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June 18

June 18

June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining.

Events

- 1178 - Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the moon's distance (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.
- 1264 - The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
- 1429 - The French, under the leadership of Joan of Arc, crush the English under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. It came to be recognized as the war's turning point.
- 1685 - The Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, declares himself King of England at Taunton, Somerset.
- 1767 - Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sighted Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.
- 1778 - American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1812 - War of 1812: The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1815 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for a second, final time
- 1858 - Charles Darwin receives from Alfred Russel Wallace a paper that included nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own. This prompts Darwin to publish his theory.
- 1873 - Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election
- 1887 - The Reinsurance Treaty is closed between Germany and Russia
- 1900 - Empress Dowager of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.
- 1923 - Checker Cab puts its first taxi on the streets
- 1928 - Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon, mechanic).
- 1930 - Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Franklin Institute are held
- 1940 - Appeal of June 18 by Charles de Gaulle
- 1940 - Finest Hour speech by Winston Churchill
- 1945 - William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) is charged with treason
- 1946 - Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya, a Socialist called for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa. A road is named after this date in Panjim.
- 1953 - The Republic of Egypt is declared and the monarchy is abolished
- 1953 - A United States Air Force C-124 crashed and burned near Tokyo, Japan killing 129
- 1954 - Pierre Mendès-France becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.
- 1965 - Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam
- 1967 - Jimi Hendrix burns his guitar on stage at the Monterey Pop Festival.
- 1979 - SALT II is signed by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- 1983 - Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space
- 1984 - Major clash between about 5,000 Police and a similar number of Miners at Orgreave,South Yorkshire during the 1984-1985 Miners Strike. Incident later known as the Battle of Orgreave
- 1996 - Ted Kaczynski, suspected of being the Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminals counts.
- 2001 - Protests occur in Manipur over the extension of the ceasefire between Naga insurgents and the government of India.

Births

- 1466 - Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (d. 1539)
- 1511 - Bartolomeo Ammanati, Italian architect and sculptor (d. 1592)
- 1517 - Emperor Ogimachi of Japan (d. 1593)
- 1552 - Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet (d. 1637)
- 1667 - Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)
- 1716 - Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter (d. 1809)
- 1757 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine leader (d. 1833)
- 1812 - Ivan Goncharov, Russian author (d. 1891)
- 1824 - Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1769)
- 1845 - Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1922)
- 1854 - E.W. Scripps, American journalist and publisher (d. 1926)
- 1868 - Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and regent (d. 1957)
- 1877 - James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator (d. 1960)
- 1884 - Édouard Daladier, French politician (d. 1970)
- 1886 - Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist (d. 1978)
- 1895 - Blanche Sweet, American actress (d. 1986)
- 1901 - Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1903 - Jeanette MacDonald, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
- 1903 - Raymond Radiguet, French author (d. 1923)
- 1904 - Keye Luke, Chinese-born actor (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Frithjof Schuon, Swiss metaphysician, poet, and painter (d. 1998)
- 1908 - Bud Collyer, American game show host (d. 1969)
- 1908 - Nedra Volz, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1910 - E.G. Marshall, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1913 - Sammy Cahn, American composer (d. 1993)
- 1915 - Red Adair, American firefighter (d. 2004)
- 1916 - Julio César Turbay Ayala, Colombian politician (d. 2005)
- 1918 - Jerome Karle, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1918 - Franco Modigliani, Italian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
- 1922 - Claude Helffer, French pianist (d. 2004)
- 1924 - George Mikan, American basketball player (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Jürgen Habermas, German sociologist and philosopher
- 1931 - Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil
- 1932 - Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1932 - Geoffrey Hill, English poet
- 1935 - John Spencer, English snooker player
- 1937 - Wray Carlton, American football player
- 1937 - John D. Rockefeller IV, U.S. Senator
- 1937 - Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
- 1938 - Kevin Murray, Australian footballer
- 1939 - Lou Brock, baseball player
- 1940 - Michael Sheard, British actor
- 1942 - Roger Ebert, American film reviewer
- 1942 - Sir Paul McCartney, English singer and songwriter (Beatles)
- 1942 - Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (d. 2004)
- 1942 - Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa
- 1942 - Carl Radle, American bass guitarist
- 1949 - Chris Van Allsburg, American author and illustrator
- 1949 - Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (d.1999
- 1952 - Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress
- 1952 - Carol Kane, American actress
- 1961 - Andrés Galarraga, baseball player
- 1963 - Bruce Smith, American football player
- 1964 - Uday Hussein, Iraqi leader (d. 2003)
- 1966 - Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater
- 1974 - Vincenzo Montella, Italian footballer
- 1975 - Martin St. Louis, Canadian hockey player
- 1975 - Daron Malakian, American musician
- 1978 - Wang Liqin, Chinese table tennis player

Deaths

- 1234 - Emperor Chukyo of Japan (b. 1218)
- 1291 - King Alfonso III of Aragon (b. 1265)
- 1464 - Roger van der Weyden, Flemish painter
- 1588 - Robert Crowley, English printer and poet
- 1629 - Piet Hein, Dutch naval commander and folk hero (b. 1577)
- 1650 - Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer
- 1673 - Jeanne Mance, French Canadian settler (b. 1606)
- 1680 - Samuel Butler, English poet (b. 1612)
- 1704 - Tom Brown, English satirist (b. 1662)
- 1726 - Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (b. 1657)
- 1742 - John Aislabie, English politician (b. 1670)
- 1749 - Ambrose Philips, English poet (b. 1674)
- 1772 - Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German judge and philosopher (b. 1706)
- 1772 - Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-born physician (b. 1700)
- 1788 - Adam Gib, Scottish religious leader (b. 1714)
- 1794 - François Nicolas Leonard Buzot, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1760)
- 1794 - James Murray, British military officer and administrator
- 1815 - Thomas Picton, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1758)
- 1835 - William Cobbett, English journalist and author (b. 1763)
- 1902 - Samuel Butler, English writer (b. 1835)
- 1922 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (b. 1851)
- 1928 - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer (b. 1872)
- 1937 - Gaston Doumergue, French statesman (b. 1863)
- 1959 - Ethel Barrymore, American actress (b. 1879)
- 1971 - Paul Karrer, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
- 1973 - Roger Delgado, British actor (b. 1918)
- 1982 - John Cheever, American author (b. 1912)
- 1984 - Alan Berg, American radio talk show host (murdered)
- 1997 - Lev Kopelev, Russian writer and dissident (b. 1912)
- 2000 - Nancy Marchand, American actress (b. 1928)
- 2002 - Jack Buck, baseball announcer (b. 1924)
- 2003 - Larry Doby, baseball player (b. 1923)
- 2005 - Syed Mushtaq Ali, Indian cricketer (b. 1914)

Holidays and observances

- Seychelles - National Day
- Autistic Pride Day, beginning in 2005

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/18 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?month=10272958&day=10272983&cat=10272946 The History Channel: This Day in History] ---- June 17 - June 19 - May 18 - July 18 -- listing of all days - June 18 recordings of popular music ko:6월 18일 ms:18 Jun ja:6月18日 simple:June 18 th:18 มิถุนายน

June 18

June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- Seychelles - National Day
- Autistic Pride Day, beginning in 2005

External links

Leap year

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

Gregorian calendar

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

Which day is the leap day?

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

Julian calendar

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

Revised Julian Calendar

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

Chinese calendar

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

Hebrew calendar

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

Hindu Calendar

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

Iranian calendar

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

Long term leap year rules

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

Marriage proposal

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

Saint Patrick and the leap year

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

Birthdays

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

1178

Events

- June 18 - Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed
- The Sung Document written detailing the discovery of "Mu-Lan-Pi" (suggested by some to be California) by Muslim sailors
- The Chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury written
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa begins to lean as the third level is completed

Births

- December 22 - Emperor Antoku of Japan (died 1185)
- Armand de Périgord, Grand Master of the Knights Templar
- Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian and politician (died 1241)
- Thomas I of Savoy (died 1233)

Deaths

Category:1178 ko:1178년

Giordano Bruno (crater)

Giordano Bruno is a small lunar impact crater whose eponym is the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno. It is located on the far side of the Moon, just beyond the northeastern limb. At this location it lies in an area that can be viewed during a favorable librations, although at such times the area is viewed from the side and not much detail can be seen. It lies between the Harkhebi crater to the northwest and Szilard crater to the southeast. When viewed from orbit, Giordano Bruno is at the center of a symmetrical ray system of ejecta that has a higher albedo than the surrounding surface. The ray material extends for over 150 kilometers and has not been significantly darkened by space erosion. Some of the ejecta appears to extend as far away as the Boss crater, over 300 km to the northwest. The outer rim of the crater is especially bright, compared to its surroundings. To all appearances this is a young formation that was created in the relatively recent past, geologically-speaking. Were it not for the fact that it was possibly formed less than 1000 years ago, it would just be an obscure crater.

Formation

Shortly after sunset on June 18, 1178, five monks from Canterbury reported seeing what they described as two horns of light on the shaded part of the moon. In 1976 the geologist Jack B. Hartung proposed that this passage described the formation of the Giordano Bruno crater. Modern theories predict that there would be a plume of molten matter rising up from the surface of the moon, which is consistent with the monks' description. In addition, the location they recorded fits in well with Bruno's location. Additional evidence of Bruno's youth is its spectacular ray system: because micrometeorites constantly rain down, they kick up enough dust to quickly (in geological terms) erode a ray system. So there is probably enough circumstantial evidence to hold that Giordano Bruno was formed during human history. More circumstantial evidence that Giordano Bruno was formed by a meteor is the fact that the monks' observation took place during the Taurid meteor shower. This meteor shower, which happens in late June, was also responsible for the Tunguska event. However, the question of Bruno's age is not that simple. The impact creating the 22 km wide crater would have kicked up enough debris to make a meteor storm on Earth with roughly 50,000 meteors per hour, for up to a week. There is no way the entire population of the planet could possibly have missed what might be considered the greatest fireworks show in history. This is such a major objection that few astronomers still believe Bruno formed at that time. All this raises the question of what the monks saw. An alternative theory holds that the monks just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see an exploding meteor coming at them and aligned with the Moon. Only a small area in Britain would have the perfect geometry to make it look like it was on the Moon.

References

- Jack B. Hartung, Was the Formation of a 20-km Diameter Impact Crater on the Moon Observed on June 18, 1178?, 1976, "Meteoritics", 11, No. 3, p. 187. Category:Craters on the Moon

1264

For broader historical context, see 1260s and 13th century.

Events

13th century

Europe

War and politics

- Before May - Second Barons' War, a civil war in England, begins.
- May 12 to May 14 - The Battle of Lewes of the Second Barons' War is fought between Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and King Henry III of England in Sussex. By the end of the battle, de Montfort's forces capture both King Henry and his brother, future King Edward I, making de Montfort the "uncrowned king of England" for 15 months before Edward escapes captivity and recaptures the throne.
- June 18 - The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
- In Spain, King James I of Aragon reconquers the cities of Orihuela in Alicante and Elx in Valencia from the Moors, ending over 500 years of Islamic rule.
- The Thuringian War of Succession ends.
- The state of Hesse gains its independence from Thuringia and becomes a free state of the Holy Roman Empire.
- In the Peerage of England, the title Baron de Ros, the oldest continuously held peerage title in England, is created by writ of summons.

Culture and religion

- April - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford leads a massacre of the Jews at Canterbury.
- August 5 - Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt (modern-day Germany)
- September 14 - Walter de Merton formally completes the foundation of the House of Scholars of Merton (later Merton College, Oxford) to provide education in Malden and the University of Oxford.
- King Boleslaus V of Poland promulgates legal protection for his Jewish subjects, including protection from the kidnapping and forcible baptism of Jewish children.
- In Barcelona, a commission of Dominicans censors portions of the Talmud for the first time by ordering the cancellation of passages found reprehensible from a Christian point of view.
- Thomas Aquinas completes his theological work Summa contra Gentiles.

Asia

Mongol Empire

- Kublai Khan, supreme leader of the Mongol Empire, moves the empire's capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to the Chinese city of Khanbaliq (now Beijing).
- Kublai Khan defeats his brother and pretender to the title of khan, Ariq Boke, and takes him prisoner.

Japan

- The Japanese era Kocho ends, and the Bun'ei era begins.

Births

- May 26 - Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (died 1326)
- Pope Clement V (died 1314)

Deaths

- October 2 - Pope Urban IV
- Vincent of Beauvais, French encyclopedist (born 1190)
- Danylo of Halych, King of Galicia (born 1201)
- Emperor Lizong of China
- John Maunsell, English statesman
- Mindowhowna, Queen of Galicia (born 1201)
- Andrei II of Russia

County Kildare

County Kildare (Irish: Contae Chill Dara) is an Irish county located to the southwest of Dublin in the province of Leinster. The name comes from the Irish, meaning church (Cill) of the oaks (Dara), see Adare. East Kildare's population has increased rapidly; the amount of housing in the Naas suburb of Sallins has increased six-fold since the mid 1990s. Maynooth is the historic educational centre of the county. It contains National University of Ireland, Maynooth and St Patrick's College, Maynooth. In the 6th century St Evin founded Moore Abbey in the Kildare town of Monasterevin. The town of Kildare is the oldest in the county and the most historic. Naas (Nás na Rí in Irish- meaning meeting place of kings) is the county town, Leixlip town is the site of an enormous Intel factory, Kilcock is a town located 2 miles from Maynooth. The Curragh horse-racing course is located in County Kildare. The county is known for the quality of horses bred in the many horse stud farms to which it is home. It is also home to the huge yearly Punchestown race festival. Kildare is home to the National Stud. The nickname for the Kildare GAA team is the Lilywhites, a reference to the all-white Kildare flag. County Kildare is also known as the Shortgrass County which is likely a reference to how short the sheep on the commons of the Curragh graze the grass. Kildare is bordered by the counties of Carlow, Fingal, Laois, Meath, Offaly, South Dublin and Wicklow. Kildare is considered to be part of the "Greater Dublin Area", a regional area surrounding Dublin.

Towns in Kildare

- Athy
- Ballymore Eustace
- Celbridge
- Kilcock
- Kildare
- Kill
- Leixlip
- Maynooth
- Monasterevin
- Naas
- Newbridge
- Sallins
- Straffan

External links

- [http://kildare.ie/ County Kildare Community Network] Kildare

Ireland

:This page is about the island of Ireland. For the state also called Ireland, see Republic of Ireland. :For an explanation of terms like Ulster, Northern Ireland, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology) . British Isles (terminology)] Ireland (Irish: Éire) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies in the Atlantic Ocean and it is composed of the Republic of Ireland (officially, Ireland), which covers five sixths of the island (south, east, west and north-west), and Northern Ireland; part of the United Kingdom, which covers the northeastern sixth of the island. The population of the island is approximately 5.8 million people; 4.1 million in the Republic of Ireland (1.6 million in Greater Dublin) and 1.7 million in Northern Ireland (0.6 million in Greater Belfast). Belfast 2003. Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales are visible to the east]]
Geography
Wales with more details).]] A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 1041 m (3414 feet). The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 259 km (161 mi) the longest river in Ireland or Britain. The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent but soft rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island's area is 84,079 km² (32,477 mile²). Ireland is divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. In Irish these are referred to as Cúige's ( Cúige - meaning fifths). Previously there were five provinces - Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Meath, comprising the counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford. These were further divided into 32 counties for administrative purposes. Six of the Ulster counties remain under British sovereignty as Northern Ireland following Ireland's partition in 1922 (the remaining 26 forming present-day Republic of Ireland); since the UK's 1974 reshuffle these county boundaries no longer exist in Northern Ireland for administrative purposes, although Fermanagh District Council is almost identical to the county. In the Republic, the county boundaries are still adhered to for local government, albeit with Tipperary and Dublin subdivided (some cities also have their own administrative regions). For election constituencies, some counties are merged or divided, but constitutionally the boundaries have to be observed. Across Ireland, the 32 counties are still used in sports and in some other cultural areas and retain a strong sense of local identity. Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties. These areas are largely spectacularly mountainous and rocky, with beautiful green vistas.

Politics
Dublin Politically, Ireland is divided into:
- The Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin. This state is often simply referred to internally and internationally as "Ireland" in English or "Éire" in Irish. Technically Ireland and Éire are the official names of the state while the "Republic of Ireland" is its official description.
- Northern Ireland is unofficially known as 'the North', and 'Ulster' (the province of Ulster also includes Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan which are in the Republic). Northern Ireland is a region of the United Kingdom. Prior to the Government of Ireland Act 1920 the island had been a unified political entity within the United Kingdom (see United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) from 1801. From 1541 the Kingdom of Ireland was established by the King of England, though this realm did not cover the whole island till the early 17th century. Up to then, Ireland had been politically divided into a number of different Irish kingdoms (Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Mide, Ulster, and others). Contrary to some assertions, at no time did a national kingdom headed by an Ard Ri exist. In a number of respects, the island operates officially as a single entity, for example, in most kinds of sports. The major religions, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, are organised on an all-island basis. Some 92% of the population of the Republic of Ireland and about 44% of Northern Ireland is Roman Catholic. Some trade unions are also organised on an all-Irish basis and associated with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom - though such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Britain. The island also has a shared culture across the divide in many other ways. Traditional Irish music, for example, though showing some variance in all geographical areas, is, broadly speaking, the same on both sides of the border. Irish and Scottish traditional music have many similarities. The Ireland Funds, an international fund-raising organisation, tries to help people on both sides find peace and reconciliation through community development, education, arts and culture. The island is often referred to as being part of the British Isles. However, some people, especially in Ireland, take exception to this name, which seems to suggest that both islands belong to Britain. For this reason, "Britain and Ireland" is commonly used as a more neutral alternative. Another suggestion, although much less used, is the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA).
Flag of Ireland
There is no universally agreed flag that represents the island of Ireland. Historically a number of flags were used, including St. Patrick's cross, the flag sometimes used for the Kingdom of Ireland and which represented Ireland on the Union Jack after the Act of Union, a green flag with a harp (used by some radical nationalists in the 19th century and which is also the flag of Leinster), a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists (now the standard of the President of Ireland), and the Irish tricolour. However as the tricolour is the flag of the Republic of Ireland it is not used to represent the island of Ireland, given that the island also includes Northern Ireland. The Royal Standard also shows a version of an ancient Irish flag in one of its four quadrants. St Patrick's Saltire is used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). In contrast the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) uses the tricolour to represent the whole island.
History
Gaelic Athletic Association]] Ireland was mostly ice-covered and joined by land to Britain and Europe during the last ice age, has been inhabited for about 9,000 years. Stone age inhabitants arrived sometime after 8000 BC, with the culture progressing from Mesolithic to high Neolithic over the course of three or four millennia. The Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments and weapons. The Iron Age in Ireland is associated with people now known as Celts. They are traditionally thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC, with the Gael, the last wave of Celts, conquering the island and dividing it into five or more kingdoms. Many scholars, however, now favour a view that emphasises cultural diffusion from overseas over significant colonisation.The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. Ptolemy in AD 100 records Ireland's geography and tribes. Native accounts are confined to Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology. The exact relationship between Rome and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear; the only references are a few Roman writings. Tradition maintains that in AD 432, St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new faith. Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin learning during the Early Middle Ages. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. This era was interrupted in the 9th century by 200 years of intermittent warfare with waves of Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. Eventually they settled in Ireland, and established many towns, including the modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. In 1172, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands by the granting of the 1155 Bull Laudibiliter to him by then English Pope Adrian IV, and from the 13th century, English law began to be introduced. English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin, known as the Pale, and Waterford, but this began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century, as a result of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland and English and Scottish Protestant colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, which established English control over the whole island. After the the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy In 1800 the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union which, in 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The whole island of Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom, ruled directly by the UK Parliament in London. The 19th century saw the Great Famine of the 1840s in which at least 1 million Irish people died and over a million were forced to emigrate. The late 19th and early 20th century saw a vigorous but unsuccessful campaign for Irish home rule, followed by the eclipse of moderate nationalism by militant separatism. In 1922, following the Anglo-Irish War, twenty-six counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State. The remaining six, in the north-east, remained within the Union as Northern Ireland. Secession for the rest of Ireland led directly to the Civil War, as militant nationalists split into two factions and turned against one another.
History since partition

Irish Independence: The Irish Free State, Éire, Ireland
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was narrowly ratified by the Dáil in December 1921 but was rejected by a large minority, resulting in the Irish Civil War which lasted until 1923. In 1922, in the middle of this civil war, the Irish Free State came into being. For its first years the new state was governed by the victors of the Civil War. However in the 1930s Fianna Fáil, the party of the opponents of the treaty, were elected into government. The party introduced a new constitution in 1937 which renamed the state to simply "Éire or in the English language, Ireland" (preface to the Constitution). The state was neutral during World War II but offered some assistance to the Allies. In 1949 the state declared itself to be a republic and that henceforth it should be described as the Republic of Ireland. The state was plagued by poverty and emigration until the 1990s. That decade saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger". By the early 2000s, it had become one of the richest countries (in terms of GDP per capita) in the European Union, moving from being a net recipient to a net contributor and from a population with net emigration to one with net immigration.
Northern Ireland
From its creation in 1921 until 1972 Northern Ireland enjoyed limited self-government within the United Kingdom, with its own parliament and prime minister. However the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland each voted almost entirely along sectarian lines, meaning that the government of Northern Ireland (elected by "first past the post") was always controlled by the Ulster Unionist Party. Consequently, Catholics could not participate in the government, which at times openly encouraged discrimination in housing and employment. Nationalist grievances at unionist discrimination within the state eventually led to large civil rights protests in 1960s, which the government suppressed heavy-handedly, most notably on "Bloody Sunday". It was during this period of civil unrest that the paramilitary Provisional IRA, who favoured the creation of a united Ireland, began its campaign against Unionist rule. Other groups, legal and illegal on the unionist side, and illegal on the nationalist side, began to participate in the violence and the period known as the "Troubles" began. Owing to the civil unrest the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed direct rule. In 1998, following a Provisional IRA cease-fire, the Good Friday Agreement was concluded and attempts began to be made to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power sharing between the two communities. Violence has greatly decreased since the signing of the accord. In 2001 the armed police force in the north (which operated much like an army with armoured cars etc.), The Royal Ulster Constabulary (or RUC for short), was removed in place of the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) as a result of easing tensions. On July 28 2005, the Provisional IRA (PIRA) announced the end of its armed campaign and on September 25 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the PIRA.
Sport
Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular sports in Ireland. Along with Camogie, Ladies' Gaelic football, handball and rounders, they make up the national sports of Ireland, collectively known as Gaelic Games. All Gaelic games are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the exception of Ladies' Gaelic Football, which is governed by a separate organisation. The GAA is organised on an all-Ireland basis with all 32 counties competing; traditionally, counties first compete within their province, in the provincial championships, and the winners then compete in the All-Ireland senior hurling or football championships. The headquarters of the GAA (and the main stadium) is located at the 83,000 capacity Croke Park in north Dublin. All major GAA games are played here, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland championships. All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs and receive no wages. The Irish rugby team includes players from north and south, and the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport on both sides of the border. Consequently in international rugby, the Ireland team represents the whole island. The same is true of cricket. However, when Ireland was partitioned, organisation of football (soccer) in the Republic was transferred from the Belfast-based Irish Football Association (IFA) to the new Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The IFA remained in charge of the game in the six counties. (Consequently in International Association Football, the island has two teams: the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.) Northern Ireland qualified for the World Cup Soccer finals in 1958 (where they made it to the quarter finals), 1982 and 1986. The Republic of Ireland made it to the World Cup in 1990 (where they made it to the quarter finals), 1994 and 2002. Greyhound racing and horse racing are both popular in Ireland: greyhound stadiums are well attended and there are frequent horse race meetings. The Republic is noted for the breeding and training of race horses and is also a large exporter of racing dogs. The horse racing sector is largely concentrated in the central east of the Republic. Boxing is also an all-island sport governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association. Golf is an extremely popular sport in Ireland and Golfing Tourism is a major industry. The 2006 Ryder Cup will be held in the K Club in Co. Kildare, which is just outside Dublin. Prominent Irish sporting stars are: Sean Kelly (cycling), Stephen Roche (cycling), Brian O'Driscoll (rugby), Roy Keane (soccer), Damien Duff (soccer), D.J. Carey (hurling), Peter Canavan (GAA), Aidan O'Brien (racehorse trainer), Kieren Fallon (jockey), Eddie Jordan (F1), Padraig Harrington (golf), Sonia O'Sullivan (athlethics), Steve Collins (boxing) and Ken Doherty (snooker).
Culture

Literature and the arts
For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature in all its branches, mainly in English. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century; Jonathan Swift, still often called the foremost satirist in the English language, was wildly popular in his day (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, etc.) and remains so in modern times amongst both children and adults. In more recent times, Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. His 1922 novel Ulysses is sometimes cited as the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century and his life is celebrated annually on June 16th in Dublin as the Bloomsday celebrations. The early history of Irish visual art is generally considered to begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced through Bronze age artifacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the mediæval period. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.
Music and dance
The Irish tradition of folk music and dance is also widely known. In the middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was attempting to modernise, traditional music tended to fall out of favour, especially in urban areas. During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. This revival was led by such groups as The Dubliners, The Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers and Sweeney's Men and individuals like Sean Ó Riada and Danny O'Flaherty. Irish and Scottish traditional music are similar. Before long, groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison and even Thin Lizzy were incorporating elements of traditional music into a rock idiom to form a unique new sound. During the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing as a matter of course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of bands and individuals like U2, Clannad, The Cranberries, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, and The Pogues. Nevertheless, Irish music has shown an immense inflation of popularity with many attempting to return to their roots. There are also contemporary music groups that stick closer to a "traditional" sound, including Altan, Gaelic Storm, Lúnasa, and Solas. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion of style, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Canadian Loreena McKennitt. Ireland has done well in the Eurovision Song Contest, being the most successful country in the competition with seven wins. This achievement evokes mixed feelings in many Irish people.
Demographics
Ireland has been inhabited for at least 9000 years, although little is known about the neolithic inhabitants of the island. Early historical and genealogical records note the existance of dozens of different peoples (Attacotti, Conmaicne, Éoganacht, Érainn, Soghain, to name but a few). Over the last 1000 years, there have been influences by the Vikings, who founded several ports, including Dublin, and Normans, with significant admixture to the gene pool. However the greater part of the Irish population descends from the original inhabitants of the island who came after the end of the Ice Age. Although for many years the Irish were believed to be of Celtic origin, recent genetic evidence shows that both the Irish and the Welsh (and to a lesser degree England and Scotland) have many genetic traits in common with the people of the Basque region. Some theorize that although Basque is certainly not a Celtic language, there may have been a Celto-Basque link while others postulate that the pre-Celtic population of the island may have had Basque origins. Both positions are difficult to prove, as the information is relatively new. Culturally however, Ireland is undeniably Celtic. Mingling of native Irish inhabitants with the latinate peoples of Spain, France and Rome during the height of the Roman Empire (and later following the expulsion of many Protestants from the predominantly Catholic Southern France, many of whom subsequently migrated to Ireland) gave rise to what some refer to as Franco-celts or Latin-celts. These people are charecterised particularly by very dark, black hair color, a trait that does not occur in "pure" Anglo-Saxon, and other significant genetic similarities to Southern Europeans. Franco-celts (or Latin-celts) are responsible in part, but not wholey, for the moderately high occurrence of black hair and other

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