Jamestown is a harbour and the capital of the British island of Saint Helena. It was founded in 1659 by the East India Company. It's also famous for being the place where the famous French emperor, Napoleon lived when he was exiled to St. Helena. The town has a population of about 1,000 people.
The town's most known feature is Jacob's Ladder. It is a walkway up the mountains with 699 steps. The ladder was built in 1829 to connect Jamestown to the military base on Ladder Hill. The ladder is very popular with tourists. It is beautifully lit at night. Each year, people come from all over the world to take part in a timed run up the ladder.
Many buildings in the city are built out of volcanic rock from the local area. The town is has a church, and port for unloading items delivered to the island.
Markus Näslund
Markus Näslund (born July 30, 1973, in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden) is a retired Swedish ice hockey player in the NHL. He was born in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. He plays for the New York Rangers and is currently an alternate captain. He was considered very skilled and valuable and he was given the Lester B. Pearson award for the Most Outstanding Player in 2004.
Naslund began his career in Sweden, playing for Team Modo Hockey. Naslund was still quite young at that time. He played very well and was drafted by the NHL. In 1994, after being drafted by the NHL, he was taken in by the Pittsburgh Penguins. He started his rookie NHL years here. He did not play many games as he was not seen to be a great player at that time. Finally, the manager of the Penguins traded him to the Vancouver Canucks.
After being traded to the Canucks, Naslund was not used in games. The Vancouver coach thought that he was not very good, so Naslund asked to be traded. But he was not.
Suddenly, he was put in the lineup and did quite well compared to the rest of the team, which were struggling. In 2000, he was put with Todd Bertuzzi and they scored many goals together. Naslund was now a superstar and in 2004 he reached career highs and the NHL gave him the Lester B. Pearson award.
But in the 2006-2007 season, he struggled because Bertuzzi was traded away and it was much harder for him to score. But in the playoffs that year, he scored many goals in a short period of time. Naslund promised he would be much better next year. In the 2008 offseason, the Rangers signed Naslund to a two-year, $8 million contract. Naslund has spent most of his time with the Rangers playing on the team's first line with Scott Gomez as his center. On May 4, 2009 he announced his retirement from professional hockey.
Pier Gerlofs Donia
Pier Gerlofs Donia, 1480 - 1520. He fought for the independence of Friesland (which is now part of the Netherlands). He was an enormous man and was said to be well over 7 feet tall. Donia was also known as Grutte Pier, which means ""Big Lad"", in Frisian language, or Grote Pier, which means the same in Dutch language. He also was a pirate. This great man fought against the people from Holland, Germany, and the Burgundians. In his biggest battle at sea he captured 28 ships, and he killed all 500 men who had been taken prisoner. "Big Lad" was then called the "Cross of the Dutchman".
According to legend, Pier forced his captives to repeat a shibboleth to show which people were Frisians and who were Dutch and Low Germans:
Or, in English translation:
Those prisoners who could not answer this in proper Frisian had their heads cut off by Donia himself. Pier was also noted for his ability to behead several people with a single blow. This meant he could kill many enemies at the same time during battle, and gave him an excellent advantage over his opponents. His famous fighting skills proved their worth in many battles.
One legend documents the fact that pier was strong enough to bend a coin between his fore finger and thumb.
Despite his many successes, Pier could not defeat the Burgundian/Hapsburg armies. He retired disillusioned in 1519. He died peacefully in bed in the Frisian town of Sneek on October 28 in the year 1520. His last words were spoken to his life-time enemy, the count of Nychlenborch. He was asked by the count were he wanted to go after he died, to which Pier replied ""Nea myn Heer ta"" (""To my Lord""). He then died. After the "Giant of Kimswerd" (another nickname) died, Friesland never again earned its freedom. It has remained a province of the Netherlands.
He was the uncle of the warrior Wijerd Jelckama.
Erasmus
Erasmus, full name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, (28 October, probably 1466 in Rotterdam – 12 July 1536 in Basel) was a Dutch humanist, theologian and philosopher.
Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a "pure" Latin style. Although he was a Catholic, he was critical of the Roman Catholic Church and wrote satires of them. He stood at the beginning of the reformation.
The following information from * to * is sourced from 'Oxford AQA History A LEVEL, The Tudors: England 1485-1603:
<nowiki>*</nowiki>He visited England four times, his most important visit being from 1509 to 1514 when he was appointed to a professorship at Cambridge University. During this visit, he also became a well known figure around the court of King Henry VIII.
In 1516, he published a Greek New Testament complete with a new Latin translation.
Some of his works include Julius Excluded from Heaven, On Civility in Children, The Praise of Folly, Discourse on Free Will, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style and a Handbook of a Christian Knight.
Although he was an important humanist figure who inspired who had some influence on the younger generations of English Humanists, the scope of Erasmian humanism is quite limited and much of the change that took place in England at this time stemmed from the influence of new religious thinking rather than simply scholarly Renaissance humanism.
The term Erasmianism is defined as the body of ideas that is associated with Erasmus and his followers. *
Elfstedentocht
The Elfstedentocht, Dutch for ""Eleven cities tour"" is a race for people on ice skates. The race takes place on canals in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The route of the race goes through eleven towns and is nearly 200 kilometers long. It can only be held in winters when it has been cold enough to freeze the canals to enough depth to make it safe for skating on.
The race starts and finishes in Leeuwarden, the capital city of Friesland. The route goes through all eleven places in Friesland which are officially called "towns". The race has been held 15 times. The first year it took place was 1909. The most recent race was on 4 January 1997. The ice on the canals has to be at least 15 cm thick for the race to take place. It is a very tough race, although some years the race has been tougher than others, depending on the weather conditions. 1963 was an extremely cold winter. That year only one in 100 people who took part managed to finish the race.
Medals are given to the first 11 men and the first 5 women.
Sneek
Sneek (Frisian: "Snits") is a city in Friesland, in the Netherlands. In history, it is well known. The legendary warrior Pier Gerlofs Donia, fought a battle there. He is buried in the town in the Grote of Martinikerk. Since 2011, it has been part of the new municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân.
Huelva
Huelva is a city in Andalusia, Spain and the capital of the province of Huelva. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), 149,310 people live in Huelva. Huelva is the center of a metropolitan area that has 490,000 inhabitants.
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (born Nairobi, 26 March 1941) is an English biologist, evolutionist, and writer. He is an emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Simonyi Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.