AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The College of Arms was featured in the 1969 James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" where James Bond visits his friend Sir Hillary Bray who permits Bond to impersonate him so he can spy on Blofeld's base. Bray gives Bond information on Blofeld's ancestor Count Balthazzar de Bleuchamp. Bond is shown his own coat of arms with the family motto: "the world is not enough" (this was used for the title of the 19th Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough").
The Earl Marshal, a hereditary office held by the Duke of Norfolk, oversees the College, but he is not a member. He must give his written consent, called a warrant, before any new coat of arms can be issued. The Earl Marshal's court (called the Court of Chivalry) can hear cases about using coats arms, but the court has not sat since 1954. Usually the Earl Marshal usually leaves affairs to the professional heralds of the College.
There are, three levels of officers of arms: Kings of Arms, Heralds, and Pursuivants. The officers of arms occupy posts bearing traditional titles:
The officers of arms earn money from their own private practices in heraldry and genealogy. They get only nominal salaries as officers of the College. These salaries were set centuries ago and reflect the living costs of the day. William IV reduced them to the old level in the 1830s. The amounts are listed below, and is not taxed:
Any letters, telephone calls or visitors to the college not for a specific officer of arms are seen by the "officer in waiting". All members of the college serve as officer in waiting on rotation.
"Heralds Extraordinary" are appointed to take part in special ceremonial occasions or to help the Earl Marshal personally; they are not members of the college. Among the extraordinary heralds have been —
The New Zealand Herald Extraordinary is not a member of the college but it is a permanent post created to oversee heraldry in New Zealand; he works together with the college to grant new arms for people and bodies in that country (where he himself lives and works).
The Kings of Arms grant coats of arms by letters patent. Before they can even consider the granting of arms, an application, (called a "memorial") must be made to the Earl Marshal, and a fee paid.
The Kings of Arms are authorised in their "patents of appointment" (the letter giving them their job) to grant coats of arms to "eminent men". Originally this meant someone who was rich or had social status. By 1530, the heralds wanted successful candidates for a grant of arms to have £300 or rent from land of £10 a year. Since the heralds get fees for granting arms, they have always been generous when deciding who should be allowed a coat of arms. In 1616, Ralphe Brooke, York Herald, tricked the Garter King of Arms into granting a coat of arms to the common hangman for a fee of 22 shillings (£1-20p).
This is why the Earl Marshal's permission to grant a coat of arms is needed.
There are no fixed rules about granting modern coats of arms. If a herald is approached and does not consider that the application has merit, he may tactfully suggest to the applicant that he or she should not proceed. If it does proceed, its success or otherwise will depend on the approval of the Earl Marshal, who may apply his own standards. Peter Gwynn-Jones has recently written that
The coat of arms, or a differenced version of them using marks of cadency, can be used by "all" of the legitimate children of an individual and such children and their descendants may bear the arms (or a differenced version of them) from the moment of birth: they do not have to wait for the death of the previous generation. The College of Arms does not need to approve the use of the arms in each generation: the original grant of arms is the only authority required. Although daughters and sons inherit the right to bear arms for themselves personally, the right passes only through the male line: hence, a son transmits the arms to his children, but a daughter, can use them herself, but her children cannot. A partial exception to this rule is the case of a woman who has no brothers, or whose brothers have no children; such a woman is called a heraldic heiress and may transmit the arms to her children as a quartering with their father's arms, and to their descendents.
The costs involved are quite substantial. The applicant does not buy a coat of arms: the arms themselves are freely given, but fees must be paid to the heralds and artists involved as professionals, and to support the buildings and other running costs of the College. Aside from the heralds' traditional nominal salaries, given above, the College of Arms is not financed by the taxpayer.
The College of Arms is also responsible for recording the changes of names. In order to change one's name, one must apply for a deed poll to be entered on the College's registers and published in the London Gazette.
When a Royal Licence is granted for a transfer of arms, the change of the surname may be permitted by the Licence itself, so there is no need of a deed poll.
City of Sunderland
The City of Sunderland is a metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Since 1992 it has had the status of a city and metropolitan borough.
It is named after its largest settlement, Sunderland, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Washington, Houghton-le-Spring, and other smaller settlements.
The district was created in 1974 as the Metropolitan Borough of Sunderland when all local government in England and Wales was changed by the Local Government Act 1972. This was when four different local government districts from County Durham were joined together.
Sunderland became a city in 1992, the 40th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's "accession" (the time she became queen).
The district had a population of 280,807 at the time of the 2001 census.
On March 24, 2004, the City adopted St Benedict Biscop as its patron saint. A patron had never been adopted before.
Self-Strengthening Movement
The Self-Strengthening Movement ( or ; 1861 - 1895) was a reform organised during the late Qing Dynasty. The movement's intent was the modernization of China as a result of many military defeats it had faced at the hands of the West. It could be divided into three phases the first phase (1861 - 1872), the second phase (1872 - 1885) and the third phase (1885 - 1895).
After the defeat of Opium Wars and the outbreak of Taiping Rebellion, the emperor and imperial officials realised that the Qing Government might be overthrown soon and they would no longer reign the country. In order to prevent this, a series of reforms were implemented in the Self-Strengthening Movement, sometimes called "Westernization" which sought to adopt ideas from the West, mainly in technology.
Michael Keaton
Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), better known by the artistic name Michael Keaton, is an American actor who became popular for his early comedic film roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice", and later gained international fame for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne / Batman in Tim Burton's "Batman", "Batman Returns" and will again in "The Flash". He won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2015 for his role in "Birdman". In 2016, he played Ray Kroc in "The Founder".
Keaton was born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. He lived in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. His father, George A. Douglas, worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and his mother, Leona Elizabeth (nee Loftus), a homemaker, came from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Keaton was raised in a Catholic family. He is of Irish and Scots-Irish ancestry. He attended Montour High School in Pennsylvania. Douglas studied speech for two years at Kent State, before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh.
Keaton supported Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Inequality is when one object is:
Inequality is sometimes used to name a statement that one expression is smaller, greater, not smaller or not greater than the other.
Inequality in math is when two solutions or answers are compared by greater than or less than. It is when the two or yet many solutions are being compared is not of equal amount. Solving an inequality means finding its solutions. When you substitute a number to a variable and the statement is true, then it is a solution. When you substitute a number to a variable and the statement is not true then, the number is not a solution to the statement.
Solving inequality is finding a solution to a given variable. It is finding a relative order of a set. Inequality might have many solutions, but usually only solutions as real numbers are the ones we are looking for. The proper way to read inequality is from left to right, just like the other equations, but the only difference is that they have different rules for every equation.
For example, consider the inequality x+4>12, where x is a real number. First, one needs to find the x and verify that it is actually a solution. The answer will be x>8 and it is a true statement. This expression is about the location of x within the set of real numbers. A number line is one way to show the location relative to all other real numbers.(See figure Inequality 1)
There are five different kinds of inequalities:
There are four ways to solve quadratic equations:
Furthermore, it will take two steps to solve an inequality. The first one is to simplify using the reciprocal of addition or subtraction. The second one is to simplify more by using the reciprocal of multiplication or division. Note that when multiplying or dividing an inequality by a negative number, the inequality symbol must be reversed.
Inequality is a mathematical statement that explains that the two values are not equal and are different. The equation a≠b means that "a" is not equal to "b". Inequality is the same with any equation, with the (only) difference that inequality does not use an equal sign but inequality symbols. The inequality b>a means that b is greater than a. Speed limits, mark, and others use inequality to express them.
When solving an inequality, a person need to have a true statement. When you divide or multiply an inequality with a negative number on both sides, the statement is false. In order to make the statement correct with a negative number, one must reverse the direction of the inequality symbol. When a number is a positive number, one does not need to reverse the symbol. Inequality is about making a true statement.
For example, start with a true statement -6"y"<-12. When both sides are divided by -6, the result will become y<2. In this statement, the symbol need to be reversed in order to have a true statement, which produces y>2 as the correct answer. In the number line (see figure Inequality 2), a closed shaded circle points out that it is included in the solution set. An open circle points out that it is not included in the solution set.
Chechnya
Chechnya (; ), officially the Chechen Republic (; ), is a federal subject in Russia. It is located in the Caucasus region. The capital is Grozny.
Most people in Chechnya are Muslims and are of ancient Hurrian roots who spoke a Caucasian language. Most Chechens belong to the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam.
Chechens speak their own language, not related to the Russian language. Chechen is part of the Northeast Caucasian, or "Vainakh", family, while Russian is a Slavic language.
During Soviet control, Chechnya was unified with Ingushetia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Chechnya broke away from Ingushetia to form its own republic. The Chechens wanted independence. After the First Chechen War, Chechnya was de facto independent as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. After the Second Chechen War, Russia regained control of Chechnya.
Russia has claimed Chechnya as part of its country since the Russians invaded the Caucasus in the 18th century.
The current leader of the Chechen Republic is Ramzan Kadyrov. He is also the son of the 1st Chechen President, Akhmad Kadyrov.
Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel is a mathematical paradox named after the German mathematician David Hilbert. Hilbert used it as an example to show how infinity does not act in the same way as regular numbers do.
Normal hotels have a set number of rooms. This number is finite. Once every room has been assigned to a guest, any new guest that wants a room and does not have one yet cannot be served - in other words, the hotel is fully booked.
Now suppose that there is a hotel that has an infinite number of rooms. As a convenience, the rooms have numbers, the first room has the number 1, the second has number 2, and so on. If all the rooms are filled, it might appear that no more guests can be taken in, as in a hotel with a finite number of rooms. This is wrong, though. A room can be provided for another guest. This can be done by moving the guest in room 1 to room 2, the guest in room 2 to room 3, and so on. In the general case, the guest in room "n" will be moved to room "n+1". After all guests have moved, room 1 is empty, and the new guest now has a room to occupy. This shows how we can find a room for a new guest even if the hotel is already full, something that could not happen in any hotel with a finite number of rooms.
Another thing that can be done with this imaginary hotel is to double the number of people inside, again when all the rooms are already full. This is done by asking each guest to multiply their room number by two and move to that room. (If their previous room number was "n", this time they would move to room number "2n".) This would send the guest in room 1 to room 2, the guest in room 2 to room 4, the guest in room 3 to room 6, the guest in room 4 to room 8, and so on. After finishing, we find that all the rooms with the odd numbers are empty. Then we can put an infinite number of guests into these empty rooms. Now the number of guests in the hotel has been doubled without making the hotel bigger.
The guest at room 11 would move to room 101.
The second person of group 5 (Address 5-2) would go to room 25.
This is not really a paradox, it is only counterintuitive. In a normal hotel, with a finite number of rooms, the number of "odd-numbered" rooms, is smaller than the total number of rooms. In Hilbert's Hotel this does not seem to be the case.
The guest 1 of group 2 of vehicle 1 (1-2-1) goes to room 121.
Address 4-7-7-4 goes to room 4774.
Address 0-1 (hotel dweller) stays because 1-0-0-0-1 moves to room 10,001.
Each pod holds 10 people.
Each megapod holds 10 pods. (100 people)
Each supermegapod holds 10 megapods. (1,000 people)
Each superdupermegapod holds 10 supermegapods.
Each ultrasuperdupermegapod holds 10 superdupermegapod.
Each ultrasuperduperubermegapod holds 10 ultrasuperdupermegapods. (1,000,000 people)
This assumes that there is never an infinitieth layer. (The main ship)
Hilbert's paradox is a veridical paradox: it leads to a counter-intuitive result that is provably true. The statements "there is a guest to every room" and "no more guests can be accommodated" are not equivalent when there are infinitely many rooms. An analogous situation is presented in Cantor's diagonal proof.
At first, this state of affairs might seem to be counter-intuitive. The properties of "infinite collections of things" are quite different from those of "finite collections of things". The paradox of Hilbert's Grand Hotel can be understood by using Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers. In an ordinary (finite) hotel with more than one room, the number of odd-numbered rooms is obviously smaller than the total number of rooms. However, in Hilbert's aptly named Grand Hotel, the quantity of odd-numbered rooms is not smaller than the total "number" of rooms. In mathematical terms, the cardinality of the subset containing the odd-numbered rooms is the same as the cardinality of the set of all rooms. Indeed, infinite sets are characterized as sets that have proper subsets of the same cardinality. For countable sets (sets with the same cardinality as the natural numbers) this cardinality is formula_1.
Put differently, for any countably infinite set, there exists a bijective function which maps the countably infinite set to the set of natural numbers, even if the countably infinite set contains the natural numbers. For example, the set of rational numbers—those numbers which can be written as a quotient of integers—contains the natural numbers as a subset, but is no bigger than the set of natural numbers since the rationals are countable: there is a bijection from the naturals to the rationals.
Opposite number
In mathematics, opposite number or additive inverse of any number is a number "n" which, if added to "n", results in 0 (the identity element of addition). The opposite number for "n" is written as "−n". For example, −7 is the opposite number of 7, because formula_1.
For positive numbers, the opposite number is simply the negative version of the number. For negative numbers, the opposite number is the positive version of the number.
Nth root
An "n"-th root of a number "r" is a number which, if "n" copies are multiplied together, makes "r". It is also called a radical or a radical expression. It is a number "k" for which the following equation is true:
We write the nth root of "r" as formula_3. If "n" is 2, then the radical expression is a square root. If it is 3, it is a cube root. Other values of n are referred to using ordinal numbers, such as "fourth root" and "tenth root".
For example, formula_4 because formula_5. The 8 in that example is called the radicand, the 3 is called the index, and the check-shaped part is called the radical symbol or radical sign.
Roots and powers can be changed as shown in formula_6.
The product property of a radical expression is the statement that formula_7. The quotient property of a radical expression is the statement formula_8.
This is an example of how to simplify a radical.
If two radicals are the same, they can be combined. This is when both of the indexes and radicands are the same.
This is how to find the perfect square and rationalize the denominator.
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is an island in Dorset in the south of England. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth. 13,000 people live there. It is where the famous Portland limestone was originally found.
In 2012, the sailing in the Olympics will take place on Portland and in Weymouth.
Weymouth, Dorset
A flagship is the ship used by the officer who commanded a group of naval ships. The term comes from the custom of the commanding officer to fly a special flag to show he was present.
Used in this way, "flagship" is normally a temporary name; the flagship is wherever the officer is flying his flag. However, admirals have always needed a special place; a meeting room large enough to hold all the captains of the fleet, and a place for the admiral's staff to make plans and draw up orders.
Over the years, the term "flagship" has been borrowed by other industries. These include broadcasting, automobiles, cell phones, and others to mean their core products or services.
European magpie
The European magpie ("Pica pica") is a bird that lives in Europe, much of Asia, and northwest Africa. It is one of several birds in the crow family named as magpies.
In Europe, "magpie" is used by English speakers to call the European magpie; it is the only magpie in Europe outside the Iberian Peninsula.
Sui generis
Sui generis (pronounced or ) is a term from Latin. It can be translated to "Of (his/her/its) own kind". It basically means that something has very special characteristics. They are so special, that the thing cannot really be compared to anything else. It is used in various contexts. The term was invented by philosophers. What they originally wanted to say was that an idea is so specific as to be unique, that it cannot really be part of a broader concept.
When lawyers talk about something being "sui generis", they mean that something is unique. It cannot be compared. With intellectual property, a design can be "sui generis".
The European Union is something that has come to be in the last few years. In some ways it is like state in others like a confederation of states or an international organisation. It is mostly classified as "sui generis".
In the sociology of Emile Durkheim, "sui generis" is used to illustrate his theories on social existence. He says that society, as it was there before any living individual was born, is independent of all individuals. His "sui generis" (its closest English meaning in this sense being 'independent') society will furthermore continue its existence after the individual ceases to interact with it.
Meryl Streep was praised in a "Wall Street Journal" review of "The Devil Wears Prada": "(her) pitch-perfect portrayal of Miranda is "sui generis", with a dramatic existence of its own, as unique and memorable as, say, a Bette Davis character."
Martin Kettle in "The Guardian" said about hung parliaments: "Each is "sui generis", dependent on the particular parliamentary arithmetic, inter-party momentum and surrounding political circumstances."
"Slate" has used the term several times; one article discussed the unique variations of French Rose Champagne: "Grower Champagnes are wines made by small farmers in the Champagne region who, bucking convention, choose to craft their own wines rather than sell their grapes to the major Champagne houses. Typical of farmer fizzes, the grower rosés are utterly "sui generis"—in a few cases almost freakishly so."
A CNN "The Marquee" post said about James Brown, "I can't even begin to talk about his importance. He was "sui generis"."
Political commentator Dick Morris referred to the intense public interest in the 2008 US Presidential race as "clearly sui generis, and anything can happen."
Regular polygon
A regular polygon is a polygon which is both equilateral (which means all its sides have the same length) and equiangular (which means that all its angles are the same).
The simplest examples of regular polygons are:
Straightedge and compass construction
Straightedge and compass construction, also known as ruler-and-compass construction, is drawing of lengths, angles or shapes using only a ruler and compass.
Some things cannot be drawn this way. For example, there are only 32 regular polygons with an uneven number of sides which are known to be constructible. It has been proven that a square with the same area as the area of a circle cannot be constructed. This is called "Squaring the circle".
A carnation is a type of flower. It has been grown for so many years, we are not sure where it came from.
Air Force One is the air traffic call sign (name) of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States.
The president usually flies in one of the two specially changed Boeing 747 jumbo jets (airplane) kept by the United States Air Force.
They are only called Air Force One when the President is on board. Otherwise it is called by its number like any other airplane.
When Richard Nixon resigned as President in 1974 he flew back to his home in California in Air Force One, but halfway to California he stopped being President and the airplane was then given a new name, SAM (Special Air Mission) 2700.
In the Middle Ages, people in Europe believed that Incubi (one Incubus, several Incubi) were male demons. There were also female demons, called succubi. They lay on sleeping people, to have sexual intercourse with them. They would also do this to make other incubi. While they had sex with their victim, they drained its energy to sustain themselves. Sometimes, having sex with an incubus may result in a child, as in the legend of Merlin. Some sources say that the incubus may be identified by its unnaturally cold penis. Religious tradition holds that repeated intercourse with such a spirit by either males or females may result in bad health, or even death.
People have come up with different explanations for the incubus legends. In the Middle Ages, people worried a lot about sin, especially sexual sins of women. Victims may have been experiencing waking dreams or sleep paralysis. Also, nocturnal arousal, orgasm or nocturnal emission could be explained by the idea of creatures causing an otherwise guilt-producing and self-conscious behavior. The influence of incubi could also have been used to explain how pregnancies happen outside marriage; such pregnancies were often "unexplainable".and unnoticed
Victims who claimed to have fallen prey to the influence of incubi, could in reality have been victims of sexual assault by a real person. Rapists may have attributed the rapes of sleeping women to demons in order to escape punishment. A friend or relative may have assaulted the victim in her sleep. The victims and, in some cases the clergy, may have found it easier to explain the attack as supernatural in origin rather than confront the idea that the attack came from a trusted person.
One of the earliest mentions of an incubus comes from Mesopotamia on the Sumerian kings' list, ca. 2400, where the hero Gilgamesh's father is listed as Lilu (Lila). It is said that Lilu disturbs and seduces women in their sleep, while Lilitu, a female demon, appears to men in their erotic dreams. Two other demons appear as well: Ardat lili visits men by night and bears ghostly children from them. Irdu lili, is the male counterpart to Ardat lili. He visits women by night. These demons were originally storm demons. Because the etymology was interpreted wrongly, they were later seen as night demons. Also considered to be vampires which is another form of a demon that is said to drink blood from its victims.
Incubi and succubi were said by some not to be different sexes, but the same demon able to change its sex. A succubus would be able to sleep with a man and collect his sperm, and then transform into an incubus and use that seed on women. Their offspring were thought to be supernatural in many cases, even if the actual genetic material originally came from humans.
Many tales claim that the incubus is bisexual, but some indicate that it is strictly heterosexual and finds attacking a male victim either unpleasant or detrimental. There are also many stories involving the attempted exorcism of incubi or succubi who have taken refuge in the bodies of men or women.
Incubi are sometimes said to be able to conceive children. The half-human offspring of such a union is sometimes referred to as a cambion. The most famous legend of such a case includes that of Merlin, the famous wizard from Arthurian legend.
According to the "Malleus Maleficarum", exorcism is one of the five ways to overcome the attacks of Incubi, the others being Sacramental Confession, the Sign of the Cross (or recital of the Angelic Salutation), moving the afflicted to another location, and by excommunication of the attacking entity, "which is perhaps the same as exorcism." On the other hand, the Franciscan friar Ludovico Maria Sinistrari stated that incubi "do not obey exorcists, have no dread of exorcisms, show no reverence for holy things, at the approach of which they are not in the least overawed."
Commonwealth realm
A Commonwealth realm is a country in the Commonwealth of Nations which has Queen Elizabeth II as monarch. It includes her home country of the United Kingdom and many of its former colonies or territories, including:
In each of the countries outside the UK, the Queen appoints a Governor-General to represent her, who, after consulting with the government of the realm, has all of the powers and duties of the queen. Usually the Governor-General signs all acts of parliament into law, but can wait and ask the Queen for advice or wait for her to sign the act herself. This happened in 1982 when Queen Elizabeth signed the important "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" during a visit to Ottawa, and the Australia Act 1986 in Canberra.
Although Queen Elizabeth II is monarch of many countries, the British government has no power in the other realms, just as the governments of the other realms have no power in the UK. This is why each realm decides on the Queen's official title. Usually it is "Queen of (realm) and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth". But two countries mention the UK in their title for the Queen: Grenada uses "Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Grenada and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth", while Canada uses the old fashioned form, which reads "by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." Not all countries use the title "Defender of the Faith".
A Dashiki is a loose fitting, brightly coloured garment associated with African culture. It is also associated with the counterculture of the 1960s in the United States. The most popular styles cover the top half of the body. It originated in West Africa. A common form is a loose-fitting pullover garment, with an ornate V-shaped collar. It often has an embroidered neck and sleeve lines. There are both casual and formal versions.
The dashiki originated in West Africa and East Africa. Twelfth and thirteenth centuries burial mounds in Mali (West Africa) have revealed versions of dashikis. Dashikis were worn by both men and women. They may have been influenced by the thawb worn by Arabs who came to the region. Both garments keep the wearer cool in the hot African climate. The dashiki was worn as a work shirt in the shorter version. Another much longer version was called the grand boubou. It is also similar to the kaftan. All three are common to West Africa.
The dashiki became popular in the hippie culture of the 1960s. Peace Corps members returning from Africa brought back dashikis. African diplomats to the United Nations in New York were often seen and photographed wearing colorful dashikis. Dashikis were seen as a symbol of support for black racial struggles. Groups like the Black Panthers wore the Dashiki as a symbol of their black heritage. The Afro hairstyle, faded blue jeans and the Dashiki were all popular expressions of the Black is beautiful cultural movement.
Many of the rock groups of the 60s and 70s wore Dashikis. But black performers of the 60s 70s preferred the more conventional suit and tie look. But in the 80s several black groups wore the dashiki to show their heritage. One South African vocal group, 'Ladysmith Black Mambazo', wore dashikis extensively. This identified them more as Africans than Zulus.
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are an American ice hockey in the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their home games at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado. They play in the Central Division of the Western Conference. The team has won the Stanley Cup championship two times, in 1996 and in 2001.
The Battle of Midway was an important naval battle of World War II, between the United States and the Empire of Japan. It took place from 4 June 1942 to 7 June 1942. This was about a month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, and six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll (northwest of Hawaii) and destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser.
The battle was a decisive victory for the Americans. It was the most important naval battle of the Pacific area in World War II. The battle weakened the Imperial Japanese Navy for the rest of the war. Japan could not build up its forces again. The United States replaced their lost ships and planes with better ones very quickly. Japan could only make a few poor quality replacements.
The Japanese planned to bring America's carriers into a trap and sink them. The Japanese also tried to take Midway Atoll to build defenses far from their homeland and prepare to invade Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii.
The Midway operation, like the attack on Pearl Harbor, was made to destroy the American strength in the Pacific Ocean. This way, Japan could become the biggest power in the area and unify Asia under its control. It was also hoped that another defeat would force the U.S. to ask for peace soon.
After the defeat, Imperial Japanese Navy forces retired. Japan lost four out of their six carriers, and hundreds of their best air pilots. This stopped the expansion of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific, and the Americans began to slowly advance towards Japan.
Japan had reached its first goals quickly, taking the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). This gave Japan petroleum, which it needed to make more war. Planning for a second part of the operations started in January 1942. However, disagreements between the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, and among naval commanders, prevented finishing the plan until April 1942. Admiral Yamamoto said he would quit if his plan for the Central Pacific was not accepted. It was accepted.
Yamamoto's main goal was to destroy America's carrier forces, which he saw as the main threat to the Pacific campaign. This concern was increased by the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942. In this raid, 16 US Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bombers launched from bombed targets in Tokyo and several other Japanese cities. The raid, while militarily unimportant, showed that American bombers could reach Japanese territory. This and other successful raids by American carriers showed that they were still a threat.
Yamamoto thought that another attack on the U.S Naval base at Pearl Harbor would make all of the American fleet to sail out to fight, including the carriers. However, because of the many American land-based airplanes on Hawaii, he thought that it was too risky to attack directly. Instead, he decided to attack Midway, a tiny atoll at the northwest end of the Hawaiian Island chain, approximately from Oahu. The Japanese didn't need Midway but they felt the Americans would try hard to defend it.
The U.S. did consider Midway to be important. After the battle, they set up a submarine base on Midway. That meant submarines operating from Pearl Harbor could refuel and get new supplies, so they could go farther west. Midway's airstrips were also used for bomber attacks on Wake Island.
Like most Japanese naval planning during World War II, Yamamoto's battle plan was very complex. His was also based on incorrect (wrong) information. He thought that and were the only carriers available to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. In May 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea, had been sunk and so badly damaged that the Japanese thought she had been sunk. The Japanese also knew that was being repaired on the US West Coast after getting torpedo damage from a submarine. and were in the Atlantic, but the Japanese were not sure this was so.
Yamamoto thought that the Americans had been demoralized by their defeats in the last six months. He thought a trick would lure the U.S. fleet into a dangerous situation. He spread out his ships, especially his battleships, so that they would be hard to find. Yamamoto's battleships and cruisers went behind Vice-Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's carrier force by several hundred miles. Japan's heavy surface forces would wait for the U.S. ships to come to defend Midway, and destroy them.
The plan was for Nagumo's carriers to cause so much harm to US ships that the Japanese could fire on them by daylight.
Yamamoto did not know that the U.S. had broken the main Japanese naval code. Yamamoto's choice to spread out his ships meant that none of his groups of ships could support each other. The only warships larger than the 12 destroyers that protected Nagumo's fleet were two battleships, two heavy cruisers, and one light cruiser.
The Japanese attacks in the Aleutian Islands (Operation AL) took away yet more ships that could have attacked Midway. Many histories once saw the Aleutians attack as a feint to draw American forces away. Early twenty-first century research shows that AL was supposed to be launched at the same time as the attack on Midway. However, a one-day delay in the sailing of Nagumo's ships resulted in Operation AL beginning a day before the Midway attack.
To battle with an enemy expected to have four or five carriers, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, needed every U.S. carrier he could get. He already had Vice Admiral William Halsey's two-carrier ("Enterprise" and "Hornet") force. Halsey was sick with psoriasis and had to be replaced by Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Nimitz also called back Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's force, including the carrier "Yorktown" (which had major damage at Coral Sea), from the South West Pacific Area. It reached Pearl Harbor just in time to sail.
The damaged "Yorktown" however, was not completely crippled. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard worked all day and all night, and in 72 hours she was ready to battle for two or three weeks. Her flight deck was patched, sections of internal frames were replaced, and several squadrons of aircraft were taken from "Saratoga". The pilots did not get time to train. Repairs on Yorktown continued even as she sailed out.
On Midway, by 4 June the USN had stationed four groups of PBYs—31 aircraft in total—for long-range reconnaissance duties, and six new Grumman TBF-1 Avengers. The Avengers were taken from "Hornet"s VT-8. The Marine Corps had 19 Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, seven Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats, 17 Vought SB2U-3 Vindicators, and 21 Brewster F2A-3s. The USAAF sent a group of 17 B-17 Flying Fortresses and eight B-26 Marauders with torpedoes: in total 126 aircraft.
During the Battle of the Coral Sea one month earlier, the Japanese light carrier "Shōhō" had been sunk and the fleet carrier had three bomb hits, and was in drydock undergoing repairs. Although the carrier was undamaged, she had lost almost half her airplanes and was in port in Kure awaiting new planes and pilots. No new pilots were available because none had been trained. Flight instructors were used in an effort to make up the missing aircrew.
Japan's two most advanced aircraft carriers were not available and Admiral Nagumo would therefore have only four fleet carriers: and ; and . At least part of this was due to overwork; Japanese carriers had been constantly operating since 7 December 1941, including raids on Darwin and Colombo.
The main Japanese carrier-based aircraft were the Aichi D3A1 dive bomber and the Nakajima B5N2, which was used either as a torpedo bomber or as a bomber. However, production of the D3A had been reduced, while production of the B5N had been stopped. None were available to replace losses. In addition many of the aircraft being used during the June 1942 operations had been operating since late November 1941; many were almost worn out and had become increasingly unreliable. These factors meant that all carriers of the "Kido Butai" had fewer aircraft than normal and there were not enough spare aircraft or parts. I
Japan's main carrier fighter was the fast Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero".
Japanese scouting before the battle was disorganized. A line of Japanese submarines was late getting into position. This let the American carriers reach their meeting point northeast of Midway (known as "Point Luck") without being found by the subs. A second attempt at scouting, using four-engine Kawanishi H8K flying boats to fly to Pearl Harbor prior to the battle and see whether the American carriers were there did not work out because Japanese subs could not refuel the planes. Japan did not know where the American carriers were before the battle.
Japanese radios did pick up more American submarine activity and messages. Yamamoto knew this before the battle, but Japanese plans were not changed. Yamamoto, at sea on , assumed that Nagumo had received the same message from Tokyo, and he did not send the message, because he did not want the US to hear the message. Nagumo's radio antennas could not get the message from Tokyo.
Admiral Nimitz had one advantage: code experts had broken the Japanese Navy's JN-25b code. Since the early spring of 1942, the US had been decoding messages stating that there would soon be an operation at objective "AF". They guessed that it was Midway and sent an uncoded radio message that Midway needed fresh water. The code breakers then picked up a Japanese message that "AF was short on water." was also able to determine the date of the attack as either 4 or 5 June, and to tell Nimitz exactly which Japanese ships were coming. Japan had a new codebook, but it was not used for several days. The new code, which had not yet been figured out, was used shortly before the attack began, but the important information had already been figured out.
Americans knew where, when, and in what strength the Japanese would arrive at Midway. Nimitz knew that the Japanese had ruined their advantage in number of ships by dividing their ships into four groups, all too separated to be able to support each other. Nimitz calculated that the aircraft on his three carriers, plus those on Midway Island, gave the U.S. rough parity with Yamamoto's four carriers, mainly because American carrier air groups were larger than Japanese ones. The Japanese, by contrast, remained almost totally unaware of their opponent's true strength and dispositions even after the battle began.
At about 09:00 on 3 June, a US Navy patrol plane spotted the Japanese Occupation Force to the west-southwest of Midway. Three hours later, the Americans found the Japanese transport group to the west. They attacked, but none of the bombs hit and no major damage resulted. Early the following morning the Japanese oil tanker "Akebono Maru" was hit by a torpedo from an attacking PBY. This was the only successful air-launched torpedo attack by the U.S. during the entire battle.
At 04:30 on 4 June, Nagumo launched his attack on Midway. It consisted of 36 dive bombers 36 torpedo bombers, escorted by 36 Mitsubishi Zero fighters. At the same time he launched a defensive combat air patrol. His eight search planes launched 30 minutes late.
Japanese reconnaissance plans were poor, with too few aircraft to cover the search areas. Yamamoto's decisions had now become a serious problem.
As Nagumo's bombers and fighters were taking off, 11 PBYs were leaving Midway to search for Japanese ships. They reported sighting two Japanese carriers with empty decks, which meant an air strike was on its way. American radar picked up the enemy at a distance of several miles, and planes were sent off to defend Midway. Bombers headed off to attack the Japanese carrier fleet. US fighters remained behind to defend Midway. At 06:20 Japanese carrier aircraft bombed and heavily damaged the U.S. base. Midway-based Marine fighter pilots, flying F4Fs and obsolescent F2As, intercepted the Japanese and had many losses. Most of the U.S. planes were shot down in the first few minutes; several were damaged, and only two could fly. In all, 3 F4Fs and 13 F2As were shot down. American anti-aircraft fire was accurate damaging many Japanese aircraft and destroying four.
Of the 108 Japanese aircraft involved in this attack, 11 were destroyed, 14 were heavily damaged, and 29 were damaged. The initial Japanese attack did not destroy Midway: American bombers could still use the airbase to refuel and attack the Japanese invasion force. Most of Midway's land-based defenses were intact. Another air attack to destroy Midway's defences would be necessary if troops were to be able to go ashore by 7 June.
American bombers based on Midway made several attacks on the Japanese carrier fleet. These included six Grumman Avengers from the s VT-8 (Midway was the first combat mission for the VT-8 airmen, and it was the first combat of the TBF), Marine Scout-Bombing Squadron 241 (VMSB-241), consisting of eleven SB2U-3s and sixteen SBDs, plus four USAAF B-26s, armed with torpedoes, and fifteen B-17s. The Japanese fought off these attacks. The US lost two fighters, five TBFs, two SB2Us, eight SBDs and two B-26s.
One B-26, after being seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, dove straight toward the "Akagi". The plane just missed the carrier's bridge, which could have killed Nagumo and his command staff. This may have made Nagumo decide to launch another attack on Midway, against Yamamoto's order to keep the reserve force for anti-ship operations.
Admiral Nagumo had kept half of his aircraft in reserve. These were two squadrons of dive bombers and torpedo bombers. At 07:15 Nagumo ordered his reserve planes to be re-armed with bombs for use against land targets. At 07:40 a scout plane from "Tone" saw a big American naval force to the east. It seems that Nagumo did not receive the report until 08:00. Nagumo reversed his order, but it took 40 minutes before "Tone"'s scout finally radioed that there was a carrier in the American force. This was one of the carriers from TF 16; the other carrier was not sighted.
Nagumo was now unsure of what to do. Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi recommended that Nagumo strike with the forces at hand: 18 Aichi D3A dive bombers each on "Sōryū" and "Hiryū", and half the cover patrol aircraft. Nagumo's opportunity to hit the American ships, however, was now limited. The Midway strike force would be returning shortly and needed to land or crash into the sea. Because of the constant flight deck activity, the Japanese did not get their reserve planes on the flight deck for launch. The few aircraft that were ready were defensive Fighter aircraft. Launching aircraft would have required at least 30 to 45 minutes. By launching right away, Nagumo would be using some of his reserve without proper anti-ship weapons. He had just seen how easily unescorted American bombers had been shot down. Poor discipline caused many of the Japanese bombers to get rid of their bombs and attempt to fight intercepting F4Fs. Japanese carrier rules preferred full strikes, and since Nagumo did not know the American force included a carrier, his response followed Japanese rules. In addition, the arrival of another American air strike at 07:53 made Nagumo want to attack the island again. Nagumo decided to wait for his first strike force to land, then launch the reserve, which would by then be armed and ready.
Fletcher's carriers had launched their planes beginning at 07:00, so the aircraft that attacked Nagumo were already on their way. There was nothing Nagumo could do about it. This was the flaw with Yamamoto's plans.
The Americans had already launched their carrier aircraft against the Japanese. Admiral Fletcher, in command aboard "Yorktown", and having PBY sighting reports from the early morning, ordered an attack on the Japanese as soon as possible. He held "Yorktown" in reserve in case any other Japanese carriers were found. (Fletcher's directions to Spruance were sent by Nimitz, who had remained ashore.)
Spruance thought that even though the range was far, an attack could succeed. He gave the order to launch the attack at around 06:00. Fletcher, upon completing his own scouting flights, followed at 08:00 from "Yorktown".
Admiral Fletcher, commanding the "Yorktown" task force, along with Captain Elliott Buckmaster,"Yorktown"s commanding officer, and their staffs had experience in doing a full strike against an enemy force in the Coral Sea. But they could not pass on what they had learned to "Enterprise" and "Hornet" which were ordered to launch the first strike. Spruance ordered the aircraft to go to the target right away, since destroying enemy carriers was important to the safety of his ships. Spruance decided it was more important to attack as soon as possible, rather than coordinate the attack by aircraft of different types and speeds (fighters, bombers, and torpedo bombers). American squadrons went to the target in several different groups. He hoped that he would find Nagumo with his flight decks full of planes.