means land or place of, so Kazakhstan can be translated as land of the wanderers. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, the regions climate, archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the regions vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians, the Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate, throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south, at its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania
Kazakhstan
–
Artistic depiction of medieval
Taraz situated along the Silk Road
Kazakhstan
–
Flag
Kazakhstan
–
Ablai Khan served as khan of the
Middle jüz from 1771 to 1781
Kazakhstan
–
Inside a Kazakh
yurt
34.
Malta
–
Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
Malta
–
Ġgantija megalithic temple complex
Malta
–
Flag
Malta
–
The temple complex of
Mnajdra
Malta
–
Roman mosaic from
Rabat, Malta.
35.
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Netherlands
–
Flag
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands in 500 BC
Netherlands
–
An oak figurine found in
Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC).
36.
Peru
–
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence, subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability, Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is a country with a high Human Development Index score. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, the Peruvian population, estimated at 31.2 million in 2015, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages and this mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama. When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans, thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, son of an Inca princess, the Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using such as irrigation and terracing, camelid husbandry. Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money, the oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC. These early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed mostly around the coastal, the Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Perus Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture. The Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was probably more of a religious than a political phenomenon, on the coast, these included the civilizations of the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, and the more outstanding Chimu and Mochica. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo, in the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco
Peru
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Sculpted
Chavin head embedded in one of the walls of the temple of
Chavín de Huantar
Peru
Peru
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A
Moche ceramic vessel from the 5th century depicting a man's head
Peru
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The citadel of
Machu Picchu, an iconic symbol of pre-Columbian Peru
37.
Somalia
–
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, Somalia has the longest coastline on Africas mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with monsoon winds. Somalia has an population of around 12.3 million. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions, the official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni, in antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre. It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt, during the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, in 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic, led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, during this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a failed state, and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations emerged in the north, the early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004, in 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nations southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union. The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, by mid-2012, the insurgents had lost most of the territory that they had seized. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched, within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012, which reformed Somalia as a federation. Somalia has maintained an informal economy, mainly based on livestock, remittances from Somalis working abroad, Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE
Somalia
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Neolithic rock art at the
Laas Geel complex depicting a long-horned cow
Somalia
Somalia
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The
Silk Road extending from China to southern Europe, Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, Persia, India, and Java
Somalia
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Queen Ati, wife of King Perahu of Punt, depicted on Pharaoh
Hatshepsut 's temple at
Deir el-Bahri.
38.
Swaziland
–
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Eswatini, is a sovereign state in Southern Africa. It is neighboured by Mozambique to its northeast and by South Africa to its north, west and south, the country and its people take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule Swazi territory was expanded and unified. At no more than 200 kilometres north to south and 130 kilometres east to west, despite its size, its climate and topography are diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld. The population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is Swati and they established their kingdom in the mid-18th century under the leadership of Ngwane III, the present boundaries were drawn up in 1881. After the Anglo-Boer War, Swaziland was a British protectorate from 1903 until 1967 and it regained its independence on 6 September 1968. The country is a monarchy, ruled by iNgwenyamaiNgwenyama Mswati III since 1986. He is head of state and appoints the prime ministers. Elections are held five years to determine the House of Assembly majority. The current constitution was adopted in 2005, Swaziland is a developing country with a small economy. Its GDP per capita of $9,714 means it is classified as a country with a lower-middle income, as a member of the Southern African Customs Union and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, its main local trading partner is South Africa. Swazilands currency, the lilangeni, is pegged to the South African rand, Swazilands major overseas trading partners are the United States and the European Union. The majority of the employment is provided by its agricultural. Swaziland is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Swazi population faces major health issues, HIV/AIDS and, to a lesser extent, tuberculosis are serious challenges. As of 2013, Swaziland has a life expectancy of 50 years. The population of Swaziland is fairly young with an age of 20.5 years. The present population growth rate is 1. 195%, Swaziland is well known for its culture. Umhlanga, held in August/September and incwala, the kingship dance held in December/January, are the nations most important events, artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age, around 200,000 years ago, have been found in the Kingdom of Swaziland. Prehistoric rock art paintings date from c.25,000 BC, the earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers
Swaziland
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A 19th-century Swazi artifact
Swaziland
Swaziland
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Swaziland in Southern Africa, 1896.
Swaziland
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Ingwenyama Mswati III has been
king of Swaziland since 1986.
39.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
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The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
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The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
40.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
–
Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
–
Street name signs on Birdbrook Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, showing old "Birmingham 22" (top) and modern "B44" postcodes.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
41.
Andorra
–
Created under a charter in 988, the present principality was formed in 1278. It is known as a principality as it is a monarchy headed by two Co-Princes – the Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgell in Spain, and the President of France. Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, having an area of 468 km2 and its capital Andorra la Vella is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres above sea level. The official language is Catalan, although Spanish, Portuguese, Andorras tourism services an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually. It is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is the official currency and it has been a member of the United Nations since 1993. In 2013, the people of Andorra had the highest life expectancy in the world at 81 years, the origin of the word Andorra is unknown, although several hypotheses have been formulated. The word Andosini or Andosins may derive from the Basque handia whose meaning is big or giant, the Andorran toponymy shows evidence of Basque language in the area. Another theory suggests that the word Andorra may derive from the old word Anorra that contains the Basque word ur, another theory suggests that Andorra may derive from Arabic al-durra, meaning The forest. Other theories suggest that the term derives from the Navarro-Aragonese andurrial, la Balma de la Margineda found by archaeologists at Sant Julia de Loria were the first temporal settled in 10000 BC as a passing place between the two sides of the Pyrenees. The seasonal camp was located for hunting and fishing by the groups of hunter-gatherers from Ariege. During the Neolithic Age the group of humans moved to the Valley of Madriu as a permanent camp in 6640 BC, the population of the valley grew cereals, raised domestic livestock and developed a commercial trade with people from the Segre and Occitania. Other archaeological deposits include the Tombs of Segudet and Feixa del Moro both dated in 4900-4300 BC as an example of the Urn culture in Andorra, the model of small settlements begin to evolved as an complex urbanism during the Bronze Age. We can found metallurgical items of iron, ancient coins and relicaries in the ancient sanctuaries scattered around the country, the inhabitants of the valleys were traditionally associated with the Iberians and historically located in Andorra as the Iberian tribe Andosins or Andosini during the VII and II centuries BC. Influenced by Aquitanias, Basque and Iberian languages the locals developed some current toponyms, early writings and documents relating this group of people goes back to the second century BC by the Greek writer Polybius in his Histories during the Punic Wars. Some of the most significant remains of this era are the Castle of the Roc dEnclar, lAnxiu in Les Escaldes and it is known the presence of Roman influence from the II century BC to the V century AD. The places found with more Roman presence are in Camp Vermell in Sant Julia de Loria, people continued trading, mainly with wine and cereals, with the Roman cities of Urgellet and all across Segre through the Via Romana Strata Ceretana. After the fall of the Roman Empire Andorra was under the influence of the Visigoths, not directly from the Kingdom of Toledo by distance, the Visigoths remained during 200 years in the valleys, a period in which Christianization takes place within the country. The fall of the Visigoths came from the Muslim Empire and its conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Andorra remained away from these invasions by the Franks
Andorra
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Sant Joan de Caselles church, dating from the 11th century.
Andorra
–
Flag
Andorra
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Boris Skossyreff, briefly self-proclaimed "King of Andorra" in 1934.
Andorra
–
Joan Enric Vives i Sicília current
episcopal co-prince of Andorra since 12 May 2003.
42.
Azerbaijan
–
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
Azerbaijan
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Petroglyphs in
Gobustan dating back to 10,000 BC indicating a thriving culture. It is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site considered to be of "outstanding universal value"
Azerbaijan
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Flag
Azerbaijan
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The
Maiden Tower in
Old Baku is a UNESCO World Heritage Site built in the 11th–12th century.
Azerbaijan
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The siege of Ganja Fortress in 1804 during the
Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) by the Russian forces under leadership of general
Pavel Tsitsianov.
43.
Barbados
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Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles, in the Americas. It is 34 kilometres in length and up to 23 km in width, Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Amerindians, Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and it first appeared in a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese visited the island in 1536, but they left it unclaimed, an English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1625, its men took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and it became an English, in 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with the British Monarch as hereditary head of state. It has a population of 280,121 people, predominantly of African descent, despite being classified as an Atlantic island, Barbados is considered to be a part of the Caribbean, where it is ranked as a leading tourist destination. Forty percent of the come from the UK, with the US. In 2014, Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Barbados joint second in the Americas, the name Barbados is either the Portuguese word Barbados or the Spanish equivalent los Barbados, both meaning the bearded ones. In 1519, a map produced by the Genoese mapmaker Visconte Maggiolo showed and named Barbados in its correct position, furthermore, the island of Barbuda in the Leewards is very similar in name and was once named Las Barbudas by the Spanish. It is uncertain which European nation arrived first in Barbados, one lesser known source points to earlier-revealed works predating contemporary sources indicating it could have been the Spanish. Others believe the Portuguese, en route to Brazil, were the first Europeans to come upon the island, colloquially Barbadians refer to their home island as Bim or other nicknames associated with Barbados includes Bimshire. The origin is uncertain but several theories exist, the name could have arisen due to the relatively large percentage of enslaved Igbo people from modern-day southeastern Nigeria arriving in Barbados in the 18th century. The words Bim and Bimshire are recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, another possible source for Bim is reported to be in the Agricultural Reporter of 25 April 1868, where the Rev. N. Greenidge suggested the listing of Bimshire as a county of England. Expressly named were Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Bimshire, lastly, in the Daily Argosy of 1652 there is a reference to Bim as a possible corruption of Byam, the name of a Royalist leader against the Parliamentarians. That source suggested the followers of Byam became known as Bims, amerindian settlement of Barbados dates to about the 4th to 7th centuries AD, by a group known as the Saladoid-Barrancoid. In the 13th century, the Kalinago arrived from South America, the Spanish and Portuguese briefly claimed Barbados from the late 16th to the 17th centuries. The Arawaks are believed to have fled to neighbouring islands, apart from possibly displacing the Caribs, the Spanish and Portuguese made little impact and left the island uninhabited. Some Arawaks migrated from British Guiana in the 19th century and continue to live in Barbados, during the Cromwellian era this included a large number of prisoners-of-war, vagrants and people who were illicitly kidnapped, who were forcibly transported to the island and sold as servants
Barbados
–
Bathsheba on the east coast of the island.
Barbados
–
Flag
Barbados
–
Barbados, seen from the
International Space Station.
Barbados
–
The parliament building in Bridgetown.
44.
Ecuador
–
Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres west of the mainland. What is now Ecuador was home to a variety of Amerindian groups that were incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century. The territory was colonized by Spain during the 16th century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, Spanish is the official language and is spoken by a majority of the population, though 13 Amerindian languages are also recognized, including Quichua and Shuar. The capital city is Quito, while the largest city is Guayaquil, in reflection of the countrys rich cultural heritage, the historical center of Quito was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. Cuenca, the third-largest city, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999 as an outstanding example of a planned. Ecuador has an economy that is highly dependent on commodities, namely petroleum. The country is classified as a medium-income country, Ecuador is a democratic presidential republic. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, Ecuador is also known for its rich ecology, hosting many endemic plants and animals, such as those of the Galápagos Islands. It is one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, various peoples had settled in the area of the future Ecuador before the arrival of the Incas. They developed different languages while emerging as unique ethnic groups, even though their languages were unrelated, these groups developed similar groups of cultures, each based in different environments. Over time these groups began to interact and intermingle with each other so that groups of families in one area became one community or tribe, with a similar language and culture. Many civilizations arose in Ecuador, such as the Valdivia Culture and Machalilla Culture on the coast, the Quitus, each civilization developed its own distinctive architecture, pottery, and religious interests. Eventually, through wars and marriage alliances of their leaders, a group of nations formed confederations, one region consolidated under a confederation called the Shyris, which exercised organized trading and bartering between the different regions. Its political and military came under the rule of the Duchicela blood-line. The native confederations that gave them the most problems were deported to distant areas of Peru, Bolivia, similarly, a number of loyal Inca subjects from Peru and Bolivia were brought to Ecuador to prevent rebellion. Thus, the region of highland Ecuador became part of the Inca Empire in 1463 sharing the same language, in contrast, when the Incas made incursions into coastal Ecuador and the eastern Amazon jungles of Ecuador, they found both the environment and indigenous people more hostile. Moreover, when the Incas tried to subdue them, these indigenous people withdrew to the interior, as a result, Inca expansion into the Amazon basin and the Pacific coast of Ecuador was hampered. The indigenous people of the Amazon jungle and coastal Ecuador remained relatively autonomous until the Spanish soldiers, the Amazonian people and the Cayapas of Coastal Ecuador were the only groups to resist Inca and Spanish domination, maintaining their language and culture well into the 21st century
Ecuador
–
Ingapirca ruins northeast of Cañar canton,
Cañar Province
Ecuador
–
Flag
Ecuador
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Spanish Historical Center in
Quito
Ecuador
–
Shipwrights from Francisco de Orellana's expedition building a small
brigantine, the San Pedro.
45.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
–
The country is also known simply as Saint Vincent. Most of Saint Vincent lies within the Hurricane Belt, to the north of Saint Vincent lies Saint Lucia, to the east Barbados. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a densely populated country with approximately 102,000 inhabitants and its capital is Kingstown, also its main port. The main mother tongue is Vincentian Creole and the language is English. The island now known as Saint Vincent was originally named Youloumain by the native Island Caribs who called themselves Kalina/Carina, the Caribs aggressively prevented European settlement on Saint Vincent until 1719. The first Europeans to occupy St. Vincent were the French, following a series of wars and peace treaties, the islands were eventually ceded to the British. The French settlers cultivated coffee, tobacco, indigo, corn, the British captured the island from the French during the Seven Years War fought between 1754 and 1763. St Vincent was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris, on taking control of the island in 1763, the British laid the foundations of Fort Charlotte. The island was restored to French rule in 1779 and regained by the British under the Treaty of Versailles, between 1783 and 1796, there was again conflict between the British and the Black Caribs, who were led by Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer. Between 1795 and 1796, with French support from Martinique, the Black Caribs fought a series of battles against the British and their uprising was eventually put down, resulting in almost 5,000 Black Caribs being exiled to the tiny island of Baliceaux off the coast of Bequia. Conflict between the British and the Black Caribs continued until 1796, in 1797 British General Sir Ralph Abercromby put an end to the open conflict by crushing an uprising which had been supported by the French radical, Victor Hugues. The British deported more than 5,000 Black Caribs to Roatán, in 1806 the building of Fort Charlotte was completed. The La Soufriere volcano erupted in 1812, like the French before them, the British also used African slaves to work plantations of sugar, coffee, indigo, tobacco, cotton and cocoa until full emancipation in 1838. The economy then went into a period of decline with many abandoning their estates. Slavery was abolished in Saint Vincent in 1834, and an apprenticeship period followed which ended in 1838, after its end, labour shortages on the plantations resulted, and this was initially addressed by the immigration of indentured servants. In the late 1840s many Portuguese immigrants arrived from Madeira and between 1861 and 1888 shiploads of East Indian labourers arrived, conditions remained harsh for both former slaves and immigrant agricultural workers, as depressed world sugar prices kept the economy stagnant until the turn of the century. In 1902, La Soufrière volcano erupted, killing 2,000 people, much farmland was damaged, and the economy deteriorated. From 1763 until its independence in 1979, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines passed through various stages of colonial status under the British
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
–
Current Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines since 2001 Ralph E. Gonsalves
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
–
Flag
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
–
The island of
Mustique in the
Grenadines.
46.
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
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They are the most widely used of the country codes published by ISO, and are used most prominently for the Internets country code top-level domains. They were first included as part of the ISO3166 standard in its first edition in 1974, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are used in different environments and are also part of other standards. In some cases they are not perfectly implemented, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are used in the following standards, Starting in 1985, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes have been used in the Domain Name System as country code top-level domains. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority currently assigns the ccTLDs mostly following the alpha-2 codes, but with a few exceptions. For example, the United Kingdom, whose code is GB, uses. uk instead of. gb as its ccTLD. The European Commission generally uses ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes with two exceptions, EL is used to represent Greece, and UK is used to represent the United Kingdom. This notwithstanding, the Official Journal of the European Communities specified that GR and GB be used to represent Greece, for VAT administration purposes, the European Commission uses EL and GB for Greece and the United Kingdom respectively. IETF language tags are also derived from ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. The full list of ISO 3166-1 codes assigned to countries and territories are usable as region subtags, also, the exceptionally reserved alpha-2 codes defined in ISO 3166-1 are also usable as region subtags for language tags. Some other region grouping subtags are derived from other standards, under the newer stability policies, old assigned codes that have been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1 should no longer be reassigned to another country or territory. The following is a colour-coded decoding table of all ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, click on the cell to see the definition of each code. The following alpha-2 codes can be user-assigned, AA, QM to QZ, XA to XZ, for example, UN/LOCODE assigns XZ to represent installations in international waters. The Unicode Common Locale Data Repository assigns QO to represent Outlying Oceania, before the adoption of the macroregion code EU by ISO, CLDR also used QU to represent the European Union. The code XK is being used by the European Commission, the IMF, the code XA is being used by Switzerland, as a country code for the Canary Islands, although IC is already reserved for that purpose. The code XN is being used by the World Intellectual Property Organization as an indicator for the Nordic Patent Institute, the codes XE, XS and XW are used by WhatsApp to represent the flags of England, Scotland and Wales as Emoji. Reserved code elements are codes which have become obsolete, or are required in order to enable a user application of the standard. The reserved alpha-2 codes can be divided into the four categories, exceptional reservations, transitional reservations, indeterminate reservations. These codes may be used only during a period of at least five years while new code elements that may have replaced them are taken into use
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2
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A map of Europe, with ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes in place of the names of countries and other territories
47.
European Committee for Standardization
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The CEN was founded in 1961. More than 60,000 technical experts as well as business federations, CEN is the officially recognized standardisation representative for sectors other than electrotechnical and telecommunications. On 12 February 1999 the European Parliament noted in a resolution that CEN, CENELEC and ETSI co-operate smoothly, an example of mandatory standards are those for materials and products used in construction and listed under the Construction Products Directive. The CE mark is a declaration by the manufacturer that a product complies with the respective EU directive, CEN owns the Keymark, a voluntary quality mark for products and services. A product bearing the Keymark demonstrates conformity to European Standards, the current CEN Members are, all member states of the European Union, three of the EFTA members, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and other states, Macedonia, Turkey. The current affiliates are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia, Tunisia, the current partner standardisation bodies are Australia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan. The Vienna Agreement was signed by CEN and the International Organization for Standardization in 1991 and its primary aim is to avoid duplication of standards between CEN and ISO. In the last decade CEN has adopted a number of ISO standards which replaced the corresponding CEN standards, CENELEC is the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization. Com, EN Standards The list of all EN published standards. NORMAPME The European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for Standardisation Sample of certifications for Playground equipment safety
European Committee for Standardization
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European Committee for Standardization logo.
48.
Latvia
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Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The country has a seasonal climate. Latvia is a parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga, the European Capital of Culture 2014, Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Latvians and Livs are the people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the two surviving Baltic languages. Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries, the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language, Latvia and Estonia share a long common history. Until World War II, Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans, Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran, except for the Latgale region in the southeast, which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The Russian population has brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918, however, its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II. The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule and it ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and it used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes, henry of Latvia coined the Latinisations of the countrys name, Lettigallia and Lethia, both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the name in Romance languages from Letonia. Around 3000 BC, the ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals, by 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language
Latvia
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Turaida Castle near
Sigulda, built in 1214 under
Albert of Riga.
Latvia
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Flag
Latvia
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Kārlis Ulmanis
Latvia
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Red Army troops enter
Riga (1940).
49.
Continental Europe
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Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe, or, by Europeans, simply the Continent, is the continuous continent of Europe, excluding surrounding islands. This historical core of Carolingian Europe was consciously invoked in the 1950s as the historical basis for the prospective European integration. In both Great Britain and Ireland, the Continent is widely and generally used to refer to the mainland of Europe, an apocryphal British newspaper headline supposedly once read, Fog in Channel, Continent Cut Off. It has also claimed that this was a regular weather forecast in Britain in the 1930s. In addition, the word Europe itself is regularly used to mean Europe excluding the islands of Great Britain, Iceland. The term mainland Europe is also sometimes used, derivatively, the adjective continental refers to the social practices or fashion of continental Europe. Examples include breakfast, topless sunbathing and, historically, long-range driving often known as Grand Touring. Differences include electrical plugs, time zones for the most part, the use of traffic, and for the United Kingdom, currency. Britain is physically connected to continental Europe through the undersea Channel Tunnel and this route is popular with refugees and migrants seeking to enter the UK. Especially in Germanic studies, continental refers to the European continent excluding the Scandinavian peninsula, Britain, Ireland, and Iceland. The reason for this is that although the Scandinavian peninsula is attached to continental Europe, kontinenten is a vernacular Swedish expression that refers to the area excluding Sweden, Norway, and Finland but including Denmark and the rest of continental Europe. In Norway, similarly, one speaks about Kontinentet as an entity, usually referring to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Benelux countries. Today, the Scandinavian peninsula is accessible by train and road with several bridge/tunnel structures connecting the Danish peninsula of Jutland to Scania in Sweden. The Continent may sometimes refer to the part of Italy, the continental part of Spain, the continental part of France. The term is used from the perspective of the residents of each country to describe the continental portion of their country or the continent as a whole. Continental philosophy Geopolitical divisions of Europe Geographical midpoint of Europe Mainland Western Europe Hajnal line
Continental Europe
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Map of the Scandiae islands by
Nicolaus Germanus for a 1467 publication of Cosmographia Claudii Ptolomaei Alexandrini.
Continental Europe
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Continental Europe (green area); the boundaries of the continent are somewhat
disputed.
50.
Country code
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Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have developed to do this. The term country code frequently refers to international dialing codes, the E.164 country calling codes and this standard defines for most of the countries and dependent areas in the world, a two-letter a three-letter, and a three-digit numeric code. For more applications see ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. S. government and in the CIA World Factbook, on September 2,2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn by NIST as a Federal Information Processing Standard. GOST7.164 international telephone dialing codes, list of country calling codes with 1-3 digits and these prefixes are legally administered by the national entity to which prefix ranges are assigned. Diplomatic license plates in the United States, assigned by the U. S. State Department, north Atlantic Treaty Organisation used two-letter codes of its own, list of NATO country codes. They were largely borrowed from the FIPS 10-4 codes mentioned below, in 2003 the eighth edition of the Standardisation Agreement adopted the ISO3166 three-letter codes with one exception. The following can represent countries, The initial digits of International Standard Book Numbers are group identifiers for countries, areas, the first three digits of GS1 Company Prefixes used to identify products, for example, in barcodes, designate numbering agencies. A comparison with ISO, IFS and others with notes United Nations Region Codes
Country code
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Map of
Oceania with country codes.
51.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
ZIP Code
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A 1963 U.S. Post Office sign encouraging the use of ZIP codes
ZIP Code
ZIP Code
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"Use Zip code" labels were also used to promote the use of a ZIP code.
ZIP Code
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USA postage stamp, 1973: "It all depends on ZIP code".
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