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Aabenraa County
Aabenraa County (Danish: Åbenrå Amt, former spelling: Aabenraa Amt) is a former province in Denmark, located on the east-central region of Southern Jutland. Aabenraa County was established in 1920 following the reunification of Denmark and South Jutland following the Schleswig Plebiscites. It was dissolved in 1970 when it merged with three other counties to form South Jutland County. Aabenraa County corresponded geographically to the former Prussian Kreis Apenrade combined with the larger part of Bov Parish and Frøslev municipality (Handewitt / Hanved Parish). Both were transferred from Kreis Flensburg with the establishment of the current Danish-German border. Aabenraa County and Sønderborg County merged in 1932, forming Aabenraa-Sønderborg County.
Aabenraa-Sønderborg County was dissolved in the 1970 administrative reform and the former Aabenraa County became seven new municipalities belonging to South Jutland County:
This article incorporates material from the corresponding article on the Danish Wikipedia, accessed 30 April 2007.

wn.com/Aabenraa_County
Aarhus County
Aarhus County or Århus County (Danish: Århus Amt) is a former county (Danish: amt) in central Denmark on the Jutland peninsula. The county was abolished effective January 1, 2007, when almost all of it merged into Region Midtjylland (i.e. Region Central Jutland). A very small portion was merged into Region Nordjylland (Region North Jutland). At the time of closure, more than 20,000 people worked for the county.
Coordinates: 56°09′48″N 10°12′14″E / 56.163237°N 10.203938°E / 56.163237; 10.203938

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Alaska
Alaska (ⁱ/əˈlæskə/) is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's 722,718 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area.
Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million ($120 million in today's^[when?] dollars) at approximately two cents per acre ($4.74/km²). The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.
The name "Alaska" (Аляска) was already introduced in the Russian colonial period, when it was used only for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland" or, more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.

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Alberta
Alberta /ælˈbɜrtə/ is a province of Canada. It had a population of 3,645,257 in 2011, making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces. Alberta and its neighbour, Saskatchewan, were established as provinces on September 1, 1905.
Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the US state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of three Canadian provinces and territories to border only a single U.S. state and is also one of only two provinces that are landlocked.
Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, is located near the geographic centre of the province and is the primary supply and service hub for Canada's oil sands and other northern resource industries. Approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) south of the capital is Calgary, Alberta's largest city and a major distribution and transportation hub. Calgary and Edmonton centre Alberta's two census metropolitan areas, both of which have populations exceeding 1 million.Census agglomerations in the province include Lethbridge, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Wood Buffalo (includes Fort McMurray), Grande Prairie, Lloydminster, Okotoks, Brooks, Camrose, Cold Lake, High River, Sylvan Lake, Wetaskiwin, Strathmore, Canmore, and Lacombe. Notable tourist destinations in the province include Canmore, Sylvan Lake, Drumheller, Banff, and Jasper.

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Belle Meade, TN
Belle Meade is a city in Davidson County, Tennessee, within Nashville. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 2,912.
Belle Meade was absorbed into the metropolitan government of Nashville-Davidson County in 1963, but retains its independent city status, and its residents pay taxes both to the Metro government and to the City of Belle Meade. Belle Meade streets have distinct signage, the city has its own police force, its own mayor and its own city hall. The Belle Meade area is designated by the ZIP code 37205.
Most of the land that makes up the city was formerly Belle Meade Plantation.
The city is home to the Belle Meade Country Club, founded in 1901.
Former Vice President and 2000 Presidential Candidate Al Gore lives in Belle Meade, as well as Country Singer Taylor Swift and singer/American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson.
Belle Meade is located at 36°6′20″N 86°51′18″W / 36.10556°N 86.855°W / 36.10556; -86.855 (36.105558, -86.854942).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.1 square miles (8.0 km²), all land.

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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.

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Bristol
Bristol ⁱ/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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Brooklyn
Coordinates: 40°41′34″N 73°59′25″W / 40.69278°N 73.99028°W / 40.69278; -73.99028
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with approximately 2.5 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, after New York County (Manhattan). It is also the westernmost county on Long Island.
Brooklyn was an independent city until it was annexed by New York City in 1898. It continues to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves where particular ethnic groups and cultures predominate.
Brooklyn's official motto is Eendraght Maeckt Maght. Written in the (early modern spelling of the) Dutch language, it is inspired by the motto of the United Dutch Provinces and translated "Unity makes strength". The motto is displayed on the borough seal and flag, which also feature a young robed woman bearing fasces, a traditional emblem of republicanism. Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.

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California
California (pronounced ⁱ/kælɨˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.
California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east – from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.

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City of Dublin
Dublin ( /ˈdʌblɨn/; locally /ˈdʊbᵊlən/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", pronounced [blʲaˈklʲiə] or Áth Cliath, [aː klʲiə], occasionally Duibhlinn) is the capital and most populous city of Ireland. The English name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubhlinn, meaning "black pool". Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and the centre of the Dublin Region.
Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century; it was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. Dublin entered a period of stagnation following the Act of Union of 1800, but it remained the economic centre for most of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland.

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Connacht
Connacht /ˈkɒnɔːt/ (Irish: Connachta / Cúige Chonnacht [ˈkɔnəxtə]), formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" (in Irish: rí ruirech). Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties. In modern times, clusters of counties have been attributed to certain provinces but these clusters have no legal status. The province itself, while enjoying common usage and forming a strong part of local identity, has no official function for local government purposes. Along with counties from other provinces, it lies in the North-West constituency for elections to the European Parliament.
It consists of the counties of Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo. Its main urban centres are Galway in the south and Sligo in the north. It is the smallest of the four Irish provinces, with a population of 542,039.

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Connecticut
Connecticut (ⁱ/kəˈnɛtɨkət/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south (with which it shares a water boundary in Long Island Sound).
Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately bisects the state. Its capital city is Hartford. Much of southern and western Connecticut (along with the majority of the state's population) is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties are statistically included in the New York City combined statistical area, the same area is widely referred to as the Tri-State area. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, which is also located within the Tri-State area.
Connecticut is the 3rd least extensive, the 29th most populous, and 4th most densely populated of the 50 United States. Called the Constitution State, Nutmeg State, and "The Land of Steady Habits", Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States.

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Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( /ˈkoʊpənheɪɡən/ or /ˈkoʊpənhɑːɡən/; Danish: København pronounced [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn] ( listen), Latin: Hafnia) is the capital of Denmark and its most populous city, with an urban population of 1,213,822 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)^[update]) and a metropolitan population of 1,935,746 (as of 1 April 2012 (2012 -04-01)^[update]). With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region. Within this region, Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö are growing into a combined metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager.
First documented in the 11th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the beginning of the 15th century. During the 17th century, under the reign of Christian IV, it became a significant regional centre.
Copenhagen is a major regional centre of culture, business, media, and science, as indicated by several international surveys and rankings (see International rankings below). Life science, information technology and shipping are important sectors, and research & development plays a major role in the city's economy. Its strategic location and excellent infrastructure, with the largest airport in Scandinavia,Kastrup, located 14 minutes by train from the city centre, have made it a regional hub and a popular location for regional headquarters and conventions.

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Cork (city)
Cork (Irish: Corcaigh, pronounced [ˈkorkɪɟ], from corcach, meaning "marsh") is the second largest city in Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork had a population of 119,418 in 2011, while the addition of the suburban areas contained in the county brings the total of the urban area to 198,582.Metropolitan Cork has a population of 399,216, while the Greater Cork area is about 518,128.
County Cork has earned the nickname of "the Rebel County", while Corkonians often refer to the city as the "real capital of Ireland", and themselves as the "Rebels". The city is built on the River Lee which divides into two channels at the western end of the city. The city centre is located on the island created by the channels. At the eastern end of the city centre they converge; and the Lee flows around Lough Mahon to Cork Harbour, one of the world's largest natural harbours. The city is a major Irish seaport; there are quays and docks along the banks of the Lee on the city's east side.

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County Dublin
County Dublin (Irish: Contae Bhaile Átha Cliath or Contae Átha Cliath) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin, which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the Norman invasion of Ireland. The area of the county no longer has a single local authority; local government is now split between three authorities. The population of the county at large, which includes Dublin city, was 1,270,603 according to the census of 2011.
It is no longer used for local government purposes in Ireland. In 1994, the administrative county (which did not include the county borough of Dublin) was dissolved and the area divided among the administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin each with its county seat. To these areas may be added the area of Dublin city which collectively comprise the Dublin Region (Réigiúin Átha Cliath) and come under the remit of the Dublin Regional Authority.

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County Meath
County Meath (/ˈmiːð/; Irish: Contae na Mí or simply an Mhí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide (meaning "middle"). Meath County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 184,034 according to the 2011 census.
The county is drained by the River Boyne.
Meath is the 14th largest of Ireland’s 26 counties in area and 9th largest in terms of population. It is the second largest of Leinster’s 12 counties in size and third largest in terms of population. The county town is Navan, where the county hall and government are located, although Trim, the former county town, has historical significance and remains a sitting place of the circuit court. County Meath also has the only two Gaeltacht areas in the province of Leinster, at Ráth Cairn and Baile Ghib.
There are eighteen historic baronies in the county. They include the baronies of Morgallion and Ratoath. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for many administrative purposes. Their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, where official Irish names of baronies are listed under "Administrative units".

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County Tipperary
County Tipperary (Irish: Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local government is in the care of North Tipperary County Council. In South Tipperary, part of the South-East Region, local government is in the care of South Tipperary County Council. The population of the county is 158,652 according to the 2011 census.
Tipperary is the sixth largest of the 32 counties by area and the 11th largest by population. It is the third largest of Munster’s 6 counties by size and the third largest by population. The region is part of the central plain of Ireland, but the diversified terrain contains several mountain ranges: the Knockmealdown, the Galtee, the Arra Hills and the Silvermine. The southern portion of the county is drained by the River Suir; the northern by tributaries of the Shannon which widens into Lough Derg. No part of the county touches the coast. The centre is known as 'the Golden Vale', a rich pastoral stretch of land in the Suir basin which extends into counties Limerick and Cork.

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Coventry
Coventry (ⁱ/ˈkɒvəntri/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although Stoke-on-Trent, Leicester and Nottingham have larger urban areas. The population of Coventry had risen to 315,800 as of 2010, according to the Office of National Statistics.
Historically within Warwickshire, Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of central London and 19 miles (31 km) east-southeast of Birmingham, and is further from the coast than any other city in Britain. Although harbouring a population of almost a third of a million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham.
Coventry was the world's first twin city when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city is now also twinned with Dresden, Lidice and 23 other cities around the world.

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Cumberland
Cumberland ( /ˈkʌmbərlənd/) is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 (excluding Carlisle from 1914) and now forms part of Cumbria.
What was to become Cumberland had a complicated political history before the 12th century. The first record of the term "Cumberland" appears in 945, when the Anglo Saxon Chronicle recorded that the area was ceded to Malcolm I of Scotland by King Edmund of England. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 most of the future county remained part of Scotland although some villages in the far south west, which were the possessions of the Earl of Northumbria, were included in the Yorkshire section with the Furness region.
In 1092 King William Rufus of England invaded the Carlisle district, settling it with colonists. He created an Earldom of Carlisle, and granted the territory to Ranulf Meschyn. In 1133 Carlisle was made the see of a new diocese, identical with the area of the earldom. However, on the death of King Henry I in 1135, the area was regained by Scotland's King David I. He was able to consolidate his power and made Carlisle one of his chief seats of government, while England descended into a lengthy civil war. In 1157 Henry II of England resumed possession of the area from Malcolm IV of Scotland, and formed two new counties from the former earldom: Westmorland and "Carliol". The silver-mining area of Alston, previously associated with the Liberty of Durham, was also added to the new county of Carliol for financial reasons. By 1177 the county of Carliol was known as Cumberland. The border between England and Scotland was made permanent by the Treaty of York in 1237.

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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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Duchy of Schleswig
Schleswig or Southern Jutland (Danish: Sønderjylland or Slesvig; German: Schleswig; Low German: Sleswig; North Frisian: Slaswik or Sleesweg) is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany. The region is also known archaically in English as Sleswick.
The area's traditional significance lies in the transfer of goods between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, connecting the trade route through Russia with the trade routes along the Rhine and the Atlantic coast (see also Kiel Canal).
Roman sources place the homeland of the Jute tribe north of the river Eider and that of the Angles to its south who in turn abutted the neighbouring Saxons. Towards the end of the Early Middle Ages, Schleswig formed part of the historical Lands of Denmark as Denmark unified out of a number of petty chiefdoms in the 8th to 10th centuries (The heyday of the Viking incursions).

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England
England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.

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Fars Province
Coordinates: 29°37′N 52°32′E / 29.617°N 52.533°E / 29.617; 52.533
Fars Province (Persian: استان فارس‎ Ostān-e Fārs pronounced [fɑː(r)s]), originally spelled Pars (پارس), is one of the 31 provinces and known as Cultural Capital of Iran. It is in the south of the country and its center is Shiraz. It has an area of 122,400 km². In 2006, this province had a population of 4.57 million people, of which 61.2% were registered as urban dwellers, 38.1% villagers, and 0.7% nomad tribes. The etymology of the word "Persian" (Pārs-ian : پارسیان) is derived from the cultural capital of Iran and found in many ancient names associated with Iran.
Fars or Pars is the original homeland of the Persian people. The native name of the Persian language is Fârsi or Pârsi. Persia and Persian both derive from the Hellenized form Πέρσις Persis of the root word Pârs. The Old Persian word was Pârsâ.
The word Fars is derived from 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 Pârsa, the Old Persian name for Persia and its capital, Persepolis. Fars is the Arabized version of Pârs, as Arabic has no [p] phoneme.

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France
France (English ⁱ/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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Galway
Galway (Irish: Gaillimh, pronounced [ˈɡalʲɪvʲ]) or City of Galway (Cathair na Gaillimhe) is a city on the west coast of Ireland. It is located on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay and is surrounded by County Galway. It is the third largest city within the state (after Dublin and Cork), though if the wider urban area is included then it falls into fourth place behind Limerick. The population of Galway city at the 2011 census was 75,529, rising to 76,778 across the entire urban area.
The city takes its name from the Gaillimh river (River Corrib) that formed the western boundary of the earliest settlement, which was called Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe ("Fort at the mouth of the Gaillimh"). The word Gaillimh means "stony" as in "stony river" (the mythical and alternative derivations are given in History of Galway). Historically, the name was written as Gallive, which is closer to the Irish pronunciation.
The city also bears the nickname "City of the Tribes" Irish: Cathair na dTreabh because "fourteen tribes of" merchant families led the city in its Hiberno-Norman period. The term tribes was often a derogatory phrase in Cromwellian times. The merchants would have seen themselves as Irish gentry and loyal to the King. They subsequently adopted the term as a badge of honour and pride in defiance of the town's Cromwellian occupiers.

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Gloucester
Gloucester (ⁱ/ˈɡlɒstər/ GLOS-tər) is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately 32 miles (51 km) north-east of Bristol, and 45 miles (72 km) south-southwest of Birmingham.
Gloucester was founded in AD 97 by the Romans under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis, and was granted its first charter in 1155 by King Henry II. Economically, the city is dominated by the service industries, and has a strong financial and business sector, being home to the bank Cheltenham & Gloucester and historically was prominent in the aerospace industry.
The existence of a British settlement at Gloucester (Caer Glow, Gleawecastre, Gleucestre) is not confirmed by any direct evidence, but Gloucester was the Roman municipality of Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or Glevum, founded in the reign of Nerva. Parts of the walls can be traced, and many remains and coins have been found, though inscriptions are scarce. Evidence for some civic life after the end of Roman Britain includes the mention in the Historia Brittonum that Vortigern's grandfather ruled Gloucester. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gloucester was part of Wessex from the Battle of Deorham in 577 until 584, when it came under the control of Mercia.

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Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire (ⁱ/ˈɡlɒstərʃər/ GLOSS-tər-shər; abbreviated Glos.) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other principal towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury.
When considered as a ceremonial county, Gloucestershire borders the preserved county of Gwent in Wales (now Monmouthshire), and in England the ceremonial counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Somerset. Ceremonially, it includes the area covered by the South Gloucestershire unitary authority.
According to a 2002 campaign by the charity Plantlife, the county flower of Gloucestershire is the Wild Daffodil.
Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century, though the areas of Winchcombe and the Forest of Dean were not added until the late 11th century. Gloucestershire originally included the then "small town" of Bristol. The "local" rural community moved to the port city, (as Bristol was to become) and Bristol's population growth accelerated during the industrial revolution. Bristol became part of the administrative County of Avon in 1974.

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Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty (simplified Chinese: 汉朝; traditional Chinese: 漢朝; pinyin: Hàn Cháo; Wade–Giles: Han Ch'ao; IPA: [xân tʂʰɑ̌ʊ̯]) (206 BCE – 220 CE) was an imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty (221–207 BCE) and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms (220–280 CE). It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty (9–23 CE) of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han into two periods: the Western Han (206 BCE – 9 CE) and Eastern Han (25–220 CE). Spanning over four centuries, the period of the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to itself as the "Han people" and Chinese characters are referred to as "Han characters".

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Hungary
Hungary ⁱ/ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)) is a country, which is located in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The country's capital, and largest city, is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, also known as Magyar, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.
Following a Celt (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (AD 9 - c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian prince Árpád, whose great-grandson Saint Stephen I was crowned with a crown sent by the pope from Rome in 1000 AD. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centres of the Western world. After about 150 years of partial Ottoman occupation (1541–1699), Hungary was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituted half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867–1918).

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Insular area
An insular area is a United States territory, that is neither a part of one of the 50 U.S. states nor the District of Columbia, the federal district of the U.S. They are called "insular" from the Latin word insula ("island") because they were once administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs, now the Office of Insular Affairs at the Department of the Interior. The term insular possession is also sometimes used.
Because those insular areas that are inhabited are unincorporated territories, their native-born inhabitants are not constitutionally entitled to United States citizenship, under the Citizenship Clause.^{[citation needed]} However, Congress has extended citizenship rights to all inhabited territories except American Samoa, and these citizens may vote and run for office in any U.S. jurisdiction in which they are residents. The people of American Samoa are U.S. nationals, but not U.S. citizens; they are free to move around and seek employment within the whole United States without immigration restrictions, but cannot vote or hold office outside of American Samoa.^{[citation needed]}

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Iran
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران‎ [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎ Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.

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Ireland
Coordinates: 53°20′N 08°00′W / 53.333°N 8°W / 53.333; -8
Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɪrlənd] ( listen); Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann or Airlan) is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth. To its east is the larger island of Great Britain, from which it is separated by the Irish Sea.
Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers just under five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remainder and is located in the northeast of the island. The population of Ireland is approximately 6.4 million. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just under 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
Relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain epitomise Ireland's geography with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable oceanic climate, which avoids extremes in temperature. Thick woodlands covered the island until the 17th century. Today, it is one of the most deforested areas in Europe. There are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland.

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Kent
Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England, and one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of Medway. Kent has a nominal border with France halfway through the Channel Tunnel. Maidstone is its county town and historically Rochester and Canterbury have been accorded city status, though only the latter still holds it.
Kent's location between London and the continental Europe has led to its being in the front line of several conflicts, including the Battle of Britain during World War II. East Kent was known as Hell Fire Corner during the conflict. England has relied on the county's ports to provide warships through much of the past 800 years; the Cinque Ports in the 12th–14th centuries and Chatham Dockyard in the 16th–20th centuries were of particular importance to the country's security. France can be seen clearly in fine weather from Folkestone, and the iconic White Cliffs of Dover.

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Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a country in Central Europe covering what is today Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania (now part of Romania), Carpatho Ruthenia (now part of Ukraine), Vojvodina (now part of Serbia), Burgenland (now part of Austria), and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders. From 1102 it also included Croatia (except Istria), being in personal union with it, united under the Hungarian king. The kingdom existed for almost one thousand years (1000–1918 and 1920–1946) and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centers of the Western world.
The Latin Regnum Hungariae/Vngarie (Regnum meaning kingdom); Regnum Marianum (Kingdom of St. Mary); or simply Hungaria was the form used in official Latin documents from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name (Königreich Ungarn) was used from 1849 to the 1860s, and the Hungarian name (Magyar Királyság) was used in the 1840s, and again from the 1860s to 1918. The names in other languages of the kingdom were: Polish: Królestwo Węgier, Romanian: Regatul Ungariei, Croatian: Kraljevina Ugarska, Slovene: Kraljevina Ogrska, Czech: Uherské království, Slovak: Uhorské kráľovstvo, Italian (for the city of Fiume), Regno d'Ungheria.

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Leinster
Leinster (/ˈlɛnstər/ — Irish: Laighin / Cúige Laighean — pronounced [ˈl̪ˠaːjɪnʲ]) is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled both, thereby forming the present-day province of Leinster. The ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties. In modern times, clusters of counties have been attributed to certain provinces but these clusters have no legal status. The province itself, while enjoying common usage and forming a strong part of local identity, has no official function for local government purposes. The population of Leinster is 2,501,208 according to the 2006 census, making it the most populous province in the country. The traditional flag of Leinster features a golden harp on a green background.

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Liberia
Liberia ⁱ/laɪˈbɪəriə/, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Ivory Coast on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open to a plateau of drier grasslands. The country possesses 40% of the remaining Upper Guinean rainforest. Liberia has a hot equatorial climate, with significant rainfall during the May to October rainy season and harsh harmattan winds the remainder of the year. Liberia covers an area of 111,369 km² (43,000 sq mi) and is home to about 3.7 million people. English is the official language, while over 30 indigenous languages are spoken within the country.
Along with Ethiopia, Liberia is one of the two modern countries in Sub-Saharan Africa without roots in the European colonization of Africa. Beginning in 1820, the region was colonized by freed American slaves with the help of the American Colonization Society, a private organization that believed ex-slaves would have greater freedom and equality in Africa. Slaves freed from slave ships were also sent there instead of being repatriated to their countries of origin. In 1847, these colonists founded the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States and naming the capital city Monrovia after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the colonization. The colonists, known as Americo-Liberians, led the political and economic sectors of the country.

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Limerick
Limerick ( /ˈlɪmrɪk/; Irish: Luimneach [ˈl̪imʲɨnʲəx]) is a city in the Mid-West or Shannon Region of Ireland. It is the fifth most populous city on the island of Ireland and when taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest urban area in the Republic of Ireland, with a population of 91,454. Limerick is also the second-largest city in the province of Munster, an area that constitutes the midwest and southwest of Ireland. The city is built on several curves and islands of the River Shannon, which spreads into an estuary shortly downriver from Limerick. Road infrastructure features four main crossing points near the city centre (an additional river tunnel to the west of the three bridges opened in July 2010). Limerick is one of the constituent cities of the Cork-Limerick-Galway corridor, which has a population of 1 million.
Luimneach originally referred to the general area along the banks of the Shannon Estuary known as Loch Luimnigh. The earliest settlement in the city, Inis Sibhtonn, was the original name for King's Island during the pre-Viking and Viking eras. This island was also called Inis an Ghaill Duibh, The Dark(haired) Foreigner's Island. The name is recorded in Viking sources as Hlymrekr.

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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
London ⁱ/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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Louisiana
Louisiana (ⁱ/luːˌiːziˈænə/ or ⁱ/ˌluːziˈænə/; French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] ( listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.
Much of the state was formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. These contain a rich southern biota; typical examples include birds such as ibis and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species including many species of orchids and carnivorus plants.

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Manhattan
Manhattan (/mænˈhætən/) is the most densely populated and the oldest of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the U.S. state of New York. The borough and county consist of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island,Mill Rock, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a very small area on the mainland bordering the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northward, and then between 1874 and 1898, annexed land from surrounding counties.
The New York County is the most densely populated county in the United States, and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2010 population of 1,585,873 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 km²), or 69,464 residents per square mile (26,924/km²), more dense than any individual American city. It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 per capita income above $100,000. Manhattan is the third-largest of New York's five boroughs in population, and its smallest borough in land area.

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Manukau City
Manukau City is a former territorial authority district in Auckland, New Zealand, which was governed by the Manukau City Council. The district is sometimes referred to as "South Auckland", although this term did not possess official recognition and did not encompass areas like East Auckland, which was within the official boundaries of the district. Manukau City was a relatively young city, both in terms of legal status and large-scale settlement – though with a current size of 375,600 inhabitants (June 2011 estimate), it was also the third-largest in New Zealand as well as the country's fastest-growing. The city council existed from 1989 to 2010, when the entire Auckland Region was amalgamated under a single city authority, Auckland Council.
The name Manukau, from the Manukau Harbour west of the city, is of Māori origin, and means 'wading birds',^{[citation needed]} although it has been suggested that the name of the harbour was also sometimes rendered as Mānuka, meaning a marker post with which an early chief is said to have claimed the area.

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Massachusetts
Massachusetts (ⁱ/ˌmæsəˈtʃuːsɨts/), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts is the 7th least extensive, but the 14th most populous and the 3rd most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state features two separate metropolitan areas – the eastern Boston metropolitan area and the western Springfield metropolitan area. Approximately two thirds of the state's population lives in Greater Boston, most of which is either urban or suburban. Western Massachusetts features one urban area – the Knowledge Corridor along the Connecticut River – and a mix of college towns and rural areas. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and has the US's sixth highest GDP per capita.

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Munster
Munster (Irish: an Mhumhain / Cúige Mumhan, pronounced [ənˈvuːnʲ]) is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" Irish: rí ruirech. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties. In modern times, clusters of counties have been attributed to certain provinces but these clusters have no legal status. The province itself, while enjoying common usage and forming a strong part of local identity, has no official function for local government purposes. Apart from County Clare, much of the area lies in the South constituency for elections to the European Parliament. Geographically, Munster covers a total area of 24,675 km² (9,527 sq mi) and the most populated city is Cork.

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New Brunswick
New Brunswick (French: Nouveau-Brunswick; pronounced: [nuˈvo bʁɔnˈzwik]) is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual (English–French).Fredericton is the capital and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the province's largest Census Metropolitan Area. Through the 2011 nation wide census, Statistics Canada estimates the provincial population in 2011 to have been 751,171; a majority of the population is English-speaking, but there is also a large Francophone minority (33%), chiefly of Acadian origin.
The province's name comes from the English and French partial transcription of the city of Brunswick (Braunschweig in German) located in modern day Lower Saxony, northern Germany (and former duchy of the same name), the ancestral home of the Hanoverian George III of the United Kingdom.
New Brunswick is bounded by: on the north by Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula and Chaleur Bay; along the east coast by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Northumberland Strait; in the southeast corner the narrow Isthmus of Chignecto connects New Brunswick to the Nova Scotia peninsula; in the south by the Bay of Fundy coast, (which with a rise of 16 m (52 ft), has amongst the highest tides in the world); and in the west by the US state of Maine.

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New Hampshire
New Hampshire (ⁱ/njuːˈhæmpʃər/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. New Hampshire is the 5th least extensive and the 9th least populous of the 50 United States.
It became the first post-colonial sovereign nation in the Americas when it broke off from Great Britain in January 1776, and six months later was one of the original thirteen states that founded the United States of America. In June 1788, it became the ninth state to ratify the United States Constitution, bringing that document into effect. New Hampshire was the first U.S. state to have its own state constitution.
It is known internationally for the New Hampshire primary, the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state. It has no general sales tax, nor is personal income (other than interest and dividends) taxed at either the state or local level.

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New York
New York (/njuː ˈjɔrk/; locally IPA: [nɪu ˈjɔək] or [nuː ˈjɔɹk] ( listen)) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. New York is the 27th most extensive, the 3rd most populous, and the 7th most densely populated of the 50 United States. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the west and north, and Quebec to the north. The state of New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
New York City, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States. Alone, it makes up over 40 percent of the population of New York state. It is known for its status as a center for finance and culture and for its status as the largest gateway for immigration to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, New York City is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both the state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland.

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New York County
Manhattan (/mænˈhætən/) is the most densely populated and the oldest of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the U.S. state of New York. The borough and county consist of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island,Mill Rock, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a very small area on the mainland bordering the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northward, and then between 1874 and 1898, annexed land from surrounding counties.
The New York County is the most densely populated county in the United States, and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2010 population of 1,585,873 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 km²), or 69,464 residents per square mile (26,924/km²), more dense than any individual American city. It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 per capita income above $100,000. Manhattan is the third-largest of New York's five boroughs in population, and its smallest borough in land area.

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New Zealand
New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ as well as numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.
During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of both animal and plant life. Most notable are the large number of unique bird species, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing beneath the earth's surface.

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North Tipperary
North Tipperary (Irish: Tiobraid Árann Thuaidh) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-West Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the town of Tipperary and consists of 48% of the land area of the traditional county of Tipperary. The county was established in 1898 and has had a county council ever since, with separate assize courts since 1838. North Tipperary County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 70,219 according to the census of 2011.
The region is part of the central plain of Ireland, but the diversified terrain contains several mountain ranges: the Arra Hills, the Silvermine and the Devil's Bit. The county is landlocked. The southern part of county is drained by the River Suir; the northern part is drained by tributaries of the River Shannon which widens into Lough Derg. The centre is known as 'the Golden Vale', a rich pastoral stretch of land in the Suir basin which extends into counties Limerick and Cork.

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Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann pronounced [ˈt̪ˠuəʃcəɾˠt̪ˠ ˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ] ( listen), Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann or Norlin Airlan) is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west. As of 2001, its population was 1,685,000, constituting about 30% of the island's total population and about 3% of the population of the United Kingdom. Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Northern Ireland is largely self-governing. According to the agreement, Northern Ireland co-operates with the rest of Ireland – from which it was partitioned in 1921 — on some policy areas, while other areas are reserved for the Government of the United Kingdom, though the Republic of Ireland "may put forward views and proposals".
Northern Ireland was for many years the site of a violent and bitter inter-communal conflict — the Troubles — which was caused by divisions between nationalists, who are predominantly Roman Catholic, and unionists, who are predominantly Protestant. Unionists want Northern Ireland to remain as a part of the United Kingdom, and generally see themselves as British, while nationalists wish for it to be politically reunited with the rest of Ireland, independent of British rule, and generally see themselves as Irish. Additionally, people from both sides of the community may describe themselves as Northern Irish. Since 1998, most of the paramilitary groups involved in the Troubles have ceased their armed campaigns.

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Nova Scotia
Coordinates: 45°13′N 62°42′W / 45.217°N 62.7°W / 45.217; -62.7 (Nova Scotia)
Nova Scotia (pronounced /ˌnoʊvə ˈskoʊʃə/; French: Nouvelle-Écosse; Scottish Gaelic: Alba Nuadh) is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province of the four in Atlantic Canada. Located almost exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole (44º 39' N Longitude), its provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of 55,284 square kilometres (21,300 sq mi), including Cape Breton and some 3,800 coastal islands. As of 2011, the population was 921,727, making Nova Scotia the second-most-densely populated province in Canada.
Nova Scotia was already home to the Mi'kmaq people when French colonists established Port Royal, Nova Scotia, the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida in 1605. Almost one hundred and fifty years later, the first English and German settlers arrived with the founding of Halifax (1749). The first Scottish migration was on the Hector (1773) and then the first Black migration happened after the American Revolution (1783). Despite the diversity of the cultural heritage of Nova Scotia, much of the twentieth-century tourism efforts focused primarily on all things Scottish. Many recent tourism efforts embrace and showcase Nova Scotia's diversity.

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Ontario
Ontario /ɒnˈtɛərioʊ/ is one of the provinces of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province or territory and fourth largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.
Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and to the south by the U.S. states of Minnesota, Michigan (portions to the west), New York (portions to the east), Ohio and Pennsylvania. All but a small part of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,677 mi) border with the United States follow inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River drainage system. These are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Mary's River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.

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Oslo
Oslo (English pronunciation: /ˈɒzloʊ/, OZ-loh,Norwegian pronunciation: [²ʊʃlʊ] ( listen) or [²ʊslʊ]) is the capital of and most populous city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814 and with Sweden from 1814 to 1905 reduced its influence. After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Castle during the reign of King Christian IV and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality (formannskapsdistrikt) on 1 January 1838. Following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, when its original Norwegian name was restored.
Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway. The city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector, some of which are amongst the world's largest shipping companies, shipbrokers and maritime insurance brokers. Oslo is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme.

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Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( /ˈpɛmbrʊkʃɪər/, /ˈpɛmbrʊkʃər/, or /ˈpɛmbroʊkʃɪər/; Welsh: Sir Benfro [ˈsiːr ˈbɛnvrɔ]) is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered.
The county is home to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, the only coastal national park of its kind in the United Kingdom and one of three national parks in Wales, the others being Snowdonia and Brecon Beacons national parks. Over the years Pembrokeshire's beaches have been awarded 41 Blue Flag Awards (13 in 2011), 47 Green Coast Awards (15 in 2011) and 106 Seaside Awards (31 in 2011. In 2011 it also had 39 beaches recommended by the Marine Conservation Society.
Much of Pembrokeshire, especially the south, has been English in language and culture for many centuries. The boundary between the English and Welsh speakers is known as the Landsker Line. South Pembrokeshire is known as Little England Beyond Wales.

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Philadelphia PA
Philadelphia ( /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").

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Poland
Poland ⁱ/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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Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island (PEI or P.E.I.; French: Île-du-Prince-Édouard, pronounced: [il dy pʁɛ̃s edwaːʁ], Mi'kmaq: Epekwitk, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean a' Phrionnsa) is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population. The island has a few other names: "Garden of the Gulf" referring to the pastoral scenery and lush agricultural lands throughout the province; and "Birthplace of Confederation", referring to the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, although PEI did not join the confederation until 1873, when it became the seventh Canadian province.
According to the 2009 estimates, Prince Edward Island has 141,000 residents. It is located in a rectangle defined roughly by 46°–47°N, and 62°–64°30′W and at 5,683.91 km² (2,194.57 sq mi) in size, it is the 104th-largest island in the world, and Canada's 23rd-largest island.
The island was named for Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767–1820), the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria.

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Qom Province
Qom Province (Persian: استان قم‎, Ostān-e Qom ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran with 11,237 km², covering 0.89% of the total area in Iran. It is in the north of the country, and its provincial capital is the city of Qom. It was formed from part of Tehran Province in 1995. In 2005, this province had a population of approximately 2,000,000 out of which 91.2% resided in urban areas and 8.8% in rural vicinities. The province contains one city, four counties, nine rural districts, and 256 villages.
The climate of Qom province varies between a desert and semi-desert climate, and comprises mountainous areas, foothills and plains. Due to being located near an arid region and far inland, it experiences a dry climate, with low humidity and scanty rainfall. Thus, agriculture is not possible in most of its areas, especially near the salt lake regions. Qom province has two large salt lakes, namely: Howz e Soltan Lake, which lies 36 km due north of Qom, and Namak Lake, which lies 80 km due east of Qom. Nearly a fifth of Namak Lake lies within Qom province.

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Quebec
Coordinates: 53°45′N 071°59′W / 53.75°N 71.983°W / 53.75; -71.983 (Quebec)
Quebec /kwəˈbɛk/ or /kəˈbɛk/ (French: Québec [kebɛk] ( listen)) is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.
Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger. It is bordered to the west by the province of Ontario, James Bay and Hudson Bay, to the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay, to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick. It is bordered on the south by the US states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.
Quebec is Canada's second most populous province, after Ontario. Most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. English-speaking communities and English-language institutions are concentrated in the west of the island of Montreal but are also significantly present in the Outaouais, Eastern Townships, and Gaspé regions. The Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples.

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Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City and the largest in area and the second-largest in population. Since 1899, Queens has had the same boundaries as Queens County, which is now the second most populous county in New York State and the fourth-most densely populated county in the United States. Queens, as well as neighboring borough Brooklyn, sits on the west end of geographic Long Island. Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world with a population of over 2.2 million, 46% of whom are foreign-born, representing over 100 different nations and speaking over 138 different languages.
Were each New York City borough an independent city, Queens would be the nation's fourth largest city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens has the second-largest and most diversified economy of all the five boroughs of New York City.Long Island City, on the Queens waterfront across from Manhattan on the East River, is the site of the Citicorp Building, the tallest skyscraper in New York City outside of Manhattan and the tallest building on geographic Long Island.

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Republic of China
Taiwan (ⁱ/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.

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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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Rhode Island
Rhode Island (ⁱ/ˌroʊd ˈaɪlɨnd/ or /rɵˈdaɪlɨnd/), officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the 8th least populous, but the 2nd most densely populated of the 50 United States. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west and Massachusetts to the north and east, and it shares a water boundary with New York's Long Island to the southwest.
Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other state in the whole U.S. and the convention. The state was also the last to ratify the United States Constitution.
Rhode Island's official nickname is "The Ocean State", a reference to the state's geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 14% of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km²), but its total area is significantly larger.

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Romania
Romania (ⁱ/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.

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Rotorua
Rotorua (from Māori: Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe, "The second great lake of Kahumatamomoe") is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns. Rotorua city has an estimated permanent population of 56,200, with the Rotorua district having a total estimated population of 68,900. The city is in the heart of the North Island, just 60 kilometres (37 mi) south of Tauranga, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Taupo, 105 kilometres (65 mi) east of Hamilton, and 230 kilometres (140 mi) southeast of the nation's most populous city, Auckland.
Rotorua is a major destination for both domestic and international tourists; the tourism industry is by far the largest industry in the district. The city is known for its geothermal activity, and features geysers – notably the Pohutu Geyser at Whakarewarewa – and hot mud pools. This thermal activity is sourced to the Rotorua caldera, on which the city lies. Rotorua is home to the Waiariki Institute of Technology.

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Semnān Province
Semnan Province (Persian: استان سمنان‎, Ostān-e Semnān ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the north of the country, and its center is Semnan. The province of Semnan covers an area of 96,816 square kilometers and stretches along the Alborz mountain range and borders to Dasht-e Kavir desert in its southern parts.
Counties of the province include Semnan, Damghan, Shahrood, Mehdishahr (Sangsar) and Garmsar. In 1996, the province had a population of about 501,000, and in 2005 Semnan city (the capital of the province) had a population of 119,778, and the city of Shahroud, which accounts for being the largest city of this province, had a population of 231,831. [1]
The province is divided into two parts: a mountainous region, and the plains at the foot of the mountains. The former offers a scope for recreational activities as well as being a source for minerals, whereas the latter encompasses some ancient cities of Iran as one of the capitals of the Parthian empire was located here. In Semnan people have local language with special words and slang.the base of this language which it drived from is Pahlavi language the ancient language form Parthian.

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South Dublin
South Dublin (Irish: Áth Cliath Theas) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin. South Dublin County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 246,935 according to the 2006 census.
The county seat is Tallaght. Other important centres of population are Lucan and Clondalkin. Much of the county is heavily urbanised but small rural settlements exist in the western parts of the county. South Dublin has a population of 246,935 according to the 2006 census. The heraldic crest for South Dublin reads "This We Hold In Trust" in both English and Irish, while incorporating elements relating to the history, geography and present day infrastructure of the area.
South Dublin has an area of 222.74 square kilometres. It is bounded by Dublin city (15 km to the north east), the Dublin mountains and County Wicklow to the south, the River Liffey to the north separating it from Fingal, and County Kildare to the west

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South Tipperary
South Tipperary (Irish: Tiobraid Árann Theas) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the town of Tipperary and consists of 52% of the land area of the traditional county of Tipperary. The county was established in 1898 and has had a county council ever since, with separate assize courts since 1838. South Tipperary County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 88,433 according to the 2011 census.
The administrative county of Tipperary (South Riding) was established in 1898 and continued in existence until 2002. The area also had a separate existence as a judicial county following the establishment of assize courts in 1838.
The region is part of the central plain of Ireland, but the diversified terrain contains several mountain ranges: the Knockmealdown, the Galtee. No part of the county touches the coast. The county is drained by the River Suir. The centre is known as 'the Golden Vale', a rich pastoral stretch of land in the Suir basin which extends into counties Limerick and Cork.

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Staten Island
Staten Island /ˌstætən ˈaɪlənd/ is a borough of New York City, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 468,730, Staten Island is the least populated of the five boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 59 sq mi (153 km²). The Borough of Staten Island is coextensive with Richmond County, the southernmost county in the state of New York. Until 1975, the borough was officially named the Borough of Richmond. Staten Island has been sometimes called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.
Staten Island is overall the most suburban of the five boroughs of New York City. The North Shore — especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton, and Stapleton — is the most urban part of the island; it contains the officially designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian homes. The South Shore has more suburban-style residential neighborhoods. The East Shore (South Beach) is home to the 2.5-mile F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth-longest in the world. Historically, the central and southern sections of the island were dominated by dairy and poultry farms, almost all of which disappeared in the 20th century. Staten Island used to claim the largest landfill in the world. It was closed in 2001, then shortly afterward temporarily reopened to accept the debris from the September 11th attacks. The landfill is being made into what will be New York City's largest public park.

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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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The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated. Located north of Manhattan and Queens, and south of Westchester County, the Bronx is the only borough that is located primarily on the mainland (a very small portion of Manhattan, the Marble Hill neighborhood, is physically located on the mainland, due to the rerouting of the Harlem River in 1897). The Bronx's population is 1,400,761 according to the 2010 United States Census. The borough has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km²), making it the fourth-largest in land area of the five boroughs, the fourth most populated, and the third-highest in density of population.
The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, closer to Manhattan, and the flatter East Bronx, closer to Long Island. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City (then largely confined to Manhattan) in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. The Bronx first assumed a distinct legal identity when it became a borough of Greater New York in 1898. Bronx County, with the same boundaries as the borough, was separated from New York County (afterwards coextensive with the Borough of Manhattan) as of January 1, 1914. Although the Bronx is the third-most-densely-populated county in the U.S., about a quarter of its area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center, on land deliberately reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed northwards and eastwards from Manhattan with the building of roads, bridges and railways.

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Ulster
Ulster (Irish: Ulaidh or Cúige Uladh, Ulster Scots: Ulstèr or Ulster) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" Irish: rí ruirech. In modern times, clusters of counties have been attributed to certain provinces but these clusters have no legal status. The province itself, while enjoying common usage and forming a strong part of local identity, has no official function for local government purposes.
Ulster is composed of nine counties. Six of these (almost 57% of the land area) make up Northern Ireland: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. The three remaining counties (about 43% of the land area) are in the Republic of Ireland: Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.
The name Ulster derives from the Irish Cúige Uladh (IPA: [ˈkuːɟ ˈʌlˠu, ˈʌlˠi]) meaning "The fifth of Uladh", a reference to the five regions into which ancient Ireland was divided. In the English language, the first part of the name ("Ul")refers to the Ulaidh tribes inhabiting this northernmost region. The latter part of the name ("ster") derives either from the Irish tír or the Old Norse staðr, both of which translate as "land" or "territory".

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Vermont
Vermont ⁱ/vɜrˈmɒnt/ is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont's western border, which it shares with the state of New York. The Green Mountains are within the state. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.
Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years' War (also called the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants). Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for fourteen years. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with Texas, Hawaii, the brief California Republic, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) to have had a sovereign government in the past. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first outside the original 13 Colonies. It abolished slavery while still independent, and upon joining the Union became the first state to have done so.

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Virginia
Virginia (ⁱ/vərˈdʒɪnjə/), officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city and Fairfax County the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's population is over eight million.
The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution and joined the Confederacy in the American Civil War, during which Richmond was made the Confederate capital and Virginia's northwestern counties separated to form the state of West Virginia. Although the Commonwealth was under conservative single-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, both major national parties are competitive in modern Virginia.

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Warwickshire
Warwickshire (ⁱ/ˈwɒrɨkʃər/ or /ˈwɒrɨkʃɪər/) is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare and George Elliot. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks.
The five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon together form the Warwickshire County Council area, and are within the 1974 boundaries. The shape of the administrative area of Warwickshire differs considerably from that of the historic county, which also includes the now autonomous unitary authorities of Coventry and Solihull, as well as a small area around central and northeast Birmingham.
For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG13) and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region.
Warwickshire is bounded to the north-west by the West Midlands metropolitan county and Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the east, Worcestershire to the west, Oxfordshire to the south and Gloucestershire to the south-west. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles (5 km) from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of almost 2,000 km², it runs some 60 miles (97 km) north to south.

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Waterford
Waterford (from Old Norse: Veðrafjǫrðr meaning "ram fjord" or "windy fjord"; Irish: Port Láirge, meaning "Lárag's port") is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city. The population of the city in 2011 was 51,519; of which 46,747 lived within the city limits, and 3,465 lived in the suburbs in County Kilkenny. The metropolitan area figure is not official as it includes Tramore, Dunmore East, Passage East and Cheekpoint
Viking raiders first established a settlement near Waterford in 853. It and all the other longphorts were vacated in 902, the Vikings having been driven out by the native Irish. The Vikings re-established themselves in Ireland at Waterford in 914, led at first by Ottir Iarla (Jarl Ottar) until 917, and after that by Ragnall ua Ímair and the Uí Ímair dynasty, and built what would be Ireland's first city. A list of the city's rulers from this date to the mayors of the present day can be found in Rulers of Waterford. Among the most prominent kings of Waterford was Ivar of Waterford.

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Westmeath
County Westmeath (/wɛstˈmiːð/; Irish: Contae na hIarmhí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide (meaning "middle") following the division of the Kingdom. Westmeath County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 85,961 according to the 2011 census.
Westmeath is the 20th largest of Ireland's 32 counties by area and the 22nd largest in terms of population. It is the sixth largest of Leinster’s 12 counties in size and eighth largest in terms of population. It was named after the historic kingdom and province of Mide, of which the county was the most western part. Westmeath was shired under The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act of 1543. The Hill of Uisneach in the barony of Moycashel is sometimes regarded as the notional geographical centre of Ireland although the actual geographic centre of Ireland lies in neighbouring County Roscommon.
The head office of Westmeath County Council is located in Mullingar. There are currently 22 councillors. The five electoral areas of Westmeath are Athlone (7 seats), Coole (3 seats), Kilbeggan (3 seats), Mullingar East (4 seats) and Mullingar West (5 seats). The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, provided the framework for the establishment of County Councils throughout Ireland. The first meeting of Westmeath County Council was held on 22 April 1899.

wn.com/Westmeath
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, (ⁱ/ˈwʊstər/ WUUS-tər), is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Birmingham and 29 miles (47 km) north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the middle of the city, overlooked by the twelfth-century Worcester Cathedral. The site of the final battle of the Civil War, Worcester was where Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles II's Cavaliers, resulting in the English Interregnum, the ten-year period during which England and Wales became a republic. Worcester was the home of Royal Worcester Porcelain and the birthplace of the composer Sir Edward Elgar. It houses the Lea and Perrins factory where the traditional Worcestershire Sauce is made, and is home to one of the UK's fastest growing universities, the University of Worcester.
Occupation of the site of Worcester can be dated back to Neolithic times, a village surrounded by defensive ramparts having been founded on the eastern bank of the River Severn in around 400 BC. The position, which commanded a ford on the river, was used in the first century by the Romans to establish what may at first have been a fort on the military route from Glevum (Gloucester) to Viroconium (Wroxeter) but which soon developed – as the frontier of the empire was pushed westwards – into an industrial town with its own pottery kilns and iron-smelting plants.

wn.com/Worcester
Worcestershire
Worcestershire (ⁱ/ˈwʊstərʃər/ WUUS-tər-shər or /ˈwʊstərʃɪər/ WUUS-tər-sheer ; abbreviated Worcs) is a non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands of England. In 1974, it merged with the neighbouring county of Herefordshire to form Hereford and Worcester. This was divided in 1998, re-establishing Worcestershire as a county. The Malvern Hills forms the east–west border between the two counties, with the exception of West Malvern in Worcestershire.
The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire. To the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills and the spa town of Malvern. The southern part of the county is bordered by Gloucestershire and the northern edge of the Cotswolds; to the east is Warwickshire. There are two major rivers flowing through the county, the Severn and the Avon.
The cathedral city of Worcester is the largest settlement and administrative seat of the county, which includes the principal settlements of Bromsgrove, Stourport-on-Severn, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, Malvern, and the largest town, Redditch, and a number of smaller towns such as Pershore, Tenbury Wells and Upton upon Severn. The north of the county includes part of the industrial West Midlands conurbation while the south of the county is largely rural. The average salary is £20,300.

wn.com/Worcestershire
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: 元朝, p Yuán Cháo; Mongolian: Их Юань улс) was the branch of Mongol Borjigin dynasty established by Kublai Khan. Although the Mongols had ruled northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Chinese style. His realm – the Great Yuan Empire (t 大元帝國, s 大元帝国, p Dà Yuán Dìguó) – was by this point isolated from the other khanates and controlled only most of present-day China and its surrounding areas including modern Mongolia. It was the first non-Han dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368, after which its remnants in Mongolia were known as the Northern Yuan.
The Yuan is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and as an imperial Chinese dynasty. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan Dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song Dynasty and preceding the Ming Dynasty. Although the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu.

wn.com/Yuan_Dynasty

Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (Old English: Ælfrēd, Ælfrǣd, "elf counsel"; 849 – 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.
Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by his death had become the dominant ruler in England. He is the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons". Details of his life are described in a work by the 10th century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. Alfred was a learned and merciful man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system and military structure.
Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, by his first wife, Osburh.
In 853, at the age of four, Alfred is said to have been sent to Rome where, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV who "anointed him as king". Victorian writers interpreted this as an anticipatory coronation in preparation for his ultimate succession to the throne of Wessex. However, his succession could not have been foreseen at the time, as Alfred had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a "consul"; a misinterpretation of this investiture, deliberate or accidental, could explain later confusion. It may also be based on Alfred's later having accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 854–855.

wn.com/Alfred_the_Great
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The term generally excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
There are two terms in Chinese for "mainland". Namely, Dalu (simplified Chinese: 大陆; traditional Chinese: 大陸), which means "continent", and Neidi (内地 / 內地), literally "inner land". In the PRC, the usage of the two terms are generally interchangeable and there is no prescribed method of reference in any jurisdiction. To emphasize "equal footing" in cross-strait relations, the term is used in official contexts with reference to Taiwan, with the PRC referring to itself as "the mainland side" (as opposed to "the Taiwan side"). But in its relations with Hong Kong and Macau, the PRC government refers to itself as "the Central People's Government".
By 1949, the Communist Party of China's (CPC) People's Liberation Army had largely defeated the Kuomintang (KMT)'s National Revolutionary Army in the Chinese Civil War on the mainland. This forced the Kuomintang to relocate the Government and institutions of the Republic of China to the relative safety of Taiwan, an island which was placed under the control of the Republic of China after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II in 1945. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the CPC-controlled government saw itself as the sole legitimate government of China, competing with the claims of the Republic of China, whose authority is now limited to Taiwan and other islands. This has resulted in a situation in which two co-existing governments compete for international legitimacy and recognition as the "government of China".

wn.com/Mainland_China
Ranchería
The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to native villages and to the workers' quarters of a ranch. English adopted the term with both these meanings, usually to designate the residential area of a rancho in the American Southwest, housing aboriginal ranch hands and their families. The term is still used in other parts of Spanish America, for example, the Wayuu tribes in northern Colombia call their villages rancherías.
The Columbia Encyclopedia describes it as:
In California, the term refers to a total of 59 Indian settlements established by the U.S. Government, 54 of them between 1906 and 1934, for the survivors of the aboriginal population. San Diego State University maintains a reference titled California Indians and Their Reservations: An Online Dictionary. It says:
The word migrated north with the 49ers to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in an adapted form, "rancherie". It survives in British Columbia as a somewhat archaic but still commonly used word, in rural areas and small towns, as well as in general First Nations English usage, meaning the residential area of an Indian Reserve. It especially means the historical residential area, as opposed to newer subdivisions. It was further extended to refer to other non-white residential communities, such as the Kanaka Rancherie in early Vancouver, British Columbia, which came to house the city's Kanaka (Hawaiian) residents. In an even more truncated form, the Ranche was used to refer to the Tlingit portion of Sitka, Alaska.

wn.com/Ranchería
Saxons
The Saxons (Latin: Saxones, Old English: Seaxe, Old Saxon: Sahson, Low German: Sassen) were a confederation of Germanic tribes on the North German plain, who during the Middle Ages migrated to the British Isles and formed part of the Anglo-Saxons.
The Saxons were originally Ingvaeonic tribes, whose earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein. This area overlapped the area of the Angles, a tribe with which they were frequently closely linked. Saxons participated in the Germanic settlement of Britain during and after the fifth century. It is unknown how many migrated from the continent to Britain, though estimates for the total number of Anglo-Saxon settlers are around two hundred thousand. During the Middle ages, because of international Hanseatic trading routes and contingent migration during the Middle Ages, Saxons mixed with and had strong influences upon the languages and cultures of the North Germanic and Baltic and Finnic peoples, and also upon the Polabian Slavs and Pomeranian West Slavic people.

wn.com/Saxons

Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County

Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County February 10 23 1980 spent 2 weeks at number in the uk...

published: 08 Dec 2008

author: 80smusicfanman

Prison LA County

gangstersinc.dk gangstersinc.spreadshirt.dk California State Prison, Los Angeles County (L...

published: 31 May 2012

author: GangstersIncDK

Crazy Orange County Police Pursuit

Crazy OC pursuit....

published: 10 Apr 2009

author: KTLA

kenny rogers coward of the county

kenny rogers song...

published: 03 Feb 2007

author: lunus123

Porter Wagoner -- Carroll County Accident

1970...

published: 10 Oct 2008

author: ALLEN0955

Lyle Lovett - LA County

From A&E;'s Live by Request....

published: 26 Sep 2007

author: dancingclancy

Coward of the County - Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers...

published: 02 Jul 2008

author: muzhmox9

Lyle Lovett - LA County

She left Dallas for California With an old friend by her side Well he did not say much But...

published: 02 Nov 2011

author: x000xBURNx

County Fair - Chris Ledoux

Been workin' like a dawg, slavin' on the fence line, Stretchin' those wires tight. Diggin'...

published: 09 Jan 2009

author: football5810

Bon Jovi - Dry County

published: 16 Jun 2009

author: BonJoviVEVO

Blue County - Good Little Girls

Music Video...

published: 01 Feb 2009

author: Pitty47

Cass McCombs - County Line

Produced and Directed by: Malcolm Pullinger/Cass McCombs Edited by: Malcolm Pullinger Came...

published: 31 May 2011

author: DominoRecords

Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County - (Video Complete)

Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County - (Video Complete) Este video completo hasta ahora no ...

published: 10 Feb 2010

author: Johisfas

Dry County

This video of 'Dry County' was recorded Live on June 8th, 2010 at the O2 Arena in London....

published: 24 Aug 2010

author: bonjovi

Rest

“Rest,” is the story of a young American soldier who dies in WW1 and ninety years later un...

published: 06 Feb 2012

author: Sunday Paper

A Day in the Life of a Fire Lookout.

The video documents the (usually) very peaceful life of a fire lookout in the Gardner Look...

published: 24 Aug 2012

author: Gary Yost

Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

music video for Father John Misty Featuring Aubrey Plaza, Alexi Wasser, and Josh Tillman ...

published: 11 Jan 2012

author: thatgo

Timelapse Croatia - showreel / teaser

[[EDIT]] Just a few words, since we've been flooded with questions, comments, e-mails, tw...

published: 06 Feb 2012

author: Romulic & Stojcic

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Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa

Smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012.

Israel Gaza raids kill 16, Arabs urge policy review

Khaleej Times

18 Nov 2012

Israeli air strikes killed 16 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, prompting the Arab League to announce a visit to the battered enclave and a review of its Middle East peace policy. Egyptâ€™s President...

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Photo: WN / Ahmed Deeb

Palestinians inspect damages at a house following Israeli air strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 16, 2012. Israeli officials said the Jewish state was preparing to launch its first ground offensive in four years into the Gaza Strip, while the army started calling up reservists

Still Uprooting Palestinian Nonviolence?

WorldNews.com

18 Nov 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling Israel's ongoing uprooting of hundreds of Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank, including possibly sabotaging Palestine's recent bid for state...

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Photo: UN / UN

Gazans watch with pride as Hamas strikes Israel

STL Today

17 Nov 2012

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's new offensive against the Gaza Strip has turned into a political bonanza for the territory's Hamas rulers, while sidelining Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,...

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Photo: AP / Eyad Baba

A Palestinian Hamas militant walks in the rubble of the destroyed house of Hamas militant Mohammad Abu Shmala, following an Israeli air strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, Nov. 16, 2012.

Israel calls up 75,000 reserve soldiers as invasion looms

DNA India

17 Nov 2012

Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak more than doubled his call-up of army reservists last night (Friday night) as its cabinet and military chiefs convened to discuss a ground invasion of Gaza. With...

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Photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

An Iranian security directs media at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, with the reactor building seen in the background, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010.

Iran increasing uranium production capacity

Deutsche Welle

17 Nov 2012

Iran is set to double its uranium enrichment after completing a second underground facility, according to UN report. The move is likely to increase concern from Western nations over Iranian nuclear...

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Navy Federal Reports Billion-Dollar Mortgage Month 19 Nov 2012

Yahoo Daily News Record-breaking October is capstone of stellar year-to-date for the Credit Union. Vienna, Va. (PRWEB) November 19, 2012 Navy Federal Credit Union, announced this week its October mortgage closings surpassed $1 billion. This is a record and a coupe for Navy Federal at a time when the REALTOR®...(size: 7.7Kb)

Wilkins and Olander Offers More with Optimized Online Shopping for the Mobile Device, and Introducing ... 19 Nov 2012

Yahoo Daily News Online shopping has never been so easy. WilkinsandOlander.com, has been re-designed for easy-to-use mobile shopping on iPhones, tablets, smartphones and iPads. And, just in time for the holidays, Wilkins and Olander introduce Vera Bradley products for purchase online. Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin (PRWEB)...(size: 9.5Kb)

Colle, an Organic Farmers Market Community, Discusses Ways to Help Farmers Recover from Recent Drought 19 Nov 2012

Yahoo Daily News The drought that hit the mid-west over the summer left many farmers in trouble. Colle released a statement informing people how they can help farmers recover from this disaster. Bohemia, NY (PRWEB) November 19, 2012 On November 19, Colle, an organic farmers market community, reacted to a CNN article...(size: 7.4Kb)

Rideout Health Hires New Chief Quality Officer 19 Nov 2012

Yahoo Daily News After conducting a nationwide executive search led by healthcare leadership solutions firm B. E. Smith, Rideout Health in Yuba City, Ca., has hired Istikram Qaderi as chief quality officer. A seasoned healthcare executive with eight years of quality performance experience, Qaderi will assume his new...(size: 9.6Kb)

Hurricane Sandy leads to the peril of Meryl Streep's penthouse in downtown N.Y. 19 Nov 2012

New York Daily News Meryl Streep can win over Hollywood, but she can't win against Mother Nature. An in-the-know source tells us the 63-year-old Oscar winner has been displaced from her penthouse at 92 Laight St. in the River Lofts since Hurricane Sandy, and it doesn't look as if she'll be moving back in anytime soon....(size: 3.1Kb)

Inter chief breaks club's media silence to launch a tirade against ref Piero Giacomelli 19 Nov 2012

Sky Sports Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has broken the club's brief media silence to launch a tirade against referee Piero Giacomelli following Sunday's 2-2 draw with Cagliari. Nerazzurri head coach Andrea Stramaccioni was sent to the stands for his overzealous protests after Giacomelli chose not to...(size: 8.4Kb)

The Best American Cities for Retirees 19 Nov 2012

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Two representative groups from Virginia publicly oppose uranium mining in VA 19 Nov 2012

The Examiner Related topics uranium miningVirginiaVUIVA Advertisement In another rejection of legislative attempts to lift Virginia’s thirty-year ban on uranium mining, the Virginia Municipal League AND the Virginia Association of Counties publicly came out in opposition of uranium mining in the state. The...(size: 8.2Kb)

Mild, breezy week ahead; coldest weather so far possible this weekend in Palm Beach County, ... 19 Nov 2012

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FEMA adds additional centers in NJ 19 Nov 2012

Newsday (AP) -- New Jersey residents who sustained damage from Superstorm Sandy have more places to turn for help. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened disaster recovery centers in Cape May, Ocean and Union counties. That brings the total to 30 centers in the state where residents can seek...(size: 5.9Kb)

Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita launch neckwear line called Tie the Knot 19 Nov 2012

Chicago Tribune Emmy-nominated actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays the red-haired lawyer half of a gay couple on the hit ABC comedy "Modern Family," and his real-life partner, Justin Mikita, are mixing fashion with political activism. The recently engaged pair are behind a limited-edition, 20-piece collection of...(size: 6.8Kb)

Kazakh court upholds opposition leader's jailing 19 Nov 2012

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Spain's bad-debt ratio up to record 10.7 percent 19 Nov 2012

The Tribune San Luis Obispo Bruce Gibson admits to affair with assistant, plans to divorce wife Two men found in Paso riverbed with TVs stolen from Walmart, authorities say Woman accused in Nipomo hit-and-run was texting, court document says Tourism industry grows as more travelers choose vacations in SLO County First of the...(size: 12.5Kb)

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Not to be confused with Country.

For other uses, see County (disambiguation).

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. (June 2010)

A county is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes ^[1] in certain modern nations. Its etymology derives from the Old French term, conté or cunté and could denote a jurisdiction in mainland Europe, under the sovereignty of a viscount.^[2] The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, Gau, etc.) (cf. conte, comte, conde, Graf).

When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. The Saxons had already established the regions that became the Historic counties of England calling them shires.^[3] The Vikings introduced the term earl (from Old Norse, jarl) to the British Isles. Thus, "earl" and "earldom" were taken as equivalent to the continental use of "count" and "county". So, the later-imported term became a synonym for the native English word scir ([ʃir]) or, in Modern English, shire

Since a shire was an administrative division of the kingdom, the term "county" evolved to designate an administrative division of national government in most modern uses.

A county may be further subdivided into townships or other administrative jurisdictions under the county's control. The boundaries of a county usually, but not always, contain cities, villages, towns, townships or other municipal corporations. Depending on the particular nation, municipalities might or might not be subject to direct or indirect county control.

In the United Kingdom, many county names derive from the name of the county town with the word "shire" added on: for example, Gloucester, in Gloucestershire; Worcester, in Worcestershire; etc.^[4]

Outside the Anglophone community of nations, the term "county" is often used to describe sub-national jurisdictions that are structurally equivalent to counties in the relationship they have with their national government; but which may or may not be operationally equivalent to the county as that entity is known in predominantly English-speaking countries.

Australia [link]

In the eastern states of Australia, counties are lands administrative divisions.

Canada [link]

Five of the ten Canadian provinces use county as a regional subdivision. These include all four original provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec, and the seventh province, Prince Edward Island. In addition to counties, Ontario is also subdivided into territorial districts, district municipalities, metropolitan municipalities, and regional municipalities. In Alberta, the county used to be a type of municipal status; but this was changed to "municipal district" under the Municipal Government Act, when the County Act was repealed in the mid-1990s, at which time they were also permitted to retain the usage of county in their official names.^[5]

China [link]

Main article: Counties of the People's Republic of China

The word "county" is used to translate the Chinese term xiàn (县 or 縣). On Mainland China under the People's Republic of China, counties are the third level of local government, coming under both the province level and the prefecture level.

There are 1,464 counties in mainland China out of a total of 2,862 county-level divisions. The number of counties has remained more or less constant since the Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). The county remains one of the oldest levels of government in China and significantly predates the establishment of provinces in the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368). The county government was particularly important in imperial China because this was the lowest layer at which the imperial government functioned. The head of a county during imperial times was the magistrate.

In older context, "prefecture" and "district" are alternative terms to refer to xiàn before the establishment of the Republic of China. The English nomenclature "county" was adopted following the establishment of the ROC.

Denmark [link]

Main article: Counties of Denmark

Denmark was divided into counties (amter) from 1662 to 2006. On 1 January 2007 the counties were replaced by five Regions. At the same time, the number of municipalities was slashed from 271 to 98.

The counties were first introduced in 1662, replacing the 49 fiefs (len) in Denmark–Norway with the same number of counties. This number does not include the subdivisions of the Duchy of Schleswig, which was only under partial Danish control. The number of counties in Denmark (excluding Norway) had dropped to c. 20 by 1793. Following the reunification of South Jutland with Denmark in 1920, four counties replaced the Prussian Kreise. Aabenraa and Sønderborg County merged in 1932 and Skanderborg and Aarhus were separated in 1942. From 1942 to 1970, the number stayed at 22.^[6] The number was further decreased by the 1970 Danish municipal reform, leaving 14 counties plus two cities unconnected to the county structure; Copenhagen and Frederiksberg.

In 2003, Bornholm County merged with the local four municipalities, forming the Bornholm Regional Municipality. The remaining 13 counties were abolished on 1 January 2007 where they were replaced by five new regions. In the same reform, the number of municipalities was slashed from 270 to 98 and all municipalities now belong to a region.

France [link]

A comté was a territory ruled by a count (comte) in medieval France. In modern France, the rough equivalent of a "county" as used in many English-speaking countries are arrondissements, though the term is usually translated as "district".

Germany [link]

For the situation in Germany compare Kreise.

Each administrative district consists of an elected council and an executive, and whose duties are comparable to those of a county executive in the United States, supervising local government administration.

Hungary [link]

Main articles: Counties of Hungary and Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary

The administrative unit of Hungary is called megye (historically, they were also called vármegye, or comitatus in Latin), which can be translated with the word county. The 19 counties constitute the highest level of the administrative subdivisions of the country together with the capital city Budapest, although counties and the capital are grouped into seven statistical regions.

Counties are subdivided to municipalities, the two types of which are towns and villages, each one having their own elected mayor and council. 23 of the towns have the rights of a county although they do not form independent territorial units equal to counties. Municipalities are grouped within counties into subregions (kistérség in Hungarian), which have statistical and organizational functions only.

The vármegye was also the historic administrative unit in the Kingdom of Hungary, which included areas of present-day neighbouring countries of Hungary. Its Latin name (comitatus) is the equivalent of the French comté. Actual political and administrative role of counties changed much through history. Originally they were subdivisions of the royal administration, but from the 13th century A.D. they became self-governments of the nobles and kept this character until the 19th century when in turn they became modern local governments.

Iran [link]

Main article: Counties of Iran

Counties of Iran

The provinces of Iran are further subdivided into counties called shahrestan (Persian: شهرستان shahrestān‎), an area inside an ostan, and consisting of a city centre, a few bakhsh (Persian: بخش bakhsh‎), and many villages around them. There are usually a few cities (Persian: شهر shahr‎) and rural agglomerations (Persian: دهستان dehestān‎) in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county.

Each shahrestan has a government office known as Farmandari, which coordinates different events and government offices. The Farmandar, or the head of Farmandari, is the governor of the Shahrestan.

Fars Province has the highest number of Shahrestans, with 23, while Semnān and South Khorasan have only 4 Shahrestans each; Qom uniquely has one, being coextensive with its namesake county. Iran had 324 Shahrestans in 2005.

Ireland [link]

Main article: Counties of Ireland

The island of Ireland was historically divided into 32 counties, of which 26 later formed the Republic of Ireland and 6 made up Northern Ireland.

These counties are traditionally grouped into 4 provinces - Leinster (12), Munster (6) Connacht (5) and Ulster (9). Historically, the counties of Meath, Westmeath and small parts of surrounding counties constituted the province of Mide, which was one of the "Five Fifths" of Ireland (in the Irish language the word for province, Cuige, from Cuig, five means "a fifth"); however, these have long since become the three northernmost counties of Leinster province. In the Republic each county is administered by an elected "county council", and the old provincial divisions are merely traditional names with no political significance.

The number and boundaries of administrative counties in the Republic of Ireland were reformed in the 1990s. For example County Dublin was broken into three: Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal, and South Dublin - the City of Dublin had existed for centuries before. In addition "County Tipperary" is actually two administrative counties, called North Tipperary and South Tipperary while the major urban centres Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford have been separated from the town and rural areas of their counties. Thus, the Republic of Ireland now has thirty-four 'county-level' authorities, although the borders of the original twenty-six counties are still officially in place.^[7]

In Northern Ireland, the six county councils and the smaller town councils were abolished in 1973 and replaced by a single tier of local government. However, in the north as well as in the south, the traditional 32 counties and 4 provinces remain in common usage for many sporting, cultural and other purposes. County identity is heavily reinforced in the local culture by allegiances to county teams in Hurling and Gaelic football. Each GAA county has its own flag/colours (and often a nickname too), and county allegiances are taken quite seriously. See the counties of Ireland and the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Liberia [link]

Main article: Counties of Liberia

Liberia has 15 counties, each of which elects two senators to the Liberian Senate.

Lithuania [link]

Apskritis (pl. apskritys) is the Lithuanian word for county. Since 1994 Lithuania has 10 counties; before 1950 it had 20. The only purpose with the county is an office of a state governor who shall conduct law and order in the county. See counties of Lithuania.

New Zealand [link]

Main article: Counties in New Zealand

After New Zealand abolished its provinces in 1876, a system of counties similar to other countries' systems was instituted, lasting until 1989. They had chairmen, not mayors as boroughs and cities had; many legislative provisions (such as burial and land subdivision control) were different for the counties.

During the second half of the 20th century, many counties received overflow population from nearby cities. The result was often a merger of the two into a "district" (e.g. Rotorua) or a change of name to "district' (e.g. Waimairi) or "city" (e.g. Manukau City).

The Local Government Act 1974 began the process of bringing urban, mixed, and rural councils into the same legislative framework. Substantial reorganisations under that Act resulted in the 1989 shake-up, which covered the country in (non-overlapping) cities and districts and abolished all the counties except for the Chatham Islands County, which survived under that name for a further 6 years but then became a "Territory" under the "Chatham Islands Council".

Norway [link]

Norway is divided into 19 counties (sing. fylke, plur. fylke/fylker) since 1972. Up to that year Bergen was a separate county, but is today a municipality in the county of Hordaland. All counties form administrative entities called county municipalities (sing. fylkeskommune, plur. fylkeskommunar/fylkeskommuner), further subdivided into municipalities, (sing. kommune, plur. kommunar/kommuner). One county, Oslo, is not divided into municipalities, rather it is equivalent to the municipality of Oslo.

Each county has its own county council (fylkesting) whose representatives are elected every four years together with representatives to the municipal councils. The counties handle matters as high schools and local roads, and until 1 January 2002 hospitals as well. This responsibility was transferred to the state-run health authorities and health trusts, and there is a debate on the future of the county municipality as an administrative entity. Some people, and parties, such as the Conservative and Progress Party, call for the abolishment of the county municipalities once and for all, while others, including the Labour Party, merely want to merge some of them into larger regions.

Poland [link]

Romania [link]

Main article: Romania

Romania is divided into 41 jurisdictions. A jurisdiction is called a județ.

The Romanian word for county, comitat, is not currently used for any Romanian administrative divisions.

Sweden [link]

The Swedish division into counties was established in 1634, and was based on an earlier division into Provinces. Sweden is today divided into 21 counties. At the county level there is a county administrative board led by a governor appointed by the central government of Sweden, as well as an elected county council that handles a separate set of issues, notably hospitals and public transportation for the municipalities within its borders.

The Swedish term used is län, which literally means "fief".

Republic of China (Taiwan)[link]

County is the common English translation for the character 縣 that denotes the current first level political division in Taiwan. See County (Republic of China)

United Kingdom [link]

Main article: Counties of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is divided into a number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. There are also ceremonial counties which group small non-metropolitan counties into geographic areas broadly based on the historic counties of England. The metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties had replaced in 1974 a system of administrative counties and county boroughs which were introduced in 1889.

Most non-metropolitan counties in England are run by county councils and divided into non-metropolitan districts, each with its own council. Local authorities in the UK are usually responsible for running education, emergency services, planning, transport, social services, and a number of other functions.

In England, in the Anglo-Saxon period, Shires were established as areas used for the raising of taxes, and usually had a fortified town at their centre. These became known as the shire town or later the county town. In most cases, the shires were named after their shire town (for example Bedfordshire) however several exceptions exist, such as Cumberland, Norfolk and Suffolk. In several other cases, such as Buckinghamshire, the town which came to be accepted as the county town is different from that after which the shire is named. (See Toponymical list of counties of the United Kingdom)

The name 'county' was introduced by the Normans, and was derived from a Norman term for an area administered by a Count (lord). These Norman 'counties' were simply the Saxon shires, and kept their Saxon names. Several traditional counties, including Essex, Sussex and Kent, predate the unification of England by Alfred the Great, and originally existed as independent kingdoms.

In Northern Ireland, the six county councils, if not their counties, were abolished in 1973 and replaced by 26 local government districts. The traditional six counties remain in common everyday use for many cultural and other purposes.

The thirteen historic counties of Wales were fixed by Statute in 1539 (although counties such as Pembrokeshire date from 1138) and most of the shires of Scotland are of at least this age. In the Gaelic form, Scottish traditional county names are generally distinguished by the designation "siorramachd"- literally "sherrifdom" e.g. Siorramachd Earra-ghaidheal (County of Argyll). This term corresponding to the jurisdiction of the Sheriff in the Scottish legal system.

The county boundaries of England have changed little over time. In the mediæval period, a number of important cities were granted the status of counties in their own right, such as London, Bristol and Coventry, and numerous small exclaves such as Islandshire were created. The next major change occurred in 1844, when many of these exclaves were re-merged with their surrounding counties (for example Coventry was re-merged with Warwickshire).

In 1965 and 1974–1975, a major re-organisation of local government created in England and Wales several new administrative counties such as Hereford and Worcester and also created several new metropolitan counties which served large urban areas as a single administrative unit. In Scotland county-sized local government was replaced by larger regions, which lasted until 1996. Modern local government in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and a large part of England is based on the concept of smaller unitary authorities (a system similar to that which the Redcliffe–Maud Report proposed for most of Britain in the 1960s).

United States [link]

Main article: County (United States)

There are currently 3,143 counties and county-equivalents in the United States

As with the shires of Anglo-Saxon England, counties in U.S. states are administrative divisions of the state in which their boundaries are drawn. Where they exist, they are the intermediate tier of unitary state government, between the statewide tier and the immediately local government tier. Counties are used in 48 of the 50 unitary states; the other two states (Connecticut and Rhode Island) have abolished their counties as functional entities, and Massachusetts is in the process of doing so. Of these remaining 48 states, 46 use the term "county" while Alaska and Louisiana use the terms "borough" and "parish", respectively, for analogous jurisdictions.

Depending on the individual state, counties or their differently named equivalent may be administratively subdivided into townships. In these cases, the township is generally subordinate to the county, which is generally subordinate to the state. Variations in terminology are found in New York, which inverts the terms "town" and "township" (i.e., a New York "town" being what most other states call a "township"; and a New York "township" being what most other states call a "town" or "village");^{[citation needed]} and Michigan, which since 1947 has distinguished between "townships" (not self-governing) and "Charter Townships" (self-governing). In most states, municipal corporations (i.e. cities, villages or towns) file their reports to the state through the county.^{[citation needed]} In Virginia, however, all cities are independent and report directly to the commonwealth government; but notwithstanding they are not part of the county, they might operate as a county seat (e.g. the Independent City of Fairfax is the seat of Fairfax County, though it is not legally within Fairfax County). California has abolished its townships, though may general law cities continue to use the word "Town" as part of their name (e.g. "Town of Atherton" when it is, legally, the City of Atherton).^{[citation needed]}

Louisiana has entities equivalent to counties called parishes. Alaska is divided into boroughs, which typically provide fewer local services than do most U.S. counties, as the state government furnishes many services directly. Some of Alaska's boroughs have merged geographical boundaries and administrative functions with their principal (and sometimes only) cities; these are known as unified city-boroughs and result in some of Alaska's cities ranking among the geographically largest "cities" in the world. Nevertheless, Alaska considers such entities to be boroughs, not cities. Alaska is also unique in that more than half the geographic area of the state is in the "Unorganized Borough", a legal entity in which the state also functions as the local government.^{[citation needed]}

New York has a unique system where 57 of its 62 counties are independently-operated administrative divisions of the state, with normal county executive powers; while the remaining five are administrative divisions of the City of Greater New York. These five are each called borough in context of City government – Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island (formerly Richmond); but are still called "county" where state function is involved, e.g., "New York County Courthouse", not "Manhattan". The county names correlate to the borough names as follows: New York County = Manhattan, Bronx County = The Bronx, Queens County = Queens, Kings County = Brooklyn, and Richmond County = Staten Island.

In two states and parts of a third, county government as such does not exist, and county refers to geographic regions or districts. In Connecticut,^[8] Rhode Island^[9] and parts of Massachusetts^[10]^[11] counties exist only to designate boundaries for such state-level functions as park districts (Connecticut) or judicial offices (Connecticut and Massachusetts). In states where county government is nonexistent or weak (e.g., New Hampshire, Vermont), town government may provide some or all of the local government services.

Most counties have a county seat, usually a city,^{[citation needed]} where its administrative functions are centered. Exceptions include the nation's smallest county, Arlington County, Virginia, which contains no municipalities. In several instances throughout the nation, a municipality has merged with a county into one jurisdiction so the county seat is coextensive with the county. This is the case in the City and County of San Francisco, CA, and in the City and County of Philadelphia, PA. A similar arrangement is found in the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County" where the metropolis of Nashville has merged into the county of Davidson (but, other than Nashville, a few municipalities - such as Belle Meade - still exist with some administrative functions). Miami-Dade in south Florida is a unique example of the merger of some functionality resulting in a two tier arrangement of governmental authority and administrative responsibility. New York City is famously coextensive with five counties or boroughs: the Bronx (which is Bronx County), Brooklyn (Kings County), Manhattan (New York County), Queens (Queens County), and Staten Island (Richmond County). Some New England states use the term shire town to mean "county seat".

References [link]

^ The Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh
^ The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, C. W. Onions (Ed.), 1966, Oxford University Press
^ Vision of Britain [1] — Type details for ancient county. Retrieved 31 March 2012
^ Etymology of the word county.
^ Province of Alberta. "Transitional Provisions, Consequential Amendments, Repeal and Commencement (Municipal Government Act)". http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/cfml/pdf_search/pdf/TOWN/0361/Crowsnest_Pass_Transitional_from_Former_to_this_Act_1994.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
^ "Amternes administration 1660-1970 (in Danish)". Dansk Center for Byhistorie. http://www.byhistorie.dk/kommuner/artikel.aspx?artikel=amter.xml.
^ OSI.ie
^ National Association of Counties (U.S.A.): Connecticut Counties
^ National Association of Counties (U.S.A.): Rhode Island Counties
^ National Association of Counties (U.S.A.): Massachusetts Counties
^ Massachusetts League of Women Voters: Massachusetts Government: County Government

v t e Types of administrative country subdivisions

Smallcaps indicate a type used by ten or more countries.

Current English terms	Alpine resort Area Insular area Local government area Special area Urban (urbanized) area Bailiwick Banner Autonomous banner Block Borough County borough Metropolitan borough Canton Capital Federal capital Circle Circuit City Autonomous city Chartered city Independent city Rural city Colony Commune Community Autonomous community Residential community Condominium Constituency County Administrative county Autonomous county Metropolitan county Department District Autonomous district Capital district City district Federal district Metropolitan district Municipal district Subdistrict Regional district Division Cadastral division Duchy Eldership Federal dependency Governorate Hamlet Municipality Direct-controlled municipality District municipality Regional municipality Regional county municipality Rural municipality Specialized municipality Neighbourhood Parish Civil parish Periphery Prefecture Autonomous prefecture Subprefecture Super-prefecture Principality Co-principality Protectorate Province Autonomous province Quarter Regency Region Autonomous region Capital region Special administrative region Republic Autonomous republic Reservation Reserve Riding Sector Shire State Suzerainty Territory Capital territory Dependent territory National territory Union Territory Unit Autonomous territorial unit Local administrative unit Town Townland Township Civil township Village Summer village Ward

Current non-English and loanword terms	Amt Arrondissement Bairro Bakhsh Baladiyah Barangay Bezirk Regierungsbezirk Colonia Comarca Comune Daïra Delegación Deme Frazione Freguesia Gmina Gemeinde İl Judeţ Kelurahan Kommun Kunta/kommun Län/lääni Maakuntaliitto/landskapsförbund Località Mahalle Megye Muban Nome Oblast Okrug Autonomous okrug Ostān Poblacion Powiat Purok Raion Ranchería Shabiyah Shahr Shahrestān Sitio Sýsla Taluka Tehsil Vingtaine Voivodeship Wilayah

Defunct and historical English terms	Agency Barony Burgh Diocese Exarchate Free imperial city Hide Hundred Imperial Circle March Praetorian prefecture Presidency Residency Rural district Sanitary district Tithing Urban district Viscountcy (Viscounty)

Defunct and historical non-English terms	Commote Heerlijkheid Katepanikion Köping/Kauppala Landskap/Maakunta Landskommun/Maalaiskunta Liwa Naucrary Pagus Pargana Plasă Satrapy Theme Subah

See also Census division Electoral district Political division Arabic terms for country subdivisions French terms for country subdivisions Spanish terms for country subdivisions Table of administrative divisions by country

http://wn.com/County

http://it.wn.com/Contea (suddivisione amministrativa)

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http://ru.wn.com/Графство

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http://fr.wn.com/Comté (domaine)

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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County

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 the baseball pitcher, see Kenny Rogers (baseball).

Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers, concert, Chumash Casino Resort hall, Santa Ynez, California, September 27, 2006. Kenny Rogers, concert, Chumash Casino Resort hall, Santa Ynez, California, September 27, 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Kenneth Donald Rogers^[1]
Born	(1938-08-21) August 21, 1938 (age 73)
Origin	Houston, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Country, country pop, rock (with The First Edition)
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, actor, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica
Years active	1958–present
Labels	Cue, Carlton, Mercury, United Artists, RCA, Reprise, Giant, Atlantic, Curb, Dreamcatcher, Capitol Nashville, WEA
Associated acts	The New Christy Minstrels, The First Edition, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Dottie West, Juice Newton, Sheena Easton, Kim Carnes, Ronnie Milsap, Lionel Richie
Website	www.kennyrogers.com

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers^[1] (born August 21, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres and topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.

Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever".^[2] He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People.^[3] He has received numerous such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.^[4]

Later success includes the 2006 album release, Water & Bridges, an across the board hit, that peaked at #5 in the Billboard Country Albums sales charts, also charting high in the Billboard 200. The first single from the album, "I Can't Unlove You," was also a chart hit. Remaining a popular entertainer around the world, the following year he completed a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland, telling BBC Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright his favorite hit was "The Gambler". He has also acted in a variety of movies and television shows, most notably the title roles in Kenny Rogers as The Gambler and the MacShayne series as well as his appearance on The Muppet Show.^[5]^[6]

1 Personal life
2 Career
3 Outside music
4 Marriages
5 Discography
6 Awards/Honors
7 Record labels
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Personal life [link]

Rogers was born in Houston, Texas, in 1938, the fourth of seven children born to Lucille (née Hester; d. 1991), a nurse, and Edward Floyd Rogers (d. 1975), a carpenter.^[7] Rogers graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Houston.

Career [link]

Early career [link]

His career began in the mid 1950s when he recorded with a doo-wop group called The Scholars, who had some success with a single called "Poor Little Doggie." Rogers was not the lead singer of the group and after two more singles they disbanded when their leader went solo.

Now on his own, Kenneth Rogers (as he was billed then) followed the breakup with his own single, a minor solo hit called "That Crazy Feeling" (1958). After sales slowed down, Rogers joined a jazz group called The Bobby Doyle Trio, who got a lot of work in clubs thanks to a reasonable fan following and also recorded for Columbia Records. The group disbanded in 1965, and a 1966 jazzy rock single Rogers recorded for Mercury Records, called "Here's That Rainy Day" failed. Rogers also worked as a producer, writer and session musician for other performers; including country artists Mickey Gilley and Eddy Arnold. In 1966 he joined The New Christy Minstrels as a singer and double bass player.

Feeling that the Minstrels were not offering the success they wanted, Rogers and fellow members Mike Settle, Terry Williams, and Thelma Camacho left the group. They formed The First Edition in 1967 (later renamed "Kenny Rogers and The First Edition"). They chalked up a string of hits on both the pop and country charts, including "Something's Burning", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town", "Reuben James" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)." In his First Edition days, Rogers had something of a hippie image, sporting long brown hair, an earring, and pink sunglasses.

When the group split in 1976, Rogers launched his solo career. Rogers soon developed a more middle of the road sound, with a somewhat rough but tuneful voiced style that sold to both pop and country audiences; to date, he has charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including upwards of 25 #1's) and 50 of his albums have charted. His music has also been featured in top selling movie soundtracks, such as Convoy, Urban Cowboy and The Big Lebowski.^[8]^[9]

Solo career [link]

Rogers in 1981.

After leaving The First Edition in 1976, after almost a decade with the group, Rogers signed a solo deal with United Artists. Butler and Rogers began a partnership that would last four years.

Rogers first outing for his new label was Love Lifted Me. The album charted and two singles "Love Lifted Me" and "While the Feeling's Good" were minor hits. The song "Runaway Girl" was featured in the motion picture Trackdown. Later in 1976, Rogers issued his second album, the self-titled Kenny Rogers, whose first single "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)", was another solo hit.

The single "Lucille" (1977) was a major hit, reaching number one on the pop charts in 12 countries, selling over five million copies, and firmly establishing Rogers' post-First Edition career. On the strength of "Lucille", the album Kenny Rogers reached #1 in the Billboard Country Album Chart. More success was to follow, including the multi-million selling album The Gambler and another international Number 1 single, "Coward of the County", taken from the equally successful album, Kenny. In 1980, the Rogers/Butler partnership came to an end, though they would occasionally reunite: in 1987 on the album I Prefer the Moonlight and again in 1993 on the album If Only My Heart Had a Voice.

In the late 1970s, Rogers teamed up with close friend and country singer Dottie West for a series of albums and duets. Together the duo had three hit albums, selling out stadiums and arenas while on tour. Their hits together "Every Time Two Fools Collide", "Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight" and "What Are We Doin' in Love" became Country standards. Of West, Rogers stated in a 1995 TNN interview "She, more than anybody else I ever worked with, sang with such emotion that you actually believed what she sang." Rogers was with West when she died after sustaining injuries in a 1991 car accident. In 1995 he starred opposite Michele Lee in the CBS biopic Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story.^{[citation needed]}

In 1980, his duet with Kim Carnes "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" became a major hit. Later in 1980 came his partnership with Lionel Richie who wrote and produced Rogers' #1 hit "Lady". Richie went on to write and produce Rogers' 1981 album Share Your Love, a chart topper and commercial favorite featuring hits such as "I Don't Need You" (Pop #3), "Through the Years" (Pop #13), and "Share Your Love with Me" (Pop #14). His first Christmas album was also released that same year. In 1982, Rogers released the album Love Will Turn You Around. The Love Will Turn You Around (song) reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the country and AC charts. due to its exposure as the theme song of Rogers' 1982 film Six Pack. Shortly after he started working with producer David Foster in 1983 recording the smash Bob Seger cover "We've Got Tonight", a duet with Sheena Easton.

He went on to work with the Bee Gees to record and produce his 1983 hit album Eyes That See in the Dark, featuring the title track and yet another #1 hit "Islands in the Stream", a duet with Dolly Parton. The Gibbs originally wrote the song for Marvin Gaye in an R&B style, only later to change it for the Kenny Rogers album.^[10] The partnership with Bee Gees only lasted one album, which was not a surprise considering that Rogers' original intentions were to work with Barry Gibb in only one song but Barry insisted on them doing the entire album.

"Islands in the Stream", Rogers' duet with Dolly Parton, was the first single to be released from Eyes That See in the Dark in the United States, and it quickly went to #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 (it would prove to be the last country single to reach #1 on that chart until "Amazed" by Lonestar did so in 2000), as well as topping Billboard's country and adult contemporary singles charts; it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping two million copies in the United States. Rogers would reunite with Parton in 1984 for a holiday album and TV special, Once Upon a Christmas, as well as a 1985 duet "Real Love", which also topped the U.S. country singles chart.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the "Islands in the Stream"s success, however, RCA insisted on releasing Eyes' title track as the first UK single, and the song stalled at a disappointing #61 there, although it did stay in the top 100 for several weeks (when it was eventually released in the United States, it was more successful, charting high on the Adult Contemporary chart and making the country top 30). "Islands in the Stream" was issued as a followup single in Britain and sold well, making #7. The album itself reached #1 on the country charts on both sides of the Atlantic and enjoyed multi-million sales. "Buried Treasure," "This Woman" and "Evening Star"/"Midsummer Nights" were also all successful singles from the album.

Shortly after came the album What About Me?, a hit whose title track, a trio performance with James Ingram and Kim Carnes, was nominated for a Grammy award; the single "Crazy" (not to be confused with the Willie Nelson-penned Patsy Cline hit) topped the country charts. David Foster was to work again with Rogers in his 1985 album The Heart of the Matter, although this time Foster was playing backing music rather than producing, a role given to George Martin. This album was another success, going to #1, with the title track making to the top ten category in the singles charts.

The next few years saw Rogers scoring several top country hits on a regular basis, including "Twenty Years Ago," "Morning Desire," "Tomb of the Unknown Love", among others. On January 28, 1985 Rogers was one of the 45 artists who recorded the worldwide charity song "We Are the World" to support hunger victims in Africa. The following year he played at Giants Stadium.^{[citation needed]}

In January 1987, Rogers co-hosted the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. In 1988 Rogers won a grammy "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" with Ronnie Milsap — "Make No Mistake, She's Mine". In the 1990s Rogers continued to chart with singles such as "Crazy In Love", "If You Want To Find Love" and "The Greatest". His second Christmas album entitled "Christmas in America" was released in 1989 for Reprise Records. From 1991-94, Rogers hosted The Real West on A&E, and on The History Channel since 1995 (Reruns only on The History Channel). He visited Miller's during this time period. From 1992-95, Rogers co-owned and headlined Branson, Missouri's 4,000 seat Grand Palace Theatre. In 1994, Rogers released his "dream" album titled Timepiece on Atlantic Records. It consisted of 1930s/40s jazz standards; it was the type of music he performed in his early days with The Bobby Doyle Three in Houston.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996 he released an album Vote For Love where the public requested their favorite love songs and Rogers performed the songs (several of his own hits were in there). The album was the first for the TV shopping channel QVC's record label, onQ Music. The album, sold exclusively by QVC, was a huge success and was later issued in stores under a variety of different titles. It reached #1 in the UK country charts under the title Love Songs (a title also used for various compilations) and also crossed over into the mainstream charts.

In 1999 Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest", a song about life from a child's point of view (looked at through a baseball game). The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country singles chart and was a Country Music Television Number One video. It was on Rogers' album She Rides Wild Horses the following year (itself a top 10 success). In 1999, Rogers also produced a song, "We've Got It All", specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement. Not on any album, the recording sells for a high sum at auction.^{[citation needed]}

Beyond the 1990s [link]

Kenny Rogers in 2004

In the 21st century, Rogers was back at #1 for the first time in more than a decade with the 2000 single "Buy Me a Rose". In doing so, he broke a 26-year-old record held by Hank Snow (who, in April 1974, was 59 years and 11 months old when he scored with "Hello Love"). Rogers held the record until 2003, when then 70-year-old Willie Nelson became the oldest artist to have a No. 1 on the country charts with his duet with Toby Keith, "Beer for My Horses".

Although Rogers did not record new albums for a couple of years, he continued to have success in many countries with more greatest hits packages. In 2004 42 Ultimate Hits, which was the first hits collection to span his days with the First Edition to the present, reached Number 6 on the American country charts and went gold. It also featured two new songs, "My World Is Over" with Whitney Duncan and "We Are the Same". "My World Is Over" was released as a single and was a minor hit. In 2005 The Very Best of Kenny Rogers, a double album, sold well in Europe. It was the first new solo Kenny Rogers hits album to reach the United Kingdom for over a decade, despite many compilations there that were not true hits packages.

Rogers also signed with Capitol Records and had more success with the TV advertised release 21 Number Ones in January 2006. Although this CD did contain 21 chart-toppers as the title claims (recorded between 1976 and the present day), this was not a complete collection of Rogers' #1 singles, omitting such singles as "Crazy in Love" and "What About Me?"

Much of his success was during the period from 1976 to 1983, when he was signed to United Artists and later Liberty. It is very rare for an artist of Rogers' age to be signed to a major label. Capitol followed 21 Number Ones with Rogers' new studio album, Water And Bridges, in March 2006 on the Capitol Nashville Records label. The first single from the album was "I Can't Unlove You" which peaked at # 1 7 on the country charts, after spending over 6 months on the hit list, more than 50 years after he formed his first group and 38 years after his first major hit as leader of The First Edition; the song remains in recurrent airplay on some radio stations today. "I Can't Unlove You" was followed up with the second single from the album, "The Last Ten Years (Superman)", in September 2006. The third single, "Calling Me," which features Don Henley, became popular in early 2007, and was nominated for a Grammy Award at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Also in 2007, the 1977 "Kenny Rogers" album was re-issued as a double play CD, also featuring the 1979 "Kenny" album and this once again put Rogers' name into the sales charts worldwide. The following year, another compilation album ("A Love Song Collection") also charted. He currently lives in Atlanta.

As of 2011 Rogers has recorded 65 albums and sold over 190 million records.^[11]^[12]

On August 26, 2008, Rogers released "50 Years"^[13] exclusively at Cracker Barrel stores. The album includes some of Rogers' greatest hits, plus 3 new songs. The release is designed to celebrate Rogers' 50th year in the music business. However, it should be noted Rogers has been in the music business for more than 50 years including his releases with The Scholars, who recorded for a local label in Houston. 1958 was the year he signed his first recording deal with a major label. In 2007 the England national rugby union team team adopted Rogers song "The Gambler" as their unofficial 2007 Rugby World Cup anthem,^[14] after hearing prop Matt Stevens playing it in the team hotel. Before the Semi-final against France and the Final against South Africa, Rogers sent video messages of support to the team in light of them choosing his song. He offered to come to England and party with the team if they won the World Cup.

In 2008 Rogers toured with his Christmas Show. He split the show up, making the first half his "best of" and the second half his Christmas songs. One such show was at Mohegan Sun Casino^[15] in Uncasville, Connecticut.

In 2009 he toured the United Kingdom. In 2009, Rogers embarked on his 50th Anniversary Tour. The tour went around the United States, Britain and Ireland.

On April 10, 2010, a TV special was taped, Kenny Rogers: The First 50 Years. Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie were among those set to perform with Kenny during a show celebrating his contribution to country, blues and pop music, It took place at the MGM Grand in Foxwoods. This special is set debut on March 8, 2011 on Great American Country.^{[dated info]}

Outside music [link]

Rogers also had success as an actor. His 1982 movie Six Pack, in which he played a race-car driver, took more than $20 million at the United States box office, while made-for-TV movies such as The Gambler, Christmas in America, and Coward of the County (based on hit songs of his) topped ratings lists.

As an entrepreneur, he collaborated with former Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1991 to start up the restaurant chain Kenny Rogers Roasters. The chicken and ribs chain, which is similar to Boston Market, was famously featured in an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld called "The Chicken Roaster". On the November 27, 1997, broadcast of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Rogers could not pick his chicken out in a taste test, claiming he preferred "greasy burgers."^{[citation needed]}

Rogers and his restaurant were subjects of comedy from MADtv, especially the impersonation done by Will Sasso; the sketch of the faux-Rogers hosting Jackass became popular on the Internet.

Rogers put his name to the Gambler Chassis Co., a Sprint car racing manufacturer started by C. K. Spurlock in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The company used the name from Rogers hit song The Gambler. During the 1980s/90s, Gambler was one of the fastest and widely used Sprintcars with such drivers as Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell and Doug Wolfgang driving the cars to victory in the World of Outlaws and the famous Knoxville Nationals. Gambler sprintcars were also successful in Australia with drivers such as Garry Rush and Steve Brazier using Gamblers to win multiple Australian Sprintcar Championships.

Rogers appeared in a 2004 episode of Reno 911 as himself being subjected to incompetent security provided by starstruck sheriff's deputies to comical effect.

Marriages [link]

Wanda Miller, June 1, 1997 – present; 2 children
Marianne Gordon, October 1, 1977 – 1993, divorced; 1 child
Margo Anderson, October 1964 – 1976, divorced; 1 child
Jean Rogers, October 1960 – 1963, divorced
Janice Gordon, May 15, 1958 – April 1960, divorced; 1 child^[16]

Discography [link]

Main article: Kenny Rogers discography

Awards/Honors [link]

Year	Award	Category
2010	American Eagle Award	American Eagle Award^[17]
2009	ACM Honors	Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award^[18] (w/ Jerry Reed, Randy Travis, Hank Williams Jr.)
2007	ASCAP Golden Note Award	ASCAP Golden Note Award^[19]
2007	CMT Music Awards	Album of the Year — Water & Bridges
2005	CMT Music Awards	Favorite All Time Country Duet — "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton)
2004	CMT's 100 Greatest Cheating Songs	"Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" — #6
2003	International Entertainment Buyers Association	Lifetime Achievement Award
2003	CMT's 100 Greatest Country Songs	"The Gambler" — #26
2002	CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music	Ranking — #19
2000	TNN Music Awards	Career Achievement Award
1999	BBC's Greatest Country Singer	Ranking — #2
1988	Grammy Awards	Best Duo Country Vocal Performance — "Make No Mistake She's Mine" (w/ Ronnie Milsap)
1986	USA Today	Favorite Singer of All Time
1985	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Album — Eyes That See In the Dark
1985	American Music Awards	Favorite Male Country Artist
1983	Academy of Country Music Awards	Single of the Year — "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton)
1983	Academy of Country Music Awards	Top Vocal Duet — (w/ Dolly Parton)
1983	American Music Awards	Favorite Pop/Rock Country Artist
1983	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Single — "Love Will Turn You Around"
1983	ASAP Awards	Favorite Single — "Islands In the Stream" (w/ Dolly Parton)
1982	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Album — Greatest Hits
1981	American Music Awards	Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist
1981	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Album — The Gambler
1981	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Single — "Coward of the County"
1980	American Music Awards	Favorite Male Country Artist
1980	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Album — The Gambler
1980	Music City News Country	Single of the Year
1979	American Music Awards	Favorite Male Country Artist
1979	American Music Awards	Favorite Country Album — 10 Years of Gold
1979	Country Music Association Awards	Male Vocalist of the Year
1979	Country Music Association Awards	Vocal Duo of the Year — (w/ Dottie West)
1979	Country Music Association Awards	Album of the Year — The Gambler
1979	Music City News Country	Male Artist of the Year
1979	Music City News Country	Single of the Year — "The Gambler"
1979	Grammy Awards	Best Male Country Vocal Performance — "The Gambler"
1978	American Music Awards	Favorite Single — "Lucille"
1978	Country Music Association Awards	Vocal Duo of the Year — (w/ Dottie West)
1978	Academy of Country Music Awards	Entertainer of the Year
1978	Academy of Country Music Awards	Top Male Vocalist
1977	Country Music Association Awards	Single of the Year — "Lucille"
1977	Academy of Country Music Awards	Top Male Vocalist
1977	Academy of Country Music Awards	Single of the Year — "Lucille"
1977	Academy of Country Music Awards	Song of the Year — "Lucille"
1977	Grammy Awards	Best Male Country Vocal Performance — "Lucille"

Record labels [link]

The following is a list of record labels to which Rogers signed:

Cue (1957, with the band The Scholars and also as a solo singer)
Carlton (1958, solo deal)
KenLee (one single, label owned by Rogers and his brother Lelan)
Columbia (1960s, with jazz combo, The Bobby Doyle Three)
Reprise (1967, with The First Edition, all material recorded during this time has since been acquired by Universal Music)
Jolly Rogers (1973, with The First Edition, label was owned by Rogers)
United Artists (1975, solo deal)
Liberty (1980, United Artists merged into EMI/Capitol in 1980; some pressings of albums were issued on Capitol's imprint labels, EMI, EMI America, and EMI Manhattan.)
RCA (1983, solo deal)
Reprise (1989, solo deal)
Giant (1993, one solo album)
Atlantic (1994, one solo album)
onQ Music (1996, one solo album; onQ Music was created by the QVC Network to release exclusive albums for sale only on QVC. The first onQ release was Rogers' Vote for Love, a two-disc set that would later become available in standard retail stores.)
Magnatone (1996, solo deal)
Dreamcatcher (1998, solo deal; Dreamcatcher was owned and run by Rogers and Jim Mazza for the purpose of releasing Rogers albums and certain reissues of Rogers' catalog. Other artists such as Marshall Dyllon and Randy Dorman were released on Dreamcatcher Records, also. The label closed in 2004)
Capitol Nashville (2004, solo deal)

References [link]

^ ^a ^b per A&E Biography special
^ Gambler & Kenny are on About.com's poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever"
^ voted 1986 "Favorite Singer of All-Time" by readers of USA Today and People
^ CMT.com: Rogers Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
^ IMDb.com: Kenny Rogers
^ IMDb.com: "The Muppet Show" Episode #4.10 (1979)
^ "Kenny Rogers Biography". Filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/38/Kenny-Rogers.html. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ "The Big Lebowski: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Lebowski-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B000001EYO. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
^ "Urban Cowboy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Cowboy-Original-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B000002H4B/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1336598742&sr=1-1. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
^ Johnny Walker interview with Robin and Barry Gibb BBC Radio 2 30 August 2010 17:00
^ Malachowski, David (2010-12-09). "Kenny Rogers plays Christmas music and his own hits". Times Union. http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Kenny-Rogers-plays-Christmas-music-and-his-own-868545.php. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ Iain Shedden (2010-12-31). "Country's singalong king Kenny Rogers swings in". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/countrys-singalong-king-kenny-rogers-swings-in/story-e6frg8n6-1225978936492. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ "Kenny Rogers Q&A — Celebrates New Project with Old Classics. AOL Music Canada". Music.aol.ca. 2009-03-24. http://music.aol.ca/article/kenny-rogers-celebrates-new-project-of-old-classics/336423. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ Britten, Nick (2007-10-10). "The Telegraph". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565734/Kenny-the-Gambler-Rogers-backs-England.html. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ "Mohegan Sun Casino". Newsroom.mohegansun.com. 2008-12-11. http://newsroom.mohegansun.com/2008/12/11/the-best-entertainers-are-heading-to-mohegan-this-holiday-season.html. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ Kenny Rogers at the Internet Movie Database
^ "National Music Council". Musiccouncil.org. http://www.musiccouncil.org/american-eagle-awards. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ September 23, 2009; Written by Edward Morris (2009-09-23). "CMT News". Cmt.com. http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1622170/acm-bestows-pioneer-status-to-kenny-rogers-randy-travis-jerry-reed-hank-williams-jr.jhtml. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
^ "ASCAP". ASCAP. 2007-09-18. https://www.ascap.com/press/2007/091807_cma.html. Retrieved 2011-07-21.

External links [link]

	Book: Kenny Rogers
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Kenny Rogers at the Internet Movie Database
Official website
Delafont.com profile
Allmusic.com profile
CMT.com profile
Kenny Rogers' Classic Weekend 1988
Goldsmith, Thomas. (1998). "Kenny Rogers". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 455–6.

v t e Kenny Rogers

Studio albums	Love Lifted Me Kenny Rogers Daytime Friends Love or Something Like It The Gambler Kenny Gideon Share Your Love Love Will Turn You Around We've Got Tonight Eyes That See in the Dark The Heart of the Matter Love Is What We Make It They Don't Make Them Like They Used To I Prefer the Moonlight Something Inside So Strong Love Is Strange Back Home Again If Only My Heart Had a Voice Vote for Love Across My Heart She Rides Wild Horses There You Go Again Back to the Well Water & Bridges The Love of God

Collaboration albums	Every Time Two Fools Collide (with Dottie West) Classics (with Dottie West) What About Me? (with Kim Carnes and James Ingram) Timepiece (with David Foster)

Christmas albums	Christmas Once Upon a Christmas Christmas in America The Gift Christmas from the Heart Christmas with Kenny Christmas Collection

Notable singles	"That Crazy Feeling" "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" "But You Know I Love You" "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)" "Lucille" "Daytime Friends" "Sweet Music Man" "Every Time Two Fools Collide" (with Dottie West) "Love or Something Like It" "The Gambler" "All I Ever Need Is You" (with Dottie West) "She Believes in Me" "'Til I Can Make It on My Own" (with Dottie West) "You Decorated My Life" "Coward of the County" "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" (with Kim Carnes) "Love the World Away" "Lady" "I Don't Need You" "Share Your Love with Me" "Blaze of Glory" "Through the Years" "Love Will Turn You Around" "A Love Song" "We've Got Tonight" (with Sheena Easton) "All My Life" "Scarlet Fever" "Islands in the Stream" (with Dolly Parton) "Buried Treasure" "Together Again" (with Dottie West) "What About Me?" (with Kim Carnes and James Ingram) "Crazy" "Morning Desire" "Goodbye Marie" "Tomb of the Unknown Love" "Twenty Years Ago" "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" "I Prefer the Moonlight" "The Factory" "I Don't Call Him Daddy" "Planet Texas" "The Vows Go Unbroken (Always True to You)" "Maybe" "Love Is Strange" "Crazy in Love" "If You Want to Find Love" "The Greatest" "Buy Me a Rose" (with Alison Krauss and Billy Dean)

Guest singles	"What Are We Doin' in Love" "Real Love"

Related articles	Discography The First Edition United Artists Records Liberty Records RCA Records Reprise Records Kenny Rogers Roasters

Book:Kenny Rogers

Persondata
Name	Rogers, Kenny
Alternative names	Kenneth Donald Rogers; Kenneth Ray Rogers
Short description	American singer-songwriter, musician, businessman
Date of birth	1938-08-21
Place of birth	Houston, Texas, United States
Date of death
Place of death

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Porter Wagoner
Wagoner at the Grand Ole Opry in 1999
Background information
Birth name	Porter Wayne Wagoner
Also known as	Mr. Grand Ole Opry
Born	(1927-08-12)August 12, 1927 West Plains, Missouri, USA
Died	October 28, 2007(2007-10-28) (aged 80) Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Genres	country music, gospel
Occupations	country music singer and songwriter
Instruments	acoustic guitar
Years active	1951–2007
Labels	RCA Victor (1951 – 1980) Shell Point (2000 – 2002) TeeVee (2003 – 2006) Anti (2007)
Associated acts	Norma Jean Dolly Parton
Website	porterwagoner.com

Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007) was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. In 1967, he introduced a then little known Dolly Parton on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954–1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

1 Early life and career
2 Chart success
3 Television series
4 Later work
5 Family
6 Death
7 Discography
8 Awards
9 References
10 External links

Early life and career [link]

File:Porter Wagoner, Red Gale and Don Warden.jpg

Wagoner (l) with Red Gale and Don Warden in a 1956 publicity photo

Wagoner was born in West Plains, Missouri, the son of Bertha May (née Bridges) and Charles E. Wagoner, a farmer.^[1] His first band, The Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains, Missouri where Wagoner cut meat. In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri.^[2] This led to a contract with RCA Victor.

With lagging sales, Wagoner and his trio played schoolhouses for the gate proceeds; but in 1953, his song "Trademark" became a hit for Carl Smith, followed by a few hits of his own on RCA. Starting in 1955, he was a featured performer on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri. He often appeared on the show as part of the Porter Wagoner Trio with Don Warden and Speedy Haworth. Warden, on steel guitar, became Wagoner's long-time business manager. In 1957, Wagoner and Warden moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining the Grand Ole Opry.^[2]

Like many of his contemporaries in country music, Wagoner toured and performed outdoors for fans at American Legion houses in rural towns. Fans sat on wooden benches facing what was often a makeshift stage. Wagoner would mingle with the audience during performance breaks and usually remembered the names of the towns he visited.

Chart success [link]

Wagoner's 81 charted records include "A Satisfied Mind" (No. 1, 1955), “Misery Loves Company” (No. 1, 1962), “I've Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand” (No. 7, 1962–1963), “Sorrow on the Rocks” (No. 5, 1964), “Green, Green Grass of Home” (No. 4, 1965), “Skid Row Joe” (No. 3, 1965–1966), “The Cold Hard Facts of Life” (No. 2, 1967), and “The Carroll County Accident” (No. 2, 1968–1969).

Among his hit duets with Dolly Parton were a cover of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind" (1967), "We'll Get Ahead Someday" (1968), "Just Someone I Used to Know" (1969), "Better Move it on Home" (1971), "The Right Combination" (1972), "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (No. 1, 1974) and "Making Plans" (No. 2, 1980). He also won three Grammy Awards for gospel recordings.

Television series [link]

His syndicated television program, The Porter Wagoner Show, aired from 1960 to 1981. There were 686 30-minute episodes taped; the first 104 (1960–66) in black-and-white and the remainder (1966–81) in color. At its peak, his show was featured in over 100 markets, with an average viewership of over three million.^{[citation needed]} Reruns of the program air on the rural cable network RFD-TV and its sister channel in the UK Rural TV.

The shows usually featured opening performances by Wagoner with performances by Norma Jean, or later Parton, and comedic interludes by Rhodes. During Parton's tenure, she and Wagoner usually sang a duet (Wagoner did not perform any duets with Norma Jean).^{[citation needed]} Each episode also featured a guest who would usually perform one or two songs. A spiritual or gospel performance was almost always featured toward the end of the show; generally performed by either Wagoner or Parton, or the show's guest star, or occasionally the entire cast.

The shows had a friendly, informal feel, with Wagoner trading jokes with band members (frequently during songs) and exchanging banter with Parton and Howser. Parton wrote the song "I Will Always Love You" after Wagoner suggested she shift from story songs to focus on love songs.^[3]

Wagoner's stage alter ego was Skid Row Joe. The cast included:

Singer Norma Jean (1960–1965)
Singer Jeannie Seely (1965–1966)
Singer Dolly Parton (1966–1974)
Singer Barbara Lea (1974–1976)
Singer Linda Carol Moore (1976–1981)
Singer Colene Walters (1994–1995)
Singer Mel Tillis (regular guest)
Comedian/stand-up bass Curly Harris (1960–mid-60s)
Comedian/stand-up bass Speck Rhodes (mid-1960s onward)
Announcer Don Howser
The house band, The Wagonmasters:

Benny Williams on guitar

Buck Trent on banjo and guitar

George McCormick on rhythm guitar

Don Warden on steel guitar

"Little" Jack Little on drums

Mack Magaha on fiddle

Ray Downs on rhythm guitar and vocal

Michael Treadwell on bass guitar

After 1974:

Fred Newell on banjo/guitar/mandolin

Dave Kirby on guitar

Stu Basor on steel guitar/dobro

Bobby Dyson on bass

Jerry Carey on drums

Mack Magaha on fiddle

Later work [link]

Wagoner brought James Brown to the Grand Ole Opry, produced a rhythm & blues album for Joe Simon, and appeared in the Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man.^[4] During the mid-1980s, Wagoner formed an all-girl group, The Right Combination, named after one of his hit records with Parton. He also hosted Opry Backstage during the 1990s on The Nashville Network. Though Parton's departure caused some animosity on both sides, the two reconciled in the late 1980s and appeared together a number of times in the following years; Parton inducted Wagoner into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.

Wagoner made a guest appearance on the HBO comedy series Da Ali G Show in 2004, its second season, interviewed by Borat Sagdiyev.

On July 14, 2006, he underwent surgery for an abdominal aneurysm.^{[citation needed]}

Wagoner was honored on May 19, 2007 at the Grand Ole Opry for both his 50 years of membership and his 80th birthday. It was telecast on GAC's Grand Ole Opry Live that day with artists such as Parton, Stuart and Patty Loveless. Grand Ole Opry Live host Nan Kelley was part of the birthday celebration as well.

On June 5, 2007, Wagoner released his final album called Wagonmaster. The album was produced by Marty Stuart for the Anti- label. The album received the best reviews of Wagoner's career and briefly charted on the country charts. He also toured during the summer of 2007 to promote the album. One of these was to open for the rock group The White Stripes at a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Family [link]

Wagoner was married twice, to Velma Johnson for less than a year in 1943; and then to Ruth Olive Williams from 1946 to 1986, though they separated 20 years before the divorce. He was survived by his three children, Richard, Denise and Debra.^[5]

Death [link]

Until his illness and death, Wagoner appeared regularly on the Grand Ole Opry and toured actively. He died from lung cancer^[6] in Nashville on October 28, 2007.^[7] Wagoner's funeral was held November 1, 2007 at the Grand Ole Opry House. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.

Dolly Parton performed a concert at her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood, in his memory after his death.

Porter Wagoner Boulevard in his native West Plains, Missouri is named in his honor.

Discography [link]

Main article: Porter Wagoner discography

Awards [link]

Year	Award	Awards	Notes
2002	Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame	Country Music Hall of Fame
1998	Living Legend	TNN/Music City News
1971	Vocal Duo of the Year	CMA	with Dolly Parton
1970	Vocal Duo of the Year	CMA	with Dolly Parton
1970	Vocal Duet of the Year	Music City News Country	with Dolly Parton
1969	Vocal Duet of the Year	Music City News Country	with Dolly Parton
1969	Best Gospel Performance	Grammy
1968	Vocal Duet of the Year	Music City News Country	with Dolly Parton
1968	Vocal Group of the Year	CMA	with Dolly Parton
1967	Best Gospel Performance	Grammy
1966	Best Sacred Recording (Musical)	Grammy

References [link]

^ http://www.enotes.com/wagoner-porter-reference/wagoner-porter
^ ^a ^b Eng, Steve (1992), A Satisfied Mind: the Country Music Life of Porter Wagoner, Rutledge Hill Press, ISBN 1-55853-133-5
^ Washington Post article
^ Eng, Steve. (1998). "Porter Wagoner". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 565-6.
^ http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/famousperson/wagoner/2662940
^ Country music singer Porter Wagoner diagnosed with lung cancer - International Herald Tribune
^ "Country Music Hall of Fame Member Porter Wagoner Dies" from CMT.com, October 28, 2007.

External links [link]

Persondata
Name	Porter Wagoner
Alternative names	Mr. Grand Ole Opry
Short description	Country Music Artist
Date of birth	August 12, 1927
Place of birth	West Plains, Missouri, United States of America
Date of death	October 28, 2007
Place of death	Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

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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 biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2008)

Lyle Lovett
Lovett in a 2005 concert
Background information
Birth name	Lyle Pearce Lovett
Born	(1957-11-01) November 1, 1957 (age 54)
Origin	Klein, Texas (USA)
Genres	Country, alternative country, jazz, blues, western swing, country pop, country rock
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer, actor
Years active	1980–present
Labels	MCA/Curb Lost Highway/Curb
Associated acts	Randy Newman, John Hiatt, Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Los Super Seven
Website	www.LyleLovett.com

Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957)^[1] is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man". Lovett has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. It's Not Big It's Large was released in 2007, where it debuted and peaked at number 2 on the Top Country Albums chart. A new studio album, Natural Forces, was released on October 20, 2009 by Lost Highway Records.

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 Television
- 3.1 Musician
4 Filmography
- 4.1 Musician
- 4.2 Actor
5 Theatre
- 5.1 Actor
- 5.2 Composer
6 References
7 External links

Biography [link]

Early life [link]

Lovett was born in North Harris County, Texas, in the community of Klein, the son of William Pearce and Bernell Louise (née Klein) Lovett, a marketing executive and training specialist, respectively. He was raised in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.^[2] Lovett attended Texas A&M University, where he studied German and journalism. It is a common misconception that Lyle and Robert Earl Keen were roommates at A&M. They were not. However, they lived across from each other on Church St. in College Station, became good friends, and wrote "The Front Porch Song" together, which both went on to record.

Career [link]

Lovett's music career began as a songwriter, but he soon signed with MCA Records in 1986 and released his eponymous debut album. While typically associated with the country genre, Lovett's compositions often incorporate folk, swing, blues, jazz and gospel music as well as more traditional country & Western styling. He has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album (1996 for The Road to Ensenada), Best Country Duo/Group with Vocal (1994 for "Blues For Dixie" with the Texas swing group Asleep at the Wheel), Best Pop Vocal Collaboration (1994 for "Funny How Time Slips Away" with Al Green) and Best Country Male Vocal (1989) for Lyle Lovett and His Large Band).

Lovett has acted in a number of films, including Robert Altman's films: The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Cookie's Fortune (1999), and composed for Dr. T & the Women (2000). More recently, he has acted in The New Guy (2002) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007). His television acting forays include Mad About You, Brothers & Sisters, Castle (TV series), and Dharma & Greg.

Lovett was given an award called an "Esky" for Surest Thing in Esquire's 2006 Esky Music Awards in the April issue. The magazine said of Lovett: "The secret of Lyle Lovett's endurance comes down to the three C's: class, charisma and consistency... In the studio and on stage with his giant orchestra, he's spent two decades gracefully matching genuine songcraft with A-list musicianship".

Lovett primarily plays Collings acoustic guitars.^[3]

In 2010 Lovett appeared on an episode of Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... which also featured John Prine and Ray LaMontagne.

Lovett has recently contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Well... All Right" for the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released on September 6, 2011.

Personal life [link]

Lovett's personal life was brought to the fore in 1993 when he married actress Julia Roberts. The couple had met on the set of The Player in 1992. After a three-week romance, they eloped and married in June 1993 in Marion, Indiana. The couple divorced less than two years later, in March 1995. The breakup was said to be caused by career demands. The two remained friends, and Roberts even sang a Townes Van Zandt song previously recorded by Lovett in the 1998 movie Stepmom.

Lovett has been dating April Kimble since 1999.^[4]

On March 28, 2002 Lovett was caught by a bull and rammed into a fence on his uncle's farm in Klein, Texas, before being pulled to safety. He fully recovered after six months and began touring again in the summer of 2003.

Lovett was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Houston on May 15, 2010 at its general commencement ceremony.^[5]^[6] His mother was in the audience as her son was presented with an honorary doctorate from the same university she had received her bachelor's degree in 1960.^[7] His late father was also a graduate of the University of Houston.^[5]

Over the years, Lovett performed at various fundraising events for the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture of the University of Houston.^[5]

Discography [link]

Main article: Lyle Lovett discography

Television [link]

Musician [link]

Beverly Hills 90210 (serial drama) – song performer "Nobody Knows Me"

Episode: One Wedding and A Funeral [Original air date: November 8, 1995]

Filmography [link]

Musician [link]

True Blood Ep. 22 (2009) – song performer "I Will Rise Up"
Walk Hard (2007) – song performer "Walk Hard"
Deadwood Ep. 107 (2005) – song performer "Old Friend" (1994)
The Exonerated (2005 TV movie) – song performer "Amazing Grace"
The Interpreter (2005) – song performer "If I Had a Boat"
61* (2001 TV movie) – song performer "Nobody Knows Me"
All Over the Guy (2001) – song performer and composer "She Makes Me Feel Good" and "The Blues Walk"
Dr. T & the Women (2000) – Song performer and composer and also used a recording of "You've Been So Good Up to Now" (1992), "She's Already Made Up Her Mind" (1992), "Ain't It Something" (1994)
For Love of the Game (1999) – song performer "Summer Wind"
Stuart Little (1999) – song performer "Walking Tall"
Mumford (1999) – song performer "Ballad of the Snow Leopard and The Tanqueray Cowboy", "Till It Shines"
Clay Pigeons (1998) – song performer "Teach Me About Love"
Hope Floats (1998) – song performer "Smile"
The Apostle (1997) – song performer "(I'm a) Soldier in the Army of the Lord"
Toy Story (1995) – song performer "You've Got a Friend in Me" with Randy Newman as the lead vocals.
Quiz Show (1994) – song performer "Moritat" by Kurt Weill
With Honors (1994) – song performer "Blue Skies"
Major League II (1994) – song performer and composer "All My Love Is Gone"
The Firm (1993) – song performer "M-O-N-E-Y"
Leap of Faith (1992) – song performer "Pass Me Not"
The Crying Game (1992) – song performer "Stand By Your Man"
Major League (1989) – song performer "Cryin' Shame"
Always (1989) – song performer "Cowboy Man"

Actor [link]

When Angels Sing (2011) – Griffin
Castle (TV series) (2010) – Government Agent
The Open Road (2008) – Bartender
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) – Himself
Brothers and Sisters (TV Series) (2007) – Something New – Himself
The New Guy (2002) – Bear Harrison
Three Days of Rain (2002) – Disc Jockey
Dharma and Greg (TV series) – The Trouble With Troubadours (2000) – Himself
Mad About You (TV series) – The Final Frontier (1999) – Lenny
Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular (TV series) – Episode #1.23 (1999)
Cookie's Fortune (1999) – Manny Hood
The Opposite of Sex (1998) – Sheriff Carl Tippett
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) – Road Person
Breast Men (1997) – Research Scientist
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) – Wade
Mad About You (TV series) – Mad About You: Part 1 (1995) – Lenny
Mad About You (TV series) – Mad About You: Part 2 (1995) – Lenny
Prêt-à-Porter (1994) – Clint Lammeraux
Short Cuts (1993) – Andy Bitkower
The Player (1992) – Detective DeLongpre
Bill: On His Own (1983 TV movie) – Singer at Beach

Theatre [link]

Actor [link]

Much Ado About Nothing (The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, 2010) – Balthazar^[8]^[9]

Composer [link]

Much Ado About Nothing (The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, 2010)

References [link]

^ Lyle Lovett Page at Allmusic – Lovett's Genre and Styles. Retrieved February 2, 2007
^ NPR Music: Lyle Lovett: 'My Baby Don't Tolerate'
^ Fretbase: Play Guitar Like Lyle Lovett
^ "Lovett shows he's still an original". http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/entertainment/296067.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Musician Recalls Early Connection to University of Houston". University of Houston. http://www.uh.edu/features/on-campus/Lyle-Lovett/index.php. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
^ "The University of Houston to Graduate More Than 4,500 Students". University of Houston. http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2010articles/May2010/05132010Commencement.php. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
^ "Singer and songwriter Lyle Lovett received an honorary degree during the ceremony". Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/news/photogallery/UH_graduation.html#21668742. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
^ Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
^ Lyle Lovett joining Helen Hunt in cast of 'Much Ado About Nothing', Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2010

Oermann, Robert K. (1998). "Lyle Lovett". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 307.
Pullen, Doug (August 1, 2008). "Through fame, fortune and marriage to Julia Roberts, Texan Lyle Lovett has stayed true to his roots". El Paso Times. http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_10059730?source=most_viewed. Retrieved August 1, 2008.

External links [link]

Official Lyle Lovett Website
Lyle Lovett at Lost Highway Records
Lyle Lovett at the Internet Movie Database
Lyle Lovett on Charlie Rose
Lyle Lovett collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Works by or about Lyle Lovett in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Lovett charges ahead with his career – USA Today, May 10, 2002.
Homeboy, by Alec Wilkinson, New Yorker, February 1, 2004.
The Thinking Man's Cowboy, by Matt Dellinger, New Yorker, February 23, 2004.

Awards
First None recognized before	AMA Americana Trailblazer Award 2007	Succeeded by Nanci Griffith

Persondata
Name	Lovett, Lyle
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 1, 1957
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

http://wn.com/Lyle_Lovett

http://ru.wn.com/Ловетт, Лайл

http://fr.wn.com/Lyle Lovett

http://nl.wn.com/Lyle Lovett

http://de.wn.com/Lyle Lovett

http://cs.wn.com/Lyle Lovett

http://pl.wn.com/Lyle Lovett

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_Lovett

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.

Chris LeDoux
Chris LeDoux in May 1999 Chris LeDoux in May 1999
Background information
Born	(1948-10-02)October 2, 1948 Biloxi, Mississippi, United States
Origin	Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States
Died	March 9, 2005(2005-03-09) (aged 56) Casper, Wyoming, United States
Genres	Country, Country Rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, rodeo competitor, bronze sculptor
Years active	1971–2005
Associated acts	Garth Brooks Toby Keith Charlie Daniels

Chris Ledoux (October 2, 1948 – March 9, 2005) was an American country music singer-songwriter, bronze sculptor and rodeo champion. During his career LeDoux recorded 36 albums (many self-released) which have sold more than six million units in the United States as of January 2007. He was awarded one gold album certification from the RIAA, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and the Academy of Country Music Music Pioneer Award.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Tributes
3 Rodeo career milestones
4 Discography
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Biography [link]

Early years [link]

LeDoux was born in Biloxi, Mississippi. His father was in the US Air Force and was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base at the time of his birth. The family moved often when he was a child, due to his father's air force career. He learned to ride horses while visiting his grandparents on their Michigan farm.^[2] At age 13, LeDoux participated in his first rodeo, riding in Denison, Texas, and before long was winning junior rodeo competitions.^[3]

LeDoux continued to compete in rodeo events and played football through his high school years, with rodeos keeping most of his attention. When his family moved to Cheyenne, he attended Cheyenne Central High School. After twice winning the Wyoming State Rodeo Championship bareback riding title during high school, LeDoux earned a rodeo scholarship to Casper College in Casper. During his junior year, LeDoux won the Intercollegiate National bareback riding Championship.^[2]

LeDoux married Peggy Rhoads on January 4, 1972, and they had five children: Clay, Ned, Will, Cindy and Beau.

Rodeo success and music beginnings [link]

In 1970, LeDoux became a professional rodeo cowboy, competing on the national rodeo circuit.^[3] To help pay his expenses while traveling the country, he began composing songs describing his lifestyle.^[2] Within two years, he had written enough songs to make up an album, and soon established a recording company, American Cowboy Songs, with his father. After recording his songs in a friend's basement, LeDoux began selling his albums out of the back of his truck at rodeo events.^[3]

His years of hard work bore fruit in 1976, when LeDoux won the world bareback riding championship at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.^[3] Winning the championship gave LeDoux more credibility with music audiences, as he now had proof that the cowboy songs he wrote and sang were authentic.^[4] LeDoux continued competing for the next four years. He retired in 1980 to nurse injuries and to spend more time with his growing family.^[3]

Music career [link]

With his rodeo career ended, LeDoux and his family settled on a ranch in Kaycee, Wyoming. He continued to write and record his songs, and began playing concerts.^[3] His concerts were very popular, and often featured a mechanical bull (which he rode between songs) and fireworks.^[4] By 1982 he had sold over 250,000 copies of his albums, with little or no marketing. By the end of the decade he had self-released 22 albums.^[3]

Despite offers from various record labels, LeDoux had refused to sign a recording contract, instead choosing to retain his independence and total control over his work while enjoying his regional following. In 1989, however, he shot to national prominence when he was mentioned in the debut song of Garth Brooks' Top-10 country hit "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)." To capitalize on the sudden attention^{[citation needed]}, LeDoux signed a contract with Capitol Records subsidiary Liberty Records and released his first national album, Western Underground, in 1991. His follow-up album, Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy, was certified gold and reached the top ten. The title track, a duet with Brooks, became LeDoux's first and only Top Ten country single, reaching No. 7 in 1992.^[3] In concert, he ended the song by saying, "Thanks, Garth!"

For the next decade, LeDoux continued to record for Liberty. He released six additional records, one of which, 1998's One Road Man, made the country Top 40.^[3] Towards the end of his career, LeDoux began recording material written by other artists, which he attributed to the challenge of composing new lyrics.^[4] With his 2000 release, Cowboy, he returned to his roots, re-recording many of his earliest songwriting creations.^[3]

Illness and death [link]

In August 2000, LeDoux was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, which required him to receive a liver transplant. Garth Brooks volunteered to donate part of his liver, but it was found to be incompatible. An alternative donor was located, and LeDoux received a transplant on October 7, 2000.^[5] After his recovery he released two additional albums. In November 2004, LeDoux was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma and underwent radiation treatment for it until his death on March 9, 2005 of complications from the disease at a Casper, Wyoming hospital.^[3] He was survived by his wife of 33 years, Peggy,^[6] and their children Clay, Ned, Will, Beau, and Cindy, as well as his mother, Bonnie.^[7]

Tributes [link]

Shortly after his death, LeDoux was named as one of six former rodeo cowboys to be inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs in 2005. He was the first person to ever be inducted in two categories, for his bareback riding and in the "notables" category for his contributions to the sport through music.^[8]

Shortly thereafter, the Academy of Country Music awarded LeDoux their Pioneer Award during ceremonies in 2005. LeDoux's good friend Garth Brooks accepted the award on behalf of LeDoux's family.^[9]

In late 2005, Brooks briefly emerged from retirement to record "Good Ride Cowboy" as a tribute to LeDoux. Brooks remarked:^[10]

"I knew if I ever recorded any kind of tribute to Chris, it would have to be up-tempo, happy ... a song like him ... not some slow, mournful song. He wasn't like that. Chris was exactly as our heroes are supposed to be. He was a man's man. A good friend."

Garth Brooks performed the song on "The 39th Annual CMA Awards" on Nov. 15, 2005 live from Times Square in New York City. Later that evening, LeDoux was honored with the CMA Chairman's Award of Merit, presented by Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn, to LeDoux's family.

Friends have also collaborated to produce an annual rodeo, art show, and concert in Casper to honor LeDoux's memory. The art show features sculpture and sketches that LeDoux completed for friends; none of his works were ever exhibited before his death.^[6]

To mark the second anniversary of LeDoux's death, in April 2007 Capitol Records released a six-CD boxed set featuring remastered versions of 12 of the albums he recorded between 1974 and 1993.^[1]

Award-winning artist and sculptor D. Michael Thomas is creating a one-and-a-half times lifesize sculpture of Chris LeDoux during his 1976 World Championship ride on Stormy Weather. The statue, called "Good Ride Cowboy," will be displayed at the Chris LeDoux Memorial Park in his hometown of Kaycee, Wyoming.^[11]

On October 26, 2006 Chris LeDoux was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Son Beau LeDoux, himself a rodeo competitor, on July 24, 2007, spread his father's ashes over Frontier Park Arena during the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo:^[12]

"It was something my family and I thought would be right to do because this was such a special rodeo to him. ... This has always been a special rodeo in my family. My dad rode here and came close to winning here a couple of times."

Additionally the city in which LeDoux attended college; Casper, Wyoming, celebrates his life and legacy each November with the Chris LeDoux Memorial Rodeo. A weekend event which includes an art show featuring a number of LeDoux's works, a PRCA rodeo and a country music concert.

In 2010, Robert Royston created "One Ride", a musical dance production. One Ride is a powerful music and dance production that tells the story of the Rodeo Cowboy. Inspired by and told through the music of Chris LeDoux, the show explores the passionate, yet humbling and often painful paths a cowboy follows in his quest to become a champion. One Ride will debut at Queen Theater in the Park on October 29 and continue through November 6. The goal is to pay tribute to Chris LeDoux by launching a national tour that will follow the rodeo circuit.

In 2011 country music artist Brantley Gilbert paid tribute to LeDoux in Gilbert's single "Country Must Be Countrywide," with the line "From his Wranglers to his boots - he reminded me of Chris LeDoux." ^[13]

Rodeo career milestones [link]

1964	Little Britches Rodeo Bareback World Championship
1967	Wyoming State High School Bareback Bronc Championship
1969	"National Intercollegiate" Bareback Riding Champion
1976	"Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association" Bareback World Championship
1984	Officially retired from rodeo competition.

Discography [link]

Main article: Chris LeDoux discography

References [link]

^ ^a ^b "Chris LeDoux's Catalog Gems Remastered by Capitol Nashville / EMI". Capitol Records. 2007-01-22. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. http://web.archive.org/web/20070205113333/http://chrisledoux.com/news3.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Chris LeDoux Biography". Country Music Television. 2005. http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/ledoux_chris/bio.jhtml. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Huey, Steve (2005). "Chris LeDoux". Allmusic. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=79360&cr=artist&or=ASCENDING&sf=length&kw=chris%20LeDoux. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ ^a ^b ^c Coon, Chuck (2005). "Chris Ledoux: Missing Chris". ChrisLedoux.com. Archived from the original on 2007-03-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20070309150925/http://chrisledoux.com/bio3.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ Gardner, Tom (2001-06-20). "Chris LeDoux Back After Transplant". PlanetGarth.Com. http://www.planetgarth.com/news/article.php?cid=00547. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ ^a ^b Stoelzle Graves, Deirdre (2006-10-30). "Losing, and finding, Chris LeDoux". Casper Star-Tribune. http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/10/30/news/casper/64ec836ff5a9d8988725721600211708.txt. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ Dillon, Jenni (2005-03-10). "Cowboy, Singer LeDoux dies in Casper". Casper Star-Tribune. http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/03/10/news/b5f0e791e7900bce87256fbf0074b302.txt. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ "LeDoux Named to ProRodeo Hall of Fame". Country Music Television. 2005-04-22. http://www.cmt.com/artists/news/1500641/04222005/ledoux_chris.jhtml. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ "Brooks to Accept LeDoux's Pioneer Award". Country Music Television. 2005-04-27. http://www.cmt.com/artists/news/1500885/04272005/ledoux_chris.jhtml. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ Smith, Hazel (2005-11-01). "A Conversation with Garth Brooks". Country Music Television. http://www.cmt.com/artists/news/1512744/11012005/ledoux_chris.jhtml. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ "Chris LeDoux Immortalized in Bronze". ChicagoAtHome.Com. 2007-03-07. http://www.chicagoathome.com/Detail.aspx?dct=62&id=96097&mid=1797. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ Johnke, Jeremiah. "Remembrance: Singer's ashes spread on Frontier Park Arena" - Wyoming Tribune-Eagle - July 25, 2007
^ Brantley Gilbert web site

External links [link]

v t e Chris LeDoux

Liberty Records albums	Western Underground Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy Under This Old Hat Haywire

Capitol Records albums	Stampede Live One Road Man Cowboy After the Storm Horsepower

Related articles	Discography Kaycee, Wyoming "Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy" "Cadillac Ranch" "Good Ride Cowboy" National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Persondata
Name	Ledoux
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948-10-02
Place of birth	Biloxi, Mississippi, United States
Date of death	2005-03-09
Place of death	Casper, Wyoming, United States

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_LeDoux

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.

Make changes yourself !

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