alibayram/wikipedia-40-langs huggingface dataset:
Pterodactyloidea

Pterodactyloidea is the suborder of short-tailed pterosaurs. Their fossil record starts in the middle Jurassic. They became extinct in the K/T extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period. Pterodactylus, Pteranodon and Quetzalcoatlus are in this suborder.

In 2014 remains of the earliest pterodactyloid was found in China. It is called Kryptodrakon. Its minimum age was 162.7 million years ago (mya). This is about five million years older than any previously known confirmed specimens.

Recent work shows that the group had more variety at the end of the Cretaceous than was thought earlier. In the early 2010s, several new pterosaur taxa were discovered dating to the late Cretaceous. These finds include some small sized pterosaur species.

At the end of the Cretaceous period, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which made all non-avian and most avian dinosaurs, as well as many other animals, extinct. The pterosaurs seem to have gone extinct in this event.

Classification
This is the classification of the different divisions of pterodactyloidea:
 Order Pterosauria
 Suborder Pterodactyloidea
 Superfamily Ornithocheiroidea
 Family Istiodactylidae
 Family Ornithocheiridae
 Coloborhynchus
 Family Pteranodontidae
 Pteranodon
 Superfamily Ctenochasmatoidea
 Pterodactylus
 Family Ctenochasmatidae
 Pterodaustro
 Superfamily Dsungaripteroidea
 Family Dsungaripteridae
 Dsungaripterus
 Superfamily Azhdarchoidea
 Family Lonchodectidae
 Family Tapejaridae
 Thalassodromeus
 Tupuxuara
 Family Azhdarchidae
 Quetzalcoatlus

References

Pterosaurs
Michael Praetorius

Michael Praetorius (born Creuzburg an der Werra, near Eisenach 15 February 1571? ; died Wolfenbüttel, 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist and music theorist. He was one of the most important composers of his day and he wrote lots of different kinds of music. A lot of his music is based on hymns of the Protestant church.

We are not quite certain about the date of his birth. He was born at a time when there was a lot of argument about religion in Germany. His father was a strict Lutheran and lost his job more than once because of his beliefs. We know very little about the life of Praetorius. He seems to have gone to the Lateinschule (“Latin School”) in Torgau where he had music lessons from Michael Voigt. He probably never had music lessons after he left school. Then he went to the University of Frankfurt an der Oder. There Praetorius graduated in divinity. Afterwards he found a job as organist to the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He soon earned a good salary. He married in 1603 and had two sons.

Although he had his job in Wolfenbüttel for many years he also worked a lot in Dresden where he met Heinrich Schütz and in Magdeburg where he met Samuel Scheidt. His health was not good, possibly because he worked so hard. When he died he left a lot of money to the poor.

His music 

Praetorius wrote a very large amount of music. Much of it has been lost. He wrote a collection of French dances called Terpsichore for a small group of instruments. These are very happy pieces and are very popular today. A lot of his music is based on Protestant hymns, written for the services in the Lutheran church. He liked to write music in which two groups of singers or instrumentalists alternate (take it in turns to sing/play). His music for choir, which includes many motets, shows him to be one of the best composers of his time. He liked to write music for two, three or four choirs (all singing different parts). The tune would be in the top part so that the congregation could join in.

His theory works 

Praetorius wrote a book about music theory called Syntagma Musicum. Part One talks about religious music. It is very interesting for us today because it tells us a lot about the way that Martin Luther wanted to change music in the church services. In Part Two he described the musical instruments of his day. Part Three talks about musical forms: this included discussions about things like music notation (the way music was written), transposition (music), solmization and how to write for large choirs. He was going to write a Part Four in which he wanted to discuss the technique of musical composition, but he died before he could write it.

1571 births
1621 deaths
Baroque composers
17th-century German composers
German organists
Music theorists
People from Thuringia
Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos are an American football team in the National Football League (NFL). They play their home games in Denver, Colorado, U.S. at Empower Field at Mile High.  The Broncos play in the West Division of the American Football Conference (AFC). The Broncos won Super Bowl XXXII, Super Bowl XXXIII, and Super Bowl 50.

Their current head coach is Sean Payton. In 2015, they had the NFL's best defense led by defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

Hall of Fame players

Five players who have played for the Broncos are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: John Elway, Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Davis, Floyd Little, and Gary Zimmerman.

Other websites 
 Official Website
 The Orange Mane - Denver Broncos News and Discussion
 2005 Team Statistics at NFL.com 

1960 establishments in the United States
20th-century establishments in Colorado
Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts are an American football team in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the National Football League. They were originally the Baltimore Colts. The team moved to Indianapolis in 1984.

Other websites 
 Indianapolis Colts official website

 
1984 establishments in the United States
20th-century establishments in Indiana
Prometheus

Prometheus is a Titan in Greek mythology. He is the son of Iapetus and Clymene. He created humans, originally made out of gold. He also stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humans. As punishment, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a mountain. Every day an eagle (symbol of Zeus) would come and eat his liver. Prometheus is immortal, so he never died, and his liver grew back every night. But he still felt great pain.

After a long time, Zeus sent his son Heracles to free Prometheus by breaking the chains which held him.

Aeschylus wrote a play about Prometheus.

Gallery

Other websites 

 Theoi Text, Theogony
 Theoi Text, Works and Days
 Theoi Text, Prometheus Bound
 Theoi Mythology, Prometheus
 Theoi Mythology, Pronoea
 GML, Prometheus 
 Encyclopedia Mythica, Prometheus 
 Messagenet, Prometheus 
 Prometheus, a poem by Noevel (French) 
 Prometheus, a poem by Byron 

Titans
Pitch (music)

In music, the pitch of a note means how high or low the note sounds. For example, a violin usually has a higher pitch than a string bass. Pitch mostly depends on the frequency of the sound — how fast the air vibrates back and forth. In physics, frequency is measured in a unit called Hertz.  A note that is vibrating at 261 Hz will be caused by sound waves that vibrate at 261 times a second.  This will be Middle C on the piano. 

Not all musical instruments make notes of a certain pitch.  Many percussion instruments like drums, triangles and cymbals are instruments used for rhythms.  They do not play tunes because they have no definite pitch (although often a definite pitch can just be heard when listening carefully.)

Some musicians have a sense of absolute pitch or perfect pitch.  This means that they always know what note is being played, even without comparing it to another note.  Having a sense of absolute pitch does not necessarily make someone a good musician, although it can be very useful.

There is evidence to suggest that well-known composers of classical music, such as Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach, had developed and perhaps even mastered their sense of pitch.

Pitch is not exactly the same as frequency. Frequency is used as a scientific means for measuring and changing sound and its possible pitches. Pitch is a more psychological quality. It depends on how the ear perceives sounds, and how the brain interprets them.

Related pages
note (music)
musical notation
scale (music)
wave (physics)

Other websites 
 Pitch (music) Citizendium

Sound
Musical terminology
Congregation

A congregation is a group of people who have come together (congregated) for something, usually for religious worship.  In Christian churches the word “congregation” is often used to mean all the people in the main part of the church, but not the choir or the priests. This term came from long ago after the church was first formed. For example: the order of service might say that the choir will sing verse 1 of a hymn and "the congregation are asked to join in at verse 2".

Religious behavior and experience

en:Congregation (worship)
Soursop

The soursop, also known as the zuurzak, is the fruit of the tree Annona muricata. The tree is from warm parts of the Americas. At first it was only found in the Caribbean islands, parts of Central America and parts of South America. Now it is grown in other warm and wet places, such as the Pacific Islands, Florida and Southeast Asia.

This fruit is large. It has a spiky green skin, which is not eaten. The inside of the fruit is white. It contains a sweet but sharp-tasting juice. The soursop contains black or brown seeds that are not eaten. The fruit can be eaten raw, or it can be made into juice for drinking. The juice is used to make candy and ice cream.

Some people use the soursop fruit or leaves as a medicine. Although the fruit contains sugars and a lot of vitamins, it may not be good to eat a lot of it. Scientists think that the soursop may make some people ill.  

Annona
Pond-apple

A pond-apple is a type of fruit. It is not related to the apple. They usually live near or in water.

Annona
Fruits
Vegetation

Vegetation means the plant life of a region or the plant community. It means all ground cover by plants, and is the main element of the biosphere. When you say vegetation you do not think of any species composition, life forms, structure, spatial extent, "naturalness", or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. That is meant by flora which refers exclusively to species composition.

Vegetation can refer to a wide range of spatial scales. Primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are meant by the term vegetation.

Other websites

Classification
Terrestrial Vegetation of the United States Volume I – The National Vegetation Classification System: Development, Status, and Applications  (PDF)
Federal Geographic Data Committee Vegetation Subcommittee 
Vegetation Classification Standard  [FGDC-STD-005, June 1997] (PDF)

Mapping-related
USGS - NPS Vegetation Mapping Program 
Checklist of Online Vegetation and Plant Distribution Maps
Free Vegetation Distribution Site – "free access to almost the entire Spot Vegetation ten daily synthesis archive"

Climate Diagrams 
 Climate Diagrams Explained 
 WBCS Worldwide Climate Diagrams 

Botany
Player killing

Player Killing (PKing) is a part of online gaming with real people. It is when you kill another person's character. Some other terms in pking are: PJing, which means pile jumping, or attacking someone when they are picking up the items dropped by a player they have just killed a player, Safer, which means someone who PKs safely (especially when eating or healing) and does not take risks, making it widely considered 'unfair' on the people trying to PK them and DD which means death dot, which is when people in a Player Killing team all stand in the same place as each other, making it appear to other players that there is only one person there. However, "safing" varies in how other people perceive it. It can be used to stay alive, however you usually lose a chance to hit when healing.

References

Video games

en:Player versus player#Player killing
Amoeba

Amoeba (plural = amoebae) is a well known genus of unicellular organism, a protist. One of its most common species, the Amoeba Proteus, is about 0.2 to 0.3 mm large. The amoeba was first discovered by August Von Rosenhof in 1757.  It is a genus of protozoa that moves with false feet, called pseudopodia.

The amoeba is a member of a whole group of amoeboid eukaryotic protists called Amoebozoa. They are heterotrophs, eating bacteria and other protists.

The pseudopodia (false feet) are extensions of the organism's cell membrane. They are used by the amoeba for phagocytosis (active food/nutrient intake) and motility (self-propelled movement).

Life 
Amoebae are often found within freshwater, typically on vegetation in decay in still or slow moving water, or in the benthic zone of some lakes. However, they are common organisms of study because it is easy to keep them in a laboratory. They are used to study sex
protozoa and to demonstrate cell structure and function.

Other websites 
 Wikibooks: compare size of cells
 Amoeba info

References 

Protozoa
Laboratory

A laboratory (lab for short) is a work place where scientific research, experiments, or measurement are done. 

The word laboratory is also used for other places where the work done or equipment used are like those in scientific laboratories. These include:
 a film laboratory or photographic laboratory
 a computer lab
 a medical lab
 a clandestine lab for making illegal drugs

Scientific laboratories can be found in schools and universities, in hospitals, in industry, in government or military facilities, and even aboard ships and spacecraft. 

Laboratory equipment
Last Of The Conquerors

Last of the Conquerors is a 1948 novel by African-American novelist William Gardner Smith. It concerns African-American GI's serving in United States occupied Germany after World War II. The protagonist, Hayes Dawkins, has an affair with Ilse, a white German woman. He and Ilse fight against racist Army officers and policies to sustain a relationship that some white soldiers condemn (although there are also many friendly whites who help them).

Last of the Conquerors shows post-Nazi Germany as more racially tolerant than the United States. While this  may or may not be correct, Smith's novel gives an opinion of the Marshall Plan claiming that American society should be a model for the world, while African-Americans continued to deal with racism.

The novel begins on  a homecoming US troopship, as the Statue of Liberty comes into view, the reaction from the US troops is somber and wary,  resigned, but not at all glad to be home from the war. Why? They are "colored" troops. After experiencing life in a society (recently liberated Germany), where racial prejudice was not a big factor, they steel themselves for dealing with a still very divided America. An eyeopening look inside a (now hopefully past) society and its impact on those forced to deal with  the unremitting pressure of distrust and hate. A profound reading experience.

1948 books
Id Software

id Software is an American video game company. They are most famous for their first-person shooter games. They started in 1991.

Games 
ID has made many games.

Early Work 
 Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
 Spear of Destiny (1992)
 Doom (1993)
 Doom 2 (1994)
 Heretic (1995)
 Hexen (1995)

Full 3D Games 
Quake (1996)
Quake 2 (1998)
Quake 3 (1999)
Doom 3 (2004)
Quake 4 (2006)

Other websites 
Official id Software website
"A Chat With id Software ", a GameSpy interview with people at id Software
Heretic (video game)

Heretic is a first-person shooter video game made by ID Software for computers. It is like Doom, but it takes place in a fantasy world. The monsters are mostly not human. The player has the ability to look up and down, which they could not do in Doom. The weapons are also fantasy weapons. It uses the same base as Doom and Doom 2. It has two sequels: Hexen and Heretic 2.

Other websites 
Official Heretic website from Raven
Official Heretic website from id Software 

Shooter video games
1994 video games
Id Software
Ferrara

Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy. About 130,000 people live in Ferrara. The city was owned by the Este family during medieval times. The current mayor is Tiziano Tagliani.

Other websites 
 Official site 

Ferrara
Capital cities in Italy
Modena

Modena is a city in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. About 190,000 people live in Modena. It is the city of engines since the factories of the famous Italian sports car makers Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani, and Maserati.

References 

 
Capital cities in Italy
Worms (1995 video game)

Worms is a video game where the player controls little cartoon worms who fight with weapons. There are many games in this series. It has guns and other weapons, but is not very violent because it is all cartoons.

References

Other websites 
 Worms series

 Official Worms 2 website 
 Official Worms Armageddon website 
 Official Worms World Party website 
 Official Worms 3D website 
 Official Worms Forts website 
 Official Worms 4: Mayhem website
 Official Worms website  – information on older releases

1994 video games
Sega Genesis games
Sega Saturn games
Diablo (video game)

Diablo is a fantasy role playing computer game. It was created by Blizzard Entertainment in 1997. It has magic spells and demons in it. You can be 3 different characters. It was a very popular game. Sequels of the game, Diablo II and III, were made.

Diablo IV, which is not yet ready, might come out in 2022. Diablo Immortal, which is also not yet ready, is designed to be played with touchscreen. At the 2018 conference, the presenter asked the following rhetorical question,

Other websites 
 Official Site
 Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire - According to Blizzard  , "the definitive in-depth guide to Diablo."

References 

1997 video games
Blizzard video games
Role-playing video games
Windows games
Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus was a huge herbivorous theropod dinosaur from the end of the Cretaceous period. 

New, well-preserved finds such as Alxasaurus in 1993 and Beipiaosaurus in 1996 provided details about the bird-like pelvis, feet and skulls of primitive members. This helped confirm they belonged to the same group of theropod dinosaurs as Therizinosaurus and that therizinosaurs were, more specifically, advanced, herbivorous maniraptoran theropods.

Their fossils were first found in the late 1940s in Asia. They were named in 1954 after more bones were found. It was a thought to be a carnivore and herbivore; it had very long claws - they were about  long.

Paleobiology
The feeding habits of Therizinosaurus are unknown, since no skull material has ever been found that could indicate its diet. However, like other therizinosaurs, it was probably primarily herbivorous. 

There are multiple possible functions that could have been served by the claws of Therizinosaurus, such as defense against predators (e.g. the contemporary Tarbosaurus) and in intraspecific fighting, such as fighting for territory or for mating, or to pull leafy tree branches towards its mouth. The claws may have served all these functions.

References 

Coelurosaurs
Therizinosaur

Therizinosaurs  (or segnosaurs) are  a clade of theropod dinosaurs which appear to be herbivorous. 

Therizinosaur fossils have been found in Cretaceous deposits in Mongolia, the People's Republic of China and Western North America. Various features of the forelimbs, skull and pelvis show they are theropods and maniraptorans, close relatives to birds.

History
Early finds were incomplete, and showed strange anatomy with features typical of theropods, prosauropods and ornithischians. This led some scientists to think that segnosaurs were a late-surviving suborder of primitive dinosaurs.  

It was not until the mid-1990s, that their true identity as herbivorous descendants of the carnivorous theropods became generally accepted. Alxasaurus was discovered, and had more typical theropod features; and Therizinosaurus was recognized as a member of the segnosaur group. 

The connection between the therizinosaurids and other theropods was made clear when primitive members of the group, such as Beipiaosaurus (1999) and Falcarius (2005) were discovered. The scientists who described Falcarius noted that it seemed to represent an intermediate stage between carnivorous and herbivorous theropods, a sort of "missing link" between predatory maniraptorans and plant-eating therizinosaurs. 

Although they are now classified as theropods, therizinosaurs had skulls similar to those of sauropods and the shape of their teeth and jaws do make it likely that they were herbivores.

References 

Coelurosaurs
Prune

Prunes are dried plums. They look like very large raisins, but they are in the genus Prunus.

Most prunes come from California. Prunes can be wrapped in bacon, eaten on their own, or mixed with cereal.

References

Plums
Aamras

Aamras is the pulp of mangos that is usually eaten in India.

Other websites 
How to make aamras

Fruits
Indian food
Hexen

Hexen is a first person shooter video game. It is a sequel to the computer game Heretic, created by ID Software and Raven Software. The player can choose to play as a fighter, a cleric (knight), or a mage (wizard). Each character can use 4 different weapons. The monsters are like the monsters in Heretic, but there are a few new ones. This game uses a better design and plays much better than Heretic. In Hexen, doors can open forward instead of just going up, you can jump, glass can break when you shoot it, and monsters can make things happen when they die, like making an item. There is also more of a story in Hexen.

Other websites 
 Official Hexen website from Raven
 Official Hexen website from id Software 
 Official website for the Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion

Shooter video games
1995 video games
Sega Saturn games
Id Software
Ratchet & Clank (series)

Ratchet & Clank is a series of video games. As of 2013, there are 13 separate video games. In addition to the games, the characters are featured as action figures, in a manga, comic series and as cameo appearances in several other video games. An animated film has been announced for release in 2015. 

The main characters of the series are Ratchet and Clank. Ratchet is a lombax, a type of alien made up for the game. Clank is his robot friend. They travel in space ships through the universe on many adventures. In each game, Ratchet and Clank must work together to fight evil or bring cruel rulers to justice. The series is noted for using unique and extreme weapons and devices. Because of the popularity, the developer Insomniac Games added this feature to its other video games.

Games in the series 
Ratchet and Clank was released on November 4, 2002 in North America.

Ratchet & Clank (2002)
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (Ratchet & Clank 2: Locked and Loaded in Europe)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Ratchet & Clank 3 in Europe)
Ratchet Deadlocked (Ratchet Gladiator in Europe)
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters 
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Secret Agent Clank
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault
Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus
Ratchet & Clank (2016)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Other websites 

The Insomniac Games official website
Official page (redirects to Sony site)
The Ratchet & Clank series at NeoSeeker

3D platform games
Video game series
Diablo II

Diablo II is a fantasy action role-playing  computer game. The game was created by Blizzard Entertainment. It sold more than 1 million copies in the first two weeks after its release. It has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. The developer is remaking the game, with graphical improvements et cetera, known as  Diablo 2: Resurrected .

Storyline and quests
The game is divided into 4 acts. Each act is one part of the story.  There are up to six quests in each act that must be completed before the player can go to the next act.  The last quest is always the one where the player has to beat a boss.  The bosses for each act are:

Act I: Andariel
Act II: Duriel
Act III: Mephisto
Act IV: Diablo

Quests are parts of the story where the player has to complete certain tasks in order to continue on with the game.

Gameplay

Characters Classes
The game has five different types (or classes) of characters to chose from. Each character has a set skill tree, which is listed below.
Amazon - A bow and javelin using female character. She is good at attacking from a distance.
Barbarian - A male fighter who is good with all weapons.
Necromancer - A male magic user who uses the undead as his weapon.
Paladin - A male holy warrior that uses both magic and weapons in a fight.
Sorceress - A female magic user who uses the powers of Lightning, Fire and Ice.

Leveling
To increase a characters level in Diablo II, the player must run the character around killing the monsters that appear in the different areas.  Once a monster is defeated, it sometimes drops items or coins. When a monster is killed, it will not come back until the game is saved and started again.  Each character has a certain amount of experience that they needs to gain before they can become the next level.  This number depends upon what level the character is.  The higher the level, the more experience is needed to level.

Characters gain bonuses when they level:
Each character gets 5 points each level to increase their attributes.  Players usually decide what to increase by what character class they are.  Necromancers and Sorceresses tend to get more Energy than Strength and Defense, while Barbarians and Paladins tend to get the opposite.
Each character gets 1 skill point each level to spend on a particular skill.  Many players choose only one part of the skill tree to train in. That is the only one they put their skill points into.  Others put their points into more than 1 of the skill trees listed above per character.

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Expansion
Adds Druid and assassin classes
Adds Act 5

Related pages 
 Diablo (video game)

References

Other websites 
 Official Site 
 The Arreat Summit , official Strategy Guide
 DiabloII.net - Diablo, Hellfire, Diablo II Fansite

2000 video games
Blizzard video games
Role-playing video games
Windows games
Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle is a small village and ruined castle dating back to the 11th century. It is in a gap in the Purbeck Hills,  south of Wareham, in Dorset, England. 

The oldest surviving structure on the castle site dates to the 11th century, although there are good reasons to suppose that there was a stronghold there before the Norman Conquest. Edward the Martyr was killed at the site on March 18, 978.

The castle was besieged in the English Civil War. After it was captured it was partly demolished (slighted).

References

Other websites 

Corfe Castle Website
Corfe Castle information at the National Trust
Sources on Corfe Castle

Castles in England
11th-century buildings and structures
Stirrup

The stirrup is a ring with a flat bottom fixed on a leather strap, usually hung from each side of a saddle to create a footrest for the rider on a riding animal (usually a horse or a mule), suspended by an adjustable strap from the saddle for use as a support for the foot of a rider of a horse when seated in the saddle and as an aid in getting up.

Horse riding
Château-d'Œx

Château-d'Œx is a commune in Vaud canton Switzerland. The other members of its canton have birds in their flags.

References

Other websites

Municipalities in Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut
John Major

Sir John Major  (born 29 March 1943) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. He served as a member of the Cabinet under Margaret Thatcher as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1987–1989), Foreign Secretary (1989) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1989–1990).

Early life and career 
Major was born at St Helier Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children in St Helier, London, in England and left school at the age of 16. He became a Conservative councillor in 1968. At the 1979 general election, Major was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdonshire (Huntingdon after 1983).

Prime Minister
After holding several cabinet positions, Major was elected to replace Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister and party leader. On taking office, he saw British action in the Gulf War (1991) and his party's narrow re-election in the 1992 general election. 

After this, the Conservatives under Major became unpopular because of the "Black Wednesday" stock market crash in late 1992 and how they became divided over the issue of European Union. Beaten at the 1997 general election, Major stood down as Prime Minister for Tony Blair of the Labour Party, and was replaced as Conservative leader by William Hague. He stood down as an MP at the 2001 general election.

Personal life
Major married Norma Johnson (now (Dame) Norma Major ) on 3 October 1970. She was a teacher, and a member of the Young Conservatives. They became engaged after only ten days. They have two children; a son, James, and a daughter, Elizabeth. They have a holiday home on the coast of north Norfolk, near Weybourne.

He is a keen follower of cricket, motor racing, and also a supporter of Chelsea Football Club.

Major has so far declined a life peerage on standing down from Parliament.

References

Other websites
 
 
 
 
 

1943 births
Living people
Chancellors of the Exchequer
Companions of Honour
English Anglicans
Conservative Party (UK) MPs
Members of the British House of Commons for English constituencies
Knights of the Garter
Leaders of the Conservative Party (UK)
Leaders of the Opposition (United Kingdom)
Politicians from Surrey
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Secretaries of State of the United Kingdom
UK MPs 1979–1983
UK MPs 1983–1987
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
Spencer Perceval

Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated.

Perceval was the seventh son of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont by his second wife. His father, a close friend of Frederick, Prince of Wales and King George III, had served in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. 

Perceval was Prime Minister when William Wilberforce passed his Bill (law) ending the slave trade. 

The Orders in Council against trade which Perceval had written in 1807 became unpopular. In the winter of 1811 the Luddite riots started. They were also a cause of the War of 1812 with the United States of America. Perceval was forced to have an inquiry by the House of Commons. 

On 11 May 1812, Perceval was on his way to attend the inquiry. In the lobby of the House of Commons he was shot through the heart by John Bellingham. Perceval's body lay in 10 Downing Street for five days before burial. Bellingham gave himself up immediately. Tried for murder, he was found guilty and hanged a week later. 

Bellingham had a grievance, but it was not political. Bellingham petitioned the United Kingdom government for compensation over his imprisonment in Russia. This had been caused by his employer, but Bellingham blamed the British government for not getting him compensation.

Perceval was an Anglican and considered Anglicanism to be essential to the security of the state. He opposed Catholic emancipation. He is buried at St Luke's Church in Charlton, south-east London.

References 

1762 births
1812 deaths
Assassinated English politicians
Attorneys general
Chancellors of the Exchequer
English Anglicans
Members of the British House of Commons for English constituencies
Murders by firearm in England
People murdered in London
Politicians from London
Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known as Carolus Linnaeus, was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who created the binomial nomenclature. In this system, every kind of animal and plant is given a name consisting of two Latin words, for its genus and species. This became used by biologists all over the world, so he is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". He was a good linguist, and famous in his time. He was made a noble by the Swedish king.

Biography

Early life 
Carl was born in Sweden. He was going to be a priest like his father, but did not do well enough in school for that. Instead, Carl studied at a college for botany because he liked it. He studied in Lund and tried to improve the garden there. He later went to another college.

Travels and research 
In 1735, Linnaeus moved to the Netherlands for three years. There, he earned his degree in medicine. He also published his book on plant classification. His book was called Systema Naturæ. His book explained how to classify living things by putting them into groups. Some of these groups are bigger than others.

Later he moved to Stockholm and practiced as a doctor. In 1739, Linnaeus married Sara Morea in Stockholm. Throughout the 1740s he conducted many field trips to places in Sweden to name plants and animals. When not on travels, Linnaeus worked on his classification, so it would work for plants, animals, and minerals.

The Swedish king Adolf Fredrik made Linnaeus a noble in 1757, and Linnaeus took the last name von Linné, later often signing just Carl Linné.

Last years 
After he was made a noble, he continued teaching and writing. His reputation had spread over the world, and he talked with many different people. Linnaeus was upset by weak health, and he had gout and tooth aches. A stroke in 1774 weakened him, and two years later he had another, losing the use of his right side. He died in January 1778 and was buried in Uppsala cathedral.

Mankind 

Linnaeus classified man as among the primates, which was claimed by anthropologists like Blumenbach and natural historians like Buffon. It attracted the criticism of the Swedish church. The Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala accused him of "impiety".

Linnaeus recognised four races in the human species. These were European whites, American reds (Native Americans), Asian browns, and African blacks. Blumenbach's classification was similar, with the addition of a Mongolian (= Chinese) or yellow race. Thus recognition of man's position as a primate and the existence of races was quite widespread before the theory of evolution was formulated.

Related pages 
 List of biologists

Notes and references

Sources 
 Sörlin & Fagerstedt, Linné och hans lärjungar, 2004.
 J.L.P.M.Krol, Linneaus' verblijf op de Hartekamp In: Het landgoed de Hartekamp in Heemstede. Heemstede, 1982.

1707 births
1778 deaths
Taxonomy
Swedish physicians
Naturalists
Swedish biologists
Botanists
Deaths from stroke
Botanist

A botanist is a scientist who studies plants, including flowering plants, and plant-like things such as moss and seaweed. Botany is a scientific study of plants along with their growth, structure, evolution, and uses.  

Botanists may specialize in certain areas of botany. Some important areas of study include: 
 Plant taxonomy
 Plant ecology
 Chemical biology 
 Photosynthesis, the process that turns carbon dioxide from the air into food using sunlight
 Apoptosis, what makes a cell "decide" to die. This study area has been important for cancer research.

Notable botanists 
 Julien Reverchon

 
Science occupations
Modulation (music)

Modulation, in music, means that the music changes key.   A piece of music might, for example, be "in the key of C major" (meaning that it uses the notes of a C major scale, and the C sounds like the "home key" or "tonic" as it is called in music theory).  Then it could modulate to G major so that the G now feels like the home key and the notes of a G major scale are used (the Fs will be F sharps).

Modulations like the one above are very common, because G is closely related to C (it is the 5th note in a C major scale: the "dominant").  A modulation to the subdominant (4th note of the scale) is also common (e.g. from C major to Fmajor).  Music often modulates to the relative minor (e.g. C major to A minor).

A modulation that goes to a key whose tonic is not part of the original key is called a "chromatic modulation".  Modulating from C major to A flat major would be a chromatic modulation because A flat is not a note in the C major scale.

Most pieces of music will modulate, especially if they are long pieces.  It gives the music variety and helps to give it shape:  the farther away from the tonic it goes the more tension there is.  When the music eventually returns to the original key it feels like a homecoming.

Related pages
Tonality

Music theory
Member of Parliament (United Kingdom and Canada)

A member of parliament (usually shortened to MP) is a person in the United Kingdom or in Canada who represents the people of an area (called a "constituency") in the House of Commons. They are voted for by the people in a general election. The Prime Minister chooses when to hold a general election, but must have an election at least once every five years. MPs are usually members of a group called a political party. 

In the UK, the main political parties are:
 Conservative party
 Labour Party
 Liberal Democrats
 Scottish National Party
 Green Party

In Canada, the main political parties are:
 Liberal Party
 Conservative Party
 New Democratic Party (NDP)
 Bloc Québécois (BQ)
 Green Party

Members of provincial legislatures in Canada are sometimes referred to as member of provincial parliament (MPP) and other times member of legislative assembly (MLA).

Members of the British House of Commons
Members of the House of Commons of Canada
Relative key

When a piece of music is in a major key, the relative minor means the minor key which has the same key signature. It can be found by taking the sixth note of the first scale and playing a minor scale starting on that note. For example: in C major the sixth note is an A. Therefore, A minor is the relative minor of C major (C major and A minor share the same key signature: no sharps or flats).
C major is called the relative major of A minor.

A complete list of relative minor/major pairs in order of the circle of fifths is:

Related pages
 Modulation (music)
 scale (music)
 Circle of fifths

Music theory
Electrolysis

Electrolysis is a scientific way of 'splitting'  substances. Electrolysis means 'electric-splitting'  and involves the separation of substances through an electric current. 

Metals above carbon in the reactivity series (potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, magnesium and aluminium) are extracted by electrolysis.

Uses 
Electrolysis is used in the mining industry to split reactive metals from their ores after they are taken from the ground. Electroplating is also used to plate (cover) things with metal because it costs less than using, for example, solid gold to make jewellery.

Many beauty shops use electrolysis or electrology to remove hair. This is done by "electrocuting" the hair so it splits along its root.

Electrolysis makes the anions (negative ions) go to the anode (positive electrode) and the cations (positive ions) go to the cathode (negative electrode). So, for example, oxygen would go to the anode and iron would go to the cathode. 

Chemistry
Electricity
Chromatic

A chromatic scale, also known as a dodecatonic scale, is a musical scale which uses every note as it goes up or down i.e. it goes up and down in semitones (half tones). To play a chromatic scale on the piano every note is played: both white and black notes (e.g. C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F etc.). A chromatic scale can start on any note.

Meaning of the word “chromatic”

The word “chromatic” comes from the Greek word “chromos” meaning “color”. Organists in the 16th and 17th centuries such as Sweelinck liked to write “Chromatic Fantasias”. These were pieces based on tunes which were chromatic. In those days, because of the tuning systems used, not all the semitones were exactly the same size. Going up a chromatic scale would have been like walking up a staircase with steps which were slightly larger or smaller in depth. This made chromatic scales very interesting and “colourful” which is why they were called “chromatic”.

Chromatic harmony

Chromatic harmony means harmony (chords) that use notes which do not belong to the key the music is in (they are not in the key signature). Although Bach in the 18th century used chromatic harmony, it was 19th century composers who used it more and more. Wagner wrote music which was very chromatic: there were lots of sharps and flats and it kept modulating to different key areas. The chord at the beginning of his opera Tristan and Isolde is so famous that it is known as the Tristan chord. It is very chromatic. The music is full of tension because it leaves us wondering which key the music is in.

Related pages
Scale (music)
Tonality
Serialism

Music theory
Bier

A bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes made of other materials, used to carry a corpse for burial in a funeral procession.  In antiquity it was often simply a wooden board on which the dead was placed covered with a shroud (cloth used for burial).  In modern times, however, the corpse is almost never carried on the bier without being first placed in a coffin, though the coffin is sometimes kept open.

Related pages
Catafalque

Death customs
Tools
Coffin

A coffin (also known as a casket) is a box used to store dead bodies, either for burial or after cremation. Coffins used after cremation are what is known as an urn, where the ashes of the person are stored. 

The word comes ultimately from Greek kophinos, a basket. In English, the word was not used in a funeral sense until the 1500s. 

Any box used to bury the dead in is a coffin. 

The main distinction between a coffin and a casket is the shape. A casket regularly has 6 – 8 sides while coffins have a rectangular shape.

Material and design 
Many coffins are made out of materials such as wood, steel (which would have been used in Ancient Egyptian sarcophaguses), and many others. These types of coffins, for example wooden ones can have a rectangular or any other design, whereas a steel or any other metal used in making coffins (or sarcophaguses) could have the exact same but include religious marking added to make it look more appealing.

Other websites 
 Museum of Funeral Customs
 BBC Business News 2001-12-28: Bamboo Coffins "Coffin-maker resurrects tradition"
 Plans For Building A Halloween Coffin
 Difference between a casket and a coffin 

Death customs
Agent Orange

Agent Orange is a very powerful herbicide that was used in the Vietnam War. It is a defoliant that destroys forests. It was used by the United States military so their enemies had no place to hide.

Problems
The problem with Agent Orange is that when it is released, some dioxins are also generated. Dioxins stay a long time in the environment. They are very toxic, and cause genetic modifications and cancer.

Other websites 
Operation Ranch Hand: Herbicides In Southeast Asia  History of Operation Ranch Hand
 Air Force Health Study  Study of Operation Ranch Hand veterans
 Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2004 Institute of Medicine analysis of research on dioxin
 Vietnam war orange agent  Collection photos of victim caused by orange agent in Vietnam war and information about the orange agent, disease, effect and symptom

Carcinogens
Poisons
Herbicides
Mobster

"Mobster" is a slang term for someone who is part of the mafia or a mafia-like group. A mobster is a criminal. The word '' "Gangster" often means the same thing.

Related pages
Outlaw

 
Mafia
1307

1307 (MCCCVII) was .

Events 
 January 18 – German king Albrecht I makes his son Rudolf king of Bohemia.
 July – The Knights Hospitaller begin their conquest of Rhodes.
 September 5 – Pope Clement V confirms the Knights Hospitaller possession of Rhodes, although only Feracle had fallen to their attacks.
 October 13 – All Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy.
 November 18 – (Legendary) – William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
 Edward II becomes King of England.
 Per Abad writes the codex of the Cantar de mio Cid.

Births 
 date unknown – William II, Count of Hainaut

Deaths 
 April 7 – Joan of Acre, daughter of King Edward I of England (born 1271)
 July 4 – Rudolph I of Bohemia (born 1281)
 July 7 – King Edward I of England (born 1239)
 Leo IV of Armenia (born 1289)
 Emperor Chengzong of Yuan China
 Guillaume de Gisors, grand master of the Priory of Sion (born 1219)
 Hethum II of Armenia (born 1266)
1272



Events 
 Mamluk sultan Baibars of Egypt invades the weakening kingdom of Makuria to the south.
 Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples, occupies Durres in Albania and establishes an Albanian kingdom.
 Count Floris V of Holland makes an unsuccessful attack on Frisia in an attempt to recover the body of his father, Count William II.
 King Edward I of England departs for England from the failed Ninth Crusade and becomes King when his father, King Henry III, dies.
 November 21 – Edward becomes King of England.
 King Alphonso III of Portugal eliminates the last Moorish community in Portugal at Faro.
 The city of Strasbourg becomes an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire.
 The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers receives the right to regulate the leather trade in London, England.
 In astronomy, the recording of the Alfonsine tables is completed.
 The first recorded reference of cricket dates back to 1272.

Births 
 Bernardo Tolomei (died 1348)
 King Frederick III of Sicily (died 1337)
 Otto I of Hesse (approximate date; died 1328)

Deaths 
 March 17 – Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (born 1220)
 March 18 – John FitzAlan, 7th Earl of Arundel (born 1246)
 April 2 – Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1209)
 April 27 – Saint Zita
 August 6 – King Stephen V of Hungary
 November 16 – King Henry III of England (born 1207)
 December 13 – Bertold von Regensburg, German preacher
 William of Saint-Amour, French scholastic philosopher (born 1200)

1272
Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone (3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian movie director. He is well known for his Spaghetti Western films; particularly his Dollars trilogy (also known as The Man with No Name trilogy) starring American actor, Clint Eastwood.

Leone was born in Rome and died there of a heart attack.

Movies directed 
 The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) aka Ultimi giorni di Pompei (Italy)
 Il Colosso di Rodi (1961) aka The Colossus of Rhodes (USA)
 A Fistful of Dollars (1964) aka Per un pugno di dollari (Italy)
 For a Few Dollars More (1965) aka Per qualche dollaro in piu (Italy)
 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) aka Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (Italy)
 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) aka C'era una volta il West (Italy)
 A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) aka Giù la testa (Italy)
 My Name Is Nobody (1973) aka Il mio nome è Nessuno (Italy) aka Lonesome Gun (USA)
 Un genio, due compari, un pollo (1975) aka A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot (USA)
 Once Upon a Time in America (1984) aka C'era una volta in America (Italy)

Other websites 

1929 births
1989 deaths
Deaths from myocardial infarction
Italian movie directors
Italian movie producers
Italian screenwriters
Italian Americans

An Italian American is a U.S. citizen of Italian descent. It may mean someone born in the United States with Italian parents or grandparents or someone born in Italy who moved to the United States. The largest group of Italians moved to the United States in the early 1900s; two million moved between 1900 to 1914. Only Irish and Germans moved to the United States in bigger numbers. In 2000 the government counted 15.6 million Italian Americans in the United States. This means that in the year 2000, for every 1000 Americans, 56 of them were Italian Americans.

Italian Americans have been an important part in building the United States. Many great politicians, inventors, scientists, soldiers, musicians and film makers (actors and directors) have been Italian Americans. The Mafia in the United States was made by some Italian Americans but nearly all Italian Americans have nothing to do with it.

Most of them came from southern Italy, in regions such as Sicily, Naples and Calabria, only a sizeable minority of Italian Americans have ancestral roots in Northern Italy.

New York City has more Italian Americans than any other city in the United States.  More than 3 million Italians live in or near New York. The states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Florida and Massachusetts also have large Italian American populations.  There are large Italian-American populations in the cities of Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Ohio, which each have over a half million Italians.

Ethnic groups in the United States
America