ejaasaari/simplewiki-2025-04-01 huggingface dataset:
Graciela Flores "Grace" Napolitano (born December 4, 1936) is an American politician. She was the U.S. Representative for from 1999 until 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Climacoceratide is a family of artiodactyls which lived in Miocene in Africa. They're closely related to giraffes, with some genera, like "Prolibytherium" previously classified as giraffes. The climacoceratids, named after one of their members, "Climacoceras", were previously placed in the family Palaeomerycidae, then in Giraffidae. In 1978, W.D. Hamilton made a new family, placing it near Giraffidae in the superfamily Giraffoidea. They differ from giraffes as their ossicones are from different bones.
Fantasmagorie is a hand drawn animated movie made in 1908 by Émile Cohl. It is one of the first animated cartoons ever made. References.
Eric Haydock (born Eric John Haddock; 3 February 1943 – 5 January 2019) was a British musician. He was best known as the original bass guitarist of The Hollies from December 1962 until July 1966. Haydock died on 5 January 2019, at the age of 75.
The Hollies is a British rock and pop group that became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s (231 weeks on the UK singles charts during the 1960s, the 9th highest of any artist of the decade) and into the mid 1970s. It was formed by Allan Clarke and Graham Nash in 1962 in Manchester. Their best known songs were "Bus Stop", "Just One Look", "Look Through Any Window", "I Can't Let Go", "Bus Stop", "Stop Stop Stop", "On a Carousel", "Carrie Anne", "Jennifer Eccles", and later "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress", and "The Air That I Breathe". They are one of the few British groups of the early 1960s, along with the Rolling Stones, that have never disbanded and continue to record and perform. The Hollies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
José Ramón Fernández Álvarez (November 4, 1923 – January 6, 2019) was a Cuban Communist leader. He was a Vice-President of the Council of Ministers from 1976 until his death in 2019. Life. He was born in Santiago de Cuba. During the Bay of Pigs Invasion on 17 April 1961, he was director of militia training and based at Managua near Havana. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Pan American Sports Organization. In recognition of his work he was awarded several medals, among them the title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba. Fernández died on January 6, 2019 in Havana at the age of 95.
The Seven Bridges of Paso Mayor is a railway bridge belonging to the Rosario Puerto Belgrano Railroad, which crosses the course of the Sauce Grande River in the limits of the Coronel Rosales and Coronel Pringles Municipalities, south of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. History. It gets its name for being a bridge divided into seven sections, six of a type structure "cage" and one "open". It is in the Paso Mayor of the River Sauce Grande. Its was built in 1908. It is part of the Rosario Puerto Belgrano Railroad, which crosses from north to south, the south of the Santa Fe Province and all the west of the Buenos Aires Province. It was used by a railway for the last time in 1977 when the southern section of that railway branch was closed by a decree of the military government. In the 90 this railway line was leased to the company Ferro Expreso Pampeano S.A.. Structure. The supports of each end are 266 meters each. Each has two wings. Each one of the boards of each section rests on six pillars that are in what was the bed of the formerly mighty river. The entire structure of the bridge, both the "upper rope", "lower rope", "diagonal", "lower bracing", "upper bracing", "poles", "joists", "bolts" and other parts of the bridges were built according to the following generalities: Declaration of Historical Heritage. In 2010 the Deliberative Council of the Coronel Rosales Municipality declared it "Architectural, Historical and Cultural Heritage". In 2012 it was declared a provincial historical heritage by the legislature of the Buenos Aires Province. Controversy. Despite being recently declared historical heritage, it was left without one of its sections, the one used by Ferro Expreso Pampeano (Fepsa) to replace the damaged one in the Province of Santa Fe that crossed on Route 18 south of Rosario. The National Transportation Regulatory Commission demanded that Fepsa "refrain from carrying out any operation that is not authorized by the competent authority to change all or part of the bridge." Days later, with the withdrawal of the already completed structure, the control body reiterated the request for restitution of the railway material before 30 days and threatened to initiate legal actions. Finally the bridge was restored to the original place ending the controversy.
Askar Akayevich Akayev (; born 10 November 1944) is a retired Kyrgyz politician. He was the 1st President of Kyrgyzstan from 27 October 1990 until 24 March 2005. In 2005, people disagreed about the result of the election. Some people said the election was unfair. There were protests and Akayev escaped to Russia. He became a professor at Moscow State University.
Annalise Braakensiek (9 December 1972 – 6 January 2019) was an Australian model, actress, and television presenter. She was born in Sydney. She was known for her role as Claudia Macpherson in the 2000 television series "Pizza" and on the 2003 movie "Fat Pizza". Braakensiek was found dead in her Sydney apartment on 6 January 2019 at the age of 46.
Gene Zwozdesky, (July 24, 1948 – January 6, 2019) was a Canadian politician. He was in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1993 to 2015, and was the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2015. He was born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. Zwozdesky died of cancer in Edmonton, Alberta on January 6, 2019, aged 70.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the second album recorded by Neutral Milk Hotel. It was released in February 1998. After the album came out and the band finished doing concerts to promote it, the leader of the band named Jeff Mangum became very private and basically disappeared except for one small concert in New Zealand and a reunion tour in the 2010s. Sound. The album has many influences. Some of them are folk music, noise rock, and Eastern European music. A wide variety of instruments are played on the album. Some of them are bagpipes, distorted electric guitars, musical saw, accordion, and brass instruments.
Baron Carl "Gustaf" Emil Mannerheim (; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. Before World War I he was an officer in the Imperial Russian Army. With the Russian Revolution Finland declared independence and Mannerheim led the Whites in the Finnish Civil War. He became Regent of Finland (1918–1919), commander-in-chief of Finland's defence forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and the sixth President of Finland (1944–1946).
DC Universe Online is a free to play video game. It has around 18 million users worldwide. Reception. DC Universe Online received good reviews. It receive a grade of 7/10 from IGN. The rating further improves to 8/10 after its PlayStation 4 launch. As of August 2014, the game has 18 million registered users. On gaming platforms PlayStation 3 and 4, the game is free of charge to play. It is the highest profit earning game on those platforms.
Sylvia Belle Chase (February 23, 1938 – January 3, 2019) was an American broadcast journalist. She was a correspondent for ABC's "20/20" from 1978 until 1985. She left to become a news anchor at KRON-TV in San Francisco; in 1990 she returned to ABC News in New York.  Chase was born in Northfield, Minnesota. She studied at University of California, Los Angeles. Chase, who was diabetic, died in Belvedere, California on January 3, 2019 from brain cancer, aged 80.
Alan Derek Piggott (27 December 1922 – 6 January 2019) was a British aviator. He was best known glider pilots and instructors. He had over 5,000 hours on over 153 types of powered aircraft and over 5,000 hours on over 184 types of glider.  In 1961 he became the first person to make an officially authenticated take-off and flight in a man-powered aircraft.  Piggott died of a stroke, aged 96, on 6 January 2019 in Lasham, Hampshire.
William Morgan Sheppard (24 August 1932 – 6 January 2019) also known as Morgan Sheppard or W. Morgan Sheppard, was an English actor. He was born in London. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Sheppard was known for his roles in "Star Trek", "Max Headroom" and in "Gods and Generals". Sheppard died on 6 January 2019 at his home in Los Angeles, California from cancer, aged 86.
Thomas Rukavina (August 23, 1950 – January 7, 2019) was an American politician. He was born in Virginia, Minnesota. He was a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL). He was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1987 to 2013. In 2010 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Minnesota, seeking the DFL nomination. He withdrew from the election. He was a St. Louis County commissioner from 2015 to 2018. Rukavina was arrested on July 31, 2004, for fourth-degree drunk driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.15. He pleaded guilty to the charge. Rukavina died of leukemia on January 7, 2019 at a hospital in Minneapolis, aged 68.
Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American director and producer. He is known for directing the "Rush Hour" movie series, "The Family Man", "Red Dragon", "", and "Tower Heist". Ratner is the co-founder of RatPac Entertainment, a movie production and financing company. On January 19, 2017, Ratner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his works to the motion picture industry. In late 2017, seven women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, accused Ratner of sexual misconduct and harassment.
José Antonio Pujante Diekmann (December 10, 1964 – January 1, 2019) was a Spanish politician and philosophy professor. Pujante was a deputy of the Regional Assembly of Murcia from 2007 until his death in office in 2019. He was born in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, France. Pujante died of a heart attack on January 1, 2019, in Murcia, Spain at the age of 54.
Bernard Tchoullouyan (12 April 1953 — 6 January 2019) was a French former judoka. He won a world title in 1981 and an Olympic bronze medal in 1980. He was born in Marseille, France. Tchoullouyan died on 6 January 2019 from a heart attack, at the age of 65.
Grim Fandango is an adventure video game made by LucasArts for Windows computers. It was released in October 1998. The game was directed by Tim Schafer. Style. The style of the game mixes film noir movies, Mexican folklore, and Aztec beliefs about what happens after death. Reviews. It is often called one of the best video games ever made because of its story, characters, writing, and visuals.
Carmencita Ongsiako Reyes (November 9, 1931 – January 7, 2019) was a Filipino politician and jurist. She was an Assemblywoman from 1985 to 1986, Congresswoman of Marinduque from 1978 to 1998 and 2007 to 2010, as well as governor from 1998 to 2007 and 2010 to her death. Reyes died on January 7, 2019 in Manila at the age of 87.
John Mendelsohn (August 31, 1936 – January 7, 2019) was an American physician. He was President of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was MD Anderson President from 1996 to 2011.  After his retirement in 2011, Mendelsohn remained on the faculty as co-director of the new Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy. He was a senior fellow in health and technology at the Baker Institute. Mendelsohn was only the third full-time president of MD Anderson. Mendelsohn died on January 7, 2019 from glioblastoma in Houston, aged 82.
Harold Demsetz (; May 31, 1930 – January 4, 2019) was an American economist. He was a professor of economics at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Demsetz was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a director of the Mont Pelerin Society, and a past (1996) president of the Western Economics Association. He was known for his works in the Nirvana fallacy. Demsetz died on January 4, 2019 at the age of 88.
Edwin B. "Ted" Erickson (1938 – January 7, 2019) was an American politician and businessman. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but raised in Bryn Mawr. He was a Republican member of the Pennsylvania Senate, representing the 26th District from 2001 to 2015. Erickson died on January 7, 2019 in Reading, Pennsylvania, aged 80.
George Wilson "Doddie" Weir (4 July 1970 – 26 November 2022) was a Scottish rugby union player. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He played as a lock. He made 61 international appearances for the Scotland national team from 1990 to 2000. In June 2017, Weir announced he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (ALS) in order to promote Global MND Awareness Day which caused his death on 26 November 2022.
Khas Rajput (Devanagari: खस राजपूत) is a Rajput (warrior-ruler) community among Khas people. The term is popularly denoted to Khas people who follow Hindu tradition in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is used very less in Nepal and is replaced by the term Chhetri. They have been connected to the Khasas mentioned in the ancient Hindu literature. Historian Bal Krishna Sharma and Dor Bahadur Bista speculates that the Khas people were of Indo-European origin. Historian Baburam Acharya speculates that Khas are a sub-clan of Aiḍa, an Arya clan originated at Idavritt (modern day Kashmir). Khas were living in the Idavaritt in the 3rd millennium B.C.E. and the original meaning of the term Khas was Raja or Kshatriya (Yoddha). He further speculates that Kashmir has been named from its local residents Khas as Khasmir. In the 2nd millennium B.C.E., one group of Khas migrated towards Iran while the other group migrated east of Sutlej river settling only in the hill regions up to Bheri River. Historian Balkrishna Pokhrel contends that Khas were not the Vedic Aryans but Aryans of latter period like the Gurjara, Darada, Shaka, Pallava and Pisacha. He further asserts that post-Vedic Aryans were akin to Vedic Aryans in terms of language and culture. History. Traditionally, the Khas people were divided into "Khas Thakuri" (also called Thakuri in Nepal) and "Khas Rajputs" (also called Chhetris in Nepal). In Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand in India, the Khas Rajputs had a lower social status than the other Brahmins and Rajputs. However, in present-day western Nepal, and in Uttarakhand they had the same status as the other Brahmins and Rajputs, possibly as a result of their political power in the Khasa Malla kingdom.
Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing, propeller airliner designed by Douglas. It was very successful, with 607 DC-3s being built. Even today, some companies still use DC-3’s despite better jet planes being for sale. It was basically a longer version of Douglas’s earlier airplane, the DC-2. It was revolutionary to the airplane market when the DC-3 started being built in 1936, as it could fly farther than most aircraft at the time. During WW2, a military version of the DC-3 known as the C-47 “Skytrain” was the primary transport of the US Military. It was used in major events like D-Day.
Vowel length is a feature in languages when how long a vowel is spoken in a word can create a completely different word. Although this is a feature in many languages like Japanese, Arabic, Hawaiian, Classical Latin, and Thai, there are also many languages that do not have this feature.  An example of this would be the Japanese words "chizu", which has a short vowel (a vowel spoken for a short time), and "chīzu", which has a long vowel (a vowel spoken for a long time). The only difference that can be heard is how long the vowel "I" is spoken. The amount of time the vowel is spoken could create two entirely different words. "Chizu" means "map", while "chīzu" "cheese".  When using IPA, this symbol ' is used to show that the vowel before it is a long vowel. For example, "chizu" in IPA is written as /t͡ɕizɯ/, but "chīzu" is written as /t͡ɕi:zɯ/. This symbol is like a colon ('), but it is really two triangles, while a colon is two circles. While Old English had vowel lengthening, most modern dialects of English do not. For example, the words "God" and "good" used to have the same vowel sound, but the vowel in "good ("/go:d/), which was a long vowel, was said longer than it was in "God" ("/"god"/)", which was a short vowel. Although the vowel sounds in Modern English are very different than in Old English, readers can often get an idea of how vowels used to sound like based on an English word's spelling, which often shows words' historical roots rather than their current pronunciation. Long vowels in Old English could be written with a bar on top of the vowel like in "gōd" (good)"." Later, during the days of Middle English, spellings used to spell long vowels included spelling with two vowels together like in "book" or "break" and putting a silent "E" at the end of the word like in "hate". These vowels were
The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) - named so by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen - was a period of shifts in the pronunciation of vowels the English language. It took place approximately from the 15th century (the late Middle English period) until the 18th century (the Early Modern English period). This is the main reason why English words often sound different from how they are spelled. Furthermore, coinciding with the development of print, the Great Vowel Shift and the increasing production of printed materials have brought about the standardisation of the English language as we know it today.  Changes. This change was often divided into two phases (with a following third period in Early Modern English with less critical, minor changes) and varied slightly throughout English dialects. It concerned long vowels, short vowels and diphthongs and from the 1400s continued for several centuries. Some consonants’ pronunciation changes as well and these changes are sometimes described by scholars when discussing the Great Vowel Shift. During the period of Middle English, there were five short and seven long vowels. Through the GVS, the long vowels "/i:/" and "/u:/" gained counterparts they did not have before, restoring the balance in the vowel system. This attempt to achieve balance is thought to be one of the reasons for the start of the GVS. Along with other theories, like the pull-chain and the push-chain theories.  The change of pronunciation during the GVS affected long stressed vowels. Therefore, "“y”" in "“only”" didn’t change pronunciation because it is not stressed. But the same vowel changes pronunciation in the word "“my”" because it is stressed. The place of pronunciation in the mouth changes, it shifted so that is was pronounced in a higher place in the mouth.  How do we know? It is important to note that distinguishing the Middle English pronunciation is just an approximation done by scholars because there aren’t any recordings of spoken language from that period. Historical Division of the GVS. Most generally, the researchers of the GVS have divided it into two phases, which coincidentally correspond with the periods of writings of the two famous English writers: Geoffrey Chauc
A sound change in a language is when the sounds of the language become different over time in historical linguistics. Since people of different languages or dialects often talk to each other, the way people talk becomes more like the way the others talk. Because of this, it is natural for languages to sound differently overtime. Sometimes it happens slowly, while in other times it happens quickly. An example of a sound change in English is the Great Vowel Shift, when all of the long vowel sounds in Middle English changed into what they are today. This is why the way English is spelled is so differently from how it is spoken.  Spelling systems that do not change with the sound changes of a language are often more difficult for a learner to learn how to read in that language. These kinds of spellings are called fossilized spellings. These include spelling systems like English, French, Mongolian script, and Thai. All of these spelling systems have changed little for the past few hundred years, even though their spoken languages sound very different from how they used to sound. Spelling systems that change with the sound changes are often easier for a learner to learn how to read. These languages include Japanese, Turkish, and German. Another much smaller sound shift in many dialects of English is the cot-caught merger, where words with lower back vowels like in "cot" and "caught" sound exactly the same to native speakers of certain English dialects and are spoken without any difference between the two sounds.
Mongolian script was the first writing system to be used to write the Mongolian language. It is similar to the Arabic alphabet in that it is a cursive writing system, or a writing system where all the letters in a word always touch each other and change depending on if the letter is at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. It is a vertically written system, meaning that it is written top-to-bottom, and it is the only vertical writing system to be read left-to-right (all other vertical systems, like Chinese and Korean, are right-to-left). It is one of the two writing systems used to write the Mongolian language, alongside Cyrillic, in the independent country of Mongolia (which is sometimes called Outer Mongolia to distinguish it from Inner Mongolia) and the only writing system used to write the language in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Unlike Arabic, and Old Uyghur, the Traditional Mongolian script and its variants are an abugida and brahmic script. It is also used to write several other Mongolic and Tungustic languages such as Buryat, Kalmyk, Oirat, Manchu, and Xibe. It is believed that the reason why Mongolian script is vertical is so that it could easily be written on the neck of a horse, which horses were a very important part of Mongolian culture. In the year 1208, Genghis Khan captured a Uighur scribe named Tatar-Tonga and forced him to make the alphabet of his native language, the Old Uyghr alphabet, be used to write the Mongolian language. It did not fit the Mongolian language well, and it was difficult to learn even for native Mongolian speakers. In 1941, a few decades after Mongolia became a communist state, the Cyrillic alphabet replaced Mongolian script likely due to influence from their communist ally, the Soviet Union. After the fall of communism, Mongolia made Mongolian script official alongside Cyrillic to revive Mongolian culture. However, Cyrillic is still more common due to the lack of education in Mongolian writing, the lack of money to support it, and the difficulty of typing Mongolian on a computer. Also, more Mongolians can read Cyrillic than Mongolian script. In Inner Mongolia, on the other hand, most ethnic Mongols do not know Cyrillic and can only read Mongolian in the Mongolian script.
The Manchu language (Manchu: , manju gisun) is a Tungustic language and it was the native language of the Manchu people before and during the Qing dynasty. The Manchus are the ethnic minority in China that overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644 and took over the country. When they ruled, they formed the Qing dynasty. Manchu uses a version of the Mongolian script that was changed to better suit the language. For the first 200 years, it was the official language in the courts, although commoners still spoke Chinese. However, during the mid-1800s, it became more common for the Manchu nobles to speak Chinese as their first language. As a matter of fact, China's last emperor, Aisin Gioro Puyi, knew very little Manchu and spoke Chinese as his first language. Nonetheless, Manchu was still written alongside Chinese in official documents until the end of Imperial China. Even though China today has 10 million Manchus, only 20 people speak Manchu today. This makes Manchu a critically endangered language. Almost all Manchus today speak Mandarin Chinese as their first language.