A bicentennial is the two hundredth year of something. In the United States, bicentennial is commonly is used to refer to the year 1976. This is because 1976 is two hundred years after the country was started in 1776. In Australia it commonly means on of two bicentennials. The first, in 1970, was the two hundredth anniversary of James Cook finding Australia. The second, in 1988 was the two hundredth anniversary of the first white settlement on the continent.
Shropshire
Shropshire, sometimes known as Salop and sometimes shortened to Shrops in print, is a ceremonial county of England. It has no cities and only a few large towns - Shrewsbury, Telford, Ludlow and Oswestry. It is a very rural county with many hills, forests, farms and rivers within its borders.
The county borders Cheshire to the north, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south-east, Herefordshire to the south and Powys and Wrexham County Borough, counties of Wales, to the west.
The county's county town is Shrewsbury, the birthplace of evolutionist Charles Darwin, however its largest town is Telford. Telford is known for its tourist attraction, Ironbridge Gorge. Ironbridge Gorge is the world's first iron structure. Shrewsbury is also the location of the Ditherington Flax Mill, also known as the Flaxmill Maltings, the world's the first iron-framed building. It is seen as the world's first skyscraper, described as ""the grandfather of skyscrapers"".
Places of interest in Shropshire include:
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is a Muppet created by Jim Henson. Kermit was Henson's trademark fictional character. He was originally performed by Henson himself. After Henson's death, Kermit was played by Steve Whitmire. In 2017, Whitmire stopped working with the Muppets. Matt Vogel replaced him and is the current person who plays Kermit.
Kermit has appeared on many TV shows including "Sesame Street", "The Muppet Show", Sam and Friends, The Ed Sullivan Show, and "Muppet Babies". Kermit has also appeared in several films and has been a guest speaker.
Cotton
Cotton is a natural, soft fiber that grows with the seeds of the cotton plant. (Fiber is long and thin, like hair.) After, the cotton fiber is gathered from the plant, it can be spun into cotton thread. The cotton thread can then be made into cloth. The cloth can be used to make clothes for people and many other things. People often wear cotton clothing, especially in hot weather. Bandages are usually cotton.
There are different types of cotton plants. Some cotton plants grow wild in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. This is how cotton was discovered many years ago. Most of the cotton gathered to make cloth comes from crops grown on cotton plantations. Cotton is farmed in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Cotton soaks up to 24-27 of its own weight in water (very absorbent). All parts of cotton plants are useful.
Cotton is in the mallow family and produces delicate, lovely flowers. Other members of the mallow family include hollyhocks and hibiscus, used to brighten gardens all over the world. The cotton fiber forms around the seeds of the cotton plant. It helps carry the seeds long distances on the wind so the baby plant can grow up far away. Early humans realized that the soft, fluffy fibers might be suitable for textile use and began to breed the plant, selecting for fluffy, easily spun varieties.
Cotton is one of the oldest fibers under human cultivation, with traces of cotton over 7,000 years old recovered from archaeological sites. Cotton is also one of the most used natural fibers in existence today, with consumers everywhere wearing and using cotton for various purposes. Millions of acres globally are devoted to the production of cotton, whether it be new world cotton, with longer, smoother fibers, or the shorter and coarser old world varieties.
After harvesting, cotton must be combed to remove the seeds. This was a laborious process until the industrial revolution and invention of the cotton gin, which quickly separates the seeds from the fiber and combs them for spinning. While a single cotton fiber is not terribly strong, when multiple curling fibers are straightened and twisted together, they form a strong, smooth thread that can be knitted or woven, as well as dyed.
Windows 1.0
Windows 1.0 is a graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft. Microsoft had worked with Apple Computer to develop applications for Apple's January 1984 original Macintosh, the first mass-produced personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) that enabled users to see user friendly icons on screen. Windows 1.0 was released on November 20, 1985, as the first version of the Microsoft Windows line. It runs as a graphical, 16-bit multi-tasking shell on top of an existing MS-DOS installation. It provides an environment which can run graphical programs designed for Windows, as well as existing MS-DOS software. Its development was spearheaded by the company founder Bill Gates after he saw a demonstration of a similar software suite known as Visi On at COMDEX.
Despite positive responses to its early presentations and support from a number of hardware and software makers, Windows 1.0 was received poorly by critics. Critics felt Windows 1.0 did not meet their expectations. In particular, they felt that Windows 1.0 put too much emphasis on mouse input at a time when mouse use was not yet widespread; not providing enough resources for new users; and for performance issues, especially on systems with lower computer hardware specifications. Despite these criticisms, Windows 1.0 was an important milestone for Microsoft, as it introduced the Microsoft Windows line. Windows 1.0 was declared obsolete and Microsoft stopped providing support and updates for the system on December 31, 2001.
Microsoft began developing a graphical user interface (GUI) in 1981. The development of Windows began after Microsoft founder Bill Gates saw a demonstration at COMDEX 1982 of VisiCorp's Visi On, a GUI software suite for IBM PC compatible computers. In 1983 Microsoft learned that Apple's own GUI software—based in part on Xerox PARC technology–was much more sophisticated, and decided that its own product would be different.
Microsoft first presented Windows to the public on November 10, 1983. Requiring two floppy disk drives and 192 KB of RAM, Microsoft described the software as a device driver for MS-DOS 2.0. By supporting cooperative multitasking in tiled windows when using well-behaved applications that only used DOS system calls, and permitting non-well-behaved applications to run in a full screen, Windows differed from both Visi On and Apple Computer's Lisa by immediately offering many applications. Unlike Visi On, Windows developers did not need to use Unix to develop IBM PC applications; Microsoft planned to encourage other companies, including competitors, to develop programs for Windows by not requiring a Microsoft user interface in their applications.
Many manufacturers of MS-DOS computers such as Compaq, Zenith, and DEC promised to provide support, as did software companies such as Ashton-Tate and Lotus. After previewing Windows, "BYTE" magazine stated in December 1983 that it "seems to offer remarkable openness, reconfigurability, and transportability as well as modest hardware requirements and pricing … Barring a surprise product introduction from another company, Microsoft Windows will be the first large-scale test of the desktop metaphor in the hands of its intended users".