IN: Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkish pronunciation: [re'dZep taj'jip 'aerdo(W)an] ( listen); born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the current President of Turkey, holding the position since 2014. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 before standing down upon his election as President in 2014.

Erdogan was born in 1954 in the Kasimpasa neighborhood of Istanbul, to which his family had moved from Rize Province. His parents are Ahmet Erdogan and Tenzile Erdogan. Erdogan reportedly said in 2003, "I'm a Georgian, my family is a Georgian family which migrated from Batumi to Rize." But in a 2014 televised interview on the NTV news network, he said, "You wouldn't believe the things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian... forgive me for saying this... even much uglier things, they have even called me an Armenian, but I am Turkish." In an account based on registry records, his genealogy was tracked to an ethnic Turkish family. Erdogan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father Ahmet Erdogan (1905 - 1988) was a Captain in the Turkish Coast Guard. Erdogan had a brother Mustafa (b. 1958) and sister Vesile (b. 1965). His summer holidays were mostly spent in Guneysu, Rize, where his family originates from. Throughout his life he often returned to this spiritual home, and in 2015 he opened a vast mosque on a mountaintop near this village. The family returned to Istanbul when Erdogan was 13 years old. As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns (simit) on the streets of the city's rougher districts to earn extra money. Brought up in an observant Muslim family, Erdogan graduated from Kasimpasa Piyale primary school in 1965, and Imam Hatip school, a religious vocational high school, in 1973. He received his high school diploma from Eyup High School. He subsequently studied Business Administration at the Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences, now known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences--although several Turkish sources dispute that he graduated. In his youth, Erdogan played semi-professional football at a local club. Fenerbahce wanted him to transfer to the club but his father prevented it. The stadium of the local football club in the district where he grew up, Kasimpasa S.K. is named after him. Erdogan married Emine Gulbaran (born 1955, Siirt) on 4 July 1978. They have two sons; Ahmet Burak and Necmettin Bilal, and two daughters, Esra and Sumeyye. His father, Ahmet Erdogan, died in 1988 and his 88-year-old mother, Tenzile Erdogan, died in 2011. He is a member of the Community of Iskenderpasa, a Turkish sufistic community of Naqshbandi tariqah.

Did Erdogan open a mosque?

OUT: Throughout his life he often returned to this spiritual home, and in 2015 he opened a vast mosque on a mountaintop near this village.

IN: Seether are a South African rock band founded in May 1999 in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. The band originally performed under the name Saron Gas until 2002, when they moved to the United States and changed it to Seether to avoid confusion with the deadly chemical known as sarin gas. Disclaimer is their original album and major label debut. They gained mainstream popularity in 2002 with their US Active Rock number one single "Fine Again", and their success was sustained in 2004 with the single "Broken" which peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In August 2002, Seether launched their first official album, Disclaimer, which earned the band three singles: "Fine Again", "Driven Under", and "Gasoline", in which only the first managed significant success. The year 2002 was very trendy for Seether. After the release of Disclaimer, the band toured constantly. Near the end of the Disclaimer Tour, the band decided to return to the studio to record their second album, a project that had to be delayed by almost a year, since at that time Seether was on world tour with Evanescence. "Fine Again" was also included in the video games Madden NFL 2003 in 2002 and 1080deg Avalanche in 2003. Following the release of Disclaimer, the band toured continually in order to increase sales and name recognition. A planned second album was delayed for nearly a year when Seether was selected as the support act for an Evanescence worldwide tour. Seether reworked their acoustic ballad, "Broken", as an electric ballad with guest vocals by Amy Lee of Evanescence. Favourable audience response led the band to record the revised version, with Lee on vocals. The track, along with a new song entitled "Sold Me", was featured on the soundtrack for the 2004 film The Punisher, and became a major success for the band, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A romance developed between Lee and Morgan during this time. Morgan has stated that the reworking of "Broken" was due to the wishes of the record company, rather than those of the band. An alternate version of the original album, with many of its songs remixed or re-recorded, was released in June 2004 and entitled Disclaimer II. The alternate version also featured eight extra tracks.

Did it get on the charts?

OUT:

IN: John Charles Fremont or Fremont (January 21, 1813 - July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, politician, and soldier who, in 1856, became the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, when he led five expeditions into the American West, that era's penny press and admiring historians accorded Fremont the sobriquet The Pathfinder. During the Mexican-American War, Fremont, a major in the U.S. Army, took control of California from the California Republic in 1846.

In the fall of 1853, Fremont embarked on another expedition to identify a viable route for a transcontinental railroad along the 38th parallel. The party journeyed between Missouri and San Francisco, California, over a combination of known trails and unexplored terrain. A primary objective was to pass through the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains during winter to document the amount of snow and the feasibility of winter rail passage along the route. His photographer (daguerreotypist) was Solomon Nunes Carvalho. Fremont followed the Santa Fe Trail, passing Bent's Fort before heading west and entering the San Luis Valley of Colorado in December. The party then followed the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail, crossing the Continental Divide at Cochetopa Pass and continuing west into central Utah. But following the trail was made difficult by snow cover. On occasion, they were able to detect evidence of Captain John Gunnison's expedition, which had followed the North Branch just months before. Weeks of snow and bitter cold took its toll and slowed progress. Nonessential equipment was abandoned and one man died before the struggling party reached the Mormon settlement of Parowan in southwestern Utah on February 8, 1854. After spending two weeks in Parowan to regain strength, the party continued across the Great Basin and entered the Owens Valley near present-day Big Pine, California. Fremont then journeyed south and crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and entered the Kern River drainage, which was followed west to the San Joaquin Valley. Fremont arrived in San Francisco on April 16, 1854. Having completed a winter passage across the mountainous west, Fremont was optimistic that a railroad along the 38th Parallel was viable and that winter travel along the line would be possible through the Rocky Mountains.

Where did his expedition in 1853 go?

OUT:
through the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains during winter