Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, located 33 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, 20 miles south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 73 miles south of Boston, 180 miles northeast of New York City. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history, it was the location of the first U. S. Open tournaments in both tennis and golf, as well as every challenge to the America's Cup between 1930 and 1983, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport, which houses the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, an important Navy training center. It was a major 18th-century port city and contains a high number of buildings from the Colonial era; the city is the county seat of Newport County, which has no governmental functions other than court administrative and sheriff corrections boundaries. It was known for being the location of the "Summer White Houses" during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
The population was 24,027 as of 2013. Newport was founded in 1639 on Aquidneck Island, called Rhode Island at the time, its eight founders and first officers were Nicholas Easton, William Coddington, John Clarke, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Jeremy Clark, Thomas Hazard, Henry Bull. Many of these people had been part of the settlement at Portsmouth, along with Anne Hutchinson and her followers, they separated within a year of that settlement and Coddington and others began the settlement of Newport on the southern side of the island. Newport grew to be the largest of the four original settlements which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which included Providence Plantations and Shawomett. Many of the first colonists in Newport became Baptists, the second Baptist congregation in Rhode Island was formed in 1640 under the leadership of John Clarke. In 1658, a group of Jews were welcomed to settle in Newport; the Newport congregation is now referred to as Congregation Jeshuat Israel and is the second-oldest Jewish congregation in the United States.
It meets in the oldest synagogue in the United States. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations received its royal charter in 1663, Benedict Arnold was elected as its first governor at Newport; the Old Colony House served as a seat of Rhode Island's government upon its completion in 1741 at the head of Washington Square, until the current Rhode Island State House in Providence was completed in 1904 and Providence became the state's sole capital city. Newport became the most important port in colonial Rhode Island, a public school was established in 1640; the commercial activity which raised Newport to its fame as a rich port was begun by a second wave of Portuguese Jews who settled there around the middle of the 18th century. They had been practicing Judaism in secret for 300 years in Portugal, they were attracted to Rhode Island because of the freedom of worship there, they brought with them commercial experience and connections, a spirit of enterprise. Most prominent among those were Jacob Rodrigues Rivera, who arrived in 1745 and Aaron Lopez, who came in 1752.
Rivera introduced the manufacture of sperm oil which became one of Newport's leading industries and made the town rich. Newport developed 17 manufactories of oil and candles and enjoyed a practical monopoly of this trade until the American Revolution. Aaron Lopez is credited with making Newport an important center of trade, he encouraged 40 Portuguese Jewish families to settle there, Newport had 150 vessels engaged in trade within 14 years of his activity. He was involved in the slave trade and manufactured spermaceti candles, barrels, chocolate, clothes, shoes and bottles, he became the wealthiest man in Newport but was denied citizenship on religious grounds though British law protected the rights of Jews to become citizens. He appealed to the Rhode Island legislature for redress and was refused with this ruling: "Inasmuch as the said Aaron Lopez hath declared himself by religion a Jew, this Assembly doth not admit himself nor any other of that religion to the full freedom of this Colony. So that the said Aaron Lopez nor any other of said religion is not liable to be chosen into any office in this colony nor allowed to give vote as a free man in choosing others."
Lopez persisted by applying for citizenship in Massachusetts. From the mid-17th century, the religious tolerance in Newport attracted numbers of Quakers, known as the Society of Friends; the Great Friends Meeting House in Newport is the oldest existing structure of worship in Rhode Island. In 1727, James Franklin printed the Rhode-Island Almanack in Newport. In 1732, he published the Rhode Island Gazette. In 1758, his son James founded the weekly newspaper Mercury; the famous 18th century Goddard and Townsend furniture was made in Newport. Throughout the 18th century, Newport suffered from an imbalance of trade with the largest colonial ports; as a result, Newport merchants were forced to develop alternatives to conventional exports. In the 1720s, Colonial leaders arrested many pirates, acting under pressure from the British government. Many were buried on Goat Island. Newport was a major center of the slave trade in colonial and early America, active in the "triangle trade" in which slave-produced sugar and molasses from the Caribbean were carried to Rhode Island and distilled into rum, whi
George Frederick Kunz
George Frederick Kunz was an American mineralogist and mineral collector. Kunz was born in Manhattan, New York City, USA, began an interest in minerals at a young age. By his teens, he had amassed a collection of over four thousand items, which he sold for four hundred dollars to the University of Minnesota. Kunz attended Cooper Union but did not attend college. Nonetheless, he taught himself mineralogy from books and field research; this expertise landed him a job with Tiffany & Co. and his knowledge and enthusiasm propelled him into a vice presidency by the time he was 23. He gained much notoriety for identifying a new gem variety of the mineral spodumene, named "Kunzite" in his honor, he headed up the US mining and mineralogical exhibits at the international expositions in Paris, Atlanta, St. Louis, he gave. As a gentleman scientist, he was a member of the Mineralogical Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences, the New York Mineralogical Club, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, many other cultural and naturalist organizations.
He was the founder and president of the Museums of the Peaceful Arts in 1913, special agent for the US Geological Survey, a research curator at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, the leading advocate in the establishment of the international carat as a unit of measure for precious gems. He assembled the Morgan-Tiffany collection of gems in the American Museum of Natural History. Kunz had an active life dedicated to public service. Kunz promoted the adoption of the decimal metric system of weights and measures in the United States and was President of the American Metric Association, he wrote over 300 articles during his life. Eighty years after his death, many of his books are still in print. Kunz married Sophia Hanforth in 1879, who died in 1912. In 1923, Kunz married Opal Logan Giberson, a noted aviator, but the marriage was annulled in 1929. Nonetheless, Opal Kunz continued to maintain Kunz's household until his death, on June 29, 1932, he was given many honorary degrees from European universities.
He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from the Cooper Union in 1872. Columbia University The award was presented by Professor James F. Kemp, professor of Geology at Columbia. In 1920, in a unusual act, this honorary award was withdrawn by the university faculty due to his efforts to help reforest France, his supposed sympathies to the French and English allies against Germany. Knox College of Illinois. After his death, his personal collection of several thousand rare books and articles on gems and precious stones were sold to the United States Geological Survey Library for one dollar. Acquired by the Library in 1933, the George F. Kunz Collection is a significant special collection on gems and minerals including rare books on gemology, the folklore of gemstones through history, lapidary arts and archival gem trade records important to the provenance of named stones such as the "Hope Diamond." In December 2012, the discovery of a rare photographic album dated 1922 among the books from Mr Kunz' personal library was announced by the USGS.
The album contained 81 photographs of the Russian Crown Jewels and pre-dates the official catalog by the Soviet government by 3 years. Researchers have identified four pieces of jewelry that were documented in 1922 that were not included in the catalog and that are assumed missing today. Kunz, George F. and Charles Hugh Stevenson. The Book of the Pearl: The History, Art and Industry of the Queen of Gems. New York: The Century Co. 1908. 548 pages, 125 plates and illustrations. Kunz, George F. Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Publication: A Collection of Pamphlets Published in Connection with the Celebration of the Completion of the Catskill Aqueduct, being Chiefly Catalogues of Exhibitions Held by Art and Historical Museums and Institutions in New York City in Cooperation with the Mayor’s Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee in 1917. Arranged by George Frederick Kunz, Chairman of the Committee on Art and Historical Exhibitions. New York: The Mayor's Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee. 1917.
266 pages, illustrations including maps, portraits. Kunz, George F. 1913. Curious Lore of Precious Stones: Being a Description of their Sentiments and Folk Lore, Symbology, Use in Medicine, Prevention and Divination, Crystal Gazing, Birth Stones, Lucky Stones and Talismans, Astral and Planetary. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 1913. Six color plates, scores of double-tone photographs and inter-textual line cuts. 406 pages, 86 illustrations in color, doubletone and in-line. Kunz, George Frederick. "Diamonds in Meteorites". Science. Ns-11: 118–119. Doi:10.1126/science.ns-11.266.118-a. PMID 17799324. Kunz, George Frederick. "Exhibition of Gems Used as Amulets, etc". The American Journal of Folklore. American Folklore Society. 4: 29–31. Doi:10.2307/532930. JSTOR 532930. Kunz, George Frederick. "The genesis of the diamond" Science, pp. 450–
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D. C. United States, it is open 364 days a year. In 2016, with 7.1 million visitors, it was the fourth most visited museum in the world and the most visited natural-history museum in the world. Opened in 1910, the museum on the National Mall was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed to hold the national collections and research facilities; the main building has an overall area of 1,500,000 square feet with 325,000 square feet of exhibition and public space and houses over 1,000 employees. The museum's collections contain over 126 million specimens of plants, fossils, rocks, human remains, human cultural artifacts, it is home to about 185 professional natural-history scientists—the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural history in the world. The United States National Museum was founded in 1846 as part of the Smithsonian Institution.
The museum was housed in the Smithsonian Institution Building, better known today as the Smithsonian Castle. A formal exhibit hall opened in 1858; the growing collection led to the construction of the National Museum Building. Covering a then-enormous 2.25 acres, it was built in just 15 months at a cost of $310,000. It opened in March 1881. Congress authorized construction of a new building on June 28, 1902. On January 29, 1903, a special committee composed of members of Congress and representatives from the Smithsonian's board of regents published a report asking Congress to fund a much larger structure than planned; the regents began considering sites for the new building in March, by April 12 settled on a site on the north side of B Street NW between 9th and 12th Streets. The D. C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall was chosen to design the structure. Testing of the soil for the foundations was set for July 1903, with construction expected to take three years; the Natural History Building opened its doors to the public on March 17, 1910, in order to provide the Smithsonian Institution with more space for collections and research.
The building was not completed until June 1911. The structure cost $3.5 million dollars. The Neoclassical style building was the first structure constructed on the north side of the National Mall as part of the 1901 McMillan Commission plan. In addition to the Smithsonian's natural history collection, it housed the American history and cultural collections. Between 1981 and 2003, the National Museum of Natural History had 11 acting directors. There were six directors alone between 1990 and 2002. Turnover was high as the museum's directors were disenchanted by low levels of funding and the Smithsonian's inability to define the museum's mission. Robert W. Fri was named the museum's director in 1996. One of the largest donations in Smithsonian history was made during Fri's tenure. Kenneth E. Behring donated $20 million in 1997 to modernize the museum. Fri resigned in 2001 after disagreeing with Smithsonian leadership over the reorganization of the museum's scientific research programs. J. Dennis O'Connor, Provost of the Smithsonian Institution was named acting director of the museum on July 25, 2001.
Eight months O'Conner resigned to become the vice president of research and dean of the graduate school at the University of Maryland. Douglas Erwin, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History, was appointed interim director in June 2002. In January 2003, the Smithsonian announced that Cristián Samper, a Colombian with an M. Sc. and Ph. D. from Harvard University, would become the museum's permanent director on March 31, 2003. Samper founded the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute and ran the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute after 2001. Smithsonian officials said. Under Samper's direction, the museum opened the $100 million Behring Hall of Mammals in November 2003, received $60 million in 2004 for the Sant Hall of Oceans, received a $1 million gift from Tiffany & Co. for the purchase of precious gems for the National Gem Collection. On March 25, 2007, Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the organization's highest-ranking appointed official, resigned abruptly after public reports of lavish spending.
On March 27, 2007 Samper was appointed Acting Secretary of the Smithsonian. Paul G. Risser, former chancellor of the University of Oklahoma, was named Acting Director of the Museum of Natural History on March 29. Samper's tenure at the museum was not without controversy. In May 2007, Robert Sullivan, the former associate director in charge of exhibitions at the National Museum of Natural History, charged that Samper and Smithsonian Undersecretary for Science David Evans ordered "last minute" changes in the exhibit "Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely" to tone down the role of human beings in the discussion of global warming, to make global warming seem more uncertain than depicted. Samper denied that he knew of any scientific objections to the changes, said that no political pressure had been applied to the Smithsonian to make the changes. In November 2007, The Washington Post reported that an interagency group of scientists from the Department of the Interior, NASA, Nati
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is located 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers; the city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Boer War. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town. On September 2, 1882, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure; the first Stock Exchange in Africa was built in Kimberley, as early as 1881. In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, his father's farm, he showed the pebble to his father. The pebble was purchased from Jacobs by Schalk van Niekerk, who sold it.
It proved to be a 21.25-carat diamond, became known as the Eureka. Three years in 1869, an 83.5-carat diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby. This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200 and resold in the London market for £25,000. Henry Richard Giddy recounted how Esau Damoense, the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstone's "Red Cap Party", found diamonds in 1871 on Colesberg Kopje after he was sent there to dig as punishment. Rawstorne took the news to the nearby diggings of the De Beer brothers — his arrival there sparking off the famous "New Rush" which, as historian Brian Roberts puts it, was a stampede. Within a month 800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men; as the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine – in time, the world-renowned Kimberley Mine. The Cape Colony, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nicolaas Waterboer all laid claim to the diamond fields; the Free State Boers in particular wanted the area as it lay inside the natural borders created by Orange and Vaal Rivers.
Following the mediation, overseen by the governor of Natal, the Keate Award went in favour of Waterboer, who placed himself under British protection. The territory known as Griqualand West was proclaimed on 27 October 1871. Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barkly's visit to New Rush in September the following year, when he revealed a plan instead to have Griqualand West proclaimed a Crown Colony. Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the promised new constitution and provision for representative government; the delay was in London where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive "decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, Vooruitzigt … he could neither spell nor pronounce it."
The matter was passed to Southey who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J. B. Currey. Roberts writes, he made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it'after His Lordship'." New Rush became Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873. Digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated "we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, so our dream was gone."Following agreement by the British government on compensation to the Orange Free State for its competing land claims, Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1877. The Cape Prime Minister John Molteno had serious doubts about annexing the indebted region, after striking a deal with the Home Government and receiving assurances that the local population would be consulted in the process, he passed the Griqualand West Annexation Act on 27 July 1877; as miners arrived in their thousands the hill disappeared and subsequently became known as the Big Hole or, more formally, Kimberley Mine.
From mid-July 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. The Big Hole is 463 metres wide, it was excavated to a depth of 240 m, but partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 215 m. Beneath the surface, the Kimberley Mine underneath the Big Hole was mined to a depth of 1097 metres. A popular local myth claims that it is the largest hand-dug hole on the world, however Jagersfontein Mine appears to hold that record; the Big Hole is the principal feature of a May 2004 submission which placed "Kimberley Mines and associated early industries" on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative Lists. By 1873 Kimberley was the second largest town in South Africa, having an approximate population of 40,000; the various smaller mining companies were amalgamated by Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd into De Beers, The Kimberley under Barney Barnato. In 1888, the two companies merged to form De Beers Consolidated Mines, which once had a monopoly over the world's diamond market.
Kimberley became the largest city in the area due to a massive African migration to the area from all over t
Nassak Diamond
The Nassak Diamond is a large, 43.38 carats diamond that originated as a larger 89 carat diamond in the 15th century in India. Found in Golconda mines of Kollur and cut in India, the diamond was the adornment in the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, near Nashik, in the state of Maharashtra, India from at least 1500 to 1817; the British East India Company captured the diamond through the Third Anglo-Maratha War and sold it to British jewellers Rundell and Bridge in 1818. Rundell and Bridge recut the diamond in 1818, after which it made its way into the handle of the 1st Marquess of Westminster's dress sword; the Nassak Diamond was imported into the United States in 1927, was considered one of the first 24 great diamonds of the world by 1930. American jeweller Harry Winston acquired the Nassak Diamond in 1940 in Paris and recut it to its present flawless 43.38 carats emerald cut shape. Winston sold the diamond to a New York jewellery firm in 1942. Mrs. William B. Leeds of New York received the gem in 1944 as a sixth anniversary present and wore it in a ring.
The Nassak Diamond was last sold at an auction in New York in 1970 to Edward J. Hand, a 48-year-old trucking firm executive from Greenwich, Connecticut; the diamond is held at a private museum in Lebanon, though there are calls for its return and restoration to the Indian temple. The Nassak Diamond originated in the 15th century in India. Although the date of the original cutting is unknown, the original cutting was performed in India and had sacrificed everything to size while giving the diamond a form and appearance similar to that of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. From at least 1500 to 1817, the Nassak Diamond adorned the Shivalinga in the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, near Nashik, India on the upper Godavari River; as priests worshiped Shiva, the diamond acquired its name from its long-term proximity to Nashik. In 1817, the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India began the Third Anglo-Maratha War. During the Maratha war, the Nassak Diamond disappeared from the Shiva temple; the war ended in 1818 and the British East India Company was left decisively in control of most of India.
The Nassak Diamond resurfaced in the possession of Baji Rao II the last independent Indian Peshwa Prince, who handed over the diamond to an English colonel named J. Briggs. In turn, Briggs delivered the diamond to Francis Rawdon-Hastings, the 1st Marquess of Hastings who had conducted the military operations against the Peshwa. Rawdon-Hastings delivered the diamond to the East India Company as part of the spoils of the Maratha war; the East India Company sent the Nassak Diamond to England, to be sold on the London diamond market in 1818. At the London diamond market, the Nassak Diamond was presented as an 89 carats diamond of great purity "but of bad form," having a somewhat pear-shape; the diamond further was characterised as a "rudely faceted, lustreless mass." Illustrations in Herbert Tillander's book "Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry – 1381 to 1910" show it as being a semi-triangular moghal cut with a plateau top, similar looking to the 115-carat Taj-E-Mah Diamond which resides in the Iranian Crown Jewels.
Despite its appearance, the diamond was sold for about 3,000 pounds to Rundell and Bridge, a British jewellery firm based in London. Rundell and Bridge held onto the diamond for the next 13 years. During that time, the jewellery firm instructed its diamond cutter "to keep as as possible to the traces of the Hindu cutter,'amending his defects, accommodating the pattern to the exigencies of the subject matter.'" The recut by Rundell and Bridge from 89.75 carats to 78.625 carats resulted of a loss of no more than 10 percent of the original weight of the diamond. In 1831, Rundell and Bridge sold the diamond to the Emanuel Brothers for about 7,200 pounds. Six years in 1837, the Emanuel Brothers sold the Nassak Diamond at a public sale to Robert Grosvenor, the 1st Marquess of Westminster. At one point, the Marquess mounted the diamond in the handle of his dress sword. In 1886, the diamond was valued at between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds, due in part to its vast gain in brilliancy from the re-cut by Rundell and Bridge.
In 1922, George Mauboussin had become the named partner of "Mauboussin, Successeur de Noury," a French jewellery house that traced its roots to its founding by M. Rocher in 1827. In March 1927, the Duke of Westminster used US importers Mayers, Osterwald & Muhlfeld to sell the diamond to Parisian jeweller George Mauboussin, living in the United States at the time. Mauboussin's importation of the diamond into the United States was tax free, since the diamond was determined to be an artistic antiquity produced more than one hundred years prior to the date of importation. However, E. F. Bendler, an American wholesaler and dealer in diamonds and a rival of Mauboussin, filed a protest that resulted in a lawsuit to determine whether a tax should be imposed on the diamond's entry into the United States. By November 1927, Mauboussin considered selling the diamond to friends of General Primo de Rivera, who planned to give the diamond to the dictator on the occasion of his forthcoming investiture as marshal of Spain.
That sale never materialised and the lawsuit continued. The diamond was nearly lost in a theft that occurred in January 1929, when four gunmen robbed the Park Avenue jewellery store where the Nassak Diamond was being kept. However, the thieves missed finding the diamond. After the first robbery attempt, Mauboussin's jewellery firm opened a branch in New York City on 1 October 1929, only
Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion and the arts; the City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €681 billion in 2016, accounting for 31 percent of the GDP of France, was the 5th largest region by GDP in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong-Kong, in 2018; the city is a major rail and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.
Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2018, with 10.2 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe; the historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Popular landmarks in the centre of the city include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité. Paris received 23 million visitors in 2017, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the UK, Germany and China.
It was ranked as the third most visited travel destination in the world in 2017, after Bangkok and London. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris; the 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics; the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the 1960, 1984, 2016 UEFA European Championships were held in the city and, every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes there. The name "Paris" is derived from the Celtic Parisii tribe; the city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. Paris is referred to as the City of Light, both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and more because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments.
Gas lights were installed on the Place du Carousel, Rue de Rivoli and Place Vendome in 1829. By 1857, the Grand boulevards were lit. By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps. Since the late 19th century, Paris has been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in French as Parisiens, they are pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the area's major north–south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité; the Parisii minted their own coins for that purpose. The Romans began their settlement on Paris' Left Bank; the Roman town was called Lutetia. It became a prosperous city with a forum, temples, an amphitheatre. By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum "Montmartre", from where he walked headless to the north of the city.
Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born. Fortification of the Île-de-la-Citie failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845, but Paris' strategic importance—with its bridges prevent
South Africa
South Africa the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation, it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status; the remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures and religions, its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, the fourth highest number in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans.
The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, regular elections have been held for a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent history and politics; the National Party imposed apartheid in 1948. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in 1990. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity in the wake of apartheid; the World Bank classifies South Africa as an upper-middle-income economy, a newly industrialised country.
Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, the 34th-largest in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa; however and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, maintains significant regional influence; the name "South Africa" is derived from the country's geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, reflecting its origin from the unification of four separate British colonies. Since 1961, the long form name in English has been the "Republic of South Africa". In Dutch, the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika. Since 1994, the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning "south", is a colloquial name for South Africa, while some Pan-Africanist political parties prefer the term "Azania".
South Africa contains human-fossil sites in the world. Archaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Gauteng Province; the area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been branded "the Cradle of Humankind". The sites include one of the richest sites for hominin fossils in the world. Other sites include Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Cave and Malapa. Raymond Dart identified the first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child in 1924. Further hominin remains have come from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo Province and Florisbad in the Free State Province, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Klasies River Mouth in Eastern Cape Province and Pinnacle Point and Die Kelders Cave in Western Cape Province; these finds suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago, starting with Australopithecus africanus. There followed species including Australopithecus sediba, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo helmei, Homo naledi and modern humans.
Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. Various researchers have located pebble tools within the Vaal River valley. Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were present south of the Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century CE, they displaced and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu moved south; the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people; the Xhosa reached the Great Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger Iron Age populations
