Brian Joseph Cotter

Brian Joseph Cotter (born 24 August, 1938) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare, from the 1997 election until 2005.

External links

- [http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/person.html?id=15 Brian Cotter PPC] profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
- [http://www.westonlibdems.org.uk/ Weston-super-Mare Liberal Democrats]
- [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-1133,00.html Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - Brian Cotter]
- [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/brian_cotter/weston-super-mare TheyWorkForYou.com - Brian Cotter]
- [http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Brian_Cotter&mpc=Weston-Super-Mare The Public Whip - Brian Cotter] voting record
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/508.stm BBC News - Brian Cotter] profile 10 February, 2005 Cotter, Brian Cotter, Brian Cotter, Brian

24 August

August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining.

Events

- 49 BC - Julius Caesar's general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio is slain in battle.
- AD 79 - Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
- 410 - The Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome for three days.
- 1215 - Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta invalid.
- 1349 - Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz because they are blamed for the bubonic plague.
- 1391 - Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
- 1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
- 1511 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of Malacca.
- 1572 - Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: On the orders of king Charles IX of France, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) begins.
- 1608 - The first official British representative to India lands in Surat.
- 1662 - Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
- 1682 - William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
- 1690 - Calcutta, India is founded.
- 1814 - British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
- 1821 - The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
- 1831 - Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
- 1847 - Charlotte Brontë finishes Jane Eyre.
- 1853 - Potato chips are first prepared.
- 1857 - The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history.
- 1858 - In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
- 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
- 1909 - Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
- 1912 - Alaska becomes a United States territory.
- 1914 - World War I: German troops capture Namur.
- 1929 - Turkey and Persia sign a friendship treaty.
- 1931 - France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
- 1931 - Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
- 1932 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
- 1936 - The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
- 1942 - World War II: The Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho is sunk.
- 1944 - World War II: French and Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
- 1949 - The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
- 1950 - Edith Sampson becomess the first black U.S. delegate to the UN.
- 1954 - The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
- 1954 - Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commit suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
- 1960 - A temperature of −88°C (−127°F) is measured in Vostok, Antarctica — a world-record low.
- 1963 - The 200-metre freestyle is swum in less than 2 minutes for the first time by Don Schollander (1:58).
- 1968 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
- 1968 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
- 1971 - Pink Floyd performs their most famous concert, in an abandoned Pompeii amphitheatre on the 1892nd anniversary of the infamous disappearance of Pompeii.
- 1979 - In Central Park, New York a concert is given by cars.
- 1981 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
- 1989 - Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
- 1989 - Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti
- 1989 - Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
- 1990 - A judge rules that Judas Priest are not responsible for the deaths of two youths who committed suicide after listening to the band's music.
- 1990 - Sinéad O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Holmdel, New Jersey if "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played before her show, as is customary.
- 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1991 - Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - Diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and South Korea.
- 1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
- 1994 - Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
- 1995 - Windows 95 is released.
- 1998 - The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 PanAm bombing.
- 2001 - Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from New York) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
- 2003 - US Spacecraft Voyager 2 is 71 astronomical units distant from Earth and escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year (ca. 15 km/s). It will be approximately 40,000 years before Voyager 2 approaches another planetary system.
- 2004 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from the breakaway republic of Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.
- 2005 - Peruvian airliner TANS's Flight 204 crashes in Pucallpa, killing at least 60 people.

Births

- 1113 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (b. 1113)
- 1198 - King Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
- 1358 - King John I of Castile (d. 1390)
- 1393 - Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1458)
- 1552 - Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (d. 1614)
- 1580 - John Taylor, English poet (d. 1654)
- 1591 - Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
- 1635 - Peder Griffenfeld, Danish statesman (d. 1699)
- 1669 - Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (d. 1747)
- 1759 - William Wilberforce, English campaigner against slavery (d. 1833)
- 1772 - King William I of the Netherlands (1814-1840)
- 1787 - James Weddell, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
- 1817 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
- 1837 - Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (d. 1924)
- 1852 - Deacon White, baseball player (d. 1919)
- 1863 - Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (d. 1918)
- 1865 - King Ferdinand I of Romania (d. 1927)
- 1880 - Joshua Lionel Cowen, American inventor and entrepreneur (d. 1965)
- 1884 - Earl Derr Biggers, American author (d. 1933)
- 1887 - Harry Hooper, baseball player (d. 1974)
- 1890 - Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian swimmer and surfer (d. 1968)
- 1890 - Jean Rhys, Dominican writer (d. 1979)
- 1898 - Malcolm Cowley, American literary critic, writer, and editor (d. 1989)
- 1899 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
- 1901 - Preston Foster, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1904 - Alice White, American film actress (d. 1983)
- 1915 - James Tiptree, Jr., American writer (d. 1987)
- 1916 - Hal Smith, American actor and voice actor (d. 1994)
- 1922 - René Lévesque, Premier of Quebec (d. 1987)
- 1923 - Arthur Jensen, American psychologist
- 1927 - Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1929 - Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2004)
- 1934 - Kenny Baker, English actor
- 1936 - A. S. Byatt, English novelist
- 1938 - Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
- 1938 - David Freiberg, American bassist (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
- 1943 - John Cipollina, American guitarist (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (d. 1989)
- 1945 - Ken Hensley, English musician (Uriah Heep)
- 1945 - Vince McMahon, American professional wrestling entrepreneur
- 1947 - Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author
- 1948 - Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician
- 1951 - Orson Scott Card, American novelist
- 1954 - Libby Mooney,British Science educator
- 1956 - John Culberson, American politician
- 1957 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
- 1958 - Steve Guttenberg, American actor
- 1958 - Tracy Harris, American artist
- 1960 - Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player
- 1962 - Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
- 1962 - David Koechner, American actor
- 1963 - John Bush, American singer (Anthrax)
- 1963 - Hideo Kojima, Japanese video game director
- 1964 - Salizhan Sharipov, cosmonaut
- 1965 - Marlee Matlin, American actress
- 1965 - Reggie Miller, American basketball player
- 1968 - Shoichi Funaki, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1968 - Andreas Kisser, Brazilian guitarist (Sepultura)
- 1973 - David Chappelle, American actor and comedian
- 1973 - Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
- 1973 - Carmine Giovinazzo, American actor
- 1974 - Jennifer Lien, American actress
- 1978 - Rafael Furcal, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- 1981 - Chad Michael Murray, American actor
- 1983 - Christopher Parker, British actor
- 1988 - Rupert Grint, English actor

Deaths

- 79 - Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. 23)
- 1042 - Michael V, Byzantine Emperor) (b. 1015)
- 1103 - King Magnus III of Norway (b. 1073)
- 1217 - Eustace the Monk, French mercenary and pirate
- 1540 - Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian painter (b. 1503)
- 1542 - Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
- 1572 - Victims of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre:
- Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (b. 1519)
- Pierre de la Ramée, French humanist (b. 1515)
- Charles de Téligny, French Huguenot soldier
- 1595 - Thomas Digges, English astronomer (b. 1546)
- 1647 - Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (b. 1586)
- 1664 - Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer
- 1679 - Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz, French churchman and agitator (b. 1614)
- 1680 - Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618)
- 1683 - John Owen, English non-conformist theologian (b. 1616)
- 1759 - Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (b. 1715)
- 1779 - Kosmas Aitolos, Greek Orthodox martyr (b. 1714)
- 1831 - August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1760)
- 1832 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician (b. 1796)
- 1888 - Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (b. 1822)
- 1921 - Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (b. 1886)
- 1841 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author (b. 1788)
- 1940 - Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German television pioneer (b. 1860)
- 1946 - James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
- 1954 - Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (b. 1882)
- 1956 - Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)
- 1967 - Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (b. 1882)
- 1975 - Eamon de Valera, President of Ireland (b. 1882)
- 1978 - Louis Prima, American band leader (b. 1910)
- 1979 - Hanna Reitsch, German pilot (b. 1912)
- 1985 - Paul Creston, American composer (b. 1906)
- 1990 - Sergei Dovlatov, Russian writer (b. 1941)
- 1991 - Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (b. 1904)
- 1995 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-born photographer (b. 1898)
- 1998 - E.G. Marshall, American actor (b. 1910)
- 2002 - Hoyt Wilhelm, baseball player (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)
- 2004 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926)

Holidays and observances

- Roman festivals - first of the 3 days on which the mundus was openend
- RC Saints - Feast day of Saint Bartholomew
- Liberia: Flag Day
- Sierra Leone: President's Birthday
- Ukraine: National Holiday, independence from Russia (1991)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/24 BBC: On This Day] ---- August 23 - August 25 - July 24 - September 24 -- listing of all days ko:8월 24일 ms:24 Ogos ja:8月24日 simple:August 24 th:24 สิงหาคม

1938

1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-March

common year starting on Saturday
- January 5 - H.R.H. Prince Juan Carlos of Spain is born.
- January 3 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
- January 11 - Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.
- January 20 - Wedding of King Farouk I of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo
- January 28 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
- January 31 - Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands
- February 4 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
- February 10 - Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers
- February 12 - World War II: German troops enter Austria
- February 24 - A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
- March 3 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
- March 12 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
- March 15 - Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed
- March 18 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

April-June

- April 12 - Edouard Daladier becomes president of France
- April 25 - U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
- April 28 - The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
- May 5 - Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain
- May 25 - Bombing of Alicante, Spain, in the Spanish Civil War, with 313 deads. Spanish Civil War
- June 1 - Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
- June 11 - Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
- June 12-18 - Roma and Sinti in Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten up and jailed
- June 19 - Italy beat Hungary 4-2 to win the 1938 World Cup
- June 23 - The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
- June 23 - Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
- June 25 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
- June 28 - A 450 metric ton meteorite struck the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania

July-September

- July 3 - Steam locomotive "Mallard" sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
- July 3 - The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemerates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
- July 10 - Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
- July - Building of the concentration camp Mauthausen
- August 18 - The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- September - European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia.
- September 21 - A large hurricane (the New England Hurricane of 1938) strikes Long Island, killing 600 people.
- September 29 - Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and French leaders agrees to German demands regarding annexation of Sudetenland.
- September 29 - Republic of Hatay declared in Syria

October-December

Syria returns to the UK waving the Munich Agreement.]]
- October 1 - German troops march into Sudetenland
- October 5 - Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns
- October 10 - The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
- October 17 - Jan Syrovy's government begins in Czechoslovakia
- October 27 - Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".
- October 30 - Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing mass panic in the eastern United States.
- October 31 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.
- November 9 - Holocaust: Kristallnacht begins - In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi troops and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair saw 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).
- November 10 - On the eve of Armistice Day, Kate Smith sings Irving Berlin's God Bless America for the first time on her weekly radio show.
- November 18 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- November 30 - Czech parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.
- December 23 - Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River

Unknown dates

- Italian mathematician Ettore Majorano disappears
- In Québec, the St. Jean Baptiste Society raises a petition of 128,000 names, demanding restrictions on Jews living in Quebec. Abbe Groulx denounces Jews as a race that refuses to be assimilated.
- In West Java, Daeng Soetigna tuned traditional angklung to play also diatonic scale.
- The Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
- Adolf Hitler is Time magazine's "Man of the Year" (as most influential during the course of the year, not as 'best' man of the year)
- Enoch A. Holtwick began long political career.

Ongoing events

- Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Births

January-February

- January 2 - Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author
- January 2 - Ian Brady, British serial killer
- January 5 - King Juan Carlos I of Spain
- January 8 - Bob Eubanks, American game show host
- January 10 - Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
- January 10 - Willie McCovey, baseball player
- January 14 - Jack Jones, American singer and actor
- January 18 - Curt Flood, baseball player (d. 1997)
- January 23 - Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
- January 25 - Etta James, American singer
- January 31 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
- February 1 - Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor
- February 8 - Prentice Gautt, American football player
- February 11 - Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer
- February 11 - Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator
- February 12 - Judy Blume, American author
- February 13 - Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
- February 18 - Istvan Szabo, Hungarian director
- February 24 - Phil Knight, American sportswear entrepreneur
- February 25 - Herb Elliott, Australian runner

March-April

- March 4 - Don Perkins, American football player
- March 7 - David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- March 7 - Janet Guthrie, American race car driver
- March 13 - Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)
- March 17 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)
- March 18 - Charley Pride, American baseball player and musician
- March 23 - Maynard Jackson, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia (d. 2003)
- March 25 - Hoyt Axton, American musician and actor (d. 1999)
- March 26 - Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 1 - John Quade, American actor
- April 4 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, American president of Yale University and baseball commissioner (d. 1989)
- April 8 - Kofi Annan, Ghanaian Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- April 10 - Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster
- April 11 - Kurt Moll, German bass
- April 12 - Roger Caron, Canadian author
- April 26 - Duane Eddy, American musician
- April 29 - Larry Niven, American author

May-July

- May 17 - Jason Bernard, American actor (d. 1996)
- May 22 - Richard Benjamin, American actor
- May 26 - William Bolcom, American composer
- May 26 - Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
- May 31 - Johnny PayCheck, American singer (d. 2003)
- May 31 - Peter Yarrow, American singer
- June 5 - Karin Balzer, German athlete
- June 7 - Goose Gonsoulin, American football player
- June 15 - Billy Williams, baseball player
- June 19 - Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (d. 2002)
- June 28 - Moy Yat, Chinese martial artist
- July 4 - Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter
- July 6 - Tony Lewis, English cricketer
- July 12 - Wieger Mensonides, Dutch swimmer
- July 19 - Jayant Narlikar, Indian Astrophysicist
- July 20 - Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)
- July 23 - Juliet Anderson, American actress
- July 23 - Bert Newton, Australian actor and televison show host
- July 27 - Gary Gygax, American author
- July 28 - Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian president
- July 29 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-born television news reporter (d. 2005)

August-October

- August 9 - Ezola Broussard Foster, Vice President of the United States
- August 9 - Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
- August 15 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
- August 19 - Diana Muldaur, American actress
- August 22 - Paul Maguire, American football player
- August 24 - Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
- August 24 - David Freiberg, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
- August 28 - Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television news reporter
- August 28 - Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
- August 31 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
- September 2 - Clarence Felder, American actor
- September 3 - Ryoji Noyori, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 10 - Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer and photographer
- September 13 - John Smith, Scottish politician (d. 1994)
- September 22 - Gene Mingo, American football player
- September 25 - Jonathan Motzfeldt, Prime Minister of Greenland
- September 29 - Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- October 3 - Eddie Cochran, American singer (d. 1960)
- October 4 - Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 9 - Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
- October 14 - Farah Diba, Empress of Iran
- October 15 - Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and activist (d. 1997)
- October 23 - H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (d. 1991)
- October 29 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian president-elect

November-December

- November 2 - Patrick Joseph Buchanan, American journalist and Presidential candidate
- November 6 - Mack Jones, baseball player (d. 2004)
- November 13 - Jean Seberg, American actress
- November 16 - Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d. 2002)
- November 26 - Porter J. Goss, American politician and Central Intelligence Agency director
- December 4 - Andre V. Marrou, U.S. Presidential candidate
- December 4 - Yvonne Minton, Australian soprano
- December 15 - Billy Shaw, American football player
- December 16 - Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
- December 17 - Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete

Fictional

- September - Freddy Krueger, child murderer (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

Deaths

- January 20 - Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)
- January 21 - Georges Méliès, French film director (b. 1861)
- January 28 - Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (b. 1909)
- February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (b. 1856)
- February 7 - Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. 1868)
- February 18 - David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
- February 19 - Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. 1877)
- March 1 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. 1863)
- March 2 - Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)
- March 13 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. 1888)
- March 13 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
- April 8 - Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (b. 1885)
- April 12 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
- April 16 - Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
- April 21 - Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
- April 26 - Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
- May 4 - Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
- May 13 - Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- May 26 - John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. 1857)
- August 1 - Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. 1862)
- August 7 - Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian actor (b. 1863)
- August 16 - Robert Johnson, American musician (b. 1911)
- September 17 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
- October 22 - May Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (b. 1862)
- October 24 - Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and poet (b. 1870)
- October 27 - Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (b. 1881)
- November 10 - Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. 1881)
- December 11 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1869)
- December 25 - Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. 1890)
- December 28 - Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. 1886)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Enrico Fermi
- Chemistry - Richard Kuhn
- Medicine - Corneille Jean François Heymans
- Literature - Pearl S. Buck
- Peace - Nansen International Office For Refugees, Geneva. Category:1938 ko:1938년 ms:1938 ja:1938年 simple:1938 th:พ.ศ. 2481

United Kingdom

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

- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.
History
Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.
Government and politics
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. While the monarch is Head of State and holds all executive power, it is the Prime Minister who is the head of government. The government is answerable chiefly to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister is drawn from this chamber of Parliament by constitutional convention. The majority of cabinet members will be from the House of Commons, the rest from the House of Lords. Ministers do not, however, legally have to come from Parliament, though that is the modern day custom. The British system of government has been emulated around the world - a legacy of the United Kingdom's colonial past - most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms. The Prime Minister is chosen as the MP who can command a majority in the House of Commons - usually the leader of the largest party or, if there is no majority party, the largest coalition. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. In the United Kingdom the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his or her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the Queen (being given Royal Assent), although no monarch has refused to assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested several times, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in spite of recent controversies. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent [http://www.mori.com/mrr/2000/c000616.shtml]. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons has 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has 724 members (though this number is not fixed): hereditary peers, life peers, and bishops of the Church of England. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England. established church]] The two largest political parties are the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The UK has long had a two-party system, but in the last 20 years the Liberal Democrats have re-emerged as a large third party. The electoral system used for general elections is first-past-the-post. The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and partially unwritten, which means that no single document regulates how the government works, and unwritten constitutional conventions are used extensively. The constitution is based on the principle that Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the country. There has long been a widespread sense of national identity in the Celtic nations. Throughout the late 19th century the UK debated giving Ireland home rule. The Scottish National Party was founded in 1934, and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) in 1925. Referenda for devolution succeeded in 1997 for Scotland and Wales and in 1998 for Northern Ireland. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were established, the former having primary legislative power. Proportional representation is used for the elections, which has resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Scotland. Due to internal disagreements, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since 2002.
Subdivisions
The United Kingdom is a country that is divided into four constituent parts:
- England
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales The constituent parts of the United Kingdom have administrative subdivisions as follows:
- The regions and administrative counties of England
- The council areas of Scotland
- The counties and county boroughs of Wales
- The districts of Northern Ireland The Laws in Wales Act 1535 incorporated Wales and England into England and Wales for legal purposes. Although all four have historically been divided into counties, England's population is an order of magnitude larger than the others so in recent years it has for some purposes been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that each or some of these regions would be given its own regional assembly, the plan's future is uncertain, as of 2004, after the North East region rejected its proposed assembly in a referendum. Scotland consists of 32 Council Areas. Wales consists of 22 Unitary Authorities, styled as 10 County Boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Northern Ireland is divided into 26 Districts. Also sometimes associated with the United Kingdom, though not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom itself, are the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man) as self-governing possessions of the Crown, and a number of overseas territories under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
Military
The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. Their Commander-in-Chief is the Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. Ministry of Defence The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations. The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive military forces in the World. Its global power projection capabilities are second only to those of the United States Armed Forces. The British Army had a reported strength of 112,700 in 2004, including 7,600 women, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 53,400. The 40,900-member Royal Navy is in charge of the United Kingdom's independent strategic nuclear arm, which consists of four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, while the Royal Marines provide infantry units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 210,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries. The UK's special forces, principally the SAS, provides elite commandos trained for quick, mobile, military responses; often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the World in terms of gross tonnage. Despite the United Kingdom's wide ranging capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertaken as part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Granby, No-Fly-Zones, Desert Fox and Telic) may all be taken as precedent - indeed the last true war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, in which military action was initiated by Argentina and the UK was fighting a defensive, rather than offensive, campaign. The British army has been actively involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, a programme of demilitarisation is being gradually implemented.
Geography
Troubles World Factbook Map of the United Kingdom]] Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line. The lower limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. Near Dover, the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom with France. There is no peak in England that is 1000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater. Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon at 1085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey. The largest and capital city is Cardiff, located in South Wales. Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain at 1343 metres (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. A multitude of islands west and north of Scotland are also included, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The largest city is Glasgow. Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The main cities are Belfast ('Beal Feirste' in Irish) and Londonderry / Derry ('Doire' in Irish). The province is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 40 feett (12 m) high. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1098 small islands, some being natural and some being crannogs, a type of artificial island which was built in past times using stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural waste building up over time.
Economy
artificial island The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has an essentially capitalist economy, the fourth largest in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Over the past three decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership by means of privatisation programmes, and has contained the growth of the Welfare State. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial state. Services, particularly banking, insurance and business services, account for by far the largest proportion of GDP. Industry continues to decline in importance, although the UK is still Europe's largest manufacturer of armaments, petroleum products, personal computers, televisions, and mobile telephones. Tourism is also important: with over 24 million tourists a year, between China (33) and Austria (19.1), the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world. The Blair government has put off the question of participation in the Euro system, citing five economic tests that would need to be met before they recommend that the UK adopts the Euro, and hold a referendum.
Society

Demographics
At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and metropolitan France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban--with about 7.2 million in the capital of London. The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99%) is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696). Education is mandatory from ages five through sixteen. referendum The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the official national religions in their respective countries, but most religions found in the world are represented in the United Kingdom. Anglicanism is the state religion that has been established in England since 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. During his reign, England broke ties with the Roman Catholic church and established the Church of England as the offical religion of England. Reforms to the nature of the church's relationship to the state have been ongoing, especially concerning the nature of the House of Lords and the appointment of a fixed amount of the lordships going to Lords Temporal, bishops of the Church of England. A group of islands close to continental Europe, the British Isles have been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries. Contemporary Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in Northern France. Although Celtic languages persist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the predominant language is English, which is a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large amount of borrowings from Norman French.The other indigenous languages include the Celtic languages; Welsh, the closely related Irish and Scots Gaelic, and the Cornish language; as well as Lowland Scots, which is closely related to English; Romany; and British Sign Language (Northern Ireland Sign Language is also used in Northern Ireland). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep. Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages, including Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Hindi speaking peoples outside of the Indian sub continent.
Culture
Urdu The United Kingdom contains many of the world's leading universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of London (which incorporates, amongst others, Imperial College and University College London), and has produced many great scientists and engineers including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the nation is credited with many inventions including the locomotive, vaccination, television, vacuum, and both the internal combustion and the jet engine. The English language has spread to all corners of the world (primarily because of the country’s empire) and is referred to as a ‘global language’. It is now taught as a second language more than any other around the world. Over the next few decades, it is estimated that approximately half the world’s population will be proficient in the language. Playwright William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the history of the English language; other well-known writers from the United Kingdom include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne), Jane Austen, William Thackeray, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, H. G. Wells and Charles Dickens. Important poets include Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Lord Tennyson and William Blake. Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, John Taverner, William Lawes, John Dowland, Thomas Tallis, and Henry Purcell from the 16th and early 17th centuries, and, more recently, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten in the 19th and 20th. George Frideric Handel spent most of his composing life in England. The BBC is the oldest and perhaps the most respected broadcasting network on the globe, with the BBC World Service radio channel and its news output held in particularly high regard. The other main television networks are ITV, Channel 4, five (TV) and Sky Television. Popular programmes in the UK include the three soaps Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as the comedy news quiz Have I Got News For You and Reality TV shows Big Brother and The X Factor. Various British TV formats have been exported to other nations, notably Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Weakest Link and The Office. The UK was, with the US, one of the two main contributors in the development of rock and roll, and the UK has provided some of the most famous rock stars, including the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, The Who and many others. The UK was at the forefront of punk rock music in the 1970s with bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and the subsequent rebirth of heavy metal with bands such as Motörhead and Iron Maiden. In mid to late '90s, the Britpop phenomenon has seen bands such as Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Coldplay gain international fame. The UK is also at the forefront of electronica, with British artists such as Aphex Twin, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Lamb at the cutting edge. The United Kingdom was also associated with music from the Caribbean, with a large number of Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals being present in the UK.
Sport
A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and boxing. The national sport of the UK is association football, but the UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is because of this unique four-team arrangement that the UK currently does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, a united team will probably take part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as these are hosted in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate. The UK also hosts many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in England and Rangers and Celtic in Scotland. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby League originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played all over Britain. In Rugby League the UK plays as one nation - Great Britain - whilst in union it is represented by the four nations. England are the current holders of the Rugby Union World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions (comprising the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) tour other countries. Cricket is also played in the UK, although it is focussed in England. The Wimbledon Championships are an international tennis event held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are seen as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar. Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK and St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course.
Miscellaneous topics

External links

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of the nations within the UK.
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html CIA World Factbook: UK.]
- [http://www.direct.gov.uk Gateway to UK governmental services and websites.]
- [http://www.number-10.gov.uk Number 10 Downing Street]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]
- [http://www.opsi.gov.uk Office of Public Sector Information] Source for all UK legislation 1987-present (successor to Her Majesty's Stationery Office).
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of the UK.
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk The British Monarchy]
- [http://www.parliament.uk/ The United Kingdom Parliament]
- [http://www.stati