The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (German Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) was a "dual monarchy" in Germany. This means that one ruler ruled over two countries, in this case the duchies of Coburg and Gotha. "Saxe" means of Saxony, because there were many small countries but all were ruled by members of the royal house of Saxony. Usually the royal house of Saxony means the rulers of the Kingdom of Saxony. The house of Wettin ruled the other states (Wettin is the family's surname).
The royal house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was created in 1826. One dynasty of the House of Wettin (the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) became extinct because there were no more male children to inherit.
The remaining members of the family divided their various lands between them. The duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld gave up Saalfeld and instead got the duchy of Gotha. Saalfeld became part of Saxe-Meiningen, which also took Hildburghausen when the Dule of Saxe-Hildburghausen became Duke of Saxe-Altenburg.
On 12 November 1826 Ernst III of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld became Ernst I Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Jülich "(Juelich)", Cleves and Berg, also Engern and Westphalia, Prince of Lichtenberg, Landgrave in Thuringia, Markgrave of Meißen "(Meissen)", Count of Hennerberg, Count of the Mark and Ravensburg, Lord of Ravenstein and Tonna.
Ernst had two sons. His younger son, Albert, married his cousin Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha became the name of the royal house of the United Kingdom from 1901 until 1917 (the reign of Edward VII), when the name was changed the Windsor because of hatred of anything German in World War I.
Ernst I died in 1844 and his elder son and successor, Ernst II, ruled until he died in 1893. As he had no children childless, the throne of the Duchy passed to the male descendant's of Ernst's late brother Albert the Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria. But, the Duchies did not want to be joined to Great Britain, so their constitutions stopped the King and heir apparent of Great Britain from becoming Duke if other eligible male heirs exist. Therefore after Edward, Prince of Wales, came his next brother, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred's only son, also named Alfred, committed suicide in 1899, so when Duke Alfred died in 1900, he was succeeded by his nephew, Charles Edward the Duke of Albany, the sixteen-year-old son of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Leopold. (Duke Arthur of Connaught and his son did not want to become Duke, so renounced (gave up) their right to succession.) The new Duke started using the German version of his name, and ruled as Duke Carl Eduard. Until he came of age in 1905, the Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg acted as Regent, Carl Eduard retained his British title Duke of Albany, but because he fought for Germany in the First World War, he was stripped of his British titles in 1919.
Carl Eduard reigned until 18 November 1918 when the Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha deposed him during the German Revolution. The two Duchies became separate states, but soon joined with bigger states. Saxe-Coburg became a part of Bavaria, and Saxe-Gotha merged with other small states to form the new state of Thuringia in 1920 in the Weimar Republic.
The capitals of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were Coburg and Gotha. By 1914 the area and populations of the two duchies were:
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the only European country to appoint a diplomatic consul to the Confederate States of America. The consul was named Ernst Raven, consul in the State of Texas. When Raven asked the Confederate Government for a diplomatic exequatur (permission to be act as consul) on 20 July 1861 he was accepted.
Other members of the family became kings of Belgium and Bulgaria, and married into nearly all of the other royal families of Europe. More than 50 years after Bulgaria became a republic, King Simeon returned to Bulgaria and was elected Prime Minister. After the First World War the Kings of Belgium stopped using the name Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, but never officially changed their name. Simeon of Bulgaria's legal name is Simeon Borisov Sakskoburggotski
The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha stopped being independent in 1918, when Germany became a republic. Carl Eduard, the last reigning duke had his British titles taken away for supporting Germany in World War I. He died in 1954.
Gotha became part of the new state of Thuringia, and Coburg joined Bavaria.
Berkelium
Berkelium (IPA: ) is a chemical element in the periodic table. Berkelium has the symbol Bk and atomic number 97. It is a radioactive metallic element and an actinide. Berkelium was invented by scientists and does not exist in nature. Berkelium was first made by hitting americium with alpha particles or helium ions. It is named after Berkeley, California and the University of California, Berkeley.
BBC Learning English
BBC Learning English is a website hosted by the BBC World Service since 1996. It provides free learning materials for people who speak English as a second language and want to improve their English Language skills.
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth mostly known only as "Omarosa" (born Omaroseonee O. Manigault February 15, 1974) is a former participant on Donald Trump's television reality show "The Apprentice". Omarosa was born in Youngstown, Ohio where she attended Rayen High School. She has gone on to appear on various talk shows and other reality shows, where her strong personality has often been the source of controversy. Her partner was late actor Michael Clarke Duncan.
Omarosa's appearance on Trump's "The Apprentice" ended on Week Nine, when she was "fired" (see Season 1). During the final episode, in which two finalists competed, contestant Kwame Jackson chose Omarosa as part of his final team. Trump complained that Jackson was unable to control Omarosa and added that he should have fired her.
In 2016, President-elect of the United States Donald Trump selected Omarosa to be Director of Communications for the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. She resigned on January 20, 2018, a year after taking the position.
In August 2018 while on a book tour, she released controversial recordings of her time in the white house, including conversations with the president and white house chief of staff John Kerry. She also told MNSBC she had heard Trump use the N-word during the Apprentice.
The Apprentice
The Apprentice is a reality television show that first aired in 2004 in the United States. The person who came up with the show was Mark Burnett, who earlier successfully brought the British series "Survivor" to the US. Until 2016, it was hosted by then-businessman Donald Trump, but in 2005, there was a spin-off hosted by Martha Stewart.
In the program, a group of 15 to 18 people hope to get a job worth US$250,000 to run one of Trump's companies. In each episode, the contestants are split into two teams who each have to do a task. The task could be selling something, making an advertisement, or running a stall at an event. In the end, one team will win (usually because they have made the most money) and they will get a prize of some sort. The people on the team that loses have to explain to Trump what went wrong, and at the end of every episode, Trump will say "You're fired!" to one or more people from this team, who then no longer appears in the show for the rest of the season. However, in the very last episode, Trump says "You're hired!" to the person who wins the grand prize instead.
The American version of the show had fifteen seasons. In the first six seasons and the 10th season, the people who appeared on the show were ordinary people. In seasons 7 to 9 and from season 11 onwards, these people were celebrities, who try to win money for charities instead of running one of Trump's companies. This version of the show is called The Celebrity Apprentice.