ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (15 April 1793 – 23 November 1864 (Julian calendar: 11 November)) was a German-born Russian astronomer. He was born in Altona (now an area of Hamburg), Germany, but later lived in Russia. He was an expert on double stars and one of the first astronomers to measure stellar parallax (closely related to the work by Friedrich Bessel). While director of Dorpat Observatory (1817–39) he wrote "Stellarum Duplicum et Multiplicum" (1837), which proved that double stars are not exceptional and that star systems are governed by the laws of gravity. Struve added a lot to the study of galactic structure and also engaged in notable geodetic operations such as the triangulation of Livonia and the measurement of an arc of the meridian. In 1839 he became director of the new Pulkovo Observatory and was one of the first three astronomers who almost simultaneously obtained an approximate stellar parallax. (One of the others being Bessel) In 1822 he published the first of many double-star catalogues, the identifying numbers of which are still used today. Struve's stars, however, are now often named in his honor (for example, Struve 2398), whereas the original catalogue prefix was the Greek letter sigma. In 1833 he moved to Russia to set up the Pulkovo Observatory near St. Petersburg, of which he was director until his retirement in 1862, when his son took over in the post. In total, Friedrich Struve produced 272 astronomical works and 18 children; his great-grandson Otto, by contrast, produced 907 works but zero children. His son, Otto Wilhelm von Struve (1819–1905) succeeded him as director (1862–89) of the Pulkovo Observatory.
Helsinki () is the capital city of Finland. Helsinki is the largest city in Finland. 604,380 (31.12.2012) people live in Helsinki, and 1,360,000 live in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Helsinki is in the south of Finland, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The city is in the Uusimaa region. When one looks from Helsinki, Tallinn is on the opposite side of the sea, but it is too far away to see. A poetic name for Helsinki is "the daughter of the Baltic Sea". History. In 1550, Swedish king Gustav Vasa commanded people to build a new city and move there. His idea was to build a new place to trade, which would be more popular than Tallinn. The idea did not work well, and many people returned from Helsinki to their homes. Later Sweden built the fortress Suomenlinna in Helsinki. After Russia had taken Finland from Sweden in several wars, they started developing Helsinki. Helsinki became the capital of autonomous province of Finland. When Finland became independent in 1917, Helsinki stayed as the capital city. Geography. Helsinki spreads around several bays and over several islands. Some famous islands include Seurasaari, Lauttasaari and Korkeasaari - which is also the country's biggest zoo - as well as the fortress island of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg). The metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki also includes two of Finland's biggest cities, Espoo to the west of Helsinki, and Vantaa to the north. These two cities, along with Helsinki itself and the small town of Kauniainen (which is in fact surrounded by Espoo), make up the Capital Region ("Pääkaupunkiseutu" in Finnish or "Huvudstadsregionen" in Swedish). There are other towns nearby that are part of Greater Helsinki, including Järvenpää, Kerava, Tuusula, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Kirkkonummi, Mäntsälä and Vihti. They have become popular places for Helsinki commuters to live
Jehovah's Witnesses is a religious group with more than eight million members around the world.  They believe that God (who they call Jehovah) will end crime, violence, sickness and death by destroying all badness in the world. They say God's kingdom will restore God's original purpose for the earth: to bring about peace for all humans who live by the Bible's standards. Some of their beliefs are very different than most other Christian churches'. This is especially true with beliefs about who God is, and what his plans are for humans and the earth. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that only 144,000 people will go to heaven, and that all the other people who obey God will live forever in paradise on earth.  They do not believe that God is a Trinity. They believe Jesus died on a single pole rather than a cross. They do not use images or symbols such as the cross. They teach that when people die, they remain in the grave until God resurrects them when God's kingdom rules over earth. Jehovah's Witnesses are best known for preachingfrom door-to-door and in other public places, and offering their magazines, "The Watchtower" and "Awake!" They are also well known for refusing to join armies and refusing blood transfusions. History. In 1870 a preacher and clothing store owner, Charles Taze Russell, heard an Adventist preacher speak. The preacher said the Bible contained clues that showed God was about to set up a kingdom over earth. He said the kingdom, which is mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible, would be based in heaven. It would completely change the way of life for everyone in the world, he claimed. Russell studied that preacher's teachings and looked through the Bible, and he ended up with some new beliefs. Russell started a Bible study group in Pennsylvania in 1876, which became known as the Bible Students. They started a religious magazine called "The Watchtower". After Russell died, Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over. The Bible Students who stayed with him took the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931. Begin
A wife is a married woman. "Married" means that the law says two people are legally "joined". During the marriage ceremony, the wife is called the bride. In countries and times it has been different how many wives a man can have legally. In old times there were no limitations in some countries. In Christianity and Judaism a husband (a married man) can have one wife (monogamy). In Islam a husband can have up to four wives (polygamy). There are some names for special kinds of wives. For example, a queen is a wife of a king.  A man whose wife is deceased is called a widower.
Catherine Parr (alternatively Katherine or Kateryn) (26 August 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and of Ireland (1543–47). She was the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII. She married him on 12 July 1543, and outlived him by one year. She was also the most-married English queen, with four husbands. She was also the first woman to be queen of both England and Ireland. Catherine had a close relationship with Henry's three children. She personally helped teach school for Elizabeth and Edward, both of whom became English monarchs. She helped get the Third Succession Act in 1543 passed. This placed Mary I and Elizabeth I, back into the line of succession to the English throne. Henry died on 28 January 1547. Six months after Henry's death, she married her fourth and final husband, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.  Catherine gave birth to her only child — a daughter, Mary Seymour. She was named after Catherine's stepdaughter Mary – on 30 August 1548. She died only six days later, on 5 September 1548, at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, from what was probably childbed fever (sepsis). This was common at that time, because births did not happen in clean conditions.  Many years later, in 1782, the coffin of Queen Catherine was found in the ruins of the Sudeley Castle chapel.
Queen are a British rock band formed in 1970. They are among the most commercially successful bands in history. They have sold over 300 million albums worldwide. The first members of the band were Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (lead guitar, vocals), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals), and John Deacon (bass guitar). Their current guest lead singer is Adam Lambert. Freddie Mercury died of AIDS-related bronchopneumonia on November 24, 1991 at the age of 45. In 1997, John Deacon retired from music to spend more time with his family. The other two members toured with Paul Rodgers from 2005 to 2006. In December 2018 it was announced that Queen &amp; Lambert would bring its Rhapsody Tour to The Forum in 2019. Three of Queen's biggest hits were"Bohemian Rhapsody”, "We Will Rock You", and "We Are the Champions". Formation. With his friend Tim Staffell, Brian May started a band called 1984 in the mid-1960s. The band broke up after a short time, then May started another band, teaming up with two fellow college students, Tim Staffell and Roger Taylor. They called themselves Smile with Roger Taylor on drums and vocals, Tim Staffell on vocals and bass, and Brian May on guitar and vocals. They had a few hits such as "April Lady". Tim Staffell became friends with another college student, Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara (to be later known as Freddie Mercury) and Freddie became a big fan of Smile and encouraged them a lot. Later on, Tim left Smile to join Humpy Bong, and Freddie subsequently joined the band on vocals and piano in 1970. Freddie came up with the name Queen, so they changed it from Smile to Queen. They then started auditions for a new bassist. They were going through several bassists during this time and none of them stuck. None of the auditioners managed to suit the place of the new bassist, but finally, in 1971, John Deacon joined the band. Queen's first album
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were an American folk and rock music duo. They were two childhood friends, who became famous in the 1960s. Their songs, including "Mrs. Robinson", "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright", "The Sound of Silence", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water", all composed by Simon, are still popular to this day. Their free concert in New York City's Central Park in 1981 was the biggest concert ever, with 500,000 people (about the same number as Woodstock). The band broke up in 1970.
Madagascar is a large island nation in the Indian Ocean. It is off of the East coast of Africa and its capital is Antananarivo. Twenty-two million people live there. It is the world's fourth largest island.  The official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French. Pre-human history. About two hundred million years ago, Madagascar was a part of a huge supercontinent called Pangaea. When this broke up, Madagascar was attached to what is now the Indian subcontinent. Madagascar broke away from India and moved closer to Africa.  The long history of separation from other continents has allowed plants and animals on the island to evolve in relative isolation. Many of its animals came from Africa, because the island is closer to Africa than to India. Many of these endemic Malagasy animals have died out since the arrival of humans, particularly the megafauna. Despite this, and massive deforestation, Madagascar is still home to an incredible array of wildlife. Most of the wildlife is unique. Environment. Madagascar is home to many species that were not known to Europeans about until around 1679 when Dutch explorers went there. They do not exist elsewhere in Africa. They only exist in Madagascar. In fact, most of the mammals living in Madagascar do not live anywhere else in the world.  Many species in Madagascar are in danger because much of the forest has been cut down. Forests are cut down so the land can grow crops such as coffee, which is an important export crop for Madagascar. Economy. Agriculture is a big part of the economy in Madagascar, including the growing of coffee and vanilla. Madagascar sells more vanilla than any other country in the world. Madagascar also makes money from tourism. Provinces. In 2004 Madagascar was divided into 22 regions. It used to be divided into 6 provinces. Human history. People have probably lived in Madagascar for at least 2000 years. France took over the city of Antananarivo in 1895, and added Madagascar as a colony two years later. Madagascar became independent on 26 June, 1960.
A board game is a game usually played with pieces on a board, or some area with marked spaces.  Most board games use pieces that may be moved, placed, or traded depending on the rules of the game. These pieces may be money, chips, pawns, or other objects. Board games may often involve some random chance with dice or cards. There are many board games with a long history in some cultures. Examples of these games are chess, checkers, backgammon, parqués, and go. There are also a great number of popular board games that have been created more recently, in the past hundred years. Among these games are Scrabble, Monopoly and Sorry!.  Chess, and most versions of checkers, are played on a 8x8 square board with 32 white squares and 32 black squares. International checkers is played on a 10x10 square board. Older than chess, but not by much, is tafl (pronounced 'tabl'), later called "hneftafl". This is an old Norse board game with just two types of pieces. Its pieces, when found in Britain, have often been wrongly ascribed to chess. In chess, of course, the board is different, and there are six kinds of pieces.
Brighton is a city on the south coast of England. It was called "Brighthelmstone". It is in the county of East Sussex. In 2000, it joined Hove to become the city of Brighton &amp; Hove. Historically, Brighton forms the main part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation, with 474,485 inhabitants (2011 census). This is England's 12th largest conurbation, and the mostly densely populated area outside London. History. From the 1730s, Brighton entered its second phase of development—one which brought a rapid improvement in its fortunes. The fad for bathing in seawater as a cure for illnesses was encouraged. From the 1760s it was a boarding point for boats travelling to France. Road transport to London was improved when the main road via Crawley was turnpiked in 1770. Spas and indoor baths were opened by physicians. From 1780, development of Georgian terraced houses started. The fishing village developed to the fashionable resort of Brighton. Growth of the town was encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) after his first visit in 1783. He spent much of his leisure time in the town, and had the Royal Pavilion built during the early part of his Regency. The arrival of the London and Brighton Railway in 1841 brought Brighton within the reach of day-trippers from London. Some major attractions such as the West Pier and the Brighton Palace Pier were built for the growing number of tourists. The population grew from around 7,000 in 1801 to more than 120,000 by 1901. In 1984, a Provisional Irish Republican Army bombing killed five people. Modern-day Brighton is a centre for education, sports, and recreation. It has two universities: University of Sussex and the University of Brighton. It also has 54 other schools.  In 2003, the universities of Sussex and Brighton formed a medical school, known as Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Brighton has a thriving LGBT community and every year in the first weekend in August Pride festivities are held.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter. His work had a great influence on modern art because of its striking colours and emotional power. He suffered from delusions and fits of mental illness. When he was 37, he died by committing suicide. When he was a young man, Van Gogh worked for a company of art dealers. He traveled between The Hague, London and Paris. After that, he taught in England. He then wanted to become a pastor and spread the Gospel, and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining place in Belgium. He began drawing the people there, and in 1885, he painted his first important work, "The Potato Eaters". He usually painted in dark colors at this time. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and found out about the French impressionists. Later, he moved to the south of France, and the colors in his art became brighter. His special style of art was developed and later fully grown during the time he stayed in Arles in 1888. Early life. He was born Vincent Willem van Gogh on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. His father, Theodorus van Gogh, was a pastor. His mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was an artist. Van Gogh was brought up in a religious and cultured family. He was very emotional and he did not have a great deal of self-confidence. He was also a replacement child. He was born a year after the death of his brother, also named Vincent. He even had the same birthday. Living at the church rectory Vincent walked past the grave of his dead brother every day. There has been speculation that van Gogh suffered later psychological trauma as a result, but this cannot be proved. Career. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had two sad romances. He also had worked unsuccessfully in a bookstore, as an art salesman, and a preacher. He remained in Belgium, where he had preached, to study
A rainbow is an arc of colour in the sky that can be seen when the sun shines through falling rain. The pattern of colours, called a spectrum, starts with red on the outside and changes through orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet on the inside. Sometimes a second, larger, dimmer rainbow is seen. A rainbow is created when white light is bent (refracted) while entering a droplet of water, split into separate colours, and reflected back. A rainbow is actually round like a circle. On the ground, the bottom part is hidden, but in the sky, like from a flying airplane, it can be seen as a circle around the point opposite the Sun.  Rainbows often appear after storms, and are popular symbols for peace in many cultures. Cause. The rainbow effect can be seen when there are water drops in the air and the sun is giving light at the back of the observer at a low distance up or angle. Rainbows always appear opposite the Sun: they form circles around the shadow of your head (which is the point opposite the Sun). While sunlight is white, all white light is actually a blend of many different colours. Water and other materials bend the different colours at different angles, some more strongly than others. This is called dispersion. By splitting up white light into its separate colours, rainbows appear colourful even though the source of light hitting them is white. The rainbow displays with the deepest effect in our minds take place when: Another common place to see the rainbow effect is near waterfalls. Parts of rainbows can be seen some of the time: An unnatural rainbow effect can also be made by spraying drops of water into the air on a sunny day. Colours of the rainbow. The rainbow has no definite number of physical colours, but seven are traditionally listed. Below is a commonly used list of seven colours in the order seen in a rainbow. Computer screens cannot show them precisely but can make colours that look similar. (Each colour shows the number codes used to tell a computer how to display the colour.)
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a department of the United States government that is responsible for intelligence. Its headquarters are at the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia. History. The United States has a history in intelligence services dating back to its origins. During the American Revolution, George Washington and other Founding Fathers of the United States such as Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, and Patrick Henry used espionage networks.  The CIA was formed in 1947, after World War II. Many of the people who started the CIA, including General John K. Singlaub, had been part of the Office of Strategic Services. This was the United States' main spy agency during the war.  In 1992, Saddam Hussein tried to kill former United States President George H. W. Bush, who was once Director of the CIA, during a visit to Kuwait. The assassination plot failed. President Bill Clinton reacted by firing cruise missiles at Iraq's main intelligence headquarters. However, the missiles were fired at night, so the people who had planned the assassination were not killed; the building's cleaners were.  Since March 19, 2021, William Joseph Burns has been Director of the CIA.  Operations. CIA has many clandestine, (secret) operations. Some CIA employees have been killed during their work. Their names are on a CIA memorial with a star for them, but some of the names are still secret. The number of stars is deliberately inaccurate.  The CIA also uses open sources to gather information. Analysts read foreign newspapers and watch foreign news broadcasts to learn information, which can be pieced together to make a conclusion. The CIA used to report to the President. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, a reorganization made the CIA and other intelligence agencies report to a Director of National Intelligence. Portrayals. The CIA has been featured in many television and film productions, including:
1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar, the 1975th year of the Common Era (CE) and "Anno Domini" (AD) designations, .
Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson; 14 October 1958) is a British musican and computer designer. He is probably most famous for his 1982 hit, "She Blinded me with Science". He married actress Kathleen Beller in 1988. The couple have three children together.
Seismic retrofitting is the modification of buildings that already exist to make them resistant to earthquakes. Seismic retrofitting techniques can be applied to other kinds of natural disasters such as tornadoes and strong winds from thunderstorms. Seismic retrofit performance objectives. Main levels of retrofitted building structure performance objectives may vary, namely:
Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil. It is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Until April 21, 1960, it was the capital city of Brazil. According to the 2022 Census, the city had 6,211,223 people, and an area of over 1,000 km2. In 2021 Eduardo Paes became Mayor, having been mayor before in 2009 to 2017.  History and geography. The city was started in 1565. It is named for a river that does not exist after Portuguese explorers mistook an oceanic bay for a river. Copacabana Beach, Ipanema Beach, Sugar Loaf Mountain (in Portuguese, "Pão de Açúcar"), the statue of Christ the Redeemer (in Portuguese, "Cristo Redentor"), a harbor on Guanabara Bay, and Tom Jobim Airport are in Rio de Janeiro. It has much commerce and many industries, especially textiles, food, chemicals, and metallurgy. Most of these industries are in the northern and western suburbs of the city. Rio de Janeiro also has a small rural area, near the suburb of Campo Grande, where fruits and vegetables are grown. Other cities near Rio de Janeiro, like Duque de Caxias, Nova Iguaçu, Queimados and São Gonçalo, that form the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, also have a lot of industries and population. The city hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. Geography. The city is 420 kilometers (about 261 miles) away from São Paulo, the biggest city in South America. The cities of Rio and São Paulo are linked by the Presidente Dutra Highway (also known as "Via Dutra"). The region crossed by the Presidente Dutra Highway has been an important industrial zone since the 1950s. In the city of Rio de Janeiro lies Tijuca National Park, created in 1961. This park contains some 33 km2, between the northern and the southern parts of the city. The district (in Portuguese, "bairro") of Santa Tereza can be reached by taking an electric tram (in Portuguese, "bonde") from central Rio de Janeiro (near "Largo da Carioca" subway station), crossing over the "Arcos da Lapa", an aqueduct built during the colonial period to provide water to the city.