the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
When he makes a mistake Basil usually apologises to the guests by saying, "I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona."
Other characters
The Major (Ballard Berkeley) is a regular guest.
He is old and forgetful.
The aged and easily shocked Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) are also regular guests.
There were twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers made.
The first six episodes were made in 1975, the last six in 1979.
Fawlty Towers still has many fans, and many people regard it as the best comedy series made by the BBC.
It was voted 5th in a poll in Britain to find "Britain's Best Sitcom" 2004.
One of the most famous episodes is "The Germans".
In that episode, people from Germany are visiting the Hotel.
Basil dislikes Germans, because he blames them for starting World War II.
He tells his staff not to mention the war ("Don't mention the war!").
He himself continually mentions the war, and even imitates Adolf Hitler.
A Touch of Class (19 September 1975)
The Builders (26 September 1975)
The Wedding Party (3 October 1975)
The Hotel Inspectors (10 October 1975)
Gourmet Night (17 October 1975)
The Germans (24 October 1975)
Season Two
Communication Problems (19 February 1979)
The Psychiatrist (26 February 1979)
Waldorf Salad (5 March 1979)
The Kipper and the Corpse (12 March 1979)
The Anniversary (26 March 1979)
Basil the Rat (25 October 1979)
1975 television series debuts
1979 television series endings
1970s British sitcoms
1970s British workplace television series
1970s workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
British workplace comedy television series
Television series about marriage
A custom (also called a tradition) is a common way of doing things.
It is something that many people do, and have done for a long time.
Usually, the people come from the same country, culture, or religion.
Usually, they do not know when the custom started.
Many customs are things that people do that are handed down from the past and the Future.
Ceremonies is a class of customary, collective action.
In some countries bowing to older people is polite and respectful.
In some countries it is okay to burp while eating food.
In some countries you take your shoes off before entering the house.
In some places they sit on the floor and eat.
Fort Ouiatenon was the first fortified European settlement in what is now the U.S. state of Indiana.
It is approximately three miles southwest of modern-day West Lafayette.
Fort Ouiatenon was originally constructed by the French government in 1717 as a military outpost to protect against Great Britain's western expansion.
Its location among the unsettled woodlands of the Wabash River valley also made it a key center of trade for fur trappers.
French merchants and trappers from Quebec would arrive at Fort Ouiatenon in search of beaver pelts and to take advantage of trade relations with the native Wea Native American tribes.
At its peak level of activity during the mid-18th century Fort Ouiatenon was home to over 2,000 residents.
In 1761, during the French and Indian War, a contingent of British soldiers led by Lieutenant Edward Jenkins captured and occupied the fort.
In 1763 an uprising led by Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa Native American tribe surprised Lieutenant Jenkins and his men and captured Fort Ouiatenon without firing a shot.
Seven similar posts were also captured in what became known as Pontiac's Uprising.
The British made little use of Fort Ouiatenon after the French and Indian War; it was never garrisoned.
During the 1780s, local Indian tribes used it as a base of operations to stage raids against American settlers pushing westward.
Consequently, President George Washington ordered the fort to be destroyed in 1791.
In 1930 a replica of Fort Ouiatenon was built near its original site by a local physician named Richard Wetherill.
In 1970 the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Today Fort Ouiatenon is open to tourists and is the location of the annual Feast of the Hunters' Moon.
Buildings and structures in Indiana
1717 establishments
18th-century establishments in North America
Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
It has a population of about 7 million people.
Almost 10% of all of the people in the state live in Chennai.
The city is the fourth largest city of India.
It was founded in 1661 by the British East India Company.
The city is on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Chennai is the automobile capital of India.
It is also referred as the Detroit of South Asia.
The  long Marina Beach in Chennai, is one of the longest beaches in the world.
The city is separated into three parts by two rivers.
The Cooum River divides the city into almost half and the Adyar River divides the southern half of the city into two parts.
The historic Buckingham Canal runs through the city.
It is almost parallel to the coast.
The 350 year old city still has much of its old charm.
Today, it is a big commercial and industrial centre.
The city has much cultural heritage.
The temples, shrines, forts and palaces of the city combine its past with the present.
It is the birthplace of Indian politician Stalin
Chennai and its nearby area has been an important administrative, military and economic centre back to the 1st century.
Many South India kingdoms like the Pallava, the Chola, the Pandya and Vijayanagara Empires have ruled over the area.
The British controlled the town in 1749.
Under British control, the city grew into a major urban centre and naval base.
The city grew up around the English settlement of Fort Saint George.
It slowly grew in the nearby towns and villages.
Chennai became the capital of Madras state (renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1968) when India became independent in 1947.
Marina Beach - The world’s second longest beach.
Sri Parthasarathy Temple - Built by the Pallavas in the 8th century.
The temple was dedicated to Lord Krishna.
It has many images of Lord Vishnu.
Santhome Cathedral - The 500 year old cathedral was built by the Portuguese in honor of Saint Thomas.
Saint Thomas Mount -Built by the Portuguese, the church offers the very good views of the city.
Corporation Complex - The Ripon Building is in the Corporation Complex.
It is the home of the oldest municipal government in India.
It was built in 1913.
The complex has a building with the design based on the Taj Mahal.
The domed white building has parks and gardens, Nehru Stadium, Victoria Public Hall, a public meeting place out of the gas light era and Moore market.
Government Museum - The museum was created in the 1857.
It is one of the country’s best museums.
It has the collection of relics of 2nd century from the Buddhist site of Amaravati.
The museum shows prehistoric antiques of South India and carvings of the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths.
There is also a collection of wood carvings from processional temple chariots.
The museum  also has a collection of South Indian musical instruments and jewellery, ancient icons and modern bronzes, including the famous bronze Natraja and the beautiful set of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman.
George Town-George Town is the commercial heart of the city.
The streets are full with traders, buyers and their employees.
Rajaji Salai (North Beach Road) separates George Town from the harbour.
Along one side of it, there is much imperial architecture.
George Town is bounded in the north by Old Jail Road and Clive Battery.
Valluvar Kottam - at Nungambakkam, the memorial was built for Tamil poet-saint, Thiruvalluvar.
The memorial has also an auditorium.
It can seat up to 4000 people.
Chennai is linked with roads from rest of the country.
The distance of major cities and towns from Chennai are:
Mumbai -
Bangalore -
Hyderabad -
Kanyakumari -
Madurai -
Mahabalipuram -
Pondicherry -
Cuddalore -
Rameshwaram -
Kanchipuram -
Tirupati -
Ooty -
Kodaikanal -
Chennai railway station is connected with all the major railway stations of the country.
These include Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Varanasi.
Official government website of Chennai District
Official website of the Corporation of Chennai
Official website of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority
Places, Attractions & Things to do in Chennai
1661 establishments
17th-century establishments in India
1660s establishments in England
Mumbai (previously known as Bombay until 1996) is a natural harbour on the west coast of India, and is the capital city of Maharashtra state.
It is India's largest city, and one of the world's most populous cities.
It is the financial capital of India and a global city.
Many billionaires live there.
The city is the second most-populous in the world.
It has approximately 13 million people.
Along with the neighbouring cities of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration.
They have around 19.1 million people
The seven islands that form Bombay were home to fishing colonies.
The islands were ruled by successive kingdoms and indigenous empires before Portuguese settlers took it.
Then, it went to the British East India Company.
During the mid-18th century, Bombay became a major trading town.
It became a strong place for the Indian independence movement during the early 20th century.
When India became independent in 1947, the city was put into Bombay State.
In 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Bombay as the capital.
It was renamed Mumbai in 1996.
Mumbai generates more than 6% of India's GDP.
It accounts for 25% of industrial output, 40% of sea trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy.
The Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and many Indian companies and multinational corporations are in the city.
It also has the Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood.
Public transport in Mumbai
Tourist Attractions in Mumbai
Visit the Gateway of India
Watch the Sunset on Marine Drive
Drive across the Bandra-Worli Sea Link
Take Pictures of the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
Visit the Kanheri Caves
Things to do in Mumbai
Former Bangalore (English pronunciation: ˈbæŋɡəlɔər, bæŋɡəˈlɔər), today again and officially known as Bengaluru () is the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka.
It is famous for its Information technology industry and so it is called the Silicon Valley of India.
Today as a large and growing city, Bangalore has many of the most well-recognized colleges and research institutions in India.
Bangalore is more famous for its climatic conditions.
The temperature is usually low compared to the other cities in Karnataka.
This city was also known as the garden city because of the greenery it had.
Akbar (Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar, 15 October 1542 – 27 October 1605) was the 3rd Mughal Emperor.
He was born in Umarkot (now Pakistan).
He accepted Islam on the holy day of 21 March 1546.
He was the son of 2nd Mughal Emperor Humayun.
Akbar became the de jure king in 1556 at the age of 13 when his father died.
Bairam Khan was appointed as Akbar's regent and chief army commander.
Soon after coming to power Akbar defeated Himu, the general of the Afghan forces, in the Second Battle of Panipat.
After a few years, he ended the regency of Bairam Khan and took charge of the kingdom.
He initially offered friendship to the Rajputs.
However, he had to fight against some Rajputs who opposed him.
In 1576 he defeated Maha Rana Pratap of Mewar in the Battle of Haldighati.
Akbar's wars made the Mughal empire more than twice as big as it had been before, covering most of the Indian subcontinent except the south.
The revenue department was headed by a wazir, responsible for all finances and management of jagir and inamdar feudal lands.
The head of the military was called the mir bakshi, appointed from among the leading nobles of the court.
The mir bakshi was in charge of intelligence gathering, and also made recommendations to the emperor for military appointments and promotions.
The mir saman was in charge of the imperial household, including the harems, and supervised the functioning of the court and royal bodyguard.
The judiciary was a separate organization headed by a chief qazi, who was also responsible for religious beliefs and practices.
Religious Policy
Akbar was a Muslim.
He realized that to establish a strong empire, he had to gain the confidence of his Hindu people who were the majority in India.
Din-i-ilahi was a religious path suggested by Akbar.
It was a code of moral conduct which reflected Akbar's secular ideas and he desire to achieve peace, unity, tolerance in his empire.
Belief in one god, worship of source of light, non-killing of animals, Having peace with all were some features of Din-i-ilahi.
It didn't have any rituals, holy books, temples or priests.
Male circumcision was not to be done before the boy was 12 years old, and after that it was optional.
It was a Jewish custom adopted by Islam.
Akbar's rule was that it should be made optional and should be done, if at all, at an age when boys could understand what it was.
Here Akbar gave every man a choice and opportunity to have a play of his reason.
Indeed, the boy of reason as he was, he could not deny it to others.
He was a very good emperor and he had a sense of justice.
When he was at Fatehpur Sikri, he held discussions as he loved to know about others' religious beliefs.
On one such day, he got to know that the religious people of other religions were often bigots (intolerant of others religious beliefs).
This led him to form the idea of the new religion, Sulh-e-kul meaning universal peace.
His idea of this religion did not discriminate other religions and focused on the ideas of peace, unity and tolerance.
This gesture of his made the Hindus and people of other religions call him with different names and start loving him.
Akbar's reign was chronicled by his court historian Abul Fazal in the books Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari.
Other sources of Akbar's reign include the wod Sirhindi.
Akbar was an artisan, warrior, artist, armourer, administrator carpenter, emperor, general, inventor, animal trainer, technologist.
He became emperor at the age of 18.
Navaratnas
Akbar had Navaratnas or nine jewels in his court which include Abul Fazl, Faizi,Tansen, Birbal, Raja Todal Mal, Raja Man Singh, Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, Fakir Aziao-Din and Mullah Do Piazza.
Akbarnama
(PRONOUNCED AS- AKBAR-AE-NAMAH)
The Akbarnāma means the Book of Akbar.
It is the official biographical account of Akbar written by Abu Fazl.
It includes vivid and detailed descriptions of his life and times.
It also includes the information about the flora, fauna, life of the people of his reign, and the places Akbar used to visit.
The work was commissioned by Akbar, and written by Abul Fazl, one of the Navratnas (Nine Jewels) of Akbar's royal court.
The book took seven years to complete.
An illustration was done in the Mughal school of painting.
A part of this is Ain-i-Akbari.
On 3 October 1605, Akbar fell ill with an attack of dysentery, from which he never recovered.
Twelve days after his sixty third year he died on 27 October 1605, after which his body was buried at a mausoleum in Sikandra (Agra): Akbar's tomb.
1542 births
1605 deaths
Deaths from dysentery
New Delhi () is the capital of India and a union territory of the megacity of Delhi.
It has a very old history and is home to several monuments where the city is expensive to live in.
In traditional Indian geography, it falls under the North Indian zone.
The city has an area of about .
New Delhi has a population of about 9.4 Million people.
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary , (born 20 July 1919, died 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer.
He and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay were the first people to climb Mount Everest.
They got to the top on 29 May 1953.
Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth.
During his teenage years, Hillary had attended Auckland Grammar School.
Sir Edmund Hillary's fame came as a result of being the first New Zealander in the world to conquer Mt. Everest in Nepal.
He is on the New Zealand five dollar note.
He also climbed ten other mountains after Mount Everest, all of which are also in the Himalayas.
Hillary was born to Percival Augustus Hillary and Gertrude Hillary, née Clark, in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 July 1919.
His family moved to Tuakau (south of Auckland) in 1920, after his father (who served at Gallipoli) had gotten land there.
His grandparents were early settlers in northern Wairoa in the mid 19th century after moving from Yorkshire, England.
Hillary learned at Tuakau Primary School and then Auckland Grammar School.
He finished primary school two years early, but he did not do very well at high school.
At first, he was smaller than other students there and very shy so he felt safe with his books and often thought of a life filled with adventure.
Every day, he rode a train to and from high school, and he often used this time to read.
Learning how to box helped him become more confident.
At age 16 his interest in climbing started during a school trip to Mount Ruapehu.
Although very tall at 6 ft 5 in (195 cm), he was stronger than many of his fellow hikers.
He learned about mathematics and science at The University of Auckland, and in 1939 he completed his first important climb, which was reaching the top of a mountain called Mount Ollivier.
With his brother Rex, Hillary became a beekeeper during summertime, which allowed him to do climbing in the winter.
Hillary married Louise Mary Rose in 1953, by whom he had a son and two daughters.
In 1975, his wife and their younger daughter were killed in a plane crash.
Hillary married June Mulgrew in 1989; they remained married until he died.
1919 births
2008 deaths
Mountain climbers
People from Auckland
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), designed, built, and flew the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air airplane on December 17, 1903.
They had been experimenting for many years with gliders and other vehicles before their first powered flight.
They are also known for making the first way to steer an airplane.
They designed the aircraft in Dayton, Ohio, and their first test flight was in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Before building airplanes
The Wrights grew up in Dayton, Ohio.
They were sons of a minister.
There were many books in their house, and they were encouraged to ask questions and discover whatever they thought was interesting.
Sometimes their father would ask them to argue for a topic, then switch sides and argue for the opposite point of view.
They went to high school, but did not go to college; they started a newspaper instead.
After that, they started a shop to build and repair bicycles.
Learning how to fly
“By the 1890s, the Wrights were interested in flight, especially the gliders of Otto Lilienthal.
They started working on making airplanes in their bicycle shop.
They thought controlling a plane was one of the big problems of flight.
Lilienthal and others had been killed when they could not control their aircraft.
The Wright brothers fixed the problem by inventing control surfaces, such as a rudder that would work in the air.
They built wings that could be twisted a little and moved up and down slightly, to control flight.
They called this steering system wing-warping.
From 1900 to 1902, they built gliders in Dayton and tested them in Kitty Hawk, where there were strong and steady winds.
They also made small versions of the wings and built a wind tunnel for model airplanes to test how well different wing shapes would lift an airplane.”
In 1903, they built a powered airplane that had propellers and a small engine.
The Wright Flyer airplane first flew successfully on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
This was the first time people ever flew a powered airplane they could control.
Before that, people flew in balloons or gliders, or for a very short time in planes they could not control.
The two brothers continued to make changes to their design and had a very good plane by 1905.
After that, they started a company to build airplanes.
They had a patent war with Glenn Curtiss, filing lawsuits against each other over who really invented the airplane steering system.
The Wrights believed that Curtiss' aileron system was too similar to their own steering system and that he had copied them.
During the patent war, Wilbur died.
Orville continued working to keep his reputation as the first man to fly.
Later he sold the airplane company and became an elder statesman of aviation.
He died in 1948.
Sibling duos
Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio
Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist.
He was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
He is famous for his work on the theory of evolution.
His book On the Origin of Species in 1859.
In this book, he put forward much evidence that evolution had occurred.
He also proposed natural selection as the way evolution had taken place.
Darwin did not know about genetics: he never read the work of Gregor Mendel.
Nevertheless, Darwin's explanation of evolution was fundamentally correct.
In contrast to Lamarck, Darwin's idea was that the giraffe's neck became longer because those with longer necks survived better.p177/9 These survivors passed their genes on, and in time the whole species got longer necks.
Voyage of the HMS Beagle
Darwin spent almost five years on board a Royal Navy exploring ship, the HMS Beagle.
He was the guest naturalist, which meant that he was responsible for making collections and notes about the animals, plants, and the geology of the countries they visited.
The ship's crew made charts of all the coastal areas, which could be used by the navy wherever it went in the world.
At the time, Britain had by far the largest navy in the world, and an empire which was global.
Darwin collected everywhere the ship landed.
He found huge fossils of recently extinct mammals, experienced an earthquake in Chile, and noticed the land had been raised.
He knew of raised beaches elsewhere, high in the Andes, with fossil seashells and trees which had once grown on a sandy beach.
Obviously the earth was constantly changing, with land rising in some places, and sinking in others.
He collected birds and insects, and sent shipments back to Cambridge for experts to identify.
Darwin was the first dedicated naturalist to visit the Galapagos Islands, off the west coast of Ecuador.
He noticed that some of the birds were like mockingbirds on the mainland, but different enough to be placed in separate species.
He began to wonder how so many new species came to be on these islands.
When Darwin got back to England, he edited a series of scientific reviews of the voyage, and wrote a personal journal which we know as The Voyage of the Beagle.
It is one of the great natural history travel diaries.
In 1843 Darwin, who already had two children with his wife Emma, bought Down House in the village of Downe, Kent.
He lived there for the rest of his life, and today the house and contents are open to the public.
While on the H.M.S. Beagle, and later back home in London, Darwin had come across the ideas of the Rev. T.R. Malthus.
Malthus had realised that, although humans could double their population every 25 years, it did not happen in practice.
He thought the reason was that a struggle for existence (or resources) limited their numbers.
If numbers increased, then famine, wars and diseases caused more deaths.
Darwin, who knew that all living things could, in principle, increase their numbers, began to think about why some survived, while others did not.p264-268 His answer took years to develop.
The theory of evolution says that all living things on Earth, including plants, animals and microbes, come from a common ancestor by slowly changing throughout the generations.
Darwin suggested that the way living things changed over time is through natural selection.
This is the better survival and reproduction of those that best fit their environment.
Fitting into the place where you live is called adapting.
Those who fit best into the place where they live, the best adapted, have the best chance to survive and breed.
Those who are less well-adapted tend not to survive.
If they do not survive well enough to raise young, this means they do not pass on their genes.
In this way, the species gradually changes.
The first chapter of the Origin deals with domesticated animals, such as cattle and dogs.
Darwin reminded readers of the huge changes mankind had made in its domestic animals, which were once wild species.
The changes were brought about by selective breeding – choosing animals with desirable characters to breed from.
This had been done generation after generation, until our modern breeds were produced.
Perhaps what man had done deliberately, might happen in nature, where some would leave more offspring than others.
Darwin noticed that although young plants or animals are very similar to their parents, no two are exactly the same and there is always a range of shape, size, colour, and so on.
Some of these differences the plant or animal may have got from their own ancestors, but some are new and caused by mutations.
When such differences made an organism more able to live in the wild, it would have a better chance to survive, and would pass on its genes to its offspring, and they to their offspring.
Any difference that would cause the plant or animal to have less of a chance to live would be less likely to be passed on, and would eventually die out altogether.
In this way groups of similar plants or animals (called species) slowly change in shape and form so that they can live more successfully and have more offspring who will survive them.
So, natural selection had similarities to selective breeding, except that it would happen by itself, over a much longer time.
He first started thinking about this in 1838, but it took a full twenty years before his ideas became public.
By 1844 he was able to write a draft of the main ideas in his notebook.
Historians think that he did not talk about his theory because he was afraid of public criticism.
He knew his theory, which did not discuss religion, raised questions about the literal truth of the Book of Genesis.
Whatever the reason, he did not publish his theory in a book until 1859.
In 1858 he heard that another biologist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had the same ideas about natural selection.
Darwin and Wallace's ideas were first published in the Journal of the Linnaean Society in London, 1858.
Then, Darwin published his book the next year.
The name of the book was On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.
This is usually called The Origin of Species.
His books
1838-43: Zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle: published between 1839 and 1843 in five Parts (and nineteen numbers) by various authors, edited and superintended by Charles Darwin, who contributed sections to two of the Parts:
1838: Part 1 No.
1 Fossil Mammalia, by Richard Owen (Preface and Geological introduction by Darwin)
1838: Part 2 No.
1 Mammalia, by George Robert Waterhouse (Geographical introduction and A notice of their habits and ranges by Darwin)
1839: Journal and remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)
1842: The structure and distribution of Coral Reefs
1844: Geological observations of volcanic islands
1846: Geological observations on South America
1849: Geology from A manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy: and adapted for travellers in general.
John Herschel.
1851: A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species.
The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes.
Living barnacles.
1854: A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species.
The Balanidae (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidae, etc.
1851: A Monograph on the Fossil Lepadidae, or, Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain.
Fossil barnacles.
1854: A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidæ and Verrucidæ of Great Britain
1859: On the Origin of Species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life
1862: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign Orchids are fertilised by insects (Fertilisation of orchids)
1865: On the movements and habits of climbing plants (Linnean Society paper, published in book form in 1875)
1868: The variation of animals and plants under domestication
1871: The Descent of Man, and selection in relation to sex
1872: The expression of emotions in Man and animals
1875: Insectivorous plants
1876: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom
1877: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species
1880: The power of movement in plants
1881: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms.
1809 births
1882 deaths
British abolitionists
British zoologists
Cardiovascular disease deaths in England
English activists
English botanists
English evolutionary biologists
English geologists
English naturalists
English science writers
People from Shropshire
His book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, was very important.
People call the book just The Wealth of Nations.
It stated some of the ideas on which modern economics is based off, especially market economics.
In the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith asks 'what can a person do that is best for his country?'
He decides that if every person does what is best for themself and their little circle of family and friends, then the country will do better.
This is because every person knows a lot about their own situation (what they need and what they want, what works and what does not work), much more than the government knows.
This sort of thinking is called "liberal theory", a main part of liberalism.
He wrote an earlier book, in 1759, called The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
He thought that empathy was very important in ethics.
Empathy is when you see how someone else is feeling, imagine what it feels like, and then end up feeling the same way: for Smith, empathy is like "putting yourself in someone else's shoes".
For example, empathy makes us feel happy to see someone else who is happy, or feel sorry for someone who is sad.
Empathy may even make us feel pain when we see someone in pain (as if we had been hurt or affected).
Both Smith and his friend David Hume, who was another Scottish philosopher, wrote about the importance of sympathy in ethics.
Wealth of Nations  from the Adam Smith Institute
An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations  by Adam Smith.
London : J. M. Dent & sons, ltd. ;
New York : E. P. Dutton & co.
Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith from the Online Library of Liberty
The Theory of Moral Sentiments at the Library of Economics and Liberty
1723 births
1790 deaths
18th-century British philosophers
British economists
Scottish writers
Sir Isaac Newton  (25 December 1643 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English physicist, mathematician and astronomer.
He is well known for his work on the laws of motion, optics, gravity, and calculus.
In 1687, Newton published a book called the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in which he presents his theory of universal gravitation and  three laws of motion.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope in 1668.
He also developed a theory of light based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the colors of the rainbow.
Newton also shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of calculus.
After being knighted in 1705 because he was Master of the Royal Mint, he was "Sir" Isaac Newton.
Isaac Newton was born (according to the Julian calendar, in use in England at the time) on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 (N.S. 4 January 1643) "an hour or two after midnight", at Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire, England.
His father, also named Isaac Newton, died three months before his birth.
When Newton was three, his mother, Hannah Ayscough, remarried with Reverend Barnabas Smith.
Young Newton remained with his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough.
From 1655 to 1659, Newton was educated at The King's School, Grantham.
When he was seventeen, he was removed from school.
His mother tried to make him a farmer, but he did not like that.
Henry Stokes, master at The King's School, requested his mother to send him back to school.
In June 1661, he was sent to the University of Cambridge to study.
Early discoveries
In 1666 Isaac Newton experimented with light, and found that different colours had different refractions.
He began lecturing on this topic in 1670.
Newton explained the workings of the universe through mathematics.
He described laws of motion and gravitation.
These laws are math formulas that explain how objects move when a force acts on them.
Newton published his most famous book, Principia, in 1687 while he was a mathematics professor at Trinity College, Cambridge.
In the Principia, Newton explained three basic laws that govern the way objects move.
He then described his idea, or theory, about gravity.
Gravity is the force that causes things to fall down.
If a pencil fell off a desk, it will land on the floor, not the ceiling.
In his book Newton also used his laws to show that the planets revolve around the suns in orbits that are oval, not round.
Newton also discovered diffraction.
This led him to enter the field of physics, where he prospered.
Newton's Three Laws Of Motion
The first law (Law of Inertia)
Newton's first law of motion states is that an object that is not being pushed or pulled by some force will stay still, or will keep moving in a straight line at a steady speed.
It is easy to understand that a rocket will not move unless something pushes or pulls it.
It is harder to understand that an object will continue to move without help.
Think of the rocket again.
If someone is flying a rocket and jumps off before the rocket is stopped, what happens?
The rocket continues on until it goes into space.
The tendency of an object to remain still, or keep moving in a straight line at a steady speed is called inertia.
The second law (Law of Acceleration)
The second law explains how a force acts on an object.
An object accelerates in the direction the force is moving it.
If someone gets on a bicycle and pushes the pedals forward the bicycle will begin to move.
If someone gives the bicycle a push from behind, the bicycle will speed up.
If the rider pushes back on the pedals the bicycle will slow down.
If the rider turns the handlebars, the bicycle will change direction.
The formula showing this law is F=m*a, or the force acting on an object is equal to mass times acceleration.
The third law (Law of Reciprocal Actions)
The third law states that if an object is pushed or pulled, the object will push or pull equally in the opposite direction.
If someone lifts a heavy box, they use force to push it up.
The box is heavy because it is producing an equal force downward on the lifter’s arms.
The weight is transferred through the lifter’s legs to the floor.
The floor presses upward with an equal force.
If the floor pushed back with less force, the person lifting the box would fall through the floor.
If it pushed back with more force the lifter would fly into the air.
The discovery of the Law of Gravitation
When most people think of Isaac Newton, they think of him sitting under an apple tree watching an apple fall.
Some people believe the apple fell onto his head.
Newton understood that what makes things like apples fall to the ground is a specific kind of force — the force we call gravity.
Newton thought that gravity was the force of attraction between two objects, such as an apple and the earth.
He also thought that an object with more matter exerted the same force on smaller objects as they exerted on it.
That meant that the large mass of the earth pulled objects toward it.
That is why the apple fell down instead of up, and why people do not float in the air.
Isaac Newton went on thinking about gravity.
Before Newton, people thought that only objects near to the earth would fall down.
But Newton thought that gravity should not just be limited to the earth and the objects on it.
What if gravity went to the moon and beyond?
Newton invented a formula for calculating the force of attraction between two bodies.
He used it to calculate the force needed to keep the moon moving around the earth.
Then he compared it with the force that made the apple fall downward.
After allowing for the fact that the moon is much farther from the earth, and has a much greater mass, he discovered that the forces were the same.
The moon is held in an orbit around the earth by the pull of earth’s gravity.
The formula invented by Newton is called the Law of gravitation.
Sir Isaac Newton’s calculations changed the way people understood the universe.
No one had been able to explain why the planets stayed in their orbits.
What held them up?
Less than 50 years before Isaac Newton was born it was thought that the planets were held in place by an invisible shield.
Isaac proved that they were held in place by the sun’s gravity.
He also showed that the force of gravity was affected by distance and by mass.
He was not the first to understand that the orbit of a planet was not circular, but more elongated, like an oval.
What he did was to explain how it worked.
Isaac Newton was the first to discover the laws of gravitation and the laws of motion.
He also established a new field in mathematics known as calculus, though the German Gottfried Leibniz had developed the ideas at the same time.
His work has greatly contributed in the areas of science and mathematics making him one of the most influential scientists in human history and one of the greatest mathematician of all times.
The great physicist, Albert Einstein, thought that Newton's idea of gravity was not completely accurate.
He corrected many of the things that Newton did.
Isaac Newton died on  in London, England.
He set the stage for many famous physicists to come, such as Albert Einstein, James Chadwick, and Stephen Hawking.
What did Isaac Newton invent?
1643 births
1727 deaths
English physicists
Presidents of the Royal Society
British theoretical physicists
Writers from Lincolnshire
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832) was a German writer, poet, novelist, and playwright.
He also worked as an actor, administrator, scientist, geologist, botanist, and philosopher.
He influenced many 19th century writers and thinkers.
His contributions to science include his work in botany and his Theory of Colours.
Famous lines from his books are often quoted, and some of his phrases have become part of the German language.
His poems were set to music by composers like Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, and Strauss.
Most of his scientific work now seems old-fashioned.
Goethe was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
His father was well-educated and very strict.
His mother was only eighteen when he was born.
When Goethe was a young boy, he began to write stories and plays for his friends.
In his youth, he learned Greek, Latin and French.
He studied law in Leipzig from 1765 to 1768.
He also wrote some letters that are seen as beautiful, and that showed his promise as a writer.
He continued his studies in Strasbourg from 1770 to 1771.
He joined other young men who wanted to change the way that Germans were writing.
He thought that people like Johann Christoph Gottsched were too strict about writing poetry.
Instead of the ideas of the Enlightenment, he wanted poets to be creative and make their own rules.
After youth
One man who had many new ideas was a poet named Johann Gottfried von Herder.
Herder liked the plays of Shakespeare (which he had learned in German) as well as folk poetry.
These ideas were exciting for Goethe, and he helped Herder to collect folk poetry.
Both men believed that poetry should always come from the heart, and that it should be based on the poet’s experiences instead of on an old-fashioned idea of what a good poem should be.
Some of Goethe's best known poems were written during this time, like Heidenröslein, Der König in Thule, and Erlkönig.
Goethe fell in love with several women during his lifetime.
During the early period of his life, he was in love with a girl named Friederike Brion, the daughter of a pastor.
Several of his poems are inspired by her.
He felt extremely sad when they split up.
The feeling of desertion by a lover is found in a lot of Goethe’s works.
They are all based on his own experience.
His disappointment in love inspired him when writing about Werther in Die Leiden des jungen Werthers and Gretchen in his great play Faust.
His poems also show his ideas about science and philosophy.
Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sufferings of Young Werther) is a book written in the form of letters.
Werther is a young man who falls passionately in love with a girl called Lotte who is married to someone else.
Werther kills himself in the end.
The book was very successful all over Europe.
People talked about “Werther fever.”
Many young men who were disappointed in love copied Werther and killed themselves.
Early works
Goethe’s most famous work is a very long play called Faust.
He spent most of his life working at it.
He was writing the first version of Faust at this time.
Based on a legendary character, it tells of a man called Faust who is tired of studying and wants to have the greatest possible happiness.
The devil (called Mephistopheles in the play) tells Faust he can help him to do this, but that in the end Faust must give him his soul and go with him to hell.
Faust uses magic in the hope that it will tell him everything about life.
Along with writing, Goethe was developing a career in law.
In 1772, he spent four months in Wetzlar at the Imperial Law Courts.
Here he made new friends, including a young girl who was already engaged to someone else.
Middle Period: Arrival in Weimar until death of Schiller (1775-1805)
Goethe had been well-educated and was good at organizing and getting on with important people.
For eleven years he worked at the court of Weimar for a young Duke called Karl August.
He became a member and later the president of the Duke’s cabinet.
He had to organize road-building projects, and look after parks and buildings.
He studied geology, mineralogy, botany and anatomy.
He fell in love with a woman called Charlotte von Stein who was married and had several children.
He wrote love letters to her, and she inspired him to write many poems.
At this time he felt that a man’s task in life was to be useful.
The heroes of his books at this time were often ordinary people instead of geniuses.
Visit to Italy
After a time he realized that all his work on governmental duties were not giving him time for his writing.
So he went to Italy for 18 months.
He loved the landscape and made lots of sketches, and he read the ancient poets and books on the history of art.
He wrote a play in rhyme called Iphigenie auf Tauris which combines the beauty of Classicism with great poetry.
When he returned from Italy he settled once more in Weimar.
He visited Italy a second time.
He became great friends with the famous poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller.
The two men talked about many of their ideas and helped one another by offering criticism of their works.
He wrote short works such as Hermann und Dorothea which is about life in a small German town at the time of the French Revolution.
Wilhelm Meister
Two works of the greatest importance works occupied him at this time.
One is the novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.
This is an example of what is called in German a “Bildungsroman” which means something like “Education novel”.
It means a novel which shows a person growing up and developing his character and learning about the world.
This book was a very important influence on the 19th century Romantic novel and on all German autobiographical novels ever since.
Goethe spent many years working on this book.
The second work of enormous importance was his play Faust.
He made changes to the original version, putting all the small bits together into one great play.
Schiller gave him advice while he was writing it.
Faust enters into a pact with the devil, Mephistopheles who promises him all his soul can wish for: fine living, gold, women and honour.
He signs the pact with his blood.
Later life (1805-1832)
Napoleon was fighting wars all over Europe at this time.
Germany, which was still made up of lots of small countries, was an enemy of France.
Goethe always thought of Napoleon as a hero.
His ideas about politics were still based on 18th century ideas.
He hated war and so he did not take part in politics but concentrated on science and literature.
He wrote a book called Die Wahlverwandtschaften (Elective Affinities) which is about a divorce problem.
Some of his scientific ideas are used in the story as he talks about the way that two chemical compounds can break up and form new unions.
He compares this to the people in his story.
His poems in Westöstlicher Divan are some of his greatest.
He uses ideas from Persia and other Eastern countries together with ideas from the West.
It has a lot of parables about human life.
Many interesting things that Goethe said were written down in a book by his friend Eckermann, who published them in a book called Conversations with Goethe.
Goethe also wrote about his own life in his autobiography which he called Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth).
The book tells us about his youth up to the time of his arrival in Weimar.
It is in four parts.
The fourth part was published after his death.
He chose the title to show that he was telling us the truth about his life, but that he had changed the order of some events to make it into a poetic book.
Later works
Goethe wrote a sequel (a part which follows on) to Wilhelm Meister called Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (The Years of Wilhelm Meister’s Wanderings).
It consists of several sections which are like separate stories.
They tell us about Wilhelm Meister’s relationship with society and how he has to change his ways to fit in with other people.
Goethe’s Faust had made him the greatest person in European literature.
At the end of his life he finished a second part of Faust.
It is quite hard to read, and is more of a long poem than a dramatic play.
It talks of his ideas about allegory, science and philosophy.
Goethe died in Weimar on March 22, 1832.
He had started as a great Classical writer of the 18th century and finished as a young Romantic of the 19th century.
No one else had such a big influence on art and literature of that time.
His most important works
Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand, 1774
Prometheus, 1774
Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, 1774
Iphigenie auf Tauris, 1779
Torquato Tasso, 1780 - 1790
Römische Elegien, 1788-90
Venezianische Epigramme, 1790
Ein Fragment, 1790
Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, 1795/96
Eine Tragödie, 1808
Theory of colours, 1810
West-östlicher Divan, 1819
Faust II, 1833
Works by Johann Wolfgang Goethe at Zeno.org (German)
1749 births
1832 deaths
German autobiographers
German poets
Writers from Frankfurt
Pythagoras of Samos was a famous Greek mathematician and philosopher ( ).
He is known best for the proof of the important Pythagorean theorem, which is about right angle triangles.
He started a group of mathematicians, called the Pythagoreans, who worshiped numbers and lived like monks.
He had an influence on Plato.
He had a great impact on mathematics , theory of music and astronomy.
His theories are still used in mathematics today.
He was one of the greatest thinkers of his time.
Pythagoras was born in Samos, a little island off the western coast of Asia Minor.
There is not much information about his life.
It is said that he had a good childhood.
Growing up with two or three brothers, he was well educated.
He did not agree with the government and their schooling, so he moved to Crotone and set up his own cult (little society) of followers under his rule.
His followers did not have any personal possessions, and they were all vegetarians.
Pythagoras taught them all, and they had to obey strict rules.
Some say he was the first person to use the term philosophy.
Since he worked very closely with his group, the Pythagoreans, it is sometimes hard to tell his works from those of his followers.
Religion was important to the Pythagoreans.
They swore their oaths by "1+2+3+4" (which equals 10).
They also believed the soul is immortal and goes through a cycle of rebirths until it can become pure.
They believed that these souls were in both animal and plant life.