In 1657, the English East India Company was given a permit to govern St Helena by Oliver Cromwell, and the following year the Company decided to colonise the island with farmers. The first governor, Captain John Dutton, got there in 1659, and made St Helena one of Britain's oldest colonies outside North America and the Caribbean. A fort was completed and a number of houses were built. After the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, the East India Company received a Royal permit to start a colony in the island. The fort was named "James Fort" and the town "Jamestown", in honour of the Duke of York, later King James II of England.
The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792 and Chinese workers were brought to work in the farms. Many were allowed to stay, and their descendents became integrated into the population.
In 1815, the British government decided to use the island of St. Helena as a place of detention for Napoleon Bonaparte. To prevent any attempt to escape from the nearby islands, they formally annexed the islands of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. In 1821, Napoleon died on the island of St Helena.
In 1858, the French emperor Napoleon III got the possession, in the name of the French government, of Longwood House and the lands around it, last residence of Napoleon I (who died there in 1821). It is still French property.
On 22 April 1834, the island of St Helena became a colony of the British crown.
A local industry using the fibre from New Zealand flax was successfully reestablished in 1907 and generated considerable income during the First World War. However, the industry declined because of transportation costs and competition from synthetic fibres and the last flax industry closed in 1965.
In 1922, the Ascension then was attached as a dependency followed by the Tristan da Cunha Island 12 January 1938.
In 1981, the British governmente changed the status of Saint Helena and the other Crown colonies to "British Dependent Territories".
In 2009, Saint Helena and its two territories received equal status under a new constitution, and the British Overseas Territory was renamed Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
The island of Saint Helena has a total area of . The centre is covered by forest, of which some has been planted. Much of the island has been identified by BirdLife International as being important for bird conservation, especially the endemic Saint Helena Plover or Wirebird, and for seabirds breeding on the islets near the coast.
The highest point of the island is Diana's Peak () at . In 1996 it became the island's first national park. In 2000 a project began to replant part of the lost Great Wood, called the Millennium Forest, and is now managed by the Saint Helena National Trust, established in 2002.
There are several rocks and islets off the coast, including: Castle Rock, Speery Island, the Needle, Lower Black Rock, Upper Black Rock (South), Bird Island (Southwest), Black Rock, Thompson's Valley Island, Peaked Island, Egg Island, Lady's Chair, Lighter Rock (West), Long Ledge (Northwest), Shore Island, George Island, Rough Rock Island, Flat Rock (East), the Buoys, Sandy Bay Island, the Chimney, White Bird Island and Frightus Rock (Southeast), all of which are within one kilometre of the shore.
The national bird of Saint Helena is the Saint Helena Plover, known locally as the Wirebird. It appears on the coat of arms of Saint Helena and on the flag.
The climate of Saint Helena is tropical, marine and mild, tempered by trade winds that blow almost continuously.
Saint Helena is divided into eight districts. People that works and lives in the Jamestown Harbour and in the Royal Mail Ship "St. Helena" (RMS) are included in the census in their work places (see reference).
The island had an economy of only one crop until 1966, based on the cultivation and processing of New Zealand flax for rope and string. St Helena's economy is now weak, and is almost entirely sustained by aid from the British government.
The tourist industry is heavily based on the presence of Napoleon in the island.
Saint Helena produces what is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world. It also produces and exports "Tungi Spirit", made from the fruit of the prickly or cactus pears, "Opuntia ficus-indica" ("Tungi" is the local St Helenian name for the plant). Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena all issue their own postage stamps which provide a significant income.
Saint Helena has its own currency, the Saint Helena pound, which is at parity with the pound sterling. The government of Saint Helena produces coins and banknotes. The Bank of Saint Helena was established on Saint Helena and Ascension Island in 2004. It has branches in Jamestown on Saint Helena, and in Georgetown, Ascension Island.
Helicopter
A helicopter (also often used: chopper or heli) is a kind of flying machine or aircraft. A helicopter lifts up off
of the ground and moves because of its rotors. A rotor is several small wings, called rotor blades, that spin together around a shaft. For that reason, helicopters are sometimes called "rotary-wing aircraft". A helicopter flies differently from an airplane. An airplane must move forward to stay in the air, but because the helicopter's rotor blades are always moving, the helicopter can stop and stay in one place above the ground. Not needing a runway, they can land in places where an airplane cannot. Helicopters can move by tilting their rotor blades, which causes the aircraft to fly in the direction the blades are tilted.
Since around 400 BC, the Chinese had a flying top that was used as a children's toy. The flying top was made from bamboo and used the same method of spinning wings to fly up in the air. Later flying tops were made of feathers tied to a stick. Leonardo da Vinci first thought of a helicopter flown by a man in 1490, and drew pictures of his ideas. It was hundreds of years later (in the early 20th century) before anyone built one that could really fly. The first practical helicopters were built by Frenchman Louis Breguet in 1935 and by German Henrich Focke in 1936. A Russian immigrant, Igor Sikorsky, built and perfected the first practical helicopter in America in 1939.
Helicopters are especially useful when there are disasters when infrastructure is damaged. Food packets, water, medicines and clothes are dropped from the air to people on the ground who cannot be reached by road. When people are injured, helicopters can carry them to hospitals faster than an ambulance on the road.
Helicopters are also used by the military, because they can move troops and equipment to places an airplane cannot take them. Attack helicopters act as attack aircraft carrying and shooting guns and missiles.
Training helicopter is used for learning how to be a helicopter pilot.
Baku
Baku (; , from the medieval "Bâd-kube", meaning "wind-pounded city", a compound word of "bād", "wind", and "kube", which is rooted in the verb کوبیدن "kubidan", "to pound", thus meaning a place where the wind would be strong and pounding, and ancient city names "Baraca"/) is the capital) is the capital and the largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level. Modern Baku has three parts: the Old Town (İçəri Şəhər), the boomtown and the Soviet-built town. About 3 million people live in the metropolitan area. There are large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons.
In Baku area there is a lot of oil. There are a lot of state and private universities.