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Austin Dobson

Austin Dobson

This article is the English auto racer. For the english poet, see: Henry Austin Dobson. Austin Dobson (born in Lodsworth, Sussex, August 19, 1912 - dead in Cuckfield, Sussex, March 13, 1963) was an auto driver from England. Brother of auto racer Arthur Charles, he partecipated at first edition, in 1936, of the Hungarian Grand Prix with Alfa Romeo. Dobson, Austin Dobson, Austin Dobson, Austin

Henry Austin Dobson

Henry Austin Dobson (January 18, 1840 – September 2, 1921) was an English poet and essayist. He was born at Plymouth, the eldest son of George Clarisse Dobson, a civil engineer, of French descent. When he was about eight, the family moved to Holyhead, and his first school was at Beaumaris in Anglesey. He was later educated at Coventry, and the Gymnase, Strasbourg. He returned at the age of sixteen with the intention of becoming a civil engineer. At the beginning of his career, he continued to study art at South Kensington, in his spare time, but without definite ambition. In December 1856 he entered the Board of Trade, gradually rising to the rank of principal in the harbour department, from which he retired in the autumn of 1901. In 1868, he had married Frances Mary, daughter of Nathiniel Beardmore of Broxbourne, Herts, and settled at Ealing. His official career was uneventful, but as a poet and biographer he was distinguished. Those who study his work are struck by its maturity. It was about 1864 that he turned his attention to writing original prose and verse, and some of his earliest work was his best. It was not until 1868 that the appearance of St Paul's, a magazine edited by Anthony Trollope, gave Harry Dobson an opportunity and an audience; and during the next six years he contributed some of his favourite poems, including "Tu Quoque," "A Gentleman of the Old School," "A Dialogue from Plato," and "Une Marquise." Many of his poems in their original form were illustrated--some, indeed, were written to support illustrations. By the autumn of 1873 Dobson had produced enough verse for a volume, and published Vignettes in Rhyme, which quickly went through three editions. During the period of their appearance in the magazine the poems had received unusual attention, George Eliot, among others, encouraging the anonymous author. The little book immediately introduced him to a larger public. The period was an interesting one for a first appearance, since the air was full of metrical experiment. Swinburne's bold excursions into classical metre had broken new ground; it was hopeless to attempt to compete, and the poets of the day were looking for fresh forms and variations. Early in 1876, a small body of English poets discovered the French forms of Théodore de Banville, Clement Marot and François Villon, and determined to introduce them into English verse. Austin Dobson, who had already made successful use of the triolet, was at the head of this movement, and in May 1876 he published in The Prodigals the first original ballade written in English. This he followed by English versions of the rondel, rondeau and villanelle. An article in the Cornhill Magazine by Edmund Gosse, "A Plea for Certain Exotic Forms of Verse," appearing in July 1877, simultaneously with Dobson's second volume, Proverbs in Porcelain, drew the general eye to the possibilities and achievements of the movement. The experiment was deemed a success. In 1883 Dobson published Old-World Idylls, which contained some of his most characteristic work. By this time his taste was gradually settling on the period with which it has since become almost exclusively associated; and the spirit of the 18th century was revived in "The Ballad of Beau Brocade" and in "The Story of Rosina", as nowhere else in modern English poetry. In "Beau Brocade", the pictorial quality of his work is at its very best. He has been compared with Randolph Caldecott, with which it has much in common; but Dobson's humour was not so "rollicking" and his portraiture not so broad as that of the illustrator of John Gilpin. His appeal was more intellectual. At the Sign of the Lyre (1885) was the next of Dobson's separate volumes of verse, and he also published a volume of Collected Poems (1897). At the Sign of the Lyre contains much variety. The admirably fresh and breezy "Ladies of St James's" has precisely the qualities we have traced in his other 18th-century poems; there are ballades and rondeaus, with all the earlier charm; and in "A Revolutionary Relic," as in "The Child Musician" of the Old-World Idylls, the poet reaches a depth of true pathos which he does not often attempt, but in which, when he seeks it, he never fails. Contrasting with these are the light occasional verses, influenced by Winthrop Mackworth Praed, but also quite individual. The chief novelty in At the Sign of the Lyre was the series of "Fables of Literature and Art," founded in manner upon John Gay. It is in these perhaps, more than in any other of his poems, that we see how Dobson interpenetrates the literature of fancy with the literature of judgment. After 1885 Dobson was engaged mainly in critical and biographical prose, by which he added considerably to the general knowledge of his favourite 18th century. His biographies of Henry Fielding (1883), Thomas Bewick (1884), Richard Steele (1886), Oliver Goldsmith (1888), Horace Walpole (1890) and William Hogarth (1879-1891-1897-1902-1907) are studies marked alike by assiduous research, sympathetic presentation and sound criticism. In Four Frenchwomen (1890), in the three series of Eighteenth-Century Vignettes (1892-1894-1896), and in The Paladin of Philanthropy (1899), which contain unquestionably his most delicate prose work, the accurate detail of each study is relieved by a charm of expression which could only be attained by a poet. In 1901 he collected his hitherto unpublished poems in a volume entitled Carmina Votiva. The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Austin Dobson, edited by A.T.A.Dobson, was published in 1923.

External links

- [http://oldpoetry.com/author/Austin%20Dobson Some poems]
- [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a2155 Works by Dobson at Project Gutenberg] This entry is updated from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Dobson, Henry Austin Dobson, Henry Austin Dobson, Henry Austin Dobson, Henry Austin Dobson, Henry Austin Dobson, Henry

Sussex

Sussex is a traditional county in south-eastern England, corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for administrative purposes into West Sussex and East Sussex and the city of Brighton and Hove. The latter was created a unitary authority in 1997; and was granted city status in 2000. Until then Chichester had been Sussex's only city. The divisisions of West Sussex and East Sussex were originally established in 1189, and had obtained separate administrations (Quarter Sessions) by the 16th century. This situation was recognised by the County of Sussex Act 1865. Under Local Government Act 1888 the two divisions were two administrative counties (along with three county boroughs): Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings). [http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/newsroom/CONNECTIONS_12%20.pdf] The appellation Sussex remained in use as a ceremonial county until 1974, when the Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex was replaced with one each for East and West Sussex. The whole of Sussex has had a single police force since 1968. Sussex still retains a strong local identity and the county's unofficial anthem is Sussex by the Sea. The county's motto, "We wun't be druv", reflects the strong-willed nature of its people in past centuries. Sussex's crest shows six martlets, each of which represents one of the six ancient rapes or sub-divisions of the county.

Geography

Relief

The physical geography of Sussex relies heavily on its lying on the southern part of the Wealden anticline. The major features of that is the high land which crosses the county in a west to east direction: the Weald itself, and the South Downs. The former consists of clays and sands; the latter chalk. Between those two ridges, mainly in West Sussex, lies the ‘’Vale of Sussex’’; at the eastern end of the county is the valley of the River Rother, which flows into what was a long sea inlet to reach the sea at Rye Bay.

The Weald

The Weald runs in an easterly direction from St Leonard’s Forest, south-west of Crawley; and continues to Ashdown Forest. Its eastern extremity is in two sections, divided by the River Rother valley. The northern arm reaches the sea at Folkestone; the southern at Fairlight Down east of Hastings, Within the Weald lies Sussex's highest point, the pine-clad Black Down, close to the Surrey border at 917 ft (280m). Another high point is in the part called Forest Ridges: a height of about 800 ft (240 m) is reached in the neighbourhood of Crowborough. The High Weald, as the main area is known, gets its name from ’’wilderness’’ or forest, and it remains the highest proportion of ancient woodlands in the country. Around 1660 the total area under forest as estimated to exceed 200,000 acres (800 km²), but much wood was cut to supply the furnaces of the ironworks which formed an important industry in the county down to the 17th century, which survived even until the early years of the 19th.

South Downs

The South Downs, start from a point near Petersfield in Hampshire . Entering Sussex, its summit is about 10 miles (16 km) from the sea. They run east for some 50 miles (80 km), gradually approaching the coast, and terminating in the bold promontory of Beachy Head near Eastbourne. The average height is about 500 ft (150 m), though Ditchling Beacon is 813 ft (248 m) (the third highest summit) and many other summits exceed 700 ft (210 m). Dry valleys are a feature of the Downs. One in particular, known as Devil's Dyke, north-west of Brighton, is a popular tourist and outdoor sports venue.

Vale of Sussex

The Vale of Sussex is the lower undulating land which came into being when the softer clays between the Weald and the Downs were worn away. Crossing the Vale are most of the rivers in Sussex: those rising on the slopes of the Weald and cutting through the Downs to reach the sea (see Drainage).

The coastal plain

This is a fertile narrow belt from Chichester to Brighton. Once noted for market gardening, it is now heavily built-up into a sprawling coastal conurbation. The beaches along the coast vary from sandy to shingle: that factor, together with the mild climate of the coast, sheltered by the hills from north and east winds, have resulted in the growth of numerous resort towns, of which the most popular are Brighton, Hastings, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Seaford, Shoreham, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor. See also: Sussex coast.

Marshland

There are several areas of low-lying marshland along the coast; from west to east these are:
- in the west of the county, south of Chichester , lying between Chichester Harbour and Pagham Harbour;
- beyond Beachy Head, the ‘’Pevensey Levels’’;
- beyond Hastings, the ‘’Pett Levels’’;
- beyond Rye, the ‘’Walland Marsh’’ part of Romney Marsh. All were originally bays; natural coastal deposition and man-made protective walls have given rise to alluvial deposition.

Drainage

The rivers wholly within the county are relatively short. All rise in the Weald (St Leonard’s Forest area) and, apart from the eastern River Rother, flow south to the English Channel, using gaps in the South Downs as they do so. The mouths of all have been affected by longshore drift, particularly during violent storms during the Middle Ages. From west to east they are:
- Arun, and its tributary the western River Rother (Western): source of Arun near Horsham ; entering the sea at Littlehampton
- Adur: source near Cuckfield; mouth near Shoreham-by-Sea
- Ouse: source near Lower Beeding; mouth at Newhaven
- Cuckmere: rising near Heathfield; mouth ‘’Cuckmere Haven’’.
- Eastern River Rother and its many tributaries including the Rivers Bewl (flowing through Bewl Water) and Tillingham: source, the Weald near Heathfield; it flows in an easterly direction and enters the sea at Rye Bay. A section known as the Kent Ditch forms the boundary between East Sussex and Kent.

Climate

South East England combines the highest average daytime temperatures found in the British Isles with the highest sunshine averages on the British mainland. Between 25-30 inches (635-760mm) of rain fall; and there can be high variation of temperature between day and night, resulting in bracing air. The climate of the coast district is strongly influenced by the sea, which because of its tendency to warm up slower than land, can result in cooler temperatures than inland. This is especially noticeable in the autumn months, by which time the coast had higher temperatures. Rainfall during the summer months is mainly from thunderstorms and thundery showers; from October to January the heavier rainfall is due to south-westerly frontal systems. the coast has consistently more sunshine the inland: sea breezes, blowing off the sea, clear any cloud from the coast. Further details of climatic conditions along the coast may be found [http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/weather/climlse.asp#temp here]
Industries

Agriculture
Sussex has retained much of its rural nature: apart from the coastal strip, there it has few large towns. Although in 1841 over 40% of the population were employed in agriculture (including fishing{

1912

1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday.

Events

January-March

- January 1 - Establishment of Republic of China.
- January 5 - Prague Party Conference
- January 6 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
- January 17 - British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four begin the second expedition to reach the South Pole.
- January 23 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
- February 8 - Mexican Revolution - Military rebellion against the rule of Francisco Madero begins in Mexico City. Battles last for 10 days
- February 12 - Republic of China adopts the Gregorian calendar
- February 14 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
- February 14 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
- February 18 - Francisco Madero is forced to resign - battle ends. All members of Madero's government are arrested.
- February 19 - Prizes are included in Cracker Jack candy boxes for the first time
- February 22 - Francisco Madero and Pino Suarez are shot, allegedly when they "tried to escape"
- March 1 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
- March 1 - Georg Ritter von Trapp, head of the famous Austrian singing family memorialized in the musical The Sound of Music marries Agathe
- March 5 - Italian forces are the first to use airships for a military purpose by using them for reconnaissance west of Tripoli behind Turkish lines.
- March 7 - Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole
- March 7 - French aviator Henri Seimet makes the first non-stop flight from Paris to London in three hours
- March 12 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts) are founded.
- March 16 - Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time"
- March 27 - Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry blossom trees to be planted in Washington, D.C. to symbolize the friendship between the two countries.
- March 30 - France establishes a protectorate over Morocco.

April-September

- April 15 - Sinking of the RMS Titanic.
- April 17 - Solar eclipse in Europe.
- April 19 - United States Senate inquiry into the Titanic sinking begins.
- May 2 - British Board of Trade inquiry into the sinking of Titanic begins.
- May 3 - The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- May 5 - The 1912 Summer Olympics open in Stockholm, Sweden.
- May 13 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
- June 4 - Fire in Constantinople - 1120 buildings destroyed
- June 5 - US Marines land on Cuba
- June 6-June 8 - Eruption of Novarupta in Alaska, second largest volcanic eruption in historic time.
- June 8 - Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.
- July 12 - Greek island of Icana declares independence (Greece annexes it in November)
- July 19 - A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg exploded over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.
- July 30 - the Meiji Emperor of Japan, dies. He is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, the Taisho Emperor. In Japanese History, the event marks the end of the Meiji period and the beginning of the Taisho Era.
- August 12 - Sultan Abd al-Hafiz of Morocco abdicates.
- August 25 - Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party is founded.
- September 25 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism founded in New York,_New York.

October-November

- October 8 - First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against Turkey.
- October 14 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper William Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
- October 16 - Bulgarian pilots Radul Minkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the first bombing with an airplane in history at the railway station of Karaagac near Edirne against Turkey.
- November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1912: Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Taft's base was undercut by Progressive Party candidate (and former Republican) Theodore Roosevelt, who finished second, ahead of Taft.
- November 7 - The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opened in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.
- November 11 - Chios declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
- November 24 - Mine explosion in Hokkaido, Japan - 245 dead
- November 27 - Spain declares a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.
- November 28 - Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

December

- December 3 - First Balkan War ends temporarily - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.

Unknown dates

- Sea Scouting begins under the aegis of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Kazimierz Funk identifies vitamins.
- The first blues song, "The Memphis Blues," is published.
- Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of continental drift.
- Mount Katmai in Alaska explodes.
- Piltdown Man presented in Britain.
- British treasure hunters try to drain Lake Guatavita to find gold – they find nothing.
- African National Congress

Births

January-February

- January 1 - Kim Philby, British spy (d. 1988)
- January 3 - Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (d. 2005)
- January 6 - Jacques Ellul, French philosopher (d. 1994)
- January 7 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
- January 8 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1992)
- January 19 - Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- January 21 - Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2000)
- January 28 - Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
- January 30 - Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian (d. 1989)
- February 4 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (d. 1993)
- February 6 - Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress (d. 1945)
- February 11 - Roy Fuller, English poet and novelist (d. 1991)
- February 19 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
- February 20 - Pierre Boulle, French author (d. 1994)
- February 27 - Lawrence Durrell, British writer (d. 1990)

March-April

- March 5 - David Astor, British newspaper publisher (d. 2001)
- March 8 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (d. 2003)
- March 12 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet
- March 14 - Les Brown, American band leader (d. 2001)
- March 15 - Lightnin' Hopkins, American musician (d. 1982)
- March 16 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- March 17 - Bayard Rustin, American civil rights activist (d. 1987)
- March 18 - Lucien Laurin, Canadian horse trainer (d. 2000)
- March 22 - Karl Malden, American actor
- March 23 - Betty Astell, British actress (d. 2005)
- March 23 - Wernher von Braun, German-born physicist and engineer (d. 1977)
- March 27 - James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- April 8 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (d. 1969)
- April 12 - Walt Gorney, American actor (d. 2004)
- April 15 - Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
- April 19 - Glenn T. Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- April 22 - Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (d. 1953)
- April 26 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born writer (d. 2000)
- April 28 - Odette Sansom, French World War II heroine (d. 1995)

May-July

- May 3 - Virgil Fox, American organist (d. 1980)
- May 9 - Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican actor (d. 1963)
- May 9 - Per Imerslund, "The aryan idol" (d. 1943)
- May 11 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
- May 12 - Archibald Cox, Watergate special prosecutor (d. 2001)
- May 14 - Ben Hogan, American golfer (d. 1997)
- May 16 - Studs Terkel, American writer and broadcaster
- May 18 - Perry Como, American singer (d. 2001)
- May 18 - Walter Sisulu, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 2003)
- May 21 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 22 - Herbert C. Brown, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- May 23 - Jean Françaix, French composer (d. 1997)
- May 23 - John Payne, American actor (d. 1989)
- May 25 - Princess Dukhye of Korea (d. 1989)
- May 27 - Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)
- May 28 - Patrick White, Australian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- May 30 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- May 31 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (d. 1979)
- June 6 - Maria Montez, Dominican actress (d. 1951)
- June 23 - Alan Turing, British mathematician (d. 1954)
- June 25 - William T. Cahill, American politician (d. 1996)
- June 26 - Jay Silverheels, American actor (d. 1980)
- June 27 - Chen Kenmin, Japanese chef (d. 1990)
- June 30 - Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (d. 2003)
- July 1 - David R. Brower, American environmentalist (d. 2000)
- July 14 - Woody Guthrie, American folk musician (d. 1969)
- July 17 - Art Linkletter, American television host
- July 31 - Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 31 - Irv Kupcinet, American newspaper columnist (d. 2003)

August-November

- August 9 - Anne Brown, American soprano
- August 10 - Jorge Amado de Faria, Brazilian author (d. 2001)
- August 11 - Thanom Kittikachorn, Prime Minister of Thailand (d. 2004)
- August 11 - Norman Levinson, American mathematician (d. 1975)
- August 13 - Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1991)
- August 15 - Julia Child, American chef (d. 2004)
- August 16 - Ted Drake, English footballer (d. 1995)
- August 16 - Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
- August 23 - Gene Kelly, American actor (d. 1996)
- August 25 - Erich Honecker, East German leader (d. 1994)
- August 30 - Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
- August 30 - Nancy Wake, New Zealand World War II heroine
- September 5 - John Cage, American composer (d. 1992)
- September 11 - David Packard, American electrical engineer (d. 1996)
- September 19 - Kurt Sanderling, German conductor
- September 21 - Chuck Jones, American animator (d. 2002)
- September 22 - Martha Scott, American actress (d. 2003)
- September 24 - Don Porter, American actor (d. 1997)
- September 29 - Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director
- October 5 - Karl Hass, Nazi war criminal (d. 2004)
- October 5 - Kristina Söderbaum, German actress (d. 2001)
- October 17 - Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)
- October 21 - Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1997)
- October 22 - Johan Hendrik Weidner, Belgian World War II resistance fighter (d. 1994)
- October 25 - Minnie Pearl, American commedienne (d. 1996)
- October 27 - Conlon Nancarrow, American composer (d. 1997)
- November 4 - Vadim Salmanov, Russian composer (d. 1978)
- November 10 - Birdie Tebbetts, baseball player and manager (d. 1999)
- November 11 - Larry LaPrise American songwriter (d. 1996)
- November 14 - Barbara Hutton, American socialite (d. 1979)
- November 14 - T. Y. Lin, Chinese-born civil engineer (d. 2003)
- November 19 - George Emil Palade, Romanian cell biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- November 21 - Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (d. 1982)
- November 26 - Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-born playwright (d. 1994)

December

- December 11 - Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer
- December 12 - Henry Armstrong, American boxer (d. 1988)
- December 25 - Natalino Otto, Italian singer (d. 1969)
- December 27 - Conroy Maddox, British painter (d. 2005)

Deaths

- January 28 - Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (b. 1819)
- February 16 - Nikolai of Japan, Eastern Orthodox monk and saint (b. 1836)
- February 25 - Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (b. 1852)
- March 1 - George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer (b. 1847)
- March 29 - Robert Falcon Scott, British Antarctic explorer (froze to death) (b. 1868)
- March 30 - Karl May, German author (b. 1842)
- April 15 - Victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic:
- Edward J. Smith, ship's captain (b. 1850)
- John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman (b. 1864)
- Archibald Butt, American presidential aide (b. 1865)
- Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)
- William Thomas Stead, English journalist (b. 1849)
- Isidor Straus, German-American owner of Macy's (b. 1845)
- Thomas Andrews, Jr., Titanic shipbuilder (b.1873)
- May 14 - August Strindberg, Swedish playwright and painter (b. 1849)
- May 14 - Frederick VIII, King of Denmark (b. 1843)
- May 25 - Austin Lane Crothers, American politician (b. 1860)
- May 30 - Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (b. 1867)
- June 12 - Frédéric Passy, French economist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1822)
- July 1 - Harriet Quimby, American pilot (b. 1875)
- July 2 - Tom Richardson, English cricketer (b. 1870)
- July 30 - Meiji Emperor of Japan (b. 1852)
- August 7 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (b. 1841)
- August 8 - Ross Winn, American anarchist writer and publisher (b. 1871)
- October 6 - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert, Belgian statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1829)
- October 24 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (b. 1842)
- October 30 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (b. 1855)
- November 10 - Louis Cyr, Canadian strongman (b. 1863)
- November 28 - Walter Benona Sharp, American oil pioneer (b. 1870)
- December 23 - Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (b. 1850)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Nils Gustaf Dalén
- Chemistry - Victor Grignard, Paul Sabatier
- Medicine - Alexis Carrel
- Literature - Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann
- Peace - Elihu Root Category:1912 ko:1912년 ms:1912 ja:1912年 simple:1912 th:พ.ศ. 2455

Cuckfield

Cuckfield is a town in the borough of Mid Sussex, in West Sussex, England. It is in the hundred of Buttinghill, in the rape of Lewes. The town grew as an important coaching stop between London and Brighton, but after the railway was routed away from Cuckfield, the town stagnated. Gideon Mantell found the first known iguanodon fossils near the town, on a site where a monument to him now stands. He also features in the town's museum. Other attractions include the Elizabethan stately home Cuckfield Park. Category:Towns in West Sussex

March 13

March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). There are 293 days remaining.

Events

- 483 - St. Felix becomes Pope.
- 874 - The bones of Saint Nicephorus are interred in the Church of the Apostles, Constantinople.
- 1138 - Cardinal Gregory is elected anti-pope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II.
- 1639 - Harvard College was named for clergyman John Harvard.
- 1781 - William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus.
- 1862 - American Civil War:the US federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
- 1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America reluctantly agrees to the use of African American troops.
- 1881 - Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was 1 March in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)
- 1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
- 1897 - San Diego State University founded.
- 1900 - Boer Wars: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
- 1900 - In France, length of a workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law
- 1921 - Mongolia, under Black Baron, declares its independence from China.
- 1925 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.
- 1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the United States begin to re-open after the Presidentially mandated "bank holiday".
- 1940 - Winter War ended.
- 1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
- 1943 - Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
- 1954 - Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
- 1957 - The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery.
- 1964 - A young woman, Kitty Genovese is murdered in front of multiple witnesses who all fail to help her, in an incident which shocks the world and prompts investigation into the Bystander effect.
- 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
- 1971 - In New York City, Rock group The Allman Brothers Band record a concert that will be released as their classic live album At Fillmore East
- 1979 - The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.
- 1988 - I. King Jordan becomes the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University after the Deaf President Now demonstrations.
- 1991 - The United States Justice Department announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
- 1992 - In eastern Turkey, an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500.
- 1993 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec.
- 1996 - The Dunblane Massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 adult teacher are shot dead by a spree killer who then commits suicide.
- 1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
- 1997 - In Phoenix, Arizona, Arizona, the Phoenix Lights, one of the most widely witnessed UFO sightings, take place.
- 2003 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints have been found in Italy.

Births

- 2 - Apollonius of Tyana
- 1372 - Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France (d. 1407)
- 1615 - Pope Innocent XII (d. 1700)
- 1683 - John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-British philosopher (d. 1744)
- 1700 - Michel Blavet, French flutist (d. 1768)
- 1719 - John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal (d. 1797)
- 1720 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturlaist and writer (d. 1793)
- 1733 - Joseph Priestley, English scientist and minister (d. 1804)
- 1741 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1790)
- 1763 - Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French marshal (d. 1815)
- 1764 - Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1845)
- 1781 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect (d. 1841)
- 1784 - Jean Moufot, French philosopher and mathematician (d. 1842)
- 1798 - Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States (d. 1853)
- 1815 - James Curtis Hepburn, American missionary and linguist (d. 1911)
- 1855 - Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d. 1916)
- 1860 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (d. 1903)
- 1864 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (d. 1941)
- 1884 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941)
- 1899 - John Hasbrouck van Vleck, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
- 1900 - Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (d. 1981)
- 1900 - George Seferis, Turkish-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- 1908 - Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (d. 2002)
- 1910 - Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt, Danish actor (d. 1985)
- 1910 - Sammy Kaye, American musician (d. 1987)
- 1911 - L. Ron Hubbard, American author (d. 1986)
- 1913 - William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1987)
- 1913 - Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer
- 1914 - Edward O'Hare, American pilot (d. 1943)
- 1921 - Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
- 1926 - Raúl Alfonsín, President of Argentina
- 1926 - Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (d. 2003)
- 1927 - Robert Denning, Interior designer (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Peter Breck, American actor
- 1934 - Barry Hughart, American author
- 1935 - Michael Walzer, American philosopher
- 1935 - Leslie Parrish, American actress
- 1938 - Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)
- 1939 - Neil Sedaka, American singer and songwriter
- 1942 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer
- 1942 - Scatman John, American singer (d. 1999)
- 1945 - Michael Martin Murphey, American musician
- 1946 - Jonathan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier (d. 1976)
- 1947 - Beat Richner, Swiss physician and cellist
- 1949 - Julia Migenes, American soprano
- 1950 - William H. Macy, American actor
- 1951 - Fred Berry, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
- 1952 - Wolfgang Rihm, German composer
- 1954 - The Baroness Amos, British politician
- 1956 - Dana Delany, American actress
- 1960 - Adam Clayton, Irish bassist (U2)
- 1967 - Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (d. 1994)
- 1971 - Annabeth Gish, American actress
- 1971 - Robert Lanham, American author and satirist
- 1973 - Edgar Davids, Dutch football player
- 1973 - David Draiman, American musician and songwriter
- 1974 - Cillian Murphy, Irish actor
- 1974 - Tatiana Cibele Mendonca Pereira, Brazilian educator and author
- 1976 - Danny Masterson, American actor
- 1979 - Johan Santana, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- 1985 - Emile Hirsch, American actor
- 1986 - Natalie and Nicole Albino, American musicians (Nina Sky)

Deaths

- 1271 - Henry of Almain, English crusader (b. 1235)
- 1395 - John Barbour, Scottish poet
- 1516 - King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (b. 1456)
- 1569 - Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French Huguenot general (b. 1530)
- 1573 - Michel de l'Hôpital, French statesman
- 1604 - Arnaud d'Ossat, French diplomat and writer (b. 1537)
- 1619 - Richard Burbage, English actor (b. 1567)
- 1711 - Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (b. 1636)
- 1778 - Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
- 1808 - King Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1749)
- 1918 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (b. 1835)
- 1842 - Henry Shrapnel, soldier and inventor (b. 1761)
- 1879 - Adolf Anderssen, German chess player (b. 1818)
- 1881 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1818)
- 1884 - Leland Stanford, Jr., American railroad magnate (b. 1868)
- 1901 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
- 1906 - Susan B. Anthony, American women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)
- 1918 - César Cui, Russian composer (b. 1835)
- 1938 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Russian politician and intellectual (b. 1888)
- 1938 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
- 1943 - Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (b. 1898)
- 1955 - King Tribhuvan of Nepal (b. 1906)
- 1965 - Corrado Gini, Italian statistician (b. 1884)
- 1965 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop, poet, and politician (b. 1882)
- 1972 - Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (b. 1941)
- 1975 - Ivo Andrić, Serbo-Croatian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
- 1990 - Bruno Bettelheim, American psychiatrist (b. 1903)
- 1991 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (b. 1915)
- 1995 - Leon Day, baseball player (b. 1916)
- 1996 - Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (b. 1941)
- 1998 - Bill Reid, Canadian artist (b. 1920)
- 1998 - Hans von Ohain, German engineer (b. 1911)
- 1999 - Garson Kanin, American writer and director (b. 1912)
- 2002 - Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (b. 1900)
- 2004 - Franz König, Austrian Catholic Archbishop of Vienna (b. 1905)

Holidays and observances

- Roman Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church - Feast day of Saint Nicephorus

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/3/13 Today in History: March 13] ---- March 12 - March 14 - February 13 - April 13 -- listing of all days ko:3월 13일 ms:13 Mac ja:3月13日 simple:March 13 th:13 มีนาคม

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