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John Dee

John Dee

John Dee (July 13, 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He also devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. Dr. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his time, he had lectured to crowded halls at the University of Paris when still in his early twenties. He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, having trained many of those who would conduct England's voyages of discovery. (He coined the term "British Empire.") At the same time, he immersed himself deeply in Christian angel-magic and Hermetic philosophy, devoting the last third of his life almost exclusively to these pursuits. For Dee, as with many of his contemporaries, these activities were not contradictory, but particular aspects of a consistent world-view.

Biography

Early life

Dee was born in Tower Ward, London to a Welsh family, whose surname derived from the Welsh du ("black"). His father was a merchant and minor courtier. Dee attended the Chelmsford Chantry School (now King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford), then – from 1543 to 1546 – St. John's College, Cambridge. His great abilities were recognized, and he was made a founding fellow of Trinity College. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Leuven and Brussels and lecturing in Paris on Euclid. He studied with Gemma Frisius and became a close friend of the cartographer Gerardus Mercator, returning to England with an important collection of mathematical and astronomical instruments. John Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford in 1554, which he declined, citing English universities' emphasis on rhetoric and grammar (which, together with logic, formed the academic trivium) over philosophy and science (the more advanced quadrivium, comprised of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) as offensive. In 1555, he was arrested and charged with "calculating" for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth; the charges were expanded to treason against Mary. Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the reactionary Catholic Bishop Bonner for religious examination. His strong and lifelong penchant for secrecy perhaps worsening matters, this entire episode was only the most dramatic in a series of attacks and slanders that would dog Dee through his life. Clearing his name yet again, he soon became a close associate of Bonner. Dee presented Queen Mary with a visionary plan for the preservation of old books, manuscripts and records and the founding of a national library in 1556, but his proposal was not taken up. Instead, he expanded his personal library at his house in Mortlake, tirelessly acquiring books and manuscripts in England and on the Continent. Dee's library, a center of learning outside the universities, became the greatest in England and attracted many scholars. When Elizabeth took the throne in 1558, Dee became her trusted advisor on matters astrological and scientific, choosing Elizabeth's coronation date himself . From the 1550s through the 1570s, he served as an advisor to England's voyages of discovery, providing technical assistance in navigation and ideological backing in the creation of a British Empire, and was the first to use that term. During his travels, Dee reported investigating (with Gerolamo Cardano) a perpetual motion machine during his travels (with a pension from Elizabeth I), but wasn't allowed a closer look. In 1577, Dee published General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, a work that set out his vision of a maritime empire and asserted English territorial claims on the New World. Dee was acquainted with Humphrey Gilbert and was close to Sir Philip Sidney and his circle. Philip Sidney In 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work Monas Hieroglyphica ("The Hieroglyphic Monad"), an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. This work was highly valued by many of Dee's contemporaries, but the loss of the secret oral tradition of Dee's milieu makes the work difficult to interpret today. He published a "Mathematical Preface" to Henry Billingsley's English translation of Euclid's Elements in 1570, arguing the central importance of mathematics and outlining mathematics' influence on the other arts and sciences. Intended for an audience outside the universities, it proved to be Dee's most widely influential and frequently reprinted work.

Later life

By the early 1580s, Dee was growing dissatisfied with his progress in learning the secrets of nature and with his own lack of influence and recognition. He began to turn towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge. Specifically, he sought to contact angels through the use of a "scryer" or crystal-gazer, who would act as an intermediary between Dee and the angels. Dee's first attempts were not satisfactory, but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley, who impressed him greatly with his abilities. Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits. These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with an air of intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification, prayer and fasting. Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to mankind. (The character of Kelley is harder to assess: some have concluded that he acted with complete cynicism, but delusion or self-deception are not out of the question. Kelley's "output" is remarkable for its sheer mass, its intricacy and its vividness.) Dee maintained that the angels laboriously dictated several books to him this way, some in a special angelic or Enochian language. In 1583, Dee met the visiting Polish nobleman Albert Łaski, who invited the Englishman to accompany him on his return to Poland. With some prompting by the angels, Dee was persuaded to go. Dee, Kelley and their families left for the Continent in September 1583, but Laski proved to be bankrupt and out of favor in his own country. Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe, but they continued their spiritual conferences, which Dee recorded meticulously. He had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II and King Stephen of Poland in which he chided them for their ungodliness and attempted to convince them of the importance of his angelic communications. He was not taken up by either monarch. During a spiritual conference in Bohemia in 1587, Kelley told Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered that the two men should share their wives. Kelley, who by that time was becoming a prominent alchemist and was much more sought-after than Dee, may have wished to use this as a way to end the spiritual conferences. The order caused Dee great anguish, but he did not doubt its genuineness and apparently allowed it to go forward, but broke off the conferences immediately afterwards and did not see Kelley again. Dee returned to England in 1589.

Personal life

John Dee was married three times and had eight children. His eldest son was Arthur Dee, about whom Dee wrote a letter to his headmaster at Westminster School which echos the worries of boarding school parents in every century; Arthur was also an alchemist and hermetic author. John Aubrey gives the following description of Dee: "He was tall and slender. He wore a gown like an artist's gown, with hanging sleeves, and a slit.... A very fair, clear sanguine complexion... a long beard as white as milk. A very handsome man."

Final years

Dee returned to Mortlake after six years to find his library ruined and many of his prized books and instruments stolen. He sought support from Elizabeth, who finally made him warden of Christ's College in Manchester in 1592. However, he was by now widely reviled as an evil magician and could not exert much control over the Fellows, who despised him. He left Manchester in 1605. By that time Elizabeth was dead, and James I, unsympathetic to anything related to the supernatural, provided no help. Dee spent his final years in poverty at Mortlake, where he died in late 1608 or early 1609. Unfortunately, both the parish registers and Dee's gravestone are missing.

Achievements

Thought

Dee was an intensely pious Christian, but his Christianity was deeply influenced by the Hermetic and Platonic-Pythagorean doctrines that were pervasive in the Renaissance. He believed that number was the basis of all things and the key to knowledge, that God's creation was an act of "numbering". From Hermeticism, he drew the belief that man had the potential for divine power, and he believed this divine power could be exercised through mathematics. His cabalistic angel magic (which was heavily numerological) and his work on practical mathematics (navigation, for example) were simply the exalted and mundane ends of the same spectrum, not the antithetical activities many would see them as today. His ultimate goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of the Catholic and Protestant churches and the recapture of the pure theology of the ancients.

Reputation and significance

About ten years after Dee's death, the antiquarian Robert Cotton purchased land around Dee's house and began digging in search of papers and artifacts. He discovered several manuscripts, mainly records of Dee's angelic communications. Cotton's son gave these manuscripts to the scholar Méric Casaubon, who published them in 1659, together with a long introduction critical of their author, as A True & Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and some spirits. As the first public revelation of Dee's spiritual conferences, the book was extremely popular and sold quickly. Casaubon, who believed in the reality of spirits, argued in his introduction that Dee was acting as the unwitting tool of evil spirits when he believed he was communicating with angels. This book is largely responsible for the image, prevalent for the following two and a half centuries, of Dee as a dupe and deluded fanatic. Around the same time the True and Faithful Relation was published, members of the Rosicrucian movement claimed Dee as one of their number. There is doubt, however, that an organized Rosicrucian movement existed during Dee's lifetime, and no evidence that he ever belonged to any secret fraternity. Dee's reputation as a magician and the vivid story of his association with Edward Kelley have made him a seemingly irresistible figure to fabulists, writers of horror stories and latter-day magicians. The accretion of false and often fanciful information about Dee often obscures the facts of his life, remarkable as they are in themselves. A re-evaluation of Dee's character and significance came in the 20th century, largely as a result of the work of the historian Frances Yates, who brought a new focus on the role of magic in the Renaissance and the development of modern science. As a result of this re-evaluation, Dee is now viewed as a serious scholar and appreciated as one of the most learned men of his day. His personal library at Mortlake was the largest in the country, and was considered one of the finest in Europe, perhaps second only to that of de Thou. As well as being an astrological, scientific and geographical advisor to Elizabeth and her court, he was an early advocate of the colonization of North America and a visionary of a British Empire stretching across the North Atlantic. Dee promoted the sciences of navigation and cartography. He studied closely with Gerardus Mercator, and he owned an important collection of maps, globes and astronomical instruments. He developed new instruments as well as special navigational techniques for use in polar regions. Dee served as an advisor to the English voyages of discovery, and personally selected pilots and trained them in navigation. He believed that mathematics (which he understood mystically) was central to the progress of human learning. The centrality of mathematics to Dee's vision makes him to that extent more modern than Francis Bacon, though some scholars believe Bacon purposely downplayed mathematics in the anti-occult atmosphere of the reign of James I. It should be noted, though, that Dee's understanding of the role of mathematics is radically different from our contemporary view. Dee's most long-lasting practical achievement may be his promotion of mathematics outside the universities. His "Mathematical Preface" to Euclid was meant to promote the study and application of mathematics by those without a university education, and was very popular and influential among the "mecanicians" the new and growing class of technical craftsmen and artisans. Dee's preface included demonstrations of mathematical principles that readers could perform themselves. Dee was a friend of Tycho Brahe and was familiar with the work of Copernicus. Many of his astronomical calculations were based on Copernican assumptions, but he never openly espoused the heliocentric theory. Dee applied Copernican theory to the problem of calendar reform. His sound recommendations were not accepted, however, for political reasons. He has often been associated with the Voynich Manuscript. Wilfrid M. Voynich, who bought the manuscript in 1912, suggested that Dee may have owned the manuscript and sold it to Rudolph II. Dee's contacts with Rudolph were far less extensive than had previously been thought, however, and Dee's diaries show no evidence of the sale.

Artefacts

The British Museum holds several items once owned by Dee and associated with the spiritual conferences:
- Dee's Speculum or Mirror (an obsidian Aztec cult object in the shape of a hand-mirror, brought to Europe in the late 1520s), which was once owned by Horace Walpole.
- The small wax seals used to support the legs of Dee's "table of practice" (the table at which the scrying was performed).
- The large, elaborately-decorated wax "Seal of God", used to support the "shew-stone", the crystal ball used for scrying.
- A gold amulet engraved with a representation of one of Kelley's visions.
- A crystal globe, six centimetres in diameter. This item remained unnoticed for many years in the mineral collection; possibly the one owned by Dee, but the provenance of this object is less certain than that of the others. In December 2004, both a shew-stone (a stone used for scrying) formerly belonging to Dee and a mid-1600s explanation of its use written by Nicholas Culpeper were stolen from the Science Museum in London; they were recovered shortly afterwards.

Dee in fiction


- Peter Ackroyd's novel The House of Doctor Dee (1994) tells the story of a man who inherits a house previously inhabited by Dee; the story of Dee becomes woven with that of the contemporary owner. ISBN 0140171177
- A series of books by Armin Shimerman fictionalises Dee's life by providing a science fictional basis for his supposed magic.
- The Queen's Fool (2004), a novel by Philippa Gregory, is a fictionalised account of the 1550s that includes John Dee as a minor character.
- H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Dunwich Horror" credits John Dee with translating the Necronomicon into English.
- John Crowley's sequence of novels Ægypt includes Dee, Kelley, and Giordano Bruno as characters.
- Gustav Meyrink's spiritual novel The Angel of the West Window (1927) features John Dee as the second major protagonist.
- In Umberto Eco's book Foucault's Pendulum, Dee appears in the middle of a conspiracy theory in lots of texts written by one of the characters.
- In Derek Jarman's film Jubilee, Dee serves as the catalyst for the plot.
- John Dee is also the given name of the DC Comics supervillain Doctor Destiny, who like his namesake uses both magic and science together, and is able to alter, control, and manifest dreams.
- In Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Marvel 1602, Dee's position as Advisor to the Queen Elizabeth has been taken by Doctor Strange. Also, in the first book of the Sandman graphic-novel series by Neil Gaiman, the title character faced off against the afore-mentioned Doctor Destiny.
- In Michael Moorcock's novel Gloriana, Doctor Dee appears in a fantasy very loosely based on Elizabeth's court.
- In Robin Jarvis's novel Deathscent, the first book of trilogy, Dee is a major character in a fantastic version of Elizabethan England.
- In Philip Pullman's novel Northern Lights, Dee is mentioned briefly in an alternate Elizabethan England.
- In The Science of Discworld II: The Globe, Dee is briefly confused by some wizards who appear in a magic circle claiming to come from another sphere, talk to a crystal ball, and attempt to convince him that there's no such thing as magic.
- In a song [http://eressea.ru/library/enter/akkord/a_lora.shtml John Dee] by Larisa Bocharova (aka Lora Provansal') (2001). Russian. [http://starpeople.narod.ru/composers/Lora/02_John_Dee.mp3 MP3]
- In the Sky One TV series, Hex, Dee is the father of the character, Ella, an immortal witch who opposes the series' main villain.
- In Woody Evans' short piece "John Dee, Jenny Everywhere: Round One", (published: 2003, in Juked) Dee has a strange encounter with Jenny Everywhere (the open-source character created by Nelson Evergreen, et. al.).
- Lisa Goldstein's novel The Alchemist's Door features Dr. John Dee as the main character, who works with Rabbi Judah Loew, a mystic who creates a golem to defend Prague's Jewish Quarter, to keep the door to the spirit world from opening and letting demons out. The two are also trying to protect one of the 36 righteous men, who according to Jewish legend, who if dies before his or her time, will bring about the end of the world. Dee's assistant Edward Kelley is portrayed as an evil man here.

References


- Calder, I.R.F. (1952). "John Dee Studied as an English Neo-Platonist." University of London Dissertation. [http://www.johndee.org/calder/html/TOC.html Available online.]
- Fell Smith, Charlotte (1909). John Dee: 1527 - 1608. London: Constable and Company. [http://www.johndee.org/charlotte/ Available online.]
- French, Peter J. (1972). John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Woolley, Benjamin (2001). The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

External links


- [http://www.esotericarchives.com/dee/monad.htm The J.W. Hamilton-Jones translation of Monas Hieroglyphica] from Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica
- [http://www.john-dee.org/ The John Dee Publication Project.] Primary source materials related to Dee and Kelley's spiritual conferences.
- [http://main.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/HERM/VMS/dee.htm Did John Dee really sell the Voynich MS to Rudolf II?] by Rafał T. Prinke.
- [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Dee.html A biography of John Dee] from the University of St Andrews School of Mathematics and Statistics. Dee, John Dee, John Dee, John Dee, John Dee, John Dee, John Dee, John Dee, John Category:Inventors of writing systems Dee, John Dee, John ja:ジョン・ディー

July 13

July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining.

Events


- 1174 - William the Lion of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173-1174, was captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England.
- 1558 - Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul des Thermes at Gravelines.
- 1573 - Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Haarlem ends after seven months.
- 1643 - English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down - In England, Lord Henry Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, wins a crushing victory over the Parliamentarian Sir William Waller.
- 1772 - HMS Resolution, under the command of Captain James Cook, set sail from Plymouth, England.
- 1787 - The Continental Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of slavery.
- 1793 - Jean Paul Marat, one of the leaders of the French revolution, is murdered by Charlotte Corday.
- 1794 - Battle of the Vosges between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria
- 1822 - Greek War of Independence: Greeks defeat Ottoman forces at Thermopylae.
- 1837 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom moves into the first Buckingham Palace in London and is the first British monarch to live there.
- 1854 - In the battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General Jose Maria Yanez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon.
- 1863 - New York Draft Riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription begin three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in United States history.
- 1878 - Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia and Montenegro become completely independent of the Ottoman empire.
- 1900 - Boxer Rebellion: In China, Tientsin is retaken by European Allies from the rebelling Boxers.
- 1908 - Women compete in modern Olympics for the first time.
- 1909 - Gold discovered near Cochrane, Ontario.
- 1919 - The British airship R-34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.
- 1923 - The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles. It originally reads "Hollywoodland " but the four last letters are dropped after renovation in 1949.
- 1930 - The first FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay.
- 1936 - A heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States. The all-time highest temperatures for the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana are all recorded on this date.
- 1941 - World War II: Montenegrins start the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis Powers (Crnogorski ustanak).
- 1942 - World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- 1948 - The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops.
- 1972 - The United States Democratic Party nominates George McGovern for president at its convention in Miami Beach, Florida but, because of an impassioned platform dispute, McGovern does not give his acceptance speech until the early morning hours of the 14th.
- 1973 - Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in.
- 1977 - The New York City Blackout of 1977 lasts for 25 hours and results in looting and other disorder.
- 1978 - Ford Motor Company President Lee Iacocca is fired by chairman Henry Ford II, ending a long dispute between the men.
- 1978 - Sheldon Souray, Defenseman for the Montreal Canadiens, was born in Alberta,Canada.
- 1982 - Montreal hosts the first baseball All-Star Game outside the United States.
- 1983 Around 3,000 Tamils were slaughtered by Sinhalese Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka and some 400,000 Tamils fled to neighboring Tamil Nadu, India and this incident led directly to beginig of civil war in Sri Lanka.
- 1985 - The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow.
- 1996 - A Garuda Indonesia Airways DC-10 crashes on take-off from Fukuoka Airport, Japan, killing 3 passengers.
- 2002 - A lighting strike sets off the Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which had burned 499,570 acres (2,020 km2) when finally contained on September 5.
- 2005 - Three trains collide in the Ghotki rail crash in Ghotki, Pakistan, killing over 150 people.

Births


- 100 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman general and polititian (d. 44 BC)
- 40 - Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (d. 93)
- 1527 - John Dee, English scientist (d. 1609)
- 1579 - Arthur Dee, English physician and alchemist (d. 1651)
- 1590 - Pope Clement X (d. 1676)
- 1607 - Václav Hollar, Czech-born actor (d. 1677)
- 1608 - Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1657)
- 1808 - Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, President of France (d. 1893)
- 1821 - Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader (d. 1877)
- 1841 - Otto Wagner, Austrian architect (d. 1918)
- 1858 - Stewart Culin, American ethnographer (d. 1929)
- 1864 - John Jacob Astor IV, American entrepreneur (d. 1912)
- 1894 - Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940)
- 1900 - George Lewis, American musician (d. 1969)
- 1913 - Dave Garroway, American television host (d. 1982)
- 1918 - Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
- 1921 - Ernest Gold, Austrian composer (d. 1999)
- 1921 - Friedrich Peter, Austrian poltitician (d. 2005)
- 1924 - Carlo Bergonzi, Italian tenor
- 1927 - Simone Veil, French politician
- 1928 - Bob Crane, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1929 - Alan Civil, English French horn player (d. 1989)
- 1931 - Frank Ramsey, American basketball player
- 1934 - Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1934 - Aleksei Yeliseyev, cosmonaut
- 1935 - Jack Kemp, American football player and Vice Presidential candidate
- 1936 - Albert Ayler, American musician (d. 1970)
- 1940 - Patrick Stewart, English actor
- 1941 - Robert Forster, American actor
- 1942 - Harrison Ford, American actor
- 1942 - Roger McGuinn, American musician
- 1944 - Ernő Rubik, Hungarian inventor, sculptor, and architect
- 1946 - Cheech Marin, American actor and comedian
- 1950 - George "Pinky" Nelson, astronaut
- 1953 - Johnny Clegg, South African composer and musician
- 1954 - Sezen Aksu, Turkish singer and songwriter
- 1957 - Cameron Crowe, American film director and writer
- 1959 - Richard Leman, British field hockey player
- 1961 - Tim Watson, Australian footballer and coach
- 1962 - Rhonda Vincent, American singer and musician
- 1963 - Neal Foulds, English snooker player
- 1966 - Gerald Levert, American singer
- 1968 - Calvin Phelps, American artist
- 1970 - Barry Pinches, English snooker player
- 1974 - Jarno Trulli, Italian race car driver
- 1976 - Bruce Price, American engineer
- 1978 - Sheldon Souray, Canadian NHL player.
- 1979 - Craig Bellamy, Welsh footballer
- 1992 - Dylan Patton, American actor

Deaths


- 939 - Pope Leo VII
- 1189 - Matilda of England, daughter of Henry II of England (b. 1156)
- 1205 - Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury and Justicier of England
- 1357 - Bartolus de Saxoferrato Italian jurist (b. 1313)
- 1399 - Peter Parler, German architect (b. 1330)
- 1402 - Jianwen Emperor of China (b. 1377)
- 1551 - John Wallop, English soldier and diplomat
- 1621 - Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries (b. 1559)
- 1626 - Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, English statesman (b. 1563)
- 1628 - Robert Shirley, English adventurer
- 1629 - Caspar Bartholin the Elder, Swedish physician and theologian (b. 1585)
- 1645 - Tsar Michael I of Russia (b. 1596)
- 1683 - Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman (b. 1631)
- 1705 - Titus Oates, English protestant conspirator (b. 1649)
- 1755 - Edward Braddock, British general
- 1761 - Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese shogun (b. 1712)
- 1762 - James Bradley, English Astronomer Royal (b. 1693)
- 1789 - Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist (b. 1715)
- 1793 - Jean Paul Marat, French revolutionary (murdered) (b. 1743)
- 1807 - Henry Benedict Stuart, Jacobite claimant to the throne of England (b. 1725)
- 1889 - Robert Hamerling, Austrian poet (b. 1830)
- 1896 - Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz, German chemist (b. 1829)
- 1946 - Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer (b. 1864)
- 1951 - Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer (b. 1874)
- 1954 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (b. 1907)
- 1967 - Tom Simpson, British cyclist (exhaustion) (b. 1937)
- 1974 - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- 1976 - Joachim Peiper, German military leader (b. 1915)
- 1980 - Seretse Khama, first President of Botswana (b. 1921)
- 1983 - Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (b. 1909)
- 1993 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (b. 1961)
- 2002 - Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born photographer (b. 1908)
- 2003 - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (b. 1907)
- 2004 - Goodwin Girdler, Russian composer (b. 1923)
- 2004 - Arthur Kane, American musician (New York Dolls) (leukemia) (b. 1951)
- 2004 - Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (b. 1930)

Holidays and observances


- Kiribati - Independence Day, 2nd day (not a holiday)
- Mongolia - Naadam Holiday, 3rd day
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Kálimát (Words) - First day of the seventh month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Bon Festival - Buddhist festival to honor the dead (East Japan)

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/13 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 12 - July 14 - June 13 - August 13 - more listing of all days ko:7월 13일 ms:13 Julai ja:7月13日 simple:July 13 th:13 กรกฎาคม

1608

Events


- March 18 - Sissinios formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia
- May 14 - Protestant Union founded in Auhausen.
- July 3 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.
- August 24 - The first official English representative to India lands at Surat.
- October 2 - Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey demonstrates the first telescope in the Dutch parliament
- Swedish troops enter Moscow
- First cheques come to use in Netherlands

Births


- January 28 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (died 1679)
- February 6 - Antonio Vieira, Portuguese writer (died 1697)
- April 25 - Gaston, Duke of Orléans, French politician (d. 1660)
- July 13 - Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1657)
- July 14 - George Goring, Lord Goring, English Royalist soldier (died 1657)
- October 15 - Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (died 1647)
- December 6 - George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (died 1670)
- December 9 - John Milton, English poet (died 1674)
- Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (died 1685)
- John Desborough, English soldier and politician (died 1680)
- Richard Fanshawe, English diplomat (died 1666)
- Thomas Fuller, English churchman and historian (died 1661)
- Jin Shengtan, Chinese editor (died 1661)
- Gaston, Duke of Orleans, third son of the French king Henry IV (died 1660)
- Edward Rainbowe, English clergyman and a preacher (died 1684)
- Eudoxia Streshneva, second wife of Mikhail I of Russia (died 1645)
- Torii Tadaharu, Japanese nobleman (died 1651) See also :Category:1608 births.

Deaths


- January 29 - Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (born 1557)
- February 13 - Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, Lithuanian prince (born 1526)
- February 26 - John Still, English bishop
- March 12 - Koriki Kiyonaga, Japanese warlord (born 1530)
- April 19 - Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English statesman and poet (born 1536)
- May 14 - Charles II, Duke of Lorraine (born 1543)
- June 19 - Alberico Gentili, Italian jurist (b. 1551)
- July 18 - Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)
- October 11 - Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, Italian painter
- October 19 - Geoffrey Fenton, English writer and politician
- October 19 - Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (born 1551)
- George Bannatyne, collector of Scottish poems (born 1545)
- William Barclay, Scottish jurist (born 1546)
- Luca Bati, Italian composer (born 1546)
- William Davison, secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England
- December - John Dee, British mathematician, astronomer, and geographer
- John Dee, British mathematician (born 1527)
- Giambologna, Italian sculptor (born 1529)
- Bess of Hardwick, English jailor of Mary I of Scotland (born 1520)
- Laurence Tomson, English Calvinist theologian (born 1539)
- Fiodor Nikiticz Trubczewski, Polish Prince
- Nikita Kosoj Trubczewski, Polish Prince
- Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (born 1575)
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United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.

Terminology


- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.

History

Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.

Government and politics

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. While the monarch is Head of State and holds all executive power, it is the Prime Minister who is the head of government. The government is answerable chiefly to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister is drawn from this chamber of Parliament by constitutional convention. The majority of cabinet members will be from the House of Commons, the rest from the House of Lords. Ministers do not, however, legally have to come from Parliament, though that is the modern day custom. The British system of government has been emulated around the world - a legacy of the United Kingdom's colonial past - most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms. The Prime Minister is chosen as the MP who can command a majority in the House of Commons - usually the leader of the largest party or, if there is no majority party, the largest coalition. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. In the United Kingdom the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his or her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the Queen (being given Royal Assent), although no monarch has refused to assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested several times, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in spite of recent controversies. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent [http://www.mori.com/mrr/2000/c000616.shtml]. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons has 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has 724 members (though this number is not fixed): hereditary peers, life peers, and bishops of the Church of England. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England. established church]] The two largest political parties are the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The UK has long had a two-party system, but in the last 20 years the Liberal Democrats have re-emerged as a large third party. The electoral system used for general elections is first-past-the-post. The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and partially unwritten, which means that no single document regulates how the government works, and unwritten constitutional conventions are used extensively. The constitution is based on the principle that Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the country. There has long been a widespread sense of national identity in the Celtic nations. Throughout the late 19th century the UK debated giving Ireland home rule. The Scottish National Party was founded in 1934, and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) in 1925. Referenda for devolution succeeded in 1997 for Scotland and Wales and in 1998 for Northern Ireland. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were established, the former having primary legislative power. Proportional representation is used for the elections, which has resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Scotland. Due to internal disagreements, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since 2002.

Subdivisions

The United Kingdom is a country that is divided into four constituent parts:
- England
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales The constituent parts of the United Kingdom have administrative subdivisions as follows:
- The regions and administrative counties of England
- The council areas of Scotland
- The counties and county boroughs of Wales
- The districts of Northern Ireland The Laws in Wales Act 1535 incorporated Wales and England into England and Wales for legal purposes. Although all four have historically been divided into counties, England's population is an order of magnitude larger than the others so in recent years it has for some purposes been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that each or some of these regions would be given its own regional assembly, the plan's future is uncertain, as of 2004, after the North East region rejected its proposed assembly in a referendum. Scotland consists of 32 Council Areas. Wales consists of 22 Unitary Authorities, styled as 10 County Boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Northern Ireland is divided into 26 Districts. Also sometimes associated with the United Kingdom, though not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom itself, are the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man) as self-governing possessions of the Crown, and a number of overseas territories under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

Military

The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. Their Commander-in-Chief is the Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. Ministry of Defence The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations. The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive military forces in the World. Its global power projection capabilities are second only to those of the United States Armed Forces. The British Army had a reported strength of 112,700 in 2004, including 7,600 women, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 53,400. The 40,900-member Royal Navy is in charge of the United Kingdom's independent strategic nuclear arm, which consists of four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, while the Royal Marines provide infantry units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 210,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries. The UK's special forces, principally the SAS, provides elite commandos trained for quick, mobile, military responses; often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the World in terms of gross tonnage. Despite the United Kingdom's wide ranging capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertaken as part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Granby, No-Fly-Zones, Desert Fox and Telic) may all be taken as precedent - indeed the last true war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, in which military action was initiated by Argentina and the UK was fighting a defensive, rather than offensive, campaign. The British army has been actively involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, a programme of demilitarisation is being gradually implemented.

Geography

Troubles World Factbook Map of the United Kingdom]] Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line. The lower limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. Near Dover, the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom with France. There is no peak in England that is 1000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater. Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon at 1085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey. The largest and capital city is Cardiff, located in South Wales. Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain at 1343 metres (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. A multitude of islands west and north of Scotland are also included, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The largest city is Glasgow. Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The main cities are Belfast ('Beal Feirste' in Irish) and Londonderry / Derry ('Doire' in Irish). The province is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 40 feett (12 m) high. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1098 small islands, some being natural and some being crannogs, a type of artificial island which was built in past times using stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural waste building up over time.

Economy

artificial island The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has an essentially capitalist economy, the fourth largest in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Over the past three decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership by means of privatisation programmes, and has contained the growth of the Welfare State. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial state. Services, particularly banking, insurance and business services, account for by far the largest proportion of GDP. Industry continues to decline in importance, although the UK is still Europe's largest manufacturer of armaments, petroleum products, personal computers, televisions, and mobile telephones. Tourism is also important: with over 24 million tourists a year, between China (33) and Austria (19.1), the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world. The Blair government has put off the question of participation in the Euro system, citing five economic tests that would need to be met before they recommend that the UK adopts the Euro, and hold a referendum.

Society

Demographics

At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and metropolitan France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban--with about 7.2 million in the capital of London. The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99%) is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696). Education is mandatory from ages five through sixteen. referendum The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the official national religions in their respective countries, but most religions found in the world are represented in the United Kingdom. Anglicanism is the state religion that has been established in England since 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. During his reign, England broke ties with the Roman Catholic church and established the Church of England as the offical religion of England. Reforms to the nature of the church's relationship to the state have been ongoing, especially concerning the nature of the House of Lords and the appointment of a fixed amount of the lordships going to Lords Temporal, bishops of the Church of England. A group of islands close to continental Europe, the British Isles have been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries. Contemporary Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in Northern France. Although Celtic languages persist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the predominant language is English, which is a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large amount of borrowings from Norman French.The other indigenous languages include the Celtic languages; Welsh, the closely related Irish and Scots Gaelic, and the Cornish language; as well as Lowland Scots, which is closely related to English; Romany; and British Sign Language (Northern Ireland Sign Language is also used in Northern Ireland). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep. Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages, including Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Hindi speaking peoples outside of the Indian sub continent.

Culture

Urdu The United Kingdom contains many of the world's leading universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of London (which incorporates, amongst others, Imperial College and University College London), and has produced many great scientists and engineers including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the nation is credited with many inventions including the locomotive, vaccination, television, vacuum, and both the internal combustion and the jet engine. The English language has spread to all corners of the world (primarily because of the country’s empire) and is referred to as a ‘global language’. It is now taught as a second language more than any other around the world. Over the next few decades, it is estimated that approximately half the world’s population will be proficient in the language. Playwright William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the history of the English language; other well-known writers from the United Kingdom include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne), Jane Austen, William Thackeray, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, H. G. Wells and Charles Dickens. Important poets include Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Lord Tennyson and William Blake. Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, John Taverner, William Lawes, John Dowland, Thomas Tallis, and Henry Purcell from the 16th and early 17th centuries, and, more recently, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten in the 19th and 20th. George Frideric Handel spent most of his composing life in England. The BBC is the oldest and perhaps the most respected broadcasting network on the globe, with the BBC World Service radio channel and its news output held in particularly high regard. The other main television networks are ITV, Channel 4, five (TV) and Sky Television. Popular programmes in the UK include the three soaps Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as the comedy news quiz Have I Got News For You and Reality TV shows Big Brother and The X Factor. Various British TV formats have been exported to other nations, notably Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Weakest Link and The Office. The UK was, with the US, one of the two main contributors in the development of rock and roll, and the UK has provided some of the most famous rock stars, including the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, The Who and many others. The UK was at the forefront of punk rock music in the 1970s with bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and the subsequent rebirth of heavy metal with bands such as Motörhead and Iron Maiden. In mid to late '90s, the Britpop phenomenon has seen bands such as Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Coldplay gain international fame. The UK is also at the forefront of electronica, with British artists such as Aphex Twin, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Lamb at the cutting edge. The United Kingdom was also associated with music from the Caribbean, with a large number of Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals being present in the UK.

Sport

A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and boxing. The national sport of the UK is association football, but the UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is because of this unique four-team arrangement that the UK currently does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, a united team will probably take part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as these are hosted in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate. The UK also hosts many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in England and Rangers and Celtic in Scotland. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby League originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played all over Britain. In Rugby League the UK plays as one nation - Great Britain - whilst in union it is represented by the four nations. England are the current holders of the Rugby Union World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions (comprising the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) tour other countries. Cricket is also played in the UK, although it is focussed in England. The Wimbledon Championships are an international tennis event held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are seen as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar. Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK and St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course.

Miscellaneous topics

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of the nations within the UK.
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html CIA World Factbook: UK.]
- [http://www.direct.gov.uk Gateway to UK governmental services and websites.]
- [http://www.number-10.gov.uk Number 10 Downing Street]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]
- [http://www.opsi.gov.uk Office of Public Sector Information] Source for all UK legislation 1987-present (successor to Her Majesty's Stationery Office).
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of the UK.
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk The British Monarchy]
- [http://www.parliament.uk/ The United Kingdom Parliament]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5703&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272 Official Yearbook of the UK] factbook produced by the Office for National Statistics (years 2000 to 2005 available online).
- [http://www.ukcities.co.uk UK Cities] lists a variety of useful resources for every city in the UK.
- [http://www.justuk.org UK travel guide] United Kingdom for travellers.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/unitedkingdom World66 Guide to United Kingdom] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.multimap.co.uk www.multimap.co.uk] provides online maps and aerial photographs of the UK.
- [http://www.streetmap.co.uk www.streetmap.co.uk] an alternative to multimap.
- [http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/united-kingdom/map.html Physical map of United Kingdom.]
- [http://www.upmystreet.com www.upmystreet.com] detailed localised information about places in the United Kingdom.
- [http://www.parks.it/world/UK/Eindex.html UK Parks] National parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and other protected areas. ----
Category:British Isles Category:European countries Category:European Union member states Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Monarchies A als:Grossbritannien und Nordirland zh-min-nan:Liân-ha̍p Ông-kok ko:영국 ms:United Kingdom ja:イギリス simple:United Kingdom th:สหราชอาณาจักร

Mathematics

Mathematics is often defined as the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. Another view, held by many mathematicians, is that mathematics is the body of knowledge justified by deductive reasoning, starting from axioms and definitions. Practical mathematics, in nearly every society, is used for such purposes as accounting, measuring land, or predicting astronomical events. Mathematical discovery or research often involves discovering and cataloging patterns, without regard for application. The remarkable fact that the "purest" mathematics often turns out to have practical applications is what Eugene Wigner has called "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics." Today, the natural sciences, engineering, economics, and medicine depend heavily on new mathematical discoveries. The word "mathematics" comes from the Greek μάθημα (máthema) meaning "science, knowledge, or learning" and μαθηματικός (mathematikós) meaning "fond of learning". It is often abbreviated maths in Commonwealth English and math in North American English.

History

:Main article: History of mathematics The evolution of mathematics might be seen to be an ever-increasing series of abstractions, or alternatively an expansion of subject matter. The first abstraction was probably that of numbers. The realization that two apples and two oranges do have something in common, namely that they fill the hands of exactly one person, was a breakthrough in human thought. In addition to recognizing how to count concrete objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count abstract quantities, like time -- days, seasons, years. Arithmetic (e.g. addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), naturally followed. Monolithic monuments testify to a knowledge of geometry. Further steps need writing or some other system for recording numbers such as tallies or the knotted strings called khipu used by the Inca empire to store numerical data. Numeral systems have been many and diverse. Historically, the major disciplines within mathematics arose, from the start of recorded history, out of the need to do calculations on taxation and commerce, to understand the relationships among numbers, to measure land, and to predict astronomical events. These needs can be roughly related to the broad subdivision of mathematics, into the studies of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematics since has been much extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries have been made throughout history and continue to be made today.

Inspiration, pure and applied mathematics, and aesthetics

Mathematics arises wherever there are difficult problems that involve quantity, structure, space, or change. At first these were found in commerce, land measurement and later astronomy; nowadays, all sciences suggest problems studied by mathematicians, and many problems arise within mathematics itself. Newton invented infinitesimal calculus and Feynman his Feynman path integral using a combination of reasoning and physical insight, and today's