1.
Swimming
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Human swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water or another liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as an evolutionary response. Swimming is consistently among top public recreational activities, and in some countries, as a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern summer Olympics, which takes place every four years. Swimming relies on the buoyancy of the human body. On average, the body has a density of 0.98 compared to water. However, buoyancy varies on the basis of body composition and the salinity of the water. Higher levels of fat and saltier water both lower the relative density of the body and increase its buoyancy. Since the human body is slightly less dense than water, water supports the weight of the body during swimming. As a result, swimming is “low-impact” compared to land such as running. The density and viscosity of water also create resistance for objects moving through the water, Swimming strokes use this resistance to create propulsion, but this same resistance also generates drag on the body. Hydrodynamics is important to stroke technique for swimming faster, and swimmers who want to swim faster or tire less try to reduce the drag of the motion through the water. Just before plunging into the pool, swimmers may perform such as squatting. Squatting helps in enhancing a swimmer’s start by warming up the thigh muscles, human babies demonstrate an innate swimming or diving reflex from newborn until the age of approximately 6 months. Other mammals also demonstrate this phenomenon, Swimming can be undertaken using a wide range of styles, known as strokes, and these strokes are used for different purposes, or to distinguish between classes in competitive swimming. It is not necessary to use a stroke for propulsion through the water. There are four main strokes used in competition and recreation swimming, the front crawl, also known as freestyle, the breaststroke, the backstroke, competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using the breaststroke. In 1873, John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times, and the earliest records of swimming date back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC, some of the earliest references include the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, and other sagas
2.
Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics
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The swimming competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place from 9 to 17 August 2008 at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre. The newly introduced open water marathon events were held on 20 and 21 August 2008 at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, Swimming featured 34 events, including two 10 km open-water marathons. The remaining 32 were contested in a 50 m long course pool within the Olympic Park, united States claimed a total of 31 medals in the leaderboard to maintain its standings as the most successful nation in swimming. A stellar performance in the pool made a Olympic history for Michael Phelps, who captured eight gold medals to break Mark Spitzs 1972 record. Despite the male swimmers failing to attain a gold in swimming. Meanwhile, Great Britain finished third with a total of six medals by the benefit of a sterling long-distance freestyle double from Rebecca Adlington, a total of 25 world records and 65 Olympic records were set during the competition. All the swimming, synchronized swimming, and diving events of the 2008 Olympics were held at the Beijing National Aquatics Center, the main pool is about 10 feet deep,3 feet deeper than any other Olympic pool. The lane lines, nicknamed wave eaters, buffer the waves produced by swimmers while they stroke, the technological advances of the pool were enhanced by several advantages inherent to an indoor swimming venue, namely, temperature, humidity and lighting control. Even the wide decks were built to give the swimmers a sense of space. The swimming program for 2008 was expanded from 2004, with the addition of the 10 km marathon open water swimming events, bringing the total number of events to 34. For the pool events, prelims were held in the evening, with semifinals and final in the morning session. An NOC may also enter a maximum of 1 qualified relay team per event, nOCs may enter swimmers regardless of time if they have no swimmers meeting qualifying B standard. A total of 1,026 swimmers from 162 nations would compete in swimming events at these Olympic Games, american Samoa, Botswana, Comoros, Congo Democratic Republic, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, and Tanzania made their official debut in swimming. Meanwhile, Belgium, Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Netherlands Antilles, nations with swimmers at the Games are, Retrieved from 2008 NBC Olympics website. * Swimmers who participated in the only and received medals. * Swimmers who participated in the only and received medals. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, new records were set 25 times and new Olympic records were set 65 times. Only Ian Thorpes 3,40.59 in the 400 metres freestyle and Inge de Bruijns 56.61 in the 100 metres butterfly, another big change to swimming occurred when Speedo launched the LZR Racer swim suits on February 13,2008
3.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
4.
FINA
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FINA or Fédération internationale de natation is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee for administering international competition in water sports. It is one of several international federations which administer a given sport/discipline for the IOC and/or international community and it is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. FINA currently oversees competition in five sports, swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo. Beginning in 2013, high diving emerged as a discipline within FINA, FINA also oversees Masters competition in its disciplines. On 24 July 2009, Julio Maglione of Uruguay was elected FINA President and it is not necessarily the number of members in the continental association. The FINA membership meets every four years, usually coinciding with the World Championships, there are two types of normal or ordinary congress, General and Technical. FINA’s highest authority is the General Congress, any technical issues concerning FINA’s five aquatic disciplines are decided by the Technical Congress. Each Congress has two voting members from each Member federation, plus the following non-voting members, the 22 members of the Bureau, the Honorary Life President, the Technical Congress has the following additional non-voting members, all members from the respective Technical Committees. Extraordinary Congress are also called time to time, to deal with a specific topic or area of concern. All Congress meetings are chaired by FINAs president and it is the Bureau that elects the FINA Executive Officers. Various committees and commission also help with the oversight of individual disciplines, each presidential term is four years, beginning and concluding with the year following the Summer Olympics. FINA organizes one championship involving each of the five disciplines it oversees, as well championships, the biggest FINA event is the biennial World Aquatics Championships, currently held every odd year. It features competitions in all five aquatic disciplines, prior to 2000, the event was held every 4 years, in the even year between Olympic Games. Bi-annual event, swum in 25-meter length pool, Water Polo, Water Polo World Leagues. Diving, Diving World Series Open Water, World Open Water Swimming Championships, High Diving, High Diving World Cup Masters, World Masters Championships. This championships features all 5 disciplines, grand Prix, Annual race/competition series of multiple events in open water. Junior Worlds, A world-level championships restricted to a younger age population, held in swimming, water polo, diving, and synchronized swimming
5.
Swimming pool
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A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or paddling pool is a structure designed to hold water to enable swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground or built above ground, many health clubs, fitness centers and private clubs, such as the YMCA, have pools used mostly for exercise or recreation. Many towns and cities provide public pools, many hotels have pools available for their guests to use at their leisure. Educational facilities such as universities typically have pools for physical education classes, recreational activities, hot tubs and spas are pools filled with hot water, used for relaxation or hydrotherapy, and are common in homes, hotels, and health clubs. Special swimming pools are used for diving, specialized water sports, physical therapy as well as for the training of lifeguards. Swimming pools may be heated or unheated, the Great Bath at the site of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan was most likely the first swimming pool, dug during the 3rd millennium BC. This pool is 12 by 7 metres, is lined with bricks, ancient Greeks and Romans built artificial pools for athletic training in the palaestras, for nautical games and for military exercises. Roman emperors had private swimming pools in which fish were also kept, the first heated swimming pool was built by Gaius Maecenas of Rome in the 1st century BC. Gaius Maecenas was a rich Roman lord and considered one of the first patrons of arts, ancient Sinhalese built pairs of pools called Kuttam Pokuna in the kingdom of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka in the 4th century BC. They were decorated with flights of steps, punkalas or pots of abundance, Swimming pools became popular in Britain in the mid-19th century. As early as 1837, six indoor pools with diving boards existed in London, the Maidstone Swimming Club in Maidstone, Kent is believed to be the oldest surviving swimming club in Britain. It was formed in 1844, in response to concerns over drownings in the River Medway, the club used to swim in the River Medway, and would hold races, diving competitions and water polo matches. The South East Gazette July 1844 reported an aquatic breakfast party, coffee, the coffee was kept hot over a fire, club members had to tread water and drink coffee at the same time. The last swimmers managed to overturn the raft, to the amusement of 150 spectators, the Amateur Swimming Association was founded in 1869 in England, and the Oxford Swimming Club in 1909. The presence of indoor baths in the area of Merton Street might have persuaded the less hardy of the aquatic brigade to join. So, bathers gradually became swimmers, and bathing pools became swimming pools, in 1939, Oxford created its first major public indoor pool at Temple Cowley. The modern Olympic Games started in 1896 and included swimming races, in the US, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia clubhouse boasts one of the worlds first modern above-ground swimming pools. The first swimming pool to go to sea on an ocean liner was installed on the White Star Lines Adriatic in 1907, the oldest known public swimming pool in America, Underwood Pool, is located in Belmont, Massachusetts
6.
Open water swimming
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Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3,1810. In the first edition of the modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, in 2000, the Olympic Games first included a triathlon with a 1500 m swim leg, and in 2008, a 10 km open water swim. The FINA World Aquatics Championships features open water swimming events since 1992, the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships was held from 2000 to 2010. Since 2007, the FINA10 km Marathon Swimming World Cup is held in several events around the world. The activity has grown in popularity in recent years with the publication of bestselling books on wild swimming by authors such as Kate Rew and Daniel Start, and Waterlog by Roger Deakin. Events such as the Midmar Mile in South Africa, Great Swim in the UK, have helped create, though most open water races do not require a specific stroke, most competitors employ the front crawl also known as freestyle. The efficiency of this stroke was demonstrated by Gertrude Ederle, who, as the first woman to swim the English Channel, when covering large distances, swimmers may head off course due to current, waves, wind, and poor visibility. Typically, buoys are stationed periodically across an expanse to provide guidance. However, buoys are often due to interference from choppy water. Drafting, which is prohibited by some race regulations, is the technique of following another swimmer so closely that water resistance is reduced. When swimming closely alongside or behind a swimmer in the lead swimmers wake, resistance is reduced, in calmer conditions, or when facing surface chop, swimmers can also significantly benefit from swimming immediately behind or closely alongside a swimmer of comparable or faster speed. Not all race organizers permit drafting, and swimmers can run the risk of disqualification if they are caught, when entering the water, swimmers can use techniques to take advantage of the shallow water. One such technique is walking along the bottom, another technique is dolphining, which involves diving down to the bottom and launching oneself upwards and forwards. This technique can help to avoid incoming waves. When exiting the water, swimmers can body surf to take advantage of waves, the equipment allowed in a race depends on the sanctioning body and/or the race organizers. For example, races may have divisions for wetsuits and/or relays, may require escort boats / kayakers / paddleboards, some swimmers tend to keep it simple, using a basic swimsuit, goggles, and swim cap. Many records are based on that attire, which is known as channel attire because it is stipulated in the rules for English Channel crossings and the rules for other long swims
7.
Olympic Games
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The Olympic Games are considered the worlds foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years. Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in changes to the Olympic Games. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, as a result, the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship, World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916,1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games, the Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations, National Olympic Committees, and organising committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, the IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and symbols, such as the Olympic flag and torch, over 13,000 athletes compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals, gold, silver, the Games have grown so much that nearly every nation is now represented. This growth has created numerous challenges and controversies, including boycotts, doping, bribery, every two years the Olympics and its media exposure provide unknown athletes with the chance to attain national and sometimes international fame. The Games also constitute an opportunity for the host city and country to themselves to the world. The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic but also combat such as wrestling. It has been written that during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or truce and this idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were travelling to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were protected by Zeus
8.
FINA World Aquatics Championships
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The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports, swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, synchronized swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events are contested in a long course pool, the event was first held in 1973, and is now held every two years. From 1978 to 1998, the World Championships were held four years. From 2001 on, the Championships have been every two years, in the odd years. Updated after the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, united States,1978, Except as noted below, there are male and female categories for each event
9.
Paralympic Games
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There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee, the Paralympics has grown from a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948 to become one of the largest international sporting events by the early 21st century. Paralympians strive for equal treatment with non-disabled Olympic athletes, but there is a funding gap between Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Given the wide variety of disabilities that Paralympic athletes have, there are categories in which the athletes compete. The allowable disabilities are broken down into ten eligible impairment types and these categories are further broken down into classifications, which vary from sport to sport. The first athlete to do so was German American gymnast George Eyser in 1904, hungarian Karoly Takacs competed in shooting events in both the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He was an amputee and could shoot left-handed. The first organized athletic day for disabled athletes that coincided with the Olympic Games took place on the day of the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, the first games were called the 1948 International Wheelchair Games, and were intended to coincide with the 1948 Olympics. Dr. Guttmans aim was to create a sports competition for people with disabilities that would be equivalent to the Olympic Games. The games were again at the same location in 1952. These early competitions, also known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, have described as the precursors of the Paralympic Games. There have been milestones in the Paralympic movement. The first official Paralympic Games, no longer open solely to war veterans, was held in Rome in 1960,400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games. Since 1960, the Paralympic Games have taken place in the year as the Olympic Games. The Games were initially only to athletes in wheelchairs, at the 1976 Summer Games, athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a Summer Paralympics. With the inclusion of more disability classifications the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries, the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea, was another milestone for the Paralympic movement. It was in Seoul that the Paralympic Summer Games were held directly after the Olympic Summer Games, in the same host city and this set a precedent that was followed in 1992,1996 and 2000. It was eventually formalized in an agreement between the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee in 2001, and was extended through 2020
10.
Butterfly stroke
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The butterfly is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving symmetrically, accompanied by the butterfly kick. It is the newest swimming style swum in competition, first swum in 1933, the peak speed of the butterfly is faster than that of the front crawl, or freestyle due to the synchronous pull/push with both arms and legs. Yet since speed drops significantly during the phase, it is overall slightly slower than front crawl. Another reason it is slower is because of the different physical exertion it puts on the swimmer compared to the freestyle. The breaststroke, backstroke, and front crawl can all be swum easily even if the technique is flawed. The butterfly, however, is unforgiving of mistakes in style, many swimmers and coaches consider it the most difficult swimming style. Once efficient technique has developed, it becomes a smooth. Australian Sydney Cavill, son of the swimming professor Frederick Cavill, was 220 yards amateur champion of Australia at the age of 16 and is credited as the originator of the butterfly stroke and he followed his famous brothers to America and coached notable swimmers at San Franciscos Olympic Club. In late 1933 Henry Myers swam a butterfly stroke in competition at the Brooklyn Central YMCA, the butterfly style evolved from the breaststroke. David Armbruster, swimming coach at the University of Iowa, researched the breaststroke, in 1934 Armbruster refined a method to bring the arms forward over the water in a breaststroke. While the butterfly was difficult, it brought an improvement in speed. He called this style Dolphin fishtail kick, Armbruster and Sieg quickly found that combining these techniques created a very fast swimming style consisting of butterfly arms with two dolphin kicks per cycle. Richard Rhodes claims that Volney Wilson invented the Dolphin after studying fish, currently, the entire style is referred to as butterfly, but sometimes still also called dolphin, especially when referring to the dolphin kick. This new style was considerably faster than a regular breaststroke, using this technique Jack Sieg swam 100 yards in 1,00.2. However, the dolphin fishtail kick violated the rules set by FINA and was not allowed. Therefore, the arms with a breaststroke kick were used by a few swimmers in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin for the breaststroke competitions. The 1956 Summer Olympics were the first Olympic games where the butterfly was swam as a competition,100 m and 200 m. The butterfly technique with the dolphin kick consists of synchronous arm movement with a leg kick
11.
Backstroke
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Backstroke is one of the four swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disadvantage of not being able to see where they are going. It is also the only competition swimming style that has a different start, the swimming style is similar to an upside down front crawl. Both backstroke and front crawl are long-axis strokes, in individual medley backstroke is the second style swum, in the medley relay it is the first style swum. Backstroke is an ancient style of swimming, popularized by Harry Hebner and it was the second stroke to be swum in competitions after the front crawl. The first Olympic backstroke competition was the 1900 Paris Olympics mens 200 meter, in the initial position, the swimmer performing backstroke lies flat on the back, arms stretched with extended fingertips, and legs extended backwards. In backstroke, the arms contribute most of the forward movement, the arm stroke consists of two main parts, the power phase and the recovery. The arms alternate so that one arm is underwater while the other arm is recovering. One complete arm turn is considered one cycle, from the initial position, one arm sinks slightly under water and turns the palm outward to start the catch phase. The hand enters downward then pulling out at a 45 degree angle, during the power phase the hand follows a semi-circular path from the catch to the side of the hip. The palm is facing away from the swimming direction, while remaining straight as an extension of the arm. This is done so that both the arms and the elbow can push the maximum amount of back in order to push the body forward. At the height of the shoulders, the upper and lower arms should have their maximum angle of about 90 degrees and this is called the Mid-Pull of the power phase. The Mid-Pull phase consists of pushing the palm of the hand as far down as possible with the fingers pointing upward, again, the goal is to push the body forward against the water. At the very end of the Mid-Pull, the flaps down for a last push forward down to a depth of 45 cm. Besides pushing the body forward, this helps with the rolling back to the other side as part of the body movement. During the power phase, the fingers of the hand can be slightly apart, to prepare for the recovery phase, the hand is rotated so that the palms point towards the legs and the thumb side points upwards. At the beginning of the phase of the one arm
12.
Freestyle swimming
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Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming competitions, with distances reaching 1500m. The stroke used almost universally in freestyle races is the front crawl, for this reason, the term freestyle is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym for front crawl when in fact it means one is mostly free to choose a style. Freestyle swimming implies to the freedom to choose any style for competitive swimming. The front crawl is most commonly chosen by swimmers, as this provides the greatest speed, during a race, the competitor circles the arms forward in alternation and kicks the feet up and down. Although competitors can choose any motion during the stroke, it is not common to see someone doing dog paddle. Stand-alone freestyle events can also be using one of the officially regulated strokes. For the freestyle part of swimming competitions, however, one cannot use breaststroke, butterfly. Front crawl is based on the Trudgen that was improved by Richmond Cavill from Sydney, Cavill developed the stroke by observing a young boy from the Solomon Islands, Alick Wickham. Cavill and his brothers spread the Australian crawl to England, New Zealand, Richmond Cavill used this stroke in 1902 at an International Championships in England to set a new world record by swimming 100 yards in 58.4 seconds. Freestyle competitions have also been completely and partially in other styles. During the Olympic Games, front crawl is swum almost exclusively during freestyle. Some of the few rules are that swimmers must touch the end of the pool during each length, as with all competitive events, false starts are not allowed. Times have consistently dropped over the due to better training techniques. In the first four Olympics, competitions were not held in pools, the 1904 Olympics freestyle race was the only one ever measured at 100 yards, instead of the usual 100 metres. A 100-metre pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and sat in the center of the stadiums track. The 1912 Olympics, held in the Stockholm harbour, marked the beginning of electronic timing, male swimmers wore full body suits up until the 1940s, which caused more drag in the water than their modern swimwear counterparts. The 1924 Olympics were the first to use the standard 50 metre pool with marked lanes, in the freestyle, swimmers originally dove from the pool walls, but diving blocks were eventually incorporated at the 1936 Olympics. The tumble turn, better known as the turn, was developed in the 1950s
13.
Relay
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A relay is an electrically operated switch. Many relays use an electromagnet to operate a switch, but other operating principles are also used. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a separate low-power signal, the first relays were used in long distance telegraph circuits as amplifiers, they repeated the signal coming in from one circuit and re-transmitted it on another circuit. Relays were used extensively in telephone exchanges and early computers to perform logical operations, a type of relay that can handle the high power required to directly control an electric motor or other loads is called a contactor. Solid-state relays control power circuits with no moving parts, instead using a device to perform switching. Magnetic latching relays require one pulse of power to move their contacts in one direction. Repeated pulses from the same input have no effect, magnetic latching relays are useful in applications where interrupted power should not be able to transition the contacts. Magnetic latching relays can have single or dual coils. On a single device, the relay will operate in one direction when power is applied with one polarity. On a dual coil device, when polarized voltage is applied to the coil the contacts will transition. AC controlled magnetic latch relays have single coils that employ steering diodes to differentiate between operate and reset commands, american scientist Joseph Henry is often claimed to have invented a relay in 1835 in order to improve his version of the electrical telegraph, developed earlier in 1831. However, there is little in the way of documentation to suggest he had made the discovery prior to 1837. It is claimed that English inventor Edward Davy certainly invented the electric relay in his electric telegraph c.1835, a simple device, which is now called a relay, was included in the original 1840 telegraph patent of Samuel Morse. The mechanism described acted as an amplifier, repeating the telegraph signal. This overcame the problem of limited range of earlier telegraphy schemes, the word relay appears in the context of electromagnetic operations from 1860. The armature is hinged to the yoke and mechanically linked to one or more sets of moving contacts, the armature is held in place by a spring so that when the relay is de-energized there is an air gap in the magnetic circuit. In this condition, one of the two sets of contacts in the relay pictured is closed, and the set is open. Other relays may have more or fewer sets of contacts depending on their function, the relay in the picture also has a wire connecting the armature to the yoke
14.
Swimsuit
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Swimwear is clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Different types may be worn by men, women, and children, a swimsuit can be worn as an undergarment in sports that require a wetsuit such as water skiing, scuba diving, surfing, and wakeboarding. There is a wide range of styles of modern swimsuits available. The choice of style may depend on community standards of modesty, as well as current fashions, the choice will also consider the occasion, for example whether it is to be worn for a passive occasion such as sunbathing or for an activity such as surfing or competition. Swimwear for men usually exposes the chest, while suits for women usually cover at least the breasts, rayon was used in the 1920s in the manufacture of tight-fitting swimsuits, but its durability, especially when wet, proved problematic, with jersey and silk also sometimes being used. In the 1930s, new materials were being developed and use in swimwear, particularly latex and nylon, while they go through many trends in pattern, length and cut there is not much modification to the original variety of suit. A recent innovation is the burqini, favored by some Muslim women and these are an updated version of full-body swimwear, which has been available for centuries, but conforms with Islams traditional emphasis on modest dress. In Egypt, the term Sharia swimsuit is used to describe full-body swimwear, swimsuits can be skin-tight or loose-fitting. They are often lined with another layer of fabric if the fabric becomes transparent when wet. Swimsuits range from designs that almost completely cover the body to designs that expose almost all of the body, the choice of swimsuit will depend on personal and community standards of modesty and on considerations such as how much or how little sun protection is desired, and prevailing fashions. Almost all swimsuits cover the genitals and pubic hair, while most except thongs or G-string cover much or all of the buttocks, most swimsuits in western culture leave at least the head, shoulders, arms, and lower part of the leg exposed. Womens swimsuits generally cover at least the aereola and bottom half of the breasts, in many countries, young girls and sometimes women choose not to wear a swimsuit top, and this can vary with the occasion, location, age, etc. Both men and women may sometimes wear swimsuits covering more of the body when swimming in cold water, in colder temperatures, the swimwear is needed to conserve body heat and protect the body core from hypothermia. Competitive swimwear generally refers to the swimsuit, clothing, equipment and accessories used in the sports of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, triathlon. Some swimsuits are designed specifically for swimming competitions where they may be constructed of a low resistance fabric that reduces skin drag. For some kinds of swimming and diving, special bodysuits called diveskins are worn and these suits are made from spandex and provide little thermal protection, but they do protect the skin from stings and abrasion. Most competitive swimmers also wear special swimsuits including partial bodysuits, racerback styles, jammers, unlike regular swimsuits, which are designed mainly for the aesthetic appearances, swimsuits designed to be worn during competitions are manufactured to assist the athlete in swim competitions. They reduce friction and drag in the water, increasing the efficiency of the forward motion
15.
History of swimming
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Competitive swimming in Britain started around 1830, mostly using breaststroke. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens, in 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation, was formed. 10, 000-year-old rock paintings of people swimming were found in the Cave of Swimmers near Wadi Sura in southwestern Egypt and these pictures seem to show breaststroke or doggy paddle, although it is also possible that the movements have a ritual meaning unrelated to swimming. An Egyptian clay seal dated between 9000 BC and 4000 BC shows four people who are believed to be swimming a variant of the front crawl, more references to swimming are found in the Babylonian bas- reliefs and Assyrian wall drawings, depicting a variant of the breaststroke. The most famous drawings were found in the Kebir desert and are estimated to be from around 4000 BC, the Nagoda bas-relief also shows swimmers inside of men dating back from 3000 BC. The Indian palace Mohenjo Daro from 2800 BC contains a swimming pool sized 12 m by 7 m, the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete also featured baths. An Egyptian tomb from 2000 BC shows a variant of front crawl, depictions of swimmers have also been found from the Hittites, Minoans and other Middle Eastern civilizations, in the Tepantitla compound at Teotihuacan, and in mosaics in Pompeii. Written references date back to ancient times, with the earliest as early as 2000 BC, such references occur in works like Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, and other sagas, although the style is never described. There are also mentions of swimmers in the Vatican, Borgian. A series of reliefs from 850 BC in the Nimrud Gallery of the British Museum shows swimmers, mostly in military context, the Germanic folklore describes swimming, which was used successfully in wars against the Romans. Swimming was initially one of the seven agilities of knights during the Middle Ages, however, as swimming was done in a state of undress, it became less popular as society became more conservative in the early Modern period. Leonardo da Vinci made early sketches of lifebelts, in 1539, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book Colymbetes. His purpose was to reduce the dangers of drowning, the book contained a good methodical approach to learning breaststroke, and mentioned swimming aids such as air filled cow bladders, reed bundles, and cork belts. In 1587, Everard Digby also wrote a book, claiming that humans could swim better than fish. Digby was a Senior Fellow at St. Johns College, Cambridge and was interested in the scientific method and his short treatise, De arte natandi, was written in Latin and contained over 40 woodcut illustrations depicting various methods of swimming, including the breaststroke, backstroke and crawl. Digby regarded the breaststroke as the most useful form of swimming, in 1603, Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan declared that schoolchildren should swim. In 1595, Christopher Middleton wrote A short introduction for to learne to swimme, in 1696, the French author Melchisédech Thévenot wrote The Art of Swimming, describing a breaststroke very similar to the modern breaststroke. This book was translated into English and became the reference of swimming for many years to come
16.
Hero and Leander
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Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way, succumbing to Leanders soft words and to his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love, would scorn the worship of a virgin, Hero allowed him to make love to her. Their trysts lasted through a warm summer, but one stormy winter night, the waves tossed Leander in the sea and the breezes blew out Heros light, Leander lost his way and drowned. When Hero saw his body, she threw herself over the edge of the tower to her death to be with him. Leander has been unable to swim across to Hero in her tower because of bad weather, her summons to him to make the effort will prove fatal to her lover, musaeuss poem had early translations into European languages by Bernardo Tasso, Boscán and Clément Marot. Chapmans 1616 translation has the title The divine poem of Musaeus, translated according to the original, by Geo, Chapman. Staplyton, the mid-17th century translator, had read Scaligers repudiation of this mistaken belief, renaissance poet Christopher Marlowe began an expansive version of the narrative. Sir Walter Ralegh alludes to the story, in his The Oceans Love to Cynthia, in which Hero has fallen asleep, and fails to keep alight the lamp that guides Leander on his swim. Shakespeare also mentions this story in the scene of Two Gentlemen of Verona. PROTEUS, Upon some book I love Ill pray for thee, VALENTINE, Thats on some shallow story of deep love, How young Leander crossd the Hellespont. PROTEUS, Thats a deep story of a love, For he was more than over shoes in love. VALENTINE, Tis true, for you are over boots in love, Hero and Leander are again mentioned in Two Gentlemen of Verona in Act III Scene I when Valentine is tutoring the Duke of Milan on how to woo the lady from Milan. But these are all lies, men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, ben Jonsons play Bartholomew Fair features a puppet show of Hero and Leander in Act V, translated to London, with the Thames serving as the Hellespont between the lovers. Myths and Hymns, by Adam Guettel, contains a song titled after the pair, robert Schumann is said to have perceived his In der Nacht from Phantasiestücke as depicting the story of Hero and Leandros. Lord Byron references Leander in Written After Swimming From Sestos To Abydos, the myth of Hero and Leander inspired his own swim across the Hellespont in May,1810. Byron also alludes to his feat, with reference to Leander, in Don Juan, canto II. Franz Grillparzers 1831 tragedy Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen is based on the tale, Friedrich Schiller wrote the ballad Hero und Leander based on the tale. Georg Friedrich Handels 1707 solo cantata in Italian, Ero e Leandro, is based on the tale, alfredo Catalani composed a tone-poem, Ero e Leandro, based on the tale
17.
Dardanelles
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Together with the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles forms the Turkish Straits. The English name Dardanelles derives from Dardanus, an ancient city on the Asian shore of the strait which in turn takes its name from Dardanus, the ancient Greek name Ἑλλήσποντος means Sea of Helle, and was the ancient name of the narrow strait. It was variously named in classical literature Hellespontium Pelagus, Rectum Hellesponticum and it was so called from Helle, the daughter of Athamas, who was drowned here in the mythology of the Golden Fleece. The Marmara further connects to the Black Sea via the Bosphorus, the strait is located at approximately 40°13′N 26°26′E. The strait is 61 kilometres long, and 1.2 to 6 kilometres wide, water flows in both directions along the strait, from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean via a surface current, and in the opposite direction via an undercurrent. The Dardanelles is unique in many respects, the very narrow and winding shape of the strait is more akin to that of a river. It is considered one of the most hazardous, crowded, difficult, the currents produced by the tidal action in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara are such that ships under sail must await at anchorage for the right conditions before entering the Dardanelles. It is a sea access route for numerous countries, including Russia. The ancient city of Troy was located near the entrance of the strait. Troy was able to control the traffic entering this vital waterway. Herodotus tells us that, circa 482 BC, Xerxes I had two bridges built across the width of the Hellespont at Abydos, in order that his huge army could cross from Persia into Greece. This crossing was named by Aeschylus in his tragedy The Persians as the cause of divine intervention against Xerxes, according to Herodotus, both bridges were destroyed by a storm and Xerxes had those responsible for building the bridges beheaded and the strait itself whipped. The Histories of Herodotus vii. 33–37 and vii. 54–58 give details of building and crossing of Xerxes Pontoon Bridges. Xerxes is then said to have thrown fetters into the strait, Herodotus commented that this was a highly presumptuous way to address the Hellespont but in no way atypical of Xerxes. Harpalus the engineer eventually helped the invading armies to cross by lashing the ships together with their bows facing the current and, so it is said, two additional anchors. From the perspective of ancient Greek mythology, it was said that Helle, the Dardanelles were vital to the defence of Constantinople during the Byzantine period. Also, the Dardanelles was an important source of income for the ruler of the region, at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum a marble plate contains a law by the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I, that regulated fees for passage through the customs office of the Dardanelles. Whoever dares to violate these regulations shall no longer be regarded as a friend, besides, the administrator of the Dardanelles must have the right to receive 50 golden Litrons, so that these rules, which we make out of piety, shall never ever be violated
18.
Bernard Picart
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Bernard Picart, was a French engraver, son of Etienne Picart, also an engraver. He was born in Paris and died in Amsterdam and he moved to Antwerp in 1696, and then spent a year in Amsterdam before returning to France at the end of 1698. After his wife died in 1708, he moved to Amsterdam in 1711, most of his work was book-illustrations, including the Bible and Ovid. His most famous work is Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, israel calls Cérémonies an immense effort to record the religious rituals and beliefs of the world in all their diversity as objectively and authentically as possible. Although Picart had never left Europe, he relied on accounts by those who had and had access to a collection of Indian sculpture, the original French edition of Cérémonies comprises ten volumes of text and engravings. Israel notes also that Picart left Paris with Prosper Marchand, and collaborated on the Cérémonies with Jean-Frédéric Bernard, Picart, Marchand and Charles Levier belonged to a radical Huguenot coterie. The engravings had captions in French, English, German, the artists involved were Michel de Marolles, Bernard Picart, Jacques Favereau, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, and Cornelis Bloemaert. A facsimile of the Dutch version was published in 1968, a Jewel of a Thousand Facets. New York Review of Books Vol. LVII, number 11, online summary Hunt, Lynn, Margaret C. The Book That Changed Europe, Picart and Bernards Religious Ceremonies of the World, Hunt, Lynn and Margaret Jacob and Wijnand Mijnhardt. Bernard Picart and the First Global Vision of Religion, los Angeles, Getty Research Institute,2010. Religionsbilder der frühen Aufklärung, Bernard Picarts Tafeln für die Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, radical enlightenment, philosophy and the making of modernity, 1650-1750. OCLC44425436 Jacob, Margaret, Bernard Picart and the Turn to Modernity, De Achttiende eeuw, Bernard Picart and Jean Frederic Bernards Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the World on UCLA website
19.
Stone Age
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The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking, bone tools were used during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of tools in use. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks, the oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, the oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2. 6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, excavators at the locality point out that. the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers. The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of tools to the presence thereof include. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown, fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age, the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The Chalcolithic by convention is the period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age, the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE, the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance
20.
Iliad
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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
21.
Odyssey
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The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, the Iliad is the oldest. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci. The Odyssey continues to be read in the Homeric Greek and translated into languages around the world. Many scholars believe the poem was composed in an oral tradition by an aoidos, perhaps a rhapsode. The details of the ancient oral performance and the conversion to a written work inspire continual debate among scholars. The Odyssey was written in a dialect of Greek—a literary amalgam of Aeolic Greek, Ionic Greek. Among the most noteworthy elements of the text are its non-linear plot, in the English language as well as many others, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage. The Odyssey has a lost sequel, the Telegony, which was not written by Homer and it was usually attributed in antiquity to Cinaethon of Sparta. In one source, the Telegony was said to have stolen from Musaeus by either Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene. The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, and Odysseus has still not returned home from the war. Odysseus protectress, the goddess Athena, requests to Zeus, king of the gods, to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Odysseus enemy, then, disguised as a Taphian chieftain named Mentes, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality, they observe the suitors dining rowdily while the bard Phemius performs a poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius theme, the Return from Troy, because it reminds her of her missing husband and that night Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the suitors. Accompanied by Athena, he departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in Pylos
22.
Bible
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The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
23.
Beowulf
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Beowulf is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It may be the oldest surviving poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. A date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars, the only certain dating pertains to the manuscript, the author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the Beowulf poet. The poem is set in Scandinavia, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendels mother attacks the hall and is also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and later king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, after his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory. The full poem survives in the known as the Nowell Codex. It has no title in the manuscript, but has become known by the name of the storys protagonist. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London that had a collection of medieval manuscripts assembled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. The Nowell Codex is currently housed in the British Library, the poem may have been brought to England by people of Geatish origins. Others have associated this poem with the court of King Alfred the Great or with the court of King Cnut the Great. The poem deals with legends, was composed for entertainment, though Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Anglo-Saxon manuscript, scholars generally agree that many of the other personalities of Beowulf also appear in Scandinavian sources. This does not only people, but also clans and some of the events. Three halls, each about 50 metres long, were found during the excavation, the majority view appears to be that people such as King Hroðgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on real historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia. 19th-century archeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story, Eadgils was buried at Uppsala according to Snorri Sturluson. When Eadgils mound was excavated in 1874, the finds supported Beowulf and they showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. These remains include a Frankish sword adorned with gold and garnets and he was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a costly buckle
24.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
25.
British Swimming (organisation)
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British Swimming is the national governing body of swimming, water polo, synchronised swimming, diving and open water in Great Britain. British Swimming is a federation of the governing bodies of England, Scotland. These three are known as the Home Country National Governing Bodies. For the Olympic Games, Northern Irish swimmers may opt to compete for British Swimming, British Swimming organises championships every year in each of the sporting disciplines. The British Championships organised by British Swimming are held in the Spring, winners of the championships in recent years are listed below. British Championships The masters swimming committee of British Swimming organises an annual championships, usually in June, for senior, the championships are held in a long course pool. Alongside the Open Water Grand Prix series, British Swimming also arranges national championship events over 5 km and 10 km, the British Diving Championships are held annually in the winter. Sometimes the annual championships are held in the December of the calendar year. The British Synchronised Swimming Championships are usually held in November or December each year, in 2009 British Swimming announced a £15 million,6 year sponsorship deal with British Gas. It also announced sponsorship with Kelloggs and Speedo in 2009, keil, Ian/Wix, Don, In the Swim. The Amateur Swimming Association from 1869 to 1994, London 1996 British records in swimming List of Olympic size swimming pools in the United Kingdom Official site
26.
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
27.
Amateur Swimming Association
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It is closely linked with British Swimming, a federation of the national governing bodies of England, Scotland, and Wales. These three are known as the Home Country National Governing Bodies. The association was established in 1869, with headquarters at Harold Fern House in Loughborough and it was registered as a company on 18 May 1982. It moved in April 2010, along with British Swimming, to SportPark at Loughborough University, close to the A512, the ASA underwent a rebranding exercise in 2008 including a new logo and name of the asa. After negative reaction the logo was retained but the organisation returned to using The ASA in text form, the ASA supports over.1,200 affiliated swimming clubs through a National/Regional/and sub-regional structure. It endeavours to ensure every athlete, regardless of age or experience, belongs to a club that provides the best possible support, the ASA has introduced a Quality Mark for clubs. In October 2015, the ASA partnered with Water Babies and Splash About International to introduce new national guidelines for baby, the guidelines were published by the British Standards Institution and aimed to set industry-wide standards for swimming lessons and underwater photography practices. The ASA organises competitions throughout England, from grass-roots to elite level, the Age Group and Youth Championships are aimed at younger swimmers aged between 11 and 17 years and can attract more than 1,600 participants, while the ASA Nationals are aimed at the elite swimmers. The ASA also organizes the English talent programme that puts in place performance opportunities for swimmers to develop their skills, in 2009, close to 2 million certificates and badges were issued to children all over the world. The ASA operates certification and education programmes for teachers, coaches and it has created the UK Coaching Framework and e-learning programmes, designed to ensure the ASA has an appropriately skilled workforce for the whole swimming industry. Its education is provided by its Institute of Swimming The ASA’s Strategy 2009-2013 sets out the objectives of the ASA, in particular the ASA has identified four objectives, Ensure everyone has the opportunity to learn to swim. Offer everyone the opportunity to enjoy swimming or water-based fitness activities for health, Ensure everyone achieves their different personal health goals throughout their lifetime. Ensure the nation achieves gold medal success on the world stage, as well as being a governing body, the ASA also operates several subsidiary companies. The ASA holds three different indoor national swimming championships, one for Age Group swimmers, one for Youth swimmers and they also hold open water nationals each year. The following table shows the Open Championships, in 2009 British Swimming announced a £15 million,6 year sponsorship deal with British Gas, to cover the Home Country Associations too
28.
Matthew Webb
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Captain Matthew Webb was the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids for sport purpose. On 25 August 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in fewer than 22 hours, Webb was born at Dawley, Telford, in Shropshire, one of twelve children of a Coalbrookdale doctor. He acquired his ability to swim in the River Severn at Coalbrookdale, in 1860, at the age of twelve, he joined the training ship HMS Conway for two years, then entered the merchant navy and served a three-year apprenticeship with Rathbone Brothers of Liverpool. Whilst serving as mate on the Cunard Line ship Russia, travelling from New York to Liverpool. The man was never found, but Webbs daring won him an award of £100 and the first Stanhope Medal, in the summer of 1863, while at home, he rescued his 12-year-old brother Thomas from drowning in the Severn near Ironbridge. In 1873, Webb was serving as captain of the steamship Emerald when he read an account of the attempt by J. B. Johnson to swim the English Channel. He became inspired to try himself, and left his job to begin training, first at Lambeth Baths, then in the waters of the Thames. His early training was backed by Fred Beckwith who was the Professor at Lambeth Baths, Beckwith organised a spectacle by showing Webb swimming miles in the River Thames. Webb completed ‘nearly six miles’, but the public interest meant that Beckwith lost money. As a result Webb took another manager, on 12 August 1875, he made his first cross-Channel swimming attempt, but strong winds and poor sea conditions forced him to abandon the swim. On 24 August, he began a second swim by diving in from the Admiralty Pier at Dover, backed by three escort boats and smeared in porpoise oil, he set off into the ebb tide at a steady breaststroke. His zig-zag course across the Channel was over 39 miles long, after his record swim, Captain Webb basked in national and international adulation, and followed a career as a professional swimmer. He licensed his name for merchandising such as pottery. A brand of matches was named after him and he participated in exhibition swimming matches and stunts such as floating in a tank of water for 128 hours. On 27 April 1880, he married Madeline Kate Chaddock, and his final stunt was to be a dangerous swim through the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River below Niagara Falls, a feat many observers considered suicidal. Accounts of the time indicate that in all likelihood Webb successfully survived the first part of the swim, Webb was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York. In 1909, Webbs elder brother Thomas unveiled a memorial in Dawley, on it reads the short inscription, Nothing great is easy. The memorial was taken away for repair after a lorry collided with it in February 2009, the landmark memorial was returned after full restoration and was hoisted back onto its plinth in High Street in October 2009
29.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
30.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age
31.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
32.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
33.
Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
34.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
35.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
36.
1896 Summer Olympics
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The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee, which had created by Pierre de Coubertin, it was held in Athens, Greece. Winners were given a medal, while runners-up received a copper medal. Retroactively, the IOC has converted these to gold and silver, ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals. The United States won the most gold medals,11, host nation Greece won the most medals overall,46, the highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, the main venue was the Panathenaic Stadium, where athletics and wrestling took place, other venues included the Neo Phaliron Velodrome for cycling, and the Zappeion for fencing. The opening ceremony was held in the Panathenaic Stadium on 6 April, during which most of the athletes were aligned on the infield. After a speech by the president of the committee, Crown Prince Constantine. Afterwards, nine bands and 150 choir singers performed an Olympic Hymn, composed by Spyridon Samaras, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date, the Panathenaic Stadium, the only Olympic stadium used in the 1800s, overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. However, the 1900 Summer Olympics were already planned for Paris and, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, during the 19th century, several small-scale sports festivals across Europe were named after the Ancient Olympic Games. The 1870 Olympics at the Panathenaic stadium, which had been refurbished for the occasion, had an audience of 30,000 people. In 1890, Coubertin wrote an article in La Revue Athletique, Coubertin also took inspiration from the earlier Greek games organised under the name of Olympics by businessman and philanthropist Evangelis Zappas in 1859,1870 and 1875. This the Greek government did despite the fact that the cost of refurbishing the stadium in marble had already been funded in full by Evangelis Zappas forty years earlier. With deep feeling towards Baron de Coubertins courteous petition, I send him, on 18 June 1894, Coubertin organised a congress at the Sorbonne, Paris, to present his plans to representatives of sports societies from 11 countries. Following his proposals acceptance by the congress, a date for the first modern Olympic Games needed to be chosen, Coubertin suggested that the Games be held concurrently with the 1900 Universal Exposition of Paris. Concerned that a waiting period might lessen public interest, congress members opted instead to hold the inaugural Games in 1896. With a date established, members of the congress turned their attention to the selection of a host city and it remains a mystery how Athens was finally chosen to host the inaugural Games
37.
Katie Ledecky
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Kathleen Genevieve Katie Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time world champion and she is the current world-record holder in the womens 400-, 800-, and 1, 500-meter freestyle. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the womens 500-, 1000-, in her international debut at the 2012 London Olympic Games as a 15-year-old upstart, Ledecky unexpectedly won the gold medal in the womens 800-meter freestyle. Four years later, she left Rio de Janeiro as the most decorated athlete of the 2016 Olympic Games with four gold medals, one silver medal. In total, she has won 20 medals in international competitions, spanning the Summer Olympics, World Championships. During her career, she has broken thirteen world records, Ledeckys success has earned her Swimming Worlds World Swimmer of the Year and the American Swimmer of the Year awards in 2013,2014,2015, and 2016. Ledecky was also named the international female Champion of Champions by LÉquipe in 2014, Ledeckys seven individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships and 11 combined individual titles at the Olympics and World Aquatics Championships are records in womens swimming. In 2016, Ledecky was the youngest person on Time magazines Time 100 list, Ledecky was born in Washington, D. C. the daughter of Mary Gen and David Ledecky. Her paternal grandfather, Jaromír Ledecký, was Czech, and came to the United States from Czechoslovakia in 1947 and her mother is of Irish descent. Ledecky began swimming at the age of six, due to the influence of her older brother and her mother swam for the University of New Mexico. Ledecky resides in Bethesda, Maryland, where she attended Little Flower School, during her high school swimming career, Ledecky twice set the American and US Open record in the 500-yard freestyle and twice set the national, high-school record in the 200-yard freestyle. Ledecky finished her career as the holder of the Stone Ridge school record in every swimming event except the 100-meter breaststroke. During the summer of 2012, she trained with the Nations Capital Swim Club under coach Yuri Suguiyama and she continues to train with the Nations Capital Swim Club under coach Bruce Gemmell. During the summers prior to 2012, she swam for Palisades Swim Team in Cabin John, Ledecky accepted an athletic scholarship to Stanford University, where she swims for coach Greg Meehans Stanford Cardinal womens swimming team. Ledecky is involved with charities, including Catholic Charities, Shepherds Table, Bikes for the World. Her uncle is businessman and New York Islanders owner Jon Ledecky, in Omaha, Ledecky also placed third in the 400-meter freestyle and ninth in the 200-meter freestyle. Her third-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle was the fastest time ever swum by a 15- to 16-year-old American, at 15 years,4 months, and 10 days, she was the youngest American participant at the 2012 Olympic Games. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Ledecky qualified to swim in the final of the 800-meter freestyle by placing third overall in the heats with a time of 8,23.84
38.
Michael Phelps
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Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the records for Olympic gold medals, Olympic gold medals in individual events. In winning eight medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitzs 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two medals, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals. This made him the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row. He has won 83 medals in international long course competition, of which 66 were gold,14 silver, and 3 bronze, spanning the Olympics, the World. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazines Sportsman of the Year award, after the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. Phelps retired following the 2012 Olympics, but in April 2014 he made a comeback, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, his fifth Olympics, he won five golds and one silver. Phelps was chosen to be a captain of the 2016 US Olympic team, Phelps was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in the Rodgers Forge neighborhood of nearby Towson. He attended Rodgers Forge Elementary, Dumbarton Middle School, and Towson High School, Phelps is the youngest of three children. His mother, Deborah Sue Debbie Phelps, is a school principal. His father, Michael Fred Phelps, is a retired Maryland State Trooper who played football in school and college. Phelps is of English, German, Irish, Scottish, and his parents divorced in 1994, when he was nine years old, and his father remarried in 2000. He graduated from Towson High School in 2003, Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy. After retirement in 2016, he stated The only reason I ever got in the water was my mom wanted me to just learn how to swim and my sisters and myself fell in love with the sport, and we decided to swim. When Phelps was in the grade, he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. By the age of 10, he held a record for his age group. More age group records followed, and as of 2016 Phelps still holds 12 age group records
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