:: wikimiki.org ::

E. Nesbit

E. Nesbit

Edith Nesbit (August 15 1858 - May 4, 1924) was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the androgynous name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which were later turned into films.

Biography

She was born in 1858 at 38, Lower Kennington Lane in Kennington, Surrey (now part of Greater London), the daughter of a school teacher, John Collis Nesbit who died in March 1862 before her fourth birthday. Her sister Mary's ill health meant that the family moved around constantly for some years, living variously in Brighton, Buckinghamshire, France (Dieppe, Rouen, Paris, Tours, Poitiers, Angouleme, Bordeaux, Arcachon, Pau, Bagneres de Bigorre, and Dinan in Brittany), Spain and Germany, before the family settled for three years at Halstead Hall in Halstead in north-west Kent - a location which later inspired The Railway Children. When Nesbit was 17, the family moved again, this time back to London. A follower of William Morris, 19-year-old Nesbit met bank clerk Hubert Bland in 1877. Seven months pregnant, she married Bland on 22 April 1880, though did not immediately live with him as Bland initially continued to live with his mother. Their marriage was an open one, with George Bernard Shaw among Nesbit's lovers[http://www.modjourn.brown.edu/mjp/Bios/Nesbit.html]; Bland also continued an affair with Alice Hoatson which produced two children (Rosamund in 1886 and John in 1899), both of whom Nesbit raised as her own. Her own children were Paul Bland (1880-1940), to whom The Railway Children was dedicated; Iris Bland (1881-19??); and Fabian Bland (1885-1900), who died aged 15 after a tonsil operation, and to whom she dedicated Five Children And It and its sequels, as well as The Story of the Treasure Seekers and its sequels. She and Bland were among the founders of the Fabian Society (a precursor to the Labour Party) in 1884. Their child Fabian was named after the society. They also jointly edited the Society's journal Today (Hoatson was the Society's assistant secretary). Nesbit and Bland also dallied briefly with the Social Democratic Federation but rejected it as too radical. However, Nesbit was an active lecturer and prolific writer on socialism during the 1880s (often signing her books 'Fabian Bland'), though this activity dwindled as her success as a children's author grew. Nesbit lived from 1899 to 1920 in Well Hall House, Eltham, Kent (now in south-east London). Some three years after Bland died in 1914, on 20 February 1917, Nesbit married Thomas "the Skipper" Tucker, a kindly ship's engineer whose lower-class background discomforted Nesbit's family and friends. Towards the end of her life she lived in a house, 'Crowlink', in Friston, East Sussex and at St Mary's Bay in Romney Marsh, west Kent. Suffering from lung cancer, which was possibly a result of her heavy smoking, she died in 1924 at New Romney, Kent, and was buried in the nearby churchyard of St Mary in the Marsh. St Mary in the Marsh

Literature

Nesbit's literary output was tremendous. Writing by herself, she published about forty books for children: either novels or collections of stories. Collaborating with others, Nesbit published about as many more. Her children's books are known for being entertaining without turning didactic, although some of her earlier works, notably Five Children and It veered in this direction. According to her biographer Julia Briggs, Nesbit was "the first modern writer for children": "[Nesbit] helped to reverse the great tradition of children's literature inaugurated by Carroll, MacDonald and Kenneth Grahame, in turning away from their secondary worlds to the tough truths to be won from encounters with things-as-they-are, previously the province of adult novels. " Briggs also credits Nesbit with having invented the children's adventure story. Among Nesbit's best-known books are The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1898) and The Wouldbegoods (1899), which both recount stories about the Bastables, a fictional family that Nesbit likely styled upon her own childhood family. Nesbit's children's writing also included numerous plays and collections of verse. Nesbit also popularized a innovative style of children's fantasy that combined realistic, contemporary children in real-world settings with magical objects and adventures. In doing so, she was a direct or indirect influence on many subsequent writers, including P. L. Travers (author of Mary Poppins), Edward Eager, Diana Wynne Jones and many others including the author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling. C. S. Lewis has written of her influence on his Narnia series, and mentions the Bastable children in The Magician's Nephew. Michael Moorcock wrote a series of steampunk novels with an adult Oswald Bastable (of The Treasure Seekers) as the lead character.

Selected Works

- The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1898)
- The Wouldbegoods (1899)
- Five Children and It (1902)
- The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904)
- The New Treasure Seekers (1904)
- The Story of the Amulet (1905)
- The Railway Children (1906)

External links

-
- [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?amode=start&author=Nesbit%2c%20E%2e%20 E-texts of works by E. Nesbit] (some illustrated)
- [http://www.modjourn.brown.edu/mjp/Bios/Nesbit.html Biography of E. Nesbit]
- [http://www.therailwaychildren.dsl.pipex.com/about.htm Biography: 'The Early Years'] Nesbit, E. Nesbit, E. Nesbit, E. Nesbit, E. ja:イーディス・ネズビット

August 15

August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining.

Events

- 778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in which Roland is killed
- 927 - The Saracens conquered and destroyed Taranto
- 1057 - King MacBeth of Scotland is killed during the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of King Malcolm III.
- 1185 - The cave city of Vardzia was consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia
- 1309 - The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquartes on the island, and rename themselves as the Knights of Rhodes.
- 1517 - Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernao Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
- 1519 - Panama City, Panama is founded
- 1534 - The Society of Jesus is founded by Ignatius of Loyola with Francis Xavier and other students
- 1535 - Asuncion, Paraguay is founded
- 1540 - Arequipa, Peru is founded
- 1549 - Jesuit priest Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
- 1620 - The Mayflower departs Southampton, England.
- 1824 - Freed American slaves form Liberia.
- 1843 - The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
- 1843 - Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 1863 - The Satsuma war begins between the Satsuma clan and Britain (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
- 1877 - Thomas Edison makes the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
- 1914 - The Panama Canal opens to traffic
- 1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw - Poles defeat the Red Army.
- 1942 - World War II: Operation Pedestal - The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island defenses.
- 1944 - World War II: Operation Anvil - Allied forces land in southern France.
- 1945 - World War II: Victory over Japan Day - Japan surrenders.
- 1945 - World War II: Korean Liberation Day
- 1947 - India gains independence from Britain. Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first Prime Minister of India
- 1948 - The Republic of Korea is established south of 38th Parallel
- 1960 - Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) declares its independence from France
- 1961 - Construction begins on the Berlin Wall, Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany.
- 1965 - John Coltrane plays in Chicago, Illinois for the Downbeat Jazz Festival with Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner.
- 1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
- 1971 - President Richard Nixon ends convertibility of U.S. dollar into gold
- 1973 - Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends
- 1974 - Yook Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea is killed amid an apparent assassination attempt upon President of the South Korea, Park Chung-hee, during the anniversarial ceremony of the Liberation day.
- 1975 - Military coup in Bangladesh
- 1975 - Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by a sitting prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
- 1977 - The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by The Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" for notation made by a volunteer on the project.
- 1978 - Foundation of Mirapuri - The City of Peace and Future Man
- 1998 - Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, becoming the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles
- 1999 - Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.

Births

- 1001 - King Duncan I of Scotland (d. 1040)
- 1171 - King Alfonso IX of Leon (d. 1230)
- 1195 - Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)
- 1432 - Luigi Pulci, Italian poet (d. 1484)
- 1613 - Gilles Ménage, French scholar (d. 1692)
- 1717 - Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
- 1769 - Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (d. 1821)
- 1785 - Thomas De Quincey, English author (d. 1859)
- 1813 - Jules Grévy, President of France (d. 1891)
- 1856 - Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)
- 1858 - E. Nesbit, English author (d. 1924)
- 1872 - Sri Aurobindo, Indian writer, nationalist, philosopher, and guru (d. 1950)
- 1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)
- 1879 - Ethel Barrymore, American actress (d. 1959)
- 1887 - Edna Ferber, American novelist (d. 1968)
- 1883 - Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (d. 1962)
- 1890 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
- 1892 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1893 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (d. 1950)
- 1896 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)
- 1896 - Leon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)
- 1900 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966)
- 1912 - Julia Child, American cook (d. 2004)
- 1912 - Dame Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
- 1916 - Aleks Çaçi, Albanian writer
- 1917 - Jack Lynch, fourth President of Ireland (d. 1999)
- 1919 - Huntz Hall, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Lukas Foss, German-born composer
- 1923 - Rose Marie, American actress
- 1924 - Robert Bolt, English screenwriter (d. 1995)
- 1925 - Mike Connors, American actor
- 1925 - Willie Jones, baseball player (d. 1983)
- 1925 - Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist
- 1928 - Nicolas Roeg, English film director
- 1933 - Jim Lange, American game show host
- 1935 - Vernon Jordan Jr., U.S. Presidential advisor
- 1935 - Lionel Taylor, American football player
- 1938 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
- 1944 - Linda Ellerbee, American journalist
- 1944 - Sylvie Vartan, French pop singer
- 1945 - Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, Indian guru
- 1945 - Begum Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
- 1946 - Jimmy Webb, American musician and composer
- 1947 - Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress
- 1948 - Uschi Digard, American actress and model
- 1949 - Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
- 1950 - Princess Anne of the United Kingdom
- 1951 - Daba Diawara, Malian politician
- 1958 - Victor Shenderovich, Russian satirist
- 1965 - Rob Thomas, author and screenwriter
- 1968 - Debra Messing, American actress
- 1972 - Ben Affleck, American actor
- 1974 - Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress
- 1977 - Igor Cassina, Italian gymnast
- 1975 - Kara Wolters, American basketball player
- 1976 - Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
- 1978 - Tim Foreman, American bassist (Switchfoot)
- 1978 - Lilia Podkopayeva, Ukrainian gymnast

Deaths

- 778 - Roland, Frankish commander (killed in battle)
- 1040 - King Duncan I of Scotland (b. 1001)
- 1057 - King Macbeth I of Scotland
- 1118 - Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1048)
- 1196 - Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)
- 1274 - Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne (b. 1201)
- 1369 - Philippa of Hainault, queen of Edward III of England
- 1528 - Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, French military leader (b. 1485)
- 1552 - Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
- 1621 - John Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1582)
- 1666 - Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
- 1714 - Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1654)
- 1728 - Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (b. 1656)
- 1799 - Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)
- 1907 - Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist (b. 1831)
- 1909 - Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer and sociologist (b. 1866)
- 1935 - Wiley Post, American pilot (b. 1898)
- 1935 - Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (b. 1879)
- 1936 - Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
- 1951 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
- 1953 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
- 1959 - Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901
- 1962 - Lei Feng, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1940)
- 1967 - René Magritte, Belgian painter (b. 1898)
- 1971 - Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1887)
- 1975 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1920)
- 1975 - Clay Shaw, John F. Kennedy assassination investigator (b. 1913)
- 1982 - Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- 1990 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
- 1995 - John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (b. 1906)
- 1999 - Sir Hugh Casson, British architect and artist (b. 1910)
- 2001 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (brain tumour) (b. 1972)
- 2003 - Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
- 2004 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (b. 1941)
- 2005 - James Dougherty, first husband of Marilyn Monroe (leukemia)

Holidays and observances

- Eastern Orthodoxy – Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the commemoration of the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
- RC Saints – Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Holy Day of Obligation. Public Holiday in: Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, East Timor, France, Greece, India, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Mauritius, Poland, Portugal, Seychelles, Slovenia and Spain.
- Acadie – National Day
- Egypt – Flooding of the Nile Day
- Hawaii – Toro Nagashi (Floating Lantern Ceremony) to commemorate the end of the second world war
- India – Independence Day (from Britain, 1947)
- Italy – "Ferragosto", remembrance of an ancient Roman holiday in honor of Augustus (Feriae Augusti)
- Korea – Liberation Day
- Ancient Latvia – Māras
- Liechtenstein – Liechtenstein Day
- Poland – Polish Armed Forces Day
- Jamaica– Jamaican national dance Day(Bianca Day)
- Tuva – Tuva Republic Day, Naadym

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/15 BBC: On This Day] August 14 - August 16 - July 15 - September 15 -- listing of all days ko:8월 15일 ms:15 Ogos ja:8月15日 simple:August 15 th:15 สิงหาคม

May 4

May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). There are 241 days remaining.

Events

- 1471 - Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury – Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales.
- 1493 - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Demarcation Line.
- 1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica.
- 1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
- 1675 - King Charles II of England orders the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
- 1776 - Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
- 1814 - Emperor Napoleon I of France arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
- 1855 - American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chancellorsville – The battle ends with a Union retreat.
- 1865 - Abraham Lincoln buried in Springfield, Illinois, three weeks after his assassination.
- 1869 - The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.
- 1871 - The National Association, the first professional baseball league, begins its first season.
- 1886 - Haymarket Square Riot: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, Illinois, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
- 1904 - Construction begins by the United States on the Panama Canal.
- 1910 - The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
- 1912 - Italy occupies the island of Rhodes.
- 1919 - May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
- 1924 - The 1924 Summer Olympics open in Paris, France.
- 1930 - British police arrest Mahatma Gandhi and place him in Yeravda Central Prison.
- 1932 - In Atlanta, Georgia, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
- 1942 - World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea – The battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from American and Japanese aircraft carriers.
- 1945 - World War II: Liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.
- 1945 - World War II: Surrender of the North Germany Army to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
- 1946 - In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.
- 1948 - Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.
- 1949 - The entire Torino football (soccer) team (except for one player who did not take the trip due to an injury) is killed in a plane crash at the Superga hill at the edge of Turin, Italy.
- 1953 - Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
- 1959 - The first Grammy Awards are announced.
- 1961 - American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: Kent State shootings – The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after the ROTC building was burnt down, opens fire on students protesting at the United States' invasion of Cambodia. Four students are killed, nine are wounded.
- 1972 - The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changed its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
- 1974 - An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.
- 1979 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1980 - President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia dies in Ljubljana at the age of 87.
- 1989 - Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and was acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
- 1990 - Latvia proclaims independence.
- 1990 - Robert Murray, Handsome American Jokester, Inventor, Actor, Athlete, Scientist, Chemist, Screamer, DJ, Burger King, Top 10 Guy on www.facebattle.com, and Decorated War Hero is born. The world celebrates, and endangered species are repopulated.
- 1991 - In Rome, Italy, Carola wins the thirty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Fångad av en stormvind" (Trapped in a storm wind).
- 1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
- 1996 - José María Aznar is appointed Prime Minister of Spain, thus ending 13 years of Socialist rule.
- 1998 - A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
- 1999 - In California, Manuel Babbitt is executed for the 1980 murder of Leah Schendel. While on death row Babbitt was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he received in the Vietnam War.
- 2002 - An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.
- 2003 - The Outbreak of 2003 begins. Ninety-four tornadoes begin the week-long outbreak.

Births

- 1008 - King Henry I of France (d. 1060)
- 1654 - Kangxi Emperor of China (d. 1722)
- 1655 - Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian maker of musical instruments (d. 1731)
- 1715 - Richard Graves, English writer (d. 1804)
- 1733 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (d. 1799)
- 1772 - Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d. 1823)
- 1781 - Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (d. 1832)
- 1796 - Horace Mann, American educator (d. 1859)
- 1820 - Julia Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
- 1825 - Thomas Henry Huxley, English scientist (d. 1895)
- 1825 - Augustus Le Plongeon, French archaeologist (d. 1908)
- 1826 - Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)
- 1827 - John Hanning Speke, British explorer (d. 1864)
- 1852 - Alice Pleasance Liddell, English schoolgirl model for Alice in Wonderland (d. 1934)
- 1870 - Alexandre Benois, Russian artist (d. 1860)
- 1873 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (d. 1940)
- 1889 - Francis Cardinal Spellman, American religious leader (d. 1967)
- 1903 - Luther Adler, American stage actor (d. 1984)
- 1918 - Tanaka Kakuei, Japanese political leader (d. 1993)
- 1921 - Edo Murtić, Croatian painter (d. 2005)
- 1923 - Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian
- 1928 - Maynard Ferguson, Canadian musician
- 1928 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
- 1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (d. 1993)
- 1929 - Sidney Lamb, American linguist
- 1930 - Roberta Peters, American soprano
- 1931 - Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Russian composer
- 1936 - El Cordobes, Spanish bullfighter
- 1937 - Dick Dale, American guitarist
- 1939 - Amos Oz, Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist
- 1941 - George Will, American writer
- 1942 - Nickolas Ashford, American record producer, songwriter, musician (Ashford and Simpson)
- 1942 - Tammy Wynette, American musician (d. 1998)
- 1944 - Roger Rees, British-born actor
- 1945 - Narasinham Ram, Indian journalist
- 1949 - John Force, American race car driver
- 1954 - Pia Zadora, American actress
- 1956 - David Guterson, American author
- 1956 - Ulrike Meyfarth, German athlete
- 1958 - Keith Haring, American graphical artist (d. 1990)
- 1959 - Randy Travis, American musician
- 1962 - Oleta Adams, American singer
- 1967 - Ana Gasteyer, American actress
- 1972 - Mike Dirnt, American musician (Green Day)
- 1976 - Jason Michaels, baseball player
- 1979 - Lance Bass, American musician (
- NSYNC)
- 1981 - Eric Djemba-Djemba, Cameroon footballer
- 1984 - Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
- 1985 - Anthony Fedorov, American singer
- 1987 - Rebecca Wagoner, American college student
- 1989 - Becca Evans, Alcoholic rocker
- 1994 - Alexander Gould, American actor

Deaths

- 1471 - Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (killed in battle) (b. 1453)
- 1471 - Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, English military commander (executed)
- 1506 - Husayn Bayqarah, ruler of Herat (b. 1438)
- 1519 - Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (b. 1492)
- 1566 - Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1490)
- 1615 - Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish mathematician (b. 1561)
- 1626 - Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells, English bishop and Bible translator (b. 1569)
- 1677 - Isaac Barrow, English mathematician (b. 1630)
- 1684 - John Nevison, English highwayman (b. 1639)
- 1729 - Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (b. 1651)
- 1734 - James Thornhill, English painter
- 1737 - Eustace Budgell, English writer (b. 1686)
- 1774 - Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1714)
- 1776 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor (b. 1717)
- 1790 - Matthew Tilghman, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. [1718]])
- 1799 - Tipu Sultan, Indian military leader
- 1824 - Joseph Joubert, French essayist and moralist (b. 1754)
- 1849 - Hokusai, Japanese artist (b. 1760)
- 1880 - Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
- 1903 - Goce Delchev, Macedonian revolutionary (b. 1872)
- 1938 - Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
- 1955 - Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (b. 1881)
- 1961 - Anita Stewart, American film actress (b. 1895)
- 1969 - Osbert Sitwell, English writer (b. 1892)
- 1970 - Kent State victims:
- Allison Krause
- Jeffrey Miller
- Sandra Scheuer (b. 1949)
- William Schroeder (b. 1950)
- 1972 - Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1886)
- 1975 - Moe Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1897)
- 1980 - Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)
- 1984 - Bob Clampett, American cartoonist (b. 1913)
- 1984 - Diana Dors, British actress (b. 1931)
- 1986 - Henri Toivonen, Finnish race car driver (b. 1956)
- 2005 - David Hackworth, U.S. Army officer and military journalist (b. 1930)

Holidays and observances

- International - World Asthma Day
- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Saint Monica (d. 387)
- Ladislaus of Gielnow
- Saint Florian
- Saint Godehard
- Titianus
- Malou
- Saint Ethelred
- John Houghton, Robert Lawrence (martyr), Augustine Webster, Richard Reynolds (martyr), and John Hale (martyr); all put to death in 1535.
- The Netherlands - Remembrance of the dead (1940-1945)
- People's Republic of China - Youth Day (青年节, commemorating May Fourth Movement)
- Republic of China - Literary Day (文藝節, commemorating May Fourth Movement)

Puns

- Star Wars Day. May the Fourth (be with you)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050504.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- May 3 - May 5 - April 4 - June 4 – listing of all days ko:5월 4일 ms:4 Mei ja:5月4日 simple:May 4 th:4 พฤษภาคม

England

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

History

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

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

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

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

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

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

Politics

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

Subdivisions

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

Geography

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

Major rivers

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

Major Conurbations

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

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

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

English identity

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

Culture

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

Languages

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

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian,