1.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
2.
London
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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
3.
Fu Manchu
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Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the twentieth century. Fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli and my black spiders and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons. In the 1933 novel, The Bride of Fu Manchu, Fu Manchu claims to hold doctorates from four Western universities, in the 1959 novel, Emperor Fu Manchu, he reveals he attended Heidelberg University, the Sorbonne, and University of Edinburgh. At the time of their first encounter, Dr. Petrie believed that Fu Manchu was around 70 years old and this would have placed Fu Manchu in the West studying for his first doctorate in the 1860s or 1870s. Van Ash speculates that Fu Manchu had been a member of the family of China who backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion. In the earliest books, Fu Manchu is an agent of the society, the Si-Fan. In later books, he vies for control of the Si-Fan, the Si-Fan is largely funded through criminal activities, particularly the drug trade and human trafficking. Dr. Fu Manchu has extended his already considerable lifespan by use of the elixir of life, opposing Fu Manchu in the early stories are Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. They are in the Holmes and Watson tradition, with Dr. Petrie narrating the stories while Nayland Smith carries the fight, Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu share a grudging respect for one another, as each believes a man must keep his word even to an enemy. In the first three books, Nayland Smith is a police commissioner in Burma granted a roving commission which allows him to exercise authority over any group that can help him in his mission. He resembles Sherlock Holmes in physical description and acerbic manner, and he has been criticized as being a racist and jingoistic character, especially in the early entries in the series, and gives voice to anti-Asian sentiments. When Rohmer revived the series in the early 1930s, Smith is Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard and he later resigns this post and accepts a position with British Intelligence. Several books have him placed on assignment with the FBI. She was sold to the Si-Fan by Egyptian slave traders while still a child, Kara falls in love with the narrator of the first three books in the series, Dr. Petrie. She rescues Petrie and Nayland Smith many times, eventually the couple are united and she wins her freedom. They marry and have a daughter, Fleurette, who figures in later novels, author Lin Carter later created a son for Dr. Petrie and Kara, but this is not considered canonical. Her real name is unknown, Fah lo Suee was a term of endearment. She was introduced anonymously while still a teenager in the book in the series
4.
Working class
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The working class are the people employed for wages, especially in manual-labour occupations and in skilled, industrial work. Working-class occupations include blue-collar jobs, some jobs, and most service-work jobs. As with many terms describing social class, working class is defined and used in different ways. The most general definition, used by Marxists and socialists, is that the class includes all those who have nothing to sell but their labor-power. When used non-academically in the United States, however, it refers to a section of society dependent on physical labor. For certain types of science, as well as scientific or journalistic political analysis, for example. Working-class occupations are then categorized into four groups, Unskilled laborers, artisans, outworkers, a common alternative, sometimes used in sociology, is to define class by income levels. The cut-off between working class and middle class here might mean the line where a population has discretionary income, some researchers have suggested that working-class status should be defined subjectively as self-identification with the working-class group. This subjective approach allows people, rather than researchers, to define their own social class, in feudal Europe, the working class as such did not exist in large numbers. Instead, most people were part of the class, a group made up of different professions, trades. A lawyer, craftsman and peasant were all considered to be part of the social unit. Similar hierarchies existed outside Europe in other pre-industrial societies, the social position of these laboring classes was viewed as ordained by natural law and common religious belief. This social position was contested, particularly by peasants, for example during the German Peasants War, wealthy members of these societies created ideologies which blamed many of the problems of working-class people on their morals and ethics. In The Making of the English Working Class, E. P, starting around 1917, a number of countries became ruled ostensibly in the interests of the working class. Since then, four major states have turned towards semi-market-based governance. Other states of this sort have either collapsed, or never achieved significant levels of industrialization or large working classes, since 1960, large-scale proletarianisation and enclosure of commons has occurred in the third world, generating new working classes. Additionally, countries such as India have been slowly undergoing social change, karl Marx defined the working class or proletariat as individuals who sell their labour power for wages and who do not own the means of production. He argued that they were responsible for creating the wealth of a society and he asserted that the working class physically build bridges, craft furniture, grow food, and nurse children, but do not own land, or factories
5.
Music hall
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Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era circa 1850 and lasting until 1960. It involved a mixture of songs, comedy, speciality acts. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place and these theatres were designed chiefly so people could consume food and alcohol and smoke tobacco in the auditorium while the entertainment took place. This differed somewhat from the type of theatre, which until then seated the audience in stalls with a separate bar-room. By the mid-19th century, the halls cried out for many new, as a result, professional songwriters were enlisted to provide the music for a plethora of star performers, such as Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Little Tich, and George Leybourne. Music hall did not adopt its own unique style, the halls had recovered by the start of the First World War and were used to stage charity events in aid of the war effort. Music hall entertainment continued after the war, but became popular due to upcoming Jazz, Swing. Licensing restrictions had also changed, and drinking was banned from the auditorium, a new type of music hall entertainment had arrived, in the form of variety, and many music hall performers failed to make the transition. Deemed old fashioned and with the closure of many halls, music hall entertainment ceased, Music hall in London had its origins in entertainment provided in the new style saloon bars of public houses during the 1830s. These venues replaced earlier semi-rural amusements provided by fairs and suburban pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall Gardens and these latter became subject to urban development and became fewer and less popular. The saloon was a room where for a fee or a greater price at the bar, singing, dancing. The most famous London saloon of the days was the Grecian Saloon, established in 1825, at The Eagle,2 Shepherdess Walk. According to John Hollingshead, proprietor of the Gaiety Theatre, London, this establishment was the father and mother, later known as the Grecian Theatre, it was here that Marie Lloyd made her début at the age of 14 in 1884. It is still famous because of an English nursery rhyme, with the somewhat mysterious lyrics, Up and down the City Road In and out The Eagle Thats the way the money goesPop goes the weasel. Another famous song and supper room of this period was Evans Music-and-Supper Rooms,43 King Street, Covent Garden and this venue was also known as Evans Late Joys – Joy being the name of the previous owner. Other song and supper rooms included the Coal Hole in The Strand, the Cyder Cellars in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, the music hall as we know it developed from such establishments during the 1850s and were built in and on the grounds of public houses. In a theatre, by contrast, the audience was seated in stalls, an exception to this rule was the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton which somehow managed to evade this regulation and served drinks to its customers. Though a theatre rather than a hall, this establishment later hosted music hall variety acts
6.
Algernon Blackwood
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Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator, S. T. Blackwood was born in Shooters Hill, and between 1871 and 1880 lived at Crayford Manor House, Crayford and was educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, throughout his adult life, he was an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural and he was successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and later telling them on radio and television. He also wrote fourteen novels, several books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced. He was a lover of nature and the outdoors. To satisfy his interest in the supernatural, he joined The Ghost Club and he never married, according to his friends he was a loner but also cheerful company. Jack Sullivan stated that Blackwoods life parallels his work more neatly than perhaps that of any other ghost story writer, Blackwood was a member of one of the factions of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as was his contemporary Arthur Machen. Cabalistic themes influence his novel The Human Chord and his two best known stories are probably The Willows and The Wendigo. He would also write stories for newspapers at short notice, with the result that he was unsure exactly how many short stories he had written. Though Blackwood wrote a number of stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness, I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A change in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than an extension of what we already possess. Blackwood wrote an autobiography of his years, Episodes Before Thirty. Officially his death on 10 December 1951 was of cerebral thrombosis with arteriosclerosis as contributory and he was cremated at Golders Green crematorium. A few weeks later his nephew took his ashes to Saanenmöser Pass in the Swiss Alps, H. P. Lovecraft included Blackwood as one of the Modern Masters in the section of that name in Supernatural Horror in Literature. Authors who have influenced by Blackwoods work include William Hope Hodgson, George Allan England. Lovecraft, H. Russell Wakefield, L. Adams Beck, Margery Lawrence, Evangeline Walton, Ramsey Campbell, frank Belknap Longs 1928 story The Space-Eaters alludes to Blackwoods fiction
7.
Arthur Machen
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Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and his novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. He is also known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons. Machen was born Arthur Llewelyn Jones in Caerleon, Monmouthshire, though he referred to the area by the name of the medieval Welsh kingdom. The house of his birth, opposite the Olde Bull Inn in The Square at Caerleon, is adjacent to the Priory Hotel and is marked with a commemorative blue plaque. The beautiful landscape of Monmouthshire, with its associations of Celtic, Roman, and medieval history, made an impression on him. Machen was descended from a line of clergymen, the family having originated in Carmarthenshire. In his fathers library he found also the Waverley Novels, an edition of the Glossary of Gothic Architecture. At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem Eleusinia on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. In 1884 he published his work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco. This led to work as a translator from French, translating the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir of Béroalde de Verville. Machens translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years, in 1887, the year his father died, Machen married Amelia Hogg, an unconventional music teacher with a passion for the theatre, who had literary friends in Londons bohemian circles. Hogg had introduced Machen to the writer and occultist A. E. Waite, Machen also made the acquaintance of other literary figures, such as M. P. Shiel and Edgar Jepson. Soon after his marriage, Machen began to receive a series of legacies from Scottish relatives that allowed him to devote more time to writing. Around 1890 Machen began to publish in magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan and it was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machens story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and consequently sold well, Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895
8.
Hermetic Qabalah
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Hermetic Qabalah is a Western esoteric tradition involving mysticism and the occult. The Hermetic Qabalah is the basis for Qliphothic Qabala as studied by left hand path orders, Hermetic Qabalah differs from the Jewish form in being a more admittedly syncretic system, however it shares many concepts with Jewish Kabbalah. Hermetic Qabalah holds to the conception that the manifest universe, of which material creation is a part. These emanations arise out of three states that are considered to precede manifestation. The emanations of creation arising from Ain Suph Aur are ten in number and these are conceptualised somewhat differently in Hermetic Qabalah to the way they are in Jewish Kabbalah. From Ain Suph Aur crystallises Kether, the first sephirah of the Hermetic Qabalistic tree of life. From Kether emanate the rest of the sephirot in turn, viz. Kether, Chokhmah, Binah, Daath, Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Daath is not assigned a number as it is considered part of Binah or a hidden sephirah. Each sephirah is considered to be an emanation of the energy which ever flows from the unmanifest. This flow of light is indicated by the lightning flash shown on diagrams of the tree which passes through each sephirah in turn according to their enumerations. Each sephirah is a nexus of energy and each has a number of attributions. These attributions enable the Qabalist to form a comprehension of each particular sephirahs characteristics and this manner of applying many attributions to each sephirah is an exemplar of the diverse nature of Hermetic Qabalah. Hermetic Qabalists see the cards of the tarot as keys to the Tree of Life, while the sephiroth describe the nature of divinity, the paths between them describe ways of knowing the Divine. Traditionalist Judaic views of Kabbalahs origins view it as an inherent development from within the Jewish religion, in contrast, Hermeticists have taken different views of Qabalahs origins. Christians, in contrast, would have been persecuted for the same process, with the Renaissance, this wisdom would have been relearned by Christianity from Judaism. It contributed strongly to the Renaissance view of ritual magics relationship with Christianity, once Hermeticism was no longer endorsed by the Christian Church it was driven underground and a number of Hermetic brotherhoods were formed. Non-Jewish Cabala, unlike in Judaic Kabbalahs mainstream censure of its side, became a central component of Western occult, magic. Rosicrucianism and esoteric branches of Freemasonry taught religious philosophies, Qabalah and their esoteric teachings, and secret society structure of an outer body governed by a restricted inner level of adepts, laid the format for modern esoteric organisations. Post-Enlightenment Romanticism encouraged societal interest in occultism, of which Hermetic Qabalistic writing was a feature, francis Barretts The Magus handbook of ceremonial magic gained little notice until it influenced the French magical enthusiast Eliphas Levi
9.
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
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The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was an organization devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as an order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was active in Great Britain and focused its practices on theurgy. The three founders, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, were Freemasons, Westcott appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn system was based on hierarchy and initiation like the Masonic Lodges, the Golden Dawn was the first of three Orders, although all three are often collectively referred to as the Golden Dawn. The Second or Inner Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, taught magic, including scrying, astral travel, the foundational documents of the original Order of the Golden Dawn, known as the Cipher Manuscripts, are written in English using the Trithemius cipher. The documents did not excite Woodford, and in February 1886 he passed them on to Freemason William Wynn Westcott, Westcott, pleased with his discovery, called on fellow Freemason Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers for a second opinion. Westcott asked for Mathers help to turn the manuscripts into a coherent system for lodge work, Mathers in turn asked fellow Freemason William Robert Woodman to assist the two, and he accepted. Mathers and Westcott have been credited with developing the ritual outlines in the Cipher Manuscripts into a workable format, Mathers, however, is generally credited with the design of the curriculum and rituals of the Second Order, which he called the Rosae Rubae et Aureae Crucis. In October 1887, Westcott claimed to have written to a German countess and prominent Rosicrucian named Anna Sprengel, Westcott purportedly received a reply from Sprengel granting permission to establish a Golden Dawn temple and conferring honorary grades of Adeptus Exemptus on Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman. The temple was to consist of the five grades outlined in the manuscripts, in 1888, the Isis-Urania Temple was founded in London. In contrast to the S. R. I. A. and Masonry, women were allowed, the Order was more of a philosophical and metaphysical teaching order in its early years. Other than certain rituals and meditations found in the Cipher manuscripts and developed further, for the first four years, the Golden Dawn was one cohesive group later known as the Outer Order or First Order. An Inner Order was established and became active in 1892, the Inner Order consisted of members known as adepts, who had completed the entire course of study for the Outer Order. This group of adepts eventually became known as the Second Order, eventually, the Osiris temple in Weston-super-Mare, the Horus temple in Bradford, and the Amen-Ra temple in Edinburgh were founded. In 1893 Mathers founded the Ahathoor temple in Paris, in 1891, Westcotts alleged correspondence with Anna Sprengel suddenly ceased. He claimed to have received word from Germany that she was dead or that her companions did not approve of the founding of the Order. If the founders were to contact the Secret Chiefs, apparently, in 1892, Mathers professed that a link to the Secret Chiefs had been established. Subsequently, he supplied rituals for the Second Order, calling them the Red Rose, the rituals were based on the tradition of the tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz, and a Vault of Adepts became the controlling force behind the Outer Order
10.
Rosicrucianism
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The manifestos do not elaborate extensively on the matter, but clearly combine references to Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Christianity. The Rosicrucian Manifestos heralded a universal reformation of mankind, through a science allegedly kept secret for decades until the climate might receive it. In 1616, Johann Valentin Andreae famously designated it as a ludibrium, by promising a spiritual transformation at a time of great turmoil, the manifestos tempted many figures to seek esoteric knowledge. Seventeenth-century occult philosophers such as Michael Maier, Robert Fludd, according to historian David Stevenson, it was influential to Freemasonry as it was emerging in Scotland. In later centuries, many societies have claimed to derive from the original Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is symbolized by the Rosy Cross or Rose Cross, between 1607 and 1616, two anonymous manifestos were published, first in Germany and later throughout Europe. These were the Fama Fraternitatis RC and the Confessio Fraternitatis, the Fama Fraternitatis presented the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher referred to as Frater C. R. C. The year 1378 is presented as being the year of our Christian Father. After studying in the Middle East under various masters, possibly adhering to Sufism, instead, he gathered a small circle of friends/disciples and founded the Rosicrucian Order. During Rosenkreuzs lifetime, the order was said to consist of no more than eight members, each a doctor, each member undertook an oath to heal the sick without payment, to maintain a secret fellowship, and to find a replacement for himself before he died. Three such generations had passed between c.1500 and c. 1600, a time when scientific, philosophical and religious freedom had grown so that the public benefit from the Rosicrucians knowledge. The manifestos were and are not taken literally by many but rather regarded either as hoaxes or as allegorical statements, the invitation to the royal wedding in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz opens with Dees philosophical key, the Monas Hieroglyphica symbol. The writer also claimed the brotherhood possessed a book that resembled the works of Paracelsus and their literature announced them as moral and religious reformers. They used the techniques of chemistry and of the sciences generally as media through which to publicize their opinions, in his autobiography, Johann Valentin Andreae claimed that the anonymously published Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz was one of his works, and he subsequently described it as a ludibrium. In his later works, he makes alchemy an object of ridicule and places it along with music, art, theater, according to some sources, his role in the origin of the Rosicrucian legend is controversial. However, it was accepted according to others. Wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent, the works were re-issued several times, followed by numerous pamphlets, favorable or otherwise
11.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and he is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the countrys earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a difficult life. Poe was born in Boston, the child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year, thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood, tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money, Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems. With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement, however, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the several years working for literary journals and periodicals. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, in Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem The Raven to instant success and his wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn, Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, a number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. He was born Edgar Poe in Boston on January 19,1809 and he had an elder brother William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister Rosalie Poe. Their grandfather David Poe Sr. had emigrated from Cavan, Ireland to America around the year 1750, Edgar may have been named after a character in William Shakespeares King Lear, a play that the couple were performing in 1809
12.
Arthur Conan Doyle
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He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of Professor Challenger, a second character he invented, and for propagating the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction. Doyle is often referred to as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or simply Conan Doyle and his baptism entry in the register of St Marys Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives Arthur Ignatius Conan as his given names and Doyle as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather, the cataloguers of the British Library and the Library of Congress treat Doyle alone as his surname. Steven Doyle, editor of the Baker Street Journal, wrote, shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply Doyle, when knighted, he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle. Nevertheless, the use of a compound surname is demonstrated by the fact that Doyles second wife was known as Jean Conan Doyle rather than Jean Doyle. Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh and his father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was English, of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary, was Irish Catholic. In 1864 the family dispersed because of Charless growing alcoholism, in 1867, the family came together again and lived in squalid tenement flats at 3 Sciennes Place. Doyles father died in 1893, in the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to England, at the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst in Lancashire at the age of nine. He then went on to Stonyhurst College until 1875, from 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria. He later rejected the Catholic faith and became an agnostic and he also later became a spiritualist mystic. From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, including working in Aston, Sheffield and Ruyton-XI-Towns. During that time, he studied botany at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. While studying, Doyle began writing short stories and his earliest extant fiction, The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe, was unsuccessfully submitted to Blackwoods Magazine. His first published piece, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, a set in South Africa, was printed in Chamberss Edinburgh Journal on 6 September 1879. Doyle was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and, C. M. as a ships surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. He completed his M. D. degree on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885, arriving in Portsmouth in June 1882 with less than £10 to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea
13.
M. P. Shiel
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Matthew Phipps Shiell – known as M. P. Shiel – was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained Shiell though he adopted the version as a de facto pen name. He is remembered mostly for supernatural horror and scientific romances and his work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud remains his most famous and often reprinted novel, Shiell was educated at Harrison College, Barbados. Shiell moved to England in 1885, eventually adopting Shiel as his pen name, after working as a teacher and translator he broke into the fiction market with a series of short stories published in The Strand and other magazines. His first novel was The Rajahs Sapphire, based on a plot by William Thomas Stead, Shiels popular reputation was made by another work for hire. The early chapters incorporated actual headline events as the crisis unfolded, and proved wildly popular with the public. Pearson responded by ordering Shiel to double the length of the serial to 150,000 words, but Shiel cut it back by a third for the book version, some contemporary critics described this novel as a fictionalisation of Charles Henry Pearsons National Life and Character, A Forecast. Shiels Asian villain, Dr. Yen How, has cited as a possible basis for Sax Rohmers much better-known Dr. Fu Manchu. Similar kidnapping incidents occurred in several of Shiels subsequent novels, Shiel himself considered the novel hackwork, and seemed embarrassed by its success. It was an influence on H. G. Wells in The War in the Air, Jack London in The Unparalleled Invasion. His next novel was another serial contracted by Pearson to tie into the Spanish–American War, contraband of War ran in Pearsons Weekly 7 May –9 July 1898, again incorporating headline events into the serial as the war progressed. It was published as a book the following year, each was linked by similar introductory frame purporting to show that the novels were visions of progressively more distant futures glimpsed by a clairvoyant in a trance. Notebook I of the series had been plotted at least by 1898, Notebook II became The Lord of the Sea, which was recognised by contemporary readers as a critique of private ownership of land based on the theories of Henry George. Shiels lasting literary reputation is based on Notebook III of the series which was serialised in The Royal Magazine in abridged form before book publication that autumn as The Purple Cloud. Shiel had married a young Parisian-Spaniard, Carolina Garcia Gomez in 1898 and they separated around 1903 and his daughter was taken to Spain after Linas death around 1904. Shiel blamed the failure of the marriage on the interference of his mother-in-law, Shiel was caught between his desire to write high art and his need to produce more commercial fare. The last of their known collaborations appeared in 1911, the most interesting was the first, serialised as In Loves Whirlpool in Cassells Saturday Journal,14 May –3 September 1902, and published in book form as The Weird oIt
14.
Little Tich
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Harry Relph, professionally known as Little Tich, was a 4-foot-6-inch tall English music hall comedian and dancer during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was best known for his acrobatic and comedic Big-Boot Dance, aside from his music hall appearances, he was also a popular performer in Christmas pantomimes and appeared in them annually at theatres throughout the English provinces. He repeated this success in London, where he appeared in three pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane between 1891 and 1893 alongside Dan Leno and Marie Lloyd. Born in Cudham, Kent, Little Tich began performing aged ten when he developed a dance, in the early 1880s he formed a blackface act and gained popularity with performances at the nearby Rosherville Pleasure Gardens and Barnards Music Hall in Chatham. He travelled to London and appeared at the Foresters Music Hall in 1884, the terms titchy or titch were later derived from Little Tich, and are used to describe things that are small. In the 1890s he developed the Serpentine Dance and had a success with the Christmas pantomime Babes in the Wood in Manchester during the 1889–90 season. In 1891, he was recruited by the impresario Augustus Harris to appear in that years spectacular Theatre Royal and he starred in a further two productions at the theatre including Little Bo Peep and Robinson Crusoe. Between 1896 and 1902 Little Tich performed in his own theatre company, and spent much of his time in Paris. For his music hall acts, he created based on everyday observations. The characterisations used were The Gas Inspector, The Spanish Señora and The Waiter and he was married three times and fathered two children. In 1927 he suffered a stroke, which was triggered by a blow to the head which he had accidentally received during an evening performance at the Alhambra Theatre. He never recovered fully from the injury, and died the year at his house in Hendon. Little Tich was born Harry Relph in Cudham, Kent and he was the last of eight children born to Richard Relph, a farmer and publican, and his wife Mary, née Moorefield. The Relph family were close and lived in relative affluence, Richard Relph was a committed family man and was known in the village for his sharp business acumen. His early wealth, which was attributed to a series of successful horse-trading deals, enabled him to purchase his first public house, in 1818 he married Sarah Ashenden and they had eight children, she died in 1845. In 1851 he moved to Cudham, bought the Blacksmiths Arms and a farm, and started a new family with the 32-year-old Mary Moorefield. Little Tich was born with a digit on each hand. He reached 4 feet 6 inches in height by the age of ten and his physical differences from other children caused him to become socially withdrawn and lonely
15.
The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu
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The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu is the first novel in the Dr. Fu Manchu series by Sax Rohmer. It collates various short stories published the preceding year, the novel was also published in US under the title The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, and was adapted into the film The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. Dr. Petrie is surprised by a late night visitor, a tall, sun baked man who turns out to be his good friend Nayland Smith of Burma, formerly of Scotland Yard, who has come directly from Burma. Fu Manchu is pursued from the dens of Limehouse in the East End of London to various country estates. He appears to be trying to capture and take back to China the best engineers of Europe, the full text of The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu at Wikisource The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu at Project Gutenberg The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu public domain audiobook at LibriVox
16.
Yellow Peril
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The Yellow Peril is a racist color-metaphor that is integral to the xenophobic theory of colonialism, that the peoples of East Asia are a danger to the Western world. As a form of xenophobia, the Yellow Terror is the white races fear of the tide of colored people from the Orient. In central Europe, the Orientalist and diplomat Max von Brandt advised Kaiser Wilhelm II that Imperial Germany had colonial interests to pursue in China, hence, the Kaiser used the phrase die Gelbe Gefahr to specifically encourage Imperial German interests and justify European colonialism in China. The Kasier justified the Triple Intervention to the Japanese empire with racialist calls-to-arms against non-existent geopolitical dangers of the race against the white race of Western Europe. Politically, the Knackfuss lithograph allowed Kaiser Wilhelm II to believe he prophesied the imminent race war that would decide global hegemony in the 20th century. Hence, by 1882, the pressure of white xenophobia compelled the U. S. government to legislate the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1900, the anti-colonial Boxer Rebellion reinforced the racist stereotypes of Asian people as a Yellow Peril to white people, the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists was a xenophobic martial-arts organization who blamed the problems of China on the presence of Western colonies in China proper. The Boxers sought to save China by killing every Western colonist, in early summer of 1900, Prince Zaiyi allowed the Boxers into Beijing, to kill Western colonists and Chinese Christians, in siege to the foreign legations. Afterwards, Ronglu, Qing Commander-in-Chief, and Yikuang, Prince Qing, in response, Great Britain, the U. S. In the Russian press, Yellow Peril ideology misrepresented anti-colonial revolt in racialist and religious terms, the press further supported the Yellow Peril apocalypse with quotations from the Sinophobic poems of the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. Historically, Yellow Peril ideology recycles Boxer-Rebellion atrocities as false-proof that Boxerism is a Chinese cultural trait, whoever falls into your hands will fall to your sword. Fearful of harm to the image of Imperial Germany, the Auswärtiges Amt published a redacted version of the Hun Speech. Yet that elaborate accompanying music, and the new ideology of the Yellow Peril stood in no relation to the actual possibilities and results of geopolitical policy based upon racist misperception. Barbaric policy The Kaiser ordered the expedition-commander, Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee, to behave barbarously, because the Chinese were, by nature, cowardly, like a dog, but also deceitful. Only the Eight-Nation Alliances refusal of barbarism to resolve the siege of the legations, in August 1900, an international military-force of Russian, Japanese, British, French, and American soldiers captured Beijing, before the German force arrived to the city. About the sacking of the city, an Australian colonist said, look at the frightful sights one sees in the streets of Peking. See the filthy, tattered rags they wrap around them, witness their shameless indecency, and picture them among your own people – Ugh. British admiral Roger Keyes recalled that, Every Chinaman. was treated as a Boxer, by the Russian and French troops, and the slaughter of men, women, and children in retaliation was revolting
17.
Sherlock Holmes
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Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian periods, though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most well-known, with Guinness World Records listing him as the most portrayed movie character in history. Auguste Dupin is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many that were created later, Conan Doyle once wrote, Each is a root from which a whole literature has developed. Where was the story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it. Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes was inspired by the figure of Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing conclusions from minute observations. However, he wrote to Doyle, You are yourself Sherlock Holmes. Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, One is thought to be Francis Tanky Smith, a policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Leicesters first private detective. Another might be Maximilien Heller, by French author Henry Cauvain and it is not known if Conan Doyle read Maximilien Heller, but in this 1871 novel, Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, polymath, cat-loving, and opium-smoking Paris-based detective. Details about Sherlock Holmess life, except for the adventures in the books, are scarce in Conan Doyles original stories, nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of the detective. An estimate of Holmess age in His Last Bow places his year of birth at 1854 and his parents are not mentioned in the stories, although Holmes mentions that his ancestors were country squires. In The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle. Mycroft has a civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. He lacks Sherlocks interest in investigation, however, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate, his earliest cases, the two take lodgings at 221B Baker Street, London, an apartment at the upper end of the street, up seventeen steps. Holmes worked as a detective for twenty-three years, with physician John Watson assisting him for seventeen and they were roommates before Watsons 1887 marriage and again after his wifes death. Their residence is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson, most of the stories are frame narratives, written from Watsons point of view as summaries of the detectives most interesting cases
18.
Stoll Pictures
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Stoll Pictures was a British film production and distribution company of the silent era, founded in April 1918. During the early to mid-1920s it was the largest firm in Britain and its major domestic rival was the Ideal Film Company. Stolls films were made at its Cricklewood Studios, although the smaller Surbiton Studios were also used during the early years of the companys existence. The company takes its name from its founder Sir Oswald Stoll, Stoll produced a series of expensive films during the early 1920s such as The Four Feathers. The studio was a victim of the Slump of 1924 and cut back production. The company became known for its film series such as Fu Manchu. The company ran its own magazine Stolls Editorial News, list of Stoll Pictures films Low, Rachael. The History of the British Film, 1918-1929
19.
Collier's
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Colliers was an American magazine, founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was initially launched as Colliers Once a Week, then changed in 1895 to Colliers Weekly, An Illustrated Journal, and finally shortened in 1905 to simply Colliers. The magazine ceased publication with the issue dated January 4,1957, though a brief, as a result of Peter Colliers pioneering investigative journalism, Colliers established a reputation as a proponent of social reform. When attempts by various companies to sue Collier ended in failure, Peter F. Collier left Ireland for the U. S. at age 17. Although he went to a seminary to become a priest, he started work as a salesman for P. J. Kenedy. When Collier wanted to boost sales by offering books on a plan, it led to a disagreement with Kenedy. P. F. Collier & Son began in 1875, expanding into the largest subscription house in America with sales of 30 million books during the 1900–1910 decade. With the issued dated April 28,1888, Colliers Once a Week was launched as a magazine of fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humor, news. It was sold with the biweekly Colliers Library of novels and popular books at bargain rates, by 1892, with a circulation climbing past the 250,000 mark, Colliers Once a Week was one of the largest selling magazines in the United States. The name was changed to Colliers Weekly, An Illustrated Journal in 1895, with an emphasis on news, the magazine became a leading exponent of the halftone news picture. To fully exploit the new technology, Collier recruited James H. Hare, Colliers only son, Robert J. Collier, became a full partner in 1898. By 1904, the magazine was known as Colliers, The National Weekly, when Robert Collier died in 1918, he left a will that turned the magazine over to three of his friends, Samuel Dunn, Harry Payne Whitney and Francis Patrick Garvan. The magazine was sold in 1919 to the Crowell Publishing Company, in 1924 Crowell moved the printing operations from New York to Springfield, Ohio but kept the editorial and business departments in New York. After 1924, printing of the magazine was done at the Crowell-Collier printing plant on West Main Street in Springfield, Ohio. The factory complex, which is standing, was built between 1899 and 1946, and incorporates seven buildings that together have more than 846,000 square feet —20 acres —of floor space. Colliers popularized the story which was often planned to fit on a single page. Knox Burger was Colliers fiction editor from 1948 to 1951 when he left to edit books for Dell and Fawcett Publications, phillips Oppenheim, J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Albert Payson Terhune and Walter Tevis. Humor writers included Parke Cummings and H. Allen Smith, serializing novels during the late 1920s, Colliers sometimes simultaneously ran two ten-part novels, and non-fiction was also serialized
20.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
21.
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
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The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is a 1929 film starring Warner Oland as Dr. Fu Manchu. It was the first Fu Manchu film of the talkie era and it was very loosely based on the novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer. A young white girl, Lia Eltham, is left in Fu Manchus care, a British regiment, chasing Boxer rebels, fires on Fu Manchus home, killing his wife and child. When Lia Eltham grows up, he uses her as an instrument for revenge, opposing Fu Manchu are Police Inspector Nayland Smith and Dr. Jack Petrie
22.
British Chinese
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They opened restaurants on the ports. Most British Chinese are descended from people who were themselves overseas Chinese when they came to Britain, most are from former British colonies, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mauritius. People from mainland China and Taiwan and their descendants constitute a minor proportion of the British Chinese community. Chinese communities are found in major cities including London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sheffield, Nottingham, Belfast. The first recorded Chinese person in Britain was Shen Fu Tsong, Shen was the first person to catalogue the Chinese collection in the Bodleian Library. The King was so taken with him he had his portrait painted, the portrait of Shen hangs in the Queens collection. The first settlement of Chinese people in the United Kingdom dates from the early 19th century, because many of the Chinese settlers were originally seamen, the first settlements started in the port cities of Liverpool, Cardiff and London. In London, the Limehouse area became the site of one of the first Chinatowns established in Britain, a Chinese seaman known as John Anthony took on this lucrative role looking after Chinese sailors for the East India Shipping Company in the late 18th and early 19th century. By 1805, Anthony had amassed both the fortune and the influence to become the first Chinese man to be naturalised as a British citizen—an act so rare it actually required an Act of Parliament. British shipping companies first started employing Chinese sailors during the Napoleonic Wars to replace the British sailors who had called up to the Royal Navy. They soon discovered that they worked for less, did not drink to excess, conditions aboard ship appalled Lee Cheong, for instance, when he visited his fathers quarters, The smell. I remember the smell and the cramped conditions. I remember going down below, rows and rows of bunks, knapsacks and all sorts of junk stuffed in every nook, lots and lots of people milling around. I couldn’t think of anything worse than those sorts of conditions, with the advent of steam in the 1860s, the recruitment of Chinese seamen increased on the trading routes from the Far East. The first Chinese student to graduate from a British university was Wong Fun who received his MD in 1855 from Edinburgh, many Chinese graduates did indeed return to make a significant contribution to their country, but some stayed. The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important celebration for Chinese and it links overseas Chinese and their descendants to their heritage, even though they live thousands of miles away from their ancestral homelands. Celebrations in London are famous for colourful parades, fireworks, the route starts in the Strand and goes along Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue. Other activities include a show in Trafalgar Square with dragon and lion dances and traditional
23.
Limehouse
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Limehouse is a district in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located 3.9 miles east of Charing Cross, It is on the bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe. The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs south to Millwall after making a bend at Cuckolds Point. The west-to-east section upstream of Cuckolds Point is properly called the Lower Pool, the name relates to the local lime kilns or, more precisely, lime oasts, by the river and operated by the large potteries that served shipping in the London Docks. The name is from Old English līm-āst lime-oast, the earliest reference is to Les Lymhostes, in 1356. The name is used in 1417, Inquisicio capta sup litus Thomisie apud Lymhosteys pro morte Thome Frank. John Baille, Matthew Holme, Robert Marle, Henry Mark, Alexander Bryan, John Goby, Richard Hervy, Walter Steel, Peter West, Richard Stowell, John Dyse, Limehouse became a significant port in late medieval times, with extensive docks and wharves. Although most cargoes were discharged in the Pool of London before the establishment of the docks, industries such as shipbuilding, ship chandlering, Limehouse Basin opened in 1820 as the Regents Canal Dock. This was an important connection between the Thames and the system, where cargoes could be transferred from larger ships to the shallow-draught canal boats. This mix of vessels can still be seen in the Basin, from the Tudor era until the 20th century, ships crews were employed on a casual basis. Crews would be paid off at the end of their voyages and, inevitably, permanent communities of foreign sailors became established, including colonies of Lascars and Africans from the Guinea Coast. Large Chinese communities at both Limehouse and Shadwell developed, established by the crews of merchantmen in the opium and tea trades, the area achieved notoriety for opium dens in the late 19th century, often featured in pulp fiction works by Sax Rohmer and others. Like much of the East End it remained a focus for immigration, on 12 February 1832, the first case of cholera was reported in London at Limehouse. First described in India in 1817, it had spread here via Hamburg, although 800 people died during this epidemic, fewer than had died of tuberculosis in the same year, cholera visited again in 1848 and 1858. The use of Limehouse Basin as a distribution hub declined with the growth of the railways, although the revival of canal traffic during World War I. Today, Stepney Historical Trust works to advance the education in the history of the area. Limehouse Basin was amongst the first docks to close in the late 1960s, by 1981, Limehouse shared the docklands-wide physical, social and economic decline which led to the setting up of the London Docklands Development Corporation. In November 1982, the LDDC published its Limehouse Area Development Strategy and this built on existing plans for Limehouse Basin, and offered a discussion framework for future development, housing refurbishment and environmental improvements across the whole of Limehouse
24.
Racism
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Racism is discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity. Today, the use of the term racism does not easily fall under a single definition, the Holocaust is the classic example of institutionalized racism which led to the death of millions of people based on their race. Ethnicity is often used in a close to one traditionally attributed to race. Therefore, racism and racial discrimination are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, according to a United Nations convention on racial discrimination, there is no distinction between the terms racial and ethnic discrimination. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life, Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, in the 19th century, many scientists subscribed to the belief that the human population can be divided into races. The term racism is a noun describing the state of being racist, the origin of the root word race is not clear. Linguists generally agree that it came to the English language from Middle French, a recent proposal is that it derives from the Arabic ras, which means head, beginning, origin or the Hebrew rosh, which has a similar meaning. Early race theorists generally held that some races were inferior to others and these early theories guided pseudo-scientific research assumptions, the collective endeavors to adequately define and form hypotheses about racial differences are generally termed scientific racism. To date, there is evidence in human genome research indicating that race can be defined in such a way as to be useful in a genetic classification of humans. An entry in the Oxford English Dictionary defines racialism simply as An earlier term than racism, but now superseded by it. The revised Oxford English Dictionary cites the shortened term racism in a quote from the year,1903. It was first defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as he theory that human characteristics and abilities are determined by race. Additionally, the Oxford English Dictionary records racism as a synonym of racialism, as its history indicates, popular use of the word racism is relatively recent. The word came into usage in the Western world in the 1930s, when it was used to describe the social and political ideology of Nazism. It is commonly agreed that racism existed before the coinage of the word, garner summarizes different existing definitions of racism and identifies three common elements contained in those definitions of racism. First, a historical, hierarchical power relationship between groups, second, a set of ideas about racial differences, and, third, the UDHR was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all form a part of humanity
25.
Harry Houdini
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Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as Harry Handcuff Houdini on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, in 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by Londons Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, while many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and he was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts. Houdini made several movies, but quit acting when it failed to bring in money and he was also a keen aviator, and aimed to become the first man to fly a plane in Australia. Erik Weisz was born in Budapest to a Jewish family and his parents were Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz and Cecília Steiner. Weisz arrived in the United States on July 3,1878, on the SS Fresia with his mother, the family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss, and Erik became Ehrich. The family lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, where his father served as Rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation, according to the 1880 census, the family lived on Appleton Street. On June 6,1882, Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen, losing his tenure at Zion in 1887, Rabbi Weiss moved with Ehrich to New York City, where they lived in a boarding house on East 79th Street. He was joined by the rest of the family once Rabbi Weiss found permanent housing, as a child, Ehrich Weiss took several jobs, making his public début as a 9-year-old trapeze artist, calling himself Ehrich, the Prince of the Air. He was also a cross country runner in his youth. When Weiss became a magician he began calling himself Harry Houdini, after the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Weiss incorrectly believed that an i at the end of a name meant like in French, in later life, Houdini claimed that the first part of his new name, Harry, was an homage to Harry Kellar, whom he also admired. When he was a teenager, Houdini was coached by the magician Joseph Rinn at the Pastime Athletic Club, Houdini became an active Freemason and was a member of St. Cecile Lodge #568 in New York City. In 1918, he registered for service as Harry Handcuff Houdini. Houdini began his career in 1891, but had little success. He appeared in a tent act with strongman Emil Jarrow and he performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as The Wild Man at a circus
26.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
27.
Relic
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In religion, a relic usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Shamanism. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning remains, and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to leave behind, a reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. In ancient Greece, a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the sanctuary of the Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda. The bones were not regarded as holding a power derived from the hero, with some exceptions. Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them, rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, the bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied. Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate, the body of the legendary Eurystheus was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack, and in Thebes, that of the prophet Amphiaraus, whose cult was oracular and healing. As with the relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in sources as gigantic. On the basis of their size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures. The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have transported to Lesbos. The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion, his place of death and these too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation. The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon the town of Libretha, according to the Chronicon Paschale, the bones of the Persian Zoroaster were venerated, but the tradition of Zoroastrianism and its scriptures offer no support of this. In Hinduism, relics are less common than in other religions since the remains of most saints are cremated. The veneration of corporal relics may have originated with the movement or the appearance of Buddhism. In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated, after the Buddhas death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism was spread, some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the much-revered Sacred Relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka. A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics, many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many also hold the ashes or ringsel of prominent/respected Buddhists who were cremated
28.
Muhammad
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Muhammad is the prophet of Islam. From a secular historical perspective he was a religious, political, from an Islamic perspective, he was Gods Messenger sent to confirm the essential teachings of monotheism preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is viewed as the prophet of God in all branches of Islam. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, born approximately 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age, he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. Muhammad gained few early followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes, to escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, in Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts, the attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he fell ill, before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. The revelations, which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the Word of God and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammads teachings and practices, found in the Hadith and sira literature, are upheld by Muslims. The name Muhammad means praiseworthy and appears four times in the Quran, Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address, thus he is referred to as the enwrapped in Quran 73,1 and the shrouded in Quran 74,1. In Sura Al-Ahzab 33,40 God singles out Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets, the Quran also refers to Muhammad as Aḥmad more praiseworthy. The name Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, begins with the kunya Abū, the Quran is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe it represents the words of God revealed by the archangel Gabriel to Muhammad, the Quran, however, provides minimal assistance for Muhammads chronological biography, most Quranic verses do not provide significant historical context. An important source may be found in the works by writers of the 2nd. These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, which additional information about Muhammads life. The earliest surviving written sira is Ibn Ishaqs Life of Gods Messenger written c.767 CE, although the work was lost, this sira was used verbatim at great length by Ibn Hisham and Al-Tabari. Another early history source is the history of Muhammads campaigns by al-Waqidi, many scholars accept the earliest biographies as accurate, though their accuracy is unascertainable
29.
Aleppo
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Aleppo is a city in Syria, serving as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,132,100, Aleppo was the largest Syrian city before the Syrian Civil War, however, now Aleppo is likely the second-largest city in Syria after the capital Damascus. Aleppo is an ancient city, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, and it was also one of the largest cities in the Levant before the advent of the Syrian Civil War. The citys significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, when the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo ceded its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, in the 1940s, it lost its main access to the sea, Antakya and İskenderun, also to Turkey. Finally, the isolation of Syria in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation and this decline may have helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its medieval architecture and traditional heritage. It won the title of the Islamic Capital of Culture 2006, during the Battle of Aleppo the city suffered massive destruction, and has been the worst-hit city in the Syrian Civil War. In December 2016, the Syrian government achieved full control of Aleppo following a successful offensive, modern-day English-speakers commonly refer to the city as Aleppo. It was known in antiquity as Khalpe, Khalibon, and to the Greeks, during the Crusades, and again during the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon of 1923–1946, the name Alep was used. Aleppo represents the Italianised version of this, the original ancient name, Halab, has survived as the current Arabic name of the city. Some have proposed that halab means iron or copper in Amorite languages, the modern-day Arabic nickname of the city, ash-Shahbaa, which means the white-colored, also allegedly derives from the famous white marble of Aleppo. From the 11th century it was common usage to apply the term Aram-Zobah to the area of Aleppo. Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists, since the city occupies its ancient site. The site has been occupied from around 5000 BC, as shown by excavations in Tallet Alsauda, Aleppo appears in historical records as an important city much earlier than Damascus. The first record of Aleppo comes from the third millennium BC, some historians, such as Wayne Horowitz, identify Aleppo with the capital of an independent kingdom closely related to Ebla, known as Armi, although this identification is contested. The main temple of the storm god Hadad was located on the hill in the center of the city. In the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Empire period, Aleppos name appears in its form as Ḥalab for the first time
30.
Scotland Yard
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Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, the territorial police force responsible for policing most of London. The name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, the Scotland Yard entrance became the public entrance to the police station, and over time the street and the Metropolitan Police became synonymous. The New York Times wrote in 1964 that just as Wall Street gave its name to New Yorks financial district, Scotland Yard became the name for police activity in London. The force moved from Great Scotland Yard in 1890, to a completed building on the Victoria Embankment. An adjacent building was completed in 1906, a third building was added in 1940. In 1967, the MPS moved its headquarters from the complex to a tall. In November 2016, MPS moved to its new headquarters, which continues to bear the name of New Scotland Yard. the sign spins around non stop and it has a camera inside it. The Metropolitan Police Service is responsible for law enforcement within Greater London, excluding the square mile of the City of London, additionally, the London Underground and National Rail networks are the responsibility of the British Transport Police. The Metropolitan Police was formed by Robert Peel with the implementation of the Metropolitan Police Act, Peel, with the help of Eugène-François Vidocq, selected the original site on Whitehall Place for the new police headquarters. The first two commissioners, Charles Rowan and Richard Mayne, along with police officers and staff. Previously a private house,4 Whitehall Place backed onto a street called Great Scotland Yard, in 1888, during the construction of the new building, workers discovered the dismembered torso of a female, the case, known as the Whitehall Mystery, was never solved. In 1890, police moved to the new location, which was named New Scotland Yard. By this time, the Metropolitan Police had grown from its initial 1,000 officers to about 13,000 and needed more administrative staff, further increases in the size and responsibilities of the force required even more administrators and space. Therefore, new buildings were constructed and completed in 1906 and 1940, the first two buildings are now a Grade I listed structure known as the Norman Shaw Buildings. The original building at 4 Whitehall Place still has an entrance on Great Scotland Yard. Stables for some of the branch are still located at 7 Great Scotland Yard. By the 1960s the requirements of modern technology and further increases in the size of the force meant that it had outgrown its three-building complex on Victoria Embankment. In 1967 New Scotland Yard moved to a newly constructed building on Broadway, from 1967 to 2016, the third building of the first New Scotland Yard was partly used as the base for the Mets Territorial Support Group
31.
Horror film
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Horror film is a film genre that seeks to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on their fears. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres, Horror films often deal with viewers nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event. Another of his projects was 1898s La Caverne maudite. Japan made early forays into the genre with Bake Jizo and Shinin no Sosei. The era featured a slew of literary adaptations, with the works of Poe and Dante, in 1908, Selig Polyscope Company produced Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first filmed version of Frankenstein, the macabre nature of the source materials used made the films synonymous with the horror film genre. Before and during the Weimar Republic era, German Expressionist filmmakers would significantly influence later productions, the first vampire-themed movie, Nosferatu, was made during this period, though it was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula. Other European countries also, contributed to the genre during this period, though the word horror to describe the film genre would not be used until the 1930s, earlier American productions often relied on horror themes. Some notable examples include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, The Cat and the Canary, The Unknown, and The Man Who Laughs. Many of these films were considered dark melodramas because of their stock characters and emotion-heavy plots that focused on romance, violence, suspense. The trend of inserting an element of macabre into American pre-horror melodramas continued into the 1920s, directors known for relying on macabre in their films during the 1920s were Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram, and Tod Browning. Ingrams The Magician contains one of the first examples of a mad doctor and is said to have had a influence on James Whales version of Frankenstein. The Unholy Three is an example of Brownings use of macabre and unique style of morbidity, he remade the film in 1930 as a talkie, during the early period of talking pictures, Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror film series. Tod Brownings Dracula was quickly followed by James Whales Frankenstein and The Old Dark House, some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror, such as Whales The Invisible Man and featured a mad scientist, mirroring earlier German films. Frankenstein was the first in a series of remakes which lasted for years, the Mummy introduced Egyptology as a theme, Make-up artist Jack Pierce was responsible for the iconic image of the monster, and others in the series. Universals horror cycle continued into the 1940s with B-movies including The Wolf Man, the once controversial Freaks, based on the short story Spurs, was made by MGM, though the studio disowned the completed film, and it remained banned, in the UK, for thirty years
32.
M. R. James
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Montague Rhodes James OM FBA, who published under the name M. R. James, was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of Kings College, Cambridge, and of Eton College. Though Jamess work as a medievalist is still regarded, he is best remembered for his ghost stories. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic clichés of his predecessors, however, Jamess protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the antiquarian ghost story, James was born in a Goodnestone, Dover clergy house in Kent, England, although his parents had associations with Aldeburgh in Suffolk. His father was Herbert James, an Evangelical Anglican clergyman, and his mother and he had two older brothers, Sydney and Herbert, and an older sister, Grace. Sydney James later became Archdeacon of Dudley, from the age of three until 1909 Jamess home, if not always his residence, was at the Rectory in Great Livermere, Suffolk. This had previously been the home of another eminent Suffolk antiquary. Several of Jamess ghost stories are set in Suffolk, including Oh, Whistle, in September 1873 he arrived as a boarder at Temple Grove School, one of the leading boys preparatory schools of the day. He lived for years, first as an undergraduate, then as a don and provost, at Kings College, Cambridge. The university provides settings for several of his tales, apart from medieval subjects, James studied the classics and appeared very successfully in a staging of Aristophanes play The Birds, with music by Hubert Parry. His ability as an actor was also apparent when he read his new ghost stories to friends at Christmas time, James is best known for his ghost stories, but his work as a medievalist scholar was prodigious and remains highly respected in scholarly circles. Indeed, the success of his stories was founded on his antiquarian talents and his 1917 edition of the Latin hagiography of Æthelberht II of East Anglia, king and martyr, remains authoritative. He catalogued many of the libraries of the colleges of the University of Cambridge. Among his other works, he wrote The Apocalypse in Art. He also translated the New Testament apocrypha and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Biblica and his ability to wear his learning lightly is apparent in his Suffolk and Norfolk, in which a great deal of knowledge is presented in a popular and accessible form, and in Abbeys. James also achieved a deal during his directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. He managed to secure a number of important paintings and manuscripts. James was Provost of Eton College from 1918 to 1936 and he was awarded the Order of Merit in 1930
33.
Mad scientist
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Some may have benevolent or good-spirited intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental villains. Frankenstein was trained as both an alchemist and a modern scientist, which makes him the bridge between two eras of an evolving archetype. The book is said to be a precursor of a new genre, science fiction, rotwangs laboratory influenced many subsequent movie sets with its electrical arcs, bubbling apparatus, and bizarrely complicated arrays of dials and controls. Rotwangs appearance was also influential—the characters shock of hair, wild-eyed demeanor. Mad scientists were most conspicuous in popular culture after World War II and that the scientific and technological build-up during the Cold War brought about increasing threats of unparalleled destruction of the human species did not lessen the impression. Mad scientists frequently figure in science fiction and motion pictures from the period, boffin Crank Creativity techniques Creativity and mental illness List of mad scientists Megalomania Steins, Gate Garboden, Nick. Mad Scientist or Angry Lab Tech, How to Spot Insanity, from Faust to Strangelove, Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature. Christopher Frayling – Mad, Bad and Dangerous, the Scientist and the Cinema ISBN 1-86189-255-1 Junge, Torsten, Doerthe Ohlhoff. Wahnsinnig genial, Der Mad Scientist Reader, the Insanity Hoax, Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius. Shrinktunes Media ISBN 978-0-98369-824-1 Schneider, Reto U,100 Amazing Experiments from the History of Science. Monsters and Mad Scientists, A Cultural History of the Horror Movie, nuclear Fear, A History of Images
34.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
35.
Influenza A virus subtype H2N2
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H2N2 is a subtype of the influenza A virus. H2N2 has mutated into various strains including the Asian flu strain, H3N2 and it is also suspected of causing a human pandemic in 1889. The geographic spreading of the 1889 Russian flu have been studied and published, some researchers have asserted that the 1889–1890 flu pandemic was caused by the influenzavirus A virus subtype H2N2. More recent research has suggested H3N8 as a likely cause. It is the earliest flu pandemic for which detailed records are available, the 1889 pandemic, known as the Russian Flu, began in Russia and spread rapidly throughout Europe. It reached North America in December 1889 and spread to Latin America, about 1 million people died in this pandemic. The category 2 Asian flu pandemic outbreak of influenza A virus originated in China in early 1956, some authors believe it originated from a mutation in wild ducks combining with a pre-existing human strain. The virus was first identified in Guizhou and it spread to Singapore in February 1957, reached Hong Kong by April, and the US by June. The death toll in the US was about 69,800, estimates of worldwide deaths caused by this pandemic varies widely depending on source, ranging from one to four million, with WHO settling on about two million. Asian flu was of the H2N2 subtype of type A influenza, the Asian flu strain later evolved via antigenic shift into H3N2, which caused a milder pandemic from 1968 to 1969. Both the H2N2 and H3N2 pandemic strains contained avian influenza virus RNA segments, from October 2004 to February 2005, approximately 3,700 test kits of the 1957 H2N2 virus were accidentally spread around the world from the College of American Pathologists. CAP spokesman Dr. Jared Schwartz said Meridian knew what the virus was, in selecting it, the company had determined that the virus was classified as a biosafety level 2 agent, which meant it could legally be used in the kits. Before the problem came to light, the CDC had made a recommendation that the H2N2 virus be reclassified as a BSL-3 agent and she promised to speed up the reclassification. The CDC determines the classifications in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, in BSL-3 labs, agents are handled with equipment designed to prevent any airborne contamination and resulting respiratory exposure. The 1957 H2N2 virus is considered deadly and the U. S. government called for the vials containing the strain to be destroyed, CDC officials reported on 21 April that 99% of the samples had already been destroyed. News reports on 25 April said the last samples outside the United States had been destroyed at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, after they were found at the Beirut airport. Earlier reports said H2N2 samples were sent to 3,747 labs under CAP auspices, all but about 75 labs that received the CAP samples were in the United States. In the United States, there is no government regulation over the 1957 flu strain, in fact, federal officials at the CDC do not even know how many U. S. laboratories keep this deadly strain in their viral libraries
36.
Biography
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A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a persons life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a persons life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing, works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography. An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, an autobiography is written by the person himself or herself, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter. At first, biographical writings were regarded merely as a subsection of history with a focus on an individual of historical importance. The independent genre of biography as distinct from general history writing, began to emerge in the 18th century, one of the earliest of the biographers was Plutarch, and his Parallel Lives, published about 80 A. D. covers prominent figures in the classical world. Cornelius Nepos published a work, his Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae. Perhaps the earliest extant biography that does not contain mythological material is The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius, in the early Middle Ages, there was a decline in awareness of the classical culture in Europe. During this time, the only repositories of knowledge and records of the history in Europe were those of the Roman Catholic Church. Hermits, monks, and priests used this period to write biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the fathers, martyrs, popes. Their works were meant to be inspirational to the people and vehicles for conversion to Christianity, one significant secular example of a biography from this period is the life of Charlemagne by his courtier Einhard. Early biographical dictionaries were published as compendia of famous Islamic personalities from the 9th century onwards and they contained more social data for a large segment of the population than other works of that period. And then began the documentation of the lives of other historical figures who lived in the medieval Islamic world. By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented in Europe as biographies of kings, knights, the most famous of such biographies was Le Morte dArthur by Sir Thomas Malory. The book was an account of the life of the fabled King Arthur, following Malory, the new emphasis on humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in the vernacular. Giorgio Vasaris Lives of the Artists was the landmark biography focusing on secular lives, vasari made celebrities of his subjects, as the Lives became an early bestseller. Two other developments are noteworthy, the development of the press in the 15th century
37.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
38.
The Manchurian Candidate
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The novel has been adapted twice into a feature film by the same title, in 1962 and again in 2004. Major Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and the rest of their infantry platoon are captured during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and are brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat – for which Congress awards him the Medal of Honor. When Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon also has been suffering the same nightmare, he sets to uncover the mystery and its meaning. It is revealed that the Communists have been using Shaw as a sleeper agent, provoked by the appearance of the card, he obeys orders which he then forgets. Marco discovers the trigger of the Queen of Diamonds and meets with Shaw at the Central Park Zoo shortly before the national convention. Marco reprograms Shaw, although the reader is unsure until the final if it worked. At the convention, Shaw instead shoots his mother and Senator Iselin, Marco is the first of the authorities to reach Shaws sniper nest just before Shaw kills himself. In 1998, software developer C. J. Silverio noted that several passages of the novel seemed to be adapted from Robert Graves 1934 novel I. Forensic linguist John Olsson judged that There can be no disputing that Richard Condon plagiarized from Robert Graves. Olsson went on to state that As plagiarists go, Condon is quite creative, the Manchurian Candidate has been adapted twice into a feature film by the same title. The first film, released in 1962, is considered a classic of the thriller genre. It was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Laurence Harvey as Shaw, Frank Sinatra as Marco, the second film, released in 2004, was directed by Jonathan Demme, and starred Liev Schreiber as Shaw, Denzel Washington as Marco, and Meryl Streep as Eleanor. It was generally received by critics, and moderately successful at the box office. The film updated the conflict to the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the movie adaptations also omit the novels portrayal of incest between Raymond and his mother, only hinting at it with a mouth-to-mouth kiss. Both adaptations discard several elements of the book, the book spends more time describing the brain-washers and the facility in Manchuria where the Americans were held. In the novel, Mrs. Iselin and her son travel abroad, rosie, Marcos love interest, is also the ex-fiancee of one of his associates handling the Shaw case for Army Intelligence, making things between them tense. As a child, Mrs. Iselin was sexually abused by her father but fell in love with him, towards the end of the book, as Raymond is hypnotized by the Queen of Diamonds, he reminds her of her father and she sleeps with him
39.
Henry Brandon (actor)
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Born Heinrich von Kleinbach in Berlin, Germany in 1912, his parents emigrated to the United States while he was still an infant. He made his motion picture debut in 1932 as a spectator at the Colosseum in The Sign of the Cross. In 1934 he played the role of Silas Barnaby, the villain in the Stan Laurel, in 1936, having until then been performing under his real name of Henry Kleinbach, he adopted the stage name of Henry Brandon. He portrayed the villainous manager of a company in Our Gang Follies of 1938. He played the character of Renouf, a deserter from the French Foreign Legion, in 1940 he featured in the title role of the successful Republic serial Drums of Fu Manchu. In 1943 he played Major Ruck, a British Secret Agent in the guise of an SS officer in Edge of Darkness. Kleinbach, standing at 6 ft 4 in height, managed to make Errol Flynn look short in the scenes in which appeared together in Edge of Darkness in spite of Flynns height of 6 ft 2. In 1948 he appeared as Giles de Rais in Joan of Arc and he played a French army captain in Vera Cruz. In 1955 he portrayed Nate Champion, the first casualty of the Johnson County War of Wyoming and he portrayed Jesse James in Hells Crossroads. In 1958 he portrayed Acacius Page in Auntie Mame, in 1959, he played the role of Gator Joe in Woman in the River in the ABC/Warner Brothers crime drama, Bourbon Street Beat. On October 12,1959 he played the role of Jason in Euripides Medea as a part of the Play of the Week television series, Brandon often played non-European characters, especially Native Americans in Westerns. He also played the Chinese villain Fu Manchu and he appeared as the African tribal chieftain MTara in Tarzan and the She-Devil. In 1956 he played the villain, a Comanche chieftain called Scar. In 1960 he played a Native American character again as Running Wolf in the episode Gold Seeker in the television series The Rebel and he played Oriental characters in two 1961 episodes, viz. Angel of Death, and The Assassins, of the ABC television series Adventures in Paradise, in 1961 he played an American Indian chieftain again in John Fords Two Rode Together. Kleinbach had a relationship with the actor Mark Herron. Kleinbach lived in West Hollywood in his final years and he died on 15 February 1990 of a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in his 77th year in Los Angeles. His body was cremated, and its ashes were scattered at an undisclosed theatre location
40.
Drums of Fu Manchu
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Drums of Fu Manchu is a 15-chapter Republic movie serial based on the character created by Sax Rohmer. Though using the title of the novel in the series, it actually is based on numerous elements from throughout the series to that point. It starred Henry Brandon, William Royle and Robert Kellard and it was directed by the legendary serial team of William Witney and John English and is often considered one of the best movie serials ever made. Fu Manchu attempts to conquer the world by acquiring the Sceptre of Genghis Khan, Henry Brandon as Fu Manchu William Royle as Sir Denis Nayland Smith Robert Kellard as Allan Parker Gloria Franklin as Fah Lo Suee Olaf Hytten as Dr. It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1940, although this year was the first in which Republics overall spending on serial production was less than in the previous year, Republic spent $597,528 producing serials in 1940 compared to $648,064 in 1939. The studio produced four serials in each year, with the mix of two 12-chapter serials and two 15-chapter serials. The serial was filmed between December 22,1939 and February 7,1940, the longest filming period of any Republic serial, the serials production number was 995. Directors Witney and English, working with photographer William Nobles, stressed the elements of mystery in the plot over the usual action, strong use of shadows was made with the eeriest lighting possible falling upon Fu Manchu. It was one of the rare films made under the Production Code to allow the villain to escape at the end. Drums of Fu Manchus official release date is March 15,1940, a 69-minute feature film version, created by editing the serial footage together, was released on November 27,1943. The feature version had the working titles Fu Manchu and Fu Manchu Strikes and it was one of fourteen feature films Republic made from their serials. This version changed the ending of the film, Fu Manchus escape at the end is edited out and he dies in the final car crash instead. A similar change was made in the version of the Victory Pictures serial Shadow of Chinatown. Harmon and Glut regard Drums of Fu Manchu as one of Republics best film serials, Brandon as Fu Manchu is, in Clines opinion, a performance that stands alone. Hans J. Wollstein, writing at Allmovie, concurs that Drums of Du Fu Manchu is one of very best serials. He does, however, note mistakes such as the misspelling of Ghengis Khan and Fu Manchu referring to Mary Randolph as Miss Parker, in terms of acting, Brandon is a compelling and strangely ageless fiend while Kellard is competent as the action hero. Witney and English are afforded the usual praise for their work, source, This was one of Republics two 15-chapter serials in 1940. The other was Mysterious Doctor Satan, following their standard practice of 1938-1944, Republic also released two 12-chapter serials in this year, Adventures of Red Ryder and King of the Royal Mounted
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Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
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Project Gutenberg
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Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library, most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, as of 3 October 2015, Project Gutenberg reached 50,000 items in its collection. The releases are available in plain text but, wherever possible, other formats are included, such as HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, most releases are in the English language, but many non-English works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that are providing additional content, including regional, Project Gutenberg is also closely affiliated with Distributed Proofreaders, an Internet-based community for proofreading scanned texts. Project Gutenberg was started by Michael Hart in 1971 with the digitization of the United States Declaration of Independence, Hart, a student at the University of Illinois, obtained access to a Xerox Sigma V mainframe computer in the universitys Materials Research Lab. Through friendly operators, he received an account with an unlimited amount of computer time. Hart has said he wanted to back this gift by doing something that could be considered to be of great value. His initial goal was to make the 10,000 most consulted books available to the public at little or no charge and this particular computer was one of the 15 nodes on ARPANET, the computer network that would become the Internet. Hart believed that computers would one day be accessible to the general public and he used a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence in his backpack, and this became the first Project Gutenberg e-text. He named the project after Johannes Gutenberg, the fifteenth century German printer who propelled the movable type printing press revolution, by the mid-1990s, Hart was running Project Gutenberg from Illinois Benedictine College. More volunteers had joined the effort, all of the text was entered manually until 1989 when image scanners and optical character recognition software improved and became more widely available, which made book scanning more feasible. Hart later came to an arrangement with Carnegie Mellon University, which agreed to administer Project Gutenbergs finances, as the volume of e-texts increased, volunteers began to take over the projects day-to-day operations that Hart had run. Starting in 2004, an online catalog made Project Gutenberg content easier to browse, access. Project Gutenberg is now hosted by ibiblio at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Italian volunteer Pietro Di Miceli developed and administered the first Project Gutenberg website and started the development of the Project online Catalog. In his ten years in this role, the Project web pages won a number of awards, often being featured in best of the Web listings, Hart died on 6 September 2011 at his home in Urbana, Illinois at the age of 64. In 2000, a corporation, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Long-time Project Gutenberg volunteer Gregory Newby became the foundations first CEO, also in 2000, Charles Franks founded Distributed Proofreaders, which allowed the proofreading of scanned texts to be distributed among many volunteers over the Internet
