the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
In 1931, many people of America selected her as one of America’s living women.
In 1933, her husband died, but she lived for many decades.
She died in 1957 at the age of 78.
She lived a private life.
In between, she took her first airplane ride and a trip to Europe.
Second Ladies of the United States
People from Burlington, Vermont
Flowers, List of U.S. state
A blacksmith is a person who works with iron and steel.
The blacksmith hammers hot iron on an anvil to change its shape.
Blacksmiths make iron and steel tools.
A smith is a person who works in metal.
A blacksmith works with iron and steel.
A thousand years ago, people only knew about seven metals (iron, gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, and mercury).
By color: gold is yellow; copper is red; and silver, tin, lead, and mercury are different gray colors.
Iron is also a gray color if you shine it, but usually its surface is covered with a black oxide, which is a kind of rust.
This black color forms very fast in a blacksmith's fire.
The other metals have light colors, but iron is a dark color, so it is called the black metal in English.
A smith who works the black metal is a blacksmith.
A farrier works with iron like a blacksmith.
The only ironwork a farrier does is to make horseshoes.
Iron must be very hot to shape with a hammer.
Hot iron becomes cold very soon.
A blacksmith has only a few seconds to hammer a piece of iron, before it must be put back in the fire to become hot again.
A forge is a special oven for metalworking.
It burns coal or charcoal in a very hot fire.
A bellows pushes air into the forge, to make the fire burn hotter.
The blacksmith puts pieces of iron in the fire to make them hot and to keep them hot until they use it.
Ways to hammer iron
There are a few ways to change a piece of iron's shape with hammer and heat.
Here are the most important ways that a blacksmith uses:
Bending: hammering a piece of hot iron, to make it curve or to make it have a corner.
Drawing: hammering on the sides of a piece of hot iron, to make it longer and thinner.
Upsetting: hammering on the end of a piece of hot iron, to make it shorter and fatter.
A punch is a tool like a short stick of iron.
The end of the punch is flat.
Punching:  A blacksmith hammers a punch through a piece of hot iron, to make a hole in the hot iron.
A chisel is a tool like a short stick of iron.
The end of the chisel is sharp to cut.
Cutting: hammering a chisel through the side of a piece of hot iron, to make two shorter pieces.
Splitting: hammering a chisel into the end of a piece of hot iron, to make a stick of iron into a "Y" shape, to make a fork.
Rivetting: a rivet is like a machine bolt with a head at both ends.
Rivets are used to make different pieces of iron stay together.
The blacksmith makes a hole in each piece of iron, where he wants the pieces to come together.
A rivet is then put in the holes, and the blacksmith hammers on the rivet to make the heads at each end of the rivet.
Welding: making different pieces of iron become one piece of iron.
The blacksmith makes the pieces of iron so hot that they almost melt.
Then he puts the pieces together and hammers on them so there is no line where they came together.
Welding is the hardest thing for a blacksmith to learn and to do.
Hard iron and steel
All metals get harder when a smith hammers or bends them.
This is called "work-hardening".
If a smith hammers or bends a piece of metal that is already work-hardened, it will crack and break.
To make work-hardened metal soft again, so that a smith can hammer and bend it more, the smith anneals the metal.
To anneal iron or steel, a blacksmith heats the metal until it no longer pulls a magnet, and then makes the metal become cold very slowly.
Blacksmiths can cover the hot metal with sand, so that it takes hours to become cold.
This makes iron or steel very soft.
Steel acts just like iron, until a blacksmith "heat-treats" the steel.
This is a special way to make the steel hot and then cold, so that the steel will become hard enough to keep a cutting edge (blade).
A blade made from a piece of iron (instead of steel) will very soon become dull and will not cut.
Good blades (for knives, chisels, axes, and other tools with cutting edges) are always made of steel, then heat-treated, and then sharpened.
To heat-treat steel, a blacksmith heats the steel until it no longer pulls a magnet, then makes the steel become cold very quickly.
A blacksmith does this by putting the hot steel into a bucket of water and moving it around until it is cold.
This is called "quenching".
When this is finished, the steel will be as hard as it can be.
This hardness can make it brittle, so if someone hits or drops it, it can break like glass.
The next step is to "draw the temper" or "temper" the steel, so that it will not break like glass.
To temper steel, a blacksmith polishes a part of the steel so that it is smooth and shiny.
The blacksmith then slowly heats the steel in the fire.
When the steel is between , the polished steel will turn different colors.
These colors do not glow in the dark; they look like dye on the polished steel.
As the steel gets hotter from 300 to 650 degrees F, it will turn through the colors: yellow, then brown, then purple, then blue.
Yellow means the steel will still be harder, blue means the steel will be softer (but still hard).
When the steel turns the color that the blacksmith wants, he puts the steel into a bucket of water to stop the change.
Different tools are tempered to different colors, but it also depends on how much carbon there is in the steel.
Usually, stone chisels are tempered to yellow, and axes for trees are tempered to blue, but the blacksmith has to decide.
A blacksmith does not hammer a blade edge thin.
A blacksmith hammers the steel so that the edge stays thick.
After the "heat-treat" and "temper", stones are used to grind the blade edge to make it sharp.
If a blacksmith has a piece of iron or steel, but does not know which one it is, the blacksmith can heat-treat it like steel.
If it does not become hard, then it is not steel.
Iron will show the same temper colors as steel, but it will not be hard.
If a blacksmith has an old steel tool, and wants to hammer it into a new different tool, the blacksmith anneals the steel.
The steel will then be very soft like iron.
The blacksmith can then hammer it into a new tool, and heat-treat and temper it, to make a new, hard steel tool.
A blacksmith must be careful when hammering hardened steel or work-hardened iron, because small pieces can break off and fly, and these can hurt his or her eyes.
Many blacksmiths wear plastic safety glasses to keep their eyes safe.
Things made by blacksmiths
Knife/knives and swords
Spear heads
Chain mail shirts
Suits of plate armor
Chisels
Adzes
Shovels
Handles for doors and drawers
Hinges for doors
Hooks to hang things on
Nails for construction
The first blacksmiths were Hittites.
They started working iron to make tools around 1500 BC.
The ways that tools are made by blacksmiths have changed very little since then.
Around 1850, countries like the United States of America and the United Kingdom made new ways to make steel and tools in factories.
Factories now make tools faster, and for less money than blacksmiths.
There are now very few blacksmiths in countries that have a lot of factories.
The few blacksmiths that are still in countries with a lot of factories, make iron that is art.
These blacksmiths make gates, stair rails, and chairs and tables for outdoors.
People buy this iron as art, because each piece is different from the other pieces.
Caracas is the capital city of Venezuela.
Santiago de Leòn de Losada founded the city in 1567.
It is where Simon Bolivar was born.
The city has nearly 6 million people, who live in the metropolitan area.
Caracas is the center of the economical activity of the country and also hosts the main government offices of Venezuela.
After WW2 the city has experienced a huge growth, thanks to the oil revenues of the country.
Nearly half a million Europeans immigrated to the city in the 1950s ( that had in those years only one million inhabitants) and so Caracas developed a typical western-European look in the new modern areas.
All the best teams of the sports done in Venezuela are concentrated in the metropolitan area of Caracas.
Between those teams we have:
baseball: Leones de Caracas
football: Deportivo Italia; Deportivo Petare; Caracas FC.
Famous sites
Avila National Park
Humbolt Tramway
Simon Bolivar Birthplace
Caracas Cathedral
Bolivar Square
Altamira Square
Los Proceres
Parque Central
Centro Comercial Tamanaco
Sambil Mall
Many beautiful modern buildings can be seen in the city.
Here there are some of them:
- Parque Central
-  Plaza Venezuela Buildings
-  Casa de Italia
- Torre Britanica
-  Torre La Previsora
Establishments in Venezuela
1567 establishments
Capital cities in South America
Cities in Venezuela
Homestar Runner, also called H*R, is an Internet surreal comedy cartoon that was made using Adobe Flash.
It usually gets updated every Monday (but, except for an update on April Fools' Day of 2014 and a few cartoons since, it has not been actively updated since December 2010) with a cartoon, a game, or a Strong Bad Email.
The people that made the website are Mike Chapman and Matt Chapman.
They are brothers and are called The Brothers Chaps.
The cartoons on the website normally show Homestar Runner or Strong Bad, who are the main characters on the cartoon.
Homestar Runner - The main character of the show.
He has no arms.
Pom Pom:  Homestar's best friend, who only speaks by making bubble sounds.
He's a large round orange ball who bounces around to move.
Strong Bad: The bad guy of the show.
He is a main character and has his own videos called Strong Bad Emails or "sbemails".
Strong Mad: Strong Bad's big brother, who is not very smart, is strong and is almost always angry.
He has a big square body and no neck.
Strong Sad: Strong Bad's little brother, who is usually sad.
He is large, and is white and grey.
Bubs: This character runs a store in the show.
He has a blue head and a large mouth, which always has a large smile.
Coach Z: Homestar's coach, who cannot say words the right way.
The Cheat: Strong Bad's pet.
He is small and yellow.
He helps Strong Bad cheat at things.
Marzipan: Homestar Runner's girlfriend and a guitar player.
She looks like a hippie broomstick with a ponytail.
The King of Town: The King lives in a big castle and eats a lot.
The Poopsmith:  The King's helper.
He never speaks, using a sign instead, and is usually shoveling poop.
Homsar: A character made after someone misspelled "Homestar" in an email to Strong Bad.
He has a weird appearance and says strange things.
Telltale Games, the makers of video games based on the Sam & Max comic book, made a game called Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People for Windows and the Wii's WiiWare.
It's an episodic game with five episodes, and it is made with 3 dimensions instead of 2 dimensions like Homestar Runner is.
The first episode was called Homestar Ruiner, and ended with 8-Bit is Enough.
The Homestar Runner website
Horst Köhler (born 22 February 1943) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union.
He was President of Germany from 2004 to 2010.
He was the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU and the CSU, and the liberal FDP, for becoming President.
Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Assembly on 23 May 2004.
He was reelected to a second term on 23 May 2009.
About one year later, on 31 May 2010, he resigned from his office in a controversy over his comment on the role of the Bundeswehr in light of a visit to the troops in Afghanistan.
Köhler is an economist by profession.
Prior to his election as President, Köhler had a career in politics, the civil service and as a banking executive.
He was President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1998 to 2000.
He also served as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2000 to 2004.
Although the office of President is less influential than that of the Chancellor and is mostly concerned with ceremonial matters, Köhler was a highly popular politician during his term.
He has called for more influence for the President and has suggested the President should be directly elected.
This was the case under Germany's Weimar Constitution.
Köhler was born in Skierbieszów (later named Heidenstein), in the General Government area of German-occupied Poland.
He was the seventh child of Elisabeth and Eduard Köhler.
His family were Bessarabian Germans from Rîşcani in Romanian Bessarabia (near Bălţi, present-day Moldova).
Horst Köhler's parents had to leave their home in Bessarabia in 1940.
As part of the Generalplan Ost, they were resettled in 1942 at Skierbieszów.
This was a village near Zamość, Poland (then part of the General Government).
When the Wehrmacht was pushed back during World War Two, the Köhler family fled to Leipzig.
In 1953, they left the Soviet Zone to escape from the communist regime.
The family lived in refugee camps until 1957.
Then, they settled in Ludwigsburg.
Horst Köhler hence spent most of his first 14 years as a refugee.
Studies and military service
A teacher proposed that the refugee boy should apply for the Gymnasium.
Köhler took his Abitur in 1963.
After a two-year military service at a Panzergrenadier battalion in Ellwangen, he left the Bundeswehr as reserve officer.
He studied and finally earned a doctorate in economics and political sciences from University of Tübingen.
There, he was a scientific research assistant at the Institute for Applied Economic Research from 1969 to 1976.
Career in the civil service
Köhler joined the civil service in 1976, when he was employed in the Federal Ministry of Economics.
In 1981, he was employed in the Chancellery of the state government in Schleswig-Holstein.
He served there under Prime Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg.
In 1982, Köhler was made head of the Ministers office in the Federal Ministry of Finance.
He rose to head of department in 1987, with responsibility for financial policy and federal industrial interests.
In 1989, he became head of the department for currency and credit.
Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance
He is a member of the CDU since 1981.
He was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance from 1990 to 1993.
In that capacity, he served as a "sherpa" (personal representative) for Chancellor Helmut Kohl, preparing  G7.
He also served as the primary German negotiator in the Maastricht Treaty negotiations.
Career in banking 1993–2000
Between 1993 and 1998 he served as President of the association of savings banks in Germany.
In 1998, he was appointed president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
He settled in London, where the headquarters of the bank is located.
Head of the International Monetary Fund
Köhler was appointed managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2000.
The government of Gerhard Schröder nominated him.
This was because their first nominee, Caio Koch-Weser, was rejected by the United States.
On 4 March 2004, Köhler resigned his positions, because he was nominated as presidential candidate.
Köhler defeated Gesine Schwan on the first ballot by 604 votes to 580.
20 votes were cast for minor candidates, while one elector was absent because of a heart attack.
Köhler succeeded Johannes Rau as President on 1 July 2004, for a five-year term.
Germany's presidency is a largely ceremonial office.
However, it is also invested with considerable moral authority.
From 2004 until early 2006, Charlottenburg Palace was the seat of the President of Germany.
This was because Schloss Bellevue has been renovated.
Upon his election, Köhler said that "Patriotism and being cosmopolitan are not opposites".
Presenting his visions for Germany, Köhler also said that "Germany should become a land of ideas".
In July 2005, he suspended the Bundestag at Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's request.
Schröder had lost a motion of confidence in the Bundestag.
This led to early election for the Bundestag in September 2005.
In October 2006, he made a far-reaching decision by vetoing a bill.
It would transfer Germany's Air Safety Administration Deutsche Flugsicherung into private ownership.
The Bundestag passed this legislation but as President, Köhler was authorized to not sign it into law if, in his opinion, it contravenes the constitution.
In December 2006, he did not sign the Consumer Information Law, because the constitution does not allow the federal government to instruct municipal authorities.
This can only be done by the German states.
There had only been six previous occasions when Germany's president had chosen to reject bills.
In most instances less important legislation was involved.
His vetoes were the first notable examples in recent German history.
In his 2007 Christmas address to the nation, Köhler urged the government to push ahead more quickly with reforms.
He was also critical of the introduction of the minimum wage in the postal sector, stating that "a minimum wage that can not be paid by competitive employers destroys jobs".
On 22 May 2008, Köhler said, that he wants to be the candidate for a second term as president.
On 23 May 2009, he was re-elected by the Federal Assembly, and was sworn into office for a second term on 1 July 2009.
In November 2009, Köhler refused to sign the "Zugangserschwerungsgesetz" (Access Impediment Act) into law without further information.
The law, which aims to make it more difficult to access sites on the World Wide Web with child pornography, is considered by many legal experts to be unconstitutional.
On 31 May 2010, Köhler announced his resignation as President of Germany.
This came after German politicians criticised comments made by Köhler in relation to overseas military deployments:
He came under criticism for his statement that Germany’s military missions abroad also served to secure trade.
He afterwards stated that his comments referred to piracy off the coast of Somalia.
Köhler stated that there was no substance to accusations that in the interview he had overstepped his formal role by favouring an unconstitutional position.
After getting no support in the dispute, Köhler stepped down on 31 May 2010.
He made a statement saying "I declare my resignation from the Office of President, with immediate effect."
The resignation was considered a "surprise".
The following days he was criticized for not being able to handle criticism while being a rigorous critic himself.
His unprecedented act of immediate resignation was also considered showing a lack of respect for his position.
Horst Köhler is married to Eva Köhler, a teacher.
They have two children, a daughter Ulrike (born in 1972) and a son Jochen (born in 1977).
His daughter, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, became blind as a teenager.
Horst Köhler is a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
Horst Köhler's Official Website
Official page of the German President
Biographical information (from the IMF)
Horst Köhler's speech in Berlin upon his election as president (MP3)
Managing Directors of the International Monetary Fund
Presidents of Germany
2012 (twenty twelve) (MMXII) was a .
2012 was the Chinese Year of Water Dragon based on the 12-year Chinese Zodiac cycle.
January 1 – Start of Denmark's Presidency of the European Union
January 5 – Portia Simpson-Miller becomes Prime Minister of Jamaica for a second time.
January 6 – New Mexico celebrates the 100th anniversary of its statehood.
January 10 – The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes before midnight, after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan in 2011, and the nuclear threat level.
January 13–22 – The first Winter Youth Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.
January 14 – The cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off the Tuscan coast, at the island of Giglio, and partially sinks.
Out of more than 4000 people on board, at least 30 people are killed.
January 18 – The English language Wikipedia blacks out for 24 hours in protest against the internet laws SOPA and PIPA proposed by the United States Congress.
January 20 – 185 people are killed in a series of coordinated bombings in Kano, Nigeria, carried out by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.
January 23 – The EU adopts an embargo against Iran over its uranium enrichment.
January 30 – Following this date, cold weather in Europe causes several deaths, due to the low temperatures.
January 31 – 433 Eros, the second-largest Near Earth Object on record (size 13×13×33 km) passes Earth.
NASA studied Eros with the NEAR Shoemaker probe launched on February 17, 1996.
February 1 – Violence erupts at the end of a football match in Port Said, Egypt, killing 74 people.
February 2 – The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the north coast of Papua New Guinea, with at least 230 people being rescued, and several missing.
February 6 – Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the Thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia & New Zealand (as well as the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth).
February 7 - President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed announces his resignation.
Mohammed Waheed Hassan takes over from him.
February 11 - American singer and actress Whitney Houston is found dead at her hotel in Los Angeles.
February 12 - The Zambia national football team wins the African Cup of Nations, defeating the Ivory Coast.
February 15 - A fire at a prison in Honduras kills at least 357 people.
February 17 - President of Germany Christian Wulff announces his resignation following a home-loan scandal.
He is the shortest-serving President in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Horst Seehofer becomes interim-President.
February 19 - Iran suspends oil exports to France and the United Kingdom, after sanctions were imposed by the EU and the United States.
February 21 - EU finance ministers reach an agreement on a 130 billion-Euro bailout for Greece.
February 25 - Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi succeeds Ali Abdullah Saleh as President of Yemen.
March 2 - A tornado outbreak in Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana kills 39 people.
March 4 - Several munitions dump explosions in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, kill over 250 people.
March 4 - Vladimir Putin declares victory in the Russian Presidential Election, returning him to the Presidency.
March 13 - It is announced that, after 244 years, the Encyclopedia Britannica is to stop its print edition to focus on its online version.
March 13 - A coach crash in Switzerland kills 28 people, including 22 children, who were returning to Belgium.
March 18 - Joachim Gauck is chosen to succeed Christian Wulff as President of Germany.
He becomes President immediately.
March 19 - Four people are killed in a shooting attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.
The gunman, Mohammed Merah, is killed three days later after a siege.
March 22 - Ahmed Toumani Toure, President of Mali, is ousted in a coup after armed soldiers attack government offices.
March 25 - Macky Sall is elected President of Senegal, succeeding Abdoulaye Wade.
April 1 - Aung San Suu Kyi wins a seat in the Burmese parliament.
April 2 - President of Hungary Pal Schmitt resigns following a plagiarism scandal.
April 5 - President of Malawi Bingu wa Mutharika dies.
Joyce Banda succeeds him.
April 6 - The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad declares an independent state, Azawad, in northern Mali, which is not recognised internationally.
April 11 - Two strong earthquakes strike off the Indian Ocean coast of Sumatra, causing widespread panic and tsunami alerts all around the Indian Ocean.
April 12 - A coup takes place in Guinea-Bissau as mutinous soldiers arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and Presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Junior, as they take control of the capital, Bissau.
April 13 - Kwangmyongsong-3, a North Korean earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch.
April 16 - The trial of Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, begins in Oslo.
April 22 - Francois Hollande defeats Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of the French Presidential election.
They both go through to the second round, as National Front leader Marine Le Pen comes third.
April 26 - Former President of Liberia Charles Taylor is found guilty of war crimes, committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
May 2 – Edvard Munch's The Scream sells for 120 million US dollars, a record price for a work of art at auction.
May 6 – Second round of the French Presidential Election: Francois Hollande is elected President of France, defeating Nicolas Sarkozy.
May 6 – The Parliamentary election in Greece ends in an inconclusive result.
A re-run is scheduled for June 17.
May 7 – Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia for a second time, swapping places with Dmitry Medvedev, who becomes Prime Minister.
May 12 – The 2012 World Expo begins in Yeosu, South Korea.
It is due to last until August 12.
May 15 – Francois Hollande becomes President of France.
May 18-20 – The G8 Summit is held at Camp David, near Washington, DC after a last minute switch of location.
Chicago was originally the host city of the G8 summit prior to the NATO Summit.
May 20 – Taur Matan Ruak becomes President of East Timor.
May 20-21 - The first NATO Summit in the United States outside of Washington, D.C. is held in Chicago, Illinois.
May 20 – A magnitude 6 earthquake strikes northern Italy, killing at least 7 people and destroying many historic buildings.
May 20 – Annular solar eclipse: Path of annularity runs through the Pacific Ocean from East Asia to the Western and Midwestern United States.
May 22 - The Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo, Japan, opens to the public.
It is the tallest self-supporting tower in the world, at a height of 634 metres.
May 26 – Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is won for Sweden by Loreen.
May 29 - Mitt Romney secures the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.
June 2 - Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to prison for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian protests.
June 2-5 - Celebrations take place across the UK and Commonwealth to mark Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne.
June 3 - A Dana Air Flight crashes into a building in Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 153 people on board and 40 on the ground.
June 4 - Partial lunar eclipse
June 6 – The second and last solar transit of Venus of the century.
The next pair is predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.
June 8-July 1 – The UEFA Euro 2012 is played in Poland and Ukraine.
It is won by the Spain national football team.
June 9 - Devastating wildfires begin in Colorado.
June 17 - Parliamentary election in Greece: The second such election in Greece in the space of six weeks.
June 17 - The deciding round of Egypt's Presidential election is held.
June 18-June 23 – Turing Centenary Conference at the University of Cambridge, in honor of the mathematician, computer scientist, and cryptographer Alan Turing, the last day of the conference being the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
June 20 - Antonis Samaras is sworn in as Prime Minister of Greece.
June 22 - President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo is removed from office by impeachment and is succeeded by Federico Franco.
June 22 - A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter airplane is shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both pilots on board, further damaging already difficult relations between the two countries.
June 24 - Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first female one, docks manually with orbiting module Tiangong 1, becoming the third country to successfully perform the mission.
June 24 - Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood is announced as the winner of Egypt's Presidential election.
June 28 - The United States Supreme Court declares that Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan is constitutional.
June 30 - Mohamed Morsi is sworn in as President of Egypt.
June 30 - Iceland's Presidential election is held, won by incumbent President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.
June 30 - An extra leap second is added at the end of the month.
July 1 - Start of Cyprus' Presidency of the European Union
July 1 - Presidential election in Mexico - won by Enrique Pena Nieto.
July 4 - Scientists at CERN announce that they have discovered a particle whose properties are consistent with those of the Higgs boson, after experiments were carried out at the Large Hadron Collider.
July 7 - Flooding affects parts of the Krasnodar Krai region in southern Russia, killing 72 people.
July 13 - FIFA is embroiled in its second corruption scandal in just over a year, as Sepp Blatter claims that there may have been irregularities when Germany won the right to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
July 18–21 – The 2012 World Rowing Championships are held at Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
July 20 - A gunman opens fire at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado.
July 24 - John Atta Mills, President of Ghana, dies while still in office.
John Dramani Mahama takes over the running of the country until the election in December.
July 25 - Pranab Mukherjee becomes President of India, succeeding Pratibha Patil, whose five-year term expired.
July 27 – Opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics begins in London at 7:30 pm UTC, 8:30pm BST.
July 29 - In Romania, a referendum is held on whether President Traian Basescu should be removed from office.
He remains in his position after a low voter turnout.
July 30/31 - Large parts of northern and eastern India are affected by wide-scale power failures, leaving over 600 million people without electricity.
early August - Typhoon Haikui causes flooding in the Philippines.
August 6 - Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on the planet Mars.
August 11 - Two earthquakes over magnitude 6, followed by several aftershocks, strike the area around Tabriz in northwestern Iran, killing over 300 people.
August 11 - US presidential candidate Mitt Romney chooses Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate.
August 11 - The Jamaican men's 4 by 100 metre team wins the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, meaning that Usain Bolt successfully defends all three of the titles he won in Beijing in 2008.
August 12 – The closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London takes place.
Host nation Great Britain finishes with the third-highest gold medal count, 29, winning 65 medals overall.
August 16 - Police open fire on striking miners at the Marikana mine in South Africa, killing 34.
August 22 - It is ruled that the attempt to unseat Romania's President Traian Basescu in a referendum was not legal.
August 24 - Cyclist Lance Armstrong announces that he will no longer fight against doping allegations, as the World Anti-Doping Agency strips him of his seven consecutive (in-a-row) Tour de France titles.
August 24 - A court in Oslo declares Anders Behring Breivik sane and rules that he should serve a 21-year prison sentence for the 2011 Norway attacks.
August 29 - Start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
August 31 - Researchers announce the successful implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes.
August 31 - Armenia breaks off diplomatic ties with Hungary, after the extradition of Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov to his homeland, followed by his pardoning.
He had been convicted of killing an Armenian soldier in Hungary in 2004.
September 7 - Two earthquakes in southern China kill at least 80 people.
September 7 - Canada breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran, over its stance on Syria, its nuclear programme and its human rights record.
September 9 – End of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
September 11 - Both embassies in Cairo, Egypt and in Benghazi, Libya were attacked by Muslims who were believed to be protesting over a movie Innocence of Muslims, this attack killed U.S. Ambassador of Libya Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, and 2 more people were killed and about two injured.
It was later revealed that this may have been a coordinated terrorist attack.
September 27 - Flooding affects parts of southern Spain.
September 28 - A plane crashes shortly after take-off from Kathmandu, Nepal, and bursts into flames, killing all 19 people on board, who were heading to Mount Everest Base Camp.
September 30 - Europe wins the Ryder Cup golf tournament over the United States, coming back from far behind to win.
October 1 - A ferry accident in Hong Kong kills 38 people.
October 3 - A bomb attack believed to be linked to the Syrian conflict is carried out on the other side of the border with Turkey.
October 9 - Pakistani schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousafzai is shot and wounded during an assassination attempt by the Taliban while returning home on a school bus.
October 12 - The European Union wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 14 - Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier (travel faster than the speed of sound) without mechanical help, during a record space dive out of the Red Bull helium-filled balloon from 24 miles (39 kilometres) over Roswell, New Mexico, United States.
October 15 - British Prime Minister David Cameron and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond sign an agreement in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the terms and conditions of a referendum on Scottish independence, due to be held in 2014.
October 19 - A bomb attack in Beirut, Lebanon, kills 11 people, including the Lebanese army chief, in an attack believed to be linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
October 24 - Ireland ceases analog television broadcasts.
October 24-30 - Hurricane Sandy kills over 200 people in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, Eastern United States and parts of Canada and, in terms of diameter, it is the biggest North Atlantic Hurricane ever measured.
Considerable storm surge damage causes major disruption on the eastern seaboard of the United States.
October 26 - Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of tax fraud.
October 30 - Hurricane Sandy dissolves.
November 3 - The New York City Marathon is cancelled for the first time in 42 years, due to Hurricane Sandy.
November 4 - Bishop Tawadros is elected the next Pope of the Coptic Church in Egypt, succeeding Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, who died in March.
November 6 – United States presidential election, 2012: After winning the electoral and popular vote, President Barack Obama wins re-election against Mitt Romney.
November 6 - A referendum is held in Puerto Rico on its future status.
A majority support a change, with a majority of them voting for Puerto Rico becoming the 51st US State.
November 6 - In referendums, a majority of voters in the US States of Maine, Maryland and Washington support introducing same-sex marriage.
November 6 - In other referendums, the states of Washington and Colorado have majorities voting for the legalisation of marijuana for recreational use, while Oregon rejects the proposal.
November 10 - Four days after the United States presidential election, 2012, Barack Obama secures the state of Florida, completing the 332-206 electoral college win.
November 13 – Total solar eclipse (It was visible in northern Australia and the South Pacific).
November 14 - Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari.
Hostilities over the following week kill 133 Palestinians and 5 Israelis.
November 15 - The Communist Party of China unveils Xi Jinping as its next General Secretary, who is expected to lead the People's Republic of China until 2022.
November 21 - After a week of violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the United States and Egypt announce a ceasefire, ending the week-long war.
November 25 - A fire in a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills over 100 people.
November 25 - Regional elections are held in Catalonia, dominated by the issue of possible future independence from Spain.
November 25 - Sebastian Vettel wins the Formula One World Championship for the third year in a row, becoming the youngest driver to win three Formula One championships.
November 25 to December 2 - Typhoon Bopha, known in the Philippines as "Pablo", kills at least 1,020 people, with 844 missing, causing considerable damage on the island of Mindanao.
November 28 – Penumbral lunar eclipse.
November 29 - At the UN General Assembly, a majority of member states votes to give Palestine non-member observer state status.
December 1 - Enrique Pena Nieto becomes President of Mexico.
December 3 – Jupiter in opposition.
December 8 - In Qatar, at the UN Climate Conference, it is agreed that the Kyoto Protocol is extended until 2020.
December 12 - North Korea announces that it has carried out a successful rocket launch.
December 14 - Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: A shooting occurs at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, as 26 people, including 20 children, are shot dead by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who then turns the gun on himself.
December 15 - Egypt holds a referendum on its constitution.
December 16 - Parliamentary election in Japan: The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, under Shinzo Abe, wins the election.
December 17 – Members of the Electoral College meet in each U.S. state.
December 19 - Park Geunhye is elected President of South Korea over Moon Jae-in.
She becomes the country's first female leader in February 2013.
December 21 – 11:11 UTC.
Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen baktuns.
Some people believed that the end of this cycle would be the end of the world.
December 21 - Barack Obama nominates John Kerry to become United States Secretary of State, a position in which he would succeed Hillary Clinton.
December 26 - Shinzo Abe becomes Prime Minister of Japan for the second time.
December 28 - At the age of 115 years, 253 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the oldest man ever, overtaking Christian Mortensen who had died in 1998.
The oldest-ever person is Jeanne Calment, who lived for 122 years, 164 days.
December 31 - Politicians in the United States do last-minute talks in an attempt at avoiding the so-called "Fiscal Cliff", a series of tax rises that would come into force in the new year.
Physiology or Medicine: John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka
Physics: Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland
Chemistry: Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka
Literature: Mo Yan
Peace: European Union
Economics: Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd Shapley
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor.
He has composed many soundtracks for blockbuster movies such as Star Wars, Superman, Jaws, Jaws 2, Indiana Jones, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Lincoln.
William was born in Long Island, New York on February 8, 1932.
He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the Julliard School.
His parents were Esther and Johnny Williams.
He is best known for his scores (soundtracks) for movies such as Jaws, Jaws 2, Star Wars, Superman, E.T., Indiana Jones, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Lincoln.
He conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducts for them a few times each year especially around Christmas time.
Williams has composed music for all but two of Steven Spielberg's movies (Duel and The Color Purple).
For Barack Obama's presidential inauguration on January 20, 2009, John Williams made a special arrangement of the Shaker hymn "Air and Simple Gifts".
It was performed by four musicians: the violinist Itzhak Perlman, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the clarinetist Anthony McGill and the pianist Gabriela Montero.
Williams also created the theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the Statue of Liberty's rededication, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the original, not as well known calypso-based theme song to Gilligan's Island.
Williams did the music for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
This was John Williams last time doing the soundtrack for the Star Wars films.
He made a cameo appearance as a bartender in the movie
Williams was married to actress Barbara Ruick from 1956 until her death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1974.
They had three children: Jennifer, Joseph and Mark.
In 1980, he married Samantha Winslow.
They live in Los Angeles, California.
Awards and honors
Williams has received 49 Academy Award nominations throughout his career.
He is the only living person to do so.
He won five of them.
Williams has received the most nominations for Academy Awards of any person except for Walt Disney.
Williams has also won 4 Golden Globe Awards, 7 British Academy Film Awards and 21 Grammy Awards.
Williams was honored with the annual Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards, recognizing his contribution to movies and television music.
Williams is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national fraternity for college band members.
Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
American conductors
American movie score composers
Musicians from New York
Superman is a famous comic book character, and is often known as the first modern superhero character.
He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1932, while they were still in high school.
He first appeared in Action Comics issue #1 in 1938.
Later, he appeared in movies, television series, cartoons, commercials, video games, and radio shows.
Superman is one of the most popular superheroes, he is in the DC Comics.
As a superhero he does not want to kill anyone.
But he was forced to kill his enemy general Zod as Zod was about to kill people.
Like other characters in the DC Universe, there have been several alternative versions of Superman over the years.
Several actors have played Superman in motion pictures and TV series including Bud Collyer, Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tim Daly, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, and Tyler Hoechlin.
Superman's Real Life Origins
Mr. Siegel imagined an evil villain who read minds and dreamed of conquering the world.
He went by the name of the Superman.
In the 1930s, Hitler, the infamous nazi villain from real life, was talking about getting rid of the Jews and communists.
This was because he believed that Germans he called Aryans were supermen.
Mr. Siegel, who was Jewish, found this disgusting.
But one night, Mr. Siegel tossed and turned in his bed, and had a horrible time getting to sleep.
When he awoke, Superman became the superman we know today, and the evil version disappeared.
Superman was born on a planet called Krypton.
His name was Kal-El.
When his father, Jor-El, found out that their planet was going to explode, Jor-El sent his baby son to Earth in a spacecraft to save him.
Kal-El was found and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent.
They named him Clark Kent.
The Kents raised him as their own son in a town called Smallville, Kansas in the United States. (
There is a television series called Smallville about his time growing up there)
As he grows up, Clark finds out that he has special powers.
He is almost invulnerable (most things cannot hurt him).
He is strong enough to lift almost anything and he can fly.
Superman can also run and move faster than a bullet.
He has X-ray vision (he can see through walls, he is not able to see through lead), and heat vision (shooting heat from his eyes).
He can freeze things with his frost breath and his super-breath (which allows him to blow super hard).
He decides to use his special powers to fight crime and save people in danger.
He wears a blue and red costume and cape to keep his alter ego (his real name) a secret.
He saves the entire world many times.
Superman moves to a city called Metropolis, and becomes a reporter for the Daily Planet, a newspaper.
He falls in love with another reporter, Lois Lane.
His weaknesses are radioactive rocks from his home planet that are called "kryptonite"; and magic.
Sometimes his enemies use it to hurt him.
Diffferent Kryptoinites have different effects on him, Blue Kryptonite makes people able to control him using hypnosis, green weakens his powers and slowly kills him, black makes him evil, and red has many different effects on him (each piece of red kryptonite affects him differently).
There is also gold, white, and jewel kryptonite.
Some of Superman's enemies use magic to hurt him.
His most well known arch enemy is a bald (hairless), evil genius named Lex Luthor.
He has other deadly enemies too.
Bizarro is a failed duplicate of superman.
Darkseid is a very powerful enemy, and the ruler of the planet Apokolips.
Another enemy includes General Zod who comes from the same planet as Superman.
Fictional characters introduced in the 1930s
Kryptonians
Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae, native to eastern and southern Asia from the Himalaya east to Japan and Indonesia.
Scientists are still discussing how many species there are.
The number of species varies between 100 and 250.
Linnaeus named the genus inhonour of Fr.
Georg Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit botanist.
amel brought C. japonica from Manila to Spain.
They are evergreen shrubs and small trees from 2–20 m tall.
The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, thick, serrated, usually glossy, and 3–17 cm long.
The flowers are large and conspicuous, 1–12 cm diameter, with (in natural conditions) 5–9 petals; colour varies from white to pink and red, and yellow in a few species.
The fruit is a dry capsule subdivided into 1–5 compartments, each containing 1–8 seeds.
The genus is generally adapted to acidic soils, and does not grow well on chalk or other calcium-rich soils.
Most species also have a high rainfall requirement and will not tolerate drought.
Camellia species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of butterfly species.
Cultivation and uses
Camellia sinensis is very important commercially since tea is made from its leaves.
Tea oil is a sweet seasoning and cooking oil made by pressing the seeds of Camellia sinensis or Camellia oleifera.
Many other camellias are grown as ornamental plants for their flowers; about 3,000 cultivars and hybrids have been selected, many with double flowers, as in the gallery below.
Camellia japonica (often simply called Camellia) is the most prominent species in cultivation, with over 2,000 named cultivars; next are C. reticulata, with over 400 named cultivars, and C. sasanqua, with over 300 named cultivars.
Popular hybrids include C. × hiemalis (C. japonica × C. sasanqua) and C. × williamsii (C. japonica × C. salouenensis).
They are highly valued in Japan and elsewhere for their very early flowering, often among the first flowers to appear in the late winter.
Late frosts can damage the flowers.
Camellias have a slow growth rate.
Typically they will grow about 30 centimetres a year until mature although this varies depending on variety and location.
Camellia japonica is the state flower of Alabama as well as the city flower of the Chinese municipality Chongqing.
Famous Camellia aficionados
HM The Queen Mother grew Camellia in all of her gardens.
As her body was taken from Royal Lodge, Windsor to lie in state at Westminster Hall of the Palace of Westminster, a Camellia from her own gardens was placed on top of the flag draped coffin
Coco Chanel was very well known for wearing a white Camellia
Alexandre Dumas, fils named his most famous novel The Lady of the Camellias (1848) after the significance this plant played in the story.
Ralph Peer, the music industry pioneer often credited as the Father of Country Music, was a former president of the American Camellia Society.
The International Camellia Society
The American Camellia Society
A magnolia (tree), that blooms white flowers, which are also called Magnolias
Magnolia (movie), 1999 movie
Magnolia Hall hitopia
In mathematics, exponentiation (power) is an arithmetic operation on numbers.
It can be thought of as repeated multiplication, just as multiplication can be thought of as repeated addition.
In general, given two numbers  and , the exponentiation of  and  can be written as , and read as " raised to the power of ", or " to the th power".