They were originally a five-member group, Ronnie and the Relatives, who became a permanent act at the "Peppermint Lounge", earning $10 a night per girl to dance "The Twist" and sing a song during the show. Later, Ronnie and the Relatives became 'The Ronettes'. They had eight songs on the "Billboard" Top 100. They were the only girl group to tour with the Beatles, in August 1966. The group broke up in 1967.
The trio worked with Phil Spector from 1963. Veronica Bennett was married to Phil Spector from 1968 to 1974, and took his name professionally. She claimed he abused her physically and mentally. Ronnie stated in her autobiography that she walked out of the house through the closed and locked rear sliding glass door, shoeless, shattering the glass as she left, and feet all cut up by the time she got to the gate. She never returned. Ronnie Spector filed for divorce in 1972. She wrote a book about her experiences, and said years later: "I can only say that when I left in the early 1970s, I knew that if I didn't leave at that time, I was going to die there". She and Spector separated in 1973 and divorced one year later. In August 2011, Spector admitted that she went to rehab in order to escape living with Phil.
The first top hit credited to the Ronettes was "Be My Baby" in 1963. They had already recorded several hits which were issued and credited to another group, the Crystals. "Walking in the Rain" (Ronette version) won a Grammy Award in 1965, and "Be My Baby" went into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Other hits were "Silhouettes", "Baby, I Love You', "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up".
Yahoo! Search
Yahoo! Search is an Internet search engine. It is owned by Yahoo! Inc. and was, as of December 2009, the 2nd largest search engine on the web by query volume, at 6.42%, after its competitor Google at 85.35% and before Baidu at 3.67%, according to Net Applications.
Originally, Yahoo! Search started as a web directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In the late 1990s, Yahoo! evolved into a full-fledged portal with a search interface and, by 2007, a limited version of selection-based search.
Yahoo! Search, originally referred to as Yahoo! provided Search interface, would send queries to a searchable index of pages supplemented with its directory of sites. The results were presented to the user under the Yahoo! brand. Originally, none of the actual web crawling and storage/retrieval of data was done by Yahoo! itself. In 2001 the searchable index was powered by Inktomi and later was powered by Google until 2004, when Yahoo! Search became independent.
On July 29, 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that Bing would power Yahoo! Search. All Yahoo! Search global customers and partners will be shifted to Bing by early 2012.
Andretti Autosport
Andretti Autosport is an American car racing team that races in the IZOD IndyCar Series. They have won many series titles, the last one with Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2007. They were called Andretti Green Racing until 2010. It is owned by Mario Andretti and his son Michael Andretti. Their 2011 drivers were
Danica Patrick the first woman to win an IndyCar race. She is being replaced for 2012 and will move to NASCAR. she drove the #7 car sponsored by domain name provider GoDaddy.com. Patrick was supposed to be replaced by Dan Wheldon but he was killed in an accident before his first race with the team.
Marco Andretti the son of the team owner who won the 2011 Iowa Corn Indy 200. He drives the #26 car sponsored by Dr. Pepper and Venom Energy Drink.
Mike Conway is a British driver that joined the team for 2011. He won the Long Beach Grand Prix. Conway drives the #27 Buffalo Wild Wings car. The team replaced him with James Hinchcliffe for 2012.
Ryan Hunter Reay also drives for the team, which he joined in 2010. His car is No. 28 and is sponsored by Sun Drop and DHL. He won the 2012 IndyCar Series championship.
Currently, their drivers for 2014 are Marco Andretti, Kurt Busch, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Carlos Muñoz.
Royal Irish Constabulary
The Royal Irish Constabulary (Irish: Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann) was the police force of Ireland when it was part of the United Kingdom. It was made by legislation, which was sponsored by Sir Robert Peel in 1814. It was given its name by Queen Victoria for its loyalty during an Irish rebellion in 1867. It was made up mainly of Irish Roman Catholics. In 1870 the RIC took over the police forces of Londonderry and Belfast. The RIC worked together with the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It is headed by Enrique Peña Nieto since 2019.
It was shut down when Ireland left the UK in 1922. The Irish Free State Civic Guard has taken its place in Ireland, and in Northern Ireland it was replaced by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Sicel language
Sicel was an ancient language. It was spoken by the Sicels, a tribe that lived on Sicily. Sicel is an Indo-European language. Not much is known about Sicel because very few inscriptions have been found.
The Closer I Get to You
"The Closer I Get to You" is an American song first performed by Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack. The original version was released in February 1978. The song was a major crossover hit for Flack. It peaked near #2 on Billboard Hot 100. It has been covered by other musicians, including Luther Vandross and Beyoncé.
Congo Free State
The Congo Free State () was a large area in Central Africa. It was privately owned by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Leopold convinced the international community that he was involved in humanitarian work. He attracted scientific and humanitarian backing for the International African Association (), which he formed during a Brussels Geographic Conference of geographic societies, explorers, and leaders he hosted in 1876. Leopold used the Association and the defunct "Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo" () as a way to claim most of the Congo Basin.
Leopold created the International Association of the Congo () as a new organization. The entity was officially recognized by the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 and various governments. On May 29, 1885, the king named his new colony the Congo Free State () and ruled it as a dictator (even though he never visited his colony and Africa).
The Congo Free State under Leopold II used slave labor and mutilation of their hands, in order to get full control and force the natives to work at extracting natural resources, mainly rubber and ivory, for Leopold II's personal profit.
His harsh rule was responsible for the deaths of between five to 10 million Congolese people. The Congo became one of the most infamous international scandals of the early 20th century. As a result, Leopold II was forced to give control of it to the government of Belgium. The Belgian government took control in 1908 and created the Belgian Congo.
Flag of Ireland
The national flag of the Republic of ireland () is a tricolour vertical flag of green, white, and orange. It is also known as the Irish tricolour. The flag proportion is 1:2 (length twice the width). To unionists it is frequently seen as antagonistic to their history and culture.
Its meaning is not explained in the Irish Constitution, but the Irish government has stated that:
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; ; ) is in Turkish Thrace, the European part of Turkey. To the west there is the Aegean Sea and to the east there are the Dardanelles straits.
After an earthquake in 1354, the Greek city of Gallipoli was abandoned, then occupied by Turks from Anatolia. This made it the first Ottoman position in Europe.
The peninsula was part of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire slowly conquered it from 13th century to the 15th century. By the 19th century, thirty thousand people lived in the city: Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Jews.
It was a big military camp for the British and French forces during the Crimean War (1854). It was also a stopping-off point on the way to Constantinople.