1.
Geneva
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Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura
2.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
3.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
4.
Henry Dunant
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Henry Dunant, also known as Henri Dunant, was the founder of the Red Cross, and the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunants ideas, in 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Frédéric Passy, making Dunant the first Swiss Nobel laureate. Dunant was a Swiss businessman and social activist, during a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern-day Italy. He recorded his memories and experiences in the book A Memory of Solferino which inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, Dunant was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the first son of businessman Jean-Jacques Dunant and Antoinette Dunant-Colladon. His family was devoutly Calvinist and had significant influence in Geneva society and his parents stressed the value of social work, and his father was active helping orphans and parolees, while his mother worked with the sick and poor. His father worked in a prison and an orphanage, Dunant grew up during the period of religious awakening known as the Réveil, and at age 18 he joined the Geneva Society for Alms giving. On 30 November 1852, he founded the Geneva chapter of the YMCA, in 1849, at age 21, Dunant was forced to leave the Collège Calvin due to poor grades, and he began an apprenticeship with the money-changing firm Lullin et Sautter. After its successful conclusion, he remained as an employee of the bank, in 1853, Dunant visited Algeria, Tunisia, and Sicily, on assignment with a company devoted to the colonies of Setif. Despite little experience, he fulfilled the assignment. Inspired by the trip, he wrote his first book with the title An Account of the Regency in Tunis, however, the land and water rights were not clearly assigned, and the colonial authorities were not especially cooperative. As a result, Dunant decided to directly to French emperor Napoléon III. France was fighting on the side of Piedmont-Sardinia against Austria, who had occupied much of todays Italy, napoleons headquarters were located in the small city of Solferino. Dunant wrote a book full of praise for Napoleon III with the intention to present it to the emperor. Dunant arrived in Solferino on the evening of 24 June 1859, twenty-three thousand wounded, dying and dead remained on the battlefield, and there appeared to be little attempt to provide care. Shocked, Dunant himself took the initiative to organize the population, especially the women and girls, to provide assistance to the injured. They lacked sufficient materials and supplies, and Dunant himself organized the purchase of needed materials and he convinced the population to service the wounded without regard to their side in the conflict as per the slogan Tutti fratelli coined by the women of nearby city Castiglione delle Stiviere. He also succeeded in gaining the release of Austrian doctors captured by the French, after returning to Geneva early in July, Dunant decided to write a book about his experiences, which he titled Un Souvenir de Solferino. It was published in 1862 in an edition of 1,600 copies and was printed at Dunants own expense, within the book, he described the battle, its costs, and the chaotic circumstances afterwards
5.
Play (theatre)
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A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, there are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference as to whether their plays were performed or read. The term play can refer to both the works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance. Comedies are plays which are designed to be humorous, comedies are often filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances. Certain comedies are geared toward different age groups, comedies were one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece, along with tragedies. An example of a comedy would be William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, a generally nonsensical genre of play, farces are often overacted and often involve slapstick humor. An example of a farce includes William Shakespeares play The Comedy of Errors, a satire play takes a comic look at current events people while at the same time attempting to make a political or social statement, for example pointing out corruption. An example of a satire would be Nikolai Gogols The Government Inspector, satire plays are generally one of the most popular forms of comedy, and often considered to be their own genre entirely. This is a genre that explored relationships between men and women, and was considered risqué in its time, however, since restoration comedy dealt with unspoken aspects of relationships, it created a type of connection between audience and performance that was more informal and private. It is commonly agreed that restoration comedy has origins in Molière’s theories of comedy, the inconsistency between restoration comedy’s morals and the morals of the era is something that often arises during the study of this genre. This may give clues as to why, despite its original success, however, in recent years, it has become a topic of interest for theatre theorists, who have been looking into theatre styles that have their own conventions of performance. These plays contain darker themes such as death and disaster, often the protagonist of the play has a tragic flaw, a trait which leads to their downfall. Tragic plays convey all emotions and have extremely dramatic conflicts, tragedy was one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece. Some examples of tragedies include William Shakespeares Hamlet, and also John Websters play The Duchess of Malfi and these plays focus on actual historical events. They can be tragedies or comedies, but are neither of these. History as a genre was popularized by William Shakespeare. Examples of historical plays include Friedrich Schillers Demetrius and William Shakespeares King John, ballad opera, a popular theatre style at the time, was the first style of musical to be performed in the American colonies. The first musical of American origin was premiered in Philadelphia in 1767, and was called “The Disappointment”, however, around the 1920s, theatre styles were beginning to be defined more clearly
6.
Henry de Montherlant
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Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant was a French essayist, novelist, and dramatist. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960, born in Paris, a descendant of an aristocratic Picard family, he was educated at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and the Sainte-Croix boarding school at Neuilly-sur-Seine. Henrys father was a hard-line reactionary, in 1912 Henry was expelled from the Catholic Sainte-Croix de Neuilly academy for a relationship with a fellow male student, a relationship that he would depict in his 1969 novel Les Garçons. After the deaths of his father and mother in 1914 and 1915, he went to live with his doting grandmother, mobilised in 1916, he was wounded and decorated. Marked by his experience of war, he wrote Songe, a novel, as well as his Chant funèbre pour les morts de Verdun. In the 1920s and 30s de Montherlant achieved critical success with the 1934 novel Les Célibataires, in these years de Montherlant traveled extensively, mainly to Spain, Italy, and Algeria. During the Second World War after the fall of France in 1940 he remained in Paris and continued to write plays, poems, essays, and worked as a war correspondent. Some time in 1968, according to one source, de Montherlant was attacked and beaten in the streets of Paris, after becoming almost blind in his last years, de Montherlant died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after swallowing a cyanide capsule in 1972. His standard biography was written by Pierre Sipriot, and published in two volumes, revealing the extent of de Montherlants sexual habits. His early successes were such as Les Célibataires in 1934, and the highly anti-feminist tetralogy Les Jeunes Filles. His late novel Chaos and Night was published in 1963, the novels were praised by writers as diverse as Aragon, Bernanos, and Malraux. De Montherlant was well known for his anti-feminist and misogynistic views, simone de Beauvoir considered his attitudes about women in detail in her The Second Sex. He wrote plays such as Pasiphaé, La Reine morte, Le Maître de Santiago, Port-Royal and he is particularly remembered as a playwright. In his plays as well as in his novels he frequently portrayed heroic characters displaying the standards he professed. He worked as an essayist also, like many scions of the old aristocracy, he had hated the Third Republic, especially as it had become in the aftermath of the Dreyfus Affair. De Montherlant wrote articles for the Paris weekly, La Gerbe, directed by the pro-Nazi novelist, after the war, he was thus viewed as a collaborationist, and was punished by a one-year restriction on publishing. He maintained a correspondence with Roger Peyrefitte—author of Les Amitiés particulières. De Montherlant is remembered for his aphorism Happiness writes in white ink on a white page, Les célibataires was awarded the Grand prix de littérature de lAcadémie française in 1934, and the English Northcliffe Prize
7.
Peter I of Portugal
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Peter I, was King of Portugal and of the Algarves from 1357 until his death. He was the third but only surviving son of Afonso IV of Portugal and his wife, in 1328, Peters father, Afonso IV arranged for the marriage of his eldest daughter, Maria, to Alfonso XI of Castile. In 1334, she bore him a son, who ultimately became Peter of Castile, for two years Juan Manuel had waged war against the Castilians, who had kept Constanza hostage, until Bishop John del Campo of Oviedo mediated a peace in 1329. Enraged by Alfonsos infidelity and mistreatment of his wife, her father made a new alliance with the powerful Castilian aristocrat. Afonso married his son and heir, Peter, to Constanza, when Constanza arrived in Portugal in 1339, Inês de Castro, the beautiful and aristocratic daughter of a prominent Galician family, accompanied her as her lady-in-waiting. Peter soon fell in love with Inês, and the two conducted a love affair that lasted until Inêss murder in 1355. Constanza died in 1345, weeks after giving birth to Fernando, the scandal of Peters affair with Inês, and its political ramifications, caused Afonso to banish Inês from court after Constanza died. Peter refused to marry any of the princesses his father suggested as a wife. The two aristocratic lovers began living together in secret, Peter claimed that he had married Inês against his fathers orders. In any event, in 1355, Afonso sent three men to find Inês at the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, where she was detained, enraged, Peter revolted against his father. Afonso defeated his son within a year, but died shortly thereafter, Peter reigned for a decade, and is often confused with his Castilian nephew because of their identical nicknames. Fernão Lopes labels Peter the Just and said that the Portuguese king loved justice—especially the dispensing of it, the Portuguese king conducted a public trial of Pêro Coelho and Álvaro Gonçalves in 1381. After finding them guilty of Ines murder, the king ripped their hearts out with his own hands, according to Lopes, diogo Lopes Pacheco escaped and died in 1383. According to legend, Peter later had Inês body exhumed and placed upon a throne, dressed in robes and jewels. Peter had two tombs constructed, one for each of them, so they would see each other when rising at the Last Judgment, the tombs show Peter and Inês facing each other, with the words Até o fim do mundo. Peter was also the father of Ferdinand I of Portugal and John I of Portugal, before his marriage to Constance, in 1329 he was betrothed to Blanche of Castile but because of her weak mental health and incapacity, the marriage never took place
8.
Dailymotion
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Dailymotion is a video-sharing website based in France on which users can upload, watch and share videos. It is one of the biggest video platforms in the world, offering a mix of content from users, independent creators, Dailymotion is available all around the world, in 18 different languages and 35 localized versions featuring local home pages and local content. In March 2005, Benjamin Bejbaum and Olivier Poitrey founded the Dailymotion website from the room of Poitreys apartment in Paris. Six individuals pooled together €6,000 to start the business, in September 2006, Dailymotion raised funds in collaboration with Atlas Ventures and Partech International. They raised 7 million euros which was considered to be the most funds raised in 2006 from the French Web 2.0, in October 2009, the French government invested in Dailymotion through the Strategic Investment Fund. On January 25,2011, Orange acquired a 49% stake in Dailymotion for €62 million, on 10 January 2013 Orange bought the remaining 51% for €61 million. On or about 2 May 2013, the French government blocked Yahoos acquisition of a majority stake in Dailymotion, on 25 February 2014, Orange revealed it was in discussions with Microsoft about a deal that could see Dailymotion extend into the U. S. market. In an interview with a television station in Barcelona Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange. Any deal would see Orange retain majority ownership of Dailymotion, in 2015, Vivendi purchased 80% stake in Dailymotion from Orange S. A. In September 2015 Vivendi increased its ownership to 90%, Dailymotion allows users to browse and upload videos by searching tags, channels, or user-created groups. The search system also introduces results based on other users searches, the maximum size of a video file is 4 GB. The length of the files is also limited to 60 minutes, except for motionmakers. Dailymotion also optimized sharing options, with the player, users could integrate easily videos on their own sites or blogs. Video statistics were added, number of views being showcased on top of the video, Dailymotion developed advertising on the website. In 2007, a Fingerprinting program was launched with Audible Magic, the program scans the soundtracks of the videos and automatically recognizes copyrights. High Quality became available for all users and Dailymotion created different user status, motionmakers, in 2007 the first web app was also launched on iPhone and on wap SFR in France. Videos uploaded by users to Dailymotion used to be converted to the VP6 format at a resolution of 320×240, audio on Dailymotion videos used to be encoded as MP3 at 96 kbit/s in stereo. The partnership gave Dailymotion the financial backing it needed to upgrade its servers to handle High Definition video, Dailymotion started its international expansion in 2008
9.
Alexandra Lamy
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Alexandra Lamy is a French actress. Lamy started dating her Un gars, une fille costar Jean Dujardin in 2003 and they married in 2009, and divorced in November 2013. She was previous in a relationship with actor Thomas Jouannet from 1995 to 2003, with whom she had a daughter, Chloé and her sister, Audrey Lamy, is also an actress and currently stars in the French sitcom Scènes de ménage. From 1999–2003, she starred in Un gars, une fille, Thomas Jouannet Alexandra Lamy at the Internet Movie Database
10.
Louis de Bussy d'Amboise
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Louis de Clermont, seigneur de Bussy dAmboise was a gentleman at the court of French king Henri III, a swordsman, dandy, and a lover of both sexes. He was one of the favourites, or mignons, of Monsieur and he was a cousin of François dAmboise. Of a noble family, he entered the service of Prince François, Duke of Anjou, Bussy became well-known at court as Anjous favourite and later became the lover of Princess Marguerite de Valois. Le brave Bussy made fun of the favourites of the king and he helped Anjou flee from the court where Henri III held him prisoner. He was a participant in the St. Bartholomews Day massacre. While later attempting to seduce the wife of Charles de Chambes, Count of Montsoreau, Bussy dAmboise is the hero of the play Bussy DAmbois by English playwright George Chapman, written 20 years after dAmboises death. He is also the hero of the novel Henri III et sa cour by Alexandre Dumas, david R. Slavitt featured dAmboise in his 2011 novel The Dukes Man
