Bournville is a model village on the south side of Birmingham, England, best known for its connections with the Cadbury family and chocolate – including a dark chocolate bar called "Bournville". It is also a ward within the council constituency of Selly Oak and home to the Bournville Centre for Visual Arts. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has claimed that it is "one of the nicest places to live in Britain".

History

Originally the area that was to become Bournville consisted of a few scattered farmsteads and cottages, linked by winding country lanes, with the only visual highlight being the Georgian built Bournbrook Hall.

The bluebell glades of Stocks Wood were said to be a relic of the Forest of Arden and there are Roman remains nearby.

Cadbury
Having taken over their father John Cadbury's expanding business in 1861, the Quakers George and Richard Cadbury needed to move their cocoa and chocolate factory from Bridge Street in central Birmingham to a greenfield site to allow for expansion.

Cadbury were reliant on the canals for milk delivery, and on the railways for cocoa deliveries from the ports of London and Southampton. They therefore need a site which was undeveloped and had easy access to both canal and rail. The brothers noticed the proposed development of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, which would extend from central Birmingham south along the path of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal into the then green fields of southern Birmingham and the villages of northern Worcestershire.

In 1879, they moved their business to Bournbrook Hall,  to the south of Birmingham. The location was chosen as it was regarded as cleaner, healthier and more amenable to longer-term expansion plans. Although rural, it was also already serviced by the new Stirchley Street railway station, which itself was located right next to the canal.

The Cadburys named the area 'Bournville' after the Bourn Brook (now known as The Bourn); with 'ville' being French for 'town', this set Bournville apart from the local area (some people wrongly believe Bournville was originally known as Bournbrook - Bournbrook exists as a separate area to the north of Bournville). Then Cadburys began to develop their factory in the new suburb. Loyal and hard-working workers were treated with great respect and relatively high wages and good working conditions; Cadbury also pioneered pension schemes, joint works committees and a full staff medical service.

In 1893, George Cadbury bought 120 acres (0.5 km²) of land close to the works and planned, at his own expense, a model village which would 'alleviate the evils of modern more cramped living conditions'. By 1900, the estate included 313 cottages and houses set on  of land, and many more similar properties were built in the years leading up to the World War I, with smaller developments taking place later on in the 20th century. These almost 'Arts and crafts' houses were traditional in design but with large gardens and modern interiors, and were designed by the resident architect William Alexander Harvey. These designs became a blueprint for many other model village estates around Britain. It is also noteworthy that, because George Cadbury was a temperance Quaker, no public houses have ever been built in Bournville although, since the late 1940s, there has been a licensed members' bar at Rowheath Pavilion.

The Cadburys were particularly concerned with the health and fitness of their workforce, incorporating park and recreation areas into the Bournville village plans and encouraging swimming, walking and indeed all forms of outdoor sports. In the early 1920s, extensive open lands were purchased at Rowheath and laid to football and hockey pitches together with a grassed running track. Rowheath Pavilion was designed and built in accordance with the instructions of George Cadbury and opened in July 1924. At that time, it served as the clubhouse and changing rooms for the acres of sports playing fields, several bowling greens, a fishing lake and an outdoor swimming lido, a natural mineral spring forming the source for the lido's healthy waters. The Rowheath Pavilion itself, which still exists, was used for balls and dinners and the whole area was specifically for the benefit of the Cadbury workers and their families with no charges for the use of any of the sporting facilities by Cadbury employees or their families. The lido was eventually closed in the 1970s after complaints of noise disturbance were made by residents of the newly built Oak Farm estate, coupled with new and stringent health and safety regulations relating to outdoor public swimming facilities. Cadbury's also built the Bournville indoor swimming baths on Bournville Lane (separate buildings for 'girls' and men), the Valley pool boating lake and the picturesque cricket pitch adjacent to the factory site, that was made famous as the picture on boxes of Milk Tray chocolates throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1900, the Bournville Village Trust was set up to formally control the development of the estate, independently of George Cadbury or the Cadbury company. The trust focused on providing schools, hospitals, museums, public baths and reading rooms. As Bournville is a conservation area, another job of the Bournville Village Trust is to accept or reject plans for building extension and modification.

An almost campus feel evolved, with a triangular village green, infant and junior schools, the School of Art and the Day Continuation School (originally intended for young Cadbury employees) and a host of events such as fêtes and Maypole dances. The carillon and a Quaker meeting house are also beside the village green.

The trust continues to exercise an international influence on housing and town planning generally. Now containing 7,800 homes on 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land with 100 acres (0.4 km²) of parks and open spaces, Bournville remains a popular residential area of Birmingham.

Cadbury is still one of Birmingham's main employers, making all manner of chocolate products.

The dark chocolate Bournville Plain is now manufactured in France and sold in the UK.

Cadbury also named their brand of malted drinks Bournvita after Bournville.

Governance

The ward is served by two councillors, both of whom are Labour;  Liz Clements and Fred Grindrod.

References

Further reading

Harvey, William Alexander. The model village and its cottages: Bournville (London, B. T. Batsford, 1906).

Other websites
 Birmingham City Council: Bournville Ward
 Bournville Village local blog
 Bournville Community Website
 The Food of the Gods - the manufacture chapter provides an overview of the Cadbury's Bournville operation at the turn of the 20th century — from Project Gutenberg

Birmingham
Villages in England
Settlements in the West Midlands (county)

Bournville


The Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) was a war between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial government. It started on 16 September 1810 since Mexican-born Spaniards (criollo people), Mestizos and Amerindians wanted their independence from Spain.

The idea of Mexican independence went back to the years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Martín Cortés led a revolt against the Spanish government.

After the Conspiracy of the Machetes failed in 1799, the War of Independence really started with the Grito de Dolores in 1810. Spain was busy fighting for its independence against the invading First French Empire during the Peninsular War and most of Latin America revolted.

Beginning
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla,  was a Mexican priest and a member of a group of educated Criollos in Querétaro. They met in tertulias (salons) and decided in 1810 that a revolt against the colonial government was needed because Napoleon I had replaced the King of Spain with a French foreigner. Hidalgo worked closely with Ignacio de Allende, a nobleman with military training, for a battle in December 1810.

They were betrayed by a member of the group. Hidalgo turned to his parishioners in the town of Dolores. Around 6:00 a.m. on September 16, 1810, he declared independence from the Spanish crown and war against the government in what was known as the Grito de Dolores. The revolutionary army decided to fight for independence and marched on to Guanajuato, which was a major colonial mining center that was governed by Spaniards and criollos.

There, the leaders of the "Citizens' Army," which was poorly organized, locked themselves in the granary and killed most of the Spaniards and Criollos who were there. That included high-ranking nobles and supporters of the fight for independence, which caused Hidalgo and Allende to fight with each other.

Allende no longer wanted to fight alongside Hidalgo and left with his soldiers.

On October 30, Hidalgo's army fought the Spanish resistance at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces and won.

In January 1811, Spanish forces fought the Battle of the Bridge of Calderón and won. That made the rebels flee towards the United States-Mexican border, where they hoped to escape, but they were caught by the Spanish Army.

Hidalgo and what was left of his army were caught in the state of Coahuila at the Wells of Baján. He had a trial done by the Spanish Inquisition on 30 July 1811 and was executed.

After Hidalgo's death of Father Hidalgo, the leadership of the revolutionary army was taken over by José María Morelos. Under his leadership, the cities of Oaxaca and Acapulco were taken. In 1813, the Congress of Chilpancingo had its first meeting. On 6 November, the Congress signed the first official document of independence, known as the Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America.

A long war followed at the Siege of Cuautla. In 1815, Morelos was caught by Spanish colonial authorities. He was put on trial and executed for treason in San Cristóbal Ecatepec on 22 December.

Independence
By the early 1820s, the independence movement was close to collapsing. Two of its main leaders had been executed, and the rebels could not easily fight the well-organized Spanish military. Also, many of the most influential criollos did not care any more. The violence of the unorganized army of Hidalgo and Morelos was not liked. The Mexicans wanted a better and less bloody way to get their independence.

In December 1820, Viceroy Juan Ruiz de Apodaca sent a force led by a royalist criollo officer, Colonel Agustín de Iturbide, to fight in Oaxaca. Iturbide was famous for the way in which he went after the rebels during the early independence struggle.

The fight at Oaxaca came at the same time as successful military coup in Spain against the monarchy of Ferdinand VII. Ferdinand was forced to reinstate the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812. When that news reached Mexico, Iturbide saw it as an opportunity for the criollos to gain control of Mexico. After clashing with Guerrero's forces, Iturbide switched sides. He invited the rebel leader to meet to discuss a new independence struggle.

In the town of Iguala, Iturbide created three rules, or "guarantees," for Mexican independence from Spain:
 Mexico would be an independent kingdom that would be ruled by King Ferdinand, another Bourbon prince, or some other conservative European prince. A criollo ruler could be appointed by the Mexican Congress if no European would take the position.
 Criollos and peninsulares would from now have equal rights and privileges.
 The Roman Catholic Church would keep its privileges and be the only religion allowed.

He made his troops accept these rules, which are known as the Plan of Iguala. Iturbide then persuaded Guerrero to join his forces in support of the new independence. A new army, the Army of the Three Guarantees, was placed under Iturbide's command to enforce the plan. It was so broad that it pleased both patriots and loyalists. The goal of independence and the protection of Roman Catholicism brought together all factions.

Iturbide's army was joined by rebel forces from all over Mexico. When the rebels' victory became certain, the viceroy resigned. On August 24, 1821, representatives of the Spanish crown and Iturbide signed the Treaty of Córdoba, which recognized Mexican independence under the terms of the plan of Iguala.

On September 27, the Army of the Three Guarantees entered Mexico City. The next day, Iturbide proclaimed the independence of the Mexican Empire.

On the night of May 18, 1822, a mass of people marched through the streets. They demanded for Iturbide to accept the throne. The next day, the Congress declared Iturbide emperor of Mexico.

Related pages
 History of Mexico
 Grito de Dolores

References

Bibliography

hjh

Other websites
Chieftains of Mexican Independence

Mexican War of Independence

Mexican War of Independence


Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:
1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or  (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of English; it has long been established in US English and has since become common in Britain and other English-speaking countries as well.
1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or  (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the long scale. This number is the historical sense of the word and remains the established sense of the word in other European languages. Though displaced by the short scale definition relatively early in US English, it remained the most common sense of the word in Britain until the 1950s and still remains in occasional use there.

American English adopted the short scale definition from the French (it enjoyed usage in France at the time, alongside the long-scale definition). The United Kingdom used the long scale billion until 1974, when the government officially switched to the short scale, but since the 1950s the short scale had already been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism.

Other countries use the word billion (or words cognate to it) to denote either the long scale or short scale billion.

Milliard, another term for one thousand million, is extremely rare in English, but words similar to it are very common in other European languages. For example, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew (Asia), Hungarian, Italian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (although the expression mil milhões — a thousand million — is far more common), Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish (although the expression mil millones — a thousand million — is far more common), Swedish, Tajik, Turkish, Ukrainian and Uzbek — use milliard, or a related word, for the short scale billion, and billion (or a related word) for the long scale billion. Thus for these languages billion is a thousand times larger than the modern English billion.

History

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word billion was formed in the 16th century (from million and the prefix bi-, "two"), meaning the second power of a million (1,000,0002 = ). This long scale definition was similarly applied to trillion, quadrillion and so on. The words were originally Latin, and entered English around the end of the 17th century. Later, French arithmeticians changed the words' meanings, adopting the short scale definition whereby three zeros rather than six were added at each step, so a billion came to denote a thousand million (), a trillion became a million million (), and so on. This new convention was adopted in the United States in the 19th century, but Britain retained the original long scale use. France, in turn, reverted to the long scale in 1948.

In Britain, however, under the influence of American usage, the short scale came to be increasingly used. In 1974, Prime Minister Harold Wilson confirmed that the government would use the word billion only in its short scale meaning (one thousand million). In a written answer to Robin Maxwell-Hyslop MP, who asked whether official usage would conform to the traditional British meaning of a million million, Wilson stated: "No. The word 'billion' is now used internationally to mean 1,000 million and it would be confusing if British Ministers were to use it in any other sense. I accept that it could still be interpreted in this country as 1 million million and I shall ask my colleagues to ensure that, if they do use it, there should be no ambiguity as to its meaning."

See also

 Names of large numbers

References

Large numbers

Billion


The specific weight (also known as the unit weight) is the weight per unit volume of a material.  The symbol of specific weight is γ (the Greek letter gamma).

A commonly used value is the specific weight of water on Earth at 4° Celsius, which is 9.807 kilonewton per meter cube.

Physical quantity

Specific weight


Sehertawy Intef I was a local nomarch at Thebes during the early First Intermediate Period and the first member of the 11th Dynasty to lay claim to a Horus name. Intef reigned from 4 to 16 years c. 2120 BC or c. 2070 BC during which time he probably waged war with his northern neighbor, the Coptite nomarch Tjauti. Intef was buried in a saff tomb at El-Tarif, known today as Saff el-Dawaba.

Sources

Intef is known for certain from only one near-contemporary monument: two inscribed blocks from the temple of Montu at Tod which were erected during Mentuhotep II's reign. The blocks represent Mentuhotep II facing the names of three of his ancestors which are identified by their proper name (nomen) and Horus name.
These are Intef (I) Sehertawy, Intef (II) Wahankh and Intef (III) Nakht-neb-tep-nefer (although in this case only the Horus names Sehertawy and Wahankh are preserved). This relief establishes the succession of kings of the 11th Dynasty.

There are no contemporary monuments which can be positively attributed to Intef I. A possible exception is a short inscription discovered in the western desert: "the assault troops of the son of Re, Intef". In the original publication of the inscription this king Intef is identified with Intef I, although Intef II has also been proposed as a possibility. The inscription is located in the vicinity of an inscription commissioned by the contemporary Coptite nomarch named Tjauti (see below).

Intef I is most likely attested on later king lists, but this remains uncertain as his name is either lost or damaged. In the Karnak king list a king Intef appears next to "Men...", most likely Mentuhotep I, as part of the latter's Horus name, "the ancestor", is still visible. The few remains of Intef I's Horus name fit to Sehertawy. The name and duration of the reign of Intef I are not preserved in the Turin Canon, although from an analysis of the available space, it is possible that Intef I was mentioned in what is now a lacuna affecting entry 5.13. The durations of the reigns of the other 11th Dynasty kings are preserved in the Turin Canon and add up to 127 years. Furthermore, the summary of reigns of this Dynasty is also preserved in the Turin Canon and is given as 143 years. On the strength of these much later fragments, the two lost reigns of Mentuhotep I and Intef I have been calculated to add up to 16 years, further implying that Intef's reign lasted for less than 16 years. Thus the duration of Intef's reign is often reported to be between 4 and 16 years. Intef I was succeeded by his brother Intef II who pursued the war with the northern neighbors of the Theban kingdom.

Reign

Sehertawy Intef I was the first member of his Dynasty to assume a pharaonic title with the Horus name of Sehertawy variously rendered as "Maker of peace in the two lands", "He who has brought calm to the two Lands" and "Pacifier of the two lands". Intef's parents may possibly have been Mentuhotep I and Neferu I.

By taking a Horus name with both crowns, Intef declared himself ruler of all Egypt. However, his authority was contested by the other nomarchs of Egypt, chief among them being the 10th Dynasty rulers at Herakleopolis Magna who also laid claim to the title of pharaoh and their powerful ally Ankhtifi, nomarch of Hierakonpolis, and a faithful follower of the Herakleopolitan Dynasty. On his accession to the Theban throne, Intef probably ruled only the Theban (fourth) nome, but it is conjectured that after defeating Ankhtifi or one of his successors, Intef acquired the three nomes to the south of Thebes, down to Elephantine, and to the north all territories south of the border with the Coptite nome. Alternatively, this may have been achieved by Intef's predecessor Mentuhotep I. Both hypotheses remain conjectural given the paucity of historical records on this period.

Intef I got rapidly embroiled in a war with his northern neighbors. A graffito discovered by the Theban Desert Road Survey in the Gebel Tjauti northwest of Thebes reports the presence there of "the assault troops of the son of Ra, Intef". It has been posited that this inscription refers to Intef I whose soldiers were fighting the Coptite nomarch Tjauti. In support of this hypothesis is a nearby worn out stele erected by Tjauti reporting the construction of a road to allow his people to cross the desert "which the ruler of another nome had sealed off [when he came in order to] fight with my nome...". Although not named explicitly, Darell Baker and other Egyptologists contend that this ruler must either be Intef I or his successor Intef II. In any case, the subsequent defeat of Tjauti ultimately put Koptos, Dendera and the three nomes of Hierakonpolis under Theban control, expanding the Theban kingdom 250 km northward with a border near Abydos.

Tomb
Intef's funerary complex was dug in a hill side at El-Tarif on the opposite bank of the Nile at Thebes and is known today as Saff el-Dawaba. The site of El-Tarif comprises three monumental royal tombs, known as saff tombs. Inscriptions found in one tomb indicate that it belonged to Wahankh Intef II, Intef I's successor. At the opposite, the Saff el-Dawaba is devoid of inscriptions but yielded the earliest type of pottery found at El-Tarif and, for this reason, is most often assigned to Intef I.
The Saff el-Dawaba comprises a large  sunken courtyard backed by a colonnade leading to a mortuary chapel carved into the hill and flanked by two chambers. The burial chamber of Intef I was dug beneath the mortuary chapel.

References

22nd-century BC Pharaohs
21st-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt
Nomarchs
Mentuhotep I

Intef I


2014 (twenty fourteen) (MMXIV) was .

Summary

 In 2014, the news was dominated by wars and conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, South Sudan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
War erupted in Eastern Ukraine after the Pro-EU Euromaidan protests toppled President Viktor Yanukovych and separatists declared independence in the East, followed by a referendum in Crimea in support of joining Russia.
In the Middle East, the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant got involved in civil wars in Syria and Iraq. Separately, war broke out between Israel and the Gaza Strip in July and August
In Nigeria, hundreds of girls were abducted in April by Boko Haram.
 2014 also saw the outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, infecting and killing thousands of people, and leading to a massive humanitarian crisis in the region.
 Malaysia Airlines was involved in two air disasters in 2014. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 goes missing in March on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and has, as of the end of 2014, not been found. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down during the conflict in Eastern Ukraine in July, killing all people on board. Another Malaysian-based airline, "AirAsia" also suffered a disaster at the end of the year, as Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 disappeared off Borneo and was later found to have crashed, killing all 162 people on board.
 In July and August, the "Ice Bucket Challenge" was a trend of pouring cold water over people's heads for charity. A continuing trend of the year was the selfie.
 In science, the year's biggest achievement was landing a spacecraft on a comet, which was done in November by the Philae probe as part of the Rosetta mission.
 In Sport, the year saw the Germany national football team win the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The 2014 Commonwealth Games took place in Glasgow, Scotland and the 2014 Asian Games took place in Incheon, South Korea. The 2014 Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, Southern Russia, in February.

Events

January

 January 1 - Latvia begins using the Euro.
 January 1 - Greece assumes the six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
 January 1 - Bill de Blasio becomes Mayor of New York City.
 January 6 - Severe cold weather hits the upper area of North America, which includes Canada and the United States. Record-breaking weather is recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois. Several people are killed because of the cold weather.
 January 10 - Former Prime Minister of Poland Zbigniew Messner died from a heart attack. He was 84 years old.
 January 25 - A shooting breaks out at a mall in Maryland. Four people are killed including the gunman. Police officers disarmed explosive devices in gunman's bag.
 January 27 - Juan Orlando Hernández is elected to be Honduras' new President. He succeeds Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
 January 29 - Bohuslav Sobotka becomes the new Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.
 January 29 - Scientists in Japan announce that shocking blood cells with acid could also trigger the transformation into stem cells, a process far easier than producing IP cells. The cells are termed STAP (Stimulus-Triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency) cells.

February

 February 1 - Janet Yellen becomes head of the United States Federal Reserve.
 February 4 - The Klallam language becomes extinct after its last native speaker, Hazel Sampson, died at 103.
 February 4 - Satya Nadella becomes head of Microsoft.
 February 4 - The Scottish Parliament votes in favor of legalizing Same-sex marriage in Scotland.
 February 7 - The inauguration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi is held.
 February 13 - Belgium becomes the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia without any age limits.
 February 14 - Prime Minister of Italy Enrico Letta loses a vote of confidence in parliament.
 February 15 - Tammam Salam becomes Prime Minister of Lebanon and announces the formation of a new government.
 February 22 - Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich flees to Kharkov as parliament votes to impeach him as part of the Euromaidan protests.
 February 22 - Mexico's most wanted drug-cartel Joaquín Guzmán Loera is captured and arrested near Mexico City.
 February 22 - Oleksandr Turchynov becomes acting President of Ukraine after Viktor Yanukovich is forced-out of office because of Euromaidan.
 February 22 - Matteo Renzi, Mayor of Florence, becomes Prime Minister of Italy.
 February 23 - The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi end. The closing ceremony is held, and Russia wins the most gold medals.
 February 24 - Actor and movie director Harold Ramis, who appeared in Ghostbusters, died in Chicago from a heart defect. He was 69 years old.
 February 26 - Pro-Russian unrest leads to the annexation (taking over) of Crimea by Russia and insurgencies in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of the country.

March

 March 2 - 12 Years a Slave is the most successful movie at the 86th Academy Awards.
 March 5 - Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, severs diplomatic and political ties with Panama, accusing Panama of being involved in a conspiracy against the Venezuelan government.
 March 8 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 airliner en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappears over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board.
 March 11 - Michelle Bachelet becomes the new President of Chile.
 March 11 - The Republic of Crimea declares its independence from Ukraine and Russia.
 March 16 - A referendum on the status of Crimea is held.
 March 18 - Chechnyan Islamic terrorist Dokka Umarov is declared dead by the Russian government.
 March 21 - Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signed a bill finalizing the annexation process.
 March 22 - A large mudslide east of Oso, Washington, kills 41 people, 4 were seriously injured, and 2 are missing.
 March 24 - The Malaysian government and airline officials announce that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia. All 239 passengers are presumed dead.
 March 24 - The Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid's largest airport, is renamed to the Adolfo Suárez, Madrid–Barajas Airport to honor the late Prime Minister of Spain Adolfo Suárez.
 March 24 - Russia is suspended from G8.
 March 27 - The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 68/262, recognizing Crimea within Ukraine's international borders and underscoring the invalidity of the 2014 Crimean referendum.
 March 29 - Andrej Kiska was elected to become the new President of Slovakia.
 March 31 - Manuel Valls becomes the new Prime Minister of France. He succeeds Jean-Marc Ayrault.
 March 31 - Adolfo Suárez's state funeral was held in Madrid.
 March 31 - North Korea and South Korea exchange fire across the disputed western sea border after North Korea held live fire drills in seven parts of the area.
 March 31 - The United Nations International Court of Justice rules that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not scientific but commercial and forbids grants of further permits.

April

 April 3 - Nobel Prize laureate, Gabriel García Márquez, is hospitalized in Mexico for a respiratory and urinary tract infection.
 April 5 - Presidential elections are held in Afghanistan.
 April 8 - Windows XP reaches its end-of-life and is no longer supported by Microsoft.
 April 10 - In response to the 2014 Crimean crisis the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passes a resolution, with 145 votes in favor, to temporarily strip Russia of its voting rights, the rights to be represented in the Bureau of the Assembly, the PACE Presidential Committee, the PACE Standing Committee and the right to participate in election-observation missions.
 April 14 - An estimated 276 girls and women are kidnapped from a school in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram, and are held hostage.
 April 16 - A South Korean ferry capsizes and sinks of the coast of Jindo County. 300 people are killed.
 April 18 - A massive avalanche hits Mount Everest killing 16 people and injuring 9.
 April 22 - David Moyes is sacked as manager of Manchester United, one of the world's biggest football clubs, less than a year after taking over from Alex Ferguson.
 April 27 - The Catholic Church canonizes Popes John XXIII and John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday.
 April 28 - US President Barack Obama's new sanctions against Russia go into effect.

May

 May 2 - A pair of massive mudslides occur in Argo District, Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, burying estimated 2,500 people.
 May 5 - The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.
 May 5 - Boko Haram militants kill approximately 300 people in a night attack on Gamboru Ngala.
 May 7 - Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra is removed from office.
 May 10 - Eurovision Song Contest is held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Conchita Wurst of Austria wins with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix".
 May 11 - Massive flooding begins in regions of Southeastern Europe.
 May 13 - Around 300 miners are killed in a mine explosion in Soma, Western Turkey.
 May 20 - Terrorists in Nigeria detonate bombs at Jos, killing 118 people.
 May 22 - The Royal Thai Army overthrows the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in Thailand.
 May 22 - 25 - Elections to the European Parliament are held, with far-right parties making gains.
 May 25 - Petro Poroshenko is elected President of Ukraine.
 May 26 - Narendra Modi is sworn in as Prime Minister of India.
 May 28 - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is elected President of Egypt.
 May 30 - Jay Carney resigns as White House Press Secretary.
 May 31 - Peter Mutharika is elected President of Malawi.

June

 Early June - Hundreds of people are killed in a flooding disaster in Afghanistan.
 June 2 - Juan Carlos I of Spain announces that he is abdicating the throne as King of Spain in favor of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias.
 June 2 - Telangana becomes India's 29th state.
 June 4 - 3 RCMP officers are shot and killed in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
 June 5 onwards - A Sunni extremist group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attempts to take control of Baghdad in order to overthrow the Shiite government of Nouri al-Maliki.
 June 5 - The tenth anniversary of the Death of Ronald Reagan is mourned in the United States.
 June 6 - Commemorations are held to mark 70 years since the D-Day landings.
 June 7 - Petro Poroshenko is sworn in as President of Ukraine.
 June 8 - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is sworn in as President of Egypt.
 June 10 - Reuven Rivlin is chosen as the next President of Israel.
 June 12 - The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil begins.
 June 15 - Andrej Kiska becomes President of Slovakia.
 June 18 - Luxembourg decides to legalize Same-sex marriage.
 June 18 - The Spain national football team, defending champion, is knocked out of the 2014 FIFA World Cup at the group stage by the Chile national football team.
 June 19 - King Felipe VI of Spain is officially sworn in, succeeding his father, King Juan Carlos I of Spain.
 June 23 - Three Al-Jazeera journalists are sentenced to prison in Egypt, accused of supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
 June 24 - Alexander Stubb becomes Prime Minister of Finland.
 June 24 - Albania becomes an EU candidate country.
 June 24 - FIFA World Cup: Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez is involved in a biting controversy, after footage appeared to show him biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini.
 June 27 - Former Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker is chosen as the next President of the European Commission.

July

 July 1 - Italy assumes the six-month Presidency of the European Union.
 July 8 - Operation Protective Edge, an offensive launched on the Palestinian Gaza Strip by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), begins, starting with numerous missile strikes, following growing tensions between Israel and Hamas following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June.
 July 8 - Brazil v Germany: Several FIFA World Cup records are broken as the Germany national football team defeats the Brazil national football team 7–1 in a Semi Final match. One the records is Miroslav Klose scoring his record-breaking 16th goal in FIFA World Cup competition.
 July 13 - The final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup was held in Rio de Janeiro. Germany defeats Argentina.
 July 17 - After a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire, Israel confirms the beginning of a ground offensive in Gaza.
 July 17 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (Boeing 777) crashes in Ukraine, after being shot down by a missile. 298 people die, including 15 crew members.
 July 21 - The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2166 in response to the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
 July 23 - The 2014 Commonwealth Games begin in Glasgow, Scotland.
 July 24 - Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashes in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.
 July 24 - Reuven Rivlin became President of Israel.

August

 August 3 - The 2014 Commonwealth Games end in Glasgow, Scotland.
 August 5 - American general, Harold J. Greene, is killed by an Afghan soldier while traveling to a facility. He becomes the first high ranking general to be killed since the September 11 attacks.
 August 7 - Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are found guilty of crimes against humanity.
 August 8 - The United States Military begins a series of air strikes in northern Iraq to stem the flow of ISIS militants.
 August 9 - The Shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, leads to widespread protests across the US and a debate about race relations in the country.
 August 10 - Recep Tayyip Erdogan is elected President of Turkey.
 August 11 - Comedian and Academy Award-winning actor, Robin Williams, commits suicide at his home in Tiburon, California. He was 63 years old.
 August 19 - American photojournalist, James Foley, is beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as revenge for the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
 August 25 - The New Horizons probe arrives at Neptune after nearly 9 years of travelling in space. Coincidentally, this is also 25 years since Voyager 2 arrived at Neptune. This will be the last milestone before it reaches Pluto on July 14th 2015.
 August 28 - Recep Tayyip Erdogan becomes President of Turkey.
 August 30 - Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk is chosen as the next President of the European Council.

September

 September 2 - It is presumed that American journalist Steven Joel Sotloff is beheaded by the militant group Islamic State.
 September 3 - Flooding begins to affect areas of Northern India and Pakistan.
 September 6 - An opinion poll published ahead of the Scottish independence referendum shows the campaign in favor of independence narrowly ahead for the first time.
 September 9 - Apple announces three new products: the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and the Apple Watch.
 September 14 - Sweden holds its parliamentary election.
 September 18 - The Scottish independence referendum is held. The majority of people vote no (55.3%) and 44.7% vote yes.
 September 19 - Alex Salmond announces his resignation as First Minister of Scotland, following the "Yes" campaign's defeat in the independence referendum.
 September 19 to October 4 - The 2014 Asian Games are held in Incheon, South Korea.
 September 20 - New Zealand Election: The New Zealand National Party under John Key wins a third term in office.
 September 22 - Ewa Kopacz becomes Prime Minister of Poland, succeeding Donald Tusk.
 September 22 - The United States and its Arab partners begin an airstrike campaign in Syria.
 September 26 - September 28 - The Ryder Cup golf tournament is held at Gleneagles, Scotland. Europe comfortably defeats the United States.
 September 26 - The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin, in support of greater democracy for Hong Kong, lasting until December.
 September 26 - A conference of Nobel Prize winners in Cape Town, South Africa, is cancelled, after a row over Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama not being allowed to enter the country.
 September 27 - Mount Ontake, in Japan, erupts, killing several climbers on the slopes of the volcano.

October

 October 1 - Jens Stoltenberg becomes Secretary-General of NATO, succeeding Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
 October 3 - Stefan Lofven becomes Prime Minister of Sweden, returning the Social Democrats to power after eight years.
 October 3 - Islamic State post a video showing the killing of British aid worker Alan Henning.
 October 10 - Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi win the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. At age 17, Malala is the youngest winner of a Nobel Prize in any category.
 October 11 - Charles Michel becomes Prime Minister of Belgium.
 October 16 - Apple announces the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3.
 October 19 - The Roman Catholic Church makes Pope Paul VI a saint.
 October 20 - Joko Widodo becomes President of Indonesia.
 October 22 - A gunman in Ottawa, Canada, shoots a Canadian soldier dead at the city's war memorial, before shooting inside the Canadian Parliament, where he is shot dead himself.
 October 23 - Some parts of the world experience a partial solar eclipse.
 October 26 - Dilma Rousseff is elected to a second term as President of Brazil.
 October 31 - Blaise Campaore resigns as President of Burkina Faso after unrest in the capital city, Ouagadougou.

November
 November 1 - Jean-Claude Juncker becomes President of the European Commission.
 November 2 - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the last part of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
 November 4 - The United States holds its Mid-Term Elections, where the Republican Party makes strong gains against the Democratic Party.
 November 7 - Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns against a new "Cold War" between Russia and the West over Ukraine, while attending commemorations marking 25 years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
 November 9 - Catalonia holds an unofficial vote on independence from Spain.
 November 12 - The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae space probe lands on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.
 November 15 to 16 - The G20 Summit is held in Brisbane, Australia.
 November 16 - Klaus Iohannis is elected President of Romania.
 November 19 - Nicola Sturgeon succeeds Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland.
 November 23 - Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula One World Championship.
 November 24 - Sony is hacked by an as-yet unknown group. As this includes the movie "The Interview", about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, this leads to a diplomatic row between the United States and North Korea.
 November 25 - Pope Francis holds a speech at the European Parliament.

December

 December 1 - Donald Tusk becomes President of the European Council.
 December 1 - The militant group Al-Shabaab carries out an attack in Northeastern Kenya, killing over 30 Non-Muslims.
 December 2 - Stephen Hawking warns against artificial intelligence in a BBC interview, saying that it poses a threat to future human existence.
 December 9 - The United States Senate releases a report on CIA torture during the War on Terror.
 December 14 - Japan holds an early election.
 December 15 - 2014 Sydney hostage crisis: Self-styled cleric Man Haron Monis takes several people hostage at gunpoint in a café in Sydney, Australia. The end of the siege early the following day kills three people, including the gunman.
 December 16 - Members of the Pakistan Taliban carry out a massacre at a school in the city of Peshawar, killing over 140 people, mostly children.
 December 17 - Sony stops the release the movie "The Interview" about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, following threats from hackers. It is later released in private cinemas.
 December 17 - US President Barack Obama declares a normalization in diplomatic relations with Cuba.
 December 22 - Building work begins on a project to build a canal across Nicaragua.
 December 25 - The movie The Interview is released in private cinemas in the United States, despite threats by hackers.
 December 28 - "Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501" goes missing on a flight from Surabaya, Java, Indonesia to Singapore. It is later revealed to have crashed, killing all 162 people on board.
 December 28 - The ferry MS Norman Atlantic catches fire off the island of Corfu, while travelling from Patras, Greece to Ancona, Italy. At least 13 people die, while most of the passengers are rescued.
 December 29 - Elections are called for January 2015 in Greece, after the parliament failed to elect a new President.
 December 31 - The first same-sex marriages in Scotland take place.
 December 31 - All US and UK combat missions in Afghanistan end.

Nobel Prizes
 Physiology or Medicine: John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, Edvard Moser
 Physics: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, Shuji Nakamura
 Chemistry: Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, William E. Moerner
 Literature: Patrick Modiano
 Peace: Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi
 Economics: Jean Tirole

Major holidays and dates
 January 6 - Epiphany Christian celebration
 January 7 - Orthodox Christmas
 February 1 – Imbolc (Celebrated on February 2 in some places)
 March 4 – Shrove Tuesday
 March 5 – Ash Wednesday
 March 17 – St. Patrick's Day
 March 20 – Spring Equinox
 April 13 - Palm Sunday
 April 18 - Good Friday
 April 20 – Easter Sunday
 April 21 - Easter Monday
 May 1 – May Day
 June 21 – Summer solstice, also known as Midsummer
 August 1 – Lammas
 September 23 – Fall Equinox
 October 4 – Eid al-Adha
 October 23 - Diwali (Hinduism)
 November 1 – All Saints Day and Samhain
 November 30 - First Sunday of Advent
 December 21 – Winter solstice
 December 25 – Christmas

Births

August
 August 13 - Miriam Spumpkin, American child actress.
 August 14 - Darianne Breault, Canadian child actress.

Deaths

In fiction

Movies
 Moon Child (2003)
 The Flash movie EPIC 2014 concludes in this year.

Television
 In the Supernatural episode "The End", the angel Zachariah sends Dean Winchester to this year to convince him to be a host for Michael. In this future, the Croatoan virus has spread across the world, Sarah Palin is president, and Sam Winchester is the host for Lucifer.
 In Desperate Housewives, Edie Britt dies and her ashes scattered across Wisteria Lane.

Computer and video games
 Soldiers of Anarchy (2002)
 Shattered Union: The Second American Civil War begins in this year.
 Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (2007)
 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

Anime and manga
 Neon Genesis Evangelion some events in this series take place.
 Alien Nine (2001)
 One of the time arcs in 20th Century Boys takes place in 2014.

References

2014


The Fraser Canyon War, also known as the Canyon War or the Fraser River War, was an incident between the Nlaka'pamux people and white miners in the newly declared Colony of British Columbia, which later became part of Canada, in 1858. It occurred during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, which brought many white settlers to the Fraser Canyon area. Largely ignored by Canadian historians, it was one of the seminal events of the founding of the colony. Although it ended relatively peacefully, it was a major test of the new administration's control over the goldfields, which were distant and difficult to access from the centre of colonial authority at Victoria in the Colony of Vancouver Island (New Westminster had recently been surveyed as the de jure capital, but the de facto capital was in Victoria, where the Governor was located).

Combatants
British troops were not involved, and only arrived on scene once the war was over. The combatants of the war were six hastily assembled regiments of irregulars mustered from the goldfields around Yale, British Columbia and the Nlaka'pamux people of the Fraser Canyon upstream from there. The militias, or "companies", were formed mostly of Americans but included German and French mercenaries who had served in Nicaragua, as had some of the Americans. The Nlaka'pamux, usually known in English as the Thompson or Hakamaugh (an attempt at pronouncing "Nlaka'pamux"), also were known as the Couteau or "Knife" Indians, partly as a result of this war (their region, the middle Fraser Canyon and Thompson Canyon, also appears on period maps as "the Couteau Country", which may also be a reference to the serrated benchlands lining the rivers' canyons).  The name "Kootomin" also appears on very early maps showing routes to the goldfields. Enlisted to the Nlaka'pamux side, but not seeing combat, were allied warriors from the Secwepemc, Nicola, Okanagan and other tribes. The Nlaka'pamux of the lower Canyon, notably the Spuzzum people, as well as the St'at'imc and Sto:lo peoples, remained "friendly Indians".

Canyon War
The war was precipitated when a young Nlaka'pamux woman was raped by a group of American miners, in the area of Kanaka Bar. The Nlaka'pamux retaliated by killing several of them, decapitating the bodies and dumping them into the river; they eventually were found circling in a large eddy near the town of Yale, the main commercial centre of the rush. This alarmed the thousands of miners lining the riverbanks between there and Kanaka Bar. For some time in the months leading up to this incident, tensions had risen due to increasing conflict between indigenous people and the encroaching miners. Conflict broke out amongst the parties when a group of goldseekers sparred with a party of Indians that had previously killed several white men and dumped them into a pool in much the same manner as the incident at Yale. Due to the reputation of the Nlaka'pamux, the riverbanks north of Yale were emptied, as miners in the thousands fled south to the relative safety of Spuzzum and Yale.

The miners held meetings. Most of them had been in the California Gold Rush but they were a diverse lot of men, from all over the world. Of the six regiments hastily organized to respond to the war, one, named the Austrian Company and captained by a John Centras, was composed of French and German irregulars who had served with the William Walker filibustering campaign in Nicaragua in 1853, and relocated to the California goldfields afterwards, following the other Californian miners northwards to Yale when news of the Fraser rush reached San Francisco (many of the Americans in the goldfields had also served in Walker's rebellion). Another regiment, the Whatcom Company, was formed of mostly southerners, under the command of Captain Graham. Bent on a war of extermination, the Whatcom Company's name was taken from that of the Whatcom Trail, which traversed what is now Whatcom County, Washington state from Bellingham Bay on Puget Sound, and which was used in open defiance of the British colonial administration's edict that access to the goldfields be made from Victoria and via steamboat from there only; in other words, their name implicitly indicated their annexationist sentiments.

The largest and most influential company formed in the chaotic situation was the New York Pike Guards, led by a Captain Snyder , who swayed the assembled miners' committees for a war of pacification, rather than a war of extermination as was the wish of Captain Graham and others.  .  Snyder proposed a distinction between warlike and friendly Indians, and messengers sent up the Canyon ahead of the advancing companies to tell friendly natives to display a white flag as a sign of peace..

The war parties left Yale and progressed to Spuzzum, where the companies found 3000 panicked miners encamped in a small area near the native rancherie, worried for their safety but unable to proceed any further south. Snyder's and Centras' companies crossed to the east side of the river at this point, which was one of the only viable crossings, with Snyder sending Graham's group up the west side of the river.

The New York and Austrian companies met no resistance on the journey north, and sent messages forward to Camchin, the ancient Nlaka'pamux "capital" at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers (today's town of Lytton), that they were coming to parley peace, not make war.  Meanwhile, Graham and his men rampaged up the west bank of the Canyon, destroying native food caches and potato fields but otherwise encountering only a few natives, most of whom had withdrawn into the deep mountain valleys flanking the canyon as refuge. The Whatcom Company were wiped out in a night-time gun-battle, witnessed by the other companies encamped across the river at the time. This was not due to native attack, but rather to a panicked reaction to a rifle falling over and misfiring, causing a melee from which only two or three men survived, as all the rest died shooting at each other in the dark.

At Camchin, the assembled leaders of the Nlaka'pamux and allies from the Secwepemc (Shuswap) and Okanagan peoples held council.  The Nlaka'pamux war leader  tried to incite the assembled warriors to wipe out the white men once and for all, but the Camchin chief Cxpentlum (known commonly in English as Spintlum, or David Spintlum), had good relations with Governor James Douglas and argued for peaceful co-existence.

Snyder and Centras marched into the midst of the Nlaka'pamux war council undaunted; if they had known about the thousands of warriors watching from the surrounding mountainsides they might not have been so bold.  As per native custom, they were given the right to speak, presumably speaking through translators, and told the assembled natives that if the war were to continue, white men by the thousands would come and occupy the country and destroy all the natives forever. In their own notes they presumed it was because they showed the natives their more-modern rifles (most natives, if they had firearms, had only muskets and carbines) and thought that this had persuaded them to make peace. In reality, the decision to make peace had already been reached, in the indigenous account. The notion that it would be impossible to wipe out all white men probably helped persuade any chiefs sitting on the fence to take the side of the peace-maker, Cxpentlum.

Six treaties were made that day, known as the Snyder Treaties, none of which has survived either in print or oral form, dealing with the co-existence in the Canyon and the working of the goldfields lining it. (Natives were the first to mine gold on the Thompson, and remained active miners throughout the rush.)

Aftermath
No formal figures of the dead from the Fraser Canyon War exist, and much hyperbole has been made by both sides.  Estimates of the white dead range from several dozen to several hundred or even thousands; some say the native casualties were extreme.

Just after the war parties' return to Yale, Governor Douglas and a contingent of Royal Engineers arrived to take control of what was feared to have been a situation that could easily have led to a war not only of extermination, but also of annexation.  Douglas had already been mortified that miners' committees had been established and the "California system" of claims had been implemented, without his say-so and outside the bounds of British law.  He was even more mortified to discover that Snyder and Centras, without a mandate, had proceeded to make treaties with the natives, which was under British law entirely the jurisdiction of the Crown.  He admonished the Americans, but they were conciliatory and swore to abide by the Queen's laws henceforth.

It was during this visit that the stage was set for the impending McGowan's War fiasco, as it was during this visit that the justices for Yale and Hill's Bar (Whannell and Perrier, respectively) were appointed by Douglas, who had no idea of their real characters and the consequences these appointments would all too quickly bring to local politics. Also accompanying the Governor on his steamboat journey to Yale on this occasion was one Ned McGowan, known as "the notorious" or as "the ubiquitous", whose presence would precipitate the subsequent series of improbable events known as McGowan's War later in the winter.

See also
 McGowan's War
 Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
 Yakima War
 Cayuse War
 Okanagan Trail
 Whatcom Trail

References

Further reading
 British Columbia Chronicle, 1847-1871: Gold & Colonists, Helen and G.P.V. Akrigg, Discovery Press, Vancouver (1977)
 Historical Atlas of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, Derek Hayes, Cavendish Books, Vancouver (1999)

Conflicts in 1858
Wars involving the indigenous peoples of North America
First Nations history in British Columbia
1858 in Canada
Indigenous conflicts in Canada
Fraser Canyon
Internal wars of Canada
1850s crimes in Canada

Fraser Canyon War


Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature () is a book of literary criticism by Erich Auerbach, and his most well known work. Written while Auerbach was teaching in Istanbul, Turkey, where he fled after being ousted from his professorship in Romance Philology at the University of Marburg by the Nazis in 1935, it was first published in 1946 by A. Francke Verlag.

Mimesis opens with a comparison between the way the world is represented in Homer's Odyssey and the way it appears in the Bible. From these two seminal Western texts, Auerbach builds the foundation for a unified theory of representation that spans the entire history of Western literature, including even the Modernist novelists writing at the time Auerbach began his study.

Overview
Mimesis gives an account of the way in which everyday life in its seriousness has been represented by many Western writers, from ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Petronius and Tacitus, early Christian writers such as Augustine, Medieval writers such as Chretien de Troyes, Dante, and  Boccaccio, Renaissance writers such as Montaigne, Rabelais, Shakespeare and Cervantes, seventeenth-century writers such as Molière and Racine, Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire, nineteenth-century writers such as Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola, all the way up to twentieth-century writers such as Proust and Woolf. Despite his treatment of the many major works, Auerbach apparently did not think he was comprehensive enough, and apologized in the original publication in 1946 explaining that he had access only to the 'insufficient' resources available in the library at Istanbul University where he worked; Auerbach did not know Turkish and so could not use locally available sources, and did not have access to non-Turkish secondary sources.

The mode of literary criticism in which Mimesis operates is often referred to among contemporary critics as historicism, since Auerbach largely regarded the way reality was represented in the literature of various periods to be intimately bound up with social and intellectual conventions of the time in which they were written. In this he followed Giambattista Vico. Auerbach considered himself a historical perspectivist in the German tradition (he mentioned Hegel in this respect) exploring specific features of style, grammar, syntax, and diction claims about much broader cultural and historical questions. Of Mimesis, Auerbach wrote that his "purpose is always to write history."

He is in the same German tradition of philology as Ernst Curtius, Leo Spitzer, and Karl Vossler, having a mastery of many languages and epochs and all-inclusive in its approach, incorporating just about any intellectual endeavor into the discipline of literary criticism.

Auerbach was a Romance language specialist, which explains his admitted bias towards treating texts from French compared to other languages. Chaucer and Wordsworth are not mentioned even in passing, though Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf are given full chapters and Dickens and Henry Fielding make appearances.

Chapters

Position and evaluation of rhetoric
To the consternation of his colleague Ernst Curtius, Auerbach's work is marked by an openly anti-rhetorical position. Auerbach criticizes classical writers such as Homer, Tacitus and Petronius, as well as medieval theologians (except St. Augustine) and writers of the seventeenth century, like Racine, for their adherence to the rhetorical doctrine of "styles" with their corresponding subject matters: the low style's association with the comedic and the popular classes, and the elevated style's association with the tragic, the historic and the heroic. Auerbach sees the Bible as opposing this rhetorical doctrine in its serious and poignant portrayals of common folk and their encounter with the divine. As Auerbach notes in Chapter 2 when discussing the New Testament:

But the spirit of rhetoric — a spirit which classified subjects in genera and invested every subject with a specific form of style as one garment becoming it in virtue of its nature [i.e. lower classes with the farcical low-style, upper classes with the tragic, the historic and the sublime elevated-style] — could not extend its dominion to them [the Bible writers] for the simple reason that their subject would not fit into any of the known genres. A scene like Peter's denial fits into no antique genre. It is too serious for comedy, too contemporary and everyday for tragedy, politically too insignificant for history — and the form which was given it is one of such immediacy that its like does not exist in the literature of antiquity.

The Bible will ultimately be responsible for the "mixed style" of Christian rhetoric, a style that is described by Auerbach in Chapter 7 as the "antithetical fusion" or "merging" of the high and low style.  The model is Christ's Incarnation as both sublimitas and humilitas.  This mixture ultimately leads to a "popular realism" seen in the religious plays and sermons of the 12th century.  Auerbach also discusses the development of an intermediate or middle style due to medieval influences from the Bible and courtly love (see chapters 9 and 15 on Boccaccio and Molière). This development of an intermediate and then ultimately another "mixed style" (Shakespeare, Hugo) leads to what Auerbach calls the "modern realism" of the nineteenth-century (see Chapter 18 on Flaubert).

Auerbach champions writers like Gregory of Tours and St. Francis of Assisi, whose Latin was poor and whose rhetorical education was minimal, but who were still able to convey vivid expression and feeling. He also champions the diarist Saint-Simon who wrote about the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century French court. Completely free of the absolute constraints of style found in Racine or the superficial use of reality found in Prévost or Voltaire, Saint-Simon's portraits of court life are considered by Auerbach, somewhat surprisingly, to be the precursor of Proust (an admirer of Saint-Simon) and Zola.

Critical reception
Mimesis is a sprawling, wide-ranging work. It has been praised for its insights on the particular works it addresses, and for the way the author revels in the complexities of each work and epoch without resorting to reductive generalities. At the same time, it has been criticized for its lack of a single overarching theme or claim. For this reason, individual chapters of the book are often read independently.

By far the most frequently reprinted chapter is Chapter 1, "Odysseus' Scar," in which Auerbach compares the scene in book 19 of Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus finally returns home from his two decades of warring and journeying, to Genesis 22, the story of The Binding of Isaac. Highlighting the rhetorically determined simplicity of characters in the Odyssey (what he calls the "external") against what he regards as the psychological depth of the figures in the Old Testament, Auerbach suggests that the Old Testament gives a more powerful and historical impression than the Odyssey, which he classifies as closer to "legend" in which all details are fleshed out in a leisurely manner and all actions occur in a simple present – indeed even flashbacks are narrated in the present tense.

Auerbach summarizes his comparison of the texts as follows:

The two styles, in their opposition, represent basic types: on the one hand [The Odyssey'''s] fully externalized description, uniform illustration, uninterrupted connection, free expression, all events in the foreground, displaying unmistakable meanings, few elements of historical development and of psychological perspective; on the other hand [in the Old Testament], certain parts brought into high relief, others left obscure, abruptness, suggestive influence of the unexpressed, "background" quality, multiplicity of meanings and the need for interpretation, universal-historical claims, development of the concept of the historically becoming, and preoccupation with the problematic.

Auerbach concludes by arguing that the "full development" of these two styles, the rhetorical tradition with its constraints on representing reality and the Biblical or "realist" tradition with its engagement of everyday experience, exercised a "determining influence upon the representation of reality in European literature."

It is in the context of this comparison between the Biblical and the Homeric that Auerbach draws his famous conclusion that the Bible's claim to truth is "tyrannical," since

What he [the writer of the Old Testament] produced then, was not primarily oriented towards "realism" (if he succeeded in being realistic, it was merely a means, not an end): it was oriented to truth.

By the time Auerbach treats the work of Flaubert, he has come full circle. Like the Biblical writers whose faith in the so-called "tyrannical" truth of God produces an authentic expression of reality, Flaubert's "faith in the truth of language" (ch. 18) represents "an entire human experience."

References

Bibliography
 Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Trans. Willard Trask. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
 Bakker, Egbert. "Mimesis as Performance: Rereading Auerbach's First Chapter." Poetics Today 20.1 (1999): 11–26.
 Baldick, Chris. "Realism." Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 184.
 Bremmer, Jan.  "Erich Auerbach and His Mimesis." Poetics Today 20.1 (1999): 3–10.
 Calin, William. "Erich Auerbach's Mimesis – 'Tis Fifty Years Since: A Reassessment." Style 33.3 (1999): 463–74.
 Doran, Robert. "Literary History and the Sublime in Erich Auerbach's Mimesis."  New Literary History 38.2 (2007): 353–69.
 Green, Geoffrey. "Erich Auerbach." Literary Criticism & the Structures of History: Erich Auerbach & Leo Spitzer. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
 Holmes, Jonathan, and Streete, Adrian, eds. Refiguring Mimesis: Representation in Early Modern Literature. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2005.
 Holquist, Michael. "Erich Auerbach and the Fate of Philology Today." Poetics Today 20.1 (1999): 77-91.
 Landauer, Carl. "Mimesis and Erich Auerbach's Self-Mythologizing." German Studies Review 11.1 (1988): 83-96.
 Lerer, Seth. Literary History and the Challenge of Philology: The Legacy of Erich Auerbach. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.
 Nuttall, A. D. "New Impressions V: Auerbach's Mimesis." Essays in Criticism 54.1 (2004): 60-74.
 Said, Edward W. Introduction to Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. First Princeton Classic edition. Trans. Willard Trask. ISBN 978-0-691-16022-1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.

Further reading
 "The Book of Books: Erich Auerbach and the making of Mimesis", by Arthur Krystal in The New Yorker'' (Dec. 9, 2013)

1946 essays
Aesthetics books
Contemporary philosophical literature
Literary criticism


The word savanna comes from a Panamanian word for prairie or plains.
They are covered with tall grasses. They may have scattered bushes and trees, but not enough to keep grasses from growing.

One common example of a savanna is the tropical grassland, in Africa. They have seasonal rains and dry periods.  All savanna plants and trees can survive periods of drought. During the dry season the animals migrate north to countries on the East coast. Originally the elephant herds moving up the East coast were in the tens of thousands. Sadly, the numbers of elephants now is much fewer.

Some savannas get enough rain to support a forest, but the forest never happens because grazing keeps the trees from growing. Instead there is lots of grasses and other plants that can regrow from the roots.

Africa
The savannas of Africa are the best known savannas. Some herbivores found in the savanna are antelopes, impalas, gazelles, buffalos, wildebeests, zebras, rhinos, giraffes, elephants, and warthogs. There is also a large number of carnivores, including cats (lions, leopards, cheetahs, servals), dogs (jackals, wild dogs), and hyenas. The vegetation in Eastern Africa is also rich with grass and some scattered trees, mostly acacia trees.  The dry season is the winter: from December to February it may not rain at all.  But in the summer there is lots of rain.

Australia

Northern Australia has a large savanna zone. This area includes northern Western Australia, the northern part of Northern Territory and eastern Queensland. Eucalyptus trees are the main tree in the Australian savanna. There are many species of kangaroos but not much else. Some savannas in Australia have regularly spaced trees. They are sometimes known as "the bush".

Savannas in Australia can also be found in the southern parts of the country, from northeastern New South Wales in the subtropics to northern Victoria in the temperate zone. In the southwest, however, they change into chaparral (i.e. Mediterranean shrublands) and semi-desert bush.

North America

In North America, the word savanna is also used to describe the tall grass prairies that have scattered trees, typically oaks.  This is a temperate climate (colder than the tropics).  It is called an oak savanna since the oak tree is the main tree.  At least half of the view of the sky must be open.  If there are more trees, then it is called a grove or a woodland.  If there are fewer trees, it is a prairie. If there are many kinds of trees and brush and very little grass, then it is a forest.

Oak savannas are found in California and Oregon on the west coast.  In the southwest it is found in Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.  In the midwest it is found in the tall-grass prairie.  Often a grove or a savanna is east of a river, which stopped the fire often enough to let trees grow. Large oak trees will survive grass fires.

The savannas in the midwest of the United States are kept open by regular fires, not because it is too dry for many trees.

South America
Brazil's cerrado is an open woodland of short twisted trees. The are many kinds of plants and animals here, many that don't exist anywhere else on earth.
The llanos of the Orinoco basin of Venezuela and Colombia are grass savannas, some parts of it get flooded every year.

References

Habitats
Grasslands

Savanna


Nagercoil ("Temple of the Nāgas") is a town in the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu and a municipality and administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District. The city is situated close to the tip of the Indian peninsula, locked with the Western Ghats on all sides. It was briefly part of the erstwhile Travancore state, till almost a decade after India's Independence from Britain in 1947. In 1956, it was merged with Tamil Nadu. In its earlier days, the town and its surroundings were known as Nanjilnadu. Nagercoil holds a number of educational institutions, hospitals, offices and industries. It is also the hub of industrial and commercial activity in the district, and a fertile agricultural area that produces paddy. The minerals ilmenite and monazite are mined there. The land is surrounded by hills and lush green paddy fields. It is also known for different varieties of bananas. Nagercoil is a land of great traditional and cultural significance.

According to 2011 census, Nagercoil had a population of 224,849 with a sex-ratio of 1,050 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. A total of 20,241 were under the age of six, constituting 10,119 males and 10,122 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 4.19% and .17% of the population respectively. The average literacy of the city was 95.35%. The city had a total of 59,997 households. There were a total of 76,345 workers, comprising 244 cultivators, 1,155 main agricultural laborers, 2,271 in household industries, 67,050 other workers, 5,625 marginal workers, 110 marginal cultivators, 361 marginal agricultural laborers, 447 marginal workers in household industries and 4,707 other marginal workers.

As per the religious census of 2011, Nagercoil had 61.06% Hindus, 8.89% Muslims, 29.94% Christians, 0.01% Sikhs, 0.02% Buddhists, 0.02% Jains and 0.06% following other religions or not stating their position.

The largest concentration of the population of the town and the District is along the coastal belt, on the eastern side, while the largely forested areas on the western side of the district (along the Western Ghats) are sparsely populated.

Places near Nagercoil

References

Other websites

 Official website of Kanyakumari district

Kanyakumari district

Nagercoil


The 52 Hukams are a set of instruction in Sikhism set by Guru Gobind Singh in Nanded, Maharashtra, India in 1708. These edicts sum up the ideal way of life of the Khalsa and serve as a code of conduct for the Khalsa Panth. Members of the Khalsa (baptized Sikhs) aim to follow all the 52 edicts.

List of the commands
A list of the 52 commands in romanized Punjabi with a faithful English translation is provided as follows:

 1. Dharam dee kirat karnee – Make an honest living.
 2. Dasvand denaa – Donate a tenth share of your earnings.
 3. Gurbani kantth karnee – Memorize Gurbani.
 4. Amrit Velā utthnaa – Arise during Amrit vela (early morning).
 5. Sikh sevak dee sevaa ruchee naal karnee – Devotedly serve the Sikh who serves others.
 6. Gurbani de arth Sikh vidhvanaa tuo parrhnae – Study the essence of Gurbani from learned Sikhs.
 7. Panj Kakaar dee rehit drirh kar rukhnee – Follow the discipline of The Five Ks strictly. Adhere resolutely to the five articles of faith.
 8. Shabad da abhiaas karnaa – Practice the sacred hymns to life.
 9. Sat Saroop Satgur daa dhian dharnaa – Contemplate and assimilate the beautiful truth of the True Enlightener.
 10. Guru Granth Sahib Jee noo Guru mananaa – Believe in and accept Guru Granth Sahib as the Guide to enlightenment.
 11. Kaarjaan dae arambh vich ardaas karnee – When undertaking any task, first perform the prayer of Ardās.
 12. Jaman, maran, ja viah mokae jup da paatth kar tihaaval (Karaah Parsaad) kar anand sahib dia punj paurian, ardaas, pratham panj pyaariaan atae hazooree granthee noo vartaa kae oprunth sangat noo vartaaouna – For birth naming, funeral, or marriage ceremonies or devotional reading paath; recite Japji Sahib while making Karah Parshad, perform five verses of Anand Sahib, and ardaas; and then distribute Karah Prashad to the Panj Pyare, attending Granthi, and then to the congregation gathered for worship.
 13. Jad tak Karaah Parshaad vartadaa rahae sadh sangat addol batthee rahae – Until Karah Parshad has been served to everyone, the congregation ought to be still and remain seated.
 14. Anand viah binaa grahist nahee karnaa – Without the Anand Karaj marriage ceremony, carnal relations should not occur.
 15. Par istree, ma bhain, dhee bhain, kar jaananee. Par istree da sang nahee karnaa – Other than your wedded wife, consider all women as your mothers, sisters and daughters. Do not indulge in carnal marital relationships with them.
 16. Istree da mooh nahee phitkaarnaa – Do not subject your wife to cursing, or verbal abuse.
 17. Jagat jootth tambaakoo bikhiaa da tiaag karnaa – Discard worldly ways, falsehoods, and poisonous tobacco.
 18. Rehitvaan atae naam jupan vaalae gursikhaa dee sangat karnee – Make companions of Gursikhs who follow the Rahit and recite the Divine Name.
 19. Kum karan vich daridar nahee karnaa – Work hard and don't be lazy.
 20. Gurbanee dee kathaa tae keertan roaz sunanaa atae karnaa – Take part in listening to Kirtan and discussions of the essence of Gurbani every day.
 21. Kisae dee ninda, chugalee, atae eirkhaa nahee karnee – Do not gossip nor slander, or be spiteful to anyone.
 22. Dhan, javaanee, tae kul jaat da abhiman naee karnaa (Nanak daadak tahe duae goath. Saak guroo Sikhan sang hoath) – Do not be proud of riches, youthfulness or lineage. (Regardless of maternal and paternal caste or heritage, all of the Guru's Sikhs are siblings of one family.)
 23. Mat uchee tae suchee rakhnee – Maintain a high standard of purity in religious discipline.
 24. Shubh karman tao kadae naa ttarnaa – Do not avoid performing virtuous acts.
 25. Budh bal da daataa Vaheguroo noo jaananaa – Appreciate intellect and power as gifts of the all-knowing Wondrous Enlightener.
 26. Sugandh (kasam/saunh) dae kar itbaar janaaoun vaalae tae yakeen nahee karnaa – Have no faith in oaths sworn by one attempting to convince another of sincerity.
 27.Sutantar Vicharna. Raaj Kaaj dian kamaan tae doosrae mutaa dia purshaan noo huk nahi daenaa - Rule Independently. In the affairs of government, do not give people of other religions authority or power.
 28. Raajniti vi parhnee – Study/Read about politics.
 29. Dushman naal saam, daam, bhed, aadik upaao vartnae ate uprant yudh karnaa dharam hai – When dealing with enemies, practice diplomacy (through conciliation, economics, or causing division of the opposing group), and exhaust all of these techniques before justifying battle with the adversary.
 30. Shastar vidya te ghorh-savaari da abhiaas karnaa – Train in the skills of weaponry and horsemanship.
 31. Doosrae mataa dae pustak, vidyaa parhnee. Pur bhrosaa drirh Gurbanee, Akaal Purakh tae karnaa| – Study the books and beliefs of other faiths. But maintain trust in Gurbani and Akal Purakh [Undying divine personification].
 32. Guroopdaesaa noo dhaaran karnaa – Follow the Guru teachings.
 33. Raheraas da paath kar kharae ho kae ardaas karnee – After reciting Rehras [evening prayers], stand up and perform Ardās.
 34. Saun valae sohilaa atae 'paun guru pani pita…' salok parhnaa – Recite the late evening prayer Sohila [3 hymns] and the verse "Pavan guru pani pita…" before sleeping.
 35. Kes nange nahi rakhne – Do not leave your hair uncovered.
 36. Singhaa da adhaa naam nahee bulaunaa – Address a Singh by their entire name including Singh [or Kaur], do not shorten it by half or call them nicknames.
 37. Sharaab nahi peeni-piauni – Do not drink or serve alcoholic beverages.
 38. Sir munae noo kanaiaa nahee daenee. Uos ghar daeve jithae Akal Purukh dee sikhee ha, jo karza-ai naa hovae, bhalae subhaa da hovae, bibaekee atae gyanvaan hovae – Do not given a daughter's hand in marriage to a shaven one. Give her to a household where the Undying divine personification Akal Purakh and tenets of Sikhism are respected, to household without debt, of a pleasing nature, which is disciplined and educated.
 39. Subh kaaraj Gurbanee anusaar karnae – Maintain all business affairs in accordance with scripture.
 40. Chugalee kar kisae da kam nahee vigaarnaa – Do not defame anyone by gossiping about their business.
 41. Kaurha bachan nahee kahinaa – Do not speak in bitterness.
 42. Darshan yaatraa gurdwaaraa dee hee karnee – Make pilgrimages only for seeing Gurdwaras.
 43. Bachan karkae paalnaa – Keep all promises made.
 44. Pardaesee, lorvaan, dukhee, apung manukh dee yataahshkat seva karnee – Do as much as possible to serve and aid foreigners, those in need, or in trouble.
 45. Dhee Putaree da dhan bikh Kar jananaa – Realize that taking the earnings of a daughter is poison [don't be greedy].
 46. Dikhaavae da Sikh nahee banana – Do not act a Sikh outwardly only for show.
 47. Sikhi kesaa-suaasa sang nibhaaounee – Live and die a Sikh with hair intact and unshorn.
 48. Chori, yaari, tthugi, dhokaa, dagaa nahee karnaa – Abstain from thievery, adultery, cheating, deception, swindling, and pillaging.
 49. Sikh da itbaar karnaa – Have confidence in a Sikh.
 50. Jhutthi gavaahee nahee daenee – Do not make false testimonies.
 51. Dhroh nahee karnaa – Do not participate in fraud.
 52. Langar Parshaad ik ras vartaaunaa – Serve langar [free community kitchen of a gurdwara] and prashad with impartiality.

See also

 Sikh Rehat Maryada

References

External links
52 Hukams of Guru Gobind Singh Ji - Basics of Sikhi video series
52 Hukam of Guru Gobind Singh Ji - English translation

Sikh practices
Sikh beliefs
Warrior code

The 52 Hukams of Guru Gobind Singh


Doris Heyden (née Heydenreich; June 2, 1905 – September 25, 2005) was a prominent scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, particularly those of central Mexico.  She was born in East Orange, New Jersey, United States.  She died on September 25, 2005, from the lingering aftereffects of a stroke suffered in 1999.

Heyden was a member of a group of artists, writers, folklorists, scholars, and political activists who together created the "Mexican Renaissance". The exponents of this post-Revolutionary circle drew upon Mexican history and traditions while contributing to a variety of international movements including realism, Symbolism, surrealism and communism.  Important members were mural painters Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, Zapotec painter Rufino Tamayo, mystical painters Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, caricaturist and Mesoamerican scholar Miguel Covarrubias, as well as photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo.

Early life

Born Doris Heydenreich Selz in 1905, Heyden claimed noble German and Austrian descent from a family with titles going back to 1312.  She spent a happy and prosperous childhood in Maplewood, New Jersey, and Glencoe, Illinois, with access to New York City and Chicago. Her early life was illuminated by art, music, and books.  She began writing and publishing at about age ten, at first concentrating on poetry and mysteries, and then contributing to Newark, New Jersey, newspapers around age thirteen. Heyden started painting even earlier, when she was five years old.  Although she never became a great artist, she made her mark in another field.

Education

Heyden studied  art history and design at New York City's Pratt Institute, winning Senior Honors in 1936.  After graduation she did illustrations for Mademoiselle magazine.  It was in New York City that she became fascinated with the drawings of José Clemente Orozco and Mexican art in general.  During the mid-1940s she traveled to Mexico.  A friend gave her the name of a Mexican photographer.  That man was Manuel Álvarez Bravo, arguably Mexico's greatest modernist photographer.  Heyden and Álvarez Bravo married and had a son and daughter together. Mexico was Heyden's home for the rest of her life.

Heyden began formal graduate studies at the Escuela de Antropología, part of UNAM, Mexico's national university in 1956.  She obtained her M.A. in 1969 and eventually acquired a doctorate there.

Career

Employed by INAH, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, as curator of the Teotihuacan hall at the National Museum of Anthropology, she produced well over a hundred articles, books, and translations, both scholarly and popular, on a variety of topics, but most importantly on ancient architecture, Aztec symbolism, pre-Columbian views of what we would call nature, the importance of caves to Mesoamerican cosmology, and  Indian cultural survivals.

Major works
Heyden was a contributing editor of the influential Handbook of Latin American Studies (1961–68). All her writings were solidly based on archaeological fieldwork in many regions of Mexico. She also studied folk art and ethnology. Research in the world's great libraries and archives was another important aspect of her scholarship.

Until her death Doris Heyden maintained a welcoming house in Mexico City, which hosted numerous gatherings of anthropologists and other internationally renowned luminaries in her fields of study.

The influence of Doris Heyden in the field of pre-Columbian studies is evident from the two co-ordinated volumes of essays that have been dedicated to her.  The first, in Spanish, is Chalchihuite edited by María de Jesús Rodríguez-Shadow and Beatriz Barba Ahuatzin de Piña Chan (1999). The second, in English, is the  similarly titled In Chalchihuitl in quetzalli/Precious Greenstone Precious Quetzal Feather edited by Eloise Quiñones Keber (2000).  The latter volume contains an interview with her.

Publications
Her published works and contributions include:

Pre-Columbian Architecture of Mesoamerica (1975, written with Paul Gendrop and published in Spanish the previous year)
El Ciclo de vida del pilli y del macehual (1975, The Life Cycle of Noble and Commoner)
Economía y religion de Teotihuacan (1977)
La comunicación no verbal en el ritual (1979)
The Great Temple and the Aztec Gods (1984, with Luis Francisco Villaseñor)
Cuentos del Maíz (1985)
Mitología y simbolismo de la flora en el México prehispánico (1983), Flora y Fauna en el México Prehispánico (1988; with Ana María Velasco)
The Eagle, the Cactus, the Rock: The Roots of Mexico Tenochtitlan's Foundation Myth and Symbol (1989; published in Spanish the year before)
Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España y islas de Tierra Firme (1994), a translation of Father Diego Durán's important sixteenth-century account of the religion and customs of pre-Columbian central Mexico.

Notes

1905 births
2005 deaths
20th-century American educators
American emigrants to Mexico
American people of German descent
Writers from Mexico City
Writers from East Orange, New Jersey
American Mesoamericanists
Women Mesoamericanists
Historians of Mesoamerican art
Teotihuacan scholars
American centenarians
Women centenarians
20th-century Mesoamericanists
Pratt Institute alumni
National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni

Doris Heyden


Iraq is a country in southwestern Asia. Iraq borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south, Turkey to the north, Syria to the north-west, Jordan to the west, and Iran to the east. The capital of Iraq is Baghdad.

Iraq has been known by the Greek name Mesopotamia which means (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing. Iraq was part of several empires, some were Safavid, and Afsharid. During the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I, British Empire troops conquered the Ottoman Empire provinces of Basra and Baghdad and later added the province of Mosul to make Iraq.

Most Iraqis are Shia Muslims.

Politics
From 1968 to 2003, Iraq was run by the Ba'ath Party. Saddam Hussein was the President from 1979 until the disbandment of the Ba'ath Party.

After the 1990 invasion of Kuwait many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, France, Italy, Pakistan, and others fought to free Kuwait. Later, some agents believed to be sent by Saddam Hussein tried to kill former President George H. W. Bush with a truck bomb in Kuwait.

The Kurdistan Region gained autonomy in the 1990s. Kurdistan region has its own parliament.

The March 2003 invasion of Iraq was led by American, British, Australian, Danish and Polish forces. They forced the Ba'ath Party to surrender. The publicly stated reason for the invasion was that Saddam Hussein refused to let United Nations inspectors look for suspected nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. In the past, Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons to kill the Kurds. Iraq had done research in making biological and nuclear weapons.

The country was initially split into 3 zones, the American zone, the British zone, and the Polish zone similar to the way Germany was divided in 1945. Forces from Denmark controlled areas in the British zone. A new temporary government was formed on June 28, 2004. The coalition forces were in the country.

There were many U.S., British and multi-national troops in the country until December 15, 2011 when the Iraq War had ended. Tensions between religious groups (Shia and Sunni Muslims, as well as Christians) lead to a great deal of instability in the country.

Geography

The country area lies between two rivers; for this reason the area was called Mesopotamia in ancient ages. The rivers Euphrates and Tigris bound what is called the Fertile Crescent. Iraq also has a small coastline along the Persian Gulf, and this coastline was considered the heart of the petroleum trade in Iraq before the First Gulf War. The weather is extremely hot and dry because Iraq is far from seas and oceans and even the close ones are blocked by mountains so that the rainy wind can not reach the inlands. This region has fertile land because of the two rivers.

Iraq is divided into 18 provinces (muhafazah).

Economy
Iraq has a large amount of oil. Iraq is the world's number four in petroleum production and the world's number two in petroleum reserves. In the past, Iraq sold much of this oil to other countries. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United Nations stopped Iraq from selling the oil. The United Nations later allowed Iraq to sell some oil to buy food, clothes, and medicine so the people would not suffer as much. This was called the "Oil-for-Food" program.

Related pages
 Iraq at the Olympics
 Iraq national football team
 List of rivers of Iraq

References

Other websites

Mesopotamia
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

Iraq


The statutory rules of Northern Ireland are the principal form in which delegated legislation is made in Northern Ireland.

Statutory rules are made under the Statutory Rules (Northern Ireland) Order 1979. They replaced statutory rules and orders made under the Rules Publication Act (Northern Ireland) 1925 and are comparable with statutory instruments in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Definition and making of statutory rules

A document is a statutory rule if it contains orders, rules, regulations or byelaws which have effect in Northern Ireland and were made after 31 December 1958 by Northern Ireland departments or certain other public bodies in exercise of a power of a legislative character conferred by:
 an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland,
 an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly,
 an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

After being made by the relevant public body, statutory rules are registered and numbered (sequentially under the year in which they are made) by the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister which then arranges for notice of the making of the rules to be published in the Belfast Gazette and for the rules to be printed by Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Controls over statutory rules

Many parent Acts will require that new statutory rules are laid before the Northern Ireland Assembly and are either:
 subject to affirmative resolution - in other words, they cannot come into force until approved by the Assembly; or
 subject to negative resolution - meaning that they will become law after a period (usually 30 days when the Assembly is sitting) unless the Assembly passes a resolution to annul them.

Every statutory rule which is laid before the Assembly and which is subject to proceedings in the Assembly is referred to the appropriate committee of the Assembly for consideration. To assist the committees, the Northern Ireland Assembly has appointed an Examiner of Statutory Rules. The Committee or Examiner will highlight a rule to the Assembly if it:
 imposes a cost on the public finances,
 requires payments of fees to a public authority,
 is made under powers which prevent it from be challenged in the courts,
 attempts to have retrospective effect (i.e. to change the law from a date before the date on which it is made) when the parent legislation does not explicitly empower it to do so,
 makes an unexpected or unusual use of the powers conferred by the parent legislation, or it may be ultra vires (outside the powers granted by the parent legislation, and so unlawful),
 requires further explanation,
 has been published or laid before Assembly late, or
 is unclear or appears to contain mistakes.

As with all delegated legislation, because statutory instruments are made by a person exercising a power conferred by an Act of Parliament for a specified purpose, rather than by Parliament exercising its sovereign law-making powers, they can be struck down by the courts if it is concluded that they are ultra vires (literally, outside the powers conferred by the parent Act). This would be the case if the Government attempts to use delegated legislation for a purpose not envision by the parent Act, or if the legislation is an unreasonable use of the power conferred by the Act, or if pre-conditions imposed by the Act (for example, consultation with certain organisations) have not been satisfied.

List

Notes

Laws of Northern Ireland
United Kingdom administrative law

Statutory rules of Northern Ireland