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William Edward Parry

William Edward Parry

Sir William Edward Parry (December 19, 1790 – 8 or 9 July, 1855) was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer. Parry was born in Bath, the son of a doctor. He was educated at King Edward's School, Bath. At the age of thirteen he joined the flag-ship of Admiral Cornwallis in the Channel fleet as a first-class volunteer, in 1806 became a midshipman, and in 1810 received promotion to the rank of lieutenant in the frigate Alexander, which spent the next three years in the protection of the Spitzbergen whale fishery. He took advantage of this opportunity for the study and practice of astronomical observations in northern latitudes, and afterwards published the results of his studies in a small volume on Nautical Astronomy by Night (1816). From 1813-1817 he served on the North American station. In 1818 he received command of the brig Alexander in the Arctic expedition under Captain (afterwards Sir) John Ross. This expedition returned to England without having made any new discoveries but Parry, confident, as he expressed it, "that attempts at Polar discovery had been hitherto relinquished just at a time when there was the greatest chance of succeeding", in the following year obtained the chief command of a new Arctic expedition; consisting of the two ships HMS Griper and HMS Hecla. This expedition returned to England in November, 1820 after a voyage of almost unprecedented Arctic success, having accomplished more than half the journey from Greenland to Bering Strait, the completion of which solved the ancient problem of a Northwest Passage. A narrative of the expedition, entitled Journal of a Voyage to discover a North-west Passage, appeared in 1821. Upon his return Lieutenant Parry received promotion to the rank of commander. In May, 1821 he set sail with the HMS Fury and HMS Hecla on a second expedition to discover a Northwest Passage, but had to return to England in October, 1823 without achieving his purpose. During his absence he had in November, 1821 been promoted to post rank, and shortly after his return he was appointed acting hydrographer to the navy. His Journal of a Second Voyage, &c., appeared in 1824. With the same ships Parry undertook a third expedition on the same quest in 1824, but again unsuccessfully, and following the wreck of the Fury, he returned home in October, 1825 with a double ship's company. He published an account of this voyage in 1826. Parry also pioneered the use of canning techniques for food preservation on his Arctic voyages. However, his techniques were not infallible: in 1939, viable spores of certain heat-resistant bacteria were found in canned roast veal that had traveled with Parry to the Arctic Circle in 1824. In the following year Parry obtained the sanction of the Admiralty for an attempt on the North Pole from the northern shores of Spitzbergen, and his extreme point of 82° 45’ N. lat. remained for 49 years the highest latitude attained. He published an account of this journey under the title of Narrative of the Attempt to reach the North Pole, &c. (1827). In April, 1829 he was knighted. Parry was subsequently selected for the post of comptroller of the newly-created department of steam machinery of the Navy, and held this office until his retirement from active service in 1846, when he was appointed captain-superintendent of Haslar Hospital. He attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1852, and in the following year became a governor of Greenwich Hospital, and retained this post until his death. Sir Edward Parry’s character had a strong religious side, and besides the journals of his different voyages he also wrote a Lecture to Seamen, and Thoughts on the Parental Character of God. See Memoirs of Rear-Admiral Sir W. E. Parry, by his son, Rev. Edward Parry (3rd edition, 1857). Parry crater on the Moon was named after him.

External links


-
- [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38245 Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]
- [http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=91098 Volume I of Parry's "Voyages"]
- [http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=91097 Volume II of Parry's "Voyages"] Parry, William Parry, William Parry, William Edward Parry, William Edward Parry, William Edward Parry, William Edward

References


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December 19

December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 12 days remaining.

Events


- 324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.
- 1187 - Pope Clement III elected
- 1732 - Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard's Almanack
- 1777 - George Washington's army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
- 1828 - John C. Calhoun pens South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
- 1835 - Toledo Blade newspaper begins publishing.
- 1842 - United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii
- 1912 - William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which killed over 1,000 people was pardoned by President Taft after 3 1/2 years in Sing Sing prison .
- 1916 - The Battle of Verdun ended.
- 1928 - First autogiro flight in the United States
- 1945 - Austria becomes a republic for the second time, the first having been founded in 1918 and interrupted by the Austro-fascist dictatorship from 1934 onwards and the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938.
- 1946 - Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
- 1961 - The Indian Army invades the Portuguese province of Estado da India Portuguesa (Portuguese State of India) which will become part of India.
- 1962 - Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- 1963 - Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom to become a constitutional monarchy under the sultan.
- 1965 - Prisoners Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker escape from Pentridge Prison, Melbourne. During the escape a guard is killed. Ryan would hang for his death, in 1967.
- 1972 - Apollo 17, the last manned lunar flight, returns to Earth.
- 1974 - Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt is pronounced dead.
- 1974 - The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale
- 1978 - John Wayne Gacy is arrested for the killings of 33 boys and young men
- 1980 - Anguilla is made a dependency of the United Kingdom separate from Saint Kitts and Nevis
- 1982 - In Venezuela, the storage tanks of an oil-fired power plant catches fire killing 154 people.
- 1984 - The United Kingdom and People's Republic of China sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which handed Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
- 1988 - Lawn darts are banned from sale in the United States.
- 1997 - A Silkair Boeing 737-300 crashes into the Musi River, in Sumatra, Indonesia killing 104
- 1997 - Titanic (the highest-grossing movie ever as of 2005) opens in U.S. theaters.
- 1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives passes articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.
- 2000 - The Leninist Guerrilla Units attack a party office of the far-right MHP in Istanbul, Turkey. One MHP member is killed and several wounded.
- 2001 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first film in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters.
- 2001 - A new world-record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is set at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl Aymag, Mongolia.
- 2001 - The Argentine economic crisis burst into street riots after the announcement by the economy minister of the measures of holding back the bank deposits.

Births


- 1554 - Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. 1618)
- 1683 - King Philip V of Spain (d. 1746)
- 1699 - William Bowyer, English printer (d. 1777)
- 1714 - John Winthrop, American astronomer (d. 1779)
- 1813 - Thomas Andrews, Irish chemist (d. 1885)
- 1852 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
- 1865 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress (d. 1932)
- 1885 - Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (d. 1938)
- 1888 - Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
- 1894 - Ford Frick, baseball commissioner (d. 1978)
- 1901 - Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
- 1903 - George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1996)
- 1906 - Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician (d. 1982)
- 1907 - Jimmy McLarnin, Irish boxer (d. 2004)
- 1910 - Jean Genet, French writer (d. 1986)
- 1915 - Edith Piaf, French singer and actress (d. 1963)
- 1918 - Professor Longhair, American musician (d. 1980)
- 1923 - Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor (d. 1990)
- 1925 - Tankred Dorst, German dramatist
- 1927 - James Booth, English actor and writer (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Bob Brookmeyer, American musician
- 1933 - Cicely Tyson, American actress
- 1934 - Al Kaline, baseball player
- 1935 - Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist (d. 1974)
- 1940 - Phil Ochs, American singer and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1941 - Maurice White, American musician
- 1944 - Richard Leakey, British anthropologist
- 1944 - Alvin Lee, English musician
- 1946 - Stan Smith, American tennis player
- 1946 - Robert Urich, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1960 - Mike Lookinland, American actor
- 1961 - Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1961 - Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
- 1961 - Reggie White, American football player (d. 2004)
- 1963 - Jennifer Beals, American actress
- 1964 - Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1965 - Chito Martinez, Belizean baseball player
- 1969 - Kristy Swanson, American actress
- 1971 - Tiffany Towers, Canadian actress
- 1972 - Alyssa Milano, American actress
- 1972 - Warren Sapp, American football player
- 1974 - Jake Plummer, American football player
- 1974 - Ricky Ponting, Australian cricketer
- 1975 - Olivier Tebily, Ivory Coast footballer
- 1980 - Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor
- 1980 - Marla Sokoloff, American actress
- 1988 - George Sarell, British musician
- 1989 - Dario, the bahii

Deaths


- 401 - Pope Anastasius I
- 1075 - Edith of Wessex, queen of Edward the Confessor of England
- 1327 - Agnes of France, Duchess of Burgundy
- 1370 - Pope Urban V (b. 1310)
- 1737 - James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (b. 1667)
- 1741 - Vitus Bering, Danish-born explorer (b. 1681)
- 1745 - Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (b. 1684)
- 1749 - Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (b. 1672)
- 1751 - Louise of Great Britain, queen of Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1724)
- 1807 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (b. 1723)
- 1819 - Sir Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer and politician (b. 1765)
- 1848 - Emily Brontë, English author (b. 1818)
- 1915 - Alois Alzheimer, German neuroscientist (b. 1864)
- 1932 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation (executed) (b. 1908)
- 1939 - Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer (b. 1894)
- 1953 - Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- 1967 - Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
- 1968 - Norman Thomas, American socialist (b. 1884)
- 1989 - Stella Gibbons, English author (b. 1902)
- 1996 - Marcello Mastroianni, Italian actor (b. 1924)
- 1999 - Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (b. 1914)
- 2003 - Peter Carter-Ruck, British lawyer
- 2003 - Hope Lange, American actress (b. 1941)
- 2004 - Herbert C. Brown, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- 2004 - Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (b. 1922)

Holidays and observances


- Feast of Saint Boniface
- National Unity Day, declared in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter in honor of the American hostages being held in Tehran, Iran

Fictional Events


- 2003 - the events of the fictional docu-drama The Day Britain Stopped take place.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/19 BBC: On This Day] ---- December 18 - December 20 - November 19 - January 19 -- listing of all days ko:12월 19일 ms:19 Disember ja:12月19日 simple:December 19 th:19 ธันวาคม

July 8

July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining.

Events


- 1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mock them.
- 1283 - Battle of Malta
- 1497 - Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.
- 1663 - Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.
- 1680 - The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- 1709 - Battle of Poltava: Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava thus effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe.
- 1716 - Battle of Dynekilen
- 1758 - French and Indian War: French forces hold Fort Carillon against British at Ticonderoga, New York.
- 1760 - French and Indian War: Battle of the Ristigouche - British defeat French forces in last naval battle in New France.
- 1775 - The Olive Branch Petition is adopted by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies.
- 1776 - The Liberty Bell was rung to summon citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.
- 1822 - Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
- 1859 - King Charles XV / Carl IV accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
- 1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
- 1889 - At the last championship bare-knuckle boxing match, John L. Sullivan defeats Jake Kilrain after 75 rounds.
- 1892 - St. John's, Newfoundland was devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
- 1896 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
- 1933 - The Pittsburgh Steelers are found by Arthur Joseph Rooney. The team is the 5th oldest in the NFL.
- 1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
- 1966 - King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi was deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.
- 1969 - IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
- 1980 - State of Origin, Rugby League is born.
- 1982 - Senegalese Trotskyist political party LCT is legally recognized.
- 1990 - At 12:34:56 (both AM and PM) the time and date by US reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90.
- 1992 - Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe Helsinki Summit creates the office of High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM).
- 1997 - Mayo Clinic researchers warn that the dieting-drug "fen-phen" can cause severe heart and lung damage.
- 1997 - NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
- 1999 - Allen Lee Davis is executed by electrocution by the state of Florida. That is the last use of the Electric Chair for capital punishment in Florida.
- 2000 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's hugely popular Harry Potter series, is published.

Births


- 1528 - Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (d. 1580)
- 1545 - Prince Don Carlos of Spain (d. 1568)
- 1593 - Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian painter (d. 1653)
- 1621 - Jean de la Fontaine, French writer (d. 1695)
- 1760 - Christian Kramp, French mathematician (d. 1826)
- 1766 - Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (d. 1842)
- 1819 - Francis Leopold McClintock, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1907)
- 1836 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (d. 1914)
- 1838 - Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, German inventor (d. 1917)
- 1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1937)
- 1851 - Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (d. 1941)
- 1867 - Käthe Kollwitz, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1945)
- 1878 - Jimmy Quinn, Scottish footballer (d. 1945)
- 1882 - Percy Grainger, Australian composer (d. 1961)
- 1885 - Ernst Bloch, German philosopher (d. 1977)
- 1892 - Richard Aldington, English poet (d. 1962)
- 1895 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- 1904 - Henri Cartan, French mathematician
- 1906 - Philip Johnson, American architect (d. 2005)
- 1908 - Louis Jordan, American singer and saxophonist (d. 1975)
- 1908 - Nelson A. Rockefeller, Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
- 1914 - Jyoti Basu, Indian politician
- 1914 - Billy Eckstine, American jazz singer and bandleader (d. 1993)
- 1918 - Craig Stevens, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1919 - Walter Scheel, German politician
- 1923 - Harrison Dillard, American athlete
- 1926 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (d. 2004)
- 1932 - Jerry Vale, American singer
- 1933 - Marty Feldman, English comedian and actor (d. 1982)
- 1935 - Steve Lawrence, American entertainer and singer
- 1935 - Vitali Sevastyanov, cosmonaut
- 1941 - Dario Gradi, Italian-born football manager
- 1942 - Phil Gramm, American politician
- 1945 - Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss Federal Councilor
- 1947 - Kim Darby, American actress
- 1951 - Anjelica Huston, American actress
- 1958 - Kevin Bacon, American actor
- 1961 - Toby Keith, American singer
- 1968 - Billy Crudup, American actor
- 1970 - Beck, American singer
- 1972 - Saurav Ganguly, Indian cricketer
- 1975 - Kathleen Robertson, Canadian actress
- 1976 - Talal El Karkouri, Moroccan footballer
- 1977 - Wang Zhizhi, Chinese basketball player
- 1980 - Robbie Keane, Irish footballer
- 1981 - Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
- 1982 - Hakim Warrick, American basketball player
- 1984 - Alexis Dziena, American actress

Deaths


- 810 - Pepin, King of Italy (b. 773)
- 975 - King Edgar of England
- 1153 - Pope Eugene III
- 1538 - Diego de Almagro, Spanish explorer (b. 1475)
- 1623 - Pope Gregory XV (b. 1554)
- 1689 - Edward Wooster, English Connecticut pioneer (b. 1622)
- 1695 - Christiaan Huygens, Dutch scientist (b. 1629)
- 1716 - Robert South, English churchman (b. 1634)
- 1721 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (b. 1649)
- 1726 - John Ker, Scottish spy (b. 1673)
- 1822 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (b. 1792)
- 1826 - Luther Martin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (b. 1748)
- 1850 - Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (b. 1774)
- 1855 - Sir William Edward Parry, British admiral and Arctic explorer (b. 1790)
- 1859 - King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway (b. 1799)
- 1905 - Walter Kittredge, American musician and composer (b. 1834)
- 1917 - Tom Thomson, Canadian painter (b. 1877)
- 1933 - Anthony Hope, British author (b. 1863)
- 1934 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (b. 1848)
- 1939 - Havelock Ellis, British physician and psychologist (b. 1859)
- 1943 - Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader (b. 1899)
- 1950 - Othmar Spann, Austrian philosopher and economist (b. 1878)
- 1957 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (b. 1879)
- 1973 - Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer (b. 1877)
- 1979 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1979 - Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- 1986 - Skeeter Webb, baseball player (b. 1909)
- 1987 - Gerardo Diego, Spanish poet (b. 1896)
- 1988 - Ray Barbuti, American athlete (b. 1905)
- 1990 - Howard Duff, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1994 - Kim Il Sung, North Korean leader (b. 1912)
- 1999 - Pete Conrad, American astronaut (b. 1930)
- 2001 - John O'Shea, New Zealand film director (b. 1920)
- 2002 - Ward Kimball, American animator (b. 1914)
- 2004 - Paula Danziger, American author (b. 1944)

Holidays and observances


- Feast day of Saint Grimbald  

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/8 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 7 - July 9 - June 8 - August 8 -- listing of all days ko:7월 8일 ms:8 Julai ja:7月8日 simple:July 8 th:8 กรกฎาคม

1855

1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 1 - London, Ontario is incorporated as a city.
- January 23 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
- January 23 - The region of Wairarapa, New Zealand was hit by the strongest earthquake ever recorded in New Zealand, which reached Magnitude 8.1 on the Richter Scale. There were five deaths.
- January 29 - Lord Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom over the management of the Crimean War.
- February 5 - Lord Palmerston becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- February 11 - Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
- March 3 - US Congress appropriates $30,000 to create US Camel Corps
- May 15 - The Great Gold Robbery of 1855 in England
- June 29 - The Daily Telegraph begins publication
- September 3 - Last Bartholomew Fair on London, England
- September 11 - Sevastapol falls to the British troops
- Stamp duty was removed from newspapers in Britain creating mass market media in the UK.
- The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean by rail as the railroad's route across Panama is completed.

Births


- January 5 - King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d. 1932)
- January 20 - Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
- January 21 - John Moses Browning, American firearms inventor (d. 1926)
- January 28 - William Seward Burroughs, American bank clerk and inventor (d. 1898)
- March 13 - Percival Lowell, American astronomer (d. 1916)
- March 24 - Andrew Mellon, American banker and philanthropist (d. 1937)
- April 21 - Hardy Richardson, 19th century baseball player (d. 1931)
- April 27 - Caroline Rémy, French feminist (d. 1929)
- May 1 - Marie Corelli, English novelist (d. 1924)
- July 26 - Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
- October 21 - Howard Hyde Russell, American temperance movement leader and founder of Anti-Saloon League and Lincoln-Lee Legion (d. 1946)
- November 5 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (d. 1913)
- November 6 - Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (d. 1942)

Deaths


- January 6 - Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer, gaylord (b. 1779)
- January 26 - Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b. 1808)
- February 6 - Josef Munzinger, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1791)
- February 23 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
- March 29 - Henri Druey, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1799)
- March 31 - Charlotte Brontë, English author (b. 1816)
- May 5 - Robert Inglis, English politician (b. 1786)
- May 23 - Charles Robert Malden English explorer (b. 1797)
- June 28 - Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (b. 1788)
- August 7 - Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
- November 11 - Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
- November 26 - Adam Mickiewicz, Lithuanian - Polish poet and writer (b. 1798)
- Metropolitan Board of Works established. Category:1855 ko:1855년 ms:1855 th:พ.ศ. 2398

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.
Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)
Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
  - Sir Thomas Browne
  - Geoffrey Chaucer
  - John Milton
  - William Shakespeare
  - Jane Austen
  - Mary Shelley
  - Charles Dickens
  - Thomas Hardy
  - George Orwell
  - J. R. R. Tolkien
  - C. S. Lewis
  - Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
  - English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Symbols and insignia

alternative words for British.]] The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line. A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross). The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.

National anthems

Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar "God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams. Many believe that English teams should use their own anthems, most popular of which is the use of "Jerusalem".

References


- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]

See also


-
- English language
- English law
- English (people)
-