cyanic-selkie/wikianc huggingface dataset:
Titanic (1997 movie)
Story
After winning a trip on the RMS Titanic during a dockside card game, American Jack Dawson spots the society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater who is on her way to Philadelphia to marry her rich snob fiancé Cal Hockley. Rose feels helplessly trapped by her situation and makes her way to the aft deck and thinks of suicide until she is rescued by Jack. Cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dine at their first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. In return, he spirits Rose off to third class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. Deciding to forsake her intended future all together, Rose asks Jack, who has made his living making sketches on the streets of Paris, to draw her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond Cal has given her. Cal finds out and has Jack locked away. Soon after wards, the ship hits an iceberg and Rose must find Jack while both must run from Cal even as the ship sinks deeper into the freezing water.
In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team has reached the most famous shipwreck of all - the RMS Titanic. Emerging with a safe believed to contain a famous diamond called the "Heart of the Ocean", he discovers that the safe does not hold the diamond, but a drawing of a beautiful young woman wearing it. When Lovett is later interviewed on television, he shows the drawing to the cameras, and Rose Dawson Calvert, now 101, recognizes the young woman in the drawing - herself. She and her granddaughter Lizzy visit Lovett on his research ship over the wrecksite, and tells her story of the Titanic and its ill-fated maiden voyage.
In 1912, 17-year-old society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater boards the ship's first class suites with her fiancé, Pittsburgh Steel tycoon owner Caledon Hockley, and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, in Southampton. Also boarding are poor artist Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi, after a lucky poker game wins them in steerage. When Rose attempts suicide by jumping off the stern in third class, Jack pulls her back onto the ship... and a bond is forged between them as Jack is invited by her into first class the following day. Rose's mother and Cal try desperate measures to keep them apart as Jack and Rose fall in love, until the Titanic collides with an iceberg and is critically damaged. Now Jack and Rose must fight to stay alive, as their passionate romance becomes a struggle for survival, but Jack eventually freezes to death due to spending too much time in extremely cold water.
Production
The movie scenes of the ship's journey were taken on the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in July 1996. Principal photography for Titanic began in September 1996. The location was at the newly built Fox Baja Studios. The poop deck was built on a move-able machine. This allow it to rise from zero to ninety degrees in a few seconds. This was used during the sinking scene of the movie. Many props were made of foam rubber. The material was used for the safety of the stuntmen. On November 15, the boarding scenes were recorded. Cameron decided to build his RMS Titanic on the starboard side. This was because weather data showed north-to-south winds. This caused the funnel smoke to move in one direction.
Coach
A full-time etiquette coach was hired. He taught the cast on the manners of the upper class during the year 1912. However, several critics noticed that some cast members were not very good. They also noticed the two main stars on the movie were not well trained. Cameron sketched Jack's nude portrait of Rose for the nude scene. He said "You know what it means for her, the freedom she must be feeling. It's kind of exhilarating (happy) for that reason." The nude scene was DiCaprio and Winslet's first scene together. Cameron said, "It wasn't by any kind of design, although I couldn't have designed it better. There's a nervousness and an energy and a hesitance [unsure] in them." This was the first scene to be recorded. Cameron said that the "big set" was not yet ready. The crew members had to record something so they decided to do the nude scene first.
Incident
An angry crew member put the dissociative drug PCP into the soup that Cameron and other members ate one night. This caused more than 50 people to be rushed to the hospital. "There were people just rolling around, completely out of it. Some of them said they were seeing streaks and psychedelics," said actor Lewis Abernathy. Cameron had vomited before the drug began working. Abernathy was shocked at the way he looked. "One eye was completely red, like the Terminator eye. A pupil, no iris, beet red. The other eye looked like he'd been sniffing glue since he was four." The person who poisoned the cast members was never found.
Schedule
Filming was scheduled to last 138 days. However, it grew to 160. Many cast members came down with colds, flu, or kidney infections. This happened during the many hours they spent in the cold water. Winslet, who also had these symptoms, decided she would not work with Cameron again unless she earned "a lot of money". Several other cast members left the movie. Three stuntmen broke their bones. The Screen Actors Guild decided to begin an investigation. They concluded that there was nothing unsafe going on on the set.
Budget
The movie's budget reached $200 million. Fox executives were worrying. They suggested an hour of different scenes to be removed from the three-hour movie. James Cameron did not accept this. He told Fox that if they want to remove some scenes out that they would need to fire him. The executives did not want to start over. This would mean they will loose their entire investment.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the movie was written, orchestrated and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical on November 18, 1997. When the movie was released, the soundtrack topped the charts in two-dozen countries. It sold over 30 million copies. It then became one of the best-selling albums of all time. It was also the highest-selling orchestral soundtracks ever. Horner wrote the song "My Heart Will Go On". He wrote the song in secrecy because Cameron did not want any songs with singing in the movie. Céline Dion agreed to record a demonstration. Her husband, René Angélil, asked Dion many times to do it, since she did not want to record it at first. Horner waited until Cameron was in a happy mood. After playing it several times, Cameron approved of the song. However, Cameron feared that he might be criticized for "going commercial at the end of the movie".
3D and re-release
James Cameron announced that Titanic was being converted to 3D. The 3D version came out on April 6, 2012. This was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It took $18 million to produce it. The 3D conversion was done by Stereo D. Sony Music with Slam Content's Panther Records, re-worked the soundtrack. The movie grossed $4.7 million on the first day of its re-release in North America. It went on to make $17.3 million during the weekend. It then became the third most-watched movie for that week. The movie earned $35.2 million worldwide. It then became the second most-watched movie for that week. The following week saw an increase of the movie's earnings. It became the number one movie for that week with $98.9 million. It was more successful in China. It earned $11.6 million on its opening day in that country. It then earned a record-breaking $67 million for that week. The re-release earned a total of $343.4 million worldwide. In China the total was at $145 million. In Canada and the United States, it made $57.8 million from those countries.
Michael Harner
Michael James Harner (April 27, 1929 – February 3, 2018) was an American anthropologist, educator and author. He founded the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and the New Age practice of "Core Shamanism". His 1980 book, The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing, was important in the development of "Core Shamanism" as a path of personal development for new age adherents of neoshamanism. He was born in Washington, D.C..
Harner died on February 3, 2018 at the age of 88.
2012 Anaheim riots
On 21 July 2012, police shot and killed a man, Manuel Diaz, in the Anna Drive neighborhood in Anaheim, California, United States. A riot happened for a few nights.
Background
Anna Drive is a poor neighborhood. It is known for having many criminals, including drug dealers. Manuel Diaz was one of them. He and some of his friends were gathering in an alley and threw heroin on a roof. Police came and chased him through the ghetto. Then they shot him in the buttocks and head. He later died at the hospital.
Riots
People started getting angry. They came to Anna Drive and started protesting. Soon most of east Anaheim was fighting police. Trash cans were burnt while people went crazy and broke shop windows. The fourth night was the most violent. Police had to shoot people with fake bullets. Two reporters were hurt.
Response
The mayor had the FBI look at the shooting carefully. Another man, Joel Acevedo, was shot the next day and died too, making it the sixth deadly police shooting in one year. The events also highlighted the divide between the poor west and central parts of Anaheim, where more than half of the population is Hispanic, and the east, where most of the police come from.
List of cities and towns in North Carolina
This is a list of all cities and towns in North Carolina with more than 25,000 people. It is in order by how many people they have.
Agnieszka Chylińska
Agnieszka Barbara Chylińska (born May 23, 1976, in Gdańsk) is a Polish singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, author and television personality.
From 1994 to 2003, she was the vocalist for the Polish rock band O.N.A.. Since 2003 she has performed as Chylińska and in 2004 she released an album titled Winna. Since 2008 she has been a judge on the Polish version of the Got Talent franchise called Mam talent!. In 2009, she released a studio album Modern Rocking, then Forever Child (2016) and Pink Punk (2018)
Radium girls
Radium girls were a group of female factory workers who sued their employer in 1917.
They had worked at a factory on Orange, New Jersey. Their job was to paint the dials of watches with radium paint, so that the numbers would glow in the dark. The substance used to paint was luminous paint, which contained radium. Radium is radioactive, and causes radiation sickness. The workers used paintbrushes to draw fine lines; the brush would only draw such a line when it was wet. The girls would put the brushes in their mouths to lick them. The women were told the paint was harmless. Over time, they ingested deadly amounts of radium paint.
Five workers sued their employer. The case that followed made it clear that people could sue their employer, if they contract occupational diseases. Consuming radium is dangerous and it causes a symptom called "Radium Jaw".
Coldplay discography
The discography of British rock band Coldplay has nine studio albums, four live albums, one compilation album, ten extended plays, twenty-nine singles, two promotional singles and thirty-two music videos. As of 2009, Coldplay has sold over 55 million records. They are one of the best-selling music artists worldwide.
Bulgar language
Bulgar (also known as Bulghar, Bolgar, or Bolghar) is an extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.
The name is came from the Bulgars, a tribal that established the Bulgar state known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mid-7th century, which became the Danubian Bulgaria by the 680s.
Nikolai Ryzhkov
Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (born 28 September 1929) is a former Soviet politician who served as the Premier of the Soviet Union during Mikhail Gorbachev's Rule from 1985 to 1991. He became a Russian politician after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ryzhkov was Boris Yeltsin's leading opponent in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) 1991 presidential election.
Ryzhkov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour twice, the Order of the October Revolution in 1971, the Order of Lenin twice, and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th class. He was named a National Hero of Armenia.
In March 2014, after the Crimean crisis, Ryzhkov was sanctioned by both the European Union and United States.
University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new books each year in the humanities and social sciences. Books from the Press have won many awards, including Lambda Literary Awards, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Joe A. Callaway Award, and the Nautilus Book Award. The Press has published works by authors who have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal and the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Kardzhali Province
Kardzhali Province is a province of Bulgaria. The capital city is also named Kardzhali.
Queen Forever
Queen Forever is a compilation album by British rock band Queen. It is the first album since 1995 to have new music from former group members Freddie Mercury (who died) and John Deacon (who retired).
Kardzhali Province
Municipalities
The Kardzhali province has seven municipalities. The following table shows the names of each municipality, the main town (in bold) or village, and the population as of 2009.
Queen Forever
The album features three new songs, "Let Me In Your Heart Again" (written by Brian May, it was a song from the Works sessions), "Love Kills - The Ballad" (the song is a reworked version of Mercury's disco hit from 1984) and "There Must Be More To Life Than This (William Orbit Mix)" (a Mercury/Michael Jackson duet from the early eighties, reworked to feature guitars, drums and bass). The rest of the album includes songs which May and Taylor chose.
Mr. Niebla
Mr. Niebla (February 22, 1973 – December 23, 2019) was a Mexican luchador enmascarado. He worked for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). His real name is not known as is traditional in lucha libre for masked wrestlers. "Niebla" is Spanish for "fog". Mr. Niebla worked for CMLL from the early 1990s until 2007, and again from 2008 until his death in 2019.
Queen Forever
The album includes songs; "Somebody to Love", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "It's a Hard Life", "You're My Best Friend", "Love of My Life", "These Are the Days of Our Lives" and "Who Wants to Live Forever".
Mr. Niebla
Mr. Niebla died from complications of a blood infection on December 23, 2019 at the age of 46.
Queen Forever
Deluxe edition
CD 1 CD 2
Coupe de France
Coupe de France is a French football competition. It is the premier knockout cup competition.
Botans
Botans is a commune. It is found in the region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in the Territoire de Belfort department in the northeast of France.
Boron, Territoire de Belfort
Boron is a commune. It is found in the region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in the Territoire de Belfort department in the northeast of France.
American Airlines Flight 77
American Airlines Flight 77 was American Airlines' transcontinental flight from Washington Dulles International Airport, in Dulles, Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. The flight flew every day in the morning on this route. On September 11, 2001, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 757-223—was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists. The hijackers crashed the plane into the Pentagon on purpose. The crash was part of the September 11 attacks.
The hijackers went into the cockpit and made the passengers move to the back of the plane less than 35 minutes into the flight. Hani Hanjour, one of the hijackers who was trained as a pilot, took over the flight. Passengers on the plane were able to make telephone calls to loved ones. They also called people to tell them what was happening on the plane. The hijackers did not know that passengers were doing this.
Barbara Olson, wife of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, was one of the passengers.
The 184 victims of the attack are honored in the Pentagon Memorial next to the Pentagon. The 1.93 acre park contains a bench for each of the victims. The benches are put in order of the victim's years of birth. These years range from 1930 (aged 71) to 1998 (aged 3).
Paean
Paean is a song (or expression) of thanksgiving, triumph, healing or praise.
Raymond C. Fisher
Raymond Corley Fisher (July 12, 1939 – February 29, 2020) was an American judge. He served as a judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1999 until his death in 2020. He was also the United States Associate Attorney General from 1997 to 1999. He was a Democrat.
Paean
Paean, Paeeon, Paeëon, Paeon, Paian, Paieon, or Paion (from the Ancient Greek Παιάν, Παιήων, or Παιών) may be:
Raymond C. Fisher
Fisher was born in Oakland, California. He died of cancer on February 29, 2020 in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 80.
Margot Duhalde
After the war, she flew war planes for the French Air Force. She was France's first female combat pilot. In 1947 she returned to Chile, however the national airline LAN did not hire women as pilots at that time. Instead, she took a job as a private pilot for a businessman until 1949. Later she opened her own flying school and worked as a flight instructor and as an air traffic controller in the air force.
In 1946 Duhalde was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
Dirk Bernard Joseph Schouten
Dirk Bernard Joseph (Dick) Schouten (25 January 1923 – 3 February 2018) was a Dutch economist. He served as Professor of General Economics and Economic History at Tilburg University. He was known for his work in macroeconomic modelling.
Schouten was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975.
Schouten died on 3 February 2018 in The Hague at the age of 95.
Andrew Bailey (banker)
Andrew John Bailey (born 30 March 1959) is a British central banker. He has been Governor of the Bank of England since 16 March 2020.
He was the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England from January 2004 until April 2011, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England from April 2013 to July 2016, and Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority from 2016 to 2020.
Richard Hamilton (basketball)
Richard "Rip" Hamilton (born February 14, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player and current Basketball Analyst for CBS Sports. His career began in 1999 when he played for the Washington Wizards until 2002. Then he played for the Detroit Pistons from 2002 until 2011. Finally, he played for the Chicago Bulls from 2011 to 2013, when he retired.
Early life
Hamilton was born on February 14, 1978 in Coatsville, Pennsylvania. He began to play basketball in the Coatsville area.
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is an organization which does not receive money. It is in the United States. It helps libraries and library education all over the world. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. It has more than 62,000 members. Justin Winsor, Charles Ammi Cutter, Samuel Swett Green, James L. Whitney, Melvil Dewey, Fred B. Perkins and Thomas W. Bicknell began the organization in 1876. It began in Philadelphia, but its head office is in Chicago now. Anybody can join, but most of its members are librarians. Most members live and work in the United States. Members from other countries make up about 3.5% of the members.
Other websites
About Charles Ammi Cutter
My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia (僕のヒーローアカデミア) is a comedy adventure manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since July 2014, and 37 volumes have been collected in tankōbon form.
The story follows Izuku Midoriya, a boy born without superpowers in a world where most people have them, but he still dreams of becoming a superhero himself. He meets the world's greatest hero, who shares his powers with Izuku after seeing his bravery and value and enrolls him in a high school for heroes in training. The manga was adapted into an anime series; the first season was from April 3 to June 26, 2016. The second season was from April 1 to September 30, 2017. The third season was from April 7 to September 29, 2018. The fourth season is set to start on October 12, 2019. A movie also came out in 2018 with another one in 2019.
Plot
In a world where people with superpowers known as "Quirks" are the standard, Izuku Midoriya is a regular middle school student who has dreams of one day becoming a Hero but is bullied by his classmates for not having a Quirk. After being the only one to try and save his childhood bully Katsuki Bakugo from a Villain, the world's greatest Hero All Might gives him his own quirk called "One For All". The story follows Izuku's entrance into U.A. High School, a school that trains the next generation of Super Heroes.
Villains
All For One is the primary villain of My Hero Academia and the leader of the League of Villains, along with Tomura Shigaraki.
Originally Japan's most powerful villain and All Might's nemesis, he was defeated by All Might. His true motives are unclear and his true identity unknown, and his current goal is to raise Shigaraki to become his eventual successor, but was once again defeated by All Might in a rematch, which lead to the retirement of All Might.
Other media
On October 29, 2015, the series' official Twitter announced that My Hero Academia would receive an anime adaptation produced by Studio Bones, currently ongoing. A third season was announced in the 44th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine of 2017. A video game based on the anime, My Hero Academia: Battle for All, was announced in November 2015. The game was made by Dimps and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console, where it released in Japan on May 19, 2016. A second video game for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows will be released in 2018, titled My Hero Academia: One's Justice. An anime film was announced in December 2017, and will feature an original story.
Free State of Prussia
The Free State of Prussia (Freistaat Preußen) was a state of Germany from 1918 to 1947. It was formed in 1918 in Weimar Republic after the German Empire and its state, the Kingdom of Prussia collapsed in 1918 in World War 1 and the German Revolution Of 1918–1919. It’s German Colonies in Africa,Asia and Oceania and the Pacific Ocean which were lost and occupied by Britain,France,Belgium,Portugal and Japan,Australia. Kaiser Wilhelm II the last Kaiser of Germany who replaced his father Friedrich III of Germany in 1888 was forced to surrender the Prussian Throne in 1918. During the Interwar period from 1918–1939, the Weimar Era Germany was very poor when The Great Depression began in 1929. However, in 1933 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took over and formed a new German Reich aka the Greater German Reich and aka the Third Reich (Nazi Germany) just like Otto von Bismarck formed Germany in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War and the defeat of Napoleon III. After the end of World War 2 in 1945, the Free State Of Prussia dissolved in 1947, and in 1949 Germany got split into West Germany (Federal Republic Of Germany) and East Germany (German Democratic Republic) and Berlin was split into West Berlin and East Berlin by the Allies until the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 where it lasted 28 years until the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today the Free State Of Prussia became Schleswig-Holstein,Lower Saxony,Brandenburg,Pomerania,Rhineland-Palatinate and other States of Germany while East Prussia became part of the Soviet Union in 1945 which Joseph Stalin took from the Nazis and today it is called Kaliningrad in Russia (Russian Federation) since 1991 after the 1947–1991 Cold War with the United States Of America,Britain and France. The Presidents of the Free State Of Prussia were Friedrich Ebert from 1919-to 1925 and Paul von Hindenburg from 1925 to 1934. The last President of Nazi Germany was Admiral Karl Dönitz who surrendered Nazi Germany in May 1945 after Adolf Hitler’s death on 30 April 1945 which was originally going to be on 5 May 1945 the date that Napoleon died in 1821. Still, it was 30 April instead since Adolf Hitler is not related to Napoleon since he is a Austrian and was only copying Napoleon.
Nancy Faeser
Nancy Faeser (born 13 July 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She is the Federal Minister of the Interior and Community in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet since 2021.
She was a member of the State Parliament of Hesse from 2003 until 2021.
Thallium(I) hydroxide
Properties
Thallium(I) hydroxide is a yellow solid. It dissolves in water to make a yellow and very basic solution, similar to potassium hydroxide. It reacts with acids to make thallium salts. It breaks down to thallium(I) oxide when heated.
Preparation
It is made by dissolving thallium(I) oxide in water or by reacting thallium with water or moist air.
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign country as well as a city-state. It is an island state at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula in Asia, between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. Singapore is about one degree of latitude (137 km) north of the equator. About 5.70 million people live in Singapore. About 3.31 million are citizens. Most of them are ethnically Chinese, Malay, or Indian, as well as a smaller number of other Asians and Europeans.
Most Singaporeans are bilingual. The symbolic national language of Singapore is Malay. Other official languages of Singapore are English, Mandarin and Tamil. English is the language of choice because everyone in Singapore knows and uses it. It is the first language taught in schools and the language used by the government and in court. Students are also usually taught the language of their ethnicity. This means that the Chinese will learn Mandarin, Malays will learn Malay, and so on. Students can also choose to learn a third language in secondary school.
Before 1819
Singapore's name comes from 'Singa Pura', which means Lion City in Sanskrit. Many people around the world understand "Lion City" to refer to Singapore. There is some debate about who founded Singapore. According to the Malay Annals, a Sumatran prince called Sang Nila Utama landed on Temasek (Singapore's old name) and saw a Lion which is called 'Singa' in Malay. Thus he gave the island a new name, 'Singapura'. However, Sang Nila Utama was likely mistaken, as lions never existed in Singapore. It is believed that the "lion" was actually a Malayan Tiger, which also exists in neighbouring Malaysia. While now extinct in Singapore it used to be present back then.
There were also many pieces of old items, such as Chinese coins, that showed that Temasek was an important Asian trading port even before the British rule.
1819 to 1942
Few people lived in Singapore at the beginning of the 19th century. British governor Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore on 28 January 1819 and wanted to set up a British trading town. At the time, the island was then ruled by Tengku Abdul Rahman, the Sultan of Johor, who the Dutch and the Bugis from Sulawesi had controlled. However, the Sultanate was weakened by infighting: the Temenggong (Chief Minister) of Tengku Abdul Rahman, as well as his officials, supported the Sultan's elder brother Tengku Long, who was living in exile in Riau.
With the Temenggong's help, Raffles managed to secretly bring Tengku Long back into Singapore. Raffles offered to recognize Tengku Long as the true Sultan of Johor, under the title of Sultan Hussein, as well as giving him $5000 per year and another $3000 to the Temenggong; in return, Sultan Hussein would give the British the right to establish a trading post on Singapore. An official treaty was signed on 6 February 1819.
In 1824, another treaty with the Sultan led to the entire island becoming under the British. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements. Singapore became the regional capital in 1836. Before Raffles arrived, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860, the population had grown to over 80,000, more than half being Chinese. The country was given colony status in 1867. Later, in the 1890s, when the rubber industry became established in Malaya and Singapore, the island became a global center for sorting rubber and exporting them.
Interwar period
After World War I, the British built the large Singapore Naval Base as part of the defensive Singapore strategy. First announced in 1921, the construction of the base went at a slow pace until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Costing $60 million and not fully completed in 1938, it was the largest dry dock in the world, the third-largest floating dock, and had enough fuel tanks to support the entire British Navy for six months. The base was defended by heavy naval guns stationed at Fort Siloso, Fort Canning and Labrador Park, as well as a Royal Air Force airfield at Tengah Air Base. Winston Churchill called Singapore the "Gibraltar of the East", and military discussions often referred to the base as just "East of Suez".
However, the main fleet was in Europe, and the British did not have enough money to build a second fleet to protect their Asian colonies. The plan was for the Home Fleet to sail quickly to Singapore in the event of an emergency. As a result, after World War II broke out in 1939, the fleet was busy defending Britain from Germany, leaving Singapore open for a Japanese invasion.
World War II
Due to the weak defenses of the country, the Japanese attacked Singapore and easily took control of the colony on 15 February 1942. Up to 60,000 British soldiers surrendered on that day, and Churchill called it "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history". There were a lot of losses by both the British and the rest of the Empire, with a total of nearly 85,000 people captured. About 5,000 were killed or injured, many from Australia and India.
People of Singapore went through hard times during the Japanese rule, until the surrender of the Japanese in September of 1945. Many people were tortured or killed by the Japanese as they did not follow the rules properly or because they were suspected of going against the Japanese. The Japanese also targeted the Chinese the most; between 5,000 and 25,000 Chinese were killed, now known as the Sook Ching massacre. The most notable anti-Japanese force was Force 136, headed by Lim Bo Seng. Its purpose was to encourage and supply resistance movements in the enemy-occupied territory and occasionally mount sabotage operations.
The hard times during World War II made the people think that the British were not as strong as before. Therefore, many people were supportive of independence once the British had returned.
Independence
A few years after the war, In 1963, Singapore joined with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form the new nation of Malaysia. Malaysia is a country with many races. In Malaya, only the Malays have special benefits. For example, the Malays could get university education more easily than other races.
Singapore separated from Malaysia and became independent on its own on 9 August 1965.
After Independence
After Independence, the president of Singapore was Yusof Ishak and its prime minister was Lee Kuan Yew. At first, many people thought Singapore's independence would not last. In 1967, Singapore helped to start the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and in 1970 it joined the Non-Aligned Movement. Lee Kuan Yew was in charge of the country as Prime Minister of Singapore and saw it become very developed.
In 1990, Goh Chok Tong replaced Lee Kuan Yew as prime minister, while Lee Kuan Yew became Senior Minister. When Goh Chok Tong was Prime Minister, Singapore went through the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak and terrorist threats by Jemaah Islamiyah. In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Lee Kuan Yew, took over as Prime Minister. Goh Chok Tong became the Senior Minister, and Lee Kuan Yew became the Minister Mentor of Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew died in 2015.
Government and politics
Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing constituencies. Its constitution states representative democracy as its political system. Singapore is ranked regularly as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.
The Cabinet has executive power, and is led by the Prime Minister, and the President. The president is elected through popular vote, and has some veto powers for a few big decisions such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judges, but otherwise occupies a post with little power.
The Parliament serves as the legislative branch of government. Members of Parliament (MPs) are made up of elected, non-constituency and nominated members. Elected MPs are voted into parliament on a "first-past-the-post" (plurality) system and represent either single-member or group-representation constituencies. Elections are free, and the People's Action Party has won control of Parliament with large majorities in every election since self-governance in 1959. In the most recent parliamentary elections in 2020, the largest opposition, led by the Workers' Party, increased its representation in the House to 10 elected MPs out of 93.
The legal system of Singapore is based on English common law, however with large and important local differences. Trial by jury was removed in 1970 leaving judicial judgement done completely and only by judgeship. Singapore has laws that include corporal punishment in the form of caning for rape, rioting, vandalism, and some immigration crimes. There is a mandatory death penalty for murder, and for certain drug-trafficking and firearms offences. In a 2008 survey, international business executives believed Singapore had the best judicial system in Asia.
Religion
Buddhism is the most common religion in Singapore. Other common religions include: Christianity, Islam, Taoism, and Hinduism.
Education
Students in Singapore go through six years of compulsory primary school. During the six years, students' learning is focused on English, mother tongue, mathematics and science. At the end of the six years, all students take the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).
Depending on their results in the PSLE, students are streamed into "Special", "Express", "Normal (Academic)", and "Normal (Technical)" groups. The amount of time a student spends studying in Secondary school (4–5 years) depends on their group.
Students are taught in English, and their mother tongue, which can be Chinese, Malay or Tamil. Secondary school students may also choose to study a third language such as:
Students can take a third language as it increases their chances in getting an overseas scholarship and can improve their examination grades, especially in the GCE Ordinary Level ("O" Levels), which are Secondary students take after their five or four years of education. However, only some students can qualify to take a third language.
After their "O" Levels, students can choose to go to a polytechnic, junior college, centralised institutes or Institutes of Technical Education (ITE). Polytechnics is a place where students can study for 3 years for a diploma. Junior college is a place where students study for 2 years to receive an "A" Level. Centralised institutes is a place where students study for 3 years to receive an "A" Level. Students can also go to Institutes of Technical Education, where students study for two years to receive a "National ITE Certificate" (NITEC). This certificate is only recognized in Singapore. Students who go to ITE usually continue their education at a polytechnic.
With either a diploma, or an "A" Level certificate, students can apply to go to universities in Singapore or overseas.
Languages
The Singapore government has chosen four official languages: English, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil. English is the primary language. Singapore English is the main language in Singapore.
Almost 40% of people in Singapore are foreign. Most foreigners come from Asia. The country where most foreigners come from are Malaysia, its closest neighbor. In 2009, there may have been 350,000 Malaysians working in Singapore. Many Chinese-speaking foreigners and Chinese-speaking Singaporeans work in services. Thus, Chinese is the main language of many workers such as hawkers, retail assistants, hairdressers, etc. in Singapore today.
Singaporean English mainly comes from British English. The forms of English spoken in Singapore range from Standard English to a pidgin called Singlish. The Singapore government and many Singaporeans are against using Singlish. There is a "Speak Good English" campaign each year. Public schools and in the media also have rules against Singlish. There are many Singapore accents in English because of the many languages and identities of people in the city. Languages can even change over the generations and children may speak different languages and have different accents from their mother. For example, in a Singaporean Chinese family, the grandmother might speak Hokkien as her first language. Differently, the mother might speak Mandarin as her first language and Hokkien/English as her second languages, while the grandson might speak English as his first language and Mandarin as his second language.
Before independence in 1965, Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, was the common language among the Chinese laborers. Malay and English were used to communicate between the different ethnic groups. After independence in 1965, English became the first language of the nation and replaced Hokkien and Malay as the one shared language. Today, most younger Singaporeans have English as their first language or are fluent in English.
Malay is a national language of Singapore because of the history of the city. However, less than 20% of Singaporeans can read and write in Malay. Malay is still used at home by most Malay Singaporeans. The Malay used in Singapore (Bahasa Melayu) is closer to the language in Malaysia than the language in Indonesia. However, there are differences between the Malay in Singapore and in Malaysia. The national anthem "Majulah Singapura" is sung in Malay.
Many people speak Chinese – Mandarin and other Chinese dialects – in Singapore. Just over 50% of Singaporeans speak it at home, so it is the most common language in homes. Singaporean Mandarin is based on simplified Chinese and it is similar to the system used in mainland China. The forms of Mandarin spoken in Singapore range from Standard Mandarin to a pidgin known as Singdarin. Besides Mandarin, many southern Chinese dialects are also spoken in Singapore.
Hokkien used to be a lingua franca among the Singaporean Chinese so many older Singaporeans still understand Hokkien. The most common Chinese dialects spoken by Singaporeans are the Hokkien, Hainan, Teochew and Cantonese. However, Chinese dialects other than Mandarin are not allowed in the media, so these dialects are quickly dying out. Most younger Singaporeans do not speak them anymore.
Tamil, a South Indian language, is spoken by about half of Indians in Singapore. That is about 5% of all Singaporeans. However, North Indian languages such as Hindi and Punjabi are also spoken by a small group of Singaporean Indians in Singapore.
Culture
Singapore has many kinds of people and immigrants from many places. Therefore, Singaporean culture has often been described as a mix of cultures – European, Malay, Chinese, Indian and Peranakan. Also, foreigners are 42% of the population in Singapore and they are part of changing Singaporean culture.
Food
Dining is an important part of life in Singapore. Singaporean food is an example of the many different cultures in the country. It is also an example of mixing among cultures. British, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Tamil, and Indonesian styles of cooking all mix together. It is especially known for its seafood. Typical Singaporean food includes: Satay, Nasi lemak, Chilli crab, Kaya toast, and Hainanese chicken rice, Laksa, Fish Head Curry, Hokkien Prawn Mee and Char Kway Teow.
Media
MediaCorp, the state-owned media corporation, operates all seven local broadcast television channels in Singapore. It also runs 13 radio stations of the total 18 radio stations in Singapore. Radio and television stations are all owned by government controlled companies. However, one radio transmitter in Singapore is not controlled by the government. That is the Far Eastern Relay Station of the BBC World Service.
Print media of Singapore includes 16 newspapers and several magazines. Daily newspapers are published in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil.
National flower
The national flower of Singapore is Vanda Miss Joaquim. It is a type of orchid and it is a hybrid orchid. This makes Singapore the only nation in the world to have a hybrid as a national flower. It was chosen because it was part of the effort to create national pride and identity.
Economy
Singapore has a strong and free economy that supports a large middle class. The city state is a global shipping and logistics hub and many multinational firms have their offices in Singapore. The national airline, Singapore Airlines, has a large global network which brings tourists and business travelers alike, to the city. The airline has often been ranked as the world's best airline.
Singapore also has a port located at the south of Singapore, called Keppel Harbour. It is one of the busiest ports around the world with many ships coming in to trade in a single day. Singapore also has another port on Jurong Island.
Money
Singapore's currency is the Singapore dollar. The short name for the Singapore dollar is SGD. Brunei dollar can be used in Singapore, because they have the same value.
Geography
Singapore is made up of 63 islands, including the main island, which is known as Singapore Island to most people, but is also known as Pulau Ujong. There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north, and the Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's smaller islands. The highest natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 m.
About 23% of Singapore's land area are forest and nature reserves. Urbanisation has removed most primary rainforest, with Bukit Timah Nature Reserve the only significant remaining forest. Even though there is very little primary rainforest left, there are more than 300 parks and four nature reserves in Singapore. There are also many trees planted all over Singapore and almost fifty per cent of the country is covered by trees and plants. Because of this, Singapore is also commonly known as the 'Garden City'.
Singapore, being a small country, has been reclaiming land from the sea around the island. The first time Singapore started to reclaim land was in the 1960s. The total land area of Singapore at that time was 581.5 km2 and it has increased to 730 km2 in the 2010s, which is an increase of about 20% in total land area. It may grow by another 100 km2 by 2030. Some land reclamation projects involve joining smaller islands to make larger islands with more uses, like Jurong Island. Singapore uses the landfill method to reclaim the sea at the south of the country, but polders have been recently used too. The country's rapid reclamation projects has made disputes with its neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Climate
Singapore is hot and wet all year round. It has a tropical rainforest climate (Af in the Köppen climate classification), which means there are no seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) in Singapore. There is the most rain at the end of the year, and the temperature is usually around 20 °C to 35 °C.
Although Singapore does not experience the four seasons, the period from May to June is usually warmer, while the period from November to January is cooler because of the more frequent rains and monsoonal winds in Singapore during the year-end.
Relations with other countries
Singapore has diplomatic relations with 175 other Sovereign states. Singapore's foreign policy is to maintain a secure environment in Southeast Asia as well as the countries near Southeast Asia. A basic rule is the political and economic stability in Southeast Asia.
ASEAN
Singapore is part of the ASEAN (Association of the South East Asian nations) network, which is an organisation that unites all Southeast Asian countries. Member countries of ASEAN work with and help other countries in ASEAN. Singapore is one of the countries that founded ASEAN, and is the most developed country among them all.
Commonwealth of Nations
Singapore is also part of the Commonwealth of Nations, which is for countries that used to be under the British's rule.
Holidays
Public holidays in Singapore:
There are also school holidays, lasting one week in March and September, about one month in June, and about one and a half months in November and December.
Records
Even though it is a small country, Singapore holds many world records with its buildings and people. Some are:
Transportation
Singapore has one of the best infrastructure qualities in the world. Buses, trains, and taxis are easily found.
Most of Singapore are well-connected by a railway system known as the Mass Rapid Transit, or MRT in short. There are also taxi companies like Comfort Cabs, Silver Cab, SMRT Taxis, CityCab and Premier Taxi. There is one telephone number to call a taxi, of which the closest taxi from any company will respond. Apps such as Grab and Gojek as an alternative to taxi companies are also available.
The Mass Rapid Transit of Singapore is the most commonly used form of transportation in Singapore.
The Singaporean land transport system is controlled by the LTA (Land Transport Authority) of Singapore.
Airport
The airport is in Changi. It is on a 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi) site which was reclaimed from the sea.
João Alves Filho
João Alves Filho (3 July 1941 – 24 November 2020) was a Brazilian politician and civil engineer. He was governor of the state of Sergipe from 1983 to 1987, from 1991 to 1995, and from 2003 to 2007. From 1987 to 1990 he was Brazilian Minister of the Interior. From 1975 to 1979 and again from 2013 to 2017, he was mayor of Aracju.
He died on 24 November 2020, aged 79, in Brasília from COVID-19.
Bourg-sous-Châtelet
Bourg-sous-Châtelet is a commune. It is found in the region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in the Territoire de Belfort department in the northeast of France.
Alan Baker (mathematician)
Alan Baker, FRS (19 August 1939 – 4 February 2018 ) was an English mathematician. He was known for his work on effective methods in number theory, in particular ideas from transcendental number theory. He was born in London. He worked at the University of Cambridge. In 1970, Baker won the Fields Medal.
In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.