The last Tsar to Rule Serbia was Tsar Stephen Uroš V.
The last Tsar to Rule Russia was Tsar Nicholas II.
The last Tsar to Rule Bulgaria was Tsar Boris III.
1550s
1840
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss ("German": Dollfuß) (October 4, 1892 – July 25, 1934) was the Chancellor of Austria from 1932 until 1933. He led the country as a dictator from early 1933 until 1934.
He studied law in Vienna, and Economics in Berlin. During World War I, he served in the Alps and briefly became a Prisoner of War in 1918.
He became Chancellor on May 20, 1932 as head of a right-wing coalition government. He wanted to solve the problems caused by the Depression. He had problems finding majorities in parliament. The measures he liked to take to deal with inflation were not well liked. In March 1933, he suspended the Austrian parliament. He then governed by decree.
With Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in Germany, Dollfuss feared that the influence of the NSDAP would grow. This would then lead to a growth in popularity for its Austrian counterpart. Because of this, he banned the NSDAP in June 1933. He also banned the SDAPÖ in February 1934.
In September 1933 he formed an umbrella grouping to support the regime, the "Vaterländische Front" (Fatherland Front) and merged the Christian Social Party with the para-military Heimwehr (Home Guard), a Nationalist paramilitary group. The regime which was put into power by him and remained in power until 1938 is often called "Austrofascism". The form of state he employed was called the "Ständestaat".
On July 25, 1934, eight Austrian Nazis entered the Chancellery building and shot and killed Dollfuss in an attempted coup, as a prelude to Anschluss. The Nazis surrendered and were executed. Kurt Schuschnigg became the new dictator of Austria.
Language isolate
A language isolate is a language that is not known to be related to any other language.
Many languages are related to other languages by coming from an older language, and both are still similar. Languages that are related are language families. Most languages known to belong to a language family. However, some are not known to be related to other languages and are called language isolates.
Some language isolates are Basque and Zuni.
Species
A species is a kind of organism. It is a basic unit of biological classification, and a formal rank in taxonomy. Originally, the word was used informally in a rather vague way, but now there are at least 26 different ways it is used.
All animals or plants that are the same kind belong to the same species. Wolves ("Canis lupus") are one species. Humans ("Homo sapiens") are another species. Broadly, the idea is that, for example, cats breed with cats and produce more cats. This is the basis for deciding to have a species called "Felis catus". However, to give a simple definition of 'species' is difficult, and many people have tried.
Species is a word for a particular kind of living thing, for example, a jackdaw. Jackdaws and ravens are similar, so they are together in a larger group (taxon) called a genus, in this case "Corvus". Then there is a family (such as the crow family, which includes crows and ravens as well as jays and magpies). Families are put together into orders such as the songbirds, which includes many families of birds. The next group is the class; all birds are in the same class. After that is the phylum, such as vertebrates, which is all animals with backbones. Last of all is the kingdom, like the animal kingdom. These are ways to classify living things.
There is a mnemonic to help people remember the order of the divisions which are listed again below: "King Phillip Came Over For Great Spaghetti".
Take as an example the bird called a Common Loon or Great Northern Diver:
There is a long history of disagreement over whether species are objective things, or whether they are man-made labels. Those who think species are objectively different point to things which 'good' species do. They look similar, and they breed true, that is, mate with their own kind, and have offspring which are obviously in the same species.
Against this are the many exceptions. There are species which shade gradually into other species, and which interbreed in overlapping populations (see ring species). On the other hand, there are species which look absolutely identical, but which do not breed together (sibling species).
It is quite clear that 'species' as used by palaeontologists and 'species' as used by other biologists cannot be the same. A palaeontologist can only use visible features of a fossil, which are only a small part of the traits of a living species. Not only that, but many species which are virtually identical can only be distinguished by their DNA. This relatively recent discovery of sibling species is very important, and their numbers are growing rapidly. We underestimated the effect of convergent evolution.
The greatest change in the species concept was made by Charles Darwin, for evolution meant that hard-and-fast lines could not be drawn between species. Another shift came when Ernst Mayr proposed the biological species concept, which emphasized the interbreeding population as the heart of the species concept. This meant that, in his view, species were objective, that is not just the subjective opinion of a taxonomist. His explanation of the process of speciation was geographical isolation between populations which had once been interbreeding. Today, emphasis has moved back closer to Darwin's ideas.
According to the most recent estimate, there are about 8.7 million species on Earth. This counts only eukaryote organisms. It leaves out bacteria, archaea and viruses.
Fewer than a quarter of the species have not been identified, named and catalogued. At the present rate, it might take over 1000 years to complete this job. Some will become extinct before this count is complete.
Ancestor
An ancestor is a person (or another organism or thing) from whom (or which) another is descended. Usually, it refers to a person far in the past, rather than the parents or grandparents in the close family. A very similar word is forebear. A female ancestor may be called an ancestress. The line of ancestors from which an organism descends is referred to as its ancestry.
A second meaning relates to evolution. There, it is used of a species or group of species of animals or plants from which others have evolved. In a similar way, the word ancestor can be used for an early prototype or forerunner of a later device.
In law an ancestor can mean the person from whom an estate is lawfully obtained. No blood relationship is necessarily implied. More commonly, however, it is the person from whom an estate is obtained based on law and blood.
Two people have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. Each of someone's ancestors will have contributed to their DNA. In evolution, species that have evolved from the same ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer. DNA testing is used in determining ancestry. This can be for testing, to determine the parents of a child for legal purposes. DNA is also used to better understand the ancestry and history of all humans over the last 50,000 years. This was one of the benefits of the Human genome project.
In some cultures ancestors may have relatively little importance. Many today have no knowledge of their own great-great-grandparents. China is an example of a culture that in general has a deep respect for ancestors. Korea is an example of a culture that engages in ancestor worship where ancestors are revered. But genealogy (the study of one's ancestors) is growing in popularity and includes both amateur and professional genealogists.
River dolphin