Abbeville was the birthplace of Rear Admiral Amédée Courbet (1827–85). His victories on land and at sea made him a national hero during the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). Courbet died in June 1885 in the Pescadores Islands. His body was brought back to France and buried in Abbeville on 1 September 1885 after a state funeral. Abbeville's old Haymarket Square (Place du Marché-au-Blé) was renamed Place de l'Amiral Courbet in July 1885. This was shortly after the news of Courbet's death reached France. A statue of Courbet was erected in the middle of the square at the end of the nineteenth century. The statue was damaged in a bombing raid during World War II.
On 12 September 1939 in Abbeville a conference took place. There France and the United Kingdom decided it was too late to send troops to help Poland in its fight against Germany. By this time Poland was already on the verge of defeat. After five years—in September 1944—Abbeville was liberated by the Polish First Armoured Division under General Maczek.
In 1940, the Germans with the bulk of their armoured force in Panzer Group von Kleist achieved a breakthrough at Sedan with air support. The Panzer group raced to the coast of the English Channel at Abbeville. This isolated (20 May 1940) the British Expeditionary Force, Belgian Army, and some divisions of the French Army in northern France. The Battle of France was lost by the Allies.
Charles de Gaulle (17–18 May 1940), as a Colonel in this period, launched a in the region of Laon (see the map). He had 80 tanks to destroy the communication of the German armoured troops. His newly formed 4e Division cuirassée reached Montcornet, resulting in the Battle of Montcornet. But, without support, the 4th DCR was forced to retreat. There was another counterattack with the Battle of Abbeville. After Laon (24 May), de Gaulle was promoted to temporary general: "On 28 May (...) the 4th DCR attacked twice to destroy a pocket captured by the enemy south of the Somme near Abbeville. The operation was successful, with over 400 prisoners taken and the entire pocket mopped up except for Abbeville (...) but in the second attack the 4th DCR failed to gain control of the city in the face of superior enemy numbers." WWII was not kind to the buildings of the town as the famous 17th century Gothic Cathedral of St. Vulfran was nearly destroyed.
Abbeville manufactures ; in particular, linens and tablecloths. It also has factories and spinning mills. Finally, it also makes locks and produces sugar.
The city was very picturesque until the early days of the World War II. It was bombed mostly to rubble in one night by the Germans. The town overall is now mostly modern and rebuilt. Several of the town's attractions remain, including:
Abbeville is served by trains on the line between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Amiens. Abbeville was the southern terminus of the Réseau des Bains de Mer, the line to Dompierre-sur-Authie opened on 19 June 1892 and closed on 10 March 1947.
AM-39 Exocet
The AM-39 Exocet is an anti-ship missile. It is designed and built in France by Aérospatiale. It can be used from a fighter aircraft, a warship or a submarine. It was used by Argentina against the Royal Navy's HMS "Sheffield".
Véhicule Blindé Léger
The Véhicule Blindé Léger or VBL (light armoured vehicle) is a four-wheel drive reconnaissance light military vehicle. It has been used by the French army since 1990. More than 25 foreign countries used it, including Gabon, Qatar, and Serbia. The US Army used it as M11 for hazardous material reconnaissance. Russia bought 500 of them in November 2012.
The vehicle is designed and built in France by Panhard.
Subway Surfers
Subway Surfers is a game where the player makes their character run until they lose. The game theme has been based on a world tour since the year 2013. The game is available on the iOS, Android and Windows phone operating systems. Subway Surfers claims to be the fourth most downloaded game of all time.
Geographical Names Board of New South Wales
The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales is the officialorganization that records details of places and geographical names in New South Wales, Australia. It was set up in 1966. The Board has nine members.
Four of the members (or someone who represents them) are: :
The other members are selected by:
The "Geographical Names Act, 1966", gives the Board the right to name places, and to find out and decide on the form, spelling, meaning, pronunciation, origin and history of any geographical name. It also decides where and how the name can be used.
A place is any geographical or topographical feature or any district, division, locality, region, city, town, village, settlement or railway station or any other place within the territories and waters of the State of New South Wales. It does not include roads, any local government areas, urban areas, counties or districts under the Local Government Act, electoral districts, subdivisions, or schools.
The Board has the power to keep and promote Aboriginal languages and acknowledge Aboriginal culture through place naming in NSW. The Board does this by using traditional Aboriginal place names or names with Aboriginal origin wherever it can. The Board can give traditional Aboriginal names to features that have been given introduced names through its dual naming policy.
The Board's policy is the same as the U.S. Board of Geographical Names, which removes possessive names from all place names in NSW. Roads called Smith's Road are changed to Smiths Road or Smith Road.
Candy Crush Saga
Candy Crush Saga is a video game that was developed by King in April 2012. As of March 2013, Candy Crush Saga is the most popular game on Facebook. It has 45.6 million average monthly users.
The aim of the game is to make matches of three or more candies vertically or horizontally. Depending on the type of level, the player must earn as much points as they can, or they must clear all the jelly, or they must allow ingredients to come to the bottom of the screen. If the player loses a level, they will lose lives. If they lose all their lives, the lives will need to recharge by time.
Some players love this game because they can spend a lot of time by playing it.
However, some people who hate this game think that it reduces the productivity of society. They are also worried that "Candy Crush Saga" makes children get addicted very easily.
Metacritic rated "Candy Crush Saga" as 76 out of 100.
This game appeared in Psy's music video "Gentleman".
In Hong Kong, a minibus driver played "Candy Crush Saga" while he was in a traffic jam.
In Taiwan, a bakery provides cakes whose theme is "Candy Crush Saga".
Rare
Rare is a video game developer whose headquarter is in England. In 2002, Microsoft bought Rare with a price of 3.75 billion.
Emperor Takakura
Emperor Takakura (20 September 1161 – 30 January 1181) was the 80th Emperor of Japan. He was the emperor before Emperor Antoku. Towards the end of his reign, he summoned a champion. A ruling clan, the Taira clan, showed their power by announcing their one year old son as Emperor. He was then renamed Emperor Antoku. He was not the only emperor at the time for Emperor Takakura was still Emperor. However he was given all the same privileges and power. He was there in case Emperor Takakura died, then there would straight away be another emperor in his place.
Lagan
Lagan is a river in the historical province of Halland in southern Sweden.
Nissan (river)
Nissan is a river in the historical province of Halland in southern Sweden.
Viskan
Viskan is a river in the historical province of Halland in southern Sweden.
Ätran
Ätran is a river in the historical province of Halland in southern Sweden.
Vaggeryd
Vaggeryd is a locality in Vaggeryd Municipality in Jönköping County, Sweden. Together with Skillingaryd, it is the seat of the municipality.
Malung
Malung is a locality, and the seat of Malung-Sälen Municipality, in Dalarna County, Sweden.
Gislaved