1.
Weapon
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A weapon, arm, or armament is any device used with intent to inflict damage or harm to living beings, structures, or systems. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, self-defense. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, something that has been re-purposed, converted, or enhanced to become a weapon of war is termed weaponized, such as a weaponized virus or weaponized lasers. The use of objects as weapons has been observed among chimpanzees, however, this can not be confirmed using physical evidence because wooden clubs, spears, and unshaped stones would not have left an unambiguous record. The earliest unambiguous weapons to be found are the Schöninger Speere, the first defensive structures and fortifications appeared in the Bronze Age, indicating an increased need for security. Weapons designed to breach fortifications followed soon after, for example the battering ram was in use by 2500 BC, although early Iron Age swords were not superior to their bronze predecessors, once iron-working developed, around 1300 BC in Greece Alex Webb, Metalworking in Ancient Greece. Domestication of the horse and widespread use of spoked wheels by ca.2000 BC, led to the light, the mobility provided by chariots were important during this era. Spoke-wheeled chariot usage peaked around 1300 BC and then declined, ceasing to be militarily relevant by the 4th century BC. Cavalry developed once horses were bred to support the weight of a man, the horse extended the range and increased the speed of attacks. Ships built as weapons or warships such as the trireme were in use by the 7th century BC and these ships were eventually replaced by larger ships by the 4th century BC. European warfare during the Post-classical history was dominated by groups of knights supported by massed infantry. They were involved in combat and sieges which involved various siege weapons. Knights on horseback developed tactics for charging with lances providing an impact on the enemy formations, whereas infantry, in the age before structured formations, relied on cheap, sturdy weapons such as spears and billhooks in close combat and bows from a distance. As armies became more professional, their equipment was standardized and infantry transitioned to pikes, pikes are normally seven to eight feet in length, in conjunction with smaller side-arms. In Eastern and Middle Eastern warfare, similar tactics were developed independent of European influences, the introduction of gunpowder from the Far East at the end of this period revolutionized warfare. Formations of musketeers, protected by pikemen came to dominate open battles, the European Renaissance marked the beginning of the implementation of firearms in western warfare. Guns and rockets were introduced to the battlefield, firearms are qualitatively different from earlier weapons because they release energy from combustible propellants such as gunpowder, rather than from a counter-weight or spring. This energy is released very rapidly and can be replicated without much effort by the user, therefore even early firearms such as the arquebus were much more powerful than human-powered weapons. During the U. S. Civil War various technologies including the gun and ironclad warship emerged that would be recognizable and useful military weapons today
2.
Gaston Leroux
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Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever, Leroux was born in Paris in 1868 and died in 1927 in France. He went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris and he inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. In 1890, he working as a court reporter and theater critic for LÉcho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as a correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. He was present at, and covered, the 1905 Russian Revolution, another case at which he was present involved the investigation and in-depth coverage of the former Paris Opera. The basement contained a cell that held prisoners of the Paris Commune and he suddenly left journalism in 1907 and began writing fiction. In 1919, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own company, Société des Cinéromans, to publish novels. He first wrote a novel titled Le mystère de la chambre jaune. Lerouxs contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyles in the United Kingdom, Leroux published his most famous work, The Phantom of the Opera, as a serial in 1909 and 1910, and as a book in 1910
3.
The Phantom of the Opera
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The Phantom of the Opera is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in Le Gaulois from September 23,1909 and it was published in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierre Lafitte. It has been adapted into various stage and film adaptations, most notable of which are the 1925 film depiction featuring Lon Chaney. In 1890s Paris, the Palais Garnier is believed to be haunted by an entity known as The Phantom or The Opera Ghost. One day, the hand, Joseph Bouquet, is found hanged, presumably by The Phantom. At the same time, Christine Daaé, a young Swedish soprano, has been tutored by what she believes to be the Angel of Music, sent by her deceased father. On the night of the old managers retirement, she understudies at the performance for the Operas leading soprano, Carlotta. The Vicomte, Raoul de Changy, who was present at the performance, recognises her as his childhood playmate and he attempts to visit her backstage, when he hears a man speaking to her from inside her dressing room. He investigates the room once Christine leaves, only to find that no one else in the room. At Perros-Guirec, Christine meets with Raoul, who confronts her about the voice he heard in her room, Christine tells him about The Angel that has been tutoring her, but he is skeptical and suggests that she might be the victim of a prank. Hurt and angry, she storms off, Christine visits her fathers grave one night, where a mysterious figure appears and plays the violin for her. Raoul attempts to catch it but is attacked and knocked out in the process, the managers ignore his demands, resulting in disastrous consequences, Carlotta ends up croaking like a toad, and the chandelier suddenly drops into the audience, killing the new concierge. The Phantom, having abducted Christine from her room, reveals himself as Erik. Fearing that she leave him, he decides to keep her with him forever. On the roof of the house, Christine tells Raoul about her abduction and makes Raoul promise to take her away to a place where Erik can never find her. Raoul tells Christine he shall act on his promise the next day, however, Christine sympathises with Erik and decides to sing for him one last time as a means of saying good-bye. Unbeknownst to them, Erik has been watching them and overheard their whole conversation, the following night, the enraged and jealous Erik abducts Christine during a production of Faust and tries to force her to marry him. To save them and the people above in the Opera, Christine agrees to marry Erik, Erik initially tries to drown Raoul and the Persian, using the water which would have been used to douse the explosives
4.
Hangman's knot
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The hangmans knot or hangmans noose is a well-known knot most often associated with its use in hanging a person. For a hanging, the knot of the rope is placed under or just behind the left ear, although the most effective position is just ahead of the ear. The pull on the knot at the end of the drop levers the jaw and head violently up and to the right, the knot is non-jamming but tends to resist attempts to loosen it. Each additional coil adds friction to the knot, which makes the noose harder to pull closed or open, the number of coils should therefore be adjusted depending on the intended use, the type and thickness of rope, and environmental conditions such as wet or greasy rope. Six to eight loops are normal when using natural ropes, one coil makes it equivalent to the simple running knot. The number thirteen was thought to be unlucky, consequently, in myth, if not in actual practice, thirteen coils were found in a hangman’s noose, a foreboding sign for those convicted to be hanged. Woody Guthrie sings of the hangman using thirteen coils, A variation of this knot is used in fishing and is called the Uni-knot and it is used to tie fishing line to terminal tackle, join two pieces of line, or for snelling hooks. It is especially useful when used with slick braided line as more coils can be added to increase the friction of the knot and will not let the knot pull out. It is also useful in that the knot can be pulled tight to the lure or it can be left with a larger loop that gives the lure more freedom of movement. The hangmans noose can also be used in boating to secure an eyelet on a rope or sheet without splicing it, list of knots The Ashley Book of Knots discusses this knot in the entry for drawing #1119
5.
Garotte
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A garrote or garrote vil is a weapon, most often referring to a handheld ligature of chain, rope, scarf, wire or fishing line used to strangle a person. A garrote can be out of many different materials, including ropes, cable ties, fishing lines, nylon, guitar strings. A stick may be used to tighten the garrote, the Spanish word actually refers to the stick itself, in Spanish, the term may also refer to a rope and stick used to constrict a limb as a torture device. Since World War II, the garrote has been employed as a weapon by soldiers as a silent means of eliminating sentries. Instruction in the use of purpose-built and improvised garrottes is included in the training of elite military units. A typical military garrote consists of two wooden handles attached to a length of wire, the wire is looped over a sentrys head. Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion have used a type of double-loop garrote. Even if the victim pulls on one of the coils, he succeeds in tightening the other. The garrote was widely employed in 17th- and 18th-century India as an assassination device, practitioners used a yellow silk or cloth scarf called a rumāl. The Indian version of the garrote frequently incorporates a knot at the center intended to aid in crushing the larynx while someone applies pressure to the victims back, the garrote was the principal device used for capital punishment in Spain for one and a half centuries until its abolition. Originally, it entailed a mode of execution wherein a convict would be beaten to death with a club and this later developed into a practice of strangulation by which the condemned was tied to a wooden stake with a looped section of rope placed around his neck. A wooden stick would then be placed in the loop and twisted by an executioner, other versions of this device incorporated a fixed metal blade or spike directed at the spinal cord to hasten the breaking of the neck. The spiked version, called the Catalan garrote, was used as late as 1940, American authorities kept the garrote for a time in the Philippines after that Spanish colony was captured in 1898. Its use was abolished in 1902, notable victims of the garrote in the Philippines include the trio of native priests, the Gomburza, for their alleged participation in the 1872 Cavite mutiny. American military authorities in Puerto Rico also used the garrote to execute at least five convicted murderers in 1900, in a report to Congress, the American military governor opined that execution by the garotte is far less inhumane and revolting than execution by hanging. However, use of this method was soon discontinued and replaced by hanging. Since 1929, capital punishment has not existed under Puerto Rican law, in the Ottoman Empire, execution by strangulation was reserved for very high officials and members of the ruling family. Unlike the Spanish version, a bowstring was used instead of a tightening collar, the garrote is known to have been used in the first century BC in Rome. g
6.
Punjab
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The Punjab, also spelled Panjab, panj-āb, land of five rivers, is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of South Asia, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India. Not being a unit, the extent of the region is the subject of debate. The foreign invaders mainly targeted the most productive region of the Punjab known as the Majha region. The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis and their language is called Punjabi. The main religions of the Punjab region are Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism, other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism. The name of the region is a compound of two Persian words Panj and āb and was introduced to the region by the Turko-Persian conquerors of India, Punjab literally means Five Waters referring to the rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas. All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Chenab being the largest, there are two main definitions of the Punjab region, the 1947 definition and the older 1846–1849 definition. The third definition incorporates both the 1947 and the definitions but also includes northern Rajasthan on a linguistic basis. 1947 definition The 1947 definition defines the Punjab region with reference to the dissolution of British India whereby the then British Punjab Province was partitioned between India and Pakistan, in Pakistan, the region now includes the Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory. In India, it includes the Punjab state, Chandigarh, Haryana, Using the 1947 definition, the Punjab region borders Kashmir to the north, Sindh and Rajasthan to the south, the Pashtun region and Balochistan to the west, and the Hindi belt to the east. Accordingly, the Punjab region is diverse and stretches from the hills of the Kangra Valley to the plains. Present day maps Major cities Using the 1947 definition of the Punjab region, some of the cities of the area include Lahore, Faisalabad. Older 1846–1849 definition The older definition of the Punjab region focuses on the collapse of the Sikh Empire, According to this definition, the Punjab region incorporates, in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir including Bhimber and Mirpur and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In India the wider definition includes parts of Delhi and Jammu Division, the formation of the Himalayan Range of mountains to the east and north-east of the Punjab is the result of a collision between the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The plates are moving together, and the Himalayas are rising by about 5 millimetres per year. The upper regions are snow-covered the whole year, Lower ranges of hills run parallel to the mountains. The Lower Himalayan Range runs from north of Rawalpindi through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the mountains are relatively young, and are eroding rapidly. The Indus and the five rivers of the Punjab have their sources in the range and carry loam, minerals and silt down to the rich alluvial plains
7.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
8.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
9.
Catgut
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Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, despite the name, catgut manufacturers do not use cat intestines. The word catgut may have been an abbreviation of the word cattlegut, alternatively, it may derive by folk etymology from kitgut or kitstring—the word kit, meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word kit for a young cat. Most musical instruments produced today use strings with cores made of other materials, many acoustic guitarists moved away from gut strings in the early 1900s when the C. F. Martin & Company introduced steel strings, which gave greater volume to the guitar. The demand for steel came from players, who couldnt make themselves heard clearly without it. Within a few years the majority of Martin guitars were made with steel strings to accommodate the demand, after World War II, most classical and flamenco guitarists switched from catgut to the new nylon strings for their greater smoothness, durability, and stability of intonation. Before 1900, the best strings for musical instruments were reputedly from Italy, musicians believed the best were from Naples, though Rome and other Italian cities also produced excellent strings. Today high quality gut strings are produced mostly in Italy, Germany, and they are also made elsewhere, for example in India and Morocco, for local use. Catgut suture was once a widely used material in surgical settings, there is debate about whether to continue using catgut in a medical setting, since cotton is usually cheaper and wounds closed with either cotton or synthetic threads are less prone to infection. Catgut sutures remain in use in developing countries where they are less expensive. Natural gut is still used as a string in tennis racquets. To prepare catgut, workers clean the small intestines, free them from fat, then they scrape off the external membrane with a blunt knife, and steep the intestines again for some time in potassium hydroxide. Then they smooth and equalize the intestines by drawing them out, lean animals yield the toughest gut. Next, they twist the prepared gut strands together to make string, string diameter is determined by the thickness of the individual guts, and by the number used. A thin string, such as a violin E, uses three or four guts, whereas a double bass string may use twenty or more. After twisting and drying, workers polish the strings to the required diameter, before the twentieth century, the strings were simply rubbed with an abrasive to smooth them. Today they are ground down to the desired diameter using a centerless grinder. After drying and polishing, workers bleach and disinfect the strings using sulfur dioxide, dye them if necessary, notes Sources This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Catgut
10.
Persian Empire
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Persian Empire refers to any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia. The first of these was the Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires and it covered much of the Ancient world when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Several later dynasties claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids, Persia was then ruled by the Parthian Empire which supplanted the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, and then by the Sassanian Empire which ruled up until mid 7th century. It is important to note that many of these empires referred to themselves as Persian, they were often ethnically ruled by Medes, Babylonians. Iranian dynastic history was interrupted by the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia in 651 AD, establishing the even larger Islamic Caliphate, the main religion of ancient Persia was the native Zoroastrianism, but after the seventh century, it was replaced by Islam. Since 1979 and the downfall of the Pahlavi dynasty during Iranian Revolution, Persia has had a Shiah theocratic government
11.
Shah
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Shah is a title given to the emperors, kings, princes and lords of Iran. In Iran the title was used, rather than King in the European sense. The full, Old Persian title of the Achaemenid rulers of the First Persian Empire was Xšāyathiya Xšāyathiyānām or Šāhe Šāhān and this word is commonly confused with the unrelated and distinct Indian surname Shah, which is derived from the Sanskrit Sadhu or Sahu, meaning gentleman. Šāh, or Šāhanšāh to use the term, was the title of the Persian emperors. While the Ottoman Sultans never styled themselves as Shah, but rather Sultan, their male offspring received the title of Şehzade, or prince. The full title of the Achaemenid rulers was Xšāyaθiya Xšāyaθiyānām, literally King of Kings in Old Persian, corresponding to Middle Persian Šāhān Šāh, in Greek, this phrase was translated as βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλέων, King of Kings, equivalent to Emperor. Both terms were often shortened to their roots shah and basileus, in Western languages, Shah is often used as an imprecise rendering of Šāhanšāh. The term was first recorded in English in 1564 as a title for the King of Persia, for a long time, Europeans thought of Shah as a particular royal title rather than an imperial one, although the monarchs of Persia regarded themselves as emperors of the Persian Empire. In the twentieth century, the Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, officially adopted the title شاهنشاه Šāhanšāh and, in western languages and he also styled his wife شهبانو Shahbānu. Iran no longer had a shah after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, from the reign of Ashot III, the Bagratid kings of Armenia used the title shahanshah, meaning king of kings. The title padishah was adopted from the Iranians by the Ottomans and by other monarchs claiming imperial rank. Another subsidiary style of the Ottoman and Mughal rulers was Shah-i-Alam Panah, meaning King, the Shah-Armens, used the title Shāh-i Arman. Georgian title mepetmepe was also inspired by the shahanshah title, however the precise full styles can differ in the court traditions of each shahs kingdom. This title was given to the princes of the Ottoman Empire and was used by the princes of the Mughal Empire in India. Thus, in Oudh, only sons of the sovereign shah bahadur were by birth-right styled Shahzada Mirza Bahadur, though this style could also be extended to individual grandsons, other male descendants of the sovereign in the male line were merely styled Mirza or Mirza. This could even apply to non-Muslim dynasties, for example, the younger sons of the ruling Sikh maharaja of Punjab were styled Shahzada Singh Bahadur. Shahbanu, Persian term using the word shah and the Persian suffix -banu, Empress, in modern times, shahdokht is also another term derived from shah using the Persian patronymic suffix -dokht daughter, female descendant, to address the Princess of the imperial households. Shahpur also been derived from using the archaic Persian suffix -pur son, male descendant
12.
Assassination
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Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, often a political leader or ruler, usually for political reasons or payment. The word assassin is believed to derive from the word Hashshashin. It referred to a group of Nizari Shia Persians who worked against various Arab, founded by the Persian Hassan-i Sabbah, the Assassins were active in the fortress of Alamut in Iran from the 8th to the 14th centuries, and also controlled the castle of Masyaf in Syria. The group killed members of the Persian, Abbasid, Seljuq, the word for murder in many Romance languages is derived from this same root word. Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics and it dates back at least as far as recorded history. The Old Testament story of Judith illustrates how a woman frees the Israelites by tricking and assassinating Holofernes, a warlord of the rival Assyrians, with whom the Israelites were at war. King Joash of Judah was recorded as being assassinated by his own servants, Joab assassinated Absalom, King Davids son, chanakya wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra. His student Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies, other famous victims are Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, and Roman consul Julius Caesar. Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Muslim Shia Imams hundreds of years later, the practice was also well known in ancient China, as in Jing Kes failed assassination of Qin king Ying Zheng in 227 BC. Whilst many assassination were performed by an individual or a small group, the earliest were the sicarii in 6 A. D. who predated the Middle Eastern assassins and Japanese ninjas by centuries. In the Middle Ages, regicide was rare in Western Europe, blinding and strangling in the bathtub were the most commonly used procedures. With the Renaissance, tyrannicide—or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe and this account is, however, contentious among historians, it being most commonly asserted that he died of natural causes. The myth of the Curse of King Zvonimir is based on the legend of his assassination, in 1192, Conrad of Montferrat, the de facto King of Jerusalem, was killed by an assassin. The reigns of King Przemysł II of Poland, William the Silent of the Netherlands, in Russia alone, two emperors, Paul I and his grandson Alexander II, were assassinated within 80 years. In the United Kingdom, only one Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has ever been assassinated—Spencer Perceval on May 11,1812. In the United States, within 100 years, four presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, there have been at least 20 known attempts on U. S. presidents lives. Huey Long, a Senator, was assassinated in September of 1935, the Polish Home Army conducted a regular campaign of assassinations against top Nazi German officials in occupied Poland. Adolf Hitler, meanwhile, was almost killed by his own officers, indias Father of the Nation, Mohandas K. Gandhi, was shot to death on January 30,1948, by Nathuram Godse
13.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
14.
Opera house
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An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other houses are part of larger performing arts centers. In contrast, there was no house in London when Henry Purcell was composing. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies raise funds from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples introduces the plant horseshoe, the oldest in the world, a model for the Italian theater. On this model were built following theaters of Italy and Europe, among others, the theater of the Palace of Caserta. Given the popularity of opera in 18th and 19th century Europe, opera houses are large, with generally more than 1,000 seats. Modern opera houses of the century such as New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theatres, in a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage, are boxes and this is especially true of Wagners Bayreuth Festspielhaus where the pit is almost completely covered. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be large, for some romantic period works. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers, therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elevators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are changed during the action, as the audience watches. This occurs in the Mets productions of such as Aida. Much the same happened in the remodeling of Milans La Scala opera house between 2002 and 2004, since the 1990s, however, many opera houses have begun using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement. Often, operas are presented in their languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, a Wagnerian opera presented in London may be in German, therefore, since the 1980s modern opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated supertitles, projections of the words above or near to the stage
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Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway and he has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. In 2001 the New York Times referred to him as the most commercially successful composer in history, ranked the fifth most powerful person in British culture by The Telegraph in 2008, the lyricist Don Black stated Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and his company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, Lloyd Webber is also the president of the Arts Educational Schools London, a performing arts school located in Chiswick, West London. He is involved in a number of activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a solo cellist. Lloyd Webber started writing his own music at a young age and he also put on productions with Julian and his Aunt Viola in his toy theatre. Later, he would be the owner of a number of West End theatres and his aunt Viola, an actress, took him to see many of her shows and through the stage door into the world of the theatre. He also had set music to Old Possums Book of Practical Cats at the age of 15. Lloyd Webbers first collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice was The Likes of Us, although composed in 1965, it was not publicly performed until 2005, when a production was staged at Lloyd Webbers Sydmonton Festival. In 2008, amateur rights were released by the National Operatic and Dramatic Association in association with the Really Useful Group, the first amateur performance was by a childrens theatre group in Cornwall called Kidz R Us. In this respect, it is different from the composers later work, which tends to be either predominantly or wholly through-composed. Joseph began life as a cantata that gained some recognition on its second staging with a favourable review in The Times. For its subsequent performances, Rice and Lloyd Webber revised the show and this culminated in a two-hour-long production being staged in the West End on the back of the success of Jesus Christ Superstar. In 1969 Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the Eurovision Song Contest called Try It and See, with rewritten lyrics it became King Herods Song in their third musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. The planned follow-up to Jesus Christ Superstar was a comedy based on the Jeeves. Tim Rice was uncertain about this venture, partly because of his concern that he not be able to do justice to the novels that he
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Indian rope trick
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The Indian rope trick is a magic trick said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century. Sometimes described as the world’s greatest illusion, it involved a magician, a length of rope. In the 1990s the trick was said by historians to be a hoax perpetrated in 1890 by John Wilkie of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Peter Lamont has argued there are no accurate references to the trick predating 1890. The rope levitates, with no external support, a boy assistant, a jamoora, climbs the rope and then descends. A more elaborate version has the magician disappearing after reaching the top of the rope, the classic version was much more detailed, the rope seems to rise high into the sky, disappearing from view. The boy climbs the rope and is lost to view, the magician calls to the boy, and feigns anger upon receiving no response. The magician arms himself with a knife or sword, climbs the rope, an argument is heard, and then human limbs fall, presumably cut from the assistants body by the magician. When all the parts of the body, including the torso, land on the ground and he collects the limbs and puts them in a basket or covers them with a cape or blanket. Robert Elliot of the London Magic Circle, when offering a reward in the 1930s for an outdoor performance. He demanded that the rope must be thrown into the air and defy the force of gravity, while someone climbs it, the fact that Shankara referred to the tricks method was pointed out in 1934 in a discussion of the Indian rope trick in the Indian press. These Sanskrit texts of Shankara are the basis for the claim that the trick is of great antiquity in India, edward Melton, an Anglo-Dutch traveler, described a performance he saw in Batavia about 1670 by a troupe of Chinese jugglers. Grasping one end of a ball of cord in his hand, body pieces fell and were placed in a basket. Finally the basket was upturned, the pieces fell out topsy turvy, and Melton saw all those limbs creep together again. A detailed engraved illustration accompanied this account, Ibn Battuta, when recounting his travels through Hangzhou, China in 1346, describes a trick broadly similar to the Indian rope trick. Pu Songling records a version in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio which he claims to have witnessed personally, after placing the parts in a basket, the magician gives the mandarin the peach and requests payment. As soon as he is paid, his son emerges alive from the basket, Songling claims the trick was a favorite of the White Lotus society and that the magician must have learnt it from them, though he gives no indication where he learnt this. There has long been skepticism regarding the trick, in 1911, Charles Bertram reported how he had visited India and communicated with over a hundred magicians in search of the trick
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Madame Giry
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Madame Giry is a fictional character from Gaston Lerouxs 1909 novel The Phantom of the Opera. She is an intermediate character in the novel, although her role is much increased in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. This article will deal with both versions separately, Madame Giry is an aging woman who works as a concierge in the rue de Provence, who looks after patrons of the Opera, principally those who sit in the boxes. One night, whilst working, Madame Giry hears a voice in Box Five. After recovering from her surprise, she learns to trust the voice, in the novel, it is never mentioned that she knows Christine Daaé. One of her little tasks is to collect the salary of 20,000 francs owed to the Opera Ghost. The Ghost instructs the managers of the Opera to hand Madame Giry a sealed envelope containing the money, the Ghost has provided her with a duplicate that contains play money, she knows nothing of the contents of either envelope. Placing the duplicate in Box Five, she slips the real one into the pocket of a managers dress-coat while he is wearing it. The Ghost later retrieves the money from this pocket when the managers are back in the office, the managers, Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin, remove Madame Giry from her post, finding her troublesome. There is an indication that they consider her to be the Ghost, but since the Ghost remains in the Opera Garnier after Madame Giry is removed, as they search for a replacement concierge, they invite one candidate to sit in the audience for a performance. The chandelier falls that night, killing the candidate, following direct intervention by the Opera Ghost, Madame Giry is eventually reinstated into her role as concierge. This note was enough to persuade Madame Giry to help the Ghost, later in life, in Andrew Lloyd Webbers The Phantom of the Opera, Madame Girys role is changed to become a slightly younger woman who now works as a choreographer of the corps de ballet. She is shown holding a cane, which she uses to beat time with the music, but which she is rarely shown to use otherwise. When the Opera Diva, Carlotta Giudicelli, walks out during rehearsals at the start of the show, it is Madame Giry, and her daughter, Meg, later in the show, she receives one of the Phantoms Notes in both reprises of this tune. The first one she gives to M. Firmin, but the second she reads herself and this was taken from Frederick Forsyths sequel, The Phantom of Manhattan. Even in the scene she does not give any indication why she is working for the Phantom. This collusion does not appear in the stage musical, regularly during the musical, Madame Giry tries to stop the Managers from doing any harm to the Phantom and defends him on several occasions. However, when Christine is abducted by the Phantom, Madame Giry gives up all hope of avoiding her past and she shows him the way, but will not accompany him into the catacombs
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The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)
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The film remains most famous for Chaneys ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the films premiere. The film was released on November 25,1925, the picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis, and Snitz Edwards. The last surviving cast member was Carla Laemmle, niece of producer Carl Laemmle, based on the general release version of 1925, which has additional scenes and sequences in different order than the existing reissue print. The film opens with the debut of the new season at the Paris Opera House, comte Philippe de Chagny and his brother, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny are in attendance. Raoul attends only in the hope of hearing his sweetheart Christine Daaé sing, Christine has made a sudden rise from the chorus to understudy of Mme. Raoul visits her in her room during the performance, and makes his intentions known that he wishes for Christine to resign. Christine refuses to let their relationship get in the way of her career, at the height of the most prosperous season in the Operas history, the management suddenly resign. As they leave, they tell the new managers of the Opera Ghost, the new managers laugh it off as a joke, but the old management leaves troubled. After the performance, the ballerinas are disturbed by the sight of a man in a fez. Arguing whether or not he is the Phantom, they decide to ask Joseph Buquet, Buquet describes a ghastly sight of a living skeleton to the girls, who are then startled by a shadow cast on the wall. The antics of stagehand Florine Papillon do not amuse Josephs brother, Simon, Carlotta, the prima donna of the Paris Grand Opera, barges into the managers office enraged. She has received a letter from The Phantom, demanding that Christine sing the role of Marguerite the following night, the following day, in a garden near the Opera House, Raoul meets Christine and asks her to reconsider his offer. Christine admits that she has been tutored by a voice, the Spirit of Music. Raoul tells her that he thinks someone is playing a joke on her, wednesday evening, Carlotta is ill and Christine takes her place in the opera. During the performance, the go to Box 5 to see exactly who has taken it. The keeper of the box does not know who it is, the two managers enter the box and are startled to see a shadowy figure seated there. They run out of the box and compose themselves, but when they enter the box again, in her next performance, Christine reaches her triumph during the finale and receives a standing ovation from the audience. When Raoul visits her in her room, she pretends not to recognize him, because unbeknownst to those in the room
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Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)
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Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal musical horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward, the movie is loosely based on the novel The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux and its 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney. The auditorium set, a replica of the Opéra Garnier interior, other than the sets, this remake had little in common with the earlier film. The cinematographers were Hal Mohr and W. Howard Greene and it is also the only horror film from Universal to win an Oscar. Erique Claudin had been a violinist at the Paris Opera House for twenty years, however he has been losing the use of the fingers of his left hand, which affects his violin-playing. He is dismissed because of this, the conductor of the house assuming that he has enough money to support himself. This is not the case however, for Claudin has spent it all by anonymously funding the music lessons of Christine Dubois, in a desperate attempt to gain money, Claudin tries to get a concerto he has written published. After submitting it and not hearing a response, he becomes worried and returns to the publishers, Pleyel & Desjardins, No one there knows what happened to it, and do not seem to care. Claudin persists, but Maurice Pleyel rudely tells him to leave, finally giving up, Claudin stands there for a moment and hangs his head sadly. Someone begins to play music in the room, and he looks up in shock when he hears it. It is his concerto that is merely being endorsed and praised by Franz Liszt, convinced that Pleyel is trying to steal his concerto, Claudin leaps up and begins to strangle him. Just as he tosses the body of Pleyel to the floor, Georgette, screaming and wailing, he dashes out the door clutching his face. Now being hunted down by the police for murder, he flees to the sewers of the Opera, Claudin steals a prop mask from the costume department to cover his now-disfigured face. Meanwhile, Inspector Raoul Dubert wants Christine to quit the Opera, but famed opera baritone Anatole Garron hopes to win Christines heart. Christine considers them both good friends but doesnt openly express if she loves them, Christine is the understudy for the Opera’s female diva Mme. Biancarolli, who will do anything to stay in the limelight, but during a performance of the opera Amore et Gloire, Claudin drugs a glass of wine which Biancarolli drinks and makes her collapse and unable to perform. The director puts Christine in her place and she dazzles both the audience and everyone else with her singing. Biancarolli, who suspects that Garron and Christine are responsible for drugging her, orders Raoul to arrest them, so Biancarolli sets a condition that she will forget the whole affair only if Christines performance is not mentioned in the papers
