AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Pennsylvania was home to many Native American groups before Europeans settled there. These include the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Iroquois.
The first European settlers in Pennsylvania were from Sweden. They arrived in 1643. The area was later ruled by the Netherlands and Great Britain. In 1681, Charles II of England, gave the land to William Penn. Penn used the land to create a home for Quakers. The land became known as "Penn's Woods", as Pennsylvania has many forests. In Latin this is "Pennsylvania". This became adopted as the name of the colony.
Meanwhile, in the western part of the state, armies from France and Great Britain fought for control of the source of the Ohio River. This conflict was part of the French and Indian War. Great Britain eventually won the conflict for this location and built a fort called Fort Pitt. The fort grew into a city which is now called Pittsburgh.
The state of Delaware was once part of Pennsylvania. In 1704, Delaware formed when three Pennsylvania counties left the colony and created their own government.
Pennsylvania was one of the 13 colonies that fought Great Britain in the American Revolution. The United States Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin, an important figure in the Revolution, was also from Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was the second state to join the United States. Philadelphia was capital of the United States before Washington, D.C..
Later, Pennsylvania became an important center of industry. Kerosene was discovered in Titusville in the 19th century. This was the start of the oil industry in the United States. Large deposits of coal were found in and around Pittsburgh. This caused Pittsburgh to become a major industrial city.
Industry began leaving Pennsylvania in the late 20th century, because most heavy industry was being transferred to other nations. Many people left, too. It also caused many of its cities and towns to decay.
Most of Pennsylvania is part of the Appalachian Mountains, including the south central and northeastern areas of the state. Much of the rest of the state is very hilly, partly due to the closeness to mountains and partly due to the steep river valleys in the state. The Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers are in the western part of the state, and the Susquehanna is in the central part of the state. The northwestern and southeastern parts of the state are mostly flat and low-lying.
Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest states in the United States, with a land area of 44,817 square miles. The highest point in the state is Mount Davis, at 3,213 feet above sea level. The lowest point is the Delaware River, which is at sea level.
Pennsylvania is the 5th most populated state. In 2000, there were 12,281,054 people.
More than half of the people live in the areas of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Few people live in the north central area of the state. Towns and cities tend to be small in size and densely populated, more so than in other states. This is because many of the towns and cities in Pennsylvania were built around a specific factory or factories.
Pennsylvania has many colleges and universities. Officially, the state's public university is Pennsylvania State University. Best known are a few private university systems which are partially (around 10%) funded by the state, like University of Pittsburgh. The state's most well-known private university is the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. Pennsylvania also has a number of state run colleges in Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester. Those fourteen schools make up one of the largest state run higher education systems in the country. Other significant private universities are Carnegie-Mellon University, known for its computer science research, and Bucknell University.
A box is a container used to put things in. It is mainly a cuboid (square) shape, but it can be other shapes too. Boxes are usually made out of cardboard, wood, plastic or metal.
Many boxes are made of cardboard, and a lot of them are made. They are primarily used for packaging commercial goods or storing goods and materials. They can be made from bent or wrinkled cardboard. In their most obvious life stage, they are popularly used as a cheap material to hold a range of projects, among them being science experiments, children's toys, costumes and other things.
A box also means a rectangle, "e.g. userbox". But rectangles are mainly referred to as rectangles, the term box is the outline, or perimeter of the rectangle.
The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia in the Pacific Ocean. It has 7,641 islands. Spain (1521-1898) and the United States (1898-1946), colonized (controlled) the country and Palau, which is on the eastern side of the Philippine Sea. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila.
The Philippines and East Timor are the only nations in East Asia where most people are Christians. The Philippines achieved independence after the United States left in 1946.
The Philippine Islands are surrounded on the east by the Philippine Sea, on the west by the South China Sea, and on the south by the Celebes Sea. Borneo island is a few hundred kilometers to the southwest, Vietnam is to the west, and Taiwan is directly north.
The earliest known hominin fossils from the Philippines are from "Homo luzonensis", an extinct species of archaic humans in the genus "Homo". They are are about 67,000 years old.
Human fossils have been found proving that modern "Homo sapiens" settled in the Philippines for thousands of years. The Negritos crossed prehistoric land or ice to settle in the islands' land. Many groups of Austronesian people began to come to the Philippines in the first millennium, pushing the aboriginal population into the interior or perhaps absorbing them through intermarriage.
Chinese merchants arrived in the 8th century. The rise of powerful Buddhist kingdoms enabled trade with the Indonesian archipelago, India, Japan and Southeast Asia. Factional fighting among the kingdoms of Southeast Asia weakened their strength. In the meantime, the spread of Islam through commerce and proselytism, much like Christianity, brought traders and missionaries into the region; Arabs set foot in Mindanao in the 14th century. When the first Europeans arrived, led by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, there were rajahs as far north as Manila, who historically were tributaries of the kingdoms of Southeast Asia. However, the islands were essentially self-sufficient and self-ruling.
The Spanish led by Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi claimed and colonized the islands in the 16th century and named it "Filipinas" after King Philip II of Spain. Roman Catholicism was immediately introduced. The Philippines was ruled from New Spain (Mexico) and a trade began in the 18th century began using galleons across the Pacific Ocean. Some rebellions and violence started in the towns near the ocean and during the next three centuries because of some unfairness of the government.
In 1781, Governor José Basco y Vargas founded the Economic Society of Friends of the Country to make the Philippines independent of New Spain.
The country opened up during the 19th century. The rise of an ambitious, more nationalistic Filipino middle class and the Chinese mestizo community, signaled the end of Spanish colonialism in the islands. Enlightened by the Propaganda Movement to the injustices of the Spanish colonial government, they asked for independence. Jose Rizal, the most famous propagandist, was arrested and put to death in 1896 for acts of subversion. Soon after, the Philippine Revolution broke out, led by the Katipunan, a secret revolutionary society founded by Andres Bonifacio and later led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The revolution nearly succeeded in ousting the Spanish by 1898.
That same year Spain and the United States fought the Spanish-American War, after which Spain gave up the Philippines to the United States for US$20 million. The Filipinos had declared independence by that time and the assertion of American control led to the Philippine-American War that officially ended in 1901, but fighting continued well into 1913. Between 1899 and 1913 the American-Philippines war waged, about one million Filipinos and well over 5500 American soldiers (including missionaries and private contractors, military families) lost their lives, tens of thousands more were wounded. Most of the Philippines' casualties came from starvation, injuries, diseases, lack of clean living. Hostilities continued until 1914 when Philippines was promised future independence.
President William McKinley was killed by anarchist Leon Czolgosz because Czolgosz believed president McKinley was against good working people, he considered McKinley responsible for falsifying the reasons for the war, and approving and waging an illegal, devastating Philippines war.
The American regime imposed the English language as the "lingua franca" in the islands through free public education. The status of the country was turned into that of a US commonwealth in 1935, which provided for more self-governance.
Independence was finally given in 1946, after World War II. The years right after that had many post-war problems. People were also not happy during the unpopular dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who was made to leave the presidency in 1986. Later, the continuing problem of communist insurgency and Moro separatism.
The government of the Philippines, is similar to the Government of the United States of America. The President of the Philippines works as the head of state, the head of government, and the commander in chief of the Military of the Philippines and the armed forces. The president is elected by voting just as in America except by popular vote as there is no electoral voting. He stays as the president for 6 years. He is the leader of the cabinet.
The bicameral Philippine legislature, the Congress of the Philippines, consists of the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives of the Philippines; members of both are elected by popular vote. There are 24 senators serving 6 years in the Senate while the House of Representatives consists of no more than 250 congressmen each serving 3-year terms.
The judiciary branch of the government is headed by the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which has a Chief Justice as its head and 14 Associate Justices, all appointed by the president.
The Philippines is a founding and prominent member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also an active participant of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), a member of the Group of 24 and one of the 51 founding members of the United Nations on October 24, 1945.
Local Government. The parts of Philippines are "local government units" (LGUs). The province is the top unit. There are 79 provinces in the country (2002). In the provinces there are cities and municipalities (towns). In these municipalities there are smaller "barangays" (villages). The "barangay" is the smallest local government unit.
All provinces are in 17 regions for administration (organisation). Most government offices have regional offices for the provinces. The regions do not have a separate local government, except for the Muslim Mindanao and Cordillera regions, which have their own power (autonomous government).
¹ Names are capitalized because they are acronyms, containing the names of the constituent provinces or cities.
The Philippines has 7,641 islands. Together there are about 300,000 square kilometers of land. The islands are in three groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon is the largest island and Mindanao is the second largest. The Visayas are the group of islands in the central part of the Philippines. The busy port of Manila, on Luzon, is the country's capital and it is the second-largest city after Quezon City. In the Visayas, Cebu City is the largest city. In Mindanao, Davao City is the largest city.
The climate is hot, humid (there is a lot of water in the air), and tropical. The average temperature all year is around 26.5 °Celsius. Filipinos usually say there are three seasons: "Tag-init" or "Tag-araw" (the hot season or summer from March to May), "Tag-ulan" (the rainy season from June to November), and "Tag-lamig" (the cold season from December to February).
The Philippines is in the Pacific Ring of Fire (zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). Most of the mountainous islands had a lot of tropical rainforests a long time ago. They started as volcanoes. The highest place is Mount Apo on Mindanao at 2,954 m. Many volcanoes in the country, for example Mount Mayon, are active. The country also has about 19 typhoons per year.
Taal Volcano is an island in Taal Lake. It is in an ancient caldera in Batangas Province. It is about 2 hours by bus going south from Manila. The jump-off point in Talisay is suitable for day trips and overnighters.
There are many environmental problems in the Philippines. One of them is overfishing in many areas, which lead to pitiful catches. Another problem is that only ten percent of sewage is treated and cleaned, while the other 90% is dumped back to nature and the ocean, which leads to pollution. Deforestation is a serious problem, and after decades of cutting down forests, illegal logging and forest fires, there is only 3% left of original forest cover. Forest losses have also affected the Philippines with serious soil erosion, which is threatening the Philippines biodiversity.
The Philippines is a developing country. In 1998 the Philippine economy — a mixture of agriculture, light industry, and support services — deteriorated because of the effects of the Asian financial crisis and poor weather conditions. The economy's growth fell to 0.6% in 1998 from 5% in 1997, but recovered to about 3% in 1999 and 4% in 2000. As of 2012, it's estimated at 6.6%.
The government has promised to continue its economic reforms to help the Philippines match the pace of development in the newly industrialized countries of Southeast Asia. The strategies are improving infrastructure, fixing the tax system to help the government income, supporting deregulation (to remove government control) and privatization of the economy, and increasing trade within the region. Future prospects depend heavily on the economic performance of the three major trading partners, China, the United States and Japan.
Around 94 million people live in the Philippines as of 2010. Most people in the Philippines are of Austronesian stock. The ethnic Chinese, who have helped run businesses since the 9th century, also live in the country. Its now 105 million people there. The Negritos live in the mountains of Luzon and Visayas. Luzon has a lot of mestizo people, a Spanish term for someone of mixed Hispanic and native blood.
The people of the Philippines are known as "Filipinos". Filipinos are divided into many groups, the three largest are the Tagalogs, Cebuanos, and the Ilocanos. When the Philippines was a colony, the term "Filipino" used to mean the Spanish and Spanish-mixed minority. But now everyone who is a citizen/national of the Philippines is called "Filipino". Even then, it is still has the most diverse ethnic groups in Asia, the other being Indonesia. People also call Filipinos "Pinoy" for short.
Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is based largely on Tagalog, a native language spoken in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. The Filipino language, is a cousin of the Malay language. Other local languages and dialects are Cebuano and Ilocano and many others. English is used in government, schools and business. Other languages are Chinese which is spoken by the ethnic Chinese population and the Chinese-Filipinos. Most of the Muslims living deep in southern Mindanao and the smaller islands off of the southern Philippine mainland near Malaysia's northeastern tip. They also speak Arabic as a second language but to a very small extent. Spanish, once the official language of the Philippines in the 1970s is also spoken by a notable minority of Filipinos.
Before the Spanish arrived, the Filipinos did not think of themselves as one culture. Most of the Philippines were Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu empires. The Spaniards came in 1565, and brought with them Spanish culture. They soon spread to the islands making forts and schools, preaching Christianity, and converting most of the native people to the Catholic religion. When the United States colonized the islands in 1898, the Americans brought with them their own culture, which has the strongest influence up to now. This makes the Philippines the most Westernized country in eastern Asia. The Spanish culture in the Philippines though, is not directly from Spain but from Mexico, since the Philippines was ruled by Spain, through Mexico. It was governed from Mexico City which explains much of the Spanish influence in the Philippines that one could only find in Mexico and not in Spain. Also, the Spanish that was spoken in the Philippines was Mexican Spanish, not European Spanish. A lot of the foods in the Philippines can also be found in Mexico. Filipinos, as a tradition, usually eat with hands, like that of Malay tradition. And most of Filipino cuisine is also of Malay influence for the most part.
Each year major festivities called "barrio fiestas" are held. They commemorate the Patron saints of the towns, villages and regional districts. The festivities includes church services, street parades, fireworks displays, feasts, dance/music contests, and cockfights.
Most of the people in the Philippines are Christians. About 92% of the people are Christians. Most people in the Philippines belong to the Roman Catholic faith (70%). A sizable percentage of the people are Protestants (many diverse Christian denominations) (17%), Iglesia ni Cristo (2%), Muslims (5-10%), Buddhists (2%). There are also some Hindus and some other minor religions with fewer adherents (6.6%).
Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom. It was broadcast by the BBC in two series, one in 1975, the other in 1979. Only twelve episodes were ever broadcast. However, the show is still liked by millions of people. "Fawlty Towers" has influenced other comedies.
It is set in a hotel in the coastal Devon town of Torquay.
The owners of the hotel are Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales).
They are helped by Polly, a young British maid (Connie Booth) and Manuel, a clumsy waiter from Barcelona in Spain (Andrew Sachs).
In series two there is also a chef, Terry (Brian Hall).
Basil is a rude, angry man, who fought in the Korean War. He has been married to Sybil for fifteen years. Sybil and Basil do not love each other. Polly has a talent for painting, and this is shown in some episodes when her artwork is laid upon the front desk, annoying Basil. Manuel speaks only a little English and he often makes mistakes due to misunderstanding things. When he makes a mistake Basil usually apologises to the guests by saying, "I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona."
The Major (Ballard Berkeley) is a regular guest. He is old and forgetful. The aged and easily shocked Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) are also regular guests.
There were twelve episodes of "Fawlty Towers" made.
The first six episodes were made in 1975, the last six in 1979. "Fawlty Towers" still has many fans, and many people regard it as the best comedy series made by the BBC. It was voted 5th in a poll in Britain to find "Britain's Best Sitcom" 2004.
One of the most famous episodes is "The Germans". In that episode, people from Germany are visiting the Hotel. Basil dislikes Germans, because he blames them for starting World War II. He tells his staff not to mention the war ("Don't mention the war!"). He himself continually mentions the war, and even imitates Adolf Hitler.
The episodes, in order with date of first showing, are:
A custom (also called a tradition) is a common way of doing things. It is something that many people do, and have done for a long time. Usually, the people come from the same country, culture, or religion. Usually, they do not know when the custom started.
Many customs are things that people do that are handed down from the past.
Examples of it are:
Fort Ouiatenon
Fort Ouiatenon was the first fortified European settlement in what is now the U.S. state of Indiana. It is approximately three miles southwest of modern-day West Lafayette.
Fort Ouiatenon was originally constructed by the French government in 1717 as a military outpost to protect against Great Britain's western expansion. Its location among the unsettled woodlands of the Wabash River valley also made it a key center of trade for fur trappers. French merchants and trappers from Quebec would arrive at Fort Ouiatenon in search of beaver pelts and to take advantage of trade relations with the native Wea Native American tribes.
At its peak level of activity during the mid-18th century Fort Ouiatenon was home to over 2,000 residents. In 1761, during the French and Indian War, a contingent of British soldiers led by Lieutenant Edward Jenkins captured and occupied the fort. In 1763 an uprising led by Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa Native American tribe surprised Lieutenant Jenkins and his men and captured Fort Ouiatenon without firing a shot. Seven similar posts were also captured in what became known as Pontiac's Uprising.
The British made little use of Fort Ouiatenon after the French and Indian War; it was never garrisoned. During the 1780s, local Indian tribes used it as a base of operations to stage raids against American settlers pushing westward. Consequently, President George Washington ordered the fort to be destroyed in 1791.
In 1930 a replica of Fort Ouiatenon was built near its original site by a local physician named Richard Wetherill. In 1970 the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Today Fort Ouiatenon is open to tourists and is the location of the annual Feast of the Hunters' Moon.
Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a population of about 7 million people. Almost 10% of all of the people in the state live in Chennai. The city is the fourth largest city of India. It was founded in 1661 by the British East India Company. The city is on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Chennai is the automobile capital of India. It is also referred as the Detroit of South Asia. The long Marina Beach in Chennai, is one of the longest beaches in the world. The city is separated into three parts by two rivers. The Cooum River divides the city into almost half and the Adyar River divides the southern half of the city into two parts. The historic Buckingham Canal runs through the city. It is almost parallel to the coast. The 350 year old city still has much of its old charm. Today, it is a big commercial and industrial centre. The city has much cultural heritage. The temples, shrines, forts and palaces of the city combine its past with the present.
Chennai and its nearby area has been an important administrative, military and economic centre back to the 1st century. Many South India kingdoms like the Pallava, the Chola, the Pandya and Vijayanagara Empires have ruled over the area. The British controlled the town in 1749. Under British control, the city grew into a major urban centre and naval base. The city grew up around the English settlement of Fort Saint George. It slowly grew in the nearby towns and villages. Chennai became the capital of Madras state (renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1968) when India became independent in 1947.
Chennai is connected by airways, railways and roads with all the major towns of the country.
Chennai is linked with roads from rest of the country. The distance of major cities and towns from Chennai are:
Chennai railway station is connected with all the major railway stations of the country. These include Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Varanasi.
The airport in Chennai is directly linked to airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Goa, Bhubaneswar, Cochin, Hyderabad, Port Blair and Pune.
The international terminal is connected with other overseas airports including London, Tokyo, Brussels, Singapore, Dubai, Frankfurt, Kuala Lumpur and New York.
It is one of the busiest airports in Asia.
Mumbai (previously known as Bombay until 1996) is a natural harbour on the west coast of India, and is the capital city of Maharashtra state. It is India's largest city, and one of the world's most populous cities. It is the financial capital of India and a global city. Many billionaires live there. The city is the second most-populous in the world. It has approximately 13 million people. Along with the neighbouring cities of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration. They have around 19.1 million people.
The seven islands that form Bombay were home to fishing colonies. The islands were ruled by successive kingdoms and indigenous empires before Portuguese settlers took it. Then, it went to the British East India Company. During the mid-18th century, Bombay became a major trading town. It became a strong place for the Indian independence movement during the early 20th century. When India became independent in 1947, the city was put into Bombay State. In 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Bombay as the capital. It was renamed Mumbai in 1996.
Mumbai generates more than 6% of India's GDP. It accounts for 25% of industrial output, 40% of sea trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy. The Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and many Indian companies and multinational corporations are in the city. It also has the Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood.
The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport is Mumbai's public transport service.
Former Bangalore (English pronunciation: ˈbæŋɡəlɔər, bæŋɡəˈlɔər), today again and officially known as Bengaluru () is the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is famous for its Information technology industry and so it is called the Silicon Valley of India. Today as a large and growing city, Bangalore has many of the most well-recognized colleges and research institutions in India.
Bangalore is more famous for its climatic conditions. The temperature is usually low compared to the other cities in Karnataka.This city was also known as the garden city because of the greenery it had.
Akbar the Great
Akbar (Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar, 15 October 1542 – 27 October 1605) was the 3rd Mughal Emperor. He was born in Umarkot (now Pakistan). He accepted Islam on the holy day of 21 March 1546. He was the son of 2nd Mughal Emperor Humayun.
Akbar became the "de jure" king in 1556 at the age of 13 when his father died. Bairam Khan was appointed as Akbar's regent and chief army commander. Soon after coming to power Akbar defeated Himu, the general of the Afghan forces, in the Second Battle of Panipat. After a few years, he ended the regency of Bairam Khan and took charge of the kingdom. He initially offered friendship to the Rajputs. However, he had to fight against some Rajputs who opposed him. In 1576 he defeated Maha Rana Pratap of Mewar in the Battle of Haldighati. Akbar's wars made the Mughal empire more than twice as big as it had been before, covering most of the Indian subcontinent except the south.
Akbar's system of central government was based on the system that had evolved since the Delhi Sultanate, but the functions of various departments were reorganised with detailed regulations for their functioning
Akbar was a Muslim. He realized that to establish a strong empire, he had to gain the confidence of his Hindu people who were the majority in India.
Din-i-ilahi was a religious path suggested by Akbar. It was a code of moral conduct which reflected Akbar's secular ideas and he desire to achieve peace, unity, tolerance in his empire. Belief in one god, worship of source of light, non-killing of animals, Having peace with all were some features of Din-i-ilahi. It didn't have any rituals, holy books, temples or priests.
Male circumcision was not to be done before the boy was 12 years old, and after that it was optional. It was a Jewish custom adopted by Islam. Akbar's rule was that it should be made optional and should be done, if at all, at an age when boys could understand what it was. Here Akbar gave every man a choice and opportunity to have a play of his reason. Indeed, the boy of reason as he was, he could not deny it to others. He was a very good emperor and he had a sense of justice.
When he was at Fatehpur Sikri, he held discussions as he loved to know about others' religious beliefs. On one such day, he got to know that the religious people of other religions were often bigots (intolerant of others religious beliefs). This led him to form the idea of the new religion, Sulh-e-kul meaning "universal peace". His idea of this religion did not discriminate other religions and focused on the ideas of peace, unity and tolerance. This gesture of his made the Hindus and people of other religions call him with different names and start loving him.
Akbar's reign was chronicled by his court historian Abul Fazal in the books "Akbarnama" and "Ain-i-Akbari". Other sources of Akbar's reign include the wod Sirhindi. Akbar was an artisan, warrior, artist, armourer, administrator carpenter, emperor, general, inventor, animal trainer, technologist. He became emperor at the age of 18.
Akbar had Navaratnas or nine jewels in his court which include Abul Fazel, Faizi, Tansen, Birbal, Raja Todar Mal, Raja Man Singh, Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, Fakir Aziao-Din and Mullah Do Piazza.
The Akbarnāma means the "Book of Akbar". It is the official biographical account of Akbar written by Abu Fazal. It includes vivid and detailed descriptions of his life and times. It also includes the information about the flora, fauna, life of the people of his reign, and the places Akbar used to visit.
The work was commissioned by Akbar, and written by Abul Fazl, one of the Navratnas (Nine Jewels) of Akbar's royal court. The book took seven years to complete. An illustration was done in the Mughal school of painting. A part of this is "Ain-i-Akbari".
On 3 October 1605, Akbar fell ill with an attack of dysentery, from which he never recovered. Twelve days after his sixty third year he died on 27 October 1605, after which his body was buried at a mausoleum in Sikandra (Agra): Akbar's tomb.
New Delhi () is the capital of India and a union territory of the megacity of Delhi. It has a very old history and is home to several monuments where the city is expensive to live in. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the North Indian zone. The city has an area of about 42.7 km. New Delhi has a population of about 9.4 Million people.
Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Hillary, (born 20 July 1919, died 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. He and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay were the first people to climb Mount Everest. They got to the top on 29 May 1953. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth. During his teenage years, Hillary had attended Auckland Grammar School.
Sir Edmund Hillary's fame came as a result of being the first New Zealander in the world to conquer Mt. Everest in Nepal. He is on the New Zealand five dollar note. He also climbed ten other mountains after Mount Everest, all of which are also in the Himalayas.
Hillary was born to Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Hillary, née Clark, in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 July 1919. His family moved to Tuakau (south of Auckland) in 1920, after his father (who served at Gallipoli) had gotten land there. His grandparents were early settlers in northern Wairoa in the mid 19th century after moving from Yorkshire, England.
Hillary learned at Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar School. He finished primary school two years early, but he did not do very well at high school. At first, he was smaller than other students there and very shy so he felt safe with his books and often thought of a life filled with adventure. Every day, he rode a train to and from high school, and he often used this time to read. Learning how to box helped him become more confident. At age 16 his interest in climbing started during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu. Although very tall at 6 ft 5 in (195 cm), he was stronger than many of his fellow hikers.
He learned about mathematics and science at The University of Auckland, and in 1939 he completed his first important climb, which was reaching the top of a mountain called Mount Ollivier. With his brother Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper during summertime, which allowed him to do climbing in the winter.
Hillary married Louise Mary Rose in 1953, by whom he had a son and two daughters. In 1975, his wife and their younger daughter were killed in a plane crash. Hillary married June Mulgrew in 1989; they remained married until he died.
Hillary died of a heart attack in Auckland, at the age of 88.
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), designed, built, and flew the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air airplane on December 17, 1903. They had been experimenting for many years with gliders and other vehicles before their first powered flight. They are also known for making the first way to steer an airplane. They designed the aircraft in Dayton, Ohio, and their first test flight was in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The Wrights grew up in Dayton, Ohio. They were sons of a minister. There were many books in their house, and they were encouraged to ask questions and discover whatever they thought was interesting. Sometimes their father would ask them to argue for a topic, then switch sides and argue for the opposite point of view.
They went to high school, but did not go to college; they started a newspaper instead. After that, they started a shop to build and repair bicycles.
By the 1890s, the Wrights were interested in flight, especially the gliders of Otto Lilienthal. They started working on making airplanes in their bicycle shop. They thought controlling a plane was one of the big problems of flight. Lilienthal and others had been killed when they could not control their aircraft. The Wright brothers fixed the problem by inventing control surfaces, such as a rudder that would work in the air. They built wings that could be twisted a little and moved up and down slightly, to control flight. They called this steering system "wing-warping".
From 1900 to 1902, they built gliders in Dayton and tested them in Kitty Hawk, where there were strong and steady winds. They also made small versions of the wings and built a wind tunnel for model airplanes to test how well different wing shapes would lift an airplane.
In 1903, they built a powered airplane that had propellers and a small engine. The "Wright Flyer" airplane first flew successfully on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This was the first time people ever flew a powered airplane they could control. Before that, people flew in balloons or gliders, or for a very short time in planes they could not control. The two brothers continued to make changes to their design and had a very good plane by 1905.
The Wright Brothers kept their discovery largely secret for a couple of years, until they showed it to the world in 1908 (They had filed a patent on their steering system March 23, 1903.)
After that, they started a company to build airplanes. They had a patent war with Glenn Curtiss, filing lawsuits against each other over who really invented the airplane steering system. The Wrights believed that Curtiss' aileron system was too similar to their own steering system and that he had copied them. During the patent war, Wilbur died. Orville continued working to keep his reputation as the first man to fly. Later he sold the airplane company and became an elder statesman of aviation. He died in 1948.
Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He is famous for his work on the theory of evolution.
His book "On the Origin of Species" (1859) did two things. First, it provided a great deal of evidence that evolution has taken place. Second, it proposed a theory to explain "how" evolution works. That theory is natural selection. Evolution and natural selection is the key to understanding and the diversity of life on Earth.
Darwin spent almost five years on board a Royal Navy exploring ship, the HMS "Beagle". He was the guest naturalist, which meant that he was responsible for making collections and notes about the animals, plants, and the geology of the countries they visited. The ship's crew made charts of all the coastal areas, which could be used by the navy wherever it went in the world. At the time, Britain had by far the largest navy in the world, and an empire which was global.
Darwin collected everywhere the ship landed. He found huge fossils of recently extinct mammals, experienced an earthquake in Chile, and noticed the land had been raised. He knew of raised beaches elsewhere, high in the Andes, with fossil seashells and trees which had once grown on a sandy beach. Obviously the earth was constantly changing, with land rising in some places, and sinking in others. He collected birds and insects, and sent shipments back to Cambridge for experts to identify.
Darwin was the first dedicated naturalist to visit the Galapagos Islands, off the west coast of Ecuador. He noticed that some of the birds were like mockingbirds on the mainland, but different enough to be placed in separate species. He began to wonder how so many new species came to be on these islands.
When Darwin got back to England, he edited a series of scientific reviews of the voyage, and wrote a personal journal which we know as "The Voyage of the Beagle". It is one of the great natural history travel diaries.
In 1843 Darwin, who already had two children with his wife Emma, bought Down House in the village of Downe, Kent. He lived there for the rest of his life, and today the house and contents are open to the public.
While on the H.M.S. "Beagle", and later back home in London, Darwin had come across the ideas of the Rev. T.R. Malthus. Malthus had realised that, although humans could double their population every 25 years, it did not happen in practice. He thought the reason was that a struggle for existence (or resources) limited their numbers. If numbers increased, then famine, wars and diseases caused more deaths. Darwin, who knew that all living things could, in principle, increase their numbers, began to think about why some survived, while others did not. His answer took years to develop.
The theory of evolution says that all living things on Earth, including plants, animals and microbes, come from a common ancestor by slowly changing throughout the generations. Darwin suggested that the way living things changed over time is through "natural selection". This is the better survival and reproduction of those that best fit their environment. Fitting into the place where you live is called adapting. Those who fit best into the place where they live, the best adapted, have the best chance to survive and breed. Those who are less well-adapted tend not to survive. If they do not survive well enough to raise young, this means they do not pass on their genes. In this way, the species gradually changes.
The first chapter of the "Origin" deals with domesticated animals, such as cattle and dogs. Darwin reminded readers of the huge changes mankind had made in its domestic animals, which were once wild species. The changes were brought about by "selective breeding" – choosing animals with desirable characters to breed from. This had been done generation after generation, until our modern breeds were produced. Perhaps what man had done deliberately, might happen in nature, where some would leave more offspring than others.
Darwin noticed that although young plants or animals are very similar to their parents, no two are exactly the same and there is always a range of shape, size, colour, and so on. Some of these differences the plant or animal may have got from their own ancestors, but some are new and caused by mutations. When such differences made an organism more able to live in the wild, it would have a better chance to survive, and would pass on its genes to its offspring, and they to their offspring. Any difference that would cause the plant or animal to have less of a chance to live would be less likely to be passed on, and would eventually die out altogether. In this way groups of similar plants or animals (called species) slowly change in shape and form so that they can live more successfully and have more offspring who will survive them. So, natural selection had similarities to selective breeding, except that it would happen by itself, over a much longer time.
He first started thinking about this in 1838, but it took a full twenty years before his ideas became public. By 1844 he was able to write a draft of the main ideas in his notebook. Historians think that he did not talk about his theory because he was afraid of public criticism. He knew his theory, which did not discuss religion, raised questions about the literal truth of the Book of Genesis. Whatever the reason, he did not publish his theory in a book until 1859. In 1858 he heard that another biologist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had the same ideas about natural selection. Darwin and Wallace's ideas were first published in the "Journal of the Linnaean Society" in London, 1858. Then, Darwin published his book the next year. The name of the book was "On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life". This is usually called "The Origin of Species".
Darwin wrote a number of other books, most of which are also very important.
Adam Smith (16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist, who is called the Father of Modern Economics.
His book, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations", published in 1776, was very important. People call the book just "The Wealth of Nations". It stated some of the ideas on which modern economics is based off, especially market economics.
In the "Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith asks 'what can a person do that is best for his country?' He decides that if every person does what is best for themself and their little circle of family and friends, then the country will do better. This is because every person knows a lot about their own situation (what they need and what they want, what works and what does not work), much more than the government knows. This sort of thinking is called "liberal theory", a main part of liberalism.
He was also a philosopher who wanted to know why people thought (felt) that some things are good and others bad.
He wrote an earlier book, in 1759, called "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". He thought that empathy was very important in ethics. Empathy is when you see how someone else is feeling, imagine what it feels like, and then end up feeling the same way: for Smith, empathy is like "putting yourself in someone else's shoes". For example, empathy makes us feel happy to see someone else who is happy, or feel sorry for someone who is sad. Empathy may even make "us" feel pain when we see someone in pain (as if "we" had been hurt or affected). Both Smith and his friend David Hume, who was another Scottish philosopher, wrote about the importance of sympathy in ethics.
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1643 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English physicist, mathematician and astronomer. He is well known for his work on the laws of motion, optics, gravity, and calculus. In 1687, Newton published a book called the "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" in which he presents his theory of universal gravitation and three laws of motion.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope in 1668. He also developed a theory of light based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the colors of the rainbow. Newton also shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of calculus.
Newton's ideas on light, motion, and gravity dominated physics for the next three centuries, until modified by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Sir Isaac Newton was born (according to the Julian calendar, in use in England at the time) on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 (N.S. 4 January 1643) "an hour or two after midnight", at Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire, England. His father, also named Isaac Newton, died three months before his birth. When Newton was three, his mother, Hannah Ayscough, remarried with Reverend Barnabas Smith. Young Newton remained with his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough.
From 1655 to 1659, Newton was educated at The King's School, Grantham. When he was seventeen, he was removed from school. His mother tried to make him a farmer, but he did not like that. Henry Stokes, master at The King's School, requested his mother to send him back to school.
In June 1661, he was sent to the University of Cambridge to study. It is sometimes told that Isaac Newton was reading a book under a tree when an apple from the tree fell next to him. This led to his calculations of gravitation.
In 1666 Sir Isaac Newton experimented with light, and found that different colours had different refractions. He began lecturing on this topic in 1670.
Newton explained the workings of the universe through mathematics. He described laws of motion and gravitation. These laws are math formulas that explain how objects move when a force acts on them. Newton published his most famous book, Principia, in 1687 while he was a mathematics professor at Trinity College, Cambridge. In the Principia, Newton explained three basic laws that govern the way objects move. He then described his idea, or theory, about gravity. Gravity is the force that causes things to fall down. If a pencil fell off a desk, it will land on the floor, not the ceiling. In his book Newton also used his laws to show that the planets revolve around the suns in orbits that are oval, not round. Newton also discovered diffraction. This led him to enter the field of physics, where he prospered.
Following are the three laws of motion.
When most people think of Isaac Newton, they think of him sitting under an apple tree watching an apple fall. Some people even believe the apple fell onto his head. Newton understood that what makes things like apples fall to the ground is a specific kind of force — the force we call gravity. Newton thought that gravity was the force of attraction between two objects, such as an apple and the earth. He also thought that an object with more matter exerted the same force on smaller objects as they exerted on it. That meant that the large mass of the earth pulled objects toward it. That is why the apple fell down instead of up, and why people do not float in the air.
Isaac Newton went on thinking about gravity. Before Newton, people thought that only objects near to the earth would fall down. But Newton thought that gravity should not just be limited to the earth and the objects on it. What if gravity went to the moon and beyond?
Newton invented a formula for calculating the force of attraction between two bodies. He used it to calculate the force needed to keep the moon moving around the earth. Then he compared it with the force that made the apple fall downward. After allowing for the fact that the moon is much farther from the earth, and has a much greater mass, he discovered that the forces were the same. The moon is held in an orbit around the earth by the pull of earth’s gravity.
The formula invented by Newton is called the "Law of gravitation".
Sir Isaac Newton’s calculations changed the way people understood the universe. No one had been able to explain why the planets stayed in their orbits. What held them up? Less than 50 years before Isaac Newton was born it was thought that the planets were held in place by an invisible shield. Isaac proved that they were held in place by the sun’s gravity. He also showed that the force of gravity was affected by distance and by mass. He was not the first to understand that the orbit of a planet was not circular, but more elongated, like an oval. What he did was to explain how it worked.