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Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, spy, freemason and essayist. He was knighted in 1603, created Baron Verulam in 1618, and created Viscount St Albans in 1621; both peerage titles becoming extinct upon his death. He began his professional life as a lawyer, but he has become best known as a philosophical advocate and defender of the scientific revolution. His works establish and popularize an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method. Induction implies drawing knowledge from the natural world through experimentation, observation, and testing of hypotheses. In the context of his time, such methods were connected with the occult trends of hermeticism and alchemy.

Early life

Francis Bacon was born at York House Strand, London. He was the youngest of five sons of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Elizabeth I. His mother, Ann Cooke Bacon was the second wife of Sir Nicholas, a member of the Reformed or Puritan Church, and a daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, whose sister married William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the great minister of Queen Elizabeth. Biographers believe that Bacon received an education at home in his early years, and that his health during that time, as later, was delicate. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573 at the age of 12, living for three years there with his older brother Anthony Bacon. At Cambridge he first met the Queen, who was impressed by his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to call him "the young Lord Keeper." Here also his studies of science brought him to the conclusion that the methods (and thus the results) were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his dislike of Aristotelian philosophy, which seemed barren, disputatious, and wrong in its objectives. On June 27, 1576, he and Anthony were entered de societate magistrorum at Gray's Inn, and a few months later they went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris. The disturbed state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction. The sudden death of his father in February 1579 necessitated Bacon's return to England, and seriously influenced his fortunes. Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so, and Francis was left with only a fifth of that money. Having started with insufficient means, he borrowed money and became habitually in debt. To support himself, he took up his residence in law at Gray's Inn in 1579.

Career

Gray's Inn In the fragment De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium (written probably about 1603) Bacon analyses his own mental character and establishes his goals, which were threefold: discovery of truth, service to his country, and service to the church. Knowing that a prestigious post would aid him toward these ends, in 1580 he applied, through his uncle, Lord Burghley, for some post at court which might enable him to devote himself to a life of learning. His application failed, and for the next two years he worked quietly at Gray's Inn giving himself seriously to the study of law, until admitted as an outer barrister in 1582. In 1584 he took his seat in parliament for Melcombe in Dorset, and subsequently for Taunton (1586). He wrote on the condition of parties in the church, and he set down his thoughts on philosophical reform in the lost tract, Temporis Partus Maximus, but he failed to obtain a position of the kind he thought necessary for success. In the Parliament of 1586 he took a prominent part in urging the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. About this time he seems again to have approached his powerful uncle, the result of which may possibly be traced in his rapid progress at the Bar, and in his receiving, in 1589, the reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, a valuable appointment, the enjoyment of which, however, he did not enter into until 1608. During this period Bacon became acquainted with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1567-1601), Queen Elizabeth's favourite. By 1591 he was acting as the earl's confidential adviser. Bacon took his seat for Middlesex when in February 1593 Elizabeth called a Parliament to investigate a Catholic plot against her. His opposition to a bill that would levy triple subsidies in half the usual time (he objected to the time span) offended many people; he was accused of seeking popularity, and was for a time excluded from the court. When the Attorney-Generalship fell vacant in 1594 and Bacon became a candidate for the office, Lord Essex's influence could not secure him the position; in fashion, Bacon failed to become solicitor in 1595. To console him for these disappointments Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which he subsequently sold for £1800, equivalent to a much larger sum now. 1595] In 1596 he was made a Queen's Counsel, but missed the appointment of Master of the Rolls. During the next few years, his financial situation remained bad. His friends could find no public office for him, a scheme for retrieving his position by a marriage with the wealthy widow Lady Elizabeth Hatton failed, and in 1598 he was arrested for debt. His standing in the queen's eyes, however, was beginning to improve. She had begun to employ him in crown affairs a few years previously, and he gradually acquired the standing of one of the learned counsel, though he had no commission or warrant and received no salary. His relationship with the queen also improved when he severed ties with Essex, a fortunate move considering that the latter would be executed for treason in 1601; and Bacon was one of those appointed to investigate the charges against him, and examine witnesses, in connection with which he showed an ungrateful and indecent eagerness in pressing the case against his former friend and benefactor. This act Bacon endeavoured to justify in A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons, etc., of ... the Earl of Essex, etc. He received a gift of a fine of £1200 on one of Essex's accomplices. The accession of James I brought Bacon into greater favour; he was knighted in 1603, and endeavoured to set himself right with the new powers by writing his Apologie (defence) of his proceedings in the case of Essex, who had favoured the succession of James. In the course of the uneventful first parliament session Bacon married Alice Barnham, the daughter of a well-connected London alderman. Little or nothing is known of their married life. In his last will he disinherited her. However, substantial evidence suggests that Bacon's emotional interests lay elsewhere. John Aubrey in his Brief Lives states that Bacon was "a pederast". Bacon's fellow parliamentary member Sir Simonds D'Ewes in his Autobiography and Correspondence writes of Bacon: "yet would he not relinquish the practice of his most horrible & secret sinne of sodomie, keeping still one Godrick, a verie effeminate faced youth, to bee his catamite and bedfellow". Bacon's mother Lady Ann Bacon expressed clear exasperation with what she believed was her son's behaviour. In a letter to her other son Anthony, she complains of another of Francis's companions "that bloody Percy" whom, she writes, he kept "yea as a coach companion and a bed companion". Bacon exhibited a strong penchant for young Welsh serving-men. One such person, Francis Edney, received the enormous sum of two hundred pounds in Bacon's will. Meanwhile (in 1608), he had entered upon the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, and was in the enjoyment of a large income; but old debts and present extravagance kept him embarrassed, and he endeavoured to obtain further promotion and wealth by supporting the king in his arbitrary policy. However, Bacon's services were rewarded in June 1607 with the office of Solicitor. In 1610 the famous fourth parliament of James met. Despite Bacon's advice to him, James and the Commons found themselves frequently at odds over royal prerogatives and the king's embarrassing extravagance, and the House was dissolved in February 1611. Through this Bacon managed in frequent debate to uphold the prerogative, while retaining the confidence of the Commons. In 1613, Bacon was finally able to become attorney-general, by dint of advising the king to shuffle judicial appointments; and in this capacity he would prosecute Somerset in 1616. The parliament of April 1614 objected to Bacon's presence in the seat for Cambridge—he was allowed to stay, but a law was passed that forbade the attorney-general to sit in parliament—and to the various royal plans which Bacon had supported. His obvious influence over the king inspired resentment or apprehension in many of his peers. Bacon continued to receive the King's favor, and in 1618 was appointed by James to the position of Lord Chancellor. In his great office B. showed a failure of character in striking contrast with the majesty of his intellect. He was corrupt alike politically and judicially, and now the hour of retribution arrived. His public career ended in disgrace in 1621 when, after having fallen into debt, a Parliamentary Committee on the administration of the law charged him with corruption under 23 counts; and so clear was the evidence that he made no attempt at defence. To the lords, who sent a committee to inquire whether the confession was really his, he replied, "My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to a fine of £40,000, remitted by the king, to be committed to the Tower during the king's pleasure (which was that he should be released in a few days), and to be incapable of holding office or sitting in parliament. He narrowly escaped being deprived of his titles. Thenceforth he devoted himself to study and writing. However, Nieves Mathews in her book, Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination, Yale University Press, alleges that Bacon was completely innocent of the bribery charges and that writers from later times were themselves guilty of slandering Bacon's reputation. Bacon commenting on his impeachment as Chancellor in which he claims to have been forced to plead guilty to bribery charges in order to save King James from a political scandal stated:

I was the justest judge, that was in England these last fifty years. When the book of all hearts is opened, I trust I shall not be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart. I know I have clean hands and a clean heart. I am as innocent of bribes as any born on St. Innocents Day.

Death

Lord Chancellor]] Francis Bacon's death had a considerable element of irony. In March, 1626, he came to London, and shortly after, when driving on a snowy day, he was inspired by the possibility of using snow to preserve meat. Bacon purchased a chicken (fowl) to investigate this possibility, but, during the endeavour of stuffing it with snow, contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. He died at Highgate on April 9, 1626, leaving assets of about £7,000 and debts to the amount of £22,000.

Works and Philosophy

Bacon's works include his Essays, as well as the Colours of Good and Evil and the Meditationes Sacrae, all published in 1597. His famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", is found in the Meditations. Bacon also wrote In felicem memoriam Elizabethae, a eulogy for the queen written in 1609; and various philosophical works which constitute the fragmentary and incomplete Instauratio magna, the most important part of which is the Novum Organum (published 1620). Bacon did not propose an actual philosophy, but rather a method of developing philosophy; he wrote that, whilst philosophy at the time used the deductive syllogism to interpret nature, the philosopher should instead proceed through inductive reasoning from fact to axiom to law. Before beginning this induction, the inquirer is to free his mind from certain false notions or tendencies which distort the truth. These are called "Idols" (idola), and are of four kinds: "Idols of the Tribe" (idola tribus), which are common to the race; "Idols of the Den" (idola specus), which are peculiar to the individual; "Idols of the Marketplace" (idola fori), coming from the misuse of language; and "Idols of the Theater" (idola theatri), which result from an abuse of authority. The end of induction is the discovery of forms, the ways in which natural phenomena occur, the causes from which they proceed. Bacon's developments of the inductive philosophy would revolutionize the future thought of the human race. Bacon's somewhat fragmentary ethical system, derived through use of his methods, is explicated in the seventh and eighth books of his De augmentis scientiarum (1623). He distinguishes between duty to the community, an ethical matter, and duty to God, a purely religious matter. Any moral action is the action of the human will, which is governed by reason and spurred on by the passions; habit is what aids men in directing their will toward the good. No universal rules can be made, as both situations and men's characters differ. Bacon distinctly separated religion and philosophy, though the two can coexist. Where philosophy is based on reason, faith is based on revelation, and therefore irrational—in De augmentis he writes that "[t]he more discordant, therefore, and incredible, the divine mystery is, the more honor is shown to God in believing it, and the nobler is the victory of faith."

Posthumous reputation

Bacon's ideas about the improvement of the human lot were influential in the 1740s and 1750s among a number of Parliamentarian scholars. In the Restoration Bacon was commonly invoked as a guiding spirit of the new-founded Royal Society. In the nineteenth century his emphasis on induction was revived and developed by William Whewell, among others. Bacon was ranked #90 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

Bacon and Shakespeare

Since the nineteenth century a number of writers have extended Bacon's acknowledged body of work by claiming that Bacon was the author of the plays usually attributed to William Shakespeare. There is evidence for this via Bacon's Shakespeare notebook, The Promus, and The Northumberland Manuscript. See: Shakespearean authorship.

Summary

ImageSize = width:450 height:450 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1560 till:1630 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1560 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1560 PlotData= color:red mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S shift:(25,0) # shift text to right side of bar # there is no automatic collision detection, # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10) at:1561 text:Born at London at:1573 fontsize:XS text:Ed. at Trinity Coll. Cambridge; dissatisfied with Aristotlean philosophy at:1579 text:Enters Gray's Inn from:1576 till:1579 text:In France at:1582 text:Called to Bar at:1584 text:Enters Parliament at:1591 text:Becomes friend of Essex at:1593 text:Essex presents him with estate at:1597 text:Publishes first ed of Essays at:1601 text:Prosecutes Essex at:1605 text:Publishes Advancement of Learning at:1607 text:Solicitor General at:1609 text:Publishes Wisdom of the Ancients at:1613 text:Attorney General at:1616 text:Prosecutes Somerset at:1618 fontsize:XS text:Lord Keeper at:1619 fontsize:XS text:Lord Chancellor with title of Verulam at:1620 fontsize:XS text:Publishes Novum Organum at:1621 fontsize:XS text:Viscount St. Albans; Charged with corruption, retires from public life. at:1622 fontsize:XS text:Publishes Henry VII and third part of Instauratio at:1626 text:Dies

Notes

# Bacon's sexual orientation is discussed in detail at the website [http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/baconfra.htm Gay History and Literature].

References

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- Some material originally from the 1911 Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religion.

External links

-
- [http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/british-authors/16th-century/francis-bacon/ Francis Bacon Books]
- [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/aut/bacon_francis.html Online editions of Bacon's works]
- [http://www.sirbacon.org/ Sir Francis Bacon's New Advancement of Learning]
- [http://www.hirohurl.net/engren.html Essays on the English Renaissance]
- [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-25 Dictionary of the History of Ideas:] Baconianism
- [http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/baconfra.htm Rictor Norton, "Sir Francis Bacon"] quotes excised passages of Sir Simonds D'Ewes
- [http://www.quotationsbook.com/authors/377/Bacon_Francis Quotations Book - Francis Bacon]
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry]
- [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=184 The Twickenham Museum - Sir Francis Bacon]
- [http://www.henrywotton.org.uk/ Henry Wotton employed by Bacon's intelligence system]
- [http://www.fbrt.org.uk/frameset.html Francis Bacon Research Trust - Studies of Bacon's connections to the Rosicrucians, Freemasonry, Shakespeare]
- [http://http://nrg78.com/ipw-web/b2/index.php?m=20051017#108 - For knowledge itself is power: a blog post that compares Bacon to Machiavelli.] Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Category:Empiricists Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon, Francis St Albans, Viscount 01-001 ko:프랜시스 베이컨 ja:フランシス・ベーコン (哲学者)

22 January

January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 343 days remaining (344 in leap years).

Events

- 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.
- 1521 - Diet of Worms is opened by Emperor Charles V.
- 1771 - Spain cedes Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands to England.
- 1824 - Ashantis crush British forces in the Gold Coast.
- 1840 - British colonists reach New Zealand.
- 1863 - The January Uprising broke out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement was to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation of Russia.
- 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Zulu troops massacre British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana.
- 1889 - Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, DC.
- 1899 - Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.
- 1901 - Edward VII becomes King after his mother, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, dies.
- 1905 - 'Bloody Sunday' in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
- 1917 - World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
- 1924 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.
- 1931 - Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
- 1941 - World War II: The United Kingdom captures Tobruk from Nazi forces.
- 1944 - World War II: Allies begin Operation Shingle (an assault on Anzio, Italy).
- 1947 - KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California.
- 1947 - Paul Ramadier becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1952 - The first commercial jet plane, the BOAC's Comet, is put into service.
- 1953 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.
- 1957 - Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.
- 1957 - The New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
- 1962 - The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba's membership.
- 1963 - Elysée treaty between France and Germany.
- 1964 - Mumbai's lowest ever temperature recorded (7.4°C).
- 1967 - Simon & Garfunkel perform live at Philharmonic Hall in the Lincoln Center, New York City. The recording is not released until 16 July 2002.
- 1968 - Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, debuts on NBC.
- 1973 - The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe vs. Wade striking down state laws restricting abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.
- 1973 - A chartered Boeing 707 exploded in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria killing 176.
- 1973 - George Foreman breaks Joe Frazier's professional career undefeated heavyweight world boxing champion status.
- 1980 - Andrei Sakharov is arrested in Moscow.
- 1983 - Björn Borg retires from tennis after winning five consecutive Wimbledon championships.
- 1984 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with the famous television commercial "1984".
- 1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer commits suicide on national television.
- 1990 - Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
- 1992 - Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
- 1992 - STS-42: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space.
- 1995 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: In central Israel, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blow themselves-up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis.
- 1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first female secretary of state after confirmation by the United States Senate.
- 1998 - Suspected Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
- 2001 - Four of the Texas 7 are caught at a convenience store in Woodland Park, Colorado and a fifth killed himself inside a motor home.
- 2002 - AOL Time Warner brings a federal suit against Microsoft alleging that the market for AOL's Netscape Navigator Internet browser was harmed when Microsoft started to give away a competing browser.
- 2002 - Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in American history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
- 2003 - The Netherlands vote for a new parliament after the previous had only been into power for 86 days.
- 2003 - Last successful contact with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects.

Births

- 1263 - Ibn Taymiya, Islamic scholar (d. 1328)
- 1440 - Ivan III of Russia (d. 1505)
- 1553 - Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior (d. 1625)
- 1561 - Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher (d. 1626)
- 1570 - Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, English politician (d. 1631)
- 1592 - Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (d. 1655)
- 1654 - Richard Blackmore, English physician and writer (d. 1729)
- 1690 - Nicolas Lancret, French painter (d. 1743)
- 1729 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher (d. 1781)
- 1775 - Andre Marie Ampere, French physicist (d. 1836)
- 1788 - George Gordon, Lord Byron, English poet (d. 1824)
- 1820 - Joseph Wolf, German artist (d. 1899)
- 1849 - August Strindberg, Swedish writer (d. 1912)
- 1875 - D. W. Griffith, American film director (d. 1948)
- 1892 - Marcel Dassault, French industrialist (d. 1986)
- 1893 - Conrad Veidt, German actor (d. 1943)
- 1902 - Daniel Kinsey, American hurdler
- 1903 - Fritz Houtermans, Polish physicist (d. 1966)
- 1904 (N.S.) - George Balanchine, Russian choreographer (d. 1983)
- 1904 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (d. 1941)
- 1906 - Robert E. Howard, American author (d. 1936)
- 1907 - Douglas Corrigan, American pilot (d. 1995)
- 1907 - Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch actress (d. 2004)
- 1908 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- 1909 - Ann Sothern, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1909 - U Thant, Burmese United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974)
- 1911 - Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (d. 1990)
- 1913 - Carl F. H. Henry, American theologian and publisher (d. 2003)
- 1915 - Heinrich Albertz, German theologian and politician (d. 1993)
- 1916 - Henri Dutilleux, French composer
- 1924 - J. J. Johnson, American jazz trombonist and composer (d. 2001)
- 1927 - Lou Creekmur, American football player
- 1931 - Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
- 1932 - Piper Laurie, American actress
- 1934 - Bill Bixby, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1935 - Seymour Cassel, American actor
- 1936 - Alan J. Heeger, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1936 - Joseph Wambaugh, American author
- 1937 - Edén Pastora Gómez, Nicaraguan rebel leader
- 1939 - Jeff Smith, American chef (d. 2004)
- 1940 - Addie "Micki" Harris, singer (Shirelles) (d. 1982)
- 1940 - John Hurt, English actor
- 1940 - George Seifert, American football coach
- 1946 - Serge Savard, Canadian hockey player
- 1949 - Steve Perry, American musician
- 1953 - Jim Jarmusch, American director
- 1954 - Chris Lemmon, American actor
- 1954 - Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
- 1956 - John Wesley Shipp, American actor
- 1957 - Mike Bossy, Canadian hockey player
- 1959 - Linda Blair, American actress
- 1960 - Michael Hutchence, Australian musician (INXS) (d. 1997)
- 1965 - DJ Jazzy Jeff, American rapper and actor
- 1965 - Diane Lane, American actress
- 1965 - Andrew Roachford, English singer and songwriter
- 1967 - Olivia d'Abo, English actress
- 1968 - Frank Lebœuf, French footballer
- 1972 - Gabriel Macht, American actor
- 1975 - Balthazar Getty, American actor
- 1977 - Hidetoshi Nakata, Japanese footballer
- 1978 - Chone Figgins, baseball player
- 1980 - Christopher Masterson, American actor
- 1980 - Ben Moody, American guitarist (Evanescence)
- 1981 - Chantelle Anderson, American basketball player
- 1981 - Willa Ford, American singer
- 1981 - Beverley Mitchell, American actress
- 1983 - Shaun Cody, American football player
- 1985 - Mohamed Sissoko, Malian footballer

Deaths

- 1536 - Bernhard Knipperdolling, German religious leader
- 1599 - Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian composer (b. 1547)
- 1666 - Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (b. 1592)
- 1750 - Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (b. 1675)
- 1763 - John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, English statesman (b. 1690)
- 1767 - Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German minterologist and geologist (b. 1719)
- 1779 - Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (b. 1733)
- 1779 - Claudius Smith, American Revolutionary War loyalist (b. 1736)
- 1840 - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)
- 1892 - Joseph Philo Bradley, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1813)
- 1901 - Queen Victoria I of the United Kingdom (b. 1819)
- 1921 - Captain George Streeter, American riverboat captain and circus owner (b. 1837)
- 1922 - Fredrik Bajer, Danish politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1837)
- 1922 - Pope Benedict XV (b. 1854)
- 1945 - Else Lasker-Schuler, German-born poet (b. 1869)
- 1950 - Alan Hale, Sr., American actor (b. 1892)
- 1959 - Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (b. 1929)
- 1968 - Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer (b. 1890)
- 1973 - Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States (b. 1908)
- 1975 - Andrew George Burry, Swiss-born manufacturer and businessman (b. 1873)
- 1978 - Oliver Leese, British World War II general (b. 1894)
- 1978 - Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (b. 1894)
- 1987 - R. Budd Dwyer, American politician (b. 1939)
- 1988 - Parker Fennelly, American comedian and actor (b. 1891)
- 1993 - Abe Kobo, Japanese writer (b. 1924)
- 1994 - Telly Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2000 - Craig Claiborne, American writer and editor (b. 1920)
- 2001 - Tommie Agee, baseball player (b. 1942)
- 2003 - Bill Mauldin, American World War II cartoonist (b. 1921)
- 2004 - Billy May, American composer and musician (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Ann Miller, American actress and dancer (b. 1923)
- 2005 - César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1943)
- 2005 - Carlo Orelli, last surviving Italian veteran of World War I (b. 1894)
- 2005 - Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican songwriter (b. 1924)
- 2005 - Rose Mary Woods, American Watergate scandal figure (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances

- Catholicism - Feast day of St. Vincent.
- New Zealand - Wellington Anniversary

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/22 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 21 - January 23 - December 22 - February 22 — listing of all days ko:1월 22일 ms:22 Januari ja:1月22日 simple:January 22 th:22 มกราคม

9 April

April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). There are 266 days remaining.

Events

- 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
- 1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeats the Polish and German armies.
- 1667: First ever public art exhibition opens in Paris
- 1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign is thwarted by Confederate General Richard Taylor's forces at Mansfield, Louisiana.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
- 1867 - Alaska purchase: By a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
- 1909 - The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
- 1913 - The Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field opens.
- 1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
- 1917 - World War I: Battle of Arras - The battle begins with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on the Vimy Ridge.
- 1939 - Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after having been refused the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
- 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
- 1942 - Second World War: Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
- 1945 - The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk.
- 1947 - The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
- 1947 - The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride of 16 black and white men traveling through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws begins. The riders, sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, are seeking to force southern states to enforce the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
- 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La violencia).
- 1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin.
- 1949 - The Gurkha Contingent of the Singapore Police Force is formed.
- 1953 - Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax
- 1959 - Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
- 1967 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight.
- 1969 - The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1986 - The government of France rules against the privatization of French automaker Renault.
- 1987 - Dikye Baggett becomes the first person to undergo corrective surgery for Parkinson's disease.
- 1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - Manuel Noriega is convicted of eight crimes.
- 1992 - John Major wins the UK general election.
- 1998 - The National Prisoner of War Museum is dedicated in Andersonville, Georgia, on the site of an American Civil War POW camp.
- 1999 - Ismail Omar Guelleh is elected president of Djibouti.
- 1999 - Nigerian President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara is assassinated.
- 2002 - The funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom is held at Westminster Abbey.
- 2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: The Ba'ath regime headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq is deposed.
- 2004 - 2004 KBR Convoy Attacked on BIAP highway: Nine KBR civilians were killed. KBR convoy commander Thomas Hamill captured. Two US Army soldiers killed. The fuel convoy from LSA Anaconda was delivering fuel to Baghdad Airport when insurgents attacked the convoy with small arms fire and RPG's. KBR is a subsidiary of Halliburton.
- 2005 - HRH Charles, Prince of Wales weds Camilla Parker Bowles

Births

- 1336 - Tamerlane, Turkish conqueror (d. 1405)
- 1498 - John, Cardinal of Lorraine, French churchman (d. 1550)
- 1597 - John Davenport, Connecticut pioneer (d. 1670)
- 1648 - Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 1st Viscount Galway, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1720)
- 1649 - James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II of England (d. 1685)
- 1680 - Philippe Néricault Destouches, French dramatist (d. 1754)
- 1686 - James Craggs the Younger, English politician (d. 1721)
- 1691 - Johann Matthias Gesner, German classical scholar (d. 1761)
- 1757 - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (d. 1833)
- 1770 - Thomas Johann Seebeck, German physicist (d. 1831)
- 1773 - Étienne Aignan, French writer (d. 1824)
- 1794 - Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute (d. 1881)
- 1806 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, English engineer (d. 1859)
- 1821 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet (d. 1867)
- 1830 - Eadweard Muybridge, English-born photographer and motion picture pioneer (d. 1904)
- 1835 - King Léopold II of Belgium (d. 1909)
- 1865 - Erich Ludendorff, German general in World War I (d. 1937)
- 1867 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1941)
- 1872 - Léon Blum, French prime minister (d. 1950)
- 1888 - Sol Hurok, Russian-born impresario (d. 1974)
- 1889 - Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist (d. 1985)
- 1897 - John B. Gambling, American radio talk-show host (d. 1974)
- 1898 - Curly Lambeau, American football coach, executive (d. 1965)
- 1898 - Paul Robeson, American singer and activist (d. 1976)
- 1903 - Ward Bond, American actor (d. 1960)
- 1904 - Sharkey Bonano, American musician (d. 1972)
- 1905 - J. William Fulbright, U.S. Senator from Arkansas (d. 1995)
- 1906 - Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
- 1908 - Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-born painter (d. 1997)
- 1910 - Abraham Ribicoff, American politician (d. 1998)
- 1912 - Lew Kopelew, Russian author (d. 1997)
- 1917 - Brad Dexter, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1918 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
- 1919 - J. Presper Eckert, American computer pioneer
- 1926 - Hugh Hefner, American editor and publisher
- 1928 - Tom Lehrer, American musician and mathematician
- 1932 - Jim Fowler, American zoologist
- 1932 - Carl Perkins, American musician (d. 1998)
- 1933 - Jean-Paul Belmondo, French actor
- 1935 - Avery Schreiber, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1937 - Marty Krofft, children's television producer
- 1938 - Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician
- 1939 - Michael Learned, American actress
- 1942 - Brandon De Wilde, American actor (d. 1972)
- 1945 - Peter Gammons, baseball journalist
- 1954 - Dennis Quaid, American actor
- 1954 - Iain Duncan Smith, British politician
- 1957 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer
- 1962 - Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
- 1965 - Jeff Zucker, American television executive
- 1966 - Cynthia Nixon, American actress
- 1971 - Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver
- 1974 - Jenna Jameson, American adult entertainer
- 1975 - Robbie Fowler, English footballer
- 1977 - Gerard Way, American singer (My Chemical Romance)
- 1978 - Jorge Andrade, Portuguese footballer
- 1978 - Rachel Stevens, English singer
- 1979 - Keshia Knight Pulliam, American actress
- 1987 - Jesse McCartney, American singer/actor
- 1998 - Elle Fanning, American actress

Deaths

- 491 - Zeno, Byzantine Emperor
- 715 - Pope Constantine
- 1024 - Pope Benedict VIII
- 1137 - William X, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1099)
- 1483 - King Edward IV of England (b. 1442)
- 1484 - Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales (b. 1473)
- 1553 - François Rabelais, French writer
- 1557 - Mikael Agricola, Finnish scholar (b. 1510)
- 1626 - Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, and essayist (b. 1561)
- 1693 - Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French writer (b. 1618)
- 1739 - Nicolas Saunderson, English scientist and mathematician (b. 1682)
- 1747 - Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, Scottish clan chief
- 1754 - Christian Wolff, German philosopher (b. 1679)
- 1761 - William Law, English minister (b. 1686)
- 1804 - Jacques Necker, French statesman (b. 1732)
- 1806 - William V of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic
- 1889 - Michel Eugène Chevreul, French chemist (b. 1786)
- 1917 - James Hope Moulton, English scholar of Classical Greek (b. 1863)
- 1936 - Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (b. 1855)
- 1940 - Mrs. Patrick Campbell, English actress (b. 1865)
- 1944 - Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1920)
- 1945 - Wilhelm Canaris, German Nazi leader (b. 1887)
- 1945 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (executed) (b. 1906)
- 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (b. 1903).
- 1959 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (b. 1867)
- 1961 - King Zog of Albania (b. 1895)
- 1963 - Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (b. 1891)
- 1976 - Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (b. 1903)
- 1976 - Phil Ochs, American singer (b. 1940)
- 1988 - Brook Benton, American actor (b. 1931)
- 1991 - Martin Hannett, record producer (b. 1948)
- 1996 - Richard Condon, American novelist (b. 1915)
- 1996 - James W. Rouse, American real estate developer, activist, and philanthropist (b. 1914)
- 1997 - Laura Nyro, American singer and songwriter (b. 1947)
- 1999 - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, Niger politician and general (b. 1949)
- 2001 - Willie Stargell, baseball player (b. 1940)
- 2002 - Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
- 2005 - Andrea Dworkin, American feminist and writer (b.

Holidays and observances

- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Jalál (Glory) - First day of the second month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Good Friday (2004)
- Bataan Day (Day of Valor - Araw ng Kagitingan) in the Philippines

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/9 Today in History: April 9] ---- April 8 - April 10 - March 9 - May 9 -- listing of all days ko:4월 9일 ms:9 April ja:4月9日 simple:April 9 th:9 เมษายน

England

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

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

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

Subdivisions

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

Geography

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