Kyra Kyrklund
Kyra Marie Christine Kyrklund is a Finnish dressage rider and trainer who lives in West Sussex. In 1991 she and "Matador II" won the World Cup Finals in Paris, she has competed in six Olympics. List of athletes with the most appearances at Olympic Games Kyra Kyrklund's Hilary. "Kyra Kyrklund". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC
Queen Victoria
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. On 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke and the King died in 1820, Victoria was raised under close supervision by her mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, she inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held little direct political power. Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840, their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria avoided public appearances.
As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political and military change within the United Kingdom, was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire, she was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, initiated the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victoria's father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of the reigning King of the United Kingdom, George III; until 1817, Edward's niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a succession crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent and his unmarried brothers to marry and have children.
In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen. Her brother Leopold was Princess Charlotte's widower; the Duke and Duchess of Kent's only child, was born at 4.15 a.m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace, she was baptised Alexandrina after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of Kent's eldest brother, the Prince Regent. At birth, Victoria was fifth in the line of succession after the four eldest sons of George III: George, the Prince Regent; the Prince Regent had no surviving children, the Duke of York had no children. The Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarence's legitimate daughters died as infants.
The first of these was Princess Charlotte, born and died on 27 March 1819, two months before Victoria was born. Victoria's father died in January 1820. A week her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son as George IV. Victoria was third in line to the throne after York and Clarence. Clarence's second daughter was Princess Elizabeth of Clarence who lived for twelve weeks from 10 December 1820 to 4 March 1821 and, while Elizabeth lived, Victoria was fourth in line; the Duke of York died in 1827. When George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, Clarence, as William IV, Victoria became heir presumptive; the Regency Act 1830 made special provision for Victoria's mother to act as regent in case William died while Victoria was still a minor. King William distrusted the Duchess's capacity to be regent, in 1836 he declared in her presence that he wanted to live until Victoria's 18th birthday, so that a regency could be avoided. Victoria described her childhood as "rather melancholy".
Her mother was protective, Victoria was raised isolated from other children under the so-called "Kensington System", an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by the Duchess and her ambitious and domineering comptroller, Sir John Conroy, rumoured to be the Duchess's lover. The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable, was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them; the Duchess avoided the court because she was scandalised by the presence of King William's illegitimate children. Victoria shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, spent her play-hours with her dolls and her King Charles Spaniel, Dash, her lessons included French, German and Latin, but she spoke only English at home. In 1830, the Duchess of Kent and Conroy took Victoria across the centre of England to visit the Malvern Hills, stopping at towns and great country houses along the way. Similar journeys to oth
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and known as Beijing 2008, was an international multi-sport event, held from 8 to 24 August 2008 in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events; this was the first time that China had hosted the Summer Olympics, but the third time that the Games had been held in East Asia, following the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. These were the third Olympic Games staged in a socialist country, after the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union, the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games over four competitors on 13 July 2001, having won a majority of votes from members of the International Olympic Committee after two rounds of voting; the Government of the People's Republic of China promoted the Games and invested in new facilities and transportation systems. A total of 37 venues were used to host the events, including twelve constructed for use at the Games.
The equestrian events were held in Hong Kong, making this the third Olympics for which the events were held under the jurisdiction of two different NOCs. The sailing events were contested in Qingdao, while the football events took place in several different cities; the official logo for the 2008 Games, titled "Dancing Beijing", featured a stylized calligraphic character jīng in reference to the host city. Beijing Olympics was watched by 3.5 billion people worldwide. Longest distance for an Olympic torch relay The event sets numerous world and Olympics records in the history of Sports, is the most expensive Summer Olympics of all time and second most expensive overall, after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi; the opening ceremony was lauded by spectators and numerous international presses as spectacular and spellbinding, by many accounts "the greatest in the history of Olympics". An unprecedented 87 countries won at least one medal during the Games. China won the most gold medals, with 48, became only the seventh different team to top an overall Olympic medal tally, winning a total of 100 medals overall.
The United States placed second in the gold medal tally but won the highest number of medals overall, with a total of 112. The third place in the gold medal tally was achieved by Russia. Beijing has been selected to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing was elected as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics on 13 July 2001, during the 112th IOC Session in Moscow, defeating bids from Toronto, Paris and Osaka. Prior to the session, five other cities had submitted bids to the IOC, but failed to make the short list chosen by the IOC Executive Committee in 2000. After the first round of voting, Beijing held a significant lead over the other four candidates. Osaka was eliminated. In the second round, Beijing was supported by a majority of voters, eliminating the need for subsequent rounds. Toronto's bid was their 5th failure since 1960. Members of the IOC did not disclose their votes, but news reports speculated that broad international support led to China's selection from developing nations who had received assistance from China in the construction of stadiums.
The size of China, its increased enforcement of doping controls, sympathy concerning its loss of the 2000 Summer Olympics to Sydney were all factors in the decision. Eight years earlier, Beijing had led every round of voting for the 2000 Summer Olympics before losing to Sydney by two votes in the final round. Human rights concerns expressed by Amnesty International and politicians in both Europe and the United States were considered by the delegates, according to IOC Executive Director François Carrard. Carrard and others suggested. In addition, a number of IOC delegates, athletes expressed concern about heat and air quality during the Games, considering the high levels of air pollution in Beijing. China outlined plans to address these environmental concerns in its bid application; the Oxford Olympics Study 2016 estimates the outturn cost of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics at US$6.8 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 2% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g. expenditures for technology, workforce, security, catering and medical services, direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, media and press center, which are required to host the Games.
Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The Beijing Olympics' cost of US$6.8 billion compares with costs of US$4.6 billion for Rio 2016 and US$15 billion for London 2012. Average cost for the Summer Games since 1960 is US$5.2 billion. On 6 March 2009, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games reported that total spending on the games was "generally as much as that of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games", equivalen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. As of July 2018, the city has a population of 777,218, it forms the core of the wider urban area of the Copenhagen metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand; the Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by road. A Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century. Beginning in the 17th century it consolidated its position as a regional centre of power with its institutions and armed forces. After suffering from the effects of plague and fire in the 18th century, the city underwent a period of redevelopment; this included construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and founding of such cultural institutions as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After further disasters in the early 19th century when Horatio Nelson attacked the Dano-Norwegian fleet and bombarded the city, rebuilding during the Danish Golden Age brought a Neoclassical look to Copenhagen's architecture.
Following the Second World War, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing and businesses along the five urban railway routes stretching out from the city centre. Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure; the city is the cultural and governmental centre of Denmark. Copenhagen's economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector through initiatives in information technology and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region. With a number of bridges connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterised by parks and waterfronts. Copenhagen's landmarks such as Tivoli Gardens, The Little Mermaid statue, the Amalienborg and Christiansborg palaces, Rosenborg Castle Gardens, Frederik's Church, many museums and nightclubs are significant tourist attractions.
The largest lake of Denmark, Arresø, lies around 27 miles northwest of the City Hall Square. Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen Business School and the IT University of Copenhagen; the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark. Copenhagen is home to the FC Brøndby football clubs; the annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world; the Copenhagen Metro launched in 2002 serves central Copenhagen while the Copenhagen S-train, the Lokaltog and the Coast Line network serves and connects central Copenhagen to outlying boroughs. To relieve traffic congestion, the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link road and rail construction is planned, because the narrow 9-9.5 mile isthmus between Roskilde Fjord and Køge Bugt forms a traffic bottleneck. The Copenhagen-Ringsted Line will relieve traffic congestion in the corridor between Roskilde and Copenhagen.
Serving two million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the busiest airport in the Nordic countries. Copenhagen's name reflects its origin as a place of commerce; the original designation in Old Norse, from which Danish descends, was Kaupmannahǫfn, meaning "merchants' harbour". By the time Old Danish was spoken, the capital was called Køpmannæhafn, with the current name deriving from centuries of subsequent regular sound change. An exact English equivalent would be "chapman's haven". However, the English term for the city was adapted from Kopenhagen. Although the earliest historical records of Copenhagen are from the end of the 12th century, recent archaeological finds in connection with work on the city's metropolitan rail system revealed the remains of a large merchant's mansion near today's Kongens Nytorv from c. 1020. Excavations in Pilestræde have led to the discovery of a well from the late 12th century; the remains of an ancient church, with graves dating to the 11th century, have been unearthed near where Strøget meets Rådhuspladsen.
These finds indicate. Substantial discoveries of flint tools in the area provide evidence of human settlements dating to the Stone Age. Many historians believe the town dates to the late Viking Age, was founded by Sweyn I Forkbeard; the natural harbour and good herring stocks seem to have attracted fishermen and merchants to the area on a seasonal basis from the 11th century and more permanently in the 13th century. The first habitations were centred on Gammel Strand in the 11thcentury or earlier; the earliest written mention of the town was in the 12th century when Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum referred to it as Portus
Margrethe II of Denmark
Margrethe II is the Queen of Denmark, as well as the supreme authority of the Church of Denmark and Commander-in-Chief of the Danish Defence. Born into the House of Glücksburg, a royal house with origins in Northern Germany, she was the eldest child of Frederick IX of Denmark and Ingrid of Sweden, she succeeded her father upon his death on 14 January 1972, having become heir presumptive to her father in 1953, when a constitutional amendment allowed women to inherit the throne. On her accession, Margrethe became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margrethe I, ruler of the Scandinavian kingdoms in 1375–1412 during the Kalmar Union. In 1967, she married Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, with whom she has two sons: Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim, she has been on the Danish throne for 47 years, becoming the second-longest-reigning Danish monarch after her ancestor Christian IV. Princess Margrethe was born 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg in Copenhagen as the first child of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess.
Her father was the eldest son of the then-reigning King Christian X, while her mother was the only daughter of the Crown Prince of Sweden. Her birth took place just one week after Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940, she was baptised on 14 May in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. The Princess's godparents were: King Christian X, she was named Margrethe after her late maternal grandmother, Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, Alexandrine after her paternal grandmother, Queen Alexandrine, Ingrid after her mother. Since her paternal grandfather was the King of Iceland, she was given the Icelandic name Þórhildur; when Margrethe was four years old, in 1944, her younger sister Princess Benedikte was born. Princess Benedikte married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives some of the time in Germany, her second sister, Princess Anne-Marie, was born in 1946. Anne-Marie married Constantine II of the Hellenes and lives in Greece. Margrethe and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederick VIII's Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and in Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand.
She spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parent's summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland. On 20 April 1947, King Christian X died and Margrethe's father ascended the throne as King Frederick IX. At the time of her birth, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark, owing to the changes in succession laws enacted in the 1850s when the Glücksburg branch was chosen to succeed; as she had no brothers, it was assumed. The process of changing the constitution started in 1947, not long after her father ascended the throne and it became clear that Queen Ingrid would have no more children; the popularity of Frederick and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life started the complicated process of altering the constitution. The law required that the proposal be passed by two successive Parliaments and by a referendum, which occurred 27 March 1953; the new Act of Succession permitted female succession to the throne of Denmark, according to male-preference cognatic primogeniture, where a female can ascend to the throne only if she does not have a brother.
Princess Margrethe therefore became heir presumptive. On her eighteenth birthday, 16 April 1958, Margrethe was given a seat in the Council of State, she subsequently chaired the meetings of the Council in the absence of the King. In 1960, together with the princesses of Sweden and Norway, she travelled to the United States, which included a visit to Los Angeles, to the Paramount Studios, where they met several celebrities, including Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley. Margrethe was educated at the private school N. Zahle's School in Copenhagen from which she graduated in 1959, she spent a year at North Foreland Lodge, a boarding school for girls in Hampshire and studied prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, during 1960–1961, political science at Aarhus University between 1961 and 1962, attended the Sorbonne in 1963, was at the London School of Economics in 1965. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Queen Margrethe is fluent in Danish, English and German, has a limited knowledge of Faroese.
Princess Margrethe married a French diplomat, Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, 10 June 1967, at the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen. Laborde de Monpezat received the style and title of "His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark" because of his new position as the spouse of the heir presumptive to the Danish throne, they were married for over fifty years, until his death on 13 February 2018. Margrethe gave birth to her first child 26 May 1968. By tradition, Danish kings were alternately named either Christian, she chose to maintain this by assuming the position of a Christian, thus named her eldest son Frederik. A second child, named Joachim, was born 7 June 1969. Shortly after King Frederick IX delivered his New Year's Address to the Nation at the 1971/72 turn of the year, he fell ill. At his death 14 days 14 January 1972, Margrethe succeeded to the throne at the age of 31, becoming the first female
Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia
Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia was a German princess, a member of the British Royal Family, the wife of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. She served as the Viceregal Consort of Canada, when her husband served as the Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queens Margrethe II of Denmark and Anne-Marie of Greece are among her great-grandchildren. Princess Luise Margarete was born at Marmorpalais near Kingdom of Prussia, her father was Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, the son of Karl of Prussia and his wife Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Her mother was Princess Maria Anna of daughter of Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau, her father, a nephew of the German Emperor Wilhelm I, distinguished himself as a field commander during the Battle of Metz and the campaigns west of Paris in the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War. Her father was a double cousin of the German Emperor Friedrich III, the husband of her sister-in-law, Princess Royal. On 13 March 1879, Princess Luise Margarete married Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn at St. George's Chapel Windsor.
Prince Arthur was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple received a great number of expensive gifts. Many members of England and Germany's royal families attended. After her marriage, Princess Louise was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn and her name was Anglicised as Louise Margaret; the Duchess of Connaught spent the first twenty years of her marriage accompanying her husband on his various deployments throughout the British Empire. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught acquired Bagshot Park in Surrey as their country home and after 1900 used Clarence House as their London residence, she accompanied her husband to Canada in 1911. In 1916, she became colonel-in-chief of the 199th Canadian Infantry Battalion, CEF. In 1885, she became chief of the 64th Regiment of Infantry "Field Marshal General Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia", Prussian Army; the Duchess of Connaught died of influenza and bronchitis at Clarence House.
She became the first member of the British Royal Family to be cremated. This was done at Golders Green Crematorium; the procedure of burying ashes in an urn was still unfamiliar at the time, her urn was transported in an ordinary coffin during the funeral ceremonies. Her ashes were buried at the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore; the Duke of Connaught survived her by twenty-five years. The maternity hospital adjacent to the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot was named in her honour as the Louise Margaret Maternity Hospital. 25 July 1860 – 13 March 1879: Her Royal Highness Princess Luise Margarete of Prussia 13 March 1879 – 14 March 1917: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn CI: Companion of the Crown of India, March 1879 VA: Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 1893 DStJ: Dame of Justice of St. John, 1888 RRC: Member of the Royal Red Cross, 1883 Treaty between Great Britain and Germany, for the Marriage of HRH the Duke of Connaught with HRH the Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia - 26 February 1879
Germans
Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry and history. German is the shared mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans; the English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, German society has been characterized by a Catholic-Protestant divide. Of 100 million native speakers of German in the world 80 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry in the United States, Argentina, South Africa, the post-Soviet states, France, each accounting for at least 1 million. Thus, the total number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most subscribe to their own national identities and may or may not self-identify as ethnically German.
The German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic "language of the people". It is not clear how if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German. Used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of "a German" emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century; the Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni. It was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century; the word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects and their speakers. While in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci with a meaning "foreigner, one who does not speak "; the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and Tacitus.
It replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming obsolete by the early 18th century. The Germans are a Germanic people. Part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War; these states formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe; the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe and southward into Celtic territory. During antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area, now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, had spread west into what is now Belgium and France.
Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine. Roman emperor Augustus in 12 BC ordered the conquest of the Germans, but the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest resulted in the Roman Empire abandoning its plans to conquer Germania. Germanic peoples in Roman territory were culturally Romanized, although much of Germania remained free of direct Roman rule, Rome influenced the development of German society the adoption of Christianity by the Germans who obtained it from the Romans. In Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, Roman and Christian traditions intermingled; the adoption of Christianity would become a major influence in the development of a common German identity. The first major public figure to speak of a German people in general, was the Roman figure Tacitus in his work Germania around 100 AD; however an actual united German identity and ethnicity did not exist and it would take centuries of development of German culture until the concept of a German ethnicity began to become a popular identity.
The Germanic peoples during the Migrations Period came into contact with other peoples. The Limes Germanicus was breached in AD 260. Migrating Germanic tribes commingled with the local Gallo-Roman populations in what is now Swabia and Bavaria; the arrival of the Huns in Europe resulted in Hun conquest of large parts of Eastern Europe, the Huns were allies of the Roman Empire who fought against Germanic tribes, but the Huns cooperated with the Germanic tribe of the Ostrogoths, large numbers of Germans lived within the lands of the Hunnic Empire of
Sweden: Recipient of the 50th Birthday Badge Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf[10][11]
Denmark
International Olympic Committee: Bronze Medal for Team dressage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics[12]
