According to the 2011 census, Valparai has a population of 70,859 with sex ratio of 1013 per 1000 males and literacy rate 78.47%. 59.68% of the population consist of Scheduled Castes and 1.75% population of the Scheduled Tribes.
Yanam district
Yanam district is one of the four districts of the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Yanam is a small territory of just 20 km. It is in Andhra Pradesh. But Yanam district, Mahe district, Karaikal district and Puducherry district comes under Puducherry Union territory, as they were French colonies up to 1954.
Yanam is surrounded by the district of East Godavari of Andhra Pradesh. Yanam district consists of 7 revenue villages and a town. Yanam is a town as well as the district headquarters. The other villages are Agraharam, Darialatippa, Farampeta, Guerempeta, Kanakalapeta, Kurasampeta and Mettakur. The total population of the district is just 55,616, roughly equal to the population of Greenland.
Mahe district
Mahe district is one of the four districts of Puducherry Union Territory. Mahe is the smallest district in India by size and sixth district in India with least population.
Mahe is surrounded on three sides by Kannur district and a side by Kozhikode district, as it is located in Kerala state. Puducherry union territory consists of four unconnected districts.
Mahe district has a very small area of just 8.69 sq.kms. The total population of the district is 41,934, roughly equal to Liechtenstein. The literacy rate of the district is 98.35%. The population density of Mahe district is 4659 inhabitants/1 square km and 12070 inhabitants/1 square miles.
Vice-President of India
The Vice President of India is the second-highest constitutional official in India, after the President.
Article 63 of the Indian Constitution states that "there shall be a Vice-President". The person who holds the post of Vice-President acts as the President of India during the absence of the President due to resignation, death, impeachment and other reasons. The Vice President is also the Ex-officio Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. The Vice-President is elected indirectly by members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both houses of the Parliament of India.
The salary for the Vice-President is 125,000 Rupees.
The present Vice President of India is Venkaiah Naidu. He began his term 11 August 2017.
Chalumeau
The chalumeau is the oldest form of the clarinet.
It is the first true single reed instrument. The plural for chalumeau is chalumeaux.
54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. They were nicknamed the "Swamp Angels".
The regiment was one of the first official African-American units in the United States during the Civil War. Many African-Americans also had fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 on both sides.
In March 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation, Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew gave his approval for the creation of the 54th Riegiment. The regiment was commanded (led) by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton had decided that white officers would be in charge of all "coloured" units. Andrew chose Robert Gould Shaw to be the regiment's colonel, and Norwood Penrose "Pen" Hallowell to be its lieutenant colonel. Many of the other officers in charge of the 54th Regiment were from abolitionist families. Governor Andrew chose several of them himself.
White abolitionists (including Shaw's parents) recruited the soldiers for the unit.
The 54th trained at Camp Meigs in Readville near Boston. While training, the unit got a lot of support from abolitionists in Massachusetts, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Supporters also donated things like warm clothing items, battle flags, and $500 for a regimental band to be set up and trained.
Soon, more people were volunteering for the 54th than the regiment needed. Because of this, the medical exam that volunteers needed to pass to get into the 54th was very thorough. This meant that those who were accepted into the 54th were very strong and healthy. The Surgeon General of Massachusetts said about the 54th: "a more robust, strong and healthy set of men were never mustered into the service of the United States."
On December 23, 1862, Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, gave an order. This order said that if African-American soldiers or their white officers were captured while fighting for the Union, they would be put to death. In January 1863, the Confederate Congress made this order a law. This Confederate law said that if captured, both African-American soldiers and their white officers would be turned over to the states where the African-American soldiers had been slaves.
Even so, the 54th left Boston with high morale (they felt good about serving in the 54th). After finishing their training, the regiment officially began serving in the United States military on May 13, 1863. They left Boston on May 28, with many supporters cheering them on. When they arrived in Beaufort, South Carolina, local blacks and Northern abolitionists greeted them and celebrated their arrival.
In Beaufort, the 54th joined with the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers, a unit of ex-slaves from South Carolina led by James Montgomery. Montgomery led both units in a raid on the town of Darien, Georgia. The people who lived in the town had run away. Montgomery ordered the soldiers to loot and burn the empty town. Shaw argued against doing this, and made official complaints about his soldiers being ordered to burn and loot.
The 54th fought in its first battle on July 16, on James Island, South Carolina. They were able to stop a Confederate attack. 45 members of the 54th were killed during this fight.
The 54th became famous on July 18, 1863, when it led an attack on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. 272 of the 600 men who charged Fort Wagner were "killed, wounded or captured." At this battle, Colonel Shaw was killed, along with 29 of his men. 24 more later died of wounds; 15 were captured; 52 were missing in action and never found; and 149 were hurt. In total, the 54th suffered 272 casualties during this battle. This was the highest number of casualties the 54th would ever see in a single battle during the war.
Union forces were not able to take and hold control of Fort Wagner. However, the 54th was widely celebrated for its courage during the battle. This helped encourage more African-American people to join the Union Army, and encouraged Army commanders to use them in battles. This was a very important step in the Civil War. Later, President Abraham Lincoln said it helped the Union win the Civil War.
After Colonel Shaw died, Edward Hallowell became a Colonel and started leading the 54th. Under his command, the 54th fought in the Battle of Olustee. Then they were ordered to march to a train station. A train carrying wounded Union soldiers had broken down, and the wounded soldiers were in danger of being captured. When the 54th arrived, the men attached ropes to the train pulled the train by hand about to Camp Finnegan. There, they picked up horses to help pull the train. After that, the soldiers and horses pulled the train to Jacksonville, Florida. In all, the 54th pulled the train for a total of . This took forty-two hours.
As part of an all-black brigade under Colonel Alfred S. Hartwell, the 54th unsuccessfully attacked entrenched Confederate militia at the November 1864 Battle of Honey Hill. In mid-April 1865, they fought at the Battle of Boykin's Mill, a small fight in South Carolina that was one of the last battles of the war.