AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
In 1553, Guildford was told by his father that he was to marry Lady Jane Grey. Like many other people in the sixteenth century, Guildford complied. However, Jane did not want to marry Guildford because she thought he was rude. Jane only agreed after her parents had beaten and whipped her.
When Jane became queen, in July 1553, they got into an argument about Guildford becoming king. Guildford claimed than he should be king, but Jane did not believe that Guildford had the qualities to become king. She said she would make him duke, but Guildford was unhappy. Guildford and his mother attempted to leave the Tower of London, but Jane had him brought back. Jane lost the throne on July 19 1553.
At first, Guildford and Jane were allowed to visit each other, but only in the garden. However, for the last few months of their lives, they were not allowed to visit each other anymore.
A few days before their execution, Guildford asked Jane if they could visit one last time, but Jane refused.
On February 12 1554, Guildford was executed and, unlike his wife, he was not very calm when he went to his death. Days before his death, he cried endlessly. However, on the day he was executed, he was calm. At the sight of the block, however, he lost his courage and cried again. He is said to have cried "Pray for me!" many times.
Medical papyri
The medical papyri (or medical papyruses) are a set of ancient Egyptian texts that give background info on medical practices from ancient Egyptian times. The papyri give details on disease, diagnostics, and remedies of disease, which also have traditional methods and with magical spells.
It is thought there were more medical papyri, but many have been lost due to grave robbing. The largest study of the medical papyri to date has was undertaken by Berlin University and was titled "Medizin der alten Agypter" (Medicine of ancient Egypt).
Early Egyptian medicine was based on a mixture of magic and religious spells. Most commonly "cured" by use of amulets or magical spells, the illnesses were thought to be caused by spiteful acts or actions. Afterwards, doctors did various medical treatments if needed. The instructions for these medical rituals were later inscribed on papyrus scrolls by the priests performing the actions.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a religious text from Tibet, written as a guide for persons attending someone who is dying or recently dead, to bring comfort and " ". It includes prayers, instructions for both dying persons and their attendants, and descriptions of the afterlife. (Roman Catholicism has comparable rituals, called or Last Rites.) The book has been translated into many languages, including English.
In the 1960s, professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert (later known as Baba Ram Dass) collaborated on a book titled "", which adapted portions of the "Book of the Dead" as a guide for use in LSD experiences. They hoped to give users of LSD a simulation of death and , to "liberate" them from past problems or mistakes in their lives. Many persons did have positive results from their book. Others pursued it like a , and were not helped or changed for the better.
John Lennon of The Beatles adapted the adaptation in turn, using many of the book's ideas for his song "Tomorrow Never Knows". He later "The Psychedelic Experience", calling it "that stupid book of Leary's," but his song spread its influence. This book has real life experiences between life and death situations.
ChalkZone
ChalkZone is an American animated television series. It is about a boy named Rudy. Rudy has magic chalk. When Rudy draws on the board with the magic chalk, it lets him go to a chalk world called Chalk Zone. Whatever he draws on the chalk board, or in Chalk Zone, comes to life.
The F-22 Raptor is a fighter plane made by Lockheed Martin. It first flew in 1990, and entered service in the United States Air Force in 2005. Because it is expensive, there will not be as many of them as earlier fighter planes. It uses stealth, which means it cannot be seen on radar. It can hold 6 radar-guided medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and 2 heat-seeking, short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Its top speed is 2.4 times the speed of sound and it features thrust vectoring, where the plane's thrust nozzles turn to help turn it faster.
The Plane is a 5th generation Fighter and is a very expensive plane to produce, and the USAF say they will provide the plane to other countries but in a "watered down state"
- Simulacrum of the .
Edom is a name given to Esau, the brother of Jacob, in the Hebrew Bible. It also means the nation that came from him. The nation's name in Assyrian was Udumi. In Syriac it was '. In Greek, it was ' (Idoumaía). In Latin, it was ' or '.
The Edomite people were a Semitic-speaking tribal people. They lived in the Negev Desert and the Arabah valley. The Arabah valley is now the south of Dead Sea and next to the Jordan. The area has much red sandstone. This may have made the name "Edom". The nation of Edom is known to have existed back to the 8th or 9th century BC. The Bible dates it back several centuries further. Recent archaeological proof may show an Edomite nation as long ago as the 11th century BC. However, people are not completely sure. Others argue that the 8th or 9th century dates are right. The nation stopped being a settled state after the Jewish-Roman Wars.
Hollywood (song)
Hollywood is the fourth single from Jay-Z's latest solo album Kingdom Come. The song features Jay-Z's longtime girlfriend, R&B singer Beyoncé. The song is also featured on Beyoncé's B'Day Deluxe Edition with more of Beyoncé's vocals and less of Jay-Z's under the title "Welcome To Hollywood".
A video for Jay-Z's album version does not exist but an official video was created for "Welcome to Hollywood" using clips of different Beyoncé videos (much like the "Lose My Breath" megamix on the Destiny's Child Fan Pack II). The video is played as an interlude on Beyoncé's B'Day Tour, The Beyoncé Experience.
Summertime (song)
Summertime is a single released by R&B singer Beyoncé featuring rapper P. Diddy in 2003. The song was the second and final single released to promote the movie "The Fighting Temptations", in which Knowles plays the leading lady. The song is not featured in the movie but is part of the official soundtrack. It first appeared as a B-side to Knowles' 2003 smash hit "Crazy in love".
As it was released just seven days after the third single from Knowles' "Dangerously in Love", "Me, Myself and I", the song did not become a big hit and an official music video was never shot for it. The song however was part of the set list on Knowles' Dangerously in Love World Tour.
Fabaceae is the systematic name of the plant family that is commonly known as the Pea family. It consists of three subgroups: Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae (or better Faboideae). In modern systems like APG II this family Fabaceae is closely related to Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae or milkworts (including the families Diclidantheraceae, Moutabeaceae, and Xanthophyllaceae), and Surianaceae.
The leaves are usually alternate and compound, in the Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae commonly bipinnate (e.g. "Acacia", "Mimosa"). In many species the leaves have structures evolved to attract ants, that, being predatory, protect the plant from herbivore insects. Extrafloral nectaries -a gland secreting nectar -are common among the Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae and are also found in some Faboideae (e.g. vetches "Vicia sativa"). Fabaceae are typically entomophilous plants (i.e. they are pollinated by insects) and the flower are usually showy to attract the pollinators.
In the Mimosoideae the flowers are radial symmetric or actinomorphic. In the Caesalpinioideae and Faboideae (see diagram) are most often zygomorphic or bilateral in simmetry.
List of political parties in Germany
This is a list of political parties in Germany.
Germany has a multi-party system. There are two large parties, three smaller parties, and a number of minor parties.
The last federal elections were held in December 2017.
These parties currently have seats in the German parliament, the "Bundestag," sorted by the number of seats:
Federal Convention (Germany)
The Bundesversammlung, or "Federal Convention", is a special federal body in Germany.
It is made up of all of the members of the Bundestag, plus an equal number of delegates elected by the parliaments of the Länder. Those delegates don't have to be memebers of the Länder parliaments; sometimes celebrities are chosen.
The convention usually has for about 1200 members. The only task of the Bundesversammlung is to elect the Federal President.
The Bundesversammlung is called to meet by the President of the Bundestag, and the President of the Bundestag acts as Chairman of the Bundesversammlung.
The Bundesversammlung meets at least thirty days before the end of the Federal President's term of office ends, in order to elect the next president. If the Federal President dies or is impeached, the Bundesversammlung meets within 30 days.
The Bundesversammlung does not hold debates or question any of the candidates for president.
It chooses the next Federal President by an absolute majority vote. If no-one has an absolute majority on the first and second ballot, then they hold a third ballot, and the winner is the person who has the highest number of votes.
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (4 February 1871 in Heidelberg – 28 February 1925 in Berlin) was a German politician (SPD). He died on 28 February 1925 from Septic Shock.
He was Chancellor of Germany and its first president during the Weimar period.
Walter Simons
Walter Simons (24 September 1861 in Elberfeld - 14 July 1937 in Nowawes) was a German politician. He was president of the German Supreme Court from 1922-1929. After the death of Friedrich Ebert in February 1925 he was the second acting president of the Weimar Republic from 12 March 1925 until 12 May 1925 (the first acting president was Hans Luther) when the next president, Paul von Hindenburg, was elected and assumed office.
Full Moon (album)
Full Moon is the third studio album by R&B singer Brandy Norwood. It contains the hit songs like "What About Us", "Another Day In Paradise" and "Full Moon".
U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To)
U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To) – The Remix EP is the first EP by American R&B singer Brandy Norwood, released in 1999 (see 1999 in music). It was released for promotional use only.
During 1999, her record company, Atlantic Records, released a 9-track remix EP entitled "U Don't Know Me... Like U Used To – The Remix EP". The album contains remix versions with Da Brat, Ma$e, Fat Joe, Big Pun, Darkchild, DJ Premier and many other artists and producers. The album is seen as a maxi-single so the peak positions are the same as the peak positions of the single. The songs on "U Don't Know Me" did not have much success with a peak position of #79 on the U.S. Hot 100, 50 in Canada and 25 in the UK. The album's lead single was "U Don't Know Me (Like U Used To) [Remix]".
The Boy Is Mine is an R&B song by singers Brandy and Monica. It was written by LaShawn Daniels, Fred Jerkins III, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and Brandy Norwood for Norwood's second studio album "Never Say Never" (1998) but eventually released as the lead single off of both singers' second albums during the second quarter of 1998 (see 1998 in music). Co-produced by Darkchild, Brandy and Dallas Austin, "The Boy Is Mine" has become one of the most successful R&B singles of all time. The song's lyrics tell a story about two women disputing the love of a man and were inspired by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's 1982 duet "The Girl Is Mine."
The song was number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 for 13 weeks in a row. It finished as the second-best performing song of 1998 on that chart.
ETA (separatist group)
ETA was one of Europe’s most notorious and long-running terror groups. It was founded in 1959 from what was left of EKIN, another radical Basque separatist group. Both EKIN and ETA were created because of discontent with the moderate nationalism of the main Basque party, the Basque National Party. ETA committed hundreds of attacks in Spain. It had ties with other terrorist groups both inside and outside the Basque region. These included the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Colombia’s FARC.
Most of ETA’s terror attacks targeted businesses and Spanish government officials, especially members of the security services and the judiciary, but it also targeted civilians. Its most common tactics were bombing and assassination. Its attacks took place mostly in the Basque Country, Madrid and Catalonia. Similar to the IRA, ETA sometimes issued warnings before the attacks.
The group assassinated Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in December 1973. At the time, Blanco was seen by many as the most likely successor to Spain’s dictator, Francisco Franco. He was killed when an underground bomb exploded underneath his car. More than twenty years later, ETA nearly assassinated Jose Maria Aznar, an opposition politician who later became prime minister. In 1987, ETA killed 21 people in Barcelona using a car bomb.
The status of the Basque homeland changed significantly with the end of Francisco Franco's regime and the return of democracy in 1979. Franco tried to suppress Basque nationalism and separatism. The new democratic government, on the other hand, offered significant autonomy to the Basque provinces. In a deal struck in 1980, the Basque region acquired its own parliament similarly to the other regions in Spain. It was also allowed to have its own independent tax legislation. In addition, the language Euskara became more prominent in public culture and education. However, the new autonomous region did not deter the radical separatists that comprised ETA. ETA has committed approximately 900 murders and dozens of kidnappings.
ETA’s level of activity has changed over the years. The group has attempted several ceasefires, including a 14-month one that lasted until December 1999. While there have been a number of ETA attacks since 2000, the group has claimed fewer victims. It is believed to be shrinking. Spanish officials believe that recent crackdowns have led to a serious weakening of the group and sense that its future as a terrorist organization may be limited. There are more than one hundred suspected ETA members in Spanish prisons today.
In the past several years, ETA has done sporadic attacks, including bombings in September 2004, December 2005, and early 2006. However, these bombings were generally preceded by warnings and did not result in any deaths.
In March 2006, ETA declared a permanent ceasefire and expressed to join the political process. The decision may have been linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed nearly 200 people. The attack was originally blamed on ETA, though it was soon discovered to be the work of militant Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. Like the IRA, ETA leaders may have felt that the mass casualty terrorism practiced by some radical Islamist groups discredited its violent tactics—though this is not known for certain. ETA had a secretive leadership structure.
In June 2007, ETA declared its March 2006 ceasefire null-and-void. Although many had seen ETA’s December 2006 bombing of an airport parking garage as an indication that the truce would not hold. An ETA spokesperson accused the Spanish government of interfering in Basque local elections as well as continuing with the prosecution and conviction of ETA members during the ceasefire.
It must be noted that ETA did not officially renounce violence or initiate steps to decommission its weapons (as the IRA did in July 2005) as part of its ceasefire declaration. ETA ceasefires have deteriorated into violence before.
On 20 October 2011, ETA announced publicly the definite cessation of its armed activities. Although it vowed to continue to seek an independent Basque state. It was announced in 2 prominent nationalist newspapers, Gara and Berria.
In May 2018 ETA announced that it was formally disbanding. The move marked the end of a half-century of violence that had claimed the lives of more than 800 people.
Petr Eben
Petr Eben (Žamberk, 22 January 1929; died Prague 24 October 2007) was a Czech composer and organist. Many musicians think of him as the most important Czech composer of the late 20th century. He was known world wide for his organ playing. He was especially good at improvisation.
Eben grew up in Český Krumlov in south Bohemia. He learned to play the piano, and later the cello and organ. Because his father was a Jew he had to leave school in 1943 and spent the rest of the war years in concentration camp in Buchenwald. In the camp he saw many terrible things, including graves into which the Nazis were throwing lots of murdered Jews. These terrible things influenced his music in later years. He had a strong faith and this helped him to survive during 40 years of living in Czechoslovakia under communist rule.
After the war he went to Prague Academy for Music where he studied the piano with František Rauch and composition with Pavel Bořkovec. In 1955 he got a job as lecturer at Charles University in Prague. He stayed there until 1990. He was the country’s best composer, and he should have had promotion, but the communist politicians did not allow this. He went to church every Sunday with his family. This did not help his career in a communist state.
After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when his country became free from the Soviet Union, he started to become a national hero. He was made Professor of Composition and president of the Prague Spring Music Festival. Many music festivals performed his compositions, and he traveled to hear the concerts in spite of the fact that he was starting to become ill. His music was often played in England, where he had spent two years as professor of composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester from 1978 to 1979. In March 2007 the BBC Symphony Orchestra under their Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek performed his "Vox Clamantis", a work he had written in 1968 which shows the Czech people’s longing to be free.
Eben continued during his lifetime to develop the style of music in which he wrote. He was interested in Czech folk music and he wrote down many folk songs that he heard in Moravia. He listened to plainchant in church music. All this helped him to develop his own style of composition. He is best-known abroad for his organ music, especially works such as "Musica Dominicalis" ("Sunday Music") which includes a popular piece called "Moto Ostinato". Other organ works include "Faust" (1980), "Job" (1987) and "A Festive Voluntary" which is a set of variations on the tune of "Good King Wenceslas", written for the reopening in 1986 of the organ at Chichester Cathedral which had just been restored. He also wrote a lot of music for orchestra as well as chamber music. He composed some beautiful music for children’s choir, including church music called "Liturgical Songs".
Czech might mean:
Totalitarianism is when regimes (political systems) control all public behaviour and as much of private behaviour as they can. No elections are held, or if they are, candidates must be approved by the ruling group. Physical force and/or arrests and detentions are used on people who protest against the regime. There are events such as parades or rallies. These suggest to the people that the ruling group is in complete control.
For some, totalitarianism is as old as history. However, their main examples in modern times are Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, North Korea, the Soviet Union, Eritrea and China.
There are other countries which had dictatorships, but never reached full totalitarianism. Italian fascism under Benito Mussolini, Spain under General Franco, Portugal under Dr. Salazar, China under Mao Zedong, and many Latin American countries for periods were dictatorships with some aspects of totalitarianism. Some African countries have been dictatorships for long periods (e.g. Zimbabwe). The Empire of Japan (predecessor state of the modern nation-state of Japan) was a well-known example of a totalitarian military dictatorship during World War II. The satire "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell was about such a society taken to extremes.
The list is long: it is not true that most countries today are democratic.
According to some, authoritarianism "does not attempt to change the world and human nature". In contrast, a totalitarian regime attempts to control virtually all aspects of the social life, including the economy, education, art, science, private life and morals of citizens.
Gothic metal
Gothic metal is a heavy metal genre. It is fusion of gothic rock, doom metal and death metal.
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a city in Lower Saxony in north Germany. It is about 50 km southeast of Hamburg. It is the capital of the District of Lüneburg. About 102,660 people live there.
The Ilmenau River, a tributary of the Elbe, flows through Lüneburg.
In medieval times the town was very rich due to the salt trade. Salt used to be transported along the Old Salt Route to the Baltic Sea from where it was sent by ship to other countries. There were salt mines near the town for a thousand years. Salt mining stopped in 1980. The salt mining caused a lot of deforestation. The countryside changed into heathland which is called the Lüneburger Heide (Lüneburg Heath).
On May 23, 1945 the Nazi war criminal Heinrich Himmler committed suicide in Lüneburg after he had been captured by the British Army. He swallowed a potassium cyanide capsule before his interrogation could begin.
Lüneburg is twinned with Scunthorpe, England.
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman.
Hindenburg retired from the army in 1911. He rejoined the army at the start of the First World War. He became famous when he won the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914.
Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to public life one more time in 1925 to be elected as the second President of Germany.
He was 84 years old and in poor health, but had to run for re-election in 1932 as the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler. He tried to stop the Nazi Party's rise to power, but had to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. In March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933 which gave special powers to Hitler's government. Hindenburg died the next year, after which Hitler declared the office of President vacant and made himself Head of State.
The famous zeppelin "Hindenburg" that was destroyed by fire in 1937 had been named in his honour, as is the causeway joining the island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein, the Hindenburgdamm, built during his time in office.
In 1925, Hindenburg had no interest in running for public office. After the first round Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, one of the leaders of the DNVP, visited Hindenburg and asked him to run.
Hindenburg eventually agreed to run in the second round of the elections as a non-party independent, although he was a conservative. Because he was Germany's greatest war hero, Hindenburg won the election in the second round of voting held on 26 April 1925.
He was helped when the Bavarian People's Party (BVP), switched its support from Marx, the SPD candidate and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to did not withdraw its candidate, Ernst Thälmann. If they had their supporters would most likely have voted for the SPD and Hindenburg may not have won.
Hindenburg tried to stay out of day-to-politics, and be a ceremonial president. He liked the monarchy, but took his oath to the Weimar Constitution seriously.
Hindenburg often complained that he missed the quiet of his retirement and, that politics was full of ideas like economics that he did not understand.
His advisers included his son, Oskar, his old army aide General Wilhelm Groener, and General Kurt von Schleicher. The younger Hindenburg served as his father's aide-de-camp and controlled politicians' access to the President.
Schleicher came up with the idea of "Presidential government", and the "25/48/53 formula".
Under a "Presidential" government the chancellor is responsible to the president), and not the Reichstag. The "25/48/53 formula" was the three articles of the Constitution that could make a "Presidential government" possible:
Schleicher's wanted to have Hindenburg appoint a chancellor that Schleicher chose. If that chancellor needed any laws he could use article 48. If the Reichstag should threaten to cancel any of those laws, Hindenburg could threaten a dissolution, and call new elections. Hindenburg did not like the idea, but was pressured into going along with them by his son and his other advisors.
The first try at "presidential government" in 1926–1927 failed for lack of political support. During the winter of 1929–1930, Schleicher had a series of secret meetings with Heinrich Brüning, the leader of the Catholic Center Party ("Zentrum").
Schleicher then set about splitting the "Grand Coalition" government of the Social Democrats and the German People’s Party. As a result, the government fell in March 1930 and Brüning was named Chancellor by Hindenburg.
Brüning's first act was to introduce a budget calling for steep spending cuts and sharp tax increases. When the budget was defeated in July, Brüning had Hindenburg sign the budget as an emergency law under Article 48. When the Reichstag voted to cancel the budget, Brüning had Hindenburg dissolve Reichstag only two years into its mandate, and had the budget passed again by Article 48. The Nazis got 17% of the vote in the September 1930 elections. The Communist Party of Germany also made gains.
Brüning ruled through Article 48; the Social Democrats never voted not to cancel his Article 48 bills in order not to have another election that could only benefit the Nazis and the Communists.
In the first round of the election held in March 1932, Hindenburg was the frontrunner, but did not have an absolute majority. In the runoff election of April 1932, Hindenburg beat Hitler for the Presidency.
After the presidential elections had ended, Schleicher held a series of secret meetings with Hitler in May 1932, and thought that Hitler had agreed to support the new "presidential government" Schleicher was building.
In May 1932 Schleicher had Hindenburg sack Groener as Defence Minister to humiliate both Groener and Brüning. On 31 May 1932, Hindenburg sacked Brüning as Chancellor and replaced him with Schleicher's suggestion, Franz von Papen.
von Papen's government openly wanted to destroy German democracy. Like Brüning's government, von Papen's government was a "presidential government" that governed through the use of Article 48.
As Schleicher wanted, Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag and set new elections for July 1932. Schleicher and von Papen both believed that the Nazis would win the majority of the seats and would support von Papen's government.
The Nazi party did become the largest party in the Reichstag, and expected Hitler would be Chancellor. When Hindenburg met Hitler on 13 August 1932, in Berlin, Hindenburg rejected Hitler's demands for the Chancellorship.
The minutes of the meeting were kept by Otto Meißner, the Chief of the Presidential Chancellery. According to the minutes:
Hindenburg issued a press release about his meeting with Hitler that seemed to say that Hitler had demanded absolute power and that the President had refused. Hitler was enraged by this press release.
When the Reichstag met in September 1932, its first and only act was to pass a massive vote of no-confidence in von Papen’s government. In response, von Papen had Hindenburg dissolve the Reichstag for elections in November 1932. In the 1949 constitution, a vote of no confidence must be accompanied by the election of a new chancellor, so this could not happen.
In the second Reichstag elections of 1932 the Nazis lost some support, but stayed the largest party in the Reichstag. There ensued another round of talks between Hindenburg, von Papen, von Schleicher on the one hand and Hitler and the other Nazi leaders on the other.
Hitler still demanded that Hindenburg give him the Chancellorship. Hindenburg could not accept this, so von Papen suggested Hindenburg declare martial law and do away with democracy.
Von Papen got Oscar Hindenburg to support the plan, and they persuaded the president to ignore his oath to the Constitution and go along with this plan. Schleicher saw von Papen as a threat so he blocked the martial law plan by saying it would make the Nazi SA and the Communist Red Front Fighters rebel, and that the Poles would invade and the Reichswehr would be unable to cope.
Hindenburg hated the idea of Hitler as Chancellor, but under pressure from Meißner, von Papen and Oskar Hindenburg the President decided to appoint Hitler Chancellor. On the morning of 30 January 1933, Hindenburg swore Hitler in as Chancellor at the Presidential Palace.
Hindenburg played key role in the Nazi "Machtergreifung" (Seizure of Power) in 1933. He was not involved in the planning, but did not stop Hitler. In the "Government of National Concentration" headed by Hitler, the Nazis were in the minority. Most of the ministers were from the von Papen and von Schleicher governments. Besides Hitler, the only other Nazi ministers were Hermann Göring and Wilhelm Frick.
Hindenburg thought that the Nazis' power was limited, especially as his favourite politician, von Papen, was the Vice-Chancellor and the Reich Commissioner for Prussia.
Hitler's first act as Chancellor was to ask Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag so that the Nazis and D.N.V.P. could increase their number of seats, Hindenburg agreed.
In early February 1933, von Papen had an Article 48 bill signed into law that limited the freedom of press. After the Reichstag fire, Hindenburg signed into law the "Reichstag Fire Decree".
At the opening of the new "Reichstag" on 21 March 1933, at the Kroll Opera House, the Nazis staged an elaborate ceremony, in which Hindenburg played the leading part, that was meant to mark the continuity between the Prussian-German tradition and the new Nazi state.
The ceremony at the Kroll Opera House had the effect of reassuring many Germans, especially conservative Germans, that life would be fine under the new regime. On 23 March 1933, Hindenburg signed the Enabling Act into law.
Hindenburg was still very popular, but his health was getting worse. The Nazis made sure that whenever Hindenburg did appear in public Hitler was with him, and that Hitler was always very respectful to the President. The Nazi propagandists hoped people would think Hindenburg liked Hitler, and Hitler would become more popular.
The only time Hindenburg ever tried to stop a Nazi bill was in early April 1933. The Reichstag had passed a "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service". This said that all Jewish civil servants working for the "Reich", the "Länder", or the local districts should be sacked immediately.
Hindenburg refused to sign this bill into law unless all Jewish veterans of World War I, Jewish civil servants who served in the civil service during the war and those Jewish civil servants whose fathers were veterans were allowed to stay in office. Hitler agreed, in order to get the law signed, even though he believed that the Jews had tried to undermine Germany during the Great War. It was Hindenburg who said that Germany lost the First World War because of politicians and others "stabbing the Army in the back". Hindenburg did not believe the story. He said it so that his wartime deputy Erich von Ludendorff would not write bad things in his memoirs. But Hitler did believe the story, and used it to gain power.
Hindenburg stayed president until he died from lung cancer at his home in "Neudeck", East Prussia on 2 August 1934.
One day before Hindenburg's death, Hitler flew to "Neudeck" and visited him. Hindenburg, old and senile, thought he was meeting Kaiser Wilhelm II, and called Hitler "Your Majesty".
He would be Germany's last president until 1945, when Karl Dönitz was appointed president in Hitler's last will. Following Hindenburg's death, Hitler declared the office of President to be permanently vacant, effectively merging it with the office of Chancellor under the title of Leader and Chancellor ("Führer und Reichskanzler"), making himself Germany's Head of State and Head of government.
Hindenburg was buried in the Tannenberg memorial near Tannenberg, East Prussia (today: Stębark, Poland). But Hindenburg always said he wanted to be buried next to his wife. In 1945, German troops removed his and his wife's coffins, to save them from the approaching Soviet troops.
Sharon Osbourne (born 9 October 1952) is a British music manager, television personality, and talent show judge. Osbourne first became famous on "The Osbournes" which was a reality show that showed Osbourne and her family in their daily lives.
She has also been a judge on the talent shows "The X Factor" and "America's Got Talent". Her autobiography, "Extreme", which Osbourne wrote about her life, was very successful and has sold 2 million copies.
She has recovered from colorectal cancer. She is married to the rock singer Ozzy Osbourne and she has three children with him named Kelly Osbourne, Jack Osbourne and Aimee Osbourne.
Full Moon may refer to:
Summertime means a time in Summer, one of the temperate seasons, and it could also mean:
In movie, television, and theatre:
In timekeeping:
Listen could mean:
Cy Young
Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American baseball player. He was a pitcher for five different professional baseball teams from 1890 to 1911. He set many pitching records during his 22-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB), some of which have stood for 100 years. When Young retired from baseball, he had won a total of 511 games in his career, the most in MLB history and 94 more wins than Walter Johnson, who is second on the list.
In 1956, the MLB created the Cy Young Award. The award is given each year to the pitcher who is voted the most effective in each of the two leagues. Young was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. During his professional career, Young won 30 or more games in a season five times, with ten other seasons of 20+ wins. He also pitched three no-hitters, including the first perfect game of baseball's "modern era."
In addition to wins, Young holds the MLB records for most career innings pitched (7,355), most career games started (815), and most complete games (749). He also retired with 316 losses, the most in MLB history (the only other pitcher with more than 300 career losses was Pud Galvin). Young also had 76 career shutouts, the fourth most in history.
In 1999, 88 years after his final Major League appearance and 44 years after his death, editors at "The Sporting News" ranked Cy Young 14th on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, baseball fans named Young to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Young was born in Gilmore, Ohio, a farming community in eastern Ohio. Young went by the name "Dent Young" in his early years.
He was raised on a farm and was sometimes called "Farmer Young" and "Farmboy Young". Young stopped going to school after he finished 6th grade.
Young began his professional career in 1889 with the Canton, Ohio team of the Tri-State League, a professional minor league. The catcher who warmed up Young gave him the nickname "Cyclone" because of the speed of his fastball. Reporters then shortened the name to "Cy". "Cy" became the nickname which he used the rest of his life.
In 1890, Young signed for $500 with the Cleveland Spiders, which had moved up from the American Association to the National League the previous year.
Two years later, the National League moved the pitcher's mound from away from the home plate (where it had been since 1881) to . In the book "The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers", sports journalist Rob Neyer wrote that the reason for the move was that pitchers like Cy Young, Amos Rusie, and Jouett Meekin threw too fast at the shorter distance.
On September 18, 1897, Young pitched the first no-hitter of his career in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. Although Young did not walk a batter, the Spiders committed four errors while on defense.
Before the 1899 season, Frank Robison, the owner of the Spiders, bought the St. Louis Browns, thus owning two clubs at the same time. Just weeks before the start of the season, most of the better Spiders players were transferred to St. Louis, including three future Hall of Famers: Young, Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace. Despite the changes in the team members, St. Louis finished fifth in both 1899 and 1900. The Spiders lost 134 games, the most in MLB history, before folding.
In 1901, Young left St. Louis and joined the American League's Boston Americans for a $3,500 contract. Young stayed with the Boston team until 1909.
Young was traded back to Cleveland before the 1909 season, this time to the Cleveland Naps of the American League. He split 1911, his final year, between the Naps and the Boston Rustlers.
On September 22, 1911, Young shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates and their pitcher Babe Adams 1-0, for his last career win. However, two weeks later, Young's 906th and final game ended badly: the last eight batters of Young's career combined to hit a triple, four singles and three doubles.
Young retired after the 1911 season with 511 career wins. His win total set the record for most career wins by a pitcher. At the time, Pud Galvin had the second most career wins with 364. Walter Johnson, then in his fourth season, finished his career with 417 wins and is now second on the list. However, Johnson broke Young's career record for strikeouts.
Cy Young's career is seen as a bridge from baseball's earliest days to its modern era. When Young's career began, pitchers delivered the baseball underhand and fouls were not counted as strikes. The pitcher's mound was not moved back to its present position of 60 feet, six inches until Young's fourth season. He did not wear a glove until his sixth.
Particularly after his fastball slowed, Young's success relied upon his great control. Young said:
By habit, Young restricted his practice throws in spring training. "I figured the old arm had just so many throws in it," said Young, "and there wasn't any use wasting them." Young once described his approach before a game:
Young also said that his offseason farming chores, including wood chopping, kept his pitching arm in good shape until he was 44. Even at the time of his retirement, his arm was healthy, but Young had gained weight and was unable to field his position anymore. In three of his last four years, he was the oldest player in the league.
The first Cy Young Award was voted on in 1956, and was given to Brooklyn's Don Newcombe. Originally, it was a single award covering the whole of baseball. The honor was divided into two Cy Young Awards in 1967, one for each league.
Young was saluted in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:
"Y is for Young,"
"The magnificent Cy;"
"People batted against him,"
"But I never knew why."
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet is an abjad that is used to write several languages of the Middle East such as Arabic, Persian, Pashto and Urdu. The script is the third most widely used script in the world, after the Latin and Chinese scripts.
The script is written from right to left. When it is used to write the Arabic language, the script has 28 different characters. Usually only consonants are written in an abjad. Vowels are omitted most of the time. The Arabic script is a cursive script. This means that letters of a word are joined together, both in handwriting and in print. Each letter can have up to four different forms. Which of the forms is used depends on the letters before and after it. There is no different form for uppercase letters and lowercase letters.
There are two basic modern variants of the Arabic script. One is called Naskh, it is the one commonly used for printing. The most common script in everyday life is called Kufic, after the city Kufa, in Iraq, where it was developed. There are several variants of both scripts.
The alphabet can also be used to write numbers, which was common in the Middle Ages. They are less used today and usually replaced by Latin-alphabet ("Arabic") numbers.
When the alphabet is used to write numbers, ' is 1, ' is 2, ' is 3 and so on until ' = 10, ' = 20, ' = 30, …, ' = 200, …, ' = 1000. That is sometimes used to produce chronograms in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals, stand for a particular date when they are rearranged.
For dictionaries, it is necessary to put the letters into a predetermined sequence, which is usually called sort order, or alphabetical order. The Arabic script has two sort orders: The one, "abjid", derives from the position of the letters in the Phoenician alphabet. The other, "hijā," sorts letters by similarity of shape.
As Islam spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, Arabic spread along with it. Islam requires its followers to learn Arabic because it states that Gabriel (Jibril) spoke the words of Allah to Muhammad in Arabic. The language is used for Muslim rituals such as prayer and the reciting of Quranic verses. As Arabic spread, the Quran's script also spread. It replaced the Pahlavi writing system as Islam conquered Persia.
Another alphabet, the Uighur alphabet, was based on the shapes of Arabic letters. However, the Uighur alphabet always has vowel letters, unlike in Arabic.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, use of the Arabic language and alphabet, became less common in the Muslim world. The Turkic states and other Muslim-majority states controlled by the Soviet Union did not favour Arabic script. In 1928, Turkey passed a law that banned the use of the Arabic alphabet for writing Turkish, which is now written with the Latin alphabet.
Around the same time, the Soviet Union created a Latin alphabet for the Central Asian states that it occupied: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The decision to replace the Arabic alphabet was amdre to remove religious influence in Central Asia and to modernise the region. For a time, Soviet leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, believed the Latin alphabet was the "world alphabet" because it was the writing system of most developed countries. However, the Soviet Union then required the Central Asian states to write only in the Cyrillic script. That was to influence local cultures and languages to become more like those of Russia.
Although the Soviet Union fell, none of the Central Asian nations returned to using the Arabic alphabet. They either kept using Cyrillic, like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, or adopted a new Latin alphabet, like Azerbaijan. Only Tajikistan is considering switching back to using the Arabic alphabet. Tajik was once a dialect of Persian.
In Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei have all adoptedfor Malay the Latin alphabet, which is called "Rumi" in Malay. The British and Dutch colonialists introduced the Latin alphabet. The Arabic alphabet ("Jawi" in Malay) is still used in Malaysia but much less than Rumi. Brunei is the only Southeast Asian country in which both the Latin and Arabic alphabets are co-official.
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate () is a structure in Berlin, Germany. It is the only remaining gate through which people used to enter Berlin. It was built between 1788 and 1791. It is located between the Platz des 18. März and the Pariser Platz. Nearby to the north is the Reichstag building. During the Cold War, the Reichstag was in West Berlin, and the Brandenburger Tor in East Berlin.
The Brandenburg Gate has twelve columns, six on the entrance side and six on the exit. The columns form five roadways, citizens originally were allowed to use only the outer two. This is rather like Admiralty Arch in London, the central roadway is reserved so that royal and important traffic is not delayed. On top of the gate is the Quadriga. This is Viktoria, the goddess of victory driving a Quadriga, a type of horse-drawn chariot.
After 1806, when Prussia was defeated at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon stole the Quadriga and took it to Paris. When Napoleon was beaten in 1814 Prussian General Ernst von Pfuel occupied Pais and took the Quadriga back to Berlin, the olive wreath was changed to an Iron Cross. The Goddess Viktoria became Nike, goddess of victory.
When the Nazis came to power, they used the Gate as their symbol. The Gate was damaged but not destroyed during World War II. The governments of East Berlin and West Berlin restored it but it was closed when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. The gate was in the middle of the death strip.
In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate. The Soviets hung large banners across it to prevent him from looking into the East. In the 1980s West Berlin mayor Richard von Weizsäcker said:
In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech "Tear down this wall!" outside of the gate.
Von Weizsäcker was the President of Germany at the reunification.
The Gate then symbolized the freedom to unite the City of Berlin. On the 22nd of December 1989, the Brandenburg Gate re-opened when Helmut Kohl, the West German Chancellor, walked through to be greeted by Hans Modrow, the East German Prime Minister.
On December 21, 2000, the Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished at a cost of US$3 million.
Languages of the Caucasus
The languages of the Caucasus are languages spoken by more than ten million people in the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Some of those language families have no known members outside the Caucasus area. The term Caucasian languages can mean only these families or all languages historically spoken in that area.
Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia () is a salt lake in northwest of Iran. It is in the provinces of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, and is southwest of the close shaped Caspian Sea. It is the largest lake inside Iran, and the second biggest salt lake of the world. It is the largest lake in the Middle East.
The location of Lake Urmia is at . It has a surface area of about 5,200 km² (2,000 mile²). At its biggest extent, it is about 140 km (87 miles) long, and 55 km (34 miles) wide. Its deepest point is approximately 16 m (52 ft) deep. It receives water from thirteen rivers coming from the near mountains, and it has no output.
Lake Urmia lies between West Azarbaijan and East Azarbaijan provinces. Tabriz is the biggest city to its east, and Urmia is the biggest city to its west. The shortest way between these cities is to go round the lake. In 1970s a project was started to create a bridge across the lake. This project was canceled when Islamic Revolution happened in 1979. However, the project was started again in 2000s; it is planned to be finished by the end of 2007.
The lake has a very salty water. The concentration of salt is different in each season of the year; it may be 26-28% in the late Autumn.
Lake Urmia is getting smaller and smaller each year. This is because the rivers which bring water to it have become smaller.
This lake was historically named Chaychast (Persian: چیچست). Later, it was named "Urmia" by the Assyrian people. The word "Urmia" consists of two parts: "ur" means city and "mia" means water. "Urmia" was the name given to the city of Urmia, which is near this lake. The lake was then named Lake Urmia, after the name given to the city. In the early years of the 20th century, it was named "Rezaiyeh Lake" after the name of Reza Pahlavi, the king of Iran. After the Islamic Revolution, its name was changed back to "Urmia Lake".
Different creatures live inside or near this lake, including some species of shrimps, amphibians and birds like flamingos and pelicans.
Urmia Lake has shallow borders with lots of mud. Different creatures live inside the mud, including frogs, snails and worms. The mud is said to have good effects in treatment of some diseases of the joints.
Lake Urmia has 102 islands. Their names are as follows :