:: wikimiki.org ::

Antoine-Henri Becquerel

Antoine-Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel (December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity.

Early days

Becquerel was born in Paris into a scientific family which, including him and his son, produced four generations of scientists. He studied science at the École Polytechnique and engineering at the École des Ponts et Chaussées.

Rise on natural sciences, discoveries and major works

natural sciences In 1892 he became the third in his family to occupy the physics chair at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. In 1894 he became chief engineer in the Department of Bridges and Highways. In 1896, Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity while investigating phosphorescence in uranium salts. Investigating the work of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Becquerel wrapped a fluorescent mineral, potassium uranyl sulfate, in photographic plates and black material in preparation for an experiment requiring bright sunlight. However, prior to actually performing the experiment, Becquerel found that the photographic plates were fully exposed. This discovery led Becquerel to investigate the spontaneous emission of nuclear radiation. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity".

Final days and legacy

In 1908, the year of his death, he was elected permanent secretary of the Académie des Sciences. He died at the age of 55 in Le Croisic. The SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq) is named after him, and also there are Becquerel craters on the Moon and Mars.

External links

- [http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1903/becquerel-bio.html Henri Becquerel - Biography]
- [http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/antoine_henri_becquerel.html About Henri Becquerel]
- [http://www1.bipm.org/en/si/history-si/radioactivity/becquerel.html Becquerel short biography] and the use of his name as an unit of measure in the SI Becquerel, Antoine Henri Becquerel, Antoine Henri Becquerel, Henri Becquerel, Henri Becquerel, Henri Becquerel, Henri ja:アンリ・ベクレル ko:앙투안 앙리 베크렐

December 15

December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining.

Events

- 533 - The Battle of Ticameron begins
- 687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope
- 1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
- 1791 - The United States Bill of Rights is passed
- 1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball.
- 1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1914 - The Battle of Łódź ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
- 1939 - Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
- 1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
- 1947 - All India Muslim League meeting in Karachi resolved to split itself into two separate organizations for Pakistan and India.
- 1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón
- 1961 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust
- 1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched
- 1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN
- 1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released
- 1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
- 1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling
- 1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
- 2002 - BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK

Births

- 37 - Nero, Roman Emperor (d. 68)
- 130 - Lucius Verus, Roman Emperor (d. 169)
- 1242 - Prince Munetaka, Japanese shogun (d. 1274)
- 1567 - Christoph Demantius, German composer (d. 1643)
- 1610 - David Teniers the Younger, Flemish artist (d. 1690)
- 1634 - Thomas Hansen Kingo, Danish poet (d. 1703)
- 1648 - Gregory King, English statistician (d. 1712)
- 1713 - Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, British statesman (d. 1802)
- 1719 - Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1742)
- 1802 - János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1860)
- 1832 - Gustave Eiffel, French civil engineer (d. 1923)
- 1852 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
- 1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, Russian initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917)
- 1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1904)
- 1861 - Charles Duryea, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
- 1878 - Hans Carossa, German writer (d. [[1956]{

1852

1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 14 - President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic.
- January 17 - United Kingdom recognizes independence of the Transvaal
- Devil's Island penal colony opens
- February 11 - First British public toilet for women opens in Bedford Street, London
- February 15 - Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits first patient
- February 16 - Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established
- February 19 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
- March 1 - Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
- April 1 - Start of Second Burmese War
- September 24 - French engineer Henri Giffard makes the first airship trip from Paris to Trappes
- October 6 - In Mexico, French settlers under Count Gaston Raousset-Boulbon occupy the city of Hermosillo and declare the Republic of Sonora. The attempt falters when the count contracts dysentery
- November 2 - Democrat Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire defeats Whig Winfield Scott of Virginia in the U.S. presidential election
- November 4 - Count Cavour becomes Piedmont prime minister
- November 11 - New Palace of Westminster opened in Britain
- November 21/November 22 New French Empire confirmed by plebiscite: 7,824,000 for, 253,000 against
- December 2 - Napoleon III becomes Emperor of France.
- French replace semaphores with Morse telegraphs
- Justin Perkins, an American Presbyterian missionary, produces the first translation of the Bible in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, which is published with the parallel text of the Syriac Peshitta by the American Bible Society
- Uncle Tom's Cabin published

Births

- March 1 - Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (d. 1923)
- April 1 - Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter (d. 1911)
- April 13 - F.W. Woolworth, American merchant and businessman (d. 1919)
- April 22 - Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1912)
- May 1 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1934)
- May 4 - Alice Pleasance Liddell, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (d. 1934)
- May 31 - Julius Richard Petri, German bacteriologist (d. 1921)
- July 12 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (d. 1933)
- August 30 - Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1911)
- September 12 - Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1928)
- September 28 - Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
- October 2 - William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)
- October 9 - Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)
- November 1 - Eugene W. Chafin, American politician (d. 1920)
- November 3 - Mutsuhito of Japan, Meiji Emperor (d. 1912)
- November 11 - Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1925)
- November 22 - Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1924)
- December 15 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
- December 19 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)

Deaths

- January 6 - Louis Braille, French teacher of the blind (b. 1809)
- March 4 - Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (b. 1809)
- June 29 - Henry Clay, American Senator (b. 1777)
- July 22 - Auguste Marmont, French marshal (b. 1774)
- September 4 - William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (b. 1796)
- September 14 - Augustus Pugin, English architect (b. 1812)
- September 14 - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, British general and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1769)
- September 20 - Philander Chase, American founder of Kenyon College (b. 1775)
- October 24 - Daniel Webster, American statesman (b. 1782)
- November 27 - Augusta Ada King (neé Byron), Countess of Lovelace, early English computer pioneer (b. 1815)
- November 30 - Junius Brutus Booth, English-born actor (b. 1796) Category:1852 ko:1852년 ms:1852 simple:1852 th:พ.ศ. 2395

1908

1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February

- January 1 - British Harry Bensley leaves for his would-be trip around the world pushing a pram and wearing an iron mask, beginning from the Trafalgar Square
- 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 shot in Lisbon
- February 11 - Australia regain The Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory over England.
- February 18 - Japanese immigration to USA forbidden
- February 25 - Los Angeles. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) founded.

April-June

- April 7 - Herbert Henry Asquith takes office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
- April 21 - Friedrich A Cook's claimed date to have reached North Pole
- April 27 - The 1908 Summer Olympics open in London.
- May 10 - Mother's Day is observed for the first time (Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia).
- May 26 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
- June 30 - The Tunguska impact event, also known as the "Russian explosion" occurs in Siberia.

July-December

- July 6 - Robert Peary sets sail for the Arctic North Pole.
- July 11-12 night - Explosion of a ship Amalthea in the Malmö harbor in Sweden, housing 80 British strikebreakers. 1 dead, 20 injured.
- July 13 - Women compete in modern Olympics for the first time.
- July 19 - Feyenoord Rotterdam was founded.
- July 22 - Albert Fisher establishes the Fisher Body Company to manufacture carriage and automobile bodies.
- July 26 - United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
- September 8 - Danish minister of Justice, Alberti, is revealed to be an embezzler
- September 27 - Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
- October 5 - Bulgaria declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire - Ferdinand I of Bulgaria becomes Tsar
- October 14 - The Chicago Cubs win the World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers 2-0 in the fifth game. They haven't won the World Series since.
- December 28 - An 7 Richter scale earthquake destroys Messina, Sicily and rocks Calabria killing over 75,000.
- November - William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election
- November 13 - Andrew Fisher becomes the 5th Prime Minister of Australia.

unknown dates

- First Zionist colony in Palestine
- British suffragettes begin a campaign for female suffrage
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is the first woman in England to be elected mayor (of Aldeburgh)
- Due to the evidence collected by Roger Casement, Léopold II of Belgium is forced to make reforms in Congo, which is his personal colony
- The Children's Encyclopedia
- Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of FBI, founded
- Blackball coal miner strike in New Zealand lasts 11 weeks
- Isak Saba, the first Sami in the Norwegian parliament
- Henri Matisse open his own art academy
- Serial killer Belle Guinness disappears in Laporte
- Young Turks revolution in the Ottoman Empire
- Change of Emperor of Qing Dynasty from Guangxu Emperor of China (1875-1908) to Henry Puyi (1909-1911)
- A 40,000-year-old Neandertal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France.
- The Child Labour Act of Ontario is passed.
- The Irish Universities Act, 1908 is passed and creates the National University of Ireland at Dublin and the Queen's University of Belfast.
- First Ideal Home Exhibition held.
- De Meester's Dutch government resigns.
- Discovery of oil deposits near the Persian city of Abadan.
- Abd al-Aziz IV, sultan of Morocco is deposed and is succeeded by his brother Abd al-Hafiz.
- The Young Turks rebel and force sultan Abd al-Hamid II to adhere to the constitution of 1876.
- The University of the Philippines is founded at Manila.
- The University of Alberta is founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- First year of Rugby League in Australia
- American Temperance University closes.

Births

January

- January 8 - William Hartnell, British actor (d. 1975)
- January 9 - Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist writer (d. 1986)
- January 12 - Jean Delannoy, French film director
- January 14 - Russ Columbo, singer, bandleader, and composer (d. 1934)
- January 15 - Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
- January 22 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- January 26 - Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist and composer (d. 1997)
- January 27 - Oran "Hot Lips" Page, American jazz musician (d. 1954)

February

- February 1 - George Pál, Hungarian-born animator (d. 1980)
- February 5 - Daisy and Violet Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (d. 1969)
- February 11 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs, English geologist and explorer (d. 1999)
- February 17 - Red Barber, baseball announcer and sports journalist (d. 1992)
- February 22 - John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
- February 23 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
- February 26 - Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d. 1980)
- February 26 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (d. 1949)
- February 29 - Balthus, French painter (d. 2001)
- February 29 - Dee Brown, American writer and historian (d. 2002)

March

- March 2 - Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)
- March 5 - Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
- March 7 - Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)
- March 12 - Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (d. 1970)
- March 13 - Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d. 2002)
- March 17 - Brigitte Helm, German actress (d. 1996)
- March 20 - Sir Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
- March 22 - Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
- March 25 - Helmut Käutner, German actor and director (d. 1980)
- March 25 - David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)
- March 29 - Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d. 1981)

April

- April 1 - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d. 1970)
- April 2 - Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
- April 5 - Bette Davis, American actress (d. 1989)
- April 5 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
- April 5 - Jagjivan Ram, Indian politician (d. 1986)
- April 6 - John P. Davies, American diplomat (d. 1999)
- April 7 - Percy Faith, Canadian-born composer, musician (d. 1976)
- April 15 - Eden Ahbez, American musician (d. 1995)
- April 20 - Lionel Hampton, American musician and bandleader (d. 2002)
- April 25 - Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)

May

- May 5 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (d. 1989)
- May 7 - Max Grundig, German inventor and industrialist (d. 1989)
- May 8 - Cristian Vasile, Romanian singer (d. 1974)
- May 19 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
- May 20 - Jimmy Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
- May 23 - John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- May 25 - Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
- May 28 - Ian Fleming, English writer (d. 1964)
- May 30 - Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- May 30 - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (d. 1989)
- May 31 - Don Ameche, American actor (d. 1993)

June-July

- June 18 - Bud Collyer, American voice actor and game show host (d. 1969)
- June 21 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
- June 24 - Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
- June 29 - Leroy Anderson, American composer (d. 1975)
- June 30 - Winston Graham, English writer (d. 2003)
- July 12 - Milton Berle, American comedian (d. 2002)
- July 25 - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
- July 27 - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)

August-September

- August 4 - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
- August 5 - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1967)
- August 5 - Mary Louise Miner, American Journalist (d. 1999)
- August 20 - Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
- August 21 - M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
- August 22 - Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)
- August 27 - Sir Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
- August 27 - Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States (d. 1973)
- August 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist, artist, and educator (d. 1996)
- August 30 - Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (d. 1996)
- September 3 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (d. 1988)
- September 6 - Louis Essen, English physicist (d. 1997)
- September 6 - Korczak Ziolkowski, American sculptor (d. 1982)
- September 7 - Paul Brown, American football coach (d. 1991)
- September 7 - Michael E. DeBakey, American physician
- September 13 - Mae Questel, American actress (d. 1998)
- September 15 - Penny Singleton, American actress (d. 2003)
- September 29 - Eddie Tolan, American athlete (d. 1967)
- September 30 - David Oistrakh, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 1974)

October-December

- October 14 - Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (d. 2003)
- October 14 - Allan Jones, American actor and singer (d. 1992)
- October 15 - John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist
- October 16 - Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania (d. 1985)
- October 19 - Sydney MacEwan, Scottish singer (d. 1990)
- October 19 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (d. 1981)
- October 23 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- October 25 - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)
- November 2 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (d. 1983)
- November 4 - Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2005)
- November 12 - Harry Blackmun, American Judge (d. 1999)
- November 18 - Imogene Coca, American actress (d. 2001)
- November 20 - Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist (d. 2004)
- November 28 - Claude Lévi-Strauss, Belgian-born anthropologist
- December 4 - Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
- December 6 - Pierre Graber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 2003)
- December 10 - Olivier Messiaen, French composer (d. 1992)
- December 11 - Elliot Carter, American composer
- December 17 - Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
- December 31 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi-hunter (d. 2005)

Unknown date

- George Rodger, British photojournalist (d. 1995)
- Carl Stuart Hamblen, American musician and Presidential candidate

Deaths

- January 25 - Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)
- February 1 - King Charles of Portugal (b. 1863)
- April 20 - Henry Chadwick, English-born baseball writer and historian (b. 1824)
- April 22 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1836)
- May 26 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Punjabi founder of the Ahmadi sect (b. 1835)
- June 21 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b. 1844)
- June 24 - Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (b. 1837)
- July 5 - Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (b. 1833)
- July 10 - Phoebe Knapp, American hymn composer (b. 1839)
- July 20 - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (b. 1835)
- July 22 - William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1828)
- August 25 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- August 26 - Tony Pastor, American vaudeville and theater impresario (b. 1837)
- September 20 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
- October 30 - Caroline Astor, American socialite (b. 1830)
- November 14 - The Guangxu Emperor of China (b. 1871)
- November 15 - Empress Dowager Cixi, de facto ruler of China (b. 1835)

Marriages

- February 14 - Lee De Forest & Nora Stanton Blatch
- February 28 - King Ferdinand & Eleanor Reuss
- April 7 - Knud Kristensen & Else Christensen
- June 13 - Carl Sandburg & Lilian Steichen
- July 19 - Joe Jackson & Katherine Wynn
- August 6 - Roscoe Arbuckle & Minta Durfee
- August 8 - Ty Cobb & Charlotte Lombard
- August 30 - Harry Solter & Florence Lawrence
- September 12 - Winston Churchill & Clementine Churchill
- November 20 - Vilhelm Buhl & Thyra Schmidt
- November 25 - Will Rogers & Betty Blake
- December 22 - Sybil Thorndike & Lewis Casson

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Gabriel Lippmann
- Chemistry - Ernest Rutherford
- Medicine - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Paul Ehrlich
- Literature - Rudolf Christoph Eucken
- Peace - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer Category:1908 ko:1908년 ms:1908 ja:1908年 simple:1908 th:พ.ศ. 2451

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena spanning all length scales: from the sub-atomic particles from which all ordinary matter is made (particle physics) to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole (cosmology). There are numerous different branches of physics and each has its corresponding specialists, such as astrophysicists, geophysicists, or biophysicists. Employment as a professional physicist generally requires a doctoral degree. Physicists are employed by universities as professors, lecturers, and researchers, and by laboratories in industry. Many people who are trained as physicists, however, use their skills in other parts of the economy, in particular in engineering, computing, and finance.

Astrophysicists and physical cosmologists

At the largest scale, astrophysicists and astronomers study the structure and motion of the universe. This branch of physics is one of the oldest, with its foundations in the ancient study of astronomy. Modern astronomic observation dates from the early 17th century, when Galileo Galilei made the first telescopic observations of the sky. Around the same time period, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler made their careful study of the motion of the planets and comets, laying the groundwork for the first principles of planetary motion. Traditional tools of the astronomer include the telescope, and a device such as the quadrant or sextant to measure elevation. In the 20th century, the radio telescope extended the range of astronomical observation. This expanded range of observation led to the development of physical cosmology, the study of the structure, beginnings, and fate of the cosmos. Two of the more celebrated physicists of the modern age are Edwin Hubble and Steven Hawking. Despite enormous advances in the technology used to make observations of the universe, the majority of astrophysical observation is still a slow and painstaking job.

Particle and quantum physicists

Physicists who deal with the smallest end of the physical universe study particle physics. This is the branch of physics that deals with the structure and ultimate nature of matter. These physicists study particles and phenomena that cannot be seen with the naked eye. To conduct their research, these physicists use particle accelerators and sensitive detecting equipment. Modern particle physics was born when the Danish physicist Niels Bohr first proposed a model for the atom that would explain certain behavior of photon emission. It was soon found that the atom could be split (fission) or combined (fusion). Each process resulted in behavior that could not be explained by Bohr's model of the atom. In the atomic age, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger developed a theory of quantum mechanics to explain the behavior of matter at the smallest scale. Modern physicists are still trying to cope with difficulties introduced by this theory. In particular, it does not fit well with our view of gravity and the universe at the large scale, although it explains the small scale very well. Today's physicists hope to reconcile the two views of the universe some day soon.

External links

- [http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm Occupational Outlook Handbook]
- [http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos052.htm Physicists and Astronomers]; US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics ---- ja:物理学者 ko:물리학자 simple:Physicist th:นักฟิสิกส์

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. Located on the river Seine in the country's north, it is a major cultural and political centre of Europe and the world's most visited city. The area's first inhabitants, a Celtic tribe named the "Parisii" give Paris its name. Its eponym, "the City of Lights" (la Ville Lumière), dates from 1828 when it became the first city in Europe to light its main boulevards with gas street lamps along its Champs-Élysées. The city of Paris is also widely referred to as the "most romantic city in the world." As a cultural and political centre for Europe since the early Middle Ages, Paris preserves many vestiges of its past. While hosting numerous art galleries, museums and theatres, it has grown into a significant centre of international trade with ever-growing modern business districts, including La Défense, the de facto city centre built for the purpose. In addition to the head offices of nearly half of all France's companies and the offices of many major international firms, Paris hosts the headquarters of many international trade and social organisations, including the OECD and UNESCO. The city of Paris proper has 2.1 million inhabitants , but its centre of influence extends to cover a "Greater Paris" metropolitan area that has a population of 11.1 million , over one sixth of the French population. Paris is the third largest metropolitan area in Europe (after Moscow and London), and approximately the 22nd most populous metropolitan area in the world. Paris is also the centre of an economic network that, within the limits of its Île-de-France région (of which it is also the capital), with a GDP of nearly €450 billion , is alone the producer of over one quarter of France's wealth. Because of its financial, business, political, and tourism activities, Paris today is one of the world's major transport destinations. Along with New York, London and Tokyo, it is often listed as one of the four major global cities.

__TOC__

Name of Paris and its Inhabitants

Paris is pronounced (RP) or in English, and Image:ltspkr.png in French. The original Latin name of Paris was Lutetia (), or Lutetia Parisiorum, known in French as Lutèce (). Lutetia was later dropped in favor of only Paris, based on the name of the Gallic Parisi tribe, whose name perhaps comes from the Celtic Gallic word parios, meaning "caldron", but this is not certain. Traditionally, Paris was known as Paname () in French slang, but this vulgar appellation is gradually losing currency. (.) The inhabitants of Paris are known as Parisians in English, as Parisiens (Image:ltspkr.png ) in French. The pejorative term Parigot (Image:ltspkr.png ) is sometimes used in French slang. Locally, inhabitants of the Paris suburbs are known as banlieusards (Image:ltspkr.png ). Inhabitants of the whole Paris metropolitan area are known as Franciliens (Image:ltspkr.png ), i.e. from Île-de-France.

Geography

Coordinates

Paris is located at (48.866667, 2.333056). The city straddles a north-bending arc of the river Seine. This waterway is dotted with a few islands along its path through the city, and the largest and most central of these, the Île de la Cité, is the Capital's heart and origin.

Area

The city (commune) of Paris proper has an area of 105.398 km² (40.69 mi², or 26,044 acres). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the actual area of the city is only 86.928 km² (33.56 mi², or 21,480 acres), being in the form of an almost regular oval, with a circumference of 35.5 km (22 miles). This oval extends 9.5 km (6 miles) from north to south, and 11 km (7 miles) from east to west. circumference This is not a very large area, and in fact the commune of Paris is only the 113th largest commune of France (out of 36,782 communes). By comparison, Greater London has an area of 1,572 km² (607 mi²), and New York City has an area of 786 km² (303 mi²). This peculiar fact arises because, unlike other large western cities such as New York, London, or Berlin, whose territories were enlarged in the 20th century, the borders of Paris have not been changed since 1860 when Napoleon III and the prefect Haussmann annexed the then suburban communes surrounding Paris, such as Montmartre and Auteuil, more than doubling the the city's area to 78 km² (30.1 mi²), and creating the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Since 1860, the limits of Paris have only marginally changed, reaching the 86.9 km² figure indicated above. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were officially incorporated into the city of Paris. Thus, the Brooklyn, Greenwich, or Charlottenburg of Paris are still outside the city of Paris proper, and it can be more accurately compared to the borough of Manhattan (59.5 km²/23 mi²) or to Inner London (319 km²/123 mi²). Even the largest business and financial district of Paris, known as La Défense, is outside the city boundary. The urban area (unité urbaine) of Paris, i.e. the contiguous built-up area, extends past the administrative city limits to cover 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or an area about 26 times larger than the city itself. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) of Paris, i.e. the built-up area plus the commuter belt, reaches in part beyond the surrounding Île-de-France administative région to cover 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or an area 138 times larger than the city of Paris. région]]

Altitude

The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130m about sea level. The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is in the Forest of Montmorency (Val-d'Oise département), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris as the crow flies, at 195 metres (640 ft) above sea-level.

Temperatures

The lowest temperature recorded in central Paris (since 1873) was –23.9 °C (–11.0 °F) and –25.6 °C (–14.1 °F) in the southeastern suburb of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés on December 10, 1879 . The highest temperature was recorded on July 28, 1947 when the temperature in central Paris (Parc Montsouris) reached 40.4 °C (104.7 °F). During the European heat wave of 2003, which caused the death of many elderly people in France, the temperature in central Paris reached 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) (Parc Montsouris) and 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs. A record high night-time minimum of 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in Parc Montsouris was set on August 11 and August 12, 2003.

History

Paris was occupied by a Gallic tribe until the Romans arrived in 52 BC. The invaders referred to the previous occupants as the Parisii, but called their new city Lutetia, meaning "marshy place". About 50 years later the city had spread to the left bank of the Seine, now known as the Latin Quarter (Le Quartier latin), and was renamed "Paris". Roman rule had ceased by 508, when Clovis the Frank made the city the capital of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks. In 845, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. Thereafter the weakness of the late Carolingian kings of France led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris; Odo, Count of Paris was elected king of France by feudal lords while Charles III was also claiming the throne. Finally, in 987 Hugh Capet, count of Paris, was elected king of France by the great feudal lords after the last Carolingian king died. Hugh Capet, 1789]] In the 12th and 13th centuries the city grew strongly. Main thoroughfares were paved, the first Louvre was built as a fortress, and several churches, including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, were constructed or begun. Several schools on the Left Bank were grouped together into the Sorbonne, which counts Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas among its early scholars. In the Middle Ages, Paris prospered as a trading and intellectual nucleus, interrupted temporarily when the Black Death struck in the 14th century, and again in the 15th century when urban revolts drove the royal court to abandon the city for almost 100 years. In the 18th century, the royal residence was moved from Paris to nearby Versailles. The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. From the establishment of the French Second Empire in 1852 until 1914, Paris experienced the largest development in its history. The famous Parisian Haussmann Style dates back to this period, during which much of the Paris known today was planned and constructed. For the World's Fair of 1889 which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower was built, the best-known landmark in Paris and tallest structure in the world until 1930. The large scale display of electricity and light bulbs at the world's fairs of 1889 and 1900, which was a first in the world, earned Paris the nickname "City of Lights". During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared invasion by the German Army due to the French and English victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In the Interwar period, Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic life, as well as its nightlife. From Russian exiled artists fleeing the Bolsheviks (such as composer Igor Stravinsky), to Spanish painters (such as Picasso or Dalí), to US writers (such as Hemingway), Paris became a melting pot of artists from all around the world. In June 1940, five weeks after the start of the German attack on France, a partially-evauated Paris fell to German occupation forces, who remained there until late August 1944. Paris was fortunate to be the one of the few large cities in Europe that suffered almost no destruction from the war, preserving its 19th century architecture intact. In the post-war period, Paris experienced its largest development since the end of the Belle Époque in 1914. The suburbs around the city proper (commune) of Paris began to expand considerably, with the construction of large social estates known as cités and the beginning of the business district La Défense. In the late 1960s, the Tour Montparnasse, a large, modern skyscraper, was built just south of the Jardin du Luxembourg. Its controversial height and location sparked immediate changes in zoning and administrative rules that now restrict skyscrapers to La Défense. Since the mid-1980s, there has been periodic unrest, sometimes degenerating into riots, in the poor immigrant neighbourhoods of the outer suburbs of Paris, especially in the cités, which have gradually become ghettos. In late 2005 a wave of riots erupted in the Paris suburbs, with thousands of cars and tens of public buildings burnt.

Demographics

wave of riots erupted in the Paris suburbs.]]

Density

At the 1999 French census the population density in the city of Paris was 20,164 inh. per km² (52,225 inh. per sq. mile). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the density in the city was actually 24,448 inh. per km² (63,321 inh. per sq. mile). As a matter of comparison, the density in Manhattan at the 2000 US census was 25,846 inh. per km² (66,940 inh. per sq. mile), and the density in Inner London at the 2001 UK census was 8,663 inh. per km² (22,438 inh. per sq. mile). The population density in the city of Paris is very high compared to those of most western cities, which are rarely as crowded as Paris (except for Manhattan). The density in Paris is comparable to the densities met within Asian cities. In many western cities, people have left the city center in the 20th century to relocate to the distant suburbs, leaving the city center as a business district dead at night. Although the city of Paris has also experienced a decline in population since the 1920s, it has nonetheless seen fewer inhabitants relocating to the suburbs than has occurred in other western cities. More precisely, people relocating to the suburbs were for the most part replaced by new people attracted to an urban lifestyle, and buildings were not converted into offices as systematically as has happened elsewhere, such as in London where the inhabitants have left the city center since the Second World War, and the density of Inner London is now much lower than that of Paris. This is most striking in the medieval heart of both metropolises: the City of London and the four first arrondissements of Paris were the medieval heart of each metropolis, with densities reaching 75,000 to 100,000 inh. per km² before the Industrial Revolution. Today, the City of London is almost empty, with a population density of only 2,478 inh. per km² (6,417 inh. per sq. mile) in 2001, whereas the four first arrondissements of Paris still have a density of 18,139 inh. per km² (46,979 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999, seven times more dense than in the City of London. Today, the most crowded arrondissement in the city of Paris is the 11th arrondissement, with a density reaching 40,672 inh. per km² (105,339 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999. Some neighborhoods in the east of this arrondissement are known to have densities of almost 100,000 inh. per km² (260,000 inh. per sq. mile).

Population Growth

At the 1999 census, the population of the city of Paris (excluding suburbs) was 2,125,246. The population of the metropolitan area of Paris was 11,174,743. Historically, the population of the city of Paris peaked in 1921, when it reached 2.9 million. However, there has been since then a movement toward living in suburbs, as well as the gentrification of many areas of inner Paris, and the use of available space for offices rather than dwellings, although this phenomenon was not as massive as happened in London or in American cities. These tendencies are controversial, and the current city administration is trying to reverse them. As a matter of fact, as of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city reached 2,142,800 inhabitants, increasing for the first time since 1954. As for the metropolitan area, it reached approximately 11.5 million inhabitants in 2004, growing twice as fast in the 2000s as it did in the 1990s. The metropolitan area of Paris has been in continuous expansion since the end of the French Wars of Religion at the end of the 16th century (with only brief setbacks during the French Revolution and World War II). As can be seen from the figures, only 18.5% of the inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Paris live inside the city of Paris, while 81.5% live in the suburbs. Visitors to Paris, who mostly stay inside the city, are usually not aware that 81.5% of "Parisians" actually live outside of the city itself, in its very extended suburbs. A majority of Parisians also work outside of the city proper: at the 1999 census, there were 5,089,179 jobs in the metropolitan area of Paris, 32.5% of which were located in the city of Paris proper, while 67.5% were located outside of the city. These peculiar facts are due to the conservativeness of French administrative limits (see Geography section above). For comparisons, in the metropolitan area of London, approximately 60% of people live inside Greater London proper (2001 census), while in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area, 37.8% of people live inside New York City (2000 census). Even in the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area, 22.6% of people live inside the city of Los Angeles proper. Paris can be more rightly compared to the San Francisco Bay Area, where only 11% of inhabitants live inside the city of San Francisco proper. However, unlike in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is no city inside the metropolitan area of Paris that rivals Paris, the largest city (commune) after Paris being Boulogne-Billancourt, with only 108,300 inhabitants in 2004. :See also: Historical population tables

Muséification

As a result, a so-called "muséification" (museumification) of the city of Paris is feared. Already, all airports, the largest financial and business district (La Défense), the main food wholesale market (Rungis), major renowned schools (École Polytechnique, HEC, ESSEC, INSEAD, etc.), research laboratories (in Saclay or Évry), the largest sport stadium (Stade de France), and even some ministries (Ministry of Transportation) are now located outside of the city of Paris. Similarly, the National Archives of France are due to relocate to the northern suburbs before 2010. It is feared that the city of Paris is turning into a museum for tourists and Amélie nostalgists, while the real economic activity and 21st century development take place elsewhere in the metropolitan area. With some of the most stringent protection laws in the world, it is virtually impossible to build new buildings inside the city. Recent proposals by Paris' new mayor, Bertrand Delanoë to gather renowned architects to build skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city center, have been met with strong opposition on all sides. Delanoë wished to scrap the building height limit dating back to Haussmann in the 19th century, and build upwards to compensate for the lack of space on the ground, as was done in Manhattan. The project also aimed to revitalise Paris in the 21st century, rivaling world cities like Shanghai, or even London where city planners have started building aesthetically acclaimed skyscrapers inside the City. The probable failure of the project may be seen as another sign of the "muséification" of the city of Paris.

Immigration

The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe. At the 1999 census, 19.4% of the total population of the metropolitan area were born outside of metropolitan France. As a comparison: at the 2001 UK census, 19.5% of the total population of the metropolitan area of London was born outside of the (metropolitan) United Kingdom, while at the 2000 US census 27.5% of the total population of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states), and 31.9% of the total population of the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states). Still at the 1999 French census, 4.2% of the total population of the metropolitan area of Paris were recent migrants (i.e. people who were not living in France in 1990). The most recent immigrants to Paris come essentially from mainland China and from Africa.

Economy

. See main article for references concerning the figures cited here.
Size
Africa The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the engines of the global economy. In 2003 the GDP of the metropolitan area of Paris as calculated by INSEE and Eurostat was €448,933 million, or US$506.7 billion (at real exchange rates, not at PPP). If it were a country, the metropolitan area of Paris would be the 15th largest economy in the world (as of 2003), above Brazil (US$492.3 billion) and Russia (US$432.9 billion). Year in, year out, the metropolitan area of Paris accounts for about 29% of the total GDP of metropolitan France, although its population is only 18.7% of the total population of metropolitan France (as of 2004). In 2002, according to Eurostat, the GDP of the metropolitan area of Paris accounted alone for 4.5% of the total GDP of the European Union (of 25 members), although its population is only 2.45% of the total population of the EU25. Although in terms of population the Paris metropolitan area is only approximately the 20th largest metropolitan area in the world, its GDP is the sixth largest in the world after the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, London and Osaka. At the 1999 census there were 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area of Paris, 31.5% of whom worked inside the city of Paris proper and 16% in the Hauts-de-Seine (92) département, home of the new La Défense business district, to the west of the city proper, while the remaining 52.5% worked in the suburbs.
Economic sectors
The economy of Paris is extremely diverse and has not yet adopted a specialization inside the global economy (unlike Los Angeles with the entertainment industry, or London with financial services). The tourism industry, for instance, employs only 3.6% of the total workforce of the metropolitan area (as of 1999) and is by no means a major component of the economy. The Paris economy is essentially a service economy. Its manufacturing base is still important, the Paris metropolitan area remaining one of the manufacturing powerhouses of Europe, but it is declining, while there is a clear shift of the Paris economy towards high value-added services, in particular services. Reflecting the diversity of the Paris economy, at the 1999 census 16.5% of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defense, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. Among the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce being distributed among many other industries.
Administration
printing Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, numbered in a clockwise spiral outwards from the Ier arrondissement at the center of the city. Two parks on the edge of the city proper, Bois de Boulogne on the west and Bois de Vincennes on the east, belong to the 16th and 12th arrondissements respectively. Citizens of each arrondissement elect a local council, which in turn elects the mayor of the arrondissement. A selection of members from each arrondissement council form the Council of Paris, which itself has the dual function of being council for the Paris municipality and for Paris as a départment. The Council of Paris elects the mayor of Paris. mayor of Paris mayor of Paris has been the Mayor of Paris since March 18, 2001]] It must be noted that modern Paris had no Mayor before 1977. Paris in fact has yet to completely emerge from the "prefecture" administrative system created by Bonaparte in 1800; its laws are still governed by its State-appointed Prefecture of Police (as is its Fire Brigade) and has no municipal police force, although it does have its own traffic wardens. The city of Paris also has other jurisdictional titles: it is a commune and also a département. As a département, until 1968 it stretched beyond its city limits as a Département 75 (or Seine département) to include its immediate suburbs, but that year it was split into four: Paris proper (75) became a smaller département, and in a ring around it three others were created: (Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis (93) and Val-de-Marne (94)). Returning to the Prefecture of Police jurisdiction, it still governs Paris and its closest départements as a unique "Prefecture de Paris". From 1986 Paris became the capital of an Île-de-France région of eight départements: itself as a département, the three abovementioned départements and a yet larger concentric circle of four much larger départements. The three inner département are generally called "la petite couronne", or "small crown", and the outer and larger four "la grande couronne". The Île-de-France région has its own administration, as well as each of the départements in the petite couronne and grande couronne. : See also: Paris mayors (comprehensive list)
Transport
Paris mayors Paris mayors Paris is served by two principal airports: Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the Charles De Gaulle International Airport in nearby Roissy-en-France. A third and much smaller airport, at the town of Beauvais, 70 km (45 mi) to the north of the city, is used by charter and low-cost airlines. Le Bourget airport nowadays only hosts business jets, air trade shows and the aerospace museum. Paris is a central hub of the national rail network of very fast (TGV) and normal (Corail) trains, which interconnects with a high-speed regional network, the RER. Six major railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Saint-Lazare connect this train network to the world famous and highly efficient underground metro system, the Métro. This latter is a network of 380 stations (more than the London Underground) connected by 221.6km of rails There are two tangential tramway lines in the suburbs: Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Issy. A third line along the southern inner orbital road is currently under construction. Administratively speaking, the public transportation networks of the Paris region are coordinated by the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF), formerly Syndicat des transports parisiens (STP). [http://www.stif-idf.fr/ official site] Members of the syndicate include the RATP, which operates the Parisian and some suburban busses, the Métro, and sections of the RER; the SNCF, which operates the rest of the RER and the suburban train lines; and other operators. The city is also the hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by an orbital road, the Périphérique, which roughly follows the path of final, 19th-century fortifications around Paris. On/off ramps of the Périphérique are called 'Portes', as they correspond to the former city gates in these fortifications. Most of these 'Portes' have parking areas and a metro station, where non-residents are advised to leave cars. Traffic in Paris is notoriously heavy, slow and tiresome. :See also: Transport in France
Cultural Centres and Organisations
Transport in France Transport in France basilica on Montmartre.]]
Monuments and Landmarks
The three most famous landmarks of Paris are almost certainly the Eiffel Tower, originally a "temporary" construction for the 1889 Universal Expositon, the Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte and the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, a 12th-century ecclesiastical masterpiece. Other than the Eiffel Tower, the lone skyscraper Tour Montparnasse and Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on the hill Montmartre are easily visible from many locations around the city, while the window-shaped Grande Arche in La Défense marks the west.

Museums
Paris landmarks's most famous treasures.]]
- Louvre - a huge museum housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue.
- Musée d'Orsay - an art museum housed in a converted 19th century railway station, which contains mainly Impressionist works.
- Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg - houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne and a cultural center with a large public library. Famous for its external skeleton of service pipes.
- Musée Rodin - a large collection of works by France's most famous sculptor
- Musée du Montparnasse in the former residence of artist Marie Vassilieff at 21 Avenue du Maine, details the history of the great artistic community of Montparnasse.
- Musée Cluny, also known as the Musée National du Moyen-Age, houses a large collection of art and artifacts from the Middle Ages, including the tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.
- Musée Picasso, exhibits nearly 3000 pieces of art by Pablo Picasso as well as art from his own personal collection including works by Cézanne and Matisse.
Historical Centres

- Montmartre - historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur and also famous for the studios and cafés of many great artists.
- Champs-Élysées - a 17th-century garden promenade turned Avenue connection between the Concorde and Arc de Triomphe.
- Place de la Concorde - at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, built as the "Place Louis XV" site of the infamous guillotine. The Egyptian obleisk it holds today can be considered Paris's "oldest monument".
- Place de la Bastille - Former eastern stronghold and gate of Paris.
- Montparnasse - historic area on the Left Bank, famous for the its artists studios, music-halls, and café life.
- Quartier Latin - Paris's scholastic center from the 12th century, formerly stretching between the Left Bank's place Maubert and the Sorbonne university. Sorbonne in Paris. Given to the city in 1885, it faces west, toward the original Liberty in New York City.]]
Cemeteries
Many of Paris's illustrious historical figures have found rest in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Other notable cemeteries include Cimetière de Montmartre, Cimetière du Montparnasse, Cimetière de Passy and the Catacombs of Paris
Parks and Gardens
. Two of Paris's most famous gardens are the Tuileries Garden on the banks of the Seine next to the Louvre and the centrally-located Luxembourg Garden, which used to belong to a château built for the Marie de' Medici. During the Second Empire, Napoleon III created three vast gardens on the outskirts of Paris: