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| January 26 |
January 26
January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 339 days remaining (340 in leap years).
Events
- 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
- 1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil.
- 1531 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake--thousands die.
- 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
- 1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.
- 1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
- 1785 - Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey.
- 1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sail into Sydney Harbour to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day.
- 1802 - The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol; eventually this becomes the Library of Congress.
- 1808 - Rum Rebellion, the only successful (but temporary) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
- 1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
- 1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
- 1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China had ceded.
- 1861 - The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
- 1863 - American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
- 1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
- 1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
- 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
- 1905 - The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
- 1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
- 1934 - The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
- 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
- 1942 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
- 1946 - Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
- 1956 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
- 1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
- 1962 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
- 1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
- 1966 - The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.
- 1970 - Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
- 1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
- 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
- 1986 - Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots, 46-10.
- 1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
- 1992 - Super Bowl XXVI: The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24.
- 1993 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic.
- 1994 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
- 1996 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
- 1997 - Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots, 35-21.
- 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
- 1998 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
- 2000 - Robert F. Vasa ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Baker
- 2000 - XHTML 1.0 becomes a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation.
- 2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
- 2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
- 2003 - Super Bowl XXXVII: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders, 48-21, earning the Buccaneers their first Vince Lombardi Trophy.
- 2005 - The Glendale train crash occurs, involving three trains; the accident kills 11 and injures 200 in Glendale, California near Los Angeles early in the morning peak hours.
- 2005 - Having been confirmed earlier in the day by a vote of 85-13 in the United States Senate, Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
- 2005 - A helicopter crash in eastern Iraq kills 31 United States soldiers.
Births
1497 to 1899
- 1497 - Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
- 1541 - Florent Chrestien, French writer (d. 1596)
- 1714 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (d. 1785)
- 1716 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (d. 1785)
- 1722 - Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader (d. 1805)
- 1763 - King Charles XIV of Sweden, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, Napoleonic general (d. 1841)
- 1781 - Achim von Arnim, German poet (d. 1831)
- 1813 - Juan Pablo Duarte, founding father of the Dominican Republic (d. 1876)
- 1826 - Julia Dent Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
- 1880 - Douglas MacArthur, American general (d. 1964)
- 1891 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (d. 1973)
- 1892 - Zara Cully, American actress (d. 1978)
1900 to 1999
- 1900 - Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
- 1901 - Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
- 1902 - Menno ter Braak, Dutch author and polemicist (d. 1940)
- 1904 - Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)
- 1904 - Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)
- 1905 - Charles Lane, American actor
- 1905 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian-born singer (d. 1987)
- 1908 - Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist (d. 1997)
- 1911 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
- 1913 - James Van Heusen, American songwriter (d. 1990)
- 1915 - William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
- 1918 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
- 1921 - Akio Morita, Japanese businessman (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Michael Bentine, British comedian (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Anne Jeffreys, American actress
- 1924 - Rauf Denktash, Cypriot politician
- 1924 - Annette Strauss, philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
- 1925 - Joan Leslie, American actress
- 1925 - Paul Newman, American actor
- 1927 - José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
- 1928 - Roger Vadim, French film director and actor (d. 2000)
- 1929 - Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist and writer
- 1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, Jamaican record producer
- 1935 - Bob Uecker, baseball player, broadcaster, and actor
- 1937 - Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leone political leader (d. 2003)
- 1941 - Scott Glenn, American actor
- 1941 - Henry Jaglom, English director
- 1943 - César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1943 - Jean Knight, American singer
- 1944 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
- 1945 - Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
- 1946 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (d. 1999)
- 1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
- 1953 - Lucinda Williams, American singer
- 1955 - Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-born musician
- 1958 - Anita Baker, American singer
- 1958 - Ellen DeGeneres, American actress, comedienne, and talk show host
- 1961 - Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player, coach, and team owner
- 1962 - Oscar Ruggeri, Argentine footballer
- 1963 - José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
- 1963 - Andrew Ridgeley, English musician
- 1970 - Kirk Franklin, American singer
- 1976 - James May, British writer
- 1977 - Vince Carter, American basketball player
Deaths
1630 to 1899
- 1567 - Nicholas Wotton, English diplomat
- 1630 - Henry Briggs, English mathematician (b. 1556)
- 1636 - Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (b. 1552)
- 1697 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (b. 1640)
- 1744 - Ludwig Andreas Graf Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (b. 1683)
- 1750 - Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (b. 1686)
- 1795 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (b. 1732)
- 1799 - Gabriel Christie, British general (b. 1722)
- 1823 - Edward Jenner, English physician (b. 1749)
- 1824 - Théodore Géricault, French writer (b. 1791)
- 1855 - Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b. 1808)
- 1885 - Edward Davy, English inventor, physician, and scientist (b. 1806)
- 1885 - Charles George Gordon, British general (b. 1833)
- 1886 - David Rice Atchison, American politician (b. 1807)
1900 to 2005
- 1942 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (b. 1868)
- 1943 - Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (b. 1880)
- 1947 - Grace Moore, American soprano (plane crash) (b. 1898)
- 1947 - Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia, second in line to the Swedish throne (b. 1906)
- 1952 - Horloogiyn Choybalsan, leader of Mongolia
- 1961 - Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b. 1900)
- 1962 - Lucky Luciano, American mobster (b. 1897)
- 1968 - Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher, and aviation promoter (b. 1883)
- 1968 - Yvor Winters, American poet and critic (b. 1900)
- 1972 - Mahalia Jackson, American singer (b. 1911)
- 1973 - Edward G. Robinson, American actor (b. 1893)
- 1979 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
- 1983 - Paul "Bear" Bryant, American football coach (b. 1913)
- 1990 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (b. 1895)
- 1992 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1912)
- 1993 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance leader (b. 1905)
- 1993 - Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922)
- 1996 - Harold Brodkey, American author (b. 1930)
- 1996 - Dave Schultz, American wrestler (b. 1959)
- 1997 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (b. 1904)
- 1998 - Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese music teacher (b. 1898)
- 2000 - Don Budge, American tennis player (b. 1915)
- 2000 - Kathleen Hale, British author (b. 1898)
- 2000 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born author (b. 1912)
- 2001 - Al McGuire, American basketball coach (b. 1928)
- 2003 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (b. 1942)
- 2003 - Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (b. 1917)
- 2003 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931)
- 2004 - Fred Haas, American golfer
Holidays and observances
- Australia - Australia Day
- Roman Empire - third day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church
- Timothy and Titus
- Saint Paula
- Polycarp
- Saint Alberic
- Margaret of Hungary
- India - Republic Day - One of only three state holidays in India, celebrated with pomp and a military parade in New Delhi
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26 BBC: On This Day]
----
January 25 - January 27 - December 26 - February 26 — listing of all days
ko:1월 26일
ms:26 Januari
ja:1月26日
simple:January 26
th:26 มกราคม
January 26
January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 339 days remaining (340 in leap years).
Events
- 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
- 1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil.
- 1531 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake--thousands die.
- 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
- 1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.
- 1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
- 1785 - Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey.
- 1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sail into Sydney Harbour to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day.
- 1802 - The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol; eventually this becomes the Library of Congress.
- 1808 - Rum Rebellion, the only successful (but temporary) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
- 1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
- 1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
- 1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China had ceded.
- 1861 - The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
- 1863 - American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
- 1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
- 1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
- 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
- 1905 - The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
- 1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
- 1934 - The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
- 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
- 1942 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
- 1946 - Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
- 1956 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
- 1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
- 1962 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
- 1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
- 1966 - The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.
- 1970 - Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
- 1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
- 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
- 1986 - Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots, 46-10.
- 1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
- 1992 - Super Bowl XXVI: The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24.
- 1993 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic.
- 1994 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
- 1996 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
- 1997 - Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots, 35-21.
- 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
- 1998 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
- 2000 - Robert F. Vasa ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Baker
- 2000 - XHTML 1.0 becomes a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation.
- 2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
- 2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
- 2003 - Super Bowl XXXVII: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders, 48-21, earning the Buccaneers their first Vince Lombardi Trophy.
- 2005 - The Glendale train crash occurs, involving three trains; the accident kills 11 and injures 200 in Glendale, California near Los Angeles early in the morning peak hours.
- 2005 - Having been confirmed earlier in the day by a vote of 85-13 in the United States Senate, Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
- 2005 - A helicopter crash in eastern Iraq kills 31 United States soldiers.
Births
1497 to 1899
- 1497 - Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
- 1541 - Florent Chrestien, French writer (d. 1596)
- 1714 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (d. 1785)
- 1716 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (d. 1785)
- 1722 - Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader (d. 1805)
- 1763 - King Charles XIV of Sweden, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, Napoleonic general (d. 1841)
- 1781 - Achim von Arnim, German poet (d. 1831)
- 1813 - Juan Pablo Duarte, founding father of the Dominican Republic (d. 1876)
- 1826 - Julia Dent Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
- 1880 - Douglas MacArthur, American general (d. 1964)
- 1891 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (d. 1973)
- 1892 - Zara Cully, American actress (d. 1978)
1900 to 1999
- 1900 - Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
- 1901 - Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
- 1902 - Menno ter Braak, Dutch author and polemicist (d. 1940)
- 1904 - Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)
- 1904 - Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)
- 1905 - Charles Lane, American actor
- 1905 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian-born singer (d. 1987)
- 1908 - Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist (d. 1997)
- 1911 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
- 1913 - James Van Heusen, American songwriter (d. 1990)
- 1915 - William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
- 1918 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
- 1921 - Akio Morita, Japanese businessman (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Michael Bentine, British comedian (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Anne Jeffreys, American actress
- 1924 - Rauf Denktash, Cypriot politician
- 1924 - Annette Strauss, philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
- 1925 - Joan Leslie, American actress
- 1925 - Paul Newman, American actor
- 1927 - José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
- 1928 - Roger Vadim, French film director and actor (d. 2000)
- 1929 - Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist and writer
- 1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, Jamaican record producer
- 1935 - Bob Uecker, baseball player, broadcaster, and actor
- 1937 - Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leone political leader (d. 2003)
- 1941 - Scott Glenn, American actor
- 1941 - Henry Jaglom, English director
- 1943 - César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1943 - Jean Knight, American singer
- 1944 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
- 1945 - Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
- 1946 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (d. 1999)
- 1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
- 1953 - Lucinda Williams, American singer
- 1955 - Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-born musician
- 1958 - Anita Baker, American singer
- 1958 - Ellen DeGeneres, American actress, comedienne, and talk show host
- 1961 - Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player, coach, and team owner
- 1962 - Oscar Ruggeri, Argentine footballer
- 1963 - José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
- 1963 - Andrew Ridgeley, English musician
- 1970 - Kirk Franklin, American singer
- 1976 - James May, British writer
- 1977 - Vince Carter, American basketball player
Deaths
1630 to 1899
- 1567 - Nicholas Wotton, English diplomat
- 1630 - Henry Briggs, English mathematician (b. 1556)
- 1636 - Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (b. 1552)
- 1697 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (b. 1640)
- 1744 - Ludwig Andreas Graf Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (b. 1683)
- 1750 - Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (b. 1686)
- 1795 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (b. 1732)
- 1799 - Gabriel Christie, British general (b. 1722)
- 1823 - Edward Jenner, English physician (b. 1749)
- 1824 - Théodore Géricault, French writer (b. 1791)
- 1855 - Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b. 1808)
- 1885 - Edward Davy, English inventor, physician, and scientist (b. 1806)
- 1885 - Charles George Gordon, British general (b. 1833)
- 1886 - David Rice Atchison, American politician (b. 1807)
1900 to 2005
- 1942 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (b. 1868)
- 1943 - Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (b. 1880)
- 1947 - Grace Moore, American soprano (plane crash) (b. 1898)
- 1947 - Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia, second in line to the Swedish throne (b. 1906)
- 1952 - Horloogiyn Choybalsan, leader of Mongolia
- 1961 - Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b. 1900)
- 1962 - Lucky Luciano, American mobster (b. 1897)
- 1968 - Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher, and aviation promoter (b. 1883)
- 1968 - Yvor Winters, American poet and critic (b. 1900)
- 1972 - Mahalia Jackson, American singer (b. 1911)
- 1973 - Edward G. Robinson, American actor (b. 1893)
- 1979 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
- 1983 - Paul "Bear" Bryant, American football coach (b. 1913)
- 1990 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (b. 1895)
- 1992 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1912)
- 1993 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance leader (b. 1905)
- 1993 - Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922)
- 1996 - Harold Brodkey, American author (b. 1930)
- 1996 - Dave Schultz, American wrestler (b. 1959)
- 1997 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (b. 1904)
- 1998 - Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese music teacher (b. 1898)
- 2000 - Don Budge, American tennis player (b. 1915)
- 2000 - Kathleen Hale, British author (b. 1898)
- 2000 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born author (b. 1912)
- 2001 - Al McGuire, American basketball coach (b. 1928)
- 2003 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (b. 1942)
- 2003 - Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (b. 1917)
- 2003 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931)
- 2004 - Fred Haas, American golfer
Holidays and observances
- Australia - Australia Day
- Roman Empire - third day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church
- Timothy and Titus
- Saint Paula
- Polycarp
- Saint Alberic
- Margaret of Hungary
- India - Republic Day - One of only three state holidays in India, celebrated with pomp and a military parade in New Delhi
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26 BBC: On This Day]
----
January 25 - January 27 - December 26 - February 26 — listing of all days
ko:1월 26일
ms:26 Januari
ja:1月26日
simple:January 26
th:26 มกราคม
Leap yearA 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
Edward III of England
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377) was one of the most successful English kings of medieval times. His fifty-year reign began when his father Edward II of England was deposed on 25 January 1327, and lasted until 1377. Among his immediate predecessors, only Henry III ruled as long, and it would be over 400 years before another monarch would occupy the throne for that duration. Edward's reign was marked by an expansion of English territory through wars in Scotland and France. Edward's parentage and his prodigious offspring provided the basis for two lengthy and significant events in British and European history, the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses, respectively.
Early life
Edward, the son of Edward II of England and Isabella of France, daughter of King Philip the Fair, was born in 1312 at Windsor Castle. In 1320, he was created Earl of Chester. In 1325, his father ceded the Duchy of Aquitaine to him, and the young Edward was sent to France along with his mother to meet his uncle, the French King Charles IV.
Upon their return from France, the powerful Queen and her lover, Roger Mortimer, forced the weak and unpopular Edward II to abdicate, installing Edward III as king in 1327.
Edward II was subsequently imprisoned (allegedly murdered, he was in fact well-treated in captivity), and Isabella and Roger Mortimer effectively ruled England during the young king's first few years on the throne.
Early reign
Edward III was crowned on 25 January 1327, at the age of 14, and married Philippa of Hainault in 1328. The couple eventually produced thirty seven children, including five sons who reached maturity. Their eldest son and Edward's heir, Edward the Black Prince, born in 1330, would become a famed military leader. In the same year as Edward's marriage, his uncle Charles IV of France died without male heirs, leaving a pregnant wife, thus making Edward (through Isabella) the senior surviving male descendant of King Philip IV, Charles' and Isabella's father, and potentially giving Edward the senior Capetian dynasty claim to the French throne. (Edward's younger brother John, Earl of Cornwall, was then the only other living male descending from Philip IV. Later, daughters of Louis X and Philip V produced further male issue, such as King Charles II of Navarre, Hereditary Duke Philip of Burgundy and Count Louis of Flanders.)
In 1330, the eighteen-year old Edward seized control over the English court, overthrowing Mortimer, who was executed, and removing Isabella from power but sparing her life.
The reign of Edward III was marked by continued war with Scotland, but much more by the war with France. His first major military success was the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, which he won in support of his puppet, the new Scottish king, Edward Balliol, in detriment to his own brother-in-law David II of Scotland, the Bruce claimant and husband of Edward's sister Joan of the Tower, princess of England.
The Hundred Years' War
Edward's claim to join the English and French thrones was contested by French nobles who invoked Salic law, which held that the royal succession could not pass through a female line (such as Edward's mother Isabella, or Queen Joan II of Navarre), and who therefore asserted that the legitimate King of France was Philip VI, Edward's cousin and heir to Charles of Valois, a younger son of Philip III.
Edward declared war on Philip VI in 1337, and declared himself king of France on January 26 1340. The conflict thus commenced eventually became known as the Hundred Years' War, continuing sporadically to the 1450s. In 1346, Edward defeated the French at the Battle of Crecy, accompanied in this campaign by his sixteen year old son the Black Prince.
The Black Prince commanded England's victorious army at the Battle of Poitiers, in 1356. The first phase of the Hundred Years' War was concluded in 1360 with the Treaty of Brétigny, marking the height of English influence in France and providing three million crowns' ransom for the capture of the French King John II.
While these victories were eventually reversed, and then won and lost again in the resulting generations of war, English and, later, British monarchs would continue to claim the title "King of France" until the Act of Union which led to the creation of the United Kingdom in 1801. Edward III quartered his coat of arms with "France Ancient", the Azure semé-de-lis (a blue shield with a tight pattern of small golden fleur de lis of the French royal house), and it remained a part of the English Coat of Arms until removed by George III. For more information see English Kings of France.
Domestic events and personal life
English Kings of France
While the king and the prince campaigned abroad, the government was left largely in the hands of the prince's younger brother, John of Gaunt. Economic prosperity from the developing wool trade created new wealth in the kingdom, but the ravages of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, had a significant impact on the lives of his subjects. Commercial taxes became a major source of royal revenue, which had previously been largely from taxes on land. Parliament became divided into two houses. During Edward's reign, French was still the language of the English noblesse following the Norman invasion, but this was changed.
The king also founded an order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter, allegedly as a result of an incident when a lady, with whom he was dancing at a court ball, dropped an item of intimate apparel (possibly a sanitary belt, though sources describe it as being made of velvet). Gallantly picking it up to assuage her embarrassment, Edward tied it around his own leg, and remarked Honi soit qui mal y pense ('Shame on him who thinks evil of it'), which became the motto of the Order of the Garter. The woman in the case is known only as the "Countess of Salisbury". Some say it was Edward's daughter-in-law, Joan of Kent, but a more likely candidate is Joan's mother-in-law from her first marriage.
Despite having an unusually happy marriage, and producing thirteen children with Philippa, Edward was a notorious womaniser. After Philippa's death in 1369, Edward's mistress, Alice Perrers, became a byword for corruption.
Facing a resurgent French monarchy and losses in France, Edward asked parliament to grant him more funds by taxing the wine and wool trades, but this was badly received in 1374-1375 as a new outbreak of bubonic plague struck. The "Good Parliament" of 1376 criticised Edward's councillors, including Alice Perrers' family, and advised him to limit his ambitions to suit his revenues.
Edward died of a stroke in 1377 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The Prince Edward pre-deceased him in 1376, and Edward III was succeeded by his young grandson, King Richard II of England, son of Edward the Black Prince.
Issue
The sons and the Wars of the Roses
Richard II of England
The Wars of the Roses were a civil war over the throne of England fought among the descendants of King Edward III through his five surviving adult sons. Each branch of the family had competing claims through seniority, legitimacy, and/or the gender of their ancestors.
(1) Edward, the Black Prince (1330-1376), Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Wales
The eldest son of Edward III predeceased his father and never became king. Edward's only surviving child was Richard II who ascended to the throne but produced no heirs. Richard II designated as his heir presumptive his cousin Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, senior heir in female line, the grandson of Lionel of Antwerp, but this succession never took place as Richard II was eventually deposed and succeeded by another of Richard's cousins: Henry IV, "Bolingbroke", who was senior heir in male line.
(2) William (16 February 1335-8 July 1335), he was buried at the cathedral by York.
(3) Lionel of Antwerp (1338-1368), Duke of Clarence
Lionel also predeceased his father. Lionel's only child, Philippa, married into the powerful Mortimer family, which as noted above had exerted enormous influence during the reigns of Edward II and Edward III. Philippa's son Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March was the designated heir of Richard II (but predeceased him, leaving his young son Edmund as heir presumptive. Anne Mortimer, Edmund's eldest sister, Lionel of Antwerp's great-granddaughter, married Richard, Earl of Cambridge of the House of York, merging the Lionel/Mortimer line into the York line.
(4) John of Gaunt (1340-1399), Duke of Lancaster.
From John of Gaunt descended legitimate male heirs, the Lancasters (Henry IV, who deposed Richard II, and then Henry V and Henry VI). This line ended when Henry VI was successfully deposed by Edward IV, of the York faction, and Henry's son Edward was killed. The Lancaster Kings derived their ancestry also, through Blanche, wife of John Gaunt, from Edmund of Lancaster the Crouchback, who was son of Henry III of England - a legend without foundation was developed to claim that Edmund was elder than his brother Edward I but overpassed in succession of Henry III because of physical infirmity.
John of Gaunt's illegitimate heirs were the Beauforts, his descendants through his mistress (later, his wife) Katherine Swynford; Gaunt's great-granddaughter Margaret Beaufort married into the House of Tudor, producing a single child who would become Henry VII. While the Beaufort offspring had been legitimized after Gaunt's eventual marriage to Swynford, this was on the condition that they be barred from ascending the throne. Undeterred by this, upon the failure of the primary Lancastrian line, the Tudors claimed precedence to the Yorks and eventually succeeded them.
[Note: John of Gaunt also had legitimate descendants through his daughters Philippa, Queen of Portugal, the mother of King Duarte of Portugal, Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter, the mother of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, and Queen Catalina of Castile, a grand-daughter of King Pedro I and the mother of King Juan II, but these Castilians engaged in their own wars over the Spanish succession and did not assert any claims to the English throne in the Wars of the Roses - and they all were of female line, something the Lancaster Claim avoided because they were originally secondary to certain senior female descents such as Mortimers.]
(5) Edmund of Langley (1341-1402), Duke of York.
His descendants were the Yorks. He had two sons: Edward, Duke of York, killed fighting alongside Henry V at the battle of Agincourt, and Richard, Earl of Cambridge, executed by Henry V for treason (involving a plot to place heir presumptive Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, Cambridge's brother-in-law and cousin, on the throne). As noted above, Richard had married Anne Mortimer, this giving their son and the House of York, through Lionel of Antwerp, a more senior claim than that of both the Lancasters, who were descended from a younger son than Lionel, and the Tudors, whose legitimized Beaufort ancestors had been debarred from the throne.
(6) Thomas (1347).
(7) William (24 June 1348-5 September 1348).
(8) Thomas of Woodstock (1355-1397), Duke of Gloucester.
Duke of Gloucester
Thomas, who was one of the Lords Appellant influential under Richard II, was murdered or executed for treason, likely by the order of Richard II; his eventual heir was his daughter Anne, who married into the Stafford family, whose heirs became the Dukes of Buckingham. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, descended on his father's side from Thomas of Woodstock, and on his mother's side from John Beaufort, rebelled against Richard III in 1483 but failed to depose him. This failed rebellion left Henry Tudor as the Lancasters' primary candidate for the throne.
Thus, the senior Plantagenet line was ended with the death of Richard II, but not before the execution of Thomas of Woodstock for treason. The heirs presumptive through Lionel of Antwerp were passed over in favour of the powerful Henry IV, descendant of Edward III through John of Gaunt. These Lancaster Kings initially survived the treason of their Edmund of Langley (York) cousins but eventually were deposed by the merged Lionel/Edmund line in the person of Edward IV. Internecine killing among the Yorks left Richard III as King, supported and then betrayed by his cousin Buckingham the descendant of Thomas of Woodstock. Finally, the Yorks were dislodged by the remaining Lancastrian candidate, Henry VII of the House of Tudor, another descendant of John of Gaunt, who married the eldest daughter of Yorkist King Edward IV.
----
The daughters
- Isabella Plantagenet (1332-1382), married Enguerrand VII de Coucy, 1st Earl of Bedford
- Joan Plantagenet (1335-1348), died of the plague in Bordeaux, on her way to marry Peter I of Castile
- Blanche Plantagenet (1342)
- Mary Plantagenet (1344-1362), married John V, Duke of Brittany
- Margaret Plantagenet (1346-1361), married John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
See also : English monarchs family tree
External link
- [http://www.shadowedrealm.com/articles/exclusive/article.php?id=2 Chivalry during the Reign of King Edward III]
Edward III of England
Edward III of England
Category:Natives of Berkshire
Category:House of Anjou
Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones
Category:English monarchs
Category:Hundred Years' War
Category:Earls in the Peerage of England
ja:エドワード3世 (イングランド王)
1500
Events
- Europe's population was ~60 million. (Spielvogel)
- January 5 - Duke Ludovico Sforza recaptures Milan, but is soon driven out again by the French.
- April 21 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral officially discovers Brazil and claims the land for Portugal.
- November 11 - Treaty of Granada - Louis XII of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples between them.
- Emperor Go-Kashiwabara ascends to the throne of Japan.
- Battle of Hemmingstedt: The Danish army fails to conquer the peasants' republic of Dithmarschen.
- Second Battle of Lepanto - The Turkish fleet of Kemal Re'is defeats the Venetians. The Turks proceed to capture Modon, Lepanto, and Koron.
- The Luo, a Nilotic people from modern Sudan, settle the Cwezi states, establishing the state of Buganda. (approximate date)
- Diogo Dias is the first European to see Madagascar.
Births
- February 22 - Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian humanist (d. 1564)
- February 24 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1558)
- April 12 - Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (died 1574)
- April 23 - Alexander Ales, Scottish theologian (died 1565)
- November 1 - Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith and sculptor (died 1571)
- Johannes Aal, Swiss theologian and composer (died 1553)
- John of Avila, Spanish mystic and saint (died 1569)
- George Cavendish, English writer
- Wu Cheng'en, Chinese novelist (died 1582)
- Charles Dumoulin, French jurist (died 1566)
- Heinrich Faber, German music theorist (died 1552)
- Federico II of Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (died 1540)
- Francisco de Moraes, Portuguese writer (died 1572)
- Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1558)
- Mem de Sá, Governor-General of Brazil (died 1572)
- Johann Stumpf, Swiss writer (died 1576)
- Pietro Martire Vermigli, Italian theologian
Deaths
- May 29 - Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer
- June 19 - Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset (born 1499)
- September 12 - Albert, Duke of Saxony (born 1443)
- September 15 - John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury
- October 1 - John Alcock, English churchman
- October 21 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (born 1442)
- Juan Pérez de Gijón, Spanish composer (born 1460)
- Feodor Kuritsyn, Russian statesman
- Thomas Rotherham, English cleric and minister (born 1423)
Category:1500
ko:1500년
Vicente PinzonVicente Yáñez Pinzón (c. 1460 - after 1523) was Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador.
Martin Alonzo Pinzón was his older brother. He sailed with Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492, as captain of the Niña.
In 1499, he sailed to the South American coast. In 1500, on January 26, carried by a strong storm, Pinzón reached the north coast of what today is Brazil, specifically he disembarked on the shore called Praia do Paraíso, Cape of Saint Agostinho, State of Pernanbuco. According to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), Spain could make no claim, but that place was named Cabo de Santa Maria de la Consolación by Pinzon. He also sighted the Amazon River and ascended to a point about fifty metres from the sea. He called it the "Río Santa María de la Mar Dulce", thus becoming the first explorer to discover an estuary of the Amazon River.
In 1505, Pinzón was named governor of Puerto Rico. In 1508, he travelled with Juan Díaz de Solís to South America. No record exist of him after 1523.
On November 19, 1999, a monument in his memory was inaugurated in the Palos de la Frontera on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the discovery of Brazil, and the brotherhood with the city of the Cape of Saint Agostinho.
Pinzón, Vicente Yáñez
Pinzón, Vicente Yáñez
Pinzón, Vicente Yáñez
Pinzón, Vicente Yáñez
Europe:This article is about the continent. For other meanings, see Europe (disambiguation).
Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula or subcontinent, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. It is conventionally considered a continent, which, in this case, is more of a cultural distinction than a geographic one. It is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the south by the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the Caucasus. Europe's boundary to the east is vague, but has traditionally been given as the Ural Mountains and Caspian Sea to the southeast: the Urals are considered by most to be a geographical and tectonic landmark separating Asia from Europe.
:See also Continent, Bicontinental country, and Table of European territories and regions.
Table of European territories and regions
Table of European territories and regions
Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering around 10,790,000 km² (4,170,000 sq mi) or 2.1% of the Earth's surface, and is only larger than Australia. In terms of population, it is the third-largest continent (Asia and Africa are larger) with a population of more than 700,000,000, or about 11% of the world's population.
Etymology
Africa.]]
In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted by Zeus in bull form and taken to the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos. For Homer, Europé (Greek: Ευρωπη; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. Later Europa stood for | | |