The Queen's Hall was built because London needed a new concert hall in the centre of the town. It stood in Langham Place, just next to where BBC Broadcasting House stands today. The Queen's Hall had seating for up to 3,000 people (including the orchestra). The arena (downstairs) had removable seating. The polished floor could be used for dancing. The acoustics of the hall were excellent. There was also a smaller hall, The Queen's Small Hall, which seated 500 people. This was used for chamber music. In later years it was used as a recording studio. The architect who designed the hall was Thomas Edward Knightley.
The first time The Queen's Hall was used was on 25 November 1893 when Newman gave a children's party in the afternoon. In the evening about 2000 ladies and gentlemen came to a concert given by the Band of the Coldstream Guards, which included vocal music, piano and organ solos. At 11.00pm the seats in the arena were removed and the dancing began. The official opening of the hall took place on 2 December. On 10 August 1895 the first Promenade concert was given with Henry Wood conducting.
On January 14, 1896, the first public movie show was given at the Queen's Hall to members and wives of the Royal Photographic Society.
The seats were uncomfortable because there was not enough leg room, so in 1913 and 1919 some changes were made, after which the hall could seat 2400 people.
From 1930 to 1941, the BBC Symphony Orchestra regularly gave broadcast concerts in the hall. Arturo Toscanini, who guest conducted the orchestra during the 1930s, made some famous recordings in the Queen's Hall in the late 1930s.
On 10 May 1941 (during the World War II) the Royal Choral Society gave a concert in the Queen's Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra. They performed Elgar's oratorio "Dream of Gerontius" under the conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent. It was the last concert ever given there because, later that night, the hall was completely destroyed by bombs.
After the destruction of Queen's Hall, the BBC Symphony Orchestra moved its broadcast concerts and recording sessions to Bedford School. Among the great recordings made at the school was Sir Adrian Boult's recording of Elgar's second symphony. The Proms continued in the Royal Albert Hall. They also took place in Bristol and Bedford, but after the war they settled in the Royal Albert Hall where they continue today.
Avesta
Avesta is the holy book of Zoroastrianism. It is written in the Avestan language. The Avesta has also been translated into other languages including Farsi and English. The oldest portion, the Ghathas, are the religious songs composed by Zoroaster himself. Other parts of Avesta are named Yasna, Yashts, Visperad, Vendidad and Khordeh Avesta. There are two other religious texts in Zoroastrianism which are named Denkard and Ardaviraf Namak.
Darius I of Persia
Darius the Great (c. 549 BC– 486/485 BC) was the son of Hystaspes and Shah of Iran from 522 BC to 485 BC. After Darius became Shah of Iran, he divided the Persian Empire into twenty provinces, and appointed a governor for each province. He introduced golden coins and developed commerce within the empire and trade without. Darius allowed Jews to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. He also built many temples in Egypt. The largest building that was built by Darius, is the new capital of Persepolis, near Pasargadae. Darius died in Persepolis. His tomb was cut into a rock face near Persepolis. After his death, Xerxes became the Shah of Iran.
Pasargadae
Pasargadae was a city in ancient Persia, and is today a historical site in Fars,Iran. Pasargadae was the first capital of the Persian Empire. The building of the capital city by Cyrus the Great, begun in 546 BCE, but was left unfinished, for Cyrus died in 530 BCE. Pasargade remained the Persian capital unti Darius I built the Persepolis. The tomb of Cyrus the Great is in this city.
Pasargadae is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
American Staffordshire Terrier
The American Staffordshire terrier is a breed of dog.
It was first bred in British colonies of North America in the nineteenth century. Its early ancestors are the bulldog and the terrier, and used to be called the Blue Paul terrier. In the 1930s, dogbreeders bred it with the Pit bull terrier. Its name was changed to the American Staffordshire Terrier in 1972.
Persepolis
Persepolis (Old Persian: 'Pars', New Persian: تخت جمشید, 'Takht-e Jamshid') was an ancient capital of the second Iranian dynasty, the Achaemenid Empire. Ancient Persians called it Parsa, meaning "the city of Persians". Persepolis () is the Greek translation of the name. In modern Iran, the city is known as Takht-e-Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid). The largest building in Persepolis is the Apadana Hall with 72 columns. The Tachara palace built by Darius I is also an important building. The Hadish palace in Persepolis was started by Xerxes and finished by his son Artaxerxes.
Persepolis has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
Xerxes
Xerxes the Great was a Shah of Iran (485–465 BC) of AchaemenidEmpire. Xerxes was son of Darius I and Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus the Great. After Darius died, Xerxes became the Shah of Iran. At the Battle of Thermopylae, Xerxes defeated Greek warriors. After winning at Thermopylae, Xerxes then took control of Athens with his army. Finally, Greek warriors won the Battle of Salamis against Xerxes in 480 BC.
The movie "300" is based on Xerxes.
Shell (zoology)
A shell is a hard outer layer, which has evolved in a very wide variety of different animals, including molluscs, sea urchins, crustaceans, turtles and tortoises, armadillos, etc.
Seashells are perhaps the most familiar and most common shells, both in the wild and for sale as decorative objects. They are usually composed of calcium carbonate, in the form of calcite or aragonite. This can have different forms, one is nacre or mother of pearl. Other kinds of animal shells are made from chitin, bone and cartilage, or silica.
Shells of many types were popular as human decorations, either used whole or cut into pieces. One used them for all kinds of pendants, beads, buttons, brooches, rings, and hair combs.
Small pieces of colored shell and iridescent shell have been used to create mosaics and inlays which have been used to decorate larger items such as boxes and furniture. Large numbers of whole seashells, arranged to form patterns, have been used to decorate man-made grottos.
Several kinds of sea animals have exoskeletons which one can find after their death in beach drift. Often beachcombers pick them. But usually only those of molluscs (also spelled "mollusks") are known as seashells.
The majority of shell-forming molluscs belong to two classes: Gastropoda (univalves, or snails) and Bivalvia (bivalves or clams, oysters, scallops, etc.).
Tortoise
A tortoise is a reptile of the order Testudines which lives on land. Like their aquatic cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. Most are quite small, but island tortoises have several times evolved to a large size: those on the Galapagos are famous. Darwin made one of his rare mistakes when he did not note which island each of them came from. Later it became clear that they were slightly different on different islands.
Tortoise (disambiguation)
Tortoise may mean:
Sea turtle
Sea turtles ("Chelonioidea") are turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean, and some species travel between oceans. The term is US English. In British English they are simply called "turtles"; fresh-water chelonians are called "terrapins" and land chelonians are called tortoises.
The earliest known turtles are from the Middle Jurassic. So, turtles are one of the oldest surviving reptile groups: they are more ancient than snakes or crocodiless.
There are seven species of sea turtle: Kemp's ridley sea turtle, the olive ridley, the flatback, the green, the loggerhead, the hawksbill and the leatherback.