Queen Elizabeth II: Life as Queen

After the Coronation Elizabeth and Philip moved to

Buckingham Palace in central London. Like many of her
predecessors, however, she dislikes the Palace as a
residence and considers Windsor Castle, west of
London, to be her home. She also spends time at
Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Queen Elizabeth is the most widely travelled head of

state in history. In 1953-54 she and Philip made a six-
month round-the-world tour, becoming the first
reigning monarch to circumnavigate the globe, and
also the first to visit Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
In October 1957 she made a state visit to the United
States, and in 1959 she made a tour of Canada. In 1961 she toured India and
Pakistan for the first time. She has made state visits to most European countries
and to many outside Europe. She regularly attends Commonwealth Heads of
Government meetings.

At the time of Elizabeth's accession there was much talk of a "new Elizabethan
age". Elizabeth's role, however, has been to preside over the steady decline of
Britain as a world military and economic power, the dissolution of the British
Empire and the gradual development of its successor, the Commonwealth. She
has worked hard to maintain links with former British possessions, and in some
cases, such as South Africa, she has played an important role in retaining or
restoring good relations.

Elizabeth is a conservative in matters of religion, moral standards and family

matters. She has a strong sense of religious duty and takes seriously her
Coronation Oath. This is one reason why it is considered highly unlikely that she
will ever abdicate. Like her mother, she never forgave Edward VIII for, as she
saw it, abandoning his duty, and forcing her father to become King, which she
believed shortened his life by many years. She used the authority of her position
to prevent her sister, Princess Margaret, marrying a divorced man, Peter
Townsend. For years she refused to acknowledge her son Prince Charles's
relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Elizabeth's political views are supposed to be less clear-cut (she has never said or
done anything in public to reveal what they might be). She preserves cordial
relations with politicians of all parties. It is believed that her favourite Prime
Ministers have been Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson. Her
least favourite was undoubtedly Margaret Thatcher, whom she is said to
"cordially dislike". She was thought to have very good relations with her current
Prime Minister, Tony Blair, during the first years of his term in office, however,
there has been mounting evidence in recent months that her relationship with
Blair has hardened. She reportedly feels that he does not keep her informed well
enough on affairs of state.

The only public issue on which the Queen makes her views known are those
affecting the unity of the United Kingdom. She has spoken in favour of the
continued union of England and Scotland, angering some Scottish nationalists.
Her statement of praise for the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement raised
some complaints among some Unionists in the Democratic Unionist Party who
opposed the Agreement.

Despite a series of controversies about the rest of the royal family, particularly
the marital difficulties of her children throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Queen
Elizabeth remains a remarkably uncontroversial figure and is generally well-
respected by the British people. However, her public persona remains formal,
though more relaxed than it once was. Her refusal to display emotion in public
prevents the growth of deeper feelings for her among the public.

Queen Elizabeth has never become unpopular, certainly not as unpopular as

Queen Victoria was during a long period of her reign. However, in 1997 she and
other members of the Royal Family were perceived as cold and unfeeling when
they were seen not to participate in the public outpouring of grief at the death
of Diana, Princess of Wales. This brought sharp criticism from the normally
royalist tabloid press.

It is widely believed that Elizabeth held negative feelings towards Diana and
thought that she had done immense damage to the monarchy. However, the sight
of the entire Royal Family bowing to Diana's coffin as it passed Buckingham
Palace, together with a rare live television broadcast by the Queen, addressed
the public grief. The Queen's change of attitude is believed to have resulted from
strong advice from the Queen Mother and Tony Blair.

The Queen remains a highly respected head of state. In 2002 she celebrated her
Golden Jubilee, marking the 50th year of her accession to the throne. The year
saw an extensive tour of the United Kingdom, state visits to several
Commonwealth Realms, and numerous parades and official concerts. In June
thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace for the "Party at the Palace", a
massive concert featuring various famous musicians from across the British Isles.
A national service of thanksgiving was held the following day at St. Paul's
Cathedral, to which the Queen and Prince Philip travelled in the centuries-old
Gold State Coach. This was followed by massive carnivals and processions,
finishing with a fly-past by Concorde and the Red Arrows. The Royal Family
watched all this from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, before a crowd of one
million people.

Sadly the Jubilee year coincided with the deaths, within a few months, of the
Queen's mother and sister. Elizabeth's relations with her children, while still
somewhat distant, have become much warmer since these deaths. She is
particularly close to her daughter-in-law the Countess of Wessex. The Queen and
Prince of Wales still see little of each other, however. She is known to
disapprove of Charles's long-standing relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles,
but has made gestures of recognition of the relationship in recent years. On the
other hand, she is very close to her grandchildren, noticeably Prince William and
Zara Phillips.

In 2003 the Queen, who is often described as robustly healthy, underwent three
operations. In January she had torn cartilage removed from her right knee as a
result of a fall over Christmas. In December 2003 she underwent a similar
operation to her left knee, at the same time having several lesions removed from
her face. This prompted rumours that she might have skin cancer, quickly
scotched by the Palace. However, these surgeries have brought concerns that she
is now overworked.

As the Queen approaches her 80th birthday, she has made it clear that she has no
intention of abdicating. Those who know her best have stated that she intends to
reign as Queen until the day she dies. She has, however, begun to hand over
some public duties to her children. She is also reducing the amount of
international travel she normally undertakes (she has usually undertaken two
state visits each year, her first in 2004 being her state visit to France, and her
second to Germany in November, and up to two Commonwealth visits a year).
Like her mother, she intends to keep working until she is physically unable.

Elizabeth's public image has noticeably softened in recent years, particularly

since the death of the Queen Mother. Although she remains reserved in public,
she has been seen laughing and smiling much more than in years past, and to the
shock of many she has been seen to shed tears during emotional occasions such
as the memorial service at Westminster Abbey for those killed in the September
11 terrorist attacks.

George Orwell

George Orwell was the pen name of British author Eric

Arthur Blair (25 June 1903–21 January 1950). Noted as a
political and cultural commentator, Orwell is among the
most widely admired English-language essayists of the
twentieth century, though he is best known for two novels
he wrote in the late 1940s, the political allegory Animal
Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The latter described a
totalitarian dystopia so vividly that the adjective 'Orwellian'
is now commonly used to describe totalitarian mechanisms
of thought-control.
Eric Blair was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, in the then British colony of India,
where his father, Richard, worked for the Opium Department of the Civil Service.
His mother, Ida, brought him to England at the age of one. He did not see his
father again until 1907, when Richard visited England for three months before
leaving again until 1912. Eric had an older sister named Marjorie and a younger
sister named Avril. With his characteristic humour, he would later describe his
family's background as "lower-upper-middle class."

During most of his career Orwell was best known for his journalism, both in the
British press and in books of reportage such as Homage to Catalonia (describing
his experiences during the Spanish Civil War), Down and Out in Paris and London
(describing a period of poverty in these cities), and The Road to Wigan Pier
(which described the living conditions of poor miners in northern England).
According to Newsweek, Orwell "was the finest journalist of his day and the
foremost architect of the English essay since Hazlitt."

Contemporary readers are more often introduced to Orwell as a novelist,

particularly through his enormously successful titles Animal Farm and Nineteen
Eighty-Four. The former is an allegory of the corruption of the socialist ideals of
the Russian Revolution by Stalinism, and the latter is Orwell's prophetic vision of
the results of totalitarianism. Orwell had returned from Catalonia a staunch anti-
Stalinist and anti-Communist, but he remained to the end a man of the left and,
in his own words, a 'democratic socialist'.

Orwell is also known for his insights about the political implications of the use of
language. In the essay "Politics and the English Language", he decries the effects
of cliche, bureaucratic euphemism, and academic jargon on literary styles, and
ultimately on thought itself. Orwell's concern over the power of language to
shape reality is also reflected in his invention of Newspeak, the official language
of the imaginary country of Oceania in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Newspeak
is a variant of English in which vocabulary is strictly limited by government fiat.
The goal is to make it increasingly difficult to express ideas that contradict the
official line - with the final aim of making it impossible even to conceive such
ideas. (cf. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis). A number of words and phrases that Orwell
coined in Nineteen Eighty-Four have entered the standard vocabularly, such as
"memory hole," "Big Brother," "Room 101," "doublethink," "thought police," and
"newspeak."

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD,

FRS, PC (Can). (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a
British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A
noted statesman, orator and strategist, Churchill was also
an officer in the British Army. He has been studied to a unique extent as part of
modern British and world history. A prolific author, he won the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1953 for his own historical writings.

During his army career Churchill saw combat with the Malakand Field Force on
the Northwest Frontier, at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan and during the
Second Boer War in South Africa. During this period he also gained fame, and not
a small amount of notoriety, as a correspondent. At the forefront of the political
scene for almost sixty years, Churchill held numerous political and cabinet
positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of
Trade and Home Secretary during the Liberal governments.

In the First World War Churchill served in numerous positions, as First Lord of the
Admiralty, Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of
State for Air. He also served in the British Army on the Western Front and
commanded the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. During the interwar
years, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was appointed First Lord
of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in May 1940,
he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led the British war effort
against the Axis powers. His speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled
Allied forces.

After losing the 1945 election, Churchill became the leader of the opposition. In
1951, Churchill again became Prime Minister before finally retiring in 1955. Upon
his death, he was granted the honour of a state funeral which saw one of the
largest assemblies of politicians in the world.

he Royal Family

The British Royal Family is a group of people closely

related to the British monarch. Although there is no
strict legal definition of who is or is not a member
of the Royal Family, and different lists will include
different people, those carrying the title HM or HRH
are generally accepted as being members. Usually
this equates to the following people being
considered to be a member: the British Sovereign
(the king or queen); the consort of the Sovereign
(his or her spouse); the widowed consorts of previous Sovereigns; the children of
the Sovereign (princes and princesses); the grandchildren of the Sovereign in the
male line; and the spouses of a Sovereign's children and male-line grandchildren.
Prior to 1917, great grandchildren in the male line would also be considered to
be royal.
The style His Majesty or Her Majesty (HM) is enjoyed by a King, a Queen
(regnant), a Queen consort, and a former Queen consort (a Queen Dowager or a
Queen Mother).

Use of the style His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness (HRH) and the titular
dignity of Prince or Princess is governed by Letters Patent issued by King George
V on 30 November 1917 (published in the London Gazette on 11 December 1917).
These Letters Patent state that henceforth, only the children of the Sovereign,
the children of the sons of the Sovereign, and the eldest son of the eldest son of
The Prince of Wales would "have and at all times hold and enjoy the style, title
or attribute of Royal Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess
prefixed to their respective Christian names or with their other titles of honour."
They further state, "the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the
direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of
Wales) shall have the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes."

Under these conventions, The Queen's children and the children of The Prince of
Wales and The Duke of York are titled Princes or Princesses and styled Royal
Highness. Likewise, The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent, Princess
Alexandra, the Hon. Lady Oglivy, and Prince Michael of Kent enjoy the titular
dignity of Prince or Princess and the style Royal Highness as male-line
grandchildren of King George V. However, none of their children has a royal title.
For example, the children of Prince Michael of Kent are known as Lord Frederick
Windsor and Lady Gabriella Windsor (the courtesy titles as children of dukes),
instead of HRH Prince Frederick and HRH Princess Gabriella, respectively. The
children of The Princess Royal, Princess Alexandra, and the late Princess
Margaret, Countess of Snowden, are not Royal Highnesses, since princesses do
not normally transmit their titles to their children. Princess Margaret's son enjoys
the courtesy title Viscount Linley as the son and heir of the Earl of Snowden,
while her daughter enjoys the courtesy title Lady. The children of the Princess
Royal and Princess Alexandra have no titles, because Captain Mark Philips and Sir
Angus Oglivy do not hold hereditary peerages.

Women marrying sons and male-line grandsons of a Sovereign are normally styled
Her Royal Highness followed by the feminised version of her husband's highest
title. The wives of royal peers are known as "HRH The Duchess of ..." or " HRH
The Countess of ..." Thus, the wives of the Duke of Kent, the Duke of Gloucester,
and the Earl of Wessex are "HRH The Duchess of Kent," "HRH The Duchess of
Gloucester," and "HRH The Countess of Wessex," respectively. Before her divorce,
the late Diana, Princess of Wales enjoyed the title and style of "HRH The Princess
of Wales." However, when a woman marries a prince who does not hold a
peerage, she is known as HRH Princess [Her husband's Christian name], followed
by whatever territorial or titular designation. For example, the former Baroness
Marie-Christine von Reibnitz enjoys the title and style of "HRH Princess Michael of
Kent," instead of "HRH Princess Marie-Christine of Kent." Similarly, the former
Birgitte Eva van Deurs was titled "HRH Princess Richard of Gloucester" from her
wedding day until her husband succeeded to his father's dukedom in 1974. The
widows of princes remain HRH. However, under Queen Elizabeth II's 21 August
1996 Letters Patent, a divorced wife of a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland "shall not be entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or
attribute of Royal Highness."

There has been one exception to the convention that wives of princes take their
husband's rank. In Letters Patent dated 28 May 1937, King George VI specifically
denied the style HRH to the wife of the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward
VIII. Therefore, the former Wallis Warfield Simpson was known as "Her Grace The
Duchess of Windsor," not "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Windsor."

The daughters and male-line granddaughters of the Sovereign do not lose their
royal titles upon marriage. Men who marry the daughters and the male-line
granddaughters of the Sovereign, however, do not acquire their wives' royal rank
and the style HRH. The only exception to this convention is Prince Philip. Born a
Prince of Greece and Denmark, it was only after his wartime service that he
renounced his title and became a naturalised British subject, as Lieutenant Philip
Mountbatten RN. The day before his marriage he was created Duke of Edinburgh
with the style HRH by King George VI's Letters Patent of 1947 November 19. The
Duke of Edinburgh was not created a Prince of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland until 1957. On Tanna, one of the islands in Vanuatu
in the South West Pacific, the Duke is worshipped as a god. Vanuatu was formerly
the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides, which Prince Philip visited
in 1971.

As grandchildren of the Sovereign through the female line, the children of the
then Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh would not have been entitled
to use HRH or Prince or Princess until their mother became Queen, had those
titles and styles not been granted in Letters Patent of 22 October 1948.

Finally, on the wedding day of HRH The Earl of Wessex to the then Miss Sophie
Rhys-Jones, Buckingham Palace announced that, with the couple's agreement,
any children they have should not be given the style His or Her Royal Highness,
but would have courtesy titles as sons or daughters of an earl. HRH The Countess
of Wessex gave birth to a daughter on 8 November 2003. The press secretary to
the Queen announced that the infant would be styled the Lady Louise Windsor,
though no Royal Warrant or Letters Patent were issued to this effect.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper is a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers)
active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of
London in the second half of 1888. The name is taken from a letter to the
Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer, published at the
time of the killings. Although many theories have been advanced, Jack the
Ripper's identity may never be proven.

The legends surrounding the Ripper murders have become a complex muddle of
genuine historical research, freewheeling conspiracy theory and dubious folklore.
The lack of a confirmed identity for the killer has allowed subsequent authors,
historians and mostly amateur sleuths—dubbed Ripperologists—to point their
fingers at a wide variety of candidates. Newspapers, whose circulation had been
growing during this era, bestowed widespread and enduring notoriety on the
killer due to the savagery of the murders and the failure of police to effect a
capture, with the Ripper sometimes escaping discovery by mere minutes.

Victims were women earning income as casual prostitutes. Typical Ripper

murders were perpetrated in a public or semi-public place; the victim's throat
was cut, after which the cadaver was subjected to abdominal and sometimes
other mutilations such as those found in lust murder. Many now believe that the
victims were first strangled in order to silence them. Due to the nature of the
wounds on some presumed Ripper victims, several of whom had internal organs
removed, it has been proposed that the killer had a degree of surgical or medical
skill, or was perhaps a butcher, although this point, like most of the beliefs
about the killer and facts in the case, is in dispute.

The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or

UK, is in Western Europe. It comprises the island of Great
Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and the northern one-
sixth of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland), together with
many smaller islands.

The mainland areas lie between latitudes 49°N and 59°N (the
Shetland Islands reach to nearly 61°N), and longitudes 8°W to
2°E. The Royal Greenwich Observatory, near London, is the
defining point of the Prime Meridian. The United Kingdom has
a total area of approximately 245,000 km².
The UK lies between the North Atlantic and the North Sea, and comes within 35
km (22 mi) of the northwest coast of France, from which it is separated by the
English Channel.

It shares a 499 km international land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. The
Channel Tunnel bored beneath the English Channel, now links the UK with
France.

The physical geography of the UK varies greatly. England consists of mostly

lowland terrain, with upland or mountainous terrain only found north-west of the
Tees-Exe line. The upland areas include the Lake District, the Pennines, North
York Moors, Exmoor and Dartmoor. The lowland areas are typically traversed by
ranges of low hills, frequently composed of chalk, and flat plains.

Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and its physical geography is
distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault which traverses the Scottish
mainland from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. The faultline separates the two
distinctively different regions of the Highlands to the north and west, and the
Lowlands to the south and east.

The Highlands are predominantly mountainous, containing the majority of

Scotland's mountainous landscape, while the Lowlands contain flatter land,
especially across the Central Lowlands, with upland and mountainous terrain
located at the Southern Uplands.

Wales is mostly mountainous, though south Wales is less mountainous than north
and mid Wales.

Northern Ireland consists of mostly hilly landscape and its geography includes the
Mourne Mountains as well as Lough Neagh, at 388 square kilometres (150 sq mi),
the largest body of water in the UK.

The overall geomorphology of the UK was shaped by a combination of forces

including tectonics and climate change, in particular glaciation in northern and
western areas.

The tallest mountain in the UK (and British Isles) is Ben Nevis, in the Grampian
Mountains, Scotland. The longest river is the River Severn which flows from
Wales into England. The largest lake by surface area is Lough Neagh in Northern
Ireland, though Scotland's Loch Ness has the largest volume

London Underground

The London Underground is a public transport

network, composed of electrified railways (that is, a
metro system) that run underground in tunnels in
central London and above ground in the city's
suburbs. The oldest metropolitan underground
network in the world, first operating in 1863, the
London Underground is usually referred to as either
simply "the Underground" by Londoners, or (more
familiarly) as "the Tube".
Since 2003, the Tube has been part of Transport for London (TfL), which also
schedules and lets contracts for the famous red double-decker buses. Previously
London Transport was the holding company for London Underground.
There are currently 275 open stations and over 253 miles (408 km) of active
lines, with three million passenger journeys made each day (927 million journeys
made 1999-2000; there are a number of stations and tunnels now closed).

Lines on the Underground can be classified into two types: sub-surface and deep
level. The sub-surface lines were dug by the cut-and-cover method, with the
tracks running about 5 metres below the surface. Trains on the sub-surface lines
have the same loading gauge as British mainline trains.

The deep-level or "tube" lines, bored using a tunnelling shield, run about 20
metres below the surface (although this varies considerably), with each track
running in a separate tunnel lined with cast-iron rings. These tunnels can have a
diameter as small as 3.56m (11ft 8.25in) and the loading gauge is thus
considerably smaller than on the sub-surface lines, though standard gauge track
is used.

Lines of both types usually emerge onto the surface outside the central area, the
exceptions being the Victoria Line which is in tunnel for its entire length save for
a maintenance depot, and the Waterloo & City Line which, being very short, has
no non-central part and no surface line.

Each station displays the Underground logo

containing the station's name in place of the word
"Underground", both at entrances to the station and
repeatedly along the station walls so that they can
easily be seen by passengers on arriving trains.

In addition, many stations' walls are decorated in

tile motifs that are unique to the station, such as
profiles of Sherlock Holmes' head at the Baker
Street station or a cross containing a crown at the King's Cross station.

Routemaster Double-Decker Bus

The AEC Routemaster is a model of double-decker bus that

was unveiled in 1954. It was introduced in London on 8
February 1956 and withdrawn from regular service on 9
December 2005.

Production examples, at first to the 27'6" length then

permitted, were placed in service from 1959 to replace
trolleybuses, this process being completed in May 1962.
Subsequent Routemasters, the last 500 of which were 30'-
long RML types, began the process of replacing the
previous generation of RT-type AEC Regent buses (commemorated by Flanders &
Swann's A Transport Of Delight) and their similar Leyland Titan RTL and RTW
counterparts. The last Routemaster, RML 2760, was put into service in March
1968.

The design has proved very popular with Londoners and tourists alike. Its two
main advantages are the open platform at the rear, and the presence of a
conductor to collect fares, required by the isolated driver's cab. The platform
allows large volumes of passengers to alight and board quickly at stops, and
indeed at traffic lights and slow speeds. The conductor collects fares when the
bus is travelling, which considerably reduces waiting time at stops.

Many of London's bus routes switched to modern "one-person operation" (OPO) in

the 1970s, out of a desire to reduce operating costs and address staff shortages.
However, it has been found that the increased boarding time while each
passenger pays the driver slows down busy routes, and leads to "bunching" of
buses and poor service. In an attempt to solve this, in central London bus tickets
are now bought from street-side machines before boarding. The Oyster card has
also made an impact in this regard.

Withdrawal of Routemasters commenced in 1982 but was largely halted by 1988,

with comparatively few withdrawn between then and 1992, when a programme
was instituted to refurbish 500 of the RML type for ten years' further service. This
work, which included updating the interior to modern tastes and re-engining, was
carried out by Mainline, TBP and Leaside Buses, and was completed in 1994, in
time for the privatisation of London Buses Limited's subsidiaries. This saw the
Routemaster fleet divided between nine new companies.

In spite of an earlier public promise to retain the Routemaster, Ken Livingstone,

the Mayor of London, later announced the phasing out of the type in order to
provide a bus service in the Capital fully accessible to wheelchair users.
Government legislation requires full accessibility by 2017 under the Disability
Discrimination Act. The Routemaster was finally withdrawn from service on 9
December 2005.

ig Ben

Big Ben is the nickname of the Great Bell of Westminster,

the hour bell of the Great Clock, hanging in the Clock
Tower of the Palace of Westminster, the home of the
Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

One theory holds that the bell was named "Big Ben" after
Sir Benjamin Hall, the Chief Commissioner of Works. Another theory suggests
that at the time anything which was heaviest of its kind was called "Big Ben"
after the then-famous prizefighter Benjamin Caunt, making it a natural name for
the bell.

Big Ben is commonly taken to be the name of the clock tower itself, but this is
incorrect - the tower is simply known as The Clock Tower. Sometimes, the tower
is referred to as St. Stephen's Tower, but this title is not used by staff of the
Palace of Westminster.

The bell weighs 13.8 tonnes (13 tons 10cwt 99lb), with a striking hammer
weighing 203.2kg (4cwt), and was originally tuned to E. There is delay of 5
seconds between strikes. It is a common misconception that Big Ben is the
heaviest bell in Britain. In fact, it is only the third heaviest, the second heaviest
being Great George found at Liverpool Cathedral (14 tons 15cwt 2qr 2lb) and the
heaviest being Great Paul found at St Paul's Cathedral (16 tons 14cwt 2qt 19lb).

The original tower designs demanded a 14 ton bell to be struck with a 6cwt
hammer. A bell was produced by John Warner and Sons in 1856, weighing 16
tons. However, this cracked under test in the Palace Yard. The contract for the
bell was then given to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, who in 1858 re-cast the bell
into the 13 ton bell used today. It too started to crack under the 6cwt hammer,
and a legal battle arose. After two years of having the Great Bell out of
commission, the 6cwt hammer was replaced with a lighter 4cwt hammer, and the
bell itself was turned 90 degrees so the crack would not develop any further,
coming back into use in 1862. However, the crack, now filled, and the turn
meant that it no longer struck a true E.

The belfry also houses four quarter bells which play the Westminster Chimes,
derived from Handel's Messiah, on the quarter hours. The C note in the chime is
repeated twice in quick succession, faster than the chiming train can draw back
the hammers, so the C bell uses two separate hammers.

Reliability

The clock is famous for its reliability. This is due to its designer, the lawyer and
amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison, later Lord Grimthorpe. As the clock
mechanism, created to Denison's specification by clockmaker Edward John Dent,
was completed before the tower itself was finished, Denison had time to
experiment with the clock. Instead of using the deadbeat escapement and
remontoire as originally designed, Denison invented the double three legged
gravity escapement. This escapement provides the best separation between
pendulum and clock mechanism. Together with an enclosed, wind-proof box sunk
beneath the clockroom, the Great Clock's pendulum is well isolated from
external factors like snow, ice and pigeons on the clock hands, and keeps
remarkably accurate time.
The clock had its first and only major breakdown in 1975. The famous quarter
bells broke in late April 2004, and were reactivated again on May 9. During this
time BBC Radio Four had to make do with the pips.

The idiom of putting a penny on, with the meaning of slowing down, sprung from
the method of fine-tuning the clock's pendulum by adding or subtracting penny-
coins. Even to this day, only old pennies, phased out of British currency during
the 1971 Decimalization, are used.

A 20-foot metal replica of the clock tower known as Little Ben, complete with
working clock, stands on a traffic island close to Victoria Station. Several turret
clocks around the world are inspired by the look of the Great Clock, including the
clock tower of the Gare de Lyon in Paris and the Peace Tower of the Parliament
of Canada in Ottawa.

Culture

Big Ben is a focus of New Year celebrations in the UK, with radio and TV stations
tuning to its chimes to welcome the 'official' start of the year. Similarly, on
Remembrance Day, the chimes of Big Ben are broadcast to mark the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month and the start of two minutes silence.

For many years ITN's "News at Ten" began with an opening sequence which
featured Big Ben with the chimes punctuating the anouncement of the news
headlines. This has since been dropped, but all ITV1 and ITV News Channel
bulletins still use a graphic based on the Westminster clock face. Big Ben can also
be heard striking the hour before some news bulletins on BBC Radio 4 and the
BBC World Service, a practice that began on December 31, 1923.

The clock features in John Buchan's spy novel The Thirty-Nine Steps and makes
for a memorable climax in Don Sharp's 1978 film version, although not in Alfred
Hitchcock's 1935 original adaptation. A similar scene is recreated in the 2003
film, Shanghai Knights which culminates with Jackie Chan hanging from the
hands of the clock. The clock also appears in the animated cartoon Basil, the
Great Mouse Detective.

An earlier film climax on the clock face of Big Ben appears in Will Hay's 1943 film
My Learned Friend, although the scene is more slapstick than thriller.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge KG FRS (William Arthur

Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the elder son of Charles,
Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, and third
eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip,
Duke of Edinburgh.

He is second in the line of succession, behind his father, to the thrones of sixteen
independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United
Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas,
Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and
Nevis. Consequently, he is also second in line, again behind his father, to the
position of Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

He was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a degree
from the University of St Andrews. He spent parts of a gap year in Chile, Belize,
and countries in Africa. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Blues and
Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry—serving with his brother Prince Harry—
and, two years later, earned his wings by completing pilot training at Royal Air
Force College Cranwell.

In 2009, the Prince transferred to the Royal Air Force, was promoted to flight
lieutenant and underwent helicopter flying training in order to become a full
time pilot with the Search and Rescue Force. In Autumn 2010, he completed his
general and special-to-type helicopter training and he is now at RAF Valley on
No. 22 Squadron performing co-pilot duties on the Sea King search and rescue
helicopter. Prince William married his long-term girlfriend Catherine (Kate)
Middleton on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Hours prior to his wedding
Prince William was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron
Carrickfergus.

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford (informally referred to as Oxford

University or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research
university located in Oxford, England. Although its exact
date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching
as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in the
English-speaking world, and the second-oldest surviving
university in the world, after the University of Bologna.

In post-nominals, the University of Oxford is commonly

abbreviated as "Oxon.", from the Latin Universitas Oxoniensis. Since 2007, "Oxf"
has been used in official university publications, though this "has been criticized
by some readers".

The university has a long history. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned
English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between
students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to
Cambridge, where they established what became the University of Cambridge.

Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford is organised around weekly tutorials at

self-governing colleges and halls, supported by classes, lectures and laboratory
work organised by university faculties and departments. Oxford regularly
contends with Cambridge for first place in the UK league tables.

The university is home to the Clarendon Scholarships for graduate students.

Around 20,000 students applied in 2012-13 for 150 scholarships. For more than a
century, it has also served as the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, which brings
students from a number of countries to study at Oxford as postgraduates.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material fr

England National Football Team

The England national football team represents England (not the whole United
Kingdom) in international football competitions such as the World Cup and the
European Championships. It is controlled by The Football Association, the
governing body for football in England.

Partly thanks to historical accident, and continuing national sentiment among

them, each of the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom possesses its own
separate football association, domestic league and national team. Because the
IOC does not accept regional representative teams, England, like the other
three, do not compete in Olympic football.

England are by far the most successful of the Home Nations, having won the 1966
World Cup and the British Home Championship outright thirty-four times, as
many as the other three nations have won outright altogether.

For the first 80 years of its existence, the England team played its home matches
at different venues all around the country; for the first few years it used cricket
grounds, before later moving on to football clubs' stadiums. England played their
first match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, the year after it was completed,
against Scotland, but for the next 27 years would only use Wembley as a venue
for Scotland matches; other opposition were still entertained at club grounds
around the country.

In May 1951, Argentina became the first team other than Scotland to be
entertained at Wembley, and by 1960 nearly all of England's home matches were
being played there. Between 1966 and 1995, England did not play a single home
match anywhere else.

England's last match at Wembley before its demolition and reconstruction was
against Germany on October 7, 2000, a game which England lost 1-0. Since then
the team has played at 14 different venues around the country, with Old Trafford
having been the most often used. The FA have ruled that when the new Wembley
is completed in mid-2006, England's travels will end, and the team will play all of
their home matches there until at least 2036. The main reason for this is
financial. The FA did not own the old Wembley stadium, but it does own the new
one, and has taken on debts of hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it. Thus
it needs to maximise the revenue from England matches, and does not wish to
share it with the owners of other grounds.

Coat of Arms of England

The Coat of Arms was introduced by King Richard I of

England in the 1190s, apparently as a version of the arms
of the Duchy of Normandy.

Normandy currently uses two leopards, although an

alternative historical version uses three leopards
identical to the English arms.

According to one tradition, following the Norman

Conquest an extra leopard was added to two existing
Norman leopards to represent the combined Anglo-Norman realm. According to
another tradition the two leopards were combined with the single lion of
Aquitaine on the acquisition of these continental territories by the English
Crown.

Other heraldic authorities have claimed that at an early stage in the

development of heraldry the number of Norman leopards was not fixed and that
it is simply a matter of design as to why England has ended up with three
heraldic leopards (now called lions) and Normandy with two.

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in

the English-speaking world (after Oxford).

It is situated in the town of Cambridge, England. According to

legend, the university was founded in 1209 by scholars
escaping from Oxford after a fight with locals there.

Cambridge has produced more Nobel prize winners than any

other university in the world, having 80 associated with it, about 70 of whom
were students there.

It regularly heads league tables ranking British universities, and a recent league
table by the Times Higher Education Supplement rated it sixth in the world
overall and first for science.

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge, often referred to together as

Oxbridge, compete to be seen as the strongest overall university in the UK.
Historically, they have produced a significant proportion of Britain's prominent
scientists, writers and politicians.

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley (née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851)
was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and
travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern
Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the
Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political
philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist
Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary Godwin's mother died when she was eleven days old; afterwards, she and
her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, were raised by her father. When Mary was
four, Godwin married his neighbour, Mary Jane Clairmont. Godwin provided his
daughter with a rich, if informal, education, encouraging her to adhere to his
liberal political theories. In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship
with one of her father's political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, they left for France and
travelled through Europe; upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with
Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant
debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late
1816 after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.

In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William
Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived
the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy,
where their second and third children died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her
last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband drowned when
his sailing boat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary
Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing
of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was
dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the
age of 53.

Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish Percy
Shelley's works and for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and
has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded
a more comprehensive view of Mary Shelley's achievements. Scholars have shown
increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which
include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the
apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826), and her final two novels, Lodore (1835)
and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works such as the travel book
Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius
Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–46) support the growing view that Mary
Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Mary Shelley's works
often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women
in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct
challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and
the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin.

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD,

FRS, PC (Can). (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a
British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A
noted statesman, orator and strategist, Churchill was also
an officer in the British Army. He has been studied to a
unique extent as part of modern British and world history. A
prolific author, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953
for his own historical writings.

During his army career Churchill saw combat with the Malakand Field Force on
the Northwest Frontier, at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan and during the
Second Boer War in South Africa. During this period he also gained fame, and not
a small amount of notoriety, as a correspondent. At the forefront of the political
scene for almost sixty years, Churchill held numerous political and cabinet
positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of
Trade and Home Secretary during the Liberal governments.

In the First World War Churchill served in numerous positions, as First Lord of the
Admiralty, Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of
State for Air. He also served in the British Army on the Western Front and
commanded the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. During the interwar
years, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was appointed First Lord
of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in May 1940,
he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led the British war effort
against the Axis powers. His speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled
Allied forces.
After losing the 1945 election, Churchill became the leader of the opposition. In
1951, Churchill again became Prime Minister before finally retiring in 1955. Upon
his death, he was granted the honour of a state funeral which saw one of the
largest assemblies of politicians in the world.

oseph Robinette Biden Jr. (/ˈbaɪdən/ BY-dən; born November 20, 1942) is an American politician and
the president-elect of the United States. He defeated incumbent president Donald Trump in the 2020
presidential election and will be inaugurated as the 46th president on January 20, 2021. A member of
the Democratic Party, Biden served as the 47th vice president during the Obama administration from
2009 to 2017. He represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009.
Raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and New Castle County, Delaware, Biden studied at the University of
Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. He was elected a New Castle
County Councillor in 1970 and became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he
was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29. Biden was a longtime member
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and eventually its chairman. He opposed the Gulf War in
1991 and supported expanding the NATO alliance into Eastern Europe and its intervention in
the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. He supported the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002, and later
opposed the surge of U.S. troops in 2007. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to
1995, dealing with drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties issues; led the effort to pass
the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act; and
oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert
Bork and Clarence Thomas. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in
1988 and again in 2008.
Biden was reelected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth-most senior senator when he resigned to
serve as Barack Obama's vice president after they won the 2008 presidential election; Obama and Biden
were reelected in 2012. As vice president, Biden oversaw infrastructure spending in 2009 to counteract
the Great Recession. His negotiations with congressional Republicans helped pass legislation including
the 2010 Tax Relief Act, which resolved a taxation deadlock; the Budget Control Act of 2011, which
resolved a debt ceiling crisis; and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which addressed the
impending "fiscal cliff". He also led efforts to pass the United States–Russia New START treaty and
helped formulate U.S. policy toward Iraq through the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. Following
the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he led the Gun Violence Task Force. In January 2017,
Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.
In April 2019, Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election, and he reached the
delegate threshold needed to secure the Democratic nomination in June 2020.[1] On August 11, he
announced his choice of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. Biden defeated
Trump in the 2020 United States

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born November 20,

1942, at St. Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania,[4]:5 to Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Biden
(née Finnegan) and Joseph Robinette Biden Sr.[5][6] The oldest child in a Catholic family, he has a
sister, Valerie, and two brothers, Francis and James.[4]:9 Jean was of Irish descent,[7][8][4]:8 while Joseph Sr.
had English, French, and Irish ancestry.[9][4]:8
Biden's father was initially wealthy but suffered financial setbacks around the time Biden was born,[10][11]
[12]
 and for several years the family lived with Biden's maternal grandparents.[13] Scranton fell into
economic decline during the 1950s and Biden's father could not find steady work.[14] Beginning in 1953,
the family lived in an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, then moved to a house in Wilmington,
Delaware.[13] Biden Sr. later became a successful used car salesman, maintaining the family in a middle-
class lifestyle.[13][14][15]
At Archmere Academy in Claymont,[4]:27, 32 Biden was a standout halfback and wide receiver on the high
school football team;[13][16] he also played baseball.[13] Though a poor student, he was class president in his
junior and senior years.[4]:40–41[17]:99 He graduated in 1961.[4]:40–41
At the University of Delaware in Newark, Biden briefly played freshman football[18][19] and earned
a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 with a double major in history and political science, and
a minor in English.[20][17]:98 He had a C average and ranked 506th in his class of 688.[21][22]
Biden has a stutter, which has improved since his early twenties.[23] He says he has reduced it by reciting
poetry before a mirror,[17]:99[24] but it has been suggested that it affected his performance in the 2020
Democratic Party presidential debates

On August 27, 1966, Biden married Neilia

Hunter (1942–1972), a student at Syracuse University,[20] after overcoming her parents' reluctance for her
to wed a Roman Catholic; the ceremony was held in a Catholic church in Skaneateles, New York.
[26]
 They had three children: Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III (1969–2015), Robert Hunter Biden (born 1970),
and Naomi Christina "Amy" Biden (1971–1972).[20]
In 1968, Biden earned a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law, ranked 76th in his class
of 85,[21][22] and was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969.[27] While in school, he received student draft
deferments,[28] and afterward was classified as unavailable for military service due to asthma.[28][29]
In 1968, Biden clerked at a Wilmington law firm headed by prominent local Republican William
Prickett and, he later said, "thought of myself as a Republican".[30][31] He disliked incumbent Democratic
Delaware governor Charles L. Terry's conservative racial politics and supported a more liberal
Republican, Russell W. Peterson, who defeated Terry in 1968.[30] Biden was recruited by local
Republicans but registered as an Independent because of his distaste for Republican presidential
candidate Richard Nixon.[30]
In 1969, Biden practiced law first as a public defender and then at a firm headed by a locally active
Democrat[32][30] who named him to the Democratic Forum, a group trying to reform and revitalize the state
party;[4]:86 Biden subsequently reregistered as a Democrat.[30] He and another attorney also formed a law
firm.[32] Corporate law, however, did not appeal to him, and criminal law did not pay well.[13] He
supplemented his income by managing properties.[33]
Later that year Biden was elected to a county council seat in a usually Republican district of New Castle
County, Delaware, running on a liberal platform that included support for public housing in the suburbs.
[32][34][4]:59
 He served on the council, while still practicing law, until 1972.[27][35] He opposed large highway
projects that might disrupt Wilmington neighborhoods

Second marriage

Biden and his second wife, Jill, met in 1975 and married in 1977.

Biden was sworn in on January 5, 1973, by secretary of the Senate Francis R. Valeo at the Delaware
Division of the Wilmington Medical Center.[43][4]:93, 98 Present were his sons Beau (whose leg was still in
traction from the automobile accident) and Hunter and other family members.[43][4]:93, 98 At 30, he was
the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history.[44][45]
To see his sons every day,[46] Biden commuted by train between his Delaware home and Washington,
D.C.—90 minutes each way—and maintained this habit throughout his 36 years in the Senate.[15] But the
accident had filled him with anger and religious doubt. He wrote later that he "felt God had played a
horrible trick" on him,[47] and he had trouble focusing on work.[48][49]
In 1975, Biden met Jill Tracy Jacobs, who had grown up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, and would
become a teacher in Delaware.[50] They met on a blind date arranged by Biden's brother, although Biden
had already noticed a photograph of her in an advertisement for a park in Wilmington.[50] Biden credits
her with renewing his interest in both politics and life.[51] On June 17, 1977, Biden and Jacobs were
married by a Catholic priest at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York.[52][53] Jill Biden has a
bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware; two master's degrees, one from West Chester
University and the other from Villanova University; and a doctorate in education from the University of
Delaware.[50] They have one daughter together, Ashley Blazer (born 1981),[20] who became a social
worker and staffer at the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families.
[54]
 Biden and his wife are Roman Catholics and regularly attend Mass at St. Joseph's on the
Brandywine in Greenville, Delaware.[55] From 1991 to 2008, Biden co-taught a seminar on constitutional
law at Widener University School of Law.[56] The seminar often had a waiting list. Biden sometimes flew
back from overseas to teach the class.

Early Senate activities

Biden with President Jimmy Carter.

Biden shaking hands with President Ronald Reagan, 1984

During his early years in the Senate, Biden focused on consumer protection and environmental issues
and called for greater government accountability.[61] In a 1974 interview, he described himself as liberal
on civil rights and liberties, senior citizens' concerns and healthcare but conservative on other issues,
including abortion and the military conscription.[62]
In his first decade in the Senate, Biden focused on arms control.[63][64] After Congress failed to ratify
the SALT II Treaty signed in 1979 by Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter,
Biden met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to communicate American concerns, and
secured changes that addressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's objections.[65] When
the Reagan administration wanted to interpret the 1972 SALT I treaty loosely to allow development of
the Strategic Defense Initiative, Biden argued for strict adherence to the treaty.[63] He received
considerable attention when he excoriated Secretary of State George Shultz at a Senate hearing for the
Reagan administration's support of South Africa despite its continued policy of apartheid.[30]
Biden became ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1981. In 1984, he was a
Democratic floor manager for the successful passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act; over
time, the law's tough-on-crime provisions became controversial and in 2019, Biden called his role in
passing the bill a "big mistake".[66][67] His supporters praised him for modifying some of the law's worst
provisions, and it was his most important legislative accomplishment to that time.[68] This bill included
the Federal Assault Weapons Ban[69][70] and the Violence Against Women Act,[71] which he has called his
most significant legislation.[72]
In 1993, Biden voted for a provision that deemed homosexuality incompatible with military life, thereby
banning gays from serving in the armed forces.[73][74][75] In 1996, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act,
which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, thereby barring
individuals in such marriages from equal protection under federal law and allowing states to do the
same;[76] in 2015, the act was ruled unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges.

William the Conqueror

William I (Old Norman: Williame I; c. 1028 – 9 September 1087), usually known as

William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman
King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of
Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035 under the style William
II. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was
secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his
life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his
continental lands and by difficulties with his eldest son.

William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Robert's
mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties
for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued the first
years of his rule. During his childhood and adolescence, members of the Norman
aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their
own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish
his authority over the duchy, a process that was not complete until about 1060.
His marriage in the 1050s to Matilda of Flanders provided him with a powerful
ally in the neighbouring county of Flanders. By the time of his marriage, William
was able to arrange the appointments of his supporters as bishops and abbots in
the Norman church. His consolidation of power allowed him to expand his
horizons, and by 1062 William was able to secure control of the neighbouring
county of Maine.

In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of
England, then held by his childless cousin Edward the Confessor. There were
other potential claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson,
who was named the next king by Edward on the latter's deathbed in January
1066. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him,
and that Harold had sworn to support William's claim. William built a large fleet
and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold
at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After further military efforts
William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066, in London. He made
arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to
Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 William's hold
on England was mostly secure, allowing him to spend the majority of the rest of
his reign on the Continent.

William's final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains,

troubles with his eldest son, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes.
In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey listing
all the landholders in England along with their holdings. William died in
September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern France, and was buried in
Caen. His reign in England was marked by the construction of castles, the settling
of a new Norman nobility on the land, and change in the composition of the
English clergy. He did not try to integrate his various domains into one empire,
but instead continued to administer each part separately. William's lands were
divided after his death: Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert, and his second
surviving son, William, received England

William Shakespeare
 William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26,
1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a
reputation as the greatest of all writers in English.

His ability to capture and convey the most profound

aspects of human nature is regarded by many as
unequalled and the English Renaissance has often been
called "the age of Shakespeare".

He was among the few playwrights who have excelled in

both tragedy and comedy and several of his plays contain
songs that are among the finest lyric poems in English.

He also wrote 154 sonnets, two narrative poems, and a handful of shorter poems.
Shakespeare wrote his works between 1588 and 1613, although the exact dates
and chronology of the plays attributed to him are often uncertain.

Shakespeare's influence on the English-speaking world shows in the widespread

use of quotations from Shakespearean plays, the titles of works based on
Shakespearean phrases, and the many adaptations of his plays.

Other signs of his continuing influence include his appearance in the top ten of
the "100 Greatest Britons" poll sponsored by the BBC, the frequent productions
based on his work, such as the BBC Television Shakespeare, and the success of
the fictional account of his life in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

Some of his famous plays are "Romeo and Juliet", "Macbeth", "Hamlet", "Othello",
"Antony and Cleopatra", "The Comedy of Errors", "A Midsummer Night's Dream",
among others.

n the mid-1970s, Biden was one of the Senate's leading opponents of race-integration busing. His
Delaware constituents strongly opposed it, and such opposition nationwide later led his party to mostly
abandon school integration policies.[78] In his first Senate campaign, Biden had expressed support for
busing to remedy de jure segregation, as in the South, but opposed its use to remedy de facto segregation
arising from racial patterns of neighborhood residency, as in Delaware; he opposed a proposed
constitutional amendment banning busing entirely.[79]
In May 1974, Biden voted to table a proposal containing anti-busing and anti-desegregation clauses but
later voted for a modified version containing a qualification that it was not intended to weaken the
judiciary's power to enforce the 5th Amendment and 14th Amendment.[80] In 1975, he supported a
proposal that would have prevented the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from cutting
federal funds to districts that refused to integrate;[81] he said busing was a "bankrupt idea [violating] the
cardinal rule of common sense" and that his opposition would make it easier for other liberals to follow
suit.[68] At the same time he supported initiatives on housing, job opportunities and voting rights.[80] Biden
supported a measure[when?] forbidding the use of federal funds for transporting students beyond the school
closest to them. In 1977, he co-sponsored an amendment closing loopholes in that measure, which
President Carter signed into law in 1978.[
William Blake

William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was

an English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker. Largely
unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake's work is today
considered seminal and significant in the history of both
poetry and the visual arts. He was voted 38th in a poll of
the 100 Greatest Britons organised by the BBC in 2002.

According to Northrop Frye, who undertook a study of

Blake's entire poetic corpus, his prophetic poems form
"what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of
poetry in the English language." Others have praised Blake's
visual artistry, at least one modern critic proclaiming Blake "far and away the
greatest artist Britain has ever produced."

Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today
for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical vision that underlies
his work. As he himself once indicated, "The imagination is not a State: it is the
Human existence itself."

While his visual art and written poetry are usually considered separately, Blake
often employed them in concert to create a product that at once defied and
superseded convention. Though he believed himself able to converse aloud with
Old Testament prophets, and despite his work in illustrating the Book of Job,
Blake's affection for the Bible was accompanied by hostility for the established
Church, his beliefs modified by a fascination with Mysticism and the unfolding of
the Romantic Movement around him. Ultimately, the difficulty of placing William
Blake in any one chronological stage of art history is perhaps the distinction that
best defines him.

1988 presidential campaign

Main article: Joe Biden 1988 presidential campaign
Biden in 1987

Biden formally declared his candidacy for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination on June 9, 1987.
[83]
 He was considered a strong candidate because of his moderate image, his speaking ability, his high
profile as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the upcoming Robert Bork Supreme Court
nomination hearings, and his appeal to Baby Boomers; he would have been the second-youngest person
elected president, after John F. Kennedy.[30][84][17]:83 He raised more in the first quarter of 1987 than any
other candidate.[84][17]:83
By August his campaign's messaging had become confused due to staff rivalries,[17]:108–109 and in
September, he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.
[85]
 Biden's speech had similar lines about being the first person in his family to go to university. Biden
had credited Kinnock with the formulation on previous occasions,[86][87] but did not on two occasions in
late August.[88]:230–232[87] Earlier that year he had also used passages from a 1967 speech by Robert F.
Kennedy (for which his aides took blame) and a short phrase from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address;
two years earlier he had used a 1976 passage by Hubert Humphrey.[89] Biden responded that politicians
often borrow from one another without giving credit, and that one of his rivals for the nomination, Jesse
Jackson, had called him to point out that he (Jackson) had used the same material by Humphrey that
Biden had used.[15][90]
A few days later an incident in law school in which he drew text from a Fordham Law Review article
with inadequate citations was publicized.[90] Biden was required to repeat the course and passed with high
marks.[91] At Biden's request the Delaware Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility
reviewed the incident and concluded that he had violated no rules.[92]
He also made several false or exaggerated claims about his early life: that he had earned three degrees in
college, that he had attended law school on a full scholarship, that he had graduated in the top half of his
class,[93][94] and that he had marched in the civil rights movement.[95] The limited amount of other news
about the race amplified these revelations[96] and on September 23, 1987, Biden withdrew from the race,
saying his candidacy had been overrun by "the exaggerated shadow" of his past mistakes
iden chose not to run for president in 1992 in part because he had voted against authorizing the Gulf
War,[114] and did not run in 2004 because, he said, he felt he had little chance of winning and could best
serve the country by remaining in the Senate.[142] In January 2007, he declared his candidacy in the 2008
election.[143]
During his campaign, Biden focused on the Iraq War, his record as chairman of major Senate
committees, and his foreign-policy experience. Biden rejected speculation that he might become
Secretary of State,[144] focusing on only the presidency.[145] In mid-2007, Biden stressed his foreign policy
expertise compared to Obama's, saying of the latter, "I think he can be ready, but right now I don't
believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."[146] Biden also said
Obama was copying some of his foreign policy ideas.[125] Biden was noted for his one-liners during the
campaign; in one debate he said of Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani: "There's only three things he
mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11."[147] Overall, Biden's debate performances were an
effective mixture of humor and sharp and surprisingly disciplined comments.[148]:336
Biden had difficulty raising funds, struggled to draw people to his rallies, and failed to gain traction
against the high-profile candidacies of Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton.[149] He never rose above
single digits in national polls of the Democratic candidates. In the first contest on January 3, 2008, Biden
placed fifth in the Iowa caucuses, garnering slightly less than one percent of the state delegates.[150] He
withdrew from the race that evening.[151]
Despite its lack of success, Biden's 2008 campaign raised his stature in the political world.[148]:336 In
particular, it changed the relationship between Biden and Obama. Although they had served together on
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, they had not been close: Biden resented Obama's quick rise to
political stardom,[125][152] while Obama viewed Biden as garrulous and patronizing.[148]:28, 337–338 Having gotten
to know each other during 2007, Obama appreciated Biden's campaigning style and appeal to working-
class voters, and Biden said he became convinced Obama was "the real

Shortly after Biden withdrew from the presidential race, Obama privately told him he was interested in
finding an important place for Biden in his administration.[153] Biden declined Obama's first request to vet
him for the vice-presidential slot, fearing the vice presidency would represent a loss in status and voice
from his Senate position, but he later changed his mind.[125][154] In a June 22, 2008 interview, Biden said
that while he was not actively seeking the vice-presidential nomination, he would accept it if offered.
[155]
 In early August, Obama and Biden met in secret to discuss the possibility,[153] and developed a strong
personal rapport.[152] On August 22, 2008, Obama announced that Biden would be his running mate.
[156]
 The New York Times reported that the strategy behind the choice reflected a desire to fill out the ticket
with someone with foreign policy and national security experience—and not to help the ticket win
a swing state or to emphasize Obama's "change" message.[157] Others pointed out Biden's appeal to
middle-class and blue-collar voters, as well as his willingness to aggressively challenge Republican
nominee John McCain in a way that Obama seemed uncomfortable doing at times.[158][159] In accepting
Obama's offer, Biden ruled out running for president again in 2016,[153] but his comments in later years
seemed to back off that stance, as he did not want to diminish his political power by appearing
uninterested in advancement.[160][161][162] Biden was officially nominated for vice president on August 27 by
voice vote at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver

Biden's vice-presidential campaigning gained little media visibility, as far greater press attention was
focused on the Republican running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.[140][164] During one week in
September 2008, for instance, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that
Biden was included in only five percent of coverage of the race, far less than the other three candidates
on the tickets received.[165] Biden nevertheless focused on campaigning in economically challenged areas
of swing states and trying to win over blue-collar Democrats, especially those who had supported Hillary
Clinton.[125][140] Biden attacked McCain heavily despite a long-standing personal friendship.[nb 1] He said,
"That guy I used to know, he's gone. It literally saddens me."[140] As the financial crisis of 2007–
2010 reached a peak with the liquidity crisis of September 2008 and the proposed bailout of the United
States financial system became a major factor in the campaign, Biden voted in favor of the
$700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which went on to pass in the Senate 74–
25.[167]
On October 2, 2008, Biden participated in the vice-presidential debate with Palin at Washington
University in St. Louis. Post-debate polls found that while Palin exceeded many voters' expectations,
Biden had won the debate overall.[4]:655–661 During the campaign's final days, he focused on less populated,
older, less well-off areas of battleground states, especially Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where
polling indicated he was popular and where Obama had not campaigned or performed well in the
Democratic primaries.[168][169][170] He also campaigned in some normally Republican states, as well as in
areas with large Catholic populations.[170]
Under instructions from the campaign, Biden kept his speeches succinct and tried to avoid offhand
remarks, such as one about Obama's being tested by a foreign power soon after taking office, which had
attracted negative attention.[168][169] Privately, Biden's remarks frustrated Obama. "How many times is
Biden gonna say something stupid?" he asked.[148]:411–414, 419 Obama campaign staffers referred to Biden
blunders as "Joe bombs" and kept Biden uninformed about strategy discussions, which in turn irked
Biden.[162] Relations between the two campaigns became strained for a month, until Biden apologized on
a call to Obama and the two built a stronger partnership.[148]:411–414 Publicly, Obama strategist David
Axelrod said Biden's high popularity ratings had outweighed any unexpected comments.[171] Nationally,
Biden had a 60% favorability rating in a Pew Research Center poll, compared to Palin's 44%.[