AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Ham was born on 20 October 1951 in Cairns, Queensland. His father was a Christian educator who settled his family in Brisbane, working as a school principal. Ham earned a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from Queensland Institute of Technology. He also earned a diploma in Education from the University of Queensland.
On 4 February 2014, at the Creation Museum, Ham debated Bill Nye (also known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy"). The topic was the question "Is Creation A Viable Model of Origins?". The televised event drew over three million viewers. Ham's position was the world was created about 6,000 years ago. He also defended his position that all animals alive today descend from those aboard Noah's Ark. Nye argued that radioisotopic and ice core data shows that Earth has existed for much longer than 6,000 years. He also added that using the Bible's description of the Ark it could not float. A number of experts were critical of the debate saying that it did not discuss important areas. At least one said neither did very well. An informal viewer's poll showed 92% thought Nye won the debate. However, "Debate is a tool for showing who's a better orator, not necessarily who's right. And Ken Ham is no mean orator, usually," noted the National Center for Science Education, a not-for-profit membership organization that defends the teaching of evolution and climate science."
Ham said of his father:
He married Marylin "Mally" on 30 December 1972. They have five children together. The Ham couple live in unincorporated Boone County, Kentucky.
Jim Lange
Jim Lange (August 15, 1932 – February 25, 2014) was an American game show host and disc jockey. He was best known to radio listeners for his work as an announcer on stations in California. He was best known to television viewers as the host of "The Dating Game". He was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Lange died from a heart attack on February 25, 2014 at his home in Mill Valley, California. He was aged 81. He was survived by his wife of over 35 years, Nancy Fleming, who won the Miss America crown in 1961.
Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie (; born November 30, 1957) is a Scottish-Canadian actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his work as a regular on both the British and American versions of the improvisational comedy television show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?".
Mochrie was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland. In 1964, he moved with his family to Canada. He first moved to Montreal, Quebec and finally Vancouver, British Columbia.
Wayne Brady
Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian and television personality. He is best known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". He has also daytime talk show "The Wayne Brady Show", the original host of Fox's "Don't Forget the Lyrics!", and the host of "Let's Make a Deal" on CBS.
Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia. He moved to Orlando, Florida as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt.
Jan Hoet
Jan Hoet (23 June 1936 – 27 February 2014) was a Belgian art critic and curator. He was the founder of Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK; ).
He was born in Leuven. On 17 June 2012, he collapsed at the airport in Hamburg, Germany after having a heart attack. On 23 June 2012, Hoet suffered from hypercapnia and he was being held in a coma at the hospital of Soltau, Germany. He soon returned to Ghent.
Hoet suffered a second heart attack in January 2014. He died at a hospital in Ghent on February 27, 2014. He was aged 77.
Fryazino
Fryazino is a scientific town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It is about 25 miles northeast of the city of Moscow. The population is about 55,369.
Fryazino is an electronics center. Merloni Electrodomestici of Italy has facilities in Fryazino that make electric stoves and washing machines. Currently, however, a large part of the population of Fryazino works in Moscow.
The first school was opened in Fryazino in 1912. There are seven schools, including five secondary and gymnasiums in the town now. By the end of 1980, 20% of the population of Fryazino had a higher education.
Seth Meyers
Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American actor, voice actor, screenwriter, producer, television host and comedian. He is best known for hosting NBC's "Saturday Night Live" news parody segment "Weekend Update" and the NBC talk show "Late Night with Seth Meyers". The latter program premiered on February 24, 2014.
Meyers was born in Evanston, Illinois to Hillary and Lawrence Meyers. in 1996 he graduated from Northwestern University. After college he and his brother Josh moved to Amsterdam. They joined a comedy improv group called Boom Chicago. In 2001 he auditioned for producer Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live and joined the cast that same year.
Neil deGrasse Tyson (; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.
Tyson was born in the borough Manhattan of New York City, New York. He graduated from The Bronx High School of Science. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Harvard University. He earned his doctorate degree in Astrophysics from Columbia University. He lives in Lower Manhattan with his wife and two children.
In December 2018, Tyson was accused on sexual misconduct by many female former students. He said that the allegations were not true, but Fox and National Geographic announced that they would launch an investigation into the matter.
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a government agency. Its job is to collect, analyse, and use information to support its government.
There are two parts to this, and usually they are done by separate agencies. The first part is to collect information (to "spy") on other countries. The other side is to watch people in the home country who might cause problems. A third activity is to defend against foreign intelligence agencies in the home country. This is called counter-intelligence, and is often done by a separate agency.
What the agencies discover is called "intelligence". It may be used to help law enforcement, security, defence and foreign policy.
The methods of information gathering are sometimes covert (hidden) and sometimes quite open. A covert method might be to steal and copy secret documents. An open method would be to read all published work on some important matter, and analyse it. Much important material is published openly in democratic countries.
To get hold of secret information, these organisations use espionage, intercept signals (tap phones, hack computers), cryptanalysis (break codes), and think about what the information means. Putting together and communicating information is known as intelligence analysis and assessment.
Some agencies have been involved in assassination, arms trafficking, coups d'état, and the placement of misinformation (propaganda) as well as other covert operations, in order to support their own or their governments' interests.
The United States has about 17 major intelligence groups, and many other smaller groups. These are the most important:
Elias Lönnrot (9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish philologist. He collected traditional spoken poems and made a book of them. He made Finland's national epic, "Kalevala". This is a book of traditional folk stories and poems. He collected these during several journeys across Finland, Karelia, and parts of Russia and the Baltic countries.
Lönnrot, Mikael Agricola and Aleksis Kivi are regarded fathers of a national literature in Finnish.
Lönnrot also the first book about plants in Finland, "Flora Fennica" () in 1860.
He born and died in Sammatti, an old town in Uusimaa.
Tana River (Norway)
The Tana River ( or ; ; ), is a river in Sápmi area of northern Scandinavia. The river flows through Finnmark county, Norway and the Lapland region of Finland. The Sámi name means "Great River". The main tributaries of Tana are Anarjohka and Karasjohka rivers. It is one of the world's most important rivers for Atlantic salmon reproduction.
Alexander Salák
Alexander Salák (born January 5, 1987) is a Czech ice hockey goaltender. He currently plays for SKA Saint Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Salák started his career playing in the SM-liiga with the TPS Turku. He played there for 2 seasons and was signed by the Florida Panthers of the NHL on May 29, 2009. He played two games with the Panthers and was sent down to their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans. Salák was loaned to Färjestads BK of the Swedish Elite League (SEL) to play in the 2010-11 season.
On February 9, 2011, the Panthers traded Salák along with Michael Frolík to the Chicago Blackhawks for Jack Skille, Hugh Jessiman, and David Pacan. The Blackhawks signed him to a two-year contract on May 31, 2011. The Blackhawks released him from his contract on June 18, 2012.
Atlantic salmon
The Atlantic salmon ("Salmo salar") is a fish in the family Salmonidae. Atlantic salmon are found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the north Atlantic. They have also been successfully transplanted into the north Pacific Ocean. Other names for Atlantic salmon are: bay salmon, black salmon, caplin-scull salmon, Sebago salmon, silver salmon, fiddler, or outside salmon. Atlantic salmon that don't journey to sea are known as landlocked salmon or ouananiche. This can be due to human interference or natural disasters.
Most Atlantic salmon follow an life cycle. Once hatched, they are called alevins. They live off the nutrients in their yolk sac they were born with. Once they start feeding they are called fry. They grow into juveniles or parr and remain in fresh water for a number of years while growing. When they leave fresh water they are called smolts. Smolts leave the streams and move into the ocean for feeding and growth. The post-smolts change from territorial behavior to that of open ocean, possibly shoaling, fish. Their mortality rate while in the ocean is very high. The rate is from 90% to as high as 99%. After 1–5 years at sea they return to spawn in the same streams they were born in. Unlike most Pacific varieties Atlantic salmon are meaning they don't automatically die after their first spawning. But the stress of spawning, predators, or disease does kill many. The remainder return to sea to spawn again and again.
There is variety in the life cycle of Atlantic salmon. They do not require salt water. Numerous examples of fully fresh water landlocked Atlantic salmon exist throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, the landlocked fish are called ouananiche. Fresh water Atlantic salmon are smaller than the (ocean-dwelling) Atlantic salmon.
Huber Matos
Huber Matos Benítez (26 November 1918 – 27 February 2014) was a Cuban dissident activist and writer from Yara, Granma Province.
He was best known as a revolutionary who assisted Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other members of the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) in removing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista as part of the Cuban Revolution. He was against Batista since the general's effective coup in 1952, which he called unconstitutional, but became more critical of the movement's shift towards Marxist principles, and closing ties with leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). He was convicted of "treason and sedition" by the new Castro regime. He would spend 20 years in prison (1959–1979) before being released in 1979.
After his release, he spent his time between Miami, Florida, United States and Costa Rica. He was politically active in speaking out against the Cuban government.
Matos died from a heart attack on 27 February 2014 in Miami, Florida. He was aged 95.
Non-Stop (movie)
Ghostbusters (1984 movie)
Ghostbusters is a American supernatural comedy movie directed by Ivan Reitman. It is about people fighting ghosts in New York City. It was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, William Atherton, Ernie Hudson and Rick Moranis. The music was composed by Elmer Bernstein. It was released on June 8, 1984. It was followed by "Ghostbusters II".
Rick Moranis
Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis (born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter and songwriter. He was nominated for a Grammy Award two times. He was known for his role in the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". He is also known for appearing in "Ghostbusters", "The Flintstones", "Spaceballs", and in "Little Shop of Horrors".
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein (April 4, 1922 – August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. He is best known for his many movie soundtracks.
His musical career last for fifty years, he composed music for over one hundred movies and television shows. His most popular works include the scores to "The Magnificent Seven", "The Ten Commandments", "The Great Escape", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Ghostbusters", "The Black Cauldron" and "The Rookies".
Bernstein died of cancer on August 18, 2004.
Sorel Etrog, CM (August 29, 1933 – February 26, 2014) was a Romanian-born Canadian artist, writer and philosopher. He is best known for his work as a sculptor. In 1966, works by Etrog, Alex Colville and Yves Gaucher represented Canada at the Venice Biennale.
He died from prostate cancer in Toronto. He was aged 80.
Ernie Hudson
Shehu Shagari
Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari, "Turakin Sakkwato" (25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018) was a Nigerian politician. He served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic from 1979 to 1983. His government was given power by General Olusegun Obasanjo's military government.
Shagari died on 28 December 2018 at a hospital in Abuja, Nigeria from a short-illness at the age of 93.
Ali Hassan Mwinyi (born May 8, 1925) is a Tanzanian politician. He was the second President of Tanzania from 1985 to 1995. Before that he had been Interior Minister and Vice President. He also was chairman of the ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) from 1990 to 1996.
Mwinyi was born in Kivure, in the Pwani Region.
Nicholas Brathwaite
Sir Nicholas Alexander Brathwaite PC (8 July 1925 – 28 October 2016) was a Grenadian politician. He was the acting Prime Minister of Grenada from 1983 to 1984. He then served as the 5th Prime Minister of Grenada from 1990 to 1995. He resigned from his duties as prime minister in 1995. He was knighted the same year.
Mahathir Mohamad
Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Malaysia from May 2018 to March 2020. He was also the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the job for 22 years from 1981 to 2003. This made him Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister. His political career lasted for almost 40 years until briefly retiring.
During his job, he made many laws that helped Malaysia become richer, but he also made other laws to punish people who criticised him. But he was a kind person.
At 94, he is the oldest living Prime Minister of Malaysia and was the world's oldest head of state or government still in office until he resigned in February 2020.
In 2018, Mahathir announced his bid for another term as Malaysian Prime Minister for the 2018 general election. He won the election in May 2018.
On 24 February 2020, Mohamad announced his resignation as Prime Minister. He resignation came into effect on 1 March.
Quett Masire
Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, GCMG (23 July 1925 – 22 June 2017) was a Botswana politician. He was the second President of Botswana for the Botswana Democratic Party from 1980 to 1998. He was born in Kanye.
Masire died in Gaborone, Botswana on 22 June 2017 from surgical complications at the age of 91.
Ali Bozer
Ali Husrev Bozer (28 July 1925 – 30 September 2020) was a Turkish politician and professor of commercial law.
He was originally a member of the Nationalist Democracy Party (MDP). He then joined the Motherland Party (ANAP). He served as Deputy Prime Minister under Turgut Özal and Yıldırım Akbulut. He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He was born in Ankara. Bozer died on 30 September 2020 in Ankara from COVID-19, aged 95.
Gérard Kango Ouédraogo
Gérard Kango Ouédraogo (19 September 1925 – 1 July 2014) was Prime Minister of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) from 13 February 1971 to 8 February 1974. He was President of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso from 1978 to November 25, 1980.
He was born in Ouahigouya.
He served in the French National Assembly from 1956-1959.
Gérard Ouédraogo was born on September 19, 1925, in Ouahigouya, at the entrance of an ancestral site, Naaba Kango Cave. His name Kango was originally Kaongo, that is to say the field that surrounds a palace or a concession.
Founder of the MRV (Voltaic regroupment movement), he was deputy of Upper Volta under the Fourth Republic, then in the first National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. He was ambassador of the new independent state of Upper Volta in Great Britain from 1960 to 1966. Subsequently, he continued to play an important role in the political life of the country, notably by sitting in the National Assembly for the constituency of Ouahigouya and being one of the leaders of the UDV / RDA (Democratic Union Voltaic, member of the African Democratic Rally). He was Prime Minister of Upper Volta from 1971 to 1974, under the presidency of Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana.
President of the National Assembly during the coup d'état of Saye Zerbo on November 25, 1980, he was imprisoned several times under the dictatorships of Saye Zerbo, Thomas Sankara and Blaise Compaore. Since the easing of the regime presided over by the latter head of state in the early 1990s, he was elected twice as MP under the Fourth Republic, before resigning on May 27, 1998. Shortly thereafter, the African Democratic Rally appointed honorary president for life.
Yang Hyong-sop
Yang Hyong-sop (born 1 October 1925)
is a North Korean politician. He was elected chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly in 1983, and served until 1998. He is vice president of the Presidium of the Spa (1998-2019).
Yang was born in Hamhung. He attended Moscow State University and Kim Il-sung University. He is married to Kim Shin-sook, a cousin of Kim Il-Sung.
Antoine Gizenga
Antoine Gizenga (5 October 1925 – 24 February 2019) was a Congolese politician. He was the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 30 December 2006 to 10 October 2008. He is the Secretary-General of the Unified Lumumbist Party ("Parti Lumumbiste Unifié", PALU).
Gizenga was born in Mushiko, Bandundu. He died on 24 February 2019 in Kinshasa, aged 93.
Czesław Kiszczak
Czesław Jan Kiszczak (; 19 October 1925 – 5 November 2015) was a Polish politician. He was active during the Polish People's Republic, the Communist period in Poland.
Kiszczak was a member of the Polish Workers' Party and later the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). He served as a high-ranking officer of the Polish Army, a chief of secret services and Minister of Internal Affairs (MSW) between 1981 and 1990.
He served during the years of Martial Law in Poland. He was an assistant of Wojciech Jaruzelski. He was also the last Communist Prime Minister of Poland, serving briefly in 1989.
Gregorio Conrado Álvarez
Gregorio Conrado Álvarez Armelino (November 26, 1925 – December 28, 2016) was a Uruguayan general and former dictator. He served as the "de facto" president of Uruguay from 1981 until 1985.
On October 22, 2009, he was convicted for 37 counts of murder and human rights violations. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. However, he was not in court to hear the verdict as he was ill.
Julio María Sanguinetti
Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo (born 6 January 1936) is a Uruguayan politician, lawyer and journalist. He served as President of Uruguay twice: from March 1985 until March 1990, and from March 1995 until March 2000. He was from the Colorado Party.
He supports same-sex marriage and a bill that recently approved same-sex marriages by the Uruguayan legislature.
Sanguinetti was born in Montevideo.
Arnaldo Forlani (; born 8 December 1925) is an Italian politician. He served as the 44th Prime Minister of Italy from 18 October 1980 to 28 June 1981. He was previously a member of the right-wing of the Italian Christian Democratic Party.
Trần Thiện Khiêm
General Trần Thiện Khiêm (born 15 December 1925) is a Vietnamese military officer. He was an officer in the army of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the 1960s he was involved in several coups d'état. He helped President Ngô Đình Diệm put down a coup attempt in November 1960. He was rewarded with promotion. In 1963 he was involved in the coup that deposed and assassinated Ngo Dinh Diem.
Luis Alberto Monge
Luis Alberto Monge Álvarez (29 December 1925 – 29 November 2016) was a Costa Rican politician, diplomat and lawyer. He was the President of Costa Rica from 8 May 1982 to 8 May 1986. Before being President, he was the country's ambassador to Israel.
He was born in Palmares, Alajuela Province. Monge died of cardiac arrest on 29 November 2016 in San José, aged 90.
Rachid Solh
Rachid Solh (1 January 1926 – 27 June 2014) was a Lebanese politician. He served as the Prime Minister. He was part of one of the most powerful Sunni Muslim families in the country.
Solh was elected as a member of the Lebanese Parliament for the first time in 1960. He was appointed prime minister by president Suleiman Franjieh in 1974.
Solh resigned from office on 15 May 1975, a few weeks after the start of the Lebanese Civil War.
He died on 27 June 2014, aged 88.
Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili
Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili (; January 28, 1926 - November 23, 2016) was an Iranian politician and Muslim leader. He served as the head of legal system of Iran for about 8 years after terror of Dr. Beheshti until death of Khomeini. He was a marja of the Twelver branch of Shia Islam.
He was born in Ardabil. He died in Tehran on 23 November 2016.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician and writer. He was the 20th President of France from 1974 to 1981 during the Fifth Republic.
Born in Koblenz, Germany, Giscard d'Estaing began his political career as a Gaullist and slowly began to change his political thinking around the time he was the Minister of Finance when Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Pierre Messmer were prime ministers.
He won the presidential election of 1974 with 50.8% of the vote against François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party. His presidency was seen as liberal for his focus on divorce, contraception and abortion. His presidency helped modernise the country through his creation and growth of TGV and support of nuclear power as France's main energy source. However, he became unpopular because of a bad economy and the 1973 energy crisis, which many felt that it was the end of the "Trente Glorieuses". In 1981, he lost his re-election campaign to Mitterrand, with 48.2% of the vote.
After his presidency, he was a member of the Constitutional Council. He also was President of the Regional Council of Auvergne from 1986 to 2004. Giscard d'Estaing focused on the European Union after his presidency. He was in charge of the Convention on the Future of Europe that created the unsuccessful treaty that would have created a constitution for Europe. In 2003, he was elected to the Académie française.
At the time of his death at age 94 years and 304 days, Giscard d'Estaing was the longest-lived French president in history. He died in December 2020 from COVID-19.
Giscard d'Estaing was born on 2 February 1926 in Koblenz, Germany, during the French occupation of the Rhineland. He was the oldest son of Jean Edmond Lucien Giscard d'Estaing and his wife Marthe Clémence Jacqueline Marie (May) Bardoux.
Giscard d'Estaing had an older sister, Sylvie and younger siblings Olivier, Isabelle, and Marie-Laure.
He joined the French Resistance and was part of the Liberation of Paris where he protected Alexandre Parodi. He then joined the French First Army. He was later awarded the "Croix de guerre" for his military service.
He studied at Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, École Gerson and Lycées Janson-de-Sailly and Louis-le-Grand in Paris. He graduated from the École polytechnique and the École nationale d'administration. He later joined the Inspection des finances. He worked in the Tax and Revenue Service, then joined the staff of Prime Minister Edgar Faure from 1955 to 1956.
In 1956, Giscard d'Estaing was elected to the National Assembly as a deputy for the Puy-de-Dôme "département". He joined the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), a conservative group. After the creation of the Fifth Republic, the CNIP leader Antoine Pinay became Minister of Economy and Finance and chose him as Secretary of State for Finances from 1959 to 1962.
In 1962, when Giscard d'Estaing was nominated as Minister of Economy and Finance, his party split up with the Gaullists and left the majority coalition. At first, Giscard d'Estaing was a supporter of French president Charles de Gaulle. He did not support this and founded the Independent Republicans (RI). During this time, he supported the United States dollar as a form of international payments.
In 1966, Giscard d'Estaing was removed from the cabinet. He made the RI into a political party, the National Federation of the Independent Republicans (FNRI), and founded the Perspectives and Realities Clubs. In 1969, Giscard d'Estaing supported a "no" vote in the constitutional referendum which focused on the regions and the Senate. De Gaulle had said that he would resign if the "no" won. After De Gaulle resigned, many of his supporters blamed Giscard d'Estaing for being responsible for De Gaulle's resignation. From 1967 to 1974, he was Mayor of Chamalières.
During the 1969 presidential campaign, he supported the winning candidate Georges Pompidou, after which he became the Minister of Economy and Finance again.
In 1974, after the death of President Georges Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing announced his candidacy for the presidency. His two main challengers were François Mitterrand for the left and Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Gaullist Prime Minister. Jacques Chirac explained that Giscard d'Estaing was the best candidate to stop Mitterrand from being elected. In the election, Giscard d'Estaing beat Mitterrand by a small number of votes, winning 50.7% of the vote which was 425,000 votes. At 48, he was the third youngest president in French history at the time, after Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and Jean Casimir-Perier.
When Giscard d'Estaing made it easier for people to get political asylum, he expanded health insurance, lowered the voting age to 18, and modernised the divorce law. He supported the creation of the TGV high speed train network and the Minitel telephone upgrade. He supported nuclear power.
Economically, Giscard d'Estaing's presidency increased personal incomes, as employment went up 29% and pensions by 65%.
Giscard d'Estaing tried to make the presidency look less like a monarchy. He rode the Métro, ate monthly dinners with citizens, and even invited garbage men from Paris to have breakfast with him in the Élysée Palace. Many of his critics believed that Giscard was not formal enough to be president.
Many conservatives that supported him slowly began to criticise him because he helped legalise abortion. Even though he was against the death penalty, Giscard d'Estaing said in his 1974 campaign that he would support the death penalty for some criminals. He did not remove three death sentences that happened during his presidency, making France the last country in the Europe to take part of death penalty.
Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who resigned in 1976, began to criticise Giscard d'Estaing's leadership and later became political enemies with him.
Giscard d'Estaing was a close friend of West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and together they helped create the European Monetary System. They also helped make the Soviet Union support the Helsinki Accords.
He supported creation of the European Council at the Paris Summit in December 1974.
In 1975, Giscard d'Estaing made the King of Spain Juan Carlos I to ban Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from his coronation by saying that if Pinochet went, he would not. Although France accepted many Chilean political refugees, Giscard d'Estaing's government secretly worked with Pinochet's and Argentina's Jorge Rafael Videla's dictatorship governments.
Giscard d'Estaing supported de Gaulle's African policy where supported delivering oil supplies to and from Africa. In 1977, in the Opération Lamantin, he ordered the French military to go to Mauritania and stop the Polisario guerrillas fighting against Mauritania.
Giscard d'Estaing became controversial for his support of Jean-Bédel Bokassa in the Central African Republic. Due to the growing unpopularity of that government, he began to slowly criticise Bokassa. In 1979's Operation Caban, French troops helped remove Bokassa from power and made former president David Dacko the new leader.
The Diamonds Affair, known in France as "l'affaire des diamants", was a major political scandal in the Fifth Republic. In 1973, while Minister of Finance, Giscard d'Estaing was given diamonds by Bokassa. Many believe this is what made him lose his re-election.
In the 1981 presidential election, Giscard d'Estaing's re-election was in trouble because former Prime Minister Chirac ran against him. Chirac finished third and did not tell his supporters to vote for Giscard in the second round of the election. Giscard d'Estaing lost to Mitterrand by 3 points in the runoff, ending a 23-year conservative presidential span. He blamed Chirac for his defeat.
Giscard d’Estaing was seen as an important person in modernising France and making the European Union strong. He was popular because his presidency passed many small social reforms, such as lowering the voting age by three years, allowing divorce by common consent, and legalising abortion.
However, he was unable to fix the great economic crisis of his term, a worldwide economic recession caused by a massive increase in oil prices. His foreign policy was remembered for his close relationship with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Together they helped expand and made Europe's economic power stronger as they pushed for the European Monetary System and helped create the G-7 system.
After he lost in 1981, Giscard d'Estaing retired for a short time from politics. In 1984, he was re-elected to his seat in the National Assembly and won the presidency of Auvergne. He was President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions from 1997 to 2004.
In 1982, along with former U.S. President Gerald Ford, Giscard d'Estaing co-founded the annual AEI World Forum. He has also was a member of the Trilateral Commission after being president.
Giscard d'Estaing hoped to become prime minister after the re-election of Mitterrand, but he was not chosen for this job. During the 1988 presidential campaign, he did not support two of his two former Prime Ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre.
Giscard d'Estaing was President of the UDF from 1988 to 1996. Most of the UDF politicians supported the candidacy of the RPR Prime Minister Édouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election, but Giscard d'Estaing supported Chirac, who won the election.
In 2000, he created a proposal to limit the length of a presidential term from seven to five years, a proposal that eventually won its referendum proposal by President Chirac. Following his retirement from the National Assembly his son Louis Giscard d'Estaing was elected.
In 2003, Giscard d'Estaing became a member of the Académie française. In 2004, he became a member of the Constitutional Council. His support for creating a European Constitution, were criticised. Many believed Giscard should have been removed from the council and be given a life membership in the Senate.
He supported the presidential campaigns of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 and François Fillon in 2017. In 2013, Giscard d'Estaing supported same-sex marriage in France.
On 21 January 2017, he became the oldest former president in French history.
Giscard d'Estaing was a supporter of a stronger European Union. From 1989 to 1993, Giscard d'Estaing was a member of the European Parliament. From 1989 to 1991, he was also chairman of the Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group.
From 2001 to 2004, he was President of the Convention on the Future of Europe. On 29 October 2004, the European heads of state approved and signed the European Constitution based on a draft supported by Giscard d'Estaing's work at the Convention. Although the constitution was not approved by French voters in May 2005, Giscard d'Estaing continued to support for its passage in other European Union states.
Giscard d'Estaing was a supporter of the Lisbon Treaty.
In 2008 he became the Honorary President of the Permanent Platform of Atomium Culture. On 27 November 2009, Giscard d'Estaing started the Permanent Platform of Atomium Culture during its first meeting, held at the European Parliament.
Giscard d'Estaing's name was often shortened to "VGE". He was also known as "l'Ex", especially during the time he was the only living former president.
On 17 December 1952, Giscard d'Estaing married Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes. His family did not live in the presidential Élysée Palace during his presidency. In 1974, "Le Monde" reported that he used to leave a letter about where he was in case of an emergency.
In May 2020, Giscard d'Estaing was accused of touching a German journalist's buttocks during an interview in 2018. He denied the accusations, saying that he never did this, however apologised to the reporter.
In 2005, he and his brother bought the castle of Estaing. However, many newspapers in different countries why they bought with many believing they wanted to become French nobility. It was put up for sale in 2008 for €3 million It is now owned by the Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Foundation.
Giscard d'Estaing wrote his second romantic novel, published on 1 October 2009 in France, titled "The Princess and the President". It tells the story of a French leader having a romantic affair with a character called Patricia, Princess of Cardiff. This caused many rumours that the book was based on a real-life affair between Giscard d'Estaing and Diana, Princess of Wales. He later said that such an affair never happened and that the book was fictional.
On 14 September 2020, Giscard d'Estaing was hospitalised for breating problems at the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou in Paris. He was later diagnosed with a lung infection. He was hospitalised again on 15 November, but left the hospital on 20 November.
Giscard d'Estaing died of problems caused by COVID-19 on 2 December 2020 during the pandemic in France at his Authon, Loir-et-Cher home, aged 94. His funeral and burial was held on 5 December in Authon with forty people going the event.
President Emmanuel Macron released a statement calling Giscard d'Estaing a "servant of the state, a politician of progress and freedom". Macron declared a national day of mourning for Giscard d'Estaing on 9 December. Former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, 2017 presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and European Union leaders Charles Michel, David Sassoli, and Ursula von der Leyen all talked positively about Giscard d'Estaing's role in modernising France and relations with the European Union.
Giscard d'Estaing was honoured with the Grand-croix of the Legion of Honour and of the Ordre National du Mérite.
In 1966, he was made Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic. In 1973, Giscard d'Estaing was honored with the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 1975, Giscard d'Estaing was honoured with Portugal's Grand Collar of the Order of Saint James of the Sword. In 1976, he was honoured with the Order of the Bath, and Order of the Southern Cross.
In 1978, Giscard d'Estaing was made Knight of the Order of the Elephant and honoured with the Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry by Portugal. That same year, he was honored with the Order of Charles III by Spain. In 1980, Giscard d'Estaing was honoured with the Order of the Seraphim.
In 1979, he was given the Nansen Refugee Award.
In 2003, Giscard d'Estaing received the Charlemagne Award of the German city of Aachen. He was also a Knight of Malta.
Mohammad Hasan Sharq
Mohammad Hasan Sharq (born 17 July 1925) is an Afghan politician during the communist regime of Afghanistan. Sharq became Prime Minister of Afghanistan or Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet-backed government, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
He was selected as a back-up candidate after the Loya Jirga ratified a new constitution in 1987. However, the power of his office was relatively small compared with the ones of the Presidency.
Abdelsalam al-Majali
Abdelsalam al-Majali ( ; born 18 February 1926) is a Jordanian medical doctor and politician. He served twice as the Prime Minister of Jordan.
Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum
Chau Sen Cocsal (; 1 September 1905 – 22 January 2009), also known as "Chhum" (), was a Cambodian civil servant and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Cambodia for a short period of time in 1962. Chhum was old at the time of his death. This makes him the oldest lived former Prime Minister.
Antoine Pinay
Antoine Pinay (; 30 December 1891 – 13 December 1994) was a French conservative politician. He served as Prime Minister of France from March 1952 through March 1953.
He was also Minister of Public Works, Transport, Tourism, Finance, Economic and Foreign Affairs.
He died in Saint-Chamond, Loire, at the age of 102. He is the third longest-lived national head of government or head of state in history, behind Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum and Celâl Bayar.
Willem Drees
Willem Drees (; July 5, 1886 – May 14, 1988) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and its predecessor the SDAP. He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 7, 1948 until December 22, 1958.
Before entering national politics Drees was a member of the municipal council and also an alderman of The Hague. During this time he was also a member of the Provincial States of South Holland.
Drees was an active performer of Esperanto.
Martin E. Sullivan
Martin E. Sullivan (February 9, 1944 – February 25, 2014) was an American museum director. He served as Director of the United States National Portrait Gallery from 2008 to 2012. This gallery is administered by the Smithsonian Institution.
Sullivan died of kidney failure. He was aged 70.
Tim Wilson (comedian)
Timothy Collins "Tim" Wilson (August 5, 1961 – February 26, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian and country musician. He released many comedy albums. He worked with Capitol Records in Nashville. He made many appearances on the "John Boy and Billy", "Big D and Bubba" and "Bob and Tom Show".
Wilson died from a heart attack. He was aged 52.
Country-western dance
The country-western dance (also country dance or cowboy) is dancing that is performed mostly to country music. It is also called kicker dancing in Texas. There are several forms of it.
The western couple dance is social dancing that involves several people. Other dances include line dance and square dancing.
Other versions of the dance include:
The dance dates back to the late 18th century.
Anjem Choudary
Anjem Choudary (; born 1967) is a British former solicitor and Islam preacher. He was the leader and spokesman for the Islamist group Islam4UK until it was banned under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Choudary was born in Welling, London to Pakistani parents. He is married to Rubana Akhtar. As of 2006, the couple have three children.
Aaron Allston
Aaron Allston (December 8, 1960 – February 27, 2014) was an American game designer and writer of many science fiction books. He was best known for his "Star Wars" novels. His works as a game designer include mostly role-playing games (RPGs). He several of the RPGs served to create the basis for products and following development of TSR's "Dungeons & Dragons" game setting Mystara. He was born in Corsicana, Texas.
Allston collapsed after having a massive heart failure on December 8, 1960 during a VisionCon in Springfield, Missouri. He died later that day at the age of 53.
Son of God (movie)
The movie Son of God is a biographical movie. It was released February 28, 2014. It is about the life and death of Jesus Christ. This movie has a run time of 138 minutes.
The MPAA rated the movie PG-13. Reviews of the movie were not good.
Grinding (also called freaking or freak dancing) is a dance where two or more people rub or bump their bodies against one another. It became popular in night clubs. The dance then moved into high schools across the United States and Canada.
Schools have tried to ban grinding because it is very sexual.
A dance similar to grinding is "The Bump", which was popular in the 1970s. Another is the twerk, which became popular through the 2000s into the 2010s.
Lipovica, Lipljan
Hugo Brandt Corstius
Hugo Brandt Corstius (29 August 1935 – 28 February 2014) was a Dutch journalist, columnist and writer. He known for his success in both literature and science. He was born in Eindhoven, North Brabant.
Brandt Corstius died after a long illness on 28 February 2014 in Amsterdam, North Holland. He was 78 years old. He was outlived by his children, journalists Aaf (born 1975) and Jelle (born 1978).
Bark bread
Bark bread is a form of bread used during a famine. It made by adding ground phloem to the flour as an to make it last longer.
During the 18th and early 19th century Northern Europe had several very bad years of crop failure. This was particularly during the Little Ice Age of the mid 18th century. The grain harvest was badly affected. Many ideas to make the flour last longer were introduced. In 1742, samples of “emergency bread” were sent from Kristiansand, Norway to the Royal Administration in Copenhagen. One of these was bark bread. This is bread made from grain and bread made from burned bones. During the Napoleonic Wars, moss too was used for food.
The last time bark bread was used as famine food in Norway was during the Napoleonic Wars. The introduction of the potato as a staple crop gave the farmers other crops when grain production failed. So that bark bread and moss cakes were no longer needed. In Northern Sweden, traces of Sami harvest of bark from Scots pine are known from the 1890s. In Finland "pettuleipä" (literally "pinewood-bark bread") was produced as a substitute for bread during the Finnish Civil War of 1918.
Kolari
Kolari is a municipality in Finnish Lapland. It had almost 3,900 living there in January 2014. The municipalities next to it are Kittilä, Muonio, Pello and Rovaniemi. Ilpo Väisänen planned the railway station building.
Pudasjärvi
Pudasjärvi is a town and municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. It had 8,510 living there in January 2014. The municipalities next to it are Ii, Oulu, Posio, Puolanka, Ranua, Suomussalmi, Taivalkoski and Utajärvi.
Raul Soares Square
The Praça Raul Soares is a large public square in the city of Belo Horizonte, in Brazil. It is built in the French style. It is located where four major roads meet. The roads are Amazonas, Augusto de Lima, Bias Fortes and Olegário Maciel. The square is named in honor of the former governor of Minas Gerais, Raul Soares de Moura.
In 2008, the square was renovated. The flowerbeds, sidewalks and fountains were fixed up. Some trees were replaced, lamp posts were resized, and advertisements were removed or adjusted. The walks were improved to provide easier access for disabled and blind people. This was paid for by the city's government. It cost about $2,600,000 U.S. dollars. The project aimed to make the square safer and easier for pedestrians.
List of Docklands Light Railway stations
This List of Docklands Light Railway stations shows the stations for each Docklands Light Railway route. It also shows the distance of the station from the start of the line.
Puolanka
Puolanka is a municipality in Kainuu, Finland. It had 3,000 living there in January 2014. The municipalities next to it are Hyrynsalmi, Paltamo, Pudasjärvi, Ristijärvi, Suomussalmi, Utajärvi and Vaala.
Aittokylä, Askankylä, Leipivaara, Lylykylä, Naulaperä,Puolanka, Väyrylä, and Yli-Oterma.
Vaala
Vaala is a municipality in North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It had 3,195 living there in January 2014. The municipalities next to it are Kajaani, Liminka, Muhos, Paltamo, Puolanka, Siikalatva and Utajärvi.
Previously, Vaala was part of the Kainuu region but was changed to Northern Ostrobothnia on 1 January 2016.
Paltamo
Paltamo is a municipality in Kainuu, Finland. It had about 3,600 living there in January 2014. The municipalities next to it are Kajaani, Puolanka, Ristijärvi, Sotkamo and Vaala.
The Lambada is a dance from Brazil. It is sometimes called the "forbidden dance". It started in the late 1970s. It became most popular in the 1980s. Its popularity was mostly in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Lambada is a dance for two people. The dance is done with bent legs. Steps are usually side to side, with turns. There are pronounced movements for the hips. Around the time the Lambada became popular, the women often wore short skirts. These skirts swirl up when the woman turns. Sometimes the woman's thong underwear is seen during the turns.
Sete de Setembro Square
Praça Sete de Setembro (in English: Sete de Setembro Square, and normally called Praça Sete) is a public square in the center of the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
It is located at the intersection of two major roads, "Afonso Pena" and "Amazonas", and by the streets Rio de Janeiro and Carijós.
Nikki DeLoach
Ashlee Nicole DeLoach (or Nikki; born September 9, 1979) is an American actress and former singer. She was on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the 1990s. She also played Lily in the 2008 version of "An American Carol".
DeLoach was born in Waycross, Georgia.
Luby's massacre
The Luby's massacre was a mass murder on October 16, 1991, which took place at a Luby's restaurant in Killeen, Texas.
George Hennard, a thirty-five year old man, drove his blue 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck through the front window of a Luby's restaurant. He yelled "This is what Bell County did to me!" and started shooting customers and staff members with a Glock 17 and a Ruger P89. He shot and killed 23 people, ten of them with a single shot to the head. He also wounded 20 other people. Hennard had a dislike of women and survivors of the shooting said that he went by men to shoot the women. He also announced that "All women of Killeen and Belton are vipers!" He exchanged gunfire with police officers, hid in a bathroom and committed suicide.
One of the survivors of the massacre was former Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives Suzanna Hupp. Both her parents were killed in the shooting.
Until the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, it was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history. It is now the third deadliest behind Virginia Tech and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It is still the deadliest non-school shooting rampage in American history.
After the massacre, the Texas Legislature passed a shall-issue gun law in 1995, which required all qualifying applicants be issued a Concealed Handgun License (which is Texas' required permit to carry concealed weapons). To qualify for a license, the person must be free-and-clear of crimes, attend a minimum 10-hour class which is taught by a state-certified instructor, pass a 50-question test, show a high amount of skill in a 50-round shooting test, and must pass two background tests, one shallow and one deep. The license costs $140 for a four year license and applicants have to pay $10 for fingerprinting as well as instructor costs which vary. The law was campaigned by shooting survivor Suzanna Hupp and was signed by then-Governor George W. Bush.
The restaurant closed down on September 9, 2000. A Chinese-American buffet called Yank Sing is now located where the Luby's used to be.
Edward J. Walsh
Edward Joseph Walsh (March 5, 1942 – February 14, 2014) was an American journalist. He reported on politics. He made news reports from foreign countries. He worked for "The Washington Post" and "The Oregonian".
Walsh was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at the College of St. Thomas.
He died in Portland, Oregon, from lung cancer. He was aged 71.
Lesterville, South Dakota