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William Fanshawe Martin

William Fanshawe Martin

Sir William Fanshawe Martin, GCB (December 5, 1801 - March 24, 1895), was a British admiral. He was the son of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thomas Byam Martin, comptroller of the navy, and grandson, on the mother's side, of Captain Robert Fanshawe, who commanded the "Namur 90" in George Rodney's victory of April 12, 1782. Entering the navy at the age of twelve, his fathers interest secured his rapid promotion: he was made a lieutenant on December 15, 1820; on February 8, 1823 he was promoted to be commander of the "Fly" sloop, his good service in which in support of the interests of British merchants at Callao secured his promotion as captain on June 5, 1824. He afterwards served in the Mediterranean and on the home station. In 1849-1852 he was commodore commanding the Channel squadron, and gave evidence of a remarkable aptitude for command. He was made rear-admiral in May 1853, and for the next four years was superintendent of Portsmouth dockyard. He was made vice-admiral in February 1858, and after a year as a lord of the admiralty, was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean Sea. The discipline of the navy was then bad. It was a tradition sprung from the wholesale shipment of gaol-birds during the old war, that the men were to be treated without consideration; moreover the ships had been largely filled up with bounty men bought into the service with a £10 note, without training. Out of this unpromising material Martin formed the fleet which was at that time the ideal of excellence. He had no war service, and, beyond the Italian disturbance of 1860-61, no opportunity for showing diplomatic ability. But his memory lives as that of the reformer of discipline and the originator of a comprehensive system of steam manoeuvres. He became an admiral in November 1863, and on the 4th of December succeeded to the baronetcy which had been conferred on his grandfather. His last appointment was the command at Plymouth, 1866-1869, and in 1870 he was put on the retired list. In 1873 the GCB was conferred on him, and in 1878 he was made rear-admiral. He died at Upton Grey, near Winchfield, on the 24th of March 1895. He was twice married, and left, besides daughters, one son, who succeeded to the baronetcy. ---- Martin, William Martin, William Martim, William Martin, William Martin, William

Knighthood

.]] :For the chess piece, see knight (chess). The term knight from the High Middle Ages referred to armed equestrians of royalty and high nobility, in particular heavy cavalry. From the 13th century, the rank of some knights became hereditary. Concurrently, Militant monastic orders were established during the time of the crusades, and from the 14th century imitated by numerous chivalric orders. The British honours system originates with the chivalric Order of the Garter, and has diversified into various other orders since the 17th century.

History

The word knight derives from Old English cniht, meaning page boy, or servant (as is still the case in the cognate Dutch and German knecht), or simply boy. Knighthood, as Old English cnihthad, had the meaning of adolescence, i.e. the period between childhood and manhood. The sense of (adult) lieutenant of a king or other superior dates to ca. 1100. From the time of Henry III, a knight bachelor was a member of the lower nobility, preceded by the knight banneret, a commander of ten or more lances who could lead his men under his own banner, but who didn't have the rank of baron or earl. The knights bachelor did not wear any insignia until 1296. The verb "to knight", i.e. to bestow knighthood, dates to that time (the late 13th century). 1296 (Codex Manesse).]] During the 14th century, the concept became tied to cavalry, mounted and armoured soldiers, and thus to the earlier class of noble Roman warriors known as equites (see esquire). Because of the cost of equipping oneself in the cavalry, the term became associated with wealth and social status, and eventually knighthood became a formal title. The concept, together with the notion of chivalry came to full bloom during the Hundred Years' War. During the same period, however, the importance of heavy cavalry was rendered obsolete by improved pikemen and Longbow tactics (a bitter lesson for the nobility, learned throughout the 14th century at battles like those of Crécy, Bannockburn and Laupen), so that during the 14th century, the notion of chivalry became a nostalgic reconstruction almost as soon as it came into fashion. The "knights in shining armour" of the 15th and 16th centuries, by that time in full plate armour, were mostly confined to the jousting grounds, and the romantic Pas d'Armes. The chess piece was named in this period, around 1440. Via the transitional Cuirassiers of the 16th century, cavalry resurfaced once again in light, unarmoured form, in the 17th century, but by now useless for attacking entrenched infantry, and not any longer associated with knighthood. Knighthood as a purely formal title bestowed by the British monarch unrelated to military service was established in the 16th century.

Early heavy cavalry

Cuirassier, Iran (4th century)]] The origin of heavily armoured cavalry (Cataphractes) lies in Sassanid Persia, and medieval chivalry absorbed many Persian traditions in the course of the Perso-Byzantine wars. For example, Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman general and historian, who served in the army of Constantius II in Gaul and Persia, fought against the Persians under Julian the Apostate and took part in the retreat of his successor, Jovian. He describes the Persian knight as: ::"All their companies clad in iron, and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff joints conformed with those of their limbs; and forms of the human faces were so skillfully fitted to their heads, that since their entire bodies were covered with metal, arrows that fell upon them could lodge only where they could see a little through tiny openings opposite the pupil of the eye, or where through the tips of their noses they were able to get a little breath." ::"The Persians opposed us serried bands of mail-clad horsemen in such close order that the gleam of moving bodies covered with closely fitting plates of iron dazzled the eyes of those who looked upon them, while the whole throng of horses was protected by coverings of leather. " An Equestrian (Latin eques, plural equites) was a member of one of the two upper social classes in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as Knight or Chevalier. The social position of knights and equestrians, however, was extremely similar, equestrians being the nearest Roman equivalent to Medieval nobility, the tax farming system closely approaching feudalism without actually being identical due to inherent differences in the social structure. Up to the 5th century, Sarmatian cavalry units were stationed in Britain as part of the Roman army (see Roman departure from Britain), allowing for a direct influence of Roman Cataphractes on Migration Age Europe. According to a theory of Littleton and Thomas (1978), the legend of King Arthur, the prototypical knight of High Medieval literature, was directly inspired by these Sarmatian troops (however, it is most likely that the only reason we view Arthur and his retainers as knights was simply because the Arthurian Cycle became popular in a time in which knighthood was predominant).

Becoming a Knight

notDuring the High Middle Ages, it was technically possible for every free man to become a knight, but the process of becoming (and the equipping of) a knight was very expensive; thus it was more likely that a knight would come from a noble (or wealthy) family. The process of being knighted began before adolescence, inside the prospective knight’s own home, where he was taught courtesy and appropriate manners. Around the age of 7 years, he would be sent away to train and serve at a grander household as a page. Here, he would serve as a kind of waiter and personal servant, entertaining and serving food to his elders. He would learn basic hunting and falconry, and also various battle skills such as taking care of, preparing, and riding horses, as well as use of weapons and armour. At about fourteen years of age, the page was assigned to a knight to serve as his personal companion and aide, as a squire. This allowed the squire to observe his master while he was in battle, in order to learn from his techniques. He also acted as a servant to the knight, taking care of his master’s equipment and horse. This was to uphold the knight’s code that promoted generosity, courtesy, compassion, and most importantly, loyalty. Once the squire had established sufficient mastery of the required skills, he was dubbed a knight. There was no set age for this, but it usually occurred between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. In the early period, the procedure began with the squire praying into the night. He was then bathed, and in the morning he was dressed in a white shirt, gold tunic, purple cloak, and was knighted by his king or lord. As the Middle Ages progressed, the process changed. The squire was made to vow that he would obey the regulations of chivalry, and never flee from battle. Then women would buckle on his armour. A squire could also be knighted on the battlefield, in which a lord simply struck him on the shoulder and said, “Be thou a knight”. Later, as military technology and society evolved, knighthood became irrelevant to warfare (the Golden Spurs battle of 1302 was seen as a landmark: the largest knightly army in christendom, fielded by the French king, was destroyed by infantry; soon firearms would revolutionize war even more), while its theoretically irrelevant link with nobility (generally only nobles were knighted, and in noble families most males were expected to be) encouraged it to survive with an essentially civilian ethos of social stratification. In various traditions, knighthood was reserved for people with a minimum of noble quarters (as in many orders of chivalry), or knight became essentially a low degree of nobility, sometimes even conferred as a hereditary title below the peerage. Meanwhile monarchy strived, as an expression of Absolutism, to monopolize the right to confer knighthood, even as an individual honour. Not only was this often successful, once established, this prerogative of the Head of State was even transferred to the successors of dynasties in republican regimes, such as the British Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (his very title means Regent in stead of the abolished -Stuart- King) Cromwell.

Knighthood and the Feudal system

Knighthood was closely connected with the feudal system. Originating largely in what later became known as France, this was a social organisation in which warfare and the protection of the common people became the specialised skill of a select group. Instead of having them paid in cash — of which everyone, even the monarch, was short — they were paid in land. These rather extensive pieces of land were the fiefs. Though a fief did not have to be land — it could be any payment — it is generally thought of as the land that the knights were given as payment for service to the king. The knights were economically supported by peasants who worked to produce food and ideologically supported by the contemporary church. Sometimes these knights were the noble themselves and sometimes men they hired, because noblemen were disinclined or unable to fight. In times of war or national disorder the monarch would typically call all the knights together to do their annual service of fighting. This could be against internal threats to the nation or in defensive and offensive wars against other nations. As time went by, monarchs began to prefer standing (permanent) armies because they could be used for longer periods of time, were more professional and were generally more loyal; partly because those noblemen who were themselves knights, or who sent knights to fight, were prone to use the monarch's dependency on their resources to manipulate him. This move from knights to standing armies had two important outcomes: the regular payment of "scutage" to monarchs by noblemen (a money payment instead of actually going to fight as a knight) which would strengthen the concept and practice of taxation, and a general decrease in military discipline in knights, who became more interested in their country estates and chivalric pursuits, including killing Originally, knighthood could be bestowed on any man by a knight commander, but it was generally considered more prestigious to be dubbed a knight by the hand of a monarch or royalty; the monarch eventually acquired the exclusive right to confer knighthoods known as Fount of honour. By about the late 13th century, partly in conjunction with the focus on courtly behavior, a code of conduct and uniformity of dress for knights began to evolve. Knights were eligible to wear a white belt and golden spurs as signs of their status. Moreover, knights were also required to swear allegiance — either to a liege lord or to a military order. Knights had servants: pages and squires. squire In theory, knights were the Christian warrior class defending the people of Medieval Europe and followed a code of chivalry, which was a set of customs governed the knights behavior. Knights served mightier lords, usually as vassals, or were hired by them, some had their own castle, others joined a military order or a crusade. In reality, rules were often bended or blatently broken by knights as well as their masters, for power, goods or honor, some knights even turned to organised crime. They went through a long process to become a knight involving three stages: start as a page, moving on to be a personal squire, and after they have passed their training they could be knighted. The first stage in the process of becoming a knight is being a page. Training of a knight began at a very young age, the age of seven, serving as a "Page" until he was 14 years old (Hull). A Page was usually the son of a vassal, who sent him to his or another lord’s castle to become a page. For seven years a page was cared for by the women of the house, who instructed him in comportment, courtesy, cleanliness, and religion (Ross). The page served the lord, by working, serving, and doing chores. He also learned how to use a sword and ride a horse. A page became a squire when he turned 14 years of age. When he became a squire, the boy was assigned or picked by a knight to become his personal aid. The squire looked after the knight’s armor, horse and other belongings as well as served him at his meals and helped him with other tasks. The knight acted as a tutor and taught the squire all he needed to know to become a knight. As the squire grew older, he was expected to follow his master into battle, and protect his master if the knight fell in battle. Some squires became knights for performing an outstanding deed on the battlefield, but most were knighted at home by their lord or father when their training was judged to be complete (Gilberts). A squire became a knight when he was about 18 to 21 years old. The night before his knighting ceremony, the squire would take a cleansing bath, fast, make confession, and pray to God all night in the chapel, readying himself for his life as a knight. Then he would go through the knighting ceremony the following day. Knights followed the code of chivalry, which promoted honor, honesty, respect to God, and other knightly virtues. Knights served their lords and were paid in land, because money was scarce. Knights chose their squires, and trained and didnt teach them

Chivalric code

Military-monastic orders

- Knights Hospitaller, founded during the First Crusade
- Order of Saint Lazarus established ca. 1100, abolished 1830
- Knights Templar, founded 1118, disbanded 1307
- Teutonic knights, founded ca. 1190, ruling Prussia until 1525 Other orders were established in the Iberian peninsula in imitation of the orders in the Holy Land, in Avis in 1143, in Alcantara in 1156, in Calatrava in 1158, in Santiago in 1164.

Honorific orders

From roughly 1560, purely honorific orders were established, designed as a way to confer prestige and distinction, unrelated to military service or chivalry in the more narrow sense. Such orders were particularly popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and knighthood continues to be conferred in various countries:
- The United Kingdom (see British honours system) and some Commonwealth countries;
- Most European countries, such as The Netherlands (see below).
- Malaysia — see Malay titles;
- Thailand;
- The Holy See — see [http://www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/main2.htm]. There are other monarchies and also republics that also follow the practice. Modern knighthoods are typically awarded in recognition for services rendered to society, services which are no longer necessarily martial in nature. The musician Elton John, for example, is entitled to call himself Sir Elton. The female equivalent is a Dame. Accompanying the title is the given name, and optionally the surname. So, Elton John may be called Sir Elton or Sir Elton John, but never Sir John. Similarly, actress Judi Dench D.B.E. may be addressed as Dame Judi or Dame Judi Dench, but never Dame Dench. Wives of knights, however, are entitled to the honorific "Lady" before their husband's surname. Thus Sir Paul McCartney's wife is styled Lady McCartney, not Lady Paul McCartney or Lady Heather McCartney. The style Dame Heather McCartney could be used; however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents. State Knighthoods in the Netherlands are issued in three orders, the Order of William, the Order of the Dutch Lion, and the Order of Orange Nassau. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in The Netherlands.

External links

- [http://www.partow.com/sassan.html "Rock Carvings of the Sassanian Kings"]
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- [http://www.almanachdechivalry.com/ Almanach de Chivalry]

Literature

- Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre, The knights of the crown : the monarchical orders of knighthood in later medieval Europe, 1325-1520, Woodbridge, Suffolk : Boydell Press, 1987. Second revised edition (paperback): Woodbridge, Suffolk and Rochester, NY : Boydell Press, 2000.
- Forey, Alan John, The military orders : from the twelfth to the early fourteenth centuries, Basingstoke : Macmillan Education, 1992. Category:Feudalism Category:Positions of authority Category:Honorary titles Category:Medieval warfare Category:Warriors ja:騎士

December 5

December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 26 days remaining.

Events

- 1484 - Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the severest witchhunts in European history.
- 1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola.
- 1560 - Francis II of France dies and is succeeded by Charles IX of France.
- 1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati becomes Pope Gregory XIV.
- 1766 - In London, James Christie holds his first sale.
- 1776 - At the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Phi Beta Kappa is founded as the first scholastic fraternity in the United States.
- 1831 - Former US President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
- 1848 - California gold rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
- 1892 - Sir John Thompson becomes the fourth Prime Minister of Canada.
- 1926 - Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin is premiered.
- 1932 - German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
- 1933 - Prohibition ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had outlawed alcohol in the United States).
- 1934 - Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.
- 1936 - The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
- 1941 - In Battle of Moscow Zhukov launched a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre.
- 1941 - John Steinbeck's book Sea of Cortez is published (Steinbeck used knowledge gained writing this book to develop the marine biologist character Doc in Cannery Row).
- 1945 - Flight 19, a squadron of five U.S. Navy TBF Avenger bombers on a training flight out of Fort Lauderdale, is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
- 1952 - The Abbott and Costello Show, starring comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, debuts on American television.
- 1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL-CIO.
- 1958 - Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
- 1964 - Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon of Saugerties, New York is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
- 1974 - Party Political Broadcast, the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, is broadcast on BBC 2.
- 1976 - United Nations General Assembly adopts Pakistan resolution on security of non-Nuclear States.
- 1977 - Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move is in retaliation to the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.
- 1978 - The Soviet Union signs a 'friendship treaty' with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
- 1979 - Sonia Johnson is formally excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for her outspoken criticism of the church concerning the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
- 1992 - Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only US Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day.
- 2004 - BJP dissidents in the Indian state of West Bengal launch the Dr. Syamaprasad Jana Jagaran Manch forum.
- 2005 - The 2005 Southeast Asian Games end in Manila.
- 2005 - The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Births

- 1377 - Jianwen Emperor of China (d. 1402)
- 1443 - Pope Julius II (d. 1513)
- 1495 - Nicolas Cleynaerts, Flemish grammarian (d. 1542)
- 1537 - Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shogun (d. 1597)
- 1539 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (d. 1604)
- 1547 - Ubbo Emmius, Dutch historian and geographer (d. 1625)
- 1595 - Henry Lawes, English composer (d. 1662)
- 1661 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (d. 1724)
- 1687 - Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1762)
- 1782 - Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862)
- 1803 - Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, Russian lyric poet (d. 1873)
- 1820 - Afanasy Fet, Russian poet (d. 1892)
- 1822 - Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, American president of Radcliffe College (d. 1907)
- 1830 - Christina Rossetti, British poet (d. 1894)
- 1839 - George Armstrong Custer, American general (d. 1876)
- 1841 - Marcus Daly, American mining tycoon (d. 1900)
- 1850 - Alexander Girardi, Austrian actor (d. 1918)
- 1855 - Clinton Hart Merriam, American ornithologist (d. 1942)
- 1859 - John Jellicoe, British Royal Navy admiral (d. 1935)
- 1867 - Józef Piłsudski, Polish revolutionary and statesman (d. 1935)
- 1868 - Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (d. 1951)
- 1869 - Ellis Parker Butler, American author (d. 1937)
- 1870 - Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (d. 1949)
- 1871 - Bill Pickett, American rodeo performer (d. 1932)
- 1872 - Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess player (d. 1906)
- 1875 - Sir Arthur Currie, Canadian soldier (d. 1933)
- 1879 - Clyde Cessna, American airplane manufacturer (d. 1954)
- 1886 - Rose Wilder Lane, American writer and reporter (d. 1968)
- 1890 - David Bomberg, British painter (d. 1957)
- 1890 - Fritz Lang, Austrian-born American film director (d. 1976)
- 1896 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austria-Hungarian-born American biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- 1898 - Grace Moore, American soprano (d. 1947{

1801

.]] 1801 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 1 - Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- January 1 - Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first (and largest) asteroid Ceres.
- January 20 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
- February 3 - William Pitt the Younger resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- February 9 - The Treaty of Lunéville ends the war (Second Coalition) between France and Austria.
- February 17 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
- February 27 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
- March 4 - Thomas Jefferson succeeds John Adams as the President of the United States of America.
- March 21 - Second Battle of Abukir: a British army under Ralph Abercromby defeats the French troops.
- March 23 - The Russian Tsar Paul I is murdered. He is succeeded by his son Alexander I of Russia.
- April 2 - First Battle of Copenhagen - The British fleet under Admiral Hyde Parker, along with Admiral Horatio Nelson, attack Copenhagen. Armed Neutrality of the North dissolved.
- May - The pascha of Tripoli declares war on United States by having the flagpole on the consulate chopped down.
- June 27 - Cairo falls to British troops.
- July 6 - Battle of Algeciras: The French fleet beats the British fleet.
- July 18 - Napoleon signs the Concordat of 1801 with the pope.
- November 16 - First edition of New York Evening Post
- Aachen is officially annexed by France.
- A census in London revealed it to have 860,035 residents
- First census in France
- Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a loom where the pattern being woven was controlled by punch cards.
- The ultraviolet radiation is discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter

Ongoing events

- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-Second Coalition/Egyptian Campaign
- Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)-Second Coalition/Egyptian Campaign

Births

- January 3 - Gijsbert Haan, Dutch-American religious leader (d. 1874)
- February 1 - Thomas Cole, American artist (d. 1848)
- February 21 - John Henry Newman, English Roman Catholic Cardinal (d. 1890)
- May 11 - Henri Labrouste, French architect (d. 1875)
- June 1 - Brigham Young, American religious leader and colonizer (d. 1877)
- June 4 - James Pennethorne, English architect (d. 1871)
- June 14 - Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (d. 1868)
- June 30 - Frederic Bastiat, French philosopher (d. 1850)
- July 5 - David Farragut, American naval commander (d.1870)
- July 29 - George Bradshaw, English publisher (d. 1853)
- October 12 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1873)
- November 3 - Karl Baedeker, German author and publisher (d. 1859)
- November 3 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (d. 1835)
- November 10 - Vladimir Dal, Russian lexicographer (d. 1872)
- December 11 - Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German writer (d. 1836)

Deaths

- February 7 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (b. 1726)
- March 21 - Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (b. 1741)
- March 23 - Tsar Paul of Russia (b. 1754)
- March 25 - Novalis, German poet (b. 1772)
- March 28 - Ralph Abercromby, British general (b. 1734)
- April 2 - Thomas Dadford Junior, British engineer
- April 7 - Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer (b. 1724)
- May 17 - William Heberden, English physician (b. 1710)
- June 4 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (b. 1750)
- September 19 - Johann Gottfried Koehler, German astronomer (b. 1745)
- October 3 - Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur, Marshal of France (b. 1724)
- November 4 - William Shippen, American physician and Continental Congressman (b. 1712)
- November 24 - Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (b. 1725) Category:1801 ko:1801년 ms:1801 simple:1801

March 24

March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in Leap years). There are 282 days remaining.

Events

- 1603 - James VI of Scotland also becomes James I King of England.
- 1765 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
- 1832 - In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr..
- 1837 - Canada gives Africans the right to vote.
- 1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.
- 1878 - The UK frigate Eurydice sinks, killing 300.
- 1882 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis).
- 1898 - Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that was advertised in Scientific American.
- 1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
- 1923 - Greece becomes a republic.
- 1934 - U.S. Congress passes Tydings-McDuffie Act.
- 1944 - In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
- 1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
- 1965 - NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash-landing.
- 1972 - The United Kingdom imposes "Direct Rule" over Northern Ireland.
- 1973 - Kenyan track runner Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, sanctioned by the International Track Association.
- Rock band Pink Floyd releases Dark Side of the Moon, which will go on to become one of the most influential and commercially successful albums of all-time.
- 1976 - Argentina's military forces depose president Isabel Perón.
- 1980 - Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
- 1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground.
- 1998 - Jonesboro massacre: In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School; four students and one teacher are killed and 10 injured.
- 1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
- 2001 - Apple Computer releases Mac OS X.
- 2002 - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney returns from the Middle East and begins a propaganda campaign against Iraq's Saddam Hussein saying, "This is a man of great evil, as the President said. And he is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time."
- 2003 - The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of US and British soldiers from Iraq.
- 2100 - Polaris will be appear closest to the north celestial pole, at 1629.38" or 0.4526°

Births

1490 to 1899

- 1490 - Georg Agricola, German scientist (d. 1555)
- 1607 - Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (d. 1667)
- 1657 - Arai Hakuseki, Japanese writer and politician (d. 1725)
- 1693 - John Harrison, British clockmaker (d. 1776)
- 1725 - Samuel Ashe, Governor of North Carolilna (d. 1813)
- 1725 - Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (d. 1788)
- 1796 - John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician (d. 1878)
- 1830 - Robert Hamerling, Austrian poet (d. 1889)
- 1834 - William Morris, English writer and designer (d. 1896)
- 1834 - John Wesley Powell, American explorer and environmentalist (d. 1902)
- 1835 - Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet (d. 1893)
- 1855 - Andrew Mellon, American financier (d. 1937)
- 1855 - Olive Schreiner, South African writer (d. 1920)
- 1874 - Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician (d. 1926)
- 1884 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
- 1886 - Edward Weston, American photographer (d. 1958)
- 1887 - Fatty Arbuckle, American actor (d. 1933)
- 1889 - Albert Hill, British athlete (d. 1969)
- 1893 - Walter Baade, German astronomer (d. 1960)
- 1897 - Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-born psychotherapist (d. 1957)

1900 to 1999

- 1901 - Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (d. 1971)
- 1902 - Thomas Dewey, American politician (d. 1971)
- 1903 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- 1910 - Richard Conte, American actor (d. 1975)
- 1911 - Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist
- 1915 - Gorgeous George, American professional wrestler (d. 1963)
- 1916 - Donald Hamilton, Swedish-American novelist
- 1917 - John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1997)
- 1919 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American author and publisher
- 1919 - Robert Heilbroner, American economist (d. 2005)
- 1923 - Murray Hamilton, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1924 - Norman Fell, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1926 - Dario Fo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1927 - Martin Walser, German author
- 1928 - Byron Janis, American pianist
- 1930 - David Dacko, first President of the Central African Republic (d. 2003)
- 1930 - Steve McQueen, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1980)
- 1935 - Peter Bichsel, Swiss writer
- 1936 - David Suzuki, Canadian environmentalist
- 1938 - Holger Czukay, German musician (Can)
- 1938 - David Irving, British historian
- 1944 - R. Lee Ermey, American actor
- 1945 - Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
- 1945 - Curtis Hanson, American film director
- 1949 - Nick Lowe, English musician
- 1951 - Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer
- 1953 - Louie Anderson, American comedian
- 1954 - Robert Carradine, American actor
- 1954 - Donna Pescow, American actress
- 1960 - Nena, German singer
- 1962 - Star Jones Reynolds, American television personality
- 1964 - Annabella Sciorra, American actress
- 1965 - The Undertaker, American professional wrestler
- 1970 - Lara Flynn Boyle, American actress
- 1970 - Sharon Corr, Irish musician (The Corrs)
- 1974 - Chad Butler, American drummer (Switchfoot)
- 1974 - Alyson Hannigan, American actress
- 1976 - Aaron Brooks, American football player
- 1976 - Peyton Manning, American football player
- 1985 - Haruka Ayase, Japanese actress and model
- 1988 - Holly Brain, English Singer and Magician
- 1990 - Keisha Castle-Hughes, New Zealand-born actress
- 1990 - Andrew Aparicio, Hip Hop Producer

Deaths

809 to 1899

- 809 - Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph (b. 763)
- 1361 - Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, English soldier and diplomat
- 1381 - Catherine of Sweden, Swedish saint
- 1455 - Pope Nicholas V (b. 1397)
- 1563 - Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese military leader (b. 1514)
- 1575 - Yosef Karo, Spanish-born rabbi (b. 1488)
- 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533)
- 1653 - Samuel Scheidt, German composer (b. 1587)
- 1773 - Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English statesman and man of letters (b. 1694)
- 1776 - John Harrison, English clockmaker (b. 1693)
- 1869 - Antoine-Henri Jomini, French general (b. 1779)
- 1882 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author (b. 1807)

1900 to 1999

- 1905 - Jules Verne, French author (b. 1828)
- 1909 - John Millington Synge, Irish playwright (b. 1871)
- 1916 - Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (drowned) (b. 1867)
- 1944 - Orde Wingate, British soldier (b. 1903)
- 1946 - Alexander Alekhine, Russian chess player (b. 1892)
- 1950 - James Rudolph Garfield, American politician (b. 1865)
- 1953 - Mary of Teck, queen of George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
- 1962 - Jean Goldkette, Greek-born musician (b. 1899)
- 1962 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist and explorer (b. 1884)
- 1972 - Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (b. 1895)
- 1976 - Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (b. 1887)
- 1980 - Óscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador (b. 1917)
- 1984 - Sam Jaffe, American actor (b. 1891)
- 1990 - Ray Goulding, American comedian (b. 1922)
- 1990 - An Wang, Chinese-born computer pioneer (b. 1920)
- 1993 - John Hersey, American author (b. 1914)
- 1999 - Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, German women's leader (b. 1902)
- 1999 - Birdie Tebbetts, baseball player and manager (b. 1912)

2000 onwards

- 2002 - César Milstein, Argentine scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1927)
- 2003 - Hans Hermann Groër, Austrian Catholic archbishop (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances

- Ancient Latvia - Kazimiras Diena observed
- World Tuberculosis Day

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/24 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/3/24 Today in History: March 24] ---- March 23 - March 25 - February 24 - April 24 -- listing of all days ko:3월 24일 ms:24 Mac ja:3月24日 simple:March 24 th:24 มีนาคม

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