1.
Thomson Reuters
–
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a multinational mass media and information firm with operational headquarters at 3 Times Square in Manhattan, New York City. The firm was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where its legal domicile offices are located at 333 Bay Street in Downtown Toronto, Thomson Reuters shares maintain a dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Thomson Reuters was ranked as Canadas leading corporate brand in the 2010 Interbrand Best Canadian Brands ranking, Thomson Reuters operates in more than 100 countries, and has more than 60,000 employees around the world. The chief executive of the company is James C. Smith, who was the executive for the professional division, and the chairman is David Thomson. The company was founded by Roy Thomson in 1934 in Ontario as the publisher of The Timmins Daily Press, in 1953, Thomson acquired the Scotsman newspaper and moved to Scotland the following year. He consolidated his position in Scotland in 1957 when he won the franchise for Scottish Television. In 1959, he bought the Kemsley Group, a purchase that eventually gave him control of the Sunday Times and he separately acquired the Times in 1967. He moved into the business in 1965, when he acquired Britannia Airways and into oil. The company at time was known as the International Thomson Organisation Ltd. In 1989, ITOL merged with Thomson Newspapers, forming The Thomson Corporation, in 1996, The Thomson Corporation acquired West Publishing, a purveyor of legal research and solutions including Westlaw. The Company was founded by Paul Julius Reuter in 1851 in London as a business transmitting stock market quotations, in 1865, Reuters in London was the first organization to report the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The company was involved in developing the use of radio in 1923 and it was acquired by the British National & Provincial Press in 1941 and first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984. The Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters Group PLC to form Thomson Reuters on April 17,2008, Thomson Reuters operated under a dual-listed company structure and had two parent companies, both of which were publicly listed — Thomson Reuters Corporation and Thomson Reuters PLC. In 2009, it unified its dual listed company structure and stopped its listing on the London Stock Exchange and it is now listed only as Thomson Reuters Corporation on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. On February 13,2013, Thomson Reuters announced it would cut 2,500 jobs to cut cost in its Legal, Financial and Risk division. On October 29,2013, Thomson Reuters announced it would cut another 3,000 jobs, mostly in its Legal, Financial, the Thomson-Reuters merger transaction was reviewed by the U. S. Department of Justice and by the European Commission. On February 19,2008, both the Department of Justice and the Commission cleared the transaction subject to minor divestments and these remedies were viewed as very minor given the scope of the transaction
Thomson Reuters
–
3 Times Square, as seen from
43rd Street and
Broadway in New York City.
Thomson Reuters
–
Thomson Reuters Building in
Canary Wharf,
London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Thomson Reuters
–
Thomson Reuters Building as seen from 8th Avenue.
2.
Reuters Group
–
Reuters Group plc was a British multinational media and financial information company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was acquired by The Thomson Corporation in 2008, forming Thomson Reuters, Reuters Group was best known for the Reuters news agency, which was the original business of the company. By the time of its acquisition by Thomson the bulk of Reuters Groups revenues came from the provision of financial market data, paul Julius Reuter noticed that, with the electric telegraph, news no longer required days or weeks to travel long distances. In the 1850s, the 34-year-old Reuter was based in Aachen – then in the Kingdom of Prussia, now in Germany – close to the borders with the Netherlands and he began using the newly opened Berlin–Aachen telegraph line to send news to Berlin. However, the telegraph did not extend the 76 miles to Brussels, Belgiums capital city, Reuter saw an opportunity to speed up news service between Brussels and Berlin by using homing pigeons to bridge that gap. In 1851, Reuter moved to London, after failures in 1847 and 1850, attempts by the Submarine Telegraph Company to lay an undersea telegraph cable across the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, promised success. In 1865, Reuters private firm was restructured, and it became a company called the Reuters Telegram Company. Reuter had been naturalised as a British subject in 1857, Reuters agency built a reputation in Europe for being the first to report news scoops from abroad, such as Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Almost every major news outlet in the world now subscribes to Reuters services, the last surviving member of the Reuters family founders, Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, died at age 96 on 25 January 2009, after having suffered a series of strokes. Reuters was financed as a company in 1984 on the London Stock Exchange. However, there were concerns that the tradition for objective reporting might be jeopardised if control of the company later fell into the hands of a single shareholder. To counter that possibility, the constitution of the company at the time of the offering included a rule that no individual was allowed to own more than 15% of the company. If this limit is exceeded, the directors can order the shareholder to reduce the holding to less than 15%. That rule was applied in the late 1980s when Rupert Murdochs News Corporation, murdoch was subsequently compelled to reduce his holdings to less than 15%. Further protecting Reuters from owner actions that threaten its independence is Reuters Founders Share Company Limited, formed in 1984 as part of the share float. This companys stated mission is to protect the integrity of the news output. It holds one Founders Share, which can veto all other shares if an attempt is made to any of the rules relating to the Reuters Trust Principles. These principles set out the aims of independence, integrity
Reuters Group
–
Reuters Group plc
Reuters Group
–
Paul Reuter aged 53 years (1869), by
Rudolf Lehmann.
Reuters Group
–
Reuters Docklands Technical Centre, in the
London Docklands area
Reuters Group
–
The Reuters Building in Canary Wharf,
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
3.
News agency
–
A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a service, newswire. Jonathan Fenby explains the philosophy, o achieve such wide acceptability, demonstrably correct information is their stock in trade. Traditionally, they report at a level of responsibility, attributing their information to a spokesman. They avoid making judgments and steer clear of doubt and ambiguity, though their founders did not use the word, objectivity is the philosophical basis for their enterprises – or failing that, widely acceptable neutrality. Only a few large newspapers could afford bureaus outside their home city and they relied instead on news agencies, especially Havas in France and the Associated Press in the United States. Former Havas employees founded Reuters in Britain and Wolff in Germany, for international news, the agencies pooled their resources, so that Havas, for example, covered the French Empire, South America and the Balkans and shared the news with the other national agencies. In France the typical contract with Havas provided a provincial newspaper with 1800 lines of telegraphed text daily, other agencies provided features and fiction for their subscribers. In the 1830s, France had several specialized agencies, Agence Havas was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas, to supply news about France to foreign customers. In the 1840s, Havas gradually incorporated other French agencies into his agency, Agence Havas evolved into Agence France-Presse. Two of his employees, Bernhard Wolff and Paul Julius Reuter, later set up rival news agencies, Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau in 1849 in Berlin and Reuters in 1851 in London. Guglielmo Stefani founded the Agenzia Stefani, which became the most important press agency in Italy from the century to World War II. The development of the telegraph in the 1850s led to the creation of national agencies in England, Germany, Austria. In the United States, the judgment in Inter Ocean Publishing v. Associated Press facilitated competition by requiring agencies to accept all newspapers wishing to join. Driven by the huge U. S. domestic market, boosted by the success of radio. They were concerned about the success of U. S. agencies from other European countries which sought to create national agencies after the First World War. Reuters had been weakened by war censorship, which promoted the creation of newspapers in the Commonwealth and national agencies in Asia. After the Second World War, the movement for the creation of national agencies accelerated, when accessing the independence of former colonies, in 1924, Benito Mussolini placed Agenzia Stefani under the direction of Manlio Morgagni, who expanded the agencys reach significantly both within Italy and abroad
News agency
–
Journalism
News agency
–
Reuters, Bonn 1988
4.
Canary Wharf
–
Canary Wharf is a major business district located in Tower Hamlets, East London. Canary Wharf contains around 16,000,000 square feet of office and retail space, Morgan, KPMG, MetLife, Moodys, Morgan Stanley, RBC, S&P Global, Skadden, State Street, and Thomson Reuters. Canary Wharf is located on the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs, from 1802 to 1939, the area was one of the busiest docks in the world. After the 1960s, the industry began to decline, leading to all the docks being closed by 1980. Canary Wharf itself takes its name from No.32 berth of the West Wood Quay of the Import Dock and this was built in 1936 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade. The Canary islands were so named after the dogs found there by the Spanish and as it is located on the Isle of Dogs. The Canary Wharf of today began when Michael von Clemm, former chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, further discussions with G Ware Travelstead led to proposals for a new business district. The first buildings were completed in 1991, including One Canada Square, which became the UKs tallest building at the time, by the time it opened, the London commercial property market had collapsed, and Olympia and York Canary Wharf Limited filed for bankruptcy in May 1992. Initially, the City of London saw Canary Wharf as an existential threat and it modified its planning laws to expand the provision of new offices in the City of London, for example, creating offices above railway stations and roads. The resulting oversupply of office space contributed to the failure of the No 1 Canada Square project, in 1997, some residents living on the Isle of Dogs launched a lawsuit against Canary Wharf Ltd for private nuisance because the tower interfered with television signals. In December 1995 an international consortium, backed by the owners of Olympia & York and other investors. The new company was called Canary Wharf Limited, and later became Canary Wharf Group, recovery in the property market generally, coupled with continuing demand for large floorplate Grade A office space, slowly improved the level of interest. A critical event in the recovery was the start of work on the Jubilee Line Extension. At the peak of property prices in 2007, the HSBC building sold for a record £1.1 billion, in March 2014 planning permission was granted for the second residential building on the Canary Wharf estate, a 58-storey tower including 566 apartments plus shops and a health club. In July 2014 Canary Wharf Group was granted planning permission for a major expansion of the Canary Wharf estate. The plans include the construction of 30 buildings comprising a total of 4.9 million square feet, construction is planned to commence in autumn 2014 with the first buildings to be occupied at the end of 2018. In 2014, Singapore listed Oxley Holdings, together with developer Ballymore UK, have a joint venture to set up a new waterfront township of Royal Wharf with 3385 new homes housing over 10,000 people. This table lists completed buildings in Canary Wharf that are over 60 metres tall, the Canary Wharf developers played a pro-active role in improving transport links, which they recognised as essential to the success of the project
Canary Wharf
–
Skyline of Canary Wharf, viewed from the west
Canary Wharf
–
Canary Wharf, view east from
Cabot Square.
Canary Wharf
–
Canary Wharf aerial view (2009), from the southeast end of the
Isle of Dogs.
Canary Wharf
–
London City Airport runway with Canary Wharf in the background.
5.
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
6.
England
–
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
England
–
Stonehenge, a
Neolithic monument
England
–
Flag
England
–
Boudica led an uprising against the
Roman Empire
England
–
Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial
helmet from the
Kingdom of East Anglia, found at
Sutton Hoo
7.
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
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
8.
Thomson Corporation
–
This article is about Thomson prior to its merger with Reuters Group. For the current company, see Thomson Reuters, for other companies called Thomson, see Thomson. The Thomson Corporation was one of the worlds largest information companies and it was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reuters, the Thomson Corporation was active in financial services, healthcare sectors, law, science and technology research and tax and accounting sectors. The company operated through five segments, Thomson Financial, Thomson Healthcare, Thomson Legal, Thomson Scientific, until 2007, Thomson was also a major worldwide provider of higher education textbooks, academic information solutions and reference materials. On 26 October 2006, Thomson announced the sale of its Thomson Learning assets. In May 2007, Thomson Learning was acquired by Apax Partners, the Thomson Learning brand was used to the end of August 2007. Subsequently, on 15 October 2007, Educational Testing Service finalized acquisition of Thomsons Prometric, Thomson sold its global network of testing centres in 135 countries, for a reported $435 million. Prometric now operates as an owned subsidiary of ETS. On 15 May 2007, the Thomson Corporation reached an agreement with Reuters to combine the two companies, a deal valued at $17.2 billion, on 17 April 2008 the new company was created under the name of Thomson Reuters. The chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters is Jim Smith, although it was officially a Canadian company and remained Canadian owned, Thomson was run from its operational headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States. Thomson had grown from a single Canadian newspaper, the Timmins Daily Press, acquired in 1934 by Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet and it once owned several prominent newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Times and The Scotsman, and it owned Scottish Television. In the 1960s, Thomsons publishing realm expanded further to include Thomson Publication, a magazine and book publishing house. In 1965, Thomson Newspapers, Ltd. was formed as a publicly traded company in Canada, Roy Thomsons prolific endeavors in publishing had earned him a hereditary title, Lord Thomson of Fleet. Thomson used its oil profits to buy small newspapers in the United States, starting with the acquisition of Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1967 for $72 million, by the end of the 1970s, Thomson Newspapers circulation in the United States had surpassed the 1 million mark. The merger of Thomson Newspapers and the International Thomson Organization in 1989 created the Thomson Corporation, over the years, the company has withdrawn from its holdings in the oil and gas business, the travel industry and department stores. When Kenneth Thomson took over from his father Roy in 1976, at Kenneths death in June 2006, the company was valued at about $29.3 billion. In 1978, the acquisition of Wadsworth Publishing provided Thomson with its first entry into specialised information, college textbooks, starting in the mid-1990s, Thomson invested further in specialised information services and began selling off its newspapers
Thomson Corporation
–
Thomson Corporation headquarters
9.
English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩
English language
–
The opening to the Old English epic poem
Beowulf,
handwritten in
half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
English language
–
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
–
Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales c.1400
10.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
11.
Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
Arabic language
–
The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
–
al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (
Naskh script)
Arabic language
–
Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic language
–
Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
12.
Spanish language
–
Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
Spanish language
–
A page of
Cantar de Mio Cid, the oldest preserved Spanish
epic poem, in medieval Spanish.
Spanish language
–
Spanish is sole official language at the national level
Spanish language
–
Antonio de Nebrija, author of
Gramática de la lengua castellana, the first grammar of modern European languages.
Spanish language
–
Miguel de Cervantes author of
Don Quixote, considered the first modern European novel.
13.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
German language
–
Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
–
The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
–
Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
–
German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
14.
Italian language
–
By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
Italian language
–
Dante Alighieri (above) and
Petrarch (below) were influential in establishing their
Tuscan dialect as the most prominent literary language in all of
Italy in the
Late Middle Ages
Italian language
–
The geographic distribution of the Italian language in the world: large Italian-speaking communities are shown in green; light blue indicates areas where the Italian language was used officially during the Italian colonial period.
Italian language
Italian language
–
Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language from the Tuscan dialect, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage
15.
Portuguese language
–
Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
Portuguese language
–
Multilingual sign in Japanese, Portuguese, and English in
Oizumi,
Japan. Return immigration of
Japanese Brazilians has led to a large Portuguese-speaking community in the town.
Portuguese language
–
Percentage of worldwide Portuguese speakers per country.
Portuguese language
–
Library of the
Mafra National Palace, Portugal
Portuguese language
–
Baroque Library of the
Coimbra University, Portugal
16.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
17.
Japanese language
–
Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic language family, whose relation to language groups, particularly to Korean. Little is known of the prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words, during the Heian period, Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese. Late Middle Japanese saw changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language, the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region in the Early Modern Japanese period. Following the end in 1853 of Japans self-imposed isolation, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, English loanwords in particular have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions. Nouns have no number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person, Japanese equivalents of adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a system of honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener. Japanese has no relationship with Chinese, but it makes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji, in its writing system. Along with kanji, the Japanese writing system uses two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana. Latin script is used in a fashion, such as for imported acronyms. Very little is known about the Japanese of this period, Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. Through the spread of Buddhism, the Chinese writing system was imported to Japan, the earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, but they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, in these hybrid texts, Chinese characters are also occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. The earliest text, the Kojiki, dates to the early 8th century, the end of Old Japanese coincides with the end of the Nara period in 794
Japanese language
–
A page from
Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), the second oldest book of classical
Japanese history.
Japanese language
–
Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages
Japanese language
–
Two pages from a 12th-century
emaki scroll of
The Tale of Genji from the 11th century.
Japanese language
–
Calligraphy
18.
Korean language
–
It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County of the Peoples Republic of China. Approximately 80 million people worldwide speak Korean and this implies that Korean is not an isolate, but a member of a small family. There is still debate on whether Korean and Japanese are related with each other, the Korean language is agglutinative in its morphology and SOV in its syntax. A relation of Korean with Japonic languages has been proposed by linguists like William George Aston, Chinese characters arrived in Korea together with Buddhism during the pre-Three Kingdoms period. Mainly privileged elites were educated to read and write in hanja, however, today, the hanja are largely unused in everyday life, but in South Korea they experience revivals on artistic works and are important in historic and/or linguistic studies of Korean. Since the Korean War, through 70 years of separation, North–South differences have developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation, verb inflection, the Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in North Korea and South Korea. In South Korea, the Korean language is referred to by names including hanguk-eo Korean language, hanguk-mal, Korean speech and uri-mal. In hanguk-eo and hanguk-mal, the first part of the word, hanguk, refers to the Korean nation while -eo and -mal mean language and speech, Korean is also simply referred to as guk-eo, literally national language. This name is based on the same Chinese characters meaning nation + language that are used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages. In North Korea and China, the language is most often called Chosŏn-mal, or more formally, the English word Korean is derived from Goryeo, which is thought to be the first dynasty known to Western countries. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram and Goryeo In, the majority of historical and modern linguists classify Korean as a language isolate. Such factors of typological divergence as Middle Mongolians exhibition of gender agreement can be used to argue that a relationship with Altaic is unlikely. Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese–Korean 100-word Swadesh list, a good example might be Middle Korean sàm and Japanese asa, meaning hemp. Also, the doublet wo meaning hemp is attested in Western Old Japanese and it is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term. Among ancient languages, various relatives of Korean have been proposed. Some classify the language of Jeju Island as a distinct modern Koreanic language, Other famous theories are the Dravido-Korean languages theory and the mostly unknown southern-theory which suggest an Austronesian relation. Korean is spoken by the Korean people in North Korea and South Korea and by the Korean diaspora in countries including the Peoples Republic of China, the United States, Japan. Korean-speaking minorities exist in these states, but because of cultural assimilation into host countries, Korean is the official language of South Korea and North Korea
Korean language
–
Two names for Korean, Hangugeo and Chosŏnmal,
written vertically in
Hangul
Korean language
–
Street signs in Korean; Daegu, Korea.
Korean language
–
Korean writing systems
19.
Urdu language
–
Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
Urdu language
–
Autograph and a couplet of Last
Mughal Emperor,
Bahadur Shah II, dated 29 April 1844
Urdu language
–
Urdu in
Perso-Arabic script (
Nastaliq style)
Urdu language
–
A trilingual
signboard in the
UAE
Urdu language
–
A multilingual
New Delhi railway station board
20.
Chinese language
–
Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
Chinese language
–
The
Tripitaka Koreana, a Korean collection of the
Chinese Buddhist canon
Chinese language
–
Hànyǔ (Chinese) written in
traditional (left) and
simplified (right) characters
Chinese language
–
"
Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion " by
Wang Xizhi, written in
semi-cursive style
21.
Paul Reuter
–
Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter was a German-born entrepreneur who was a pioneer of telegraphy and news reporting. He was a reporter and media owner, and the founder of Reuters News Agency, born as Israel Beer Josaphat in Kassel, Germany, his father, Samuel Levi Josaphat, was a rabbi. In Göttingen, Reuter met Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was experimenting with the transmission of electrical signals via wire, on 29 October 1845, he moved to London, calling himself Julius Josaphat. On 16 November 1845, he converted to Christianity in a ceremony at St. Georges German Lutheran Chapel in London, one week later, in the same chapel, he married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus of Berlin, daughter of a German banker. A former bank clerk, in 1847 he became a partner in Reuter and Stargardt, the distribution of radical pamphlets by the firm at the beginning of the 1848 Revolution may have focused official scrutiny on Reuter. Later that year, he left for Paris and worked in Charles-Louis Havas news agency, as telegraphy evolved, Reuter founded his own news agency in Aachen, transferring messages between Brussels and Aachen using carrier pigeons and thus linking Berlin and Paris. Speedier than the post train, pigeons gave Reuter faster access to news from the Paris stock exchange. Eventually, pigeons were replaced by a telegraph link. A telegraph line was under construction between Britain and Europe, and so Reuter moved to London, renting an office near the Stock Exchange, in 1863, he privately erected a telegraph link to Crookhaven, the farthest south-west point of Ireland. On nearing Crookhaven, ships from America threw canisters containing news into the sea and these were retrieved by Reuters and telegraphed directly to London, arriving long before the ships reached Cork. George Nathaniel Curzon called it The most complete and extraordinary surrender of the industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands that has ever been dreamed of. The Reuter concession was immediately denounced by all ranks of businessmen, clergy, and nationalists of Persia, on 17 March 1857, Reuter was naturalised as a British subject. On 7 September 1871, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha granted him the title of Freiherr. In November 1891, Queen Victoria granted him the right to use that German title in Britain, in 1845, Reuter married Ida Maria Magnus, daughter of Friedrich Martin Magnus, a German banker in Berlin. They had three sons, Herbert, who became the 2nd Baron, George and Alfred, Clementine Maria, one of his daughters, married Count Otto Stenbock, and after Stenbocks death, Sir Herbert Chermside, a governor of Queensland. The 2nd Barons brother George had two sons, Oliver and Ronald, the last member of the family, Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, widow of the 4th Baron and Paul Julius Reuters granddaughter-in-law, died on 25 January 2009, at the age of 96. Reuter died in 1899 at Villa Reuter in Nice, France and he was buried in West Norwood Cemetery in south London. Reuter was portrayed by Edward G. Robinson in the Warner Bros. biopic A Dispatch from Reuters, the Reuters News Agency commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of its founder by launching a university award in Germany
Paul Reuter
–
Paul Reuter aged 53 years (1869) by
Rudolf Lehmann.
Paul Reuter
–
Statue of Paul Reuter in the
City of London
22.
Royal Exchange, London
–
The Royal Exchange in London was founded in the 16th century by the merchant Thomas Gresham on the suggestion of his factor Richard Clough to act as a centre of commerce for the City of London. The site was provided by the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers and it is trapezoidal in shape and is flanked by Cornhill and Threadneedle Street, which converge at Bank junction in the heart of the City. The design was inspired by a bourse Gresham had seen in Antwerp and was Britains first specialist commercial building and it has twice been destroyed by fire and subsequently rebuilt. The present building was designed by William Tite in the 1840s, the site was notably occupied by the Lloyds insurance market for nearly 150 years. Today the Royal Exchange contains offices, luxury shops, and restaurants, traditionally, the steps of the Royal Exchange is the place where Royal Proclamations are read out by either a herald or a crier. The Royal Exchange was officially opened on 23 January 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I who awarded the building its royal title, only the exchange of goods took place until the 17th century. Stockbrokers were not allowed into the Royal Exchange because of their manners, hence they had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity. Greshams original building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, a second complex was built on the site, designed by Edward Jarman and opened in 1669, but that also burned down, on 10 January 1838. It had been used by the Lloyds insurance market, which was forced to move temporarily to South Sea House following the 1838 fire, the internal works, designed by Edward IAnson in 1837, made use of concrete—an early example of this modern construction method. It features pediment sculptures by Richard Westmacott, and ornamental cast ironwork by Henry Grissells Regents Canal Ironworks and it was opened by Queen Victoria on 28 October 1844 though trading did not commence until 1 January 1845. In June 1844, just before the reopening of the Royal Exchange, the bronze used to cast it was sourced from enemy cannons captured during Wellingtons continental campaigns. Paul Julius Reuter established the Reuters news agency at No,1, Royal Exchange Buildings in 1851. It later moved to Fleet Street, the western end of the building consists of a portico of eight Corinthian columns topped by a pediment containing a tympanum with a sculptured frieze by Richard Westmacott. The central figure represents Commerce, above an inscription from the Bible, The Earth is the Lords, the Latin inscription states that the Exchange was founded in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth, and restored in the seventh of Queen Victoria. Two statues stand in niches in the central courtyard, Charles II a copy of 1792 by John Spiller after Grinling Gibbons statue in the centre of the C17 courtyard, and Queen Elizabeth I by M. L. The Charles II statue survived the fire of 1838 that destroyed the previous Exchange, the Elizabeth I statue was commissioned as she was the monarch who had conferred the status ‘Royal’ on the Exchange. From 1892, twenty-four scenes from Londons history were painted on the walls by artists including Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir Frank Brangwyn. The murals run as a sequence, at the wars end, the building had survived the Blitz, albeit with some near misses
Royal Exchange, London
–
The Royal Exchange in 2014
Royal Exchange, London
–
The Royal Exchange in 1955
Royal Exchange, London
–
A statue of the
Duke of Wellington inaugurated in 1844 outside the Royal Exchange.
Royal Exchange, London
–
Aerial view of the Royal Exchange
23.
Berlin
–
Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
24.
Revolutions of 1848
–
It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history. The revolutions were essentially democratic in nature, with the aim of removing the old feudal structures, the revolutionary wave began in France in February, and immediately spread to most of Europe. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation between their respective revolutionaries, the uprisings were led by shaky ad hoc coalitions of reformers, the middle classes and workers, which did not hold together for long. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and many forced into exile. Significant lasting reforms included the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary, the end of monarchy in Denmark. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands, the states that would make up the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century, Italy, and the Austrian Empire. The revolutions arose from such a variety of causes that it is difficult to view them as resulting from a coherent movement or set of social phenomena. Numerous changes had been taking place in European society throughout the first half of the 19th century, both liberal reformers and radical politicians were reshaping national governments. Technological change was revolutionizing the life of the working classes, a popular press extended political awareness, and new values and ideas such as popular liberalism, nationalism and socialism began to emerge. Some historians emphasize the serious crop failures, particularly those of 1846, that produced hardship among peasants, large swaths of the nobility were discontented with royal absolutism or near-absolutism. In 1846, there had been an uprising of Polish nobility in Austrian Galicia, additionally, an uprising by democratic forces against Prussia, planned but not actually carried out, occurred in Greater Poland. Next, the middle classes began to agitate, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, working in Brussels, had written Manifesto of the Communist Party at the request of the Communist League. Following the March insurrection in Berlin, they began agitating in Germany, the middle and working classes thus shared a desire for reform, and agreed on many of the specific aims. Their participations in the revolutions, however, differed, while much of the impetus came from the middle classes, much of the cannon fodder came from the lower. The revolts first erupted in the cities, the population in French rural areas had risen rapidly, causing many peasants to seek a living in the cities. Many in the feared and distanced themselves from the working poor. Many unskilled laborers toiled from 12 to 15 hours per day when they had work, living in squalid, traditional artisans felt the pressure of industrialization, having lost their guilds. Revolutionaries such as Karl Marx built up a following, the situation in the German states was similar
Revolutions of 1848
–
Barricade on the rue Soufflot, an 1848 painting by
Horace Vernet. The
Panthéon is shown in the background.
Revolutions of 1848
–
An 1848 painting titled
Germania, by
Philipp Veit.
Revolutions of 1848
–
Episode from the
Five Days of Milan. Painting by
Baldassare Verazzi.
Revolutions of 1848
–
Cheering revolutionaries after fighting in March 1848
25.
Aachen
–
Aachen or Bad Aachen, traditionally known in English and French as Aix-la-Chapelle, is a spa and border city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was the residence of Charlemagne, and, from 936 to 1531. Aachen is the westernmost city in Germany, located near the borders with Belgium, RWTH Aachen University is located in the city. Aachens industries include science, engineering and information technology, in 2009, Aachen was ranked eighth among cities in Germany for innovation. The location has been inhabited by humans since the Neolithic era, about 5,000 years ago, latin Aquae figures in Aachens Roman name Aquae granni, which meant waters of Grannus, referring to the Celtic god of healing who was worshipped at the springs. Aachens name in French and German evolved in parallel, Aachens local dialect is called Öcher Platt and belongs to the Ripuarian language. Bronze Age settlement is evidenced by the remains of barrows found, for example, during the Iron Age, the area was settled by Celtic peoples who were perhaps drawn by the marshy Aachen basins hot sulphur springs where they worshipped Grannus, god of light and healing. Later, the 25-hectare Roman spa resort town of Aquae Granni was, according to legend, founded by Grenus, under Hadrian, a kind of forum, surrounded by colonnades, connected the two spa complexes. There was also a residential area, part of it inhabited by a flourishing Jewish community. The Romans built bathhouses near Burtscheid, a temple precinct called Vernenum was built near the modern Kornelimünster/Walheim. Today, remains have been found of three bathhouses, including two fountains in the Elisenbrunnen and the Burtscheid bathhouse, Roman civil administration in Aachen broke down between the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th centuries. Rome withdrew its troops from the area, but the town remained populated, by 470, the town came to be ruled by the Ripuarian Franks and subordinated to their capital, Cologne. Einhard mentions that in 765–6 Pepin spent both Christmas and Easter at Aquis villa, which must have been equipped to support the royal household for several months. In the year of his coronation as king of the Franks,768, Charlemagne spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and his death in 814. Aachen became the focus of his court and the centre of his empire. In 936, Otto I was crowned king of East Francia in the church built by Charlemagne. During the reign of Otto II, the nobles revolted and the West Franks, under Lothair, Aachen was attacked again by Odo of Champagne, who attacked the imperial palace while Conrad II was absent. Odo relinquished it quickly and was killed soon afterwards, the palace and town of Aachen had fortifying walls built by order of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa between 1172 and 1176
Aachen
–
Panoramic view of Aachen, including Kaiser Karls Gymnasium (foreground), townhall (back center) and
cathedral (back right)
Aachen
Aachen
–
Aachen's Neues Kurhaus
Aachen
–
Construction of Aix-la-Chapelle, by
Jean Fouquet
26.
Homing pigeon
–
The homing pigeon is a variety of domestic pigeon derived from the rock pigeon, selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances. The wild rock pigeon has a homing ability, meaning that it will generally return to its nest. This made it easy to breed from the birds that repeatedly found their way home over long distances. Flights as long as 1,800 km have been recorded by birds in competitive pigeon racing and their average flying speed over moderate 400 mile distances is around 80 km/h but speeds of up to 140 km/h have been observed in top racers for short distances. Because of this skill, homing pigeons were used to carry messages as messenger pigeons and they are usually referred to as pigeon post or war pigeon during wars. Homing pigeons are often categorized as carrier pigeons, a breed of fancy pigeons selectively-bred for its distinctively rounded hard wattle. Males usually stand taller, and have larger beaks, crops, wattles, females, on the other hand, tend to be shorter with smaller beaks, wattles, and ceres, as well as flatter heads and fuller breasts. Male and female pigeons show different behaviours, the coo of males is louder and more insistent, especially when courting. Display behaviour also differs between the sexes, if she accepts, she will allow him onto her back in order to copulate. After mating, the male will build a nest out of gathered sticks in a suitable crevice, urban birds will gladly use a roof on a building. The female will lay two eggs which will hatch in 17 to 20 days. Both parents aid in rearing the nestlings, fledglings usually leave the nest three to four weeks after hatching. The sport of flying homing pigeons was well-established as early as 3000 years ago and they were used to proclaim the winner of the Olympics. Messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150 in Baghdad and also later by Genghis Khan, by 1167 a regular service between Baghdad and Syria had been established by Sultan Nour-Eddin. In Damietta, by the mouth of the Nile, the Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur saw carrier pigeons for the first time, in 1436, though he imagined that the birds made round trips, out and back. The Republic of Genoa equipped their system of towers in the Mediterranean Sea with pigeon posts. They returned to the Jamia Masjid mosque in Srirangapatna, which was his headquarters, the pigeon holes may be seen in the mosques minarets to this day. In 1818, a pigeon race called the Cannonball Run took place at Brussels
Homing pigeon
–
Carrier pigeon
Homing pigeon
–
1 day old squabs
Homing pigeon
–
Stamp for early Pigeon-Gram service
Homing pigeon
–
A B-type bus from London converted into a pigeon loft for use in northern France and Belgium during the First World War
27.
Brussels
–
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
Brussels
–
A
collage with several views of Brussels, Top: View of the
Northern Quarter business district, 2nd left: Floral carpet event in the
Grand Place, 2nd right:
Brussels City Hall and
Mont des Arts area, 3rd:
Cinquantenaire Park, 4th left:
Manneken Pis, 4th middle:
St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, 4th right:
Congress Column, Bottom:
Royal Palace of Brussels
Brussels
–
Charles of Lorraine founded what would become Brussels c. 979
Brussels
–
Grand Place after
the 1695 bombardment by the French army
Brussels
–
Episode of the
Belgian Revolution of 1830,
Wappers (1834)
28.
Abraham Lincoln
–
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
Abraham Lincoln
–
Lincoln in 1863, aged 54
Abraham Lincoln
–
The young Lincoln in sculpture at Senn Park, Chicago.
Abraham Lincoln
–
1864 photo of President Lincoln with youngest son,
Tad
Abraham Lincoln
–
Lincoln depicted protecting a Native American from his own men in a scene often related about Lincoln's service during the
Black Hawk War.
29.
The Press Association
–
The Press Association is a multimedia news agency operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. PA is part of PA Group Limited, a company with 26 shareholders. The biggest shareholders include the Daily Mail & General Holdings Group, News UK, PA, the news agency, delivers a continuous feed of content via a national newswire, including text, images, video and data into newsrooms around the country. This ranges from international sports data and entertainment guides, to TV listings, the Groups photography arm, PA Images, has a portfolio comprising more than 20 million photographs online and around 10 million in physical archives dating back 150 years. PA has continually evolved to provide businesses, brands and public sector organisations with multimedia content, pA’s products and services span across sports data APIs, hosted live blogs, social media content, media training, page production services and TV listings. PA’s customers are varied, consisting of non-media customers, business brands, commercial companies, Government, founded in 1868 by a group of provincial newspaper proprietors, the PA provides a London-based service of news-collecting and reporting from around the United Kingdom. The news agencys founders sought to produce an accurate and reliable alternative to the monopoly service of the telegraph companies. In January 1870 the agency moved from temporary offices into new headquarters at Wine Office Court, at 5am on Saturday 5 February 1870, its first press telegram was transmitted. The first PA lobby correspondent in 1874 and the first sports editor in 1883, the agencys first Editor-in-Chief was Arthur Cranfield, appointed in 1926. In 1995, PA moved from Fleet Street to Vauxhall Bridge Road, enabling the company to expand its output particularly in the sports. The Press Association launched the Ananova news website in 2000, in 2005, the company changed its name to PA Group to reflect its diverse and increasingly digital business activities. In February 2015, PA announced the sale of its finance publications divisions, a full history of the Press Association was written by Chris Moncrieff, CBE, the former Political Editor of the Press Association in 2001 called Living on a Deadline. PA’s service supplies news, sport, entertainment and images stories, delivered in multi-format for various print, the editor-in-chief of the news agency is Pete Clifton, who was appointed in October 2014. PA provides a stream of content on wires, delivers packages for use online, or designs and this media content now includes video and interactive graphics. News reporters file stories every day, from breaking news to show business, in sport, PA reports on the major events around the world including tennis, golf, rugby, horse racing and key football tournaments. PAs entertainment journalists gather celebrity coverage, star interviews and independent reviews, award winning images from PA Images provide photographic content for the news, sport and entertainment genres from around the world. Images are multi-format and available for platforms, e. g. tablet. In March 2015, PA launched a training scheme for Black
The Press Association
–
The new Press Association corporate logo
30.
Great Britain
–
Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
Great Britain
–
Satellite image of Great Britain in April 2002
Great Britain
–
Prima Europe tabula. A copy of
Ptolemy 's 2nd century map of Roman Britain
Great Britain
–
The
robin is popularly known as "Britain's favourite bird".
Great Britain
–
Heather growing wild in the
Highlands at
Dornoch.
31.
The Guardian
–
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper, known from 1821 until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust became a limited company in 2008, with a constitution to maintain the same protections for The Guardian. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than to the benefit of an owner or shareholders, the Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner, who succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. In 2016, The Guardians print edition had a daily circulation of roughly 162,000 copies in the country, behind The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper has an online UK edition as well as two international websites, Guardian Australia and Guardian US, the newspapers online edition was the fifth most widely read in the world in October 2014, with over 42.6 million readers. Its combined print and online editions reach nearly 9 million British readers, notable scoops include the 2011 News International phone hacking scandal, in particular the hacking of murdered English teenager Milly Dowlers phone. The investigation led to the closure of the UKs biggest selling Sunday newspaper, and one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world, in 2016, it led the investigation into the Panama Papers, exposing the then British Prime Minister David Camerons links to offshore bank accounts. The Guardian has been named Newspaper of the Year four times at the annual British Press Awards, the paper is still occasionally referred to by its nickname of The Grauniad, given originally for the purported frequency of its typographical errors. The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor with backing from the Little Circle and they launched their paper after the police closure of the more radical Manchester Observer, a paper that had championed the cause of the Peterloo Massacre protesters. They do not toil, neither do they spin, but they better than those that do. When the government closed down the Manchester Observer, the champions had the upper hand. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper, the prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty. Warmly advocate the cause of Reform, endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and. Support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, in 1825 the paper merged with the British Volunteer and was known as The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer until 1828. The working-class Manchester and Salford Advertiser called the Manchester Guardian the foul prostitute, the Manchester Guardian was generally hostile to labours claims. The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outside agitators –, if an accommodation can be effected, the occupation of the agents of the Union is gone. CP Scott made the newspaper nationally recognised and he was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylors son in 1907. Under Scott, the moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting William Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886
The Guardian
–
The Guardian front page on 6 June 2014
The Guardian
–
The Guardian senior news writer Esther Addley interviewing Ecuadorian Foreign Minister
Ricardo Patiño for this article relating to
Julian Assange (August 2014)
The Guardian
–
The Guardian's HQ in
London
The Guardian
–
The Guardian' s Newsroom visitor centre and archive (No 60), with an old sign with the name The Manchester Guardian
32.
New Zealand
–
New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
New Zealand
–
The Waitangi sheet from the
Treaty of Waitangi
New Zealand
–
Flag
New Zealand
–
Painting of
Mount Earnslaw by John Turnbull Thomson, oil on canvas, 1888
New Zealand
–
John Key,
Prime Minister of New Zealand since 2008
33.
Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
Australia
–
Aboriginal rock art in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia
Australia
Australia
–
Portrait of Captain
James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Australia
–
Tasmania's
Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed
Australian Convict Sites.
34.
Berlin Wall
–
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992, the barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, fakir beds and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany, the West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the Wall of Shame—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Walls restriction on freedom of movement. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration, during this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany, crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall, contrary to popular belief the Walls actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, the capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the citys location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the occupying powers. Property and industry was nationalized in the East German zone, if statements or decisions deviated from the described line, reprimands and punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death. Indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism became a part of school curricula, sending professors. The East Germans created a political police apparatus that kept the population under close surveillance. In 1948, following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several countries began a massive airlift, supplying West Berlin with food. The Soviets mounted a public campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, in May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. The German Democratic Republic was declared on 7 October 1949, by a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets permeated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control, East Germany differed from West Germany, which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government
Berlin Wall
–
View from the West Berlin side of
graffiti art on the wall in 1986. The wall's "death strip", on the east side of the wall, here follows the curve of the
Luisenstadt Canal (filled in 1932).
Berlin Wall
–
Satellite image of Berlin, with the wall's location marked in yellow
Berlin Wall
–
East German
Combat Groups of the Working Class close the border on 13 August 1961 in preparation of the Berlin Wall construction.
Berlin Wall
–
East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961.
35.
London Stock Exchange
–
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London in the United Kingdom. As of December 2014, the Exchange had a capitalisation of US$6.06 trillion. The Exchange was founded in 1801 and its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London, the Exchange is part of the London Stock Exchange Group. London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges, London Stock Exchange Group was created in October 2007 when London Stock Exchange merged with Milan Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana. The Royal Exchange had been founded by English financier Thomas Gresham on the model of the Antwerp Bourse and it was opened by Elizabeth I of England in 1571. During the 17th century, stockbrokers were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their rude manners and they had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, notably Jonathans Coffee-House. At that coffee house, a broker named John Casting started listing the prices of a few commodities, exchange rates and certain key provisions such as salt, coal, originally, this was not a daily list and was only published a few days of the week. This list and activity was moved to Garraway’s coffee house. Public auctions during this period were conducted for the duration that a length of tallow candle could burn, as stocks grew, with new companies joining to raise capital, the royal court also raised some monies. These are the earliest evidence of organised trading in securities in London. After Greshams Royal Exchange building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, it was rebuilt and this was a move away from coffee houses and a step towards the modern model of stock exchange. The Royal Exchange not only housed brokers but also merchants and merchandise and this was the birth of a regulated stock market, which had teething problems in the shape of unlicensed brokers. In order to regulate these, Parliament brought out an act in 1697 that levied heavy penalties and it also set a fixed number of brokers, which was later increased as the size of the trade grew. The street in which they were now dealing was known as Exchange Alley, Parliament tried to regulate this and ban the unofficial traders from the Change streets. Traders became weary of bubbles when companies rose quickly and fell, after the Seven Years War, trade at Jonathans coffee house boomed again. In 1773, Jonathan, together with 150 other brokers, formed a club and opened a new and this now had a set entrance fee, through which traders could enter the stock room and trade securities. It was, however, not a location for trading. Fraud was also rife during these times and in order to such dealings
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
–
Paternoster Square; the LSE occupies the building that takes up much of the right side of this picture.
London Stock Exchange
–
London Stock Exchange in 1810
London Stock Exchange
–
The
Stock Exchange Tower pictured from atop the
National Westminster Tower in 1983.
36.
NASDAQ
–
The Nasdaq Stock Market is an American stock exchange. It is the second-largest exchange in the world by market capitalization, the exchange platform is owned by Nasdaq, Inc. which also owns the Nasdaq Nordic and Nasdaq Baltic stock market network and several other US stock and options exchanges. When it was founded, NASDAQ stood for the acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, NASDAQ was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers, which divested itself of NASDAQ in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. The Nasdaq Stock Market is owned and operated by Nasdaq, Inc. the stocks of which were listed on its own stock exchange marketing July 2,2002, when the Nasdaq Stock Market began trading on February 8,1971, it was the worlds first electronic stock market. At first, it was merely a system and did not provide a way to perform electronic trades. The Nasdaq Stock Market helped lower the spread but was unpopular among brokerages which made much of their money on the spread. As late as 1987, the NASDAQ exchange was still referred to as OTC in media. Over the years, the Nasdaq Stock Market became more of a market by adding trade and volume reporting. The Nasdaq Stock Market attracted new companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Oracle and Dell. Its main index is the NASDAQ Composite, which has published since its inception. In 1992, the Nasdaq Stock Market joined with the London Stock Exchange to form the first intercontinental linkage of securities markets, the National Association of Securities Dealers spun off the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2000 to form a publicly traded company. In 2006, the status of the Nasdaq Stock Market was changed from a market to a licensed national securities exchange. In 2007, Nasdaq merged with OMX, an exchange operator in the Nordic countries, expanded its global footprint. NASDAQ OMX could be looking to acquire the American exchanges cash equities business, at the time, NYSE Euronext’s market value was $9.75 billion. Nasdaq was valued at $5.78 billion, while ICE was valued at $9.45 billion. Late in the month, Nasdaq was reported to be considering asking either ICE or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to join in what would probably have to be, if it proceeded, an $11–12 billion counterbid. The European Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System was founded as a European equivalent to the Nasdaq Stock Market and it was purchased by NASDAQ in 2001 and became NASDAQ Europe. Operations were shut down, however, as a result of the burst of the dot-com bubble, in 2007, NASDAQ Europe was revived as Equiduct, and is currently operating under Börse Berlin
NASDAQ
–
Studio
37.
Dotcom boom
–
The period was marked by the founding of several new Internet-based companies commonly referred to as dot-coms. Companies could cause their stock prices to increase by adding an e- prefix to their name or a. com suffix. By the end of the 1990s, the NASDAQ hit a P/E ratio of 200, the collapse of the bubble took place during 1999–2001. Some companies, such as pets. com and Webvan, failed completely, others – such as Cisco, whose stock declined by 86% – lost a large portion of their market capitalization but remained stable and profitable. Some, such as eBay. com, later recovered and even surpassed their dot-com-bubble peaks, the stock of Amazon. com came to exceed $700 per share, for example, after having gone from $107 to $7 in the crash. The low interest rates of 1998–99 helped increase the start-up capital amounts, a canonical dot-com companys business model relied on harnessing network effects by operating at a sustained net loss and building market share. These companies offered their services or end product for free with the expectation that they could build enough brand awareness to charge profitable rates for their services later, the motto get big fast reflected this strategy. This occurred in industrialized nations due to the digital divide in the late 1990s. The absence of infrastructure and a lack of understanding were two obstacles that previously obstructed mass connectivity. For these reasons, individuals had limited capabilities in what they could do, increased means of connectivity to the Internet than previously available allowed the use of ICT to progress from a luxury good to a necessity good. As connectivity grew, so did the potential for venture capitalists to take advantage of the growing field, the functionalism, or impacts of technologies driven from the cost effectiveness of new Internet websites ultimately influenced the demand growth during this time. A bubble occurs when speculators note the fast increase in value and decide to buy in anticipation of further rises, typically, during a bubble, many companies thus become grossly overvalued. When the bubble bursts, the prices fall dramatically. The prices of many non-technology stocks increased in tandem and were pushed up to valuations uncorrelated to fundamentals. Andrew Smith argued that the financial industrys handling of initial public offerings tended to benefit the banks, in contrast, the financiers and other initial investors were typically entitled to sell at the peak price, and so could immediately profit from short-term price rises. Smith argues that the profitability of the IPOs to Wall Street was a significant factor in the course of events of the bubble. He writes, But did the kids dupe the establishment by drawing them into companies, or did the establishment dupe the kids by introducing them to Mammon. In spite of this, however, a few company founders made vast fortunes when their companies were out at an early stage in the dot-com stock market bubble
Dotcom boom
–
The
NASDAQ Composite index spiked in the late 90s and then fell sharply as a result of the dot-com bubble.
38.
Associated Press
–
The Associated Press is an American multinational nonprofit news agency headquartered in New York City that operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. The AP is owned by its contributing newspapers and radio and television stations in the United States, all of which stories to the AP. Most of the AP staff are members and are represented by the Newspaper Guild, which operates under the Communications Workers of America. As of 2007, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television, the photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The AP operates 243 news bureaus in 120 countries and it also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, as part of their cooperative agreement with the AP, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. The AP employs the inverted pyramid formula for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the storys essentials. Cutbacks at rival United Press International in 1993 left the AP as the United States primary news service, although UPI still produces and distributes stories and photos daily. Other English-language news services, such as the BBC, Reuters, some historians believe that the Tribune joined at this time, documents show it was a member in 1849. The New York Times became a member shortly after its founding in September 1851, initially known as the New York Associated Press, the organization faced competition from the Western Associated Press, which criticized its monopolistic news gathering and price setting practices. The revelations led to the demise of the NYAP and in December 1892, when the AP was founded, news became a salable commodity. The invention of the press allowed the New York Tribune in the 1870s to print 18,000 papers per hour. During the Civil War and Spanish–American War, there was a new incentive to print vivid, Melville Stone, who had founded the Chicago Daily News in 1875, served as AP General Manager from 1893 to 1921. He embraced the standards of accuracy, impartiality, and integrity, the cooperative grew rapidly under the leadership of Kent Cooper, who built up bureau staff in South America, Europe and, the Middle East. He introduced the telegraph typewriter or teletypewriter into newsrooms in 1914, in 1935, AP launched the Wirephoto network, which allowed transmission of news photographs over leased private telephone lines on the day they were taken. This gave AP a major advantage over other media outlets. While the first network was only between New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, eventually AP had its network across the whole United States, in 1945, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Associated Press v. The decision facilitated the growth of its main rival United Press International, AP entered the broadcast field in 1941 when it began distributing news to radio stations, it created its own radio network in 1974
Associated Press
–
The AP headquarters in October 2008, located at
450 West 33rd Street, in
New York City.
Associated Press
–
Associated Press
Associated Press
–
Logo on the former AP Building in New York City
Associated Press
–
The APTN Building in London
39.
Agence France-Presse
–
Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1944, AFP is the third largest news agency in the world, after the Associated Press, journalists of the French Resistance established the AFP in the headquarters of the former Office Français dInformation, a Vichy news agency, following the liberation of Paris. Currently, the CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and the News Director is Michèle Léridon, AFP has regional offices in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong, and Washington, D. C. and bureaux in 150 countries. AFP transmits news in French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, the Agence Havas was founded in 1835 by a Parisian translator and advertising agent, Charles-Louis Havas as Agence Havas. Two of his employees, Paul Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, later set up rival news agencies in London and Berlin respectively and this arrangement lasted until the 1930s, when the invention of short-wave wireless improved and cut communications costs. To help Havas extend the scope of its reporting at a time of international tension. Established as an enterprise, AFP devoted the post-war years to developing its network of international correspondents. One of them was the first Western journalist to report the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on March 6,1953, AFP was keen to shake off its semi-official status, and on January 10,1957 the French Parliament passed a law establishing its independence. Since that date, the proportion of the revenues generated by subscriptions from government departments has steadily declined. Such subscriptions represented 115 million Euros in 2011, in 1982, the agency began to decentralize its editorial decision-making by setting up the first of its five autonomous regional centres, in Hong Kong, then a British Crown colony. Each region has its own budget, administrative director and chief editor, in September 2007, the AFP Foundation was launched to promote higher standards of journalism worldwide. The Mitrokhin archive identified six agents and two confidential KGB contacts inside Agence France-Presse who were used in Soviet operations in France, in 1991, AFP set up a joint venture with Extel to create a financial news service, AFX News. It was sold in 2006 to Thomson Financial, in October 2008, the Government of France announced moves to change AFPs status, including the involvement of outside investors. On February 24,2010, Pierre Louette unexpectedly announced his intention to resign as CEO by the end of March, AFP is a government-chartered public corporation operating under a 1957 law, but is officially a commercial business independent of the French government. One is named by the minister, another by the minister of finance. The board elects the CEO for a term of three years. The AFP also has a council charged with ensuring that the agency operates according to its statutes, editorially, AFP is governed by a network of senior journalists. The primary client of AFP is the French government, which purchases subscriptions for its various services, in practice, those subscriptions are an indirect subsidy to AFP
Agence France-Presse
–
AFP headquarters in
Paris.
Agence France-Presse
–
Agence France-Presse
40.
Toronto Stock Exchange
–
Toronto Stock Exchange is one of the worlds largest stock exchanges. It is the ninth largest exchange in the world by market capitalization, based in Toronto, it is owned by and operated as a subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities. A broad range of businesses from Canada and abroad are represented on the exchange, in addition to conventional securities, the exchange lists various exchange-traded funds, split share corporations, income trusts and investment funds. More mining and oil and gas companies are listed on Toronto Stock Exchange than any other stock exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange likely descended from the Association of Brokers, a group formed by Toronto businessmen on July 26,1852. No records of the transactions have survived. On October 25,1861, twenty-four men gathered at the Masonic Hall to create the Toronto Stock Exchange, the exchange was incorporated by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1878. The TSX grew continuously in size and in shares traded, save for a period in 1914 when the exchange was shut down for fear of financial panic due to World War I. In 1934, the Toronto Stock Exchange merged with its key competitor, the merged markets kept the Toronto Stock Exchange name. The TSX opened its new trading floor and headquarters in an Art Deco building on Bay Street in 1937, in 1977, the TSX introduced CATS, an automated trading system, and began to use it for the quotation of less liquid equities. In 1983, the TSX vacated its Art Deco headquarters on Bay Street, the old TSX building later became the Design Exchange, a museum and education centre. On April 23,1997, the TSXs trading floor closed, making it the second-largest stock exchange in North America to choose a floorless, in 1999, the Toronto Stock Exchange announced the appointment of Barbara G. Stymiest to the position of President & Chief Executive Officer. Through a realignment plan, Toronto Stock Exchange became Canadas sole exchange for the trading of senior equities, the Canadian Dealing Network, Winnipeg Stock Exchange, and equities portion of the Montreal Exchange later merged with CDNX. In 2000, the Toronto Stock Exchange became a for-profit company, in 2001, the Toronto Stock Exchange acquired the Canadian Venture Exchange, which was renamed the TSX Venture Exchange in 2002, this resulted in the creation of a parent to the TSX, the TSX Group. This ended 123 years of the usage of TSE as a Canadian stock exchange, on May 11,2007, the S&P/TSX Composite, the main index of the Toronto Stock Exchange, traded above the 14,000 point level for the first time ever. On December 17,2008, the TSX for the first time in history was closed for a trading day due to a technical glitch.9 trillion. Xavier Rolet, who is CEO of the LSE Group, would head the new enlarged company, based on data from December 30,2010 the new stock exchange would have been the second largest in the world with a market cap 48% greater than the Nasdaq. 8 of the 15 board members of the entity will be appointed by LSE. The provisional name for the group would be LTMX Group plc
Toronto Stock Exchange
–
New Toronto Stock Exchange trading floor, circa 1937-9.
Toronto Stock Exchange
–
The 2009-Current White Logo.
Toronto Stock Exchange
–
The
Art Deco façade of the former Toronto Stock Exchange building, now incorporated into the
Toronto-Dominion Centre. Frieze by artist
Charles Comfort.
Toronto Stock Exchange
–
TMX's LED board displaying TSX information
41.
New York Stock Exchange
–
The New York Stock Exchange, is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the worlds largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its companies at US$19.3 trillion as of June 2016. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013, the NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007, the main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists, previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext, which was formed by the NYSEs 2007 merger with Euronext. NYSE and Euronext now operate as divisions of Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE has been the subject of several lawsuits regarding fraud or breach of duty and in 2004 was sued by its former CEO for breach of contract and defamation. The earliest recorded organization of securities trading in New York among brokers directly dealing with each other can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement, previously securities exchange had been intermediated by the auctioneers who also conducted more mundane auctions of commodities such as wheat and tobacco. In 1817 the stockbrokers of New York operating under the Buttonwood Agreement instituted new reforms, after sending a delegation to Philadelphia to observe the organization of their board of brokers, restrictions on manipulative trading were adopted as well as formal organs of governance. Several locations were used between 1817 and 1865, when the present location was adopted, the invention of the electrical telegraph consolidated markets, and New Yorks market rose to dominance over Philadelphia after weathering some market panics better than other alternatives. The Civil War greatly stimulated speculative securities trading in New York, by 1869 membership had to be capped, and has been sporadically increased since. The latter half of the century saw rapid growth in securities trading. Securities trade in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was prone to panics. The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was situated on the floor from 1898 until its closure in 2006. The main building, located at 18 Broad Street, between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, as was the 11 Wall Street building. The NYSE announced its plans to merge with Archipelago on April 21,2005, NYSEs governing board voted to merge with rival Archipelago on December 6,2005, and became a for-profit, public company. It began trading under the name NYSE Group on March 8,2006, Wall Street is the leading US money center for international financial activities and the foremost US location for the conduct of wholesale financial services. It comprises a matrix of wholesale financial sectors, financial markets, financial institutions, the principal sectors are securities industry, commercial banking, asset management, and insurance. Prior to the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the ICE in 2013, Marsh Carter was the Chairman of the NYSE, presently, the chairman is Jeffrey Sprecher
New York Stock Exchange
–
The New York Stock Exchange in 2012.
New York Stock Exchange
–
New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
–
The Stock Exchange at 10–12 Broad Street, in 1882
42.
Toronto
–
Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, Toronto is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is well known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto, meaning place where trees stand in the water. This refers to the end of what is now Lake Simcoe. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
Toronto
–
From top left:
Downtown Toronto featuring the
CN Tower and
Financial District from the
Toronto Harbour,
City Hall, the
Ontario Legislative Building,
Casa Loma,
Prince Edward Viaduct, and the
Scarborough Bluffs
Toronto
–
Coat of arms
Toronto
–
Map of Toronto, 1894
Toronto
–
Yonge Street in 1900
43.
Photojournalist
–
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that employs images in order to tell a news story. It is now understood to refer only to still images. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the media, and help communities connect with one other. Photojournalists must be informed and knowledgeable about events happening right outside their door. They deliver news in a format that is not only informative. Timeliness The images have meaning in the context of a published record of events. Objectivity The situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone, narrative The images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level. Like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter, but he or she must often make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, the practice of illustrating news stories with photographs was made possible by printing and photography innovations that occurred in the mid 19th century. The illustrations were printed with the use of engravings, during the Crimean War, the ILN pioneered the birth of early photojournalism by printing pictures of the war that had been taken by Roger Fenton. Other photographers of the war included William Simpson and Carol Szathmari, similarly, the American Civil War photographs of Mathew Brady were engraved before publication in Harpers Weekly. Disaster, including wrecks and city fires, was also a popular subject for illustrated newspapers in the early days. The printing of images in newspapers remained an isolated occurrence in this period, Photos were used to enhance the text rather than to act as a medium of information in its own right. This began to change with the work of one of the pioneers of photojournalism, John Thomson, in collaboration with the radical journalist Adolphe Smith, he began publishing a monthly magazine, Street Life in London, from 1876 to 1877. The project documented in photographs and text, the lives of the people of London. On March 4,1880, The Daily Graphic published the first halftone reproduction of a news photograph, in March 1886, when General George Crook received word that the Apache leader Geronimo would negotiate surrender terms, photographer C. S. Fly took his equipment and attached himself to the military column, during the three days of negotiations, Fly took about 15 exposures on 8 by 10 inches glass negatives. His photos of Geronimo and the other free Apaches, taken on March 25 and 26, are the known photographs taken of American Indians while still at war with the United States. Fly coolly posed his subjects, asking them to move and turn their heads and faces, the popular publication Harpers Weekly published six of his images in their April 24,1886 issue
Photojournalist
–
Journalism
Photojournalist
–
Versions of Valley of the Shadow of Death, with and without cannonballs
Photojournalist
Photojournalist
–
The Crawlers,
London, 1876–1877, a photograph from
John Thomson 's Street Life in London photo-documentary
44.
Reporter
–
A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information. A journalists work is called journalism, a journalist can work with general issues or specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize, and by cooperating with other journalists, for example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics. A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes, and reports on information in order to present in sources, conduct interviews, engage in research, and make reports. The information-gathering part of a job is sometimes called reporting. Reporters may split their time working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interviewing people. Reporters may be assigned a beat or area of coverage. Depending on the context, the term journalist may include various types of editors, editorial writers, columnists, Journalism has developed a variety of ethics and standards. While objectivity and a lack of bias are of concern and importance, more liberal types of journalism, such as advocacy journalism and activism. This has become prevalent with the advent of social media and blogs, as well as other platforms that are used to manipulate or sway social and political opinions. These platforms often project extreme bias, as sources are not always held accountable or considered necessary in order to produce a written, nor did they often directly experience most social problems, or have direct access to expert insights. These limitations were made worse by a media that tended to over-simplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as analysts, guiding “citizens to a deeper understanding of what was really important. ”Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom, as of November 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 887 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder, crossfire or combat, or on dangerous assignment. The ten deadliest countries for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq, Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Mexico, Algeria, Pakistan, India, Somalia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. The Committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as of December 1st 2010,145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. The ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey, China, Iran, Eritrea, Burma, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cuba, Ethiopia, apart from the physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war reporters, but their offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger
Reporter
–
A
television reporter holding a
microphone in front of a
cameraman.
Reporter
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Photojournalists at the
2013 World Championships in Athletics.
Reporter
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A reporter interviewing Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.
Reporter
–
Journalism
45.
Ambush
–
Ambushes have been used consistently throughout history, from ancient to modern warfare. The use by humans of the ambush may date as far back as two million years when anthropologists have recently suggested that ambush techniques were used to hunt large game. One example from ancient times is the Battle of the Trebia river, hannibal encamped within striking distance of the Romans with the Trebia River between them, and placed a strong force of cavalry and infantry in concealment, near the battle zone. When the Roman infantry became entangled in combat with his army, the result was slaughter and defeat for the Romans. Nevertheless, the battle also displays the effects of good tactical discipline on the part of the ambushed force, although most of the legions were lost, about 10,000 Romans cut their way through to safety, maintaining unit cohesion. This ability to discipline and break out or maneuver away from a kill zone is a hallmark of good troops. Another famous ambush was sprung by Germanic warchief Arminius against the Romans at Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This particular ambush was to affect the course of Western history, the Germanic forces demonstrated several principles needed for a successful ambush. They took cover in difficult forested terrain, allowing the warriors time and they had the element of surprise, and this was also aided by the defection of Arminius from Roman ranks prior to the battle. They sprang the attack when the Romans were most vulnerable, when they had left their fortified camp, the Germans also made use of blocking obstacles, erecting a trench and earthen wall to hinder Roman movement along the route of the killing zone. The result was slaughter of the Romans, and the destruction of three legions. The Germanic victory caused a limit on Roman expansion in the West, ultimately, it established the Rhine as the boundary of the Roman Empire for the next four hundred years, until the decline of the Roman influence in the West. The Roman Empire made no further concerted attempts to conquer Germania beyond the Rhine, according to Muslim tradition Islamic Prophet Muhammad made use of ambush tactics in his military campaigns. His first such use was during the Caravan raids, in the Kharrar caravan raid Sad ibn Abi Waqqas was ordered to lead a raid against the Quraysh and his group consisted of about twenty Muhajirs. This raid was done about a month after the previous, Sad, with his soldiers, set up an ambush in the valley of Kharrar on the road to Mecca and waited to raid a returning Meccan caravan from Syria. But the caravan had already passed and the Muslims returned to Medina without any loot, arab tribes during Muhammads era also made use of ambush tactics. One example retold in Muslim tradition is said to have taken place during the First Raid on Banu Thalabah, Muhammad ibn Maslama pretended to be dead. A Muslim who happened to pass that way found him and assisted him to return to Medina, in modern warfare, an ambush is most often employed by ground troops up to platoon size against enemy targets, which may be other ground troops, or possibly vehicles
Ambush
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The VC/NVA prepared the battlefield carefully. Siting automatic weapons at treetop level for example helped shoot down several US helicopters during the Battle of Dak To, 1967
Ambush
–
Ambush of Polish partisans during
January Uprising
46.
Sierra Leone
–
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north-east, Liberia to the south-east, Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savannah to rainforests. Sierra Leone has an area of 71,740 km2. Sierra Leone is divided into four regions, the Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province and the Western Area. Freetown, located in the Western Area, is the capital, largest city and its economic, Bo is the second largest city, and is located in the Southern Province, about 160 miles from Freetown. Kenema, located in the Eastern Province, is the third largest city and is about 185 miles from Freetown, Koidu Town, located in the Eastern Province, is the fourth largest city, and is about 275 miles from Freetown. Makeni, located in the Northern Province, is the fifth largest of Sierra Leone five major cities, Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral legislature. The current constitution of Sierra Leone was adopted in 1991 during the presidency of Joseph Saidu Momoh, since independent to present, Sierra Leone politics has been dominated by two major political parties, the Sierra Leone Peoples party and the All Peoples congress. The current president of SIerra Leone is Ernest Bai Koroma, a member of the APC party, the previous Sierra Leone president was Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, a member of the SLPP party, who was elected president in 1996 and won reelection for his final term in 2002. From 1991 to 2002, the Sierra Leone civil war was fought and this proxy war left more than 50,000 people dead, much of the countrys infrastructure destroyed, and over two million people displaced as refugees in neighbouring countries. In January 2002, then Sierra Leones president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, fulfilled his promise by ending the civil war, with help by the British Government, ECOWAS. More recently, the 2014 Ebola outbreak overburdened the weak healthcare infrastructure and it created a humanitarian crisis situation and a negative spiral of weaker economic growth. The country has a low life expectancy at 57.8 years. About sixteen ethnic groups inhabit Sierra Leone, each with its own language, the two largest and most influential are the Temne and the Mende people. The Temne are predominantly found in the north of the country, the Krio language unites all the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Sierra Leone is a predominantly Muslim country, though with an influential Christian minority, Sierra Leone is regarded as one of the most religiously tolerant nations in the world. Muslims and Christians collaborate and interact with each other peacefully, religious violence is extremely rare in the country. In politics, the majority of Sierra Leoneans vote for a candidate without regard to whether the candidate is a Muslim or a Christian
Sierra Leone
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Fragments of
prehistoric pottery from
Kamabai Rock Shelter
Sierra Leone
–
Flag
Sierra Leone
–
An 1835 illustration of liberated Africans arriving in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone
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The colony of Freetown in 1856
47.
Taras Protsyuk
–
Taras Protsyuk was a Ukrainian TV cameraman working for Reuters, who was killed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Protsyuk was based and lived in Warsaw since 1999, during his career he covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and made news reports about Poland. Protsyuk was in line to gain Polish citizenship, Protsyuk is survived by his wife and an eight-year-old son, the family had moved from Kiev to Warsaw in 1999. Protsyuk died on April 8,2003, the U. S. soldier commanding the tank was Sgt. Shawn Gibson of the U. S. 3rd Infantry Division, on the same day, a total of three locations in Baghdad housing journalists were fired upon by U. S. armed forces, killing three journalists and wounding four. There were conflicting reports about the nature of the shelling that killed Protsyuk, in the immediate aftermath of the incident, U. S. military officials claimed one of their tanks had fired on the hotel in response to incoming sniper and rocket fire. However, journalists in the hotel at the time of the shelling, hundreds, including politicians and public figures, attended his funeral in Kiev on 13 April, and the Ukrainian parliament observed a minute of silence in his memory. On April 8 the United States Embassy in Kiev is annually picketed in his memory
Taras Protsyuk
–
Taras Protsyuk Тарас Процюк
48.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
Iraq
–
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE,
hematite. The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Iraq
–
Flag
Iraq
–
Victory stele of
Naram-Sin of Akkad
Iraq
–
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in
Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE
49.
Namir Noor-Eldeen
–
Namir Noor-Eldeen was an Iraqi freelance photojournalist. Noor-Eldeen, his assistant, Saeed Chmagh, and eight others were fired upon by U. S. military forces in the New Baghdad district of Baghdad, Iraq, the group of ten was carrying at least two RPG-7s and one AK47. Noor-Eldeen and seven others were killed during the first strike, Noor-Eldeen was born on September 1,1984, in Mosul, Iraq. He developed an interest in photography and video from his family and he originally worked in Mosul, where he started to develop a strong reputation from his photos and his tendency to arrive at the scene of attacks quickly, even amid danger. Noor-Eldeen was transferred to Baghdad after he started receiving threats in Mosul from insurgents unhappy with his photos, on July 12,2007, after several skirmishes in the area, two American AH-64 Apache helicopters observed a group of people milling around on a street in Baghdad. They reported some in group to be armed, presumed them to be Iraqi insurgents. The helicopters also fired on a van being driven by a man with his two children inside that stopped to evacuate the wounded, Noor-Eldeen and his Reuters driver, Saeed Chmagh, were among those killed in the attack. Noor-Eldeen was 22 years old at the time of his death, Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh were the fifth and sixth Reuters employees killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion began. All six were killed by American soldiers, mohammed Ameen, another Reuters photographer and one of Noor-Eldeens closest friends, found his body in a dilapidated Iraqi morgue and arranged for the body to be preserved until his funeral. After their deaths, Reuters screened a photographic tribute to Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh in New York Citys Times Square, the military also refused to release a video taken from one of the gunships that captured the complete sequence and radio communication during the shootings. On April 5,2010, the video was released on the website WikiLeaks, the shootings and Noor-Eldeens deaths are detailed in The Good Soldiers, a 2009 nonfiction book by David Finkel. Collateral Murder Wikileaks site bringing to light formerly classified US military footage Remembering Namir Noor-Eldeen Text and slideshow
Namir Noor-Eldeen
–
Journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, 2007.
50.
Saeed Chmagh
–
Saeed Chmagh was an Iraqi employed by Reuters news agency as a driver and camera assistant. He was killed, along with his colleague Namir Noor-Eldeen by American military forces in the New Baghdad district of Baghdad, Iraq, Chmagh was born January 1,1967 in Iraq. He joined Reuters before the United States-led invasion in 2003, with 4 children of his own, he financially supported his family and another three through his work. Chmagh also supported his sister’s family after insurgents killed her husband, chris Helgren, then Reuters chief photographer in the region, launched a plan to employ and train Iraqis, with more local knowledge and access to areas now perilous for Westerners. Helgren said, There are few good news stories to be had in this war, and to get there, drivers like Saeed Chmagh are indispensable. ”Saeed had a reputation of being fiercely loyal and appeared fearless to me. If you ever needed to get quickly to an area, passing chicanes of barbed wire and boobytraps. But he also had a quiet, loving side and spoke often of his kids. On July 12,2007, after skirmishes in the area. Believing the group to be the armed Iraqi insurgents who earlier engaged US soldiers nearby, about 5 minutes later an unmarked black van arrived, owned by a man who was taking his son to school. Two other men who had come along assisted Chmagh, who was badly wounded and pulling himself along the ground. The watching helicopter crews requested and received permission to engage, and opened fire on the van, two young children in the van were severely wounded by the shooting. Chmagh, and Reuters photojournalist, his long-time friend Namir Noor-Eldeen, were among killed in the attacks. Chmagh was 40 years old at the time of his death, Chmagh and Noor-Eldeen were the fifth and sixth Reuters employees killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion began. The Armys report includes pictures of what are claimed to be found near the bodies at the scene. After their deaths, Reuters screened a photographic tribute to Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh in New York Citys Times Square, the military also refused to release a video taken from one of the gunships that captured the complete sequence and radio communication during the shootings. On April 5,2010, the video was released on the website Wikileaks, helicopter in Iraq at Wikinews Massacre Caught on Tape, US Military Confirms Authenticity - video report by Democracy Now
Saeed Chmagh
–
Saeed Chmagh, killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, July 2007.
"Reuter Agency". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
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