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February 7

February 7

February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 327 days remaining, 328 in leap years.

Events

- 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1301 - Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
- 1550 - Julius III becomes Pope.
- 1613 - Mikhail Romanov becomes Tsar of Russia.
- 1795 - The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.
- 1807 - Napoléon's French Empire begin fighting against Russian and Prussian forces of the Fourth Coalition at the Battle of Eylau in Eylau, Poland.
- 1812 - The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
- 1842 - Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien
- 1863 - HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
- 1882 - The last heavyweight boxing championship bare-knuckle fight takes place in Mississippi City, Mississippi.
- 1898 - Emile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse.
- 1900 - The British Labour Party is formed.
- 1904 - A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
- 1940 - Walt Disney's Pinocchio, an animated feature based on the Carlo Collodi's story Pinocchio was first released.
- 1944 - World War II: In Anzio, Italy Nazi forces launch a counteroffensive.
- 1962 - The United States Government bans all Cuban imports and exports.
- 1964 - The Beatles arrive on their first visit to the United States.
- 1966 - Paul Williams creates the rock music magazine Crawdaddy!.
- 1967 - A fire at a restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama kills 25 people.
- 1971 - Women gain the right to vote in Switzerland.
- 1974 - Grenada becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1976 - Darryl Sittler sets NHL record with 10 points in one game.
- 1977 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 24.
- 1979 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either planet was known to science.
- 1984 - Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
- 1985 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City.
- 1986 - Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
- 1990 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.
- 1991 - Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
- 1991 - The IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.
- 1992 - The European Union is formed.
- 1998 - The 1998 Winter Olympic Games open in Nagano, Japan.
- 1999 - Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the ruler of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
- 2000 - Bahria University is established through the Presidential Ordinance No. V of 2000 of Government of Pakistan.
- 2003 - Last contact with Pioneer 10.
- 2005- Star Wars: Empire at War officially becomes available in the U.S.

Births

- 1102 - Empress Matilda, Princess of England and wife of Henry V of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1169)
- 1478 - Sir Thomas More, English statesman, humanist, and author (d. 1535)
- 1693 - Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)
- 1812 - Charles Dickens, English novelist (d. 1870)
- 1842 - Alexandre Ribot, French statesman (d. 1923)
- 1867 - Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)
- 1870 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (d. 1937)
- 1883 - Eubie Blake, American musician and composer (d. 1983)
- 1885 - Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)
- 1895 - Anita Stewart, American film actress (d. 1961)
- 1898 - Dock Boggs, American musician (d. 1971)
- 1905 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
- 1905 - Paul Nizan, French author (d. 1940)
- 1906 - Puyi, Emperor of China (d. 1967)
- 1908 - Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)
- 1914 - Ramón Mercader, Spanish assassin of Leon Trotsky (d. 1978)
- 1915 - Eddie Bracken, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1920 - An Wang, Chinese-born computer pioneer (d. 1990)
- 1922 - Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)
- 1926 - Konstantin Feoktistov, cosmonaut
- 1927 - Juliette Greco, French singer and actor
- 1927 - Vladimir Kuts, Russian runner
- 1932 - Gay Talese, American author
- 1932 - Al Worden, astronaut
- 1934 - Earl King, American musician (d. 2003)
- 1943 - Gareth Hunt, English actor
- 1945 - Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player
- 1945 - Pete Postlethwaite, English actor
- 1949 - Paulo César Carpegiani, Brazilian footballer and coach
- 1953 - Dan Quisenberry, baseball player (d. 1998)
- 1954 - Dieter Bohlen German composer
- 1955 - Rolf Benirschke, American football player
- 1955 - Mario Coutinho Brazilian physician
- 1955 - Miguel Ferrer, American actor
- 1960 - James Spader, American actor
- 1962 - Garth Brooks, American singer
- 1962 - Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
- 1965 - Jason Gedrick, American actor
- 1967 - Chris Rock, American comedian and actor
- 1968 - Peter Bondra, Ukrainian-born hockey player
- 1968 - Sully Erna, American singer (Godsmack)
- 1974 - Steve Nash, Canadian basketball player
- 1975 - Wes Borland, American guitarist (Limp Bizkit)
- 1978 - Ashton Kutcher, American actor
- 1984 - Jonathan "Trueborn" Smith, American vocalist (Binswitch)
- 1985 - Tina Majorino, American actress
- 1988 - Ai Kago, Japanese singer (W (Double You), Morning Musume, and MiniMoni)

Deaths

- 1045 - Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (b. 1009)
- 1317 - Robert, Count of Clermont, French founder of the House of Bourbon (b. 1256)
- 1560 - Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor (b. 1493)
- 1626 - William V, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1548)
- 1642 - William Bedell, English clergyman (b. 1571)
- 1652 - Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (b. 1582)
- 1690 - William Morice, English royalist statesman
- 1693 - Paul Pellisson, French writer (b. 1624)
- 1736 - Stephen Gray, English astronomer and scientist (b. 1666)
- 1779 - William Boyce, English composer (b. 1711)
- 1799 - Qianlong, Emperor of China (b. 1711)
- 1801 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (b. 1726)
- 1823 - Ann Radcliffe, English novelist (b. 1764)
- 1837 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (b. 1778)
- 1873 - Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish writer (b. 1814)
- 1878 - Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
- 1920 - Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak, Russian military commander (b. 1874)
- 1937 - Elihu Root, American statesman and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1845)
- 1938 - Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. 1868)
- 1968 - Nick Adams, American actor (b. 1931)
- 1971 - Dock Boggs, American musician (b. 1898)
- 1979 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (b. 1911)
- 1980 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (b. 1904)
- 1985 - Matt Monro, English singer (b. 1932)
- 1990 - Jimmy Van Heusen, American songwriter (b. 1913)
- 1993 - Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
- 1994 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (b. 1913)
- 1994 - Stephen Milligan, British journalist and politician (b. 1948)
- 1996 - Phillip Davidson, US Army general (b. 1915)
- 1998 - Lawrence Sanders, American author (b. 1920)
- 1999 - King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
- 1999 - Bobby Troup, American musician and actor (b. 1918)
- 2000 - Doug Henning, Canadian magician (b. 1947)
- 2000 - Big Pun, Puerto Rican singer (b. 1971)
- 2001 - Dale Evans, American actress and singer (b. 1912)
- 2001 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (b. 1906)
- 2003 - Augusto Monterroso, Guatemalan author (b. 1921)
- 2003 - John Reading, Mayor of Oakland, California (b. 1917)
- 2004 - John Hench, American animator (b. 1908)

Holidays and observances

- Independence Day in Grenada (1974)
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Mulk (Dominion) - First day of the 18th month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Sapporo Snow Festival in Sapporo, Japan (2005)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050207.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 6 - February 8 - January 7 - March 7 -- listing of all days ko:2월 7일 ms:7 Februari ja:2月7日 simple:February 7 th:7 กุมภาพันธ์

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Leo I of the Byzantine Empire

Imperator Caesar Flavius Valerius Leo Augustus or Leo I of the Byzantine Empire (401 - 474, reigned 457 - 474), sometimes known as Leo the Thracian, was the last of a series of emperors placed on the throne by Aspar, the Alan serving as commander-in-chief of the army. His coronation as emperor on February 7, 457, was the first known to involve the Patriarch of Constantinople. Leo I made an alliance with the Isaurians and was thus able to eliminate Aspar. The price of the alliance was the marriage of Leo's daughter to Tarasicodissa, leader of the Isaurians who, as Zeno, became emperor in 474. During Leo's reign, the Balkans were ravaged time and again by the West Goths and the Huns. However, these attackers were unable to take Constantinople thanks to the walls which had been rebuilt and reinforced in the reign of Theodosius II and against which they possessed no suitable technology. His reign was also noteworthy for his influence in the Western Roman Empire, marked by his appointment of Anthemius as Western Roman Emperor in 467. He attempted to build on this political achievement with an expedition against the Vandals in 468, which was defeated due to the treachery and incompetence of Leo's brother-in-law Basiliscus. This disaster drained the Empire of men and money. Whilst Leo's empire was well known for its military technology, it also managed important advances in other fields, most notably a primitive form of paperclip for binding official documents. Leo died of dysentery at the age of 73 on January 18, 474.

External links

Category:401 births Category:474 deaths Category:Byzantine emperors Category:House of Leo ja:レオ1世 (東ローマ皇帝)

1301

Events

- February 7 - Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first Prince of Wales
- End of the reign of Emperor Go-Fushimi, emperor of Japan
- Emperor Go-Nijō ascends to the throne of Japan
- Dante was sent into Exile in Florence.

Births

- June 19 - Prince Morikuni, Japanese shogun (died 1333)
- July 23 - Duke Otto of Austria (died 1339)
- August 5 - Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician (died 1330)
- September 24 - Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (died 1372)
- William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English nobleman (died 1344)
- Nitta Yoshisada, Japanese head of the Nitta clan (died 1338)

Deaths

- Zahed Gilani, Grandmaster of the Zahediyeh Sufi Order (born 1216) Category:1301 ko:1301년

Caernarvon

Caernarfon Gwynedd
Image:WalesGwynedd.png Image:Red_Dot.gif

Caernarfon (the spelling is now normally used in preference over the Anglicised form, "Caernarvon" or "Carnarvon") is a Royal Town in north-west Wales. It has a dwindling population of 9,611 (2001 census). Caernarfon is the traditional county town of the traditional county of Caernarfonshire and was a county corporate in its own right. The town is best known for its great stone castle, the handiwork of Edward I of England and consequently sometimes seen as a symbol of English domination. Edward's architect, James of St. George, modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople - Edward being devoted to the Crusader cause. On higher ground on the outskirts of the town are the remains of an earlier occupation, Segontium Roman Fort. The population of Caernarfon is largely Welsh-speaking (92% of the population reported some level of Welsh ability in the 2001 census) and the town is nowadays a rallying-point for the Welsh Nationalist cause. In 1911, David Lloyd George, then Member of Parliament for the borough, conceived the idea of holding the investiture of the new Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle, believing that this would help pacify nationalist opinion whilst arousing a more British patriotic feeling. The ceremony took place on July 13, with the royal family paying a rare visit to the principality, and the future King Edward VIII was duly invested. On July 1 1969, the investiture ceremony was again repeated at Caernarfon Castle, the recipient on this occasion being Charles, Prince of Wales. Despite nationalist threats and protests, the ceremony went ahead without incident except that two members of the FWA were blown up whilst trying to bomb a train the Prince was travelling on. Caernarfon is also home to the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (archaic English spelling of the word Welsh). Caernarfon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1862, 1894, 1906, 1921, 1935, 1959 and 1979. Unofficial National Eisteddfod events were also held there in 1877 and 1880. Caernarfon residents are known colloquially as "Cofis" (pronounced in English as "Koh-vee"). The word "Covi" is also used locally in Caernarfon to describe the local dialect, which is a rather peculiar mixture of Welsh and English, freely swapping words and grammar constructs somewhat haphazardly.

External links

- [http://website.lineone.net/~cwinpenny/wales/caernarfon01.jpg View from above]
- [http://www.harb85.freeserve.co.uk/nw/nw11.jpg View including river bank]
- [http://www.greatorme.org.uk/Caernarfon.html Visit to Caernarfon] Category:Caernarfonshire Category:Towns in Gwynedd Category:Welsh county towns

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- John Milton
- William Shakespeare
- Jane Austen
- Mary Shelley
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Hardy
- George Orwell
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- C. S. Lewis
- Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
- English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Symbols and insignia

alternative words for British.]] The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line. A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross). The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.

National anthems

Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar "God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams. Many believe that English teams should use their own anthems, most popular of which is the use of "Jerusalem".

References

- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]

References

External links

- [http://www.enjoyengland.com/ The official website of the English Tourist Board — Enjoy England]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations]: articles on England and her neighbours Category:Monarchies Category:European countries als:England zh-min-nan:England ko:잉글랜드 ms:England ja:イングランド simple:England th:แคว้นอังกฤษ

1550

Events

- February 7 - Julius III becomes Pope.
- The first book in Slovenian, Abecedarium, written by Protestant reformer Primoz Trubar, is printed in Tübingen, Germany.
- Nostradamus' first almanac is written.
- Helsinki, the capital of Finland, is founded by Gustav Vasa.

Births

- January 31 - Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic general (died 1588)
- April 12 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England (died 1604)
- June 27 - King Charles IX of France (died 1574)
- September 10 - Alonso de Guzman El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, commander of the Spanish Armada (died 1615)
- September 17 - Pope Paul V (died 1621)
- October 4 - King Charles IX of Sweden (died 1611)
- December 6 - Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (died 1605)
- Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, author
- Robert Balfour, Scottish philosopher (died 1625)
- Henry Barrowe, English Puritan and Separatist (died 1593)
- Camillus de Lellis, Italian soldier and nurse (died 1614)
- Emilio de' Cavalieri, Italian composer (died 1602)
- John Davis, English explorer (died 1605)
- Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (died 1597)
- Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (died 1591)
- Philip Henslowe, English theatrical entrepreneur (died 1616)
- Karin Månsdotter, queen of Eric XIV of Sweden (died 1612)
- Andreas Libavius, German doctor and chemist (died 1616)
- John Napier, Scottish mathematician (died 1617)
- Pomponio Nenna, Italian composer (died 1613)
- Ralph Sherwin, English Roman Catholic martyr and saint (died 1581) See also :Category: 1550 births.

Deaths

- April 12 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (born 1496)
- May 18 - John, Cardinal of Lorraine, French churchman (born 1498)
- May 20 - Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shogun (born 1511)
- July 30 - Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician (born 1505)
- October 23 - Tiedemann Giese, Polish Catholic bishop (born 1480)
- November 6 - Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1487)
- John of God, Spanish friar and saint
- Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, Spanish conquistador
- Jamsheed Quli Qutb Shah, second ruler of Golconda
- Tabinshwehti, King of Burma See also :Category: 1550 deaths. Category:1550 ko:1550년

Pope Julius III

Julius III, né Gian Maria del Monte or Giovan Maria Giocci (September 10, 1487 – March 23, 1555), was pope from February 7, 1550 to 1555. The last of the High Renaissance popes, he was born at Rome, the son of a famous jurist. He succeeded his uncle as archbishop of Siponto (Manfredonia) in Apulia in 1512, and added the diocese of Pavia in 1520. At the Sack of Rome (1527), he was one of the hostages given by Clement VII to the Emperor's forces, and might have been killed in the Campo de' Fiori as others were, had he not been secretly liberated by Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. In 1536 he was created cardinal-bishop of Palestrina by Paul III, by whom he was employed on several important legations; he was the first president of the Council of Trent, opening its first session at Trent, December 13, 1545, with a brief oration. At the council, he was the leader of the papal party against Emperor Charles V, with whom he came into conflict on various occasions, especially when, on March 26, 1547, he transferred the Council to Bologna. In the conclave after the death of Paul III (November 10, 1549) the forty-eight cardinals were divided into three factions: the Imperials, the French, and the adherents of the Farnese. The French cardinals were able to prevent the election of the other two factions, and Cardinal del Monte was duly elected on February 7, 1550, as a compromise, after a conclave of ten weeks, although the Emperor had expressly excluded him from the list of acceptable candidates. Ottavio Farnese, Paul III's grandson, was immediately confirmed as Duke of Parma. As pope, Julius III is better remembered by architectural historians and lovers of art than by theologians. Julius had a musical ear too: he immediately brought the great Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina to Rome and made him maestro di cappella. He consented, at the request of the Emperor Charles V, to the reopening of the council of Trent (in 1551), and he also entered into a league with him against the duke of Parma and Henry II of France; but soon afterwards he deemed it advisable to make terms with his enemies, and in 1553 he again suspended the meetings of the council. (For the history of papal conflicts with councils, see conciliar movement). As pope Julius lost interest both in political and in ecclesiastical affairs; formerly he had acquired a reputation for impetuous energy in pressing the papal position, but he now could fully express his love of luxurious ease, in the entertainments given by him especially at the Villa Giulia, which Vignola created for him, in a manner fitted to shock later ideas of ecclesiastical propriety. He also aroused much scandal by creating as his first cardinal Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte, a youth of seventeen whom he had picked up on the streets of Parma some years previously, and who had been adopted by the pope's brother Balduino. Julius stood by his choice, and in the Villa Giulia the ceiling fresco of a portico depicts a vine-covered trellis, where putti play with one another's genitals. Joachim du Bellay the French poet in the retinue of Cardinal du Bellay, expressed his scandalized opinion in two sonnets in his series Les regrets (published after the pope's death, in 1558). The imprudence of Pope Julius III in entrusting the office of Cardinal Nephew to Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte, a teenaged, illegitimate, virtually illiterate street urchin. a valet in the household of Cardinal Giovanni Maria del Monte, whom his brother had adopted a few years earlier [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1550.htm], eventually led to an upgrading of the Secretary's job, as the incumbent had to take over the duties that the Cardinal Nephew was unfit for. The first man to fill the newly created position of cardinal-secretary of state, and, therefore, the man who was to manage Innocent X, was the newly created Cardinal Girolamo Dandini. By the time of Pope Innocent X the Secretary of State was always himself a Cardinal, and P