0c7e70c21a3f04ae92827eab47d92b7d558de5b335463d36622e1388fd9efa19

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+In Greek mythology, Odysseus was the great grandson of the Greek god Hermes. He was the king of the island Ithaca. He was married to Penelope. Odysseus and Penelope had a son called Telemachos. Odysseus is a major character in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
+
+Odysseus fought in the Trojan War. He invented the Trojan Horse, which helped the Greeks win the war. After the war, his adventurous journey home took 10 years. The story of that journey is told in the Odyssey. Odysseus angered Poseidon, the god of seas, when he half blinded his cyclops son Polyphemos. In anger, Poseidon stopped him from leaving the island. The Latin name for Odysseus is "Ulysses".
+
+There have been many movies about Odysseus, because of his heroic and intelligent battle strategies.
+
+Media related to Odysseus at Wikimedia Commons
+

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+Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822–July 23, 1885), born Hiram Ulysses Grant, was the general who helped the Union Army of the United States win the American Civil War.[1] He later became the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877).[1]
+
+Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio.[2] He was the oldest of six children born to Jesse and Hannah Grant.[2] Jesse Grant was a tanner. It was hard smelly work but he made a good living at it.[2] Young Grant worked for his father in the tannery but hated the work.[2] He went to local schools. In 1838 he attended the Presbyterian Academy in Ripley, Ohio.[3] In 1839 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point.[3] He was not  the best student though he was good at math. When he graduated, he was placed in the infantry.[4]
+
+When Grant arrived at West Point and discovered that the Academy had him registered under the wrong name as "Ulysses S. Grant". He was told that it didn't matter what he or his parents thought his name was, the official government application said his name was "Ulysses S." and that application could not be changed. If "Hiram Ulysses Grant" wanted to attend West Point, he would have to change his name.[5]
+
+Before becoming the president, Grant was an officer in the Union Army (North).  He fought in the Mexican War and became a general at the start of the American Civil War.  He served as head of the Army of Tennessee and won victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. He became the top general in the Union Army from 1864 to 1865, and fought several battles against Robert E. Lee.
+
+Since he was able to do well fighting in the American Civil War, he gained popularity which helped him to become president.  Even though he was a respected general and supported civil rights for African Americans, historians criticize his presidency because he appointed his friends into high political positions and tolerated their corruption (even though Grant himself was innocent). Grant was the first President of the United States to have both living parents attend his inauguration.[6]
+
+In 1872, Republican reformers split the party and nominated Horace Greeley to be president. The Democratic Party also nominated him.[7] Greeley wanted Civil Service reform and amnesty for all former Confederates. Grant won the election by a landslide.[7]
+
+Very soon into Grant's second term the Panic of 1873 started a depression in the United States that spread to Europe.[7] In 1873, Republicans in Congress were caught in a bribery scandal by newspapers. They had collected large bribes to give large federal Grants to the railroads. The bribes had taken place before Grant was president, but the news came out during his presidency making it seem even more corrupt.[8] Also in 1873, Grant signed a bill that gave himself and congressmen a pay raise. The press attacked him for it calling it a money grab. Republicans were getting a bad reputation in the press. Mid-term, the Democrats won a majority of votes in the House. They started a number of congregational investigations. Grant's Secretary of the Treasury had to resign after being caught in a fraud scheme involving taxpayer kickbacks.
+
+The Whiskey Ring was the largest scandal and involved widespread fraud.[8] Grant had appointed an army friend John MacDonald as an Internal Revenue Service supervisor for the St. Louis area. In return for bribes, whisky distillers paid taxes only on a small portion of the whiskey they produced.[8] They were cheating the U.S. government out of millions of dollars a year.[8] MacDonald kept some of the money while some of it went to the Republican Party.[8] The Whiskey Ring was paying some officials a regular salary to keep them from talking.[8] Benjamin Bristow, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time, had no idea this was going on.[8] Each time he sent inspectors on a raid to check out suspected cheaters, their records were always in good order.[8] Bristow had no idea someone in his office was telling them in advance who was to be inspected. Meanwhile, Grant accepted expensive gifts from MacDonald not suspecting he was running a fraud scheme.[8] MacDonald even told his friends in St. Louis that Grant was in on the scheme.[8] In 1875, MacDonald and more than 350 distillers and government officials were indicted.[8] This included Grant's personal secretary Orville Babcock. He was the one keeping ring members informed of any inspections.[8] At his trial, witnesses lied and even President Grant wrote a letter stating Babcock was of good character. As a result, Babcock was exonerated of the charges, but the scandal prevented him from going back to his job in Washington.[8] Of those accused, 60 paid fines while MacDonald and two others went to prison.[8] The Whiskey Ring proved to most Americans that Grant's administration was filled with corruption.[8]
+
+After his presidency, Grant was poor and was suffering from throat cancer.  He wrote a book about his life that sold millions of copies. He died three days after he finished writing the book. He is buried with his wife Julia in Grant's Tomb, New York City, New York.

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+Umberto Eco (January 5, 1932 – February 19, 2016) was an Italian writer and professor of medieval history in Bologna.
+
+Eco was born in 1932 in northern Italy.
+As a student, he studied philosophy, history, literature, and educational sciences.
+He finished his studies in 1954 with a doctoral thesis about Thomas Aquinas. In 1962, he married.
+
+His career as a book writer began with The Name of the Rose in 1980, after he already written many academic papers.
+
+Eco was born on January 5, 1932 in Alessandria. His family had 13 sons. He studied philosophy and humanities at the University of Turin. He received a Ph.D. there.
+
+Eco worked as a professor in different places. Starting in 1971, he held the chair of semiotics at the University of Bologna. At a university, a "chair" is the highest rank a professor can earn. He was also given honorary degrees by thirty different universities.
+
+He had been named satrap of pataphysics for his humourous works.  One of his most important books is How to Travel with a Salmon.
+
+He was a member of UNESCO's Council of Sages. In 2000, he received the Princess of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanities.
+
+Eco worked in the mass media as well, creating cultural programs.[2] His interests were the Middle Ages, languages, and the classics. He was also an expert on James Bond.
+
+On February 19, 2016, Eco died at his home in Milan, Italy, of pancreatic cancer. He was 84.[2]

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+An archipelago (pronounced /ɑrkəˈpɛləgoʊ/) is a chain or group of islands. The word archipelago means "chief sea", from Greek arkhon (arkhi-) ("leader") and pelagos ("sea").
+
+Archipelagos are usually found in the open sea; less commonly, a big landmass may neighbor them, an example being Scotland which has more than 700 islands surrounding the mainland. Many archipelagos are volcanic, forming along mid-ocean ridges or hotspots. Others are island arcs neighboring an oceanic trench. Many other processes create archipelagos, including erosion, deposition, and land elevation.
+
+The four biggest countries that are mainly archipelagos are Japan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and Indonesia (the world's biggest archipelagic country according to the CIA World Factbook).[1] The biggest archipelago in the world by size is in Northern Canada, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which is in the Arctic Ocean.
+

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+Coal is a hard rock which can be burned as a solid fossil fuel. It is mostly carbon but also contains hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen and nitrogen. It is a sedimentary rock formed from peat, by the pressure of rocks laid down later on top.
+
+Peat, and therefore coal, is formed from the remains of plants which lived millions of years ago in tropical wetlands, such as those of the late Carboniferous period (the Pennsylvanian). Also wood heated in an airless space can make charcoal, which is like coal.
+
+Coal can be burned for energy or heat. About two-thirds of the coal mined today is burned in power stations to make electricity. Like oil, when coal is burned its carbon joins with oxygen in the air and makes a lot of carbon dioxide, which causes climate change. Because of that and other air pollution from coal most countries are turning to new sources of energy, such as solar power. But new coal power plants are still being built in some parts of the world, such as China.
+
+Coal can be roasted (heated very hot in a place where there is no oxygen) to produce coke. Coke can be used in smelting to reduce metals from their ores.
+
+Coal was the most important fuel of the Industrial Revolution.[1] Coal was an important part of rail freight in the UK in the 20th century, forming the greater part of several companies' freight volume.  Early in the 21st century most coal fired power stations in the United Kingdom and several other countries were closed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
+
+Under suitable conditions, plant material is transformed step by step into
+
+Diamond is commonly believed to be the end result of this process, but this is not true. Diamond is carbon but is not formed from coal.
+
+Coal contains impurities. The particular impurities determine the use. Coking coal has little ash or sulfur or phosphorus. Those would spoil the iron made by the blast furnace.
+
+Coal, when burnt, gives off almost a third more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than oil, and 80% more than natural gas. Almost half of the carbon dioxide from people is because of burning coal so it is the biggest single cause of global warming.[4] Coal contributes to acid rain and smog, especially when burned without scrubbers. Burning coal releases toxic chemicals, including soot, mercury, and carbon monoxide, which contribute to diseases such as cancer and asthma in both humans and wild animals. Coal mining, especially mountaintop removal mining, can damage large areas of land and destroy natural habitats. Higher grades of coal burn more cleanly than lower grades, although they still pollute more than other fuels. In addition to air pollution, burning coal produces toxic coal ash, which can cause water pollution if it is accidentally released into the environment. There are several underground mine fires burning throughout the world. These underground fires release toxic smoke into the air, and can also cause the ground above to collapse. The city of Centralia, Pennsylvania was evacuated and is now abandoned due to an underground coal mine fire.
+
+It is difficult to give exact figures for the effects of coal on health. It is claimed that because of coal every year over 800,000 people die early and millions of people get ill.[5] Coal miners often get pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) from exposure to coal dust.
+
+Opposition to coal pollution was one of the main reasons the modern environmental movement started in the 19th century.
+
+Peak coal means the year in which most coal is mined or burned. Many countries have already passed their peak coal years, for example Germany in 1985 and the United States in 2008. Now those countries are mining and burning less coal. But China still mines a lot of coal and is helping a few countries, like Pakistan,[6] mine more coal and build more coal-fired power stations. So the peak coal year for the world may have passed.[7]
+
+Compared to other non-renewable sources of energy, coal is inefficient and produces high amounts of greenhouse gases. Coal is commonly found and cheap.
+
+The world's top coal producer is China, which produces about 4 billions tonnes each year, followed in order by India, United States, Australia, Indonesia and Russia with less than a billion tonnes each.[9] The largest exporter by far is Australia and the largest importers are China, India and Japan.
+
+In some cultures, Santa Claus brings coal to misbehaved children for Christmas. This legend comes from Victorian times when it was common to burn coal in the fireplace, rather than wood. Children who did not receive toys would at least get coal to stay warm.

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+A Christmas Carol is a novella by the British writer Charles Dickens. It was first published on 19 December 1843 by Chapman & Hall in London. The illustrations were drawn by John Leech. The first edition was a beautiful and expensive book. It was sold out by Christmas Eve, but Dickens never made the money he expected on the tale due to the book's high production costs.
+
+The novella was written at a time when the British were longing for the traditional merry Olde English Christmas. Christmas customs of the past were being revived. New Christmas customs such as the Christmas tree and the greeting card were making their first appearances. Old carols were being sung. The novella has been credited with restoring the festive spirit of Christmas after a period of Puritan sobriety and solemnity.[source?]
+
+The story is about a Christmas-hating miser named Ebenezer Scrooge. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by four ghosts who transform him into a kind and generous man. The story has a strong moral messages about greed and poverty. It is usually read at Christmas time and has been adapted to theatre, movies, radio, and television many times.
+
+Ebenezer Scrooge is a Christmas-hating old miser and businessman. One Christmas Eve, Scrooge declines an invitation to his nephew's house for Christmas dinner, telling his nephew that Christmas is "Humbug".  He then refuses to give a donation to two men who are collecting for charity.
+
+Later that evening, he is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner Jacob Marley, a man whose greed and selfishness have doomed him to eternal hellfire. He tells Scrooge that he must change his ways or that hellfire will be his fate. Marley warns him that during the night he will be visited by three more ghosts. These will show him where he went wrong in his life, and how to be a better person in the future.
+
+The first ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Past. This ghost shows him his unhappy childhood and how he did not get married. The second ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Present. This ghost shows him things which are happening now, such as how his clerk, Bob Cratchit, is having a nice Christmas despite not having much money. He also shows him Bob's youngest son, called Tiny Tim, who is crippled.
+
+Later, the ghost shows him how his nephew is having a good Christmas, and how Scrooge is missing out. The third ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost shows Scrooge what Christmas will be like in the future if he does not change. First, people are shown celebrating a man's death and robbing his house. The ghost also shows him that Tiny Tim has died. Scrooge is then shown his own grave, and realizes that the celebrations were for his death.
+
+On Christmas morning, Scrooge wakes up and realizes that he has to change. He decides to celebrate Christmas, and help Tiny Tim get well. He sends the Cratchit family a prize turkey for their holiday dinner. Through the ghosts' help, Scrooge becomes a better man.
+
+The book made popular the phrase "Merry Christmas" as well as the name "Scrooge" and the ejaculation "Bah! Humbug". The book spurred charitable giving in the years following its first publication. Its lasting legacy is returning to Christmas the merriment and festivity the day lost after a period of Puritan sobriety.

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+A lyre (pronounce to rhyme with "fire") is an instrument which is like a mixture between a harp and a guitar. It is held in one hand and the strings are strummed using the other hand.  Lyres were among the first string instruments to be invented.
+

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+UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (French: L'Organisation des Nations unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture). It is an agency of the United Nations (UN).
+
+UNESCO says its purpose, as defined just after the end of World War II, is "to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women". It does this by helping nations work together, through education for all, science, and culture. This is supposed to help other nations follow the rule of law and human rights. It also helps promote some freedoms in the UN Charter.[1]
+
+UNESCO has 195 Member countries.[2]
+
+UNESCO tries to achieve what it wants to do through six programs: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, communication and information. Some projects sponsored by UNESCO are literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes. UNESCO also decides what will become World Heritage Sites. A World Heritage Site is an important, special, interesting or beautiful place. If a place is a World Heritage Site, the place can not be destroyed, as it can give useful information for the future. The Uluru, for example, gives a lot of information on the culture of Aborigines. UNESCO is also a member of the United Nations Development Group.[3] and works for Millennium Development Goals.

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+UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (French: L'Organisation des Nations unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture). It is an agency of the United Nations (UN).
+
+UNESCO says its purpose, as defined just after the end of World War II, is "to build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women". It does this by helping nations work together, through education for all, science, and culture. This is supposed to help other nations follow the rule of law and human rights. It also helps promote some freedoms in the UN Charter.[1]
+
+UNESCO has 195 Member countries.[2]
+
+UNESCO tries to achieve what it wants to do through six programs: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, communication and information. Some projects sponsored by UNESCO are literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes. UNESCO also decides what will become World Heritage Sites. A World Heritage Site is an important, special, interesting or beautiful place. If a place is a World Heritage Site, the place can not be destroyed, as it can give useful information for the future. The Uluru, for example, gives a lot of information on the culture of Aborigines. UNESCO is also a member of the United Nations Development Group.[3] and works for Millennium Development Goals.

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+One (1) is a natural number after zero and before two.
+It represents a single item.
+A human typically has one head, nose, mouth, and navel (belly-button).
+The Roman numeral for one is I.
+
+In mathematics, 1 is also the only number for which these special facts are true.
+
+In mathematics 0.999... is a repeating decimal that is mathematically equal to 1. Many proofs have been made to show this is correct.
+
+The number one is important for computer science because the binary numeral system uses only 1s and 0s. In machine code, and in many programming languages, one means true and zero means false.

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+The Union of European Football Associations mostly called the UEFA, is the organization that controls European football (soccer) (often referred to as association football). The UEFA is one of 6 continental confederations of the FIFA. It is also the biggest one. The President of the UEFA is Florentino Pérez, who also works as the president of Real Madrid.
+
+Some members of the UEFA are partly or whole not part of the European continent (Israel, Turkey, Kazakhstan,Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Cyprus and Russia). There are members that do not represent sovereign states, such as the Faroe Islands, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
+
+UEFA national teams have won eleven FIFA World Cups (Italy-4, Germany-4, England, France and Spain-one trophy each), and UEFA clubs have won 21 Intercontinental Cups and four FIFA Club World Cups. In women's, UEFA teams have won three FIFA Women's World Cups (Germany 2, Norway 1) and one Olympic gold medal (Norway).
+
+1: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Bosnia and Herzegovina
+2: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Ireland
+3: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1954–1974; Joined UEFA in 1994)
+4: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1998–2002; Joined UEFA in 2002)
+5: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Republic of Macedonia
+
+NB:  Gibraltar was a provisional member of UEFA between 8 December 2006 and 26 January 2007 until the GFA had its application for full membership rejected.
+
+The main international competition is the UEFA European Football Championship. This competition started in 1958, with the first finals in 1960. It is held every four years. The last was 2016 in France. The title was won by Portugal for their first time ever. There were also European competitions at the Under-21, Under-19 and Under-17 levels. For women there was the UEFA Women's Championship.
+
+There are two main club competitions. The highest is the UEFA Champions League. It started in the 1992/93 season as follower of the UEFA Champion Cup. This competition was first held in 1956. The second is the UEFA Europa League. The league started in 1999 when the UEFA Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup merged. In women's football UEFA governs UEFA Women's Champions League for club teams. The competition was first held in 2009 (out of UEFA Women's Cup until 2009)
+
+Since 1992 no winner of the Champions League was able to defend the title the next season.[3]
+
+
+

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+The Soviet Union (short for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) [10] was a single-party Marxist–Leninist state. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia).
+
+The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, were called satellite states.
+
+The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.
+
+Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe[who?] that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire, since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.
+
+The Union was formed with the professed idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights. There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state. 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man and satellite into space and winning World War II alongside the United States and United Kingdom. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991, partly due to the efforts at reform by its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
+
+Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.[11]
+
+The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.
+
+The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).
+
+The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.
+
+The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.
+
+The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.
+
+The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks.
+
+From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.
+
+Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.
+
+A rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+In the long and bloody Russian Civil War the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.
+
+On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
+
+The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
+The End
+
+From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).
+
+Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
+
+Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take millions of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov, continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.
+
+After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956 he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.
+
+Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.
+
+In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.
+
+Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The Following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
+
+Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticise the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.
+
+By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control.  Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order.  Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader.  He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).
+
+A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing.  It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

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+The Soviet Union (short for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) [10] was a single-party Marxist–Leninist state. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia).
+
+The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, were called satellite states.
+
+The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.
+
+Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe[who?] that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire, since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.
+
+The Union was formed with the professed idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights. There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state. 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man and satellite into space and winning World War II alongside the United States and United Kingdom. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991, partly due to the efforts at reform by its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
+
+Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.[11]
+
+The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.
+
+The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).
+
+The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.
+
+The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.
+
+The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.
+
+The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks.
+
+From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.
+
+Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.
+
+A rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+In the long and bloody Russian Civil War the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.
+
+On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
+
+The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
+The End
+
+From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).
+
+Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
+
+Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take millions of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov, continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.
+
+After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956 he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.
+
+Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.
+
+In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.
+
+Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The Following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
+
+Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticise the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.
+
+By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control.  Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order.  Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader.  He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).
+
+A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing.  It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

ensimple/5858.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+The European Union (abbreviation: EU) is a confederation of 27 member countries in Europe established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-1993.  The EU grew out of the European Economic Community (EEC) which was established by the Treaties of Rome in 1957. It has created a common economic area with Europe-wide laws allowing the citizens of EU countries to move and trade in other EU countries almost the same as they do in their own. Nineteen of these countries also share the same type of money: the euro.
+
+The Treaty of Lisbon is the most recent treaty that says how the Union is run. Every member state signed to say that they each agreed with what it says. Most importantly, it says which jobs (’powers’) the Union should do for the members and which jobs they should do themselves. The members decide how the Union should act by voting for or against proposals.
+
+The objective of the EU is to bring its member states closer together with respect of human rights and democracy. It does this with a common style of passport, common rules about fair trading with each other, common agreements about law enforcement, and other agreements. Most members share a common currency (the euro) and most allow people to travel from one country to another without having to show a passport.
+
+After World War II, the countries in Europe wanted to live peacefully together and help one another's economies. Instead of fighting each other for coal and steel, the first member countries (West) Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg created one European Coal and Steel Community in 1952.
+
+In 1957 in the Italian city of Rome, the member countries signed another treaty and made the European Economic Community. Now it was a community for coal, steel and for trade. Later it changed the name to  the European Community.
+
+In 1993, with the Treaty of Maastricht it changed its name to the European Union. Now the member countries work together not only in politics and economy (coal, steel and trade), but also in money, justice (laws), and foreign affairs. With the Schengen Agreement, 22 member countries of the EU opened their borders to each other, so people can now travel from one country to the other without a passport or identity card. Now already 16 member countries have replaced their national currencies with the euro. 10 new countries became members of the EU in 2004, 2 more became members in 2007, and 1 more in 2013. Today there are 27 member countries altogether.
+
+A person who is a citizen of the European Union can live and work in any of the 27 member states without needing a work permit or visa. For example, a French person can move to Greece to work there, or just to live there, and he or she does not need permission from an authority in Greece.
+
+In the same way, products made in one member country can be sold in any other member country without any special permissions or extra taxes. For this reason, the members agree rules on product safety - they want to know that a product made in another country will be as safe as it would be if it had been made in their own.
+
+- Legislative (lower house) -
+
+- Sets impetus and direction -
+
+- Legislative (upper house) -
+
+- Executive -
+
+- Judiciary -
+
+- Financial auditor -
+
+- Monetary executive (central bank) -
+
+The Council of the European Union is the main decision-making group. The cabinet ministers of the member countries meet (Ministers for Foreign affairs, for Agriculture, for Justice, etc...) and discuss issues that are important to them.
+
+Before the Treaty of Lisbon (written in 2007, implemented in 2008) each member state takes a turn at being President of the Council for six months. For example, from January 2007 until July 2007, Germany held the presidency. The six months before that, Finland held the presidency. Now the President of the European Union chairs the council summits. The President of the Council is the organiser and manager and is voted into office for a duration of two and a half years. He or she does not have the power to make decisions about the European Union like the President of the United States does for that country.
+
+Member countries with a large population (Germany, France, United Kingdom, etc.) have more votes than countries with small populations (Luxembourg, Malta, etc.) but a decision cannot be made if enough countries vote against the decision.
+
+Twice a year, the heads of government (Prime Ministers) and/or the heads of state (Presidents) meet to talk about the main issues and make decisions on different issues. This meeting is different and not as formal. It is known as a European Council.
+
+The European Commission runs the day-to-day running of the EU and writes laws, like a government. Laws written by the Commission are discussed and changed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
+
+The Commission has one President and 27 Commissioners, selected by the European Council. The Commission President is appointed by the European Council with the approval of the European Parliament.[14]
+
+The Commission operates like a cabinet government. There is one Commissioner per member state, though Commissioners are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state.
+
+The Parliament has a total of 785 members (called Members of the European Parliament, or MEP). They are elected in their countries every five years by the citizens of the European Union member countries. The Parliament can approve, reject or change proposed laws. It can also sack the European Commission. In that case, the entire commission would have to give up their jobs.
+
+There are many discussions in the EU about how it should develop and change in the future.
+
+The main reasons why European countries came together are political and economic:
+
+In 1951, six countries made the European Coal and Steel Community, a basic version of what the EU is now. These six then went further and in 1957 they made the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. The UK and others decided not to join, and then when the UK changed its mind it was stopped from joining by French President Charles de Gaulle. When he was no longer President, the UK and others started to join. Today there are 27 members but the idea that more should join is not seen as a good one by everyone.
+
+Left in 2020
+
+Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey and Iceland are "candidate countries"; they are being considered for membership. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are expected to follow.
+
+However, since there have been many political problems happening in Turkey recently, especially with President Erdogan's arresting of tens of thousands of political rivals since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, it is unlikely that it would be allowed to part of the EU anytime soon because EU members believe that the current Turkish government is not respecting human rights, rule of law, or democracy.[16]
+
+United in diversity (or together with many types of people in Simple English), is the motto of the European Union.
+
+The motto in other languages:[17]
+
+On June 23, 2016, the UK held a referendum on whether it should stay in the EU or leave it. The majority [52% to 48%] favoured leaving.[18] Britain leaving the EU is commonly known as Brexit.
+
+The government of the UK triggered "Article 50" of the Treaty of European Union (the Treaty of Lisbon) on 29 March 2017.[19] This began negotiations with fellow members of the EU on the terms of exit. The timetable for these negotiations is two years, which meant that the UK would remain a member of the EU until at least March 2019. However this deadline was later extended to October 31st 2019 at the request of the British Government. The United Kingdom left the European Union on the 31. of January 2020 at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time.
+
+Dunant / Passy (1901) ·
+Ducommun / Gobat (1902) ·
+Cremer (1903) ·
+IDI (1904) ·
+Suttner (1905) ·
+Roosevelt (1906) ·
+Moneta / Renault (1907) ·
+Arnoldson / Bajer (1908) ·
+Beernaert / Estournelles de Constant (1909) ·
+IPB (1910) ·
+Asser / Fried (1911) ·
+Root (1912) ·
+La Fontaine (1913) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross (1917) ·
+Wilson (1919) ·
+Bourgeois (1920) ·
+Branting / Lange (1921) ·
+Nansen (1922) ·
+Chamberlain / Dawes (1925)
+
+Briand / Stresemann (1926) ·
+Buisson / Quidde (1927) ·
+Kellogg (1929) ·
+Söderblom (1930) ·
+Addams / Butler (1931) ·
+Angell (1933) ·
+Henderson (1934) ·
+Ossietzky (1935) ·
+Lamas (1936) ·
+Cecil (1937) ·
+Nansen Office (1938) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross (1944) ·
+Hull (1945) ·
+Balch / Mott (1946) ·
+QPSW / AFSC (1947) ·
+Boyd Orr (1949) ·
+Bunche (1950)
+
+Jouhaux (1951) ·
+Schweitzer (1952) ·
+Marshall (1953) ·
+UNHCR (1954) ·
+Pearson (1957) ·
+Pire (1958) ·
+Noel‑Baker (1959) ·
+Lutuli (1960) ·
+Hammarskjöld (1961) ·
+Pauling (1962) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross / League of Red Cross Societies (1963) ·
+King (1964) ·
+UNICEF (1965) ·
+Cassin (1968) ·
+ILO (1969) ·
+Borlaug (1970) ·
+Brandt (1971) ·
+Kissinger / Le (1973) ·
+MacBride / Sato (1974) ·
+Sakharov (1975)
+
+B.Williams / Corrigan (1976) ·
+AI (1977) ·
+Sadat / Begin (1978) ·
+Mother Teresa (1979) ·
+Esquivel (1980) ·
+UNHCR (1981) ·
+Myrdal / García Robles (1982) ·
+Wałęsa (1983) ·
+Tutu (1984) ·
+IPPNW (1985) ·
+Wiesel (1986) ·
+Arias (1987) ·
+UN Peacekeeping Forces (1988) ·
+Dalai Lama (1989) ·
+Gorbachev (1990) ·
+Suu Kyi (1991) ·
+Menchú (1992) ·
+Mandela / de Klerk (1993) ·
+Arafat / Peres / Rabin (1994) ·
+Pugwash Conferences / Rotblat (1995) ·
+Belo / Ramos-Horta (1996) ·
+ICBL / J.Williams (1997) ·
+Hume / Trimble (1998) ·
+Médecins Sans Frontières (1999) ·
+Kim (2000)
+
+UN / Annan (2001) ·
+Carter (2002) ·
+Ebadi	(2003) ·
+Maathai (2004) ·
+IAEA / ElBaradei (2005) ·
+Yunus / Grameen Bank (2006) ·
+Gore / IPCC (2007) ·
+Ahtisaari (2008) ·
+Obama (2009) ·
+Xiaobo (2010) ·
+Sirleaf / Gbowee / Karman (2011) ·
+EU (2012) ·
+Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013) ·
+Yousafzai / Satyarthi (2014) ·
+Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (2015) ·
+Juan Manuel Santos (2016) ·
+International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2017) ·
+Mukwege / Murad (2018) ·
+Ahmed (2019)

ensimple/5859.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+The European Union (abbreviation: EU) is a confederation of 27 member countries in Europe established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-1993.  The EU grew out of the European Economic Community (EEC) which was established by the Treaties of Rome in 1957. It has created a common economic area with Europe-wide laws allowing the citizens of EU countries to move and trade in other EU countries almost the same as they do in their own. Nineteen of these countries also share the same type of money: the euro.
+
+The Treaty of Lisbon is the most recent treaty that says how the Union is run. Every member state signed to say that they each agreed with what it says. Most importantly, it says which jobs (’powers’) the Union should do for the members and which jobs they should do themselves. The members decide how the Union should act by voting for or against proposals.
+
+The objective of the EU is to bring its member states closer together with respect of human rights and democracy. It does this with a common style of passport, common rules about fair trading with each other, common agreements about law enforcement, and other agreements. Most members share a common currency (the euro) and most allow people to travel from one country to another without having to show a passport.
+
+After World War II, the countries in Europe wanted to live peacefully together and help one another's economies. Instead of fighting each other for coal and steel, the first member countries (West) Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg created one European Coal and Steel Community in 1952.
+
+In 1957 in the Italian city of Rome, the member countries signed another treaty and made the European Economic Community. Now it was a community for coal, steel and for trade. Later it changed the name to  the European Community.
+
+In 1993, with the Treaty of Maastricht it changed its name to the European Union. Now the member countries work together not only in politics and economy (coal, steel and trade), but also in money, justice (laws), and foreign affairs. With the Schengen Agreement, 22 member countries of the EU opened their borders to each other, so people can now travel from one country to the other without a passport or identity card. Now already 16 member countries have replaced their national currencies with the euro. 10 new countries became members of the EU in 2004, 2 more became members in 2007, and 1 more in 2013. Today there are 27 member countries altogether.
+
+A person who is a citizen of the European Union can live and work in any of the 27 member states without needing a work permit or visa. For example, a French person can move to Greece to work there, or just to live there, and he or she does not need permission from an authority in Greece.
+
+In the same way, products made in one member country can be sold in any other member country without any special permissions or extra taxes. For this reason, the members agree rules on product safety - they want to know that a product made in another country will be as safe as it would be if it had been made in their own.
+
+- Legislative (lower house) -
+
+- Sets impetus and direction -
+
+- Legislative (upper house) -
+
+- Executive -
+
+- Judiciary -
+
+- Financial auditor -
+
+- Monetary executive (central bank) -
+
+The Council of the European Union is the main decision-making group. The cabinet ministers of the member countries meet (Ministers for Foreign affairs, for Agriculture, for Justice, etc...) and discuss issues that are important to them.
+
+Before the Treaty of Lisbon (written in 2007, implemented in 2008) each member state takes a turn at being President of the Council for six months. For example, from January 2007 until July 2007, Germany held the presidency. The six months before that, Finland held the presidency. Now the President of the European Union chairs the council summits. The President of the Council is the organiser and manager and is voted into office for a duration of two and a half years. He or she does not have the power to make decisions about the European Union like the President of the United States does for that country.
+
+Member countries with a large population (Germany, France, United Kingdom, etc.) have more votes than countries with small populations (Luxembourg, Malta, etc.) but a decision cannot be made if enough countries vote against the decision.
+
+Twice a year, the heads of government (Prime Ministers) and/or the heads of state (Presidents) meet to talk about the main issues and make decisions on different issues. This meeting is different and not as formal. It is known as a European Council.
+
+The European Commission runs the day-to-day running of the EU and writes laws, like a government. Laws written by the Commission are discussed and changed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
+
+The Commission has one President and 27 Commissioners, selected by the European Council. The Commission President is appointed by the European Council with the approval of the European Parliament.[14]
+
+The Commission operates like a cabinet government. There is one Commissioner per member state, though Commissioners are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state.
+
+The Parliament has a total of 785 members (called Members of the European Parliament, or MEP). They are elected in their countries every five years by the citizens of the European Union member countries. The Parliament can approve, reject or change proposed laws. It can also sack the European Commission. In that case, the entire commission would have to give up their jobs.
+
+There are many discussions in the EU about how it should develop and change in the future.
+
+The main reasons why European countries came together are political and economic:
+
+In 1951, six countries made the European Coal and Steel Community, a basic version of what the EU is now. These six then went further and in 1957 they made the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. The UK and others decided not to join, and then when the UK changed its mind it was stopped from joining by French President Charles de Gaulle. When he was no longer President, the UK and others started to join. Today there are 27 members but the idea that more should join is not seen as a good one by everyone.
+
+Left in 2020
+
+Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey and Iceland are "candidate countries"; they are being considered for membership. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are expected to follow.
+
+However, since there have been many political problems happening in Turkey recently, especially with President Erdogan's arresting of tens of thousands of political rivals since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, it is unlikely that it would be allowed to part of the EU anytime soon because EU members believe that the current Turkish government is not respecting human rights, rule of law, or democracy.[16]
+
+United in diversity (or together with many types of people in Simple English), is the motto of the European Union.
+
+The motto in other languages:[17]
+
+On June 23, 2016, the UK held a referendum on whether it should stay in the EU or leave it. The majority [52% to 48%] favoured leaving.[18] Britain leaving the EU is commonly known as Brexit.
+
+The government of the UK triggered "Article 50" of the Treaty of European Union (the Treaty of Lisbon) on 29 March 2017.[19] This began negotiations with fellow members of the EU on the terms of exit. The timetable for these negotiations is two years, which meant that the UK would remain a member of the EU until at least March 2019. However this deadline was later extended to October 31st 2019 at the request of the British Government. The United Kingdom left the European Union on the 31. of January 2020 at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time.
+
+Dunant / Passy (1901) ·
+Ducommun / Gobat (1902) ·
+Cremer (1903) ·
+IDI (1904) ·
+Suttner (1905) ·
+Roosevelt (1906) ·
+Moneta / Renault (1907) ·
+Arnoldson / Bajer (1908) ·
+Beernaert / Estournelles de Constant (1909) ·
+IPB (1910) ·
+Asser / Fried (1911) ·
+Root (1912) ·
+La Fontaine (1913) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross (1917) ·
+Wilson (1919) ·
+Bourgeois (1920) ·
+Branting / Lange (1921) ·
+Nansen (1922) ·
+Chamberlain / Dawes (1925)
+
+Briand / Stresemann (1926) ·
+Buisson / Quidde (1927) ·
+Kellogg (1929) ·
+Söderblom (1930) ·
+Addams / Butler (1931) ·
+Angell (1933) ·
+Henderson (1934) ·
+Ossietzky (1935) ·
+Lamas (1936) ·
+Cecil (1937) ·
+Nansen Office (1938) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross (1944) ·
+Hull (1945) ·
+Balch / Mott (1946) ·
+QPSW / AFSC (1947) ·
+Boyd Orr (1949) ·
+Bunche (1950)
+
+Jouhaux (1951) ·
+Schweitzer (1952) ·
+Marshall (1953) ·
+UNHCR (1954) ·
+Pearson (1957) ·
+Pire (1958) ·
+Noel‑Baker (1959) ·
+Lutuli (1960) ·
+Hammarskjöld (1961) ·
+Pauling (1962) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross / League of Red Cross Societies (1963) ·
+King (1964) ·
+UNICEF (1965) ·
+Cassin (1968) ·
+ILO (1969) ·
+Borlaug (1970) ·
+Brandt (1971) ·
+Kissinger / Le (1973) ·
+MacBride / Sato (1974) ·
+Sakharov (1975)
+
+B.Williams / Corrigan (1976) ·
+AI (1977) ·
+Sadat / Begin (1978) ·
+Mother Teresa (1979) ·
+Esquivel (1980) ·
+UNHCR (1981) ·
+Myrdal / García Robles (1982) ·
+Wałęsa (1983) ·
+Tutu (1984) ·
+IPPNW (1985) ·
+Wiesel (1986) ·
+Arias (1987) ·
+UN Peacekeeping Forces (1988) ·
+Dalai Lama (1989) ·
+Gorbachev (1990) ·
+Suu Kyi (1991) ·
+Menchú (1992) ·
+Mandela / de Klerk (1993) ·
+Arafat / Peres / Rabin (1994) ·
+Pugwash Conferences / Rotblat (1995) ·
+Belo / Ramos-Horta (1996) ·
+ICBL / J.Williams (1997) ·
+Hume / Trimble (1998) ·
+Médecins Sans Frontières (1999) ·
+Kim (2000)
+
+UN / Annan (2001) ·
+Carter (2002) ·
+Ebadi	(2003) ·
+Maathai (2004) ·
+IAEA / ElBaradei (2005) ·
+Yunus / Grameen Bank (2006) ·
+Gore / IPCC (2007) ·
+Ahtisaari (2008) ·
+Obama (2009) ·
+Xiaobo (2010) ·
+Sirleaf / Gbowee / Karman (2011) ·
+EU (2012) ·
+Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013) ·
+Yousafzai / Satyarthi (2014) ·
+Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (2015) ·
+Juan Manuel Santos (2016) ·
+International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2017) ·
+Mukwege / Murad (2018) ·
+Ahmed (2019)

ensimple/586.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+The bassoon is the lowest of the four main instrument of the woodwind family. Like the oboe, it has a double reed. The reed is attached to a curved metal mouthpiece called a "crook" or "bocal" which is joined to the main part of the instrument. This consists of two parts called ‘bass joint’ and ‘wing joint’ (or ‘tenor joint’). These two are joined at the bottom by a U-shaped piece called the ‘boot’. At the top of the instrument is the ‘bell joint’. The instrument is quite heavy. Some players have a neckstrap around their neck to support the weight, but usually they use a seat strap that connects at the bottom of the boot and goes across the floor. The bassoonist, a person who plays a bassoon, then sits on that strap. The bassoon is held to the right side of the bassoonist and the top of the boot joint is usually level with the players hip. The bassoon, when played right, can sound very beautiful. The bassoon has one of the largest note ranges, going from low B flat to a high F on the top line of the treble clef. The bassoon can also play in tenor clef, but usually plays bass clef.
+
+Some bassoons have a white, ivory ring round the top of the bell joint. These are German bassoons (called ‘Heckel’). French bassoons (called ‘Buffet’) do not have this ring, and also sound quite different to German bassoons. Bassoons have keys to help the player to cover all the holes, but these keys do not use the Boehm fingering system like the other woodwind instruments. German bassoons use a system called the Heckel system, and French bassoons use the Buffet system..
+
+The Bassoon is usually seen as a comical instrument, however it provides a very important role in the orchestra.In fact, the Saxophone was invented to replace the Bassoon and Oboe, however, was rejected because it didn't sound the same in the orchestra.
+
+To play the bassoon, it is very important to have lots of breathing support. Like with the oboe, fast passages can be played using double tonguing (single tonguing is like saying “tu-tu-tu-tu-tu”, double tonguing is like saying “te-ke-te-ke-te-ke”). In most music, the bassoon will spend a lot of time playing a bass line, perhaps the same notes as the cello or tuba. It can sometimes sound quite amusing when playing an “um-cha-um-cha” accompaniment like in the “Dance of the Cygnets” from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It can sound very tuneful and sad as in the second movement of Rimsky Korsakov’s Sheherazade. Listen to the opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring where it plays some quite high notes to fool people that it is the Cor anglais or the English Horn. Even a famous composer, Saint Saëns, did not know what the instrument was. Prokofiev uses the bassoon for grandfather’s tune in Peter and the Wolf. Also, to play the bassoon, a player needs big hands because the bassoon's keys and holes are quite wide.
+
+The holes are drilled in at an angle so that the upper register is not overblown and produces an unpleasant sound. Whisper keys were also invented to prevent overblowing. The bassoon is known for its reedy sound. Its upper register is shrill and sometimes scary. Middle register could be used for lullabies because of its majestic and soothing tone. Its lower register is deep, dark, and could be used for scary movies and such.
+
+The bassoon developed from a renaissance instrument called the curtal or dulcian. These were double reed instruments which often played with shawms. In the Baroque period the bassoon became popular as an instrument to play the bass line, perhaps playing the same as the cello. A man named Hotteterre made many parts of the modern bassoon. In the late Baroque period composers like Antonio Vivaldi wrote concertos for bassoon and orchestra. Some more famous bassoon concertos include one by Mozart, and in more recent times by Peter Maxwell Davies. The bassoon was a very important instrument in the orchestra. Mozart and Beethoven gave the bassoon important parts in the music.
+
+In some pieces with a large orchestra a contrabassoon is used. This plays an octave lower than a bassoon, taking it right down to bottom B flat or C on the piano. Some contrabassoons are made to play a note lower, i.e. the very lowest note of the piano (A). One might expect to see the contrabassoon sticking up high above all the other instruments in the orchestra, but in fact the tube keeps doing U-turns, making four parallel rows of tubing. They are usually made with the bell pointing downwards. The weight is supported by a peg to the floor. The contrabassoon used to be shaped like a bassoon.
+
+The contrabassoon adds richness to the sound of a full orchestra. Listen carefully for the contrabassoon in the hymn-like introduction to the last movement of Symphony no 1 by Brahms. It can be clearly heard, growling away, in the opening of the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand by Ravel.

ensimple/5860.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+The European Union (abbreviation: EU) is a confederation of 27 member countries in Europe established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-1993.  The EU grew out of the European Economic Community (EEC) which was established by the Treaties of Rome in 1957. It has created a common economic area with Europe-wide laws allowing the citizens of EU countries to move and trade in other EU countries almost the same as they do in their own. Nineteen of these countries also share the same type of money: the euro.
+
+The Treaty of Lisbon is the most recent treaty that says how the Union is run. Every member state signed to say that they each agreed with what it says. Most importantly, it says which jobs (’powers’) the Union should do for the members and which jobs they should do themselves. The members decide how the Union should act by voting for or against proposals.
+
+The objective of the EU is to bring its member states closer together with respect of human rights and democracy. It does this with a common style of passport, common rules about fair trading with each other, common agreements about law enforcement, and other agreements. Most members share a common currency (the euro) and most allow people to travel from one country to another without having to show a passport.
+
+After World War II, the countries in Europe wanted to live peacefully together and help one another's economies. Instead of fighting each other for coal and steel, the first member countries (West) Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg created one European Coal and Steel Community in 1952.
+
+In 1957 in the Italian city of Rome, the member countries signed another treaty and made the European Economic Community. Now it was a community for coal, steel and for trade. Later it changed the name to  the European Community.
+
+In 1993, with the Treaty of Maastricht it changed its name to the European Union. Now the member countries work together not only in politics and economy (coal, steel and trade), but also in money, justice (laws), and foreign affairs. With the Schengen Agreement, 22 member countries of the EU opened their borders to each other, so people can now travel from one country to the other without a passport or identity card. Now already 16 member countries have replaced their national currencies with the euro. 10 new countries became members of the EU in 2004, 2 more became members in 2007, and 1 more in 2013. Today there are 27 member countries altogether.
+
+A person who is a citizen of the European Union can live and work in any of the 27 member states without needing a work permit or visa. For example, a French person can move to Greece to work there, or just to live there, and he or she does not need permission from an authority in Greece.
+
+In the same way, products made in one member country can be sold in any other member country without any special permissions or extra taxes. For this reason, the members agree rules on product safety - they want to know that a product made in another country will be as safe as it would be if it had been made in their own.
+
+- Legislative (lower house) -
+
+- Sets impetus and direction -
+
+- Legislative (upper house) -
+
+- Executive -
+
+- Judiciary -
+
+- Financial auditor -
+
+- Monetary executive (central bank) -
+
+The Council of the European Union is the main decision-making group. The cabinet ministers of the member countries meet (Ministers for Foreign affairs, for Agriculture, for Justice, etc...) and discuss issues that are important to them.
+
+Before the Treaty of Lisbon (written in 2007, implemented in 2008) each member state takes a turn at being President of the Council for six months. For example, from January 2007 until July 2007, Germany held the presidency. The six months before that, Finland held the presidency. Now the President of the European Union chairs the council summits. The President of the Council is the organiser and manager and is voted into office for a duration of two and a half years. He or she does not have the power to make decisions about the European Union like the President of the United States does for that country.
+
+Member countries with a large population (Germany, France, United Kingdom, etc.) have more votes than countries with small populations (Luxembourg, Malta, etc.) but a decision cannot be made if enough countries vote against the decision.
+
+Twice a year, the heads of government (Prime Ministers) and/or the heads of state (Presidents) meet to talk about the main issues and make decisions on different issues. This meeting is different and not as formal. It is known as a European Council.
+
+The European Commission runs the day-to-day running of the EU and writes laws, like a government. Laws written by the Commission are discussed and changed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
+
+The Commission has one President and 27 Commissioners, selected by the European Council. The Commission President is appointed by the European Council with the approval of the European Parliament.[14]
+
+The Commission operates like a cabinet government. There is one Commissioner per member state, though Commissioners are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state.
+
+The Parliament has a total of 785 members (called Members of the European Parliament, or MEP). They are elected in their countries every five years by the citizens of the European Union member countries. The Parliament can approve, reject or change proposed laws. It can also sack the European Commission. In that case, the entire commission would have to give up their jobs.
+
+There are many discussions in the EU about how it should develop and change in the future.
+
+The main reasons why European countries came together are political and economic:
+
+In 1951, six countries made the European Coal and Steel Community, a basic version of what the EU is now. These six then went further and in 1957 they made the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. The UK and others decided not to join, and then when the UK changed its mind it was stopped from joining by French President Charles de Gaulle. When he was no longer President, the UK and others started to join. Today there are 27 members but the idea that more should join is not seen as a good one by everyone.
+
+Left in 2020
+
+Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey and Iceland are "candidate countries"; they are being considered for membership. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are expected to follow.
+
+However, since there have been many political problems happening in Turkey recently, especially with President Erdogan's arresting of tens of thousands of political rivals since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, it is unlikely that it would be allowed to part of the EU anytime soon because EU members believe that the current Turkish government is not respecting human rights, rule of law, or democracy.[16]
+
+United in diversity (or together with many types of people in Simple English), is the motto of the European Union.
+
+The motto in other languages:[17]
+
+On June 23, 2016, the UK held a referendum on whether it should stay in the EU or leave it. The majority [52% to 48%] favoured leaving.[18] Britain leaving the EU is commonly known as Brexit.
+
+The government of the UK triggered "Article 50" of the Treaty of European Union (the Treaty of Lisbon) on 29 March 2017.[19] This began negotiations with fellow members of the EU on the terms of exit. The timetable for these negotiations is two years, which meant that the UK would remain a member of the EU until at least March 2019. However this deadline was later extended to October 31st 2019 at the request of the British Government. The United Kingdom left the European Union on the 31. of January 2020 at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time.
+
+Dunant / Passy (1901) ·
+Ducommun / Gobat (1902) ·
+Cremer (1903) ·
+IDI (1904) ·
+Suttner (1905) ·
+Roosevelt (1906) ·
+Moneta / Renault (1907) ·
+Arnoldson / Bajer (1908) ·
+Beernaert / Estournelles de Constant (1909) ·
+IPB (1910) ·
+Asser / Fried (1911) ·
+Root (1912) ·
+La Fontaine (1913) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross (1917) ·
+Wilson (1919) ·
+Bourgeois (1920) ·
+Branting / Lange (1921) ·
+Nansen (1922) ·
+Chamberlain / Dawes (1925)
+
+Briand / Stresemann (1926) ·
+Buisson / Quidde (1927) ·
+Kellogg (1929) ·
+Söderblom (1930) ·
+Addams / Butler (1931) ·
+Angell (1933) ·
+Henderson (1934) ·
+Ossietzky (1935) ·
+Lamas (1936) ·
+Cecil (1937) ·
+Nansen Office (1938) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross (1944) ·
+Hull (1945) ·
+Balch / Mott (1946) ·
+QPSW / AFSC (1947) ·
+Boyd Orr (1949) ·
+Bunche (1950)
+
+Jouhaux (1951) ·
+Schweitzer (1952) ·
+Marshall (1953) ·
+UNHCR (1954) ·
+Pearson (1957) ·
+Pire (1958) ·
+Noel‑Baker (1959) ·
+Lutuli (1960) ·
+Hammarskjöld (1961) ·
+Pauling (1962) ·
+International Committee of the Red Cross / League of Red Cross Societies (1963) ·
+King (1964) ·
+UNICEF (1965) ·
+Cassin (1968) ·
+ILO (1969) ·
+Borlaug (1970) ·
+Brandt (1971) ·
+Kissinger / Le (1973) ·
+MacBride / Sato (1974) ·
+Sakharov (1975)
+
+B.Williams / Corrigan (1976) ·
+AI (1977) ·
+Sadat / Begin (1978) ·
+Mother Teresa (1979) ·
+Esquivel (1980) ·
+UNHCR (1981) ·
+Myrdal / García Robles (1982) ·
+Wałęsa (1983) ·
+Tutu (1984) ·
+IPPNW (1985) ·
+Wiesel (1986) ·
+Arias (1987) ·
+UN Peacekeeping Forces (1988) ·
+Dalai Lama (1989) ·
+Gorbachev (1990) ·
+Suu Kyi (1991) ·
+Menchú (1992) ·
+Mandela / de Klerk (1993) ·
+Arafat / Peres / Rabin (1994) ·
+Pugwash Conferences / Rotblat (1995) ·
+Belo / Ramos-Horta (1996) ·
+ICBL / J.Williams (1997) ·
+Hume / Trimble (1998) ·
+Médecins Sans Frontières (1999) ·
+Kim (2000)
+
+UN / Annan (2001) ·
+Carter (2002) ·
+Ebadi	(2003) ·
+Maathai (2004) ·
+IAEA / ElBaradei (2005) ·
+Yunus / Grameen Bank (2006) ·
+Gore / IPCC (2007) ·
+Ahtisaari (2008) ·
+Obama (2009) ·
+Xiaobo (2010) ·
+Sirleaf / Gbowee / Karman (2011) ·
+EU (2012) ·
+Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013) ·
+Yousafzai / Satyarthi (2014) ·
+Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (2015) ·
+Juan Manuel Santos (2016) ·
+International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2017) ·
+Mukwege / Murad (2018) ·
+Ahmed (2019)

ensimple/5861.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+India is a country of Asia. It has an area of 3,287,263 square kilometres (1,269,219 sq mi). It is at the center of South Asia. India has more than 1.2 billion (1,210,000,000) people, which is the second largest population in the world.[15] It is the seventh largest country in the world by area and the largest country in South Asia. It is also the most populous democracy in the world.[16][17][18]
+
+India has seven neighbours: Pakistan in the north-west, China and Nepal in the north, Bhutan and Bangladesh in the north-east, Myanmar in the east and Sri Lanka, an island, in the south.
+
+The capital of India is New Delhi. India is a peninsula, bound by the Indian Ocean in the south, the Arabian Sea on the west and Bay of Bengal in the east. The coastline of India is of about 7,517 km (4,671 mi) long.[19] India has the third largest military force in the world and is also a nuclear weapon state.[20]
+
+India's economy became the world's fastest growing in the G20 developing nations in the last quarter of 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China.[21] India's literacy and wealth are also rising.[22] According to New World Wealth, India is the seventh richest country in the world with a total individual wealth of $5.6 trillion.[23][24] However, it still has many social and economic issues like poverty and corruption. India is a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto Protocol.
+
+India has the fourth largest number of spoken languages per country in the world, only behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria.[25] People of many different religions live there, including the five most popular world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity. The first three religions came from the Indian subcontinent along with Jainism.
+
+The National emblem of India shows four lions standing back-to-back. The lions symbolise power, pride, confidence, and courage (bravery). Only the government can use this emblem, according to the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005
+
+The name India comes from the Greek word, Indus. This came from the word sindhu, which in time turned into Hind or Hindi or Hindu. The preferred native name or endonym is "Bharat" in Hindi and other Indian languages as contrasted with names from outsiders. Some of the national symbols are:
+
+National anthem- jana gana mana
+
+National song- vande mataram
+
+National animal- royal bengal tiger
+
+National bird- peacock
+
+National flower- lotus
+
+National tree- banyan
+
+National river- ganges(ganga)
+
+National fruit- mango
+
+National heritage animal- elephant
+
+National heritage bird- Indian Eagle
+
+Two of the main classical languages of the world Tamil language and Sanskrit language were born in India. Both of these languages are more than 3000 years old.[27] The country founded a religion called Hinduism, which most Indians still follow. Later, a king named Chandragupt Maurya built an empire called  the Maurya Empire in 300 BC. It made most of South Asia into one whole country.[28] From 180 BC, many other countries invaded India. Even later (100 BC  AD 1100), other Indian dynasties (empires) came, including the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas.[29] Southern India at that time was famous for its science, art, and writing. The Cholas of Thanjavur were pioneers at war in the seas and invaded Malaya, Borneo, Cambodia. The influence of Cholas are still well noticeable in SE Asia.[30]
+
+Many dynasties ruled India around the year 1000. Some of these were the Mughal, Vijayanagara, and the Maratha empires. In the 1600s, European countries invaded India, and the British controlled most of India by 1856.[31]
+
+In the early 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest against British control. One of the people who led the freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi, who only used peaceful tactics, including a way called "ahimsa", which means "non-violence".[32] On 15 August 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire. India's constitution was founded on 26 January 1950. Every year, on this day, Indians celebrate Republic Day. The first official leader (Prime Minister) of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.
+
+After 1947, India had a socialist planned economy. It is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations. It has fought many wars since independence from Britain, including the wars in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999 with Pakistan and in 1962 with China. It also fought a war to capture Goa, a Portuguese-built port and a city which was not a part of India until 1961. The Portuguese refused to give it to the country, and so India had to use force and the Portuguese were defeated. India has also done nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, and it is one of the few countries that has nuclear bombs.[33] Since 1991, India has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.[34]
+
+India is the largest democracy in the world.[18]
+
+India's government is divided into three parts: the Legislative (the one that makes the laws, the Parliament), the Executive (the government), and the Judiciary (the one that makes sure that the laws are obeyed, the supreme court).
+
+The legislative branch is made up of the Parliament of India, which is in New Delhi, the capital of India. The Parliament of India is divided into two houses: the upper house, Rajya Sabha (Council of States); and the lower house, Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha has 250 members,[35] and the Lok Sabha has 552 members.[35]
+
+The executive branch is made up of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers. The President of India is elected for a period of five years. The President can choose the Prime Minister, who has most of the power. The Council of Ministers, such as the Minister of Defence, help the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India on May 16, 2014. He is the 19th Prime Minister of India. The president has less power than the prime minister.
+
+The judicial branch is made up of the courts of India, including the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court members have the power to stop a law being passed by Parliament if they think that the law is illegal and contradicts (opposes) the Constitution of India.[36] In India, there are also 24 High Courts.
+
+India is the seventh biggest country in the world. It is the main part of the Indian subcontinent. The countries next to India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and Nepal. It is also near Sri Lanka, an island country.
+
+India is a peninsula, which means that it is surrounded on three sides by water. One of the seven wonders of the world is in Agra: the Taj Mahal. In the west is the Arabian Sea, in the south is the Indian Ocean, and in the east is the Bay of Bengal. The northern part of India has many mountains. The most famous mountain range in India is the Himalayas, which have some of the tallest mountains in the world. There are many rivers in India. The main rivers are the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna.
+
+India has different climates.[37] In the South, the climate is mainly tropical, which means it can get very hot in summer and cool in winter.[37] The northern part, though, has a cooler climate, called sub-tropical, and even alpine in mountainous regions.[37] The Himalayas, in the alpine climate region, can get extremely cold. There is very heavy rainfall along the west coast and in the Eastern Himalayan foothills. The west, though, is drier. Because of some of the deserts of India, all of India gets rain for four months of the year. That time is called the monsoon. That is because the deserts attract water-filled winds from the Indian Ocean, which give rain when they come into India. When the monsoon rains come late or not so heavily, droughts (when the land dries out because there is less rain) are possible. Monsoons normally come around July - August.
+
+The Indian Armed Forces is the military of India. It is made up of an Army, Navy and Air Force. There are other parts like Paramilitary and Strategic Nuclear Command.
+
+The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief. However, it is managed by the Ministry of Defence. In 2010, the Indian Armed Forces had 1.32 million active personnel. This makes it one of the largest militaries in the world.[38]
+
+The Indian Army is becoming more modern by buying and making new weapons. It is also building defenses against missiles of other countries.[39] In 2011, India imported more weapons than any other nation in the world.[40]
+
+From its independence in 1947, India fought four wars with Pakistan and a war with China.
+
+For administration purposes, India has been divided into smaller pieces. Most of these pieces are called states, some are called union territories. States and union territories are different in the way they are represented. Most union territories are ruled by administrators sent by the central government. All the states, and the territories of Delhi, and Puducherry elect their local government themselves. In total, there are twenty-eight states, and nine union territories.[41]
+
+States:
+
+Union territories:
+
+There are disputes about certain parts of the Indian borders. Countries do not agree on where the borders are.[42] Pakistan and China do not recognise the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.[43] The Indian government claims it as an Indian state.[43] Similarly, the Republic of India does not recognise the Pakistani and Chinese parts of Kashmir.[43]
+
+In 1914, British India and Tibet agreed on the McMahon Line, as part of the Simla Accord.[44] In July 1914, China withdrew from the agreement.[44] Indians and Tibetans see this line as the official border. China does not agree, and both mainland China and Taiwan do not recognize that  Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India. According to them, it is a part of South Tibet, which belongs to China.[45][46]
+
+The economy of the country is among the world's fastest growing. It is the 7th largest in the world with a nominal GDP of $2,250 billion (USD), and in terms of PPP, the economy is 3rd largest (worth $8.720 trillion USD).[47] The growth rate is 8.25% for fiscal 2010. However, that is still $3678 (considering PPP) per person per year. India's economy is based mainly on:
+
+India's economy is diverse. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.[48]
+
+However, despite economic growth, India continues to suffer from poverty. 27.5% of the population was living in poverty in 2004–2005.[49] In addition, 80.4% of the population live on less than USD $2 a day,[50] which was lowered to 68% by 2009.[51]
+
+There are 1.21 billion people living in India.[52] India is the second largest country by the number of people living in it, with China being the first. Experts think that by the year 2030, India will be the first.[53] About 65% of Indians live in rural areas, or land set aside for farming.[54] The largest cities in India are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.[41] India has 23 official languages.[55] Altogether, 1,625 languages are spoken in India.[36]
+
+There are many different languages and cultures in India. The only geographical place with more different languages and cultures is the African continent.[41] There are two main language families in India, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages. About 69% of Indians speak an Indo-Arayan language, about 26% speak a Dravidian language. Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic group. Around 5% of the people speak  a Tibeto-Burman language.
+
+Hindi is the official language in India with the largest number of speakers.[56] It is the official language of the union.[57] Native speakers of Hindi represent about 41% of the Indian population (2001 Indian census). English is also used, mostly for business and in the administration. It has the status of a 'subsidiary official language'.[58] The constitution also recognises 21 other languages. Either many people speak those languages, or they have been recognised to be very important for Indian culture. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.[36]
+
+In the south of India, many people speak Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In the north, many people speak Chhattisgarhi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, Odia, and Bihari.[59][60]
+
+India has 23 official languages. Its constitution lists the name of the country in each of the languages.[61] Hindi and English (listed in boldface) are the "official languages of the union" (Union meaning the Federal Government in Delhi);[62] Tamil,Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia are officially the "classical languages of India."
+
+Cave paintings from the Stone Age are found across India. They show dances and rituals and suggest there was a prehistoric religion. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written from about 500–100 BCE,[64] although these were orally transmitted for centuries before this period.[65] Other South Asian Stone Age sites apart from Pakistan are in modern India, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art showing religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.[66]
+
+Several modern religions are linked to India,[67] namely modern Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. All of these religions have different schools (ways of thinking) and traditions that are related. As a group they are called the Eastern religions. The Indian religions are similar to one another in many ways: The basic beliefs, the way worship is done and several religious practices are very similar. These similarities mainly come from the fact that these religions have a common history and common origins. They also influenced each other.
+
+The religion of Hinduism is the main faith followed by 79.80% of people in the Republic of India; Islam – 14.23%; Christianity – 2.30%; Sikhism – 1.72%; Buddhism – 0.70% and Jainism – 0.37%.[68]
+
+It's the first time ever since independence that Hindu population percentage fell below 80%.
+
+India sent a spacecraft to Mars for the first time in 2014. That made it the third country and only Asian country to do so, successfully. India is the only country to be successful in its very first attempt to orbit Mars. It was called the Mars Orbiter Mission.
+
+ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission to create world record. India became the first nation in the world to have launched over a hundred satellites in one mission. That was more than the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch.
+
+India has the largest movie industry in the world.[source?][69] Based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the industry is also known as Bollywood. It makes 1,000 movies a year, about twice as many as Hollywood.[70] It produces movies almost everyday.
+
+Indians have excelled in Hockey. They have also won eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Olympic games. However, cricket is the most popular sport in India. The Indian cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. They shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.Cricket in India is controlled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI. Domestic tournaments are the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Challenger Series. There is also the Indian cricket league and Indian premier league Twenty20 competitions.
+
+Tennis has become popular due to the victories of the India Davis Cup team. Association football is also a popular sport in northeast India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala.[71] The Indian national football team has won the South Asian Football Federation Cup many times. Chess, which comes from India, is also becoming popular. This is with the increase in the number of Indian Grandmasters.[72] Traditional sports include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli-danda, which are played throughout India.
+

ensimple/5862.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+The Soviet Union (short for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) [10] was a single-party Marxist–Leninist state. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia).
+
+The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, were called satellite states.
+
+The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.
+
+Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe[who?] that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire, since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.
+
+The Union was formed with the professed idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights. There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state. 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man and satellite into space and winning World War II alongside the United States and United Kingdom. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991, partly due to the efforts at reform by its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
+
+Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.[11]
+
+The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.
+
+The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).
+
+The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.
+
+The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.
+
+The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.
+
+The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks.
+
+From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.
+
+Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.
+
+A rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+In the long and bloody Russian Civil War the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.
+
+On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
+
+The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
+The End
+
+From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).
+
+Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
+
+Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take millions of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov, continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.
+
+After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956 he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.
+
+Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.
+
+In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.
+
+Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The Following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
+
+Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticise the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.
+
+By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control.  Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order.  Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader.  He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).
+
+A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing.  It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

ensimple/5863.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+The Soviet Union (short for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) [10] was a single-party Marxist–Leninist state. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia).
+
+The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, were called satellite states.
+
+The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.
+
+Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe[who?] that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire, since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.
+
+The Union was formed with the professed idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights. There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state. 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man and satellite into space and winning World War II alongside the United States and United Kingdom. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991, partly due to the efforts at reform by its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
+
+Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.[11]
+
+The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.
+
+The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).
+
+The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.
+
+The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.
+
+The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.
+
+The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks.
+
+From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.
+
+Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.
+
+A rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+In the long and bloody Russian Civil War the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.
+
+On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
+
+The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
+The End
+
+From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).
+
+Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
+
+Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take millions of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov, continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.
+
+After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956 he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.
+
+Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.
+
+In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.
+
+Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The Following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
+
+Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticise the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.
+
+By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control.  Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order.  Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader.  He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).
+
+A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing.  It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

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+
+
+on the European continent  (dark grey)
+
+The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, simply called the United Kingdom (UK), Great Britain or just Britain, is a sovereign country. It is a constitutional monarchy that is made up of four separate countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, NATO and the G8. It has the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world.
+
+Around 66 million people live in the UK (2018).[15] They can be divided into four big nationalities based on the countries where they live (or where they were born or their ancestry).
+
+The UK has many cities. England is home to London, the biggest city in the UK and also its capital city. There are also many other big cities in England including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne. Scotland has the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Cardiff and Swansea are in Wales and Belfast is in Northern Ireland.
+
+Between the 17th and mid 20th-centuries, Britain was a world power. It became a colonial empire that controlled large areas of Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania.[16] At its height in 1922, more than 458 million people lived in the British Empire, one-fifth of the Earth's population. Its area was 13,012,000 square miles: almost a quarter of the Earth's land area. The empire was sometimes called 'the empire on which the sun never sets', which describes a large empire where the sun is always shining on at least one of its territories. Almost all countries left and became independent from the empire in the 20th century, although Britain keeps links with most countries of its former empire.
+
+Archaeological remains show that the first group of modern people to live in the British Isles were hunter-gatherers after the last ice age ended.[17] The date is not known: perhaps as early as 8000BC but certainly by 5000BC. They built mesolithic wood and stone monuments. Stonehenge was built between 3000 and 1600BC.[18] Celtic tribes arrived from mainland Europe. Britain was a changing collection of tribal areas, with no overall leader. Julius Caesar tried to invade (take over) the island in 55BC but was not able to do so. The Romans successfully invaded in 43AD.[19]
+
+Written history began in Britain when writing was brought to Britain by the Romans. Rome ruled in Britain from 44AD to 410AD, but they only ruled England and Wales. The Romans never ruled Scotland north of the Clyde-Forth valley, or Ireland; their northern boundary varied from time to time, and was marked for a while at Hadrian's Wall.
+
+After the Romans, two waves of immigrants came to Britain. The first were German tribes: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. English, the language, is a development from Anglo-Saxon Old English, and is a Germanic language. The second were the Vikings.
+
+After a long period when England was split into various kingdoms, it was made into one country by Æthelstan (Athelstan) in 945AD. England and Wales were unified by Edward I (Longshanks) by force in the 13th century.
+
+Union with Scotland took much longer; there were hundreds of years of conflicts between both parts of Britain. This union between England and Scotland in 1707 formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged Scotland and England into one country.
+
+In 1603, when Queen Elizabeth I of England died, her closest relative was King James VI of Scotland. He became king of England as well as king of Scotland. In 1707, the Scottish and English Parliaments agreed the Treaty of Union, which joined the two countries into one country called The Kingdom of Great Britain under Queen Anne.
+
+By 1800, both Scotland and England had already independently had much influence over Ireland since 1200. In that year laws were passed in Great Britain and Ireland to merge the two states. The new country was called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 much of Ireland became independent as the Irish Free State (now called Ireland) from the United Kingdom. However, six northern counties (called Northern Ireland) continue to be part of the United Kingdom. The country was renamed The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
+
+The British people are represented by members of Parliament, not ruled by monarchs. After the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the monarchy was disbanded. Although the monarchy was restored after his death, the Crown slowly became the secondary power, and Parliament the first. Members of Parliament (called MPs) were elected, but until the early twentieth century, only men who owned property could vote. In the nineteenth century, more people were given suffrage (the right to vote), but even so, by 1900, women could not vote, and only 40% of men were rich enough to vote. But in 1928, all men and women got the vote: this is called universal suffrage.
+
+Parliament is in Westminster in London, but it has power over the whole of the UK. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland now each have their own parliaments but they have more limited powers. Scotland has the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. Wales has the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff and the Northern Ireland has the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. England does not have a separate parliament. There are also parliaments in the Isle of Man and in Jersey and Guernsey (the Channel Islands, which are all independent island states for which the UK has some responsibility in international law.
+
+Almost all members of Parliament belong to political parties. The biggest parties are the Conservative Party, Labour Party, the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats. Members of the same party agree to act and vote more or less together. A party with more than half the seats (a majority) forms the government; the leader of the party becomes the Prime Minister, who then appoints other ministers. Because the government has a majority in Parliament, it can normally control what laws are passed.
+
+Major languages spoken in the United Kingdom other than English include Polish (500,000 approximate number of speakers in the United Kingdom), Eastern Panjabi or Punjabi (471,000), Bengali (400,000), Urdu (400,000), Cantonese (300,000), Greek (200,000), Southwestern Caribbean Creole English (170,000).[20]
+
+The UK is made up of four different countries: Wales, England and Scotland and Northern Ireland. The capital city of Wales is Cardiff. The capital city of England is London. The capital city of Scotland is Edinburgh and the capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast. Other large cities in the UK are Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Southampton, Leicester, Coventry, Bradford and Nottingham.
+
+The UK is north-west off the coast of mainland Europe. Around the UK are the North Sea, the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. The UK also rules, usually indirectly, a number of smaller places (mostly islands) round the world, which are known as overseas territories. They are remnants of the  British Empire.
+
+The weather of the United Kingdom is changeable and unpredictable. Summers are moderately warm, winters are cool to cold. Rain falls throughout the year, and more on the west than the east because of its northerly latitude and the warm water from the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream. The usually moderate prevailing winds from the Atlantic may be interrupted by Arctic air from the north-east or hot air from the Sahara.
+
+The UK is a parliamentary democracy based on a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The people of the United Kingdom vote for a members of Parliament to speak for them and to make laws for them. Queen Elizabeth II is the queen of the UK and is the head of state. Even though she is the head of state, she does not actually govern the country. The government, led by the Prime Minister, governs the country and decides policy. Today, the Prime Minister is Boris Johnson, who is the leader of the Conservative party and was not directly elected by the people of the country.
+
+Parliament is where laws are made. It has three parts: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Queen. The House of Commons is the most powerful part. It is where Members of Parliament sit. The Prime Minister sits here as well, because they are a Member of Parliament. The people who sit in the House of Lords are called peers: they are not chosen by the people. Most peers are now appointed by the government. There are some who are hereditary peers (their fathers were peers); and a few others, such as certain bishops in the established Church of England, and the Judiciary (Law Lords).
+
+Scotland has its own devolved Parliament with power to make laws on things like education, health and Scottish law. Northern Ireland and Wales have their own devolved Assemblies which have some powers but less than the Scottish parliament. The UK Parliament remains sovereign and it could end the devolved administrations at any time.
+
+The UK has a military of around 223,000 people, not including reserve forces. The UK has one of the most advanced militaries in the world, alongside such countries such as the USA and France, and operates a large army (British Army), a sizable navy (Royal Navy) and air force (Royal Air Force). From the 18th century to the early 20th century, the UK was one of the most powerful nations in the world, with a huge navy (due to the fact it was surrounded by sea, so a large navy was the most practical option). This status has faded in recent times, but the UK remains a member of various military groups such as the UN Security Council and NATO. It is also still seen as a great military power.
+
+The UK is a developed country with the sixth largest economy in the world. It was a superpower during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century and was considered since the early 1800s to be the most powerful and influential nation in the world, in politics, economics (For it was the wealthiest country at the time.) and in military strength. Britain continued to be the biggest manufacturing economy in the world until 1908 and the largest economy until the 1920s. The economic cost of two world wars and the decline of the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s reduced its leading role in global affairs. The UK has strong economic, cultural, military and political influence and is a nuclear power. It was a member state of the European Union until the UK left on February 1st, 2020. The UK holds a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, and is a member of the G8, NATO, World Trade Organization and the Commonwealth of Nations.
+
+London, the capital, is famous as being the largest centre of finance in the world, along with New York City in the United States.
+
+William Shakespeare was an English playwright. He wrote plays in the late 16th century. Some of his plays were Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. In the 19th century, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were novelists. Twentieth century writers include the science fiction novelist H.G. Wells and J.R.R. Tolkien. The children's fantasy Harry Potter series was written by J.K. Rowling. Aldous Huxley was also from the United Kingdom.
+
+English language literature is written by authors from many countries. Eight people from the United Kingdom have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Seamus Heaney is a writer who was born in Northern Ireland.
+
+Arthur Conan Doyle from Scotland wrote the Sherlock Holmes detective novels. He was from Edinburgh. The poet Dylan Thomas brought Welsh culture to international attention.
+
+England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have separate, but similar, systems of education. They all have rules that education is required from ages five to eighteen, except for in Scotland where school departure is allowed from the age of sixteen. Many children attend state schools and other children attend private schools.
+
+Britain's universities are the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, and London universities (University College London, the London School of Economics, King's College London and Imperial College London) which collectively form the Golden Triangle of UK universities.
+
+A broader group of twenty universities form the Russell Group, which account for two thirds of research grants and contract funding out of the total of 100 universities.
+
+Road traffic in the United Kingdom drives on the left hand side of the road (unlike the Americas and some of Europe), and the driver steers from the right hand side of the vehicle. The road network on the island of Great Britain is extensive, with most local and rural roads having evolved from Roman and Medieval times. Major routes developed in the mid 20th Century were made to the needs of the motor car. The high speed motorway (freeway) network was mostly constructed in the 1960s and 1970s and links together major towns and cities.
+
+The system of rail transport was invented in England and Wales, so the United Kingdom has the oldest railway network in the world. It was built mostly during the Victorian era. At the heart of the network are five long distance main lines which radiate from London to the major cities and secondary population centres with dense commuter networks within the regions. The newest part of the network connects London to the Channel Tunnel from St Pancras station and is built to the same standard as the French TGV system. The British Rail network is part privatised, with privately owned train operating companies providing service along particular lines or regions, whilst the tracks, signals and stations are owned by a Government controlled company called Network Rail. In Northern Ireland the NI Railways is the national railway. The system of underground railways in London, known as the Tube, has been copied by many other cities.
+
+Most domestic air travel in the United Kingdom is between London and the major cities in Scotland and the North of England and Belfast. London-Heathrow is the nation’s largest airport and is one of the most important international hubs in the world. Other major airports with principal international service include London-Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.
+
+An extensive system of ferry networks operate between the Scottish islands, and major ferry routes operate between England and France (via the English Channel), Scotland-Northern Ireland (via the Irish Sea) and England/Wales-Republic of Ireland (from Liverpool/Holyhead).

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+The United States of America is a federal republic of fifty states, a federal district, and several territories.[8][9][10] It is commonly called the United States, the United States of America (shortened to U.S. and U.S.A.), and also sometimes just America.
+
+The country is mostly in North America. There are forty-eight states that border each other and Washington, D.C., the capital district. These states are between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south.
+
+The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses some territories, or insular areas, in the Caribbean and Pacific.
+
+At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with about 327 million people, the United States is the third or fourth-largest country by total area and third-largest by land area and by population.
+
+The United States is one of the world's most ethnically mixed and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[11] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) of US$20.4 trillion (about a quarter of worldwide GDP).[12]
+
+The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which announced their independence from Great Britain and their creation of a cooperative union. The disobedient states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence.[13] The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its approval the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, making up ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many basic civil rights and freedoms, was approved in 1791.
+
+In the 19th century, the United States got land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and took over the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Arguments between the farming-based South and industrial North over the growth of the institution of slavery and states' rights began the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national wealth was the world's largest.[14] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States came out from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The end of the Cold War and the breaking up of the Soviet Union left the United States as the only superpower. The country accounts for about half of worldwide military spending and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.[15]
+
+The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,941 km2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area.[16]
+
+The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9,522,055 km2)[17] to 3,717,813 square miles (9,629,091 km2)[18] to 3,794,101 square miles (9,826,676 km2).[19] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.[20]
+
+The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
+
+The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet.
+
+The United States, with its large size and geographical variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-dry. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is dry in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not unusual—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes happen within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.[21]
+
+The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[22] The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species.[23] About 91,000 insect species have been described.[24]
+
+The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[25] Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area.[26] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.[26]
+
+It is believed that the indigenous peoples of the continental United States, including the natives of Alaska, moved in from Asia. They began arriving twelve or forty thousand years ago, if not earlier.[27] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced farming, grand construction, and state-level communities. The native population of America decreased after Europeans arrived, and for different reasons, mostly sicknesses such as smallpox and measles.[28]
+
+In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached some Caribbean islands, making the first contact with the native people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first recorded European coming on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the area were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Colony of Virginia in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of relocation; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies.[29] Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
+
+Tensions between American colonials and the British during the rebel period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Announcing that "all men are created equal" and are born with "certain natural rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated every year as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.
+
+After the British defeat by American forces helped by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American land west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a strong national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was approved in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and President—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and certifying a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
+
+Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states permanently stopped slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind different social reform movements, including abolitionism.
+
+Americans' eagerness to expand westward caused a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed land under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over different complaints and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military invasions into Florida led Spain to give up it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The United States took over the Republic of Texas in 1845. The idea of Manifest destiny became popular during this time.[30] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further encouraged western relocation. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were murdered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, which were valuable to the plains Indians, caused many native cultures to become gone forever.
+
+Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, a candidate of the mostly antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to end slavery. Following the Union victory in 1865, three changes to the U.S. Constitution secured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[31] made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a big increase in federal power.[32]
+
+After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln caused the Reconstruction, where policies were put together directed at getting back and rebuilding the Southern states while securing the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended this era, and the Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and a never-before-seen inflow of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe made the country's industrialization grow rapidly. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, gave labor and changed American culture. High tax protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking laws encouraged growth also. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the native monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was ended in a secret and successful plan led by American residents; the United States took over the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year proved that the United States was a world power and led to the addition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence fifty years later; Puerto Rico and Guam are still U.S. territories.
+
+As the First World War erupted in Europe in 1914, the United States declared itself neutral. Afterward, the Americans sympathized with the British and French, even though many citizens, especially those from Ireland and Germany, were against the intervention.[33] In 1917, they joined the Allies, adding to the defeat of the Central Powers. Unwilling to participate in European affairs, the Senate did not approve the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which established the League of Nations, applying a policy of unilateralism, which bordered on isolationism.[34] In 1920, the Women's rights movement gained the approval of a constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote.[35]
+
+For most of the 1920s, the country enjoyed a period of success, decreasing the inequality in the balance of payments while profiting from industrial farms. This period, known as the Roaring Twenties, ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a series of policies that increased government interference in the economy.[36] From 1920 to 1933 a prohibition banning alcohol was in place.[37] The Dust Bowl of the 1930s left many poor farmer communities and encouraged a new wave of emigration to the West Coast.[38]
+
+The United States, officially neutral during the early stages of World War II, began supplying supplies to the Allies in March 1941, through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the country joined the Allies fight against the Axis Powers, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II boosted the economy by providing investment capital and jobs, making many women enter the labor market. Of the significant fighters, the United States was the only nation to be enriched by war.[39] The discussions at Bretton Woods and Yalta created a new system of international organization that placed the country and the Soviet Union at the heart of world affairs. In 1945, when the end of the Second World War in Europe came, an international gathering held in San Francisco drafted the Charter of the United Nations, which came into force after the war.[40] Having developed the first nuclear weapon, the government decided to use it in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of that same year. Japan gave up on September 2, ending the war.[41]
+
+In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed after the Second World War, controlling the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The first supported liberal democracy and capitalism, while the second favored communism and an economy planned by the government. Both supported several dictatorships and participated in proxy wars. Between 1950 and 1953, U.S. troops fought Chinese communist forces in the Korean War.[42] From the break with the USSR and the start of the Cold War until 1957, McCarthyism also called the Second Red Dread, developed within the United States. The State unleashed a wave of political mistreatment and a campaign of prejudice against Communists, which some authors point out as of a totalitarian state. Hundreds of people were arrested, including celebrities, and between 10,000 and 12,000 people lost their jobs.[43] The abuse ended when the courts declared it unconstitutional.[44]
+
+In 1961, the Soviet launch of the first human-crewed spacecraft caused President John F. Kennedy to propose to the country to be the first to send "a man to the Moon", a fact completed in 1969.[45] Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear conflict with the Soviet forces in Cuba, while the economy grew and expanded steadily. A growing movement for civil rights, represented and led by African-Americans such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Bevel, used nonviolence to deal with segregation and discrimination.[46] After Kennedy's murder in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed during the term of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, led a civil war in Southeast Asia, assistant to the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A generalized counterculture movement grew, driven by opposition to war, black nationalism and the sexual revolution. A new wave of feminist movements also emerged, led by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and other women who sought political, social and economic equity.
+
+In 1974, as a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon became the first president to resign, to avoid being dismissed on charges such as obstruction of justice and abuse of power, and was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.[47] The presidency of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s was marked by stagflation and the hostage crisis in Iran. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 announced a change in U.S. policy, which was reflected in significant changes in taxes and fiscal expenses. His second term brought with it the Iran–Contra affair and the significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The later Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.
+
+Under President George H. W. Bush, the country took on a global dominant role worldwide, as in the Gulf War (1991). The longest economic expansion in modern American history, from March 1991 to March 2001, spanned the presidency of Bill Clinton and the dot-com bubble.[48] A civil lawsuit and a sex scandal led to his impeachment in 1998, although he managed to finish his period. The 2000 presidential elections, one of the most competitive in American history, they were settled by the Supreme Court: George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president, even though he gained fewer votes than his opponent Al Gore.[49]
+
+On September 11, 2001, the terrorists of the Al-Qaeda group attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City (which were destroyed) and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., in a series of attacks that ended the life of nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the "War on Terror." At the end of 2001, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban government and destroyed Al-Qaeda's training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, Bush began to push for a regime change to take place in Iraq.[50][51] With NATO's lack of support and without a clear UN order for military intervention, Bush organized the coalition of the willing; The coalition forces quickly invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled the statue of dictator Saddam Hussein. The following year, Bush was re-elected as the most voted president in an election.
+
+In 2005, Hurricane Katrina, which would end up being the deadliest natural disaster in national history, caused severe destruction along the Gulf Coast: the city of New Orleans was devastated, with 1833 dead.[52]
+
+On November 4, 2008, during a global economic downturn, Barack Obama was elected president, having been the first African American to take office. In May 2011, American Special forces managed to kill Osama bin Laden, hiding in Pakistan. The following year, Barack Obama was re-elected. Under his second term, he led the war against the Islamic State and restored diplomatic relations with Cuba.
+
+On November 8, 2016, the Republican Party leader Donald Trump defeated former First Lady Hillary Clinton for presidency in an unusual election and whose plans have been described by political analysts as populist, protectionist and nationalist, assuming office on January 20, 2017.[53]
+
+The massacres in Orlando of June 12, 2016 at the gay disco Pulse (51 dead) and in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 (60) are listed as the largest massacres in the country since 9/11.[54]
+
+The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[55] The government is controlled by a system of checks and balances from the United States Constitution. The constitution is the country's main legal document. There are three branches. They are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. State governments and the federal government work in very similar ways. Each state has its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The executive branch of a state government is led by a governor, instead of a president.
+
+The executive branch is the part of the government that enforces the law.  Members of the U.S. Electoral College elect a president who is the leader of the executive branch, as well as the leader of the armed forces. The president may veto a bill that the Congress has passed, so it does not become a law. The President may also make "executive orders" to ensure that people follow the law.
+
+The president is in charge of many departments that control much of the day-to-day actions of government. For example, Department of Commerce makes rules about trade.  The president chooses the heads of these departments, and also nominates federal judges.  However, the Senate, part of the legislative branch, must agree with all of the people the president chooses. The president may serve two 4-year terms.
+
+The legislative branch makes laws. The legislative branch is called the United States Congress. Congress is divided into two "houses".
+
+One house is the House of Representatives.  The Representatives are each elected by voters from a set area within a state.  The number of Representatives a state has is based on how many people live there.  Representatives serve two-year terms. The total number of representatives today is 435. The leader of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House.
+
+The other house is the Senate. In the Senate, each state is represented equally, by two senators. Because there are 50 states, there are 100 senators.  The President's treaties or appointments of officials need the Senate's approval. Senators serve six-year terms. The Vice President of the United States serves as president of the Senate.  In practice, the vice president is usually absent from the Senate, and a senator serves as president pro tempore, or temporary president, of the Senate.
+
+Representatives and senators propose laws, called "bills", in their respective houses. A bill may be voted upon by the entire house right away or may first go to a small group, known as a committee, which may recommend a bill for a vote by the whole house. If one house votes to pass a bill, the bill then gets sent to the other house; if both houses vote for it, it is then sent to the president, who may sign the bill into law or veto it. If the president vetoes the bill, it is sent back to Congress. If Congress votes again and passes the bill with at least a two-thirds majority, the bill becomes law and cannot be vetoed by the president.
+
+Under the American system of federalism, Congress may not make laws that directly control the states; instead, Congress may use the promise of federal funds, or special circumstances such as national emergencies, to encourage the states to follow federal law. This system is both complex and unique.
+
+The judicial branch is the part of government that interprets what the law means. The Judicial Branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts. If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, the law is said to be "struck down" and is no longer a valid law.
+
+The Supreme Court is made up of nine judges, called justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. One of these justices, called the chief justice, heads the court. A Supreme Court justice serves until he or she dies or resigns (quits in the middle of his or her term). When that happens, the president nominates someone new to replace the justice who left. If the Senate agrees with that choice, the person becomes a justice. If the Senate does not agree with the president's choice, then the president must nominate someone else.
+
+Famous court cases such as Marbury v Madison (which was decided in 1803) have firmly established that the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the United States Constitution and has the power to strike down any law that conflicts with it.[56]
+
+The United States of America consists of 50 states, 5 territories and 1 district (Washington D.C.). States can make laws about things inside the state, but federal law is about things dealing with more than one state or dealing with other countries. In some areas, if the federal government makes laws that say different things from the state laws, people must follow the federal law because the state law is not a law any more. Each state has a constitution of its own, different from the federal (national) Constitution. Each of these is like the federal Constitution because they say how each state's government is set up, but some also talk about specific laws.
+
+The federal and most state governments are dominated by two political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. There are many smaller parties; the largest of these are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. People help in political campaigns that they like. They try to persuade politicians to help them; this is called lobbying. All Americans are allowed to do these things, but some have and spend more money than others, or in other ways do more in politics. Some people think this is a problem, and lobby for rules to be made to change it.
+
+Since 2017, the president is a Republican, and Congress is also Republican-controlled, so the Republicans have more power in the federal government.  There are still many powerful Democrats who can try to stop the Republicans from doing things that they believe will be bad for the country. Also, members of a party in power do not always agree on what to do. If enough people decide to vote against Republicans in the next election, they will lose power. In a republic like the United States, no party can do whatever they want. All politicians have to argue, compromise, and make deals with each other to get things done. They have to answer to the people and take responsibility for their mistakes.
+
+The USA's large cultural, economic, and military influence has made the foreign policy of the United States, or relations with other countries, a topic in American politics, and the politics of many other countries.
+
+The United States conquered and bought new lands over time, and grew from the original 13 colonies in the east to the current 50 states, of which 48 of them are joined together to make up the contiguous United States. These states, called the "lower 48", can all be reached by road without crossing a border into another country. They go from the Atlantic east to the Pacific in the west. There are two other states which are not joined to the lower 48 states. Alaska can be reached by passing through British Columbia and the Yukon, both of which are part of Canada. Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
+
+Washington, D.C., the national capital, is a federal district that was split from the states of Maryland and Virginia in 1791. Not part of any US state, it used to be in the shape of a square, with the land west of the Potomac River coming from Virginia, and the land east of the river coming from Maryland. In 1846, Virginia took back its part of the land. Some people living in DC want it to become a state, or for Maryland to take back its land, so that they can have the right to vote in Congress.
+
+The United States consists of sixteen lands that are not states, many of which are colonial territories. None of them have any land borders with the rest of the US. People live in five of these places, which are de facto American:
+
+The Philippines was a possession of the United States. Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and other Pacific island nations were governed by the United States as a United Nations "Trust Territory". All of these places have become independent: the Philippines in 1946, Palau in 1947, and Micronesia in 1986.
+
+The U.S. armed forces has bases in many countries, and the U.S. Navy's base at Guantanamo Bay was rented from Cuba after that country had a Communist revolution.
+
+All the states are divided into administrative subdivisions. Most of them are called counties, but Louisiana uses the word "parish," and Alaska uses the word "borough."
+
+There are many cities in the United States. One city in each state is the state capital, where the government of the state meets and the governor works. This city is not always the largest in its state. For example, the city with the most people living in it is New York City in New York State, but the state capital is Albany. Some other big cities are Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston and Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri and Detroit, Michigan.
+
+The United States is very influential in global economics, politics, and the military. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the headquarters of the United Nations is in New York City. It is a member of the G7,[57] G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[58] and strong ties with Canada,[59] Australia,[60] New Zealand,[61] Japan,[62] South Korea,[63] and Israel.[64]
+
+The president is the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and by the Department of the Navy during times of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[65]
+
+The military budget of the United States in 2011 was more than $700 billion, 41% of global military spending and equal to the next 14 largest national military expenditures combined. At 4.7% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.[66] U.S. defense spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 23rd globally in 2012 according to the CIA.[67] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, was a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion was proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.[68] The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011;[69] 4,484 service members were killed during the Iraq War.[70] Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan in April 2012;[71] by November 8, 2013 2,285 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.[72]
+
+The United States has a capitalist economy. The country has rich mineral resources, with many gold, coal and uranium deposits. Farming makes the country among the top producers of, among others, corn (maize), wheat, sugar, and tobacco. Housing contributes about 15% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of  the United States[73]America produces cars, airplanes, and electronics. About 3/4 of Americans work in the service industry.
+
+The United States of America has people of many different race and ethnic backgrounds. 80% of the people in the United States descend from European immigrants. Many people are descended from Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Africa, and Italy.[74]  13% of the people in the United States are African-American. Most of them descend from the African slaves that were brought to America. Asian-Americans make up only 5% of the population in America but make up a bigger portion in the west coast. For example, in California, Asian-Americans make up 13% of the population of that state. Hispanic-Americans or people of Latin origins make up 15% of the nation. The original peoples, called Native American, American Indians, or Amerindians and Inuit (Eskimos) are a very small group.
+
+11% of the people in the United States are foreign born. 18% speak a language other than English at home. For people 25 and older, 80% are high school graduates while 25% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
+
+The 2000 Census counted self-reported ancestry. It identified 43 million German-Americans, 30.5 million Irish-Americans, 24.9 million African-Americans, 24.5 million English-Americans, and 18.4 million Mexican-Americans.
+
+The social structure of the United States has a big range. This means that some Americans are much, much richer than others. The average (median) income for an American was $37,000 a year in 2002. However, the richest 1% of Americans have as much money as the poorest 90%. 51% of all households have access to a computer and 41% had access to the Internet in 2000, a figure which had grown to 75% in 2004. Also, 67.9% of American families owned their homes in 2002.  There are 200 million cars in the United States, two for every three Americans. The debt has grown to over $21,000,000,000,000.
+
+There are many different religions in the U.S.  Statistically, the largest religion is Christianity, including groups such as Catholicism, Protestantism and Mormonism. Other religions include Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism, Wicca, Druidry, Baha'i, Raelism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism and Jainism.[75] Religions which were founded within the United States include Eckankar, Satanism and Scientology.  Native American religions have various animistic beliefs.
+
+The United States is one of the most religious countries in the Western World, and most Americans believe in God. The number of Christians in the U.S. has gone down. 86.2% called themselves Christian in 1990 and 78.4% said this in 2007. The others include Judaism (2.3%), Islam (0.8%), Buddhism (0.7%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). Those who have no religion are at 16.1%. There is a large difference between those who say that they belong to a religion and those who are members of a religious body of that religion.[76]
+
+Doubts about the existence of a God, gods or goddesses are higher among young people.[77] Among the non-religious population of the U.S., there are deists, humanists, ignotic, atheists, and agnostics.[78]
+
+English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[79][80] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.[81]
+
+While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[82] Other states, such as California, order the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[83] Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
+
+Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.
+
+In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.[84] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[85]
+
+American popular culture goes out to many places in the world. It has a large influence on most of the world, especially the Western world. American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen in most countries.
+
+[86]
+
+The American flag is made up of 50 stars on a blue background, and has 13 stripes, seven red and six white. It is one of many symbols of the United States like the Bald Eagle. The 50 stars represent the 50 states. The red stands for courage. The blue stands for justice. The white represents peace and cleanliness. The 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies.[87]
+
+LawConstitutionBill of RightsSeparation of powers
+
+EnforcementDepartment of Justice (DoJ)Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
+
+LegislatureHouseSenate
+
+ExecutiveCabinetFederal agenciesForeign policy
+
+JudiciarySupreme CourtAppeals
+
+IntelligenceCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA)Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)National Security Agency (NSA)
+
+MilitaryArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceCoast Guard

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+Money can be defined as anything that people use to buy goods and services. Money is what many people receive for selling their own things or services.
+There are many kinds of money in the world. Most countries have their own kind of money, such as the United States dollar or the British pound.
+Money is also called many other names, like currency or cash.
+
+The idea of bartering things is very old.[1] A long time ago, people did not buy or sell with money. Instead, they traded one thing for another to get what they wanted or needed.[1] One person who owned many cows could trade with another person who had a lot of wheat. Each would trade a little of what he had with the other. This would support the people on his farm. Other things that were easier to carry around than cows also came to be held as valuable. This gave rise to trade items such as jewelry and spices.
+
+When people changed from trading in things like, for example, cows and wheat to using money instead, they needed things that would last a long time. They must still have a known value, and could be carried around. The first country in the world to make metal coins was called Lydia.[2] These first appeared during the 7th century BC, in the western part of what is now Turkey.[2] The Lydian coins were made of a weighed amount of precious metal and were stamped with a picture of a lion. This idea soon spread to Greece, the rest of the Mediterranean, and the rest of the world. Coins were all made to the same size and shape. In some parts of the world, different things have been used as money, like clam shells or blocks of salt.
+
+Besides being easier to carry than cows, using money had many other advantages. Money is easier to divide than many trade goods. If someone own cows, and wants to trade for only "half a cow's worth" of wheat, he probably does not want to cut his cow in half. But if he sells his cow for money, and buys wheat with money, he can get exactly the amount he wants.
+
+Cows die, and wheat rots. But money lasts longer than most trade goods. If someone sells a cow for money, he can save that money away until he needs it. He can always leave it to his children when he dies. It can last a very long time, and he can use it at any time.
+
+Not every cow is as good as another cow. Some cows are sick and old, and others are healthy and young. Some wheat is good and other wheat is moldy or stale. So if a person trades cows for wheat, he might have a hard time arguing over how much wheat each cow is worth. However, money is standard. That means one dollar is worth the same as another dollar. It is easier to add up and count money, than to add up the value of different cows or amounts of wheat.
+
+Later, after coins had been used for hundreds of years, paper money started out as a promise to pay in coin, much like an "I.O.U." note. The first true paper money was used in China in the 10th century AD.[3] Paper money was also printed in Sweden between 1660 and 1664.[4] Both times, it did not work well, and had to be stopped because the banks kept running out of coins to pay on the notes. Massachusetts Bay Colony printed paper money in the 1690s.[5] This time, the use became more common.
+
+Today, most of what people think of as money is not even things you can hold. It is numbers in bank accounts, saved in computer memories. Many people still feel more comfortable using coins and paper, and do not totally trust using electronic money on a computer memory.
+
+Many types of money have been used at different times in history. These are:
+
+Commodity money can be used for other purposes besides serving as a medium of exchange. We say it possesses intrinsic value, because it is useful or valuable by itself. Some examples of commodity money are cattle, silk, gold and silver. Convertible paper money is money that is convertible into gold and silver. Gold and Silver certificates are convertible paper money as they can be fully convertible into gold and silver.
+
+Inconvertible money is money that cannot be converted into gold and silver. Notes and coins are inconvertible money. They are inconvertible and are declared by the government money. Such fiat money is a country's legal tender. Today, notes and coins are the currencies used in bank deposits.
+
+Types of bank deposits:

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+The metric system is a number of different systems of measurement with length based on the metre, mass on the gram, and volume on the litre.[1] This system is used around the world. It was developed in France and first introduced there in 1795, 2 years after the execution of Louis XVI. The metric units are based on decimal groups (multiples of ten). At first the metric system was based on two quantities: length and weight. The basic units were called the metre and the gramme.
+
+In 1866, the United States started to use the metric system, and is widely used except by the public.[2] By 1875, many countries in Europe and in Latin America had changed to using the metric system. In 1875, seventeen countries signed the Metre Convention agreeing to share responsibility for defining and managing the metre and kilogram standards.[a] The prototype[b] copies of the metre and of the kilogram were called the "international prototype metre" and "international prototype kilogram". A new organization called the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) was set up. The international prototype metre and kilogram were kept at the BIPM headquarters. In 1960, the rules for the metric system were revised. The revised system was called the "International System of Units" (which is often called "SI" for short). The definition of SI also included rules for writing SI quantities. These rules are the same for all countries. In the 1970s, many people in the United Kingdom and the rest of the Commonwealth started using the metric system in their places of work.
+
+The metric system is a decimal-based system of measurement. The system has units of measure for each quantity. The names of most units of measure in the metric system have two parts. One part is the unit name and the other part is the prefix. For example, in the name "centimetre", the word "centi" is the prefix and the word "metre" is the unit name. Sometimes, as with metre, litre and gram, there is no prefix.[3]
+
+In the metric system, all units have a "symbol". Symbols are a shorthand way of writing the names of units. All the countries in the world use the same symbol for a unit, even though they might have different ways of writing out the unit name in full. For example[4]
+
+The metric system was first developed in France during the French Revolution. A French law passed in 1795 defined five units of measure. Three of these names are still in use today. They are the metre which is the unit of length, the gram which is the unit of mass[c] and the litre which is the unit of volume.[5] Since then many other units of measure have been developed and many definitions changed. The metric system now has units of measurement for energy, power, force, electric current, radioactivity and many others.[6]  The most commonly used units of measure in the metric system are listed below.[d]
+
+The definitions of the units are often being changed. In 1960 the definition of the metre was changed. Since then it has been defined in terms of the speed of light.[8] In 2019, the kilogram is redefined in terms of the Planck constant.[9]
+
+If the numbers are too big or too small, the metric system uses prefixes to make it easier to understand the numbers.[3]
+
+milli
+
+centi
+
+kilo
+
+There are a lot of other prefixes. Some of them are:
+
+These tables will help one to estimate the size of different lengths or masses in the metric system. In these tables:
+
+Some names in the metric system are spelt differently in British English and in American English.
+
+In 1875 representatives from the governments of twenty different countries met in Paris to discuss weights and measures. Seventeen of the countries signed a treaty about weights and measures. The treaty was called "The Convention of the Metre". The countries that signed were: Argentine Confederation, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, United States and Venezuela.[15]:75-76 They agreed:[16][17][18]
+
+The United Kingdom and the Netherlands went to the conference but did not sign the treaty at that time. After further consideration, the United Kingdom did sign the treaty in 1884[15]:75-76 and the Netherlands became a member in 1929.[19]
+
+In 1889 the copies of the kilogram and the metre were ready to be given to the different countries that signed the treaty.[18]
+
+The United States Congress ratified the treaty in 1878.[20] The United Kingdom signed the treaty 1884.[21] Neither country passed laws making it compulsory to use the metric system.[22]
+
+In 1921 the Metre Convention was extended to include all physical measurements including time, electricity and temperature.
+
+In 1960 the BIPM published the "International System of Units" (or SI). SI clarified a number of areas of the metric system, particularly in science and in engineering. The BIPM also standardized the way in which SI was written making it the same for all languages.[8]
+
+There are 16 US fluid ounces in a US pint but there are 20 imperial [UK] fluid ounces in an imperial pint. The US fluid ounce is larger than the imperial fluid ounce, but the imperial pint is larger than the US pint.[23]  In the 1700's this type situation was common across Europe. Each country  measured length, weight/mass and volume in its own way. Sometimes different countries or cities used the same name for different measurements.   Sometimes different cities in the same country had different ways of measuring things. In 1789 there were a quarter of a million different units of weight and measure in France.[24]:2–3
+
+During the French Revolution, French scientists decided that it would be better to have a new system of weights and measures. The system would be the same in all French provinces and cities. They also decided that it would be easier if the new system used 10's instead of 12's, 16's or 20's, because people normally count in 10's. The new system became the official system of measurement in France in 1799.[25]:71–72 One of the French leaders, the Marquis de Condorcet declared that  "[the metric system] is for all people for all time".[24]:1
+
+They decided that the new system would be for everybody on Earth and that the new unit of length would be called a "metre". They decided there would be 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) between the North Pole and the equator. Between 1791 and 1798 two surveyors, Pierre Méchain and Jean-Baptiste Delambre, measured the distance between the cities of Dunkirk to Barcelona using old French units, and used the stars to measure their latitudes. They used this information to work out that the length of the metre should be 443.296 lignes.[Note 1] In 1798 the French scientists made a bar of platinum that was exactly one metre long.  They stored this bar in the French archives. It was called the metre des archives. People who made one metre rulers were able to check that their rulers were the same length as the metre des archives. Other scientists made a kilogram weight from platinum which was also put in the archives. This weight was called the kilogram des archives.[24]:266
+
+In 1799 the metric system was made compulsory, meaning people were made to use it by law, in the region around Paris. This caused a lot of confusion because the police enforced the new measures but customers preferred the old ones. So shopkeepers had to have both. People became worried the new measures were used to cheat them. Politicians tried to educate and convince people to use metric, but the people rejected the metric system. In 1800 the government tried to make the system acceptable by changing the names of the units back to the simpler names used before metrication. For example, the decimetre, centimetre, and millimetre were renamed to palme (hand), doigt (finger) and trait (trace).[24]:270–275
+
+In 1799 Napoleon became the leader of France. By 1812 he had conquered most of Europe. He introduced the metric system to the countries that he conquered. In 1815 he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. After Napoleon was defeated, most of the countries started using their old systems of measurement again.[26]
+
+During this time, the metric system was still the official system of measurement in France. And it still had simplified unit names. But the French people continued to use the measures they were used to. The French government tried to persuade the people to convert. They mass-produced metric rulers. They tried to teach the people to use metric measures, and commanded the police to punish people who would not cooperate. Eventually the government stopped trying and withdrew the metric system.[24]:332–333
+
+On 12 February 1812, France stopped using the metric system and started using a new system called mesures usuelles. The new system was based on many of the old pre-metric units. The old units were redefined to be round numbers or fractions of the withdrawn metric units. For example the livre (pound) was reintroduced and changed from 489 grams to 500 grams. The toise was redefined as 2 metres. The toise contained 6 pied (feet), changed from 324.8 mm to 1⁄3 of a metre (333.33 mm). The pied had 12 pouces (inches) and the pouce had 12 lignes.[15][24]:334
+
+In 1837 the metrication laws were revived in France. And in 1840, the system did become compulsory throughout France, almost 50 years after it was first introduced.[24]:451
+
+During the nineteenth century many small countries started cooperating with each other. In 1815 the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed from seventeen small states. Each state had its own system of measurement. In 1820 they decided that it would be better if everybody used the metric system.[27]
+
+In 1815 the German Confederation was formed. It was an association of 39 different states. Each state had its own system of measurements. In 1834 the German Confederation formed a customs union called the Zollverein. In 1851 the Zollverein decided to use metric units for trade between the various states. In 1871, most of the states in the German Confederation were joined together to form the German Empire. The German Empire continued to use the metric system.[27]
+
+In the same year, Italy was also formed from a large number of small states. Italy also decided to use the metric system rather than choosing one of the old systems of measurement.[27]
+
+By 1875  many European and Latin American counties were already using the metric system. These countries included France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Columbia. Between 1875 and 1914 many more countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Paraguay, Philippines and Vietnam started to use the metric system. In 1917, during the Bolshevik Revolution, the USSR (now Russia) adopted the metric system.  By the start of the Second World War most non-English speaking countries had adopted the metric system.[27]
+
+In 1866, after most of the South American countries started to use the metric system, the United States passed a law that allowed people to use either the metric system or United States customary units for trade. Before 1893 the yard was defined as the length of the "standard yard" which was kept by the United States Treasury. The pound was defined as being the mass of the "standard pound". In 1893 the United States Congress passed the Mendenhall Order. This order defined the yard as being exactly ​3600⁄3937 metres and the pound as being exactly 0.4535924277 kilogram. The order only changed the definitions of the pound and the yard. It had no other effect on people's lives.[28]
+
+In 1975 the Metric Conversion Act started a formal metrication process.  Metrication was to be voluntary. It was to be coordinated by the U.S. Metric Board. In 1988 the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act said that metric units had to be used for all federal projects.[29]  The Act did not apply to state projects. Some states demanded that metric units be used but other states did not. Some industries changed to using metric units but others did not.  Soft drinks are sold in metric quantities. Milk is sold in customary units.  Metric units are widely used in the design of motor cars.[30]  Aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were designed using mainly customary units.[31]
+
+Some people in the United States want to complete the change-over to the metric system. They say that it will make things easier for everybody.[32] Other people say that it will cost too much money.[33]
+Some people want to use the metric system because it will make it easier to export goods.[34] Other people say that metrication can only work if all fifty states metricate at the same time. This will not happen unless the Federal Government takes the lead.[35]
+
+In 1897 the United Kingdom passed a law allowing people to use either the metric system or Imperial units for trade.[36] By the late 1960s three quarters of British exports were to countries that used the metric system. However people in the United Kingdom still used imperial units.[37] The Metrication Board was set up in 1969 to help Britain change to the metric system. Each company had to pay their own expenses. Some companies saved a lot of money by changing to the metric system because they could make the same goods for export as they made for sales in the United Kingdom.[38] For example, almost all motor cars use metric-sized nuts and bolts.  Other companies lost money because they had to make many changes but did not have any benefit from the changes.
+
+When the Metrication Board was closed down in 1981 most of government and industry had changed to the metric system but a lot of everyday things like road signs had not been changed.[39] A survey taken in 2013 showed that metric units and imperial units were both widely used by British people in their private lives.[40]

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+The universe is the name that we use to describe the collection of all the things that exist in space. It is made of many millions of millions of stars and planets and enormous clouds of gas separated by a gigantic empty space.
+
+Astronomers can use telescopes to look at very distant galaxies. This is how they see what the universe looked like a long time ago. This is because the light from distant parts of the universe takes a very long time to reach us. From these observations, it seems the physical laws and constants of the universe have not changed.
+
+Physicists are currently unsure if anything existed before the Big Bang. They are also unsure whether the size of the universe is infinite.
+
+People have long had ideas to explain the universe. Most early models had the Earth at the centre of the Universe. Some ancient Greeks thought that the Universe has infinite space and has existed forever. They thought it had a set of celestial spheres which corresponded to the fixed stars, the Sun and various planets. The spheres circled about a spherical but unmoving Earth.
+
+Over the centuries, better observations led to Copernicus's Sun-centred model. This was hugely controversial at the time, and was fought by religious authorities, most famously by the Christian church (see Giordano Bruno and Galileo).
+
+The invention of the telescope in the Netherlands, 1608, was a milestone in astronomy. By the mid-19th century, they were good enough for other galaxies to be distinguished. The modern optical (uses visible light) telescope is still more advanced. Meanwhile, Isaac Newton improved the ideas of gravity and dynamics (equations) and showed how the Solar System worked.
+
+The improvement of telescopes led astronomers to realize that the Solar System is in a galaxy made of billions of stars, the Milky Way, and that other galaxies exist outside it, as far as we can see. Careful studies of the distribution of these galaxies and their spectral lines have led to much of modern cosmology. Discovery of the systematic redshift of galaxies led to the conclusion that the Universe is expanding (see: Hubble).
+
+The most used scientific model of the Universe is known as the Big bang theory. The Universe expanded from in which all the matter and energy of the Universe was concentrated. Several independent experimental measurements support the expansion of space and, more generally, the Big Bang idea. Recent observations support the idea that this expansion is happening because of. Most of the matter in the Universe may be in a form which cannot be detected by present methods. This has been named dark matter.
+
+Just to be clear, dark matter and energy have not been detected directly (that is why they are called 'dark'). Their existence is from observations which would be difficult to explain otherwise.
+According to  space can get bigger faster than the speed of light, but we can view only part of the observable universe because of the speed of light. We cannot see space beyond the limitations of light (or any electromagnetic radiation) the diameter of the Universe is at least 93 billion.
+
+It is estimated that the age of the Universe is 13.73 (± 0.12) billion years,[1] and that the diameter of the Universe is at least 93 billion light years, or 8.80 ×1026 metres.
+
+The word Universe comes from the Old French word Univers, which comes from the Latin word universum.[2] The Latin word was used by Cicero and later Latin authors in many of the same senses as the modern English word is used.
+
+A different interpretation (way to interpret) of unvorsum is "everything rotated as one" or "everything rotated by one". This refers to an early Greek model of the Universe. In that model, all matter was in rotating spheres centered on the Earth; according to Aristotle, the rotation of the outermost sphere was responsible for the motion and change of everything within. It was natural for the Greeks to assume that the Earth was stationary and that the heavens rotated about the Earth, because careful astronomical and physical measurements (such as the Foucault pendulum) are required to prove otherwise.
+
+The most common term for "Universe" among the ancient Greek philosophers from Pythagoras onwards was το παν (The All), defined as all matter (το ολον) and all space (το κενον).[3]
+
+The broadest word meaning of the Universe is found in De divisione naturae by the medieval philosopher Johannes Scotus Eriugena, who defined it as simply everything: everything that exists and everything that does not exist.
+
+Time is not considered in Eriugena's definition; thus, his definition includes everything that exists, has existed and will exist, as well as everything that does not exist, has never existed and will never exist. This all-embracing definition was not adopted by most later philosophers, but something similar is in quantum physics.[4]
+
+Usually the Universe is thought to be everything that exists, has existed, and will exist.[5] This definition says that the Universe is made of two elements: space and time, together known as space-time or the vacuum; and matter and different forms of energy and momentum occupying space-time. The two kinds of elements behave according to physical laws, in which we describe how the elements interact.
+
+A similar definition of the term Universe is everything that exists at a single moment of time, such as the present or the beginning of time, as in the sentence "The Universe was of size 0".
+
+In Aristotle's book The Physics, Aristotle divided το παν (everything) into three roughly analogous elements: matter (the stuff of which the Universe is made), form (the arrangement of that matter in space) and change (how matter is created, destroyed or altered in its properties, and similarly, how form is altered). Physical laws were the rules governing the properties of matter, form and their changes. Later philosophers such as Lucretius, Averroes, Avicenna and Baruch Spinoza altered or refined these divisions. For example, Averroes and Spinoza have active principles governing the Universe which act on passive elements.
+
+It is possible to form space-times, each existing but not able to touch, move, or change (interact with each other. An easy way to think of this is a group of separate soap bubbles, in which people living on one soap bubble cannot interact with those on other soap bubbles. According to one common terminology, each "soap bubble" of space-time is denoted as a universe, whereas our particular space-time is denoted as the Universe, just as we call our moon the Moon. The entire collection of these separate space-times is denoted as the multiverse.[6] In principle, the other unconnected universes may have different dimensionalities and topologies of space-time, different forms of matter and energy, and different physical laws and physical constants, although such possibilities are speculations.
+
+According to a still-more-restrictive definition, the Universe is everything within our connected space-time that could have a chance to interact with us and vice versa.
+
+According to the general idea of relativity, some regions of space may never interact with ours even in the lifetime of the Universe, due to the finite speed of light and the ongoing expansion of space. For example, radio messages sent from Earth may never reach some regions of space, even if the Universe would exist forever; space may expand faster than light can traverse it.
+
+It is worth emphasizing that those distant regions of space are taken to exist and be part of reality as much as we are; yet we can never interact with them, even in principle.[7] The spatial region within which we can affect and be affected is denoted as the observable universe.
+
+Strictly speaking, the observable universe depends on the location of the observer. By travelling, an observer can come into contact with a greater region of space-time than an observer who remains still, so that the observable universe for the former is larger than for the latter. Nevertheless, even the most rapid traveler may not be able to interact with all of space. Typically, the 'observable universe' means the universe seen from our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy.
+
+The Universe is huge and possibly infinite in volume. The matter which can be seen is spread over a space at least 93 billion light years across.[8] For comparison, the diameter of a typical galaxy is only 30,000 light-years, and the typical distance between two neighboring galaxies is only 3 million light-years.[9] As an example, our Milky Way Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter,[10] and our nearest sister galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is located roughly 2.5 million light years away.[11] The observable Universe contains more than 2 trillion (1012) galaxies[12] and, overall, as many as an estimated 1×1024 stars[13][14] (more stars than all the grains of sand on planet Earth).[15]
+
+Typical galaxies range from dwarf galaxies with as few as ten million (107) stars up to giants with one trillion[16] (1012) stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass. Thus, a very rough estimate from these numbers would suggest there are around one sextillion (1021) stars in the observable universe; though a 2003 study by Australian National University astronomers resulted in a figure of 70 sextillion (7 x 1022).[17]
+
+The matter that can be seen is spread throughout the universe, when averaged over distances longer than 300 million light-years.[18] However, on smaller length-scales, matter is observed to form 'clumps', many atoms are condensed into stars, most stars into galaxies, most galaxies into galaxy groups and clusters and, lastly, the largest-scale structures such as the Great Wall of galaxies.
+
+The present overall density of the Universe is very low, roughly 9.9 × 10−30 grams per cubic centimetre. This mass-energy appears to consist of 73% dark energy, 23% cold dark matter and 4% ordinary matter. The density of atoms is about a single hydrogen atom for every four cubic meters of volume.[19] The properties of dark energy and dark matter are not known. Dark matter slows the expansion of the Universe. Dark energy makes its expansion faster.
+
+The Universe is old, and changing. The best good guess of the Universe's age is 13.798±0.037 billion years old, based on what was seen of the cosmic microwave background radiation.[20][21][22] Independent estimates (based on measurements such as radioactive dating) agree, although they are less precise, ranging from 11–20 billion years.[23]
+to 13–15 billion years.[24]
+
+The universe has not been the same at all times in its history. This getting bigger accounts for how Earth-bound people can see the light from a galaxy 30 billion light years away, even if that light has traveled for only 13 billion years; the very space between them has expanded. This expansion is consistent with the observation that the light from distant galaxies has been redshifted; the photons emitted have been stretched to longer wavelengths and lower frequency during their journey. The rate of this spatial expansion is accelerating, based on studies of Type Ia supernovae and other data.
+
+The relative amounts of different chemical elements — especially the lightest atoms such as hydrogen, deuterium and helium — seem to be identical in all of the universe and throughout all of the history of it that we know of.[25] The universe seems to have much more matter than antimatter.[26] The Universe appears to have no net electric charge. Gravity is the dominant interaction at cosmological distances. The Universe also seems to have no net momentum or angular momentum. The absence of net charge and momentum is expected if the universe is finite.[27]
+
+The Universe appears to have a smooth space-time continuum made of three spatial dimensions and one temporal (time) dimension. On the average, space is very nearly flat (close to zero curvature), meaning that Euclidean geometry is experimentally true with high accuracy throughout most of the Universe.[28] However, the universe may have more dimensions, and its spacetime may have a multiply connected global topology.[29]
+
+The Universe has the same physical laws and physical constants throughout.[30] According to the prevailing Standard Model of physics, all matter is composed of three generations of leptons and quarks, both of which are fermions. These elementary particles interact via at most three fundamental interactions: the electroweak interaction which includes electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force; the strong nuclear force described by quantum chromodynamics; and gravity, which is best described at present by general relativity.
+
+Special relativity holds in all the universe in local space and time. Otherwise, general relativity holds. There is no explanation for the particular values that physical constants appear to have throughout our Universe, such as Planck's constant h or the gravitational constant G. Several conservation laws have been identified, such as the conservation of charge, conservation of momentum, conservation of angular momentum and conservation of energy.
+
+Accurate predictions of the universe's past and future require an accurate theory of gravitation. The best theory available is Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which has passed all experimental tests so far. However, since rigorous experiments have not been carried out on cosmological length scales, general relativity could conceivably be inaccurate. Nevertheless, its predictions appear to be consistent with observations, so there is no reason to adopt another theory.
+
+General relativity provides of a set of ten nonlinear partial differential equations for the spacetime metric (Einstein's field equations) that must be solved from the distribution of mass-energy and momentum throughout the universe. Since these are unknown in exact detail, cosmological models have been based on the cosmological principle, which states that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic. In effect, this principle asserts that the gravitational effects of the various galaxies making up the universe are equivalent to those of a fine dust distributed uniformly throughout the universe with the same average density. The assumption of a uniform dust makes it easy to solve Einstein's field equations and predict the past and future of the universe on cosmological time scales.
+
+Einstein's field equations include a cosmological constant (Lamda: Λ),[31][32] that is related to an energy density of empty space.[33] Depending on its sign, the cosmological constant can either slow (negative Λ) or accelerate (positive Λ) the expansion of the universe. Although many scientists, including Einstein, had speculated that Λ was zero,[34] recent astronomical observations of type Ia supernovae have detected a large amount of dark energy that is accelerating the universe's expansion.[35] Preliminary studies suggest that this dark energy is related to a positive Λ, although alternative theories cannot be ruled out as yet.[36]
+
+The prevailing Big Bang model accounts for many of the experimental observations described above, such as the correlation of distance and redshift of galaxies, the universal ratio of hydrogen:helium atoms, and the ubiquitous, isotropic microwave radiation background. As noted above, the redshift arises from the metric expansion of space; as the space itself expands, the wavelength of a photon traveling through space likewise increases, decreasing its energy. The longer a photon has been traveling, the more expansion it has undergone; hence, older photons from more distant galaxies are the most red-shifted. Determining the correlation between distance and redshift is an important problem in experimental physical cosmology.
+
+Other experimental observations can be explained by combining the overall expansion of space with nuclear physics and atomic physics. As the universe expands, the energy density of the electromagnetic radiation decreases more quickly than does that of matter, since the energy of a photon decreases with its wavelength. Thus, although the energy density of the universe is now dominated by matter, it was once dominated by radiation; poetically speaking, all was light. As the universe expanded, its energy density decreased and it became cooler; as it did so, the elementary particles of matter could associate stably into ever larger combinations. Thus, in the early part of the matter-dominated era, stable protons and neutrons formed, which then associated into atomic nuclei. At this stage, the matter in the universe was mainly a hot, dense plasma of negative electrons, neutral neutrinos and positive nuclei. Nuclear reactions among the nuclei led to the present abundances of the lighter nuclei, particularly hydrogen, deuterium, and helium. Eventually, the electrons and nuclei combined to form stable atoms, which are transparent to most wavelengths of radiation; at this point, the radiation decoupled from the matter, forming the ubiquitous, isotropic background of microwave radiation observed today.
+
+Other observations are not clearly answered by known physics. According to the prevailing theory, a slight imbalance of matter over antimatter was present in the universe's creation, or developed very shortly thereafter. Although the matter and antimatter mostly annihilated one another, producing photons, a small residue of matter survived, giving the present matter-dominated universe.
+
+Several lines of evidence also suggest that a rapid cosmic inflation of the universe occurred very early in its history (roughly 10−35 seconds after its creation). Recent observations also suggest that the cosmological constant (Λ) is not zero, and that the net mass-energy content of the universe is dominated by a dark energy and dark matter that have not been characterized scientifically. They differ in their gravitational effects. Dark matter gravitates as ordinary matter does, and thus slows the expansion of the universe; by contrast, dark energy serves to accelerate the universe's expansion.
+
+Some people think that there is more than one Universe. They think that there is a set of universes called the multiverse. By definition, there is no way for anything in one universe to affect something in another.
+The multiverse is not yet a scientific idea because there is no way to test it. An idea that cannot be tested or is not based on logic is not science. So it is not known if multiverse is a scientific idea.
+
+The future of the universe is a mystery. However, there has a couple of theories based on the possible shapes of the universe:[37]

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+A university is an institution where teaching and research is done. The word university comes from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars". [1] Students can go to university to get an academic degree. Unlike the schooling they have done before, the courses at university are specialised. A person studying biology at university has many courses about biology and fewer courses in other fields such as languages or history. To get a higher degree, people must do some research.
+
+The universities were born in Europe during the Middle Ages. The first institution of this type was the University of Bologna that later became a model for similar centres of education[2][3][4]. This term can often be used in other cultures to mean centers of higher education and higher thought, although their creation was often well before the Middle Ages.
+
+At first, the universities had formed themselves according to the model of the professional groups and like almost everything in the Middle Ages, they remained tied to the Catholic Church. At the beginning, they had worked to teach the so-called "seven liberal arts" (the trivium and the quadrivium):
+
+That earliest division caused the present divisions between literary and scientific fields. The world's oldest university is Qarawiyyin university.
+
+A university can include several campuses or different places where classes are taught by professors. In each campus there are several faculties and university schools (mainly for teaching), and also laboratories, departments and institutes of research. Many campuses also have housing for students in buildings called dormitories and structures like libraries, study rooms and gymnasiums for students that live there. Each school offers many courses that students take to earn a degree. The person with the highest right to control and to command in a university is the rector, who governs the university with the help of the party of vice-rectors and of other organs such as the social council and the governing body.
+
+There is a group of famous universities called the Ivy League. They are:
+
+Some other famous universities are:
+

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+Soviet victory[1]
+
+Army Group B:
+
+Army Group Don[Note 2]
+
+Stalingrad Front:
+
+Don Front[Note 3]
+
+Southwestern Front[Note 4]
+
+1941
+
+1942
+
+1943
+
+1944
+
+1945
+
+The Battle of Stalingrad was fought during the Second World War between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.  They were fighting for control of the city of Stalingrad. The battle was fought between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943. It was one of the most important battles of the war because it marked the end of Germany's advances.  Hitler even blamed his defeat partly on Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad has often been recorded as an example of how brutal a war can be.   It is reported that, due to limited supplies, soldiers and civilians had to resort to eating rats, mice, and even cannibalism.
+
+Stalingrad, now Volgograd, was a city on the Volga River.  It was an important industrial city, and the Volga was an important transport route.  Hitler also wanted to capture Stalingrad because it was named after Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, thus it would embarrass him.
+
+In June 1942, Adolf Hitler launched an attack in southern Russia.  By the end of July the German army had reached Stalingrad.  With bombs and fire the German Luftwaffe turned the city into ruins.  However, the rubble made hiding places from which Russian snipers could attack the Germans.  Hitler and Stalin sent in large numbers of soldiers. They both ordered that anyone who retreated would be shot on the spot for treason.
+
+On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched an attack which surrounded the Stalingrad area.  Hitler ordered the army to stay there.  The German air force tried to supply them by air.  By February 1943, the German forces in Stalingrad had no ammunition and food.  Rather than freeze, they surrendered, knowing the Soviets were usually cruel to their prisoners.
+
+The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days. 1.6 million people dead or wounded in battle were reported.  There were more Russian deaths than German, but it was a victory for the Russians.  They had killed so many Germans that Hitler's overall plan to conquer the Soviet Union, started with Operation Barbarossa, was seriously weakened.  Also, the Germans failed to get control of Russian oil fields.
+
+About one quarter of the German Sixth Army's soldiers were Russian volunteers called HIWIs.  The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest and deadliest battle in the history of warfare.
+
+By the spring of 1942, the German Operation Barbarossa did not defeat the Soviet Union.  The war was still going well for the Germans: the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic had been very successful and Rommel had just captured Tobruk.[18]:p.522
+
+In the east, they had captured land including Leningrad in the north and  Rostov in the south. There were a number of places where Soviet attacks had pushed the Germans back (to the northwest of Moscow and south of Kharkov) but this did not threaten the Germans. Hitler was confident that he could beat the Red Army after the winter of 1941. Even though Army Group Centre had heavy losses near Moscow the previous winter, 65% of its infantry had not fought and had been rested and given new equipment. Army Groups North and South had also not had a hard time over the winter.[19]  Stalin was expecting German summer attacks to again be directed against Moscow.
+
+The Germans decided that their summer campaign in 1942 would be directed at the southern parts of the Soviet Union. The Germans wanted to destroy Stalingrad's industries. The Germans also wanted to block the Volga River. The river was a route between the Caspian Sea and northern Russia. Capturing the river would make it hard for the Soviets to use the river to transport goods.
+
+The German operations were initially very successful. On July 23, 1942, Hitler changed the goals for the 1942 attack. He made occupying Stalingrad one of the goals. The city was important, because it was named after Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union. The Germans thought that if they captured Stalingrad, it would help the northern and western parts of the German armies to attack Baku. The Germans wanted to capture Baku because it had a lot of oil.[18]
+
+The Soviets were aware of the German plan to attack. The Soviets ordered that anyone strong enough to hold a rifle be sent to fight.[20]
+
+Approaching this place, [Stalingrad], soldiers used to say: "We are entering hell." And after spending one or two days here, they say: "No, this isn't hell, this is ten times worse than hell."[21]
+
+On the 23 of August the 6th Army reached the edge of Stalingrad. They were following the 62nd and 64th Armies, which had gone back into the city. Kleist later said after the war:[22]
+
+The capture of Stalingrad was [a place] where we could block an attack...by Russian forces coming from the east.[22]
+
+The Soviets had enough warning of the German attack to move all the city's grain, cattle, and railway cars across the Volga.  But most civilian residents stayed in the city. The city lacked food even before the German attack. The Luftwaffe air attacks made the Soviets unable to use the River Volga to bring supplies into the city. Between 25 and 31 July, 32 Soviet ships were sunk in the River Volga.[23]:p.69
+
+The battle began with the heavy bombing of the city by Luftflotte 4. A 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped.[2]:p.122 Much of the city turned to rubble. Some factories continued to produce goods.
+
+Stalin moved troops to the east bank of the Volga. All the regular ferries were destroyed by the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe also attacked troop barges. Many civilians were moved out of the city across the Volga.[24] Stalin prevented most civilians from leaving the city because he thought that this would make the Soviet armies fight harder.[25]:p.106 Civilians, including women and children, were told to dig trenches.  Massive German bombing on 23 August caused a firestorm. It killed thousands and turned Stalingrad into rubble and ruins. Between 23 and 26 August, 955 people were killed and another 1,181 wounded from the bombing.[2]:p.73[26]:p.188–189 [Note 6]
+
+The Soviet Air Force, the Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (VVS), was destroyed by the Luftwaffe. The Soviets lost 201 aircraft between 23 and 31 August. They brought in another 100 aircraft in August.[2]:p.74 The Soviets continued to bring new planes into Stalingrad in late September, but they were destroyed by the Germans.
+
+The city was briefly defended by the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment,[25]:p.106 an all-women's regiment that was actually able to halt an entire German division due to their massive firepower. The Germans eventually swarmed and killed them, but were shocked to discover that this whole time they were being held back by young women that seemed fresh out of high school.[25]:p.108[27] In the battle, the NKVD organized  "Workers' militias" who were often sent into battle without rifles.[25]:p.109[25]:p.110
+
+By the end of August, Army Group South (B) had reached the Volga. By 1 September, the Soviets could only supply their forces in Stalingrad by crossing the Volga under constant bombing by artillery and aircraft.
+
+On 5 September, the Soviet 24th and 66th Armies organized an attack against XIV Panzer Corps. The Luftwaffe helped stop the attack by attacking Soviet artillery and soldiers. The Soviets had to pull back. Of the 120 tanks the Soviets had sent into battle, 30 were lost to air attack.[2]
+
+The Soviets were always being attacked by the Luftwaffe. On 18 September, the Soviet 1st Guards and 24th Army attacked VIII Army Corps . VIII. Fliegerkorps sent Stuka dive-bombers to prevent the Soviets from advancing. The Soviet attack was stopped. The Stukas destroyed 41 of the 106 Soviet tanks that were destroyed that morning. German  Bf 109s destroyed 77 Soviet aircraft.[2]:p.80
+In the wrecked city, the Soviet 62nd and 64th Armies, which included the Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division, used houses and factories to hide in.
+
+Fighting in city was very violent. Stalin's Order No. 227 of 27 July 1942 decreed that all commanders who retreated without being told to do so would have to go to a military tribunal.[28]84-5 "Not a step back!" was the slogan. The Germans attacking Stalingrad had many dead and wounded.
+
+After three months of slow advance, the Wermacht finally reached the river banks. The Germans captured 90% of the ruined city and split the Soviet forces into two parts. Ice on the Volga river made it impossible for the Soviets to bring in supplies by boat.
+
+German troops were not ready for fighting during the winter of 1942. The  Stavka did a number of attacks between November 19, 1942 and February 2, 1943. These operations started the Winter Campaign of 1942-1943 (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943), which involved 15 armies.
+
+In autumn, the Soviet generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky gathered their soldiers in the north and south of the city.  The northern side was defended by Hungarian, and Romanian troops.  The Don river had never been defended well by the German side.  The Soviet plan was to attack and surround the German forces in the Stalingrad region.
+
+The operation was code-named "Uran". It started with Operation Mars, aimed at Army Group Center.[29]
+
+On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus. The attacking Soviet units under the command of Gen. Nikolay Vatutin consisted of three armies. This included a total of 18 infantry divisions, eight tank brigades, two motorized brigades, six cavalry divisions and one anti-tank brigade. The Soviets pushed past the Romanian Third Army. The response by the Wehrmacht was disorganized. Bad weather prevented air attacks against the Soviets.
+
+On 20 November, a second Soviet offensive (two armies) was launched to the south of Stalingrad against the Romanian 4th Army Corps. The Romanians were overrun by large numbers of tanks. The Soviet forces moved west and made a ring around Stalingrad.[30]:p.926
+
+About 265,000 German, Romanian, Italian soldiers,[31] the 369th (Croatian) Reinforced Infantry Regiment, and other troops including 40,000 Soviet volunteers fighting for the Germans.[28] were surrounded. There were 210,000 Germans on 19 November 1942. There were also around 10,000 Soviet civilians and several thousand Soviet soldiers the Germans had taken captive during the battle. Not all of the 6th Army was trapped; 50,000 were not surrounded. Of the 210,000 Germans surrounded, 10,000 remained to fight, 105,000 surrendered, 35,000 left by air and the remaining 60,000 died.
+
+The Red Army formed two defensive groups. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein told Hitler not to order the 6th Army to break out. Manstein thought that he could break through the Soviet troops and free the 6th Army.[32]p451[33] After 1945, Manstein says he told Hitler that the 6th Army must break out.[31] The American historian Gerhard Weinberg said that Manstein lied.[32]p1045
+
+Manstein was told to attack Stalingrad in Operation Winter Storm (Unternehmen Wintergewitter). He thought that this attack could work if the 6th Army was supplied through the air.[31][32]
+
+Adolf Hitler had said on 30 September 1942 that the German army would never leave the city. At a meeting shortly after the Soviets formed a ring around the Germans, the German army chiefs wanted to try to escape to the west of the Don. Hitler thought that the Luftwaffe could supply the 6th Army with an "air bridge". This would allow the Germans in the city to fight while a new force was assembled. A similar plan had been used a year earlier at the Demyansk Pocket.
+
+The director of Luftflotte 4, Wolfram von Richthofen, tried to get this decision stopped. The forces under 6th Army were almost twice as large as a regular German army unit, plus there was also a corps of the 4th Panzer Army trapped in the city. The maximum 117.5 short tons (106.6 t) they could deliver a day was far less than the minimum 800 short tons (730 t) needed.
+
+To add to the limited number of Junkers Ju 52 planes the Germans used other planes like the Heinkel He 177 . General Richthofen told Manstein on 27 November that the Luftwaffe could not supply 300 tons a day by air. Manstein now saw the problems of a supply by air. The next day he made a report which said that the supply by air would be impossible. He said the Sixth Army should try to escape. He said that giving up Stalingrad would be a difficult loss, but that it would keep the Sixth Army intact.[34] Hitler said that the Sixth Army would have to stay at Stalingrad and that the air force would supply it until the Germans could attack the Soviets.
+
+The Luftwaffe was able to deliver an average of 94 short tons (85 t) of supplies per day. The most successful day, 19 December, delivered 289 short tons (262 t) of supplies in 154 flights. In the early parts of the operation, more fuel was shipped than food and ammunition because the Germans thought they could escape from the city. Transport airplanes also flew out sick or wounded men from the city. The German attack did not reach the 6th Army. The air supply operation continued. The 6th Army slowly starved. 160 German transport aircraft were destroyed and 328 were heavily damaged. Some 266 Junkers Ju 52s were destroyed.
+
+Soviet forces grouped together around Stalingrad. Violent fighting to attack the Germans began. Operation Winter Storm (Operation Wintergewitter), the German attempt to rescue the trapped army from the south, was at first successful. By 19 December, the German Army had pushed to within 48 km (30 mi) of Sixth Army's positions. Some German officers asked Paulus go against  Hitler's orders and try to escape out of the Stalingrad. Paulus refused. On 23 December, Manstein's forces had to defend themselves from new Soviet attacks.
+
+On 16 December, the Soviets launched Operation Little Saturn.  It attempted to make a hole through the Axis army (mainly Italians) on the Don and capture Rostov. The Germans set up a defence of small units. 15 Soviet divisions—supported by at least 100 tanks—attacked the Italian Cosseria and Ravenna Divisions.[35] The Soviets never got close to Rostov because of the Italian defence.
+
+The German attempt to break through to Stalingrad was stopped and Army Group A was told to come back from the Caucasus.
+
+The 6th Army could no longer hope to escape. The 6th Army did not have enough fuel. As well, the German soldiers have found it very hard to break through the Soviet lines on foot in the cold winter conditions.
+
+The Germans retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad to the city itself.  The loss of the two airfields, at Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and Gumrak on the night of 21/22 January,[36] meant an end to air supplies and to the flying out the wounded.[37]:p.98 The third and last runway was at the Stalingradskaja flight school, which had the last landings and takeoffs on the night of 22–23 January.[38]  After that, there were no landings except for air drops of ammunition and food.
+
+The Germans were now not only starving, but running out of ammunition. They continued to fight because they thought the Soviets would execute any Germans who surrendered.  A Soviet group (Major Aleksandr Smyslov, Captain Nikolay Dyatlenko and a trumpeter) carried an offer to Paulus: if he surrendered within 24 hours, he would receive a guarantee of safety for all prisoners, medical care for the sick and wounded, prisoners allowed to keep their personal belongings, food rations, and be sent to any country they wanted after the war.  Paulus was ordered not to surrender by Hitler, so he did not respond.[39]:p.283[40]
+
+On 30 January 1943, the 10th anniversary of Hitler coming to power, Goebbels said "The heroic struggle of our soldiers on the Volga should be a warning for everybody..."[41] Also on that day Hitler promoted Paulus to Generalfeldmarschall. Since no German Field Marshal had ever been taken prisoner, Hitler assumed that Paulus would fight on or kill himself.
+
+The next day, the southern group in Stalingrad was defeated by the Soviets. Soviet forces reached the entrance to the German headquarters. General Schmidt surrendered the headquarters. Paulus said he had not surrendered and refused to order the remaining German forces to surrender.
+
+Four Soviet armies attacked the remaining northern group. On 2 February, General Strecker surrendered. Around 91,000 tired, ill, wounded, and starving prisoners were taken, including 3,000 Romanians (the survivors of the 20th Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division and "Col. Voicu" Detachment).[42] The prisoners included 22 generals. Hitler was angry and said that Paulus should have killed himself, but instead "he prefers to go to Moscow."[43]  Paulus was Roman Catholic and therefore did not.
+
+The German public was not officially told of the loss until the end of January 1943, though positive media reports had stopped in the weeks before the announcement.[44] Stalingrad marked the first time that the Nazi government publicly admitted a failure in its war effort. It was a major defeat where German losses were almost equal to those of the Soviets. Prior losses of the Soviet Union were generally three times as high as the German ones.[44] On 31 January, German state radio played the Adagio movement from Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, followed by the announcement of the defeat at Stalingrad.[44]
+
+On 18 February, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels gave the Sportpalast speech in Berlin, encouraging the Germans to accept a total war.
+
+Out of the nearly 110,000 German prisoners captured in Stalingrad, only about 6,000 ever returned. They were sent to prisoner camps and later to labour camps all over the Soviet Union. Some 35,000 were eventually sent on transports, of which 17,000 did not survive. Some were kept in the city to help rebuild.
+
+Some senior officers were taken to Moscow and used for propaganda purposes. Some of them joined the National Committee for a Free Germany. Some, including Paulus, signed anti-Hitler statements that were broadcast to German troops. Paulus testified for the prosecution during the Nuremberg Trials.[24]:p.401 He remained in the Soviet Union until 1952, then moved to Dresden in East Germany.[24]:p.280 General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach offered to raise an anti-Hitler army from the Stalingrad survivors, but the Soviets did not accept. It was not until 1955 that the last of the 5-6,000 survivors were repatriated (to West Germany).
+
+During the defence of Stalingrad, the Red Army used six armies (8th, 28th, 51st, 57th, 62nd and 64th Armies) in and around the city. An additional nine armies in the final attack on the Germans.[25]:435–438 The nine armies used for the final attack were the 24th Army, 65th Army, 66th Army and 16th Air Army from the north as part of the Don Front offensive and 1st Guards Army, 5th Tank, 21st Army, 2nd Air Army and 17th Air Army from the south as part of the Soviet Southwestern Front.
+
+Counting how many people were killed and wounded in the battle of Stalingrad is hard. One way is to only count the fighting within the city and suburbs. Another way of counting is to count all the fighting on the southern part of the Soviet-German front from the spring of 1942 to the winter of 1943. Different scholars have made different estimates depending on how widely you consider the battle.
+
+The Axis had from 500,000 to 850,000 casualties (killed, wounded, captured) among all branches of the German armed forces and its allies[45]:p.396 and only 5-6,000 returned to Germany by 1955. The remainder of the POWs died in Soviet captivity.[46]:p.196[47]:p.36
+
+On 2 February 1943, the fighting of Axis troops in Stalingrad stopped. Out of the 91,000 prisoners taken by the Soviets, 3,000 were Romanian.
+
+The Red Army had a total of 1,129,619 total casualties;[16] 478,741 men killed or missing and 650,878 wounded. These numbers are for the whole Don region; in the city itself 750,000 were killed, captured, or wounded.
+
+Anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs during a single week of aerial bombing by Luftflotte 4 as the German 4th Panzer and 6th Armies got close to the city;[48] the total number of civilians killed in the regions outside the city is unknown.
+
+In all, the battle resulted in an estimated total of 1.7-2 million Axis and Soviet casualties, making it possibly the bloodiest battle in all of human history.
+
+In the original 1942 plan, the occupation of Stalingrad had not been a goal. Based on the military successes of the Germans in the first month of the attacks, Hitler decided to expand the military goals. Hitler thought that the Soviet forces across the Don river were weak. The new goals included Stalingrad and even capturing the Volga.
+
+Once the Armies began to fight in the for the city, both sides began to feel that it was very important to win. The Germans sent a lot of troops into the city. This meant that their side did not control the Don river and the Soviet bridges. The German side made steady progress in the fighting and eventually held about 90% of the city.
+
+The German focus on the city made them not think of the weakness of their defenses along the Don and the massive buildup of Soviet forces on their sides. After the Soviet breakthrough, the Germans were very disorganized. The 6th Army was eventually reorganized in time for the Battle of Kursk, but was made up mostly of new soldiers and was never as strong as it had once been.[24]:p.386
+
+Germany failed at Stalingrad because they expanded the goals in the second half of July. After one month of success, the Germans started believing they could win the battle. Hitler ordered too many goals and he did not think Soviet reserves were as strong as they were. To the south of Stalingrad, Army Group A was trying to capture the oilfields. Then its goals were expanded to include the whole of the Black Sea coast.[49]
+
+Stalingrad was a turning point in the war. It also showed the discipline and determination of both the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army. The Soviets first defended Stalingrad against a strong German attack. Newly arrived Soviet  soldiers often died in less than a day. Soviet officers often died in three days.
+
+Historians have talked about how much terror there was in the Red Army. Beevor noted the bravery of the Soviet soldiers.[25]:p.154–168 Richard Overy says that some people think that in the "summer of 1942 the Soviet army fought because it was forced to fight,” but he says this is not true[50] A historian talked to Soviet veterans about terror on the Eastern Front. Many soldiers said they were relieved at the order not to retreat.[51] Infantryman Lev Lvovich’s said he felt better.[52]
+
+For the heroism of the Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, the city was awarded the title Hero City in 1945. Twenty-four years after the battle, in October 1967,[53] a monument, The Motherland Calls, was built on Mamayev Kurgan, the hill overlooking the city. The hill actually used to be much larger, but had been flattened due to constant artillery fire. The statue forms part of a war memorial that includes ruined walls from the battle. The Grain Silo, as well as Pavlov's House can still be visited.
+
+Many women fought on the Soviet side, or were under fire.[54] At the beginning of the battle there were 75,000 women and girls from the Stalingrad area who had finished military or medical training, and all of whom were to serve in the battle.[55] Women staffed a great many of the anti-aircraft batteries that fought not only the Luftwaffe but German tanks.[56] Soviet nurses not only treated wounded men under fire but brought wounded soldiers back to the hospitals under enemy fire.[57] Many of the Soviet wireless and telephone operators were women who often suffered heavy injuries and deaths.[58] Though women were not usually trained as infantry, many Soviet women fought as machine gunners, mortar operators, and scouts.[59] Women were also snipers at Stalingrad.[60] Three air regiments at Stalingrad were entirely female.[59] At least three women won the title Hero of the Soviet Union while driving tanks at Stalingrad.[61]
+
+The German Army showed a lot of discipline after being surrounded. Many German soldiers starved or froze to death. Yet, discipline was continued until the very end. General Friedrich Paulus obeyed Hitler's orders and did not attempt to escape out of the city. German ammunition, supplies, and food became scarce. Generals from both sides suffered from massive stress because of the battle and also because of the fact that they had to report to the most brutal leader in their nation's history. Many generals suffered health problems because of their stress.
+
+Paulus followed his orders and fought to the very end. He asked for permission to surrender, but it was denied. Hitler promoted him to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall. No German field marshal had ever surrendered, and the implication was clear. Hitler believed that Paulus would either fight to the last man or commit suicide.[62] Paulus was taken prisoner.[63][Note 7]
+
+After his capture, Paulus told the Soviets that he had not surrendered.  He refused to issue an order for the Germans to surrender.[64][65]
+
+The events of the battle for Stalingrad have been shown in several movies of German, Russian,[66] British and American origin.
+
+The battle is described in many books.
+
+In the novel The Book Thief, one character was presumed to have died or been captured in The Battle of Stalingrad.
+
+In the 2011 video game Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, the game shows famous locations of the battle, such as Pavlov's House, the Red October Factory and Mamayev Kurgan, among others.
+
+The 2013 game, Company of Heroes 2, showed the battle in certain missions. It was criticized by Russian players for being untrue[67] and on August 7 sales in Russia were stopped.[68]

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+Marvel Comics (founded in 1939 as Marvel Worldwide Inc., then Marvel Publishing, Inc. and later Marvel Comics Group) is an American comic book company that makes "superhero" comic books. Its top rival is DC Comics. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel for US$4 billion. Their comic book characters were created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others.
+
+The comic book company is famously known for creating some of the most iconic and well-known characters such as:
+
+Most of the characters take place in the fictional Marvel Universe with locations that either mirror real-life cities or are fictional places. Some of their most well-known superhero teams are:
+
+The company is also famous for creating some of the most famous villains such as:
+
+It is also known for some of the most iconic supervillain teams are:
+
+Marvel used to be a company called Timely Comics in the 1940s and then Atlas Comics in the 1950s. The first comic published with the name "Marvel Comics" was The Fantastic Four #1 in November, 1961. The precursor to Marvel Comics was founded in 1939 by pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman. In order to capitalize on the growing popularity of comic books—especially those starring superheroes—Goodman created Timely Comics. Timely’s first comic book was Marvel Comics no. 1 (cover dated October 1939), which featured several superhero characters, most notably the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. Timely Comics introduced many superhero characters during comics’ “Golden Age” in the 1940s, most importantly Captain America, who first appeared in Captain America Comics no. 1 (March 1941). Timely characters were often portrayed as fighting against the Nazis and the Japanese even before the United States entered World War II. As the 1940s came to a close, superheroes fell out of vogue with comic book readers, and Timely canceled the last of its books in this genre in 1950. In 1951 Goodman formed his own distribution company, and Timely Comics became Atlas Magazines. Though there was a brief experiment in bringing back superheroes such as Captain America in 1953, Atlas’s output was mostly in other genres such as humour, westerns, horror, war, and science fiction.
+
+In 1956 rival company DC Comics ushered in the so-called Silver Age of comics by reintroducing superhero titles with significant commercial success. In the early 1960s Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics. For several decades Marvel and DC were the top companies in the industry. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s Marvel changed hands numerous times, becoming a publicly held company in 1991. Questionable management decisions and a general slump in sales in the comic book industry drove Marvel Comics into bankruptcy in 1996. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 1998 and began to diversify its output, launching imprints aimed at a variety of demographics and expanding its cinematic offerings under the Marvel Studios banner. In 2007 Marvel began publishing digital comics. In 2009 the Walt Disney Company purchased the parent company of Marvel Comics.
+
+The shared storytelling palette known as the Marvel universe was unveiled in 1961, when Goodman responded to the growing interest in superhero books by commissioning writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby to create the Fantastic Four. With the release of Fantastic Four no. 1 (November 1961), readers were introduced to a superheroic setting that was, nevertheless, rooted in the real world. Lee and Kirby attempted to make their comic book characters more original by allowing them to interact with each other in a realistic fashion, including heroes often fighting or arguing with each other. This trend continued with a flood of other superhero characters introduced by Marvel Comics during the early 1960s, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the X-Men. Lee wrote the majority of Marvel’s books during that time, and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the most important and influential artists.
+
+This more realistic approach to characterizations built up Marvel’s reputation and began to attract university-age readers. Stories also began to deal with social issues such as pollution, race relations, and drug abuse. A Spider-Man story arc from 1971 dealing with drug abuse had to be published without the approval of the Comic Code Authority—the self-regulatory body that had policed comic content since 1954—despite the fact that it was portraying drug use in a negative light. This caused the Comic Code Authority to revise its policy in such matters.
+
+The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a new generation of creative talent emerge at Marvel. In 1967 Jim Steranko began to write and draw stories featuring secret agent Nick Fury in the anthology book Strange Tales. Steranko was influenced in his work by James Bond films and the psychedelic and Op art movements, and the resulting stories melded groundbreaking visuals with equally innovative storytelling techniques. Writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne began a long collaboration on The Uncanny X-Men in 1975. The pair revitalized the flagging series with characters such as Wolverine and complex story arcs that soon made the X-Men franchise one of Marvel’s best sellers.
+
+In 1985 Mark Gruenwald started a critically acclaimed 10-year run as the writer of Captain America. That same year he also began the miniseries Squadron Supreme (1985–86), a deconstructionist take on superheroes that preceded Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen, published by DC Comics. The 1980s also saw Frank Miller’s stint on Daredevil, which took that book in a darker and grittier direction, reviving sagging sales and making it one of Marvel’s best sellers. In 1988 Todd MacFarlane began a popular run as artist on The Amazing Spider-Man. Four years later MacFarlane and a number of other popular artists, including Jim Lee, Erik Larsen, and Rob Liefeld, left Marvel to found rival Image Comics, a company that allowed creators to retain the copyrights of their characters.
+
+During the 1990s and early 2000s a new wave of writers, including Brian Michael Bendis (Daredevil, The Avengers), Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four), and Ed Brubaker (Captain America), became well known for their mature and sometimes controversial takes on Marvel’s characters. The 2010s saw the emergence of another new wave of talent, with writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja turning in a visually arresting run on Hawkeye, longtime Spider-Man writer Dan Slott teaming with artist Mike Allred for a bold take on a classic character in Silver Surfer, and writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona breaking new ground with their critically acclaimed Ms. Marvel.
+
+In the 21st century Marvel’s profits were increasingly derived from toys, video games, and other merchandise featuring their most popular characters and from the production of a string of commercially successful movies. Those films differed from prior efforts to translate comics to the big screen in that they were set in a single shared world. That ambitious plan generated huge dividends with The Avengers (2012), a film that featured Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America—three heroes that had scored individual blockbuster successes—and grossed more than $1.5 billion worldwide. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it came to be known, grew into one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. Its success spawned a wave of television programs, beginning with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013– ) on ABC and continuing with Daredevil (2015–18), Jessica Jones (2015– ), and Luke Cage (2016–18), a string of critically lauded series that appeared on Netflix. In 2015 an agreement between Disney and Sony brought Spider-Man (who had previously appeared only in Sony-produced films) into the shared universe; the character would subsequently be available for use by both studios. Marvel Studios, the company’s film and television division, continued to set records with its flagship Avengers, but it also packed theatres with relatively unknown heroes such as the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), and Doctor Strange (2016). By 2016 more than a dozen films had been released under the banner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the franchise’s cumulative global box office receipts had topped $10 billion.
+
+Marvel has also made movies, toys, video games, cartoons, and other merchandise about the characters, which have made them even more popular.
+
+Located in New York City, Marvel has had successive headquarters:

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+A computer is a machine that accepts data as input, processes that data using programs, and outputs the processed data as information. Many computers can store and retrieve information using hard drives. Computers can be connected together to form networks, allowing connected computers to communicate with each other.
+
+The two principal characteristics of a computer are: It responds to a specific instruction set in a well-defined manner and it can execute a prerecorded list of instructions call a program. There are four main processing steps in a computer: inputting, storage, outputting and processing.
+
+Modern computers can do billions of calculations in a second. Being able to calculate many times per second allows modern computers to multi-task, which means they can do many different tasks at the same time. Computers do many different jobs where automation is useful. Some examples are controlling traffic lights, vehicle , security systems, washing machines and digital televisions.
+
+Computers can be designed to do almost anything with information. Computers are used to control large and small machines which in the past were controlled by humans. Most people have used a personal computer in their home or at work. They are used for things such as calculation, listening to music, reading an article, writing etc.
+
+Modern computers are electronic computer hardware. They do mathematical arithmetic very quickly but computers do not really "think". They only follow the instructions in their software programs. The software uses the hardware when the user gives it instructions, and gives useful output.
+
+Humans control computers with user interfaces. Input devices include keyboards, computer mice, buttons, and touch screens. Some computers can also be controlled with voice commands, hand gestures or even brain signals through electrodes implanted in the brain or along nerves.
+
+Computer programs are designed or written by computer programmers. A few programmers write programs in the computer's own language called machine code. Most programs are written using a programming language like C, C++, Java. These programming languages are more like the language with which one talks and writes every day. The compiler translates the user's instructions into binary code (machine code) that the computer will understand and do what is needed.
+
+Most humans have a problem with math. To show this, try doing 584 × 3,220 in your head. It is hard to remember all the steps! People made tools to help them remember where they were in a math problem. The other problem people have is that they have to do the same problem over and over and over again. A cashier had to make change every day in her head or with a piece of paper. That took a lot of time and made mistakes. So, people made calculators that did those same things over and over. This part of computer history is called the "history of automated calculation," which is a fancy phrase for "the history of machines that make it easy for me to do this same math problem over and over without making mistakes."
+
+The abacus, the slide rule,  the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150-100 BC) are examples of automated calculation machines.
+
+People do not want a machine that would do the same thing over and over again. For example, a music box is a machine that plays the same music over and over again. Some people wanted to be able to tell their machine to do different things. For example, they wanted to tell the music box to play different music every time. They wanted to be able to program the music box- to order the music box to play different music. This part of computer history is called the "history of programmable machines" which is a fancy phrase for "The history of machines that I can order to do different things if I know how to speak their language."
+
+One of the first examples of this was built by Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD). He built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums. These ropes and drums were the language of the machine- they told what the machine did and when. Some people argue that this is the first programmable machine.[1]
+
+Historians disagree on which early machines are "computers". Many say the "castle clock", an astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari in 1206, is the first known programmable analog computer.[2][3]  The length of day and night could be adjusted every day in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year.[4] Some count this daily adjustment as computer programming.
+
+Others say the first computer was made by Charles Babbage.[4] Ada Lovelace is considered to be the first programmer.[5][6][7]
+
+At the end of the Middle Ages, people started thinking math and engineering were more important. In 1623, Wilhelm Schickard made a mechanical calculator. Other Europeans made more calculators after him. They were not modern computers because they could only add, subtract, and multiply- you could not change what they did to make them do something like play Tetris. Because of this, we say they were not programmable. Now engineers use computers to design and plan.
+
+In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard used punched paper cards to tell his textile loom what kind of pattern to weave. He could use punch cards to tell the loom what to do, and he could change the punch cards, which means he could program the loom to weave the pattern he wanted. This means the loom was programmable.
+
+Charles Babbage wanted to make a similar machine that could calculate. He called it "The Analytical Engine".[8] Because Babbage did not have enough money and always changed his design when he had a better idea, he never built his Analytical Engine.
+
+As time went on, computers were used more. People get bored easily doing the same thing over and over. Imagine spending your life writing things down on index cards, storing them, and then having to go find them again. The U.S. Census Bureau in 1890 had hundreds of people doing just that. It was expensive, and reports took a long time. Then an engineer worked out how to make machines do a lot of the work. Herman Hollerith invented a tabulating machine that would automatically add up information that the Census bureau collected. The Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (which later became IBM) made his machines. They leased the machines instead of selling them. Makers of machines had long helped their users understand and repair them, and CTR's tech support was especially good.
+
+Because of machines like this, new ways of talking to these machines were invented, and new types of machines were invented, and eventually the computer as we know it was born.
+
+In the first half of the 20th century, scientists started using computers, mostly because scientists had a lot of math to figure out and wanted to spend more of their time thinking about science questions instead of spending hours adding numbers together. For example, if they had to launch a rocket ship, they needed to do a lot of math to make sure the rocket worked right. So they put together computers. These analog computers used analog circuits, which made them very hard to program. In the 1930s, they invented digital computers, and soon made them easier to program. However this is not the case as many consecutive attempts have been made to bring arithmetic logic to l3.Analog computers are mechanical or electronic devices which solve problems.Some are used to control machines as well.
+
+Scientists figured out how to make and use digital computers in the 1930s to 1940s. Scientists made a lot of digital computers, and as they did, they figured out how to ask them the right sorts of questions to get the most out of them. Here are a few of the computers they built:
+
+Several developers of ENIAC saw its problems. They invented a way to for a computer to remember what they had told it, and a way to change what it remembered. This is known as "stored program architecture" or von Neumann architecture. John von Neumann talked about this design in the paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, distributed in 1945. A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored-program architecture started around this time. The first of these was completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM or "Baby"), while the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was the first really useful computer that used the stored program design. Shortly afterwards, the machine originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but was not ready for two years.
+
+Nearly all modern computers use the stored-program architecture. It has become the main concept which defines a modern computer. The technologies used to build computers have changed since the 1940s, but many current computers still use the von-Neumann architecture.
+
+In the 1950s computers were built out of mostly vacuum tubes. Transistors replaced vacuum tubes in the 1960s because they were smaller and cheaper. They also need less power and do not break down as much as vacuum tubes. In the 1970s, technologies were based on integrated circuits. Microprocessors, such as the Intel 4004 made computers smaller, cheaper, faster and more reliable. By the 1980s, microcontrollers became small and cheap enough to replace mechanical controls in things like washing machines. The 1980s also saw home computers and personal computers. With the evolution of the Internet, personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone in the household.
+
+In 2005 Nokia started to call some of its mobile phones (the N-series) "multimedia computers" and after the launch of the Apple iPhone in 2007, many are now starting to add the smartphone category among "real" computers. In 2008, if smartphones are included in the numbers of computers in the world, the biggest computer maker by units sold, was no longer Hewlett-Packard, but rather Nokia.[9]
+
+There are many types of computers. Some include:
+
+A "desktop computer" is a small machine that has a screen (which is not part of the computer). Most people keep them on top of a desk, which is why they are called "desktop computers." "Laptop computers" are computers small enough to fit on your lap. This makes them easy to carry around. Both laptops and desktops are called personal computers, because one person at a time uses them for things like playing music, surfing the web, or playing video games.
+
+There are bigger computers that many people at a time can use. These are called "Mainframes," and these computers do all the things that make things like the internet work. You can think of a personal computer like this:  the personal computer is like your skin: you can see it, other people can see it, and through your skin you feel wind, water, air, and the rest of the world. A mainframe is more like your internal organs: you never see them, and you barely even think about them, but if they suddenly went missing, you would have some very big problems.
+
+An embedded computer, also called embedded system is a computer that does one thing and one thing only, and usually does it very well. For example, an alarm clock is an embedded computer: it tells the time. Unlike your personal computer, you cannot use your clock to play Tetris. Because of this, we say that embedded computers cannot be programmed, because you cannot install more programs on your clock. Some mobile phones, automatic teller machines, microwave ovens, CD players and cars are operated by embedded computers.
+
+All-in-one computers are desktop computers that have all of the computer's inner mechanisms in the same case as the monitor. Apple has made several popular examples of all-in-one computers, such as the original Macintosh of the mid-1980s and the iMac of the late 1990s and 2000s.
+
+Computers store data and the instructions as numbers, because computers can do things with numbers very quickly. These data are stored as binary symbols (1s and 0s). A 1 or a 0 symbol stored by a computer is called a bit, which comes from the words binary digit. Computers can use many bits together to represent instructions and the data that these instructions use. A list of instructions is called a program and is stored on the computer's hard disk. Computers work through the program by using a central processing unit, and they use fast memory called RAM also known as (Random Access Memory) as a space to store the instructions and data while they are doing this. When the computer wants to store the results of the program for later, it uses the hard disk because things stored on a hard disk can still be remembered after the computer is turned off.
+
+An operating system tells the computer how to understand what jobs it has to do, how to do these jobs, and how to tell people the results. Millions of computers may be using the same operating system, while each computer can have its own application programs to do what its user needs. Using the same operating systems makes it easy to learn how to use computers for new things. A user who needs to use a computer for something different, can learn how to use a new application program. Some operating systems can have simple command lines or a fully user-friendly GUI.
+
+One of the most important jobs that computers do for people is helping with communication. Communication is how people share information. Computers have helped people move forward in science, medicine, business, and learning, because they let experts from anywhere in the world work with each other and share information. They also let other people communicate with each other, do their jobs almost anywhere, learn about almost anything, or share their opinions with each other. The Internet is the thing that lets people communicate between their computers.
+
+A computer is now almost always an electronic device. It usually contains materials that will become electronic waste when discarded. When a new computer is bought in some places, laws require that the cost of its waste management must also be paid for. This is called product stewardship.
+
+Computers can become obsolete quickly, depending on what programs the user runs. Very often, they are thrown away within two or three years, because some newer programs require a more powerful computer. This makes the problem worse, so computer recycling happens a lot. Many projects try to send working computers to developing nations so they can be re-used and will not become waste as quickly, as most people do not need to run new programs. Some computer parts, such as hard drives, can break easily. When these parts end up in the landfill, they can put poisonous chemicals like lead into the ground-water. Hard drives can also contain secret information like credit card numbers. If the hard drive is not erased before being thrown away, an identity thief can get the information from the hard drive, even if the drive doesn't work, and use it to steal money from the previous owner's bank account.
+
+Computers come in different forms, but most of them have a common design.
+
+A computer has several main parts. When comparing a computer to a human body, the CPU is like a brain. It does most of the thinking and tells the rest of the computer how to work. The CPU is on the Motherboard, which is like the skeleton. It provides the basis for where the other parts go, and carries the nerves that connect them to each other and the CPU. The motherboard is connected to a power supply, which provides electricity to the entire computer. The various drives (CD drive, floppy drive, and on many newer computers, USB flash drive) act like eyes, ears, and fingers, and allow the computer to read different types of storage, in the same way that a human can read different types of books. The hard drive is like a human's memory, and keeps track of all the data stored on the computer. Most computers have a sound card or another method of making sound, which is like vocal cords, or a voice box. Connected to the sound card are speakers, which are like a mouth, and are where the sound comes out. Computers might also have a graphics card, which helps the computer to create visual effects, such as 3D environments, or more realistic colors, and more powerful graphics cards can make more realistic or more advanced images, in the same way a well trained artist can.

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+The Labors of Herakles is a series of tasks performed by the Greek hero Herakles (Latin: Hercules) as a penance for a terrible crime he committed. These tasks required great strength and courage. For the most part, they involved killing fierce animals and horrible monsters. The Labors were said to have been devised by Hera, the goddess of marriage.  She hated Herakles because he was a bastard son of her husband Zeus. She hoped these tasks would kill him. Herakles however performed them with great success, and, in the process, became very famous. The Labors of Herakles probably had their origin in the religious and magical practices of prehistoric man. They are the subject of ancient and modern art.
+
+Mortals die, but gods live forever. Herakles was part mortal, part god. His father was the god Zeus and his mother was the mortal Alkmene. Zeus' wife Hera was the goddess of marriage. She hated Herakles because he was one of her husband's bastards. She tried many times to kill him, even when he was a baby. He lived in spite of Hera's persecution and hatred, and did many great deeds as a young man.
+
+Herakles married Megara, the daughter of a king. They became the parents of several children. Hera caused Herakles to go mad and to kill his family. The priestess of Delphi ordered Herakles to serve his cousin King Eurystheus of Tiryns as a penance for this crime. Eurystheus would present a series of tasks to Herakles. These tasks were said to have been designed by Hera herself in the hope that they would kill Herakles.
+
+There is no definite order for the Labors. Most of the time, however, the order is: Nemean Lion, Lernean Hydra, Cerynitian Hind, Erymanthian Boar, Augean Stables, Stymphalian Birds, Cretan Bull, Mares of Diomedes, Girdle of Hippolyta, Cattle of Geryon, Apples of the Hesperides, and Kerberos. The order here is that of the sculptures called metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. These sculptures (made about 460–450 BC) were placed high on the outside of the temple in a frieze. Their order was described by the ancient Greek geographer, Pausanias. Some of these metopes are used in this article to illustrate the Labors. The first group of six metopes are from the west end of the temple. The second group of six are from the east end. Some of the illustrations here are taken from Greek vase paintings. The Labors of Herakles became the subject of much ancient and modern art, and even movies like Hercules (1958) starring Steve Reeves and the Walt Disney animated movie Hercules (1997).
+
+A large and dangerous lion was terrorizing the people and animals near the city of Nemea. Weapons of iron, bronze, or stone could not pierce the lion's thick hide (skin). Eurystheus ordered Herakles to kill and skin this lion.[1]
+
+Herakles went to the region of Nemea and stayed with a poor man named Molorchos at Kleonai. Molorchos' son had been killed by this lion. Molorchos wanted to sacrifice his only ram to Herakles, but Herakles asked him to wait thirty days. If he did not return within thirty days, the ram was to be sacrificed to him as a hero. If he returned within thirty days, the ram was to be sacrificed to Zeus the Deliverer.[2]
+
+Herakles found the lion outside its lair on Mount Tretos. His arrows and sword were useless against the beast. He hit the lion with his club and the animal went into his lair. Herakles blocked one of the two openings to the cavern with nets, then entered the cavern. He wrestled the lion and choked it to death. The lion bit off one of his fingers. He returned to Molorchos' hovel with the lion's carcass on his back. The two men sacrificed to Zeus.[3]
+
+When Herakles presented the dead animal to Eurystheus, the king was disgusted. He ordered Herakles to leave such things outside the gates of Tiryns in the future. Eurystheus then put a large bronze jar underground. This was the place where he would hide whenever Herakles returned to the city with some trophy of his Labors. Zeus put the lion among the stars as the constellation Leo.[4]
+
+In the future, Eurystheus would only communicate with Herakles through Kopreus, his dungman. Herakles skinned the lion with one of its own claws. He wore the skin as a kind of armor and the lion's skull as a helmet.[5] Euripides wrote in his play Herakles:"First he cleared the grove of Zeus of a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow hair in its fearful tawny gaping jaws."[6]
+
+The origin of the Nemean Lion is not certain. Some say he was the son of either Typhon or the Chimera and the dog Orthros. Some say the moon goddess Selene gave birth to the lion and let it fall to Earth near a two-mouthed cave at Nemea. She set it against the people because they had failed to properly observe her worship. Some say that Hera had Selene create the lion from sea foam and that Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, carried it to Nemea.[7] Others say the lion was the son of the snake goddess Echidna and her son, the dog Orthos.  This would make the lion a brother to the Sphinx of Thebes.  Hera was said to have brought the lion from the eastern land of the Arimoi and to have released it near Nemea.[8]
+
+The Hydra ("water-snake") was a monster with many heads. She lived beneath a plane tree near the spring called Amymone. This spring was near the seaside city of Lerna. She was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and the sister of Kerebos.[9] Hera raised the Hydra to torment Herakles. The Hydra had a dog-like body.[10] Its breath was poisonous. The head in the middle of the monster was immortal—it could not die. Eurystheus ordered Herakles to kill this monster. Herakles and his nephew Iolaos (the son of his brother Iphicles) drove to the swamp near Lerna in Herakles' war chariot.[11] Iolaos was Heracles' charioteer and his lover.[12]
+
+Athena told Herakles to force the monster from the swamp with fire arrows. He did, but the monster twisted itself about his feet. He beat the heads with his club, but crushing one head only caused others to erupt. A great crab crawled from the swamp to help the Hydra. It bit Herakles in the foot. He crushed its shell. Herakles called Iolaos for his help and cut the Hydra's heads off with his sword. Iolaos sealed the neck stumps with torches so other heads could not grow in their place.[11]
+
+The Hydra was at last killed. Herakles cut off the immortal head and buried it under a heavy stone in the road. He dipped his arrowheads in the Hydra's poisonous blood. They became deadly.[13] Back in Tiryns, Eurystheus would not count this adventure as a Labor because Herakles had had his nephew's help. He added another Labor to the list. Hera set the crab in the sky as a constellation.[14][15] The river Anigrus in Elis stank because the Hydra's poison was washed from the arrows Heracles used to kill the centaur Nessus in its waters.[16]
+
+The Stymphalian Birds were man-eating birds living on the shores of Lake Stymphalos in north-eastern Arcadia. The birds were sacred to Ares, the god of war. Their feces poisoned the land and crops would not grow. The birds attacked men with their bronze beaks and claws. They could rain down their sharp bronze feathers to kill men and their animals.[17]
+
+Herakles failed to drive them off with his arrows. Athena gave him a set of metal castanets (or a rattle) made by the blacksmith of the gods, Hephaestus. Herakles climbed to a rocky place over the lake and made so much noise with the castanets that the birds flew as far as the Isle of Ares in the Black Sea. Herakles was able to kill many of them with his arrows as they flew away.[17]
+
+Some say the birds were women. Artemis Stymphalia ruled the swamps about the lake. Her temple there had pictures of young girls with the feet of birds. These girls lured men to their deaths in the swamps. They were said to be the daughters of Stymphalos and Ornis. These two were killed by Herakles when they would not give him food, drink, and a place to rest.[18][19]
+
+The Cretan Bull rose from the sea. Poseidon, god of the sea, intended King Minos to sacrifice the bull, but it was so handsome that Minos kept it for himself. He sent it to mate with his cows, then sacrificed another bull to Poseidon. The god was angry and caused Minos' wife, Queen Pasiphaë, to develop a sexual desire for the animal.[20]
+
+She mated with it and gave birth to a son. This son was the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. The Cretan Bull went mad. Heracules captured it by throwing a rope about its head and about a leg. Some say he wrestled it, or stunned it with his club.[20]
+
+Minos let Heracules take the bull to Greece. Eurystheus wanted to give the bull to Hera but she would not take it because Heracules had captured it. She let it go and it wandered about Greece. Theseus of Athens finally captured it and sacrificed it to Athena, or some say, Apollo.[21] The bull had spent its days in Crete destroying crops and belching fire.[22]
+
+When Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, was a child, she saw five hinds (female deer) grazing near the Anaurus River in Thessaly. Each was as large as a bull, each had hooves of bronze, and all had antlers of gold.  She caught four of them, and used them to pull her chariot. The fifth escaped the goddess and lived on the Keryneian Hill in Arkadia. Hera planned to use this hind against Herakles someday.[23]
+
+Eurystheus ordered Herakles to catch this hind and bring it alive to Tiryns. The danger in this Labor lay in pursuing the hind through wild lands from which no hunter ever returned.[24] Herakles hunted the hind for a year, chasing it through Istria and the Land of the Hyperboreans. The hind took refuge on Mount Artemision. Herakles let fly an arrow that pinned the hind's forelegs (front legs) together without drawing blood. He put the hind on his shoulders and took her back to Tiryns.[25]
+
+Artemis and Apollo stopped Herakles on his way to Tiryns. On some vases, Apollo is seen trying to forcibly take the hind from Herakles.  Herakles however lay the blame for the theft on Eurystheus. Artemis accepted this plea and allowed him to pass.[26] Some say Herakles used a net to capture the hind or captured her when she was asleep under a tree.[25]
+
+Eurystheus' daughter Admete was a priestess of Hera.[27] She wanted the Golden Girdle (belt) of Hippolyte, the Queen of the Amazons. This girdle had been a gift to Hippolyte from her father, Ares, the god of war. The Amazons were all related to Ares. They hated men and mated only to make more female warriors. Baby boys were killed or crippled. The lives of these women were devoted to war.
+
+Herakles and friends sailed to their land of Pontos on the Black Sea. The Amazons lived at the mouth of the Thermodon River.[20] Hippolyte welcomed Herakles. She fell in love with his muscles and his great fame. She promised him the girdle as a love token. Hera disguised herself as an Amazon. She whispered among others that Herakles was going to kidnap the Queen. The Amazons charged Herakles' ship on horseback. Herakles killed Hippolyte, and took the girdle. Many Amazons were killed.[28]
+
+Some say Hippolyte would not part with the girdle. Herakles threw her from her horse and threatened her with his club. She would not ask for mercy. Herakles killed her.[29] Some say Hippolyte's sister Melanippe was taken prisoner. She was ransomed with the girdle. Some say Hippolyte herself was taken prisoner and ransomed with the girdle. Others say Theseus took Hippolyte prisoner and gave the girdle to Herakles.[28] Herakles gave the girdle to Eurystheus, who gave it to Admete.[30]
+
+A large and dangerous boar was living on Mount Erymanthos. Eurystheus ordered Herakles to catch this boar.[31] On Mount Erymanthos, Herakles forced the boar from the wood with his shouts. He then drove the boar into deep snow and jumped on its back. He put the boar in chains, placed it on his shoulders, and took it to Eurystheus. The king was so scared he hid in his bronze jar.[32][33] Herakles left the boar in the market square of Tiryns. He then joined the Argonauts on the Quest for the Golden Fleece.[34]
+
+Mount Erymanthos took its name from a son of Apollo. Aphrodite blinded him because he saw her taking a bath. Apollo was angry. He turned himself into a boar and killed her boyfriend Adonis.[31]
+
+Eurystheus ordered Herakles to bring him the Horses of King Diomedes of Thrace. King Diomedes' horses were savage man-eaters, and were fed on the flesh of Diomedes' innocent guests. Herakles and his friends sailed to the coast of Thrace. Having found the stables of Diomedes, they killed the king's servants. They then put Diomedes before the horses. The animals tore him to pieces and ate him. The horses grew calm after feeding, and were led to the ship. Herakles sent them to Eurystheus.[35]
+
+Diomedes was the son of Ares, the god of war, and the king of the Bistones, a Thracian tribe of warlike people. While travelling in connection with this Labor, Herakles visited King Admetos. His wife Alcestis had just died. Herakles wrestled Death for Alcestis and he won. Alcestis was returned to life. This event is the basis for Euripides' play Alcestis. Eurystheus dedicated the savage horses to Hera. They were said to have bred into the age of Alexander the Great.
+
+Another story says Herakles captured the horses and drove them to his ship. Diomedes and his men chased the thieves. Herakles and his friends left the ship to fight the king and his men. The horses of Diomedes were left in the care of Abderos, Herakles' male lover. The horses ate him. Herakles built the city of Abdera in his memory. It was after this Labor that Herakles joined the Quest for the Golden Fleece. He dropped out of the search when his lover Hylas was lost on a strange island. Some say Herakles went on to Kolchis and rejoined the Quest. Others say he returned to Tiryns and the Labors.[36]
+
+Geryon was a very strong giant with three bodies, six hands, and three heads. He was the King of Tartessus in Spain.[37] He had wings, and the picture on his shield was an eagle.[38] He lived on an island called Erytheia. This island was far to the west in Okeanos, the river that circles the Earth. At night, the Sun sailed upon this river in a Golden Cup.[39]
+
+Geryon had large herds of cattle.[39] They were watched over by Eurytion, Geryon's servant, and a huge two-headed dog named Orthrus, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.[37] King Eurystheus ordered Herakles to capture Geryon's cattle.[39]
+
+Herakles crossed the Libyan desert. At the narrow channel that separates Europe and Africa, he built the Pillars of Herakles.[40] The Sun was hot and Herakles threatened to shoot him with his bow and arrows. The Sun asked him not to do this. Herakles agreed. He borrowed the Sun's Golden Cup and sailed away in it. The Titan Oceanus tested Herakles' seamanship by causing violent waves. Herakles threatened to shoot Oceanus, too. Oceanus calmed the waves. Some say Herakles sailed in an urn and used his lion skin as a sail.[41]
+
+On Geryon's island, Herakles killed the two-headed dog Orthos and the servant Eurytion, who tried to help the dog. Herakles was driving the cattle to the Golden Cup when Geryon appeared, ready to fight. Herakles shot him down and sailed away with the cattle.[42] Herakles had many adventures on his return to Greece. On the Greek coast, Hera sent gadflies to drive the herd of cattle far and wide. Herkales managed to round-up a few and these he presented to Eurystheus. He sacrificed them to Hera.[43]
+
+Hera received golden apples as a gift when she married. She planted them in her garden far to the west near Mount Atlas. It was on this mountain that the Titan Atlas held the sky on his shoulders. He was being punished for having joined the other Titans in making war on Zeus. When Hera heard his daughters were stealing from the garden, she sent a one hundred-headed dragon called Ladon to the garden to protect the apples. Three nymphs called the Hesperides also guarded the apples.
+
+Eurystheus wanted Herakles to bring him three golden apples. Herakles set off. The river god Nereus refused to give him directions and changed his shape again and again. Herakles tied him to a tree until he told the way. In the Caucasus, Herakles freed the Titan Prometheus, the fire-bringer, from his chains. Prometheus warned Herakles not to pick the apples himself, but to ask someone else to do it.
+
+Herakles asked Atlas to pick the apples. The Titan agreed, but only if Herakles would kill the dragon and then take the sky on his shoulders. Herakles killed the dragon and took the sky on his shoulders. Atlas picked the apples but refused to take the sky again. He liked being free. Herakles tricked him. He asked Atlas to take the sky — only for a moment — while he put a cushion on his shoulders. Atlas took the sky. Herakles took the apples and headed for Tiryns. Eurystheus did not know what to do with the apples. He gave them to Herakles. Athena returned the apples to the garden, because they did, after all, belong to the gods.[44]
+
+Eurystheus ordered Herakles to bring him Kerberos, a three-headed dog-like monster with a dragon's tail and a mane of poisonous snakes. It guarded the entrance to the Underworld. The three heads could see the past, present, and future. Some say they represented birth, youth, and old age.[45] Kerberos allowed the dead to enter the Underworld, but anyone who tried to leave was eaten.[46] Kerberos was the offspring of Echidna, a monster part woman/part snake, and Typhon, a fire-breathing giant. Kerberos' brother was the two-headed dog Orthrus.[47]
+
+Herakles' first step was to undergo the Mysteries of Eleusis. These rites would protect him in the land of the dead. They would also cleanse him of the massacre of the Centaurs. Athena and Hermes guided Herakles into the Underworld. He was ferried across the River Styx in Charon's boat. On the opposite shore, he met the Gorgon, Medusa. She was a harmless phantom and he passed her without trouble. He met Meleagros and offered to marry his sister, Deianeira. Eventually, he did. When Herakles asked Hades for Kerberos, Hades allowed him to take the monster, but only if he could do so without using his weapons. Herakles wrestled the monster and choked it. Once the monster had yielded, he led it away.
+
+As they neared the Earth's surface, Kerberos tossed his three heads because he hated the sunlight. His spit flew in all directions. From that spit grew the poisonous plant, aconite. When Heracles arrived in Tiryns, Eurystheus was performing a sacrifice. The king gave the best cuts of meat to his relatives and only a slave's portion of meat to Herakles. Herakles was furious with this insult and killed Eurystheus' three sons. Eurystheus was terrified when presented with Kerberos and hid in his bronze jar. Herakles took Kerberos back to the Underworld. Another account says the monster escaped.[48][49][50] This Labor is the twelfth and last Labor in some accounts.
+
+King Augeias of Elis lived on the west coast of the Peloponnese. He was a son of Helios, the sun god. It was said that the rays of the sun shone in his eyes.[51] Augeias had many cattle. His animals were always healthy, and gave birth to many young.  His stables had not been cleaned in years and were thick with animal waste. The valleys were also full of waste. The smell of this waste poisoned the land. Eurystheus ordered Herakles to clean the stables in a day. He liked the thought of Herakles doing such dirty work.[52]
+
+Herakles went to Elis. He did not tell Augeias that Eurystheus had ordered him to clean the stables.Instead, he made a bargain with Augeias. He promised to clean the stables if Augeias would give him some of his cattle. The bargain was made. Augeias' son Phyleos acted as witness. Herakles set to work. First, he made two holes in the stone foundation of the stables. Then he changed the paths of the Alpheios and Peneios Rivers. The rivers were made to flow through one hole and out the other. This is how the stables were washed clean.[53]
+
+Augeias learned from Eurystheus' servant Copreus that Eurystheus had ordered Herakles to clean the stables.[54] He would not respect the bargain he had made with Herakles. Herakles took the case to court. Phyleos was called to court and told the truth about the bargain. Augeias was so angry he drove his son and Herakles out of the land. Back in Tiryns, Eurystheus said that the Labor did not count because Herakles had made a bargain with Augeias. Eurystheus also thought that the river gods had really done the work.[55][56]
+
+This Labor was the last one presented in the frieze on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. It was important to the Greeks because one day Herakles made war on Augeias and defeated him. Herakles then laid out the Olympian sanctuary in the land of King Augeias and started the Olympic Games.[57] It was said that Menedemus of Elis gave Herakles advice on this Labor and that the hero had the help of his nephew Iolaos.[54] While Augeias and Herakles were making their bargain, Phaeton, one of Augeias' twelve white bulls, charged Herakles. These white bulls guarded all the cattle against wild animals. Phaeton thought the hero was a lion. Herakles forced the bull to the Earth by twisting its horn.[58] Herakles was going to get Augeias' daughter as part of the bargain, but he did not. This was given as one reason for making war later on Augeias. He was also going to become Augeias' slave if the work was not done in one day.[53]

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+Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the Solar System.  It is a gas giant. It is the third largest planet in the solar system.
+
+The planet is made of ice, gases and liquid metal. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen (1H), helium (2He) and methane. The temperature on Uranus is −197 °C (−322.6 °F; 76.1 K) near the top of its atmosphere, but its small solid core (about 55% the mass of Earth) is probably about 4,730 °C (8,540 °F; 5,000 K).
+
+The planet is tilted on its axis so much that it is sideways.[1] It has five big moons, many small ones, and a small system of 13 planetary rings.
+
+The distance between Uranus and the Sun is about 2.8 billion km.  Uranus completes its orbit  around the Sun in 84 earth years. It completes a spin around itself in 17 hours and 14 minutes. This means there are about 43,000 Uranian days in one Uranian year.[2]
+
+Uranus was discovered in 1781.[3]  This planet can be seen with the naked eye under perfect conditions.  John Flamsteed saw it decades earlier but mistook it for a star (34 Tauri).
+
+Uranus is named after the Greek god Uranus, who was a god of sky.
+
+Uranus has 27 known moons.  They are named for characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.[4][5]  The five biggest moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.  Many moons have yet to be discovered.
+
+In 1986, NASA's Voyager 2 visited Uranus. This is the only space probe that tried to investigate the planet from a short distance.
+
+Uranus is covered in blue clouds. The top clouds, made of methane, are difficult to see.[6] Lower clouds are thought to be frozen water. There are also violent storms. Wind speeds can reach 250 metres per second (900 km/h; 560 mph). Scientists are studying the clouds to try to understand the storms on the planet.[7]
+
+The planet Uranus has a system made of 13 rings which is far fewer than the rings of Saturn but more than those around Jupiter and Neptune.  The rings of Uranus were discovered in 1977.[8] More than 200 years ago, William Herschel also reported observing rings, but modern astronomers do not believe that he saw them, because they are very dark and faint. Two additional rings were discovered in 1986 in images taken by Voyager 2,[9] and two outer rings were found in 2003–2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope.[10]  The rings are probably mainly composed of frozen water.
+
+The rings of Uranus are thought to be relatively young, not more than 600 million years old. The Uranian ring system probably began from the collisional fragmentation of moons that once existed around the planet. After colliding, the moons probably broke up into many particles, which survived as narrow, optically dense rings only in zones of maximum stability.
+
+The ring system of Uranus has thirteen distinct rings. In order of increasing distance from the planet they are: 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν, μ rings. They can be divided into three groups: nine narrow main rings (6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, ε), two dusty rings (1986U2R/ζ, λ) and two outer rings (μ, ν). The rings of Uranus   consist mainly of macroscopic particles and  little dust, although dust is known to be present in 1986U2R/ζ, η, δ, λ, ν and μ rings.
+
+In addition to these well-known rings, there may be numerous optically thin dust bands and faint rings between them. These faint rings and dust bands may exist only temporarily. Some of them became visible during a series of ring plane-crossing events in 2007.[11] A number of dust bands between the rings were observed in forward-scattering [a] geometry by Voyager 2.  All rings of Uranus show azimuthal brightness variations.
+
+The rings are made of an extremely dark material. The rings are slightly red in the ultraviolet and visible parts of the spectrum and grey in near-infrared.[12] They show no identifiable spectral features. The chemical composition of the ring particles is not known. However, they cannot be made of pure water ice like the rings of Saturn because they are too dark, darker than the inner moons of Uranus. This shows that they are probably a mixture of the ice and a dark material.  The nature of this material is not clear, but it may be organic compounds considerably darkened by the charged particle irradiation from the Uranian magnetosphere. The rings' particles may consist of a heavily processed material which was initially similar to that of the inner moons.[12]
+
+As a whole, the ring system of Uranus is unlike either the faint dusty rings of Jupiter or the broad and complex rings of Saturn, some of which are composed of very bright material—water ice. However, there are similarities with some parts of the latter ring system; the Saturnian F ring and the ε ring are both narrow, relatively dark and are shepherded by a pair of moons. The newly discovered outer rings of Uranus are similar to the outer G and E rings of Saturn. Narrow ringlets existing in the broad Saturnian rings also resemble the narrow rings of Uranus. In addition, dust bands observed between the main rings of Uranus may be similar to the rings of Jupiter. In contrast, the Neptunian ring system is quite similar to that of Uranus, although it is less complex, darker and contains more dust. The Neptunian rings are also positioned further from the planet.
+
+Uranus revolves around the Sun once every 84 Earth years. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly 3 billion km (about 20 AU). The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is about 1/400 that on Earth.[13] Its orbital elements were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.[14] With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On September 23, 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle found a new planet, later called Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.[15]
+
+The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes, clockwise (retrograde). As on all giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences very strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about two-thirds of the way from the equator to the south pole, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.[16]
+
+Notes

ensimple/5874.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the Solar System.  It is a gas giant. It is the third largest planet in the solar system.
+
+The planet is made of ice, gases and liquid metal. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen (1H), helium (2He) and methane. The temperature on Uranus is −197 °C (−322.6 °F; 76.1 K) near the top of its atmosphere, but its small solid core (about 55% the mass of Earth) is probably about 4,730 °C (8,540 °F; 5,000 K).
+
+The planet is tilted on its axis so much that it is sideways.[1] It has five big moons, many small ones, and a small system of 13 planetary rings.
+
+The distance between Uranus and the Sun is about 2.8 billion km.  Uranus completes its orbit  around the Sun in 84 earth years. It completes a spin around itself in 17 hours and 14 minutes. This means there are about 43,000 Uranian days in one Uranian year.[2]
+
+Uranus was discovered in 1781.[3]  This planet can be seen with the naked eye under perfect conditions.  John Flamsteed saw it decades earlier but mistook it for a star (34 Tauri).
+
+Uranus is named after the Greek god Uranus, who was a god of sky.
+
+Uranus has 27 known moons.  They are named for characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.[4][5]  The five biggest moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.  Many moons have yet to be discovered.
+
+In 1986, NASA's Voyager 2 visited Uranus. This is the only space probe that tried to investigate the planet from a short distance.
+
+Uranus is covered in blue clouds. The top clouds, made of methane, are difficult to see.[6] Lower clouds are thought to be frozen water. There are also violent storms. Wind speeds can reach 250 metres per second (900 km/h; 560 mph). Scientists are studying the clouds to try to understand the storms on the planet.[7]
+
+The planet Uranus has a system made of 13 rings which is far fewer than the rings of Saturn but more than those around Jupiter and Neptune.  The rings of Uranus were discovered in 1977.[8] More than 200 years ago, William Herschel also reported observing rings, but modern astronomers do not believe that he saw them, because they are very dark and faint. Two additional rings were discovered in 1986 in images taken by Voyager 2,[9] and two outer rings were found in 2003–2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope.[10]  The rings are probably mainly composed of frozen water.
+
+The rings of Uranus are thought to be relatively young, not more than 600 million years old. The Uranian ring system probably began from the collisional fragmentation of moons that once existed around the planet. After colliding, the moons probably broke up into many particles, which survived as narrow, optically dense rings only in zones of maximum stability.
+
+The ring system of Uranus has thirteen distinct rings. In order of increasing distance from the planet they are: 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν, μ rings. They can be divided into three groups: nine narrow main rings (6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, ε), two dusty rings (1986U2R/ζ, λ) and two outer rings (μ, ν). The rings of Uranus   consist mainly of macroscopic particles and  little dust, although dust is known to be present in 1986U2R/ζ, η, δ, λ, ν and μ rings.
+
+In addition to these well-known rings, there may be numerous optically thin dust bands and faint rings between them. These faint rings and dust bands may exist only temporarily. Some of them became visible during a series of ring plane-crossing events in 2007.[11] A number of dust bands between the rings were observed in forward-scattering [a] geometry by Voyager 2.  All rings of Uranus show azimuthal brightness variations.
+
+The rings are made of an extremely dark material. The rings are slightly red in the ultraviolet and visible parts of the spectrum and grey in near-infrared.[12] They show no identifiable spectral features. The chemical composition of the ring particles is not known. However, they cannot be made of pure water ice like the rings of Saturn because they are too dark, darker than the inner moons of Uranus. This shows that they are probably a mixture of the ice and a dark material.  The nature of this material is not clear, but it may be organic compounds considerably darkened by the charged particle irradiation from the Uranian magnetosphere. The rings' particles may consist of a heavily processed material which was initially similar to that of the inner moons.[12]
+
+As a whole, the ring system of Uranus is unlike either the faint dusty rings of Jupiter or the broad and complex rings of Saturn, some of which are composed of very bright material—water ice. However, there are similarities with some parts of the latter ring system; the Saturnian F ring and the ε ring are both narrow, relatively dark and are shepherded by a pair of moons. The newly discovered outer rings of Uranus are similar to the outer G and E rings of Saturn. Narrow ringlets existing in the broad Saturnian rings also resemble the narrow rings of Uranus. In addition, dust bands observed between the main rings of Uranus may be similar to the rings of Jupiter. In contrast, the Neptunian ring system is quite similar to that of Uranus, although it is less complex, darker and contains more dust. The Neptunian rings are also positioned further from the planet.
+
+Uranus revolves around the Sun once every 84 Earth years. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly 3 billion km (about 20 AU). The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is about 1/400 that on Earth.[13] Its orbital elements were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.[14] With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On September 23, 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle found a new planet, later called Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.[15]
+
+The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes, clockwise (retrograde). As on all giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences very strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about two-thirds of the way from the equator to the south pole, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.[16]
+
+Notes

ensimple/5875.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the Solar System.  It is a gas giant. It is the third largest planet in the solar system.
+
+The planet is made of ice, gases and liquid metal. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen (1H), helium (2He) and methane. The temperature on Uranus is −197 °C (−322.6 °F; 76.1 K) near the top of its atmosphere, but its small solid core (about 55% the mass of Earth) is probably about 4,730 °C (8,540 °F; 5,000 K).
+
+The planet is tilted on its axis so much that it is sideways.[1] It has five big moons, many small ones, and a small system of 13 planetary rings.
+
+The distance between Uranus and the Sun is about 2.8 billion km.  Uranus completes its orbit  around the Sun in 84 earth years. It completes a spin around itself in 17 hours and 14 minutes. This means there are about 43,000 Uranian days in one Uranian year.[2]
+
+Uranus was discovered in 1781.[3]  This planet can be seen with the naked eye under perfect conditions.  John Flamsteed saw it decades earlier but mistook it for a star (34 Tauri).
+
+Uranus is named after the Greek god Uranus, who was a god of sky.
+
+Uranus has 27 known moons.  They are named for characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.[4][5]  The five biggest moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.  Many moons have yet to be discovered.
+
+In 1986, NASA's Voyager 2 visited Uranus. This is the only space probe that tried to investigate the planet from a short distance.
+
+Uranus is covered in blue clouds. The top clouds, made of methane, are difficult to see.[6] Lower clouds are thought to be frozen water. There are also violent storms. Wind speeds can reach 250 metres per second (900 km/h; 560 mph). Scientists are studying the clouds to try to understand the storms on the planet.[7]
+
+The planet Uranus has a system made of 13 rings which is far fewer than the rings of Saturn but more than those around Jupiter and Neptune.  The rings of Uranus were discovered in 1977.[8] More than 200 years ago, William Herschel also reported observing rings, but modern astronomers do not believe that he saw them, because they are very dark and faint. Two additional rings were discovered in 1986 in images taken by Voyager 2,[9] and two outer rings were found in 2003–2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope.[10]  The rings are probably mainly composed of frozen water.
+
+The rings of Uranus are thought to be relatively young, not more than 600 million years old. The Uranian ring system probably began from the collisional fragmentation of moons that once existed around the planet. After colliding, the moons probably broke up into many particles, which survived as narrow, optically dense rings only in zones of maximum stability.
+
+The ring system of Uranus has thirteen distinct rings. In order of increasing distance from the planet they are: 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν, μ rings. They can be divided into three groups: nine narrow main rings (6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, ε), two dusty rings (1986U2R/ζ, λ) and two outer rings (μ, ν). The rings of Uranus   consist mainly of macroscopic particles and  little dust, although dust is known to be present in 1986U2R/ζ, η, δ, λ, ν and μ rings.
+
+In addition to these well-known rings, there may be numerous optically thin dust bands and faint rings between them. These faint rings and dust bands may exist only temporarily. Some of them became visible during a series of ring plane-crossing events in 2007.[11] A number of dust bands between the rings were observed in forward-scattering [a] geometry by Voyager 2.  All rings of Uranus show azimuthal brightness variations.
+
+The rings are made of an extremely dark material. The rings are slightly red in the ultraviolet and visible parts of the spectrum and grey in near-infrared.[12] They show no identifiable spectral features. The chemical composition of the ring particles is not known. However, they cannot be made of pure water ice like the rings of Saturn because they are too dark, darker than the inner moons of Uranus. This shows that they are probably a mixture of the ice and a dark material.  The nature of this material is not clear, but it may be organic compounds considerably darkened by the charged particle irradiation from the Uranian magnetosphere. The rings' particles may consist of a heavily processed material which was initially similar to that of the inner moons.[12]
+
+As a whole, the ring system of Uranus is unlike either the faint dusty rings of Jupiter or the broad and complex rings of Saturn, some of which are composed of very bright material—water ice. However, there are similarities with some parts of the latter ring system; the Saturnian F ring and the ε ring are both narrow, relatively dark and are shepherded by a pair of moons. The newly discovered outer rings of Uranus are similar to the outer G and E rings of Saturn. Narrow ringlets existing in the broad Saturnian rings also resemble the narrow rings of Uranus. In addition, dust bands observed between the main rings of Uranus may be similar to the rings of Jupiter. In contrast, the Neptunian ring system is quite similar to that of Uranus, although it is less complex, darker and contains more dust. The Neptunian rings are also positioned further from the planet.
+
+Uranus revolves around the Sun once every 84 Earth years. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly 3 billion km (about 20 AU). The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is about 1/400 that on Earth.[13] Its orbital elements were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace.[14] With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On September 23, 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle found a new planet, later called Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.[15]
+
+The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes, clockwise (retrograde). As on all giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences very strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about two-thirds of the way from the equator to the south pole, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.[16]
+
+Notes

ensimple/5876.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Urine is a liquid created by the body in the kidneys. It is stored in the bladder and comes out of the human body through the urethra, a tube which leads from the bladder to the urethral meatus (meatus is an opening in the body), at the tip of the penis (men) or the vulva (women). Urinating is how the body gets rid of unwanted or unneeded substances in the blood. Urine is the liquid that these substances are put in. After the blood has circulated through the body, its composition has changed, because some substances in the blood have been absorbed by the body, and because the body has released other substances into the blood. The blood has also absorbed substances produced from our food. The liver removes many toxins (harmful substances) and adds other substances that the blood needs (amino acids, proteins, coagulation factors, hormones, etc.). Then the kidneys remove excess amounts of urea, salts, etc. by putting them into the urine. After the blood has passed through the liver and the kidneys, it has the correct composition that the body needs.
+
+Urine is mostly water, and contains mineral salts, and about 2% urea, which is produced in the liver to remove ammonia, which is a very toxic substance. Urea has a very low toxicity, although a continuous high level of urea in the blood (a condition called hyperuremia) can cause disease.
+
+The color of urine normally ranges from colourless to yellow. The yellow color is caused by urobilins, which are produced by the breakdown of hemoglobin, the substance that gives blood its red color. If a person is dehydrated, less urine will be produced (maybe less than one liter per day), and it will be more concentrated. If a person drinks a lot of water, more urine will be produced (maybe as much as two liters per day) and it will be less concentrated.
+
+Urine lets the body get rid of:
+
+Some slang terms for urine are "pee" and "piss".

ensimple/5877.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+
+†Amphicynodontinae
+†Hemicyoninae
+†Ursavinae
+†Agriotheriinae
+Ailuropodinae
+Tremarctinae
+Ursinae
+
+Bears are a group of large mammals found in all over the world in many different habitats. They form the family Ursidae, in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora. There are 8 living bear species.
+
+Bears usually have a big body with short and thick legs. They have a broad head and a very short tail. They have small eyes and round ears. They usually have longer, shaggy fur. On each foot they have five claws, which they cannot pull back. They use their claws for digging, climbing, and hunting. They can stand up on their back legs and their front paws are flexible. Usually bears can climb and swim very well. Males are usually bigger than females. Most bears except the giant panda are only one color. Most bears are russet, brown, or black.
+
+Bears do not have good hearing. They have powerful senses of smell and sight. They have good sight and can see colors, which is different from other carnivores. Bears mostly use their sense of smell to know what is around them. They can smell better than dogs.[1] Bears also have good memory, which lets them remember where they can find food.
+
+They are mostly active at night, except for the Polar Bear. Some bears hibernate, that means they sleep during the winter to save energy.
+
+Bears are usually omnivorous, which means that they eat plants and meat. They eat berries, grass, and fish. An exception is the polar bear, which eats mostly meat.[2]
+
+Bears usually live alone, except when they are mating season or if they have cubs. The father does not raise the cubs. The mother raises the cubs for months or a few years depending on how much food there is. The mother protects her young, even at the cost of her life.[3]
+
+Bears life all over the world, mostly in the Northern hemisphere. They are found in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. There used to be bears in northern Africa but they are now extinct.[4]
+
+Fictional bears include, Yogi Bear, Berenstain Bears, and Winnie the Pooh.
+

ensimple/5878.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+
+†Amphicynodontinae
+†Hemicyoninae
+†Ursavinae
+†Agriotheriinae
+Ailuropodinae
+Tremarctinae
+Ursinae
+
+Bears are a group of large mammals found in all over the world in many different habitats. They form the family Ursidae, in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora. There are 8 living bear species.
+
+Bears usually have a big body with short and thick legs. They have a broad head and a very short tail. They have small eyes and round ears. They usually have longer, shaggy fur. On each foot they have five claws, which they cannot pull back. They use their claws for digging, climbing, and hunting. They can stand up on their back legs and their front paws are flexible. Usually bears can climb and swim very well. Males are usually bigger than females. Most bears except the giant panda are only one color. Most bears are russet, brown, or black.
+
+Bears do not have good hearing. They have powerful senses of smell and sight. They have good sight and can see colors, which is different from other carnivores. Bears mostly use their sense of smell to know what is around them. They can smell better than dogs.[1] Bears also have good memory, which lets them remember where they can find food.
+
+They are mostly active at night, except for the Polar Bear. Some bears hibernate, that means they sleep during the winter to save energy.
+
+Bears are usually omnivorous, which means that they eat plants and meat. They eat berries, grass, and fish. An exception is the polar bear, which eats mostly meat.[2]
+
+Bears usually live alone, except when they are mating season or if they have cubs. The father does not raise the cubs. The mother raises the cubs for months or a few years depending on how much food there is. The mother protects her young, even at the cost of her life.[3]
+
+Bears life all over the world, mostly in the Northern hemisphere. They are found in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. There used to be bears in northern Africa but they are now extinct.[4]
+
+Fictional bears include, Yogi Bear, Berenstain Bears, and Winnie the Pooh.
+

ensimple/5879.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+
+†Amphicynodontinae
+†Hemicyoninae
+†Ursavinae
+†Agriotheriinae
+Ailuropodinae
+Tremarctinae
+Ursinae
+
+Bears are a group of large mammals found in all over the world in many different habitats. They form the family Ursidae, in the suborder Caniformia of the order Carnivora. There are 8 living bear species.
+
+Bears usually have a big body with short and thick legs. They have a broad head and a very short tail. They have small eyes and round ears. They usually have longer, shaggy fur. On each foot they have five claws, which they cannot pull back. They use their claws for digging, climbing, and hunting. They can stand up on their back legs and their front paws are flexible. Usually bears can climb and swim very well. Males are usually bigger than females. Most bears except the giant panda are only one color. Most bears are russet, brown, or black.
+
+Bears do not have good hearing. They have powerful senses of smell and sight. They have good sight and can see colors, which is different from other carnivores. Bears mostly use their sense of smell to know what is around them. They can smell better than dogs.[1] Bears also have good memory, which lets them remember where they can find food.
+
+They are mostly active at night, except for the Polar Bear. Some bears hibernate, that means they sleep during the winter to save energy.
+
+Bears are usually omnivorous, which means that they eat plants and meat. They eat berries, grass, and fish. An exception is the polar bear, which eats mostly meat.[2]
+
+Bears usually live alone, except when they are mating season or if they have cubs. The father does not raise the cubs. The mother raises the cubs for months or a few years depending on how much food there is. The mother protects her young, even at the cost of her life.[3]
+
+Bears life all over the world, mostly in the Northern hemisphere. They are found in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. There used to be bears in northern Africa but they are now extinct.[4]
+
+Fictional bears include, Yogi Bear, Berenstain Bears, and Winnie the Pooh.
+

ensimple/588.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+A sailing ship is a big boat with sails which catch the wind.  The wind pushes the boat along.  A sailing ship had a rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them.  The great days of sailing ships was from around the 15th century to the middle of the 19th century.  They were very important for trade as well as for war.  All large boats became known as "ships", so when steam power was invented people talked about "steam ships" to distinguish them from "sailing ships".
+
+Small boats with sails are called "yachts" or sailboats.  They are used today for leisure activities.

ensimple/5880.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+The Soviet Union (short for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) [10] was a single-party Marxist–Leninist state. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia).
+
+The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, were called satellite states.
+
+The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.
+
+Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe[who?] that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire, since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.
+
+The Union was formed with the professed idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights. There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state. 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man and satellite into space and winning World War II alongside the United States and United Kingdom. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991, partly due to the efforts at reform by its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
+
+Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.[11]
+
+The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.
+
+The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).
+
+The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.
+
+The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.
+
+The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.
+
+The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks.
+
+From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.
+
+Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.
+
+A rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+In the long and bloody Russian Civil War the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.
+
+On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
+
+The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
+The End
+
+From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).
+
+Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
+
+Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take millions of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov, continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.
+
+After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956 he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.
+
+Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.
+
+In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.
+
+Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The Following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
+
+Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticise the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.
+
+By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control.  Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order.  Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader.  He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).
+
+A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing.  It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

ensimple/5881.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+The Soviet Union (short for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) [10] was a single-party Marxist–Leninist state. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society. It was a union of 14 Soviet Socialist Republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russia).
+
+The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union. The largest country in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the second. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union expanded its political control greatly after World War II. It took over the whole of Eastern Europe. Those countries were not made part of the Soviet Union, but they were controlled by the Soviet Union indirectly. These countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, were called satellite states.
+
+The top-level committee which made the laws was the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In practice, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader and most important decision-maker in their system of government.
+
+Although the constitution said the Republics could leave the Union if they wanted, in practice it was a completely centralized government, with no states' rights for the member countries. Many believe[who?] that the Soviet Union was the final stage of the Russian Empire, since the USSR covered most of the land of the former Empire.
+
+The Union was formed with the professed idea to give everyone equal social and economic rights. There was virtually no private property—everything belonged to the state. 'Soviets', or workers' councils, were created by the working class to lead the socialist state democratically, but they soon lost power with the rise of Stalinism. The Union was successful in many fields, putting the first man and satellite into space and winning World War II alongside the United States and United Kingdom. However, its centralized government found innovation and change difficult to handle. The Union collapsed in 1991, partly due to the efforts at reform by its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
+
+Since 2013, the document that confirmed the dissolution of the Soviet Union has been missing.[11]
+
+The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Each also had the right to leave the union, which they did in 1991.
+
+The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan).
+
+The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.
+
+The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi) in 1991. Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.
+
+The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.
+
+The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks.
+
+From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.
+
+Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.
+
+A rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian "Provisional government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.
+
+At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. In March, after more fighting, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
+
+In the long and bloody Russian Civil War the new Soviet power won. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included the Siberian Intervention and other foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the famine in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania which had all escaped the empire during the civil war.
+
+On 28 December 1922, people from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.
+
+On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
+
+The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power stations, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
+The End
+
+From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was ruled as a one-party state by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).
+
+Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to take more power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
+
+Stalin led the country through World War II and into the Cold War. Gulag camps greatly expanded to take millions of prisoners. After he died, Georgy Malenkov, continued his policies. Nikita Khrushchev reversed some of Stalin's policies but Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin kept things as they were.
+
+After the 1936 revised constitution, the Soviet Union stopped acting as a union of republics and more as a single super-country.
+
+Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the following power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956 he denounced Stalin's repression and eased controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
+
+Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a very vital buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders. For this reason, the USSR sought to strengthen its control of the region. It did this by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and obedient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.
+
+In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's policies led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement. The governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia chose to ally with China instead of the USSR.
+
+During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union continued to make progress in the Space Race. It rivalled the United States. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.
+
+Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He came to power after he convinced the government to overthrow the then-leader Nikita Krushchev. Brezhnev's rule is often linked with the decline in Soviet economy and starting the chain of events that would lead to the union's eventual collapse. He had many self-awarded medals. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union (the highest honor) on three separate occasions. Brezhnev was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died a few years later. Andropov was succeeded by the frail and aging Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko died a mere year after taking office.
+
+In 1980 the Soviet Union hosted the Summer Olympics with Brezhnev opening and closing the games. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. During the closing ceremony, the flag of the City of Los Angeles was raised instead of the flag of the United States (to symbolise the next host city/nation) and the anthem of the Olympics was played instead of the anthem of the United States in response to the boycott.
+
+Brezhnev was the second longest serving Soviet leader after Stalin. The Following is a list of leaders (General Secretary of the Communist Party) in order of their tenure and length of leadership:
+
+Khrushchev and Gorbachev are the only Soviet leaders to have not died whilst in office. Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships.
+
+Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Union's last leader. He was the only Soviet leader to have been born after the October revolution and was thus a product of the Soviet Union having grown up in it. He and US president Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to get rid of some nuclear weapons. Gorbachev started social and economic reforms that gave people freedom of speech; which allowed them to criticise the government and its policies. The ruling communist party lost its grip on the media and the people. Newspapers began printing the many failures that the Soviet Union had covered up and denied in its past. The Soviet Union's economy was lagging and the government was spending a lot of money on competing with the west.
+
+By the 1980s the Soviet economy was suffering but it was stable. Gorbachev's new ideas had gotten out of hand and the communist party lost control.  Boris Yeltsin was elected (democratically) the President of the Russian SFSR even though Gorbachev did not want him to come into power. Lithuania announced its independence from the Union and the Soviet government demanded it surrender its independence or it would send the Red Army to keep order.  Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader.  He wanted to call it the 'Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics' to keep the Russian initials as CCCP (USSR in English).
+
+A group of communist leaders, unhappy with Gorbachev's idea, tried to take over Moscow and stop the Soviet Union from collapsing.  It only made people want independence more. Although he survived the attempted takeover, he lost all of his power outside of Moscow. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Later in the month, leaders of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine signed a treaty called the Belavezha Agreement to dissolve the USSR, extremely angering Gorbachev. He had no choice but to accept the treaty and resigned on Christmas Day 1991. The Soviet Union's parliament (Supreme Soviet) made the Belavezha Agreement law, marking formally the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time.

ensimple/5882.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+Uruguay (officially Oriental Republic of Uruguay) is a country in South America. The language spoken there is Spanish. Its capital and largest city is Montevideo. Uruguay is bordered by two large neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. The only country in South America that is smaller than Uruguay is Suriname. The land is mostly flat, and there are many farms in the countryside.
+
+The area around Uruguay was fought over by the Portuguese and Spanish Empires in the 18th century. In the 1810s it was the center of a Federal League of states in the Río de la Plata region. Argentina and Brazil took the majority in wars, leaving Uruguay as independent.
+
+Uruguay is divided into 19 different Departments.
+
+The highest point in the country is the Cerro Catedral whose peak reaches to 514 metres (1,686 ft).
+
+Uruguay has 660 km of coastline.[1]
+
+There are nine National Parks in Uruguay.  Five in the wetland areas of the east, three in the central hill country and one in the west along the Rio Uruguay.
+
+According to FAOSTAT, Uruguay is one of world's largest producers of: soybeans (9th); greasy wool (12th); horse meat (14th); beeswax (14th); quinces (17th); natural honey (19th); cattle meat (20th).[7] On December 20, 2013, Uruguay was the first country in the world to legalize the cultivation, sale, and use of cannabis.[8]
+
+Uruguayans are mostly of European origin.  88%, or 88 of 100 people, are from European descent.[1]
+
+Football is the most popular sport in Uruguay.  The Uruguay national football team has won the FIFA World Cup on two occasions.

ensimple/5883.html.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+The United States of America is a federal republic of fifty states, a federal district, and several territories.[8][9][10] It is commonly called the United States, the United States of America (shortened to U.S. and U.S.A.), and also sometimes just America.
+
+The country is mostly in North America. There are forty-eight states that border each other and Washington, D.C., the capital district. These states are between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south.
+
+The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses some territories, or insular areas, in the Caribbean and Pacific.
+
+At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with about 327 million people, the United States is the third or fourth-largest country by total area and third-largest by land area and by population.
+
+The United States is one of the world's most ethnically mixed and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[11] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) of US$20.4 trillion (about a quarter of worldwide GDP).[12]
+
+The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which announced their independence from Great Britain and their creation of a cooperative union. The disobedient states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence.[13] The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its approval the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, making up ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many basic civil rights and freedoms, was approved in 1791.
+
+In the 19th century, the United States got land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and took over the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Arguments between the farming-based South and industrial North over the growth of the institution of slavery and states' rights began the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national wealth was the world's largest.[14] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States came out from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The end of the Cold War and the breaking up of the Soviet Union left the United States as the only superpower. The country accounts for about half of worldwide military spending and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.[15]
+
+The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,941 km2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area.[16]
+
+The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9,522,055 km2)[17] to 3,717,813 square miles (9,629,091 km2)[18] to 3,794,101 square miles (9,826,676 km2).[19] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.[20]
+
+The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
+
+The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet.
+
+The United States, with its large size and geographical variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-dry. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is dry in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not unusual—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes happen within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.[21]
+
+The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[22] The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species.[23] About 91,000 insect species have been described.[24]
+
+The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[25] Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area.[26] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.[26]
+
+It is believed that the indigenous peoples of the continental United States, including the natives of Alaska, moved in from Asia. They began arriving twelve or forty thousand years ago, if not earlier.[27] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced farming, grand construction, and state-level communities. The native population of America decreased after Europeans arrived, and for different reasons, mostly sicknesses such as smallpox and measles.[28]
+
+In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached some Caribbean islands, making the first contact with the native people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first recorded European coming on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the area were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Colony of Virginia in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of relocation; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies.[29] Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
+
+Tensions between American colonials and the British during the rebel period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Announcing that "all men are created equal" and are born with "certain natural rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated every year as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.
+
+After the British defeat by American forces helped by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American land west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a strong national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was approved in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and President—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and certifying a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
+
+Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states permanently stopped slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind different social reform movements, including abolitionism.
+
+Americans' eagerness to expand westward caused a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed land under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over different complaints and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military invasions into Florida led Spain to give up it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The United States took over the Republic of Texas in 1845. The idea of Manifest destiny became popular during this time.[30] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further encouraged western relocation. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were murdered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, which were valuable to the plains Indians, caused many native cultures to become gone forever.
+
+Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, a candidate of the mostly antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to end slavery. Following the Union victory in 1865, three changes to the U.S. Constitution secured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[31] made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a big increase in federal power.[32]
+
+After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln caused the Reconstruction, where policies were put together directed at getting back and rebuilding the Southern states while securing the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended this era, and the Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and a never-before-seen inflow of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe made the country's industrialization grow rapidly. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, gave labor and changed American culture. High tax protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking laws encouraged growth also. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the native monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was ended in a secret and successful plan led by American residents; the United States took over the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year proved that the United States was a world power and led to the addition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence fifty years later; Puerto Rico and Guam are still U.S. territories.
+
+As the First World War erupted in Europe in 1914, the United States declared itself neutral. Afterward, the Americans sympathized with the British and French, even though many citizens, especially those from Ireland and Germany, were against the intervention.[33] In 1917, they joined the Allies, adding to the defeat of the Central Powers. Unwilling to participate in European affairs, the Senate did not approve the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which established the League of Nations, applying a policy of unilateralism, which bordered on isolationism.[34] In 1920, the Women's rights movement gained the approval of a constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote.[35]
+
+For most of the 1920s, the country enjoyed a period of success, decreasing the inequality in the balance of payments while profiting from industrial farms. This period, known as the Roaring Twenties, ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a series of policies that increased government interference in the economy.[36] From 1920 to 1933 a prohibition banning alcohol was in place.[37] The Dust Bowl of the 1930s left many poor farmer communities and encouraged a new wave of emigration to the West Coast.[38]
+
+The United States, officially neutral during the early stages of World War II, began supplying supplies to the Allies in March 1941, through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the country joined the Allies fight against the Axis Powers, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II boosted the economy by providing investment capital and jobs, making many women enter the labor market. Of the significant fighters, the United States was the only nation to be enriched by war.[39] The discussions at Bretton Woods and Yalta created a new system of international organization that placed the country and the Soviet Union at the heart of world affairs. In 1945, when the end of the Second World War in Europe came, an international gathering held in San Francisco drafted the Charter of the United Nations, which came into force after the war.[40] Having developed the first nuclear weapon, the government decided to use it in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of that same year. Japan gave up on September 2, ending the war.[41]
+
+In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed after the Second World War, controlling the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The first supported liberal democracy and capitalism, while the second favored communism and an economy planned by the government. Both supported several dictatorships and participated in proxy wars. Between 1950 and 1953, U.S. troops fought Chinese communist forces in the Korean War.[42] From the break with the USSR and the start of the Cold War until 1957, McCarthyism also called the Second Red Dread, developed within the United States. The State unleashed a wave of political mistreatment and a campaign of prejudice against Communists, which some authors point out as of a totalitarian state. Hundreds of people were arrested, including celebrities, and between 10,000 and 12,000 people lost their jobs.[43] The abuse ended when the courts declared it unconstitutional.[44]
+
+In 1961, the Soviet launch of the first human-crewed spacecraft caused President John F. Kennedy to propose to the country to be the first to send "a man to the Moon", a fact completed in 1969.[45] Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear conflict with the Soviet forces in Cuba, while the economy grew and expanded steadily. A growing movement for civil rights, represented and led by African-Americans such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Bevel, used nonviolence to deal with segregation and discrimination.[46] After Kennedy's murder in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed during the term of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, led a civil war in Southeast Asia, assistant to the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A generalized counterculture movement grew, driven by opposition to war, black nationalism and the sexual revolution. A new wave of feminist movements also emerged, led by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and other women who sought political, social and economic equity.
+
+In 1974, as a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon became the first president to resign, to avoid being dismissed on charges such as obstruction of justice and abuse of power, and was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.[47] The presidency of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s was marked by stagflation and the hostage crisis in Iran. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 announced a change in U.S. policy, which was reflected in significant changes in taxes and fiscal expenses. His second term brought with it the Iran–Contra affair and the significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The later Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.
+
+Under President George H. W. Bush, the country took on a global dominant role worldwide, as in the Gulf War (1991). The longest economic expansion in modern American history, from March 1991 to March 2001, spanned the presidency of Bill Clinton and the dot-com bubble.[48] A civil lawsuit and a sex scandal led to his impeachment in 1998, although he managed to finish his period. The 2000 presidential elections, one of the most competitive in American history, they were settled by the Supreme Court: George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president, even though he gained fewer votes than his opponent Al Gore.[49]
+
+On September 11, 2001, the terrorists of the Al-Qaeda group attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City (which were destroyed) and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., in a series of attacks that ended the life of nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the "War on Terror." At the end of 2001, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban government and destroyed Al-Qaeda's training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, Bush began to push for a regime change to take place in Iraq.[50][51] With NATO's lack of support and without a clear UN order for military intervention, Bush organized the coalition of the willing; The coalition forces quickly invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled the statue of dictator Saddam Hussein. The following year, Bush was re-elected as the most voted president in an election.
+
+In 2005, Hurricane Katrina, which would end up being the deadliest natural disaster in national history, caused severe destruction along the Gulf Coast: the city of New Orleans was devastated, with 1833 dead.[52]
+
+On November 4, 2008, during a global economic downturn, Barack Obama was elected president, having been the first African American to take office. In May 2011, American Special forces managed to kill Osama bin Laden, hiding in Pakistan. The following year, Barack Obama was re-elected. Under his second term, he led the war against the Islamic State and restored diplomatic relations with Cuba.
+
+On November 8, 2016, the Republican Party leader Donald Trump defeated former First Lady Hillary Clinton for presidency in an unusual election and whose plans have been described by political analysts as populist, protectionist and nationalist, assuming office on January 20, 2017.[53]
+
+The massacres in Orlando of June 12, 2016 at the gay disco Pulse (51 dead) and in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 (60) are listed as the largest massacres in the country since 9/11.[54]
+
+The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[55] The government is controlled by a system of checks and balances from the United States Constitution. The constitution is the country's main legal document. There are three branches. They are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. State governments and the federal government work in very similar ways. Each state has its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The executive branch of a state government is led by a governor, instead of a president.
+
+The executive branch is the part of the government that enforces the law.  Members of the U.S. Electoral College elect a president who is the leader of the executive branch, as well as the leader of the armed forces. The president may veto a bill that the Congress has passed, so it does not become a law. The President may also make "executive orders" to ensure that people follow the law.
+
+The president is in charge of many departments that control much of the day-to-day actions of government. For example, Department of Commerce makes rules about trade.  The president chooses the heads of these departments, and also nominates federal judges.  However, the Senate, part of the legislative branch, must agree with all of the people the president chooses. The president may serve two 4-year terms.
+
+The legislative branch makes laws. The legislative branch is called the United States Congress. Congress is divided into two "houses".
+
+One house is the House of Representatives.  The Representatives are each elected by voters from a set area within a state.  The number of Representatives a state has is based on how many people live there.  Representatives serve two-year terms. The total number of representatives today is 435. The leader of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House.
+
+The other house is the Senate. In the Senate, each state is represented equally, by two senators. Because there are 50 states, there are 100 senators.  The President's treaties or appointments of officials need the Senate's approval. Senators serve six-year terms. The Vice President of the United States serves as president of the Senate.  In practice, the vice president is usually absent from the Senate, and a senator serves as president pro tempore, or temporary president, of the Senate.
+
+Representatives and senators propose laws, called "bills", in their respective houses. A bill may be voted upon by the entire house right away or may first go to a small group, known as a committee, which may recommend a bill for a vote by the whole house. If one house votes to pass a bill, the bill then gets sent to the other house; if both houses vote for it, it is then sent to the president, who may sign the bill into law or veto it. If the president vetoes the bill, it is sent back to Congress. If Congress votes again and passes the bill with at least a two-thirds majority, the bill becomes law and cannot be vetoed by the president.
+
+Under the American system of federalism, Congress may not make laws that directly control the states; instead, Congress may use the promise of federal funds, or special circumstances such as national emergencies, to encourage the states to follow federal law. This system is both complex and unique.
+
+The judicial branch is the part of government that interprets what the law means. The Judicial Branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts. If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, the law is said to be "struck down" and is no longer a valid law.
+
+The Supreme Court is made up of nine judges, called justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. One of these justices, called the chief justice, heads the court. A Supreme Court justice serves until he or she dies or resigns (quits in the middle of his or her term). When that happens, the president nominates someone new to replace the justice who left. If the Senate agrees with that choice, the person becomes a justice. If the Senate does not agree with the president's choice, then the president must nominate someone else.
+
+Famous court cases such as Marbury v Madison (which was decided in 1803) have firmly established that the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the United States Constitution and has the power to strike down any law that conflicts with it.[56]
+
+The United States of America consists of 50 states, 5 territories and 1 district (Washington D.C.). States can make laws about things inside the state, but federal law is about things dealing with more than one state or dealing with other countries. In some areas, if the federal government makes laws that say different things from the state laws, people must follow the federal law because the state law is not a law any more. Each state has a constitution of its own, different from the federal (national) Constitution. Each of these is like the federal Constitution because they say how each state's government is set up, but some also talk about specific laws.
+
+The federal and most state governments are dominated by two political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. There are many smaller parties; the largest of these are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. People help in political campaigns that they like. They try to persuade politicians to help them; this is called lobbying. All Americans are allowed to do these things, but some have and spend more money than others, or in other ways do more in politics. Some people think this is a problem, and lobby for rules to be made to change it.
+
+Since 2017, the president is a Republican, and Congress is also Republican-controlled, so the Republicans have more power in the federal government.  There are still many powerful Democrats who can try to stop the Republicans from doing things that they believe will be bad for the country. Also, members of a party in power do not always agree on what to do. If enough people decide to vote against Republicans in the next election, they will lose power. In a republic like the United States, no party can do whatever they want. All politicians have to argue, compromise, and make deals with each other to get things done. They have to answer to the people and take responsibility for their mistakes.
+
+The USA's large cultural, economic, and military influence has made the foreign policy of the United States, or relations with other countries, a topic in American politics, and the politics of many other countries.
+
+The United States conquered and bought new lands over time, and grew from the original 13 colonies in the east to the current 50 states, of which 48 of them are joined together to make up the contiguous United States. These states, called the "lower 48", can all be reached by road without crossing a border into another country. They go from the Atlantic east to the Pacific in the west. There are two other states which are not joined to the lower 48 states. Alaska can be reached by passing through British Columbia and the Yukon, both of which are part of Canada. Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
+
+Washington, D.C., the national capital, is a federal district that was split from the states of Maryland and Virginia in 1791. Not part of any US state, it used to be in the shape of a square, with the land west of the Potomac River coming from Virginia, and the land east of the river coming from Maryland. In 1846, Virginia took back its part of the land. Some people living in DC want it to become a state, or for Maryland to take back its land, so that they can have the right to vote in Congress.
+
+The United States consists of sixteen lands that are not states, many of which are colonial territories. None of them have any land borders with the rest of the US. People live in five of these places, which are de facto American:
+
+The Philippines was a possession of the United States. Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and other Pacific island nations were governed by the United States as a United Nations "Trust Territory". All of these places have become independent: the Philippines in 1946, Palau in 1947, and Micronesia in 1986.
+
+The U.S. armed forces has bases in many countries, and the U.S. Navy's base at Guantanamo Bay was rented from Cuba after that country had a Communist revolution.
+
+All the states are divided into administrative subdivisions. Most of them are called counties, but Louisiana uses the word "parish," and Alaska uses the word "borough."
+
+There are many cities in the United States. One city in each state is the state capital, where the government of the state meets and the governor works. This city is not always the largest in its state. For example, the city with the most people living in it is New York City in New York State, but the state capital is Albany. Some other big cities are Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston and Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri and Detroit, Michigan.
+
+The United States is very influential in global economics, politics, and the military. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the headquarters of the United Nations is in New York City. It is a member of the G7,[57] G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[58] and strong ties with Canada,[59] Australia,[60] New Zealand,[61] Japan,[62] South Korea,[63] and Israel.[64]
+
+The president is the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and by the Department of the Navy during times of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[65]
+
+The military budget of the United States in 2011 was more than $700 billion, 41% of global military spending and equal to the next 14 largest national military expenditures combined. At 4.7% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.[66] U.S. defense spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 23rd globally in 2012 according to the CIA.[67] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, was a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion was proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.[68] The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011;[69] 4,484 service members were killed during the Iraq War.[70] Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan in April 2012;[71] by November 8, 2013 2,285 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.[72]
+
+The United States has a capitalist economy. The country has rich mineral resources, with many gold, coal and uranium deposits. Farming makes the country among the top producers of, among others, corn (maize), wheat, sugar, and tobacco. Housing contributes about 15% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of  the United States[73]America produces cars, airplanes, and electronics. About 3/4 of Americans work in the service industry.
+
+The United States of America has people of many different race and ethnic backgrounds. 80% of the people in the United States descend from European immigrants. Many people are descended from Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Africa, and Italy.[74]  13% of the people in the United States are African-American. Most of them descend from the African slaves that were brought to America. Asian-Americans make up only 5% of the population in America but make up a bigger portion in the west coast. For example, in California, Asian-Americans make up 13% of the population of that state. Hispanic-Americans or people of Latin origins make up 15% of the nation. The original peoples, called Native American, American Indians, or Amerindians and Inuit (Eskimos) are a very small group.
+
+11% of the people in the United States are foreign born. 18% speak a language other than English at home. For people 25 and older, 80% are high school graduates while 25% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
+
+The 2000 Census counted self-reported ancestry. It identified 43 million German-Americans, 30.5 million Irish-Americans, 24.9 million African-Americans, 24.5 million English-Americans, and 18.4 million Mexican-Americans.
+
+The social structure of the United States has a big range. This means that some Americans are much, much richer than others. The average (median) income for an American was $37,000 a year in 2002. However, the richest 1% of Americans have as much money as the poorest 90%. 51% of all households have access to a computer and 41% had access to the Internet in 2000, a figure which had grown to 75% in 2004. Also, 67.9% of American families owned their homes in 2002.  There are 200 million cars in the United States, two for every three Americans. The debt has grown to over $21,000,000,000,000.
+
+There are many different religions in the U.S.  Statistically, the largest religion is Christianity, including groups such as Catholicism, Protestantism and Mormonism. Other religions include Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism, Wicca, Druidry, Baha'i, Raelism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism and Jainism.[75] Religions which were founded within the United States include Eckankar, Satanism and Scientology.  Native American religions have various animistic beliefs.
+
+The United States is one of the most religious countries in the Western World, and most Americans believe in God. The number of Christians in the U.S. has gone down. 86.2% called themselves Christian in 1990 and 78.4% said this in 2007. The others include Judaism (2.3%), Islam (0.8%), Buddhism (0.7%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). Those who have no religion are at 16.1%. There is a large difference between those who say that they belong to a religion and those who are members of a religious body of that religion.[76]
+
+Doubts about the existence of a God, gods or goddesses are higher among young people.[77] Among the non-religious population of the U.S., there are deists, humanists, ignotic, atheists, and agnostics.[78]
+
+English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[79][80] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.[81]
+
+While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[82] Other states, such as California, order the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[83] Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
+
+Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.
+
+In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.[84] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[85]
+
+American popular culture goes out to many places in the world. It has a large influence on most of the world, especially the Western world. American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen in most countries.
+
+[86]
+
+The American flag is made up of 50 stars on a blue background, and has 13 stripes, seven red and six white. It is one of many symbols of the United States like the Bald Eagle. The 50 stars represent the 50 states. The red stands for courage. The blue stands for justice. The white represents peace and cleanliness. The 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies.[87]
+
+LawConstitutionBill of RightsSeparation of powers
+
+EnforcementDepartment of Justice (DoJ)Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
+
+LegislatureHouseSenate
+
+ExecutiveCabinetFederal agenciesForeign policy
+
+JudiciarySupreme CourtAppeals
+
+IntelligenceCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA)Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)National Security Agency (NSA)
+
+MilitaryArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceCoast Guard

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+The United States of America is a federal republic of fifty states, a federal district, and several territories.[8][9][10] It is commonly called the United States, the United States of America (shortened to U.S. and U.S.A.), and also sometimes just America.
+
+The country is mostly in North America. There are forty-eight states that border each other and Washington, D.C., the capital district. These states are between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south.
+
+The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses some territories, or insular areas, in the Caribbean and Pacific.
+
+At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with about 327 million people, the United States is the third or fourth-largest country by total area and third-largest by land area and by population.
+
+The United States is one of the world's most ethnically mixed and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[11] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2016 gross domestic product (GDP) of US$20.4 trillion (about a quarter of worldwide GDP).[12]
+
+The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which announced their independence from Great Britain and their creation of a cooperative union. The disobedient states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence.[13] The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its approval the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, making up ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many basic civil rights and freedoms, was approved in 1791.
+
+In the 19th century, the United States got land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and took over the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Arguments between the farming-based South and industrial North over the growth of the institution of slavery and states' rights began the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national wealth was the world's largest.[14] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States came out from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The end of the Cold War and the breaking up of the Soviet Union left the United States as the only superpower. The country accounts for about half of worldwide military spending and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.[15]
+
+The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,941 km2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area.[16]
+
+The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9,522,055 km2)[17] to 3,717,813 square miles (9,629,091 km2)[18] to 3,794,101 square miles (9,826,676 km2).[19] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.[20]
+
+The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
+
+The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet.
+
+The United States, with its large size and geographical variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-dry. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is dry in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not unusual—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes happen within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.[21]
+
+The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[22] The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species.[23] About 91,000 insect species have been described.[24]
+
+The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[25] Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area.[26] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.[26]
+
+It is believed that the indigenous peoples of the continental United States, including the natives of Alaska, moved in from Asia. They began arriving twelve or forty thousand years ago, if not earlier.[27] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced farming, grand construction, and state-level communities. The native population of America decreased after Europeans arrived, and for different reasons, mostly sicknesses such as smallpox and measles.[28]
+
+In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached some Caribbean islands, making the first contact with the native people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first recorded European coming on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the area were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Colony of Virginia in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of relocation; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies.[29] Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
+
+Tensions between American colonials and the British during the rebel period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Announcing that "all men are created equal" and are born with "certain natural rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted mostly by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated every year as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.
+
+After the British defeat by American forces helped by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American land west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a strong national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was approved in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and President—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and certifying a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
+
+Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states permanently stopped slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind different social reform movements, including abolitionism.
+
+Americans' eagerness to expand westward caused a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed land under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over different complaints and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military invasions into Florida led Spain to give up it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The United States took over the Republic of Texas in 1845. The idea of Manifest destiny became popular during this time.[30] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further encouraged western relocation. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were murdered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, which were valuable to the plains Indians, caused many native cultures to become gone forever.
+
+Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, a candidate of the mostly antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to end slavery. Following the Union victory in 1865, three changes to the U.S. Constitution secured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[31] made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a big increase in federal power.[32]
+
+After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln caused the Reconstruction, where policies were put together directed at getting back and rebuilding the Southern states while securing the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended this era, and the Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and a never-before-seen inflow of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe made the country's industrialization grow rapidly. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, gave labor and changed American culture. High tax protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking laws encouraged growth also. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the native monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was ended in a secret and successful plan led by American residents; the United States took over the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish–American War the same year proved that the United States was a world power and led to the addition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence fifty years later; Puerto Rico and Guam are still U.S. territories.
+
+As the First World War erupted in Europe in 1914, the United States declared itself neutral. Afterward, the Americans sympathized with the British and French, even though many citizens, especially those from Ireland and Germany, were against the intervention.[33] In 1917, they joined the Allies, adding to the defeat of the Central Powers. Unwilling to participate in European affairs, the Senate did not approve the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which established the League of Nations, applying a policy of unilateralism, which bordered on isolationism.[34] In 1920, the Women's rights movement gained the approval of a constitutional amendment to grant women the right to vote.[35]
+
+For most of the 1920s, the country enjoyed a period of success, decreasing the inequality in the balance of payments while profiting from industrial farms. This period, known as the Roaring Twenties, ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a series of policies that increased government interference in the economy.[36] From 1920 to 1933 a prohibition banning alcohol was in place.[37] The Dust Bowl of the 1930s left many poor farmer communities and encouraged a new wave of emigration to the West Coast.[38]
+
+The United States, officially neutral during the early stages of World War II, began supplying supplies to the Allies in March 1941, through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the country joined the Allies fight against the Axis Powers, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II boosted the economy by providing investment capital and jobs, making many women enter the labor market. Of the significant fighters, the United States was the only nation to be enriched by war.[39] The discussions at Bretton Woods and Yalta created a new system of international organization that placed the country and the Soviet Union at the heart of world affairs. In 1945, when the end of the Second World War in Europe came, an international gathering held in San Francisco drafted the Charter of the United Nations, which came into force after the war.[40] Having developed the first nuclear weapon, the government decided to use it in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of that same year. Japan gave up on September 2, ending the war.[41]
+
+In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed after the Second World War, controlling the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The first supported liberal democracy and capitalism, while the second favored communism and an economy planned by the government. Both supported several dictatorships and participated in proxy wars. Between 1950 and 1953, U.S. troops fought Chinese communist forces in the Korean War.[42] From the break with the USSR and the start of the Cold War until 1957, McCarthyism also called the Second Red Dread, developed within the United States. The State unleashed a wave of political mistreatment and a campaign of prejudice against Communists, which some authors point out as of a totalitarian state. Hundreds of people were arrested, including celebrities, and between 10,000 and 12,000 people lost their jobs.[43] The abuse ended when the courts declared it unconstitutional.[44]
+
+In 1961, the Soviet launch of the first human-crewed spacecraft caused President John F. Kennedy to propose to the country to be the first to send "a man to the Moon", a fact completed in 1969.[45] Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear conflict with the Soviet forces in Cuba, while the economy grew and expanded steadily. A growing movement for civil rights, represented and led by African-Americans such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Bevel, used nonviolence to deal with segregation and discrimination.[46] After Kennedy's murder in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed during the term of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, led a civil war in Southeast Asia, assistant to the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A generalized counterculture movement grew, driven by opposition to war, black nationalism and the sexual revolution. A new wave of feminist movements also emerged, led by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and other women who sought political, social and economic equity.
+
+In 1974, as a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon became the first president to resign, to avoid being dismissed on charges such as obstruction of justice and abuse of power, and was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.[47] The presidency of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s was marked by stagflation and the hostage crisis in Iran. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 announced a change in U.S. policy, which was reflected in significant changes in taxes and fiscal expenses. His second term brought with it the Iran–Contra affair and the significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The later Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.
+
+Under President George H. W. Bush, the country took on a global dominant role worldwide, as in the Gulf War (1991). The longest economic expansion in modern American history, from March 1991 to March 2001, spanned the presidency of Bill Clinton and the dot-com bubble.[48] A civil lawsuit and a sex scandal led to his impeachment in 1998, although he managed to finish his period. The 2000 presidential elections, one of the most competitive in American history, they were settled by the Supreme Court: George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president, even though he gained fewer votes than his opponent Al Gore.[49]
+
+On September 11, 2001, the terrorists of the Al-Qaeda group attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City (which were destroyed) and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., in a series of attacks that ended the life of nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the "War on Terror." At the end of 2001, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban government and destroyed Al-Qaeda's training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, Bush began to push for a regime change to take place in Iraq.[50][51] With NATO's lack of support and without a clear UN order for military intervention, Bush organized the coalition of the willing; The coalition forces quickly invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled the statue of dictator Saddam Hussein. The following year, Bush was re-elected as the most voted president in an election.
+
+In 2005, Hurricane Katrina, which would end up being the deadliest natural disaster in national history, caused severe destruction along the Gulf Coast: the city of New Orleans was devastated, with 1833 dead.[52]
+
+On November 4, 2008, during a global economic downturn, Barack Obama was elected president, having been the first African American to take office. In May 2011, American Special forces managed to kill Osama bin Laden, hiding in Pakistan. The following year, Barack Obama was re-elected. Under his second term, he led the war against the Islamic State and restored diplomatic relations with Cuba.
+
+On November 8, 2016, the Republican Party leader Donald Trump defeated former First Lady Hillary Clinton for presidency in an unusual election and whose plans have been described by political analysts as populist, protectionist and nationalist, assuming office on January 20, 2017.[53]
+
+The massacres in Orlando of June 12, 2016 at the gay disco Pulse (51 dead) and in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 (60) are listed as the largest massacres in the country since 9/11.[54]
+
+The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[55] The government is controlled by a system of checks and balances from the United States Constitution. The constitution is the country's main legal document. There are three branches. They are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. State governments and the federal government work in very similar ways. Each state has its own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The executive branch of a state government is led by a governor, instead of a president.
+
+The executive branch is the part of the government that enforces the law.  Members of the U.S. Electoral College elect a president who is the leader of the executive branch, as well as the leader of the armed forces. The president may veto a bill that the Congress has passed, so it does not become a law. The President may also make "executive orders" to ensure that people follow the law.
+
+The president is in charge of many departments that control much of the day-to-day actions of government. For example, Department of Commerce makes rules about trade.  The president chooses the heads of these departments, and also nominates federal judges.  However, the Senate, part of the legislative branch, must agree with all of the people the president chooses. The president may serve two 4-year terms.
+
+The legislative branch makes laws. The legislative branch is called the United States Congress. Congress is divided into two "houses".
+
+One house is the House of Representatives.  The Representatives are each elected by voters from a set area within a state.  The number of Representatives a state has is based on how many people live there.  Representatives serve two-year terms. The total number of representatives today is 435. The leader of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House.
+
+The other house is the Senate. In the Senate, each state is represented equally, by two senators. Because there are 50 states, there are 100 senators.  The President's treaties or appointments of officials need the Senate's approval. Senators serve six-year terms. The Vice President of the United States serves as president of the Senate.  In practice, the vice president is usually absent from the Senate, and a senator serves as president pro tempore, or temporary president, of the Senate.
+
+Representatives and senators propose laws, called "bills", in their respective houses. A bill may be voted upon by the entire house right away or may first go to a small group, known as a committee, which may recommend a bill for a vote by the whole house. If one house votes to pass a bill, the bill then gets sent to the other house; if both houses vote for it, it is then sent to the president, who may sign the bill into law or veto it. If the president vetoes the bill, it is sent back to Congress. If Congress votes again and passes the bill with at least a two-thirds majority, the bill becomes law and cannot be vetoed by the president.
+
+Under the American system of federalism, Congress may not make laws that directly control the states; instead, Congress may use the promise of federal funds, or special circumstances such as national emergencies, to encourage the states to follow federal law. This system is both complex and unique.
+
+The judicial branch is the part of government that interprets what the law means. The Judicial Branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts. If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, the law is said to be "struck down" and is no longer a valid law.
+
+The Supreme Court is made up of nine judges, called justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. One of these justices, called the chief justice, heads the court. A Supreme Court justice serves until he or she dies or resigns (quits in the middle of his or her term). When that happens, the president nominates someone new to replace the justice who left. If the Senate agrees with that choice, the person becomes a justice. If the Senate does not agree with the president's choice, then the president must nominate someone else.
+
+Famous court cases such as Marbury v Madison (which was decided in 1803) have firmly established that the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the United States Constitution and has the power to strike down any law that conflicts with it.[56]
+
+The United States of America consists of 50 states, 5 territories and 1 district (Washington D.C.). States can make laws about things inside the state, but federal law is about things dealing with more than one state or dealing with other countries. In some areas, if the federal government makes laws that say different things from the state laws, people must follow the federal law because the state law is not a law any more. Each state has a constitution of its own, different from the federal (national) Constitution. Each of these is like the federal Constitution because they say how each state's government is set up, but some also talk about specific laws.
+
+The federal and most state governments are dominated by two political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. There are many smaller parties; the largest of these are the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. People help in political campaigns that they like. They try to persuade politicians to help them; this is called lobbying. All Americans are allowed to do these things, but some have and spend more money than others, or in other ways do more in politics. Some people think this is a problem, and lobby for rules to be made to change it.
+
+Since 2017, the president is a Republican, and Congress is also Republican-controlled, so the Republicans have more power in the federal government.  There are still many powerful Democrats who can try to stop the Republicans from doing things that they believe will be bad for the country. Also, members of a party in power do not always agree on what to do. If enough people decide to vote against Republicans in the next election, they will lose power. In a republic like the United States, no party can do whatever they want. All politicians have to argue, compromise, and make deals with each other to get things done. They have to answer to the people and take responsibility for their mistakes.
+
+The USA's large cultural, economic, and military influence has made the foreign policy of the United States, or relations with other countries, a topic in American politics, and the politics of many other countries.
+
+The United States conquered and bought new lands over time, and grew from the original 13 colonies in the east to the current 50 states, of which 48 of them are joined together to make up the contiguous United States. These states, called the "lower 48", can all be reached by road without crossing a border into another country. They go from the Atlantic east to the Pacific in the west. There are two other states which are not joined to the lower 48 states. Alaska can be reached by passing through British Columbia and the Yukon, both of which are part of Canada. Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
+
+Washington, D.C., the national capital, is a federal district that was split from the states of Maryland and Virginia in 1791. Not part of any US state, it used to be in the shape of a square, with the land west of the Potomac River coming from Virginia, and the land east of the river coming from Maryland. In 1846, Virginia took back its part of the land. Some people living in DC want it to become a state, or for Maryland to take back its land, so that they can have the right to vote in Congress.
+
+The United States consists of sixteen lands that are not states, many of which are colonial territories. None of them have any land borders with the rest of the US. People live in five of these places, which are de facto American:
+
+The Philippines was a possession of the United States. Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and other Pacific island nations were governed by the United States as a United Nations "Trust Territory". All of these places have become independent: the Philippines in 1946, Palau in 1947, and Micronesia in 1986.
+
+The U.S. armed forces has bases in many countries, and the U.S. Navy's base at Guantanamo Bay was rented from Cuba after that country had a Communist revolution.
+
+All the states are divided into administrative subdivisions. Most of them are called counties, but Louisiana uses the word "parish," and Alaska uses the word "borough."
+
+There are many cities in the United States. One city in each state is the state capital, where the government of the state meets and the governor works. This city is not always the largest in its state. For example, the city with the most people living in it is New York City in New York State, but the state capital is Albany. Some other big cities are Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Indianapolis, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston and Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; St. Louis, Missouri and Detroit, Michigan.
+
+The United States is very influential in global economics, politics, and the military. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the headquarters of the United Nations is in New York City. It is a member of the G7,[57] G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[58] and strong ties with Canada,[59] Australia,[60] New Zealand,[61] Japan,[62] South Korea,[63] and Israel.[64]
+
+The president is the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and by the Department of the Navy during times of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[65]
+
+The military budget of the United States in 2011 was more than $700 billion, 41% of global military spending and equal to the next 14 largest national military expenditures combined. At 4.7% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.[66] U.S. defense spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 23rd globally in 2012 according to the CIA.[67] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, was a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion was proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.[68] The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011;[69] 4,484 service members were killed during the Iraq War.[70] Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan in April 2012;[71] by November 8, 2013 2,285 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.[72]
+
+The United States has a capitalist economy. The country has rich mineral resources, with many gold, coal and uranium deposits. Farming makes the country among the top producers of, among others, corn (maize), wheat, sugar, and tobacco. Housing contributes about 15% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of  the United States[73]America produces cars, airplanes, and electronics. About 3/4 of Americans work in the service industry.
+
+The United States of America has people of many different race and ethnic backgrounds. 80% of the people in the United States descend from European immigrants. Many people are descended from Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Africa, and Italy.[74]  13% of the people in the United States are African-American. Most of them descend from the African slaves that were brought to America. Asian-Americans make up only 5% of the population in America but make up a bigger portion in the west coast. For example, in California, Asian-Americans make up 13% of the population of that state. Hispanic-Americans or people of Latin origins make up 15% of the nation. The original peoples, called Native American, American Indians, or Amerindians and Inuit (Eskimos) are a very small group.
+
+11% of the people in the United States are foreign born. 18% speak a language other than English at home. For people 25 and older, 80% are high school graduates while 25% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
+
+The 2000 Census counted self-reported ancestry. It identified 43 million German-Americans, 30.5 million Irish-Americans, 24.9 million African-Americans, 24.5 million English-Americans, and 18.4 million Mexican-Americans.
+
+The social structure of the United States has a big range. This means that some Americans are much, much richer than others. The average (median) income for an American was $37,000 a year in 2002. However, the richest 1% of Americans have as much money as the poorest 90%. 51% of all households have access to a computer and 41% had access to the Internet in 2000, a figure which had grown to 75% in 2004. Also, 67.9% of American families owned their homes in 2002.  There are 200 million cars in the United States, two for every three Americans. The debt has grown to over $21,000,000,000,000.
+
+There are many different religions in the U.S.  Statistically, the largest religion is Christianity, including groups such as Catholicism, Protestantism and Mormonism. Other religions include Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism, Wicca, Druidry, Baha'i, Raelism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism and Jainism.[75] Religions which were founded within the United States include Eckankar, Satanism and Scientology.  Native American religions have various animistic beliefs.
+
+The United States is one of the most religious countries in the Western World, and most Americans believe in God. The number of Christians in the U.S. has gone down. 86.2% called themselves Christian in 1990 and 78.4% said this in 2007. The others include Judaism (2.3%), Islam (0.8%), Buddhism (0.7%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). Those who have no religion are at 16.1%. There is a large difference between those who say that they belong to a religion and those who are members of a religious body of that religion.[76]
+
+Doubts about the existence of a God, gods or goddesses are higher among young people.[77] Among the non-religious population of the U.S., there are deists, humanists, ignotic, atheists, and agnostics.[78]
+
+English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[79][80] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.[81]
+
+While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[82] Other states, such as California, order the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[83] Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
+
+Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.
+
+In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.[84] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[85]
+
+American popular culture goes out to many places in the world. It has a large influence on most of the world, especially the Western world. American music is heard all over the world, and American movies and television shows can be seen in most countries.
+
+[86]
+
+The American flag is made up of 50 stars on a blue background, and has 13 stripes, seven red and six white. It is one of many symbols of the United States like the Bald Eagle. The 50 stars represent the 50 states. The red stands for courage. The blue stands for justice. The white represents peace and cleanliness. The 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies.[87]
+
+LawConstitutionBill of RightsSeparation of powers
+
+EnforcementDepartment of Justice (DoJ)Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
+
+LegislatureHouseSenate
+
+ExecutiveCabinetFederal agenciesForeign policy
+
+JudiciarySupreme CourtAppeals
+
+IntelligenceCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA)Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)National Security Agency (NSA)
+
+MilitaryArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceCoast Guard

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+A USB flash drive (USB stands for Universal Serial Bus) is a popular way to store digital information. Flash drives are an easy way to share data (information). A USB flash drive can be attached to a USB port, and provides a certain amount of storage space, which can be used to store data. USB flash drives are used with devices found in homes, workplaces and schools. Below are some examples of these devices:
+
+They are called "flash drive" because they use flash memory to store files. Flash memory is a type of computer chip. The first flash drives had 8 megabytes of storage. Each year, larger flash drives will become available. In April 2012, 256 gigabyte flash drives were introduced to the market.
+
+Other common names for a flash drive include pendrive, thumbdrive or simply USB.
+
+USB flash drives have some advantages over other portable storage devices. They are physically much smaller and more rugged than floppy disks. They can read data faster, and store more data than floppy disks. Floppy disks have become obsolete when the price of USBs has become cheaper.
+
+Flash drives are used to store any type of data file, or to move data from one computer to another. USB flash drives have a lot of storage space. It is often easier to use a flash drive than to carry many CD-ROMs. Some computer programs can be run from a USB flash drive. These special versions of programs are called "portable" versions.
+
+Computer administrators, or people who manage the computer systems, sometimes use flash drives. Sometimes flash drives are also used to run a computer virus scanner. They are often used to repair a computer system that was damaged or faulty.
+
+Police in the cyber division can use flash drives to take evidence.
+
+Most computers today can boot from a USB drive. Special operating systems can run from a bootable flash drive. They are called Live USB versions.
+
+Many companies make small digital audio players (usually called an mp3 player). These are actually flash drives that can make sound. Examples include the Creative MuVo and the iPod shuffle. Some of these players are real USB flash drives as well as music players; others just play music.
+
+Many of the smallest players are powered by a permanently fitted rechargeable battery. The battery power can be charged from the USB port.
+
+Digital audio files can be moved from one computer to another. The files can be played on a software media player. Many home and car music systems have a USB port. A USB flash drive can be connected to play music files.
+
+Music artists have sold or given away USB flash drives. The first time this happened was in 2004—the German band WIZO released the "Stick EP", only as a USB drive. It contained five high quality MP3s; it also included a video, pictures, lyrics, and guitar tablature.
+
+Since then, artists including Kanye West,[1] Nine Inch Nails and Ayumi Hamasaki [2] have released music and promotional material on USB flash drives.
+
+In the arcade game In the Groove and In The Groove 2, flash drives are used to transfer high scores, screenshots, dance edits, and combos throughout sessions. In later versions, players can also store custom songs and play them on any machine on which this feature is enabled. While use of flash drives is common, the drive must be Linux compatible, causing problems for some players.
+
+In the arcade games Pump it Up NX2 and Pump it Up NX Absolute, a specially produced flash drive is used as a "save file" for unlocked songs, as well as progressing in the WorldMax and Brain Shower sections of the game.
+
+In the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution X, a special USB flash drive was made by Konami, letting players link the Sony PlayStation 2 version.
+
+Flash drives are very cheap to produce. So, they are sometimes used to promote a product. At most technical trade fairs, many exhibitors will promote their products by giving away free drives.
+
+In other situations, they may be sold at less than wholesale price, or included as a bonus with another product.
+
+Usually, such drives will be stamped with a company's logo, as a form of advertising .
+
+The drive may be blank drive, or already have documents or software loaded on to it. These are called preloaded drives.
+
+Some preloaded drives are read-only, but most can be used as a normal flash drive.
+
+The large memory size of newer flash drives means that they are increasingly being used for short term backup of data.
+For example, one retail till system uses a Flash drive to record details of all of the sales for that day. The drive is used as a backup medium. At the close of business each night, the drive is inserted, and a database backup is saved to the drive. The drive is removed at night and taken offsite.
+
+USB flash drives have replaced a number of other storage technologies, because they are easier to use. The replaced media include:
+
+A storage of punched cards, in 1959. All the cards have a storage capacity of about 4GB, which can easily fit on an USB flash drive
+
+A 3.5 inch floppy disk, vs. an USB flash drive. The small drive has over 100.000 times the capacity of the large one.
+
+This photograph shows both sides of the printed circuit board (PCB) inside a typical flash drive (circa 2004). The flash drive in this photograph is a 64 MB USB 2.0 device with its plastic case removed.
+
+One end of the device is fitted with a single type-A USB connector. Inside the plastic casing is a small, highly cost-engineered, printed circuit board. Mounted on this board is some simple power circuitry and a small number of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs). Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface to the USB port, another drives the onboard memory, and the other is the flash memory.
+
+The internal components of a typical flash drive
+
+Most computers support USB.
+
+Flash drives are quite robust. They are not damaged by scratches and dust. This makes them a good choice to move data from one place to another.
+
+Some flash drives can keep the data, even if they are put in water.[3] Some data may even survive the washing machine, but this is not a designed feature, and people should not rely on it. Leaving the flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems.
+
+Channel Five's Gadget Show cooked a flash drive with propane; froze it with dry ice; submerged it in various acidic liquids; ran over it with a jeep and fired it against a wall with a mortar. A company specializing in recovering lost data from computer drives then managed to recover all the data on the drive.[4] All data on the other removable storage devices tested, using optical or magnetic technologies, were destroyed.
+
+Flash drives are available in large sizes. Currently at the start of 2020, the largest size publicly available is 2 terabytes. This will increase as the technology gets better.
+
+Flash drives use little power, compared to hard drives and have no moving parts. They are small and easy to carry.
+
+Most modern operating systems can use a flash drive, without the need to install special software. To most operating systems, the flash drive looks like a hard drive. The operating system can use any file system. Some computers can start from a flash drive.
+
+Flash memory has a limited life. Data can only be written to and read from a device a few thousand times.[5][6] People should keep this in mind when they use a flash drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this, as well as space limitations, some developers have produced special versions of operating systems (such as Linux in Live USB) [7] or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives.
+
+Flash drives are small and are easily lost or left behind. This can cause problems of data security.
+
+Flash drives can hold a large amount of information and they are used worldwide. Many users store information on them that is personal, or that should be protected. For this reason, more and more flash drives offer biometrics or encryption to control the access to this data. Users can install passwords on to their flash drives so that when a user tries to open it, the computer prompts the user, to enter a password before they can begin using the device. There are a number of free and open source programs which can be used to encrypt data including TrueCrypt, pgpdisk and FreeOTFE. These programs have proved useful in securing data on flash drives.
+
+Most USB flash drives are dumb devices that hold data. However, like other storage devices, they can carry computer viruses. Bootable flash drives, like other boot devices, can easily spread them. Some such devices also have a controller chip comparable to an embedded system. In other words, the drive is a fully functional computer, which can transmit data as it wants. There have been cases where controller chips were manipulated, and spread malware.
+
+Some drives with a controller chip encrypt the data, with a secure algorithm, such as AES. In many cases, it was easy to decrypt the data, even without knowing the decryption key, because the implementation was not done properly.
+
+Because of the issues above, and because the use of USB devices is difficult to monitor, many companies no longer allow USB devices.

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+In its broadest sense, Star Trek is a collection of science fiction video entertainments, owned by Paramount and CBS, as well as various spin-offs. Many of these types of collections are often known as franchises.
+
+The main parts of the Star Trek franchise are:
+
+Other parts of the franchise are: books (both fiction and non-fiction), magazines, comics, action figures, model toys and computer video games.
+
+Star Trek was created as a TV series in 1966 by Gene Roddenberry. He and the other authors of Star Trek have, over time, developed a whole fictional universe set in the future. Following this fictional universe is the way they have chosen to maintain continuity between the various TV series and the movies.
+
+Trekkies or Trekkers may refer to the many fans who love the series and support this Star Trek Universe. Many conventions and newsletters exist to serve these fans. There are even amateur movies made by the fans.[1][2][3]
+
+In the 1960s, Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek. He sold it as a western (a television genre about cowboys), but in space, and compared it to the television show Wagon Train.[4] He also based it on Gulliver's Travels. After two pilots (test episodes), Star Trek was first shown on television in 1966.
+
+In 2053, World War III ended on Earth. In 2063 Zefram Cochrane, invented the warp drive, a way to travel faster than the speed of light. Because of this invention, Vulcans came to Earth to meet the humans. This is shown in Star Trek: First Contact. The Vulcans helped humans fight disease and hunger. In 2150 humans created a United Earth Government that combined all the old governments into one.
+
+A war between Earth and the Romulans made species from different planets work together, and the Coalition of Planets was started in 2156. In 2161, the planets Vulcan, Earth, Andoria and Tellar started the United Federation of Planets.
+
+Star Trek: The Original Series is sometimes abbreviated to TOS. In it, the starship Enterprise travels through space to discover new places - "to boldly go where no man has gone before". The show was set in the 23rd century.
+
+The main characters are:
+
+It was shown on television for three years, and was cancelled in 1969.
+
+Star Trek: The Animated Series is also called TAS. It is an animated version of The Original Series. The crew are the same, and most are voice-acted by the same actors. Because it was animated, the planets and species could look more interesting.
+
+Gene Roddenberry asked for the stories in TAS to be removed from Star Trek's canon (the official history of Star Trek that is the same in all series). It is still argued about if they are part of canon or not, but usually agreed that they are not. The official Star Trek website has added some things from TAS to their library.[5]
+
+Star Trek: The Next Generation is also called TNG. It is set 70 years after The Original Series, in the 24th century. The crew travel on a new starship called the "Enterprise-D". The stories are also about exploring, and often about fighting hostile (violent or angry) ships. The crew has many different races.
+
+The main characters are:
+
+It was shown on television for seven seasons, from 1987 to 1994.
+
+Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is also sometimes called DS9. It is set in the late 24th century, at the end of The Next Generation's time line and the start of Voyager's. It is not like TOS and TNG because it is set on a space station and is not about exploring. This means it has more soap opera elements (lots of stories about the characters). Most of the stories are about the Cardassian race and the war with the Dominion.
+
+The main characters are:
+
+It was shown on television for seven seasons, from 1993 to 1999.
+
+Star Trek: Voyager is set in the late 24th century. It is different from the other series because it takes place in the Delta Quadrant. The ship Voyager was trapped there after a chase by the Maquis (Starfleet rebels). The stories are about them trying to find their way home. This is a long journey, and will take them 75 years.
+
+The main characters are:
+
+It was shown on television for seven seasons, from 1995 to 2001. It was made to help start a new television channel, UPN.
+
+Star Trek: Enterprise is set in the 22nd century, which means it is before all the other series on the Star Trek timeline. It is about the humans and the Vulcans working together after first contact. The ship, Enterprise, was the first Warp 5 ship made by the humans (with some Vulcan assistance). The first season famously had many continuity errors (events and technology that did not match what happens in the other series).[6]
+
+The main characters are:
+
+It was shown on television for four seasons, from 2001 to 2005.
+
+Star Trek: Discovery is the newest Star Trek series. It is set in the 23rd century, ten years before the original Star Trek series. The first season is about a war between the Federation and the Klingons.
+
+The main characters of the first season are:
+
+The first season was streamed online starting in 2017 on CBS' online streaming service in the United States, and on Netflix outside of the United States. There will be another season premiering in late 2018.
+
+The Star Trek franchise is a multibillion-dollar industry (a very large business). It has influenced (affected) many things in real life.
+
+Star Trek has a large following of fans who are very enthusiastic (care a great deal) about the show. They are usually called Trekkies. The word was first used by Arthur W. Saha when he saw people wearing fake Vulcan ears at a convention (an event where lots of people interested in the same thing organise to meet) in 1967.[7] Some fans like to be known as Trekkers instead.
+
+Two documentaries (factual television shows) have been made about them, called Trekkies and Trekkies 2.
+
+In 1976, NASA made a prototype (test) space shuttle. It was first going to be called Constitution, but Star Trek fans wrote letters to NASA asking for it to be called Enterprise instead. Enterprise was used for flight tests, although it was never sent into space. It is now displayed (put on show) at the Smithsonian Institution.[8]
+
+The movie Galaxy Quest is a Star Trek parody, which means it was made to be like Star Trek in a funny way.
+
+There have been parodies on television in the cartoons Futurama, The Simpsons and Family Guy.
+
+The video games company Blizzard Entertainment puts references to Star Trek in many of its games, like Starcraft and World of Warcraft.
+
+Fans of the show made a new episode, Pilgrim of Eternity, in 2013. The crew were also professional film and TV people.
+
+Star Trek episodes often tell a moral story. philosophical and moral questions are common. In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tuvix", a transporter accident puts two characters, Tuvok and Neelix, into one body. This makes a new person, Tuvix, who has his own personality. The crew of the Voyager must decide what to do: they can kill Tuvix by separating him back into Tuvok and Neelix, or they can kill Tuvok and Neelix by letting Tuvix live. In the end, Captain Janeway decides to save Tuvok and Neelix, although the Doctor thinks this is wrong.
+
+Star Trek episodes also often reflect (copy) what is happening in the real world. One example is the episode "A Private Little War" in Star Trek: The Original Series. This is said to be like the Vietnam War.[9] In the episode, the Klingons threaten innocent people. Captain Kirk has to decide whether to give the people guns so that they can defend themselves. The episode asks whether you can fight evil without doing evil yourself.
+
+One focus of all the Star Trek franchises is a Federation law called "The Prime Directive." The Prime Directive states that advanced civilizations should not change more primitive ones; societies should be allowed to develop on their own. The Prime Directive often makes for a moral conflict—for example, the Prime Directive might forbid using advanced technology to save an intelligent race.

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+Utah is a state in the west United States. The capital and largest city is Salt Lake City. Utah became a state in the U.S. on January 4, 1896.
+
+Utah is bordered by Idaho and Wyoming in the north and Colorado in the east. It touches a single point of New Mexico to the southeast at Four Corners. Utah is bordered by Arizona in the south, and by Nevada in the west. It covers an area of 84,899 square miles (219,887 km²).
+
+Utah is mostly rocky with three distinct geological regions: the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau. Utah is a great geographical tourism place. Utah is known for its natural diversity and is home to features ranging from arid deserts with sand dunes to thriving pine forests in mountain valleys.
+
+Utah has a dry, semi-arid to arid climate,[7] although its many mountains have large, wide, differences of climates, with the highest points in the Uinta Mountains being above the timberline. The dry weather results from the state lying mostly in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada in California. The eastern half of the state is in the rain shadow of the Wasatch Mountains. The primary source of rain for the state is the Pacific Ocean, with the state normally lying in the path of large Pacific storms from mid-October through April, although northern Utah often sees these large storms earlier and later. In summer, the state, normally southern and eastern Utah, is in the path of monsoon moisture from the Gulf of California. Most of the lowland areas get less than 12 inches (300 mm) of rain a year. The Great Salt Lake Desert is the driest area of the state, with less than 5 inches (125 mm). Snowfall is common in all but the far southern valleys. Although St. George only gets about 3 inches (7.5 cm) per year, Salt Lake City sees about 60 inches (150 cm), enhanced by the lake-effect snow from the Great Salt Lake, which increases snowfall totals to the south, southeast, and east of the lake. Some areas of the Wasatch Range in the path of the lake-effect get up to 700 inches (1,770 cm) per year. The consistently dry, fluffy, snow led Utah's ski industry to get the slogan "the Greatest Snow on Earth" in the 1980s. In the winter, temperature inversions are a phenomenon across Utah's low basins and valleys, leading to thick humidity and fog that can sometimes last for weeks at a time, normally in the Uintah Basin.
+
+The center of population of Utah is in Salt Lake County in the city of "Salt Lake City".[8] As of July 1, 2008 the Census Bureau believes Utah has a population of 2,736,424.[9] In 2008, the US Census Bureau determined Utah to be the fastest growing state in the country in terms of population growth.[10]
+
+Much of the population lives in cities and towns along the Wasatch Front, a metropolitan region that runs north-south with the Wasatch Mountains rising on the eastern side. Growth outside the Wasatch Front is also increasing. The St. George metropolitan area is right now the second-fastest growing in the country after the Las Vegas metropolitan area, while the Heber metropolitan area is also the second-fastest growing in the country (right in front of Palm Coast, Florida).
+
+The University of Utah says that the gross state product of Utah in 2005 was $92 billion, or 0.74% of the total United States GDP of $12.4 trillion for the same year. The per capital personal income was $24,977 in 2005. Major companies of Utah are: mining, cattle ranching, salt production, and government services.
+
+In eastern Utah petroleum making is a big industry. Near Salt Lake City, petroleum refining is done by a number of oil companies. In central Utah, coal mining accounts for much of the mining activity.
+
+Utah has a high total birth rate, and the youngest population of any U.S. state. It is also one of the few non-Southern states that has more males than females.
+
+In 2000, the gender percents of Utah were estimated as:
+
+Most of the state's people are members of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", commonly referred to as the Mormons or the LDS Church. As of 2007, 60.7 percent of everyone in the state are members of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".[11] Mormons are not as common as they used to be in Salt Lake City. Usually, rural areas are almost all Mormon. Though the LDS Church does not support or oppose any political parties,[12] the church's doctrine has a strong connection with politics. In the past, many of Utah's lawmakers have been church members; the effect has contributed to the state's restrictiveness towards alcohol (sales and content) and gambling. Another effect can be seen in Utah's high birth rate (25 percent higher than the national normal; the highest for a state in the U.S.). The Mormons in Utah normally have conservative views when it comes to most political issues. Most voter-age Utahns do not belong to a political party (60%), but vote mostly for Republicans. John McCain got 62.5% of the vote in the 2008 Presidential Election while 70.9% of people of Utah chose George W. Bush in 2004.
+
+Utah's population is concentrated in two areas, the Wasatch Front in the North-Central part of the state, with a population of over 2 million; and southwestern Utah, locally known as "Dixie", with nearly 150,000 people who live there.
+
+According to the 2000 Census, Utah was the fourth fastest growing state (at 29.6 percent) in the United States between 1990 and 2000. St. George, in the southwest, is the second-fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States, right behind Greeley, Colorado.
+
+The state's two fastest growing counties are: "Summit" (at 91.6 percent; ranking it 8th in the country) and "Washington" (at 86.1 percent; ranking it 12th). The cities (defined as having at least 9,000 people living there in 2000) that saw the greatest increases between 1990 and 2000 were: "Draper" (248 percent), "South Jordan" (141 percent), "Lehi" (125 percent), "Riverton" (122 percent), and "Syracuse" (102 percent). Between 1990 and 2000 the five fastest-growing cities of any size were "Cedar Hills" (302 percent), "Draper" (248 percent), "Woodland Hills" (213 percent), "Ivins" (173 percent), and "South Jordan" (141 percent). The U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the five fastest-growing cities of any size between 2000 and 2008 were "Saratoga Springs" (1,501%), "Herriman" (1,061%), "Eagle Mountain" (934%), "Cedar Hills" (209%), and "Lehi" (146%).
+
+Floridians |
+Geography |
+Government |
+History |
+State Parks |
+
+Cache Valley |
+Colorado Plateau |
+Dixie |
+Great Basin |
+Great Salt Lake |
+Great Salt Lake Desert |
+Mojave Desert |
+Monument Valley |
+San Rafael Swell |
+Uinta Mountains |
+Wasatch Back |
+Wasatch Front |
+
+Bountiful |
+Cedar City |
+Clearfield |
+Cottonwood Heights |
+Draper |
+Holladay |
+Kaysville |
+Layton |
+Lehi |
+Logan |
+Midvale |
+Murray |
+Ogden |
+Orem |
+Pleasant Grove |
+Provo |
+Riverton |
+Roy |
+St. George |
+Salt Lake City |
+Sandy |
+South Jordan |
+South Salt Lake |
+Spanish Fork |
+Springville |
+Taylorsville |
+Tooele |
+West Jordan |
+
+Box Elder |
+Cache |
+Carbon |
+Daggett |
+Davis |
+Duchesne |
+Emery |
+Garfield |
+Grand |
+Iron |
+Juab |
+Kane |
+Millard |
+Morgan |
+Piute |
+Rich |
+Salt Lake |
+San Juan |
+Sanpete |
+Sevier |
+Summit |
+Tooele |
+Uintah |
+Utah |
+Wasatch |
+Washington |
+Wayne |

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+You can also find me on the French Vikidia, the English Vikidia, the French Wikipédia, the French Wimini... etc.

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+Wikipedia does not yet have a user page with this name.

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+A boat is a vehicle used to travel on water. It is smaller than a ship and can be lifted out of the water and carried on a ship. Some boats have sails, some are powered by rowing with oars, and some use motors. Those that use steam engines are steamboats
+
+These boats are usually made of wood. However, some parts are made of metals like steel and aluminium. Expensive boats may have parts from fiberglass or composite materials and some even have helicopter pads. There are some boats that can even go underwater. They are called submarines.
+
+A narrowboat is a boat designed to be used on narrow canals. It is sometimes called a barge.
+
+The Pesse Canoe is likely the oldest boat recovered to date as it was built sometime around 8,000 BCE[1]
+

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+Wikipedia does not yet have a user page with this name.