the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
The Muppets are puppet characters created by Jim Henson.
The characters include Kermit the Frog and the Muppet cast of Sesame Street.
Jim Henson started work with the Muppets in the 1950s and continued until his death in 1990.
The Muppets are known for an surreal absurd burlesque and humorous style of variety-sketch comedy.
The Muppets are now owned by The Walt Disney Company.
The term "muppet" is trademarked and owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Puppets used in Sesame Street are still called muppets at times, and have special permission to use that name from The Walt Disney Company.
Jim Henson said the name "muppet" came from combining the words "puppet" and "marionette," but he also said that he just liked the way the word sounded.
There is no defined difference between a muppet and a puppet other than the link to Jim Henson.
Many of Jim Henson's muppets have large eyes, round noses, and large mouths that go from one end of the face to the other (almost ear to ear).
Muppets are often made out of foam with felt on top.
Puppeteers usually control the muppet with one hand in the head and the other hand controls the muppets arms.
Sometimes the arms have a stick that is used to move the hand and arm - this is called the "arm rod."
Puppeteers hold the arm rod at one end and the other end touches the muppet hand.
Some muppets have hands that are gloves.
Puppeteers put their hands in the gloves of these muppets so the muppet can move its fingers.
For this reason, most muppets appear to favor their left hands.
Muppeteers and their characters
Main Muppeteers
Jim Henson - Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog, Ernie, The Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth, Link Hogthrob, Guy Smiley, Mahna Mahna, Waldorf, Various
Frank Oz - Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, Sam the Eagle, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Miss Piggy, Various
Jerry Nelson - Floyd Pepper, Robin the Frog, Gobo Fraggle, Statler, Emmet Otter, Count von Count, Snuffleupagus, Two-Headed Monster (Left Head), Marjory the Trash Heap, Lew Zealand, Pops, Uncle Deadly, Crazy Harry, Mr. Johnson, Dr. Julius Strangepork, Herry Monster, Announcer, Various
Richard Hunt - Scooter, Janice, Statler, Don Music, Gunge, Two-Headed Monster (Right Head), Gladys the Cow, Sweetums, Sonny Friendly, Bobby Benson, Wayne, Various
Dave Goelz - The Great Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot, Beauregard, Waldorf, Boober Fraggle, Traveling Matt, Rugby Tiger, Digit, Stinky the Skunk, Brewtster, Philo, Gorgon Heap, Blue Frackle, Various
Eric Jacobson - Bert, Grover, Sam the Eagle, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Miss Piggy, Various
Steve Whitmire - Kermit the Frog, Ernie, Rizzo the Rat, Statler, Bean Bunny, Wembley Fraggle, Link Hogthrob, Waldo C. Graphic, Lips, Various
Fran Brill - Prairie Dawn, Zoe, Betty Lou, Little Bird, Various
Alice Dinnean - Wanda, Sherry Netherland, Phoebe, Various
Julianne Buescher - Yolanda Rat, Sherry Netherland, Denise, Various
Ryan Dillon - Elmo, Various
Stephanie D'Abruzzo - Curly Bear, Prairie Dawn, Various
Bill Barretta - Pepe the King Prawn, Rowlf the Dog, Mahna Mahna, The Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth, Bobo the Bear, Big Mean Carl, Various
David Rudman - Scooter, Janice, Baby Bear, Cookie Monster, Two-Headed Monster (Right Head), Sonny Friendly, Bobby Benson, Wayne, Various
Joey Mazzarino -Two-Headed Monster (Left Head), Various
Kevin Clash - Elmo, Sam the Eagle, Various
Matt Vogel - Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, 80's Robot, Constantine, Floyd Pepper, Count von Count, Lew Zealand, Pops, Uncle Deadly, Robin the Frog, Crazy Harry, Mr. Johnson, Dr. Julius Strangepork, Various
Martin P. Robinson - Telly Monster, Snuffleupagus, Various
Leslie Carrara-Rudolph - Abby Cadabby, Various
Pam Arciero - Grundgetta, Various
Carmen Osbahr - Rosita
Jennifer Barnhart - Gladys the Cow, Zoe, Various
Peter Linz - Walter, Ernie, Herry Monster, Lips, Robin the Frog, Statler, Various
Noel MacNeal - Various
Tyler Bunch - Foozie Bear, Janice, Various
John Tartaglia - Ernie, Phoebe, Various
John Kennedy - Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Various
Caroll Spinney as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Various
Cast and characters in adaptations
Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern, 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and the last King of Prussia.
Ruling from 1888 to 1918, he went to live in the Netherlands and abdicated (resigned) as King and Emperor.
He died in the Netherlands at Huis Doorn, and he is buried there because he ordered not to be buried in Nazi Germany.
He died on June 4, 1941.
Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 and was the oldest child in his family.
His father was Prince Frederick of Prussia.
His mother was Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
He was born with a disabled left arm.
He married in 1881 Augusta Victoria.
He studied at the Kassel Gymnasium and then at the University of Bonn.
He became leader of Germany in 1888, when his father died.
He disagreed with his father's longtime chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, and dismissed him in 1890.
Wilhelm believed in strengthening Germany’s armed forces, especially the navy.
He led Germany during World War I.
27 January 1859 – 9 March 1888: His Royal Highness Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
9 March 1888 – 15 June 1888: His Imperial Highness and Royal Highness The German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia
15 June 1888 – 18 November 1918: His Imperial and Royal Majesty The German Emperor, King of Prussia
Crown Princes and Princesses of Prussia
German emperors
German people of World War I
Kings and Queens of Prussia
Knights of Justice of the Order of St John
Catherine de' Medici (Italian: Caterina de Medici, ; French: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589), was the wife of Henry II of France.
Catherine was the daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici.
She was born in Florence, Italy.
She was born Caterina Maria Romula  de' Medici.
Catherine was married to Henry II of France when she was 14 years old.
1589 deaths
Francis was born in Fontainebleau, France, on January 19, 1544.
His parents were Henry II of France and Catherine of Medici.
Francis was married to Mary, Queen of Scots, on April 24, 1558.
Francis died in Orleans, France, on December 5, 1560 because of an ear infection.
He is buried in the Saint Denis Basilica, next to King Charles IX of France.
1544 births
1560 deaths
France, Francis 02 of
People from Ile-de-France
Adela of Normandy (c. 1067 – c. 8 March 1137) was the daughter of William I of England and Matilda of Flanders.
She was married to Stephen, Count of Blois between 1080 and 1084 and became the mother of:
William, Count of Chartres
Odo of Blois, who died young
Theobald II of Champagne
Henry of Blois, who became the Bishop of Winchester
1067 births
1137 deaths
Stephen of England (c. 1096–25 October 1154) was King of England from 1135 until 1154.
He became the King after the death of his uncle Henry I. Stephan was the King until his own death in Dover, Kent.
Stephen was crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 26 December 1135.
Stephen is buried at the Clunaic Monastery in Faversham, Kent.
King Stephen was born in Blois, France, in either 1092 or 1096.
He was the son of Stephen, Count of Blois and Adela of Normandy.
His mother, Adela, was the daughter of William I of England and Matilda of Flanders.
Stephen married Matilda of Boulogne in about 1125.
He fought a civil war with Henry I's only daughter, Matilda, from 1139-1153.
This ended with the Treaty of Wallingford in 1153 after the death of Stephen's son and heir, Eustace IV.
The treaty said that Stephen would be King for the rest of his lifetime.
After his death, the throne passed to Henry, son of Matilda, and not Stephen's other son William.
King Stephen died on 25 October 1154.
King Stephen was captured after the Battle of Lincoln in April 1141, he was released later and returned to the throne.
1096 births
1154 deaths
Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122 – March 31, 1204) was the daughter of William X of Aquitaine.
She had a younger sister called Petronilla of Aquitaine.
She brought the province of Aquitaine to England when she married Henry II of England.
It stayed under English control for 300 years.
Eleanor inherited land in France at the age of 15.
She married Louis VII of France on July 22, 1137, and had two daughters:
William, who died at the age of 3.
John I of England
Matilda of England
Joan/Joanna of England
Eleanor of England
Eleanor was  greatly known for her work in the Second Crusade, for she inspired many people to join.
Eleanor supported a revolt by her children against their father's rule in 1173.
This revolt was unsuccessful, and King Henry II was so furious that he locked her away in a prison.
In 1189, after King Henry II died and her son, Richard, came to be the king, Eleanor was freed.
Shortly after, Richard died so she supported her son John to take the English throne against the claim of her grandson Arthur of Brittany.
In 1202 during the campaign at Mairebeau, she continued to thwart Arthur.
Emerging triumphant, Eleanor retired to a monastery.
She died there on April 1, 1204.
1122 births
1204 deaths
King John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was the son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
He was King of England from 6 April 1199, until his death.
He became King of England after the death of his brother Richard I (Richard the Lionheart).
His reign was marked by disputes between John and his barons and bishops.
Because of this the nobles forced him to agree to the Magna Carta, which limited his power.
The Magna Carta was a significant legal document in English history, as well as one of the first English “bills of rights”.
It introduced the idea that monarchs had limited rights and had to follow certain laws, and it gave the nobles more say in the government.
It affected English government and inspired those of other countries.
As a young man, John already had a reputation for treachery.
He conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers, Henry, Richard and Geoffrey.
In 1184, John and Richard both claimed that they were the rightful heir to Aquitaine, one of many unfriendly encounters between the two.
Richard's absence
Richard, now King Richard I of England was absent on the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1194.
John attempted to overthrow William Longchamp, the Bishop of Ely, who was Richard's designated 'chief justiciar' (like a Regent or Prime Minister).
This was one of the events which led later writers to cast John as the villain in the legend of Robin Hood.
John was more popular than Longchamp in London.
In October 1191 the leading citizens of the city opened the gates to John while Longchamp was confined in the tower.
John promised the city the right to govern itself as a commune in return for recognition as Richard's heir presumptive.
As he returned from the Crusade, Richard was captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and handed over to Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor, who held him for ransom.
Meanwhile, John had joined forces with Philip Augustus, King of France.
They sent a letter to Henry asking him to keep Richard away from England for as long as possible, offering payment to keep Richard imprisoned.
Henry declined their offer, and got his ransom from Eleanor of Aquitaine (who had to pawn the Crown Jewels).
Richard was set free.
John then begged forgiveness from Richard, who granted it and named him heir presumptive.
Dispute with Arthur
On Richard's death (6 April 1199) John was accepted in Normandy and England.
He was crowned king at Westminster on 27 May, Ascension Day.
However, Anjou, Maine, and Brittany declared for Arthur of Brittany, son of his elder brother Geoffrey.
Arthur fought his uncle for the throne, with the support of Philip II of France.
The conflict between Arthur and John had serious consequences for both.
Finally, Philip recognised John over Arthur.
The price paid was John's agreement to be Philip's vassal in Normandy and Angevin.
Nevertheless, conflicts continued until in 1202 Philip declared all John's French lands and territories, except Gascony in the southwest, and immediately occupied them.
Philip gave Arthur all the land he had taken from John, except for Normandy, and betrothed him to his daughter Marie.
John now needed to fight to get back 'his' land in France.
In 1203 John ordered all shipyards in England to provide at least one ship, with the newly-built Portsmouth Naval Base to provide several.
He made Portsmouth the new home of the navy.
By the end of 1204, John had 45 large ships available to him, and from then on an average of four new ones every year.
He also created an Admiralty of four admirals, responsible for various parts of the new navy.
During John's reign, major improvements were made in ship design.
He also created the first big transport ships.
John is sometimes credited with the founding of the modern Royal Navy.
As part of the war, Arthur attempted to kidnap his own grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Mirebeau, but was defeated and captured by John's forces.
Arthur was imprisoned first at Falaise and then at Rouen.
After this, Arthur's fate remains unknown, but it is believed that he was murdered by John.
Assuming that he was murdered, Brittany, and later Normandy, rebelled against John.
John also imprisoned his niece, Eleanor.
Through deeds such as these, John acquired a reputation for ruthlessness.
Dealings with Bordeaux
In 1203, John exempted the citizens and merchants of Bordeaux from the Grande Coutume, which was the principal tax on their exports.
In exchange, the regions of Bordeaux, Bayonne and Dax pledged support against the French Crown.
The unblocked ports gave Gascon merchants open access to the English wine market for the first time.
The following year, John granted the same exemptions to La Rochelle and Poitou.
Lost lands and disputes
Normandy seized by the French
John needed money for his army, but the loss of the French territories, especially Normandy, greatly reduced the state income.
A huge tax would be needed to reclaim these territories.
He imposed the first income tax, raising the (then) huge sum of £70,000.
Dispute with the Pope
When Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Walter died on 13 July 1205, John became involved in a dispute with Pope Innocent III.
The Canterbury Cathedral Chapter claimed the sole right to elect Hubert's successor, and favoured Reginald, a candidate out of their midst.
However, both the English bishops and the King wanted someone else to have this powerful office.
The king wanted John de Gray, one of his own men.
When their dispute could not be settled, the Chapter secretly elected one of their members as Archbishop.
A second election imposed by John resulted in another nominee.
When they both appeared in the Vatican, Innocent disavowed (rejected) both elections, and his candidate, Stephen Langton, was elected despite the objections of John's observers.
John was supported in his position by the English barons and many of the English bishops, and refused to accept Langton.
John expelled (dismissed) the Canterbury Chapter in July 1207, to which the Pope reacted by placing an interdict on the kingdom which meant that no one could receive religious blessings.
John retaliated by closing down the churches.
He confiscated (on paper) all church possessions, but individual churches were able to negotiate terms for managing their own properties and keeping the produce of their estates.
After his excommunication, John tightened these measures and he got plenty from the income of vacant sees and abbeys.
For example, the church lost an estimated 100,000 marks to the Crown in 1213.
The Pope gave permission for some churches to hold Mass behind closed doors in 1209.
In 1212, they allowed last rites to the dying.
While the interdict was a burden to many, it did not result in rebellion against John.
Excommunication and papal supremacy
In November 1209 John was excommunicated, and in February 1213, Innocent threatened stronger measures unless John submitted.
The papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the papal legate Pandulph in May 1213 (according to Matthew Paris, at the Knights Templar Church at Dover); in addition, John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to God and the Saints Peter and Paul for a feudal service of 1,000 marks annually, 700 for England and 300 for Ireland.
With this submission, written in a document, John gained the support of his papal overlord in his new dispute with the English barons.
After settling his dispute with the papacy, John turned his attentions back to France.
The European wars ended in defeat at the Battle of Bouvines in July 1214, which forced the king to accept an unfavourable peace with France.
The heavy scutage  levy for the failed campaign was the last straw, and when John attempted to raise more in September 1214, many barons refused to pay.
The barons no longer believed that John was capable of regaining his lost lands.
In May 1215, Robert Fitz Walter led forty barons to renounce homage to the king at Northampton.
The so-called 'Army of God' marched on London, taking the capital as well as taking Lincoln and Exeter.
John met their leaders and with their French and Scots allies at Runnymede, near London, on 15 June 1215.
There, they sealed the Great Charter, called in Latin Magna Carta.
It established a council of 25 barons to see John kept to the clauses like protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, parliamentary assent for taxation, and scutage limitations.
Because he was forced to seal the charter, John sought approval to break it, from his overlord the Pope.
Denouncing it as "not only shameful and demeaning but also illegal and unjust", the Pope agreed, which provoked the First Barons' War.
The barons invited a French invasion by Prince Louis VIII of France, who accepted the offer of the crown of England as a reward for his support.
War with barons
John travelled around the country to oppose the rebel forces, and directed a two-month siege of the rebel-held Rochester Castle.
While a small force arrived in rebel-held London in November, the Scots under their king, Alexander II, invaded northern England.
By the end of December, John was leading a murderous expedition in the north, culminating with the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
With the momentum swinging from John, some of his generals, including his half-brother William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, went to the rebel side.
By the end of the summer, Louis held a third of the country and had the support of two-third of the barons.
In September, Alexander II travelled down to pay homage to Louis at Dover, where the French pretender had being laying siege to Dover Castle.
Retreating from the French invasion, John took a safe route around the marshy area of The Wash to avoid the rebel held area of East Anglia.
His slow baggage train (including the Crown Jewels), took a direct route across it and was lost to the incoming tide.
This dealt John a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind.
Succumbing to dysentery and moving from place to place, he died at Newark Castle.
He was buried at Worcester Cathedral, in the West Midlands.
When King John died on 18 October, 1216 his nine-year-old son, Henry was too young to rule the kingdom.
William Marshal was appointed as Regent to Henry III to make decisions on Henry’s behalf until he came of age.
The barons switched their allegiance to the new king, forcing Louis to give up his claim and sign the Treaty of Lambeth in 1217.
King John's reign began with military defeats – he lost Normandy to Philip II of France in his first five years on the throne.
His reign ended with England torn by civil war and himself on the verge of being forced out of power.
In 1213, he made England a papal fief to resolve a conflict with the Catholic Church, and his rebellious barons forced him to seal Magna Carta in 1215, the act for which he is best remembered.
John is responsible for the creation of another English cultural icon, the historic, medieval London Bridge.
To finance the construction of a large bridge across the Thames, King John allowed houses, shops, and a church to be built on top of the bridge.
John was an efficient ruler, but he lost approval of the barons by taxing them in ways outside those traditionally allowed by feudal overlords.
The tax known as scutage became particularly unpopular.
John was a fair-minded and well informed king, however.
He often sat as a judge in the Royal Courts, and his justice was much sought after.
Also, John's employment of an able Chancellor and clerks resulted in the first proper set of records.
Winston Churchill summarised the legacy of John's reign: "When the long tally is added, it will be seen that the British nation and the English-speaking world owe far more to the vices of John than to the labours of virtuous sovereigns".
Medieval historian C. Warren Hollister called John an "enigmatic figure":
"...talented in some respects, good at administrative detail, but suspicious, unscrupulous, and mistrusted.
He was compared in a recent scholarly article, perhaps unfairly, with Richard Nixon.
His crisis-prone career was sabotaged repeatedly by the halfheartedness with which his vassals supported him—and the energy with which some of them opposed him".
Marriage and children
In 1189, John was married to Isabel of Gloucester.
John had their marriage annulled, and she was never acknowledged as queen.
John remarried, on 24 August 1200, Isabella of Angoulême, who was twenty years his junior.
John had kidnapped her from her fiancé, Hugh X of Lusignan.
Henry III (1207–1272), King of England.
Richard (1209–1272), 1st Earl of Cornwall.
Joan (1210–1238), Queen Consort of Alexander II of Scotland.
Isabella (1214–1241), Consort of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Eleanor (1215–1275), who married William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and later married Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester.
John had many illegitimate children.
Matthew Paris accuses him of seducing the more attractive daughters and sisters of his barons and relatives.
John had these illegitimate children:
Joan, the wife of Llywelyn the Great.
Richard Fitz Roy, (by his cousin, Adela)
Oliver FitzRoy, (by a mistress named Hawise) who accompanied the papal legate Pelayo to Damietta in 1218, and never returned.
Geoffrey FitzRoy, who went on expedition to Poitou in 1205 and died there.
John FitzRoy, a clerk in 1201.
Henry FitzRoy, who died in 1245.
Osbert Gifford, who was given lands in Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex, and is last seen alive in 1216.
Eudes FitzRoy, who accompanied his half-brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, on Crusade and died in the Holy Land in 1241.
Bartholomew FitzRoy, a member of the order of Friars Preachers.
Maud FitzRoy, Abbess of Barking, who died in 1252.
Isabel FitzRoy, wife of Richard Fitz Ives.
Philip FitzRoy, found living in 1263.
The surname Fitzroy is Norman-French for 'son of the king'.
King John in Legend
John is also famous for his part in the Robin Hood stories where he plays one of Robin's enemies.
Popular culture suggests that many people did not like him, but actually we do not know what ordinary people thought in the 13th century.
William Shakespeare wrote a play about him.
It was mostly about Arthur of Brittany and did not mention Robin Hood or Magna Carta.
1166 births
1216 deaths
13th century in England
12th century in Europe
Thirteen is a number.
It comes after twelve and before fourteen.
Many people think thirteen is an unlucky number, especially when Friday is the thirteenth day of the month.
This is a superstition.
There is no proof that thirteen is an unlucky number.
Floors in tall buildings often skip floor thirteen, or reserve it for a mechanical floor.
The idea of thirteen as an unlucky number is from pagan Norse mythology.
It was believed to be unlucky to have thirteen people sitting at a table at a meal, and death is number thirteen in the tarot deck.
The weekend is a time when fewer people go to work or school.
Traditional Christians believe that Sunday is a day of rest or Sabbath, and Jews believe the day of rest is the seventh day, Saturday, and start the week with Sunday.
Friday is also considered the beginning of the weekend, and it is a day of rest for Muslims.
Alexandria (Arabic: الإسكندرية) is the second largest city in Egypt.
It was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexandria).
It is on the Mediterranean Sea, only 225 km (140 miles) northwest of Cairo.
Alexandria has 3.8 million people.
It is the main port of Egypt.
It has two airports and three big stadia: Alexandria stadium, Harras el hadoud stadium and Borg el-Arab stadium in the Borg el-Arab industrial city.
Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great, was founded around 331 BC.
For nearly 300 years, it was the capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
Some famous ancient Greek scientists, such as Euclid of Alexandria and Eratosthenes, lived there or studied there.
It was home to the largest library in the ancient Western world, the Library of Alexandria.
It was a wealthy city in its heyday, and remained the main way Egyptian grain went by sea to Ancient Rome.
Rome depended greatly on Egyptian grain.
Much of Alexandria sank below the sea in the 4th century.
Some of her history is in the Mediterranean.
After the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD, they did not want to have their capital at Alexandria, because it was too vulnerable to naval raids.
So the Muslim Conquerors made a new capital on the east side of the Nile, and called it Fustat.
Alexandria became less important.
Greek Community of Alexandria
331 BC establishments
January 1 – A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time.
January 8 – A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.
January 11 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
January 12 – A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
January 15 – Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the first Greek-letter organization by and for Black college women is established.
January 21 – New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance,  making it illegal for aliens  to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
January 24 – Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.
February 1 – King Carlos I of Portugal and Crown Prince Luis are shot in Lisbon.
February 11 – Australia regain The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
February 18 – Japanese immigration to USA forbidden.
Philippe's, a restaurant opens in Los Angeles.
St. Albans City F.C. founded.
Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian biologist, and Paul Ehrlich, Germany, won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
February 23 – William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia
May 31 – Don Ameche, American actor, (d. 1993)
August 27 – Lyndon B. Johnson, American politician, 36th President of the United States (d. 1973)
September 4 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American movie director (d. 1999)
The Celtic League is a group of people from the six modern Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man.
They want their countries to be free.
These six countries each have a native Celtic language and the Celtic League supports the learning of these languages.
The six Celtic languages are Irish, Gaelic (Scottish), Welsh, Breton, Cornish, and Manx.
Pan-Celticism
Ellis, Peter Berresford The Celtic Dawn
Tanner, Marcus Last of the Celts
Celtic League Website
Celtic League, American branch
Celtic League, International Site
Celtic League, Scottish Branch
Celtic peoples
Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist.
Winfrey is best known for her multi-award-winning talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show which was the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011.
She has also acted in several movies including The Color Purple, The Butler and A Wrinkle in Time.
Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
Winfrey was named "Orpah" after a character in the Book of Ruth.
People made the mistake of calling her "Oprah".
She decided to keep this name.
Her parents are Vernita Lee, a maid, and Vernon Winfrey, a barber.
She went to Tennessee State University in 1971.
She started to work in radio and television in Nashville.
She hosted television programs in Baltimore and Chicago.
At the age of 13, she ran away from home.
At the age of 14, she had a son , but, he died a while after being born.
In 1986, Winfrey's own talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show went on the air.
She was liked by audiences for her warmth.
She came to own the show.
Oprah Winfrey Network
Winfrey now runs the Oprah Winfrey Network.
On January 15, 2008, Winfrey and Discovery Communications announced plans to change Discovery Health Channel into a new channel called OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.
It was scheduled to launch in 2009, but was delayed, and actually launched on January 1, 2011.
She also hosts the Oprah's Next Chapter show on the network.
She endorsed Barack Obama in 2006 for the 2008 election.
One estimate said it delivered one million votes in the 2008 Democratic primary race.
Nikyra Rucker loaned Oprah Winfrey money to start her business.
Oprah Winfrey now has a lot of money.
She gives to many charities.
She gives to girls' education in South Africa.
In 2013, she was named one of the 400 richest people in the United States.
She is the only African-American among this group.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013 and an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard.
NPR "Oprah: The Billionaire Everywoman".
Audio file, video and biography.
Accessed September 17, 2010
Oprah Winfrey  Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
African American television personalities
People of Tennessee State University
The Colognian dialect, or Kölsch is a variety of the German languages.
People in and around the city of Cologne in the West of Germany use Kölsch.
Nowadays most of them have High German as their primary language or secondary language.
How to say "Kölsch"?
Take the beginning from "kernel" or "colonel"; next take a real dark, long "l" as in "bold", or "ball"; then append a "sh" as in "shrimps", or "ti" as in "nation".
That's the sound "Kölsch".
However, the German "ö" is not exactly the same as an English "o", but a sound between "o" and "e".
Now by ordinary German word building rules, 'kölnisch' means 'belonging to Cologne', 'related to Cologne', 'in Cologne', 'from Cologne'—as in 'kölnisch Wasser' (Eau de Cologne).
The word 'kölnisch', or 'köllesch', shortened to 'kölsch' in local tongue, became a shorthand noun for the local beer and the local language, or dialect.
Today's name of the city stems from ancient times of the Roman occupation of Northern Germany 100 years before Christ, and later.
In the place of a longer existing German tribal settlement, the Romans built a fort or castle —
then, approximately under the reign of Julius Caesar, enhanced it to a colony (Latin: colonia) with religious and city rights.
Although Kölsch speakers occasionally claim that it is rooted in pre-Roman times, Kölsch's ripuarian base developed from a mix of Lower German and Middle High German in medieval times.
It learned from other languages through political and trade connections during the times of the Hanse, and from various waves of immigration.
In modern times, there were:
Remarkable French influences since Napoleon's occupation of the city (1794-1815)
Prussian influences as Prussian kings took over from the French army
Dutch influences by immigration, trade, and neighborhood
Some English influences through the British and American armies, European integration and worldwide globalization since 1945
Recently minor influences by migrants from Southern Europe and Turkey start evolving
Special properties
Kölsch has outstanding or unique properties.
Here are some:
Richness.
There is only one language in Europe that has as many different vowels as Kölsch.
There are a huge number of different sounds that sound like 'sh', but if someone gets them wrong, he will be understood as a foreigner.
Tolerance paired with individuality.
Kölsch is not so outstanding among the many dialects around it.
These are both similar and different.
Kölsch integrates new variants and deviations easily and quickly.
There is no concept of right or wrong, only of difference.
It is all right to be different, as every individual is different somehow all the time.
Kölsch is unusually well documented.
Some linguists of the local universities have shown great interest in Kölsch and the ripuarian dialects, and research on them.
Outside the world of science, the Akademie för uns Kölsche Sproch (Academy in favour of our Kölsch language) offers regular courses, classes, excursions for everybody.
They publish a dictionary, a grammar, and phrase books.
It is probably the only institute of its kind worldwide.
Socio-cultural
People who speak Kölsch
Jacques Offenbach, (1819–1880), cellist, composer, initiator of the genre 'operetta'
Konrad Adenauer, (1876-1967), Cologne's mayor for long, later the first German prime minister (chancellor) after the second world war
Karl Blömer, body builder, awarded "Mister Universum"
Heinrich Böll, (1917-1985), writer and novelist, president of the German and the international Pen Club, received the nobel prize for literature in the year 1972
Peter Müller 'Dä Aap', (1927-1992), middle-weight boxing champion
Peter Ludwig, (1925-1996), industry leader, patron and collector of modern art, founder of six important museums spread over Western Germany
Willy Millowitsch, (1909-1999), actor, TV-star, entertainer, proprietor of his own theatre in Cologne
Mario Adorf, (born 1930), actor and writer
Michael Schumacher, (born in 1969), formula-one car-racing world champion
Kölsch music
Willi Ostermann, (1876-1936) was a parodist, poet, composer, singer, songwriter, editor and publisher.
He is extremely popular in the Kölsch Region.
He created a treasure of Kölsch songs.
Many of Ostermann's songs are in everybody's active memory in Cologne and about.
People sing them on various occasions and music groups ubiquitously performed them all the time until today.
Can is a Kölsch rock group that reveived much international acclamation from insiders in the late 1960s, when they started a new style of electronic music.
General public became aware of them only about 20 years later.
Then other musicians had successfully adopted their style.
Most of their music is instrumental.
If there is voice in their compositions, it is mostly used similar to any other instrument.
de Bläck Fööss (the Naked Feet) were the first publicly recognized beat band to sing in Kölsch language.
The professional musicians, successful in other projects, just for fun recorded a nice Kölsch song together, in 1969.
The record became a little local success, they decided to follow that path and started a huge success.
Over the years, they had a series of local top hits, occasionally well received even outside the area where people understand Kölsch.
Today they regularly draw audiences of 20,000 or 30,000 people several times a year.
Their repertoire covers most styles of modern popular music, and various language variants of Kölsch.
BAP is a Kölsch rock group.
They always have been a tour band and successfully perform throughout Germany.
de Höhner (the Cocks and Hens) is a group playing popular, rock, beat, dancing, and drinking songs, almost all of them use an easy Kölsch.
They have had a top hit in Germany and Number One at the Oktoberfest in Munich.
Munich is far away from Cologne; people in Munich have a completely different language, they usually do not comprehend Kölsch.
Moselfränkisches Wörterbuch (Mosel-Frankian Dictionary, in German)
WiKoelsch  Test Wiki in Ripuarian languages, including Kölsch.
German dialects
Languages of Germany
some breweries in the city of Cologne in the West of Germany make a special type of beer: Kölsch (beer)
people in and around the city of Cologne in the West of Germany speak their own local language: Kölsch (language)
The past tense is used for actions in a time which has already happened.
In order to explain and understand past tense, it is useful to imagine time as a line on which the past, the present tense and the future tense are positioned.
Words in English have several tenses, including many common past tenses.
The two that are used the most are the simple past tense and the perfect tense
Simple past tense
The simple past tense is used for action in past time.
It usually uses for story telling or there is in narrative and recount text.
Different verbs change in different ways to make the past tense.
The most common way is by ending with ed" or we usually says REGULAR VERB.
Many other verbs are irregular, this means that there is no pattern and no easy way to know how the verb changes.
(- ) S + did not / didn't + V1 (present verb)
Did + S + V1 (present verb)
(+) S + to be ( was / were) +                                                  Noun/adjective/adverb
(- ) S + to be (was / were) + not  +Noun/adjective/adverb
To be (was / were) + Noun/adjective/adverb
did you go to bandung last week?
Was she happy this morning?
Past tense classified into four types
Past Indefinite Tense
Past Progressive Tense
Past Perfect Tense
Past Perfect Progressive Tense
Perfect tense
The Perfect is about completion: actions which are completed.
The tense refers to a period in the past.
In English the Perfect is made by have + -ed or variations of that form.
Present perfect refers to a time which begins in the past and continues to the present.
Examples: I have lived in  Dover since my birth.
She has discovered it.
She has done it now!Past perfect, or pluperfect, refers to an action before another action in the past.
Examples: She had not been home since her parents divorced.
I had discovered that he had taken my key.
Present continuous progressive perfect: She has been discovering that grammar is not so easy as she thought...
Past continuous progressive perfect: They had been finding it difficult.
Future perfect refers to an event before a future event.
Examples: She will have finished her report for the next board meeting.
By now she will have discovered the key.
Future continuous progressive perfect: I'm sure she will have been looking for that.''
Freeview is a free television service in the United Kingdom, and is sent to people's home using a digital signal.
It includes more channels than normal analogue television provides.
Over 30 television channels and 24 radio stations are on it at the moment.
The service was put on air on October 30, 2002 in the early morning.
ITV Digital was the previous service but the service had to be replaced because they were having financial problems.
Some TVs can receive Freeview automatically, but most people have to buy a special box to connect to their TV.
In March 2006 over 6 million people had Freeview in their homes.
British television
Mark Addy (born 14 January 1964, in York, England) is an English actor.
The best known works by Addy are as Detective Boyle in the British sitcom The Thin Blue Line, Dave in the movie The Full Monty, father Bill Miller in the US sitcom Still Standing and more recently as King Robert Baratheon in the HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones.
Addy has played many different roles in both television and in movies.
In 2013 he played Hercules, a medieval King, and a modern-day alcoholic with family problems.
Addy received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for The Full Monty.
He was also nominated for a BAFTA, Chlotrudis Award and Satellite Award.
For Game of Thrones he was nominated for a Scream Award for Best Ensemble and an ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award.
Actors from York
The tuba is the biggest of all the brass musical instruments.
They are the newest part of the symphony orchestra, first showing up in the mid-19th century.
Most orchestras have a tuba now.
The standard tuba has about 16 feet of tubes.
Tubas are normally in the key of F, Eb, CC, or BBb and can have 3 to 6 valves.
Because they are so big, some tubas have a compensating system.
This means a fourth, fifth or sixth valve is used to make the instrument sound more in tune - especially the lowest notes.
It takes a lot of breath to play the tuba.
It is one of the loudest instruments in the orchestra but can also play very quietly.
Use of the tuba
Brass instruments.
Garden gnomes are small lawn ornaments, usually placed in gardens or in front of houses.
They are small statues, usually between one and two feet tall (30 to 60 centimeters).
They depict gnomes, which are short creatures similar to humans.
Garden gnomes have become a popular accessory in many gardens, but they are not loved by all.
They can be the target of pranks.
People have been known to "return them to the wild", most notably France's "Front de Liberation des Nains de Jardins" and Italy's "MALAG" (Garden Gnome Liberation Front).
Some kidnapped garden gnomes have been sent on trips around the world, being passed from person to person and photographed at different famous landmarks, with the photos being returned to the owner.
This practice is featured in the 2001 French film, Amélie and in an advertising campaign for Travelocity.com.
Non-conventional gnome statues have also been made, such as a flashing gnome in a raincoat, or a gnome couple in love.
A sub-culture exists among those who collect garden gnomes.
This phenomenon is frequently made fun of in popular culture.
The first garden gnome was created in Switzerland.
It was later introduced to the United Kingdom in 1847 by Sir Charles Isham, when he brought 21 terracotta figures back from a trip to Germany and placed them around the gardens of his home at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire.
Only one of the original batch of gnomes survives.
His name is Lampy.
He is on display at Lamport Hall, and is insured for one million pounds.
Garden Gnome - Encyc
Kentucky is a state in the United States.
Its capital is Frankfort.
It touches the states of Missouri (by the Mississippi River), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia (by the Ohio River), Tennessee and Virginia.
There are many rivers in Kentucky.
The first people to settle in Kentucky were Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans.
African slaves worked on plantations.
Some people call it the "Bluegrass State" because of a special kind of grass that grows there.
There are also horses in Kentucky that eat this blue grass.
Kentucky is very famous for its horse farms.
The Kentucky Derby, a well-known horse race.
It is held in the city of Louisville, which is also the largest city in the state.
Other well-known places are Fort Knox, The Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Falls, Mammoth Cave, Red River gorge, and Land Between the Lakes.
Channing, Steven.
Kentucky: A Bicentennial History (1977).
1792 establishments in the United States
Gary Busey (born June 29, 1944) is an American actor.
He has appeared in many movies and television shows since the 1970s.
In 1988, He was involved in a motorcycle accident, but he recovered.
He was born in Goose Creek, Texas and grew up in Oklahoma.
He was a heavy cocaine user for many years, before giving it up and becoming a born-again Christian.
His elder son Jake Busey (born 1971) is also an actor.
Busey was a contestant in two celebrity series of The Apprentice (2011 and 2013).
He won the August-September 2014 series of Celebrity Big Brother UK.
Big Brother winners
Celebrity Big Brother contestants
The Apprentice contestants
Montana is a state in the United States.
Its capital is Helena, and the largest city is Billings.
Montana has many mountains in the western half of the state.
Most of the eastern part of the state is prairie.
Montana is the fourth largest state by area, the seventh least populous, and the third least densely populated of the 50 states.
Montana and Canada share a 545-mile (877-km) part of the world's longest undefended (which means there are no soldiers or armies on either side) border.
The state borders the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, more provinces than any other U.S. state.
To the east of Montana is North Dakota; to the southeast is a short border with South Dakota.
In the south is Wyoming, and on the west and southwest is Idaho.
The first people to settle in Montana were Native Americans.
Famous Montana people
Former Senate Majority Leader and Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield
Jeanette Rankin, first female member of US Congress
Burton K. Wheeler, a progressive senator who was Robert LaFollette´s running mate in the 1924 presidential election
Film director David Lynch, four-time Academy Award nominee
Lones Wigger, three-time Olympic medal winner and who at one point held 29 world records
Phil Jackson, born in Deer Lodge, Montana, won NBA titles eleven times
Katie Blair, model, actress and winner of multiple beauty pageants
Jerry Kramer of the Green Bay Packers
Charles Lindbergh, political activist
At one point, Montana was liberal in federal elections and conservative in state elections.
Today, the opposite is true.
Although Montana is very conservative in presidential elections (it has not voted for a Democrat since 1964), it is more liberal than most states in the upper Rocky Mountains region.
As one example of this, Montana is represented by one Democrat and one Republican in the Senate.
There are no Democratic senators from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota or South Dakota.
The Montana House of Representatives, which has 100 members, includes 58 Republicans and 42 Democrats, making it more liberal than any state legislature in Wyoming or Idaho.
1889 establishments in the United States
The sea is the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans.
However, the word "sea" can also be used for many specific, much smaller bodies of seawater, such as the North Sea or the Red Sea.
There are 78 seas in the world
List of seas, by ocean
Seck Sea (Gulf of California)
Beibu Gulf
Bohol Sea (Mindanao Sea)
Banda Sea
Baffin Bay init fam
Gulf of St. Lawrence
Mirtoon Sea
Gulf of Sidra
Sea of Crete
Gulf of Kutch
Gulf of Khambhat
Amundsen Gulf
Gulf St. Vincent
Seas which have land around them (these are landlocked)
Sea of Galilee (we call this a sea, but it is really a small freshwater lake)
Seas which are not on Earth
Lunar maria are very big areas on the Moon.
In the past, people thought they were water and called them "seas".
Wool is the hair of certain mammals.
Most wool comes from sheep and goats, but wool is also taken from camels, llamas, and special rabbits.
Wool is a natural material.
People use wool fiber to make clothing, blankets, and other things to keep warm.
It is usually used to make outer clothing but is also used to make blankets, socks, sweaters and fine clothing.
Rabbit wool is called angora wool.
Cashmere and mohair come from goats, qiviut from musk oxen, and other types of wool from camelids.
Wool has several qualities that distinguish it from hair or fur: it is crimped and elastic.
Wool fabrics clean easily.
Wool also absorbs moisture and insulates against heat and cold.
Wool can be spun or made into yarn.
The yarn is used to weave fabric or material.
The yarn of wool can also be knitted into fabric or clothing like jumpers.
Alpaca, mohair, angora, camel, cashmere and vicuna are all separate types of wool.
Wool can also be made into felt after it is boiled in hot water and rubbed together.
Felt is a kind of fabric that is not woven.
Felt can be used to make clothes to keep warm in cold weather.
Australia is the world's largest producer of raw wool, growing about 30 percent of the total world supply.
Less wool is produced than in the middle 20th century, because people use more synthetic fibers.
Wool is produced by follicles which are small cells located in the skin.
These follicles are located in the upper layer of the skin called the epidermis and push down into the second skin layer called the dermis as the wool fibers grow.
Follicles can be classed as either primary or secondary follicles.
Primary follicles produce three types of fiber, Kemp (wool), medullated fibers and true wool fibers.
Secondary follicles only produce true wool fibers.
Medullated fibers share nearly identical characteristics to hair and are long but lack crimp and elasticity.
Kemp fibers are very coarse and shed out.
Rag is a sturdy wool fiber made into yarn and used in many rugged applications such as gloves.
Worsted is a strong, long-staple, combed wool yarn with a hard surface.
Woolen is a soft, short-staple, carded wool yarn typically used for knitting