In 2002, it had a population of 430,003 people. This was more than in 1989, when the last census was done. At that time, the city only had a population of 401,280. About 78% of the people there are Russians, 8% Belarusians, and 7.3% Ukrainians.
It was named Königsberg originally. It was the capital city of the German province of East Prussia, the earlier Duchy of Prussia, and before that of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. The city had that name from 1254 to 1945. The people were mostly Germans but they were expelled and replaced during wars.
One of the famous people from Königsberg was the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Roller derby
Roller derby is a sport played on roller skates. It used to be played by both men and women, but it was restarted by women. There are now a growing number of men's and mixed (or co-ed) teams around the world who are playing roller derby.
For a long time, many people did not believe roller derby was a real sport. They thought it was like professional wrestling, because it had fake fighting and other things for TV. But in 2002, a group of women in Austin, Texas started playing it as a real game, with nothing fake. A TV show called "Rollergirls" was made about some of these women. By 2006, women in every big city in the USA and Canada were starting their own roller derby clubs. There were even clubs starting up in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Two teams of roller derby players skate around an oval track. The track can be flat or banked (raised around the outer edges).
There are 5 players on each team:
The jammer is the only player that can score points. The jammer's team gets a point every time the jammer passes one of the other team's players. To score a point, the jammer has to play fair and stay on the track when they pass someone.
Jammers get a 2-minute time period, called a "jam", when they can score points.
Before a jam starts the blockers of both teams line up side-by-side, with both jammers farther back behind their own starting line. The jam starts when a whistle blows. Then, everyone, including the jammers get to leave their designated areas. The jammers and blockers alike are fighting to get their guy/girl through the pack.
The first jammer to get through the pack without leaving the track gets to be the "lead jammer". The lead jammer can put her hands on her hips when she wants to stop the jam early. Stopping the jam early keeps the other team from having time to score points.
Blockers and pivots try to help their own team's jammer get through the pack, and they try to slow down the other team's jammer. When the jammers are near the pack, everyone is allowed to bump into each other. If someone is trying to push someone from the other team out of the way, then they have to be careful how they do it. They can only push from the side, and they have to use their shoulders, the top part of their arms, their hips, or the top part of their legs—so tripping, shoving, punching, or pushing the other team's players from behind is not allowed. Or you will get a penalty
Players who break the rules are sent to the penalty box for thirty seconds, leaving their team stranded on the track without them.
Even with these rules and safety equipment, roller derby players can get knocked down and get badly hurt, so usually only adults play "full contact" roller derby. There are junior clubs for younger players. SOME play without trying to knock anyone down. Others, like the Quad City Orphan Brigade (located in the Quad Cities (Iowa, Illinois)) play FULL contact and TRY to knock others down.
A roller derby game is called a "match" or a "game". There are two halves played, which last 30 minutes each. The teams skate as many jams as they can until time runs out. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon was one of the first people in recorded history to create an empire, or multi-ethnic state. His empire included the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and part of what is present-day Turkey.
His capital was called "" in the Akkadian language.
Sargon of Akkad may have been the same person as the first Sargon of Assyria (also known as Sharrukin or Sharru-kin). Sargon's empire would probably have included Assyria. He is listed in the Assyrian king list as the son of Ikunum and the founder of a dynasty. He became a prominent member of the royal court of Kish, ultimately overthrowing its king before embarking on the conquest of Mesopotamia.
Sargon's vast empire is known to have extended from Elam to the Mediterranean Sea, including Mesopotamia, parts of modern-day Iran and Syria, and possibly parts of Anatolia and the Arabian peninsula. He ruled from a new capital, Akkad, which the Sumerian king list claims he built on the left bank of the Euphrates. He is sometimes regarded as the first person in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire, although the Sumerians Lugal-anne-mundu and Lugal-zage-si also have a claim. His dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.
The Akkadian language was made the official language of international discourse. During Sargon's reign, Akkadian was standardized and adapted for use with the cuneiform script, which was previously used for the Sumerian language. A style of calligraphy developed in which text on clay tablets and cylinder seals was arranged amidst scenes of mythology and ritual.
Judea
Judea or Judaea (, "Yehudah") is the ancient name of the mountainous surrounding Jerusalem. Its location falls in present-day Israel and the Palestinian West Bank.
Judea was the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. Judea lost its Nationhood to the Romans in the 1st century BC, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, of the Roman Empire.
The first interference of Rome in the region dates from 63 BC, following the end of the Third Mithridatic war.
After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) stayed behind to make the area secure for Rome. Judea at the time was not a peaceful place. Queen Alexandra had recently died, and her sons were troubling the country with a civil war for power. They were Hyrcanus and Aristobulus.
In 63 BC, Aristobulus was surrounded in Jerusalem by his brother's armies, and the situation was bad. He sent a messenger to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Pompey's representative in the area. Aristobulus offered a large bribe to be rescued, that Pompey quickly accepted, but later, he tried to accuse Scaurus of extortion. This caused his downfall, because Scaurus was Pompey's brother in law and was protected by him. The general did not like what Aristobulus had done, and put the prince and high priest Hyrcanus in charge of the kingdom. Judea and Galilee became tributary kingdoms of Rome, which meant that they had to pay tribute to the Roman Republic to buy their protection.
Around the same time Pompey was defeated by Julius Caesar, Hyrcanus was followed by a member of his court, Antipater. Caesar and Antipater were both killed in 44 BC, and Herod, Antipater's son, was appointed as governor ("tetrarch") by Rome in 41 BC. He became the king ("basileus") of Judea in 37 BC, and was known as King Herod the Great. During his reign, the great port of Caesarea Maritima was built. He died in 4 BC, and his kingdom was divided among his sons. One of these was Herod Archelaus, who ruled Judea so badly that he was made to quit in 6 AD by the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, after his own people complained about him.
The kingdom of Judea now became part of a larger Roman province of "Ivdaea". This was one of the few governed by a knight, not a former consul or "praetor" of senatorial rank, because its income to the Roman treasury was small, and the region was peaceful. Pontius Pilate was one of these procurators.