alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Damascus

Damascus (sometimes called the city of Jasmin) is the capital city of Syria. IIn Arabic, its name is Dimashq (دِمَشْق‎). It is the largest city in Syria with about 4.8 million people living there. Damascus is thought to be one of oldest cities in the world that still has people living in it. It is believed that people started living in Damascus as long ago as 8000 BC to 10,000 BC (12000 years ago).

Location
Damascus is about 50 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.

Economy
Damascus used to play an important role as an important trade center. Now it is not because of political development in the region as well as the development of modern trade. Most goods produced in Damascus, as well as in Syria, are distributed to countries of the Arabian peninsula. Damascus also holds an annual international trade exposition in the fall since 1955.

Education 
There are many universities in Damascus, one public university: Damascus University. while other universities are private, such as the Syrian Private University  and the aljazeera Private University.

Historical sites 
Damascus has many historical sites dating back to many different periods of the city's history. Since the city has been built up with every passing job, it has become almost impossible to dig out all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to 8 feet (2.4 m) below the modern level. The Citadel of Damascus is in the northwest corner of the Old City. The Bab Sharqi street is filled with small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab Tuma (St. Thomas's Gate). Medhat Pasha Souq is also a main market in Damascus and was named after Medhat Pasha. At the end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches the House of Ananias, an underground chapel that was the cellar of Ananias's house. The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one of the largest mosques in the world and also one of the oldest sites of continuous prayer since the rise of Islam.

Image gallery

References

Other websites 

eDamascus - Official website for Damascus
Damascus Online - Brief information about the city of Damascus
The 31 Places to Go in 2010 (The New York Times)
Heart-lung transplant

A heart-lung transplant is a type of surgery to help people who have very sick hearts and lungs. In this surgery, the patient's own heart and lungs are taken out and replaced by healthy organs. During the surgery, a machine called a heart-lung machine pumps blood for the patient and breathes for him or her. Not many heart-lung transplants are done, because there are not enough donated organs.

Surgery
Heart
Respiratory system
Transplants
Ronnie Barker

Ronald William George Barker (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005), popularly known as Ronnie Barker and (as a writer) Gerald Wiley, was an English comic actor, comedian and writer. He was born in Bedford and moved to Oxford when he was four. He is best known for being on the very popular television variety show The Two Ronnies. Also on the show was his long-time comedy partner, Ronnie Corbett. Barker died of heart failure in Adderbury, Oxfordshire.

References

Other websites

People from Bedfordshire
Actors from Oxfordshire
British television writers
English comedians
English movie actors
English television actors
English television presenters
English television writers
People from Bedford
Writers from Oxford
1929 births
2005 deaths
Guantánamo Province

This article is about the province in Cuba. For other titular locales and uses, see Guantanamo (disambiguation).

Guantánamo is the easternmost province of Cuba. Its capital is also called Guantánamo. Other towns include Baracoa. The province surrounds the important U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay.

Guantánamo's architecture and culture is unlike the rest of Cuba. 
The original settlement was done by Catalan families from the Ampurdan region of north-eastern Catalunya, Spain in 1764. British forces had occupied the area for over 40 years and Scot-Irish settlers were a constant preoccupation to the Spanish auhorities. In 1805, when the French were forced out of St. Domingue (Haiti) 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba, many French families settled in the Guantanamo area becoming coffee and cacao planters meaning that many buildings are comparable to those of the French Quarter of New Orleans in the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Before the Castroite Revolution the Carnivals of Guantanmo were famous in Cuba.

The province is only 80 km away from Haiti its closest point, across the Windward Passage and close enough to see lights on Haiti on a clear night. Guantánamo also has a number of immigrants from Jamaica.
 
The Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountains (Sierra de Cristal) dominate the province, dividing both climate and landscape. The northern coast, battered by prevailing winds, is the wettest part of the country, while the south, sheltered and dry, is the hottest. The north is characterized by rainforests, while the south is arid and has many cacti.

Municipalities 

 Baracoa
 Caimanera
 El Salvador
 Guantánamo
 Imías
 Maisí (La Máquina)
 Manuel Tames
 Niceto Pérez
 San Antonio del Sur
 Yateras (Palenque)

Related pages
 Guantanamera
 Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt

Provinces of Cuba
1764 establishments
Establishments in Cuba
1760s establishments in North America
La Habana Province (1976–2010)

Havana Province, (Spanish - Provincia de la Habana), Cuba, is a former provinces of Cuba. On January 1, 2011 it was split into two new provinces - Artemisa Province and Mayabeque Province.

The capital city of Havana is a separate province, surrounded by the province of Havana. It had 711 066 people in the 2002 census. The largest city is the city of Artemisa with a population of 75,000 in 2003. The second largest city is Güines (70,000).

Havana Province had borders with the city of Havana, Pinar del Rio, and Matanzas. It has coasts in the south and north and has dozens of towns and a few small cities which rank between the 20 and 40 largest of the island.

The southern coast of the province has many swamps and wetlands.

Most of the province's farms raise cattle and grow food, mostly potatos and fruit. Unlike much of Cuba, sugar and tobacco play only a small role in the province's economy. There is also much industrialization in the province, with many electricity plants and sugar mills.

References 

Provinces of Cuba
2010 disestablishments in North America
Santiago de Cuba Province

Santiago de Cuba Province is the second most populated province in the island of Cuba. It has a population of about 1.2 million people. The largest city Santiago de Cuba (554,000) is its main administrative center. Other large cities include Palma Soriano (125,000), Contramaestre (88,000), Mayarí Arriba (80,000), San Luis (65,000) and Songo-la Maya (50,000). 

The province has many material resources such as iron and nickel. The economy, however, relies mostly on agriculture, with large plantations growing bananas, cacao and coffee dotting the landscape. Industry is growing around the capital, as is tourism. The natural beauty of the area is attracting many tourists from both the rest of Cuba and from overseas.

Santiago de Cuba province has been the site of many battles, both during the war for independence and the 1959 Cuban Revolution, where much of the guerrilla fighting took place in the mountainous province.

Municipalities 

 Contramaestre
 Chivirico
 Mella
 Palma Soriano
 San Luis
 Santiago de Cuba
 Mayarí Arriba
 La Maya
 Cruce de los Baños

Historical use of the name 
Before 1976, Cuba was divided into six provinces. One of these was Oriente province, which was, prior to 1905, known as Santiago de Cuba province. See Historical provinces of Cuba.

Other websites 
 Santiago.cu (in spanish) 
 Travel info on Santiago de Cuba
 santiagoencuba.com (in spanish)

Provinces of Cuba
Granma Province

Granma is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is Bayamo. Other towns on it include Manzanillo (a port on the Gulf of Guacanayabo) and Pilón.

History 
The province was named after the yacht Granma, used by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro to land in Cuba with 82 guerrillas in 1956. The American who sold them the secondhand yacht in Mexico apparently had named it after his grandmother   and so the name of this vessel, with its non-standard spelling, became an icon for Cuban communism. Not every Cuban realizes that the name would translate as abuela, although all can name the mothership of the revolution.

Results 
The province is full of reminders of the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban Wars of Independence. There are many plaques in the mountains that commemorate the struggle against Fulgencio Batista. The struggle took place in 1959.
It is believed there are many unmarked grave sites from the different wars. The sites of the various palenques, the fortified hamlets of escaped slaves can be found. These have been uncovered by archaeological digs. Most of these are not specially marked. Recently a hurricane destroyed the site of Castro's headquarters at La Plata.

Economy 
There are numerous abandoned gold, silver, and manganese mine sites. This is the area where Raúl Castro holds his centre of power and it is said to be the site of secret garrisons. 

Coffee is grown in the mountainous regions of the province, and during the coffee harvest, there may be road blocks, where soldiers ensure that the coffee is delivered to the government and not the black market.

Municipalities 

 Bartolomé Masó
 Bayamo
 Buey Arriba
 Campechuela
 Cauto Cristo
 Guisa
 Jiguaní
 Manzanillo
 Media Luna
 Niquero
 Pilón
 Río Cauto
 Yara

Other websites 
 Granma Portal  (Spanish)

Provinces of Cuba
Vail, Colorado

Vail is a town in the American state of Colorado. It is best known for being one of the best places to ski in North America. The Vail Ski Resort is the largest ski resort with only one mountain in North America. In 2020, 4,835 people lived in Vail.

Notes

Towns in Colorado
Ski areas and resorts in the United States
Holguín Province

Holguín is one of the provinces of Cuba, the second most populous after Ciudad de la Habana. It lies in the southeast of the country. Its major cities include Holguín (the capital), Banes, Antilla, Mayarí, and Moa.

The province has a population of slightly over one million people. Its territory extends over more than 9300 km², 25 percent of which are covered by forest.

History 
Christopher Columbus landed in what is believed to have been today's Holguín province on October 27, 1492. He declared that it was "the most beautiful country human eyes had ever seen".

The Holguín province was established in 1978, when it was split from the Oriente region.

Illustrious Sons 
General Calixto García (1839-1898), 19th century patriot. Wars of independence from Spain.

General Fulgencio Batista Zaldivar (1901–1973), President, Dictator of Cuba.
Commander in Chief Fidel Castro (1926), lawyer, revolutionary, ex-President of Cuba.
Army General Raúl Castro (1931), minister of the Revolutionary Army Forces, Vice-President and President of Cuba.

Economy 
Like much of Cuba, Holguín's economy is based around sugarcane, though mining, corn and coffee are also large earners for the province.

At Moa, there is a huge cobalt processing plant with shipping facilities, that was constructed with the help of foreign aid , much of it from Canada. There are chrome, nickel, iron and steel plants dotted throughout the province as well.

Tourism has only recently begun to be experimented with by the Fidel Castro government, and in Holguín, there are numerous hotels around the Guardalavaca area.

Municipalities 

Holguín is divided into 14 municipalities:

 Antilla
 Báguanos
 Banes
 Cacocum
 Buenaventura
 Cueto
 Frank País (Cayo Mambí)
 Gibara
 Holguín
 Mayarí
 Moa
 Rafael Freyre
 Sagua de Tánamo
 Urbano Noris

Other websites 
 Holguín.cu 
 Holguín Hotels 

Provinces of Cuba
1978 establishments in North America
20th-century establishments in Cuba
Las Tunas Province

Las Tunas is one of the provinces of Cuba. Major towns include Puerto Padre and Amancio, as well as the capital, Victoria de Las Tunas (sometimes known as Las Tunas, or even just Tuna).

The Las Tunas province was established in 1978, when it was split from the Oriente region.

The southern coast, which opens onto the Golfo de Guacanayabo, is marshy and characterised by mangroves. This wet area is used to grow sugarcane in, as the wet climate is well suited for the crop.

Cattle are also grazed in the province, which was, until the 1975, part of the Oriente province that was divided into five smaller provinces by the Cuban government. Victoria de Las Tunas was just a small market town until that year, and a large development program was started to modernise the town and connect it by road to Havana.

Municipalities 
 Amancio
 Colombia
 Jesús Menéndez
 Jobabo
 Las Tunas (Victoria de Las Tunas)
 Majibacoa (Calixto)
 Manatí
 Puerto Padre

Other websites 
 Periodico 26  — Newspaper of Las Tunas Province (in English)
 Las Tunas portal  (Spanish)

Provinces of Cuba
1978 establishments in North America
20th-century establishments in Cuba
Paul Hartley

Paul James Hartley (born October 19, 1976) is a Scottish football player. He currently plays for Celtic and the Scottish national team.

Hartley used to play for Hamilton Academical, Millwall, Raith Rovers, Hibernian, Greenock Morton, St Johnstone and Hearts.

1976 births
Living people
Footballers from South Lanarkshire
Camagüey Province

Camagüey is the largest of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is Camagüey. Other towns include Florida and Nuevitas.

Camagüey is mostly low lying, with no major hills or mountain ranges passing through the province. Numerous large cays (including what used to be one of Fidel Castro's favourite fishing spots; the Archipiélago Jardines de la Reina) characterise both the northern and southern coasts. 

Sandy beaches are found on both coasts also, and despite a large potential for tourism, the province has seen little development in that area. Exception being Santa Lucía beach, on the North coast.

The economy of the Camagüey province is primarily cattle and sugar (in the north and south) farming, and the province is known for its cowboy culture, with rodeos frequently held. Chickens and rice are also farmed, and a small citrus fruit industry exists. The capital city also has one of the few breweries on the island.

Municipalities 

 Camagüey
 Carlos Manuel de Céspedes 
 Esmeralda
 Florida
 Guáimaro
 Jimaguayú
 Minas
 Najasa
 Nuevitas
 Santa Cruz del Sur
 Sibanicú
 Sierra de Cubitas
 Vertientes]

Provinces of Cuba
Ciego de Ávila Province

Ciego de Ávila is one of the provinces of Cuba, and was previously part of Camagüey Province. Its capital is Ciego de Ávila, which lies on the Carretera Central (central highway), and the second city is Morón, farther north.

Off the north coast of the province are a string of cayos (cays) - these islands are being developed as tourist resorts, principally Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo. The south coast is characterised by mangroves.

Between Morón and the north coast are several lakes, including La Laguna de Leche (the Lake of Milk, so called for its white appearance because of large lime deposits underwater) which is the largest natural lake in Cuba.

Central Ciego de Ávila is used for cattle ranching, elsewhere in the province sugar, pineapples and citrus fruit are grown.

The province was separated from Camagüey Province in 1975 by Fidel Castro's government.

Municipalities 

 Baraguá (Gaspar)
 Bolivia
 Chambas
 Ciego de Ávila
 Ciro Redondo
 Florencia
 Majagua
 Morón
 Primero de Enero
 Venezuela

Provinces of Cuba
1975 establishments in North America
20th-century establishments in Cuba
Sancti Spíritus Province

Sancti Spíritus is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is the identically named Sancti Spíritus. Another major city is Trinidad.

The southern coast of the province is flat, but the western portion of Sancti Spíritus province is mountainous. The southeast has numerous mangroves and swamps.

The largest man made reservoir in Cuba, the Embalse Zaza, is in Sancti Spíritus province.

Tourism is a big earner for the province, with most of the tourism revolving around the old city of Trinidad, a World Heritage listed city which has dozens of colonial buildings (and almost no 20th century architecture) dating back to the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, and, as with most of Cuba, sugarcane and cattle are important commodities. Some tobacco and rice is also grown.

During the 1600s, both Dutch and British pirates attempted to take control of what is today Sancti Spíritus province, but with little success, as the Spanish garrison held them off. From 1660 to 1680, Trinidad was plagued by pirates from Jamaica and Tortuga, and on two occasions, pirates razed the city.

The provinces of Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara were once all part of the now defunct province of Santa Clara.

Municipalities 

 Cabaiguán
 Fomento
 Jatibonico
 La Sierpe
 Sancti Spíritus
 Taguasco
 Trinidad
 Yaguajay

References

Other websites 
 Hotel del Rijo in Sancti Spíritus
 A complete list of Sancti Spíritus Hotel's
 Hotel Zaza in Sancti Spíritus 

Provinces of Cuba
Villa Clara Province

Villa Clara is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its main cities are Santa Clara (the capital), Sagua La Grande, Placetas, Camajuaní, Remedios and Caibarién.

The coast of Villa Clara is dotted with numerous cays, and there are many coral reefs and sandy beaches, too.

Around Santa Clara, the land rises into the Alturas de Santa Clara. The highest point in the province is in the Alturas, at 464 m above sea level. Villa Clara also has numerous lakes, which are used for both water sports and fishing. The largest Cuban river to drain into the Atlantic, Río Sagua la Grande, is also in Villa Clara province.

Sugar, the commodity that the Cuban economy relies upon, is grown in the plains in the north of the province, and several large mills provide employment to many people.

The provinces of Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara were once all part of the now defunct province of Las Villas.Santa Clara was the capital of Las Villas.

Famous People of Villa Clara 
 Joe Carollo - former mayor of Miami, USA
 Richard Egues - Musician (Orquesta Aragon)
 Francisco Gatorno - actor
 Rubén González - pianist
 Livan Hernandez - baseball player
 Orlando Hernandez - baseball player
 Wilfredo Lam - painter
 Benny "Kid" Paret - boxer
 José Bernal - artist
 Amelia Pelaez - painter
 Zaida del Rio - painter
 Aida ida Morales - painter

Municipalities 
 Caibarién
 Camajuaní
 Cifuentes
 Corralillo
 Encrucijada
 Manicaragua
 Placetas
 Quemado de Güines
 Ranchuelo
 Remedios
 Sagua La Grande
 Santa Clara
 Santo Domingo

Provinces of Cuba
Cienfuegos Province

Cienfuegos (Spanish for "one hundred fires") is one of the provinces of Cuba. The capital city of the province is also called Cienfuegos and was founded by French settlers in 1819.

Cienfuegos is the smallest province in Cuba. Growing and processing sugar is very important to its economy. There are many sugar mills and sugarcane plantations across the province. 

Scuba diving is a popular activity in Cienfuegos. There are many underwater caves and over 50 places for diving. There are also waterfalls in the mountains of the province.

The provinces of Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara were once all part of the Santa Clara province. The Santa Clara province no longer exists though.

Municipalities 
 Abreus
 Aguada de Pasajeros
 Cienfuegos
 Cruces
 Cumanayagua
 Lajas
 Palmira
 Rodas

1819 establishments in North America
19th-century establishments in Cuba
Matanzas Province

Matanzas is one of the provinces of Cuba.

Location

Major towns 
Major towns in the province include Cárdenas, Jovellanos and the capital of the same name, Matanzas. The resort town of Varadero is also located in this province.

Geographical location and appearance 
The second largest in Cuba, Matanzas province is largely flat, with its highest point (Pan de Matanzas) at only 380m above sea level.

The north coast has numerous small cays of its coast, and scrubland and mangroves near the shoreline.

The southern coast has one of Cuba's most distinctive features: an enormous marsh, Ciénaga de Zapata that covers both the southern part of the province and the peninsula of the same name. East of the peninsula lies the Bay of Pigs, the site of the failed US backed invasion.

Economy 
Of Cuba's provinces, Matanzas is one of the most industrialised, with petroleum wells, refineries, supertanker facilities, and 21 sugar mills to process the harvests of the fields of sugarcane in the province.

Municipalities 
 Agramonte
 Alacranes
 Arcos de Canasí
 Bolondrón
 Cárdenas
 Carlos Rojas
 Colón
 Guamacaro
 Jagüey Grande
 Jovellanos
 Juan Gualberto Gómez
 Los Arabos
 Manguito
 Martí
 Matanzas
 Máximo Gómez
 Pedro Betancourt
 Perico
 San Antonio de Cabezas
 San José de los Ramos
 Santa Ana (Cidra)
 Unión de Reyes
 Varadero

References
Cuba Demographycs

Other websites 
Provincial portal 

Provinces of Cuba
Pinar del Río Province

Pinar del Río is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba.

The Pinar del Río province has one of Cuba's three main mountain ranges, the Cordillera de Guaniguanico. The mountains are divided into the easterly Sierra del Rosario and the westerly Sierra de los Organos. These form a landscape characterised by steep sided limestone hills and flat, fertile valleys.

The province relies on tobacco farming, with Pinar del Río producing 70% of Cuba's crop, used to make the cigars that are so prized overseas. The best tobacco, used for more expensive cigar brands, is grown in the flat lands of San Juan y Martínez. Tourism in the Viñales Valley is another important part of the economy.


Municipalities 
 Bahía Honda
 Candelaria
 Consolación del Sur
 Guane
 La Palma
 Los Palacios
 Mantua
 Minas de Matahambre
 Pinar del Río
 San Cristóbal
 Sandino
 San Juan y Martínez
 San Luis
 Viñales

Famous people from Pinar del Río 

 Omar Ajete - baseball player
 Danys Baez - baseball player
 José Contreras - baseball player
 Silvia Costa - high jumper
 Emeterio González - javelin thrower
 Pedro Luis Lazo - baseball player
 Omar Linares - baseball player
 Alay Soler - baseball player

Other websites 
 Official site 
 Visit Hotel Pinar del Río 
 Villa Maria La Gorda  
 Villa Cabo San Antonio  
 Hotel Moka, Las Terrazas, Pinar del Río  

Provinces of Cuba
Hergé

Georges Prosper Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), also known as Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist. Hergé was born in Etterbeek, Brussels from a group of people in Belgium called Walloons and spoke French. He is best known for his comic, The Adventures of Tintin. Hergé first made Tintin in Le Petit Vingtième in 1929.
"This famous Belgian artist is often considered to be the most influential European comic artist ever and his "clear line" style was widely copied by new generation of comic artists."
Hergé died in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert on 3 March 1983. He was 75 years old. Hergé's life's work is watched over by his widow. She shut down Hergé Studios. She started the Hergé Foundation in 1987. It is now called Moulinsart S.A.

References

Other websites
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/herge.htm - Hergé Georges Remi - Overview of his life and works
http://us.tintin.com/about/herge/ - Hergé

1907 births
1983 deaths
Belgian comics artists
People from Brussels-Capital Region
Cartoonists
Deaths from AIDS
Infectious disease deaths in Belgium
Former Roman Catholics
Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the state of Kentucky in the USA. The settlement that became the City of Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark. It is named after King Louis XVI of France. It was an important riverport in the 19th century. Many people come to the city in May for the Kentucky Derby horse race.

Here are some pictures of buildings in Louisville:

References 

 
County seats in Kentucky
18th-century establishments in Kentucky
1778 establishments in the United States
Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore is a famous mountain and memorial near Keystone, South Dakota in the United States. It has the heads of four of America's presidents carved on it: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The Mount Rushmore Memorial is a part of the United States Presidential Memorial, which covers  and is  above sea level (altitude).

History 
Before the memorial was carved, the native Lakota Indian Tribes called the mountain "Six Grandfathers". Later, the mountain was named after Charles E. Rushmore, a well-known later, after an expedition in 1885. The memorial was carved to help increase tourism in the Black Hills, where the mountain was. Doane Robinson first formed the idea in 1923. Robinson convinced many influential people in the United States government to build the memorial. Congress soon allowed construction to begin.

After gaining Congress's approval, Gutzon Borglum, a famous American sculptor, was hired to begin the project.

The work of carving the heads began on March 3, 1925. It was completed on October 31, 1941.

References 

Mountains of the United States
Geography of South Dakota
National Memorials of the United States
Symbols of the United States
2006 in movies

The following is an overview of events in 2006, including the highest-grossing movies, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of movies released and notable deaths.

Highest-grossing movies

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest became the third movie in cinema history to gross over $1 billion and is the 24th highest-grossing movie of all time.

Events

Awards

2006 wide-release movies

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Movies released in 2006 

 American movies
 Argentine movies
 Australian movies
 Bengali movies
 Bollywood movies
 Brazilian movies
 British movies
 French movies
 Hong Kong movies
 Italian movies
 Japanese movies
 Mexican movies
 Pakistani movies
 Russian movies
 South Korean movies
 Spanish movies
 Tamil movies
 Telugu movies

Notable deaths

Movie debuts
 Katie Cassidy – When a Stranger Calls
 Rebecca Hall – Starter for 10
 Armie Hammer – Flicka
 Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls
 Rami Malek — Night at the Museum
 Eddie Redmayne – Like Minds
 Mia Wasikowska – Suburban Mayhem

Notes

References
 Box Office Mojo movie release schedule.

2006 movies
West Side Story

West Side Story is a musical. It is based on Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet. The book was written by Arthur Laurents. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, and the lyrics were written by Stephen Sondheim. It starred Carol Lawrence as Maria. 

West Side Story opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on 26 September 1957, and on the West End at Her Majesty's Theatre on 12 December 1958. On the West End, was performed 1,039 times. It won two Tony Awards. 

The musical was adapted to a movie in 1961, starring Natalie Wood. The movie won 10 Academy Awards. The movie was remade in 2021.

Plot 
The story is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City in the mid-1950s.  It is a working-class neighborhood with a mixture of ethnic groups. (In the early 1960s, much of the neighborhood would be cleared to make room for Lincoln Center, which changed the neighborhood.) 

The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks' members are immigrants from Puerto Rico. The Jets' members are Caucasian (their families immigrated from places like Ireland and Italy).  The two gangs fight over which areas in the neighborhood belong to which gang.

There are four main characters in the play:
 Riff, the Jets' leader
 Bernardo, the Sharks' leader
 Maria, Bernardo's sister
 Tony, Riff's best friend.  Tony used to be a member of the Jets.
After meeting her at a dance, Tony falls in love with Maria.  This causes more fighting between the Jets and the Sharks.

Music
Bernstein's score for the musical includes:

Importance
The play's dark theme, sophisticated music, long dance scenes, and focus on social problems made West Side Story a turning point in American musical theatre.

Related pages
 Musical theatre
 Romeo and Juliet

References

Other websites  

The Official West Side Story website 

Broadway musicals
West End musicals
Musicals adapted to movies
Musicals based on plays
1950s musicals
1957 works
Lorscheid

Lorscheid is a village and a part of the Ruwer (municipality) near Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Lorscheid is on an old Roman road. Many archaeological settlements are nearby. The village is first mentioned in the inventory of the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier for the year 1211.

References

Other websites 

 Lorscheid

Villages in Rhineland-Palatinate
Trier-Saarburg
Thrash metal

Thrash metal is an extreme metal type of heavy metal music that is characterised by its high speed and aggression.

Origins
The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of bands began incorporating the sound of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of hardcore punk and more specifically Thrashcore, creating a new genre and developing into a separate movement from punk rock. This genre is much more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal.

Thrash metal bands
 Anthrax
 Artillery
 Bound For Glory
 Celtic Frost
 Coroner
 D.R.I.
 Dark Angel
 Death Angel
 Deaths Head
 Defiance
 Destroyer 666
 Excel
 Exodus
 Flotsam and Jetsam
 Forbidden
 Hellhammer
 Helloween
 Kreator
 Megadeth
 Mercenary
 Metal Church
 Metallica
 Mortal Sin
 Nevermore
 Overkill
 Onslaught
 Pantera
 Sepultura
 Sabbat
 Sanctuary
 Slayer
 Suicidal Tendencies
 Tankard
 Testament
 Trivium
 Venom
 Voivod

References

Heavy metal subgenres
Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony that gives a monarch regal or royal power or recognizes that power. The power is symbolized by putting a crown upon his or her head. We say that the king or queen is "crowned" at the coronation. 

The ritual with anointing may have a religious meaning. Coronations are not as common now as in the past, although in some countries such as Great Britain it is still normal to hold the ceremony to install a new king or queen.

Related pages 
 Enthronement
 Inauguration

Royalty and nobility
Monarchy
Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross (Peairt agus Ceann Rois in Gaelic) is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, City of Dundee, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth  is the administrative centre.  It corresponds broadly, but not exactly, with the former counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire.

Other websites 
Perth and Kinross Council
Scottish Local Government areas and history
The Perthshire Diary - 365 history stories
Perth Scotland

Towns and villages
Aberfeldy
Acharn
Alyth
Auchterarder
Ballinluig
Blackford
Blairgowrie
Bridge of Balgie
Clunie
Comrie
Coupar Angus
Crieff
Dull
Dunkeld
Dunning
Finegand
Fearnan
Forteviot
Fortingall
Glenshee
Kenmore
Killiecrankie
Kinloch Rannoch
Kinross
Lawers
Meigle
Meiklour
Methven
Milnathort
Muthill
Perth
Pitlochry
Rattray
Spittal of Glenshee
Weem

Places of interest
Atholl Country Collection
Ben Lawers
Blackhall Roman Camps
Blair Atholl Mill
Blair Castle
Castle Menzies
Cluny House
Drummond Castle
Forest of Atholl
Fortingall Yew
Glen Lyon
Grampian Mountains
Loch Earn
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Melville Monument
Rannoch Moor
Strathearn
Cylon

The Cylons are fictional robots on the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica.

The Story So Far 

The people from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol created the Cylon robots. They told them to work for them and fight for them. The Cylons stood up to the people from the Colonies and fought against them. The Cylons went away after the war and changed into real people as well as robots. After forty years, the Cylons came back and almost killed all the people in the Colonies. They went after the people that were not killed in many ships.

Types of Cylons 

Skinjob Cylons look the same as normal people. It is very hard to know if they are Cylons or normal people. There are many Skinjobs that look the same. There are only twelve looks. Cylons that look the same do not always act the same.

Centurions are metal robots with armor. Humans sometimes call them toasters because they are shiny like a toaster. Centurions fight and work.  They are the only type of Cylons to not be alive.

Cylon raiders are small ships that fight other small ships. The ship is actually a type of animal.

Fictional races
Battlestar Galactica
Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. It was formed in 1933. It was led by Hermann Göring, Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler. It became part of the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1939.

Hermann Göring, the Minister-President of Prussia, formed the unit in 1933. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of SS national leader Heinrich Himmler. In 1936, Himmler was appointed Chief of German Police (Chef der Deutschen Polizei) by Hitler.

The name stands for Geheime Staatspolizei. This means "secret state police". It was under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel.

The Gestapo were allowed to arrest people that offended the government. The government could use the secret police to accuse and arrest anyone they wanted without being questioned. They were important to the SS in enforcing The Holocaust.

References 

1933 establishments in Europe
1945 disestablishments in Germany
1930s establishments in Germany
Reichssicherheitshauptamt
Skrewdriver

Skrewdriver was a punk rock band formed in Blackpool, England in 1976 by Ian Stuart Donaldson. They later became a skinhead/Oi! band, and became controversial by having racist views. They became one of the first white power punk bands and played a leading role in the Rock Against Communism movement.

Members 
Ian Stuart Donaldson-Singer
Phil Walmsley-Guitar
Ron Hartley-Guitar
Kev McKay-Bass
John "Grinny" Grinton-Drums

Albums 
 All Skrewed Up
 Peel Session
 Hail The New Dawn
 Blood and Honour
 White Rider
 After The Fire
 Warlord
 The Strong Survive
 Freedom What Freedom
 Hail Victory

Live albums 
Waterloo Live '92
Deutschland Erwache

Collections 
Land On Fire
Undercover
1977-83 The Complete Studio Collection

Video/DVD 
Skrewdriver-Live In Germany

Ian Stuart Donaldson solo albums 
Slay The Beast
Patriot
No Turning Back
The Klansmen-Fetch The Rope
White Diamond-True Blood

Internet 
ISD Records/Blood & Honour/Combat 18  

1976 establishments in the United Kingdom
1970s British music groups
1980s British music groups
1990s British music groups
1993 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
English punk bands
Musical groups established in 1976
Musical groups disestablished in 1993
Rock Against Communism
Jarosław Kaczyński

Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician. He was born in Warsaw.

As a child, he and his brother Lech Kaczyński starred in the 1962 Polish movie The Two Who Stole The Moon (O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc), based on a popular Polish children's story by Kornel Makuszyński.

He was Prime Minister of Poland from July 2006 to November 2007. He is also the chairman of Law and Justice ("Prawo i Sprawiedliwość"), a political party which he helped start in 2001.

He ran for president in 2010, but was defeated by Civic Platform candidate Bronisław Komorowski.

In October 2020, he became the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland.

References

Other websites
 

1949 births
Living people
Polish movie actors
Politicians from Warsaw
Prime Ministers of Poland
Twin people
Sierpc

Sierpc is a city in Poland in the Masovian Voivodeship. About 18,872 people live there. The area is 18,6 km².

The football club there is called Kasztelan Sierpc.

Other websites 
Official town webpage
Map via mapa.szukacz.pl
Open air museum in Sierpc - photo

Cities in Masovian Voivodeship
Heart failure

Heart failure is when the heart cannot pump blood well. Heart failure is different from cardiac arrest, because the heart is still working. Heart failure can be sudden ("acute"), like after a heart attack, or can come on slowly. 

Someone with heart failure can have shortness of breath (which may be worse when they lie flat), waking up breathless at night, swelling of the legs, and needing to urinate often during the night. There are many reasons why someone can get heart failure. Most often, heart failure is caused by heart attacks, high blood pressure, or problems with the heart valves. 

A doctor makes a diagnosis of heart failure by asking about the symptoms above, and examining the heart, blood vessels, lungs, liver (for swelling) and legs (for swelling or edema). Other tests to prove the diagnosis are X-rays of the lungs, an echocardiogram (an ultrasound test of the heart) and blood tests. 

Heart failure can only be cured with a heart transplant, which is not done often, but most people with heart failure need to take diuretic medicines and other medication (ACE inhibitor, statin). Some people with heart failure are treated with an artificial pacemaker that makes the heart work better.

Diseases and disorders of the cardiovascular system
Organ failure
George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

His best known works are his plays, some of which were made into movies. He wrote many plays about political problems, and those plays sometimes gave him enemies. For example, he wrote a play about prostitution, and another about women's rights.

His play Saint Joan was made into a movie in 1957.

His play Pygmalion was made into a movie twice. The first Pygmalion movie won him an Academy Award for the best adapted screenplay, 1938. Later, the play was also made into a musical play called My Fair Lady. The movie based on that musical won 8 Academy Awards in 1964.

Shaw was the first person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award.

Shaw also wrote musical criticism using the pseudonym (made-up name) Corno di Bassetto (which means: Basset horn).

In 1962, his play Androcles and the Lion was printed in a two-language version. On one side of the book, the text is written using regular English. On the other side, it is written using the Shaw alphabet.

Personal views
Shaw was a vegetarian, did not drink alcohol, and spoke strongly in favor of socialism and women's rights. He was also interested in making the English language easier to spell. In his will, he left money to be used to make a new alphabet. He wanted the new alphabet to have at least 40 letters, so that each sound could be spelled with just one letter.

Shaw delivered speeches supporting the idea of eugenics (selected breeding to improve the human race) and he became a noted figure in the movement in England. He sometimes exaggerated his arguments to an extreme to expose the cruelty that might come from this.

References

Academy Award winning writers
Accidental deaths from falls
Deaths from renal failure
Irish novelists
Music critics
Nobel Prize in Literature winners
Writers from Dublin
Irish playwrights
Royal Society of Literature
Socialists
1856 births
1950 deaths
Irish Nobel Prize winners
Kalash people

The Kalash (Nuristani: Kasivo) or Kalasha, are an ethnic group of the Hindu Kush mountain range. They live in the Chitral district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They  speak the Kalash language, a member of the Dardic language family of Indo-Aryan.  

There are only about 3000 Kalash polytheists and 3000 Kalash Muslims. The Kalash people live in three isolated valleys. They claim to have a Greek origin. The Kalash have a polytheist religion, while neighboring peoples are Muslims. If a Kalash person converts to Islam, that person is kicked out from Kalash society. This is the reason why the Kalash religion still exists and this is the only way to make it exist also in the future. The Kalash are also known for their human features. It can vary from someone with light brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair to someone with white skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair.

Related pages 
 Nuristani people

References

Other websites

General Information 
 Picturesque Pakistan  Extensive, general Kalash information
 Site Shara Forum for Chitral and the Kalasha
 Kalash: The descendants of Alexander's soldiers 
 Reaching out to Alexander’s sons The Kalash, Pakistan’s remaining pagans, find unlikely savior in British senior citizen
 The Kalash: The Lost Tribe of Alexander the Great

Resource 
 Kalasha People Online  A blog used by Kalasha and their New Alphabet to write Kalashamondr (Kalasha language)
 Frontier Language Institute  Kalasha dictionary

Media 
 Kalash Valleys  A plethora of high quality pictures of the Kalash people and their homeland.
 Youtube: Kalash Image and video montage
 The Alphabet Book Trailer   Promotional trailer for the feature documentary "The Alphabet Book" 

Chitral District
Ethnic groups in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Tuareg people

The Tuareg (, sometimes spelled Touareg in French, or Twareg in English) are a Berber ethnic group. The Tuareg today lives mostly in West Africa, but they were once nomads that moved throughout the Sahara. They used their own writing known as the tifinaɤ.

Today most Tuaregs are Muslim. Their most important leader was a woman. Tuareg men use veils, but not women. Their families are matrilinear.

References

Berber people
Kinahmi

In Finnish mythology, Kinahmi is a great whirl in sea. Kinahmi is a way to Tuonela, the land of dead people. Souls of evil people must swim through Kinahmi to enter Tuonela. Swords, axes and needles moves with water and hurts souls of evil people.

There is also a different story about water between land of dead and land of living. In that story the water is calm, black river.

The whirl is a made by great powers of cosmos. In the middle of disc of earth stands pillar of sky. It holds dome of sky so that dome of sky does not drop on Earth. Dome of sky goes around itself; it rotates. Stars are a part of dome of sky, and while sky rotates, we see stars moving. One star does not move, it is North Star. North star is a nail that connects dome of sky to the pillar of world. The pillar of world rotates with the dome of sky. Its bottom side is standing in Arctic sea, in the middle of the Earth. The rotation of pillar causes water to form a great whirl. Tuonela is under the flat earth, but the whirl is so deep that you can go to Tuonela through it.

At a more new story the whirl goes through globe. It sucks ships from one side of earth, and spits them out from the other side. It takes many years for ship to go through Earth, so seafarers could survive this only if they had enough food. When this story was made people already knew that Earth is round.

Sources
Martti Haavio: Väinämöinen (1950)
E.N Setälä: Sammon arvoitus (1932)

Finnish mythology
Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian author and poet. He wrote several famous works, such as On Famous Women and the Decameron. Boccaccio was the first poet, who used ottava rima in longer poems.
Thus he started long tradition of employing this form in epic poems. 
Some of Geoffrey Chaucer's works were based on Boccaccio's poems.

References

Other websites 
 Giovanni Boccaccio at The History Guide

1313 births
1375 deaths
Italian writers
Italian poets
Medieval poets
Hopwood, Worcestershire

Hopwood is the name of a small settlement in Worcestershire, England, south of Birmingham.

Hopwood was established due to the Worcestershire and Birmingham Canal, which runs through the area.  Due to this canal the settlement developed around the "Hopwood Inn", which would be a stopping point for anyone using the canal.

Today, the most notable feature of Hopwood is the "Hopwood Park services", which is a motorway service station, on the M42 motorway.

Villages in Worcestershire
Aneurysm

An aneurysm (or aneurism) is a blood-filled bulge of a blood vessel. It is usually caused by disease or by the walls of the blood vessel becoming weak. Aneurysms usually happen in arteries at the base of the brain and in the aorta (the main artery coming out of the heart) - this is an aortic aneurysm. This bulge in a blood vessel can burst or break open and cause the person to die at any time. The larger an aneurysm becomes, the more likely it is to burst. However, aneurysms can be treated. A common way to treat aneurysms are to clip the bulge at its connection to the vein, so that if and when the bulge ruptures, the blood vessel will remain functional. Microsurgery and Vascular grafting are also viable options with high success rates. 

Diseases and disorders of the cardiovascular system
Blood vessels
Digimon

Digimon is a Japanese media franchise made by Bandai. It features a group of digital creatures called Digimon. Humans befriend Digimon as partners and work with them to protect both worlds from enemies. The series has movies, manga, anime, toys, video games and card games.

Anime
1999 anime television series
Tears

Tears are clear liquid made by the body to clean and lubricate the eyes.

There are three different types of tears that the body makes:

 Basal tears: In a normal, healthy mammal, tears are regularly made to clean the cornea (front part of the eye) and to keep it clean from dust.

 Reflex tears: This type of tear is made when something irritates the eye, say, bits of dust or the smell of an onion.  These tears are made to clean the eye and wash out anything irritating it.

 Emotional tears (psychic tears): The last category is called crying or weeping, when tears are made because of physical pain or strong emotions.  

You can produce tears when you cry.

Eye
1313



Events 
 November 9 – Louis the Bavarian beats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gamelsdorf.
 Siege of Rostock ends.
 Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia starts the Banjska monastery.

Births 
 June 16 – Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer (died 1375)
 July 20 – John Tiptoft, 2nd Baron Tibetot, (died 1367)
 August 1 – Emperor Kogon (died 1364)
 August 13 – Aradia di Toscano, female in Italian witchcraft
 Maria of Portugal, Portuguese infanta (died 1357)
 Bartolus de Saxoferrato, Italian law professor (died 1357)

Deaths 
 March – Guillaume de Nogaret, councillor and keeper of the seal to Philip IV of France
 June 18 – John de Burgh, (born 1286)
 August 24 – Henry VII, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (born 1275)
 September 16 – Notburga, Austrian saint (born 1265)
 November 18 – Constance of Portugal, Portuguese infanta (born 1290)
 date unknown
 Arnaldus de Villa Nova, alchemist (born 1235)
 Giorgi VI the Minor, King of Georgia
 John Schorne, rector of North Marston in the English county of Buckinghamshire
 Hugo von Trimberg, German Catholic didactic writer of the Middle Ages
 Robert Winchelsey, Christian theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1245)
1292



Events

Europe 
 November 17 – (Julian calendar) John Balliol is selected as King of Scotland from among 13 candidates by King Edward I of England; Edward then treats John as a puppet ruler and Scotland as a vassal state, eventually leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence beginning from 1296.

Asia 
 The Lanna kingdom of northern Thailand conquers and annexes the Mon kingdom of Haripunchai.
 The Vaghela dynasty in Gujarat is subjugated by the Deccan Yadava dynasty of Daulatabad.
 Mamluk Sultan of Egypt Khalil invades the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
 The Turkish emirate of Candaroglu is founded in the Kastamonu Province.

Births 
 January 20 – Elisabeth I of Bohemia (died 1330)
 Smilets of Bulgaria (died 1298)
 Henry Burghersh, English statesman (died 1340)
 John VI Cantacuzenus, Byzantine emperor (approximate date; died 1383)
 Eleanor de Clare, English noblewoman (died 1337)

Deaths 
 April 4 – Pope Nicholas IV (born 1227)
 July 13 – or 16 – Jacobus de Voragine, Italian chronicler (born 1230)
 October 25 – Robert Burnell, Lord Chancellor of England
 Abulafia, Spanish kabbalist (approximate date; born 1240)
 Marjorie of Carrick, 3rd Countess of Carrick (born 1256)
 Vakhtang II of Georgia
 John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury
 Lucia of Tripoli (approximate date)

1292