- published: 21 Apr 2010
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- author: rjfotografija
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- 2nd millennium BC
- 73059 Kaunas
- Adam Mickiewicz
- Adolf Hitler
- Adrian von Renteln
- Air Lithuania
- Air sports
- Airport
- Akademija, Kaunas
- Akademija, Kėdainiai
- Aklasis Ežeras
- Akliai
- Aleksotas
- All Souls' Day
- Alytus
- Ancient history
- Andrius Kupčinskas
- Anhydrite
- Anklam
- Anno Domini
- Antanas Merkys
- Antanas Smetona
- Anti-communism
- Antignano
- Antisemitism
- Antwerp
- Ariogala
- Artificial lake
- Arvydas Sabonis
- Arūnas Bubnys
- Association football
- Athletics (sport)
- Aukštaitija
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- Centras (Kaunas)
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- Fortum
- France
- Frankfurt (Oder)
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- Generic drug
- German Empire
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- Germans
- Germany
- GFDL
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- Golf
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- Grande Armée
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- Lampėdžiai Bridge
- Lapės
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- Linas Kleiza
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- Myślibórz
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- Napoleon
- Napoleon's Hill
- NASA
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- Nazi
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- Neris
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- Nero
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Ninth Fort
- No Magic
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- Operation Barbarossa
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- Pier
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- Public library
- Ragožiai
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- Rail Baltica
- Railway
- Railway tunnel
- Raseiniai
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- Regions of Lithuania
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- Rimantas Mikaitis
- Rimkai
- River port
- Romas Kalanta
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- Russia
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- Russians
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- Ryanair
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- Shared taxi
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- Siberia
- Sigitas Tamkevičius
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- Sweden
- Swedish army
- Szczecin
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- Słupsk
- Tadas Ivanauskas
- Tallinn
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- Tartu
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- Team handball
- Telemetry
- Teutonic Knights
- Tilia cordata
- Time zone
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- Town Hall, Kaunas
- Town twinning
- Trade route
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- UTC+2
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- Užusaliai
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- Vaivadiškiai
- Valdas Adamkus
- Vandžiogala
- Varniai Bridge
- Varėnai
- Vazgaikiemis
- Veiveriai
- Veliky Novgorod
- Vep Kaunas
- Viduklė
- Vienybė Square
- Vilijampolė
- Vilkija
- Vilna Governorate
- Vilnius
- Vilnius University
- Vincas Kudirka
- Visby
- Vytautas Landsbergis
- Vytautas the Great
- Vytautas Šustauskas
- Växjö
- Warsaw
- Western Europe
- Wikipedia Link rot
- Wikitravel
- Wisent
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- World war
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- WP IPA
- Wrocław
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- Yacht club
- Yiddish language
- YIT
- York
- Zapyškis
- Zenonas Ivinskis
- Zigmas Zinkevičius
- Zionist
- Zoo
- Zwin
- Émigrés
- Ąžuolaičiai
- Ąžuolynas
- Čekiškė
- Čičinai
- Łomża
- Šančiai
- Šarūnas Jasikevičius
- Šarūnas Marčiulionis
- Šatijai
- Šeteniai
- Šeštokai
- Šiauliai
- Šilai
- Šilainiai
- Šiluva
- Šlapaberžė
- Šveicarija
- Šventoniškis
- Šventybrastis
- Šėta
- Ūkio bankas
- Žaiginys
- Žalgiris Arena
- Žaliakalnis
- Žasliai
- Žeimiai
- Žiežmariai
- Žydrūnas Ilgauskas
-
Aklasis Ežeras
Aklasis Ežeras is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 144 people.
wn.com/Aklasis_Ežeras -
Akliai
Akliai is a village in Žeimiai eldership, Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 16 people.
wn.com/Akliai -
Aleksotas
Aleksotas is an elderate in the southern section of the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, bordering the left bank of the Neman River (Lithuanian: Nemunas). Its population in 2006 was 21,694.
There is evidence that during pre-Christian times a pagan shrine was located here. The suburb was founded in 1408, when Vytautas the Great granted the woods that stood here to the city of Kaunas. Until the 16th century it was called Svirbigala, derived from the rivulet Svirbė. The name Aleksotas was used from the 16th century on, and is thought to be derived from the word aleksotai (shipyards) since many Neman River transport operations were located there. After the final Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Aleksotas, unlike most of Lithuania, became part of Prussia, until 1807 when Napoleon incorporated it into the Duchy of Warsaw. It then became part of Congress Poland. During 1830-1831 Uprising uprisinf forces used Aleksotas hill as artillery post to attack Kaunas, and eventually took city. In December 1863, large January Uprising forces gathered here, hoping to be able to free Antanas Mackevičius, one of the uprising leaders in Lithuania, who was held imprisoned in Kaunas Old Town, although the attack never happened.
wn.com/Aleksotas -
Alytus
Alytus, Lithuania (
pronunciation (help·info)) is a city with municipal rights in southern Lithuania. It is the capital of Alytus County. Its population in 2007 was 68,835. Alytus is the historical centre of the Dzūkija region. The city lies on the banks of the Nemunas River. The major highways linking Vilnius, Kaunas, Lazdijai, and Hrodna in Belarus pass through Alytus. The distance from Alytus to Kaunas is 70 km (43 mi); the distance from Alytus to Vilnius is 105 km (65 mi).
Divided onto two separate entities for centuries, it consists of two parts still frequently referred to as Alytus I and Alytus II, the earlier being a smaller town and the latter forming the city centre with parks, microdistricts and industrial areas.
The name is derived from the Lithuanian hydronim Alytupis. In other languages the names of the town include German: Aliten, Olita, Polish: Olita, Russian: Олита Olita, Belarusian: Аліта Alita, Yiddish: אליטע Alite, Latvian: Alīta.
The first historical record of Alytus dates back to 1377, when it was mentioned in the Chronicles of Wigand of Marburg under the name of Aliten. According to the chronicle the spot was occupied by a small, wooden fortress guarding the Lithuanian frontier with the Teutonic Order. The fort and the surrounding village gradually grew, despite being frequently a target of raids of both the Lithuanians and the Teutons. The Treaty of Lake Melno left the town on the Teutonic side of the border, but it was retaken soon afterwards. On June 15, 1581 Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Stefan Batory granted the town the city rights based on the Magdeburg Law. The event is celebrated as the Alytus Day.
wn.com/Alytus -
Antignano
Antignano is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 40 km southeast of Turin and about 8 km southwest of Asti. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,002 and an area of 10.9 km².
The municipality of Antignano contains the frazioni (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Perosini and Gonella.
Antignano borders the following municipalities: Celle Enomondo, Costigliole d'Asti, Isola d'Asti, Revigliasco d'Asti, San Damiano d'Asti, and San Martino Alfieri.
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wn.com/Antignano -
Ariogala
Ariogala ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a town in central Lithuania. It is located on the Dubysa River, which flows through the town.
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Ariogala is the Lithuanian name of the city. Versions of the name in other languages include Polish: Ejragoła, Russian: Эйрагола Eiragola, Belarusian: Эйрагола Eirahola, Yiddish: אייראגאלע Eirogole.
wn.com/Ariogala -
Babtai
Babtai is a small town 24 km (15 mi) north of Kaunas, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. It is situated on the left bank of the Nevėžis River. As of 2001 it had a population of 1,715. Situated on the historic road from Kaunas to Riga, it played a role in the trade between Lithuania and Livonia. In 1792, the town received Magdeburg rights and coat of arms. The town declined after construction of railways.
wn.com/Babtai -
Balbieriškis
Balbieriškis Kėdainiaiis Polish: Balwierzyszki a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. It is situated on the left bank of the Neman River. As of 2001 it had a population of 1,180. The town was established by German lumberman Hanus, who received a plot of land in wilderness of Suvalkija from Grand Duke Sigismund I the Old. Hanus cleared the forest and built an estate. The settlement grew around the estate and was awarded city rights in 1530. However, the privileges were revoked in 1776.
wn.com/Balbieriškis -
Baltic states
The term Baltic states (also Baltics, Baltic nations or Baltic countries) refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (from north to south); Finland also fell within the scope of the term from the 1920s to 1939.Estonia is only considered Baltic geographically, not linguistically or culturally, as Estonians and Finns are descendants of the Baltic Finns.
The term in the indigenous languages of the Baltic states is:
The term "Baltic" stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to the 11th century (Adam of Bremen mentioned Latin: Mare Balticum) and earlier.
The Latvian and Lithuanian term Baltija most likely originates from the Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. In modern Baltic languages, namely, Lithuanian language, baltas literally means white, and in Latvian language balts means white also.
Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the present day, the Baltic Sea appears on the maps subscribed in Germanic languages as German: Ostsee, Danish: Østersøen, Dutch: Oostzee, Swedish: Östersjön, etc. In English "Ost" is "East", and in fact, the Baltic Sea mostly lies to the east for Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Clearly, part of the Baltic Sea lies to the east of Germany and Sweden, and due north of parts of Germany.
wn.com/Baltic_states -
Baltic States
The term Baltic states (also Baltics, Baltic nations or Baltic countries) refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (from north to south); Finland also fell within the scope of the term from the 1920s to 1939.Estonia is only considered Baltic geographically, not linguistically or culturally, as Estonians and Finns are descendants of the Baltic Finns.
The term in the indigenous languages of the Baltic states is:
The term "Baltic" stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to the 11th century (Adam of Bremen mentioned Latin: Mare Balticum) and earlier.
The Latvian and Lithuanian term Baltija most likely originates from the Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. In modern Baltic languages, namely, Lithuanian language, baltas literally means white, and in Latvian language balts means white also.
Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the present day, the Baltic Sea appears on the maps subscribed in Germanic languages as German: Ostsee, Danish: Østersøen, Dutch: Oostzee, Swedish: Östersjön, etc. In English "Ost" is "East", and in fact, the Baltic Sea mostly lies to the east for Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Clearly, part of the Baltic Sea lies to the east of Germany and Sweden, and due north of parts of Germany.
wn.com/Baltic_States -
Baltromiškė
Baltromiškė is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 27 people. There are church of Old Believers. Village famous of gravel mines.
wn.com/Baltromiškė -
Barborlaukis
Barbolaukis is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 37 people.
wn.com/Barborlaukis -
Bartkūniškiai
Bartkūniškiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 71 people.
wn.com/Bartkūniškiai -
Bartoniai
Bartoniai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 92 people.
wn.com/Bartoniai -
Batėgala
Batėgala is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 419 people.
wn.com/Batėgala -
Bazilioniai
Bazilioniai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 47 people.
wn.com/Bazilioniai -
Belarus
Belarus (
i/bɛləˈruːs/ bel-ə-ROOSS; Belarusian: Беларусь, Russian pronunciation: [bʲɛlaˈrusʲ] Russian: Беларусь, Белоруссия, Belarus', Belorussiya), officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno (Hrodna), Gomel (Homiel), Mogilev (Mahilyow) and Vitebsk (Vitsebsk). Over forty percent of its 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) is forested, and its strongest economic sectors are agriculture and manufacturing.
Until the 20th century, the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Belarus became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). The borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were incorporated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland. The nation and its territory were devastated in World War II, during which Belarus lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945 the Belorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.
wn.com/Belarus -
Bergen
Bergen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈbærɡən] (
listen)) is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. As of 26 June 2012, the municipality had a population of 265,800 and Greater Bergen had a population of 391,000, making Bergen the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and area of 465 square kilometers (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city center and northern neighborhoods are located on Byfjorden and the city is built around the Seven Mountains. Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are located on islands. Bergen is the administrative center of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Årstad, Åsane, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg and Ytrebygda.
Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, but the city was not incorporated until 1070. It served as Norway's capital from 1217 to 1299, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad. The remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site. The city was hit by numerous fires. The Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936 and the University of Bergen in 1946. From 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county, after which Bergen amalgamated with the surrounding municipalities.
wn.com/Bergen -
Berlin
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 5.9 million residents from over 190 nations. Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.
wn.com/Berlin -
Beržai
Beržai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 256 people.
wn.com/Beržai -
Berželė
Berželė is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 53 people.
Berželė is located 3 km to the South from town of Surviliškis, near the road which connects Kėdainiai and Krekenava. Also there are local road to Šlapaberžė. The small rivulet of Kruostas crosses the village. It's a right tributary of the Nevėžis River. There is the Kalnaberžė forest to the West from Berželė.
The name Berželė comes from a Lithuanian name beržas for a birch tree. Once, a large birch forest covered the area and a lot of locations were named with the root berž-, like Kalnaberžė, Šlapaberžė, Beržai, Paberžė.
wn.com/Berželė -
Betygala
Betygala is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 559. In the 13th and 14th centuries the town had a noted Samogitan fortress, attacked by the Teutonic Knights numerous time. One of the first churches in Lithuania was built in the town. Mikalojus Daukša was the parish pastor from 1592 to 1603.
wn.com/Betygala -
Birštonas
Birštonas ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a balneological resort and a spa town in Lithuania situated 30 km (19 mi) south of Kaunas on the right bank of the Nemunas River. Birštonas received its city rights 1529, and was appointed a city in 1966. The city is the administrative centre of the Birštonas municipality.
Birštonas is the Lithuanian name of the city. Versions of the name in other languages include Polish: Birsztany, Russian: Бирштаны Birshtany, Belarusian: Біршта́ны Birshtany, Yiddish: בירשטאן Birshtan, Latvian: Birštona.
Birštonas was first mentioned in chronicles of the Teutonic Knights in 1382 and described as a "a farmstead at the salty water". Many Lithuanian dukes and other noblemen vacationed in Birštonas during 14th and 16th centuries to hunt. The resort was founded in 1846. Many people from Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian cities visited sanitoriums for the area's mineral water and to receive curative mud applications, including Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga, who was ill after the Stutthof concentration camp.
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Bogušiškiai
Bogušiškiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 11 people.
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Bokštai
Bokštai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 120 people.
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Brescia
Brescia ([ˈbreʃʃa] ( listen); Lombard: Brèsa [ˈbrɛsa]; Latin: Brixia) is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan. Brescia is known as the Lioness of Italy (Leonessa d'Italia) after ten days of popular uprising that took place in the city in the Spring of 1849 against Austrian rule.
The city is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with about 1,200,000 inhabitants. The ancient city of Brixia, Brescia has been an important regional centre since pre-Roman times and a number of Roman and medieval monuments are preserved, among the latter the prominent castle. The city is at the centre of the third-largest Italian industrial area, concentrating on mechanical and automotive engineering and machine tools, as well as the Beretta arms firm. Its companies are typically small or medium-sized enterprises, often with family management. The financial sector is also a major employer, and the tourist trade benefits from the proximity of Lake Garda, Lake Iseo and the Alps.
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Bristol
Bristoli/ˈbrɪstəl/ is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007. It is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city, one of the group of English Core Cities and the most populous city in South West England.
Historically within Gloucestershire, the city received a Royal Charter in 1155 and was granted County status in 1373. From the 13th century, for half a millennium, it ranked amongst the top three English cities after London, alongside York and Norwich, on the basis of tax receipts, until the rapid rise of Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester during the Industrial Revolution in the latter part of the 18th century. It borders the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire, and is also located near the historic cities of Bath to the south east and Gloucester to the north. The city is built around the River Avon, and it also has a short coastline on the Severn Estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel.
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Brno
Brno (Czech pronunciation: [ˈbr̩no] (
listen); German: Brünn; Latin: Bruna; Yiddish: ברין Brin) by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District. The city lies at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers and has about 400,000 residents, its greater metropolitan area is regularly home to more than 800,000 people while its larger urban zone had population about 730,000 in 2004.
Brno is the capital of judicial authority of the Czech republic because it is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. Beside that, the city is a significant administrative centre. It is the seat of a number of state authorities like Ombudsman, Office for the Protection of Competition and the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority. Brno is also an important centre of higher education, with 33 faculties of 13 institutes of higher learning and about 89,000 students. There is also a studio of Czech Television and the Czech Radio, in both cases by law. The city is also home to Brno Television, a small local television station.
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Bryggen
Bryggen (Norwegian for the Wharf), also known as Tyskebryggen (the German Wharf) is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen, Norway. Bryggen has since 1979 been on the UNESCO list for World Cultural Heritage sites. The name has the same origin as the Flemish city of Brugge.
The city of Bergen was founded in 1070. The area of the present Bryggen constitutes the oldest part of the city. Around 1360 a Kontor of the Hanseatic League was established there, and as the town developed into an important trading centre, the wharfs were improved. The buildings of Bryggen were gradually taken over by the Hanseatic merchants. The warehouses were filled with goods, particularly fish from northern Norway, and cereal from Europe.
Throughout history, Bergen has experienced many fires, since, traditionally, most houses were made from wood. This was also the case for Bryggen, and as of today, around a quarter dates back to the time after 1702, when the older wharfside warehouses and administrative buildings burned down. The rest predominantly consists of younger structures, although there are some stone cellars that date back to the 15th century.
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Bukonys
Bukonys is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 657 people.
Church of Bukonys
Bukonys primary school
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Czech Republic
The Czech Republic (i/ˈtʃɛk/ CHEK;Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. Its capital and largest city, with 1.3 million inhabitants, is Prague.
It is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy, a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.
The Czech state, formerly known as Bohemia, was formed in the late 9th century as a small duchy around Prague, at that time under dominance of the powerful Great Moravian Empire (which reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I from the House of Mojmír). After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power was transferred from Moravia to Bohemia, under the Přemyslids. During the rule of Přemyslid dukes/kings and their successors, the Luxembourgs, the country reached its greatest territorial extent (13th–14th century). Life in the country was significantly affected by the Hussite wars, during which it faced economic embargo and crusades from all over Europe. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) led to the further centralization of the monarchy including forced recatholization and Germanization. During radical reforms in the 18th century the Bohemian Crown was even de facto abolished (1749). In the 19th century the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I.
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Darłowo
Darłowo [darˈwɔvɔ] (in full The Royal City of Darłowo; Polish: Królewskie Miasto Darłowo, German: Rügenwalde), is a town at the south coast of the Baltic Sea in Middle Pomerania, north-western Poland, with 14,931 inhabitants (2006). Located in Sławno County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously in the Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998).
After the last Ice-age had ended at about 8.000 B.C., settlers of the Stone Age first populated the region. Celtic and Germanic culture artefacts have been found in the region including a number of Roman coins found around Darłowo.[citation needed]
On Ptolemy's chart of Germania Magna a settlement of the Rugians called Rugium is listed in the vicinity of a river which probably is identical with the Grabowa River flowing into the Wieprza river.
By the the 11th century a fortress named Dirlow, (or Dirlovo) existed where the River Wieprza entered the Baltic. From this fortress, the district of Dirlow was administered, which belonged to the castelany of Schlawe. The town of Rügenwalde was later founded in the district of Dirlow, but not at the location of the fortress itself.
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Daugavpils
Daugavpils (pronounced [ˈdaʊɡaʊpils] ( listen)) is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. Daugavpils literally means "Daugava Castle". With a population of over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some 230 km to its north-west. Daugavpils has a favorable geographical position as it borders Belarus and Lithuania (distances of 33 and 25 km respectively). It is located some 120 km from the Latvian border with Russia. Daugavpils is a major railway junction and industrial centre.
The city is surrounded by many lakes and nature parks.
Historically, several names in various languages have identified Daugavpils. Some are still in use today.
Here is a chronology of name changes:
The city has a moderate continental climate.
As of 1 January 2012, the city had a population of 101,057.
In Daugavpils 55% of the voters supported the proposal to make Russian the second state language in the 2012 referendum.
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Denmark
The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, pronounced [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈdanmɑɡ̊] ( listen)) is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark proper to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this polity is referred to as the Danish Realm. Denmark proper is the hegemonial area, where judicial, executive, and legislative power resides. The Faroe Islands are defined to be a community of people within the kingdom, and the Greenlandic people are defined as a separate people with the right to self-determination.
Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland and many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago.
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Deventer
Deventer [ˈdeɪ̯.vən.tər] ( listen) is a municipality and city in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. Deventer is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, but also has a small part of its territory on the west bank. In 2005 the municipality of Bathmen (pop. 5,000) was merged with Deventer as part of a national effort to reduce bureaucracy in the country.
Associated hamlets at second level
Deventer was probably founded around 768 by the English missionary Lebuinus, who built a wooden church on the east bank of the river IJssel. This was not the first human settlement at the location; from the Bronze Age to about 400 AD, there was a settlement at Colmschate, 4 km east of the city centre. Remains of this settlement were excavated between 1981 and 2006.
The village of Deventer, already important because of a trading road crossing the river IJssel, was looted and burnt down by the Vikings in 882. It was immediately rebuilt and fortified with an earthen wall (in the street Stenen Wal remains of this wall have been excavated and restored).
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Domeikava
Domeikava is village in the Kaunas district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Kaunas. There is a school Domeikavos Gimnazija, established in Domeikava, in early 1920s.
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Dotnuva
Dotnuva is a small town with a 2003 population of 775 in central Lithuania, 10 km northwest of Kėdainiai, in the Kėdainiai district municipality. It is located on the Dotnuvėlė River. The geographical center of Lithuania, in the village of Ruoščiai, is only a few kilometers away from the town.
The first mention of the name Dotnuva was in 1372. The Dotnuva estate was known from the 16th century. In 1636 the first wooden church was built. The Brzostowski family, the owners of surrounding land and town, invited Bernardines from Vilnius and in 1701, a Bernardine monastery was established in the town. The monastery was begun to be built in 1768 and the church in 1773–1810. This monastery also kept the primary school similar to the other Bernardine monasteries. The school was opened in 1796 and in beginning of the 19th century managed to grow to the level of high school (gymnasium). But as the monks got involved in the 1831 Uprising against Russian rule, the school was closed in 1836.
The town has a long history of farming education. In 1911-1914 Pyotr Stolypin founded the farming school in the old estate. For this school the new nice building was built (destroyed in 1944). In 1924 Dotnuva Agricultural College was founded in Dotnuva estate, these days called Akademija. On 26 February 1947, the first kolkhoz in Lithuania – the Marytės Melninkaitės kolūkis – was established nearby.
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Dumsiai
Dumsiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 33 people. Center of eldership.
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Eiguliai
Eiguliai is an eldership in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. The settlement was a small village until it was incorporated into Kaunas in 1959 and a residential microdistrict was built in 1979. Located on the left bank of the Neris River, Eiguliai encompass Kleboniškis and part of Kalniečiai neighbourhoods. Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital and the 7th Fort of the Kaunas Fortress are located in this eldership.
A number of famous people were buried in the Eiguliai cemetery:
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Elbląg
Elbląg [ˈɛlblɔŋk] ( listen) (German: Elbing (
listen)) is a city in northern Poland with 127,892 inhabitants (2006). It is the capital of Elbląg County and has been assigned to the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999. Before then it was the capital of Elbląg Voivodeship (1975–1998) and a county seat in Gdańsk Voivodeship (1945–1975). The city is a port on the river Elbląg which flows into the Vistula Lagoon about 10 km to the north, thus giving the city access to the Baltic Sea via the Russian-controlled Strait of Baltiysk.
It was first mentioned as "Ilfing" in The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan which was written in Anglo-Saxon in King Alfred's reign using information from a Viking who had visited the area.
During the Middle Ages, the Old Prussian settlement of Truso was located at Lake Drużno near the current site of Elbląg in historical Pogesania; the settlement burned down in the 10th century. The Teutonic Knights conquered the region and the inhabitants dispersed in the process. The Teutonic Order built a castle and founded Elbing at the lake with a population mostly from Lübeck; today the much smaller lake does not reach the city any more. After the defeat of the Teutonic Knights and the destruction of the castle by the inhabitants, the city successively was under the sovereignty of the Polish crown (1466), the Kingdom of Prussia (1772), and Germany (1871). Elbing was heavily damaged in World War II, its German citizens were expelled upon the war's end. The city became part of Poland in 1945 and was repopulated with Polish citizens.
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Estonia
Estonia
i/ɨsˈtoʊniə/ (Estonian: Eesti), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and the Russian Federation (338.6 km). Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia covers 45,227 km2 (17,462 sq mi), and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is closely related to Finnish.
Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into 15 counties. The capital and largest city is Tallinn. With a population of 1.29 million, it is one of the least-populous members of the European Union, Eurozone and NATO. Estonia has the highest GDP per person among former Soviet republics. Estonia is listed as a "High-Income Economy" by the World Bank and as an "advanced economy" by the International Monetary Fund; the country is an OECD member. The United Nations lists Estonia as a developed country with a Human Development Index of "Very High". The country is also ranked highly for press freedom, economic freedom, democracy and political freedom and education.
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Ežerėlis
Ežerėlis ( pronunciation (help·info); literally: little lake) is a city in Kaunas County, Lithuania. It is located 25 km (16 mi) west of Kaunas. It is a fairly new settlement as it started developing only in 1918 when a peat digging enterprise was established in the Ežerėlis Bog. According to the census of 1923, it had 132 residents. In 1959 the town reached the population of 2,200 and remained fairly stable since then.
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Falsterbo
Falsterbo is a town located at the south-western tip of Sweden in Vellinge Municipality in Skåne County. Falsterbo is situated in the southern part of the Falsterbo peninsula. It is part of Skanör med Falsterbo, one of Sweden's historical cities.
Falsterbo historically enjoyed trading privileges with the Hanseatic League. During the Middle Ages, it was a rich and prestigious town because it was located in a center of trade and herring fishery. On the beach between Falsterbo and neighboring town Skanör was the Scania Market where merchants from various parts of Europe had fixed market places.
Scania Market was a major fish market which took place annually from around 1200. It became one of the more important events for trade within the Baltic Sea. Scania Market continued to be an important trade center for 250 years and was a cornerstone of the Hanseatic League's wealth. The basis for the market's popularity was the rich herring fishing around the Falsterbo Peninsula. Scania Market declined in importance during the 1400s, as the herring harvest in the area decreased. The cities were politically merged into a single city, Skanör med Falsterbo.
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Ferrara
Ferrara listen (help·info) is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the 14th century and 15th century, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. For its beauty and cultural importance it has been qualified by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. Modern times have brought a renewal of industrial activity. Ferrara is on the main rail line from Bologna to Padua and Venice, and has branches to Ravenna, Poggio Rusco (for Suzzara) and Codigoro. In 2006, due to its important historical significance, Ferrara became the headquarters of the Italian Hermitage Museum. It is the fifth city in the world to have been linked with the Russian museum. From this union was born the Hermitage-Italy Foundation.
The origin of Ferrara is uncertain, it was probably settled by the inhabitants of the lagoons at the mouth of Po river; there are two early centers of settlement, one round the cathedral, the other, the castrum bizantino, being the San Pietro district, on the opposite shore, where the Primaro empties into the Volano channel. Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD, as a city forming part of the Exarchate of Ravenna. Desiderius pledged a Lombard ducatus ferrariae ("Duchy of Ferrara") in 757 to Pope Stephen II. After 984 it was a fief of Tedaldo, count of Modena and Canossa, nephew of the emperor Otto I. It afterwards made itself independent, and in 1101 was taken by siege by the countess Matilda. At this time it was mainly dominated by several great families, among them the prominent Adelardi (or Aleardi) family.
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Finland
Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027
Finlandi/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Gaižiūnai
Gaižiūnai is a village in Jonava district municipality, Lithuania. It is situated on the Taurosta River, tributary of Neris, about 3 km (1.9 mi) southeast of Jonava and 25 km (16 mi) northeast of Kaunas. The railroad from Šiauliai forks into Kaunas and Vilnius near the village. Gaižiūnai is also known as a military base.
The old military training ground in Varėna could not be used by the Lithuanian Army as it was too close to the demarcation line with Poland and stirred Polish protests. Therefore in 1930 the army bought some 80 km2 (31 sq mi) of land, mostly pine forest, bog, and sandy soil unsuitable for agriculture. The new training grounds included an airfield, railway connection, and numerous buildings for the soldiers. In 1939, according to the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty, about 5,000 Russian soldiers were stationed in the military base. After World War II, the Soviets expanded the base and built a military town in Rukla. When Lithuania regained its independence the bases were adopted for its needs.
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Garliava
Garliava ( pronunciation (help·info)), is a city in Lithuania, considered a suburb of Kaunas. Garliava is located 10 km (6.2 mi) south from the center of Kaunas. In 1809 Józef Godlewski built a Holy Trinity church and named it Godlewo in his own honour, although Lithuanians started calling it Garliava. This year is generally viewed as the year Garliava was founded. It lay along a significant postal route between Saint Petersburg, Kaunas, Marijampolė, and Warsaw.
Godlewski also built a place of worship for Lutherans and a synagogue for Jews.
Garliava is the Lithuanian name of the city. Versions of the name in other languages include Polish: Godlewo, Russian: Годлево Godlevo, Belarusian: Гадле́ва Gadleva, Yiddish: גודלעבע Gudleve, Latvian: Garļava.
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Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( /ɡəˈdænsk/ or /ɡəˈdɑːnsk/; Polish: [ˈɡdaɲsk]; German: Danzig, pronounced [ˈdantsɪç]) is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the center of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.
The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population of over 800,000. Gdańsk itself has a population of 455,830 (June 2010), making it the largest city in the Pomerania region of Northern Poland.
Gdańsk is Poland's principal seaport as well as the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is also historically the largest city of the Kashubian region. The city is close to the former late medieval/modern boundary between West Slavic and Germanic lands and it has a complex political history with periods of Polish rule, periods of German rule, and extensive self-rule, with two spells as a free city. It has been part of modern Poland since 1945.
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German Empire
The German Empire (German: Deutsches Kaiserreich) is the common name given to the state officially named the Deutsches Reich (literally: "German Realm"), designating Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.
The German Empire consisted of 27 constituent territories (most of them ruled by royal families). While the Kingdom of Prussia contained most of the population and most of the territory of the Reich; the Prussian leadership became supplanted by German leaders and Prussia itself played a lesser role. As Dwyer (2005) points out, Prussia's "political and cultural influence had diminished considerably" by the 1890s. Its three largest neighbors were rivals Imperial Russia to the east and France to the west and ally Austria-Hungary to the south.
After 1850, Germany industrialized rapidly, with a foundation in coal, iron (and later steel), chemicals and railways. From a population of 41 million people in 1871, it grew to 68 million in 1913. From a heavily rural nation in 1815, it was now predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological and scientific giant, receiving more Nobel Prizes in science than Britain, France, Russia and the United States combined.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Girkalnis
Girkalnis is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 997.
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Great Yarmouth
Coordinates: 52°36′22″N 1°43′44″E / 52.606°N 1.729°E / 52.606; 1.729
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is located at the mouth of the River Yare, 20 miles (32 km) east of Norwich.
It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea. For hundreds of years it was a major fishing port, depending mainly on herring fishery, but its fishing industry suffered a steep decline and has now all but disappeared. The discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1960s led to a flourishing oil rig supply industry, and today it services offshore natural gas rigs. More recently, the development of renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind power, has created further opportunities for support services. A wind farm of 30 generators is within sight of the town on the Scroby Sands.
The town has a beach and two piers.
The town itself is on a thin spit sandwiched between the North Sea and River Yare. Its well known features include the historic rows (narrow streets) and the main tourist sector on the seafront. The area is linked to Gorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47, A149 and A12 by the Breydon Bridge.
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Grenoble
Coordinates: 45°12′01″N 5°43′20″E / 45.2002°N 5.7222°E / 45.2002; 5.7222
Grenoble (French pronunciation: [ɡʁə.nɔbl]; Arpitan: Grenoblo) is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère. The proximity of the mountains has led to the city being known as the "Capital of the Alps."
Grenoble's history goes back more than 2,000 years, and it has been the capital of the Dauphiné since the 11th century. It experienced a period of economic expansion in the nineteenth and 20th centuries, symbolized by the holding of the X Olympic Winter Games in 1968. The city is now a significant scientific centre in Europe.
The population of the city (commune) of Grenoble at the 2008 census was 156,659. The population of the Grenoble metropolitan area (French: aire urbaine de Grenoble) at the 2008 census was 664,832. The residents of the city are called "Grenoblois".
Among the numerous communes that make up Grenoble are the city's largest suburbs, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Échirolles, and Fontaine, each with a population exceeding 20,000.
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Gričiupis
Gričiupis is a neighborhood of the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, located on the right bank of the Nemunas River. It has elderate status, and is the smallest elderate in the city. Its administrative status as an elderate was established in 2005, when it was detached from Dainava elderate. In 2006 its population was 34,301 in an area of 3.81 square kilometers.
The elderate of Gričiupis contains an old Jewish cemetery, 6th Fort of Kaunas Fortress, St. Anthony of Padova Church, and the Molas Supermarket.
Coordinates: 54°54′13″N 23°57′46″E / 54.90361°N 23.96278°E / 54.90361; 23.96278
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Groningen
Groningen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣroʊ̯.nɪ.ŋə(n)], locally [ˈxroː.nɪ.ŋən] ( listen); Gronings: Grunnen; West Frisian: Grins) is the main municipality as well as the capital city of the eponymous province in the Netherlands. With a population of around 190,000, it is the largest city in the north of the Netherlands. Groningen is a university city, inhabited on average by about 37,000 students.
The city was founded on the northernmost point of the Hondsrug area. The oldest document referring to Groningen's existence dates from 1040. However, the city already existed long before then: the oldest archaeological traces found are believed to stem from the years 3950-3720 BC, although the first major settlement in Groningen has been traced back to the 3rd century AD.
In the 13th century, when Groningen was an important trade centre, its inhabitants built a city wall to underline its authority. The city had a strong influence on the surrounding lands and made its dialect a common tongue. The most influential period of the city was the end of the 15th century, when the nearby province of Friesland was administered from Groningen. During these years, the Martini Tower was built, which loomed over the city at (then) 127 metres tall, making it the highest building in Europe at the time. The city's independence came to an end when it chose to join forces with the Spanish during the Eighty Years' War in 1594. It later switched sides, joining the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
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Gudžioniai
Gudžioniai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 48 people.
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Gudžiūnai
Gudžiūnai is a small town in Kėdainiai district, central Lithuania. It is located on the Dotnuvėlė River. The town has a Catholic church, a secondary school, and a post office. There is also a train station just outside the town.
Tujų street
View from helicopter
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Gulbiniškiai
Gulbiniškiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the town has a population of 156 people.
During Soviet Union era in village was built a rockets base.
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Gureliai
Gureliai is a village in Jonava district municipality, Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 4 people.
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Hamburg
Hamburg ( /ˈhæmbɜrɡ/; German pronunciation: [ˈhambʊɐ̯k], local pronunciation [ˈhambʊɪç]; Low German/Low Saxon: Hamborg [ˈhaˑmbɔːx]), officially Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany, the thirteenth largest German state, and the sixth-largest city in the European Union. The city is home to over 1.8 million people, while the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighbouring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 4.3 million inhabitants. Situated on the river Elbe, the port of Hamburg is the second largest port in Europe (after the Port of Rotterdam) and 11th-largest worldwide.
Hamburg's official name, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg), reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and that Hamburg is a city-state and one of the sixteen States of Germany.
Hamburg is a major transport hub in Northern Germany and is one of the most affluent cities in Europe. It has become a media and industrial centre, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm + Voss and Aurubis. The radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers such as Gruner + Jahr and Spiegel-Verlag are pillars of the important media industry in Hamburg. In total, there are more than 120,000 enterprises.
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Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hanse or Hansa; Low German: Hanse, Dudesche Hanse, Latin: Hansa, Hansa Teutonica or Liga Hanseatica) was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (c. 13th–17th centuries).
The League was created to protect commercial interests and privileges granted by foreign rulers in cities and countries the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid. Despite this, the organization was not a city-state, nor can it be called a confederation of city-states; only a very small number of the cities within the league enjoyed autonomy and liberties comparable to those of a free imperial city.
The legacy of the Hansa is remembered today in several names, for example the German airline Lufthansa (i.e., 'Air Hansa'), F.C. Hansa Rostock, the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, in the Netherlands, and the Hansa Brewery in Bergen.
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Hectare
The hectare ( /ˈhɛktɛər/ or /ˈhɛktɑr/; symbol ha) is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres (100 m by 100 m), and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the 'are' was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare ('hecto-' + 'are') was thus 100 'ares' or 1/100 km2. A hectare of land is about 2.47 acres.
When the metric system was further rationalised in 1960, resulting in the International System of Units (SI), the are was not included as a recognised unit. The hectare is one of the non-SI units accepted for use with the SI units.
The metric system of measure was first given a legal basis in 1795 by the French Revolutionary government. The law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795) defined five units of measure:
Although the law defined the length of the metre, there was no practical way of accurately measuring the metre (and hence the are) until 1799 when the first standard metre was manufactured and adopted.
The standard metre remained in the custody of successive French governments until 1875 when, under the Convention of the Metre, its supervision passed into international control under the auspices of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (GCPM). At the first meeting of the GCPM in 1889 when a new standard metre, manufactured by Johnson Matthey & Co of London was adopted, the are and hectare were automatically redefined.
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Helsinki
Helsinki ( listen (help·info); Swedish: Helsingfors, listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 596,233 (31 January 2012), making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area includes the city of Helsinki and three other cities: Espoo and Vantaa, which immediately border Helsinki to the west and north, respectively; and Kauniainen, which is an enclave within the city of Espoo. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the world's northernmost urban area among those with a population of over one million people, and the city is the northernmost capital of a EU member state. Altogether 1.1 million people, approximately one in five Finns, live in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.
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Hordaland
Coordinates: 60°15′N 6°00′E / 60.25°N 6°E / 60.25; 6
Hordaland (help·info) is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen. Before 1972, the city of Bergen was its own separate county apart from Hordaland.
Hordaland (Old Norse: Hǫrðaland) is the old name of the region which was revived in modern times. The first element is the plural genitive case of hǫrðar, the name of an old Germanic tribe (see Charudes). The last element is land which means "land" or "region".
Until 1919 the name of the county was Søndre Bergenhus amt which meant "(the) southern (part of) Bergenhus amt". (The old Bergenhus amt was created in 1662 and was divided in 1763.)
The coat-of-arms were officially granted on 1 December 1961. They were designed by Magnus Hardeland, but the general design had been originally used in the Sunnhordland region during the 14th century. In the early 20th century, leaders of the county began using the old arms as a symbol for the county once again. The arms are on a red background and consist of two golden axes that are crossed with a golden crown above them.
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House of Perkūnas
House of Perkūnas is one of the most original and archaic Gothic secular buildings, located in the Old Town of Kaunas, Lithuania. Originally built by Hanseatic merchants and served as their office from 1440 till 1532, it was sold in the 16th century to the Jesuits who had established a chapel there in 1643. The Jesuits have also completed the Church of St. Francis Xavier at the Town Hall Square in 1722.
The ruined house was rebuilt in the 19th century and served as a school and theatre, which was attended by Polish-Lithuanian poet Adam Mickiewicz. At the end of the 19th Century it was renamed "House of Perkūnas", when a figure, interpreted by the romantic historians of that time as an idol of the Baltic pagan god of thunder and the sky Perkūnas was found in one of its walls. Today, the house of Perkūnas once again belongs to the Jesuits and houses a museum of Adam Mickiewicz.
Lithuanian historian, theologian and translator Albert Wijuk Kojałowicz was born in the house.
The House of Perkūnas was included into the Registry of Immovable Cultural Heritage Sites of the Republic of Lithuania in 1996.
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Ipswich
Ipswichi/ˈɪpswɪtʃ/ is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell. Nearby towns are Felixstowe, Needham Market and Stowmarket in Suffolk and Harwich and Colchester in Essex.
The town of Ipswich overspills the borough boundaries significantly, with 85% of the town's population living within the borough at the time of the 2001 Census, when it was the third-largest settlement in the United Kingdom's East of England region, and the 49th largest urban area in the United Kingdom.
The modern name is derived from the medieval name 'Gippeswick', probably taken from the River Gipping which is the non-tidal section of the River Orwell. As of 2007, the borough of Ipswich is estimated to have a population of approximately 128,000 inhabitants.
Under the Roman empire, the area around Ipswich formed an important route inland to rural towns and settlements via the rivers Orwell and Gipping.[citation needed] A large Roman fort, part of the coast defences of Britain, stood at Walton near Felixstowe (13 miles, 21 km), and the largest Roman villa in Suffolk (possibly an administrative complex) stood at Castle Hill (north-west Ipswich).
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Išorai
Išorai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 437 people.
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Jaugeliškiai
Jaugeliškiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 67 people.
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Jieznas
Jieznas ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a small city in the Prienai district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 16 km (9.9 mi) east of Prienai along the northern shores of Lake Jieznas.
Jieznas was first mentioned in written sources in 1492 as property of the Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1633, the settlement was acquired by the Pac family. They sponsored construction of a church, which was reconstructed in Baroque style in 1768–1772.
In 1747, the Pac family built a luxurious palace in Jieznas. The palace had 12 halls, 52 rooms, and 365 windows to match the number of months, weeks, and days in a year. It was decorated with frescoes, gilded engravings, Venetian mirrors. The palace was lost due to family indebtedness in 1807 and was destroyed by a fire in 1837.
In February 1919, Jieznas saw the first battles and casualties of the Lithuanian–Soviet War. Lithuanian victory prevented the Red Army from marching into Kaunas. This battle is commemorated by the coat or arms, designed by Arvydas Každailis in 2002. The coat of arms depicts allegorical figure of a woman symbolizing the victory. She holds a golden oak branch, a symbol of strength.
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Jonava
Jonava ( pronunciation (help·info)) is the ninth largest city in Lithuania with a population of ca 35,000. It is located in Kaunas County in central Lithuania, 30 km (19 mi) north east of Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. It is served by Kaunas International Airport. The largest fertilizer factory in the Baltic states is located in "Achema". City is called the capital of Midsummer holiday (lt. - Joninės).
Officially city established at 18th century. The city had a large Jewish population before World War II. In 1893 92% of all population was Jewish and in 1941 it was 80 %. In 1932 there was 250 shops owned by Jewish families, Jewish bank, 7 synagogues and Jewish school. During World War II war Jonava was attacked by Nazi Germany. There was destroyed Christian church, Jewish synagogue. Nazis killed 552 Jewish (497 men and 55 women). After war in city was built largest fertilizer factory in Baltic states and Jonava become one of 4 biggest industrial cities in Lithuania.
An explosion happened in the chemical fertilizers factory on 20 March 1989, provoking a leakage of nearly 7,500 tonnes of liquid ammonia. The catastrophe developed further into a fire of nitrophoska and fertilizers storehouses polluting the atmosphere with products of their decomposition: nitrous oxide, chlorine gas, etc.The toxic cloud moved towards Ukmergė, Širvintos, Kėdainiai. The concentration of ammonia surpassed the permissible level 150 times in Upninkai, at 10 km from the enterprise. One day after the accident, a toxic cloud 7 km wide and 50 km long was recorded between Jonava and Kėdainiai. Seven persons died during the fire and leakage of ammonia immediately, 29 persons became handicapped, a lot of people suffered from acute respiratory and cardiac attacks. But true damages and number of all victims were not named up to now. It is known that exposition to ammonia prenatally and at young age can cause a serious brain damage.
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Josvainiai
Josvainiai is a small town in Kėdainiai district, central Lithuania. It is located on the Šušvė River 10 km southwest from Kėdainiai. In the town there is a Catholic church, secondary school, post office and public library.
Historians believe that there was a medieval castle in Josvainiai, and it was attacked by the Teutonic Knights many times.
The town was granted city rights and coat of arms on March 29, 1792. On July 19, 2006 the town was granted renewed coat of arms by a presidential decree.
Jews first settled in Josvainiai in the 17th Century, by 1897, 534 Jews lived in the town, constituting 40% of the total population. There was a synagogue and a Jewish school. Most Jews were expelled during World War I. During their absence, a large part of the town burned down. After the War, some returned. Before the Holocaust, the Jewish population was 270, about 70 families. They lived around the market place and the nearby streets. During World War 2, the Jews were murdered outside the town.
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Juškonys
Juškonys is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 425 people.
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Kaišiadorys
Kaišiadorys ( pronunciation (help·info); see Etymology below) is a city in central Lithuania. It is situated between Vilnius and Kaunas. Kaišiadorys is one of six Lithuanian diocese centres. It is home to the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Christ built in 1932. The Lithuanian Veterinary Institute is located there.
Its name is unusual because of its Asiatic roots. Kaišiadorys was named after a Tatar noble, Khaishadar, who lived in the area during the 16th century.
The city expanded when a railroad connecting Vilnius with Liepāja was built in 1871. During the First World War, the city was occupied by the Germans in 1915, and it became the capital of an administrative unit for the first time. In 1919 the first train departed from Kaišiadorys to Radviliškis. When Trakai and the rest of the Vilnius Region became part of Poland, Kaišiadorys became the temporary capital of the Trakai Apskritis.
The first President of the re-established independent Republic of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas, was a pupil in Kaišiadorys in his youth; a secondary school there is named after him. One of the best European basketball forwards Ramūnas Šiškauskas was born in Kaišiadorys and started his professional career there. The first Lithuanian racing driver to compete at an international level, Kazimieras Vasiliauskas, is also from the town.
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Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad (Russian: Калинингра́д; Polish: Królewiec; Lithuanian: Karaliaučius; German: Königsberg; Czech: Královec) is a seaport city and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. The territory, the northern part of the former East Prussia, borders on NATO and EU members Poland and Lithuania, and is geographically separated from the rest of Russia.
Originally named Königsberg in German, the town was founded in 1255 by the order of the Teutonic Knights in honour of the Czech king Přemysl Otakar II and was part of Prussia and then of Germany until 1945, but was largely destroyed during World War II. Its ruins were occupied by the Red Army in 1945 and its German population forced out. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 in honor of Mikhail Kalinin.
According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, its population was 431,491—an increase from 430,003 recorded in the 2002 Census. Its ethnic composition is 77.9% Russians, 8.0% Belarusians, 7.3% Ukrainians, 1.9% Lithuanians, 0.6% Germans, and 0.5% Poles.
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Karmėlava
Karmėlava is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 2886. The town of Karmėlava is located 6 km (3.7 mi) north east of Kaunas and near the second busiest civil Kaunas International Airport in Lithuania.
Karmėlava is one of the oldest settlements in Lithuania. Karmelava Estate was mentioned since the late of the 15th century. The first church in Karmėlava was built in 1529. Grand Duchess of Lithuania Barbora Radvilaitė became the governor of Karmėlava and its environs in 1549. Later, Karmėlava was governed by noble families of Pac, Ogiński, and Sirutis. The parish first school in Karmėlava was mentioned in 1663. Karmėlava was devastated during the Northern Wars. The town of Karmėlava was granted the Magdeburg rights and the Coat of arms in 1792.
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Kaunas
Kaunas (/ˈkaʊnəs/; Lithuanian: [kɐˈunɐs] ( listen); see also other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the centre of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation it was the capital of the Kovno Governorate from 1843 to 1915. It became the only temporary capital city in Europe during the Interwar period. Now it is the capital of Kaunas County, the seat of the Kaunas city municipality and the Kaunas district municipality. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. Kaunas is located at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, the Nemunas and the Neris, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, the largest body of water entirely in Lithuania.
The city's name is of Lithuanian origins and most likely derives from a personal name.
Before Lithuania regained independence, the city was generally known in English as Kovno, the traditional Slavicized form of its name; the Polish name is Kowno; the Belarusian name is Koўнa, Kowna. An earlier Russian name was Ковно Kovno, although Каунас Kaunas has been used since 1940. The Yiddish name is Kovne (קאָװנע), while its names in German include Kaunas and Kauen. The city and its elderates also have names in other languages (see Names of Kaunas in other languages and names of Kaunas elderates in other languages).
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Kaunas Castle
Kaunas Castle is located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Archeological evidence suggests that it was originally built during the mid-14th century, in the Gothic style. Its site is strategic – a rise on the banks of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Neris River. At the beginning of the 21st century, about one-third of the castle was still standing.
The precise construction date of the first Kaunas Castle is unknown. Archeological data suggests that a stone castle was built on the site during the middle of the 14th century. Situated on an elevated bank near the river junction about 100 kilometers (62 mi) from the capital city of Vilnius, it served as a strategic outpost and guarded nearby cities as well as trade routes.
A written account states that in 1361, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Winrich von Kniprode issued an order to gather information about the castle, specifically the thickness of its walls, as preparation for an assault on the castle. During 1362, Kaunas Castle underwent a siege by the Teutonic Order. The siege of the castle lasted three weeks. During this attack, the Teutonic Knights constructed a siege tower and erected wall-penetration machinery; primitive fire arms might have been used, since gunpowder technology was emerging in Europe. At that time, the castle walls were over 11 meters (36 ft) high, when its firing galleries are factored in. According to Wigand of Marburg, the castle's garrison consisted of about 400 Lithuanian soldiers, commanded by Kęstutis's son Vaidotas. After three weeks, the Knights managed to breach the castle’s walls, and soon afterwards the castle was taken. On Easter Sunday in 1362, the knights conducted a Mass at the castle to commemorate their victory.
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Kaunas County
Kaunas County (Lithuanian: Kauno apskritis) is one of ten counties of Lithuania. It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Kaunas. On 1 July 2010, the county administration was abolished, and since that date, Kaunas County remains as the territorial and statistical unit.
The county is subdivided into municipalities:
Coordinates: 54°53′50″N 23°53′33″E / 54.89722°N 23.8925°E / 54.89722; 23.8925
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Kaunas Mosque
Kaunas Mosque or Vytautas the Great Mosque (Lithuanian: Vytauto Didžiojo Mečetė) is one of four remaining mosques in Lithuania. It is located in Centras eldership, Kaunas. It is the only brick mosque in Lithuania.
A wooden Kaunas Mosque was first built in 1860. It was replaced by a brick mosque in 1930 with the aid of the state of Lithuania. Kaunas Mosque was rebuilt in commemoration of the 500th death anniversary of Vytautas the Great, the Grand Duke of Lithuania who is credited for settling Lipka Tatars in Lithuania.
The mosque was designed by architects Vaclovas Michnevičius and Adolfas Netyksas, who followed the style of mosques in northern Africa. During the Soviet times, the building was used for a circus. There were plans to establish a museum of Islamic art. In 1989, Kaunas Mosque was returned to the faithful. In 1991 the first worship was held.
Coordinates: 54°53′39″N 23°55′41″E / 54.89417°N 23.92806°E / 54.89417; 23.92806
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Kaunas Prison
Kaunas Prison (Lithuanian: Kauno tardymo izoliatorius) is a prison in the center of Kaunas, second largest city of Lithuania. As of 2007, it houses approximately 300 prisoners and employs around 230 prison guards. Most prisoners are there under temporary arrest awaiting court decisions or transfers to other detention facilities.
The Kaunas Prison was completed in 1864, just after the January Uprising during the times of the Russian Empire. At the time it was a modern prison in the whole region. It had 300 places for prisoners, a chapel, administrative-household premises, and apartments for employees were planned. But later there the number of places for prisoners grew up to 550. Kaunas Prison was seen far in environs of Kaunas center and aroused terror in everybody. Sometimes it was even called “Kaunas Bastille”. During the period of 1905 Revolution, the prison was overcrowded with political prisoners. The branch of Kaunas Prison was established in the Ninth Fort of Kaunas Fortress in 1924.
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Kaunas Sports Hall
Kaunas Sports Hall (Lithuanian: Kauno sporto halė), also known as the S. Darius and S. Girėnas Hall is the second largest arena of Kaunas, Lithuania. It is the first arena built in the residential Žaliakalnis neighbourhood of Kaunas specially for basketball in Europe and is referred to as a "Mecca of the Lithuanian basketball". The arena's seating capacity is 5,000. Initial seating capacity was 3,500 and the other spectators (up to 11,000) used to have standing room. Its length is 62.8 meters and its width is 61 meters. It is a part of the S. Darius and S. Girėnas sport center, which also includes the nearby national stadium.
The arena generally hosts basketball games and concerts. It has served as the home court for Žalgiris basketball club, competing in the Euroleague and the LKL League till the middle of 2011. It was also used by the Granitas Kaunas team handball club.
Since its establishment, the Kaunas Sports Hall is situated in close proximity to the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education and the S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, adjacent to the Ąžuolynas Park. The arena was completed before the 3rd European Basketball Championship in 1939. The foundation was laid in December 1938. All the steel constructions were finished by April 1939 and masonry work on May 10 of the same year. In December 2005, it underwent a minor reconstruction and added some 525 additional seats to reach the current capacity of 5,000. Until the year 2009 it fit the criteria of the Euroleague relations for minimum seating requirements, but not after that when the minimum league's requirement to accommodate fans increased to 10,000.
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Kaunas Synagogue
Kaunas Synagogue is one of two operating choral synagogues in Lithuania. It is located in Centras eldership, Kaunas. The Neo-Baroque synagogue was built in 1872. In 1902, before the Holocaust in Lithuania, the city had some 25 synagogues and prayer houses.
Dating form 1871, this radically designed synagogue, once one of over 35 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses in the city, claims to have one of the most beautiful altars in the entire Jewish world. A memorial to the estimated 50,000 Lithuanian Jewish children killed during the Holocaust can be found at the rear of the building, complete with 37 stone tablets showing in which towns and cities they lost their lives and just how many of them died in each one.
Inside the Synagogue
Inside the Synagogue
Inside the Synagogue
Inside the Synagogue
Inside the Synagogue
Inside the Synagogue
Memory over dead jewish soldier from Kaunas during World war 1, inside the Synagogue.
Coordinates: 54°53′55″N 23°54′12″E / 54.89861°N 23.90333°E / 54.89861; 23.90333
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Kazlų Rūda
Kazlų Rūda ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in Lithuania. It is located 27 km (17 mi) north from Marijampolė. The city is surrounded by forests, but a railway line crosses the city and divides it into almost equal parts. Former Soviet Army Kazlų Rūda airbase is 5 km northeast of Kazlų Rūda.
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Kačerginė
Kačerginė is a small town 16 km (9.9 mi) west of Kaunas. The town of Kačerginė is located in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. Kačerginė was officially proclaimed a health resort in 1933. The only in Lithuania motor racing circuit Nemuno Žiedas was opened in 1960. As of 2001 it had a population of 715.
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Keleriškiai
Keleriškiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 385 people.
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Kharkiv
Kharkiv (Ukrainian: Харків, pronounced [ˈxɑrkiw]) or Kharkov (Russian: Ха́рьков) is the second-largest city in Ukraine.
The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was formed. Kharkiv became and remained the capital of the Ukrainian SSR until 1934, when the administrative capital was moved to Kiev. Currently, it is the administrative centre of the Kharkiv oblast (province), as well as the administrative centre of the surrounding Kharkivskyi Raion (district) within the oblast. The city is located in the northeast of the country. As of 2006, its population was 1,461,300.
Kharkiv is a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport and industrial centre of Ukraine, with 60 scientific institutes, 30 establishments of higher education, 6 museums, 7 theatres and 80 libraries. Its industry specializes primarily in machinery. There are hundreds of industrial companies in the city. Among them are world renown giants like the Morozov Design Bureau and the Malyshev Tank Factory, leaders in tank production since the 1930s; Khartron (aerospace and nuclear electronics); and the Turboatom turbines producer.
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Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull (i/ˌkɪŋstən əpɒn ˈhʌl/ KING-stən ə-pon HUL), usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of 263,900 (2010 est.). The Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) population stands at 573,300.
Renamed Kings town upon Hull by King Edward I in 1299, the town and city of Hull has served as market town, military supply port, a trading hub, fishing and whaling centre, and industrial metropolis.
Hull was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars. Its 18th-century Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, played a key role in the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.
The city is unique in the UK in having had a municipally-owned telephone system from 1902, sporting cream, not red, telephone boxes.
After suffering heavy damage during the Second World War, Hull weathered a period of post-industrial decline, during which the city gained unfavourable results on measures of social deprivation, education and policing. In recent years the city has embarked on an extensive programme of economic regeneration, reconstruction and urban renewal. The economic crisis since 2008 has caused some setbacks to these developments.
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Klaipėda
Klaipėda (pronounced [ˈklaɪpeːda] ( listen); German: Memel) is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Danė River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County.
The city has a complex recorded history, partially due to the combined regional importance of the Port of Klaipėda, a usually ice-free port on the Baltic Sea, and the Akmena - Danė River. It has been controlled by the Teutonic Knights, the Duchy of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Entente States immediately after World War I, Lithuania as a result of the 1923 Klaipėda Revolt, and the Third Reich following the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania. The city was incorporated into Lithuania during its tenure as a Soviet Socialist Republic and has remained within Lithuania following its re-establishment as an independent state.
The population shrank from 207,100 in 1992 to 177,823 in 2011. Popular seaside resorts found close to Klaipėda are Nida to the south on the Curonian Spit, and Palanga to the north.
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Konceptas
Konceptas is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 18 people.
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Kołobrzeg
Kołobrzeg [kɔˈwɔbʐɛk] ( listen) (German: Kolberg ( listen); Kashubian: Kòłobrzeg) is a city in Middle Pomerania in north-western Poland with some 50,000 inhabitants (as of 2000). Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (in the middle of the section divided by the Oder and Vistula Rivers). It has been the capital of Kołobrzeg County in West Pomeranian Voivodship since 1999, and previously was in Koszalin Voivodship (1950–1998).
During the Early Middle Ages, Slavic Pomeranians founded a settlement at the site of modern Budzistowo. Thietmar of Merseburg first mentioned the site as Salsa Cholbergiensis. Around the year 1000, when the area was under Polish rule, the stronghold became seat of the Diocese of Kołobrzeg. During High Middle Ages, the town was expanded with additional settlement was founded a few kilometers north of the stronghold in the course of the Ostsiedlung and chartered with Lübeck law. The city later joined the Hanseatic League. Within the Duchy of Pomerania, Kolberg was the urban center of the secular reign of the Cammin bishops and their residence throughout the High and Late Middle Ages. When Kolberg was part of Brandenburgian Pomerania during the Early Modern Age, it withstood Polish and Napoleon's troops in the Siege of Kolberg. From 1815, it was part of the Prussian province of Pomerania. During the 19th century a Polish community started to organize itself. As the Nazis took power in Germany, Poles and Jews were discriminated, determined to be subhuman and eventually subjected to genocide. In 1945 Polish and Soviet troops seized the town and it was subsequently attached to Poland, while the remaining German population which had not fled the advancing Red Army was expelled. The town, devastated in the preceding Battle of Kolberg, was rebuilt but lost its status as the regional center to the nearby Koszalin.
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Kraków
Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrakuf] ( listen)) also Cracow, or Krakow (English /ˈkrækaʊ/), is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1596; the Grand Duchy of Kraków from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of approximately 760,000 whereas about 8 million people live within a 100 km radius of its main square.
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Krakės
Krakės is a small town in Kėdainiai district, central Lithuania. It is located on the Smilgaitis River. In the town there is a Catholic church, convent, secondary school and post office.
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Kropilai
Kropilai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 18 people.
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Kruonis
Kruonis is a small town, located 37 km (23 mi) east of Kaunas, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 726. The only in the Baltic States Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant (the KPSP) is situated 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Kruonis.
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Kuigaliai
Kuigaliai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 455 people. Village established on Barupė river.
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Kulautuva
Kulautuva is a town in Kaunas district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. It is situated on the right bank of the Nemunas River. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 1367 people.
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Kulva
Kulva is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 405 people.
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Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945, and the easternmost large German city until it was conquered by the Soviet Union near the end of World War II. In 1946 the city was renamed Kaliningrad.
Historically, the official name was Königsberg in Preußen (abbreviated Königsberg i. Pr. (until 1936) and later Königsberg (Pr) (1936–1946)), Königsberg in Prussia, German pronunciation [ˈkʰøˑnɪçsbɛɐk], pronunciation (help·info)). Königsberg's literal meaning is 'King's Mountain'. Historically, several regional names were used for Königsberg. Its Latinised form was Regimontium Prussorum. In Modern Saxon or "Low German", a Germanic language spoken by many of its German inhabitants, the name was Königsbarg (local pronunciation: /ˈkʰeˑnɪçsbɒɐç/), mixing German König (nds. köning) with Low German barg (hill, mountain). Further names include Lithuanian: Karaliaučius; Polish: Królewiec and the modern Russian and current official name Калинингра́д, Kaliningrad).
Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. The city successively became the capital of their monastic state, the Duchy of Prussia, and East Prussia. The Baltic port developed into a German cultural center, being the residence of, among others, Simon Dach, Immanuel Kant, Käthe Kollwitz, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and David Hilbert, Agnes Miegel and Michael Wieck.
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Kėboniai
Kėboniai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 47 people.
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Kėdainiai
Kėdainiai ( pronunciation (help·info), also known by several other names) is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania. It is located 51 km (32 mi) north of Kaunas on the banks of the Nevėžis River. First mentioned in the 1372 Livonian Chronicle of Hermann de Wartberge, its population as of 2008 was 30,214. Its old town dates to the 17th century.
The city is the administrative centre of the Kėdainiai district municipality. The geographical centre of the Lithuanian Republic is in the nearby village of Ruoščiai, located in the eldership of Dotnuva.
The city has been known by other names: Kiejdany in Polish, Keidan (קיידאן) in Yiddish, and Kedahnen in German. Its other alternate forms include Kidan, Kaidan, Keidany, Keydan, Kiejdany, Kuidany, and Kidainiai.
The area was the site of several battles during "The Deluge", the 17th century war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden. In 1655 a short-lived treaty with Sweden, the Union of Kėdainiai, was signed by two members of Radziwiłł family in their Kėdainiai castle. While little remains of the Radziwiłł castle, the crypt of the Calvinist church (1631) houses the family mausoleum, including the tombs of Krzysztof Radziwiłł and his son Janusz.
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Laisvės alėja
Coordinates: 54°53′50″N 23°54′49″E / 54.89722°N 23.91361°E / 54.89722; 23.91361
Laisvės Alėja (literary Liberty Boulevard or Liberty Avenue) is a prominent pedestrian street in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. It stretches between the St. Michael the Archangel's Byzantine style church to the Central Post Office and Tadas Ivanauskas Zoological Museum around the Kaunas Old Town, the oldest section of Kaunas. For a long time it was main commercial district of Kaunas.
Stretching for 1,6 km, Laisvės Alėja is still the longest pedestrian street in Eastern Europe . Motor vehicles cannot travel lengthwise up or down Laisvės Alėja, but can cross this pedestrian street at intersections with other streets where vehicle traffic is allowed. This boulevard is separated into two walkways by a median strip lined with linden trees.
Construction around Laisvės Alėja originally took place during the latter half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, however some construction continued even afterwards. Because of at the time built Kaunas Fortress all the buildings were limited to 2-3 floor size, with a few exceptions like St. Michael the Archangel's church built in 1895 in a place of a fountain.
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Lampėdžiai Bridge
Lampėdžiai Bridge (Lithuanian: Lampėdžių tiltas) is a bridge in Kaunas, Lithuania. It crosses the Nemunas River to connect Marvelė in Aleksotas district and Lampėdžiai neighbourhood in Vilijampolė elderate. The bridge is 446 meters in length. It carries four lanes of automobile traffic, with two lanes in each direction. The bridge, completed in 1997, is also named after a Lithuanian roadman Česlovas Radzinauskas. Lampėdžiai Bridge is a part of Via Baltica and A5 highway of Lithuania, and western bypass of Kaunas.
Coordinates: 54°54′24.41″N 23°50′2.87″E / 54.9067806°N 23.8341306°E / 54.9067806; 23.8341306
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Lapės
Lapės is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 1038.
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Latvia
Latviai/ˈlætviə/ (Latvian: Latvija), officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (border length 343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), to the east by the Russian Federation (276 km), to the southeast by Belarus (141 km), and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,067,887 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi) it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats (Ls). The country has a temperate seasonal climate.
The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Together with the Finno-Ugric Livs (or Livonians), the Latvians are the indigenous people of Latvia.Latvian is an Indo-European language and along with Lithuanian the only two surviving members of the Baltic branch. Indigenous minority languages are Latgalian and the nearly extinct Finno-Ugric Livonian language. In terms of geography, territory and population Latvia is the middle of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia and Estonia share a long common history: historical Livonia, times of German (Teutonic Order), Polish-Lithuanian, Swedish, Russian, Nazi German and Soviet rule, 13th century Christianization and 16th century Protestant Reformation. Both countries are home to a large number of ethnic Russians (26.9% in Latvia and 25.5% in Estonia) of whom some are non-citizens. Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant, except for the region of Latgalia in the southeast which is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.
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Leith
Coordinates: 55°58′48″N 3°10′12″W / 55.980089°N 3.170049°W / 55.980089; -3.170049
Leith ( /ˈliːθ/ LEETH; Scottish Gaelic: Lìte) is a district and former municipal burgh to the north of the city of Edinburgh at the mouth of the Water of Leith in Scotland. It has long been regarded as Edinburgh's port. It lies on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, in the unitary local authority of the City of Edinburgh.
First referred to in the charter authorising the construction of Holyrood Abbey, Leith officially became Edinburgh's port in 1329 when Robert I transferred control to the magistrates and citizens of Edinburgh. It remains a busy port, handling over 1.5 million tonnes of cargo a year.
Up until the late 16th century Leith (originally designated Inverleith, i.e. the mouth of the Water of Leith, on early maps), comprised two separate towns on either side of the river.
South Leith was the larger, coming under the jurisdiction of St. Cuthbert's parish in Edinburgh. It was based on trade and had many merchants' houses and warehouses. This was where ships offloaded their cargoes at the Shore where they were collected by Edinburgh merchants.
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Liepiai
Liepiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 425 people.
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Linköping
Linköping [ˈlɪnːˈɕøːpɪŋ] is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104,232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church of Sweden) and is well known for its cathedral. Linköping is the center of an old cultural region and celebrated its 700th anniversary in 1987. Nowadays Linköping is known for its university and its high-technology industry. Dominating the city's skyline from afar is the steeple of the cathedral.
The city is possibly named after the Lionga ting assembly which according to Medieval Scandinavian laws was the most important thing in Östergötland. Exact location of the Lionga ting is not known, but it was along the Eriksgata. Köping means there was a market there.
Historically, Linköping is famed for being an early diocese, second in Sweden (within its pre-1658 boundaries) only to Skara. The diocese is first mentioned in 1104 in the so-called "List of Florence" (Lionga. Kaupinga). The monastery of Vreta Kloster near Roxen north of Linköping was established in 1128, and the oldest parts of the cathedral are also from the 12th century (although it has been changed many times since then, the eye-catching tower with copper roofing being a 19th century product). On several occasions attempts to achieve a separate Swedish archdiocese were based in Linköping, although, when they finally were successful in 1164, Uppsala was chosen instead.
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Lipliūnai
Lipliūnai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 192 people.
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Lippe
Lippe (German pronunciation: [ˈlɪpə]) is a Kreis (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe.
The district of Lippe is named after the Lords of Lippe and their Principality of Lippe. It was a state within the Holy Roman Empire and today is a district of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Lippe district nearly covers the same area as the historic county of Lippe. The first mention of this country was in 1123; it grew in power slowly in the following centuries. In 1528 it became a county, in 1789 it was elevated to a principality.
Unlike many other countries of the Holy Roman Empire in the area, Lippe kept its independence in the Napoleonic era, and thus wasn't incorporated into Prussia afterwards. It was one of the smaller member states of the German empire.
After the death of Prince Woldemar in 1895, the two lines of the House of Lippe fought over the regency for over a decade.
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Lithuania
Lithuania (i/ˌlɪθuːˈeɪniə/ or /ˌlɪθjuːˈeɪniə/; Lithuanian: Lietuva), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Respublika) is a country in Northern Europe, the largest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark. It borders Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and a Russian exclave (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages (together with Latvian) in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
For centuries, the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea was inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, who was crowned as King of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the first Lithuanian state, on 6 July 1253. During the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe: present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772 to 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.
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London
Londoni/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
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Lyduvėnai
Lyduvėnai is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 125.
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Malmö
Malmö (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈmalːˈmøː] ( listen)), in the southernmost province of Scania, is Sweden's third largest city by population after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and is one of the largest cities in Scandinavia.
Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County. The administrative entity for most of the city is Malmö Municipality which has 300,515 inhabitants in eight different localities, with 30% being of foreign origin (either born outside of Sweden or having both parents born abroad). Malmö is also a bimunicipal locality, as part of it is formally situated in Burlöv Municipality. The total population of the urban area was 280,415 in December 2010.
Greater Malmö is one of Sweden's three officially recognized Metropolitan areas (storstadsområden) and since 2005 is defined as the municipality of Malmö and 11 other municipalities in the southwestern corner of Scania. On 30 June 2008, its population was recorded to be 628,388. The region covers an area of 2,535.76 square kilometres (979.06 sq mi). The municipalities included, apart from Malmö, are Burlöv, Eslöv, Höör, Kävlinge, Lomma, Lund, Skurup, Staffanstorp, Svedala, Trelleborg and Vellinge. Lund, with a municipal population of over 100,000 and home to one of Scandinavia's major universities, is together with Malmö the region's economic and education hub.
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Mantviliškis
Mantviliškis is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 262 people.
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Mantviloniai
Mantviloniai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 30 people.
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Milagainiai
Milagainiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 124 people.
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Mimainiai
Mimainiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 166 people. Village established near Mimainiai Lake.
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Mištautai
Mištautai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 29 people.
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Molavėnai
Molavėnai is a small village in the Raseiniai district municipality, Lithuania.
Two hillforts are located in the vicinity of the village. Two nature monuments are protected by the state – an old oak tree near one of the hillfots and a stone called Mokas.
Molavėnų I hillfort was first erected in the 1st century and consisted of defensive fortifications and a wooden fort. The site is located on a long (350 m), narrow projection into a bend of the river Šešuvis. The site is protected on the northeast and southwest by steep slopes, marshy banks, and the river. To protect it on the northwest, the only known Lithuanian double defensive system that uses earth and wooden outworks was erected on the projection’s neck. In all, it consisted of five ditches, four earthworks, and three levelled courtyards. A fortified settlement was built at the southeast end. In addition, the levelled hilltop areas were surrounded by palisades of sharpened poles. Artefacts dating from the early 1st century to the early second millennium were found during 21st century excavations. The site was eventually abandoned due to continued erosion and the shrinking hilltop.
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Myślibórz
Myślibórz [mɨˈɕlʲibuʂ] (German: Soldin; Kashubian: Żôłdzëno) is a city in north-west Poland, in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is the capital of the Powiat of Myślibórz (powiat myśliborski). Population is 11,867.
The city's official webpage mentions a settlement inhabited by a pre-slavic population from Lusatian culture on the shores of the lake (Polish: Jezioro Myśliborskie; German: Soldiner See) in the 7th century, which later turned into a West Slavic fortress in the 10th and 11th centuries; the area was incorporated into Poland by the Piast duke Mieszko I by the end of the 10th century. According to the city's webpage, the town site was a fishing settlement called Sołtyń, located on trading route between Silesia and Greater Poland towards Oder delta. It is from this fishing settlement that the later German name of the town comes: Soldin.
The site was acquired as a rest house by the Dominican Order in 1234, while the fort was ceded to the Knights Templar and finally sold to the Ascanian margraves John I and Otto III of Brandenburg in 1261. Together with the nearby castellany of Santok, the former Greater Polish lands were incoporated into the Brandenburgian Neumark ("New March"; Polish: Nowa Marchia) territory. The town was first mentioned as Soldin in a 1270 deed and quickly became the administrative centre of the region, a Dominican monastery was founded there in 1275. However, in the first half of the 14th century Soldin declined due to famine and political strife of the Ascanian dynasty, in the course of which the Soldin Castle was destroyed. The Neumark area came under the control of the Teutonic Order in 1402, but in 1455 was re-acquired by the Margraviate of Brandenburg, now under the rule of the House of Hohenzollern. Elector Frederick Irontooth had Brandenburg’s suzerainty over the area formalized in the 1466 Treaty of Soldin with the Pomeranian dukes (see below).
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NASA
Coordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W / 38.88306°N 77.01639°W / 38.88306; -77.01639
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Since February 2006, NASA's mission statement has been to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." On September 14, 2011, NASA announced that it had selected the design of a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before and provide the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.
NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958. U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.
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Nazi Germany
The Third Reich, also Nazi Germany, is the common name for Germany when it was a totalitarian state ruled by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). On 30 January 1933 Hitler became chancellor of Germany, quickly eliminating all opposition to rule as sole leader. The state idolized Hitler as its Führer ("leader"), centralizing all power in his hands. Historians have emphasized the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups. Kessel writes, "Overwhelmingly...Germans speak with mystification of Hitler's 'hypnotic' appeal..." Under the "leader principle", the Führer's word was above all other laws. Top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, but they had considerable autonomy. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power and curry favor with the Führer. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazi government restored prosperity and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy of free-market and central-planning practices. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of the Autobahns. The return to prosperity gave the regime enormous popularity; the suppression of all opposition made Hitler's rule mostly unchallenged.
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Nemakščiai
Nemakščiai is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 905.
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Neman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, (German: Memel) is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches. It also very briefly forms part of the border between Lithuania and Belarus. The 14th largest river in Europe, the largest in Lithuania and the 3rd largest in Belarus, it is navigable for most of its 900-kilometer length.
The Neman River basin was formed during the Quaternary period, and is located roughly along the edge of the last glacial sheet, dating from about 25, 000 – 22,000 years BP (Before Present). Its depth varies from one meter in its upper courses to five meters in the lower basin.
Klaipėda/Memel, Sovetsk/Tilsit, Masty, Hrodna/Grodno, Druskininkai, Alytus, Kaunas/Kovno, Neman/Ragnit.
The river has lent its name to a Neolithic subculture; originally based on hunting, fishing, and gathering, its inhabitants gradually adopted domesticated plants and animals.
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Neman river
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, (German: Memel) is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches. It also very briefly forms part of the border between Lithuania and Belarus. The 14th largest river in Europe, the largest in Lithuania and the 3rd largest in Belarus, it is navigable for most of its 900-kilometer length.
The Neman River basin was formed during the Quaternary period, and is located roughly along the edge of the last glacial sheet, dating from about 25, 000 – 22,000 years BP (Before Present). Its depth varies from one meter in its upper courses to five meters in the lower basin.
Klaipėda/Memel, Sovetsk/Tilsit, Masty, Hrodna/Grodno, Druskininkai, Alytus, Kaunas/Kovno, Neman/Ragnit.
The river has lent its name to a Neolithic subculture; originally based on hunting, fishing, and gathering, its inhabitants gradually adopted domesticated plants and animals.
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Neringa municipality
Neringa municipality or Neringa ( pronunciation (help·info), Lithuanian: Neringos savivaldybė) is a municipality in westernmost Lithuania, in the Curonian Spit. In terms of population, it is the smallest municipality of the country. Until the Lithuanian municipality reform, it was known as Neringa city, although there was never a true city there. It was made a city only because within the Soviet administrative system it was not possible to carve such small districts, but it was possible to grant rights to a city that it would only be responsible to the state itself rather than districts. Neringa is separated from the mainland Lithuania by Curonian Lagoon which, while there is no bridge, it is still accessible from the mainland by ferry only. The villages in Neringa municipality are Nida, Preila, Pervalka and Juodkrantė. They are tourist resorts and by then it was popular to grant more self government to resorts. The municipality is the only one in Lithuania which is not called after a town or city. The name Neringa was created at Soviet time for the new city municipality.
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Neris
Neris ( pronunciation (help·info), Belarusian: Ві́лія Viliya, Polish: Wilia) is a river rising in Belarus. It flows through Vilnius (Lithuania) and becomes a tributary of the Neman River (Nemunas) at Kaunas (Lithuania). Its length is 510 km (320 mi).
For 275 km (171 mi) the river runs through Belarus, where it is called Viliya, and 235 km (146 mi) runs through Lithuania, where it is called Neris.
The Neris connects two old Lithuanian capitals - Kernavė and Vilnius. Along its banks are burial places of the pagan Lithuanians. At 25 km (16 mi) from Vilnius are the old burial mounds of Karmazinai, with many mythological stones and a sacred oak.
The reasons for the dual naming of the river as Neris by the Lithuanians and Viliya (formerly Velja, meaning "big, great" in Slavic) by the Slavs are complex. Even in Vilnius, there are toponyms including both names, e. g. Neris remains in the riverside names of Paneriai and Paneriškės while Velja is a part of the name Valakampiai, which means "an angle of Velja" in Lithuanian.
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Newcastle upon Tyne
Coordinates: 54°58.440′N 1°36.792′W / 54.974°N 1.6132°W / 54.974; -1.6132
Newcastle upon Tyne (locallyi/njuːˈkæsəl/; often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne. The city developed in the area that was the location of the Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, though it owes its name to the castle built in 1080, by Robert II, Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of William the Conqueror. The city grew as an important centre for the wool trade and it later became a major coal mining area. The port developed in the 16th century and, along with the shipyards lower down the river, was amongst the world's largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centres. These industries have since experienced severe decline and closure, and the city today is largely a business and cultural centre, with a particular reputation for nightlife.
Like most cities, Newcastle has a diverse cross section, from areas of poverty to areas of affluence. Among its main icons are Newcastle Brown Ale, a leading brand of beer, Newcastle United F.C., a Premier League team, and the Tyne Bridge. It has hosted the world's most popular half marathon, the Great North Run, since it began in 1981.
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Ninth Fort
The Ninth Fort (Lithuanian: Devintas Fortas) is a stronghold in the northern part of Šilainiai elderate, Kaunas, Lithuania. It is a part of the Kaunas Fortress, which was constructed in the late 19th century. During the occupation of Kaunas and the rest of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, the fort was used as a prison and way-station for prisoners being transported to labour camps. After the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany, the fort was used as a place of execution for Jews, captured Soviets, and others.
At the end of 19th century, the city of Kaunas was fortified, and by 1890 it was encircled by eight forts and nine gun batteries. The construction of the Ninth Fort (its numerical designation having stuck as a proper noun) began in 1902 and was completed on the eve of World War I. From 1924 on, the Ninth Fort was used as the Kaunas City prison.
During the years of Soviet occupation, 1940-1941, the Ninth Fort was used by the NKVD to house political prisoners on their way to the labour camps in Siberia.
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Norway
Norwayi/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
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Novočėbė
Novočėbė is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 4 people.
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Odense
The city of Odense (Danish pronunciation: [ˈoðˀn̩sə] ( listen)) is the third largest city in Denmark. Odense City has a population of 168,798 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)[update]) and is the main city of the island of Funen. The city is the seat of Odense Municipality, with a population of 191,610 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)[update]), and was the seat of Odense County until 1970, and Funen County from 1970 until 1 January 2007, when Funen County became part of the Region of Southern Denmark.
Odense (from Odins Vé, meaning "Odin's shrine", referring to the god Odin of Denmark's indigenous Norse mythology), is one of the oldest cities of Denmark and had its 1000th anniversary in 1988. To celebrate this, a forest named "the Thousand Year Forest" (Danish: Tusindårsskoven) was cultivated. The shrine of Saint Canute (Danish: Sankt Knud / Knud den Hellige) in Saint Canute's Cathedral held great attraction for pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages.
In the 16th century, the town was the meeting-place of several parliaments, and down to 1805 it was the seat of the provincial assembly of Funen.
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Pagiriai
Pagiriai is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 523.
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Pakuonis
Pakuonis is a small town in Prienai district municipality, Lithuania. It is located near the Neman River. According to 2001 census, it has population of 680.
The village was first mentioned in 1744. The first church was built in 1792 or 1794 and the town began to grow around it. On April 23, 2004 town coat of arms, depicting a blooming apple tree, was approved by a presidential decree.
Coordinates: 54°43′N 24°03′E / 54.717°N 24.05°E / 54.717; 24.05
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Palanga
Palanga ( pronunciation (help·info), is a seaside resort town in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. It is the busiest summer resort in Lithuania and has beaches of sand (18 km long and up to 300 m wide) and beautiful sand dunes. Officially Palanga has the status of a city municipality and includes Šventoji, Nemirseta, Būtingė and other settlements, which are considered as part of the city of Palanga.
According to a legend, there was a pagan shrine at the foot of a hill in Palanga where a beautiful priestess named Birutė used to tend the ceremonial fires. Having heard of Birutė's beauty, Kęstutis, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, came to make her his wife. It is written in the Lithuanian Bychowiec Chronicle that Birutė "did not consent, and answered that she had promised the gods to remain a virgin as long as she lived. Kęstutis then resorted to take her by force, and with great pomp brought her back to his capital, Trakai, where he invited his kinsmen and celebrated with a lavish wedding..." Kęstutis was later murdered and Birutė returned to Palanga and resumed serving at the shrine until her death. The legend claimed that she was buried in the hill which is now named for her.
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Paliepiai
Paliepiai is a village in Lithuania located 6 km east of Viduklė. According to the 2001 census, it had 518 residents.
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Panevėžys
Panevėžys (pronounced [panʲævʲeˈʒiːs] ( listen)) see also other names, is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2011, it occupied 52 square kilometers with 113,653 inhabitants.
The largest multifunctional arena in Panevėžys, Cido Arena, hosted the Eurobasket 2011 group matches.
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Panoteriai
Panoteriai (Polish: Kaplice) is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 399.[citation needed]
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Pasmilgys
Pasmilgys is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 9 people.
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Pasoda
Pasoda is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 39 people.
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Pažaislis monastery
Pažaislis monastery and church (Lithuanian: Pažaislio vienuolynas ir bažnyčia) form the largest monastery complex in Lithuania, and the most magnificent example of Italian baroque architecture in the country. It is situated in the Petrašiūnai elderate of Kaunas, Lithuania, on a peninsula in the Kaunas Reservoir near the Kaunas Yacht Club.
Founded in 1662 by the Grand Duchy of Lithania Great Chancellor Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac for the Order of the Camaldolese Hermits, the main construction continued until 1674 and resumed in 1712. The church was designed by Pietro Puttini, Carlo and Pietro Puttini, and Giovanni Battista Frediani. In 1755 the addition of the towers and the dome was funded by the king's chamberlain Michał Jan Pac.
In 1832 the church was closed by the Russian authorities and later converted into an Orthodox church. The author of the Imperial Russian national anthem God Save the Tsar, Alexei Lvov, was interred there in 1870. After 1920 the ruined church returned to Roman Catholics and was restored by sisters of the Lithuanian convent of St. Casimir. After World War II, the Soviet authorities converted the church and monastery into an archive, a psychiatric hospital and finally an art gallery (in 1966). In 1990s the complex was returned to the nuns of the convent and reconstruction work began.
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Pernarava
Pernarava is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 299.
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Petrašiūnai
Petrašiūnai is a neighborhood in the eastern part of the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, with elderate status. In 2006 it occupied about 28.46 hectares, with a population of about 18,000. A part of the elderate belongs to the Kaunas Reservoir Regional Park.
Its eponymous estate was established in the 18th century, and it was the center of a volost. In 1946 it was incorporated into the city. After the Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant was built in 1960, it grew rapidly and became one of the city's industrial centers. The elderate borders Kaunas Reservoir and includes Pažaislis monastery ensemble.
The elderate contains the Petrašiūnai cemetery, where many distinguished Lithuanian political and social activists are buried.
Coordinates: 56°02′N 23°57′E / 56.033°N 23.95°E / 56.033; 23.95
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Pilioniai
Pilioniai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 89 people.
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Poland
Polandi/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
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Polotsk
Polotsk(Polatsk, Belarusian: По́лацк, Russian: По́лоцк, Polish: Połock), is a historical city in Belarus, situated on the Dvina River. It is the center of the Polotsk district in Vitsebsk Voblast. Its population is more than 80,000 people. It is served by Polotsk Airport and during the Cold War was home to Borovitsy air base.
The Old East Slavic name, Polotesk, is derived from the Polota River (the real meaning of the name is Puolauta and this in the Lithuanian language means 'falling into', i.e., the river which flows into a bigger river), that flows into the Dvina nearby. The Vikings rendered that name as Palteskja.
Polotsk is one of the most ancient cities of the Eastern Slavs. The Primary Chronicle listed Polotsk in 862 (as Полотескъ, /poloteskŭ/), together with Murom and Beloozero. However, Polotsk was not yet in existence in the 9th century, and this record was an invention of the compiler, but an archaeological expedition of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus suggests that Polotsk already existed in the first half of the 9th century. The Norse sagas describe the city as the most heavily fortified in all of Rus.
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Prague
Prague ( /ˈprɑːɡ/; Czech: Praha pronounced [ˈpraɦa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and fourteenth largest city in European Union. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of nearly 2.0 million. The city has a temperate oceanic climate with warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague has been a political, cultural, and economic centre of central Europe with waxing and waning fortunes during its 1,100 year existence. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire and after World War I became the capital of Czechoslovakia. The city played major roles in the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, and in modern history generally as the principal conurbation in Bohemia and Moravia whose second city is Brno.
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Prienai
Prienai ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in Lithuania situated on the Neman River, 39 km (24 mi) south of Kaunas. In 2001 the city had 11,353 inhabitants. The name of the city is a derivative from a surname Prienas.Pociūnai Airport is associated with the city.
The first documented mention of Prienai is in 1502 when the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander gave the land of Prienai to the noble Mykolas Glinskis. Magdeburg rights were granted to the city in 1609, beginning a period of growth that continued through the 17th and 18th century.
During World War II, when it was occupied by German troops, Prienai lost many of its inhabitants. People emigrated or were expelled, while the Nazis killed the Jews.
Industry establishment began at the end of the 17th century, when paper manufactory was founded. 1868 beer brewery of high quality beer founded. It was active until 1941. AB „Sportinė aviacija“ for a long time was the only glider factory in Soviet Union. It was founded 1969. Here was created the first Lithuanian glassfibre glider BK-7 "Lietuva".
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Ragožiai
Ragožiai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the town has a population of 293 people.
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Ragutis
Coordinates: 54°53′09″N 23°55′38″E / 54.88583°N 23.92722°E / 54.88583; 23.92722
Volfas Engelman is an alcohol beverage producer in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Currently 99.57 % of Volfas Engelman shares belong to Finnish company group Olvi Plc. It is now one of the most modern light alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages producer in Lithuania, which produces and sells beer, kvass, cider, alcohol cocktails, and energy drinks.
According to the market research company AC Nielsen, Volfas Engelman is the third biggest player in beer market, it has 37 % of cider market share, 26 % of alcohol cocktails, and 13 % of energy drinks market in 2009. Smetoniska gira, a kvass that was launched in 2008, got the market leader position already in 2009.
The brewery Volfas Engelman was opened in Kaunas in 1853, after merchant Raphail Wolf started boiling "Wolf's beer" in his own brewery. At that time he was producing only several buckets of beer a day, however, at that time it was a new high quality beer. Later the business of this factory went to his son Iser Ber Wolf. Iser Ber Wolf together with A. S. Soloveichik, another famous person in Kaunas, in the last decade of 19th century decided to buy a brewery from the competitor Ferdinand Engelmann. Hence, based on this they established a new brewery "Steam-driven Beer and Malt Factory Engelmann".
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Raseiniai
Raseiniai ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some 5 km (3.1 mi) north from the Kaunas–Klaipėda highway.
Raseiniai is one of the oldest communities in Lithuania – the name of the settlement was mentioned for the first time in 1253. Its name was mentioned in Chronicles of the 13th and 14th centuries under various names, including Rushigen, Rossyen, and Rasseyne. In 1253 Grand Duke Mindaugas ceded one part of the Samogitia territory, including some of the district around Raseiniai, to the Livonian Order, and the rest to the first bishop of Lithuania, Kristyan. In the 14th–18th centuries, Raseiniai was one of the most important towns in the Samogitia region.
At the end of the 14th century the city became important centre, and its representative participated with others from the region in signing the peace treaty of Königsberg in 1390. At the end of the 15th century, Raseiniai was granted Magdeburg Rights.
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Raudondvaris
Raudondvaris is a village on the Neman River in Kaunas district, Lithuania, 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Kaunas.
The town was first mentioned in Teutonic chronicles in 1392. The old castle was rebuilt after the Battle of Grunwald and became Grand Duke's property. In 1549 Grand Duke Sigismund II Augustus presented the castle to his wife, Barbara Radziwiłł. After her death the castle fell to ruin. A new Renaissance red brick palace, known as Raudondvaris Castle, was built in 1615 on the high bank of the Nevėžis River by the Radziwiłłs. The palace is surrounded by a park with a palm house (no longer in use). The residence was known for its remarkable fine arts collection, including paintings by da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rubens and del Sarto. The palace belonged to the Tyszkiewicz family until the end of World War I, when it was converted into a shelter for children. It suffered damage during World War II and was rebuilt only in 1959–1973. Currently it houses collections devoted to the Tyszkiewicz family and Juozas Naujalis.
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Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
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Riga
Riga (Latvian: Rīga, pronounced [riːɡa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 657,424 inhabitants ( 2011) Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltic Sea region.[citation needed] The city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies between 1 and 10 metres (3.3 and 33 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.
Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. The city will be the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. The city hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states.
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Rimkai
Rimkai is a village in Jonava district municipality, Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 80 people. The village has a church of Old Believers.
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Rome
Rome (/ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma pronounced [ˈroːma] ( listen); Latin: Rōma) is a city and special comune ("Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and the capital of Lazio (Latin: Latium). With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.7 million people live in the Rome metropolitan area. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.
Rome's history spans two and a half thousand years. It was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years from the 1st century BC until the 7th century AD and the city is regarded as one of the birthplaces of western civilization. Since the 1st century AD Rome has been the seat of the Papacy and, after the end of Byzantine domination, in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.
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Rukla
Rukla is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 2376.
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Ruminiai
Ruminiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 24 people.
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Rumšiškės
Rumšiškės is a Lithuanian town (population 1,700), situated 20 km (12 mi) east of Kaunas on the northern bank of Kaunas Reservoir. Southern part of the town (including the birthplace of Lithuanian poet Jonas Aistis) is now under the waters of the artificial lake. The 18th century St. Michael Archangel church of Rumšiškės (rebuilt in 19th century) was saved and moved to its present place in 1958, when the reservoir was created.
Rumšiškės was first mentioned in the 14th century. In 1940–1941, a Soviet concentration camp was created in a nearby village of Pravieniškės. After 1941 the camp was used by the Nazis. Around 700 Lithuanian Jews were murdered by the Nazis near Rumšiškės during World War II. [1]
The old Rumšiškės was flooded by the Kaunas Lagoon, an artificial lake created by a dam built at Kaunas in the 1950s.
Today, Rumšiškės is best known for its excellent open-air ethnographic museum (established in 1966 and opened in 1974), one of the largest in Europe.
The open-air museum in Rumšiškės displays the heritage of Lithuanian rural life in a vast collection of authentic resurrected buildings where the Lithuanian people lived and worked. The total area of 175 ha (432 acre) contains 140 buildings from the 18th–19th century with the restored original interiors and surroundings. This museum was established to help to preserve and research the former ways of living.
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Ruoščiai
Ruoščiai is a small village in Kėdainiai district municipality, Lithuania. Located about 3 km from Dotnuva, it had 35 residents according to the 2001 census. The settlement is known as the geographical center of Lithuania, which was calculated in 1995.
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Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
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Russian Empire
The Russian Empire (Pre-reform Russian orthography: Россійская Имперія, Modern Russian: Российская Империя, translit: Rossiyskaya Imperiya) was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the short-lived Russian Republic, which was succeeded by the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest empires in world history, surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires: at one point in 1866, it stretched from eastern Europe across Asia and into North America.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea on the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean and into North America on the east. With 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third largest population of the world at the time, after Qing China and the British Empire. Like all empires, it represented a large disparity in economic, ethnic and religious positions. Its government, ruled by the Emperor, was the last absolute monarchy in Europe at the time of its demise.
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Ručiūnai
Ručiūnai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the town has a population of 256 people.
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Siberia
Coordinates: 60°0′N 105°0′E / 60°N 105°E / 60; 105
Siberia (/saɪˈbɪəriə/; Russian: Сиби́рь, tr. Sibir'; IPA: [sʲɪˈbʲirʲ] ( listen)) is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union (USSR) from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th to 19th centuries.
Encompassing much of the Eurasian Steppe, the territory of Siberia extends eastward from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the national borders of Mongolia and China. Siberia makes up about 77% of Russia's territory (13.1 million square kilometres), but has only 28% (40 million people) of Russia's population.
Some sources say that the word Siberia originates from the Turkic for "sleeping land". Another version is that this name was the ancient tribal name of the Sabirs, Turkic nomads later assimilated to Siberian Tatars. The modern usage of the name appeared in the Russian language after the conquest of the Siberian Khanate.
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Siponiai
Siponiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 93 people.
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South Korea
South Korea ( listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國; Daehan Minguk listen), is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the Middle Ages (an initial "G" in Korean is pronounced like an English "K").
Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the Korea Strait to the south. South Korea lies in the north temperate zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of almost 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304.
Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy, though political turmoil and times of military rule and martial law characterized much of the period until the foundation of the Sixth Republic in 1987.
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Stakliškės
Stakliškės is a village in Lithuania, located east of Prienai, in Prienai district of Kaunas County on the Prienai-Trakai road. Stakliškės is a center of Stakliškės elderate. The famous type of Lithuanian mead, an alcoholic beverage distilled from grain, honey and water is produced in Stakliškės.
The place is known since end of 14th century (1375 mentioned in Teutonic Knights Chronicles as Staghelisken, 1385 as Stakelisken). Since 1513 it was a town, and 1586 first church was built.
After reforms of the Great Sejm, on January 16, 1792 monarch Stanisław August Poniatowski granted the town Magdeburg Rights. At the time city was awarded Coat of Arms.
Current coat of arms was granted by Presidential decree on December 18, 1997.
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Stargard Szczeciński
Stargard Szczeciński [ˈstarɡart ʂt͡ʂɛˈt͡ɕiɲskʲi] ( listen) (German: Stargard in Pommern; Kashubian: Stôrgard) is a city in northwestern Poland, with a population of 71,017 (2005). Situated on the Ina River it is the capital of Stargard County and since 1999 has been in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship; prior to that it was in the Szczecin Voivodeship (1975–1998). Stargard is a major railroad junction, where the southwards connection from Szczecin splits into two directions - one towards Poznań and the other towards Gdańsk. There is also another minor line to Pyrzyce from the town.
Stargard, which was first mentioned in around 1140, received Magdeburg city rights in 1243 from Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania.
In 1363 the city joined the Hanseatic League and was then strongly fortified. During the 15th century the Pomeranian dukes chose it as their residence.
During the Thirty Years' War the city burnt down and in the 1648 Peace of Westphalia it was incorporated, together with the rest of Further Pomerania, into Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1701 Stargard became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and in 1818, after the Napoleonic Wars, Stargard became part of the new district Saatzig within the Province of Pomerania.
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Stasiūnai
Stasiūnai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 20 people.
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Steelyard
Coordinates: 51°30′41″N 0°05′26″W / 51.51139°N 0.09056°W / 51.51139; -0.09056
The Steelyard, from the German Stalhof, was in the Middle Ages the main trading base of the Hanseatic League in London.
It lay on the north bank of the Thames by the outflow of the Walbrook, in the Dowgate ward of the City of London. The site is now covered by Cannon Street station and commemorated in the name of Steelyard Passage. The Steelyard, like other Hansa stations, was a separate walled community with its own warehouses on the river, its own weighing house, church, counting houses and residential quarters. In 1988 remains of the former Hanseatic trading house, once the largest medieval trading complex in Britain, were uncovered by archaeologists during maintenance work on Cannon Street Station.
As a church the Germans used former All-Hallows-the-Great, since there was only a small chapel on their own premises.
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Stockholm
Stockholm (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈstɔkːˈhɔlm, ˈstɔkːˈɔlm, ˈstɔkːɔlm]( listen to the second one)) is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 864,324 in the municipality (2010), 1.4 million in the urban area (2010), and around 2.1 million in the 6,519 km2 (2,517.00 sq mi) metropolitan area (2010). As of 2010, the Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden's population.
Founded no later than c. 1250, possibly as early as 1187, Stockholm has long been one of Sweden's cultural, media, political, and economic centres. Its strategic location on 14 islands on the south-central east coast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago, has been historically important. Stockholm has been nominated by GaWC as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-. In The 2008 Global Cities Index, Stockholm ranked 24th in the world, 10th in Europe, and first in Scandinavia. Stockholm is known for its beauty, its buildings and architecture, its abundant clean and open water, and its many parks. It is sometimes referred to as Venice of the North.
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Stumbras
AB Stumbras is the oldest and largest producer of strong alcoholic drinks in Kaunas, Lithuania. Company began its operations in 1906. "Stumbras" is also the largest exporter of strong alcoholic beverages and one of the biggest taxpayers in Lithuania. Company's most famous brands include "Lithuanian vodka" (vodka), "999" (bitter), "Gloria" (brandy), "Stumbro Starka" (bitter), "Krupnikas" (liqueur), "Poema" (liqueur) and others. The company name translates as Wisent.
Origins of "Stumbras" is related to a 1894 law on monopolizing alcohol production by state-owned enterprises in the Russian Empire. The law was expected to increase budget revenues and to improve the quality of produced vodka. The government of Kaunas acquired suitable plot of land in 1903 for a high price of 52,200 Russian rubles. The buildings were finished and production started at the end of 1906. The official name of the company was "Kazionyj Nr.1 vinyj očistnyj sklad" (State wine warehouse No. 1). City's name was later included in the title. The site included an electric power station, charcoal burner (for filtration purposes), canalization, evaporation heating, three-dimensional water supply system, six artesian wells, even a railway connection was made available.
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Surviliškis
Surviliškis Polish: Surwiliszki is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 376.
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Sweden
Sweden (i/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Øresund.
At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.
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Szczecin
Szczecin ([ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin] ( listen); German: Stettin [ʃtɛˈtiːn] ( listen)}), is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. In the vicinity of the Baltic Sea, it is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland. As of June 2011 the population was 407,811.
Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin borders with the town of Police.
The city's beginnings were as an 8th century Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, built at the site of today's castle. In the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomerania's main urban centres, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark. At the same time, the Griffin dynasty established themselves as local rulers, the population was converted to Christianity, and German settlers arrived. The native Slavic population was assimilated and sometimes discriminated against in the following centuries. In 1237/43, the town was built anew and granted vast autonomy rights, and it joined the Hanseatic League.
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Słupsk
Słupsk [swupsk] ( listen) (German: Stolp, Kashubian: Stôłpsk or Słëpsk, Latin: Stolpa) is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the northern part of Poland. Before 1 January 1999, it was the capital of the separate Słupsk Voivodeship. It is also a part of the historic region of Pomerania.
The city is located in the northwestern part of the country, on the Slovincian Coast, 18 kilometres (11 mi) from the Baltic Sea on the Słupia River. It is the administrative seat of Słupsk County, although it is not part of that county (the city has county status in its own right). It has a population of 98,757 and occupies 43.15 square kilometres (16.66 sq mi), being one of the most densely populated cities in the country according to the Central Statistical Office. The neighbouring administrative districts (gminas) are Gmina Kobylnica and Gmina Słupsk. There is ongoing discussion regarding extension of the city boundaries to include some territory belonging to those two gminas.
Słupsk had its origins as a Slavic Pomeranian settlement on the Słupia river in early Middle Ages, which later became part of Piast Poland. In 1265 it was given city rights. By the 14th century, the town had become a centre of local administration and trade and a Hanseatic League associate. Between 1368 and 1478, it was the residence of the Dukes of Pomerania. In 1648, according to the peace treaty of Osnabrück, Słupsk became part of Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1815 it was incorporated into the newly formed Province of Pomerania. The city became part of the People's Republic of Poland in 1945.
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Tallinn
Tallinn (/ˈtɑːlɪn/ or /ˈtælɪn/,Estonian pronunciation: [ˈtɑlʲˑinˑ]) is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of 159.2 km2 (61.5 sq mi) with a population of 416,470. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is ranked as a global city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city was a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku, Finland.
Tallinn is the oldest capital[clarification needed] in Northern Europe. The city was known as Reval from the 13th century until the 1920s.
In 1154 a town called Qlwn or Qalaven (possible derivations of Kalevan or Kolyvan) was put on the world map of the Almoravid by the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, who described it as a small town like a large castle among the towns of Astlanda. It has been suggested that the Quwri in Astlanda may have denoted the predecessor town of today's Tallinn.
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Tampere
Tampere (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtɑmpere] ( listen); Swedish: Tammerfors [tamərˈfɔrs] or [tamərˈfɔʂ]) is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of 215,315, growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in Finland, after the Greater Helsinki municipalities of Helsinki and Espoo. In 2007, the entire Pirkanmaa region had around 470,000 residents, of which 230,000 were employed, and a turnover of 25 billion euros.
Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".
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Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the city is the centre of southern Estonia. The Emajõgi river, which connects the two largest lakes of Estonia, crosses Tartu. The city is served by Tartu Airport.
Historical names of the town include Tarbatu, an Estonian fortress founded in the 5th century,Yuryev (Юрьев) named c. 1030 by Yaroslav I the Wise, and Dorpat as first known by the German crusaders in the 13th century.
As Tartu has been under control of various rulers throughout its history, there are various names for the city in different languages. Most of them derive from the earliest attested form, the Estonian Tarbatu. In German, Swedish and Polish the town has been and sometimes still is known as Dorpat (help·info), a variant of Tarbatu. In Russian, the city has been known as Юрьев (Yuryev) after Yaroslav I the Wise and Дерпт (Derpt), a variant of Dorpat (however, since 1917 the Estonian name Tartu is used). Similarly, the city has been known as Tērbata in Latvian.
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Toruń
Toruń [ˈtɔruɲ] ( listen) (German: Thorn ( listen), Kashubian: Torń, Latin: Thorunium, see also: other names) is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
In 1997 the medieval part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2007 the Old Town in Toruń was added to the list of Seven Wonders of Poland. National Geographic Polska rated the old town market and the Gothic town hall as one of the "30 Most Beautiful Places in the World." In 2010 Forbes magazine ranked Toruń as number one of the "Polish Cities Attractive for Business".[citation needed] In 2009 it was listed as one of the "Best Cities to Live in Poland", in a ranking published by Przekrój.[citation needed]
Previously it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–98) and the Pomeranian Voivodeship (1921–45). Since 1999, Toruń has been a seat of the self-government of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province and, as such, is one of its two capitals (together with Bydgoszcz). The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz-Toruń bi-polar metropolitan area. In September 2004, Bydgoszcz Medical School joined Toruń's Nicolaus Copernicus University as its Collegium Medicum.
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Truskava
Truskava is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 137.
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Tubiai
Tubiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 33 people.
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Tyumen
Tyumen (Russian: Тюме́нь; IPA: [tʲʉˈmʲenʲ] ( listen)) is the largest city and the administrative center of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located on the Tura River 2,144 kilometers (1,332 mi) east of Moscow. Population: 581,758 (2010 Census preliminary results); 510,719 (2002 Census); 476,869 (1989 Census).
Tyumen is the oldest Russian settlement in Siberia. Founded in 1586 to support Russia's eastward expansion, the city has remained one of the most important industrial and economic centers east of the Ural Mountains. Located at the junction of several important trade routes and with easy access to navigable waterways, Tyumen rapidly developed from a small military settlement to a large commercial and industrial city. The central part of Old Tyumen retains many historic buildings from throughout the city's history.
Today Tyumen is one of Russia's most important business centers and is prominent in the political and cultural life of Russia.
Tyumen is the transportation hub and industrial center of Tyumen Oblast—a vast oil-rich region stretching from the Kazakh border to the Arctic Ocean—as well as the home of many companies active in Russia's oil and gas industry.
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Ukraine
Ukraine (i/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]; Russian: Украина; Crimean Tatar: Ukraina) is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after the Russian Federation.
According to a popular and well established theory, the medieval state of Kievan Rus was established by the Varangians in the 9th century as the first historically recorded East Slavic state which emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages until it disintegrated in the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th century, Ukrainian territories were under the rule of three external powers—the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Great Northern War (1700–1721) Ukraine was divided between a number of regional powers and, by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with several internationally recognized attempts at independence from 1917 to 1921, following World War I and the Russian Civil War. Ukraine emerged from its own civil war, and on December 30, 1922 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian SSR's territory was enlarged westward during the civil war shortly before, and after World War II, and further south in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Upninkai
Upninkai is the largest village in Jonava district, Lithuania. It is situated 8 km southwest of Vepriai on the left bank of the Šventoji River. According to the 2001 census, it had population of 1019.
Upninkai was first mentioned in 1442 in the will of Kristinas Astikas who was the first known lord of Upninkai lands. His son Radvila Astikas built the first church there before 1477. The village had a Protestant church from the late 16th century until 1650. During the 17th century, Upninkai competed with Ukmergė for trade and influence. In 1842, the entire town burned down and did not recover. A persistent priest converted surviving former manor's brick granary into the present Neoclassical Roman Catholic church of Archangel Michael. According to the census of 1923, Upninkai had 75 residents. The population grew more than ten-fold between 1970 and 1979, increasing from 67 to 847.
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Užusaliai
Užusaliai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 844 people. Center of eldership.
Užusalių pagrindinė mokykla
Užusaliai old school
Užusaliai pond
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Vaivadiškiai
Vaivadiškiai is a village in the Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 170 people.
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Vandžiogala
Vandžiogala is a village in Kaunas County, Kaunas district municipality in central Lithuania.
As of 2001 it had a population of 946.
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Varniai Bridge
Varnių Bridge (Lithuanian: Varnių tiltas) is a bridge across the Neris River, that connects Vilijampolė and Žaliakalnis districts of Kaunas, Lithuania. It was built in 1983. The bridge is 328 meters long and approximately 25 meters wide. It carries six lanes of automobile traffic, with three lanes in each direction. Before World War II, neighbourhoods of Vilijampolė and Žaliakalnis were connected by temporary Eiguliai bridge.
Coordinates: 54°54′52″N 23°54′34″E / 54.91444°N 23.90944°E / 54.91444; 23.90944
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Varėnai
Varėnai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 10 people.
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Vazgaikiemis
Vazgaikiemis is a village in Prienai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the town has a population of 95 people.
Village is famous because of its show jumping field. Vaizgaikiemis hosts National Lithuanian Equestrian jumping championships and various international events. In 2010 Vaizgaikiemis hosted FEI World Cup Jumping 2010/2011 North Sub-League 6th stage.
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Veiveriai
Veiveriai is a town in Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, its population was 1,100. It is located about 18 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of Kaunas on the road to Marijampolė.
The town was first mentioned in written sources in 1744, but began growing a century later when a large postal station was established on the Kaunas–Suwałki road, part of a longer Berlin – St. Petersburg route, in 1838–1839. Mail coaches would stop here to change horses and pick up passengers. The office was closed after the postal route was superseded by the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway, built in 1859–1861. During the Uprising of 1863, a battle occurred between local rebels (some 620 men) and Russians army on August 21, 1863. Poorly armed rebels were defeated and lost about 80 men before retreating. After establishment of the teachers' seminary, Veiveriai grew as a center of education and culture. In the 1930s, during an economic crisis, the town was part of fierce protests against the government of Antanas Smetona. Two protesters were killed. After World War II, Veiveriai supported armed anti-Soviet resistance. In 1989 Skausmo kalnelis (Hill of Sorrows) was created were bodies of killed resistance fighters were buried. The hill was incorporated into the town's coat of arms, adopted in 2004.
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Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod (Russian: Вели́кий Но́вгород; IPA: [vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət]) is one of the most important historic cities in Russia which serves as the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just downstream from its outflow from Lake Ilmen. Population: 218,724 (2010 Census preliminary results); 216,856 (2002 Census); 229,126 (1989 Census).
Novgorod is among the oldest cities of Russia, founded in the 9th or 10th century. The Sofia First Chronicle first mentions it in 859; the Novgorod First Chronicle mentions it first under the year 862 when it was allegedly already a major station on the trade route from the Baltics to Byzantium.[citation needed]
Archaeological excavations in the middle to late 20th century, however, have found cultural layers dating back only to the late 10th century, the time of the Christianization of Rus' and a century after it was allegedly founded, suggesting that the chronicle entries mentioning Novgorod in the 850s or 860s are later interpolations.
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Viduklė
Viduklė is a small town in a Raseiniai district municipality, Kaunas County, central-western Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 1911.
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Vilijampolė
Vilijampolė is an elderate in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, located on the right bank of the Neris River and the Nemunas River, near their confluence. The elderate covers 1,720 hectares and houses about 32,000 people. It was the home of the Slabodka Yeshiva and the main site of the Kaunas Ghetto. The district is still popularly known as Slabodkė in Lithuania. The Lithuanian Veterinary Academy campus is located in the neighbourhood. Two bridges across the Neris connects Vilijampolė with the main part of the city. Petras Vileišis Bridge connects the district with the Old Town and Varniai Bridge with the neighbourhood of Žaliakalnis.
Coordinates: 54°55′N 23°53′E / 54.917°N 23.883°E / 54.917; 23.883
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Vilkija
Vilkija ( pronunciation (help·info)) is situated in the Kaunas district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 25 km (16 mi) north-west of Kaunas. It's right on the north side of the river Nemunas, the most important river in Lithuania.
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Vilnius
Vilnius ([ˈvʲɪlʲnʲʊs] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 554,060 (838, 852 together with Vilnius County) as of 2011. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. The first known written record of Vilnius as the Lithuanian capital is known from Gediminas' letters in 1323. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies.
The name of the city originated from the Vilnia River. The city has also been known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльнюс, Вiльня, German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Russian: Вильнюс, Yiddish: ווילנע (Vilne). An older Russian name was Вильна / Вильно (Vilna/Vilno), although Вильнюс (Vilnius) is now used. The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications. The name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew.
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Visby
Visby [ˈviːsbʏ] is a locality and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County, Sweden with 22,593 inhabitants, as of 2010. It is the only locality with historical city status on the island of Gotland; it is arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the most notable historical remains are the 3.4 km (2.1 mi) long stone wall called Ringmuren ("the Ring Wall"), that encircles the city and the old church ruins.
The name "Visby" comes from the Old Norse Vis, (genitive singular of Vi) meaning sacrificial place, and by, meaning "city".
Visby is a popular vacation destination for Scandinavians during the summer and receives thousands of tourists every year.
The earliest history of Visby is uncertain, but it is known to have been a centre of merchandise around 900 AD. It was inhabited as early as the Stone Age, probably because of the access to fresh water and a natural harbour.
In the 12th century, Visby Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Mary, was constructed. It was reshaped in the 13th century to its current appearance, and was officially opened in 1225 by the bishop of the Swedish city of Linköping. Several other churches were also constructed in the ensuing centuries. The city flourished, thanks to the German Hanseatic League.
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Växjö
Växjö ([ˈvɛkːˈɧøː]) is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 60,887 inhabitants in 2010. It is the administrative, cultural and industrial centre of Kronoberg County. Furthermore it is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Växjö. It has a population of about 64,200, out of a municipal total of 83,000 inhabitants. The town is home to Linnaeus University.
The city's name is believed to be constructed from the words "väg" (road) and "sjö" (lake), meaning the road over the frozen Växjö Lake that farmers took in the winter to get to the marketplace that later became the city.
In contrast to what was believed a century ago, there is no evidence of a special pre-Christian significance of the site. The pagan cultic center of Värend may have been located at Hov, a village nearby.
Even though the city has been an Episcopal see since the 12th century, it did not get its city charter until 1342, issued by Magnus Eriksson. During the Middle Ages Växjö did not have many pious institutions. A Franciscan monastery was established in 1485. There was a hospital of the Holy Ghost, first mentioned in 1318. In the 14th century Växjö got its first school, Växjö katedralskola, that was much visited. By 1643 it received gymnasium status.
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Warsaw
Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa [varˈʂava] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most populous city proper in the European Union. The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres (199.6 sq mi), while the city's agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres (2,355.39 sq mi).
Warsaw is an Alpha- global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in Central Europe. It is also known as the "phoenix city" because it has survived many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered from World War II, during which 80% of its buildings were destroyed. On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland's highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, for the Siege of Warsaw (1939).
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Wrocław
Wrocław ( /ˈvrɒtswəf/; Polish pronunciation: [ˈvrɔt͡swaf] ( listen); German: Breslau [ˈbʁɛslaʊ̯] ( listen); Czech: Vratislav), situated on the River Oder (Polish: Odra), in Lower Silesia. It is the largest city in western Poland.
Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia, and today is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, and has been part of Poland since 1945 as a result of border changes after World War II. According to official figures for 2010, its population is 632,996, making it the fourth largest city in Poland.
Wrocław is one of the hosts of UEFA Euro 2012, and has been selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2016. In 2017, Wrocław will host the World Games, a competition in 37 non-olympic sport disciplines.
The city's name was first recorded, in Latin, in the form "Wrotizlava", in the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg, which mentions it as a seat of a newly installed bishopric in the context of the Congress of Gniezno. The first municipal seal stated Sigillum civitatis Wratislavie. A simplified name is given, in 1175, as Wrezlaw, Prezla or Breslaw. The Czech spelling was used in Latin documents as Wratislavia or Vratislavia. At that time, Prezla was used in Middle High German, which became Preßlau. In the middle of the 14th century the Early New High German (and later New High German) form of the name Breslau began to replace its earlier versions.
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Xiamen
Xiamen (Mandarin pronunciation: [ɕjâmə̌n]), also known as Amoy /əˈmɔɪ/, is a major city on the southeast (Taiwan Strait) coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of 1575.16 km2 and population of 3.61 million. Its built up area is now bigger than the old urban island area and covers now all 6 districts of Xiamen (Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, Haicang and recently Xiang'an), for a total of 3,531,147 inhabitants. It borders Quanzhou to the north and Zhangzhou making with this city a unique built up area of more than 5 million people. The Jinmen (Kinmen) Islands administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan) are less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian countryside are the ancestral home to large communities of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The city was a treaty port in the 19th century and one of the four original Special Economic Zones opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s. It is endowed with educational and cultural institutions supported by the overseas Chinese diaspora. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's second 'most suitable city for living'.
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York
York (locali/ˈjɔːk/) is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of historic attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent, and a variety of cultural and sporting activities.
The city was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, under the name of Eboracum. It became in turn the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jorvik. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England, a role it has retained.
In the 19th century York became a hub of the railway network and a confectionery manufacturing centre. In recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, whilst tourism has become an important element of the local economy.
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Zapyškis
Zapyškis (Polish: Sapieżyszki) is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania on the right bank of the Neman River. As of 2001 it had a population of 254. The town is famous for its old early Gothic church (built between 1530 and 1578), which is also depicted in town's coat of arms. A new church was built in 1942. According to tradition, the village was originally one of larger pagan temples of the Baltic tribes.
The town, originally named Sapieżyszki in Polish was named after the Sapieha family, erstwhile mighty boyars of Smolensk and later a princely family active in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The grounds of the former pagan temple were donated to Paweł Sapieha by king of Poland Sigismund I the Old. The earlier founded a church on the ruins of the old temple and founded a new settlement there, named after himself. In the settlement, the Sapiehas also built a manor, which however did not survive to modern times.
In early 17th century Andrzej Sapieha, the voivode of Polotsk, Nowogródek and Smolensk Voivodeship, sold the village to Grzegorz Massalski, the cup-bearer of Grodno. His son, Aleksander left it to his daughter, who joined the Bernardine monastery near Kaunas. Until the partitions of Poland the monastery remained the owner of the village of Sapieżyszki. However, in 1795 the Prussian authorities secularised the convent and confiscated all of its' properties. In 1812, during Napoleonic Wars, the church was partially demolished by French forces who used it as a stable. In mid-19th century the town had 564 inhabitants, most of them Jewish.
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Zwin
The Zwin is a nature reserve at the North Sea coast, on the Belgian-Dutch border. It consists of the entrace area of a former tidal inlet which during the Middle Ages connected the North Sea with the ports of Sluis and Bruges inland.
The Zwin inlet was formed originally by a storm that broke through the Flemish coast in 1134, creating a tidal channel that reached some 15 km inland and was also connected, through another channel, to the mouth of the Scheldt further north-east. The new waterway offered access to the sea to the inland city of Bruges, which consequently rose to become one of the foremost medieval port cities of Europe. The towns of Damme, Sluis and Sint Anna ter Muiden were also located on the Zwin. However, from the late 13th century onwards, the channel was affected by progressive silting, which ultimately caused the waterway to become unusable and cut off the harbour of Bruges from the sea.
The present-day nature reserve was founded in 1952. It has an area of 1.25 square kilometres in Knokke-Heist, Belgium and 0.33 square kilometres in Sluis, Netherlands. It is famous for its large variety in salt-resistant flora, such as Sea lavender. It is also popular with bird watchers. There is a small zoo with some major domestic birds and it is one of the few places in Belgium with a population of white storks.
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Ąžuolaičiai
Ąžuolaičiai is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 190 people.
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Ąžuolynas
Ąžuolynas (literally, "Oak Grove") is a public park in Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas, in the Žaliakalnis neighbourhood. The park covers about 63 hectares and is the largest urban stand of mature oaks in Europe. Vydūnas Alley serves as the park's northern border. It is a popular recreational destination for the inhabitants of Kaunas. Most of its trees are oaks ranging in age from 100 to 320 years old, but it also holds linden, birch, and maple trees.
The current park is what remains of a much larger oak forest that grew around the city, and was connected to the forests in Karmėlava, Rumšiškės and Kaišiadorys. Those forests were cut down during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, and the timber was used in city buildings, bridges, castles, and ships. The section of the forest between Kaunas and Garliava was cut down in the 19th century.
A valley in the park is named for the poet Adam Mickiewicz, who rested there during his days as a teacher in Kaunas schools. In 1938 Tadas Ivanauskas established the Kaunas Zoo in the northern corner of the park. A year later Kaunas Sports Hall, which hosted Eurobasket 1939, was established near Ąžuolynas. The park's infrastructure was reconstructed in 1955; in 1966 the Valley of Songs (Lithuanian: Dainų slėnis) was installed. The park is used extensively for sports activities of students of the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education located nearby. A section of Ąžuolynas, Vytautas Park, contains a number of recreational attractions for children.
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Čekiškė
Čekiškė is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001, it had a population of 734. The main town square formed where three roads converged. That dictated radial plan for the town, which is now protected as a monument of urban architecture.
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Čičinai
Čičinai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the town has a population of 314 people. Village is near to Neris river.
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Łomża
Łomża [ˈwɔmʐa] is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately 90 miles (150 km) from Warsaw and 50 miles (81 km) from Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river and has been in the Podlaskie Voivodeship since 1999. Previously, it was the capital of the Łomża Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Łomża County and the capital of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Łomża since 1925.
Łomża is one of the principal economic, educational and cultural centres of north-eastern Masovia as well as one of the three main cities of Podlaskie Voivodeship (beside Białystok and Suwałki). It lends its name to the protected area called Łomża Landscape Park. The town is also the location of the Łomża Brewery.
Łomża was founded around the 10th century, on the site of the present day village called Stara Łomża (Old Łomża). It was first mentioned in official records in the 14th century. Łomża received its municipal rights in 1416, and became an important political and economic center in the mid-16th century.
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Šančiai
Šančiai is an elderate in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. It is located on the right bank of the Nemunas River, and is divided into Higher and Lower Šančiai. Its 2007 population was 23,237.
Remains of transatlantic pilots of Lituanica Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas were reburied in cemetery of Šančiai, after Kaunas Old Cemetery (also known as Kaunas Carmelite Cemetery) was liquidated by soviet authorities.
Coordinates: 54°52′43″N 23°56′35″E / 54.87861°N 23.94306°E / 54.87861; 23.94306
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Šatijai
Šatijai is a village near Kaunas in Lithuania. It has a red brick estate, built in 1889 by the Christauskai family. In 1966 the estate consisted of a house, large stables, barn, granary, smithy, and garden. Until restoration of Lithuania's independence in 1990, the estate was neglected and fell in ruins. Consequently, after restoration of independence the building was restored and turned into a restaurant and guesthouse.
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Šeteniai
Šeteniai (Polish: Szetejnie) is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, Lithuania. It is situated 13 km north of Kėdainiai, on the left bank of the Nevėžis River.
On June 12, 1999 in the former barn of the manor where Czesław Miłosz was born, a Czesław Miłosz cultural center was founded. There is an exhibition dedicated to Miłosz. The place nowadays is used for cultural activities – conferences and meetings are held there. The cultural center is surrounded by a former park filled with recent addition of wood carvings by international artists .
In Šeteniai were born:
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Šeštokai
Šeštokai is a small town in southern Lithuania. It is a railway junction with break-of-gauge (1435 mm/1520 mm), and is also a transshipment hub.
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Šiauliai
Šiauliai ( Lithuanian (help·info)), is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania.
Šiauliai is referred to by a various names in different languages: Samogitian: Šiaulē, Latvian Saule (historic) and Šauļi (modern), German: Schaulen, Polish: Szawle, Russian: Шавли (Shavli - historic) and Шяуля́й (Shyaulyai - modern), Yiddish: שאַװל (Shavel).
The city was first mentioned in written sources as Soule in Livonian Order chronicles describing the battle of Saule. Thus the city's founding date is now considered to be September 22, 1236, the same date when the battle took place, not far from Šiauliai. At first it developed as a defense post against the raids by the Teutonic and Livonian Orders. After the battle of Grunwald in 1410, the raids stopped and Šiauliai started to develop as an agricultural settlement. In 1445, a wooden church was built. It was replaced in 1634 with the brick church which can be seen in the city center today.
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Šilai
Šilai is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 Lithuania census, the village has a population of 441 people. Center of eldership.
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Šilainiai
Šilainiai is an elderate in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, built as a microdistrict in the 1980s. It is one of the largest elderates in the city, covering 25.33 hectares, and housing over 70,000 people as of 2006. Eighth and ninth forts of the Kaunas Fortress are located in the elderate.
The elderate is home to two gymnasiums (Santaros, Jonas Basanavičius) and four secondary schools (Juozas Grušas Secondary School of Arts, Milikoniai, Šilainiai and Ąžuolas Catholic Secondary School).
Coordinates: 54°56′09″N 23°51′33″E / 54.93583°N 23.85917°E / 54.93583; 23.85917
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Šiluva
Šiluva is a small town of less than 1,000 inhabitants in Lithuania. It is located in the region of Samogitia.
Šiluva was first mentioned in 1457 in relation to the building of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Bartholomew by the Lithuanian noble Petras Gedgaudas. Later the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary attracted huge numbers of the faithful to Šiluva, some from as far away of what later became Protestant Prussia.
With the advent of the Reformation in 16th century Lithuania, many of the inhabitants of the Šiluva region converted to Calvinism. This caused the church to eventually be ransacked and closed around 1569. The last parish priest, John Holubka, buried the remaining church valuables and legal documents and deeds in an iron box near the vandalized church.
Subsequent attempts by the Catholics to regain the property through legal proceedings against the Calvinists were hindered by the fact that the exact location of the documents pertaining to the church were unknown. Some Catholics believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary miraculously intervened in the matter by appearing at the church and holding the baby Jesus in her arms and weeping bitterly. The founding documents of the Catholic Church were found shortly after the apparition, and in 1622 the Catholics reclaimed the church. The famous Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary resumed in a small wooden church on the site of the apparition, and the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Divine Child became renowned as a source for miracles. The current-day Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected on the site in 1786.
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Šlapaberžė
Šlapaberžė is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 583 people.
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Šveicarija
Šveicarija is a village in Jonava district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 848 people. The village's name means "Switzerland" in Lithuanian.
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Šventoniškis
Šventoniškis is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 13 people.
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Šventybrastis
Šventybrastis is a village in Kėdainiai district municipality, in Kaunas County, in central Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the village has a population of 169 people. There are a wooden church, a monument for independence, four sacred oak trees. In Medieval times, Šventybrastis had a pagan temple.
Sacred oaks
Brasta rivulet
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Šėta
Šėta is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 1025.
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Žaiginys
Žaiginys is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 380.
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Žalgiris Arena
Žalgiris Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New Town of Kaunas, Lithuania. The arena is located on an island of the Nemunas River. It is the largest indoor arena in the Baltics. The arena's maximum possible seating capacity for basketball games is 15,688, and 16,160 seats for concerts (when the stage is in the middle, and 11,256 when stage is in the side of the arena). The Žalgiris Arena replaced the Kaunas Sports Hall as a major venue in the city. Arena is operated by the ŪBIG Investments Group - a branch of commercial Ūkio bank and owned by Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov.
The Žalgiris Arena is used to host basketball games as well as concerts. The arena's namesake basketball club BC Žalgiris, which currently competes in the domestic LKL and the Euroleague, uses the facility for all of its European and LKL home fixtures. The Žalgiris Arena has held the playoffs and finals of the 37th European Basketball Championship, which took place on September 2011.
The construction of the arena started in September 2008; the main contractor of the arena is Lithuanian construction company Vėtrūna, chief architect – Eugenijus Miliūnas. The total cost of the arena is estimated to be 168.8 M litas (50 million euros). The arena was opened on 18 August 2011 with a basketball match between Lithuania and Spain.
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Žaliakalnis
Žaliakalnis (literally, "the green hill") is an elderate in Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas. Žaliakalnis is located north of the old town and the downtown area, between the Neris and Girstupis rivers. It is one of the largest residential areas in Kaunas, with a 2006 population of 38,480.
Žaliakalnis became part of Kaunas in 1919, when the city became the temporary capital of Lithuania. Kaunas expanded rapidly, and the need for a comprehensive plan became evident by 1922. The Danish engineer M. Frandsen was invited to devise this plan.
In Frandsen's plan, Žaliakalnis was to be an important part of Kaunas, where all the city's administrative functions would be located. This part of the concept was not fulfilled, although the neighbourhood quickly became very popular and many modern residences were built. In 1924-1925 alone, more than 300 plots were created and sold. In accordance with the plan, its streets were planted with different species of trees, and space was left for gardens. By 1940, the area was largely built up, and only a few plots remained vacant.
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Žasliai
Žasliai is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 818.
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Žeimiai
Žeimiai is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 962.
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Žiežmariai
Žiežmariai ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in the Kaišiadorys district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 6 km (3.7 mi) south of Kaišiadorys.
Žiežmariai has a rare, surviving wooden synagogue.
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Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz [mit͡sˈkʲɛvit͡ʂ] ( listen)) (Belarusian: Ада́м Берна́рд Міцке́віч; Lithuanian: Adomas Bernardas Mickevičius; 24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855) was a Polish poet, publicist and political writer. A prime representative of the Polish Romantic period, he is one of that country's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all Polish literature. He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic and European poets. He has been described as a "Slavic bard". He was a leading Romantic dramatist and has been compared in Poland and in western Europe to Byron and Goethe.
He is known primarily as the author of the poetic novel Dziady and national epic Pan Tadeusz, which is considered the last great epic of Polish-Lithuanian noble culture. Mickiewicz's other influential works include Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna. All served as inspiration during regional uprisings and as foundations for the concept of Poland as "the Christ of Nations."
Mickiewicz was active in the struggle to achieve independence for his homeland, then part of the Russian Empire. Having spent five years in internal exile in central Russia for political activities, he left the Empire in 1829 and spent the rest of his life in emigration, like many of his compatriots. He settled first in Rome, later in Paris, where he became professor of Slavic literature at the Collège de France. He died, probably of cholera, at Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, where he had gone to help organize Polish forces to fight against Russia in the Crimean War. His remains were later moved to Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland.
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Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] ( listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is commonly associated with the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust.
A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party, precursor of the Nazi Party, in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup d'état, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, in Munich. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anticommunism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. After his appointment as chancellor in 1933, he transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism. His aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe.
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Adrian von Renteln
Theodor Adrian von Renteln (September 15, 1897 in Khodz, Georgia, then Russian Empire – 1946 in Soviet Union) was an activist and politician in Nazi Germany. During World War II, he was General Commissioner of Generalbezirk Litauen and was involved in perpetrating the Holocaust in Lithuania.
Of Baltic German origin, von Renteln studied law and economics in Berlin and Rostock, but became a journalist. In 1928, he joined the NSDAP and the following year, he became the founder and head of the National Socialist Schoolchildren's League (NSS). In 1931, he was appointed the head of the Hitler Youth, but he gave up leadership of the two organizations upon his election to the Reichstag in 1932.
In 1932–1933 he led the Combat League of the Commercial Middle Class (NS-Kampfbund für den Gewerblichen Mittelstand), an organisation allegedly "Deflecting Jewish Atrocity and Boycott-Mongering", participating in the boycott of Jewish businesses and other forms of persecution. In June 1933, he was appointed President of the National Socialist Council of Industry and Trade (Nationalsozialistische Handwerks-, Handels-, und Gewerbeorganisation or NS-HAGO), holding this position until 1935, when this organisation was merged with the German Labor Front (DAF). Von Renteln became a staff leader of the German Labor Front. In 1940, he was appointed the Reich Leader of the Trade and Artisanship Section of the NSDAP (Hauptamtsleiter Handel und Handwerk in der Reichsleitung der NSDAP). He was also the head of the Supreme Court of the Reich Labor Front.
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Antanas Merkys
Antanas Merkys ( pronunciation (help·info); born on February 1, 1887 in Bajorai, near Skapiškis, Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire; died on March 5, 1955 in Vladimir Oblast, Soviet Union) was the last Prime Minister of independent Lithuania, serving from November 1939 to June 1940. When the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania, President Antanas Smetona fled the country leaving Merkys as the acting president. Merkys ostensibly cooperated with the Soviets and handed over the power to Justas Paleckis, who formed the so-called People's Government of Lithuania. When Merkys attempted to flee the country, he was captured and deported to the interior of Russia, where he died in 1955.
Educated in law, Merkys served in the Russian Army during World War I (1914–18). In 1919, he served as the newly-independent Lithuania's Minister of Defence before serving with the Lithuanian Army until his decommissioning in 1922. He then practised as a lawyer.
After the Klaipėda Revolt of 1923, Merkys became secretary to the Klaipėda Region Commissioner, Antanas Smetona. Following the coup d'état in 1926, he became Minister of Defence again until 1927, when he was made Governor of Klaipėda Region. In 1932, German demands prompted his removal as Governor and Merkys returned to practising law. He became Mayor of Kaunas in 1933 and served in this position until 1939. In 1936 was elected to the Fourth Seimas. On November 17, 1939, he became Prime Minister.
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Antanas Smetona
Antanas Smetona pronunciation (help·info) (August 10, 1874 – January 9, 1944) was one of the most important Lithuanian political figures between World War I and World War II. He served as the first President of Lithuania from April 4, 1919 to June 19, 1920. He again served as the last President of the country from December 19, 1926 to June 15, 1940, before its occupation by the Soviet Union. He was also one of the famous ideologists of nationalism in Lithuania.
Born in the village of Užulėnis, Taujėnai rural district of Ukmergė district municipality, Antanas Smetona was sent to the primary school in Taujėnai. Graduating from the Palanga Pre-Gymnasium in 1893, he passed his entrance examinations into the Samogitian Diocesan Seminary in Kaunas, with thoughts of becoming a Catholic priest, but various circumstances soon thereafter changed these plans, and he enrolled at Jelgava Gymnasium (high school) in Latvia. Here, together with Jonas Jablonskis, Vincas Kudirka and others, he belonged to a secret Lithuanian students' organization. This organization was nationalistic, and anti-Czarist in nature. In the autumn of 1896, he organized the resistance of students against obligatory attendance of the Russian Orthodox Church, and was expelled from the Gymnasium, but was later allowed to study at the Gymnasium No.9, in Saint Petersburg.
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Arvydas Sabonis
Arvydas Romas Sabonis (born December 19, 1964 in Kaunas, Lithuania SSR, USSR) is a Lithuanian retired professional basketball player and a businessman. He was an eight-time European Player of the Year, winning the Euroscar Award six times, and the Mr. Europa Award twice, as the best European player and played in a variety of leagues, including seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Sabonis played the center position and also won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea for the Soviet Union, and later earned bronze medals at the 1992 and 1996 games while playing for Lithuania. He retired from professional basketball in 2005.
Sabonis is considered one of the best big man passers as well as one of the best overall centers in the history of the game. Bill Walton once called Sabonis a 7'3" Larry Bird due to his unique court vision, shooting range, rugged in-game mentality, and versatility.
On August 20, 2010, Sabonis was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in recognition of his great play in international competition. On April 4, 2011, Sabonis was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and he was inducted on August 12, 2011. Sabonis has the distinction of being the tallest player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. On 24 October 2011, Sabonis was voted to be the next president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation.
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Arūnas Bubnys
Arūnas Bubnys (born November 7, 1961) is a Lithuanian historian and archivist. He started his studies at Vilnius University in 1985. In 1993 he received a Ph.D for the thesis Lietuvių antinacinė rezistencija 1941–1944 m. (English: Lithuanian Anti-Nazi Resistance 1941-1944).
From 1985 on he worked in the Lithuanian Institute of History. In 1993-1998 he was the director of Lithuanian Special Archives. Currently, he works at the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania and is a member of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
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Balys Sruoga
Balys Sruoga (February 2, 1896, near Biržai, Lithuania - October 16, 1947, Vilnius) was a Lithuanian poet, playwright, critic, and literary theorist.
He contributed to cultural journals from his early youth. His works were published by the liberal wing of the Lithuanian cultural movement, and also in various Lithuanian newspapers and other outlets (such as Aušrinė, Rygos Naujienos etc.). In 1914 he began studying literature in St. Petersburg, Russia, and later in Moscow, due to World War I and the Russian Revolution. In 1921 he enrolled in the University of Munich, where in 1924 he received his Ph.D for a doctoral thesis on Lithuanian folklore.
After returning to Lithuania, Sruoga taught at the University of Lithuania, and established a theater seminar that eventually became a course of study. He also wrote various articles on literature. From 1930 he began writing dramas, first Milžino paunksmė, later Radvila Perkūnas, Baisioji naktis and Aitvaras teisėjas. In 1939 he began teaching at Vilnius University.
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Chiune Sugihara
Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝, Sugihara Chiune?, 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland and residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. Sugihara had told the refugees to call him "Sempo", the Chinese reading of the characters in his first name, discovering it was much easier for Western people to pronounce. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions.
Chiune Sugihara was born 1 January 1900, in Yaotsu, a rural area in Gifu Prefecture of the Chubu region to a middle-class father, Yoshimi Sugihara (杉原好水 Sugihara Yoshimi), and Yatsu Sugihara (杉原やつ Sugihara Yatsu), an upper-middle class mother. He was the second son among five boys and one girl.
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Donatas Motiejūnas
Donatas Motiejūnas (born September 20, 1990) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player. He plays the power forward and center positions. He is nicknamed "D-Mo" by Houston Rockets fans and "Doncė" (pronounced as "Don-tzeh") by Lithuanian fans. Motiejūnas was selected 20th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Motiejūnas began his career playing with the youth team Arvydas Sabonis School of Kaunas. He made his professional debut with the Žalgiris Kaunas in a Baltic League game against the ASK Riga. He scored 15 points in 22 minutes.
Motiejūnas helped Žalgiris Kaunas win a Baltic Championship, a Lithuanian Championship and a Lithuanian Cup. He averaged 5.6 points in 10.1 minutes per game in the Baltic League.
He signed with the Aisčiai Kaunas in 2008. With Aisčiai, he averaged 19.9 points and 7.0 rebounds in 29.3 minutes per game and he scored a season-high 29 points in a Lithuanian League game against Nevėžis on March 22, 2009.
He moved to the Italian League club Basket Treviso in August 2009. There, he got off to a great start, scoring 18 and 21 points in two friendly matches against other European clubs. In 2011, Motiejūnas won the Eurocup Rising Star award after helping his team Basket Treviso reach the Eurocup 2010-11 Final Four, averaging 10.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 0.9 steals, and 4.4 fouls drawn per game.
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Estonians
Estonians (Estonian: eestlased) are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian. Although Estonia is traditionally grouped as one of the Baltic countries, Estonians are linguistically unrelated to the Baltic peoples of Latvia and Lithuania.
Estonia was first inhabited about 10,000 years ago, just after the Baltic ice lake had retreated from Estonia. While it is not certain what languages were spoken by the first settlers, it is often maintained that speakers of early Uralic languages related to modern Estonian had arrived in what is now Estonia by about 5000 years ago. Living in the same area for more than 5000 years would put the ancestors of Estonians among the oldest permanent inhabitants in Europe. On the other hand, some recent linguistic estimations suggest that Fenno-Ugrian language arrived around the Baltic Sea considerably later, perhaps during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 1800 BCE).
The name "Eesti", or Estonia, is thought to be derived from the word Aestii, the name given by the ancient Germanic people to the Baltic people living northeast of the Vistula River. The Roman historian Tacitus in 98 A.D. was the first to mention the "Aestii" people, and early Scandinavians called the land south of the Gulf of Finland "Eistland" ("Eistland" is also the current word in Icelandic for Estonia), and the people "eistr". Proto-Estonians (as well as other speakers of the Finnish language group) were also called Chuds (чудь) in Old East Slavic chronicles.
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Germans
The Germans (Deutsche) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Legally, Germans are citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, about 66–75 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry mainly in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, France, Russia, Chile, Poland, Australia and Romania who most likely are not native speakers of German. Thus, the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 66 and 160 million, depending on the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, partial German ancestry, etc.).
Today, peoples from countries with a German-speaking majority or significant German-speaking population groups other than Germany, such as Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, have developed their own national identity and usually do not refer to themselves as "Germans" in a modern context.
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Jews
The Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים ISO 259-3 Yhudim Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and an ethnoreligious group, originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.
In Jewish tradition, Jewish ancestry is traced to the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the second millennium BCE. The modern State of Israel defines itself as a Jewish state in its Basic Laws, and Israel's Law of Return states: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh." Israel is the only country where Jews are a majority of the population. Jews achieved political autonomy twice before in ancient history. The first of these periods lasted from 1350 to 586 BCE, and encompassed the periods of the Judges, the United Monarchy, and the Divided Monarchy of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with the destruction of the First Temple. The second was the period of the Hasmonean Kingdom spanning from 140 to 37 BCE. Since the destruction of the First Temple, most Jews have lived in diaspora. A minority in every country in which they live (except Israel), they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that has fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.
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Jonas Vileišis
Jonas Vileišis pronunciation (help·info)(January 3, 1872 – June 1, 1942) was a Lithuanian lawyer, politician, and diplomat.
Vileišis was born in Mediniai, near Pasvalys. In 1892 he graduated from the Šiauliai gymnasium. During 1892-1894, he studied physics and mathematics at Saint Petersburg University. Later he transferred to the study of law, graduating in 1898. As a student he began contributing to the newspapers Varpas (The Bell) and Ūkininkas (The Farmer). From 1896 to 1898 he was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania. After returning to Lithuania, he began practicing law and joined the 12 Apostles organization, dedicated to defending the right to use the Lithuanian language in print, which was banned at the time. In 1902 he participated in the creation of the Lithuanian Democratic Party.
After the ban on Lithuanian language was lifted in 1904, Vileišis obtained permission to publish the newspaper Lietuvos Ūkininkas and was its editor-in-chief from 1905 to 1906. From 1907 to 1909, he served as the publisher of Vilniaus žinios (Vilnius News) and, after it was banned, published and edited Lietuvos Žinios (Lithuanian News). He was one of the organizers of the Great Seimas of Vilnius in 1905, and an organizer of the Lithuanian Science Society in 1907.
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Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин; born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Джугашвили; 18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 and later held the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. While the office of the General Secretary was officially elective and not initially regarded as the top position in the Soviet state, Stalin managed to use it to consolidate more and more power in his hands after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924 and gradually put down all opposition groups within the Communist Party. This included Leon Trotsky, a socialist theorist and the principal critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders, who was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. Whereas Trotsky was an exponent of permanent revolution, it was Stalin's concept of socialism in one country that became the primary focus of Soviet politics.
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Juozas Grušas
Juozas Grušas (November 16, 1901 in Žadžiūnai-Kalniškiai (near Šiauliai) - May 21, 1986 in Kaunas) was a Lithuanian writer, editor, dramatist and playwright.
Grušas' first inspirational teacher was the Lithuanian poet Jovaras, who taught him writing and spurred his interest in literature. In 1920 he enrolled at the Šiauliai gymnasium, graduating in 1924.
From 1924 to 1931 he was a student at University of Lithuania (1930 renamed to Vytautas Magnus University), in the Theology-philosophy faculty. In 1928 he was elected as chairman of the student organization Šatrija. After graduating in 1930, he began teaching the Lithuanian language. In 1931, together with Balys Sruoga, he co-founded the Lithuanian writers association; from 1937 to 1938 he was chairman of this organization. Grušas served as editor-in-chief of the Christian weekly newspaper Mūsų laikraštis (Our Newspaper) from 1928 to 1938. In 1935 he published a satirical novel, Karjeristai (The Careerists), which has been described as "one of the key works in the history of the Lithuanian novel".
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Juozas Zikaras
Juozas Zikaras (1881–1944) was a Lithuanian sculptor and artist, who created the design for pre-war Lithuanian litas coins. He is considered to be one of the first professional Lithuanian sculptors.
He was born November 18, 1881 in the village of Paliūkai near Panevėžys in Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). Between 1904 and 1906 he studied fine arts at the Vilnius-based Lev Trutnev Drawing School, as well as classes given by Józef Montwiłł. Surpassing many of his fellow art students, Zikaras in 1907 went to St. Petersburg to continue his studies at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. In 1910, after three years in St. Petersburg, he was accepted to the Imperial Academy of Arts, from where he graduated in 1915, already after the outbreak of World War I. Shortly before finishing his diploma work he was drafted into the Russian army. However, he was not dispatched to the front and instead was able to receive a silver award of his alma mater the following year. Demobilized, he remained in Russia and taught drawing at various schools to make the living.
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Linas Kleiza
Linas Kleiza (pronounced [ˈlinɐs kleiˈzɐ]; born January 3, 1985) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player with the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association. He is also a member of the Lithuanian national team. Kleiza can play either forward position. After spending a year in Europe for Olympiacos Piraeus and reaching the Euroleague final, he signed a four year, $20 million contract prior to the 2010–11 NBA season with the Raptors.
Kleiza attended the Montrose Christian School and graduated in 2003. He played on the Lithuanian Junior National Team that won the silver medal at the 2003 FIBA Under-19 World Championship. He led the tournament in scoring, averaging 29.1 points per game on 58 percent shooting.
Kleiza played college basketball with the University of Missouri Tigers. He was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12 by the league coaches as a sophomore. He also earned All-Tournament honors at the 2005 Big 12 Tournament after averaging 29.5 points and 9 rebounds per game.
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Maironis
Maironis (born Jonas Mačiulis November 2 [O.S. October 21] 1862; June 28, 1932) is one of the most famous Lithuanian romantic poets. He was born in Pasandravys, Raseiniai district municipality, Lithuania. Maironis graduated from Kaunas high school and went on to study Literature at Kiev University. However, in 1884, after one year of studies at the university, he entered Kaunas Spiritual Seminary. While being at the seminary, Maironis became an active member of the Lithuanian National Revival. Maironis wrote a number of poems. Some of them are contained in his most famous collection of poems "Pavasario Balsai" (The Voices of Spring). Later Maironis studied at St. Petersburg Catholic Theological Academy. In the later years of his life, Maironis worked as a rector of Kaunas Priest Seminary and as a professor at the University of Lithuania, where he taught literature. He died in Kaunas and was interred in the mausoleum constructed in the Kaunas Cathedral.
Poem by Maironis Skausmo skundas
Tomb monument at Kaunas cathedral
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Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (French: Napoléon Bonaparte [napoleɔ̃ bɔnɑpaʁt]) (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars led against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. He established hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored aspects of the deposed Ancien Régime. Due to his success in these wars, often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time and his campaigns are studied at military academies throughout much of the world.
Napoleon was born in Corsica to parents of noble Genoese ancestry, and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. He rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor. In the first decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—involving every major European power.
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Nero
Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus); 15 December 37 – 9 June 68) was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death. During his reign, Nero focused much of his attention on diplomacy, trade, and enhancing the cultural life of the Empire. He ordered theaters built and promoted athletic games. During his reign, the redoubtable general Corbulo conducted a successful war and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire. His general Suetonius Paulinus crushed a revolt in Britain and also annexed the Bosporan Kingdom to the Empire, beginning the First Roman–Jewish War.
In 64, most of Rome was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome, which many Romans believed Nero himself had started in order to clear land for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. In 68, the rebellion of Vindex in Gaul and later the acclamation of Galba in Hispania drove Nero from the throne. Facing assassination, he committed suicide on 9 June 68. His death ended the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, sparking a brief period of civil wars known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Nero's rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance. He is known for many executions, including those of his mother and the probable murder by poison of his stepbrother, Britannicus.
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Paulius Galaunė
Paulius Galaunė (January 25, 1890 in Pagelažiai near Ukmergė – October 18, 1988 in Kaunas) was a Lithuanian art historian, museum curator, and graphic artist. He was one of the first professional museum curators in Lithuania and was well-published on topics of Lithuanian folk art. The apartment of Galaunė and his wife Adelė Nezabitauskaitė, an opera singer, was converted into the 'Galaunė Family Museum in 1995, and contains his personal belongings as well as his works. It is part of the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum. He was buried in Petrašiūnai Cemetery.
Between 1910 and 1913, Galaunė studied at the Institute of Psychoneurology in University of St. Petersburg. He studied art in St. Petersburg (Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts) and Moscow. In 1914 he worked at Aušrinė journal. Upon return to Lithuania in 1918, he worked the National Museum of Lithuania until 1923, when he took an internship at the Louvre to study museology. In 1924 he was appointed as director of the M. K. Čiurlionis Gallery. He remained at the post until 1949, overseeing its transformation into the Vytautas the Great Museum in 1936 and M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in 1944. As the museum director, he brought back dispersed works of M. K. Čiurlionis to house them in a specialized museum. Galaunė was also a member of the State Commission of Archaeology from 1919–1925 and 1930–1936. He organized folk art exhibitions in Italy (1925), France (1927), Sweden, Norway, Denmark (1931). He taught at the University of Lithuania (1925–1939), Vilnius University (1940–1946), and Vilnius Academy of Art (1945–1950).
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Poles
The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy [pɔˈlat͡sɨ]; singular: Polak), are a nation indigenous to Poland. They speak the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe. The Polish word for a Polish person is "Polak" (masculine) and "Polka" (feminine).
The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland. Poland's inhabitants live in the following historic regions of the country: Wielkopolska, Małopolska, Mazovia, Pomerania, Warmia, Mazury, Podlasie, Kujawy and Silesia. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine), the Americas (the United States, Brazil and Argentina) and Australia. Chicago, in the United States, has the world's largest urban Polish population after Warsaw.
Over a thousand years ago, the Polans of Giecz, Gniezno and Poznań — an influential tribe in Wielkopolska — succeeded in uniting Lechitic tribes under what became the Piast dynasty, thus giving rise to the Polish state.
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Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920, Wadowice, Republic of Poland – 2 April 2005, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523.
John Paul II was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. He was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. Though criticised by progressives for upholding the Church's teachings against artificial contraception and the ordination of women, and by traditionalists for his support of the Church's Second Vatican Council and its reform, he was also widely praised for his firm, orthodox Catholic stances.
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Romas Kalanta
Romas Kalanta (February 22, 1953 in Alytus – May 15, 1972 in Kaunas) was a Lithuanian high school student known for his public self-immolation protesting Soviet regime in Lithuania. Kalanta's death provoked the largest post-war riots in Lithuania and inspired similar self-immolations. In 1972 alone, 13 more people committed suicide by self-immolation.
Kalanta became a symbol of the Lithuanian resistance throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 2000, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis.
Kalanta was religious; in a school essay he indicated that he would like to become a Catholic priest, which caused him some troubles with the authorities. He attended an evening school while working at a factory. Kalanta played guitar and made a few drawings; he had long hair and sympathized with the hippies. These sympathies were later exploited by the Soviets to discredit Kalanta among the older population.
At noon on May 14, 1972, Kalanta poured 3 liters of gasoline on himself and set himself on fire in the square adjoining the Laisvės Alėja in front of the Kaunas Musical Theatre, where in 1940 the People's Seimas declared establishment of the Lithuanian SSR and petitioned the Soviet Union to admit Lithuania as one of the soviet socialist republics. He died about 14 hours later in a hospital. Before the suicide, Kalanta left his notebook with a brief note on a bench. Its content became known only after the declaration of independence in 1990 and opening up of secret KGB archives. The note read "blame only the regime for my death" (Lithuanian: Dėl mano mirties kaltinkite tik santvarką). No other notes were found to explain in more detail what provoked the suicide.
wn.com/Romas_Kalanta -
Russians
The Russian people (Russian: русские, russkiye) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.
The English term Russians is also used to refer to the citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity; the demonym Russian is translated into Russian as rossiyanin (россиянин, plural rossiyane), while the ethnic Russians are referred to as russkiye (sg. русский, russkiy).
According to the 2010 census, ethnic Russians make up about 81% of the population of Russia.
The modern Russian is formed from two groups, Northern and Southern, which were made up of Kriviches, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches and Severians East Slavic tribes. Genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Poles or Slovenians or Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians and Ukrainians than southern Russians to northern Russians. Russians in northern European Russia share moderate genetic similarities with Uralic peoples, who lived in modern north central European Russia and were partly assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards. Among those peoples were Merya and Muromian.
wn.com/Russians -
Salomėja Nėris
Salomėja Nėris (born Salomėja Bačinskaitė - Bučienė) (November 17, 1904 –July 7, 1945) - Lithuanian poetess.
Nėris was born in Kiršai, in the current district of Vilkaviškis. She graduated from the University of Lithuania where she studied Lithuanian and German language and literature.
After that she was a teacher in Lazdijai, Kaunas, and Panevėžys. Her first collection of poems, titled Anksti rytą (In the Early Morning), was published in 1927.
In 1928, Nėris graduated from the University and was appointed to teach German language at the Seinų žiburys' Gymnasium in Lazdijai. Until 1931, Nėris contributed to nationalist and Roman Catholic publications. While studying German in Vienna, in 1929, Nėris met Lithuanian medical student Bronius Zubrickas and became attracted to him. Zubrickas had socialist views and Nėris engaged in socialist activities in order to court him.
In 1931, Nėris moved to live in Kaunas, where she gave lessons and edited Lithuanian folk tales. In the second collection of Nėris' poetry, The Footprints in the Sand, there is evidence of the onset of a profound spiritual crisis. In the same year, verses containing revolutionary motifs were published in the pro-communist literary journal Trečias frontas (The Third Front).
wn.com/Salomėja_Nėris -
Sigitas Tamkevičius
Sigitas Tamkevičius (born November 7, 1938 in Gudonys, in Lazdijai district) is a Lithuanian archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Archbishop of Kaunas.
After having graduated the secondary school in Seirijai in 1955 he entered the Kaunas Priest Seminary. He continued his theology studies after some years of the military service in Soviet Army and graduated the seminary in 1962. Tamkevičius was ordained priest by the bishop P. Maželis on April 18, 1962. In the following years he ministered as vicar in the parishes of Alytus, Lazdijai, Kudirkos Naumiestis, Prienai, Simnas. In 1968 Tamkevičius entered the Society of Jesus, which was then illegal according to Soviet law. Tamkevičius was among the initiators of the petition action protesting against the Soviet discriminating restrictions considering the conditions of Kaunas Priest Seminary. Because of that Soviet authorities forbade Tamkevičius to exercise his priestly ministry. He worked in the factory and in the land-reclamation area for one year.
wn.com/Sigitas_Tamkevičius -
Tadas Ivanauskas
Tadas Ivanauskas (December 16, 1882 – June 1, 1971) was a prominent Lithuanian zoologist and biologist, and one of the founders of Vytautas Magnus University.
After finishing Warsaw Gymnasium in 1901 Ivanauskas moved to Saint Petersburg, where studied in the 1st gymnasium of the city. 1903 he studied at the natural sciences department of the Saint Petersburg University. He met and befriendied Lithuanian students here and learned Lithuanian language.
1905 he moved to Paris, and studied at Sorbonne University Nature-history faculty and graduated in 1909. Since 1904 was member of Lithuanian society Lituania. Together with another early twentieth century Lithuanian activist, Michał Römer, Ivanauskas gave lectures about Lithuania in Paris in 1905.
1909 he again entered Saint Petersburg University, as Russian Empire did not recognize foreign diplomas, and finished with first grade diploma in 1910. During the studies he was active in Lithuanian student society, was elected a chairman.
In 1910 in Saint Petersburg established natural sciences visual devices laboratory Zootom, that prepared various biological, botanical, anatomical and mineralogical devices. In summertime he traveled around Lithuania collecting material for his devices. 1914 and 1917 Ivanauskas participated in scientific expeditions into Northern Russia (Murmansk and Archangelsk) and Norway. 1918 Ivanauskas returned to Lithuania and together with his wife Honorata opened Lithuanian school.
wn.com/Tadas_Ivanauskas -
Ukrainians
Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, Ukrayintsi, [ukrɑˈjinʲtsʲi]) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens. According to some dictionary definitions, a descriptive name for the "inhabitants of Ukraine" is Ukrainian or Ukrainian people.Russians and Belarusians are considered the closest relatives of Ukrainians, while Rusyns are either considered another closely related group, or an ethnic subgroup of Ukrainians.
Ethnonym Ukrainians became widely accepted only in the 20th century, so modern Ukrainians identify their ancestry with differently named historical Slavic groups, who are often called Ukrainians too, in retrospect. The oldest recorded ethnonyms used for Ukrainian ancestors are Rusy, Rusyny, and Rusychi (from term Rus'). From the 9th to 12th centuries those names applied to the population of Kievan Rus', as the united state of Rusy is restrospectively called. Similar names were adopted by the proto-Russian and proto-Belarusian inhabitants of the northern principalities of Rus', reflecting the common origin of all those East Slavic peoples.
wn.com/Ukrainians -
Vaidotas
Vaidotas or Wojdat (14th century – after 1401) was a son of Kęstutis, Grand Duke of Lithuania. In reliable historical sources he is mentioned only twice.
According to the chronicles of Wigand of Marburg, he was the commander of the garrison of the newly-built Kaunas Castle during a three-week-long siege in April 1362. After strong resistance the castle was taken over and then destroyed. Vaidotas with 36 men tried to break through, but was taken prisoner. The defeat was one of the largest and important military victories of the Teutonic Knights in the 14th century against Lithuania.
From a document by his brother Vytautas the Great from 1401 it is known that Vaidotas and his brother Tautvilas Kęstutaitis were given to rule Navahrudak equally. His further fate is unknown.
Because of very limited historical sources, Vaidotas is sometimes confused with Vaidutis (Waydutte), son of Butautas and grandson of Kęstutis. Some historians also argue that Butautas and Vaidotas were the same person and their names are different because of a different dialect. Further confusion is introduced by Bychowiec Chronicle, an unreliable chronicle from the 16th century, which claims that Vaidotas died in his youth in Lithuania.
wn.com/Vaidotas -
Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus (pronounced [ˈvaːldas aˈdɐmkʊs] ( listen); born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; November 3, 1926) was President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.
In Lithuania, the President's tenure lasts for five years; Adamkus' first term in office began on February 26, 1998 and ended on February 28, 2003, following his defeat by Rolandas Paksas in the next presidential election. Paksas was later impeached and removed from office by a parliamentary vote on April 6, 2004. Soon afterwards, when a new election was announced, Adamkus again ran for president and was re-elected. His approval ratings were high and he was regarded as a moral authority in the state. He chose not to run for re-election during the Lithuanian presidential election in 2009 and was succeeded on 12 July 2009 by Dalia Grybauskaitė.
He is married to Alma Adamkienė, who is involved in charitable activities in Lithuania. The President remains involved in international development, and is a member of the Club de Madrid, an organization that works to strengthen democratic leadership and governance worldwide.
wn.com/Valdas_Adamkus -
Vincas Kudirka
Vincas Kudirka (31 December [O.S. 19 December] 1858 - 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1899) was a Lithuanian poet and physician, and the author of both the music and lyrics of the Lithuanian National Anthem, Tautiška giesmė. He is regarded in Lithuania as a National Hero. Kudirka used pen names - V. Kapsas, Paežerių Vincas, Vincas Kapsas, P.Vincas,Varpas, Q.D, K., V.K, Perkūnas.
Kudirka was born in Paežeriai. He began studying history and philosophy in Warsaw in 1881, but changed his major and began studying medicine the following year. During his studies, he was arrested as a subversive for having a copy of Das Kapital in his possession, and was expelled from the University of Warsaw, but later re-admitted. He graduated in 1889, and worked as a country doctor in Šakiai and Naumiestis.
Kudirka began writing poetry in 1888. Simultaneously he became more active in the Lithuanian national rebirth movement. Together with other Lithuanian students in Warsaw, he founded the secret society Lietuva ("Lithuania"). The following year the society began publishing the clandestine newspaper Varpas ("The Bell"), which Kudirka edited and contributed to for the next ten years. In issue number 6 of Varpas, in September 1898, he published the text of Tautiška Giesmė, which would officially become in 1918, the Lithuanian National Anthem, set to music written by Kudirka himself for a violin.
wn.com/Vincas_Kudirka -
Vytautas Landsbergis
Professor Vytautas Landsbergis pronunciation (help·info) (born 18 October 1932) is a Lithuanian conservative politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first head of state of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union, and served as the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas. Professor Landsbergis is an intellectual who has been active in Lithuania's political arena for almost two decades, and is a notable politician who helped contribute to the demise of the Soviet Union. He has written twenty books on a variety of topics, including a biography of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, as well as works on politics and music. He is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, and a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Vytautas Landsbergis was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. His father was the famous architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis and his mother, ophthalmologist Dr. Ona Jablonskytė-Landsbergienė, was a Righteous Among the Nations who in 1944 sheltered a Jewish teenager in the family home. In 1952 he placed third in the Lithuanian chess championship, after Ratmir Kholmov and Vladas Mikėnas. In 1955, he graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatory of Music (now Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre). In 1969, he wrote his thesis for his PhD degree. In 1978, he became a Professor at the Lithuanian Conservatory. From 1978 to 1990, he was a professor at both the Lithuanian Conservatory and the Vilnius Pedagogical University. In 1994, he wrote a thesis for his doctor habilitus degree.
wn.com/Vytautas_Landsbergis -
Vytautas Šustauskas
Vytautas Šustauskas (born March 19, 1945) is a controversial Lithuanian politician, leader of the Union of the Fighters for Lithuania (Kovotojų už Lietuvą sąjunga) political party.
Šustauskas first gained popularity by defending the rights of the poorest Lithuanians. When the high-society organised the first Vienna ball in the Vilnius City Hall, he organised a party for the poor people in the square just outside the building. The Vienna ball did not take place the following year, which many people regarded as a victory for Šustauskas, as the idea became unpopular among members of high society.
These events raised the popularity of the Lithuanian Freedom Union, as many poorer people already saw high society as a den for corrupt thieves; the ideology which was propagated during communism, and was supported by several scandals in the 90s. The fact that Šustauskas sold his car and invested much of his own funds into these parties for poor people also helped his popularity. However, his and Freedom Union's popularity distribution over Lithuania was very uneven: it was most popular in Šustauskas's hometown Kaunas, but was lacking elsewhere in the country.
wn.com/Vytautas_Šustauskas -
Zenonas Ivinskis
Zenonas Ivinskis (May 25, 1908 in Kaušėnai village, near Plungė – December 24, 1971 in Bonn, Germany) was a noted Lithuanian historian.
Ivinskis studied at Telšiai and Plungė gymnasiums. In 1925 he entered the University of Lithuania to study philosophy, but later changed the subject to history. In 1929, Ivinskis received a grant to continue his studies in Germany. There, under the direction of prof. Albert Brackmann, he received a Ph.D. for his thesis Geschichte des Bauerstandes in Litauen (English: History of the Conditions of Lithuanian Farmers) in 1932. In 1933 in Gdansk he was habilitated for his work Lietuvių ir prūsų prekybiniai santykiai pirmojoje XVI a. pusėje (English: Lithuanian and Prussian trade in the first half of the 16th century).
After returning to Lithuania he was drafted into the army. During his free time, he gave lectures at the Vytautas Magnus University and in 1940 became an extraordinary professor. In that year he was invited to work at the Vilnius University. He served as the dean of Faculty of Theology–Philosophy at the Vytautas Magnus University from 1941 to 1942. For his active public defense of university autonomy, the Nazis listed him among other prominent public figures to be transferred to Stutthof concentration camp. Ivinskis was saved from death because he was ill, and was hospitalized for half a year.
wn.com/Zenonas_Ivinskis -
Zigmas Zinkevičius
Zigmas Zinkevičius (January 4, 1925 in Juodausiai, Ukmergė district) is a leadingLithuanian linguist-historian, professor at Vilnius University, and a true member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. He has contributed to studies in the history of languages, onomastics and other areas. Zinkevičius is a recipient of the Herder Prize, which was presented to him in 1994. Zinkevičius is the author of 30 academic books and several hundred scientific publications in various languages.
After graduating from the gymnasium at Ukmergė in 1945, he enrolled in Vilnius University. He studied linguistics until 1950. In 1955 Zinkevičius defended his thesis Lietuvių kalbos įvardžiuotinių būdvardžių istorijos bruožai (Historical traits of adjective pronouns in Lithuanian language) and received Doctoral degree. From 1956 to 1962, Zinkevičius was Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology of Vilnius University. Together with his colleagues, he established a new classification of Lithuanian language dialects. For his work Lietuvių dialektologija (Lithuanian dialectology) (1966) Zigmas Zinkevičius received a Habilitated Doctor degree, and became a professor two years later. In 1973 Zinkevičius took a new position at Vilnius University as chairman of the Lithuanian language department, and has been serving since 1988 as chairman of the Baltic Philology department.
wn.com/Zigmas_Zinkevičius -
Šarūnas Jasikevičius
Šarūnas Jasikevičius ( pronunciation (help·info); born March 5, 1976) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player. He is a 6'4¾ (1.95m) tallpoint guard. He plays for Panathinaikos. He is also a member of the Lithuanian national team.
Jasikevičius is from Lithuania, but spent his teen years in the United States. He attended the Solanco High School in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.
Jasikevičius played college basketball at the University of Maryland, with the Maryland Terrapins. He played as a wing, although he remade himself into a point guard in his pro career. He did not see much playing time in his first two years in college, with seniors Duane Simpkins, Johnny Rhodes, and Exree Hipp ahead of him at the wing positions. As a junior, he became a better passer and improved his defense. He averaged a shade under 13 points and 4 assists in his junior and senior years.
Jasikevičius made his pro debut in 1998 with Lietuvos Rytas of Vilnius and averaged 18.0 points and 5.4 assists. He joined the Olimpija Ljubljana for the next season and won the Premier A Slovenian Basketball League. His season averages were down to 9.3 points and 3.4 assists per game.
wn.com/Šarūnas_Jasikevičius -
Šarūnas Marčiulionis
Raimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born June 13, 1964, in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player. He was one of the first Europeans to become a regular in the North American National Basketball Association (NBA). In the 1988 Seoul Olympics Basketball Tournament, together with teammate Arvydas Sabonis, he led the USSR national team to a gold medal in basketball.
Marčiulionis started his pro basketball career with Statyba Vilnius in the USSR League, the forerunner of the VTB United League in 1981.
Marčiulionis was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the 6th round of the 1987 NBA Draft. He moved to the NBA in 1989 and he played four years with the Warriors, finishing as the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year Award in both 1992 and 1993. Marčiulionis became one of the first Europeans to get significant playing time in the NBA, helping to lead the way for the internationalization of the league in the late 1990s. After missing a year and a half with a leg injury, he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994, then traded to the Sacramento Kings in 1995, and he finished his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets in the 1996-97 season.
wn.com/Šarūnas_Marčiulionis -
Žydrūnas Ilgauskas
Žydrūnas Ilgauskas (Lithuanian pronunciation [ʒʲǐːˈdruːnɐs ɪlˈɡɐ̂uskɐs] ( listen); born June 5, 1975), or "Big Z" (his nickname), is a Lithuanian former professional basketball center who played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He played for the Cavaliers from 1997 to 2010, and is the team's career leader in several categories, including games played and blocks. In 2012, Ilgauskas became assistant general manager for the Cavaliers under general manager Chris Grant.
Ilgauskas made his pro debut in his birthplace of Kaunas with the Atletas Basketball Club. He averaged 20.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks.
Ilgauskas was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 20th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft.
In the earliest parts of his career he suffered through myriad foot and ankle injuries. He spent the entire 1996–97 season on the injured list due to a broken bone in his right foot. After having missed so much time with his foot injuries it took some time for Zydrunas to get back to where he was prior to it.
wn.com/Žydrūnas_Ilgauskas
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Ride @ Kaunas
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:18
- Updated: 13 Jan 2013
Drive @ Kaunas Music used: Apparat - arcadia (boys noize remix) Paul Kalkbrenner - Sky And Sand Filmed with: Canon 5D mark II
http://wn.com/Ride_@_Kaunas
Drive @ Kaunas Music used: Apparat - arcadia (boys noize remix) Paul Kalkbrenner - Sky And Sand Filmed with: Canon 5D mark II
Kaunas - A City of Opportunities
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:15
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
Made in 2004 future vision of my home town for upcoming 10-15 years. Lets hope the future is as bright as it is shown here. And if it is, I believe Kaunas will be an even better place to live :) ps.: speech is in english. #1 update: "biggest pedestrian avenue"-"Mega" and "huge shopping mall"-"Akropolis" already built. #2 update: Minkovskiu st. sector is fully operational. #3 update: Sport arena is due to finish in 2011.
http://wn.com/Kaunas_A_City_of_Opportunities
Made in 2004 future vision of my home town for upcoming 10-15 years. Lets hope the future is as bright as it is shown here. And if it is, I believe Kaunas will be an even better place to live :) ps.: speech is in english. #1 update: "biggest pedestrian avenue"-"Mega" and "huge shopping mall"-"Akropolis" already built. #2 update: Minkovskiu st. sector is fully operational. #3 update: Sport arena is due to finish in 2011.
- published: 12 Apr 2007
- views: 38096
- author: Armuotas
ILLEGAL night racing show Kaunas 2011
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:45
- Updated: 23 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/ILLEGAL_night_racing_show_Kaunas_2011
KAUNAS - Lituania / Lithuania - Turismo, tourism, travel, tour, ciudad, city / Lietuva
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:37
- Updated: 09 Jan 2013
www.tusdestinos.net Con poco más de 400.000 habitantes, Kaunas es la segunda ciudad de Lituania y cuenta con algunos atractivos turísticos como la iglesia de la Resurrección de Cristo, a la que se llega con un funicular y desde donde se obtienen las mejores vistas de la ciudad, el edificio del Ayuntamiento, construido en el siglo XVI de estilo barroco, la iglesia de Vytautas, la Casa de los Truenos", antiguo edificio de los comerciantes de la liga hanseática, el Castillo de Kaunas o la iglesia de San Miguel Arcángel. La ciudad cuenta con una gran cantidad de museos entre los cuales se destacan el museo del gran pintor y compositor lituano MKCiurlionis, el museo de guerra de Vytautas el Grande, y el museo del demonio (diablo), único en el mundo que nos ofrece una colección de tres mil obras de este personaje mitológico. Más información en www.tusdestinos.net Con el soporte audiovisual: www.tomcomvideo.com
http://wn.com/KAUNAS_Lituania_Lithuania_Turismo,_tourism,_travel,_tour,_ciudad,_city_Lietuva
www.tusdestinos.net Con poco más de 400.000 habitantes, Kaunas es la segunda ciudad de Lituania y cuenta con algunos atractivos turísticos como la iglesia de la Resurrección de Cristo, a la que se llega con un funicular y desde donde se obtienen las mejores vistas de la ciudad, el edificio del Ayuntamiento, construido en el siglo XVI de estilo barroco, la iglesia de Vytautas, la Casa de los Truenos", antiguo edificio de los comerciantes de la liga hanseática, el Castillo de Kaunas o la iglesia de San Miguel Arcángel. La ciudad cuenta con una gran cantidad de museos entre los cuales se destacan el museo del gran pintor y compositor lituano MKCiurlionis, el museo de guerra de Vytautas el Grande, y el museo del demonio (diablo), único en el mundo que nos ofrece una colección de tres mil obras de este personaje mitológico. Más información en www.tusdestinos.net Con el soporte audiovisual: www.tomcomvideo.com
- published: 10 Jul 2011
- views: 9222
- author: revistatusdestinos
Barbarossa:Fortress Kaunas taken by German troops (Jun 1941)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:40
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
Combat footage. German Wartime Newsreel (Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr.565).
http://wn.com/BarbarossaFortress_Kaunas_taken_by_German_troops_Jun_1941
Combat footage. German Wartime Newsreel (Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr.565).
- published: 22 Nov 2007
- views: 13673
- author: WW2GermanNewsreels
Markus Schulz - Kaunas (Do You Dream? The World Tour Documentary DVD)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:12
- Updated: 09 Jan 2013
Get it here: bit.ly There comes a time in every high calibre recording artist's career when they reach the landmark of their first DVD release. For the 8th biggest DJ in the world, that time is now... After a 2-year production process, the start of summer 2010 saw Markus Schulz drop the curtain on his third artist album 'Do You Dream?' Equipped with 17 new productions, he took the critically acclaimed music on a world tour, personally introducing it to 100s of 1000s of clubbers around the globe. Through 18 countries, and over a 3-month period, a documentary team captured this journey. Their directive were simple: 'shoot everything, miss nothing'... and that's exactly what they did. The outcome of that lens odyssey is 'Markus Schulz - Do You Dream? - The World Tour Documentary' and it takes you, the viewer inside Markus' professional life for the first time. Up close and at times personal, the camera captures his thoughts pre-gig in the ready-rooms, follows him through the anticipation of the backstage tunnels and up onto the stages of electronic dance music biggest, most celebrated events. Nature One, Sunrise, Dance Valley, Tomorrowland, Pleasure Island, Future Music - they're all here, their crowd-generated electricity caught in HD. If you've been to one, you'll want to see them all! From Amnesia nights, filmed from the pulpit to tornado-hit festivals in Russia and two-gigs-in-a-day dashes across Australia, you're with him every step, jolt, rush and drumbeat of the way ...
http://wn.com/Markus_Schulz_Kaunas_Do_You_Dream?_The_World_Tour_Documentary_DVD
Get it here: bit.ly There comes a time in every high calibre recording artist's career when they reach the landmark of their first DVD release. For the 8th biggest DJ in the world, that time is now... After a 2-year production process, the start of summer 2010 saw Markus Schulz drop the curtain on his third artist album 'Do You Dream?' Equipped with 17 new productions, he took the critically acclaimed music on a world tour, personally introducing it to 100s of 1000s of clubbers around the globe. Through 18 countries, and over a 3-month period, a documentary team captured this journey. Their directive were simple: 'shoot everything, miss nothing'... and that's exactly what they did. The outcome of that lens odyssey is 'Markus Schulz - Do You Dream? - The World Tour Documentary' and it takes you, the viewer inside Markus' professional life for the first time. Up close and at times personal, the camera captures his thoughts pre-gig in the ready-rooms, follows him through the anticipation of the backstage tunnels and up onto the stages of electronic dance music biggest, most celebrated events. Nature One, Sunrise, Dance Valley, Tomorrowland, Pleasure Island, Future Music - they're all here, their crowd-generated electricity caught in HD. If you've been to one, you'll want to see them all! From Amnesia nights, filmed from the pulpit to tornado-hit festivals in Russia and two-gigs-in-a-day dashes across Australia, you're with him every step, jolt, rush and drumbeat of the way ...
- published: 07 May 2011
- views: 34736
- author: armadamusic
Kaunas International Film Festival - The Dog
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:46
- Updated: 14 Sep 2012
Kaunas IFF is one of most appreciated film festivals in Lithuania. This year the main message of the festival invites the viewer to become a better person at least for a short time - till the film ends.
http://wn.com/Kaunas_International_Film_Festival_The_Dog
Kaunas IFF is one of most appreciated film festivals in Lithuania. This year the main message of the festival invites the viewer to become a better person at least for a short time - till the film ends.
- published: 04 Apr 2012
- views: 14287
- author: stefanija jokstyte
RC model flight over night Kaunas
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:28
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/RC_model_flight_over_night_Kaunas
Kaunas Video guide (Lithuania)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:30
- Updated: 03 Jan 2013
Kaunas town - well-preserved medieval buildings, to sleep on a calm and quiet life in the city;
http://wn.com/Kaunas_Video_guide_Lithuania
Kaunas town - well-preserved medieval buildings, to sleep on a calm and quiet life in the city;
- published: 16 Sep 2011
- views: 4610
- author: HDtourpromo
Highlights: Real Madrid-Zalgiris Kaunas
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:31
- Updated: 15 Jan 2013
Real Madrid survived a thriller to edge Zalgiris Kaunas in Palacio de Deportes Watch all games LIVE on www.euroleague.tv
http://wn.com/Highlights_Real_Madrid-Zalgiris_Kaunas
Real Madrid survived a thriller to edge Zalgiris Kaunas in Palacio de Deportes Watch all games LIVE on www.euroleague.tv
- published: 11 Jan 2013
- views: 30499
- author: Euroleague
Highlights: Zalgiris Kaunas-Olympiacos Piraeus
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:40
- Updated: 02 Jan 2013
Olympiacos BC Piraeus took the battle atop Group C by downing Zalgiris Watch all games LIVE on www.euroleague.tv
http://wn.com/Highlights_Zalgiris_Kaunas-Olympiacos_Piraeus
Olympiacos BC Piraeus took the battle atop Group C by downing Zalgiris Watch all games LIVE on www.euroleague.tv
- published: 30 Nov 2012
- views: 11823
- author: Euroleague
The Prodigy - AWOL (live @ Kaunas 2012)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:00
- Updated: 11 Jan 2013
Copyright recordings, music and lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Take Me To The Hospital / Cooking Vinyl - for original performances by The Prodigy, check-out the official channel at www.youtube.com/prodigychannel .
http://wn.com/The_Prodigy_AWOL_live_@_Kaunas_2012
Copyright recordings, music and lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Take Me To The Hospital / Cooking Vinyl - for original performances by The Prodigy, check-out the official channel at www.youtube.com/prodigychannel .
- published: 03 Jun 2012
- views: 23903
- author: prd4ever
16Hz - Autostrada Vilnius-Kaunas
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:59
- Updated: 30 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/16Hz_Autostrada_Vilnius-Kaunas
Gintarėliai - "Stebis tėtis ir mama" (Kaunas, 1972)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:14
- Updated: 12 Jan 2013
Kauno roko grupės "Gintarėliai" daina "Stebis tėtis ir mama" (muzika - Virginijus Švabas; eilės - Algimantas Baltakis) 1972. Rock band "Gintarėliai" from Kaunas, Lithuania. Song "Stebis tetis ir mama" (music - Virginijus Švabas, lyrics - Algimantas Baltakis) 1972. Virginijus Švabas - solo guitar; Eimuntas Švabas - bass guitar; Jonas Toleikis - rhythm guitar (until 1967); Valerijus Salyginas - drums (until 1973); Julius Brazaitis - rhythm guitar (from 1967 until 1971); Vladimiras Teluchinas - drums (1973). In about 1962 through radio Luxembourg melodies of "The Beatles" entered a house of a big Svabas family, which lived in Karmelitai district of Kaunas. The greatest admirers of this music became the youngest members of the family - nine year old Virginijus and ten year old Eimontas. Both of them were studying violin in J. Naujalis musical school, so when their parents bought them acoustic guitars, the fellows were quick to acquire some skills of playing these instruments. First concerts of the young guitarists took place in a nearby yard and received great attention of neighbours. During these performances the brothers were joined by one more young guitar enthusiast Jonas Toleikis. Godfather of the future band was a leader of a local teenagers gang, who sugested a title "Gintareliai". Neighbours called the brothers "our Gintareliai". "Gintareliai" started being invited to play at wedding parties and other gatherings, but soon it became clear that for the real big beat ...
http://wn.com/Gintarėliai_Stebis_tėtis_ir_mama_Kaunas,_1972
Kauno roko grupės "Gintarėliai" daina "Stebis tėtis ir mama" (muzika - Virginijus Švabas; eilės - Algimantas Baltakis) 1972. Rock band "Gintarėliai" from Kaunas, Lithuania. Song "Stebis tetis ir mama" (music - Virginijus Švabas, lyrics - Algimantas Baltakis) 1972. Virginijus Švabas - solo guitar; Eimuntas Švabas - bass guitar; Jonas Toleikis - rhythm guitar (until 1967); Valerijus Salyginas - drums (until 1973); Julius Brazaitis - rhythm guitar (from 1967 until 1971); Vladimiras Teluchinas - drums (1973). In about 1962 through radio Luxembourg melodies of "The Beatles" entered a house of a big Svabas family, which lived in Karmelitai district of Kaunas. The greatest admirers of this music became the youngest members of the family - nine year old Virginijus and ten year old Eimontas. Both of them were studying violin in J. Naujalis musical school, so when their parents bought them acoustic guitars, the fellows were quick to acquire some skills of playing these instruments. First concerts of the young guitarists took place in a nearby yard and received great attention of neighbours. During these performances the brothers were joined by one more young guitar enthusiast Jonas Toleikis. Godfather of the future band was a leader of a local teenagers gang, who sugested a title "Gintareliai". Neighbours called the brothers "our Gintareliai". "Gintareliai" started being invited to play at wedding parties and other gatherings, but soon it became clear that for the real big beat ...
- published: 30 Jun 2009
- views: 46693
- author: Zaliakalnis
1996 NBA Draft - 20 - Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Atletas Kaunas
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:31
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
Original coverage of the 1996 NBA Draft.
http://wn.com/1996_NBA_Draft_20_Zydrunas_Ilgauskas,_Atletas_Kaunas
PAOK - BC Žalgiris KAUNAS (104-59, 1995/96 Cup Winners Cup Semif, 2nd leg)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:22
- Updated: 07 Jan 2013
13/ 2/96 Zalgiris does not resist PAOK but for some minutes before they surrender. PAOK fans and players have a very nice evening as PAOK crushes Zalgiris 104-59 (Garret 21, Stojakovic 21, Rentzias 18)! 1995-1996 European Cup Finalists Spain Taugres Vitoria 88 - 81 Greece PAOK Thessaloniki
http://wn.com/PAOK_BC_Žalgiris_KAUNAS_104-59,_1995_96_Cup_Winners_Cup_Semif,_2nd_leg
13/ 2/96 Zalgiris does not resist PAOK but for some minutes before they surrender. PAOK fans and players have a very nice evening as PAOK crushes Zalgiris 104-59 (Garret 21, Stojakovic 21, Rentzias 18)! 1995-1996 European Cup Finalists Spain Taugres Vitoria 88 - 81 Greece PAOK Thessaloniki
- published: 20 Oct 2010
- views: 9802
- author: paok1976
Kaunas - Lietuvos sirdis
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:28
- Updated: 13 Jan 2013
Filmukas apie Kauna grojant Kauno himnui "Zemyn upe"
http://wn.com/Kaunas_Lietuvos_sirdis
Filmukas apie Kauna grojant Kauno himnui "Zemyn upe"
- published: 10 Jan 2009
- views: 86025
- author: saulenas2007
Kaunas City - Skestam
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:52
- Updated: 14 Jan 2013
www.facebook.com 04-22 Kaunas skesta..
http://wn.com/Kaunas_City_Skestam
Kaunas 1972
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:56
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Tribute to Romas Kalanta and to the Woodstock of the East, which took place in the very center of Europe in occupied Lithuania on 18th, 19th and 20th of May 1972. This was our 3 days of Love, Peace & Music and also Courage, Freedom & Hope under the darkest shadow of Iron Curtain. After bloody Lithuanian-Soviet war, which lasted more then 10 years (when the "end" of WW2 was officially declared by the War pigs), Romas Kalanta just could not stand any longer. 19 years old Lithuanian youth took 3 liter glass jar full of petrol went to the very center of Kaunas to the park square of Musical Theater (where "official" Lithuania's "marriage" with Soviet Union took place in 1940) , in front of Communist Headquarters of Kaunas. Romas took off his jacket and left it on the bench. Inside his jacket pocket was a note with his name and address. Then, he proceeded to douse himself with the gasoline. After shouting loudly enough: "FREEDOM FOR LITHUANIA!" he turned IN TO THE FIRE... and SET US FREE, at least for those 3 days of Courage, Freedom and Hope...
http://wn.com/Kaunas_1972
Tribute to Romas Kalanta and to the Woodstock of the East, which took place in the very center of Europe in occupied Lithuania on 18th, 19th and 20th of May 1972. This was our 3 days of Love, Peace & Music and also Courage, Freedom & Hope under the darkest shadow of Iron Curtain. After bloody Lithuanian-Soviet war, which lasted more then 10 years (when the "end" of WW2 was officially declared by the War pigs), Romas Kalanta just could not stand any longer. 19 years old Lithuanian youth took 3 liter glass jar full of petrol went to the very center of Kaunas to the park square of Musical Theater (where "official" Lithuania's "marriage" with Soviet Union took place in 1940) , in front of Communist Headquarters of Kaunas. Romas took off his jacket and left it on the bench. Inside his jacket pocket was a note with his name and address. Then, he proceeded to douse himself with the gasoline. After shouting loudly enough: "FREEDOM FOR LITHUANIA!" he turned IN TO THE FIRE... and SET US FREE, at least for those 3 days of Courage, Freedom and Hope...
- published: 08 May 2009
- views: 24075
- author: Zaliakalnis
Rammstein - Buck Dich, Kaunas, Zalgiris Arena, 06.02.2012 By WilderWein
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:14
- Updated: 26 Dec 2012
Rammstein in Kaunas! To say that I am delighted - to say nothing! I am delighted in the wild. Dreams do come true :) And it's cool :) I want to!! :) :) :):) :)
http://wn.com/Rammstein_Buck_Dich,_Kaunas,_Zalgiris_Arena,_06022012_By_WilderWein
Rammstein in Kaunas! To say that I am delighted - to say nothing! I am delighted in the wild. Dreams do come true :) And it's cool :) I want to!! :) :) :):) :)
- published: 08 Feb 2012
- views: 14702
- author: WildweinL
Kaunas 1929
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:11
- Updated: 14 Jan 2013
Kaunas 1929 metais. Bendras Kauno vaizdas žiūrint iš Aleksoto. Aleksoto tiltas, Geležinkelio tiltas, senamiestis, Vytauto bažnyčia, santaka, krantinė, Katedra, Kauno prieplauka, laivai, lėktuvas. Ant Aleksoto kalno - 3 draugai (vidurinis -Lietuvos karo aviacijos karys). Įgulos bažnyčia (Garrison Church) - Soboras. Laisvės alėja važiuoja Kauno autobusas. Automobiliai stovi prie šaligatvių. Lietuvos viešbutis Laisvės alėjoje gyvenimas verda. Pravažiuoja karieta. Moksleiviai. Praeina husaras. Reklaminiai stovai, iškabos. Restoranas "Metropolis", viešbutis "Roma", Laisvės al. Nr. 18. Pravažiuoja miesto autobusas "Rotušė-Panemunė". Viešbučio valgykla: prie pirmo stalo valgo Spaudos platinimo draugijos valdyba ir bendradarbiai. Viešbučio "Roma" šeimininkė Pr. Dubinskaitė savo bute (šis epizodas kažkodėl iškirptas). Antrieji universiteto rūmai. Vlastybės (dabar - Muzikinis) teatras su paminklais. Teatro sodelis. Priešais įėjimą į teatrą - vieta, kur buvo pasikėsinta į profesorių Augustiną Voldemarą, aptverta dekoratyvine tvorele. Sodelyje vaikšto daug žmonių. Prie Karo muziejaus sodelio fontano stovi spaudos platintojai. Pieno centro krautuvė Kaune. Prieplauka, tarnaitės neša vandenį iš Nemuno. Krantinėje stovi garlaivis "Vytis". Kaunas ir apylinkės, Kauno miesto rotušė, Rotušės aikštė ir Jezuitų bažnyčia. Prezidentūra. Teisingumo ministerijos rūmai (Ožeškienės ir Donelaičio gatvės). Lietuvos Valstybinis bankas. Maironio gatvė. Paštas, Finansų ministerija, Finansų ministerijos ...
http://wn.com/Kaunas_1929
Kaunas 1929 metais. Bendras Kauno vaizdas žiūrint iš Aleksoto. Aleksoto tiltas, Geležinkelio tiltas, senamiestis, Vytauto bažnyčia, santaka, krantinė, Katedra, Kauno prieplauka, laivai, lėktuvas. Ant Aleksoto kalno - 3 draugai (vidurinis -Lietuvos karo aviacijos karys). Įgulos bažnyčia (Garrison Church) - Soboras. Laisvės alėja važiuoja Kauno autobusas. Automobiliai stovi prie šaligatvių. Lietuvos viešbutis Laisvės alėjoje gyvenimas verda. Pravažiuoja karieta. Moksleiviai. Praeina husaras. Reklaminiai stovai, iškabos. Restoranas "Metropolis", viešbutis "Roma", Laisvės al. Nr. 18. Pravažiuoja miesto autobusas "Rotušė-Panemunė". Viešbučio valgykla: prie pirmo stalo valgo Spaudos platinimo draugijos valdyba ir bendradarbiai. Viešbučio "Roma" šeimininkė Pr. Dubinskaitė savo bute (šis epizodas kažkodėl iškirptas). Antrieji universiteto rūmai. Vlastybės (dabar - Muzikinis) teatras su paminklais. Teatro sodelis. Priešais įėjimą į teatrą - vieta, kur buvo pasikėsinta į profesorių Augustiną Voldemarą, aptverta dekoratyvine tvorele. Sodelyje vaikšto daug žmonių. Prie Karo muziejaus sodelio fontano stovi spaudos platintojai. Pieno centro krautuvė Kaune. Prieplauka, tarnaitės neša vandenį iš Nemuno. Krantinėje stovi garlaivis "Vytis". Kaunas ir apylinkės, Kauno miesto rotušė, Rotušės aikštė ir Jezuitų bažnyčia. Prezidentūra. Teisingumo ministerijos rūmai (Ožeškienės ir Donelaičio gatvės). Lietuvos Valstybinis bankas. Maironio gatvė. Paštas, Finansų ministerija, Finansų ministerijos ...
- published: 12 Feb 2010
- views: 13118
- author: LietuvosRespublika
07-08 Preseason Toronto Raptors vs Zalgiris Kaunas 17/10/07
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:01
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Preseason Game4 Toronto Raptors vs Zalgiris Kaunas 17/10/07 Raptors Soar to Win Over European Team Posted Oct 17 2007 10:10PM Jose Calderon was among six Raptors in double figures with 12 points. 2006-07 Stats at a Glance Toronto 105, Zalgiris Kaunas 99 TORONTO, Oct. 17 (AP) -- Jason Kapono and TJ Ford each scored 13 points, and the Toronto Raptors beat Zalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League 105-99 in an exhibition game on Wednesday. Jose Calderon added 12 points for the Raptors, who had six players score in double figures. Ford finished with 11 assists. Jonas Maciulis had 24 points for the touring European team, while DeJuan Collins scored 16. The Raptors played their first game in Toronto after a 13-day day trip to Europe. They lost their last game to Real Madrid last week. Toronto coach Sam Mitchell hoped that loss would serve as a wake-up call for his team. This game went down to the wire, but four straight points by Carlos Delfino put the Raptors up 100-99 with 2:25 left and they didn't trail again. The Lithuanians had several hundred boisterous fans at Air Canada Centre, waving the national flag and chanting. Zalgiris Kaunas is the defending Lithuanian National League champions, an honor the team has won 14 times since the country earned its independence in 1991. They lost to Golden State on Monday.
http://wn.com/07-08_Preseason_Toronto_Raptors_vs_Zalgiris_Kaunas_17_10_07
Preseason Game4 Toronto Raptors vs Zalgiris Kaunas 17/10/07 Raptors Soar to Win Over European Team Posted Oct 17 2007 10:10PM Jose Calderon was among six Raptors in double figures with 12 points. 2006-07 Stats at a Glance Toronto 105, Zalgiris Kaunas 99 TORONTO, Oct. 17 (AP) -- Jason Kapono and TJ Ford each scored 13 points, and the Toronto Raptors beat Zalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian Basketball League 105-99 in an exhibition game on Wednesday. Jose Calderon added 12 points for the Raptors, who had six players score in double figures. Ford finished with 11 assists. Jonas Maciulis had 24 points for the touring European team, while DeJuan Collins scored 16. The Raptors played their first game in Toronto after a 13-day day trip to Europe. They lost their last game to Real Madrid last week. Toronto coach Sam Mitchell hoped that loss would serve as a wake-up call for his team. This game went down to the wire, but four straight points by Carlos Delfino put the Raptors up 100-99 with 2:25 left and they didn't trail again. The Lithuanians had several hundred boisterous fans at Air Canada Centre, waving the national flag and chanting. Zalgiris Kaunas is the defending Lithuanian National League champions, an honor the team has won 14 times since the country earned its independence in 1991. They lost to Golden State on Monday.
- published: 18 Oct 2007
- views: 61515
- author: monuow
![Soliaris ft Lina Joy - Negaliu Tylet [no video]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130115104020im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pDipLexKYkQ/default.jpg "Soliaris ft Lina Joy - Negaliu Tylet [no video]")
Soliaris ft Lina Joy - Negaliu Tylet [no video]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:17
- Updated: 09 Jan 2013
Soliaris ft Lina Joy
http://wn.com/Soliaris_ft_Lina_Joy_Negaliu_Tylet_no_video_
photo: AP / Mohamed Sheikh Nor
12 Jan 2013
Helicopter raid fails to rescue agent 'Denis Allex' from Islamist group al-Shabaab, as French combat pilot killed in Mali. French secret service hostage 'Denis Allex' pictured in Somalia in October 2012. Photograph. SITE Monitoring Service/AFP/Getty Images. A French hostage and two French soldiers have been killed during a failed secret service rescue mission in Somalia ... The group said it had also captured a wounded French commando ... ....(size: 4.7Kb)
photo: AP / Adj Nicolas-Nelson Richard, ECPAD
14 Jan 2013
Bamako/Paris - French fighter jets pounded Islamist rebel strongholds deep in northern Mali on Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital, Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al-Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country’s north ... Defence Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said France’s intervention on Friday prevented the advancing rebels from seizing Bamako and vowed air strikes would continue ... – ... Doubt....(size: 6.6Kb)
photo: AP / Kevin Frayer
14 Jan 2013
Allahabad. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims led by naked, ash-covered holy men streamed into the sacred river Ganges on Monday at the start of the world's biggest religious festival. The Kumbh Mela in the Indian town of Allahabad will see up to 100 million worshippers gather over the next 55 days to take a ritual bath in the holy waters, believed to cleanse sins and bestow blessings ... "I am ecstatic ... Agence France-Presse ....(size: 4.2Kb)
photo: US Navy / MCS2 Gretchen Albrecht
13 Jan 2013
The draft version of the US National Climate Assessment, released on Friday, makes remarkable reading – not just for Americans but for all humanity. Put together by a special panel of more than 240 scientists, the federally commissioned report reveals that the US is already reeling under the impact of global warming ... Nor is there any doubt about the cause of these rising temperatures ... A bitter struggle lies ahead ... Sender's name ... ....(size: 6.2Kb)
photo: White House / Pete Souza
14 Jan 2013
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama issued a strong warning to Republicans on Monday that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling or allow Republicans to use it as a bargaining chip. "To even entertain the idea of the United States of America not paying our bills is irresponsible. It's absurd," Obama said in a press conference ... "They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the economy," Obama said ... Also on HuffPost ... ....(size: 10.3Kb)
noodls
15 Jan 2013
BORN (BIRTHPLACE) 2012-13 TEAM GP G A P PIM Graham, Jesse D 5'11 170 5/13/94 (Oshawa, ON) Niagara (OHL) 44 2 16 18 24 Kichton, Brenden D 5'10 185 6/18/92 (Edmonton, AB) Spokane (WHL) 43 14 39 53 27 Leduc, Loic D 6'6 199 6/14/94 (Mercier, QC) Cape Breton (QMJHL) 38 0 2 2 50 Pedan, Andrey D 6'4 204 7/3/93 (Kaunas, LTU) Guelph (OHL) 36 ......(size: 12.2Kb)
noodls
14 Jan 2013
(Source. Kitron ASA). (2012-01-14) Lely has selected Kitron as manufacturing partner for their milking robot's electronical control cabinets. Lely is a global agricultural machine manufacturer with a broad range of products including forage harvesting, feeding and milking. "We are increasingly using robot technology in our products ... "This agreement is an important step for Kitron, and the facility in Kaunas in particular....(size: 2.9Kb)
noodls
14 Jan 2013
(Source. Real Madrid CF). Three of the stars of the game spoke after the win against Herbalife Gran Canaria ... "The team defended well and the game was won from the back". Meanwhile, Willy Hernangomez had the chance to play and scored three points ... Mirotic, meanwhile, was aware that they had to play a good game from the start to avoid the same thing happen against Zalgiris Kaunas, who they had to come from behind to beat ... (noodl....(size: 4.9Kb)
noodls
14 Jan 2013
(Source. Real Madrid CF) A brilliant Real Madrid, unbeaten so far on their home court this season, and a stellar Sergio Rodriguez (20 points and 28 PIR in 16 minutes) defeats Herbalife Gran Canaria and racks up 16 wins in the Palacio de los Deportes. Edu Bueno ... The Whites came out with everything they had and quickly took control of the game, not wanting to relive the recent experience with Zalgiris Kaunas ... 10) ... 20) ... 30) ... 40). Stats ... (noodl....(size: 5.0Kb)
noodls
13 Jan 2013
(Source. Government of the Republic of Lithuania). From January 11 through 13 leadership and military personnel of the National Defence System will attend the events organised to mark the Lithuanian Freedom Defenders Day ... The last resting places of Lithuania's freedom defenders in Alytus, Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Marijampolė and Rokiškis will be honoured on the same day ... http.//www.kam.lt/lt/laisves_gyneju_dienos_renginiai.html ... distributed by....(size: 3.7Kb)
The Times of India
12 Jan 2013
BANGALORE ... Shelves are filled with products as diverse as shawls created using Nagaland's traditional loin-loom weaving as well as its colourful tribal jewellery; Assamese muga and eri silk scarves, stoles, ties and the occasional mekhala-chador; woven bamboo baskets and other products from Meghalaya; Bodo weaves made using the community's basic frame loom; and kauna reed mats and baskets from Manipur ... ....(size: 3.4Kb)
noodls
11 Jan 2013
Real Madrid return home and face the very dangerous Zalgiris Kaunas ... Laso, who may have a full squad to choose from after the return of Pocius, will adopt a cautious approach to a match against a team which caused upsets in the Group Stages on the road by playing with the same intensity as in Kaunas, winning four out of their five games ... Real Madrid 2º 2 2 0 159 130 +29 Zalgiris Kaunas 3º 2 1 1 141 130 +11....(size: 8.5Kb)
Stuff
11 Jan 2013
Barcelona beat holders Olympiakos Piraeus 76-68 in a heavyweight clash to avenge last season's semi-final defeat to the Greeks, CSKA Moscow overpowered Bamberg 90-83 and Real Madrid achieved a thrilling 75-74 victory over Zalgiris Kaunas ... The 30-year-old journeyman scored eight points, including two three-pointers, and dished out six assists in 15 productive minutes to earn a standing ovation from the jam-packed Nokia Arena ... - Reuters....(size: 4.9Kb)
noodls
10 Jan 2013
(Source. Real Madrid CF). The Euroleague returns to the Palacio de los Deportes, and returns in style. Real Madrid and Zalgiris Kaunas, who are second and third in their group in the Top 16, will both be looking for a valuable win. For Laso's team it would be the third in three matches, while for Plaza's team it would be the second and a valuable shock as it would be away from Lithuania ... Two matches, two wins ... distributed by ... (noodl....(size: 6.1Kb)
noodls
09 Jan 2013
(Source. Real Madrid CF). Strong in defence and increasingly more active when on the attack, Martynas Pocius faces his second season with Real Madrid ... He's impatient for the matchday and above all to play and help his team, and although he knows that it won't be easy Pocius is already thinking about the advantages of a 3-0 in the Top 16 ... How do you feel? ... How do you feel? ... It's always hard to win in Kaunas, they play really well there....(size: 4.2Kb)
noodls
08 Jan 2013
Duckwitzin Copenhagen; Varian Fry and Hiram Bingham from the United States in Marseilles; Japanese Consul ChiuneSugihara; the Dutchman Jan Zwartendijkin Kaunas; Turkish Consul SelahattinÜlkümenin Rhodes; British Captain Frank Foley in Berlin; Polish diplomat HenrykSlawikin Budapest; Swedish diplomat RaoulWallenberg, who helped coordinate the rescue ......(size: 6.0Kb)
The Guardian
07 Jan 2013
Around 100,000 Lithuanians now officially live in England and Wales. And some think the true number could be double that. Why are our eastern neighbours so attracted to Britain? ... He had studied at the Institute of Medicine in Lithuania's second city of Kaunas, but the financial crisis was starting to bite and he couldn't get a decent job ... Kestutis Dobrovolskis, a 35-year-old builder from Kaunas, started the league seven years ago ... ....(size: 14.0Kb)
noodls
07 Jan 2013
(Source. CEB - Confederation of European Baseball). Monday, January 07, 2013 .15.27 .Age. 4 min Herts Falcons ranked among top 50 clubs in Europe. By. Aspi Dimitrov. The annual ranking of European teams has just been published and, for the first time in its history, the Herts Falcons have been ranked among the top 50 clubs in Europe. They have taken 38th place in the ranking ... Pos. Club Country Points ... 25 C.B ... 42 Lituanica Kaunas Lithuania 8.75....(size: 4.7Kb)
This article is about the city. For the county (Kauno apskritis), see Kaunas County.
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011) |
| Kaunas, Lithuania | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — City municipality — | |||
 Middle left: House of Perkūnas, right: Kaunas city hall |
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| Nickname(s): Laikinoji sostinė | |||
 |
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| Coordinates: 54°54′N 23°56′E / 54.9°N 23.933°E / 54.9; 23.933Coordinates: 54°54′N 23°56′E / 54.9°N 23.933°E / 54.9; 23.933 | |||
| Country |  Lithuania |
||
| Ethnographic region | Aukštaitija | ||
| County |  Kaunas County |
||
| Municipality | Kaunas city municipality | ||
| Capital of | Kaunas County Kaunas city municipality Kaunas district municipality |
||
| First mentioned | 1361 | ||
| Granted city rights | 1408 | ||
| Boroughs | |||
| Area | |||
| • City municipality | 157 km2 (61 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2011) | |||
| • City municipality | 321,200 | ||
| • Metro | 673,706 (Kaunas County) | ||
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||
| Website | kaunas.lt | ||
Kaunas (/ˈkaʊnəs/; Lithuanian: [kɐˈunɐs] ( listen); see also other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the centre of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation it was the capital of the Kovno Governorate from 1843 to 1915. It became the only temporary capital city in Europe during the Interwar period. Now it is the capital of Kaunas County, the seat of the Kaunas city municipality and the Kaunas district municipality. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. Kaunas is located at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, the Nemunas and the Neris, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, the largest body of water entirely in Lithuania.
Etymology and other names[link]
The city's name is of Lithuanian origins and most likely derives from a personal name.[1]
Before Lithuania regained independence, the city was generally known in English as Kovno, the traditional Slavicized form of its name; the Polish name is Kowno; the Belarusian name is Koўнa, Kowna. An earlier Russian name was Ковно Kovno, although Каунас Kaunas has been used since 1940. The Yiddish name is Kovne (קאָװנע), while its names in German include Kaunas and Kauen. The city and its elderates also have names in other languages (see Names of Kaunas in other languages and names of Kaunas elderates in other languages).
Legendary story[link]
An old legend claims that Kaunas was established by the Romans in ancient times. These Romans were supposedly led by a patrician named Palemon, who had three sons - Barcus, Kunas and Sperus.[2] Palemon fled from Rome because he feared the mad Emperor Nero. Palemon, his sons and other relatives travelled all the way to Lithuania. After Palemon's death, his sons divided his land. Kunas got the land where Kaunas now stands. He built a fortress near the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers, and the city that grew up there was named after him. There is also a suburban region in the vicinity named "Palemonas".[3]
Coat of arms[link]
On 30 June 1993 the historical coat of arms of Kaunas city was established by a special presidential decree. The coat of arms features a white auroch with a golden cross between his horns, set against a deep red background. The auroch is the original heraldic symbol of the city since 1400. The heraldic seal of Kaunas, introduced in the early 15th century during the reign of Grand Duke Vytautas, is the oldest city heraldic seal known in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[4] The current emblem was the result of much study and discussion on the part of the Lithuanian Heraldry Commission, and realized by the artist Raimondas Miknevičius. An aurochs has replaced a wisent, depicted in the Soviet era emblem, used since 1969.
History[link]
Early history[link]
According to the archeological excavations, the most affluent collections of ceramics and other artefacts found at the confluence of the Nemunas and the Neris rivers are from the second and first millennium BC. During that time people settled in some territories of the present Kaunas: the confluence of the two longest rivers of Lithuania area, Eiguliai, Lampėdžiai, Linkuva, Kaniūkai, Marvelė, Pajiesys, Romainiai, Petrašiūnai, Sargėnai, and Veršvai sites.[4]
Grand Duchy of Lithuania[link]
A settlement had been established on the site of the current Kaunas old town at the confluence of two large rivers, at least by the 10th century AD. It is believed the town was founded in 1030, but it is first mentioned in written sources in 1361. In the 13th century, a stone wall was built as protection from constant raids by the Teutonic Knights. In 1362, the town was captured by the Teutonic Knights, who destroyed the Kaunas Castle. The commander of the Kaunas castle garrison Vaidotas with 36 men tried to break through, but was taken prisoner. It was one of the largest and important military victories of the Teutonic Knights in the 14th century against Lithuania.[5] The Kaunas castle was rebuilt at the beginning of the 15th century.[6]
In 1408 the town was granted Magdeburg Rights by Vytautas the Great and became a centre of Kaunas Powiat in Trakai Voivodeship in 1413.[7] Vytautas ceded Kaunas the right to own the scales used for weighing the goods brought to the city or packed on site, wax processing, and woolen cloth trimming facilities. The power of the self-governing Kaunas was shared by three interrelated major institutions: vaitas (the Mayor), the Magistrate (12 lay judges and 4 burgomasters) and the so called Benchers' Court (12 persons). Kaunas then began to gain prominence, since it was at an intersection of trade routes and a river port. In 1441 Kaunas joined the Hanseatic League, and Hansa merchant office Kontor was opened - the only one in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[8] By the 16th century, Kaunas also had a public school and a hospital and was one of the best-formed towns in the whole country.[9]
In 1665, the Russian army attacked the city several times, and in 1701 the city was occupied by the Swedish army. The Black Death struck the area in 1657 and 1708, and fires destroyed parts of the city in 1731 and 1732.[10]
Russian Empire[link]
After the final partition of the Polish–Lithuanian state in 1795, the city was taken over by the Russian Empire and became a part of Vilna Governorate. During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the Grand Army of Napoleon passed through Kaunas twice, devastating the city both times.[9]
After the Partitions, Kaunas was one of the centres of the November Uprising (1830–1831) and the January Uprising (1863–1864). To suppress the local population, the Russian authorities subsequently established the Kaunas Prison and placed a huge military garrison in the town. The Russian military fortifications from that time still survive throughout the town.[11]
Kovno Governorate with a centre in Kovno (Kaunas) was formed in 1843. In 1862 a railway connecting the Russian Empire and Imperial Germany was built, making Kaunas a significant railway hub with one of the first railway tunnels in the Empire, completed in 1861. In 1898 the first power plant in Lithuania started operating.[12]
Prior to the Second World War, Kaunas, like many other cities in eastern Europe, had a significant Jewish population. According to the Russian census of 1897, Jews numbered 25,500, 35.3% of the total of 73,500.The population was also 25.8% Russian, 22.7% Polish, 6.6% Lithuanian.[13]
Inter-war Lithuania[link]
Main article: Temporary capital of Lithuania
After Vilnius was occupied by the Russian Bolsheviks in 1919, the government of the Republic of Lithuania established its main base here. Later, when the capital Vilnius was forcibly annexed by Poland, Kaunas became the temporary capital of Lithuania,[14] a position it held until 28 October 1939, when the Red Army handed Vilnius back to Lithuania.[15] The Constituent Assembly of Lithuania first met in Kaunas on 15 May 1920. It passed some important laws, particularly on land reform, on the national currency, and adopted a new constitution. The military coup d'état took place in Kaunas on 17 December 1926. It was largely organized by the military and resulted in the replacement of the democratically elected government with a conservative authoritarian government led by Antanas Smetona.[16] The last meeting of the Lithuanian government was held just before midnight in Kaunas on 14 June 1940. During it, the ultimatum presented by the Soviet Union, was debated.
Between the World Wars industry prospered in Kaunas; it was then the largest city in Lithuania. Under direction of the mayor Jonas Vileišis (1921–1931) Kaunas grew rapidly and was extensively modernised. A water and waste water system, costing more than 15 million Lithuanian litas, was put in place, the city expanded from 18 square kilometers to 40, more than 2,500 buildings were built, plus three modern bridges over the Neris and Nemunas rivers. All the city's streets were paved, horse-drawn transportation was replaced with modern bus lines, new suburbs were planned and built (Žaliakalnis neighborhood in particular), and new parks and squares were established.[9] The foundations for a social security system were laid, three new schools were built, and new public libraries, including the Vincas Kudirka library, were established. J. Vileišis maintained many contacts in other European cities, and as a result Kaunas was an active participant in European urban life.[17]
During the inter-war period Kaunas had a Jewish population of 35,000-40,000, about one quarter of the city's total population.[18] Jews made up much of the city's commercial, artisan, and professional sectors. Kaunas was a centre of Jewish learning, and the yeshiva in Slobodka (Vilijampolė) was one of Europe's most prestigious institutes of higher Jewish learning. Kaunas had a rich and varied Jewish culture. There were almost 100 Jewish organizations, 40 synagogues, many Yiddish schools, 4 Hebrew high schools, a Jewish hospital, and scores of Jewish-owned businesses.[citation needed] It was also an important Zionist centre.
Nazi occupation[link]
After the outbreak of German invasion into USSR on 22 June, the June Uprising against the retreating Red Army began in Kaunas and a short-lived period of independence was proclaimed in Kaunas on 23 June 1941.[19] During the battles with the Red Army, Lithuanian rebels secured government offices, police stations, shops, warehouses, and attempted to re-establish order in the city. On 25 June the main German forces marched into the city without opposition and almost in parade fashion. The Nazi Germans did not recognize the new provisional government, but they did not take any actions to dissolve it until the establishment of a German civil administration on 17 July. The government's powers were taken over by the new occupants.[20] Nazi Germany established the Reichskommissariat Ostland in the Baltic States and much of Belarus, and the administrative centre for Lithuania (Generalbezirk Litauen) was in Kaunas ruled by Generalkommissar Adrian von Renteln.[21]
Kaunas' Jews' fate[link]
Main article: Kaunas Ghetto
Jewish people started settling in Kaunas in the second half of the 17th century. They were not allowed to live in the city, so most of them stayed in the Vilijampolė settlement on the right bank of the Neris river. Jewish life in Kaunas was first disrupted when the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in June 1940. The unwelcomed occupation was accompanied by arrests, confiscations, and the elimination of all free institutions. Jewish community organizations disappeared almost overnight. Soviet authorities confiscated the property of many Jews, while hundreds were exiled to Siberia. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Activist Front, founded by Lithuanian nationalist émigrés in Berlin, disseminated anti-semitic literature in Lithuania.[18] Among other claims, the propaganda blamed Jews for the Soviet occupation.[citation needed]
Following Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Soviet forces fled from Kaunas. Both before and after the German occupation of the city on 25 June, the anti-Communists began to attack Jews, blaming them for the Soviet repressions, especially along Jurbarko and Kriščiukaičio streets.[18] They murdered more than 3,800 Jews and took hundreds more to the Lietūkis garage and killed them there.[citation needed]
The Nazis eventually established the Kaunas Ghetto and murdered most of the Jews by the end of the war.[18]
Soviet Re-occupation[link]
Beginning in 1944, the Red Army began offensives that eventually took back all three of the Baltic states. Kaunas again became the major centre of resistance against the Soviet regime. From the very start of the Lithuanian partisans war, the most important partisan districts were based around Kaunas.[4] Although guerrilla warfare ended at the time of 1953, Lithuanian opposition to Soviet rule did not. In 1956 people in the Kaunas region supported the uprising in Hungary by rioting.[22] On All Souls' Day in 1956, the first public anti-Soviet protest rally took place in Kaunas: citizens burned candles in the Kaunas military cemetery and sang national songs, resulting in clashes with the Militsiya.[4]
On 14 May 1972, a 19 years old Romas Kalanta, having exclaimed "Freedom for Lithuania!", immolated himself in the garden of the Musical Theatre, after making a speech denouncing the Soviet suppression of national and religious rights.[23] The event broke into a politically charged riot, which was forcibly dispersed by the KGB and Militsiya. It led to new forms of resistance: passive resistance all around Lithuania. The continuous oppression of the Catholic Church and its resistance caused the appearance of The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. In strict conspiracy catholic priest Sigitas Tamkevičius (now the Archbishop Metropolitan of Kaunas) implemented this idea and its first issue was published in the Alytus district on 19 March 1972. The Kronika started a new phase of resistance in the life of Lithuania's Catholic Church and of all Lithuania fighting against the occupation by making known to the world the violation of the human rights and freedoms in Lithuania for almost two decades.[24] On 1 November 1987, a non-sanctioned rally took place near the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica, where people gathered to mark famous Lithuanian poet Maironis' 125th birthday anniversary. On 10 June 1988, the initiating group of the Kaunas movement of Sąjūdis was formed. On 9 October 1988, the Flag of Lithuania was raised above the tower of the Military Museum.[4] Kaunas, along with Vilnius, became the scene of nearly constant demonstrations as the Lithuanians, embarked on a process of self-discovery. The bodies of Lithuanians who died in Siberian exile were brought back to their homeland for reburial, and the anniversaries of deportations as well as the important dates in Lithuanian history began to be noted with speeches and demonstrations. On 16 February 1989 Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius, for the first time, called for the independence of Lithuania in his sermon at the Kaunas Cathedral. After the services, 200,000 persons gathered in the centre of Kaunas to participate in the dedication of a new monument to freedom to replace the monument that had been torn down by the Soviet authorities after the World War II.[25]
Restored Independence[link]
File:KauMegaAqua.jpg
Aquarium in shopping mall "Mega"
After World War II Kaunas became the main industrial city of Lithuania – it produced about a quarter of Lithuania's industrial output.
After the proclamation of Lithuanian independence in 1990, Soviet attempts to suppress the rebellion focused on the Sitkūnai Radio Station.[26] They were defended by the citizenry of Kaunas.[27] Pope John Paul II made the Holy Mass for the faithful of the Archdiocese of Kaunas at the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica and held the meeting with the young people of Lithuania at S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, during his visit to Lithuania in 1993.[28] Kaunas natives Vytautas Landsbergis and Valdas Adamkus became the Head of state in 1990, and, respectively, in 1998 and 2004. Since the restoration of independence, improving substantially air and land transport links with Western Europe have made Kaunas easily accessible to foreign tourists.
Geography[link]
The city covers 15,700 hectares. Parks, groves, gardens, nature reserves, and agricultural areas occupy 8,329 hectares.[29]
Administrative divisions[link]
Kaunas is divided into 12 elderates:
Neighborhoods[link]
The oldest part of Kaunas city is the Old Town located to the east of the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers. The formation of the new rectangular structure of the New Town started in Kaunas since 1847.[30] The construction of the Kaunas Railway Tunnel and Railway Bridge across the Nemunas river helped move goods from the eastern part of Russian Empire west to the German Empire and Kaunas grew rapidly in the second part of 19th century. The oldest part of Kaunas was connected with Žaliakalnis neighborhood in 1889. The city have increased once more when it was connected by bridges with Aleksotas and Vilijampolė districts in the 1920s.[31]
Main article: Neighborhoods of Kaunas
Climate[link]
Kaunas features a warm and humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb). Despite its northern location, the climate in Kaunas is relatively mild compared to other locations in similar latitudes, mainly because of the Baltic Sea. Because of its latitude, daylight in Kaunas extends 17 hours in midsummer, to only around 7 hours in midwinter. The Kazlų Rūda Forest,[32] west of Kaunas, create a microclimate around the city, regulating humidity and temperature of the air, and protecting it from strong western winds.
Summers in Kaunas are warm and pleasant with average daytime high temperatures of 21–22 °C (70–72 °F) and lows of around 12 °C (54 °F), but temperatures could reach 30 °C (86 °F) on some days. Winters are relatevely cold, and sometimes snowy with average temperatures ranging from -8 to 0 °C (18 to 32 °F), and rarely drop below −15 °C (5 °F). Spring and autumn are generally cool to mild.
| Climate data for Kaunas | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | −2.6 (27.3) |
−1.4 (29.5) |
3.5 (38.3) |
10.7 (51.3) |
17.9 (64.2) |
21 (70) |
22.2 (72.0) |
21.9 (71.4) |
16.7 (62.1) |
10.8 (51.4) |
4.4 (39.9) |
0 (32) |
10.4 (50.7) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −8.5 (16.7) |
−7.6 (18.3) |
−3.6 (25.5) |
1.8 (35.2) |
7.4 (45.3) |
10.9 (51.6) |
12.4 (54.3) |
11.8 (53.2) |
8.1 (46.6) |
4 (39) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
−4.9 (23.2) |
2.6 (36.7) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 39 (1.54) |
31 (1.22) |
35 (1.38) |
42 (1.65) |
55 (2.17) |
69 (2.72) |
80 (3.15) |
78 (3.07) |
56 (2.2) |
45 (1.77) |
53 (2.09) |
47 (1.85) |
630 (24.8) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 18 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 178 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 40.3 | 67.8 | 127.1 | 174.0 | 251.1 | 264.0 | 257.3 | 238.7 | 159.0 | 99.2 | 42.0 | 27.9 | 1,748.4 |
| Source no. 1: World Weather Information Service[33] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: Hong Kong Observatory[34] | |||||||||||||
Cityscape[link]
Points of interest[link]
Central Kaunas is defined by two pedestrian streets: the 2-km-long Laisvės alėja (Liberty Avenue), a central street of the city, lined by linden trees, and its continuation, Vilnius Street, leading to the oldest part - Old Town of Kaunas. Some of the most prominent features in Kaunas include:
- the Kaunas Castle, a 14th century fortification;
- the Vytautas' Church, one of the oldest churches in Lithuania and the oldest in Kaunas;
- the St. Gertrude Church in Kaunas;
- the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica, the largest Gothic building in Lithuania, with a late Baroque interior;
- the St. George's Church, which was rumoured to have been turned into a dance studio during the Soviet Occupation;
- the Pažaislis abbey, an impressive complex in Baroque style;
- the St. Francis Xavier Church;
- the massive Neo-Byzantine church of St. Michael the Archangel;
- The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Eternal flame, and Statues of Lithuanian national renaissance figures are located in the Vienybės square in front of the War museum;
- the Christ’s Resurrection Church with an unfolding panoramic view of the city;
- Kaunas Zoo, the only state-operated zoo in Lithuania;
- Kaunas Fortress, one of the largest defensive structures in Europe, occupying 65 km2 (25 sq mi), a 19-20th century military fortress, which includes a Holocaust site of the Ninth Fort;
- Kaunas Botanical Garden;
- Napoleon's Hill;
- Kaunas Synagogue;
- House of Perkūnas;
- Kaunas Town Hall and the square;
- Interbellum functionalism architecture complexes;
- Two funiculars - Žaliakalnis Funicular Railway and the Aleksotas Funicular Railway;
- Kaunas Mosque;
- Ąžuolynas Park and the valley of Girstupis River named after Adam Mickiewicz;
- the Memorial Petrašiūnai Cemetery;
- the Lithuanian open-air Ethnographic Museum displaying the heritage of Lithuanian rural life in a vast collection of authentic resurrected buildings is situated east of Kaunas on the bank of Kaunas Reservoir in a town of Rumšiškės;
- Kaunas University of Medicine Hospital;
- Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations;
- The Marine aquarium in the Mega Shopping mall.[35]
Museums[link]
Kaunas is often called a city of museums, because of the abundance and variety of them. The museums in Kaunas include:
- the War Museum of Vytautas the Great;
- the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, commemorating the work of the early 20th century avant-garde artist M. K. Čiurlionis who sought to combine painting and music into a single artistic medium;
- the Žmuidzinavičius Museum (best known as the Devils' Museum), which houses a collection of more than two thousand sculptures and carvings of devils from all over the world, most of them of folk provenance. Of particular interest are the Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin devils, together doing the dance of death over a playground littered with human bones;
- Lithuanian Aviation Museum;
- Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy;
- Historical Presidential Palace, displaying exhibits from the interwar period
- Kaunas Museum for the Blind;
- Povilas Stulga Museum of Lithuanian Folk Instruments;
- Tadas Ivanauskas Zoological Museum;
- Sugihara house-museum;
- Communication History Museum;
- The so-called ab underground printing house was a part of the nonviolent resistance press during the Soviet times. Now it is the branch of Kaunas War Museum, located 8 km north of Kaunas in a small Saliu village, near the town of Domeikava. Although the AB printing house worked regularly, it was never detected by KGB.[36] It was included into the Registry of Immovable Cultural Heritage Sites of Lithuania in 1999.[37]
- The apartments of some famous Kaunas natives, including Paulius Galaunė, Adam Mickiewicz, Juozas Grušas, Balys Sruoga, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Salomėja Nėris, Juozas Zikaras, Vincentas Sladkevičius have been turned into public museums.[38]
Theatres[link]
Kaunas is notable for the diverse culture life. Kaunas Symphony Orchestra is the main venue for classical music concerts. There is an old circus tradition in Kaunas. There was established static circus in the Vytautas park of Kaunas in the beginning of 19th century. The only professional circus organization in Lithuania - Baltic Circus was founded in Kaunas in 1995.[39] Kaunas theatres has played an important role in Lithuanian society. There are at least 7 professional theatres, lots of amateur theatres, ensembles, abundant groups of art and sports. Some of the best examples of culture life in Kaunas are theatres of various styles:
- Kaunas State Drama Theatre
- Kaunas State Musical Theatre
- Kaunas Pantomime Theatre
- Kaunas Chamber Theatre
- Kaunas Dance Theatre Aura
- Kaunas State Puppet Theatre
Parks and cemeteries[link]
The city of Kaunas has a number of parks and public open spaces. It devotes 7.3% of its total land acreage to parkland.[40] Ąžuolynas (literally, "Oak Grove") park is a main public park in the heart of Kaunas. It covers about 63 hectares and is the largest urban stand of mature oaks in Europe. To protect the unique lower landscape of Kaunas Reservoir, its natural ecosystem, and cultural heritage Kaunas Reservoir Regional Park was established in the eastern edge of Kaunas in 1992. By the initiative of a prominent Lithuanian zoologist Tadas Ivanauskas and biologist Konstantinas Regelis the Kaunas Botanical Garden was founded in 1923. It serves not only as a recreational area for public, but also serves as a showcase for local plant life, and houses various research facilities.
Lithuania's premiere last resting place formally designated for graves of people influential in national history, politics, and arts is Petrašiūnai Cemetery in Kaunas. It is also the burial site of some signatories of the 1918 Act of Independence. There are four old Jewish cemeteries within city limits.
Public art[link]
A lot of sculptuary is on display in the public areas of Kaunas.
-
Sculptures in Vienybė Square
-
A sculpture the Lithuanian School
-
A sculpture to Bearer of water
Economy[link]
Kaunas is a large centre of industry, trade and services in Lithuania. The most developed industries in Kaunas are: food and beverage industry, textile and light industry, chemical industry, publishing and processing, pharmaceuticals, metal industry, wood processing and furniture industry. Recently information technology and electronics have become an important area of business activities in Kaunas. The city also has large construction industry, including commercial, housing and road construction.[41]
Primary foreign investors in Kaunas are companies from the USA, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, and Russia.[42] Head offices of several major International and Lithuanian companies are located in Kaunas, including "Kraft Foods Lietuva", largest Generic Pharmaceuticals producer in Lithuania "Sanitas group", producer of sportsweare AB "Audimas", one of the largest construction companies "YIT Kausta", JSC "Senukai", largest producer in Lithuania of strong alcoholic drinks JSC "Stumbras", Finnish capital brewery JSC "Ragutis", JSC "Fazer Gardesis", JSC "Stora Enso Packaging"",[43] producer of pharmaceuticals, and the only producer of homoeopathic medicines in Lithuania JSC "Aconitum".[44] Due to its geographic location, Kaunas is considered one of the biggest logistics centres in Lithuania. The largest wholesale, distribution and logistics company in Lithuania and Latvia JSC "Sanitex",[45], as well as a subsidiary of material handling and logistics company Dematic in the Baltics[46] have been operated in Kaunas. Currently, the feasibility study for Kaunas Public Logistics Centre is being prepared by the national state-owned railway company Lithuanian Railways.[47] The “Margasmiltė“ company currently has been working on a project that concerns exploitation of Pagiriai anhydrite deposit. The project includes mining of anhydrite, a mine with underground warehouses, building the overground transport terminal, as well as an administrative building. The Pagiriai anhydrite deposit is located 10.5 km (6.5 mi) south from the downtown of Kaunas, at a 2.2 km (1.4 mi) distance to the southwest from the Garliava town. The resources of thoroughly explored anhydrite in the Pagiriai deposit amount to 81.5 million tons.[48]
The "UBIG group" (a branch of commercial Ūkio bank) is a management company of diversified holdings that operates in the property development, banking, aluminium, mining, logistics, textiles, sports, financial intermediary, and other sectors. The Lithuanian Central Credit Union - national cooperative federation for credit unions established in 2001, is located in Kaunas. At present the Lithuanian Central Credit Union has 61 members.[49]
There are also some innovative companies located in Kaunas, such as leading wholesaler of computer components, data storage media "ACME group", internet and TV provider, communications JSC "Mikrovisata group", developer and producer original products for TV and embedded technologies JSC "Selteka". Joint Lithuanian-German company "Net Frequency", based in Kaunas, is a multimedia and technology service provider. Kaunas is also home to JSC "Baltijos Programinė Įranga", a subsidiary of No Magic, Inc., producing world-leading software modeling tools. A LED lighting assembly plant was opened in Kaunas by South Korean company LK Technology in February 2011.[50] JSC “Baltic car equipment” is one of the leaders in Baltic countries, in the field of manufacturing electronic equipment for automobiles. It also specializes in development of new telemetry, data base creation, mobile payment projects.[51] Kaunas Free Economic Zone[52] established in 1996 has also attracted some investors from abroad, including the development of the new 200 MW Cogeneration Power Plant project, proposed by the Finnish capital company Fortum Heat Lithuania.[53] Before its disestablishment, Air Lithuania had its head office in Kaunas.[54] Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant is the largest one in Lithuania.
Some notable changes are under construction and in the stage of disputes. The construction of a new landmark of Kaunas - the Žalgiris Arena - began in the autumn of 2008.[55] It was completed in August 2011. Currently discussions are underway about the further development of the Vilijampolė district on the right bank of the Neris river and the Nemunas River, near their confluence.[56]
Demography[link]
Ethnic composition[link]
File:LibertyStreet.JPG
Laisvės alėja is one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe
1897 Russian census revealed the following ethnic composition in the city (by mother tongue, out of 70,920):[57]
- Jews 25,052 - 35%
- Russians 18,308 - 26%
- Poles 16,112 - 23%
- Lithuanians 4,092 - 6%
- Germans 3,340 - 4.5%
- Tatar 1,084 - 1.5%
- Other 2932 - 4%
Today, with almost 93 percent of its citizens being ethnic Lithuanians, Kaunas is one of the most Lithuanian cities in the country. Kaunas has a higher proportion of ethnic Lithuanians than Vilnius, and more ethnic Lithuanians than Riga has ethnic Latvians or Tallinn has ethnic Estonians.
Ethnic composition in 2001, out of a total of 378,943:[58]
- Lithuanians 352,051 - 92.9%
- Russians 16,622 - 4.34%
- Ukrainians 1,906 - 0.5%
- Poles 1,600 - 0.42%
- Other - 6,764%
Municipality council[link]
Kaunas city municipality council is the governing body of the Kaunas city municipality. It is responsible for municipality laws. The council is composed of 41 member elected for four-year terms.
The council is the member of The Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania.
Mayors[link]
- 1921-1931 - Jonas Vileišis
- 1931 - Juozas Vokietaitis
- 1932–1933 - Antanas Gravrogkas
- 1933–1939 - Antanas Merkys
- 1940 - Antanas Garmus
- 1990–1991 – Vidmantas Adomonis
- 1991–1992 – Vilimas Čiurinskas
- 1992–1995 – Arimantas Račkauskas
- 1995 – Rimantas Tumosa
- 1995–1997 – Vladas Katkevičius
- 1997 – Alfonsas Andriuškevičius
- 1997–2000 – Henrikas Tamulis
- 2000 – Vytautas Šustauskas
- 2000 – Gediminas Budnikas
- 2001–2002 – Erikas Tamašauskas
- 2002–2003 – Giedrius Donatas Ašmys
- 2003–2007 – Arvydas Garbaravičius
- 2007-2011 – Andrius Kupčinskas
- 2011 – Rimantas Mikaitis
- Since 2011 – Andrius Kupčinskas
Infrastructure[link]
The city is located in the centre of Lithuania, making it highly significant from a logistical point of view.
Airports[link]
Kaunas International Airport (KUN) is one of the biggest airports in the Baltic states. In 2010 it handled 809,732 passengers and 4,449 tonnes of cargo. An Irish low-cost airline Ryanair announced Kaunas Airport as their 40th base and first in the Central Europe in February, 2010.[59] Kaunas Airport is the fastest growing airport in the Baltic states in 2009 and 2010. They believe that the airport will handle up to one million passengers in 2011. The smaller S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport, established in 1915, is located about three kilometers south of the city centre. It is one the oldest still functioning airports in Europe used for tourism and air sports purposes and now hosts the Lithuanian Aviation Museum.
Highways[link]
Kaunas is served by a number of major motorways. European route E67 is a highway running from Prague in the Czech Republic to Helsinki in Finland by way of Poland, Kaunas Lithuania, Riga (Latvia), and Tallinn (Estonia). It is known as the Via Baltica between Warsaw and Tallinn, a distance of 670 kilometres (420 mi). It is the most important road connection between the Baltic states. Kaunas also is linked to Vilnius to its east and Klaipėda, on the Baltic Sea, via the A1 motorway and Daugavpils (Latvia), via E262(A6) highway.
Bridges[link]
Since Kaunas is located at the confluence of two rivers, there were 34 bridges and viaducts built in the city at the end of 2007, including:
- Vytautas the Great Bridge, connecting Old Town with Aleksotas across the Nemunas;
- M. K. Čiurlionis Bridge, an automotive bridge across the Nemunas;
- Lampėdžiai Bridge across the Nemunas that serves as western bypass of Kaunas;
- Petras Vileišis Bridge, connecting Old Town with Vilijampolė across the Neris River;
- Varniai Bridge, connecting Žaliakalnis with Vilijampolė across the Neris River;
- The Green railway bridge, built in 1862.
Railways[link]
Kaunas is an important railway hub in Lithuania. First railway connection passing through Kaunas was constructed in 1859-1861 and opened in 1862.[60] It consisted of Kaunas Railway Tunnel and the Railway bridge across the Nemunas river. Kaunas Railway Station is an important hub serving direct passenger connections to Vilnius and Warsaw as well as being a transit point of Pan-European corridors I and IX. Some trains run from Vilnius to Šeštokai, and, Poland, through Kaunas. International route connecting Kaliningrad, Russia and Kharkiv, Ukraine, also crosses Kaunas. The first phase of the Standard gauge Rail Baltica railway section from Šeštokai to Kaunas is under construction, and it is expected to be completed by 2013.
Public transportation[link]
The public transportation system is managed by Kauno viešasis transportas (KVT).[61] There are 16 trolleybus routes, 30 bus routes[62] and a wide shared taxi carrier network. In 2007 new electronic monthly tickets began to be introduced for public transport in Kaunas. The monthly E-ticket cards may be bought once and might be credited with an appropriate amount of money in various ways including the Internet. Previous paper monthly tickets were in use until August 2009.[63] Kaunas is also one of the major river ports in the Baltic States and has two piers designated for tourism purposes and located on the banks of Nemunas river and Kaunas Reservoir - the largest Lithuanian artificial lake, created in 1959 by damming the Neman River near Kaunas and Rumšiškės.[64]
Sports[link]
Sports in Kaunas have a long and distinguished history. The city is home to a few historic clubs such as: LFLS Kaunas football club (est.1920), LFLS Kaunas baseball club (est.1922), Žalgiris basketball club (est.1944). Ice hockey was first played in Lithuania in 1922. The first Lithuanian ice hockey championship composed of four teams (LFLS, KSK, Kovas, and Macabi) was held in Kaunas, in 1926.[65] Kaunas is home to some historic venues such as: the main stadium of the city - S.Dariaus ir S.Girėno Sporto Centras (total capacity 9,000), which is also the Lithuanian soccer club FBK Kaunas's and Lithuanian national football team home stadium established in 1923, and Kaunas Sports Hall, completed in 1939 for the Third European Basketball Championship. S.Dariaus and S.Girėno Stadium is also used as the only large athletics stadium in Lithuania. The university status Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, founded during the Interwar period, is the only state-supported institution of tertiary physical education in Lithuania. The National Football Academy - the national centre for the training of the best Lithuanian young players of football was established in Kaunas in 2006.
Žalgiris basketball club, one of Europe's strongest basketball clubs, now plays in the Euroleague. Kaunas has also hosted the knockout stage of the European Basketball Championship of 2011. The largest indoor Žalgiris Arena in the Baltics has just been completed in Kaunas. The arena is used to host sports games as well as concerts. The city is also the birthplace or childhood home of many of the country's top basketball stars, among them Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, Linas Kleiza, Donatas Motiejūnas and Šarūnas Jasikevičius. Granitas Kaunas is the strongest and most prominent men team handball club in Lithuania. The first golf club "Elnias" in Lithuania was opened in Kaunas in 2000. Nemuno žiedas is the only in Lithuania motor racing circuit, situated in Kačerginė, a small town near Kaunas. A yacht club operates in the Kaunas Reservoir Regional Park.
Education[link]
Kaunas is often referred to as a city of students; there are about 50,000 students enrolled in its universities. The first parochial school in Kaunas was mentioned in 1473. A four-form Jesuit school was opened in Kaunas in 1649. It was reorganized into a college in 1653.[66] The oldest still functioning institution of higher education is Kaunas Priest Seminary, established in 1864. Other institutes of higher education are:
- ISM University of Management and Economics - one of the few private institutions of higher education in Lithuania
- Vytautas Magnus University founded in 1922 as the University of Lithuania and renamed Vytautas Magnus in 1930.[67]
- Kaunas Business College
- Kaunas University of Applied Sciences (Kaunas College)
- Kaunas University of Medicine
- Kaunas University of Technology - the largest technical university in the Baltic States
- Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education
- Lithuanian University of Agriculture
- Lithuanian Veterinary Academy
- Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities
- Mykolas Romeris University Faculty of Public Security
- Kaunas Art Institute
Kaunas has also a large number of public and private basic and secondary schools, as well as kindergartens and nurseries. Kaunas also has numerous libraries. The most important is the Kaunas County Public Library. It was established as the Central Library of Lithuania in 1919. A part of its collection was transferred to Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania in 1963.[68] Now the Kaunas County Public Library holds more than 2.2 million volumes in its collection and functions as a depository library of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.[69]
Annual events[link]
Kaunas is best known for the Kaunas Jazz Festival, International Operetta Festival, Photo Art Festival "Kaunas photo" or Pažaislis music festival, which usually run from early June until late August each year. The open-air concerts of the historical 49-bell Carillon of Kaunas are held on weekends. Probably the longest established festival is the International Modern Dance Festival, which first ran in 1989.
- Kaziukas Fair Kaunas fork (beginning of March)
- International open-air "Kaunas Jazz Festival" (April–May)
- Day of Kaunas city (middle of May)
- Pažaislis music festival (June–August)
- Traditional folk music competition "Play, Jurgelis" (November)
- Christmas tree lighting (end of November)
- Bike Show Millenium (middle of June)
- International Hanseatic Days [70] (end of August)
Notable people[link]
Further information: List of people from Kaunas
International relations[link]
Twin towns — Sister cities[link]
Kaunas is twinned with:
Honours[link]
A minor planet 73059 Kaunas discovered by Lithuanian astronomers Kazimieras Černis and Justas Zdanavičius in 2002 is named after the city of Kaunas.[74]
Footnotes and references[link]
- ^ Zinkevičius, Zigmas (2007). Senosios Lietuvos valstybės vardynas. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. p. 42. ISBN 5-420-01606-0.
- ^ (Lithuanian) Ivinskis, Zenonas (1953–1966). "Palemonas". Lietuvių enciklopedija. 21. Boston, Massachusetts: Lietuvių enciklopedijos leidykla. pp. 400–401. LCC 55020366.
- ^ (Lithuanian) "Palemonas.info; Kauno mikrorajonas – Palemonas". http://palemonas.info/palemonas/kauno-mikrorajonas-palemonas/. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d e "Kaunas: Dates and Facts. Overview of Kaunas History.". http://datos.kvb.lt/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=81. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
- ^ Simas Sužiedėlis, ed. (1970–1978). "Vaidotas". Encyclopedia Lituanica. VI. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. p. 21. LCC 74-114275.
- ^ http://www.kaunas.lt/index.php?1137823477 Kaunas City Municipality. Places to Visit. Kaunas Castle.
- ^ (Lithuanian) Laužikas, Rimvydas (15 October 2004). "Trakų vaivadija". Aruodai. Lithuanian Institute of History. http://www.aruodai.lt/paieska/terminas.php?TeId=1756. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
- ^ Mills, Jennifer (May 1998). "The Hanseatic League in the Eastern Baltic". Encyclopedia of Baltic History (group research project) . University of Washington. http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/hansa.html.
- ^ a b c http://datos.kvb.lt/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=81 Kaunas: Dates and Facts. Overview of Kaunas History.
- ^ Kaunas History. Retrieved on 12 April 2011.
- ^ (Lithuanian) Kauno tvirtovės istorija, Gintaras Česonis, 2004, http://tvirtove.kaunas.lt/, retrieved 20 March 2011
- ^ http://www.lpc.lt/en/main/about/short/development AB Lietuvos Energija. Development of Lithuanian Energy Sector.
- ^ Robert Blobaum, Feliks Dzierzynski and the SDKPIL a study of the origins of Polish Communism, page 42
- ^ Eidintas, Alfonsas; Vytautas Žalys, Alfred Erich Senn (September 1999). Ed. Edvardas Tuskenis. ed. Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918-1940 (Paperback ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 67–70. ISBN 0-312-22458-3.
- ^ Senn, Alfred Erich (2007). Lithuania 1940: Revolution from Above. On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics. Rodopi. p. 10. ISBN 90-420-2225-6.
- ^ Vardys, Vytas Stanley; Judith B. Sedaitis (1997). Lithuania: The Rebel Nation. Westview Series on the Post-Soviet Republics. WestviewPress. pp. 34–36. ISBN 0-8133-1839-4.
- ^ (Lithuanian) Dobkevičius, Kazimieras (6 February 2002). "Klojęs Lietuvos valstybės pamatus". XXI amžius (newspaper) (10 (1017)). http://www.xxiamzius.lt/archyvas/xxiamzius/20020206/atmi_02.html. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Kovno". Ushmm.org. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005174. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
- ^ (Lithuanian) Bubnys, Arūnas (1998). Vokiečių okupuota Lietuva (1941–1944). Vilnius: Lietuvos tautinis kultūros fondas. p. 35. ISBN 9986-757-12-6.
- ^ Misiunas, Romuald J.; Rein Taagepera (1993). The Baltic States: Years of Dependence 1940–1990 (expanded ed.). University of California Press. p. 47. ISBN 0-520-08228-1.
- ^ Kay, Alex J. (2006) Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940-1941, page 129. Berghahn Books.
- ^ "Lithuanians – History and Cultural Relations". http://www.everyculture.com/Russia-Eurasia-China/Lithuanians-History-and-Cultural-Relations.html. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
- ^ Vardys, Stanley (Summer 1972). Protests in Lithuania not Isolated. Lituanus. http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_2_01.htm. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
- ^ "The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. Situation of the Catholic Church in Lithuania in Soviet times.". http://www.lkbkronika.lt/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=344&Itemid=229. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- ^ Satter, David (Summer 2009). From a Journalist’s Notebook: Vilnius, January 13, 1991. Lituanus. http://www.lituanus.org/2009/09_2_03%20Satter.html. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
- ^ "Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. A Chronicle of the Events of January 1991 and Later Months, which were a critical part of the remaining free media". http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter/w5_show?p_r=4111&p_d=62825&p_k=2. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
- ^ http://www.toptravel.lt/lithuania/kaunas-facts-history/ Kaunas. Facts&History.
- ^ "The Holy See: Apostolic journey to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (4–10 September 1993)". Holy See. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/sub_index1993/trav_lituania_en.htm. Retrieved 30 October 2009.
- ^ "Baltic University Programme Urban Forum City Status Report V". Baltic University Programme. http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:ds5b7o4lwAgJ:www.balticuniv.uu.se/teacher/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_docman%26task%3Ddoc_download%26gid%3D392%26Itemid%3D67+%C4%84%C5%BEuolynas+ha&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14&gl=us. Retrieved 25 January 2009.
- ^ Architecture in Kaunas Retrieved on 1 June 2011.
- ^ Kaunas: dates and facts. Electronic directory. First Republic of Lithuania Retrieved on 1 September 2011.
- ^ "Portrait of the Regions of Lithuania; Kazlų Rūda Municipality". http://regionai.stat.gov.lt/en/marijampoles_apskritis/kazlu_rudos_savivaldybe.html. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- ^ "Weather Information for Kaunas". World Weather Information Service. May 2011. http://www.worldweather.org/105/c00607.htm. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
- ^ "Climatological Normals of Kaunas". Hong Kong Observatory. http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/climat/world/eng/europe/ukr_lith/kaunas_e.htm. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
- ^ Mega Shopping and Leisure Centre. Aquarium Retrieved on 31 August 2011.
- ^ Undergruond Printing-House "ab" The Branch Museum of Vytautas the Great War Museum Retrieved on 29 April 2011.
- ^ [1] The Registry of Immovable Cultural Heritage Sites: Unique object code: 24807. Retrieved on 29 April 2011.
- ^ Museums in Kaunas Retrieved on 9 June 2011.
- ^ The Baltic Circus Home Page. Retrieved on 29 October 2010
- ^ (Lithuanian) "Aplinkos apsauga. Kauno miesto savivaldybė; Kauno miesto želdynų sistemos formavimas". http://aplinka.kaunas.lt/?pg=39&lang=1&menu_id=11. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
- ^ Kaunas County Governor's Administration Retrieved on 8 April 2011.
- ^ European Business Guide. Kaunas Retrieved on 8 December 2011.
- ^ Stora Enso.Kaunas Mill Retrieved on 3 September 2011.
- ^ Pharmaceutical company "Aconitum" Retrieved on 3 September 2011.
- ^ Sanitex. Distrubution & Logistics Retrieved on 3 September 2011
- ^ Dematic Europe and South America Retrieved on 10 February 2012
- ^ UK Trade&Investment. Lithuania – Development of Kaunas Public Logistics Centre Retrieved on 10 February 2012
- ^ JSC "Margasmiltė". Anhydrite mining Retrieved on 7 December 2011.
- ^ Lithuanian Central Credit Union Retrieved on 7 December 2011.
- ^ Koreans open LED lighting assembly plant in Kaunas. Retrieved on 16 March 2011.
- ^ Baltic Car Equipment. Retrieved on 12 March 2012.
- ^ Kaunas Free Economic Zone Home page. Retrieved on 25 October 2010.
- ^ Fortum Heat Lithuania is planning to build a power plant in Kaunas Retrieved on 12 March 2012.
- ^ "Home page". Air Lithuania. 6 August 2002. Archived from the original on 6 August 2002. http://web.archive.org/web/20020806045559/www.airlithuania.lt/Default.asp?DL=E. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- ^ "Kamanė; Blessing to Open Kaunas Arena Facades". http://www.kamane.lt/en/titulinio_blokai/e_redakcijos_balsai/tekstas217. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Kamanė; Exam of New Architecture in Vilijampolė and near Kalniečiai Park". http://www.kamane.lt/en/titulinio_blokai/e_redakcijos_balsai/tekstas183/e_balsas_view?paieska=vilijampolė&SearchableText=vilijampolė. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ Первая Всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Таблица XIII. Распределение населения по родному языку. Т.Т.1-50. С.-Петербург: 1903-1905
- ^ 2001 Census - Lithuanian Government Department of Statistics
- ^ http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-announces-40th-base-at-kaunas-lithuania Ryanair Announces 40th Base at Kaunas (Lithuania)
- ^ [2] History of Lithuanian Railways. Construction of First Railways. Retrieved on 7 April 2011.
- ^ "Kauno viešasis transportas (KVT)". KVT. http://www.kvt.lt/en. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
- ^ "Schedules: Buses". Kauno viešasis transportas (KVT). http://www.marsrutai.info/kaunas/?a=p.routes&transport_id=bus&t=xhtml&l=en. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
- ^ http://transportas.kaunas.lt/index_en.php?page=160 Kaunas city public transport. General information
- ^ (Lithuanian)"Menas valdyti energiją". Lietuvos Energija. http://www.lpc.lt/repository/leidiniai/LE_bukletas_A5.pdf. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ^ (Lithuanian) "Elektrėnų sporto, turizmo ir pramogų centras; Ledo ritulys". http://www.esportocentras.lt/ledoritulys.htm. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
- ^ http://datos.kvb.lt/en/index.php?option=com_laikotarpiai&task=view&id=18&Itemid=64 Kaunas: Dates and Facts. Kaunas from its Origins to the Fall of Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- ^ * http://www.vdu.lt/en/simplepages/884/tid/872 - Vytautas Magnus University Now and Before
- ^ Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Historical Outlines Retrieved on 30 December 2011.
- ^ Kaunas County Public Library Retrieved on 9 December 2011.
- ^ http://www.hanzakaunas.lt/history/ Hanseatic Festival in Kaunas
- ^ "Brno - Partnerská města" (in Czech). © 2006-2009 City of Brno. http://www.brno.cz/index.php?nav02=1985&nav01=34&nav03=1010&nav04=1016&nav05=1249&nav06=1272. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
- ^ "Wrocław Official Website - Partnership Cities of Wrocław".
(in English, German, French and Polish) © 2007 Wrocław Municipality. http://www.wroclaw.pl/p/964/. Retrieved 23 October 2008. - ^ Jérôme Steffenino, Marguerite Masson. "Ville de Grenoble - Coopérations et villes jumelles". Grenoble.fr. http://www.grenoble.fr/jsp/site/Portal.jsp?page_id=92. Retrieved 29 October 2009. [dead link]
- ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". NASA. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=73059. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
Notes[link]
- This article incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL.
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kaunas |
- Kaunas free online city guide and info - True Lithuania website
- Website of Kaunas city
- Tourist Information Centre of Kaunas region
- Kaunas Travel Guide
- Kaunas travel guide from Wikitravel
- Insiders guide of Kaunas city
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| Markus Schulz | |
|---|---|
 Markus Schulz in the USA, 2007 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Markus Schulz |
| Also known as | Dakota, Himmel |
| Born | 1975 (age 36–37) |
| Origin | Eschwege, Germany |
| Genres | Trance |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Coldharbour Recordings, Armada Music, Ultra Records |
| Website | http://www.markusschulz.com |
Markus Schulz is a German trance music DJ and producer who resides in Miami, Florida, United States. He is best known for his weekly radio show titled Global DJ Broadcast that airs on Digitally Imported radio, After Hours FM and other online stations.[1] He is also the founder of the EDM label Coldharbour Recordings.[2]
Contents |
Producing[link]
Schulz has released six mix compilations and three artist albums under his own name. He has also released productions and albums, Thoughts Become Things and Thoughts Become Things II, under the alias Dakota. Through his work with remixing tracks, he has had the opportunity to work with such artists as: Depeche Mode, Madonna, Everything but the Girl, Jewel, OceanLab, Gabriel & Dresden, Télépopmusik, Fat Boy Slim, Miro, Book of Love, Blue Amazon, and PQM.[1] His remixes of "Intuition" and "Stand" by Jewel both hit #1 on the Billboard club chart.[3]
Performing[link]
File:Markus Schulz-logo.svg
Logo of Markus Schulz.
When not in the studio working on new mixes, Schulz maintains an extensive international touring schedule. He originally held a seven-year residency at The Works in Phoenix, Arizona, where he developed his style. Since then, he has performed at clubs all over the world and has DJ'ed at some of the largest festivals and events, including: Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Zoo, Monster Massive, Together As One, Ultra Music Festival, Amsterdam Dance Event, Nature One, Dance Valley, Love Parade, Global Gathering, ETD Pop, Trance Energy 2010, Bang Music Festival, Future Music Festival, Bal en Blanc,[1] at the Episodes 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, and 550 of A State of Trance and at Summafieldayze on the Gold Coast in Australia.
On October 28, 2010, DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, placing Schulz at #8 DJ in the world.[4] As of the 2011 poll, he is #9 in the ranking.[5]
Discography[link]
Albums[link]
- Without You Near (2005, Armada Music)[6]
- Progression (2007, Armada Music)[7]
- Progression Progressed - The Remixes (2008, Armada Music)
- Dakota - Thoughts Become Things (2009, Armada Music)[6]
- Do You Dream? (2010, Armada Music)[8]
- Do You Dream? - The Remixes (2011, Armada Music)
- Markus Schulz presents Dakota – Thoughts Become Things II (1 July 2011, Armada Music)[9]
- Markus Schulz presents Dakota – Thoughts Become Things II (The Remixes) (13 January 2012, Armada Music)[10]
Compilations[link]
- Coldharbour Sessions (2004, Armada Music)[6]
- Miami '05 (2005, Moist Music)[6]
- Ibiza '06 (2006, Moist Music)[11][12]
- Amsterdam '08 (2008, Armada Music)[6]
- Toronto '09 (2009, Armada Music)[6]
- Armada At Ibibza - Summer 2008
- Las Vegas '10 (2010, Armada Music)[6]
- Prague '11 (2011, Armada Music)[6]
- Los Angeles '12 (2012, Armada Music)[6]
Singles[link]
|
|
Remixes[link]
|
|
References[link]
- ^ a b c "The DJ List Biography of Markuz Schulz". http://www.thedjlist.com/djs/MARKUS_SCHULZ/. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
- ^ "Armada Music / Coldharbour Recordings". http://supra.armadamusic.nl/?id=95. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ "Jewel Chart History". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.vnuArtistId=19538&model.vnuAlbumId=767858. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
- ^ "DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ's". DJ Magazine. http://djmag.com/top100/detail/2592/1. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
- ^ "DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ's". DJ Magazine. http://djmag.com/top100/detail/2695/1. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Allmusic". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p183226.
- ^ "Markus Schulz - Progression". Armada Download Store. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928163815/http://www.armadadownloads.com/compilations.cfm?id=3219. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
- ^ "Markus Schulz presents: Do You Dream". Armada Music. 2012-04-27. http://www.armadamusic.com/news/2010/05/markus-schulz-presents-do-you-dream/. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
- ^ "Markus Schulz presents Dakota – Thoughts Become Things II". Armada Music. 1 June 2011. http://www.armadamusic.com/news/2011/06/dakota-thoughts-become-things-ii/.
- ^ "Markus Schulz presents Dakota – Thoughts Become Things II (The Remixes)". Armada Music. http://www.armadamusic.com/news/2012/01/thoughts-become-things-ii-the-remixes/. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
- ^ "Markus Schulz Interview". About. http://dancemusic.about.com/od/remixersproducers/a/MarkusSchulzInt.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
- ^ "Ibiza '06 on Amazon.com". About. http://www.amazon.com/Ibiza-06-Markus-Schulz/dp/B000IU3Y9Q. Retrieved 2006-11-24.
External links[link]
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Markus Schulz |
- Official Website
- Markus Schulz Facebook Page
- Markus Schulz MySpace Page
- Markus Schulz Twitter Page
- Markus Schulz YouTube Page
- [1]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Schulz, Markus |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 3 February 1966 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Markus_Schulz
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other uses, see Prodigy.
| The Prodigy | |
|---|---|
 The Prodigy performing at the Rock Am Ring festival |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Braintree, Essex, England |
| Genres | Big beat, dance-punk, electropunk, electronica, breakbeat hardcore, oldschool jungle, alternative dance, drum and bass, synthrock |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Take Me to the Hospital, Ragged Flag, Cooking Vinyl, XL, Beggars Banquet, Mute, Maverick, Warner Bros., Elektra, Shock |
| Website | www.theprodigy.com |
| Members | |
| Liam Howlett Keith Flint Maxim Reality Rob Holliday Leo Crabtree |
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| Past members | |
| Leeroy Thornhill Sharky |
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The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s.[1] They have sold over 25 million records worldwide.[2] The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including two Brit Awards—winning Best British Dance Act twice, three MTV Video Music Awards, two Kerrang! Awards, five MTV Europe Music Awards, and have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards.[3][4]
The group's brand of music makes use of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore techno, industrial, and breakbeat in the early 1990s to big beat and electronic rock with punk vocal elements in later times. The current members include Liam Howlett (keyboardist and composer), Keith Flint (dancer and vocalist), and Maxim (MC and vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer and very rarely a live keyboardist) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as was a female dancer and vocalist called Sharky who left the group during their early period. The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown.
Contents
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History[link]
Beginnings and first appearances (1990–1991)[link]
Liam Howlett created an initial 10-track demo, put together on a Roland W-30 music workstation in Essex, England. XL Recordings picked up the demo after Howlett played several tracks to XL boss Nick Halkes in a meeting, and an initial 12" pressing of "What Evil Lurks" was released in February 1991. The Prodigy's name was chosen by Liam as a tribute to his first analogue synthesiser, the Moog Prodigy.[5]
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An excerpt of the song "G Force (Energy Flow)" from Kaos Theory Volume 1 compilation.
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The Prodigy's first public performance, with Howlett augmented by dancers Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill, was at the Four Aces in Dalston, London, then home to "Club Labyrinth".[6]
"Charly", released six months later, became a huge hit in the rave scene at the time.[7] The release reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart, catapulting the band into the wider public attention. The Kaos Theory compilation series featured "G Force (Energy Flow)", from their third single, "Everybody in the Place".[8]
After the release of the successful single "Charly", the charts included various "hardcore" rave tracks, to which speed and ecstasy-fuelled clubbers would dance to, but which did not appeal to reviewers from publications at the time.[9] Examples were tracks such as Urban Hype's "A Trip to Trumpton" and Smart E's (as in Ecstasy) "Sesame's Treet", instigating death-by-publicity to the underground "hardcore rave" scene, according to a number of critics associated with the scene.[9] As a result, "Charly", amid being titled after a contemporary reference to cocaine, with its memorable sample of the "Charley Says" children's Public information films, saw The Prodigy briefly identified by critics as "kiddie rave" or "Toytown Techno". Critical reception to the single was generally mixed.[10]
Experience (1992–1993)[link]
The band's first full length album, the critically acclaimed Experience, followed "Charly" as a landmark release in the history of British rave music. The album closes with a live version of "Death of the Prodigy Dancers", featuring Maxim on vocals. There were five singles spawned from the album: "Charly", "Everybody in the Place", "Fire/Jericho", "Out of Space", and "Wind It Up (Rewound)"; the latter is a remix of "Wind It Up". The album was a commercial success in the UK, but failed to chart in other countries. Peaking at number 12, it was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry.[11][12]
After Experience and the run of singles that accompanied it, The Prodigy moved to distance themselves from the "kiddie rave" reputation that now dogged them. The rave scene was beginning to move on from its hardcore phase, with the Criminal Justice Act's "anti-rave" legislation on the horizon, calling rave music "repetitive beats".[13] The Prodigy responded to the bill by writing "Their Law".
[edit] Music for the Jilted Generation (1993–1995)
In 1993, Howlett released an anonymous white label, bearing only the title "Earthbound I". Its hypnotic, hard-edged sound won wide underground approval. It was officially released as "One Love" later that year, and went on to chart at number 8 in the UK.[14] The following year, The Prodigy's second album, Music for the Jilted Generation, debuted in the UK Albums Chart at number one, and jettisoned into positive reactions from album critics.[15] Adding elements of big beat and electro-industrial to the mix, the album expressed a wider spectrum of musical styles, with heavy breakbeat-based tracks complemented by the concept sequence The Narcotic Suite and a rock-oriented inclination, "Their Law", featuring Pop Will Eat Itself.
The album was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, although Howlett had reaffirmed his dedication to making The Prodigy a 'hard dance band', commercially successful but without compromise.[16] The band managed to continue to prevent over-exposure in the media by refusing to appear on Top of the Pops or other television shows in the UK.[17] To date, their only studio appearance on British television came when they appeared on the BBC2 series Dance Energy in 1991, performing "Everybody in the Place". In the ensuing years, their videos received a strong level of support by MTV Europe, which boosted their popularity across the continent. Keith Flint himself hosted an episode of the MTV show 120 Minutes in 1995.
Following the international success of Music for the Jilted Generation, the band augmented their line-up with guitarist Jim Davies (a live band member who later joined the group Pitchshifter) in 1995 for tracks such as "Their Law", "Break and Enter 95", and various live-only interludes and versions. He was soon to be replaced by Gizz Butt of the band Janus Stark, who remained with the band for the next three years.[18]
[edit] The Fat of the Land and controversies (1996–2002)
The release of "Firestarter" in 1996, featuring vocals for the first time courtesy of a new-look Keith Flint, helped the band break into the U.S. and other overseas markets, and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.[19] In this year The Prodigy also headlined the prestigious Lollapalooza festival.[20]
The long-awaited third Prodigy album, The Fat of the Land, was released in 1997, just as the band headlined the Glastonbury Festival on its opening night.[20] Featuring simplified melodies, sparser sampling, less rave music influences, and punk-like vocals supplied by a shockingly madeover Flint, the album nevertheless retained the bone-jarring breaks and buzzsaw synths so idiomatic of the band. The album cemented the band's position as one of the most internationally successful acts in the dance genre, entering the UK and US charts at number one.[19][21]
The Prodigy were getting considerable airplay on rock stations with their controversial track "Smack My Bitch Up"—and also a negative backlash for the song. The National Organization for Women (NOW) criticized the song and its music video. The song's lyrics consist entirely of the repeated phrase "Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up", which NOW stated are a "dangerous and offensive message advocating violence against women".[22] Howlett responded to the criticism by stating that the meaning of the song and its lyrics were being misinterpreted, and the phrase meant "doing anything intensely, like being on stage – going for extreme manic energy".[22] The band did not actually write the lyric, but rather, sampled it from the hip hop Ultramagnetic MCs' track "Give the Drummer Some"[23] which also appears on the Dirtchamber Sessions; they had also sampled another Ultramagnetic MCs song "Critical Beatdown" on their earlier "Out of Space" single.[24] The National Organization for Women also believed that the lyrics are in reference to administering heroin (smack) to another person.[25] Several radio stations limited the song's airplay to nighttime hours.[26] In September 1997, The Prodigy performed "Breathe" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, and won the Viewer's Choice Award.[27][28]
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The song generated an amount of controversy, and received backlash for the repeating sample.
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The music video for "Smack My Bitch Up", directed by Jonas Åkerlund, featured a first-person point of view of someone going clubbing and indulging in large amounts of drugs and alcohol. Other content shown includes the protagonist getting into fist fights with men, abusing women, vomiting repeatedly, and picking up a lap dancer (played by British glamour model Teresa May) and having sex with her. Much of the aforementioned is depicted fairly explicitly. At the end of the video, the camera pans over to a mirror, revealing the subject to be a woman. MTV only aired the video between 1 and 5 a.m due to the offensive material.[29] After one week, the very same television network banned the music video at NOW's request.[30] The director got the inspiration for the contents of the video after a night of drinking and partying in Copenhagen.[25]
During a performance at the Reading Festival on 29 August 1998, The Prodigy and the Beastie Boys had an onstage disagreement over the track, with the Beastie Boys requesting the song should be pulled from their set as it could be considered offensive to those who had suffered domestic abuse.[31] Choosing to ignore the Beastie Boys plea, Maxim introduced "Smack My Bitch Up" with the declaration "They didn't want us to play this fucking tune. But the way things go, I do what the fuck I want".[32][33]
Wal-Mart and Kmart later announced they would pull The Fat of the Land off their shelves. Despite the fact that the LP had resided on their store shelves for over 20 weeks, and the fact that they had sold 150,000 copies of the album in total, the two stores found the marketing campaign for the new single release "offensive".[34] At the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, "Smack My Bitch Up" won two awards; Best Dance Video and Breakthrough Video.[35]
1999 saw the release of The Prodigy's The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One, a DJ mix album by Howlett, produced as an official record of a successful guest appearance on the British Radio 1.[36] In June of the same year, when the band had arguably reached their commercial peak, they parted company with guitarist Gizz Butt.
Following 1999, Thornhill departed from the group while he divorced Sara Cox due to the risk of nervous breakdown, resulting in the band's website being replaced with their logo and the words "We will be back" set against a black background, a stint that it'd remain until 2002.[37]
Reunion (2002–2004)[link]
In 2002, after a break from touring and recording, the single "Baby's Got a Temper" was released to critical disappointment. The song was written by Keith Flint's sideband, Flint, produced by Howlett, and also featured Jim Davies. Once again, the band courted controversy by including references to the so-called "date rape" drug Rohypnol in the song's lyrics, although it is unclear whether or not the band "glorifies" or presents the drug in a negative light.[38] The song's music video was also controversial, which featured topless women milking cows in a suggestive fashion. The complete, unedited video was aired on MTV2 in 2002 as part of a special countdown showing the most controversial videos ever to air on MTV. This countdown was only shown late at night because of the graphic imagery of "Smack My Bitch Up" and several other videos on the countdown, including Nine Inch Nails' 1994 hit "Closer". The "Smack My Bitch Up" video in particular was deemed the "Most Controversial Video" by MTV and showed at the number 1 spot on the countdown.[39] In the same year, however, Q magazine named The Prodigy one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die".[40]
This year also saw the marriage of Howlett and All Saints' Natalie Appleton on 6 June.[41] Their son, Ace Billy, was born on 2 March 2004.
[edit] Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (2004–2008)
The Prodigy's fourth studio album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, was released on 23 August 2004, and 14 September 2004 in the USA. A precursory and experimental single, "Memphis Bells", was released in very limited numbers, followed by the traditional release of the single "Girls". The U.S. version of the studio album contained a bonus track; a remix of "Girls", entitled "More Girls". The album, which topped the UK Album Charts on its debut week,[11] was promoted by a 2-year-long tour.
5,000 digital copies of "Memphis Bells" were sold over the Internet. Each copy was a combination of customer-chosen instrumental, rhythmic, and melodic options, of which 39,600 choices were available. Five mixes were sold in three file formats, WAV, two audio mixes in MP3, and a 5.1 DTS surround sound mix, and all were free of digital rights management.[39]
In 2005, they released a compilation, Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005, which spawned a single containing new remixes of the songs "Out of Space" (the "Audio Bullys Remix") and "Voodoo People" (the "Pendulum Remix"). The artwork represented drawn versions of the front covers of the "Out of Space" and "Voodoo People" single releases. The latter was also followed by a music video filmed in Romford Market, Essex, which featured on the DVD release of the compilation. Sharky, the group's only female member, is shown running and winning the race depicted in the video.
The Prodigy's first two albums, 1992's Experience and 1994's Music for the Jilted Generation, were re-released in expanded, deluxe editions on 4 August 2008.[42] As well as being remastered, the new packages featured a bonus disc including mixes, rarities, and live tracks. The two albums also featured expanded artwork in addition to the new musical content.
When asked about the idea, Howlett responded that they were getting ready to make a new album:
No, we're all done with that [those albums] now, all the old material. We didn't actually want to do the Greatest Hits, we were ready to start our new record—until the record company pointed out that it was in the contract. But then we got into it, and tried to be creative with it as much as [we could]. And, you know, we ended up being really proud of it. You have to have a different brain when you're doing a record like that. It's more about [saying] "this is your achievement"; I could hold in one hand all the records we've released, so that was cool. We're moving on now, and getting on with the new record.[39]
[edit] Invaders Must Die (2008–2010)
The Prodigy showcased four new songs at the Oxegen Festival in the early hours of 13 July 2008. Among the tracks previewed were "Worlds on Fire", "Warriors Dance", "Mescaline", and "First Warning", which was featured in the gangster movie Smokin' Aces and as among the songs featured in the soundtrack for Electronic Arts video game Need for Speed: Undercover.
On 5 November 2008, it was announced that the band's fifth studio album would be called Invaders Must Die and would be released on the band's new label, Take Me to the Hospital. It was released in the US on 3 March 2009, and was the first Prodigy album since 1997's The Fat of the Land to feature all three members of the band.[43][44]
The album featured drummer Dave Grohl on drums for "Run with the Wolves". The top five hit "Omen" and "Invaders Must Die" were co-produced with Does It Offend You, Yeah? frontman James Rushent.[45] The band said that the album would go back to their "old-school but cutting edge" roots.[46] The album was released as a CD, CD-DVD set, double vinyl, digital download, and a luxury 7-inch vinyl box set including five 7-inches, CD-DVD, bonus CD, poster, stickers, and stencils.[47]
Invaders Must Die was released on 21 February 2009 in Australia and in Europe on 23 February 2009, charting at number one in the UK with week one sales of over 97,000 – a higher figure than for either Always Outnumbered or their singles collection.[19] The album also reached the top five in Germany and Australia and top 10 in Norway and several other European countries.
To coincide with the release of the album, the band embarked on a nine-date UK arena tour, with support from Dizzee Rascal, Noisia, Herve, and DJ Kissy Sell Out. The single "Omen" debuted at number 1 on the Canadian Singles Chart the week of 25 February 2009 and won the Kerrang! Award for Best Single. Initial critical response to Invaders Must Die was somewhat mixed. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 20 reviews.[48] However, the album was well received by the fans, who welcomed it in a positive light compared to Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.[49] Two singles followed, "Warrior's Dance" and "Take Me to the Hospital", which were released on 11 May and 31 August 2009 respectively. The former song peaked at number 9 on the UK Singles Chart,[19] while the latter included a VHS-filmed music video that premiered on VidZone.[50]
A fourth single, "Invaders Must Die (Liam H Reamped Version)", from the Special Edition of the album, was released.[50]
In an interview with Rob Swire of Pendulum, he revealed that The Prodigy were collaborating on Pendulum's third album, Immersion. Howlett was a co-producer of the song Immunize.[51] They also played at Glastonbury Music Festival in 2008.
[edit] How to Steal a Jet Fighter (2010–present)
On November 16, 2010, Liam Howlett announced that after their American tour with Linkin Park, The Prodigy are going back to the studio to record their next album. In a recent interview, Liam Howlett said that The Prodigy are currently back in the studio and working around new ideas for their new album.[52]
On March 18, 2010, The Prodigy announced through their website and mailing list a showing of World's on Fire, a film made mostly from footage of the Warrior's Dance festival from July 2010, for one night only in selected cinemas across Europe. Recorded before 65,000 fans, World's on Fire is the debut live film of The Prodigy, documenting their biggest concert to date.[53] The CD, DVD, and Blu-ray of World's on Fire was released on 23 May 2011.[54]
On 6 August 2011, The Prodigy headlined Przystanek Woodstock (Poland) playing to a crowd of over 700,000 fans, though the police declared the band's role at the festival unsafe.[55] At their two final shows of 2011 (in Brazil), The Prodigy played two new tracks: "A.W.O.L" and "Dogbite".[56] On 18 November, The Prodigy were announced as a headliner for Download Festival 2012, and will be closing the main stage on Friday 8 June with songs from their new album, to be released later in 2012. [57] Liam Howlett has confirmed this album will not be Dubstep, but they have announced their new album sound will feel "Fresh" whilst darker.
On 3 May 2012, The Prodigy announced the working title of their new album: How To Steal A Jet Fighter.[58]
Members[link]
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Discography[link]
Main article: The Prodigy discography
- Studio albums
- Experience (1992)
- Music for the Jilted Generation (1994)
- The Fat of the Land (1997)
- Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (2004)
- Invaders Must Die (2009)
- Live album
- World's on Fire (2011)
References[link]
- ^ "Big Beat". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/big-beat-d4546. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- ^ "The Prodigy: Electronic Punks 1988–1994 [Paperback]". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906191174/. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- ^ The Brit Awards: Prodigy Brits.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2012
- ^ The Prodigy Rock on The Net. Retrieved 12 February 2012
- ^ James M (2002). Prodigy. Sanctuary Publishing. p. 44.
- ^ From the Dug Out and dreads to DMZ and dubstep: 10 classic club nights The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2012
- ^ Mike Schiller (23 December 2005). "The Prodigy: Their Law: The Singles 1990–2005". PopMatters. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/prodigy-theirlaw. Retrieved 30 September 2011. "Songs like “Out of Space” and “Charly” turned into massive club hits"
- ^ "PRODIGY". The Official Charts Company. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/artist/_/prodigy/. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- ^ a b Ben Gilman. "A short history of Drum and Bass". globaldarkness.com. http://www.globaldarkness.com/articles/history%20of%20drum%20and%20bass%202.htm. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ Thomas Inskeep (8 May 2006). "The Prodigy – Their Law: The Singles 1990–2005". Stylus Magazine. http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/the-prodigy/their-law-the-singles-1990-2005.htm. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- ^ a b "UK Top 40 Hit Database". everyHit.com. http://www.everyhit.com/. Retrieved 2 October 2011. Note: User must define search parameters as "Prodigy".
- ^ "Certified Awards Search". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx. Retrieved 2 October 2011. Note: Reader must type "Prodigy" into the Search box and hit Go.
- ^ Martin Bate. "Review:". theprodigy.info. http://www.theprodigy.info/reviews/jilted.shtml. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ "Promo". theprodigy.info. http://www.theprodigy.info/discography/promos/onelove/index.shtml. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ John Bush. "Music for the Jilted Generation - The Prodigy". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/music-for-the-jilted-generation-r203543. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
- ^ "Books". theprodigyfanboy.com. 31 August 2011. http://theprodigyfanboy.com/even-more/books/. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ "Prodigal son". The Guardian. 20 August 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/aug/20/popandrock.prodigy. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ "Bands". gizzbutt.com. http://www.gizzbutt.com/gb/site-bands.asp. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ a b c d Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. London: Guinness World Records Limited
- ^ a b "Essex Boys Come First". Q (December 1997).
- ^ Billboard. 1997.
- ^ a b Chuck Philips (4 December 1997). "Time Warner Again Faces the Music Over Song Lyrics". LA Times.
- ^ The Fat of the Land liner notes.
- ^ Liner notes from "Out of Space" single and Experience album.
- ^ a b "Music group, Prodigy, causing controversy with its new song and video". The Ottawa Citizen. 12 September 1997.
- ^ "Music: The Prodigy". Metropolis (409).
- ^ 1997 MTV Video Music Awards MTV.com. Retrieved 5 December 2011
- ^ 1997 MTV VMAs Rock On The Net. Retrieved 5 December 2011
- ^ "Prodigy Video To Air On MTV As Controversy Continues". MTV News. 4 December 1997. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433371/19971204/prodigy.jhtml. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "MTV Explains Decision To Pull Prodigy". MTV News. 22 December 1997. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433366/mtv-explains-decision-pull-prodigy.jhtml. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "Beastie Boys". rockonthenet.com. http://www.rockonthenet.com/artists-b/beastieboys_main.htm. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "The Reading Incident". brainkiller.it. http://www.brainkiller.it/prodigy/readingincident.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "Prodigy". rockonthenet.com. http://www.rockonthenet.com/artists-p/prodigy_main.htm. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "The Prodigy and their prodigious talent". The Independent. 14 October 2005. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-prodigy-and-their-prodigious-talent-510801.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ 1998 MTV Video Music Awards Rock On The Net. Retrieved 5 December 2011
- ^ Liam Howlett. BBC Radio 1 Breezeblock. (Interview). The Breezeblock. http://www.brainkiller.it/prodigy/news/breezeblock2aug.php. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ John Dingwall (2 March 2001). "I quit the Prodigy and life fell apart; Leeroy Thornhill tells how his split with DJ Sara Cox edged him close to a nervous breakdown...". Daily Record (Scotland). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-70996289.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ James, Martin (28 June 2002). "Liam Howlett: Punk and disorderly". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/liam-howlett-punk-and-disorderly-646664.html. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ a b c O'Neal, Tim. "So I Decided to Take My Work Underground: A Conversation with the Prodigy's Liam Howlett". PopMatters. http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/prodigy-060421.shtml. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "Q Magazine Lists". Rocklist.net. http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlistspage2.html#Die%E2%80%A6. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "Liam Howlett biography". The Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1126193/bio. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ B. Van Isacker (14 July 2008). "The Prodigy reissue first 2 albums and play new songs live". side-line.com. http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=33607_0_2_0_C. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ Liam Howlett (11 March 2008). "Take Me to the Hospital". Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080314145118/http://theprodigy.com/index.php/component/option,com_mojo/Itemid,204/p,3/. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "The Prodigy: Invaders Must Die New release date: March 3, 2009". idiomag.com. 30 January 2009. http://www.idiomag.com/peek/61969/the_prodigy. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ Invaders Must Die liner notes.
- ^ "collaborators on new album". The Prodigy. 2 November 2008. http://theprodigy.com/index.php/component/option,com_joomphpbb/Itemid,213/. Retrieved 5 November 2008. [dead link]
- ^ "Liam H blog". The Prodigy. 6 November 2008. http://theprodigy.com/index.php/liam-h-blog. Retrieved 6 November 2008. [dead link]
- ^ "Invaders Must Die Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/invaders-must-die. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "Invaders Must Die User Reviews at Metacritic". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/invaders-must-die/user-reviews. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
- ^ a b "Take Me To The Hospital video exclusive". theprodigy.com. http://www.theprodigy.com/latest-news/37-homepage-section/183-tmtth-video. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ Immersion liner notes.
- ^ "The Prodigy Announce US Tour with Linkin Park". theprodigy.com. http://theprodigy.com/latest-news/37-homepage-section/423-the-prodigy-announce-us-tour-with-linkin-park. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "World's on Fire". theprodigy.com. http://theprodigy.com/latest-news/37-homepage-section/467-filmed-in-concert. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "Pre-order World's on Fire CD/DVD/BLU-RAY". theprodigy.com. http://theprodigy.com/latest-news/37-homepage-section/472-out-23rd-may. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ "News - Woodstock Festival Poland Safety Level Discussion". en.wosp.org.pl. 11 August 2011. http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/woodstock_festival/news/8036_woodstock_festival_poland_safety_level_discussion.html. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ^ [1] The Prodigy official site. Retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ Prodigy announced as final Download Festival headliners BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2011
- ^ "The Prodigy name their new studio album The Prodigy Tickets". http://www.nme.com/news/the-prodigy/63597. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
External links[link]
- Official website
- The Prodigy at Allmusic
- The Prodigy at the Internet Movie Database
- The Prodigy on Twitter
- The Prodigy on Facebook
- The Prodigy on Myspace
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| Lina Joy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Azlina Jailani (1964-07-28) July 28, 1964 (age 47) Malaysia |
| Nationality | Malaysian |
| Known for | Apostasy |
Lina Joy is a Malay convert from Islam to Christianity. Born Azlina Jailani in 1964[1] in Malaysia to Muslim parents of Javanese descent,[2] she converted at age 26. In 1998, she was baptized, and applied to have her conversion legally recognized by the Malaysian courts. Though her change of name was recognized in 1999 and so noted on her identity card, her change of religion was not (since it is without the Mahkamah Syariah[3] confirmation document); for this reason, she filed suit with the High Court in 1999, bypassing the Syariah Court (Islamic court). She later filed suit with the Federal Court in 2006.[4][5] Joy hopes to live openly as a Christian; she was forced to go into hiding by the publicity surrounding her case.[6]
In a majority verdict delivered on May 30, 2007, the Federal Court rejected her appeal.[7] Her appeal was dismissed 2-1 by Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff. The ruling stated that "a person who wanted to renounce his/her religion must do so according to existing laws or practices of the particular religion. Only after the person has complied with the requirements and the authorities are satisfied that the person has apostatised, can she embrace Christianity.... In other words, a person cannot, at one's whims and fancies renounce or embrace a religion."[8]
The dissenting Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Richard Malanjum wrote that "Hence, in my view this is tantamount to unequal treatment under the law. In other words it is discriminatory and unconstitutional and should therefore be struck down. For this reason alone, the relief sought for by the appellant should be granted, namely for a declaration that she is entitled to have an identity card in which the word 'Islam' does not appear."[9]
Legal recognition would have allowed her to have the change of religion noted on her national identity card; it would also remove the legal barrier to her marrying her Christian fiancé (marriage between Muslim women and non-Muslim men is forbidden under Malaysian law and under the Shariah/Islamic Jurisprudence; the non-Muslim man is required to convert to Islam under Malaysian law; Under Shariah, Muslim men are only allowed to marry “people of the book,” those who believe in One God, however with conditions and restrictions). In Malaysia, the Shariah Court alone has the power to deal with Islamic issues, including legal recognition for conversion to and from Islam. Conversely, the Shariah Court has no jurisdiction over those who are not Muslims. Joy, by her own admission, is no longer Muslim, but only the Shariah Court can legally recognize this. Conversion is not something unknown, and according to Muslim Lawyers Association spokesman Pawanchek Merican, "…In Negeri Sembilan, the Shariah court allowed 16 people to renounce Islam…"[10]
According to a senior official in the National Registration Department (NRD), for the NRD to change the religion on her identity card would mean that the department would be officially declaring her an apostate, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Shariah Court.[11] The jurisdiction of the Shariah Court over converts from Islam to other religions has been hotly debated by the Malaysian public in the past few years, with this and other court cases involving converts closely followed by the media.[12] Joy is not the first person to apply for recognition of conversion from Islam; another woman named only as "Maria" by the BBC is also pursuing a similar case. In 2006, the Negeri Sembilan Syariah High Court in Seremban granted recognition for the conversion from Islam to Buddhism of Wong Ah Kiu (also known as Nyonya Tahir). However, being raised by a Chinese Buddhist family despite her Malay origins, Wong had never practiced Islam in her life and was deceased at the time of the ruling.[5][6]
See also[link]
 |
Wikinews has related news: Malaysian court rules Christian woman can't remove Islam from ID |
- Islam in Malaysia
- Christianity in Malaysia
- Status of religious freedom in Malaysia
- Apostasy in Islam
- Maniam Moorthy
- Egyptian identification card controversy
- Nyonya Tahir
- Freedom of religion
References[link]
- ^ The Malaysian Bar - Lina Joy v Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan & 2 Ors 2005 [CA]
- ^ Learning from conservatism in Malaysia
- ^ Note: Sharia, the Arabic term for Islamic law, is typically spelled "Syariah" in Malaysian English
- ^ Jalil Hamid and Liau Y-Sing (2006-08-13). "Malaysia braces for ruling on Islam conversion". The Scotsman. http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1178882006. Retrieved 2007-05-02. [dead link]
- ^ a b "Doing the Impossible: Quitting Islam in Malaysia". Asia Sentinel. 2007-04-27. http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=466&Itemid=34. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ a b Pressly, Linda (November 15, 2006). "Life as a secret Christian convert". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/6150340.stm. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "Lina Joy Loses Appeal". theStarOnline. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/5/30/nation/20070530115251&sec=nation. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
- ^ Suaram (2007-05-30). "Lina Joy loses appeal to drop 'Islam' from her NRIC (The Sun)". http://www.suaram.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=121&Itemid=1. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
- ^ "Lina Joy loses appeal to drop 'Islam' from her NRIC". Sun2Surf. http://sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=18077. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
- ^ The Sun, Thursday May 31, 2007, p. 2.
- ^ "All eyes on Lina Joy case". The Star (Malaysia). 2006-06-25. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/6/25/focus/14641732&sec=focus. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- ^ "Commission to study religious-sensitive cases". The Star (Malaysia). 2007-04-11. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/11/courts/17403972&sec=courts. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
External links[link]
- "Lina Joy ruling the 'next change', says chief justice", New Straits Times, April 12, 2007.
- Becket Fund for Religious Liberty "Malaysia — State Imposed Religious Designations "
- Court decides Shariah trumps Catholic baptismal certificate in violation of International Law and Malaysian Constitutional Law
- Media statement on the Lina Joy decision from PEMBELA (The Muslim Organisations in Defence of Islam)
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Joy, Lina |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1964 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Lina_Joy
Related pages:
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http://id.wn.com/Lina Joy
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Joy
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
