- published: 10 Oct 2011
- views: 415029
- author: chrisbutterley
Vimeo results:
Youtube results:
MORE VIDEOS
Loading...
Open Collage in a new Window
Email the Collage
- Loading...
Loading suggestions ...
- 1960s
- 1970s
- 1980
- 1980 Summer Olympics
- 1980 Winter Olympics
- 1980s
- 1980s in Brazil
- 1980s in fashion
- 1980s in film
- 1980s in music
- 1980s in television
- 1981
- 1982
- 1982 Lebanon War
- 1983
- 1984
- 1984 anti-Sikh riots
- 1984 Summer Olympics
- 1984 Winter Olympics
- 1985
- 1986
- 1987
- 1988
- 1988 Summer Olympics
- 1988 Winter Olympics
- 1989
- 1989 World Series
- 1990s
- 19th century
- 2 Live Crew
- 2000–2009
- 2010s
- 20th century
- 21 Jump Street
- 21st century
- 2nd millennium
- A Tribe Called Quest
- A-ha
- About Last Night...
- Abu Nidal
- Abulhassan Banisadr
- AC DC
- Adrian Lyne
- Aerosmith
- AIDS
- Air India Flight 182
- Air strike
- Airwolf
- Al Pacino
- Alabama (band)
- Alain Prost
- Alan Alda
- Alan Parker
- Alaska
- Alberto Tomba
- ALF (TV series)
- Alfa Romeo
- Ali Khamenei
- Alice in Chains
- Amadeus (film)
- American imperialism
- American Motors
- Andre The Giant
- Andreas Papandreou
- Andrew McCarthy
- Andy Gibb
- Angola
- Angolan civil war
- Anthony Michael Hall
- Anthrax (band)
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Anwar Sadat
- Apartheid
- Apple Inc.
- Arcade game
- Argentina
- Armed conflict
- Armenia
- Arsenio Hall
- Augusto Pinochet
- Australia
- Australia Act
- Austria
- Authoritarianism
- Autumn of nations
- Aviator jacket
- Axl Rose
- Ayrton Senna
- Azerbaijan
- B movie
- Back to the Future
- Bad Religion
- Barbie
- Barry Levinson
- Batman (1989 film)
- Bayern Munich
- Beastie Boys
- Beirut
- Belinda Carlisle
- Belize
- Berlin Wall
- Betamax
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Bhopal disaster
- Bhopal, India
- Big hair
- Bike helmet
- Bill Cosby
- Bill Murray
- Billy Idol
- Billy Joel
- Biz Markie
- Black Flag (band)
- Bligh Reef
- Blood Circus (band)
- Bo Jackson
- Bob Hawke
- Bob Marley
- Bobby Brown
- Bodyguard
- Bon Jovi
- Bon Scott
- Bonham (band)
- Boombox
- Boris Becker
- Boy George
- Brat Pack (actors)
- Brazil
- Brian De Palma
- Brian Mulroney
- Brooke Shields
- Bruce Springsteen
- Bruce Willis
- Brunei
- Bruno Kreisky
- Bryan Adams
- Bryan Ferry
- Bulgaria
- Cabbage Patch Dolls
- Cable television
- Cairo
- Calgary
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Canadian dollar
- Canadian English
- Carburetors
- Care Bears
- Carl Lewis
- Caucasus
- Central Europe
- Chariots of Fire
- Charles Haughey
- Charlie Sheen
- Cheers
- Chemical weapons
- Cher
- Chernobyl disaster
- Chevy Chase
- Chiang Ching-kuo
- Chicago, Illinois
- Child safety seat
- Chile
- China
- Chris de Burgh
- Christa McAuliffe
- Christopher Lloyd
- Christopher Reeve
- Chrysler
- Chuck Norris
- Chun Doo Hwan
- Chun Doo-hwan
- Citroen
- Class (film)
- Cliff Burton
- Clint Eastwood
- Cocaine
- Cold War
- College rock
- Colombia
- Colonial power
- Commodore 64
- Commonwealth Realm
- Commonwealth realm
- Communism
- Communist Romania
- Communist state
- Contemporary R&B;
- Cool Runnings
- Corazon Aquino
- Coups d'état
- Crack cocaine
- Crack epidemic
- Crocodile Dundee
- Cuba
- Cubans
- Culture Club
- Cut Sweatshirt
- Cyndi Lauper
- D.I.Y
- Dallas (TV series)
- Dan Aykroyd
- Daniel Ortega
- Danny DeVito
- Darfur genocide
- Daryl Hannah
- David Bowie
- David Cronenberg
- David Hasselhoff
- David Lange
- David Letterman
- David Lynch
- De La Soul
- Death of John Lennon
- Death of Marvin Gaye
- Debbie Gibson
- Debra Winger
- Def Leppard
- DeLorean DMC-12
- Demi Moore
- Deng Xiaoping
- Denim
- Denmark
- Depeche Mode
- Detroit, Michigan
- Devo
- Dictator
- Die Hard (franchise)
- Diego Maradona
- Diff'rent Strokes
- Digger (video game)
- Dire Straits
- Dirty Dancing
- Disney
- Displaced persons
- Dom Mintoff
- Don Johnson
- Don Simpson
- Donald Trump
- Driving Miss Daisy
- Drum machine
- DuckTales
- Duran Duran
- Dustin Hoffman
- Dynasty (sports)
- Dynasty (TV series)
- Eagle (automobile)
- East Asia
- East Germany
- Eastern Europe
- Eddie Fenech Adami
- Eddie Lawson
- Eddie Murphy
- Eddie Van Halen
- Edmonton Oilers
- EDSA
- Egypt
- Eighties (song)
- El Al
- El Mozote massacre
- El Niño
- El Salvador
- Elizabeth II
- Elvis Costello
- Emilio Estevez
- Energy conservation
- EPMD
- Eric B. & Rakim
- Eric Heiden
- Erich Honecker
- Ethiopia
- Ethnic nationalism
- Europe (band)
- European Community
- Expo 86
- Exxon Valdez
- F-16A
- Facelift (album)
- Fahd of Saudi Arabia
- Falklands War
- Family Matters
- Family Ties
- Fashion Star Fillies
- Fatal Attraction
- Felipe González
- Ferdinand Marcos
- Fiat
- Finland
- First Intifada
- Five Star
- Flashdance
- Flattop
- Forest Whitaker
- France
- Franco Baresi
- Franz Vranitzky
- François Mitterrand
- Fred Sinowatz
- Freddie Mercury
- Freddie Spencer
- Frogger
- Fuel injection
- Full House
- Game Boy
- Gandhi (film)
- Garfield and Friends
- Garret FitzGerald
- Gary Lineker
- Gay rights
- Gaza Strip
- George H.W. Bush
- George Harrison
- George Lucas
- George Michael
- George Strait
- Geraldo (TV series)
- German reunification
- Glam metal
- Glasnost
- Glove
- Golden age hip hop
- Golden Axe
- Grandmaster Flash
- Greece
- Green River (band)
- Greenpeace
- Greg LeMond
- Greg Luganis
- Grenada
- Group B
- Growing Pains
- Grunge
- Guns N' Roses
- GWAR
- Hafiz Al-Asad
- Hair gel
- Hair mousse
- Haiti
- Halley's Comet
- Hard rock
- Hardcore punk
- Harrison Ford
- Havana
- HBO
- Headband
- Heat wave
- Heavy metal music
- Helmut Kohl
- Helmut Schmidt
- Hi-top fade
- High concept
- Hindus
- Hip hop music
- Hirohito
- History of Argentina
- History of Uruguay
- Hosni Mubarak
- House music
- Hulk Hogan
- Hurricane Alicia
- Hurricane Allen
- Hurricane Gilbert
- Hurricane Hugo
- Hurricane Joan
- Ian Botham
- IBM 5150
- IBM PC
- Ice-T
- Iggy Pop
- Ilan Ramon
- Imran Khan
- India
- Indira Gandhi
- Indonesia
- Inspector Gadget
- Invasion of Grenada
- Iran
- Iran-Contra affair
- Iran-Iraq war
- Iran-Iraq War
- Iran–Iraq War
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Irene Cara
- Iron Curtain
- Iron Maiden
- Israel
- Israeli Air Force
- Ivan Reitman
- Jack Nicklaus
- Jamaica
- James Brady
- James Cameron
- Jamie Lee Curtis
- Janet Jackson
- Japan
- Jason Donovan
- Jean-Claude Duvalier
- Jeep
- Jefferson Starship
- Jennifer Grey
- Jennifer Jason Leigh
- Jessica Lange
- JFK Stadium
- Jheri curl
- Jimmy Carson
- Jimmy Carter
- Jimmy Connors
- Joan Jett
- Jodie Foster
- Joe Dante
- Joe Montana
- Joe Pesci
- Joe Satriani
- John Badham
- John Belushi
- John Candy
- John Carpenter
- John DeLorean
- John Hinckley
- John Landis
- John Lennon
- John Ritter
- John Travolta
- Jonathan Demme
- Josip Broz Tito
- José Sarney
- Journey (band)
- Joy (band)
- João Figueiredo
- Juan Carlos of Spain
- Judas Priest
- Judd Nelson
- Julio Cesar Chavez
- Jumpsuit
- Jungle Brothers
- Just Say No
- Juventus
- Kajagoogoo
- Karch Kiraly
- Kathleen Turner
- Keanu Reeves
- Kenny Loggins
- Kevin Bacon
- Keyboard synthesizer
- Killing Joke
- Kim Basinger
- Kim Carnes
- Kim Wilde
- Kiribati
- Kiss (band)
- Konstantin Chernenko
- Kurdish people
- Kurt Russell
- Kuwait
- Kwangju Massacre
- Kylie Minogue
- Lahar
- Laissez-faire
- Lake Nyos
- Larry Bird
- Latin America
- Laura Branigan
- Lawrence Kasdan
- Le Duan
- League Cup
- Leather
- Leather jacket
- Lebanese Civil War
- Lebanon
- Lee Kuan Yew
- Leg warmer
- Leggings
- Leonid Brezhnev
- Leopoldo Galtieri
- Liberace
- Libya
- Limahl
- Limnic eruption
- Linda Hamilton
- Lionel Richie
- List of centuries
- List of decades
- Live Aid
- Liverpool FC
- LL Cool J
- Lockerbie Disaster
- Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Kings
- MacGyver
- Macintosh 128K
- Magic Johnson
- Magnum, P.I.
- Mahathir Mohamad
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Malcolm Fraser
- Malfunkshun
- Malta
- Manuel Noriega
- Marco van Basten
- Margaret Thatcher
- Mario Lemieux
- Mark Hamill
- Martin Gelinas
- Martina Navratilova
- Marty McSorley
- Marvin Gay, Sr.
- Marvin Gaye
- Matt Biondi
- Matthew Broderick
- Mauno Koivisto
- Mega Drive
- Megadeth
- Mehmet Ali Agca
- Mel Gibson
- Melanoma
- Melvins
- Members Only
- Menachem Begin
- Meryl Streep
- Metallica
- Methyl isocyanate
- Mexico
- Miami Vice
- Michael Douglas
- Michael J. Fox
- Michael Jackson
- Michael Jordan
- Michael Keaton
- Michael Milken
- Michel Platini
- Michelle Pfeiffer
- Micro Machines
- Mike Krushelnyski
- Mike Tyson
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Military coup
- Military junta
- Millennium
- Miniskirt
- Minority group
- Miracle on Ice
- MLB
- Mobutu Sese Seko
- Mohammad-Ali Rajai
- Molly Ringwald
- Moonwalk dance
- Moscow
- Mother Love Bone
- Motley Crue
- Mount St. Helens
- Mouse (computing)
- Mozambique
- Ms.
- MSX
- MTV
- Muammar Gaddafi
- Mudhoney
- Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
- Mullet (haircut)
- Muppet Babies
- Murder, She Wrote
- Mururoa
- Music industry
- Music video
- Muslim
- My Little Pony
- Mötley Crüe
- N.W.A
- Naas Botha
- Nagorno-Karabakh War
- Namibia
- Nancy Reagan
- NASA
- NBA
- NBC
- Nelson Mandela
- Neoliberalism
- Netherlands
- Nevado del Ruiz
- New Caledonia
- New Romantic
- New Wave music
- New York City
- New York Islanders
- New Zealand
- NFL
- NHL
- Nicaragua
- Nick Kamen
- Nicolae Ceauşescu
- Nicolas Cage
- Nigeria
- Night Court
- Nikos Galis
- Nintendo
- Nintendo era
- Nirvana (band)
- Nuclear fuel
- Nuclear meltdown
- Nuclear power
- Nuclear reactor
- Nuclear weapons
- O-ring
- Oil
- Oil tanker
- Oliver Stone
- Olof Palme
- Olympic Games
- Operation Cyclone
- Operation Opera
- Ordinary People
- Osirak
- Out of Africa (film)
- Ozzy Osbourne
- Pac-Man
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Panama
- Patrick Hillery
- Patrick Stewart
- Patrick Swayze
- Paul Simon
- Perestroika
- Perm (hairstyle)
- Personal computers
- Peru
- Pet Shop Boys
- Peter Cetera
- Peter Gabriel
- Peugeot
- Phil Collins
- Philadelphia
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Philip Oakey
- Philippines
- Pierre Trudeau
- Pieter Willem Botha
- Pixies
- Platoon (film)
- Plot (narrative)
- Plutonium
- Pointer Sisters
- Poison (band)
- Poland
- Politics of Israel
- Pop music
- Pope
- Pope John Paul II
- Popular culture
- Porky's
- Porsche
- Poul Schlüter
- Pound Puppies
- Predator (film)
- Prejudice
- Prem Tinsulanonda
- President
- President of Serbia
- Pretty In Pink
- Prince (musician)
- Prince William Sound
- Privatisation
- PSV Eindhoven
- Public Enemy (group)
- Punk rock
- Quebec
- Queen (band)
- R.E.M.
- Raging Bull
- Rain Man
- Rainbow Bright
- Rajiv Gandhi
- Rallying
- Rambo (film series)
- Ranasinghe Premadasa
- Randy Rhoads
- Ratt
- Rattenbach report
- Ray-Ban
- Ray-Ban Aviator
- Ray-Ban Wayfarer
- Raúl Alfonsín
- Real Madrid
- Reba McEntire
- Recycling
- Renault
- Republic
- Republic of China
- Republic of Ireland
- Revolution
- Ric Flair
- Richard Donner
- Richard Gere
- Richard Marx
- Rick Astley
- Ridley Scott
- Risky Business
- RMS Titanic
- Rob Lowe
- Rob Reiner
- Robert De Niro
- Robert Mugabe
- Robert Muldoon
- Robert Zemeckis
- Roberto Duran
- Rock Hudson
- Roh Tae Woo
- Romania
- Ron Howard
- Ronald Reagan
- Ronnie James Dio
- Roseanne (TV series)
- Roy Orbison
- Rubik's Cube
- Ruhollah Khomeini
- Run–D.M.C.
- Ruud Gullit
- Ruud Lubbers
- Saddam Hussein
- Saint Peter's Square
- Sally Field
- Salvadoran Civil War
- Salvadoran civil war
- Sam Raimi
- Samantha Fox
- Samoa
- Samora Machel
- San Francisco 49ers
- Sandra (singer)
- Sarajevo
- Saudi Arabia
- Saved by the Bell
- Screaming Trees
- Sean Penn
- Seat belt
- Sebastian Coe
- Sega
- Seinfeld
- Seoul
- Sergey Bubka
- Seve Ballesteros
- SFRY
- Shimon Peres
- Shipwreck
- Shlomo Argov
- Sigourney Weaver
- Sikh
- Sikhs
- Singapore
- Sitiveni Rabuka
- Sixteen Candles
- Skin Yard
- Slap bracelet
- Slash (Saul Hudson)
- Slayer
- Slim-fit pants
- Slobodan Milošević
- Soap opera
- Sonic Youth
- Soundgarden
- South Africa
- South Asia
- South Korea
- Southern Sudan
- Soviet Union
- Soviet-Afghan War
- Space Shuttle
- Spain
- Spanish language
- St. Elmo's Fire
- Stanley Cup
- Stanley Kubrick
- Star Wars
- Steffi Graf
- Steve Guttenberg
- Steve Martin
- Steven Spielberg
- Stevie Nicks
- Stevie Wonder
- Sting (musician)
- Stock markets
- Straight Edge
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Sudan
- Sugar Ray Leonard
- Suharto
- Super Mario Bros.
- Swatch
- Sweden
- Swing Out Sister
- Sydney Pollack
- Sylvester Stallone
- Synthesizer
- Synthesizers
- Synthpop
- Syria
- Tad (band)
- Talk 1980s
- Talking Heads
- Tears for Fears
- Techno
- Ted Danson
- Teddy Ruxpin
- Terms of Endearment
- Tetris
- Thailand
- The A-Team
- The B-52's
- The Bangles
- The Beatles
- The Blues Brothers
- The Breakfast Club
- The Cars
- The Clash
- The Cosby Show
- The Cure
- The Evil Dead
- The Golden Girls
- The Jeffersons
- The Last Emperor
- The Legend of Zelda
- The Simpsons
- The Smiths
- The Terminator
- The U-Men
- Thomas Dolby
- Thompson Twins
- Thriller (album)
- ThunderCats
- Tiffany (singer)
- Tim Burton
- Tim Hardin
- Tina Turner
- Tobacco smoking
- Tom Cruise
- Tom Hanks
- Tom Petty
- Tom Selleck
- Tone Lōc
- Tony Scott
- Top Gun
- Toto (band)
- Transformers
- Truck bomb
- Turrican
- Twisted Sister
- U2
- UK
- Ukraine
- Union Carbide
- UNITA
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Urho Kekkonen
- US Drought of 1988
- USD
- USSR
- Valley Girl (film)
- Van Halen
- Vanuatu
- VCR
- Velvet Revolution
- Vhs
- VHS
- Vietnam
- Viking program
- Virtuoso
- Vladimir Artemov
- Voltron
- W.A.S.P
- Walkman
- Wang Chung (band)
- Waqar Younis
- War on Drugs
- Warren Beatty
- Warsaw Pact
- Washington (state)
- Wasim Akram
- Water conservation
- Wayne Gretzky
- Weird Al Yankovic
- Weird Science (film)
- Wes Craven
- West Bank
- West Germany
- Western Europe
- Western world
- White Lion
- Whitesnake
- Whitney Houston
- Who's the Boss?
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Winger (band)
- Wojciech Jaruzelski
- Woody Allen
- World Bank
- WrestleMania III
- XTC
- Yamaha DX7
- Yasuhiro Nakasone
- Yngwie Malmsteen
- Yugoslavia
- Yuri Andropov
- Zaire
- Zambia
- Zastava Koral
- Zico
- Zimbabwe
- ZX Spectrum
-
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.
wn.com/Alaska -
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (Portuguese: República de Angola, pronounced: [ʁɨˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈɡɔla];Kikongo, Kimbundu, Umbundu: Repubilika ya Ngola), is a country in southern Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Portuguese were present in some—mostly coastal—points of the territory of what is now Angola, from the 16th to the 19th century, interacting in diverse ways with the peoples that lived there. In the 19th century they slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. Angola as a Portuguese colony encompassing the present territory was not established before the end of the 19th century, and "effective occupation", as required by the Berlin Conference (1884) was achieved only by the 1920s. Independence was achieved in 1975, after a protracted liberation war. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002. The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy has on average grown at a two-digit pace since the 1990s, especially since the end of the civil war. In spite of this, standards of living remain low for the majority of the population, and life expectancy and infant mortality rates in Angola are among the worst-ranked in the world. At the same time, a minority has reached comfortable life standards, and the dominant stratum has succeeded in accumulating considerable wealth, so that social inequality in Angola is one of the highest in the world.
wn.com/Angola -
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (i/ænˈtiːɡə ænd bɑrˈbjuːdə/; Spanish for "ancient" and "bearded") is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guinea, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population number approximately 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua.
Separated by a few nautical miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles, roughly at 17 degrees north of the Equator. The country is nicknamed "Land of 365 Beaches" due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been strongly influenced by the British Empire, of which the country was formerly a part.
Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney.Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.
wn.com/Antigua_and_Barbuda -
Argentina
Argentinai/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, the continent's second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.
Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories.
A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.
wn.com/Argentina -
Armenia
Armeniai/ɑrˈmiːniə/ (Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan [hɑjɑsˈtɑn]), officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun, [hɑjɑstɑˈni hɑnɾɑpɛtuˈtʰjun]), is a landlocked, mountainous country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.
A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. The Kingdom of Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion, in the early years of the 4th century (the traditional date is 301 AD). The modern Republic of Armenia recognizes the Armenian Apostolic Church, the world's oldest national church, as the country's primary religious establishment. Armenians have their own unique alphabet invented by Mesrob Mashtots in 406 AD.
wn.com/Armenia -
Australia
Australia (
/əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
wn.com/Australia -
Austria
Austria (i/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] (
listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.
wn.com/Austria -
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (
i/ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/ AZ-ər-by-JAHN; Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası) is the largest country in the Caucasus region located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest.
Azerbaijan has an ancient and historic cultural heritage. Aside from having been the first Muslim-majority country to have operas, theater and plays, Azerbaijan today is among the Muslim-majority countries where support for secularism and tolerance is the highest. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world, was established in 1918, but was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920. Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991. Shortly thereafter, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, neighboring Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, its surrounding territories and the enclaves of Karki, Yukhary Askipara, Barkhudarly and Sofulu. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which emerged in Nagorno-Karabakh, continues to be not diplomatically recognized by any nation and the region is still considered a de jure part of Azerbaijan, despite being de facto independent since the end of the war. Azerbaijan has come under repeated international criticism for its record on human rights.
wn.com/Azerbaijan -
Beirut
Coordinates: 33°53′13″N 35°30′47″E / 33.88694°N 35.51306°E / 33.88694; 35.51306
Beirut (Arabic: بيروت Bayrūt, Greek: Βηρυττός, Latin: Berytus, French: Beyrouth, Hebrew: ביירות Beyrut) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. As there has been no recent population census, the exact population is unknown; estimates in 2007 ranged from slightly less than 1 million to slightly more than 2 million. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport. The Beirut metropolitan area consists of the city and its suburbs. The first mention of this metropolis is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters, dating from the 15th century BC. The city has been inhabited continuously since then.
Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy, with many banks and corporations based in its city centre, Hamra Street, Rue Verdun and Ashrafieh. The city is the focal point of the region's cultural life, renowned for its press, theatres, cultural activities and nightlife. After the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beirut underwent major reconstruction, and the redesigned historic city centre, marina, pubs and nightlife districts have once again made it a tourist attraction. Beirut was named the top place to visit by The New York Times in 2009, and as one of the ten liveliest cities in the world by Lonely Planet in the same year.
wn.com/Beirut -
Belize
Belizei/bəˈliːz/ (formerly British Honduras) is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America and it is the only country in the area where English is the official language, although Kriol and Spanish are more commonly spoken. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, south and west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland is about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long and 110 kilometres (68 mi) wide.
With 22,960 square kilometres (8,860 sq mi) of land and a population of only 333,200 inhabitants (2010 est.), Belize possesses the lowest population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 2.21% (2008 est.), however, is the highest in the region and one of the highest in the western hemisphere. Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine species, and its diversity of ecosystems give it a key place within the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages and it is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage but as a part of the Western Caribbean Zone, it also shares a common heritage with the Caribbean portions of other Central American countries. In general, Belize is considered to be a Central American nation with strong ties to both the Caribbean and Latin America. Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA).
wn.com/Belize -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that neighbouring West Germany had not been fully de-Nazified. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border (IGB) that demarcated the border between East and West Germany, both borders came to symbolize the "Iron Curtain" that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
wn.com/Berlin_Wall -
Bhopal disaster
The Bhopal disaster (commonly referred to as Bhopal gas tragedy) was a gas leak incident in India, considered one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people. The toxic substance made its way in and around the shantytowns located near the plant. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 3,000 died within weeks and another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.
UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), with Indian Government controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake. In 1994, the Supreme Court of India allowed UCC to sell its 50.9 percent share. Union Carbide sold UCIL, the Bhopal plant operator, to Eveready Industries India Limited in 1994. The Bhopal plant was later sold to McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. Dow Chemical Company purchased UCC in 2001.
wn.com/Bhopal_disaster -
Bhopal, India
Bhopal /boʊˈpɑːl/ (Hindustani pronunciation: [bʱoːpaːl] ( listen)) is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of Bhopal District and Bhopal Division. The city was the capital of the former Bhopal State. Bhopal is known as the City of Lakes for its various natural as well as artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India.
A B-1 class city, Bhopal houses various institutions and installations of national importance. Some of these include ISRO's Master Control Facility, the CSIR Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Bhopal), School of Planning and Architecture, Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal (associated with Hamidia Hospital, Sultania Zanana Hospital & Kamla Nehru Hospital), and the (approved, under-construction) All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal.
wn.com/Bhopal,_India -
Bligh Reef
Bligh Reef, sometimes known as Bligh Island Reef, is a reef off the coast of Bligh Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was the location of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. After the incident, US Code 33 § 2733 mandated the operation of an automated navigation light to prevent future collisions with the reef. Bligh Reef is also where Alaska Steamship Company's Olympia ran aground in 1910. Despite these efforts the tug Pathfinder ran aground on Bligh Reef on Dec 24, 2009, rupturing its tanks and spilling diesel fuel.
Bligh Reef serves as a fishing ground for halibut and a harvesting area for shrimp. The nearest town is Tatitlek, which lies 7 miles to the northeast.
The reef was named after William Bligh, of future Bounty fame, who served as Master aboard ship during James Cook's third world voyage. The steamship SS Olympia ran aground on Bligh Reef on December 10, 1910 and sank after all passengers were rescued by passing ships.
Coordinates: 60°50′26″N 146°52′48″W / 60.84056°N 146.88°W / 60.84056; -146.88
wn.com/Bligh_Reef -
Brazil
Brazili/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
wn.com/Brazil -
Brunei
Bruneii/bruːˈnaɪ/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.
The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
wn.com/Brunei -
Bulgaria
Coordinates: 42°45′N 25°30′E / 42.75°N 25.5°E / 42.75; 25.5
Bulgariai/bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ (Bulgarian: България, IPA: [bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and the Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 14th-largest country. Its location has made it a historical crossroad for various civilisations and as such it is the home of some of the earliest metalworking, religious and other cultural artifacts in the world.
Prehistoric cultures began developing on Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history was marked by the presence of the Thracians, and later by the Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the First Bulgarian Empire, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavic peoples during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five hundred years. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in the Third Bulgarian State, recognised in 1908. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both World Wars. In 1946 it became a Communist republic with a single-party system until 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. After 1990 Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and a market-based economy.
wn.com/Bulgaria -
Cairo
Cairo ( /ˈkaɪroʊ/ KYE-roh; Arabic: القاهرة al-Qāhira, literally "The Vanquisher" or "The Conqueror"), is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Located near the Nile Delta, it was founded in the year 969 A.D. making it 1,043 years old. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.
Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr (Arabic: مصر), the Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab World, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, and the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
wn.com/Cairo -
Calgary
Calgary /ˈkælɡᵊri/ is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city is located in the grassland and parkland natural regions of Alberta.
As of 2011, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,096,833 and a metropolitan population of 1,214,839, making it the largest city in Alberta, and the third-largest municipality and fifth-largest metropolitan area in Canada.
Located 294 km (183 mi) south of Edmonton, Statistics Canada defines the narrowly populated area between these cities as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor."
Economic activity in Calgary is mostly centred on the petroleum industry and agriculture. In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Winter Games.
Before the Calgary area was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by pre-Clovis people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years. In 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River. He was the first recorded European to visit the area, and John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873.
wn.com/Calgary -
Cambodia
Cambodia (i/kæmˈboʊdiə/;Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា, Kampuchea, IPA: [kɑmˈpuˈciə]), officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total landmass of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi), it is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.
With a population of over 14.8 million, Cambodia is the 68th most populous country in the world. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced by around 95% of the Cambodian population. The country minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 various hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh; the political, economic, and cultural center of Cambodia. The kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years.
wn.com/Cambodia -
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun), is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country is called "Africa in miniature" for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, and savannas. The highest point is Mount Cameroon in the southwest, and the largest cities are Douala, Yaoundé, and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 200 different linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. French and English are the official languages.
Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões ("River of Prawns"), the name from which Cameroon derives. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms. Cameroon became a German colony in 1884.
wn.com/Cameroon -
Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
wn.com/Canada -
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia (for endonyms, see below), is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, which contain Europe's highest mountain, Mt. Elbrus. Politically, the Caucasus region is separated between northern and southern parts.
The northern portion of the Caucasus is known as the Ciscaucasus and the southern portion as the Transcaucasus.
The Ciscaucasus contains the larger majority of the Greater Caucasus Mountain range, also known as the Major Caucasus mountains. It includes Southwestern Russia and northern parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The Transcaucasus is bordered on the north by Russia, on the west by the Black Sea and Turkey, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the south by Iran. It includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. All of Armenia, Azerbaijan (excluding the northern parts) and Georgia (excluding the northern parts) are in South Caucasus.
wn.com/Caucasus -
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster (locally Ukrainian: Чорнобильська катастрофа, Chornobylska Katastrofa – Chornobyl Catastrophe) was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then officially Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.
The disaster began during a systems test on Saturday, 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the city of Prypiat and in close proximity to the administrative border with Belarus and Dnieper river. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. These events exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.
wn.com/Chernobyl_disaster -
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago (i/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in the US state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. The city has around 2.7 million residents. Its metropolitan area, sometimes called "Chicagoland", is the third largest in the United States, with an estimated 9.8 million people. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, though a small portion also extends into DuPage County.
Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Today, Chicago is listed as an alpha+ global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranks seventh in the world on the 2012 Global Cities Index. The city retains its status as an international hub for finance, industry, telecommunications and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements. In 2008[update], the city hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors. Among metropolitan areas, Chicago has the 4th largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, ranking just behind Tokyo, New York City, and Los Angeles. Chicago is one of the most important Worldwide Centers of Commerce and trade.
wn.com/Chicago,_Illinois -
Chile
Chile (i/ˈtʃɪliː/ or /ˈtʃɪleɪ/), officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈtʃile] ( listen)), is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Along with Ecuador, it is one of two countries in South America that do not border Brazil. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas and Easter Island. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.
Chile's distinctive shape—4,300 kilometres (2,700 mi) long and on average 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide—makes it the longest country in the world, north to south, with the fifth lengthiest coastline at over 78 thousand kilometers. The diverse climate of Chile ranges from the world's driest desert in the north—the Atacama—through a Mediterranean climate in the centre, humid subtropical in Easter Island, to an Oceanic climate, including alpine tundra and glaciers in the east and south. The northern desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominates in terms of population and agricultural resources, and is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands.
wn.com/Chile -
China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
wn.com/China -
Colombia
Colombia (
/kəˈlʌmbiə/ kə-LUM-biə, or /kəˈlɒmbiə/ kə-LOM-biə), officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]), is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia has maritime borders with Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Colombia is the 26th largest country by area and the fourth largest in South America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. With over 46 million people, Colombia is the 27th largest country in the world by population and has the second largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Colombia is a middle power, with the fourth largest economy in Latin America, and the third largest in South America. Colombia is famous for the production of coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil. All of these products make up the primary sector of economy.
wn.com/Colombia -
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, (i/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. To the north of Cuba lies the United States (140 km or 90 mi away) and the Bahamas, Mexico is to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on and claimed the island now occupied by Cuba, for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a territory of Spain until the Spanish–American War ended in 1898, and gained formal independence from the U.S. in 1902. A fragile democracy, increasingly dominated by radical politics eventually evolved, solidified by the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but was definitely quashed in 1952 by former president Fulgencio Batista, and an authoritarian regime was set up, intensifying and catalyzing already rampant corruption, political repression and crippling economic regulations.Batista was ousted in January 1959 by the July 26 movement, and a new administration under Fidel Castro established, which had by 1965 evolved into a single-party state under the revived Communist Party of Cuba, which holds power to date.
wn.com/Cuba -
Death of John Lennon
Coordinates: 40°46′35″N 73°58′34″W / 40.776436°N 73.976006°W / 40.776436; -73.976006
John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City, on Monday, 8 December 1980; Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.
Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of The Dakota. He was cremated on 10 December 1980, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him. The first report of his death to a national audience was announced by Howard Cosell, on ABC's Monday Night Football.
wn.com/Death_of_John_Lennon -
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.
wn.com/Denmark -
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( /diˈtrɔɪt/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan, and the seat of Wayne County. It is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people, and serves as a major port on the Detroit River connecting the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. It was founded on July 24, 1701, by the French explorer, adventurer, and nobleman Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac.
In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777 and ranked as the 18th most populous city in the United States. The name Detroit sometimes refers to the Metro Detroit area with a population of 4,296,250 for the six-county Metropolitan Statistical Area, the United States' eleventh-largest, and a population of 5,218,852 for the nine-county Combined Statistical Area as of the 2010 Census. The Detroit–Windsor area, a critical commercial link straddling the Canada–U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,700,000.
Known as the world's traditional automotive center, "Detroit" is a metonym for the American automobile industry and an important source of popular music legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, the Motor City and Motown. Other nicknames arose in the 20th century, including City of Champions beginning in the 1930s for its successes in individual and team sport,The D, D-Town, Hockeytown (a trademark owned by the city's NHL club, the Red Wings), Rock City (after the Kiss song "Detroit Rock City"), and The 313 (its telephone area code) Detroit became known as the "great arsenal of democracy" for its support of the U.S. role among the Allied powers during World War II.
wn.com/Detroit,_Michigan -
East Germany
The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik [ˈdɔʏtʃə demoˈkʀaːtɪʃə ʀepuˈbliːk] or DDR), informally known as East Germany (German: Ostdeutschland), was a socialist state established by the USSR in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city. The GDR had an area of 107,771 km2 (41,610 mi2), bordering Czechoslovakia to the south, West Germany to the south and west, Poland to the east, and the Baltic Sea to the north. East Germany was dissolved upon joining the institutions of West Germany in the German reunification, on 3 October 1990.
wn.com/East_Germany -
Egypt
Egypti/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
wn.com/Egypt -
El Mozote massacre
The El Mozote Massacre took place in and around the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces killed at least 200 and up to 1000 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
As news of the massacre slowly emerged, the Reagan administration in the United States attempted to dismiss it because of its reflection of the human rights abuses of the Salvadoran government, which the U.S. was supporting with large amounts of military aid.
In December 2011, the El Salvador government apologized for the massacre.
On the afternoon of December 10, 1981, units of the Salvadoran army's Atlacatl Battalion (named after an indigenous fighter who fought the Spanish in the 16th century) arrived at the remote village of El Mozote after a clash with guerrillas in the vicinity. The Atlacatl was a "Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion" specially trained for counter-insurgency warfare. It was the first unit of its kind in the Salvadoran armed forces and was trained by United States military advisors. Its mission, Operación Rescate ("Operation Rescue"), was to eliminate the rebel presence in a small region of northern Morazán where the FMLN had a camp and a training center.
wn.com/El_Mozote_massacre -
El Salvador
El Salvadori/ɛl ˈsælvədɔr/ (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally 'Republic of The Savior') is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country as well as Central America. El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the countries of Guatemala to the north and Honduras to the east. Its easternmost region lies on the coast of the Gulf of Fonseca, opposite Nicaragua. As of 2009, El Salvador had a population of approximately 5,744,113 people, composed predominantly of Mestizos.
The colón was the official currency of El Salvador from 1892 to 2001, when it adopted the U.S. Dollar.
In 2010 El Salvador ranked in the top 10 among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index and in the top 3 in Central America (behind Costa Rica and Panama), due in part to ongoing rapid industrialization. In addition, tropical forests and overall forest cover has expanded by nearly 20 percent from the year 1992 to 2010. Making it one of the few countries experiencing reforestation.
wn.com/El_Salvador -
Ethiopia
Ethiopia ( /ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə/) (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With its capital at Addis Ababa, it is also the most populous landlocked nation in the world.
Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history, and the Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 2nd century BC. Ethiopia is also one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity's oldest traces. It may be the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. Alongside Rome, Persia, China and India, the Ethiopian Aksum Empire was considered one of the great world powers of the 3rd century. During the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was the only African country beside Liberia that retained its sovereignty as a recognized independent country, and was one of only four African members of the League of Nations. After a brief period of Italian occupation, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. When other African nations received their independence following World War II, many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag, and Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations focused on Africa.
wn.com/Ethiopia -
Fiat
Fiat S.p.A., (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin), is an Italian automobile manufacturer based in Turin. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. During its more than a century long history, Fiat has also manufactured railway engines and carriages, military vehicles, and aircraft. As of 2009, the Fiat group (not inclusive of its subsidiary Chrysler) was the world's ninth largest carmaker and the largest in Italy.
Fiat-based cars are built around the world. Outside Italy, the largest country of production is Brazil, where the Fiat brand is the market leader. The group also has factories in Argentina and Poland and a long history of licensing production of its products in other countries. It also has numerous alliances and joint ventures around the world, the main ones being located in Italy, France, Turkey, Serbia, India and China.
Agnelli's grandson Gianni Agnelli was Fiat's chairman from 1966 until 1996; he then served as honorary chairman from 1996 until his death on 24 January 2003, during which time Cesare Romiti served as chairman. After their[clarification needed] removal, Paolo Fresco served as chairman and Paolo Cantarella as CEO. Umberto Agnelli then took over as chairman from 2003 to 2004. After Umberto Agnelli's death on 28 May 2004, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was named chairman, with Agnelli heir John Elkann becoming vice chairman (at the age of 28), and other family members also serving on the board. At this point, CEO Giuseppe Morchio resigned, and Sergio Marchionne was named to replace him on 1 June 2004.
wn.com/Fiat -
Finland
Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027
Finlandi/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.
wn.com/Finland -
France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
wn.com/France -
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (Arabic: قطاع غزة Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah, IPA: [qitˤaːʕ ɣazza]) lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, within the Middle East (at 31 25 N, 34 20 E). The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest, 11km long, and Israel on the east and north, 51km long. It is about 41 kilometres (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometres (140 sq mi). It has a 40 km coastline onto the Mediterranean Sea, but has no maritime claims due to Israeli administration. The territory takes its name from Gaza-city, its main city and administrative center.
The Gaza Strip has a temperate climate, with mild winters, and dry and hot summers, subject to drought. The terrain is flat or rolling, with dunes near the coast. The highest point is Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Auda), at 105 metres above sea level. Main resources are arable land (about a third of the strip is irrigated), and recently discovered natural gas. Environmental issues include desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage treatment; water-borne disease; soil degradation; and depletion and contamination of underground water resources.
wn.com/Gaza_Strip -
Greece
Greecei/ˈɡriːs/ (Greek: Ελλάδα, Ellada, IPA: [eˈlaða] ( listen) historically in Katharevousa and Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellas, IPA: [eˈlas] and [helːás] respectively), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia, IPA: [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia]), is a country in Southern Europe, politically considered part of Western Europe.Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its urban area also including Piraeus). The population of the country is around 11 million.
Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).
wn.com/Greece -
Grenada
Grenada (i/ɡrɨˈneɪdə/) is an island country and Commonwealth realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which Grenada is one of the world's largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada Dove.
Grenada was first sighted by Europeans in 1498 during the third voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world. At the time the indigenous Island Caribs (Kalinago) who lived there called it Camahogne. The Spaniards did not permanently settle on Camahogne. The English failed in their attempt at settlement in 1609.
wn.com/Grenada -
Haiti
Haitii/ˈheɪti/ (French: Haïti [aiti]; Haitian Creole Ayiti [ajiti]), officially the Republic of Haiti (République d'Haïti; Repiblik Ayiti), is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti (land of high mountains) was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island. The country's highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince. Haitian Creole and French are the official languages.
Haiti's regional, historical, and ethno-linguistic position is unique for several reasons. It was the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the first black-led republic in the world, and the second republic in the Americas when it gained independence in 1804 as part of a successful slave revolution lasting nearly a decade. In 2012, Haiti announced its intention to seek associate membership status in the African Union. Haiti is the only predominantly Francophone independent nation in the Americas. It is one of only two independent nations in the Americas (along with Canada) to designate French as an official language; the other French-speaking areas are all overseas départements, or collectivités, of France.
wn.com/Haiti -
Havana
Havana (/həˈvænə/; Spanish: La Habana, [la aˈβana] ( listen)) is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of 726.75 km2 (280.60 sq mi) — making it the largest city by area, the most populous city, and the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet and which divides into three main harbours: Marimelena, Guanabacoa and Atarés. The sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay.
Havana was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century and due to its strategic location it served as a springboard for the Spanish conquest of the continent becoming a stopping point for the treasure laden Spanish Galleons on the crossing between the New World and the Old World. King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592. Walls as well as forts were built to protect the old city. The sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana's harbor in 1898 was the immediate cause of the Spanish-American War.
wn.com/Havana -
India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
wn.com/India -
Indonesia
Indonesia (i/ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ IN-də-NEE-zhə or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziə/ IN-doh-NEE-zee-ə), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Indonesian pronunciation: [rɛpʊblɪk ɪndɔnɛsɪa]), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 17th largest economy by nominal GDP.
The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.
wn.com/Indonesia -
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.
wn.com/Iran -
Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ ori/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.
wn.com/Iraq -
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.
wn.com/Ireland -
Israel
Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.[neutrality is disputed] Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
wn.com/Israel -
Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
wn.com/Jamaica -
Japan
Japani/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
wn.com/Japan -
Kiribati
Kiribati ([kɪribas] KIRR-i-bas or ˌkɪrəˈbɑdi;Gilbertese: [ˈkiɾibas]), officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000 (2011), and the island nation is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, (1,351,000 square miles) straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line at its easternmost point.
The name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of "Gilberts", derived from the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands. The capital of South Tarawa consists of a number of islets connected through a series of causeways, located in the Tarawa archipelago. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999.
Kiribati was named in French by captains Krusenstern and Louis Isidore Duperrey "îles Gilbert", Gilbert Islands, after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted the islands in 1788. The current name, Kiribati, is an adaptation of "Gilberts", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru, the new state chose the name "Kiribati", the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts", as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of islands which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain.
wn.com/Kiribati -
Kuwait
Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwaiti/kuːˈweɪt/ (Arabic: دولة الكويت, Dawlat al-Kuwayt) is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the Arabic أكوات ākwāt, the plural of كوت kūt, meaning a fortress built near water. The country covers an area of 17,820 square kilometers (6,880 sq mi) and has a population of about 3.5 million.
Historically, the region was the site of Characene, a major Parthian port for trade between Mesopotamia and India. The Bani Utbah tribe were the first permanent Arab settlers in the region, and laid the foundation of the modern emirate. By the 19th century, Kuwait came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, and after World War I, it emerged as an independent sheikhdom under the protection of the British Empire. Kuwait's large oil fields were discovered in the late 1930s.
wn.com/Kuwait -
Lebanon
Lebanon (i/ˈlɛbənɒn/ or /ˈlɛbənən/; Arabic: لبنان Libnān or Lubnān, Lebanese Arabic: [lɪbˈneːn]), officially the Lebanese Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية اللبنانية al-Jumhūrīyah al-Libnānīyah, Lebanese Arabic: [elˈʒʊmhuːɾɪjje l.ˈlɪbneːnɪjje]), is a country in the East Mediterranean. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history, and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.
The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than 7,000 years—predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for nearly 2,500 years (3000–539 BC). Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the five provinces that comprise modern Lebanon were mandated to France. The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronite Catholics and Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, and established a unique political system, known as confessionalism, a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities – Bechara El Khoury who became independent Lebanon's first President and Riad El-Solh, who became Lebanon's first prime minister, are considered the founders of the modern Republic of Lebanon and are national heroes for having led the country's independence. French troops withdrew from Lebanon in 1946.
wn.com/Lebanon -
Libya
Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībyā), Berber: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ) is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the third largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The largest city, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica.
In 2009 Libya had the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production.
As a result of the Libyan civil war, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which had at that time been in existence for 34 years, collapsed and Libya entered a period of governance by a transitional administration called the National Transitional Council. The NTC has stated its intention to oversee the first phase of a transition to constitutional democracy, after which it claims it will dissolve in favor of a representative legislature.
wn.com/Libya -
Lockerbie Disaster
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday, 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route, a Boeing 747–121 registered N739PA and named “Clipper Maid of the Seas”, was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. 11 people in Lockerbie, in southern Scotland, were also killed as large sections of the plane fell in the town and destroyed several houses, bringing total fatalities to 270. The event is also known as the Lockerbie bombing. During the Libyan civil war a former government official claimed that Muammar Gaddafi had personally ordered the attack.
The aircraft operating Pan Am Flight 103 was a Boeing 747–121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas. The jumbo jet was the fifteenth 747 built and was delivered in February 1970, one month after the first 747 entered service with Pan Am. The Clipper Maid of the Seas operated the transatlantic leg of Flight 103, which had originated in Frankfurt, West Germany, on a Boeing 727. At London Heathrow, passengers and their luggage on the feeder flight transferred directly onto the Boeing 747, along with interline luggage not accompanied by anyone. The aircraft pushed back from the gate at 18:04, and lifted off at 18:25. Captain James Bruce McQuarrie 55, (is a veteran for leading 11000 flight hours) 1st officer Raymond Ronald Wagner 52 and flight engineer Jerry Don Avritt, 46 flew northwest into the Daventry departure over the Midlands and leveled off at 31,000 ft about 25 miles (40 km) north of Manchester at 18:56.
wn.com/Lockerbie_Disaster -
Los Angeles
Los Angeles (i/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km2), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".
wn.com/Los_Angeles -
Malawi
Malawi ( /məˈlɑːwi/; Chichewa [malaβi][need tone]), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 13,900,000. Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre and the third is Mzuzu. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is also nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa".
The area of Africa now known as Malawi was colonized by migrating tribes of Bantu around the 10th century. In 1891 the area was colonized again, this time by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, became part of the semi-independent Central African Federation (CAF). The Federation was dissolved in 1963 and in 1964, Nyasaland gained full independence and was renamed Malawi. Upon gaining independence it became a single-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda, who remained president until 1994, when he was ousted from power. Joyce Banda (no relation) is the current president, raised to that position after president Bingu Mutharika died in 2012. She is the first female leader in Malawi. Malawi has a democratic, multi-party government. Malawi has a small military force that includes an army, a navy and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western and includes positive diplomatic relations with most countries and participation in several international organizations.
wn.com/Malawi -
Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
wn.com/Malaysia -
Malta
Maltai/ˈmɒltə/, officially known as the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya, with Gibraltar 1,755 km (1,091 mi) to the west and Alexandria 1,508 km (937 mi) to the east. Malta covers just over 316 km2 (122 sq mi) in land area, making it one of the world's smallest states. It is also one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. The de facto capital city of Malta is Valletta; the largest town, Birkirkara. The main island comprises many towns, which together form one Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with a population of 368,250 according to Eurostat. The country has two official languages, Maltese (constitutionally the national language) and English.
Throughout history, Malta's location has given it great strategic importance, and a succession of powers including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British ruled the islands. Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a republic in 1974, whilst retaining membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004. Malta is also party to the Schengen Agreement and in 2008 it became part of the eurozone.
wn.com/Malta -
Mexico
Mexico (i/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
wn.com/Mexico -
Moscow
Moscow ( /ˈmɒskaʊ/ or /ˈmɒskoʊ/; Russian: Москва́, tr. Moskva; IPA: [mɐˈskva] (
listen)) is the capital and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural and scientific center of Russia and the continent. Moscow is the northernmost megacity on Earth, the most populous city in Europe, and the 6th largest city proper in the world. Its population, according to the results of the 2010 Census, is 11,503,501. Based on Forbes 2011, Moscow has the largest community of billionaires in the world.
Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia. In the course of its history the city has served as the capital of a progression of states, from the medieval Grand Duchy of Moscow and the subsequent Tsardom of Russia to the Soviet Union. Moscow is the site of the Moscow Kremlin, an ancient fortress that is today the residence of the Russian President and of the executive branch of the Government of Russia. The Kremlin is also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament (the State Duma and the Federation Council) also sit in Moscow.
wn.com/Moscow -
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Portuguese: Moçambique or República de Moçambique, pronounced: [ʁɛˈpublikɐ di musɐ̃ˈbiki]), is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. The capital city is Maputo, formerly known as Lourenço Marques.
Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili, and later also Arab, commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans. The area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonized by Portugal in 1505. Mozambique became independent in 1975, and became the People's Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. It was the scene of an intense civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992.
Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources. The country's economy is based largely on agriculture, but with industry, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, aluminium and petroleum production, is growing fast. The country's tourism sector is also growing. South Africa is Mozambique's main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Portugal, Spain, and Belgium are also among the country's most important partners. Since 2001 Mozambique is one of the world's top ten for annual average GDP growth. However, Mozambique still has one of the lowest GDP per capita, one of the worst human development index and one of the highest inequality in the world, as well as having the world's lowest life expectancy.
wn.com/Mozambique -
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia (Afrikaans: Republiek van Namibië, German: Republik Namibia (help·info)), is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, and Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion. It became a German Imperial protectorate in 1884 and remained a German colony until the end of World War I. In 1920, the League of Nations mandated the country to South Africa, which imposed its laws and, from 1948, its apartheid policy.
wn.com/Namibia -
NASA
Coordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W / 38.88306°N 77.01639°W / 38.88306; -77.01639
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Since February 2006, NASA's mission statement has been to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." On September 14, 2011, NASA announced that it had selected the design of a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before and provide the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.
NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958. U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.
wn.com/NASA -
Netherlands
The Netherlands (i/ˈnɛðərləndz/; Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdə(r)lɑnt] or [ˈneɪ̯də(r)lɑnt] ( listen); West Frisian: Nederlân; Papiamento: Hulanda) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with some islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces (a case of pars pro toto; see terminology of "the Netherlands").
wn.com/Netherlands -
New Caledonia
Coordinates: 21°15′S 165°18′E / 21.25°S 165.30°E / -21.25; 165.30
New Caledonia (French: Nouvelle-Calédonie) is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) east of Australia and about 20,000 kilometres (12,000 mi) from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands in the Coral Sea are also part of New Caledonia. Locals refer to Grande Terre as "Le Caillou", the rock.
New Caledonia has a land area of 18,576 square kilometres (7,172 sq mi). The population (2011 estimate) is 256,275. The capital of the territory is Nouméa.
The earliest traces of human presence in New Caledonia date back to the Lapita period. The Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific.
The British first sighted New Caledonia on September 4, 1774, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook. He named the territory New Caledonia, as the north-east of the island reminded him of Scotland. The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, and the Loyalty Islands were first visited in 1796. From then until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded. Contacts became more frequent after 1840, because of the interest in sandalwood from New Caledonia.
wn.com/New_Caledonia -
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.
wn.com/New_Zealand -
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (i/ˌnɪkəˈrɑːɡwə/ nik-ə-RAH-gwə), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (Spanish: República de Nicaragua [reˈpuβlika ðe nikaˈɾaɣwa] ( listen)), is the largest country in the Central American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: Pacific lowlands; wet, cooler central highlands; and the Caribbean lowlands. On the Pacific side of the country are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.
wn.com/Nicaragua -
Nigeria
Nigeriai/naɪˈdʒɪəriə/, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The three largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
In terms of religion Nigeria is roughly split half and half between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South; a very small minority practice traditional religion. Since 2002 there have been a spate of clashes, particularly in the North of the country, between government forces and the Islamists Boko Haram, militant jihadists who seek to establish sharia law.
The people of Nigeria have an extensive history. Archaeological evidence shows that human habitation of the area dates back to at least 9000 BCE. The area around the Benue and Cross River is thought to be the original homeland of the Bantu migrants who spread across most of central and southern Africa in waves between the 1st millennium BC and the 2nd millennium.
wn.com/Nigeria -
Operation Opera
Operation Opera (Hebrew: אופרה), also known as Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on 7 June 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq.
In 1976, Iraq purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France maintained that the reactor, named Osirak by the French, was intended for peaceful scientific research, the Israelis viewed the reactor with suspicion, and said that it was designed to make nuclear weapons. On 7 June 1981, a flight of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircraft, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor. Israel claimed it acted in self-defense, and that the reactor had "less than a month to go" before "it might have become critical." Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian were killed. The attack took place about three weeks before the elections for the Knesset.
The attack was strongly criticized around the world and Israel was rebuked by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in two separate resolutions. The destruction of Osirak has been cited as an example of a preventive strike in contemporary scholarship on international law.
wn.com/Operation_Opera -
Osirak
Operation Opera (Hebrew: אופרה), also known as Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on 7 June 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq.
In 1976, Iraq purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France maintained that the reactor, named Osirak by the French, was intended for peaceful scientific research, the Israelis viewed the reactor with suspicion, and said that it was designed to make nuclear weapons. On 7 June 1981, a flight of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircraft, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor. Israel claimed it acted in self-defense, and that the reactor had "less than a month to go" before "it might have become critical." Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian were killed. The attack took place about three weeks before the elections for the Knesset.
The attack was strongly criticized around the world and Israel was rebuked by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in two separate resolutions. The destruction of Osirak has been cited as an example of a preventive strike in contemporary scholarship on international law.
wn.com/Osirak -
Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
wn.com/Pakistan -
Palau
Palau (i/pəˈlaʊ/, sometimes spelled Belau or Pelew), officially the Republic of Palau (Palauan: Beluu ęr a Belau), is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the country's population of around 21,000 people spread out over 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands. The islands share maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The most populous island in the group is Koror, with the capital city, Ngerulmud, located on nearby Babeldaob.
The country were originally settled around 3000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines, with a Negrito population sustained until around 900 years ago. The islands were first visited by Europeans in the 18th century, and were made part of the Spanish East Indies in 1885. Following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, the islands were sold to Imperial Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German–Spanish Treaty, where they were administered as part of German New Guinea. The Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the newly-independent Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, the islands gained full sovereignty in 1994 under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
wn.com/Palau -
Panama
Panama (i/ˈpænəmɑː/ PAN-ə-mah; Spanish: Panamá), officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela, named the Republic of Gran Colombia.When Gran Colombia the dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia.
With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century.
wn.com/Panama -
Philadelphia
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").
wn.com/Philadelphia -
Philippines
The Philippinesi/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
wn.com/Philippines -
Poland
Polandi/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
wn.com/Poland -
Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Other settlements on the sound, which contains numerous small islands, include Cordova and Whittier plus the Alaska native villages of Chenega and Tatitlek.
It was named by George Vancouver in 1778 to honour George III's son William IV of the United Kingdom.
Most of the land surrounding Prince William Sound is part of the Chugach National Forest, the second largest national forest in the U.S. Prince William Sound is ringed by the steep and glaciated Chugach Mountains. The coastline is convoluted, with many islands and fjords, several of which contain tidewater glaciers. The principal barrier islands forming the sound are Montague Island, Hinchinbrook Island, and Hawkins Island.
James Cook entered Prince William Sound in 1778 and named it Sandwich Sound, after his patron the Earl of Sandwich. The editors of Cook's maps changed the name to Prince William Sound, in honor of Prince William, who would later become King William IV.
wn.com/Prince_William_Sound -
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.
wn.com/Quebec -
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.
wn.com/Republic_of_China -
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.
wn.com/Republic_of_Ireland -
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.
wn.com/Romania -
Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square (Italian: Piazza San Pietro, pronounced [ˌpi̯aʦa san ˈpi̯ɛːtɾo]) is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome (the Piazza borders to the East the rione of Borgo).
The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke emotions awe.
The site's possibilities were under many constraints from existing structures (illustration, right). The massed accretions of the Vatican Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica's façade; the structures needed to be masked without obscuring the papal apartments. The obelisk marked a center, and a granite fountain by Carlo Maderno stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the ovato tondo embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched it on the other side, in 1675, just five years before his death. The trapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective for a visitor leaving the basilica and has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theater (illustration, below right), is largely a product of site constraints.
wn.com/Saint_Peter's_Square -
Samoa
Samoa (i/səˈmoʊ.ə/; Samoan: Sāmoa, IPA: [ˌsaːˈmoa]), officially the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Sāmoa), formerly known as Western Samoa, is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in Polynesia, Savai'i. The capital city, Apia, and Faleolo International Airport are situated on the island of Upolu.
Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was called Navigators Islands by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills.
The oldest date so far from pre-historic remains in Samoa has been calculated by New Zealand scientists to a likely true age of circa 3,000 years ago from a Lapita site at Mulifanua during the 1970s.
The origins of the Samoans is closely linked to modern research about Polynesia in various scientific disciplines such as genetics, linguistics and anthropology. Scientific research is ongoing although a number of different theories exist; including one proposing that the Samoans originated from Austronesian predecessors during the terminal eastward Lapita expansion period from Southeast Asia and Melanesia between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE. The Samoan origins are currently being reassessed due to new scientific evidence and carbon dating findings from 2003 and onwards.
wn.com/Samoa -
Sarajevo
Sarajevo (Cyrillic: Сарајево) (pronounced [sǎrajɛʋɔ]) is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an estimated population of over 311,161 people within its administrative limits. It is also the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, as well as the center of the Sarajevo Canton, which has a population of 438,757. Nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans.
Sarajevo is the leading social and cultural center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its region-wide influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts contribute to its status as Bosnia and Herzegovina's major economic center.
The city is historically famous for its traditional cultural and religious diversity, with adherents of Islam, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Judaism coexisting there for centuries. Due to this long and rich history of religious and cultural variety, Sarajevo is often called the "Jerusalem of Europe" or "Jerusalem of the Balkans". It was, until recently in the 20th century, the only major European city to have a mosque, cathedral, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood.
wn.com/Sarajevo -
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia (i/ˌsaʊdi əˈreɪbi.ə/ or i/ˌsɔːdiː əˈreɪbi.ə/; Arabic: السعودية as-Su‘ūdīyah[citation needed] or incorrectly as-Sa‘ūdīyah, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabīyah as-Su‘ūdīyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab world, after Algeria. It is bordered by Jordan, and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Red Sea lies to its west, and the Persian Gulf lies to the east. Saudi Arabia has an area of approximately 2,250,000 km2 (870,000 sq mi), and it has an estimated population of 27 million, of which 9 million are registered foreign expatriates and an estimated 2 million are illegal immigrants. Saudi nationals comprise an estimated 16 million people.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (known for most of his career as Ibn Saud) in 1932, although the conquests which eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom began in 1902 when he captured Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud, referred to in Arabic as the Al Saud. The Saudi Arabian government, which has been an absolute monarchy since its inception, refers to its system of government as being Islamic, though this is contested by many due to its strong basis in Salafism, a minority school of thought in Islam. The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.
wn.com/Saudi_Arabia -
Seoul
Seoul (Korean pronunciation: [sʌ.ul] ( listen), English /soʊl/), officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world. The Seoul National Capital Area is the world's second largest metropolitan area with over 25 million inhabitants, which includes the surrounding Incheon metropolis and Gyeonggi province. Almost a quarter of South Koreans live in Seoul, half of South Koreans live in the metropolitan area, along with over 275,000 international residents.
Located in the Han River, Seoul has been a major settlement for over 2,000 years, with its foundation dating back to 18 B.C. when Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, established its capital in what is now south-east Seoul. It continued as the capital of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire. The Seoul National Capital Area is home to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Changdeokgung, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty.
wn.com/Seoul -
SFRY
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Serbia, in addition, included two autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija.
Initially siding with the Eastern bloc under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito at the beginning of the Cold War, Yugoslavia pursued a policy of neutrality after the Tito-Stalin split of 1948, and became one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the death of Tito in 1980, rising ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s led to dissidence among the multiple ethnicities within the constituent republics, followed by collapse of inter-republic talks on transformation of the country and recognition of their independence by some European states in 1991. This led to the country collapsing on ethnic lines, followed by wars fraught with ethnic discrimination and human rights violations.
wn.com/SFRY -
Singapore
Singapore (i/ˈsɪŋəpɔər/ SI-ngə-pohr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.
wn.com/Singapore -
South Africa
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
wn.com/South_Africa -
South Korea
South Korea ( listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國; Daehan Minguk listen), is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the Middle Ages (an initial "G" in Korean is pronounced like an English "K").
Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the Korea Strait to the south. South Korea lies in the north temperate zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of almost 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304.
Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy, though political turmoil and times of military rule and martial law characterized much of the period until the foundation of the Sixth Republic in 1987.
wn.com/South_Korea -
Southern Sudan
South Sudan (i/ˌsaʊθ suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in the east-central African region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN subregion. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future. South Sudan is bordered by Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, the Central African Republic to the west, and Sudan to the north. South Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, locally called the Bahr al Jabal.
The modern states of South Sudan and Sudan were part of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, later being governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence was achieved in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed.
wn.com/Southern_Sudan -
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. A union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a highly centralized government and economy.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
wn.com/Soviet_Union -
Spain
Spain (i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
wn.com/Spain -
Sudan
Sudan (i/suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/;Arabic: السودان, as-Sūdān), officially the Republic of the Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان, Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān), sometimes called North Sudan, is an Arab state in North Africa (sometimes also considered to be part of the Middle East). It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides.
The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt. Sudan suffered seventeen years of civil war during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) followed by ethnic, religious and economic conflicts between the Muslim Arab northern Sudanese and the mostly animist and Christian Nilotes of Southern Sudan. This led to the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983. Because of continuing political and military struggles, Sudan was seized in a bloodless coup d'état by colonel Omar al-Bashir in 1989, who thereafter proclaimed himself President of Sudan. The civil war ended with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement which granted autonomy to what was then the southern region of the country. Following a referendum held in January 2011, South Sudan seceded on 9 July 2011 with the consent of Sudan's President al-Bashir.
wn.com/Sudan -
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.
wn.com/Sweden -
Syria
Syria (/ˈsɪriə/ ( listen) SIRR-ee-ə; Arabic: سورية Sūriyya or سوريا Sūryā; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: Sûrî), officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية al-Jumhūriyyah al-‘Arabīyah as-Sūriyyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.
In English, the name Syria was formerly synonymous with the Levant, known in Arabic as Sham, while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
The population of Syria is 74% Sunni, 12% Alawi, 10% Christian, and 3% Druze. Combined, 87% of the Syrian population is Muslim, while the other 10% is Christian, which includes mainly Arab Christians but also Assyrians and Armenians. Major ethnic minorities in Syria include Kurds (9%), Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens and Circassians. The majority of the population is Arab (90%).
wn.com/Syria -
Thailand
Thailand ( /ˈtaɪlænd/ TY-land or /ˈtaɪlənd/;Thai: ประเทศไทย, RTGS: Prathet Thai), officially the Kingdom of Thailand (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย, RTGS: Ratcha Anachak Thai; IPA: [râːt.tɕʰā ʔāːnāːtɕàk tʰāj] ( listen)), formerly known as Siam (Thai: สยาม; RTGS: Sayam), is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.
The country is a constitutional monarchy, headed by King Rama IX, the ninth king of the House of Chakri, who, having reigned since 1946, is the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. The king of Thailand is titled Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, the Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths.
wn.com/Thailand -
UK
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
wn.com/UK -
Ukraine
Ukraine (i/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]; Russian: Украина; Crimean Tatar: Ukraina) is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after the Russian Federation.
According to a popular and well established theory, the medieval state of Kievan Rus was established by the Varangians in the 9th century as the first historically recorded East Slavic state which emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages until it disintegrated in the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th century, Ukrainian territories were under the rule of three external powers—the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Great Northern War (1700–1721) Ukraine was divided between a number of regional powers and, by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with several internationally recognized attempts at independence from 1917 to 1921, following World War I and the Russian Civil War. Ukraine emerged from its own civil war, and on December 30, 1922 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian SSR's territory was enlarged westward during the civil war shortly before, and after World War II, and further south in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
wn.com/Ukraine -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
wn.com/United_Kingdom -
United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
wn.com/United_States -
USSR
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. A union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a highly centralized government and economy.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
wn.com/USSR -
Vanuatu
Vanuatu (Englishi/ˌvɑːnuːˈɑːtuː/ vah-noo-AH-too or /vænˈwɑːtuː/ van-WAH-too; Bislama IPA: [vanuaˈtu]), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were the members of a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós who arrived in Espiritu Santo in 1605. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British–French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980.
wn.com/Vanuatu -
Vietnam
Vietnam ( listen), formally the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam; listen), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 91.5 million inhabitants as of 2012, it is the world's 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1945. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east.
The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to the expulsion of the French in 1954, leaving Vietnam divided politically into two states, North and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
wn.com/Vietnam -
Washington (state)
Washington (i/ˈwɒʃɪŋtən/) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States located north of Oregon, west of Idaho and south of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889.
Washington is the 18th most extensive and the 13th most populous of the 50 United States. Approximately 60 percent of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry along the Puget Sound region of the Salish Sea, an inlet of the Pacific consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep rainforests in the west, mountain ranges in the west, center, northeast and far southeast, and a semi-arid eastern basin given over to intensive agriculture. Washington is the second most populous state on the west coast and in the western United States after California.
wn.com/Washington_(state) -
West Bank
The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية aḍ-Ḍaffah l-Ġarbiyyah, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית, HaGadah HaMa'aravit also known as Hebrew: יהודה והשומרון Yehuda ve-Ha'Shomron (Judea and Samaria)) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coastline along the western bank of the Dead Sea. Since 1967, most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation and is referred to as Judea and Samaria Area by Israel. A smaller part of the West Bank is administered by the Israeli civilian authorities as part of Jerusalem District.
wn.com/West_Bank -
West Germany
West Germany (German: Westdeutschland) is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990.
During this period, West Germany and the communist East Germany were divided by the Inner German border. After 1961, West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany with sixteen states (known simply as "Germany") is thus the continuation of the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany.
The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France (the "Western Zones"). The city of Bonn was its provisional capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone (the East Zone, or Ostzone) was held by the Soviet Union. The parts of this zone lying east of the Oder-Neisse were in fact annexed by the Soviet Union and communist Poland; the remaining central part around Berlin became the communist German Democratic Republic (abbreviated GDR; in German Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) with its de facto capital in East Berlin. As a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interwar democratic Weimar Republic.
wn.com/West_Germany -
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian: Jugoslavija; Cyrillic: Југославија) was a country in the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century which was established three times under differing forms of government.
The first country to be known by this name was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which before 3 October 1929 was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was established on 1 December 1918 by the union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia (the Kingdom of Montenegro was annexed on 13 November 1918, and the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris gave international recognition to the union on 13 July 1922). The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers in 1941, and because of the events that followed, was officially abolished in 1943 and 1945.
The second country with this name was the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, proclaimed in 1943 by the Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement during World War II. It was renamed to the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, when a communist government was established. In 1963, it was renamed again to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). This was the largest Yugoslav state, as Istria, Rijeka and Zadar were added to the new Yugoslavia after the end of World War II.
wn.com/Yugoslavia -
Zambia
Zambia ( /ˈzæmbiə/), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest.
Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region which comprises modern Zambia was colonised during the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the eighteenth century, Zambia became the British colony of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the United Kingdom and then-prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from the 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a single-party state with the UNIP as the sole-legal political party, with the goal of uniting the nation under the banner of 'One Zambia, One Nation'. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government.
wn.com/Zambia -
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (/zɪmˈbɑːbweɪ/ zim-BAHB-way; officially the Republic of Zimbabwe) is a landlocked country of southern Africa. It shares a 125-mile (200-kilometre) border on the south with the Republic of South Africa and is bounded on the southwest and west by Botswana, on the north by Zambia, and on the northeast and east by Mozambique. The capital is Harare (formerly called Salisbury). Zimbabwe achieved majority rule and internationally recognised independence in April 1980 following a long period of colonial rule and a 15-year period of white-dominated minority rule, instituted after the minority regime’s so-called Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965.
Zimbabwe has three official languages: English, Shona and Ndebele. Zimbabwe began as the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, created from land held by the British South Africa Company. President Robert Mugabe is the head of State and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Morgan Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister. Mugabe has been in power since the country's internationally recognised independence in 1980.
wn.com/Zimbabwe
-
A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of MC/producer Q-Tip, MC Phife Dawg aka Phife Diggy (Malik Taylor), and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 1991. Along with De La Soul, the group was a central part of the Native Tongues Posse, and enjoyed the most commercial success out of all the groups to emerge from that collective. Their innovative fusing of hip hop and jazz has had a lasting impact on hip hop music, helping to expand the art of hip hop production. Many of their songs, such as "Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It?", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", "Scenario", "Check the Rhime", "Jazz (We've Got)", "Award Tour" and "Electric Relaxation" are regarded as classics by the hip hop community.
They released five albums between 1990 and 1998. The first three LPs were highly acclaimed, but the group disbanded in 1998. In 2006, the group reunited and toured the U.S., and planned to release an album after some works in the studio. The group is regarded as iconic pioneers of alternative hip hop music, having helped to pave the way for innovative hip hop artists. John Bush of Allmusic called them "the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s," while the editors of About.com ranked them #4 on their list of the "25 Best Rap Groups of All Time." In 2005, A Tribe Called Quest received a Special Achievement Award at the Billboard R&B Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. In 2007, the group was formally honored at the 4th VH1 Hip Hop Honors.
wn.com/A_Tribe_Called_Quest -
Abu Nidal
Abu Nidal (Arabic: أبو نضال) (May 1937 – August 16, 2002), born Sabri Khalil al-Banna (Arabic: صبري خليل البنا), was the founder of Fatah–The Revolutionary Council (Arabic: فتح المجلس الثوري), a militant Palestinian splinter group also known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). At the height of his power in the 1970s and 1980s, Abu Nidal, or "father of [the] struggle," was widely regarded as the most ruthless of the Palestinian political leaders. He told Der Spiegel in a rare interview in 1985: "I am the evil spirit which moves around only at night causing ... nightmares."
Part of the secular Palestinian rejectionist front, so called because they reject proposals for a peaceful settlement with Israel, the ANO was formed after a split in 1974 between Abu Nidal and Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Setting himself up as a freelance contractor, Abu Nidal is believed by the United States Department of State to have ordered attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring over 900 people. The group's most notorious attacks were on the El Al ticket counters at Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985, when Arab gunmen high on amphetamines opened fire on passengers in simultaneous shootings, killing 18 and wounding 120. Patrick Seale, Abu Nidal's biographer, wrote of the attacks that their "random cruelty marked them as typical Abu Nidal operations."
wn.com/Abu_Nidal -
Abulhassan Banisadr
Abulhassan Banisadr (Persian: ابوالحسن بنیصدر; born 22 March 1933) is an Iranian politician, economist and human rights activist who served as the first President of Iran from 4 February 1980 after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy until his impeachment on 21 June 1981 by the Parliament of Iran. Prior to his presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Interim Government.
Banisadr was born in 22 March 1933 in Hamedan in a religious family. His father was close to the Ruhollah Khomeini. He studied Finance and Economics at the Sorbonne.
Banisadr had participated in the anti-Shah student movement during the early 1960s, was imprisoned twice, and was wounded during an uprising in 1963. He then fled to France and joined the Iranian resistance group led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Banisadr returned to Iran together with Khomeini as the revolution was beginning in February 1979. He wrote a book on Islamic finance, Eghtesad Tohidi, an Arabic phrase that roughly translates as "The Economics of Monotheism."
wn.com/Abulhassan_Banisadr -
Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne (born 4 March 1941 in Peterborough, then in Northamptonshire, England) is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres. He was educated at Highgate School.
He began working in film after a number of television commercials. He directed the music video for "Maniac", the theme song from Flashdance written by Michael Sembello. He received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Director in 1988 for Fatal Attraction.
As director:
wn.com/Adrian_Lyne -
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton, originally in a band together called the Jam Band, met up with singer Steven Tyler, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarist Ray Tabano, and formed Aerosmith. In 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, and the band began developing a following in Boston. Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop,heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists.
They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972, and released a string of multi-platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album, followed by their 1974 album Get Your Wings. In 1975, the band broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic, and their 1976 follow-up Rocks cemented their status as hard rock superstars. The band released two more albums, toured extensively, and charted a string of Hot 100 singles. By the end of the 1970s, they were among the most popular hard rock bands in the world and developed a loyal following of fans, often referred to as the "Blue Army". However, drug addiction and internal conflict took their toll on the band, which resulted in the departures of Perry and Whitford in 1979 and 1981, respectively; they were replaced by Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay. The band did not fare well between 1980 and 1984, releasing a lone album, Rock in a Hard Place, which went gold but failed to match their previous successes.
wn.com/Aerosmith -
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino (/pəˈtʃiːnɵ/; born April 25, 1940) is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy and Tony Montana in Scarface, though he has also appeared several times on the other side of the law — as a police officer, a detective and a lawyer. His role as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1993 after receiving seven previous Oscar nominations, one of them being in the same year.
He made his feature film debut in the 1969 film Me, Natalie in a minor supporting role, before playing the leading role in the 1971 drama The Panic in Needle Park. Pacino made his major breakthrough when he was given the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather in 1972, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Other Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor were for Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen Ross. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include The Godfather Part II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice for All and Scent of a Woman.
wn.com/Al_Pacino -
Alain Prost
Alain Marie Pascal Prost, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (born 24 February 1955 in Lorette, Loire) is a French racing driver. A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion, Prost has won more titles than any driver except for Juan Manuel Fangio (five championships), and Michael Schumacher (seven championships). From 1987 until 2001 Prost held the record for most Grand Prix victories. Schumacher surpassed Prost's total of 51 victories at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix. In 1999, Prost received the World Sports Awards of the Century in the motor sport category.
Prost discovered karting at the age of 14 during a family holiday. He progressed through motor sport's junior ranks, winning the French and European Formula Three championships, before joining the McLaren Formula One team in 1980 at the age of 25. He finished in the points on his Formula One début and took his first race victory at his home Grand Prix in France a year later, while he was driving for Renault's factory team.
wn.com/Alain_Prost -
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (born January 28, 1936), better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Journalism and a member of the advisory board of The Center for Communicating Science.
In 1996, Alda was ranked #41 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo in The Bronx, New York City. His father, Robert Alda (born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo), was an actor and singer, and his mother, Joan Browne, was a former showgirl. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His adopted surname, "Alda," is a portmanteau of ALphonso and D'Abruzzo. When Alda was seven years old, he contracted Poliomyelitis. To combat the disease, his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny that consisted of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles. Alda attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York. In 1956, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in English from Fordham College of Fordham University in the Bronx, where he was a student staff member of its FM radio station, WFUV. Alda's half-brother, Antony Alda, was born the same year and would also become an actor.
wn.com/Alan_Alda -
Alan Parker
Sir Alan William Parker, CBE (born 14 February 1944) is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
Parker was born into a working class family in Islington, North London, the son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter. He attended Dame Alice Owen's School. Parker started out as a copywriter for advertising agencies in the 1960s and 1970s and later began to write his own television commercial scripts. His most celebrated and enduring advertising work was when he worked for famed London agency Collett Dickenson Pearce where he directed many award winning commercials, including the famous Cinzano vermouth advertisement, starring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, shown in the UK.
His film career began through his association with producer David Puttnam, now Lord Puttnam, when he wrote the screenplay for the feature Melody (1971). Puttnam would later produce a number of Parker's films including Midnight Express (1978). This was a highly controversial film set in a Turkish prison that was lauded by critics and ended up earning a number of Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Parker. He was later nominated for Best Director with Mississippi Burning (1988).
wn.com/Alan_Parker -
Alberto Tomba
Alberto Tomba (born 19 December 1966) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Italy. He was the dominant technical skier (slalom and giant slalom) in the late 1980s and 1990s. Tomba won three Olympic gold medals, two World Championships, and nine World Cup season titles; four in slalom, four in giant slalom, and one overall title. He was popularly called Tomba la Bomba ("Tomba the Bomb").
Alberto Tomba was born in Bologna and raised in Castel de Britti, a village in the municipality of San Lazzaro di Savena, — an area without strong alpine traditions, but not far from the appenninic piste of Monte Cimone and Corno alle Scale. As a child, he participated in sports like tennis, soccer, and dirt biking, but he found that his greatest passion was for skiing.
In 1984 he took part in the Junior World Championships, where a fourth-place finish won him a position on the national B team. That year, in a parallel slalom exhibition in San Siro, Milan, he surprised everyone by beating every member of the A team. After three wins on the Europa Cup circuit, Tomba made his World Cup debut in December 1985 at Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, three days before his nineteenth birthday. Two months later, in Åre, Sweden, he surprised the skiing world by finishing sixth from the 62nd starting position. His first podium came the following season in Alta Badia, Italy in December 1986, and later that winter he won bronze in the giant slalom at the 1987 World Championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
wn.com/Alberto_Tomba -
Ali Khamenei
Grand AyatollahSayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei (Persian: سید علی حسینی خامنه ای, Azerbaijani: سید علی حسینی خامنهای – Seyyid Əli Xameneyi, pronounced [ʔæˈliː hoseiˈniː xɒːmeneˈʔiː] ( listen); born 17 July 1939) is the Supreme Leader of Iran, and a Twelver Shi'a marja. He had also served as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 1989. In 2010, Forbes selected him 26th in the list of 'World's Most Powerful People'.
Holding absolute power in his country, he has been described as one of only three people having "important influence" during the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran . Khamenei was the victim of an attempted assassination in June 1981 that paralyzed his right arm, although so far the biggest challenge to his leadership has been the mass protests following the June 2009 presidential elections during which he strongly supported president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They have had a falling out since.
Khamenei holds the title of Sayyed, which means that he claims direct patrilineal descent from Ali ibn Abi Talib. Some[which?] of Khamenei's ancestors are from Tafresh in today's Markazi province, and had migrated from their original home in Tafresh to Tabriz. Born in Mashhad, he is second eldest of eight children, and two of his brothers are also clerics. His younger brother, Hadi Khamenei, is a renowned newspaper editor and cleric. Khamenei is Iranian Azeri on his father's side and his mother is a Yazd-native Persian.
wn.com/Ali_Khamenei -
Andre The Giant
André René Roussimoff (19 May 1946 – 27 January 1993), best known as André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. His best remembered acting role was that of Fezzik, the giant in the film The Princess Bride. His size was a result of acromegaly, and led to him being called "The Eighth Wonder of the World".
In the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), Roussimoff was a one-time WWF Champion and a one-time WWF World Tag Team Champion. In 1993, he was the first inductee into the WWF Hall of Fame.
André Roussimoff was born in Grenoble, France to parents of Bulgarian and Polish ancestry. As a child, he very early displayed symptoms of his gigantism, reaching a height of 6'3" (190.5 cm) and weight of 240 pounds (110 kg) by age 12. Unable to fit on the school bus, he was driven to school by playwright Samuel Beckett, a friend of his father. Roussimoff was a good student, but he dropped out after the 8th grade since he did not think having a high school education was necessary for a farm laborer. He then worked on a farm, completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, and next worked in a factory that manufactured engines for hay balers. None of these brought him any satisfaction.
wn.com/Andre_The_Giant -
Andreas Papandreou
Andreas G. Papandreou (Greek: Ανδρέας Γ. Παπανδρέου); 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Greece (21 October 1981, to 2 July 1989, and 13 October 1993, to 22 January 1996).
His assumption of power in 1981 influenced the course of Greek political history, ending an almost 50-year long system of power dominated by conservative forces; the achievements of his successive governments include the official recognition of the Greek Resistance against the Axis, the establishment of the National Health System and the Supreme Council for Personnel Selection (ASEP), the passage of Law 1264/1982 which secured the right to strike and greatly improved the rights of workers, the constitutional amendment of 1985–1986 which strengthened parliamentarism and reduced the powers of the unelected President, the conduct of an assertive and independent Greek foreign policy, the expansion in the power of local governments, many progressive reforms in Greek Law, and granting permission to the refugees of the Greek Civil War to return home in Greece. The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) which he founded and led, was the first non-communist political party in Greek history with a mass-based organization, and introduced an unprecedented level of political and social participation in Greek society. In a poll conducted by Kathimerini in 2007, 48% of those polled called Papandreou the "most important Greek Prime Minister". In the same poll, the first four years of Papandreou's government after Metapolitefsi were voted as the best government Greece ever had.
wn.com/Andreas_Papandreou -
Andrew McCarthy
Andrew Thomas McCarthy (born November 29, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the 1980s films St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero, and more recently for his role in the television shows Lipstick Jungle, White Collar and Royal Pains.
McCarthy gained recognition in Hollywood during the 1980s. His boyish good looks continually had him placed as the sincere and kind leading man. His breakout role was in the 1983 theatrical film Class. He also played the lead role in The Beniker Gang, a Disney film about escaped orphans trying to become a family together, based on the novel "Dear Lola," a children's novel about an 18 year old boy who takes over the writing of an Advice Columnist when she dies." As McCarthy's career grew, he involuntarily became a member of the '80s Hollywood group of young actors known as the "Brat Pack"; McCarthy's better-known films include the Brat Pack films St. Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink. During the filming of St. Elmo's Fire, McCarthy took up smoking, a habit he dropped in 1995. He starred in the 1987 box office hits, Mannequin and Less Than Zero, a theatrical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' popular novel. Years after the filming of Pretty in Pink, co-star and fellow Brat Pack member Molly Ringwald admitted to having a huge crush on Andrew during the filming. She found him "incredibly cute" and "dreamy." In 1985, McCarthy starred with Donald Sutherland and Kevin Dillon in Heaven Help Us (also known as Catholic Boys) playing Michael Dunn. In 1985, McCarthy made his Broadway debut in The Boys of Winter. He quickly returned to Hollywood in 1988 to star in several films, such as Fresh Horses and Kansas.
wn.com/Andrew_McCarthy -
Andy Gibb
Andy Gibb (5 March 1958 – 10 March 1988) was an English singer and teen idol, and the younger brother of Bee Gees Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.
Andrew Roy Gibb was born in Manchester, England, to Barbara (née Pass) and Hugh Gibb (d. 1992). At the age of six months, Gibb emigrated with his family to Queensland, Australia, settling on Cribb Island just north of Brisbane. He was the youngest of five children and had one older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three older brothers, Barry (b. 1946) and fraternal twins Robin (1949-2012) and Maurice (1949-2003). After moving several times around Brisbane and Sydney, Gibb returned to the United Kingdom in January 1967 as his three older brothers began to gain international fame as the Bee Gees.
As a young teenager, Andy began playing at tourist clubs around Spain's coastal Island of Ibiza, and later on the Isle of Man, the birth place of his older brothers, where his parents were living at the time. Andy formed his first group, Melody Fayre (named after a Bee Gees song) which included local island musicians John Alderson (guitar) and John Stringer (drums). The group was managed by Gibb's mother Barbara. The group had regular bookings on the small island's hotel circuit. His first recording (in early 1974) was a Maurice Gibb composition called "My Father Was a Reb" on which Maurice also produced and played. It was not released.
wn.com/Andy_Gibb -
Anthony Michael Hall
Michael Anthony Hall (born April 14, 1968), known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, film producer and director who starred in several teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980. His films with director-screenwriter John Hughes, beginning with the popular 1984 coming-of-age comedy Sixteen Candles, shaped his early career. Hall's next movies with Hughes were the teen classics The Breakfast Club and Weird Science, both in 1985. His performances as lovable geeks in these three films connected his name and face with the stereotype for an entire generation.
Hall diversified his roles to avoid becoming typecast as his geek persona, joining the cast of Saturday Night Live (1985–1986) and starring in films such as Out of Bounds (1986), Johnny Be Good (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Six Degrees of Separation (1993). After a series of minor roles in the 1990s, he starred as Microsoft's Bill Gates in the 1999 television film Pirates of Silicon Valley. He had the leading role in the USA Network series The Dead Zone, from 2002 to 2007. During its run, the show was one of the highest-rated cable television series.
wn.com/Anthony_Michael_Hall -
Anthrax (band)
Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, NY, formed in 1981. Founded by guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker, the band has since released ten studio albums and 20 singles, and an EP featuring Public Enemy. The band was one of the most popular of the 1980s thrash metal scene. When thrash metal began to gain a major following in the mid-to-late 1980s, Anthrax were dubbed one of the "big four" of thrash metal alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. They were also one of the early thrash metal bands to sign to a major label (Island Records, in 1985).
The band line-up has been changed numerous times; following the departure of drummer Dave Weiss and bassist Kenny Kushner, several musicians replaced both band members' roles, though Paul Kahn and Greg Walls were the first to do so. In addition to this aspect, there were multiple vocalists involved in Anthrax, with Neil Turbin, Joey Belladonna and John Bush being among the frontmen of the band. Scott Ian, however, has been in the band since its formation. Ian and Charlie Benante, who joined Anthrax in 1983, are the only constant members that appear on every album. Bassist Frank Bello has played on every album with exception of the band's debut. Classic singer Joey Belladonna has returned to the band and appears on Worship Music which is his first studio album with the band since 1990's Persistence of Time.
wn.com/Anthrax_(band) -
Anwar Sadat
Anwar El Sadat (Arabic: محمد أنور السادات Anwar as-Sādāt, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħæmmæd ˈʔɑnwɑɾˤ essæˈdæːt]; 25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. In his eleven years as president he changed Egypt's direction, departing from some of the economic and political principles of Nasserism by re-instituting the multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy.
He was a senior member of the Free Officers group that overthrew the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and a close confidant of President Gamal Abdul Nasser, whom he succeeded as President in 1970. As president he led Egypt in the October War of 1973 to re-acquire Egyptian territory lost to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, making him a hero in Egypt and, for a time, the wider Arab World. Afterwards he engaged in negotiations with Israel, culminating in the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. This won him the Nobel Peace Prize but also made him unpopular among some Arabs, resulting in a temporary suspension of Egypt's membership in the Arab League, and eventually his assassination.
wn.com/Anwar_Sadat -
Arsenio Hall
Arsenio Hall (born February 12, 1956) is an American actor, comedian, and former talk show host. He is best known for hosting The Arsenio Hall Show.
Hall is also known for his appearance as Alan Thicke's sidekick on the talk show, Thicke of the Night. He was the winning contestant on NBC's reality show, Celebrity Apprentice 5, after defeating singer and American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken in the Celebrity Apprentice live finale.
Arsenio was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Fred and Anne Hall. His father is a Baptist minister. Hall performed as a magician when he was a child. He graduated from Warrensville Heights High School in Warrensville Heights, Ohio in 1973. After he graduated, he attended Ohio University, where he was on the speech team with Nancy Cartwright and Leon Harris. He then transferred to and graduated from Kent State University.
He later moved to Chicago, and then Los Angeles, to pursue a career in comedy, making a couple of appearances on Soul Train. In 1984, he was the announcer/sidekick for Alan Thicke during the short-lived talk show Thicke of the Night (a role for which he has on occasion noted his confusion with Monty Hall). Arsenio was the original voice of Winston Zeddemore in the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters from 1986–1987. In 1988, he co-starred in the comedy film Coming to America with Eddie Murphy.
wn.com/Arsenio_Hall -
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet (Spanish pronunciation: [auˈɣusto pinoˈtʃet]), (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973. He was the commander-in-chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until transferring power to a democratically elected president in 1990.
wn.com/Augusto_Pinochet -
Austria
Austria (i/ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/; German: Österreich [ˈøːstɐˌʁaɪç] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich (help·info)), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.47 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,855 square kilometres (32,377 sq mi) and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Austro-Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Burgenland Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria became one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon I as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary.
wn.com/Austria -
Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.; raised as William Bruce Bailey; February 6, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he enjoyed great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before disappearing from the public eye for several years. In 2001, he resurfaced with a new line-up of Guns N' Roses at Rock in Rio 3, and subsequently played periodic concert tours, before releasing the long-delayed album Chinese Democracy in 2008. Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone and NME.
Rose was born William Bruce Rose, Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana, the oldest child of Sharon E. (née Lintner), then 16 years old, and William Bruce Rose, then 20 years old. When Rose was two years old, his father abandoned the family. His mother remarried to Stephen L. Bailey, and his name was changed to William Bruce Bailey. He has two younger siblings—a sister, Amy, and a half-brother, Stuart. Until the age of 17, Rose believed that Bailey was his real father. He never met his biological father as an adult; William Rose, Sr. was found murdered in Illinois in 1984.
wn.com/Axl_Rose -
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva (pronounced [aˈiɾtõ ˈsenɐ da ˈsiwvɐ] ( listen); 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver. Senna was a three-time Formula One world champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He died in a crash at Tamburello corner while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix and is the most recent driver to die at the wheel of a Formula One car.
Senna began his motorsport career in karting, moving up to open-wheel racing in 1981, and winning the British Formula 3 championship in 1983. He made his Formula One debut with Toleman-Hart in 1984 before moving to Lotus-Renault the following year and winning six Grands Prix over the next three seasons. In 1988, he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda. Between them, they won all but one of the 16 Grands Prix that year and Senna his first World Championship. Prost claimed the championship in 1989, and Senna his second and third championships in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, the Williams-Renault combination began to dominate Formula One. Senna nonetheless managed to finish the 1993 season as runner-up, winning five races and negotiating a move to Williams in 1994.
wn.com/Ayrton_Senna -
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His most notable films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain Man, Bugsy, Sleepers and Wag the Dog.
Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Violet "Vi" (née Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who worked in the furniture and appliance business. His family is of Russian Jewish descent. After growing up in Baltimore and graduating from Forest Park Senior High School, Levinson attended Baltimore City Community College, and American University in Washington, D.C. at the American University School of Communication, before moving to Los Angeles to work as an actor and writer. Levinson at one time shared an apartment with would-be drug smuggler (and basis for the movie Blow) George Jung.
Levinson's first writing work was for variety shows such as The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, The Lohman and Barkley Show, The Tim Conway Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. After some success as a screenwriter — notably the Mel Brooks comedies Silent Movie (1976) and High Anxiety (1977) (in which he played a bellboy) and the Oscar-nominated script (co-written by then-wife Valerie Curtin) …And Justice for All (1979) — Levinson began his career as a director with Diner (1982), for which he had also written the script and which earned him a Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.
wn.com/Barry_Levinson -
Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Jo Carlisle (born August 17, 1958) is an American singer who gained worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female bands of all time and the first such group whose members wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. Topping the Billboard charts with the Go-Go's, she sold more than seven million albums in just three years and later went on to a successful solo career with hits "Mad About You", "Summer Rain", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" among others, which were major successes in the United States and United Kingdom as well as internationally. Her autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, reached No. 27 on the The New York Times Best Seller list and received favorable reviews. On August 11, 2011, she received, as a member of the Go-Go's, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Belinda Carlisle was born in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles to Harold, a travelling salesman (he sold vacuum cleaners) and his wife Joanne, who raised the children at home. The first of seven siblings, with three brothers and three sisters, she was five years old when her father abandoned the family and upon her mother's second marriage, did not have a close relationship with her stepfather, Duke Kurczeski. Growing up in Ventura County's Thousand Oaks, a part of the Greater Los Angeles Area, she was a cheerleader at Newbury Park High School and, at the age of 19, left home.
wn.com/Belinda_Carlisle -
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor, comedian and golfer. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack (1980), Ghostbusters (1984), and Groundhog Day (1993). Murray gained additional critical acclaim later in his career, starring in Lost in Translation (2003), that earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, and a series of films directed by Wes Anderson, including Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012).
Murray was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, the son of Lucille (née Collins), a mail room clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II, a lumber salesman. Murray's father died in 1967 from complications of diabetes when Bill was 17 years old. Murray, along with his eight siblings, was raised in an Irish American family. Three of his siblings are actors: John Murray, Joel Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan, who has traveled the United States in a one-woman programme, portraying St. Catherine of Siena.
wn.com/Bill_Murray -
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. A member of the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, Idol first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X. He then embarked on a successful solo career, aided by a series of stylish[citation needed]music videos, making him one of the first MTV stars. Idol continues to tour with guitarist Steve Stevens and has a worldwide fan base.[citation needed]
Idol was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, the son of a salesman.. The name Billy Idol was inspired by a schoolteacher's description of Broad as "idle".
In 1958, when Idol was two years old, his parents moved to Patchogue, New York, on Long Island. The family returned to England four years later with Idol and a younger child Jane (who had been born in the US), settling in Dorking, Surrey. In 1971 the family moved to Bromley, southeastern London, where Idol attended Ravensbourne School for Boys. Idol (rather William Broad) also attended Worthing High School for Boys (later becoming Worthing College), in West Sussex. In October 1975, Idol went to the University of Sussex, near Brighton, to pursue an English degree and lived on campus (East Slope) but left after year one (1976). He then went on to join the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, a loose gang that travelled into town when the band played.
wn.com/Billy_Idol -
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.
Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006), and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame (2009). In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Billy Joel positioned at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah," Joel stopped recording pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams, but he continued to tour extensively until 2010.
wn.com/Billy_Joel -
Biz Markie
Marcel Theo Hall (born April 8, 1964,Harlem, New York) better known by his stage name, Biz Markie, is an American rapper, beatboxer, DJ, comedian, singer, reality television personality, and commercial spokesperson. He is best known for his single "Just a Friend", an American Top 10 hit in 1989. In 2008, "Just a Friend" made #100 on VH1's list of the 100 greatest hip hop songs of all time.
Markie has been called "the Clown Prince of Hip Hop."
Biz Markie's career began on Long Island, New York in the early 1980s, where he established his reputation for beat-boxing and rapping. MC Shan and Roxanne Shante were part of Marley Marl's Cold Chillin' Records, and Biz beatboxed on Shante's underground hit "Def Fresh Crew" (1986). This lent credibility to his recording career and put Cold Chillin' on the map. In the same year, Biz Markie's debut single, "Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz", was released on Prism Records. He released his debut album, Goin' Off, which attracted a fair amount of attention, largely due to the lead single, "Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz". The album also featured the underground hit singles "Nobody Beats The Biz", "The Vapors" and "Pickin' Boogers".
wn.com/Biz_Markie -
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL (born 9 December 1929) is a former Australian politician who served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991.
After a decade as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, he entered parliament as a Labor MP at the 1980 federal election and became Prime Minister within three years, leading Labor to victory at four consecutive federal elections: 1983, 1984, 1987 and 1990. Hawke was defeated as Labor leader in a 1991 spill against Paul Keating. He is Labor's longest-serving Prime Minister and Australia's third-longest-serving Prime Minister.
wn.com/Bob_Hawke -
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers (1963–1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.
Marley's music was heavily influenced by the social issues of his homeland, and he is considered to have given voice to the specific political and cultural nexus of Jamaica. His best-known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Get Up Stand Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, "Three Little Birds", as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album Legend (1984), released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, going ten times Platinum which is also known as one Diamond in the U.S., and selling 25 million copies worldwide.
wn.com/Bob_Marley -
Bobby Brown
Robert Barisford "Bobby" Brown (born February 5, 1969) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and dancer.
Brown started his career as one of the frontmen of the pop group New Edition, from its inception as The Bricks in 1978 until his forced exit from the group in 1986 following a period of misbehavior on his part. Starting a solo career, he became a hit success with his second album, Don't Be Cruel, which spawned a number of hit singles including the co-self penned "My Prerogative", which became his signature hit. Brown had a string of top ten hits on various Billboard charts between 1986 and 1992, and is a recipient of a Grammy Award. Brown is noted as a pioneer of New Jack Swing music, a fusion of hip-hop and R&B.
Brown was most noted in recent years as the ex-husband of pop singer Whitney Houston. Brown and Houston later gained notoriety co-starring in the reality show, Being Bobby Brown.
Brown was born in Boston as one of eight children to Herbert "Pops" and Carole Brown. Herbert was a construction worker and Carole was a schoolteacher. Brown and his family grew up in Roxbury's Orchard Park Projects. As a child, Brown got involved in petty theft including robbery later saying "I didn't wanna ask my mother or my father because they didn't have a lot of money", stating that whenever he saw something he wanted, "I'd just go to the store and take it." Brown also grew up around gangs. At ten, he was shot in the knee during a fight with a rival gang while attending a block party. Brown said his life reached a turning point at eleven after seeing one of his friends dead from multiple stab wounds at another party. Brown's brother Tommy would later say after that moment, Brown took "his career, schooling, his whole life more seriously." Brown's first taste of being onstage occurred at the age of three when one of his childhood idols, James Brown, performed in Boston.
wn.com/Bobby_Brown -
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980. He was born in Forfar and brought up in Kirriemuir, Scotland, before moving to Melbourne, Australia with his family in 1952 at the age of six. The family lived in the suburb of Sunshine for 4 years before moving to Fremantle, Western Australia.
Scott formed his first band, The Spektors, in 1964 and became the band's drummer and occasional lead vocalist. He performed in several other bands including The Valentines and Fraternity before replacing Dave Evans as the lead singer of AC/DC in 1974.
In the July 2004 issue of Classic Rock, Scott was rated as number one in a list of the "100 Greatest Frontmen Of All Time" ahead of Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.Hit Parader ranked Scott as fifth on their 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Vocalists of all time.
AC/DC's popularity grew throughout the 1970s, initially in Australia, and then internationally. Their 1979 album Highway to Hell reached the top twenty in the United States, and the band seemed on the verge of a commercial breakthrough. However, on 19 February 1980, Scott died after a night out in London. AC/DC briefly considered disbanding, but the group quickly recruited vocalist Brian Johnson of the British glam rock band Geordie. AC/DC's subsequent album, Back in Black, was released only five months later, and was a tribute to Scott. It went on to become the third best-selling album in history.
wn.com/Bon_Scott -
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker (born 22 November 1967) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17. Becker also won five major indoor championships titles including three ATP Masters World Tour Finals (played eight finals, second all-time to Ivan Lendl, who played nine) and one WCT Finals and one Grand Slam Cup. He also won five Masters 1000 series titles and eight Championship Series titles. Tennis Magazine put Becker in 18th place on its list of the 40 greatest tennis players from 1965 to 2005.
Becker was born in Leimen, West Germany, the only son of Elvira (née Pisch), who was raised in Czechoslovakia. His parents were Catholic, and part of his mother's family were Jewish. His father Karl-Heinz, an architect, founded the tennis centre (Tennis-Club Blau-Weiß 1964 Leimen e. V.) in Leimen, where Becker learned the game.
Becker turned professional in 1984, under the guidance of Romanian-born coach, Günther Bosch, and with Ion Ţiriac as manager and won his first professional doubles title that year in Munich. As a West German teenager, Becker won his first top-level singles title in June 1985 at Queen's Club and two weeks later on 7 July, became the first unseeded player and the first German to win the Wimbledon singles title, defeating Kevin Curren in four sets. At the time, he was the youngest ever male Grand Slam singles champion at &1000000000000001700000017 years, &10000000000000227000000227 days (a record later broken by Michael Chang in 1989, who won the French Open when he was &1000000000000001700000017 years, &10000000000000110000000110 days). Two months after his triumph, Becker became the youngest winner of the Cincinnati Open.
wn.com/Boris_Becker -
Boy George
Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd on 14 June 1961) is an English singer-songwriter, who was part of the English New Romanticism movement which emerged in the early 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade.
Boy George was born George Alan O'Dowd at Barnehurst Hospital in Bexley, Kent on 14 June 1961, to Jeremiah and Dinah O'Dowd (née Glynn), who were originally from Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. He attended Eltham Green School in Eltham. He is one of six children. His siblings are Richard, Kevin, David, Gerald, and Siobhan.
He was a follower of the New Romantic movement which was popular in Britain in the early 1980s. George frequently lived at the infamous Warren Street Squat in Central London. George and his friend Marilyn were regulars at The Blitz, a trendy London nightclub run by Steve Strange of the group Visage. George and Marilyn also worked at the nightclub as cloakroom attendants.[citation needed]
wn.com/Boy_George -
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, De Palma worked repeatedly with actors Jennifer Salt, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen (his wife from 1979 to 1983), Gary Sinise, John Lithgow, William Finley, Charles Durning, Gerrit Graham, cinematographers Stephen H. Burum and Vilmos Zsigmond (see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations), set designer Jack Fisk, and composers Bernard Herrmann, John Williams and Pino Donaggio. De Palma is credited[by whom?] with fostering the careers of or outright discovering Robert De Niro, Jill Clayburgh, John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo, Andy Garcia and Margot Kidder.
De Palma, whose background is Italian Roman Catholic, was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Vivienne (née Muti) and Anthony Federico De Palma, an orthopedic surgeon. He was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire in various Protestant and Quaker schools, eventually graduating from Friends' Central School. He won a regional science-fair prize for a project titled "An Analog Computer to Solve Differential Equations".
wn.com/Brian_De_Palma -
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, PC CC GOQ (born March 20, 1939) was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the Goods and Services Tax, and the rejection of constitutional reforms such as the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord. Prior to his political career, he was a prominent lawyer and businessman in Montreal.
Mulroney was born on March 20, 1939, in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, a remote and isolated town in the eastern part of the province. He is the son of Irish Canadian Catholic parents, Mary Irene (née O'Shea) and Benedict Martin Mulroney, who was a paper mill electrician. Six of the couple's children survived infancy. As there was no English-language Catholic high school in Baie-Comeau, Mulroney completed his high school education at a Roman Catholic boarding school in Chatham, New Brunswick operated by St. Thomas University (in 2001, St. Thomas University named its newest academic building in his honour). Benedict Mulroney worked overtime and ran a repair business to earn extra money for his children's education, and he encouraged his oldest son to attend university.
wn.com/Brian_Mulroney -
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle.
Brooke Shields was born in New York City to Frank and Teri Shields (née Schmon), who divorced several months after she was born.
Through her father's side, she has Italian, French, Irish, and English roots, along with high social position and relations to nobility. Her paternal grandmother was the Italian princess Donna Marina Torlonia. Shields was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. She has two stepbrothers and three half-sisters.
When Shields was five days old, her mother openly stated she wanted her to be active in show business, "She's the most beautiful child and I'm going to help her with her career."
For her confirmation at the age of 10, Shields adopted her middle name, "Camille". While attending high school, Shields resided in Haworth, New Jersey.
When she was 12 years old, Shields played a child prostitute her age in the 1978 film Pretty Baby. Eileen Ford, founder of the Ford Modeling Agency, said of Brooke Shields: "...She is a professional child and unique. She looks like an adult and thinks like one."
wn.com/Brooke_Shields -
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.
wn.com/Bruce_Springsteen -
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a German-born American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles. He is well known for the role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, which were mostly critical and uniformly financial successes. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including box office successes like Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Sin City (2005), Over the Hedge (2006) and Red (2010).
Motion pictures featuring Willis have grossed US$2.64 billion to 3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him the ninth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and twelfth highest including supporting roles. He is a two-time Emmy Award–winning, Golden Globe Award–winning and four-time Saturn Award–nominated actor. Willis was married to actress Demi Moore and they had three daughters before their divorce in 2000, following thirteen years of marriage. He is currently married to model Emma Heming, with whom he has one daughter.
wn.com/Bruce_Willis -
Bruno Kreisky
Bruno Kreisky (January 22, 1911 – July 29, 1990) was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II.
Kreisky was born in Margareten, a district of Vienna, to a liberal Jewish family. His parents were Max Kreisky (1876-1944) and Irene Felix Kreisky (1884-1969). His father worked as a textile manufacturer. Shocked by the level of poverty and violence in Austria during the 1920s, he joined the youth wing of the Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ) in 1925 at age 15. In 1927, he joined the Young Socialist Workers against the wishes of his parents. In 1929, he began studying law at the University of Vienna at the advice of Otto Bauer, who urged him to study law rather than medicine, as he had originally planned. He remained politically active during this period. In 1931, he left the Jewish religious community, becoming agnostic. In 1934, when the Socialist Party was banned by the Dollfuss dictatorship, he became active in underground political work. He was arrested in January 1935 and convicted of high treason, but was released in June 1936. In March 1938 the Austrian state was incorporated in Germany, and in September Kreisky escaped the Nazi persecution of Austrian Jews during Holocaust by emigrating to Sweden, where he remained until 1945. In 1942 he married Vera Fürth.
wn.com/Bruno_Kreisky -
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, OC OBC (born Bryan Guy Adams, 5 November 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. For his contributions to music, Adams has many awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards for song composition and has been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world.
Adams was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the 2,435th star in March 2011 and Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. In 2008, Bryan was ranked 38 on the list of All-Time top artists by the Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts. On 13 January 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career, and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.
wn.com/Bryan_Adams -
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry CBE (born 26 September 1945) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in the United Kingdom. Ferry began his solo career in 1973, while still a member of Roxy Music, which continues to the present day.
Born in Washington, Tyne & Wear, England into a working class family (his father, Fred Ferry, was a farmer who also looked after pit ponies), Ferry attended Washington Grammar-Technical School (now called Washington School) on Spout Lane from 1957 and achieved nine O levels, then studied fine art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne under Richard Hamilton. His contemporaries included Tim Head and Nick de Ville. Ferry became a pottery teacher at Holland Park School in London. Ferry formed the band The Banshees, and later, together with Graham Simpson, the band the Gas Board.
wn.com/Bryan_Ferry -
Carl Lewis
Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were gold. His career spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. Lewis became an actor and has appeared in a number of films.
Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the world rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981 to the early 1990s, was named Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News in 1982, 1983 and 1984, and set world records in the 100 m, 4 x 100 m and 4 x 200 m relays. His world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984 and his 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport’s longest undefeated streaks.
Over the course of his long athletics career, Lewis broke ten seconds for the 100 metres 15 times and twenty seconds for the 200 metres 10 times.
wn.com/Carl_Lewis -
Charles Haughey
Charles James "Charlie" Haughey (16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving three terms in office (from December 1979 to June 1981, March 1982 to December 1982, and March 1987 to February 1992). He was also the fourth leader of Fianna Fáil (from 1979 until 1992). Haughey was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála (TD) in 1957 and was re-elected in every election until 1992, he represented the Dublin North-East constituency from 1957 until 1973. The constituency lines were redrawn under the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1974 in an attempt to secure re-election for the sitting Fine Gael-Labour Party government in the 1977 election and Haughey represented Dublin-Artane in 1977, this constituency was abolished in 1981 and most of Haughey's electoral area was moved into the reformed Dublin North-Central constituency which he served from 1981 until his retirement in 1992. Haughey also served as Minister for Health and Social Welfare (1977–1979), Minister for Finance (1966–1970), Minister for Agriculture (1964–1966) and Minister for Justice (1961–1964). He also served as a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Justice during the early years of his parliamentary career.
wn.com/Charles_Haughey -
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez (born September 3, 1965), better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen.
His character roles in films have included Chris Taylor in the 1986 Vietnam War drama Platoon, Jake Kesey in the 1986 film The Wraith, and Bud Fox in the 1987 film Wall Street. His career has also included more comedic films such as Major League, the Hot Shots! films, and Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. On television, Sheen is known for his roles on two sitcoms: as Charlie Crawford on Spin City and as Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men. In 2010, Sheen was the highest paid actor on television, earning US$1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.
Sheen's personal life has also made headlines, including reports about alcohol and drug abuse and marital problems as well as allegations of domestic violence. He was fired from his role on Two and a Half Men by CBS and Warner Bros. on March 7, 2011. Sheen subsequently announced a nationwide tour.
wn.com/Charlie_Sheen -
Cher
Cher ( /ˈʃɛər/) (born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer, and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for her work in film, music, and television. She is the only person in history to receive all five awards. She began her career as a backup singer and came to prominence in 1965 as one-half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher with the success of their song "I Got You Babe". She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist and became a television star in 1971 with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show for which she won a Golden Globe. A well-received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 1983. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1987.
wn.com/Cher -
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (/ˈtʃɛvi/; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor. Born into a prominent New York family, Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon. He quickly became a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, where his Weekend Update skit soon became a staple of the show. Chase is also well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon's Vacation films, and for his roles in other successful comedies such as Caddyshack (1980), Fletch (1985), and ¡Three Amigos! (1986). He has hosted the Academy Awards twice (1987 and 1988) and briefly had his own late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show. Since 2009, he has appeared as Pierce Hawthorne on the NBC comedy series Community.
Chase was born in Lower Manhattan, New York City. His father, Edward Tinsley "Ned" Chase, was a prominent Manhattan book editor and magazine writer. His mother, Cathalene Parker (née Browning), a concert pianist and librettist, was the daughter of Miles Browning, who served a critical role at the Battle of Midway in World War II; she was adopted as a child by her stepfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, heir to Crane Plumbing, and took the name Cathalene Crane. As a child, Chase vacationed at Castle Hill, the Cranes' summer estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts.[citation needed]
wn.com/Chevy_Chase -
Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo (traditional Chinese: 蔣經國; simplified Chinese: 蒋经国; pinyin: Jiǎng Jīngguó; Wade–Giles: Chiang Ching-kuo; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chiúⁿ Keng-kok; Shanghai/Ningbo dialect: [tɕiã.tɕiŋ.koʔ]) (April 27,1 1910 – January 13, 1988), Kuomintang (KMT) politician and leader, was the son of President Chiang Kai-shek and held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China (ROC). He succeeded his father to serve as Premier of the Republic of China between 1972 and 1978, and was the President of the Republic of China from 1978 until his death in 1988. Under his tenure, the government of the Republic of China, while authoritarian, became more open and tolerant of political dissent. Towards the end of his life, Chiang relaxed government controls on the media and speech and allowed native Taiwanese into positions of power, including his successor Lee Teng-hui.
The son of President Chiang Kai-shek and his first wife Mao Fumei, Chiang Ching-kuo was born in Fenghua, Zhejiang, with the courtesy name of Jiànfēng (建豐). He had an adopted brother, Chiang Wei-kuo. "Ching" literally means "longitude" while "kuo" means "nation"; in his brother's name, "wei" literally means "parallel (of latitude)". The names are inspired by the references in Chinese classics such as the Guoyu, in which "to draw the longitudes and latitudes of the world" is used as a metaphor for a person with great abilities, especially in managing a country.
wn.com/Chiang_Ching-kuo -
China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
wn.com/China -
Chris de Burgh
Chris de Burgh (born Christopher John Davison, 15 October 1948) is an Argentinian born British-Irish singer-songwriter. He is most famous for his 1986 love song "The Lady in Red", which reached number-one in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
De Burgh was born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, to Colonel Charles Davison, a British diplomat, and Maeve Emily de Burgh, an Irish secretary. His father had substantial farming interests, and he spent much of his early years in Malta, Nigeria and Zaire, as he, his mother and brother accompanied Colonel Davison on his diplomatic and engineering work.
The Davisons finally settled in Bargy Castle, County Wexford, a twelfth-century castle in Ireland bought by his maternal grandfather, General Sir Eric de Burgh, a former Chief of the General Staff in India and from a distinguished Hiberno-Norman family. The castle was converted into a hotel where Chris gained much early experience performing to the guests and he later assumed de Burgh as his stage name.
wn.com/Chris_de_Burgh -
Christa McAuliffe
Christa McAuliffe (September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
She received her bachelor's degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970, and also a Master of Arts from Bowie State University in 1978. She took a teaching post as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1982.
In 1985, McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher in space. As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Space Shuttle Challenger. On January 28, 1986, the spacecraft disintegrated 73 seconds after launch. After her death, schools and scholarships were named in her honor, and also in 2004 she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Born Sharon Christa Corrigan in Boston, Massachusetts, the eldest of the five children of Edward Christopher Corrigan (1922–1990)—an accountant—and Grace Mary Corrigan (née George), a substitute teacher, she was of Irish, Lebanese, German, English, and Native American descent. McAuliffe's mother is of part Maronite Lebanese origin through her father (McAuliffe's grandfather), and is a niece of Lebanese-American historian Philip Khuri Hitti. McAuliffe was known by the name "Christa" from an early age, although in later years she signed her name "S. Christa Corrigan", and eventually "S. Christa McAuliffe".
wn.com/Christa_McAuliffe -
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi.
Lloyd has used his vocal talents in animation, frequently voicing villains. He provided voice to the character The Hacker on the animated PBS series Cyberchase. Lloyd has won three Primetime Emmy Awards and an Independent Spirit Award, and has been nominated for two Saturn Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award.
Lloyd was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Samuel R. Lloyd, a lawyer, and his wife Ruth (née Lapham), a singer and sister of San Francisco mayor Roger Lapham. His maternal grandfather, Lewis Lapham, was one of the founders of the Texaco oil company, and Lloyd is also a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland. Lloyd attended the Fessenden School, a preparatory school in Newton, Massachusetts. Lloyd was raised in New Canaan, Connecticut, and Westport, Connecticut, where he graduated from Staples High School in 1958.
wn.com/Christopher_Lloyd -
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, including his notable motion picture portrayal of the fictional superhero Superman.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse in an equestrian competition in Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research afterward. He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Reeve married Dana Morosini in April 1992. Christopher and Dana's son, William Elliot Reeve, was born on June 7, 1992. Reeve also had two children, Matthew Exton Reeve (born 1979) and Alexandra Exton Reeve (born 1983), from his previous relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Gae Exton.
Christopher Reeve was born in New York City on September 25, 1952, the son of Barbara Pitney (née Lamb), a journalist, and Franklin D'Olier Reeve, who was a teacher, novelist, poet and scholar. His paternal grandfather, Colonel Richard Henry Reeve, had been the CEO of Prudential Financial for over twenty-five years, and his great-grandfather, Franklin D'Olier, was a prominent businessman, veteran of World War I, and the first national commander of the American Legion. Reeve's father was also descended from a sister of statesman Elias Boudinot, as well as from Massachusetts governors Thomas Dudley and John Winthrop, Pennsylvania deputy governor Thomas Lloyd, and Henry Baldwin, a US Supreme Court Justice. Reeve's mother was the granddaughter of Mahlon Pitney, another U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and was also a descendant of William Bradford, a Mayflower passenger.
wn.com/Christopher_Reeve -
Chun Doo-hwan
Chun Doo-hwan (born 18 January 1931) was a ROK Army general and the dictator of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 for his heavy-handed response to the Gwangju Democratization Movement, but later pardoned by President Kim Young-sam with the advice of then President-elect Kim Dae-jung, whom Chun himself had sentenced to death some 20 years earlier.
Chun was born 18 January 1931 in Yulgok-myeon, a poor farming town in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang province, during Japanese rule of Korea. Chun Doo-hwan was the fourth son of Chun Sang-woo and Kim Jeong-mun. Chun's oldest two brothers, Yeol-hwan and Kyuu-gon, died in an accident when he was an infant. Chun grew up knowing his remaining older brother Ki-hwan and younger brother Kyeong-hwan.
Around 1936, Chun's family moved to Daegu, where he began attending Horan Elementary School. Chun's father had had run-ins with the Japanese police in the past, and in the winter of 1939 he murdered a Japanese police captain. Their family immediately fled to Jilin, China, where they stayed in hiding for two years before returning. When Chun finally started attending elementary school again, he ended up 2–3 years behind his original classmates.
wn.com/Chun_Doo-hwan -
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide (1959–1965). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) during the late 1960s, and as Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool) throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made him an enduring cultural icon of masculinity.
For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others including Play Misty for Me (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and critical acclaim. Eastwood's only comedies have been Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), which are his two most commercially successful films after adjustment for inflation.
wn.com/Clint_Eastwood -
Cool Runnings
Cool Runnings is a 1993 adventure comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub. It is loosely based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsled team's debut in the bobsleigh competition of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. It stars Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Malik Yoba, and Rawle D. Lewis, with John Candy as Irv Blitzer, the retired bobsledder and coach of the Jamaican bobsledders.
Irv Blitzer was a bobsled double gold medalist at the 1968 Winter Olympics, who finished first in three events again at the 1972 Winter Olympics but was disqualified for cheating and retired in disgrace to Jamaica, where he leads a destitute life as a bookie. He is approached by top 100m runner Derice Bannock, who failed to qualify for the 1988 Summer Olympics when another opponent, Junior Bevil, tripped him at the trials, and pushcart driving champion Sanka Coffie, who both wish to use his previous experience as coaches in order to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics as bobsledders. Irv had been good friends with Derice's father, Ben, a former sprinter whom Irv had tried to recruit for the bobsled team years ago. Yul Brenner, another runner who was tripped at the qualifier by Junior, also joins the team, as well as Junior himself. Eventually Irv is convinced to coach the team.
wn.com/Cool_Runnings -
Corazon Aquino
Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office. She led the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. She was named "Woman of the Year" in 1986 by Time Magazine.
A self-proclaimed "plain housewife", Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., the staunchest critic of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Senator Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983 upon returning to the Philippines after three years in exile in the United States. After her husband's assassination, Corazon Aquino emerged as the leader of the opposition against the Marcos administration. In late 1985, when President Marcos called for a snap election, Aquino ran for president with former senator Salvador Laurel as her vice-presidential running mate. After the elections were held on February 7, 1986, and the Batasang Pambansa proclaimed Marcos the winner in the elections, she called for massive civil disobedience protests, declaring herself as having been cheated and as the real winner in the elections. Filipinos enthusiastically heeded her call and rallied behind her. These events eventually led to the ousting of Marcos and the installation of Aquino as President of the Philippines on February 25, 1986 through the "People Power Revolution".
wn.com/Corazon_Aquino -
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people (Spanish: Cubanos) are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Americans do not treat their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities comprising the "Cuban people." Nearly all Cubans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.
Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by most Cubans is referred to as mainstream Cuban culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans arriving later such as the Portuguese and French with African culture which has also been very influential.
The population of Cuba (2010) was 11,241,161 people. The largest urban populations of Cubans in Cuba (2010) are to be found in Havana ( 2,135,498), Santiago de Cuba ( 425,851), Camagüey (305,845), Holguín (277,050), Guantanamo ( 207,857), and Santa Clara ( 205,812). According to Cuba's Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas ONE 2002 Census, the population was 11,177,743, including:
wn.com/Cubans -
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBT rights activist.
She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the debut solo album She's So Unusual in 1983, which spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top-five songs—"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night"—She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. The album earned Lauper Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"True Colors" and "Change of Heart", and earned two nominations at the 29th Grammy Awards.
Since 1989 released from a nine studio albums acclaimed critical, A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998),Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005), Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).
wn.com/Cyndi_Lauper -
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM (born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian comedian, singer, actor and screenwriter. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers (with John Belushi) and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.
Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952, at the Ottawa General Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in the Canadian capital, where his father, Samuel Peter Aykroyd, a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His mother, Lorraine Hélène (née Gougeon), is a secretary, of French Canadian descent. His brother, Peter, also became a comedy actor. Aykroyd was born with syndactyly (webbed toes), which was revealed in the movie Mr. Mike's Mondo Video and in a short film on Saturday Night Live (Don't Look Back In Anger). He was also born with heterochromia (a condition of having two differently coloured eyes). His right eye is green and his left eye is brown.
wn.com/Dan_Aykroyd -
Daniel Ortega
José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (Spanish pronunciation: [xo̞ˈse̞ ðaˈnje̞l o̞rˈte̞ɣa saˈβe̞ðɾa]; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician. He is the current President of Nicaragua (since 2007), a position he has held previously between 1985 and 1990. A leader in the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN), his policies in government have seen the implementation of leftist reforms across Nicaragua.
Born into a working class family, from an early age Ortega developed a hatred of the ruling President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who was widely seen as a dictator, and became involved in the underground movement to oppose Somoza's regime. Joining the Sandinistas, he also travelled to Cuba to receive training in guerilla warfare from Fidel Castro's Marxist-Leninist government. After the Nicaraguan Revolution resulted in the overthrow and exile of the Somoza's government in 1979, Ortega became a member of the ruling multipartisan Junta of National Reconstruction and was later elected president, serving from 1985 to 1990. At the time a Marxist-Leninist, his first period in office was characterized by a controversial program of land reform, wealth redistribution and literacy programs. Such leftist reforms damaged U.S. economic interests in the country, gaining hostility from the U.S.'s governing Reagan administration, who funded a right wing militia, the Contras, to overthrow Ortega's government.
wn.com/Daniel_Ortega -
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of short statured dispatcher Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi (1978–1983), for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman, founded Jersey Films, a production company known for films such as Pulp Fiction, Garden State, and Freedom Writers. DeVito also owns Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!. DeVito and Perlman also starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. He currently stars as Frank Reynolds on the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
DeVito was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Daniel Michael DeVito, Sr., who owned several small businesses, including a dry cleaning store, a dairy outlet, a luncheonette, and a pool hall. DeVito is of Italian descent (his family is originally from San Fele, Basilicata) and was raised a Roman Catholic, growing up in Asbury Park. He boarded at Oratory Preparatory School, in Summit, New Jersey, graduating in 1962, and subsequently trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1966. In his early theater days, he performed with the Colonnades Theater Lab, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and, along with his wife Rhea Perlman, appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective.
wn.com/Danny_DeVito -
Daryl Hannah
Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s, notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street, and Roxanne.
Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan Jeanne (née Metzger), a producer and former schoolteacher, and Donald Christian Hannah, a tugboat and barge company owner. Her parents divorced and her mother subsequently married Jerrold Wexler, a businessman and brother of Haskell Wexler, a cinematographer. She grew up with siblings Don and Page Hannah and half-sister Tanya Wexler, in Long Grove, Illinois.
Hannah became interested in movies at a young age, partly due to insomnia. She says she was very shy and may have Asperger Syndrome. Hannah attended the progressive Francis W. Parker School (where she played on the soccer team) before enrolling at the University of Southern California.
Hannah made her film debut in 1978 with a brief appearance in Brian De Palma's horror film The Fury. She turned down many roles early on in her career, including the role of Emmeline Lestrange for The Blue Lagoon (that ultimately went to Brooke Shields). Her first notable role came as the acrobatic and violent replicant Pris in Ridley Scott's 1982 science fiction classic Blade Runner, in which she performed some of her own gymnastic stunts. That same year she appeared in the summer hit release Summer Lovers. She then was cast as a blonde mermaid in Ron Howard's 1984 fantasy Splash, which starred Tom Hanks and was a major financial success, establishing Hannah as a high-profile film actress.
wn.com/Daryl_Hannah -
David Bowie
David Bowie ( /ˈboʊ.i/ BOH-ee; born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.
Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie's impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture." The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.
wn.com/David_Bowie -
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the psychological is typically intertwined with the physical. In the first half of his career, he explored these themes mostly through horror and science fiction, although his work has since expanded beyond these genres. He has been called "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world."
Born in Toronto, Canada, Cronenberg was the son of Esther (born Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor. His family has been described as "a nurturing middle class family." He began writing as a child and wrote constantly. He attended high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. A keen interest in science, especially botany and lepidopterology, led him to enter the Honours Science program the University of Toronto in 1963, but he switched to Honors English Language and Literature later in his first year. Cronenberg's fascination with the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1966) by classmate David Secter sparked his interest in film. He began frequenting film camera rental houses, learning art of filmmaking and made two 16mm films (Transfer and From the Drain). Inspired by the New York underground film scene, he founded the Toronto Film Co-op with Iain Ewing and Ivan Reitman. After taking a year off to travel in Europe, he returned to Canada in 1967, graduating from University College at the top of his class.
wn.com/David_Cronenberg -
David Lange
David Russell Lange, ONZ, CH (/ˈlɒŋi/LONG-ee; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005), served as the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. He headed New Zealand's fourth Labour Government, one of the most reforming administrations in his country's history, but one which did not always conform to traditional expectations of a social-democrat party. He had a reputation for cutting wit (sometimes directed against himself) and eloquence. His government implemented far-reaching free-market reforms. Helen Clark has described New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation as his legacy.
Lange was born in Otahuhu, a south Auckland suburb as the son of a doctor of German stock. His relatives had suffered from prejudice during the First World War due to their German ancestry, and Lange himself would face a political rival in 1984 who tried to discredit him because of his German heritage. He received his formal education at Fairburn Primary School, Otara Intermediate School and Otahuhu College, then at the University of Auckland, where he graduated in law in 1965. He paid his way through university by working in a meat-freezing works. In 1968 he married Naomi Crampton. He gained a Master of Laws in 1970, then practised law in Northland and Auckland for some years, often giving legal representation to the most dispossessed members of Auckland society.
wn.com/David_Lange -
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Letterman recently surpassed friend and mentor Johnny Carson for having the longest late-night hosting career in the United States of America.
Letterman is also a television and film producer. His company Worldwide Pants produces his show as well as its network follow-up The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants has also produced several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was Everybody Loves Raymond, currently in syndication.
In 1996, David Letterman was ranked #45 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 1915 – February 1973), was a florist of British descent; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays.
wn.com/David_Letterman -
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, comic book artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery, and meticulous sound design. The surreal, and in many cases violent, elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences.
Born to a middle class family in Missoula, Montana, Lynch spent his childhood traveling around the United States, before going on to study painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films. Deciding to devote himself more fully to this medium, he moved to Los Angeles, where he produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead became a cult classic on the midnight movie circuit, Lynch was employed to direct The Elephant Man (1980), from which he gained mainstream success. Then being employed by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, he proceeded to make two films: the science-fiction epic Dune (1984), which proved to be a critical and commercial failure, and then a neo-noir crime film, Blue Velvet (1986), which was highly critically acclaimed.
wn.com/David_Lynch -
Debbie Gibson
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. In 1988 she was pronounced the youngest artist to write, produce, and perform a #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, with her song "Foolish Beat" and she remains the youngest female to write, record, and perform a #1 single. She has gone on to starring roles on Broadway and touring musicals, as well as independent film and television work. She continues to record, and reached the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart as high as #24 during 2006 in a duet with Jordan Knight titled "Say Goodbye". In 2010, the album Ms. Vocalist, from Sony Japan was Top 10 on the Japanese Billboard chart and the first single from the album, “I Love You”, hit #1.
Debbie Gibson was born in Brooklyn, New York, the third daughter of four for Diane and Joseph Gibson. She grew up in the Long Island suburb of Merrick and was raised Catholic. At the age of five, she began performing in community theater with her sisters Karen, Michele, and Denise, and cousin T.J Normandin and wrote her first song, "Make Sure You Know Your Classroom". At age eight, she sang in the children's chorus at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. She began playing the ukulele and taking piano lessons soon after, including with American pianist Morton Estrin. She said that her household was probably the only one where bystanders would hear kids fighting over piano playing time.
wn.com/Debbie_Gibson -
Debra Winger
Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She gained critical acclaim for her performance in Urban Cowboy in 1980. She then gave Academy Award-nominated performances in An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment and Shadowlands.
She has also been nominated for four Golden Globe awards, two BAFTA awards, an Emmy Award, and won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman.
Winger was born as Mary Debra Winger in Cleveland Heights, Ohio into an Orthodox Jewish family, to Robert Winger, a meat packer, and Ruth (née Felder), an office manager. She has stated publicly and with amusement that the Internet has a growing "snowball" of claims that she had been part of a kibbutz in Israel, whereas she was merely on a typical Israeli youth program that visited the kibbutz. After returning to the United States, she was involved in a car accident and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage; as a result, she was left partially paralyzed and blind for ten months, having initially been told that she would never see again. With time on her hands to think about her life, she decided that, if she recovered, she would move to California and become an actress. She later recovered.
wn.com/Debra_Winger -
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher ( /dəˈmiː/ də-MEE; born November 11, 1962), known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress, film producer, film director, former songwriter and model. Born in Roswell, New Mexico to teenage parents who divorced before she was born, Moore dropped out of high school at age 16 to begin modeling in Europe, and posed for a nude pictorial in Oui magazine in 1980. After making her movie debut in 1981, she appeared on the soap opera General Hospital and established her career with such films as St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and About Last Night... (1986). Following the successes of Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Disclosure (1994), Moore became Hollywood's highest-paid actress, receiving an unprecedented sum of $12.5 million for Striptease (1996).
Moore took her professional name from her first husband, musician Freddy Moore, and is the mother of three daughters from her second marriage to actor Bruce Willis. She married her third husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, in 2005, and separated from him in November 2011.
wn.com/Demi_Moore -
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (IPA: [tə̂ŋ ɕjɑ̀ʊpʰǐŋ] ( listen); 22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (historically the highest position in Communist China), he nonetheless served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1992. As the core of the second generation leaders Deng shared his power with the two most powerful men after him: Li Xiannian and Chen Yun.
Born into a peasant background in Guang'an, Sichuan, China, Deng studied and worked in France in the 1920s, where he was influenced by Marxism. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. Upon his return to China he worked as a political commissar in rural regions and was considered a "revolutionary veteran" of the Long March. Following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Deng worked in Tibet and other southwestern regions to consolidate Communist control. He was also instrumental in China's economic reconstruction following the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s. His economic policies were at odds with the political ideologies of Chairman Mao Zedong. As a result, he was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution but regained prominence in 1978 by outmaneuvering Mao's chosen successor, Hua Guofeng.
wn.com/Deng_Xiaoping -
Diego Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona Franco (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo maɾaˈðona]; born 30 October 1960) is a retired Argentine football player, and current manager of Al Wasl FC in Dubai. Many experts, football critics, former and current players consider Maradona the greatest football player of all time. He won FIFA Player of the Century award which was to be decided by votes on their official website, their official magazine and a grand jury.
He is the only player in football history who set world-record contract fees twice. The first, when he was transferred to Barcelona for a then world record £5m and the second, when he was transferred to Napoli for another record fee £6.9m. Over the course of his professional club career Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys. In his international career, playing for Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals.
He played in four FIFA World Cup tournaments, including the 1986 tournament, where he captained Argentina and led them to their victory over West Germany in the final, winning the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. In that same tournament's quarterfinal round, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history, though for two different reasons. The first goal was via an unpenalized handball known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "The Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.
wn.com/Diego_Maradona -
Dom Mintoff
Dom Mintoff (born Dominic Mintoff, Maltese Duminku Mintoff; sometimes referred to simply as il-Perit (the architect); August 6, 1916) is a Maltese politician, journalist and architect, who served as leader of the Labour Party from 1949 to 1984, Prime Minister of Malta from 1955 to 1958 (when Malta was still a British crown colony) and again, post-Independence, from 1971 to 1984. Mintoff's time as Prime Minister was notable for a general increase in the average standard of living and the establishment of a comprehensive welfare state.
Dom Mintoff was born in Bormla. He attended the Archbishop's seminary before enrolling at the University of Malta. He graduated Bachelor of Science (1937) and, later, as an architect and civil engineer (1939). That same year he received a scholarship and pursued his studies at Hertford College, Oxford University from where he received a Masters in Science and Engineering in 1943.
After a brief stint as an official of the Bormla Labour Party club, Mintoff was Labour's Secretary General between 1935 and 1945 (resigning briefly to pursue his studies abroad). He was first elected to public office in 1945 to the Government Council. In the same year, Mintoff was elected Deputy Leader of the Party with such a wide margin that placed him in an indisputable position as the successor, if not a challenger, to the Leader Paul Boffa.
wn.com/Dom_Mintoff -
Don Johnson
Donnie Wayne "Don" Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor known for his work in television and film. He played the lead role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s TV cop series, Miami Vice, which led him to huge success. He also played the lead role in the 1990s cop series, Nash Bridges. More recently, Johnson played Kenny Powers' father on the HBO series, Eastbound and Down. Johnson is a Golden Globe winning actor for his role in Miami Vice, a winner of the APBA Offshore World Cup, and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also a singer, songwriter, producer, and director.
Johnson was born in Flat Creek, Missouri. His father, Wayne, was a farmer, and his mother, Nell, was a beautician; they were 19 and 17 at the time of his birth, respectively. At age six, he moved from Missouri to Wichita, Kansas. A 1967 graduate of South High School, he was involved in the high school's theatre program. As a senior, he played the lead role of Tony in West Side Story. His biography noted that he had previously appeared in "Burnt Cork and Melody" and "The Hullabaloo." He also attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
wn.com/Don_Johnson -
Don Simpson
Donald Clarence "Don" Simpson (October 29, 1943 – January 19, 1996) was an American film producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is known for producing such hits as Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and The Rock. In 1985 and again in 1988, he and his producing partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, were named Producers of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners.
Simpson was born in Seattle, Washington, grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and attended West Anchorage High School. He then went on to attend the University of Oregon, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
Simpson's unusual personal life has been documented in a number of sources. A chapter in the book You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again (which describes four prostitutes' stories about their sexual encounters with Hollywood celebrities) discusses his preferences for S & M and videotaping of their sessions. He is also known to have had several plastic surgery operations.
On Friday, January 19, 1996, Simpson was found dead in his home in Los Angeles. The cause of death was a cardiac arrest from combined drug intoxication (CDI).
wn.com/Don_Simpson -
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have made him a well-known celebrity who was No. 17 on the 2011 Forbes Celebrity 100 list. He is well-known as a real-estate developer who amassed vast hotel, casino, and other real-estate properties, in the New York City area and around the world.
Trump is the son of Fred Trump, a wealthy New York City real-estate developer. He worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1968 officially joined the company. He was given control of the company in 1971 and renamed it The Trump Organization.
In 2010, Trump expressed an interest in becoming a candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election. In May 2011, he announced he would not be a candidate, but a few weeks later he said he had not completely ruled out the possibility. In December 2011, Trump was suggested as a possible Vice Presidential selection by Michele Bachmann. Bachmann has since suspended her presidential campaign.
wn.com/Donald_Trump -
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters.
He first drew critical praise for the play Eh?, for which he won a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award. This was soon followed by his breakthrough movie role as the good-looking but troubled Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967). Since then Hoffman's career has largely been focused on cinema, with only sporadic returns to television and the stage. Some of his most notable films are Papillon, Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Lenny, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Wag the Dog, and Meet the Fockers.
Hoffman has won two Academy Awards (for his performances in Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man), five Golden Globes, four BAFTAs, three Drama Desk Awards, a Genie Award, and an Emmy Award. Dustin Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999.
wn.com/Dustin_Hoffman -
Eddie Fenech Adami
Edward “Eddie” Fenech Adami (born 7 February 1934) is a Maltese politician who was Prime Minister of Malta from 1987 until 1996 and again from 1998 until 2004. Subsequently he was the seventh President of Malta from 2004 to 2009.
Born in Birkirkara, Fenech Adami was educated at St Aloysius' College in Birkirkara and at the University of Malta, where he first studied economics and then classics and later law.
He was called to the bar in 1959.
Fenech Adami joined the Nationalist Party becoming its Secretary General and editor of its paper Il-Poplu (Maltese: The People). He became an MP in 1969 through a casual election.
Fenech Adami was elected leader designate in 1977 and took the lead of the Party from Giorgio Borg Olivier in 1978. In 1979 his family and family home were targeted by a mob in a series of violent incidents which came to be known as "Black Monday".
He served as Leader of the Opposition until his party was voted in office in 1987. At the controversial 1981 elections he was very narrowly defeated by the incumbent Prime Minister Dom Mintoff; Fenech Adami did better than Mintoff in terms of the popular vote, but this did not translate into an actual majority of parliamentary seats.
wn.com/Eddie_Fenech_Adami -
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician.
Box office takes from Murphy's films make him the second-highest grossing actor in the United States. He was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984 and has worked as a stand-up comedian. He was ranked #10 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.
He has received Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances in 48 Hrs, Beverly Hills Cop series, Trading Places, and The Nutty Professor. In 2007, he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of soul singer James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls.
Eddie Murphy's work as a voice actor includes Thurgood Stubbs in The PJs, Donkey in the Shrek series and the dragon Mushu in Disney's Mulan. In some of his films, he plays multiple roles in addition to his main character, intended as a tribute to one of his idols Peter Sellers, who played multiple roles in Dr. Strangelove and elsewhere. Murphy has played multiple roles in Coming to America, Wes Craven's Vampire In Brooklyn, the Nutty Professor films (where he played the title role in two incarnations, plus his father, brother, mother, and grandmother), Bowfinger, Norbit, and Meet Dave.
wn.com/Eddie_Murphy -
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a Dutch-born American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the eponymous hard rock band Van Halen. Allmusic described him as "Second to only Jimi Hendrix... undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century." He is ranked 8th in Rolling Stone's 2011 list of the Top 100 guitarists.
Born in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen is a son of clarinetist, saxophonist and pianist father Jan van Halen and mother Eugenia. Eugenia van Halen was originally from Indonesia which was a former Dutch colony. Eugenia was half Dutch and half Indonesian. Edward's middle name "Lodewijk" was derived from composer Ludwig van Beethoven (Lodewijk is the Dutch version of Ludwig). Edward continued this naming tradition by naming his son Wolfgang Van Halen after composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.. In February 1962, at the age of seven, Edward moved with his family to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California.[1]
wn.com/Eddie_Van_Halen -
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. She is also head of state of the Crown Dependencies.
Elizabeth was born in London, and educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne as George VI in 1936 on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, in which she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. On the death of her father in 1952, she became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon. Her coronation service in 1953 was the first to be televised. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. Today, in addition to the first four aforementioned countries, Elizabeth is Queen of Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
wn.com/Elizabeth_II -
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image".
Costello has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male. In 2003, Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus in St Mary's Hospital, London, the son of Lilian Alda (née Ablett, b. 1927, Liverpool) and Ross MacManus (1927–2011), a musician and bandleader. He is of Irish heritage. Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Hounslow Secondary Modern School, which is now St Mark's Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow. With a musically inclined father (who was a jazz trumpeter and sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra), Costello's first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade (I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.
wn.com/Elvis_Costello -
Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez (/ɛˈmiːljoʊ ˈɛstɨvɛz/; born May 12, 1962) is an American actor, film director, and writer. He started his career as an actor and is well known for being a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, starring in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. He is also known for Repo Man, The Mighty Ducks and its sequels, Maximum Overdrive, Bobby (which he also wrote and directed), and his performances in Western films such as Young Guns and its sequel. One of his first appearances was as "Two-Bit" in The Outsiders.
wn.com/Emilio_Estevez -
Eric Heiden
Eric Arthur Heiden (born June 14, 1958 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American former long track speed skater and road cyclist who won all the men's speed skating races, and thus an unprecedented five individual gold medals, and set four Olympic records and one world record at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, United States. He was the most successful athlete at the same Games, and is indeed, the most successful Winter Olympian from a single edition of Winter Olympics. He also delivered the Athlete's Oath at those same games.
Heiden is an icon in the speed skating community and, in particular, in Europe where the sport is highly regarded. His victories are significant as few speed skaters (and athletes in general) have won competitions in both sprint and long-distance events. Heiden is the only athlete in the history of speed skating to have won all five events in a single Olympic tournament and the only one to have won a gold medal in all events. He is considered by some to be the best overall speedskater (short and long distances) in the sport's history. Heiden ranked No. 46 in ESPN's SportsCentury 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century in 1999, the only speed skater to make the list; in 2000, a Dutch newspaper called him the greatest skater ever.
wn.com/Eric_Heiden -
Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker (German: [ˈeːʁɪç ˈhɔnɛkɐ]; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German socialist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well after Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976.
Following the definite end of the Cold War, Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes and was ousted by the party in late 1989 and removed from power. Following the German reunification he successfully evaded prosecution for human rights abuses committed under his regime, finally settling down with his family in Chile in 1993, dying the following year from liver cancer.
Honecker was born on Max-Braun-Straße in Neunkirchen, now Saarland, as the son of Wilhelm Honecker, a coal miner and political activist, who in 1905 had married Caroline Catharina Weidenhof. There were six children born to the family: Katharina (Käthe), Wilhelm (Willi), Frieda, Erich, Gertrud (b. 1917; m. Hoppstädter), and Karl-Robert.
wn.com/Erich_Honecker -
Europe (band)
Europe is a Swedish hard rock/heavy metal band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno. Since its formation, Europe has released nine studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and eighteen videos.
Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with its third album The Final Countdown (1986), which became a substantial commercial success and sold over three million copies in the United States. Europe was one of the most successful rock acts of the 1980s and sold over 20 million albums worldwide. The band has achieved two top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart (The Final Countdown and Out of This World) and two top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart ("The Final Countdown" and "Carrie").
Europe went on hiatus in 1992, reunited temporarily for a one-off performance in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999 and announced an official reunion in 2003. Since then the band has released four albums, Start from the Dark (2004), Secret Society (2006), Last Look at Eden (2009) and Bag of Bones on April 18, 2012.
wn.com/Europe_(band) -
Expo 86
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo '86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from Friday, May 2 until Monday, October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion - World in Touch", coincided with Vancouver's centennial and was held on the north shore of False Creek. It was the second time that Canada held a World's Fair, the first being Expo 67 in Montreal (during the Canadian Centennial). It was also the third World's Fair to be held in the Pacific Northwest in the last 25 years as of 1986 and as of 2012 it still stands as the latest World's Fair to be held in North America.
The logo of three interlocking rings to make the 86 in the logo stood for the three main modes of transportation; land, air, and water.
Up until the late 1970s, the 173 acre (0.7 km2) site on False Creek, where Expo was staged, was a former CPR rail yard and an industrial wasteland. In 1978, Sam Bawlf (then BC Minister of Recreation and Conservation) proposed an exposition to celebrate Vancouver's Centennial year (1986). The proposal was submitted in June 1979, for a fair that was to be called "Transpo 86." In 1980, the British Columbia Legislature passed the Transpo 86 Corporation Act, paving the way for the fair. The transportation theme reflected the city's role in connecting Canada by rail, its status as a major port and transportation hub, and the role of transportation in communications.
wn.com/Expo_86 -
Fahd of Saudi Arabia
Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, (Arabic: فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود Fahd ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Su‘ūd) (16 March 1920 – 1 August 2005) was King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005.
King Fahd is the eighth son of Ibn Saud and is the fifth king of Saudi Arabia. Fahd ascended to the throne on the death of his half-brother, King Khalid, on 13 June 1982. He was a member of Sudairi Seven. In fact, he was the eldest of Sudairi Brothers.
Fahd was appointed Crown Prince when Khalid succeeded their half-brother King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975. Fahd was viewed as the de facto prime minister during King Khalid's reign in part due to the latter's ill health.
Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke on 29 November 1995, after which he was unable to continue performing his full official duties. His half-brother, Abdullah, then-Crown Prince, served as de facto regent of the kingdom and succeeded Fahd as monarch upon his death on 1 August 2005.
King Fahd is credited for having introduced the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia in 1992.
wn.com/Fahd_of_Saudi_Arabia -
Felipe González
Felipe González Márquez (born 5 March 1942) is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.
Felipe was born in Seville, son of a farmer who had a small dairy. He has a sister named Lola González y Márquez, married to Francisco Germán Palomino y Romera, by whom she has two sons, Felipe and Germán Palomino y González. He studied Law at Seville University and started his career as attorney specialising in labour. While at the University he met members of the socialist trade union Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) that was clandestine at the time. He also contacted members of the PSOE and started taking part in the party's clandestine activity. During that time he adopted the nom de guerre Isidoro and moved to Madrid. He was elected Secretary General of the Party at the Suresnes Congress, in France.
wn.com/Felipe_González -
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician who held the title of President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives (1949–1959) and a member of the Philippine Senate (1959–1965). He was Senate President from 1963–1965.
While in power he implemented wide-ranging programs of infrastructure development and economic reform. However, his administration was marred by massive authoritarian corruption, despotism, nepotism, political repression, and human rights violations.
In 1983, his government was accused of being involved in the assassination of his primary political opponent, Benigno Aquino, Jr. Public outrage over the assassination served as the catalyst for the People Power Revolution in February 1986 that led to his removal from power and eventual exile in Hawaii. It was later discovered that, during his 20 years in power, he and his wife Imelda Marcos had moved billions of dollars of embezzled public funds to accounts and investments in the United States, Switzerland, and other countries.
wn.com/Ferdinand_Marcos -
Five Star
Five Star (also styled as 5 Star) are a British pop / R&B group, formed in 1983. Comprising siblings Stedman, Lorraine, Denise, Doris and Delroy Pearson, they were known for their flamboyant image, matching costumes and heavily choreographed dance routines. Five Star achieved a string of Top 40 singles and albums in the UK between 1985 and 1988.
The five-piece group of siblings from Romford, London were masterminded by their father and manager, Buster Pearson, in the style of The Jackson 5. He was a former session musician who had worked with Wilson Pickett and had set up Tent Records Inc. to release the group's material, backed by RCA Records. Following the release of Five Star's debut album, Luxury of Life in 1985, the group scored their first Top 10 hit in 1986 with "System Addict". The group also began to gain a following in the United States and several singles made the Billboard Dance and R&B Charts Top 10. Their second album, Silk and Steel, released in 1986, included five UK Top 10 chart hits: "Can't Wait Another Minute", "Find The Time", "Rain Or Shine", "Stay Out Of My Life" (penned by Denise) and "The Slightest Touch". The album itself reached number one and sold 1.2 million copies in the UK alone. In 1987, the group won the BRIT Award for Best British Group, and also saw the release of their third album, Between The Lines, which reached number seven in the UK. However, none of this album's singles made the Top 10.
wn.com/Five_Star -
Franco Baresi
Franco Baresi (born 8 May 1960 in Travagliato, Italy) is an Italian football youth team coach and former player. He played as a sweeper and spent his entire career with Serie A club AC Milan. Baresi was nicknamed "Piscinin", Milanese for "Little one". In 1999, Baresi was voted AC Milan Player of the Century and is widely regarded as one of the finest defenders of all time.
He is also the younger brother of Internazionale legend and current vice coach Giuseppe Baresi.
Baresi was brought by his older brother Giuseppe for a trial in Inter's youth team, but was rejected. Despite this setback, Baresi refused to give up his dream and tried out for the Milan youth team, where he was accepted.
Baresi led the Milan team and its defence for the best part of a decade. During that time, the back four consisting of him, Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti gained a reputation for being of the meanest defenses in Europe. He is also one of the few players who spent his entire career at one club, AC Milan, for whom he played 719 games, scoring 33 goals. Unconventional for an Italian defender trained in the catenaccio tradition, Baresi was an attacking defender who often assisted the team in counterattacks but without neglecting his defensive duties.
wn.com/Franco_Baresi -
Franz Vranitzky
Franz Vranitzky (born 4 October 1937) is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), he was Chancellor of Austria from 1986 to 1997.
As the son of a foundryman, Vranitzky was born into humble circumstances in Vienna's 17th disttrict. He attended the Realgymnasium Geblergasse and studied economics, graduating in 1960. He financed his studies teaching Latin and English and as a construction worker.
As a young man, Vranitzky played basket ball and was a member of Austria's national team, which in 1960 unsuccessfully tried to qualify for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
In 1962 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).
In 1962, Vranitzky married Christine Christen, with whom he fathered two children.
Vranitzky began his career in 1961 at Siemens-Schuckert, but within the year switched to the National Bank of Austria. In 1969, he received a doctorate in International business studies. The following year, Hannes Androsch, minister of finance under Chancellor Bruno Kreisky had appointed him economic and financial advisor. Vranitzky served as deputy director of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein (1976–1981), briefly as its director general and as director general of the Österreichische Länderbank (1981–1984).
wn.com/Franz_Vranitzky -
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (French: [fʁɑ̃swa mɔʁis mitɛˈʁɑ̃] ( listen); 26 October 1916 – 8 January 1996) was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the first figure from the left elected President under the Fifth Republic.
Reflecting family influences, Mitterrand started political life on the Catholic nationalist right. He served under the Vichy Regime in its earlier years. Subsequently, however, he joined the Resistance, moved to the left, and held ministerial office repeatedly under the Fourth Republic. He opposed de Gaulle's establishment of the Fifth Republic. Although at times a politically isolated figure, Mitterrand outmanoeuvred rivals to become the left's standard bearer in every presidential election from 1965 to 1988, except 1969. Elected President in the May 1981 presidential election, he was re-elected in 1988 and held office until 1995.
wn.com/François_Mitterrand -
Fred Sinowatz
Alfred "Fred" Sinowatz (5 February 1929 – 11 August 2008) was born in Neufeld an der Leitha, Burgenland, Austria. He was an Austrian politician of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ), and was Chancellor of Austria from 1983 to 1986.
Sinowatz, educated as a historian, was Minister of Education and Art in the Austrian government from 1971 to 1983. In 1981, when Bruno Kreisky's chosen successor "Crown Prince" Hannes Androsch was removed from his position, Sinowatz also became Vice Chancellor.
After the SPÖ had lost its absolute majority in 1983 and Kreisky had resigned as chancellor, Sinowatz reluctantly took up the position of head of the Austrian government. He joined a coalition, initiated by Kreisky, with the Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) which was then run by liberals.
In autumn 1983, he also succeeded Kreisky as chairman of the SPÖ.
In late 1984, came the severe internal crisis of the "Occupation of the Hainburg Floodplain" by thousands of people protesting against the building of a power station there. Sinowatz managed to calm both sides by announcing a "Christmas peace" on December 22, 1984, following considerable pressure from the public.
wn.com/Fred_Sinowatz -
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (Gujarati: ફારોખ બલ્સારા), 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range. As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.
Mercury was a Parsi born in Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens. He has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian rock star". In 2002, Mercury was placed at number 58 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2006, Time Asia named him one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years, and he continues to be voted one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music. In 2005, a poll organised by Blender and MTV2 saw Mercury voted the greatest male singer of all time. In 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him number 18 on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. In 2009, a Classic Rock poll saw him voted the greatest rock singer of all time.Allmusic has characterised Mercury as "one of rock's greatest all-time entertainers", who possessed "one of the greatest voices in all of music".
wn.com/Freddie_Mercury -
Freddie Spencer
Frederick "Freddie" Burdette Spencer (born December 20, 1961), known by the nickname Fast Freddie, is an American former World Champion motorcycle racer. Spencer is regarded as one of the greatest motorcycle racers of the early 1980s.
Spencer was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was a racing prodigy who began racing at the age of four, competing in dirt track events near his hometown of Shreveport.
After winning the 1978 250cc U.S. National Road Racing Championship, American Honda signed Spencer to ride for their Superbike team. He gained international prominence at the 1980 U.S. versus Britain Trans-Atlantic Match races when he won two legs, defeating World Champions Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene in the process. In 1981, he split his time between the AMA Superbike series, and the European Grand Prix circuit, helping Honda develop the exotic, oval-cylindered NR500 four-stroke Grand Prix bike.
By 1982, he had been promoted full time to Honda's Grand Prix team, who by then had given up on the NR500 and developed the NS500 three cylinder, two-stroke. In 1983, Spencer won his first 500cc World Championship at the age of 21, becoming the youngest person to win the title, a distinction previously held by Mike Hailwood. The 1983 season would be remembered as one of the most dramatic title chases in the history of Grand Prix racing; Honda's Spencer and Yamaha's Kenny Roberts fought back and forth for the points lead with each of them earning six victories. The season culminated at the penultimate round in Sweden when the two riders collided on the last lap. Roberts ran off the track leaving Spencer to sprint to the finish line and victory. Roberts won the last race but Spencer finished second, securing his first world title by two points.
wn.com/Freddie_Spencer -
Gary Lineker
Gary Winston Lineker, OBE (born 30 November 1960), is a former English footballer, who played as a striker. He is a sports broadcaster for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live. He remains England's top scorer in the FIFA World Cup finals, with ten goals.
Lineker began his football career at Leicester City and became known as a prolific goalscorer; despite failing to score in his first ten games, he finished as the First Division's joint top goalscorer in 1984–85 and earned his first England cap. He then moved to League Champions Everton where he remained a clinical finisher, scoring 40 goals in 57 games. His first team honours came at Barcelona, where he won the Copa del Rey in 1988 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1989. He returned to England in 1989, joining Tottenham Hotspur, and over three seasons he scored 67 goals in 105 games and won the FA Cup. Lineker's final club was Nagoya Grampus Eight and he retired in 1994 after two seasons at the Japanese side.
wn.com/Gary_Lineker -
George H.W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States (1989–93). He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States (1981–89), a congressman, an ambassador, a Director of Central Intelligence, and is currently the oldest surviving president.
Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Senator Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed going to college, enlisted in the US Navy on his 18th birthday, and became the youngest aviator in the Navy at the time. He served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, becoming a millionaire by the age of 40.
He became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives, among other positions. He ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 1980, but was chosen by party nominee Ronald Reagan to be the vice presidential nominee, and the two were subsequently elected. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation and fighting drug abuse.
wn.com/George_H.W._Bush -
George Harrison
George Harrison,MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, and introduced it to the other Beatles, as well as their Western audience. Following the band's break-up he was a successful solo artist, and later a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys. Harrison was also a session musician and a film and record producer. He is listed at number 11 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Although most of The Beatles' songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, Beatle albums generally included one or two of Harrison's own songs, from With The Beatles onwards. His later compositions with The Beatles include "Here Comes the Sun", "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". By the time of the band's break-up, Harrison had accumulated a backlog of material, which he then released as the triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970, from which two hit singles originated: a double A-side single, "My Sweet Lord" backed with "Isn't It a Pity", and "What Is Life". In addition to his solo work, Harrison co-wrote two hits for former Beatle Ringo Starr, as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburys—the supergroup he formed in 1988 with Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison.
wn.com/George_Harrison -
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American film producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones. Lucas is one of the American film industry's most financially successful directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of 2011.
George Lucas was born in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore (née Bomberger) and George Walton Lucas, Sr. (1913–1991), who owned a stationery store.
Lucas grew up in the Central Valley town of Modesto and his early passion for cars and motor racing would eventually serve as inspiration for his USC student film 1:42.08, as well as his Oscar-nominated low-budget phenomenon, American Graffiti. Long before Lucas became obsessed with film making, he wanted to be a race-car driver, and he spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages. However, a near-fatal accident in his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina on June 12, 1962, just days before his high school graduation, quickly changed his mind. Instead of racing, he attended Modesto Junior College and later got accepted into a junior college to study anthropology. While taking liberal arts courses, he developed a passion for cinematography and camera tricks. George Lucas graduated from USC in California.
wn.com/George_Lucas -
George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου); 25 June 1963) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Michael rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley. His first solo single, "Careless Whisper", was released when he was still in the duo and sold about six million copies worldwide.
As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold more than 100 million records worldwide as of 2010. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and made several records and achievements in the United States. Michael has garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists list.
Michael has won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.
wn.com/George_Michael -
Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados), better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ—one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing.
He has been credited with the invention of the first crossfade by sourcing parts from a junkyard in the Bronx. It was initially an On/Off toggle switch from an old microphone that he transformed into a left/right switch which allowed him to switch from one turntable to another; switch from record one to record two.
Before this time DJs, like the first of them all, DJ Kool Herc, and then Afrika Bambaataa, would have to break up the party to pick up the needle and re-drop it on the record, or a new record; until Flash invented a new way to link one record to the other with the cross-fader. After this invention he went from being called Flash to Grandmaster Flash, having made a huge impact on the culture, he was repaid with this honorific name.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first hip hop/rap artists to be so honored.
wn.com/Grandmaster_Flash -
Greg LeMond
Gregory James LeMond (born June 26, 1961 in Lakewood, California) is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California and raised in Reno, Nevada.
In 1986, LeMond became the first American and the first non-European cyclist to win the Tour de France. The following year he was shot and seriously injured in a hunting accident. He was able to return to the Tour in 1989, winning it dramatically in its final stage. He won again for the third time the following year in 1990. He is one of only nine cyclists to have won the Tour three or more times.
Greg LeMond was a standout junior rider who quickly established himself as one of the most talented cyclists in the professional circuit. After his initial success on the junior circuit he began competing against older, more seasoned competitors. He gained the attention of the US Cycling Federation's national team, riding for them at the 1979 Junior World Championships held in Argentina. There he won gold, silver and bronze medals, the highlight being his spectacular victory in the road race. He was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic cycling team, the youngest ever, at 18, to make the U.S. team; however, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from competing there.
wn.com/Greg_LeMond -
Greg Luganis
Gregory "Greg" Efthimios Louganis ( /luːˈɡeɪnɨs/) (born January 29, 1960) is an American Olympic diver and author.
He received the James E. Sullivan Award from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in 1984 as the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.
Louganis is of Samoan/Swedish descent. His teenaged parents gave him up for adoption when he was eight months old and he was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple. As a child he suffered from asthma and a string of allergies; his doctor suggested an exercise program would strengthen his lungs. He was taken to his sister's dance class, and also took up gymnastics and trampoline. He began diving lessons at age eight after the family got a swimming pool and he began attempting his trampoline moves on the diving board. He attended Santana High School in Santee, California, and Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California.
As a Junior Olympic competitor Louganis caught the eye of Dr. Sammy Lee, two-time Olympic champion, who began coaching him. At sixteen Louganis took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event, behind Italian sport legend Klaus Dibiasi. Two years later, with Dibiasi retired, Louganis won his first world title in the same event with the help of coach Ron O'Brien. In 1978, he accepted a diving scholarship to the University of Miami where he studied theater, but in 1981 transferred to the University of California, Irvine, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
wn.com/Greg_Luganis -
GWAR
GWAR is a satirical heavy metal/punkrock band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984. The band is well known for its elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics and graphic stage performances, which feature humorous enactments of politically and morally taboo themes.
The band's characteristic costumes are generally made of foam latex, styrofoam, and hardened rubber. The costumes cover very little, with the rest of their bodies accentuated with makeup. They further their production in concert by spraying their audiences with mostly "harmless" fluids.
Another trademark of Gwar's live show is their lampooning of celebrities and figures in current events. Targets have included O. J. Simpson, Marilyn Manson, John Kerry, Mike Tyson, every American President since Ronald Reagan, Jerry Garcia, Osama Bin Laden, Michael Jackson, Al Gore, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Paris Hilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Lady Gaga, Jerry Springer, Mr. Lordi, Sarah Palin, Snooki and many others. The band also makes frequent references to political and historical figures, fantasy literature, and mythology. For instance, the song "Whargoul" makes reference to Minas Morgul as well as the eternal warrior of Michael Moorcock. Gwar also has many references to H. P. Lovecraft themes (Antarctica, Yig, Giant Penguins, Fleshy Insanities, etc.). They were nominated for two Grammys, one for Best Metal Performance "S.F.W." and one for Best Long Form Music Video "Phallus in Wonderland". The band also performed fire dancing until the character "Slymenstra Hymen" left the band.
wn.com/GWAR -
Hafiz Al-Asad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: حافظ الأسد Ḥāfiẓ al-Asad, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was the President of Syria for three decades.
Born to a poor family of minority Alawite background, he served in the Syrian air force, before rising through the ranks of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and seizing power in the 1970 Corrective Revolution. He purged the party, introducing Alawite rule of Syria, who came to occupy leading positions in every sector of Syrian society.
On the one hand, Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government, bringing stability after decades of coups and counter-coups, and continued foreign influence related to the cold war. His rule brought changes, including the 1973 constitution which stated that it guaranteed women's "equal status in society". Assad attempted to industrialize the country, and it was opened up to foreign markets. Oil was discovered, and some degree of the revenue invested in infrastructure, education, medicine, literacy and urban construction.
wn.com/Hafiz_Al-Asad -
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. His career has spanned six decades and includes roles in several Hollywood blockbusters, including Presumed Innocent, The Fugitive, Air Force One, and What Lies Beneath. At one point, four of the top six box-office hits of all time included one of his roles. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
In 1997, Ford was ranked No. 1 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. As of July 2008[update], the United States domestic box office grosses of Ford's films total over US$3.5 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, making Ford the third highest grossing U.S. domestic box-office star. Ford is the husband of actress Calista Flockhart.
wn.com/Harrison_Ford -
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛlmuːt ˈkoːl]; born 3 April 1930) is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany between 1982 and 1990 and of the reunited Germany between 1990 and 1998) and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. His 16-year tenure was the longest of any German chancellor since Otto von Bismarck and oversaw the end of the Cold War and the German reunification. Kohl is widely regarded as one of the main architects of the German reunification and, together with French President François Mitterrand, the Maastricht Treaty, which contributed to the creation of the European Union.
Kohl and Mitterrand were the joint recipients of the Karlspreis in 1988. In 1998, Kohl was named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government for his extraordinary work for European integration and cooperation, an honour previously only bestowed on Jean Monnet. In 1996, he won the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation.
wn.com/Helmut_Kohl -
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛlmʊt ˈʃmɪt]; born 23 December 1918) is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister. He is the oldest surviving German Chancellor and the last surviving person to have been solely Chancellor of West Germany (Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of both West Germany and reunified Germany). He is also the oldest living Federal German Minister, after the death of his Interior Minister Werner Maihofer.
Helmut Schmidt was born in Hamburg, as son of two teachers. He studied at Hamburg Lichtwark School, graduating in 1937. He was conscripted into military service and began serving with an anti-aircraft battery at Vegesack near Bremen during World War II. After brief service on the Eastern Front he returned to Germany in 1942 to work as a trainer and advisor at the Reichsluftfahrtministerium. Also in 1942, on 27 June, he married his childhood sweetheart Hannelore "Loki" Glaser (3 March 1919 – 21 October 2010), with whom he fathered two children: Helmut Walter (26 June 1944–February 1945, died of meningitis), and Susanne (b. 1947), who works in London for Bloomberg Television. Toward the end of the war, from December 1944 onwards, he served as an Oberleutnant in the artillery on the Western Front. He was captured by the British in April 1945 on Lüneburg Heath and was a prisoner of war until August. During his service in World War II Schmidt was awarded the Iron Cross.
wn.com/Helmut_Schmidt -
Hirohito
Hirohito (裕仁?), posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or the Shōwa Emperor (昭和天皇, Shōwa tennō?), (April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to exclusively by his posthumous name Emperor Shōwa. The word Shōwa is the name of the era that corresponded with the Emperor's reign, and was made the Emperor's own name upon his death.
At the start of his reign, Japan was already one of the great powers—the ninth largest economy in the world after Italy, the third largest naval country, and one of the five permanent members of the council of the League of Nations. He was the head of state under the limitation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan during Japan's imperial expansion, militarization, and involvement in World War II. After the war, he was not prosecuted for war crimes as many other leading government figures were. During the postwar period, he became the symbol of the new state.
wn.com/Hirohito -
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (Arabic: محمد حسني السيد مبارك, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħæmːæd ˈħosni ˈsæjjed moˈbɑːɾˤɑk], Muḥammad Ḥusnī Sayyid Mubārak; born 4 May 1928) is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Mubarak was appointed Vice President of Egypt in 1975, and assumed the presidency on 14 October 1981, following the assassination of President Anwar El Sadat. His almost thirty-year presidency made him Egypt's longest-serving ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force, serving as its commander from 1972 to 1975 and rising to the rank of air chief marshal.
Mubarak was ousted after 18 days of demonstrations during the 2011 Egyptian revolution when, on 11 February, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned as president and transferred authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. On 13 April, a prosecutor[which?] ordered Mubarak and both his sons to be detained for 15 days of questioning about allegations of corruption and abuse of power. He was then ordered to stand trial on charges of premeditated murder of peaceful protestors during the revolution. These trials officially began on 3 August 2011. Egypt’s military prosecutors then also proclaimed that they are investigating Mubarak's role in the assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat.
wn.com/Hosni_Mubarak -
Hulk Hogan
Terry Gene Bollea (born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Hogan enjoyed mainstream popularity in the mid 1980s through the early 1990s as the all-American character Hulk Hogan in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF—now WWE), and was notable in the mid-to-late 1990s as Hollywood Hogan, the villainous nWo leader, in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Following the closure of WCW, he made a brief return to WWE in the early 2000s before revising his heroic character by combining elements of his two most famous personas.
Hogan was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. He is a 12-time world champion being a six-time WWF/WWE Champion, six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, as well as a former WWE World Tag Team Champion with Edge. He won the Royal Rumble in 1990 and 1991, making him the first to win two consecutive Royal Rumbles. He was also the first WWE wrestler to win the WWE Championship three times. In his first reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Hogan held the title for 469 days from July 17, 1994 to October 29, 1995—the longest ever reign for this championship.
wn.com/Hulk_Hogan -
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE (born 24 November 1955) is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy". While a controversial player both on and off the field at times, Botham also held a number of Test cricket records, and still holds the record for the highest number of wickets taken by an England bowler.
He is generally regarded as being England's greatest ever all-rounder, particularly in Test cricket, although having earned celebrity status, his award of a knighthood was ostensibly in recognition of his services to charity.
Just like fellow cricketers Jim Cumbes and Arnold Sidebottom, Botham was also a talented footballer, and made 11 appearances in the Football League.
On 8 August 2009, Botham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Botham was born in Heswall on the Wirral, to Herbert Leslie Botham (who worked for Westland) and Violet Marie, née Collett (a nurse). Both his parents played cricket. He went to Milford Junior School in Yeovil, Somerset, where his "love affair" with sport began, and played for Somerset Under-15s. He left Bucklers Mead Comprehensive School at the age of 15 without completing his GCSEs, intent on playing cricket for Somerset, although he also had an offer to play football for Crystal Palace F.C. From an early age he was always single-minded. When informed that Botham wanted to be a sportsman, the Careers Mistress at his school said to him, "Fine, everyone wants to play sport, but what are you really going to do?" (interviewed BBC Radio 4's Fiona Glover, 20 November 2010, Saturday Live).
wn.com/Ian_Botham -
Ice-T
Tracy Marrow (born February 16, 1958), better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American musician and actor. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and moved to the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles when he was in the 7th grade. After graduating from high school, he served in the United States Army for four years. He began his career as a rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays, the first hip-hop album to carry an explicit content sticker. The next year, he founded the record label Rhyme Syndicate Records (named after his collective of fellow hip-hop artists called the Rhyme Syndicate) and released another album, Power.
He co-founded the heavy metal band Body Count, which he introduced in his 1991 album O.G.: Original Gangster. Body Count released its self-titled debut album in 1992. Ice-T encountered controversy over his track "Cop Killer", which was perceived to glamorize killing police officers. Ice-T asked to be released from his contract with Warner Bros. Records, and his next solo album, Home Invasion, was released later in the fall of 1993 through Priority Records. Body Count's next album was released in 1994, and Ice-T released two more albums in the late 1990s. Since 2000, he has portrayed NYPD Detective Odafin Tutuola on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
wn.com/Ice-T -
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop (born James Newell "Jim" Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues. Pop became known as 'Iggy' in high school, during which time he served as drummer for local blues band The Iguanas. He is vocalist of influential protopunk band The Stooges (Pop and the other surviving members of the group reunited in 2003), having become known, since the late 1960s, for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.
Though the singer's popularity has waned and waxed throughout his career, Pop has recorded a number of well-known songs, including "Lust for Life", "Real Wild Child", "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl", "Nightclubbing", "Search and Destroy", and "The Passenger". The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010
Iggy Pop (AKA Iggy Stooge) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the son of Louella (née Christensen) and James Newell Osterberg, Sr., a former high school English teacher and baseball coach at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Osterberg was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is of Irish and English descent on his father's side, and of Norwegian and Danish ancestry on his mother's. His father was adopted by a Swedish American family and took on their surname (Österberg).
wn.com/Iggy_Pop -
Imran Khan
Imran Khan Niazi (Urdu: عمران خان نیازی; born 25 November 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century. After retiring, he entered politics. Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a philanthropist, cricket commentator, Chancellor of the University of Bradford and Founder and Chairman Board of Governors of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre.
Arguably Pakistan's most successful cricket captain, Khan played for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992 and served as its captain intermittently throughout 1982–1992. After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup, he was called back to join the team in 1988. At 39, Khan led his teammates to Pakistan's first and only World Cup victory in 1992. He has a record of 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, making him one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an 'All-rounder's Triple' in Test matches. On 14 July 2010, Khan was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
wn.com/Imran_Khan -
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: इंदिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गांधी Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī listen (help·info), née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term (1980–84). Gandhi was the second female head of government in the world after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, and she remains as the world's second longest serving female Prime Minister as of 2012. She was the first woman to become prime minister in India.
Gandhi was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that had been begun by her father. Gandhi established closer relations with the Soviet Union, depending on that nation for support in India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan. She was also the only Indian Prime Minister to have declared a state of emergency in order to 'rule by decree' and the only Indian Prime Minister to have been imprisoned after holding that office. She was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for ordering Operation Blue Star.
wn.com/Indira_Gandhi -
Irene Cara
Irene Cara (born March 18, 1959) is an American singer and actress. She became famous for her role in the 1980 film Fame, earning her a Golden Globe nomination, and her recording of the song "Fame" became an international hit. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling, which also became an international hit."
She married Hollywood stuntman Conrad Palmisano in 1986. They divorced in 1991.
Cara's father, Gaspar Cara, was Puerto Rican and Cara's mother, Louise, was an American of Cuban descent. Cara has two sisters and two brothers. At age three, Irene Cara was one of five finalists for the 'Little Miss America' pageant. Cara began to play the piano "by ear" and soon thereafter, she began seriously studying music, acting, and dance. Cara's performing career started when she was a child on Spanish-language television, professionally singing and dancing. She made early TV appearances on the Original Amateur Hour (singing in Spanish) and Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. She was a regular on PBS’s educational program The Electric Company, which starred Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, and Morgan Freeman. As a child, Cara recorded a Latin-market Spanish-language record; an English Christmas album soon followed. She also appeared in a major concert tribute to Duke Ellington which also featured Stevie Wonder, Sammy Davis Jr, and Roberta Flack.
wn.com/Irene_Cara -
Ivan Reitman
Ivan Reitman, OC (born October 27, 1946) is a Canadian film producer and director, best known for his comedy work, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.
Reitman was born in Komárno, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), the son of Clara and Leslie Reitman. Reitman's parents were Jewish; his mother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and his father was an underground resistance fighter. His family came to Canada as refugees in 1950. Reitman attended Oakwood Collegiate in Toronto and was a member of the Twintone Four singing group.[citation needed] He is the father of film director Jason Reitman.
Reitman's first producing job was with the then-new station CITY-TV in Toronto. CITY was also the home of the first announcing job of his later friend and collaborator Dan Aykroyd. However, Reitman's tenure at CITY was short and he was fired during his first year by station owner Moses Znaimer.[citation needed]
Spellbound (1972), directed by Ivan Reitman, with music by Howard Shore, magic by Doug Henning and co-starring actress Jennifer Dale, a musical that combined an intense storyline and Henning's magic tricks. The show opened in Toronto and broke box office ticket records in that city.
wn.com/Ivan_Reitman -
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. By winning a total of 18 career major championships while producing 19 second place and 9 third place finishes in major events on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years, he is widely regarded as the most accomplished professional golfer of all time. Nicklaus did not play that many tournaments because he wanted to focus on the Majors, but is still second on the PGA-tournament winning list, with 73 victories.
After winning two U.S. Amateurs in 1959 and 1961, and challenging for the 1960 U.S. Open, Nicklaus turned professional toward the end of 1961. The 1962 U.S. Open was both Nicklaus' first major championship victory and his first professional win. This win over Arnold Palmer began the on-course rivalry between the two. In 1966, Nicklaus won the Masters Tournament for the second year in a row, becoming the first golfer to achieve this, and also won The Open Championship, completing his career slam of major championships. At age 26, he became the youngest to do so at the time. In 1968 and 1969, Nicklaus did not win a major tournament. He then won another Open Championship in 1970.
wn.com/Jack_Nicklaus -
James Brady
James Scott "Jim" Brady (born August 29, 1940) is a former Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary under U.S. President Ronald Reagan. After nearly being killed and becoming permanently disabled as a result of an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981, Brady became an ardent supporter of gun control.
Brady is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and attended St. Mary Catholic Grade School in Centralia, Illinois. In 1962, Brady graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science, and was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity there. He began his career in public service as a staff member in the office of Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen. During the summer of 1962, he was an Honor Intern at the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
After being on the faculty at Southern Illinois University (1964–1965), he held many positions in the private sector, including Assistant National Sales Manager and Executive Manager to the President of Lear-Seigler (1965–1966), Director of Legislation and Public Affairs for the Illinois State Medical Society (1966–1968), Whitaker and Baxter's Chicago Office Manager (1968–1969), and Executive and Vice President of James and Thomas Advertising and Public Relations (1969–1973).
wn.com/James_Brady -
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian film director, film producer, deep-sea explorer, screenwriter, visual artist and editor. His writing and directing work includes Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997), Dark Angel (2000–02), and Avatar (2009). In the time between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron spent several years creating many documentary films (specifically underwater documentaries) and co-developed the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. Described by a biographer as part-scientist and part-artist, Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. On March 26, 2012, Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible.
He has been nominated for six Academy Awards overall and won three for Titanic. In total, Cameron's directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Without adjusting for inflation, Cameron's Titanic and Avatar are the two highest-grossing films of all time at $2.16 billion and $2.78 billion respectively. In March 2011 he was named Hollywood's top earner by Vanity Fair, with estimated 2010 earnings of $257 million.
wn.com/James_Cameron -
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night, and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many genres, and has won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. Her 1998 book, Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day, made the best-seller list in The New York Times. Curtis has appeared in advertisements, and is a blogger for The Huffington Post online newspaper. She is married to actor, screenwriter, and director Christopher Guest.
Curtis was born in Santa Monica, California, to actor Tony Curtis and actress Janet Leigh. Her paternal grandparents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants and two of her maternal great-grandparents were Danish. Curtis's parents divorced in 1962, after which her mother married Robert Brandt. Curtis has an older sister, Kelly Curtis, who is also an actress, and several half-siblings (all from her father's remarriages), Alexandra, Allegra, Ben, and Nicholas Curtis (who died in 1994 of a drug overdose). Curtis attended Westlake School in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills High School, and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall. Returning to California in 1976, she attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She considered majoring in social work, but quit after one semester to pursue an acting career.
wn.com/Jamie_Lee_Curtis -
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years. The youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Fame.
After signing a recording contract with A&M in 1982, she came to prominence following the release of her third studio album Control (1986). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover appeal in popular music. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.
wn.com/Janet_Jackson -
Jason Donovan
Jason Donovan (born 1 June 1968) is an Australian actor and singer. He initially achieved fame in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, before beginning a career in music in 1988. In the UK he has sold over 3 million records, and his début album Ten Good Reasons was one of the highest-selling albums of 1989 with UK sales of over 1.5 million copies. He has had four UK No. 1 singles, one of which was "Especially for You", his 1988 duet with Kylie Minogue. In more recent years, he has returned to acting on television and in stage musicals.
Jason Donovan was born in Malvern, Melbourne, is the son of actor Terence Donovan, who also appeared in Neighbours as Doug Willis, and Sue McIntosh. His half-sister is former Neighbours star Stephanie McIntosh. Donovan attended De La Salle College, Malvern. His partner since 1998 is Angela Malloch, a former stage manager, with whom he has three children; a daughter, Jemma (born 28 March 2000) a son, Zac (born 22 March 2001), and daughter, Molly (born 9 March 2011). Donovan and Malloch were married in Bali in 2008.
wn.com/Jason_Donovan -
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" (born July 3, 1951), was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father's regime and delegated much authority to his advisors, though thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored US$3 million wedding in 1980), and made millions from involvement in the drug trade and from selling body parts from dead Haitians while poverty among his people remained the most widespread for any country in the Americas.
Relations with the United States improved after Duvalier's ascension to the presidency, and later deteriorated under the Carter administration, only to again improve under Ronald Reagan due to the strong anti-communist stance of the Duvaliers.
wn.com/Jean-Claude_Duvalier -
Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Elise Grey (born March 26, 1960) is an American actress known for her roles in the 1980s films Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing, the latter for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She is also known for her 2010 victory in the eleventh season of the American version of Dancing with the Stars. Grey is the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Joel Grey and former actress/singer Jo Wilder.
Grey was born on March 26, 1960 in New York City, the daughter of stage and Academy Award-winning screen actor Joel Grey and former actress/singer Jo Wilder. Her paternal grandfather was comedian and musician Mickey Katz. Grey's parents both came from Jewish families.
Grey is an alumna of the Dalton School, a private school in Manhattan where she studied dance and acting, and where she met her best friend, actress Tracy Pollan. After graduating in 1978, Grey enrolled at Manhattan's Neighborhood Playhouse for two years of training as an actress. While waiting for roles, she supported herself waitressing.
wn.com/Jennifer_Grey -
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh (born February 5, 1962) is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts. She is also the co-writer and co-director of the film The Anniversary Party, made with fellow actor Alan Cumming.
Leigh is known for her emotionally raw and often sexually explicit portrayals of vulnerable and damaged women, and for her intensive method inspired research into her roles.
Leigh was born on 5 February 1962 in Hollywood, California. She is the daughter of actor Vic Morrow and screenwriter Barbara Turner. Leigh's birth name was Jennifer Leigh Morrow. She changed her surname early in her acting career, taking the middle name Jason in honor of actor Jason Robards, a family friend. Leigh's parents were Jewish, of Russian descent on her father's side.
Leigh has an older sister, Carrie Ann Morrow, who was credited as a "technical advisor" in Georgia, and on whom Leigh's character Sadie Flood was reputedly based. Leigh also has a half-sister, actress Mina Badie, from her mother's marriage, who acted alongside Leigh in The Anniversary Party. The director Reza Badiyi was her mother's second husband and was at the time her stepfather.
wn.com/Jennifer_Jason_Leigh -
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of multiple awards, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, one Emmy and one Screen Actors Guild Award, Lange is regarded as one of the première actors of her generation.
Lange was discovered by producer Dino De Laurentiis and made her professional film debut in 1976's King Kong. In 1982, she became the first actor in forty years to receive two Oscar nominations within the same year; she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a soap opera star in Tootsie and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the troubled actress Frances Farmer in Frances. Lange received three more nominations for Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985), and Music Box (1989) before being nominated a sixth time and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a manic depressive in Blue Sky (1994).
In addition to acting, Lange is a photographer with two published works, and is a humanitarian, holding a position as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, specializing in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Congo and Russia.
wn.com/Jessica_Lange -
Jimmy Carson
James Charles Carson (born July 20, 1968) is a retired American professional hockey player. He is best known for his 10 year NHL career, spent with several teams. After retiring from professional hockey, he embarked on a new career as a financial advisor.
Jimmy Carson was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft as the 2nd overall pick. He scored 37 goals as an 18 year old rookie in the 1986–87 NHL season. In just his second NHL season he notched 55 goals, and established himself as one of the sport's top young players. Along with Martin Gelinas, he was a key part of the August 9, 1988, blockbuster trade that sent them, the Kings' three first-round draft picks in 1989, 1991 and 1993, and $15 million cash to the Edmonton Oilers for Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski.
Carson demanded a trade out of Edmonton in November 1989 because among other reasons he could not handle the pressure of being expected to replace Wayne Gretzky. Carson was traded to his home town of Detroit for Adam Graves, Petr Klima and Joe Murphy. These players were instrumental in helping Edmonton win their 5th Stanley Cup in 7 years in 1990.
wn.com/Jimmy_Carson -
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).
During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments were created: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He took office during a period of international stagflation, which persisted throughout his term. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (at the end of 1979), 1980 Summer Olympics boycott by the United States of the Moscow Olympics and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
wn.com/Jimmy_Carter -
Jimmy Connors
James Scott "Jimmy" Connors (born September 2, 1952, in East St. Louis, Illinois) is a former world no. 1 tennis player from the United States. He is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Connors won eight Grand Slam singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles titles with Ilie Năstase. He was also a runner-up seven times in Grand Slam singles, a doubles runner-up with Năstase at the 1973 French Open, and a mixed doubles runner-up with Chris Evert at the 1974 US Open. He held the top ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from July 29, 1974 to August 22, 1977 and an additional eight times during his career for a total of 268 weeks
In 1974, Connors became the second male in the open era to win three or more Grand Slam singles titles in a calendar year (Rod Laver being the first in 1969 and having been joined since by Mats Wilander, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic). Connors is also the only man to win U.S. Open singles championships on grass, clay, and hard courts.
wn.com/Jimmy_Connors -
Joan Jett
Joan Jett (born September 22, 1958) is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and occasional actress., best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular recordings including "Crimson and Clover", "I Hate Myself for Loving You", "Do You Want to Touch Me", "Light of Day", "Love Is All Around", "Bad Reputation".
Her musical and songwriting approach is heavily influenced by the hard-edged, hard beat-driven rhythms common to many rock bands of her native Philadelphia,[citation needed] often featuring lyrics surrounding themes of lost love, criticisms of insincerity, the quest for authenticity, as well as the struggles and resolutions of the American middle class. She has three albums that have been certified Platinum or Gold, and she has been referred to as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" many times during her career.
wn.com/Joan_Jett -
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster (born Alicia Christian Foster; November 19, 1962) is an American actress, film director, and producer.
Foster began acting in commercials at three years of age, and her first significant role came at age 13 in the 1976 film Taxi Driver as the preteen prostitute Iris, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, she starred in the cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1989, for playing a rape victim in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her fourth Academy Award nomination for playing a hermit in Nell (1994). Other popular films include Bugsy Malone (1976); Freaky Friday (1976); Candleshoe (1977) Maverick (1994); Contact (1997); Panic Room (2002); Flightplan (2005); Inside Man (2006); The Brave One (2007); Nim's Island (2008) and Carnage (2011), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
wn.com/Jodie_Foster -
Joe Dante
Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. (born November 28, 1946) is an American film director, producer and actor of films generally with comedy and science fiction content.
His films include Piranha (1978) and The Howling (1981), both from scripts by John Sayles; Segment 3 of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); Gremlins (1984), his first major hit, and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990); Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987); The 'Burbs (1989), Matinee (1993), Runaway Daughters (1994), The Second Civil War (1997), The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998), Small Soldiers (1998), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), and Homecoming (2005). In 1995–1996, Dante worked on The Phantom, and when he was removed from the film, he chose screen credit (as executive producer) rather than pay. He was creative consultant on Eerie, Indiana (1991–1992) and directed five episodes. He played himself in the series finale.
Dante was born in Morristown, New Jersey. His father was a professional golf player. Dante began his movie career working for Roger Corman, similar to Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. He worked as an editor on films such as Grand Theft Auto before codirecting Hollywood Boulevard with Allan Arkush. His first full feature film, Piranha, was released in 1978. After the release of The Howling, he was noticed by Steven Spielberg for whom he directed the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, wherein a woman is 'adopted' by an omnipotent child. His first really big hit, Gremlins, which was also produced by Steven Spielberg, was released in 1984. He would work with Spielberg again on Innerspace and Gremlins 2. His films are well known for their movie in-jokes and their special visual effects.
wn.com/Joe_Dante -
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. (born June 11, 1956), nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired professional football player, a hall of fame quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with San Francisco, where he played for the next 14 seasons. Traded before the 1993 season, he spent his final two years in the league with Kansas City. While a member of the 49ers, Montana started in four Super Bowl games and won all of them. Montana was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, his first year of eligibility.
In 1989, and again in 1990, the Associated Press named Montana the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and Sports Illustrated magazine named Montana the 1990 "Sportsman of the Year". Four years earlier, in 1986, Montana won the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Montana was elected to eight Pro Bowls, as well as being voted 1st team All-Pro by the AP in 1987, 1989, and 1990. Montana had the highest passer rating in the National Football Conference (NFC) five times (1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1989); and, in both 1987 and 1989, Montana had the highest passer rating in the entire NFL.
wn.com/Joe_Montana -
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci (/ˈpɛʃi/PESH-ee; born February 9, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks. Pesci has starred in a number of high profile films including Goodfellas, Casino, Raging Bull, Once Upon a Time in America, My Cousin Vinny, JFK, Home Alone, and the Lethal Weapon series. He took a six year hiatus from acting between 1999 and 2005 before returning for a cameo in The Good Shepherd (2006).
In 1990, Pesci won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, ten years after receiving a nomination in the same category for Raging Bull.
Pesci was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Mary, who worked part-time as a barber, and Angelo Pesci, a forklift driver for General Motors and bartender. Pesci was raised in Belleville, New Jersey and attended Belleville High School. By the time Pesci was five years old, he was appearing in plays in New York. A few years later, at age ten, he was a regular on a television variety show called Startime Kids, which also featured Connie Francis. He started out working as a barber in the 1960s, following in his mother's footsteps.
wn.com/Joe_Pesci -
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani (born July 15, 1956) is an American instrumental rock guitarist of Italian origin, multi-instrumentalist and multiple Grammy Award nominee. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, and some of his former students have achieved fame such as Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan and Alex Skolnick. Satriani has been a driving force in music credited to other musicians throughout his career, as a founder of the G3 tour, as well as performing in various positions with other musicians.
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger's first solo tour. In 1994, Satriani was the lead guitarist for Deep Purple. Satriani worked with a range of guitarists, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Larry LaLonde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts. He is currently the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot. Since 1988, Satriani has been using his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is sold in music stores worldwide.
wn.com/Joe_Satriani -
John Badham
John MacDonald Badham (born August 25, 1939) is an English film director, best known for films Saturday Night Fever (1977), Blue Thunder (1983), WarGames (1983), Short Circuit (1986), Stakeout (1987), Bird on a Wire (1990) and others.
Badham was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, the son of Mary Iola (née Hewitt), an actress. Badham's website states that his father "was a U S Army general" who "moved the family back to...Alabama". Henry Lee Badham Jr married Mary Hewitt secondly, his first wife Lottie (née Austin) is buried beside Henry and Mary at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama. Henry Lee Badham Jr was an aviator in both world wars and was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007. After retirement from the US Air Force as a Brigadier General, Henry L Badham Jr became a businessman, involved with the development of the Ensley and Bessemer regions near Birmingham, Alabama. This same line of business had brought his father, Henry Lee Badham Sr, into association with Walker Percy, grandfather of writer Walker Percy.
wn.com/John_Badham -
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi ( /bəˈluːʃi/; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live and starring alongside Dan Aykroyd in the comedy film The Blues Brothers. He was the older brother of James "Jim" Belushi.
John Belushi was born in Chicago. He was the son of Agnes (née Samaras), who was of Albanian descent, and Adam Belushi (1918–1996), an Albanian immigrant and restaurant operator who left his native village, Qytezë, in 1934 at the age of sixteen. John was raised in a Chicago suburb, along with his three siblings: younger brothers Billy and Jim and his sister, Marian. The family's name at the time of immigration was Bellios, or Belliors. Belushi was raised in the Albanian Orthodox church and grew up outside Chicago in Wheaton. He attended Wheaton Central High School, where he met his future wife, Judy Jacklin.
Belushi's first big break as a comedian occurred in 1971, when he joined The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. He was cast in National Lampoon's Lemmings, a parody of Woodstock, which played Off-Broadway in 1972 and showcased future Saturday Night Live (SNL) performers Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest.
wn.com/John_Belushi -
John Candy
John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the loquacious, on-the-move shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario in 1950. The son of Sidney James Candy and his wife Evangeline (Aker) Candy, he was raised in a working-class Roman Catholic family. His grandmother was Polish. Candy graduated from Neil McNeil High School, an all-boys Catholic public school in Toronto, where he played football.
Candy's first movie role was a small uncredited appearance in the 1973 film Class of '44. He appeared in several other low-budget films during the 1970s, including the bank-robbery thriller The Silent Partner with Christopher Plummer and Elliott Gould. In 1976, Candy played a supporting role (with Rick Moranis) on Peter Gzowski's short-lived, late-night television talk show, Ninety Minutes Live. That same year, as a member of Toronto's branch of The Second City, he gained wide North American popularity, which grew when he became a cast member on the influential Toronto-based comedy-variety show Second City Television (SCTV). NBC picked the show up in 1981 and it quickly became a fan favorite. It had won Emmy Awards for the show's writing in 1981 and 1982.
wn.com/John_Candy -
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.
Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, the son of Milton Jean (née Carter) and Howard Ralph Carpenter, a music professor. He and his family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1953. He was captivated by movies from an early age, particularly the westerns of Howard Hawks and John Ford, as well as 1950s low budget horror films, such as The Thing from Another World and high budget science fiction like Forbidden Planet and began filming horror shorts on 8 mm film even before entering high school. He attended Western Kentucky University where his father chaired the music department, then transferred to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in 1968, but later dropped out to make his first feature.
wn.com/John_Carpenter -
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.
wn.com/John_Lennon -
John Ritter
Jonathan Southworth "John" Ritter (September 17, 1948 – September 11, 2003) was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively. He is also known for being the voice of the title character Clifford in the PBS television series Clifford the Big Red Dog. Don Knotts called him the "Greatest physical comedian on the planet".
Ritter's final films—the screwball dark comedy Bad Santa and the two children's animated films Clifford's Really Big Movie and Stanley's Dinosaur Round-Up—were all dedicated in his memory.
John Ritter was born in Burbank, California, the son of Dorothy Fay (née Southworth), an actress, and singing cowboy/matinee-star Tex Ritter. He attended Hollywood High School, where he was student body president. He went on to the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity, and majored in psychology and minored in architecture. In 1966 at the age of 18, Ritter was a contestant on The Dating Game.
wn.com/John_Ritter -
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined in the early 1980s and continued to deteriorate for the rest of the decade. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in Hollywood films, including Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.
Travolta, the youngest of six children, was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, an inner-ring suburb of New York City. His father, Salvatore Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995), was a semi-professional American football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke, January 1912 – December 1978), was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. His siblings, Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta, have all acted. His father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; he grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. He was raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975.
wn.com/John_Travolta -
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944) is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense and a trilogy of Neil Young documentary/concert movies.
Demme broke into feature film working for exploitation film producer Roger Corman from 1971 to 1976, co-writing and producing Angels Hard as They Come and The Hot Box. He then moved on to directing, with three films (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama, Fighting Mad) for Corman's studio New World Pictures. After Fighting Mad, Demme directed the comedy film Handle with Care for Paramount Pictures in 1977. The film was well-reviewed by critics, but received little promotion, and performed poorly at the box office.
Demme's next film, 1980's Melvin and Howard, did not get a wide release, but received a groundswell of critical acclaim, and led to the signing of Demme to direct the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell star vehicle Swing Shift. Intended as a prestige picture for Warner Bros. as well as a major commercial vehicle for Demme, it instead became a troubled production due to the conflicting visions of Demme and star Hawn. Demme ended up renouncing the finished product, and when the film was released in May 1984, it was generally panned by critics and neglected by moviegoers. After Swing Shift, Demme stepped back from Hollywood to make the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense; the eclectic screwball action-romantic comedy Something Wild; a film-version of the stage production Swimming to Cambodia, by monologist Spaulding Gray; and the New York Mafia-by-way-of Downtown comedy Married to the Mob.
wn.com/Jonathan_Demme -
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito (Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [jɔ̂sip brɔ̂ːz tîtɔ]; born Josip Broz; Cyrillic: Јосип Броз Тито; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1945 until his death in 1980. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, due to his successful economic and diplomatic policies, Tito was seen by most as a benevolent dictator, and was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies successfully maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. He gained international attention as the chief leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, working with Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.
Josip was born as the seventh child of Franjo and Marija Broz in the village of Kumrovec within Austria-Hungary (modern-day Croatia). Drafted into the army, he distinguished himself, becoming the youngest Sergeant Major in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After being seriously wounded and captured by the Russians, Josip was sent to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. He participated in the October Revolution, and later joined a Red Guard unit in Omsk. Upon his return home, Broz found himself in the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
wn.com/Josip_Broz_Tito -
João Figueiredo
João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈɐ̃w̃ baˈtistɐ di oliˈvejɾɐ fiɡejˈɾedu]; January 15, 1918 – December 24, 1999) was a Brazilian military leader and politician. He was chief of the Secret Service (SNI) during the term of his predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Figueiredo was chosen to be president of Brazil by the former military leader, General Ernesto Geisel. He took the oath of office on March 15, 1979, serving until March 15, 1985. He continued the democratization that Geisel started and decreed amnesty. Facing a severe economic crisis, Figueiredo became increasingly unpopular. He suffered a heart attack in 1981. Since 1964, Brazilians had not been allowed to vote for president and by 1983 they began to demonstrate for the return of the democracy. Figueiredo was against this desire and in 1984 the Congress rejected the return of direct elections. But the opposition, headed by Tancredo Neves, won the election for president in the Congress. Figueiredo retired after the end of his term and died in 1999.
wn.com/João_Figueiredo -
Juan Carlos of Spain
Juan Carlos I (Spanish pronunciation: [xwaŋˈkarlos]; born 5 January 1938) is the reigning King of Spain. On 22 November 1975, two days after General Franco's death, Juan Carlos was designated King according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. In 1969, when Franco named Juan Carlos as the next head of state, Spain had had no monarch for 38 years. The Spanish Constitution of 1978, voted in referendum, acknowledges him expressly as King of Spain. The Spanish Constitution, Title II: the Crown, Article 56, Subsection 1, affirms the role of the Spanish monarch as the personification and embodiment of the Spanish nation, a symbol of Spain's enduring unity and permanence; and as such, the monarch is the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armed Forces in a system known in Spanish as monarquía parlamentaria (constitutional monarchy).
King Juan Carlos successfully oversaw the transition of Spain from dictatorship to parliamentary monarchy.
Juan Carlos married Sophia of Greece and Denmark on 14 May 1962. The couple have three children and eight grandchildren.
wn.com/Juan_Carlos_of_Spain -
Judd Nelson
Judd Asher Nelson (born November 28, 1959) is an American actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for being a member of the "Brat Pack" in the mid-1980s; and for his roles as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbary in St. Elmo's Fire, and Jack Richmond in Suddenly Susan.
Nelson was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Merle (née Royte), a court mediator and former member of the Maine state legislature, and Leonard Nelson, a corporate lawyer. His family is Jewish and his father was the first Jewish president of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He has two sisters, Eve and Julie. He went to school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, and studied at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, leaving during his sophomore year. He subsequently moved to Manhattan to study acting with Stella Adler.
Nelson began acting in the early 1980s, starring in Making the Grade (1984) and Fandango (1985), the latter in which he starred opposite a young Kevin Costner. It was nevertheless his roles in Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire and John Hughes' The Breakfast Club - and his affiliation with the Brat Pack - that made Nelson a star (along with Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy). The St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) music video - also directed by Joel Schumacher - reached #1 in the USA (1985) and was written and performed by John Parr; Nelson appears in the video. A subsequent article in New York magazine, which focused primarily on the success of these films, resulted in the term 'Brat Pack' being coined.
wn.com/Judd_Nelson -
Julio Cesar Chavez
For his son who is also a boxer, see Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
Julio César Chávez (born Julio César Chávez González on July 12, 1962) is a retired Mexican professional boxer. Chávez is considered the greatest fighter ever to come out of Mexico.
He is a six-time world champion in three weight divisions, and for several years he was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. In a career that spanned over 25 years, Chávez won six world titles in three weight divisions: WBC Super Featherweight in 1984, WBA Lightweight in 1987, WBC Lightweight in 1988, WBC Light Welterweight in 1989, IBF Light Welterweight in 1990, and WBC Light Welterweight in 1994.
Julio César Chávez was known for his outstanding punching power, devastating body attack, remarkably strong chin and the relentless stalking of his opponents. He ranks #24 on ESPN's 50 Greatest Boxers Of All Time. On December 7, 2010, he was inducted in the prestigious International Boxing Hall of Fame for the Class of 2011. He is the father of prospect Omar Chávez and current WBC Middleweight Champion Julio César Chávez, Jr.
wn.com/Julio_Cesar_Chavez -
Kajagoogoo
Kajagoogoo /ˈkædʒəɡuːɡuː/ are a British pop band, best known for their hit single, "Too Shy", which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1983.
The band was originally founded in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, in 1979, as a four-piece avant-garde instrumental group, called Art Nouveau, with Nick Beggs on bass guitar, Steve Askew on lead guitar, Stuart Croxford Neale on keyboards, and Jeremy "Jez" Strode on drums. Art Nouveau released a track called "The Fear Machine". The single sold a few hundred copies, and was played on the John Peel show, but the band were unable to get a record deal.
In 1981, they advertised for a lead singer, ultimately auditioning and choosing Christopher Hamill, who then went under the stage name Limahl (an anagram of his surname). The name of the group was then changed to Kajagoogoo, coined by phonetically writing out a baby's first sounds, which gave them 'GagaGooGoo' - and with a minor alteration, it became 'Kajagoogoo'.
wn.com/Kajagoogoo -
Karch Kiraly
Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly ( /ˈkɑrtʃ kɪˈraɪ/; born November 3, 1960 in Jackson, Michigan), is an American volleyball player who is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals in both the indoor and beach versions of the sport.
Kiraly started for the Mt Carmel High School Sun Devils beach volleyball team and his father Laszlo was instrumental in helping found the program. The Sun Devils with Kiraly were runners-up in 1976 to San Clemente High School and won the CIF SS title in 1978 over Laguna Beach High School under coach Rick Olmstead.
Kiraly started for the UCLA Bruins volleyball team from 1979 through 1982. He was named All America all four years. While playing in UCLA's Pauley Pavilion under coach Al Scates, he led UCLA to three NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships in 1979 (undefeated season), 1981, and 1982 (undefeated season). During Kiraly's four years on the team, UCLA won 129 matches and lost only 5.
Kiraly won Most Outstanding Player in 1981 and 1982. He was inducted into UCLA's Hall of Fame in 1993.
wn.com/Karch_Kiraly -
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves ( /keɪˈɑːnuː/ kay-AH-noo; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian film actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure as well as Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix. He has worked under major directors, such as Stephen Frears (in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons); Gus Van Sant (in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho); and Bernardo Bertolucci (in the 1993 film Little Buddha). Referring to his 1991 film releases, The New York Times’ critic, Janet Maslin, praised Reeves’ versatility, saying that he “displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanor that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles.” A repeated theme in roles he has portrayed is that of saving the world, including the characters of Ted Logan, Buddha, Neo, Johnny Mnemonic, John Constantine and Klaatu.
In addition to his film roles, Reeves has also performed in theatre. His performance in the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet was praised by Roger Lewis, the Sunday Times, who declared Reeves " … one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet."[citation needed] On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
wn.com/Keanu_Reeves -
Kenny Loggins
Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for soft rock music beginning during the 1970s, and later for writing and performing for movie soundtracks in the 1980s. Originally a part of the duo Loggins and Messina, he became a solo artist and has written songs for other artists.
Loggins (born in Everett, Washington) is the youngest of three brothers. His mother was Lina (Massie), a stay-at-home mom, and his father, Robert George Loggins, was a salesman. They lived in Detroit and Seattle before settling in Alhambra, California. Loggins attended San Gabriel Mission High School[citation needed], graduating in 1966. He formed a band called the Second Helping, that released three singles during 1968 and 1969 on Viva Records. Greg Shaw described the efforts as "excellent punky folk-pop records" that were written by Loggins who was likely to be the bandleader and singer as well; Shaw included "Let Me In" on both Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Volume 2 and the Pebbles, Volume 9 CD. Loggins had a short gig playing guitar for the "The New Improved" Electric Prunes in 1969 before writing four songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, which were included in their Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy album. During his early twenties, he was part of the band Gator Creek with Mike Deasy. An early version of "Danny's Song" (later recorded by Loggins and Messina) was included in a record on Mercury Records.
wn.com/Kenny_Loggins -
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Hollow Man, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Friday the 13th, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, and X-Men: First Class.
Bacon has won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, was nominated for an Emmy Award, and was named by The Guardian as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
In 2003, Bacon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bacon, one of six children, was born and raised in a close-knit family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Ruth Hilda (née Holmes; 1916–1991), taught at an elementary school and was a liberal activist, while his father, Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005), was a well-respected architect and a prominent Philadelphian who had been Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission for many years. At 16, in 1975, Bacon won a full scholarship to and attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts at Bucknell University, a state-funded five-week arts program where he studied Theatre under Dr. Glory Van Scott, which helped solidify Bacon's passion for the arts.
wn.com/Kevin_Bacon -
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger ( /ˈbeɪsɪŋər/ BAY-sing-ər, often mispronounced /ˈbæsɪndʒər/ BASS-in-jər; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model.
She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again (1983), and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman (1989). Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture nomination for her work in The Natural (1984). She won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in L.A. Confidential (1997). Basinger also acted in the movies 9½ Weeks (1986) and 8 Mile (2002).
Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia. Her father, Donald Wade Basinger, was a big band musician and loan manager who as a U.S. Army soldier landed in Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Her mother, Ann (née Cordell), was a model, an actress, and a swimmer who appeared in several Esther Williams films. The third of five children, she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger's ancestry includes German, Swedish, Irish and Native American, and she was raised a Methodist.
wn.com/Kim_Basinger -
Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart New Wave classic "Kids in America". In 1983, Wilde received the Brit Award for Best British Female. In 1987 she had a major hit in the US when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On" topped the charts. Starting in 1998, while still active in music, she has branched into an alternative career as a landscape gardener.
The eldest child of 1950s rock 'n' roller Marty Wilde (birth name Reginald Smith) and Joyce Baker, who was earlier a member of the singing and dancing group The Vernons Girls, Kim Smith was born in the West London suburb of Chiswick and attended Oakfield Preparatory School, in the Southeast London area of Dulwich. When she was nine, the family moved to Hertfordshire, where she was educated at Tewin and later Presdales School in Ware. In 1980, at age 20, she completed a foundation course at St Albans College of Art & Design and, as Kim Wilde, was signed to RAK Records by Mickie Most.
wn.com/Kim_Wilde -
Konstantin Chernenko
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician and the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984 until his death thirteen months later, on 10 March 1985. Chernenko was also Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 11 April 1984 until his death.
Chernenko was born to a poor family in the village of Bolshaya Tes (now in Novosyolovsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai). His father, Ustin Demidovich (of Ukrainian origin),[citation needed] worked in copper and gold mines while his mother took care of the farm work.
Chernenko joined the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) in 1929, and became a full member of the Communist Party in 1931. From 1930 to 1933, he served in the Soviet frontier guards on the Soviet-Chinese border. After completing his military service, he returned to Krasnoyarsk as a propagandist. In 1933 he worked in the Propaganda Department of the Novosyolovsky District Party Committee. A few years later he was promoted head of the same department in Uyarsk Raykom. Chernenko then steadily rose through the Party ranks, becoming the Director of the Krasnoyarsk House of Party Enlightenment then in 1939, the Deputy Head of the AgitProp Department of Krasnoyarsk Territorial Committee and finally, in 1941 he was appointed Secretary of the Territorial Party Committee for Propaganda. It was in the 1940s that Chernenko established a close-knit relationship with Fyodor Kulakov. In 1945, he acquired a diploma from a party training school in Moscow, and in 1953 he finished a correspondence course for schoolteachers.
wn.com/Konstantin_Chernenko -
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد Kurd), are an Iranic people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish language, which is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. The Kurds number about 30 million, the majority living in the Middle East, with significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia, Lebanon and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States. The Kurds are an indigenous ethnic minority in countries where the Kurdistan region is located, although they have enjoyed partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991. An irredentist movement pushes for the creation of a Kurdish nation state.
The exact origins of the name, "Kurd", are unclear. Reynolds believes that the term Kurd is most likely related to the ancient term Qardu. The common root of Kurd and Qardu is first mentioned in a Sumerian tablet from the third millennium B.C. as the "land of Kar-da." Qardu is etymologically related to the Assyrian term Urartu corresponding to Ararat. According to Asatrian, the most reasonable explanation of this ethnonym is its possible connections with the Cyrtii (Cyrtaei)
wn.com/Kurdish_people -
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). In the 1970s, he signed a ten-year contract with the Walt Disney Company, where he became, according to Robert Osborne, the "studio's top star of the '70s". In 1979, Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for the made-for-television film Elvis.
In 1983, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his performance opposite Meryl Streep in the 1984 film, Silkwood. During the 1980s, Russell was cast in several films by director John Carpenter, including anti-hero roles such as former army hero-turned robber Snake Plissken in the futuristic action film Escape from New York, Antarctic helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady in the horror film The Thing (1982), and truck driver Jack Burton in the dark kung-fu comedy/action film Big Trouble in Little China (1986), all of which have since become cult films.
wn.com/Kurt_Russell -
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE ( /ˈkaɪliː mɨˈnoʊɡ/; born 28 May 1968) — often known simply as Kylie — is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, showgirl, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987. Her first single, "Locomotion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart and became the highest selling single of the decade. This led to a contract with songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Her debut album, Kylie (1988), and the single "I Should Be So Lucky", each reached number one in the United Kingdom, and over the next two years, her first 13 singles reached the British top ten. Her debut film, The Delinquents (1989) was a box-office hit in Australia and the UK, and received generally positive reviews.
Initially presented as a "girl next door", Minogue attempted to convey a more mature style in her music and public image. Her singles were well received, but after four albums her record sales were declining, and she left Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992 to establish herself as an independent performer. Her next single, "Confide in Me", reached number one in Australia and was a hit in several European countries in 1994, and a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", brought Minogue a greater degree of artistic credibility. Drawing inspiration from a range of musical styles and artists, Minogue took creative control over the songwriting for her next album, Impossible Princess (1997). It failed to attract strong reviews or sales in the UK, but was successful in Australia.
wn.com/Kylie_Minogue -
Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Due to chronic back problems, he retired as a player in 1992. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. He served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of basketball operations for the Pacers, which he currently holds. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.
Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana, the son of Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird. He grew up in both West Baden and the adjacent town French Lick, which earned him the nickname "the Hick from French Lick" in his professional basketball career. Bird recalled how his mother would make do on the family's meager earnings: "If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first." According to Bird, his being poor as a child "motivates me to this day". He sometimes was sent to live with his grandmother due to the family's struggles. The Bird family's struggle with poverty was compounded by the alcoholism and personal difficulties of Joe Bird, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Korean War. Joe Bird committed suicide on February 3, 1975, when Larry was 18 years old.
wn.com/Larry_Bird -
Laura Branigan
Laura Ann Branigan (July 3, 1957 – August 26, 2004) was an Italian-American singer-songwriter and actress. She is best known for her 1982 Platinum-certified hit "Gloria" (an Italian love song recorded by Umberto Tozzi in 1979) and for the number-one single "Self Control" (The original version by the italian singer and writers Raffaele Riefoli "Raf"). Branigan is also remembered for the Top 10 "Solitaire" and for the number-one adult contemporary hit "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", as well as four other US Top 40 hits.
Branigan also contributed songs to notable motion picture and television soundtracks, including the Grammy and Academy Award-winning Flashdance soundtrack (1983), the Ghostbusters soundtrack (1984), and the Baywatch soundtrack (1994), as well as having songs featured in the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series.
Her signature song "Gloria" stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, at the time a record for a female artist. The song holds a place in the top 100 singles of both 1982 and 1983.
wn.com/Laura_Branigan -
Lawrence Kasdan
Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter.
Kasdan was born in Miami, Florida, the son of Sylvia Sarah (née Landau), an employment counselor, and Clarence Norman Kasdan, who managed retail electronics stores. His brother is the writer/producer Mark Kasdan. He was raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he graduated from Morgantown High School in 1966. His family is Jewish.
He graduated from the University of Michigan with an MA in Education, originally planning on a career as an English teacher. He was a student of Professor Kenneth Thorpe Rowe. Upon graduation, Kasdan was unable to find a teaching position, so he became an advertising copywriter, a profession he did not enjoy, but remained in for five years (even picking up a Clio Award along the way), first in Detroit and later in Los Angeles where he tried to interest Hollywood in his screenplays.
Kasdan's introduction into the film business came in the mid-1970s when after being rejected 37 times, his script for The Bodyguard was sold to Warner Bros. as a vehicle for Diana Ross and Steve McQueen. The script became stuck in "development hell" and became one of several scripts successively called "the best un-made film in Hollywood"; it was eventually produced as a 1992 film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.
wn.com/Lawrence_Kasdan -
Le Duan
Lê Duẩn (7 April 1907 – 10 July 1986) was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1950s, and was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the 3rd Party Congress. Le Duan continued Hồ Chí Minh's policy of ruling through collective leadership. From 1958 until his death in 1986, Le Duan was the top decision-maker in Vietnam.
Born into a lower class family in Quảng Trị province, French Indochina, little is known about Le Duan's family and childhood; his birthname remains unknown. He first came in contact with Marxist literature in the 1920s through his work as a railway clerk. Le Duan was a founding member of the Indochina Communist Party (the future Communist Party of Vietnam) in 1930, but was arrested the following year, in 1931. He spent six years in jail until he was released in 1937. From 1937 to 1939 he worked himself up the party ladder; but he was rearrested in 1939, this time for fomenting an uprising in the South. Le Duan was released from jail following the successful communist-led August Revolution.
wn.com/Le_Duan -
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية) was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000[citation needed] fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded,[citation needed] and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced within Lebanon.[citation needed] There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
It has been argued that the antecedents of the war can be traced back to the conflicts and political compromises reached after the end of Lebanon's administration by the Ottoman Empire. The Cold War had a powerful disintegrative effect on Lebanon, which was closely linked to the polarization that preceded the 1958 political crisis. The establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement of a hundred thousand Palestinian refugees to Lebanon (around 10% of the total population of the country) changed the demographics of Lebanon and provided a foundation for the long-term involvement of Lebanon in regional conflicts. By 1975, the presence of a foreign armed force in the form of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas, who exercised a veto on Lebanese politics, had a serious effect on Lebanon. The militarization of the Palestinian refugee population, with the arrival of the PLO guerrilla forces, sparked an arms race amongst the different Lebanese political factions.
wn.com/Lebanese_Civil_War -
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG CH (born 16 September 1923) is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades. By the time he stepped down, he had become the world's longest-serving Prime Minister.
As the co-founder and first secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP), he led the party to eight victories from 1959 to 1990, and oversaw the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 and its subsequent transformation from a relatively underdeveloped colonial outpost with no natural resources into a "First World" Asian Tiger. He is one of the most influential political figures in South-East Asia.
Singapore's second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, appointed him as Senior Minister in 1990. He held the advisory post of Minister Mentor, created by his son, Lee Hsien Loong, when the latter became the nation's third prime minister in August 2004. With his successive ministerial positions spanning over 50 years, Lee is also one of history's longest-serving ministers. On 14 May 2011, Lee and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong announced their retirement from the cabinet after the 2011 General Election.
wn.com/Lee_Kuan_Yew -
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (Russian: Леони́д Ильи́ч Бре́жнев; IPA: [lʲɪɐˈnʲid ɪlʲˈjitɕ ˈbrʲeʐnʲɪf] ( listen); Ukrainian: Леоні́д Іллі́ч Бре́жнєв, 19 December 1906 (O.S. 6 December) – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in length. During Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time, but his tenure as leader has often been criticised for marking the beginning of a period of economic stagnation in which serious economic problems were overlooked, problems which eventually led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Brezhnev was born in Kamenskoe into a Russian worker's family. After graduating from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum, he became a metallurgical engineer in the iron and steel industry, in Ukraine. He joined Komsomol in 1923, and in 1929 became an active member of the Communist Party. He was drafted into immediate military service during World War II and left the army in 1946 with the rank of Major General. In 1952 Brezhnev became a member of the Central Committee, and in 1964, Brezhnev succeeded Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary. Alexei Kosygin succeeded Khrushchev in his post as Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
wn.com/Leonid_Brezhnev -
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli (July 15, 1926 – January 12, 2003) was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship (known officially as the National Reorganization Process). The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him. He was removed from power soon after the British retook the Falklands Islands, whose invasion he had ordered.
Galtieri was the child of working class parents who were poor Italian immigrants. At 17 he enrolled at the National Military Academy to study civil engineering, and his early military career was as an officer in the engineering branch.
In 1975, after more than 25 years as a combat engineer, he became commander of the Argentine engineering corps. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the military coup that started the self-styled National Reorganisation Process in 1976 and rose further, becoming a major general in 1977, and commander-in-chief in 1980 with the rank of lieutenant general.
wn.com/Leopoldo_Galtieri -
Limahl
Christopher Hamill better known by his stage name Limahl (born 19 December 1958) is an English pop singer. He rose to fame as the lead singer of the 1980s pop group Kajagoogoo, before embarking on a briefly successful solo career, which reached its peak with the 1984 hit "The NeverEnding Story", taken from the film of the same name.
Hamill was born in Pemberton, Wigan, a town in Lancashire in the north west of England. He attended Mesnes High School,[citation needed] in Wigan, before eventually enrolling at the Westcliff-on-Sea Palace Theatre Repertory Company. With aspirations to be an actor, Hamill toured with the company in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.[citation needed] In 1980, he was given a small role in an episode of the ITV police series The Gentle Touch playing a schoolboy.[citation needed] In 1981, Hamill appeared as an extra in the promotional video for Adam and the Ants' number one UK single 'Stand and Deliver'. Although his acting career never really took off, Hamill also had an interest in music, forming a short-lived punk band called Vox Deus.[citation needed] Next he joined Crossword,[citation needed] but after a brief period left them to form Brooks[citation needed], with Mike Nolan. He adopted his stage name (an anagram of his surname) at the time he was recruited by the existing members of Kajagoogoo, who were then performing under the name Art Nouveau.
wn.com/Limahl -
Linda Hamilton
Linda Carroll Hamilton (born September 26, 1956) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy. Hamilton had a recurring role as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski on NBC's Chuck.
Hamilton was born in Salisbury, Maryland. Her mother was a Mayflower descendant and her father, Carroll Stanford Hamilton, was a physician. Hamilton's father died when she was five, and her mother remarried to a police chief.[dead link][dead link] Hamilton has an identical twin sister (Leslie Hamilton), one older sister and one younger brother. She has said that she was raised in a "very boring, white Anglo-Saxon" family, and "voraciously read books" during her spare time. Hamilton went to Wicomico Junior High (now Wicomico Middle School) and Wicomico High School in Salisbury, with her twin sister, Leslie. She studied for two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving on to acting studies in New York City. While attending Washington College, her acting professor told her she had no hope of earning a living as an actress. In New York, she attended acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg.
wn.com/Linda_Hamilton -
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.
Johnson's career achievements include three NBA MVP Awards, nine NBA Finals appearances, twelve All-Star games, and ten All-NBA First and Second Team nominations. He led the league in regular-season assists four times, and is the NBA's all-time leader in average assists per game, at 11.2. Johnson was a member of the "Dream Team", the U.S. basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1992.
wn.com/Magic_Johnson -
Mahathir Mohamad
Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad (Jawi: محضير بن محمد ;pronounced [maˈhadɪr bɪn moˈhamat]; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician who was the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, making him Malaysia's longest serving Prime Minister. His political career spanned almost 40 years.
Born and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah, Mahathir excelled at school and became a medical doctor. He became active in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysia's largest political party, before entering parliament in 1964. He served one term before losing his seat, before falling out with the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman and being expelled from UMNO. When Abdul Rahman resigned, Mahathir re-entered UMNO and parliament, and was promoted to the Cabinet. By 1976, he had risen to Deputy Prime Minister, and in 1981 was sworn in as Prime Minister after the resignation of his predecessor, Hussein Onn.
wn.com/Mahathir_Mohamad -
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC ( /ˈfreɪzə/; born 21 May 1930) is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in 1975 through the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role. After three election victories, he was defeated by Bob Hawke in the 1983 election and ended his career alienated from his own party.
Malcolm Fraser was born in Toorak to a family with a history of involvement in politics and the pastoral/grazing industry. His grandfather, Simon Fraser, emigrated from Nova Scotia in 1853, becoming a successful pastoralist and speculator, as well as a member of the Victorian Parliament, the Federation Conventions of 1897–98 and the Australian Senate. Malcolm Fraser's father, John Neville Fraser, was a pastoralist at Deniliquin in the Riverina region of New South Wales and later at a property called "Nareen", near Hamilton in the Western District of Victoria. Malcolm Fraser's mother, Una Woolf, was of Jewish descent on her own father's side.
wn.com/Malcolm_Fraser -
Manuel Noriega
Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈnwel noˈɾjeɣa]; born February 11, 1934) is a former Panamanian politician and soldier. He was military governor of Panama from 1983 to 1989.
In the 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States he was removed from power, captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992. Noriega's U.S. prison sentence ended in September 2007; pending the outcome of extradition requests by both Panama and France, for convictions in absentia for murder in 1995 and money laundering in 1999. France was granted its extradition request in April 2010. He arrived in Paris on April 27, 2010, and after a re-trial as a condition of the extradition, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in jail in July 2010. A conditional release was granted on September 23, 2011 for Noriega to be extradited to serve 20 years in Panama. He arrived in Panama on December 11, 2011.
wn.com/Manuel_Noriega -
Marco van Basten
Marcel "Marco" van Basten (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɑr.koʊ̯ vɑm.ˈbɑs.tə(n)]; 31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played for Ajax and Milan, as well as the Dutch national team, in the 1980s and early 1990s. He is regarded as one of the greatest forwards of all time and has scored 277 goals in a high-profile career, which ended in 1995 as a result of an injury suffered two years earlier. He was later the head coach of Ajax and the Dutch national team.
Known for his strength on the ball, his tactical awareness and spectacular strikes and volleys, van Basten was named European Footballer of the Year three times (1988, '89 and '92) and FIFA World Player of the Year in 1992. Van Basten was voted eighth in a poll organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. In 2004, a nationwide poll was held for the 100 greatest Dutch people (De Grootste Nederlander) and van Basten was number 25, the second highest for a football player[citation needed]. In March 2007, Sky Sports ranked van Basten first on its list of great athletes who had their careers cut short.
wn.com/Marco_van_Basten -
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.
After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.
wn.com/Margaret_Thatcher -
Mario Lemieux
Mario Lemieux, OC, CQ (/ˈmærioʊ ləˈmjuː/; French pronunciation: [maʁjo ləmjø]; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian American former professional ice hockey player and co-owner of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Pittsburgh Penguins and the American Hockey League's (AHL) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the best players of all time. He played 17 seasons as a forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL between 1984 and 2006. A gifted playmaker and fast skater despite his large size, Lemieux often beat defensemen with fakes and dekes. He is currently the Penguins' principal owner and chairman of the board, having bought the team out of bankruptcy in 1999. He is the only person ever to win the Stanley Cup as both a player and an owner.
Lemieux led Pittsburgh to two Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992, won a Stanley Cup as a chairman in 2009 with the Penguins, led Canada to an Olympic gold medal in 2002, a championship at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and a Canada Cup in 1987. He won three Hart Trophies as the NHL's most valuable player (MVP) during the regular season, six Art Ross Trophies as the league's leading scorer, and two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP. At the time of his retirement, he was the NHL's seventh-ranked all-time scorer with 690 goals and 1,033 assists. He ranks second in NHL history with a 0.754 goals-per game average for his career, behind only Islanders great Mike Bossy (0.762). In 2004, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
wn.com/Mario_Lemieux -
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951) is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy and voicing the Joker in various Batman media, including the DC Animated Universe. Hamill has also lent his voice to villains and anti-heroes.
Hamill was born in Oakland, California and raised in Virginia, the son of Virginia Suzanne (née Johnson) and William Thomas Hamill, who was a captain in the U.S. Navy. He was one of seven children: two brothers, Will and Patrick, and four sisters, Terry, Jan, Jeanie, and Kim. When Mark was a child, his father's career meant numerous relocations, and he attended different schools throughout his childhood. In his elementary years, he went to Poe Middle School. At age 11, he moved to the 5900 block of Castleton Drive in San Diego where he attended Hale Junior High School and then, during his freshman year at James Madison Senior High School, his family moved to Virginia. By junior year, his father was stationed in Japan where Mark attended Nile C. Kinnick H.S.(Yokosuka High) and was a member of the drama club. After that he attended Annandale High School in Annandale, Virginia. He majored in drama at Los Angeles City College.
wn.com/Mark_Hamill -
Martin Gelinas
Martin Gélinas (French pronunciation: [ʒeliˈna]; born June 5, 1970) is a former professional ice hockey forward and the current director of player development with the Nashville Predators.
Gelinas made a splash in 1987–88 with the Hull Olympiques of the QMJHL with a 63-goal, 131-point campaign. His season made him the CHL Rookie of the Year and the seventh overall choice by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft.
But Gelinas never played for the Kings, however, as two months after the draft, on August 9, 1988, he was included in the celebrated "Gretzky Trade" that sent Gelinas, Los Angeles' star young center Jimmy Carson, the Kings's first round choices in 1989, 1991 and 1993 entry drafts, and a reported $15 million cash to Edmonton in exchange for Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley. Gelinas played six games for the Oilers in 1988, before being sent back to the Olympiques. In his first full season in 1989–90, Gelinas had 25 points in 46 games, and won his only Stanley Cup as a member of the Oilers, beating the Boston Bruins. Along with Joe Murphy and Adam Graves, he was made up a popular Oilers' forward line known as 'The Kid Line.' His Oilers career was a bit of a letdown, however, and his best season was a 40 point effort in 1990–91. Gelinas was the last active player from the 1980s Oilers dynasty in the NHL.
wn.com/Martin_Gelinas -
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova (Czech: Martina Navrátilová; born Martina Šubertová; October 18, 1956) is a retired Czech American tennis player and a former World No. 1. Billie Jean King said about Navratilova in 2006, "She's the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who's ever lived."
Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 major mixed doubles titles. She reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including nine consecutive years from 1982 through 1990, and won the women's singles title at Wimbledon a record nine times. She and King each won 20 Wimbledon titles, an all-time record. Navratilova is one of just three women to have accomplished a career Grand Slam in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles (called the Grand Slam "boxed set") a record she shares with Margaret Court and Doris Hart. She holds the open era record for most singles titles (167) and doubles titles (177). She recorded the longest winning streak in the open era (74 consecutive matches) and three of the six longest winning streaks in the women's open era. Navratilova, Margaret Court and Maureen Connolly share the record for the most consecutive major singles titles (six). Navratilova reached 11 consecutive major singles finals, second all-time to Steffi Graf's 13. In women's doubles, Navratilova and Pam Shriver won 109 consecutive matches and won all four major titles in 1984, i.e. the Grand Slam. Also the pair set an all time record of 79 titles together and tied Louise Brough Clapp's and Margaret Osborne duPont's record of 20 major women's doubles titles as a team. In addition she won the season ending WTA Tour Championships a record 8 times and made the finals a record 14 times and won the doubles title a record 11 times. Navratilova is the only person of either sex to have won eight different tournaments at least seven times.
wn.com/Martina_Navratilova -
Marty McSorley
Martin James McSorley (born May 18, 1963) is a retired Canadian professional hockey player, who played in the National Hockey League from 1983 until 2000 when he was "forced out" in "disgrace". A versatile player, he was able to play both the forward and defense positions. He is also a former head coach of the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League (2002–2004). In addition to his hockey career, he has also worked as an actor, appearing in several film and television roles.
McSorley was born in Hamilton, Ontario, but grew up near Cayuga, a small town in Haldimand County.
He made his NHL debut in October, 1983, with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but rose to fame after a trade in September 1985 brought him to the Edmonton Oilers. McSorley's arrival and physical presence soon made Edmonton's incumbent enforcer Dave Semenko expendable, and McSorley inherited the title of "Wayne Gretzky's Bodyguard".
This title would follow McSorley to Los Angeles in 1988, when both he and Gretzky - along with Mike Krushelnyski - were obtained by the Kings. With the Kings, McSorley's bruising style made him a fan favorite. However he strived to improve his game beyond being primarily known as an enforcer, earning great respect around the league for his hard work ethic, his fine team play, and his articulate intelligence off the ice.
wn.com/Marty_McSorley -
Marvin Gay, Sr.
The Reverend Marvin Pentz Gaye Sr. (October 1, 1914 – October 10, 1998) was an American minister of the House of God. He was the father of musician Marvin Gaye and gained notoriety after shooting and killing him on April 1, 1984 following an argument at their Los Angeles home.
Gay was born on a farm on along Catnip Hill Pike in Jessamine County, Kentucky to George and Mamie Gay, and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Gay's childhood was reportedly difficult with accounts of his father George Gay's physical abuse towards him and twelve of his other siblings. Gay entered ministry in his late teens, joining a Pentecostal church as a pastor in a church in Washington, D.C. where he and wife, Alberta Cooper from North Carolina, raised their family of four children: daughters Jeanne (b. 1937) and Zeola (b. 1945) and sons Marvin, Jr. (1939–1984) and Frankie (1941–2001). After leaving his church, he formed a religious group called the House of God and spent most of his time as a storefront preacher taking his sermons to different churches where he often took his eldest son to sing gospel songs.
wn.com/Marvin_Gay,_Sr. -
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.
Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.
wn.com/Marvin_Gaye -
Matt Biondi
Matthew Nicholas Biondi (born October 8, 1965 in Palo Alto, California) is a three-time U.S. Olympic swimmer in the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Summer Olympics, winning a total of 11 medals. He is a member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Biondi left Seoul with five gold medals, setting world records in four of those events.
Biondi started his aquatics career as a swimmer and water polo player in his hometown of Moraga, California. As he moved into his teens, his incredible abilities as a sprint swimmer began to emerge. Though he did not start swimming year-round until he started at Campolindo High School, by his senior year Biondi was the top schoolboy sprinter in America with a National High School record of 20.40 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. He accepted a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley to swim and play water polo, and enrolled in 1983. In his freshman year, he played on Berkeley's NCAA Championship water polo team, and made the consolation finals at the 1984 NCAA Swimming Championships.
wn.com/Matt_Biondi -
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, voiced the adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King, and portrayed Leo Bloom in the Hollywood and Broadway productions of The Producers. He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his featured role in the play Brighton Beach Memoirs and one in 1995 for his leading role in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He was also nominated for the Tony Award, Best Actor in a Musical, for The Producers but lost to his co-star Nathan Lane. To date, Broderick is the youngest winner of the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Broderick was born in New York City, the son of Patricia (née Biow), a playwright, actress, and painter, and James Joseph Broderick, an actor. His mother was Jewish, a descendant of immigrants from Germany and Poland; his father was a Catholic of Irish and English descent. Broderick attended grade school at the City & Country School (a progressive K–8 school in Manhattan) and high school at Walden School (a defunct private school in Manhattan with a strong drama program). After the death of his mother, her paintings were exhibited at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York.
wn.com/Matthew_Broderick -
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈaːdʒa]; born January 9, 1958) is a Turkishassassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a ten-year sentence. He was released on January 18, 2010. Ağca has described himself as a mercenary with no political orientation, although he is known to have been a member of the Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves organization.
Ağca was born in the Hekimhan district, Malatya Province in Turkey. As a youth, he became a petty criminal and a member of street gangs in his home town. He became a smuggler between Turkey and Bulgaria.
He claims to have received two months of training in weaponry and terrorist tactics in Syria as a member of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine paid for by the Communist Bulgarian government, although this has been questioned.
wn.com/Mehmet_Ali_Agca -
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO (born 3 January 1956) is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. He was born in Peekskill, New York, moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old, and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.
After appearing in the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series, Gibson went on to direct and star in the Academy Award-winning Braveheart. In 2004, he directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a film portraying the last hours in the life of Jesus.
Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York State, the sixth of 11 children, and the second son of Hutton Gibson and Irish-born Anne Patricia (née Reilly, died 1990). His paternal grandmother was the Australian opera contralto Eva Mylott (1875–1920). One of Gibson's younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor. Gibson's first name comes from Saint Mel, fifth-century Irish saint, and founder of Gibson's mother's native diocese, Ardagh, while his second name, Colm-Cille, is also shared by an Irish saint and is the name of the parish in County Longford where Gibson's mother was born and raised. Because of his mother, Gibson holds dual Irish and American citizenship.
wn.com/Mel_Gibson -
Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin (help·info) (Hebrew: מְנַחֵם בֵּגִין, Polish: Mieczysław Biegun, Arabic: مناحيم بيغن Munahayyim Beeghin, Russian: Менахем Вольфович Бегин Menakhem Vol'fovich Begin, 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine.
Begin was elected to the first Knesset, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labour Party political dominance. He probably served as Opposition Leader longer than anyone in the history of modern democratic politics.
wn.com/Menachem_Begin -
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors of all time.
Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Academy Award nomination and the latter her first win. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).
Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, five Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2009 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, the youngest actress in each award's history.
wn.com/Meryl_Streep -
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2009. He is the eldest of actor Kirk Douglas's four sons.
Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first child of actor Kirk Douglas and Bermudian-born actress Diana Dill. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Gomel in Belarus (at that time a part of the Russian Empire). His mother was from Devonshire Parish, Bermuda; Douglas's maternal grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, served as Attorney General of Bermuda and was commanding officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery. Douglas has a younger brother, Joel Douglas (born 1947), and two paternal half-brothers, Peter Douglas (born 1955) and Eric Douglas (1958–2004), from stepmother Anne Buydens.
wn.com/Michael_Douglas -
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC (born Michael Andrew Fox; June 9, 1961) is a Canadian American actor, author, celebrity, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties (1982–1989) for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996–2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. Fox semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He has since become an activist for research toward finding a cure. This led him to create the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and on March 5, 2010, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet gave him a honoris causa doctorate for his work in advocating a cure for Parkinson's disease.
Since 2000 Fox has mainly worked as a voice-over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and taken guest TV roles such as in Boston Legal, The Good Wife, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me. He has also released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002); Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009); and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (2010). He was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 27, 2011, for his outreach and fundraising work.
wn.com/Michael_J._Fox -
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
wn.com/Michael_Jackson -
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998) as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
wn.com/Michael_Jordan -
Michael Keaton
Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). He has since appeared in various other films, including Pixar's Cars (2006) and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Keaton, the youngest of seven children, was born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, and lived in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. His father, George A. Douglas, worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and his mother, Leona Elizabeth (née Loftus), a homemaker, came from a Scots-Irish community in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Keaton was raised in a large Catholic family and attended Montour High School in Pennsylvania. He studied speech for two years at Kent State before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh.
An unsuccessful attempt at comedy led Keaton to working as a TV cameraman at public television station WQED (TV) in Pittsburgh. Keaton first appeared on TV in the Pittsburgh-based public television programs, including "Where the Heart Is" and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1975), as one of the "Flying Zucchini Brothers." He also served as a full-time production assistant on the show. (In 2004, following Fred Rogers' death, Keaton hosted the PBS memorial tribute program, Fred Rogers: Everybody's Favorite Neighbor.) Keaton also worked as an actor in Pittsburgh theatre; he played the role of Rick in the Pittsburgh premiere of David Rabe's Sticks and Bones with the Pittsburgh Poor Players.
wn.com/Michael_Keaton -
Michael Milken
Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American business magnate, financier, and philanthropist noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds (also called junk bonds) during the 1970s and 1980s, for his 1990 guilty plea to felony charges for violating US securities laws, and for his funding of medical research.
Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and securities fraud in 1989 as the result of an insider trading investigation. After a plea bargain, he pled guilty to six securities and reporting violations but was never convicted of racketeering or insider trading. Milken was sentenced to ten years in prison and permanently barred from the securities industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the presiding judge reduced his sentence for cooperating with testimony against his former colleagues and good behavior, he was released after less than two years.
His critics cited him as the epitome of Wall Street greed during the 1980s, and nicknamed him the "Junk Bond King". Supporters, like George Gilder in his book, Telecosm, note that "Milken was a key source of the organizational changes that have impelled economic growth over the last twenty years. Most striking was the productivity surge in capital, as Milken … and others took the vast sums trapped in old-line businesses and put them back into the markets."
wn.com/Michael_Milken -
Michel Platini
Michel François Platini (born 21 June 1955) is a former French football player and manager, and the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2007.
During his professional footballing career, Platini played for the clubs Nancy, Saint-Étienne, and Juventus, and was a member of the French national team that won the 1984 European Championship, a tournament in which he was the top goalscorer and voted the best player. He also participated in the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups, reaching the semi-finals in the latter two. Platini, Alain Giresse, Luis Fernández and Jean Tigana together made up the "carré magique" (French for "magic square"), the group of midfield players that formed the heart of the French national team throughout the 1980s.
Considered one of the best passers in football history as well as one the best free kick specialists and finishers, he holds the record for most goals (9) scored in European Championship final tournaments despite only appearing in the 1984 edition. Despite being a midfielder, he held the national team top scorer record until striker Thierry Henry surpassed the 41 goals mark in 2007.
wn.com/Michel_Platini -
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer ( /ˈfaɪfər/; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983). Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work. She received six consecutive Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama award in 1990 for The Fabulous Baker Boys. She also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Dangerous Liaisons, and the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Love Field, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards for the same films.
Pfeiffer rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s with critically acclaimed performances in the films Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Married to the Mob (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Russia House (1990), Frankie and Johnny (1991), Love Field (1992), Batman Returns (1992), and The Age of Innocence (1993).
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 6, 2007. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard and is recognised as STAR 2,345.
wn.com/Michelle_Pfeiffer -
Mike Krushelnyski
Mike Krushelnyski (born April 27, 1960) is a retired Ukrainian-Canadian professional ice hockey centre in the NHL, and former head coach of Vityaz Chekhov in the KHL.
Krushelnyski was selected by the Boston Bruins in the 6th round, 120th overall, in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. He and Marty McSorley were part of the trade in which Wayne Gretzky (who had personally requested McSorley and Krushelnyski to be part of the trade) was sent to the Los Angeles Kings for two players, draft picks and cash. He played on three Stanley Cup winners with the Edmonton Oilers in 1985, 1987, and 1988. In a career of 897 games, Krushelnyski recorded 241 goals and 328 assists for 569 career points; his single best season was 1984-85, in which he scored 43 goals and 88 points while often playing as a winger on a line with Gretzky and Jari Kurri. He played for Detroit Red Wings retiring after the 1995 season. He was then an assistant coach with Detroit when they won the Cup in 1997, but left after winning his fourth championship.
wn.com/Mike_Krushelnyski -
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is a retired American professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, with 12 of them occurring in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the only heavyweight to individually unify them.
In 1988, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in the first 91 seconds of the fight. Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times, including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno. Tyson lost his titles to 42-to-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas on February 11, 1990, in Tokyo, Japan, by a knockout in round 10. Tyson continued in his quest to regain the titles, defeating Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991. Tyson was then scheduled to take on the undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield but pulled out due to injury.
wn.com/Mike_Tyson -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв, tr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲejəvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕof] ( listen); born 2 March 1931) is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the Soviet Union, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. He was the only general secretary in the history of the Soviet Union to have been born during the Communist rule.
Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family, and in his teens operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While he was at the university, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and soon became very active within it. In 1970, he was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, First Secretary to the Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member of the Politburo in 1979. Within three years of the deaths of Soviet Leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko, Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo in 1985. Before he reached the post, he had occasionally been mentioned in western newspapers as a likely next leader and a man of the younger generation at the top level.
wn.com/Mikhail_Gorbachev -
Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga (born Joseph-Desiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997), commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko ( /məˈbuːtuː ˈsɛseɪ ˈsɛkoʊ/), was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (also known as Zaire for much of his rule) from 1965 to 1997. While in office, he formed an authoritarian regime, amassed vast personal wealth, and attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence, while also maintaining an anti-communist stance.
Mobutu, a member of the Ngbandi ethnic group, was born in Lisala, Belgian Congo. Mobutu's mother Marie Madeleine Yemo, was a hotel maid who fled to Lisala to escape the harem of a local village chief. There she met and married Albéric Gbemani, a cook for a Belgian judge. Shortly she gave birth to Mobutu. The name "Mobutu" was selected by an uncle. Gbemani died when Mobutu was eight.
The wife of the Belgian judge took a liking to Mobutu and taught him to speak, read and write fluently. Yemo relied on the help of relatives to support her four children, and the family moved often. Mobutu's earliest studies were in Léopoldville, but his mother eventually sent him to an uncle in Coquilhatville, where he attended the Christian Brothers School, a Catholic mission boarding school. A physically imposing figure, he dominated school sports. He also excelled in academics and ran the class newspaper. He was also known for his pranks and impish sense of humor. A classmate recalled that when the Belgian priests, whose first language was Dutch, misspoke in French, Mobutu would leap to his feet in class and point out the mistake. In 1949 Mobutu stowed away aboard a boat to Léopoldville and met a girl. The priests found him several weeks later, and at the end of the school year he was sent to the Force Publique (FP), the Belgian Congolese army. Enlistment, which came with a seven-year commitment, was a punishment for rebellious students.
wn.com/Mobutu_Sese_Seko -
Mohammad-Ali Rajai
Mohammad Ali Rajai (Persian: محمدعلی رجایی) was the second elected President of Iran from 2 to 30 August 1981, after serving as Prime Minister under Abolhassan Banisadr. He was also Minister of Foreign Affairs from 11 March 1981 to 15 August 1981, while he was Prime Minister. He was assassinated in a bombing on 30 August 1981, along with prime minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar.
Mohammad-Ali Rajai was born on 15 June 1933 in Qazvin, Iran. His father, Abdulsamad, died when Mohammad-Ali was only 4 years old, after which he lived with his mother and brother. Rajai grew up in Qazvin, and moved to Tehran in 1946. After moving to Tehran, he had a close relationship with the anti-Shah groups and parties. He known with Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani. In 1958, He moved to Bijar for a short period, but after a year, he moved back to Tehran and graduated with a degree in Education from Tarbiat Moallem University in 1959.[1] He was arrested by the Shah's government in May 1974, but was set free after four years.
wn.com/Mohammad-Ali_Rajai -
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer and dancer. Having appeared in the John Hughes films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986), Ringwald has been frequently named the greatest teen star of all time. She currently plays Anne Juergens in the ABC Family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Molly Kathleen Ringwald was born in Roseville, California, just outside of Sacramento, the daughter of Adele Edith (née Frembd), a housewife and chef, and Robert Scott "Bob" Ringwald, a blind jazz pianist. Ringwald has two siblings, Elizabeth and Kelly. She started her acting career at age five, starring in a stage production of Alice in Wonderland as the Dormouse. The next year, she recorded "I Wanna Be Loved by You," a music album of Dixieland jazz with her father and his group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band.
In 1978, at the age of 10, she was chosen to play Kate in the West Coast production of Annie, performing in Los Angeles.
wn.com/Molly_Ringwald -
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (Arabic: معمر محمد أبو منيار القذافي) (June 1942 – 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi /ˈmoʊ.əmɑr ɡəˈdɑːfi/ (Arabic: مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī audio (help·info)) or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Gaddafi seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1969 and served as the country's head of state until 1977, when he stepped down from his official executive role as Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Libya, and claimed subsequently to be merely a symbolic figurehead. He styled himself as "Leader of the Revolution"; in 2008 a meeting of traditional African rulers bestowed on him the title "King of Kings". A leading advocate for a United States of Africa, he served as Chairperson of the African Union (AU) from 2 February 2009 to 31 January 2010.
Gaddafi replaced the Libyan Constitution of 1951 with laws based on the political ideology he had formulated, which he called the Third International Theory and published in The Green Book. After establishing the Jamahiriya (جماهيرية, "state of the masses") system in 1977, he officially stepped down from power and after that time held a largely symbolic role within the country's official governance structure. Rising oil prices and extraction in Libya led to increasing revenues. By exporting as much oil per capita as Saudi Arabia and through various welfare programs, Libya achieved the highest living standards in Africa; Libya remained debt-free.
wn.com/Muammar_Gaddafi -
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد ضياء الحق; August 12, 1924 – August 17, 1988), was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after Bhutto forcefully retired seven senior lieutenant-generals who were tainted with their role in the East-Pakistan war in order to bring and promote Zia to four star rank. After widespread civil disorder, he planned and overthrew ruling Prime Minister Bhutto in a bloodless coup d'état on July 5, 1977, code name Fair Play, and became the state's third military ruler to impose martial law. Zia's idea of religious conservatism in Pakistan became the primary line of his military government. Throughout the 1980s, Zia managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups in Pakistan.
wn.com/Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq -
Naas Botha
Hendrik Egnatius Botha, commonly known as Naas Botha (born 27 February 1958) is a Northern Transvaal and Springboks former Rugby union player. He was voted Rugby Player of the Year. Botha mostly played in the fly-half position and is now a rugby commentator for the South African M-Net and Supersport TV channels.
Botha was born in the town of Breyten in the eastern Transvaal (now in Mpumalanga), South Africa and went to school at the Hendrik Verwoerd High School in Pretoria. As a child, Botha aspired to playing professional baseball and applied for a sport scholarship in the United States. Botha was also an excellent schools cricket and tennis player and also a hurdles athlete.
However, Botha was selected to play for the South African under-20 rugby team, where he caught the eye of the selectors while still a student at the University of Pretoria. As a result, Botha played his first Test for the Springboks on 26 April 1980 at the age of 22 in the flyhalf position against South America at Wanderers, Johannesburg.
wn.com/Naas_Botha -
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921) is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Nancy was born in New York City; her parents divorced soon after her birth and she grew up in Maryland, living with an aunt and uncle while her mother pursued acting jobs. As Nancy Davis, she was an actress in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, starring in films such as Donovan's Brain, Night into Morning, and Hellcats of the Navy. In 1952 she married Ronald Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild, and they had two children. Nancy was the First Lady of California when her husband was Governor from 1967 to 1975. In that capacity, she began work with the Foster Grandparents Program.
Nancy Reagan became First Lady of the United States in January 1981 following her husband's election. She was criticized early in his first term largely due to her decision to replace the White House china, despite it being paid for by private donations. Nancy restored a Kennedy-esque glamor to the White House following years of lax formality, and her interest in high-end fashion garnered much attention, as well as criticism. She championed recreational drug prevention causes by founding the "Just Say No" drug awareness campaign, which was considered her major initiative as first lady. Always protective of her husband, more controversy ensued when it was revealed in 1988 that she had consulted an astrologer to assist in planning the president's schedule after the 1981 assassination attempt on her husband. She had a strong influence on her husband and played a role in a few of his personnel and diplomatic decisions.
wn.com/Nancy_Reagan -
Nick Kamen
Nick Kamen (born Ivor Neville Kamen, 15 April 1962, Harlow, Essex, England) is an English male model, songwriter and musician, and brother of session guitarist Chester Kamen and artist Barry Kamen.
Nick attended St Marks RC Comprehensive School in Harlow along with his brother Chester. Kamen was first brought to the public’s attention in 1984 when Ray Petri featured him on the front cover of The Face. The cover showed him wearing a ski-hat, orange roll-neck sweater and aviator sunglasses.
He is most remembered, in the UK, for his 1985 beefcake performance in Levi's "Launderette" television commercial, where he strips down in order to stone-wash his blue jeans in a 1950s style public laundromat while he waits clad only in his boxer shorts, which was one of a series of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertisements that dramatically increased the popularity of Levi 501s. It was selected for, and came fourth in, The 100 Greatest TV Ads in 2000.
His first single was the 1986 UK number five hit "Each Time You Break My Heart" from his eponymous début album.Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, it also cracked both the U.S. dance chart (remix by Shep Pettibone) and the Top 50 in Canada. Madonna also sang the backing vocals. Her original demo remains one of many unreleased Madonna songs. Kamen also had a #16 follow-up in the UK with the second single, Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever, although his later singles were less-commercially successful in the UK but more so in the rest of Europe, particularly Italy, France, Germany and Spain.
wn.com/Nick_Kamen -
Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceauşescu (Romanian pronunciation: [nikoˈla.e t͡ʃe̯a.uˈʃesku]; 26 January 1918 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's last Communist leader. He was also the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989.
His rule was marked in the first decade by an open policy towards Western Europe and the United States, which deviated from that of the other Warsaw Pact states during the Cold War. He continued a trend first established by his predecessor, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who had tactfully coaxed the Soviet Union into withdrawing its troops from Romania in 1958.
Ceauşescu's second decade was characterized by an increasingly brutal and repressive regime—by some accounts, the most Stalinist regime in the Soviet bloc. It was also marked by an ubiquitous personality cult, nationalism and a deterioration in foreign relations with the Western powers as well as the Soviet Union. Ceauşescu's government was overthrown in the December 1989 revolution, and he and his wife were executed following a televised and hastily organised two-hour court session.
wn.com/Nicolae_Ceauşescu -
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola; January 7, 1964) is an Academy Award–winning American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona (1987), The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Adaptation (2002), National Treasure (2004), Lord of War (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Kick-Ass (2010), and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012).
Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola on January 7, 1964 in Long Beach, California. His father, August Coppola, a professor of literature, and his mother, Joy Vogelsang, a dancer and choreographer, divorced in 1976. He was raised in a Catholic family. Cage's mother is of German descent and his father was of Italian descent. His paternal grandparents were composer Carmine Coppola and actress Italia Pennino, and his paternal great-grandparents were immigrants from Bernalda, Basilicata. Through his father, Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, and the cousin of directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola, film producer Gian-Carlo Coppola, and actors Robert Carmine and Jason Schwartzman. Cage's two brothers are New York radio personality Marc "The Cope" Coppola and director Christopher Coppola. He attended Beverly Hills High School, which is known for its many alumni who became entertainers. He aspired to act from an early age and also attended UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. His first non-cinematic acting experience was in a school production of Golden Boy.
wn.com/Nicolas_Cage -
Nikos Galis
Nikolaos Georgalis (Greek: Νικόλαος Γεωργαλής), commonly known as either Nikos Galis (Greek: Νίκος Γκάλης), or Nick Galis (alternate spellings include: Nikos Gallis, Nick Gallis, Nicolaos Georgalis, Nicolaos Georgallis, Nikolaos Galis, Nikolaos Gallis) (born July 23, 1957 in Union City, New Jersey, United States), is a retired Greek professional basketball player. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991, is an inaugural member of the FIBA Hall of Fame and was named one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors, on February 3, 2008.
Galis played the point guard position during his college years, but turned into a shooting guard as a professional. He spent most of his career in Aris, before having a late stint with Panathinaikos. He is the Euroleague's all-time leader in both career points scored and points per game (counting both FIBA and ULEB games), leading the competition in scoring eight times. In the premier European club competition, he reached the Euroleague Final Four on four occasions, three consecutive ones with Aris (1988–90), and another one with Panathinaikos (1994). Galis is also the Greek Championship's all-time leading scorer in both career points scored and points per game (counting all the formats in league history). In addition to that, he holds the FIBA World Championship scoring records for the highest career points per game average, as well as the most points ever scored at a World Championship tournament, which he set at the 1986 FIBA World Championship.
wn.com/Nikos_Galis -
Olof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (Swedish: Olof Palme) (30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician. A longtime protegé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 to his assassination, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government from 1982 until his death. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics, which had seen 40 years of unbroken rule by the party. While leader of opposition, he parted domestic and international interests and served as special mediator of the United Nations in the Iran–Iraq War, but returned to power as Prime Minister after stunning electoral victories in 1982 and 1985.
A pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics since the 1960s until his death, Palme was steadfast in his non-alignment policy towards the superpowers, juxtaposed to support of numerous third world liberation movements following the process of decolonization including, most controversially, economic and vocal support for a number of non-democratic anti-imperialist regimes. In 1975, he was the first head of a democratic government to visit Cuba after its revolution, holding a speech on Plaza de la Revolución praising Fidel Castro's administration and issuing a joint statement vindicating Pol Pot's takeover in Cambodia.
wn.com/Olof_Palme -
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English band Black Sabbath, whose dark and hard sound helped spawn the heavy metal genre. Due to Sabbath's dark style, Osbourne became known as the "Prince of Darkness". Osbourne is also known as the "Godfather of Heavy Metal".
In the early 2000s, Osbourne's career expanded when he became a star in his own reality show The Osbournes, alongside wife/manager Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack. A documentary about his life and career, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. Osbourne has achieved multi-platinum status as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath and has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, England, on 3 December 1948. His father Jack worked shifts as a toolmaker at GEC. His mother Lillian worked for the car components firm Lucas. John was the fourth of six children. Ozzy had two brothers (Paul and Tony) and three sisters (Jean, Iris and Gillian); they lived in a small two bedroom home at 14 Lodge Road in Aston. The nickname "Ozzy" was first used when he was in primary school. Although called "John" by his first wife Thelma, Osbourne states that it has been a long time since he's recognised himself when called by his formal name.
wn.com/Ozzy_Osbourne -
Patrick Hillery
Patrick John "Paddy" Hillery (Irish: Pádraig J. Ó hIrghile)(2 May 1923 – 12 April 2008) was an Irish politician and the sixth President of Ireland from 1976 until 1990. First elected at the 1951 general election as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for Clare, he remained in Dáil Éireann until 1973. During this time he served as Minister for Education (1959–1965), Minister for Industry and Commerce (1965–1966), Minister for Labour (1966–1969) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1969–1973). In 1973 he was appointed Ireland's first European Commissioner, serving until 1976 when he became President. He served two terms in the presidency, and, though widely seen as a somewhat lacklustre President, he was credited with bringing stability and dignity to the office, and he won widespread admiration when it emerged that he had withstood political pressure from his own Fianna Fáil party during a political crisis in 1982.
Patrick John Hillery, more popularly known as Paddy Hillery, was born in Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, County Clare in 1923. The son of Michael Joseph Hillery, a local doctor, and Ellen McMahon, a district nurse, he was educated locally at Miltown Malbay national school before later attending Rockwell College. At third level Hillery attended University College Dublin where he qualified with a degree in medicine. Upon his conferral in 1947 he returned to his native town where he followed in his father’s footsteps as a doctor. Hillery’s medical career in the 1950s saw him serve as a member of the National Health Council and as Medical Officer for the Miltown Malbay Dispensary District. He also spent a year working as coroner for West Clare.
wn.com/Patrick_Hillery -
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Stewart, OBE (born 13 July 1940) is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television. He is most widely known for his television and film roles, such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and its successor films, Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series, and as the voice of Avery Bullock in American Dad!.
Stewart was born on 13 July 1940 in Mirfield, near Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He is the son of Gladys (née Barrowclough), a weaver and textile worker, and Alfred Stewart, a Regimental Sergeant Major in the British Army who served with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and previously worked as a general labourer and as a postman.
In a 2008 interview, Stewart said: "My father was a very potent individual, a very powerful man who got what he wanted. It was said that when he strode onto the parade ground, birds stopped singing. It was many, many years before I realised how my father inserted himself into my work. I've grown a moustache for Macbeth. My father didn't have one, but when I looked in the mirror just before I went on stage I saw my father's face staring straight back at me."
wn.com/Patrick_Stewart -
Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze ( /ˈsweɪziː/; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991. His film and TV career spanned 30 years.
Diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January 2008, Swayze told Barbara Walters a year later that he was "kicking it". However, he died from the disease on September 14, 2009. His last role was the lead in an ill-fated A&E TV series, The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. Due to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series. On June 15, 2009, Entertainment Tonight announced the show's cancellation.
Patrick Swayze was born on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas, the second child of Patsy Yvonne Helen (née Karnes; born 1927), a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze (1925–1982), an engineering draftsman. He had two younger brothers, actor Don Swayze (born 1958) and Sean Kyle (born 1962), and two sisters, Vickie Lynn (1949–1994) and Bambi. He was a sixth cousin once removed of news commentator John Cameron Swayze, and a relative of noted Texas Revolution soldier Henry Karnes. Swayze was raised Roman Catholic.
wn.com/Patrick_Swayze -
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is a grammy award winning American singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist.
Simon's international fame and success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, launched in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". The duo split up in 1970 at the height of their popularity, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Simon has earned 12 Grammys for his solo and collaborative work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was the first recipient of the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. In 1986 Simon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees.
wn.com/Paul_Simon -
Peter Cetera
Peter Paul Cetera ( /səˈtɛrə/ sə-TERR-ə; born September 13, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American singer, songwriter, bassist and producer best known for being an original member of the rock band Chicago, before launching a successful solo career. As a solo artist, Cetera has scored six Top 40 singles, including two that reached number 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
Cetera was born and raised in the Morgan Park section of Chicago, Illinois, located on the far South Side. He was the second of six children and is of Polish descent. According to one source his father worked as a "machinist". Cetera's siblings include two brothers, Tim Cetera and Kenny Cetera, who are listed as contributing musicians on some of the recordings he made with Chicago and on some of his solo recordings.
Cetera attended Mendel Catholic Prep High School, graduating in 1962, and is listed among the "Notable Alumni".
Cetera's interest in music began at 11 years of age when his parents bought him an accordion instead of the guitar he wanted. When he was 15, some older students from his high school took him to a club to see a band called The Rebel Rockers, which led to his purchasing an acoustic guitar at Montgomery Ward.
wn.com/Peter_Cetera -
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song is the most played music video in the history of the station.
More recently, Gabriel has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2007 he was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.” Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.
wn.com/Peter_Gabriel -
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist.
Collins sang the lead vocals on several chart hits in the United Kingdom and the United States between 1975 and 2010, either as a solo artist or with Genesis. His singles, sometimes dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", dance pop of "Sussudio", piano-driven "Against All Odds", to the political statements of "Another Day in Paradise".
Collins's professional music career began as a drummer, originally in a band called The Real Thing with Andrea Bertorelli, who later became his first wife. Collins played drums and shared lead vocals (with Brian Chatton) in Flaming Youth which recorded one album, (Ark II). In 1970, he took over drums for Genesis, which had already recorded two albums. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. Following Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer.
wn.com/Phil_Collins -
Philip Oakey
Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is an English composer, singer, songwriter and producer.
He is best known as the lead singer, lead songwriter, frontman and co-founder of the famous English synthpop band The Human League. Aside from the Human League, he has had an extensive solo music career and collaborated with numerous other artists and producers. He is also an occasional DJ.
Oakey was one of the most visually distinctive music artists of the early 1980s. His synthesiser composition and song writing helped make his band The Human League one of the highest profile pop bands of the early 1980s. At the height of their success The Human League released the triple platinum album Dare and Oakey co-wrote and sang the multi million selling single “Don't You Want Me”, which was a number one single in both the U.S and UK, where it remains the 25th highest selling single of all time.[citation needed] Oakey has been a key figure in the music business and has been lead singer of The Human League for over 30 years, with whom he has sold more than 20 million records worldwide. He continues recording and performing internationally to this day.
wn.com/Philip_Oakey -
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau CC, CH, PC, QC, FSRC ( /truːˈdoʊ/; French pronunciation: [tʁydo]; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.
Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals, but he eventually joined the Liberal Party of Canada when he entered federal politics in the 1960s. He was appointed as Lester Pearson's Parliamentary Secretary, and later became his Minister of Justice. From his base in Montreal, Trudeau took control of the Liberal Party and became a charismatic leader, inspiring "Trudeaumania". From the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, he dominated the Canadian political scene and aroused passionate reactions. "Reason before passion" was his personal motto. He retired from politics in 1984, and John Turner succeeded him as Prime Minister.
Admirers praise the force of Trudeau's intellect and they salute his political acumen in preserving national unity against Quebec separatists, suppressing a violent revolt, and establishing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms within Canada's constitution. Critics accuse him of arrogance, economic mismanagement, and unduly favouring the federal government relative to the provinces, especially in trying to control the oil wealth of the Prairies.
wn.com/Pierre_Trudeau -
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920, Wadowice, Republic of Poland – 2 April 2005, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523.
John Paul II was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. He was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. Though criticised by progressives for upholding the Church's teachings against artificial contraception and the ordination of women, and by traditionalists for his support of the Church's Second Vatican Council and its reform, he was also widely praised for his firm, orthodox Catholic stances.
wn.com/Pope_John_Paul_II -
Poul Schlüter
Poul Holmskov Schlüter (Danish pronunciation: [pʌʊ̯l hʌlmsɡʌʊ̯ slydɐ], 3 April 1929) is a Danish politician, who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1982 to 1993.
Born in Tønder, south Jutland, he graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1957 with a degree in law, and joined the bar in 1960. Schlüter was a member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) for the Conservative People's Party from 1964 to 1994. He was also Chairman of the Conservative People's Party from 1974 to 1977 and from 1981 to 1993.
In 1982, after Prime Minister Anker Jørgensen was forced to resign, Schlüter cobbled together a four-party coalition and was appointed his successor. He was the first member of the Conservative People's Party to become Prime Minister, as well as the first conservative to hold the office since 1901. During his time as Prime Minister, he was named "Nordic Politician of the Year" (in 1984). He has since been granted a large number of Danish and international awards and medals.
Previously, he had served as a member of the Council of Europe from 1971 to 1974, and had headed the Danish Delegation to the Nordic Council, where he served as a member of the Council Presidium, in 1978 and 1979. He retired as Prime Minister in 1993 after an inquiry found that he had misinformed the Danish Parliament. The case was known as the Tamil Case, (in Danish: "Tamilsagen"), as it involved asylum requests from Tamil refugees.
wn.com/Poul_Schlüter -
Prem Tinsulanonda
General Prem Tinsulanonda (Thai: เปรม ติณสูลานนท์; RTGS: Prem Tinnasulanon; pronunciation: [preːm tin.ná.sǔː.laː.non]; born August 26, 1920) is a retired Thai military officer who served as Prime Minister of Thailand from March 3, 1980 to August 4, 1988. He now serves as the Head of the Privy Council of the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej.
In the Thai political crisis of the 2000's, he was accused by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his supporters of being a mastermind of the 2006 coup as well as in the appointment of the post-coup legislature and Interim Government of Surayud Chulanont. The military junta that ousted the legally occupying Thaksin denied that Prem had any important political role.
Prem, as the Chief of the Privy Council, is a leader in promoting King Bhumibol's ideologies and royal projects though he has sometimes represented himself as being the voice of the king. He has always urged Thai society to follow the king's advice and has himself founded several welfare projects related to education, drug suppression, poverty, and national unity. A southerner, Prem has also dealt personally with trying to resolve the Islamic Southern Insurgency crisis.
wn.com/Prem_Tinsulanonda -
Prince (musician)
Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson; June 7, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, and his songs have been recorded by these artists and others (including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, Sinéad O'Connor, and even Kim Basinger). He also has several hundred unreleased songs in his "vault".
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince developed an interest in music at an early age, writing his first song at age seven. After recording songs with his cousin's band 94 East, seventeen-year-old Prince recorded several unsuccessful demo tapes before releasing his debut album, For You, in 1978. His 1979 album, Prince, went platinum due to the success of the singles "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". His next three records, Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982) continued his success, showcasing Prince's trademark of prominently sexual lyrics and incorporation of elements of funk, dance and rock music. In 1984, he began referring to his backup band as The Revolution and released the album Purple Rain, which served as the soundtrack to his film debut of the same name.
wn.com/Prince_(musician) -
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi /ˈrɑːdʒiːv ˈɡɑːndiː/ ( pronunciation (help·info); 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was the sixth Prime Minister of India (1984–1989). He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.
Rajiv Gandhi was the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi. He went to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later at Imperial College London, but did not complete a degree at either. At Cambridge he met the Italian-born Antonia Albina Maino, then a waitress in a restaurant, whom he later married. After dropping out of university, he became a professional pilot for Indian Airlines. He remained aloof from politics, despite his family's political prominence. It was only following the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 that Rajiv entered politics. Following the assassination of his mother in 1984 after Operation Blue Star, the Indian National Congress party leaders nominated him to be Prime Minister.
wn.com/Rajiv_Gandhi -
Ranasinghe Premadasa
Ranasinghe Premadasa (Sinhala: රණසිංහ ප්රේමදාස Tamil: ரணசிங்க்ஹி பிரேமதாசா) (June 23, 1924 – May 1, 1993) was the 3rd President of Sri Lanka from January 2, 1989 to May 1, 1993. Before that, he served as the Prime Minister in the government headed by J. R. Jayewardene from February 6, 1978 to January 1, 1989. He was assassinated in Colombo in a suicide bombing, by the LTTE.
Ranasinghe Premadasa came from a family of modest means, as such his political rise was resented by some of his rivals from the two or three Rajaka - Dhobies, Washermen caste families who had inherited political power, during and post British colonial rule. He attended St Joseph's College, Colombo which at that time had started an oriental languages course. Richard Ranasingha wished his son to follow this course. He originally planned to be a journalist, and translated an autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru into Sinhala.
Premadasa was married to Hema Wickrematunge and had three children.Sajith and daughter Dulanjali and Ranjith, his son, is the MP for Hambantota District.
wn.com/Ranasinghe_Premadasa -
Randy Rhoads
Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. Despite his short career, Rhoads is a major influence on neo-classical metal, and is cited as an influence by many guitarists and is included in several "Greatest Guitarist" lists.
At age 14, Rhoads formed a cover band called Violet Fox (after his mother's middle name, Violet), with his older brother Kelle on drums. Violet Fox staged several performances in the "Grand Salon" at Musonia, Delores Rhoads' music school. Among their setlist was "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain, and songs from The Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper and David Bowie. After the dissolution of Violet Fox, Rhoads taught his best friend Kelly Garni how to play bass, and together they formed a band called The Whore (rehearsing during the day at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a 1970s Hollywood nightspot), spending several months playing at backyard parties around Los Angeles.
wn.com/Randy_Rhoads -
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (March 12, 1927 – March 31, 2009) was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization Process. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 1985, among numerous other such recognitions.
Alfonsín was born in the city of Chascomús, in eastern Buenos Aires Province, to Ana María Foulkes and Raúl Serafín Alfonsín, and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Following his elementary schooling he enrolled at the General San Martín Military Lyceum, where he graduated after five years as a second lieutenant. He became affiliated with the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) in 1945 while taking an active role in the reform group, Intransigent Renewal Movement. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires Law School, from where he graduated in 1950 and returned to Chascomús as an attorney. He married María Lorenza Barreneche the same year.
wn.com/Raúl_Alfonsín -
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band, on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma City, which caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall. He brought her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she eventually signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.
Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her second MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984), which had a more traditional country sound and produced two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s. McEntire has since released 26 studio albums, acquired 35 number one singles, and 28 albums have been certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.
wn.com/Reba_McEntire -
Ric Flair
Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time with a professional career that spans 40 years. He is currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and is noted for his lengthy and highly decorated tenures with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (now known as WWE). Flair is officially recognized by WWE, TNA and PWI as a 16-time World Heavyweight Champion (seven-time NWA Champion, seven-time WCW Champion and two-time WWF Champion) although his actual tally of World Championship reigns varies by source—Flair considers himself a 21-time world champion.
In World Championship Wrestling (WCW), he also had two stints as a booker—in 1989–1990 and 1994. Flair also became the first and only man to have won the WWF Championship in a Royal Rumble match, when he accomplished this in the 1992 edition of the event. In 2012, Flair became the first ever double inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame, first inducted in 2008 for his individual career, and for a second time in 2012 as a member of the Four Horsemen. He is also an NWA Hall of Famer (class of 2008). Flair's hair styles and mannerisms are based on those of Buddy Rogers, who previously and famously used the "Nature Boy" gimmick in the 1950s and '60s. Coincidentally, Flair also followed Rogers in becoming the second man to win both the WWF and the NWA World Heavyweight Championships.
wn.com/Ric_Flair -
Richard Donner
Richard Donner (born April 24, 1930) is an American film director, film producer, and comic book writer.
The production company The Donners' Company is owned by Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. After directing the horror film The Omen, Donner became famous for the hailed creation of the first modern superhero film, Superman, starring Christopher Reeve. The influence of this film eventually helped establish the superhero concept as a respected film genre.
Donner later continued reinvigorating the buddy film genre with Lethal Weapon (1987) and its sequels.
In 2000, he received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. He was also nominated for Best Director in 1978 for Superman. Film historian Michael Barson writes that Donner had "emerged as one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters."
Donner was born Richard Donald Schwartzberg in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Hattie and Fred Schwartzberg; he has a sister, Joan. He was raised in the Jewish faith. Donner started his career with hopes of acting but quickly moved into directing commercials and making business films. He moved into television in the late 1950s, directing some episodes of the Steve McQueen western serial Wanted: Dead or Alive and the Chuck Connors western The Rifleman.
wn.com/Richard_Donner -
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere ( /ˈɡɪər/ GEER; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. He went on to star in several hit films including An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, and Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actor, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Best Cast.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gere is a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims Francis Eaton, John Billington, George Soule, Richard Warren, Degory Priest, William Brewster, and Francis Cooke. His paternal great-grandfather had changed the spelling of the surname from "Geer". Gere's mother, Doris Ann (née Tiffany, born 1924), was a homemaker, and his father, Homer George Gere (born 1922), was an insurance agent for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and had originally intended to become a minister. Gere is their eldest son and second child. In 1967, he graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music, playing the trumpet. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years.
wn.com/Richard_Gere -
Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including "Endless Summer Nights", "Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever", and "Hazard". Although most of his major hit songs were slow ballads, many of his songs had a classic rock style, such as "Don't Mean Nothing", "Should've Known Better," "Satisfied," and "Too Late To Say Goodbye". Marx placed himself in the record books by being the first solo artist to have his first seven singles hit the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 4). His record sales worldwide exceed 30 million. Aside from songs that he's written and recorded for himself, he has written, co-written, and produced successful tracks for other artists such as "This I Promise You" by NSYNC and "Dance With My Father" by Luther Vandross. The latter song won several Grammy Awards. His 14th and latest chart topper, "Long Hot Summer," performed by Keith Urban, gave Marx the distinction of having a song he wrote or co-write top the charts in four different decades.
wn.com/Richard_Marx -
Rick Astley
Richard Paul "Rick" Astley ( /ˈrɪk ˈæstli/; born 6 February 1966) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and radio personality. He is known for his 1987 song, "Never Gonna Give You Up", which was a #1 hit single in 25 countries. Astley holds the record for being the only male solo artist to have his first 8 singles reach the Top 10 in the UK and by retirement in 1993 had sold approximately 40 million records worldwide.
After retiring from the music industry in 1993, Astley made a comeback in 2007 when he became an Internet phenomenon, as his video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" became part of a popular Internet meme known as "Rickrolling". Astley was voted "Best Act Ever" by Internet users at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008.
Richard Paul Astley was born on 6 February 1966 in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, England, becoming the fourth child of his family. His parents divorced when he was five, and Astley was brought up by his father. His musical career started when he was ten, singing in the local church choir. During his schooldays, Astley formed and played the drums in a number of local bands, where he met guitarist David Morris. After leaving school at sixteen, Astley was employed during the day as a driver in his father's market-gardening business and played drums on the Northern club circuit at night in bands such as “Give Way” - specialising in covering Beatles and Shadows songs - and “FBI”, which won several local talent competitions.
wn.com/Rick_Astley -
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November, 1937) is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists (1977), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Legend (1985), Black Rain (1989), Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) American Gangster (2007), Body of Lies (2008), and Prometheus (2012).
Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing, as well as Golden Globe and Emmy Awards. He was knighted in the 2003 New Year Honours. In 2011, Scott received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is the older brother of film director Tony Scott.
Scott was born in South Shields, England, the son of Elizabeth and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. He was raised in an Army family, meaning that for most of his early life, his father — an officer in the Royal Engineers — was absent. Ridley's older brother, Frank, joined the Merchant Navy when he was still young and the pair had little contact. During this time the family moved around, living in (among other areas) Cumbria, Wales and Germany. He has a younger brother, Tony, also a film director. After the Second World War, the Scott family moved back to their native north-east England, eventually settling in Teesside (whose industrial landscape would later inspire similar scenes in Blade Runner). He enjoyed watching films, and his favourites include Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane and Seven Samurai. Scott studied in Teesside from 1954 to 1958, at Grangefield Grammar School and later in West Hartlepool College of Art, graduating with a Diploma in Design.
wn.com/Ridley_Scott -
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe (/ˈrɒb ˈloʊ/; born March 17, 1964) is an American actor. Lowe came to prominence after appearing in films such as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, and Wayne's World. On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters. He is currently a main cast member of Parks and Recreation, playing the role of Chris Traeger. Early in his career Lowe gained notoriety as a life-in-the-fast-lane playboy, ending up in the spotlight for various personal indiscretions and tabloid scandals, including one of the first "sex tape" scandals to hit Hollywood.
Lowe was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of Barbara Lynn (née Hepler), a teacher, and Charles Davis Lowe, a trial lawyer. His parents divorced when Lowe was young. He has a brother, actor Chad Lowe, and two half brothers. Because of a virus during infancy, he is deaf in his right ear (he later played a deaf character in Stephen King's The Stand). Lowe was baptized into the Episcopal church. His father is of German , English and Irish ancestry and his mother was of German, English, Welsh, and Scottish descent. He was raised in a "traditional midwestern setting" in Dayton, Ohio, attending Oakwood Junior High School, before moving to the Point Dume area of Malibu, California with his mother and brother. He attended Santa Monica High School, the same high school as fellow actors Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, Chris Penn, and Robert Downey, Jr.
wn.com/Rob_Lowe -
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.
As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Michael "Meathead" Stivic, son-in-law of Archie and Edith Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton), on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s. As a director, Reiner was recognized by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) with nominations for Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally..., and A Few Good Men. He also directed Misery. He studied at the UCLA Film School.
Reiner was born to a Jewish family in The Bronx, New York, and is the son of Estelle Reiner (née Lebost), an actress, and Carl Reiner, a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. As a child, Reiner lived in New Rochelle, New York, where his family lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road. This is similar to 148 Bonnie Meadow Road, the fictional address of the Petries on The Dick Van Dyke Show, the 1960s CBS sitcom created by his father. Also, his latest film Flipped takes place at the corner of Bonnie Meadow Lane and Renfrew Street.
wn.com/Rob_Reiner -
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Shona pronunciation: [muɡaɓe],[needs tone]English: /muːˈɡɑːbiː/ moo-GAH-bee; born 21 February 1924) is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980. He served as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987, and as the first executive head of state since 1987.
Mugabe rose to prominence in the 1960s as the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) during the conflict against the white-minority rule government of Ian Smith. Mugabe was a political prisoner in Rhodesia for more than 10 years between 1964 and 1974. Upon release with Edgar Tekere, Mugabe left Rhodesia in 1975 to re-join the Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle (Rhodesian Bush War) from bases in Mozambique.
At the end of the war in 1979, Mugabe emerged as a hero in the minds of many Africans. He won the general elections of 1980, the second in which the majority of black Africans participated in large numbers (though the electoral system in Rhodesia had allowed black participation based on qualified franchise). Mugabe then became the first Prime Minister after calling for reconciliation between formerly warring parties, including white Rhodesians and rival political groups.
wn.com/Robert_Mugabe -
Robert Muldoon
Sir Robert David "Rob" Muldoon, GCMG, CH (25 September 1921 – 5 August 1992) served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, as leader of the governing National Party. Muldoon had been a prominent member of the National party and MP for the Tamaki electorate for some years prior to becoming leader of the party. During his time as a member of parliament and as Prime Minister, Muldoon was responsible for a number of major changes to the New Zealand economy, including the introduction of decimal currency and the Think Big policies of the third National Government. Despite being a polarising figure during his time as Prime Minister, Muldoon's impact on New Zealand society faded after his retirement.
Robert David Muldoon was born to parents Jim and Amie Muldoon in Auckland in 1921.
At age five Muldoon slipped while playing on the front gate, damaging his cheek and resulting in a distinctive scar. At age eight, Muldoon's father was admitted to hospital, where he died nearly 20 years later. This left Muldoon's mother to raise him on her own. During this time Muldoon came under the strong formative influence of his fiercely intelligent, iron-willed maternal grandmother, Jerusha, a committed socialist. Though Muldoon never accepted her creed, he did develop under her influence a potent ambition, a consuming interest in politics, and an abiding respect for New Zealand's welfare state. A brilliant student at school, Muldoon won a scholarship to attend Mount Albert Grammar School from 1933 to 1936. He left school at age 15, finding work at Fletcher Construction as an arrears clerk.
wn.com/Robert_Muldoon -
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1951) is a Lithuanian American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), though in the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994's Forrest Gump, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.
His films are characterized by an interest in state-of-the-art special effects, including the early use of match moving in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and the pioneering performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007) and A Christmas Carol (2009). Though Zemeckis has often been pigeonholed as a director interested only in effects, his work has been defended by several critics, including David Thomson, who wrote that "No other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose."
wn.com/Robert_Zemeckis -
Roberto Duran
Roberto Durán Samaniego (born June 16, 1951) is a retired Panamanian professional boxer, widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. A versatile brawler in the ring, he was nicknamed "Manos de Piedra" ("Stone Fists," although the literal translation is "Hands of Stone") during his career.
In 2002, he was chosen by The Ring to be the 5th greatest fighter of the last 80 years.Bert Sugar rates him as the 8th greatest fighter of all-time and the Associated Press voted Duran as the #1 lightweight of the 20th century. Many even consider him the greatest lightweight of all time. He held world titles at four different weights—lightweight (1972–79), welterweight (1980), light middleweight (1983–84) and middleweight (1989). He was the second boxer to have fought a span of five decades, the first being Jack Johnson.
He finally retired in January 2002 at age 50 (having previously retired in 1998) following a bad car crash in October 2001, with a professional record of 119 fights, 103 wins with 70 KOs. Up until the second Ray Leonard fight, he was trained by legendary boxing trainer Ray Arcel.
wn.com/Roberto_Duran -
Roh Tae Woo
Roh Tae-woo (Korean pronunciation: [no tʰɛ.u]; born December 4, 1932 in Daegu, South Korea), is a former ROK Army general and politician. He was the thirteenth president of South Korea (1988–1993).
Roh befriended Chun Doo-hwan while in high school in Daegu. In his younger life, Roh was a keen rugby union player.
A member of the army from 1955, Roh rose steadily through the ranks and was promoted to major general in 1979. A member of the Hanahoe, a secret military group, he gave critical support to a coup later that year in which Chun became the de facto ruler of South Korea. Roh was a military general when he helped Chun lead troops to the Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980.
Chun forced his way into the presidency years later when he retired from the army and Roh became a key official in Chun's government. Most notably, he oversaw preparations for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, which he officially declared open.
In June 1987, Chun named Roh as the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Justice Party. This was widely perceived as handing Roh the presidency,and triggered large pro-democracy rallies in Seoul and other cities in the 1987 June Democracy Movement.
wn.com/Roh_Tae_Woo -
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American film director, producer and former child actor. He came to prominence playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years. He appeared in the films American Graffiti in 1973 and The Shootist in 1976, the latter during his run on Happy Days. Howard made his directorial debut with the 1977 comedy Grand Theft Auto, and left Happy Days in 1980 to focus on directing. His films include the Academy Award-winning Cocoon, Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Beautiful Mind. In 2003, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Asteroid 12561 Howard is named after him.
Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, writer and actor. His father was born with the surname "Beckenholdt", and had taken the stage name "Howard" by 1948, for his acting career. Rance Howard was serving three years in the United States Air Force at the time of Ron's birth. The family moved to Hollywood in 1958, the year before the birth of his younger brother, Clint Howard. They rented a house on the block south of the Desilu Studios, where The Andy Griffith Show would later be filmed. They lived in Hollywood for at least three years, before moving to Burbank.
wn.com/Ron_Howard -
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( /ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. Prior to that, he was the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and a radio, film and television actor.
Born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon, Reagan was educated at Eureka College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. After his graduation, Reagan moved first to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in to Los Angeles in 1937 where he began a career as an actor, first in films and later television. Some of his most notable films include Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later as a spokesman for General Electric (GE); his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the late 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and general election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
wn.com/Ronald_Reagan -
Ronnie James Dio
Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010), better known as Ronnie James Dio, was an American rock and heavy metal vocalist and songwriter. He performed with, amongst others, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and his own band Dio. Other musical projects include the collective fundraiser Hear 'n Aid. He was widely hailed as one of the most powerful singers in heavy metal, renowned for his consistently powerful voice. He often ranks as one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time in various online polls and lists. He is credited with popularizing the "metal horns" hand gesture in metal culture. Prior to his death, he was collaborating on a project with former Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice, under the moniker Heaven & Hell, whose only studio album, The Devil You Know, was released on April 28, 2009. Dio died of stomach cancer on May 16, 2010. One of the last songs he recorded was titled "Metal Will Never Die".
Ronnie James Dio was born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Italian parents. They lived in Portsmouth until the family moved to Cortland, New York early in his life.
wn.com/Ronnie_James_Dio -
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter, best known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country and western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records between 1960 and 1964, when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of "In Dreams" in David Lynch's Blue Velvet revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence. His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and his two eldest sons in separate accidents.
wn.com/Roy_Orbison -
Ruhollah Khomeini
Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (روحاللّه مصطفوی موسوی خمینی, Persian pronunciation: [ruːholˈlɑːhe muːsæˈviːje xomeiˈniː], 22 or 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader — a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation – until his death.
Khomeini was a marja ("source of emulation") in Twelver Shi'a Islam, author of more than forty books, but is primarily known for his political activities. He spent more than 15 years in exile for his opposition to the last Shah. In his writings and preachings he expanded the Shi'a Usuli theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult (clerical authority)" to include theocratic political rule by the Islamic jurists. This principle (though not known to the wider public before the revolution) was installed in the new Iranian constitution after being put to a referendum.
wn.com/Ruhollah_Khomeini -
Run–D.M.C.
Run–D.M.C. was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York, founded by Joseph "Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, and Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell. The group is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture.
Run–D.M.C. were one of the most well-known hip hop acts in the 1980s who, along with LL Cool J, signified the advent of the new school of hip hop music. They were the first group in the genre to have a gold album (Run–D.M.C., 1984) and be nominated for a Grammy Award. They were the first to earn a platinum record (King of Rock, 1985), the first to earn a multi-platinum certification (Raising Hell, 1986) the first to have videos on MTV, the first to appear on American Bandstand and the cover of Rolling Stone. The group was among the first to highlight the importance of the MC and DJ relationship. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them number 48 in their list of the greatest musical artists of all time.
In 2007, Run–D.M.C. was named "The Greatest Hip Hop Group of All Time" by MTV.com and "Greatest Hip Hop Artist of All Time" by VH1. On April 4, 2009, rapper Eminem inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In doing so, Run–D.M.C. became only the second hip hop group in history to be inducted, after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
wn.com/Run–D.M.C. -
Ruud Gullit
Ruud Gullit (help·info) (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈryt ˈɣʏɫɪt], born as Ruud Dil [ˈryt ˈdɪɫ], September 1, 1962 in Amsterdam) OON is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the captain of the Netherlands national team that was victorious at Euro 88 and was also a member of the squad for the 1990 World Cup. He was named the European Footballer of the Year in 1987 and the World Soccer Player of the Year in 1987 and 1989. He was a versatile player, playing in numerous positions during his career. Gullit was working to promote the Belgian-Dutch 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid.
Gullit was born Ruud Dil in Amsterdam to George Gullit, a Suriname migrant, and Ria Dil, his buitenvrouw, from the Amsterdam Jordaan inner city district. The family lived in one split level room on the top floor of a small apartment building. Gullit's father worked as an economics teacher at a local school, his mother as a custodian at the Rijksmuseum.
wn.com/Ruud_Gullit -
Ruud Lubbers
Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈryt ˈlʏbərs] ( listen); born May 7, 1939) is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from November 4, 1982 until August 22, 1994.
He previously served as Minister of Economic Affairs from May 11, 1973 until December 19, 1977 in the Cabinet den Uyl. He became a Member of the House of Representatives from December 22, 1977 until November 4, 1982. When the Parliamentary leader of Christian Democratic Appeal in the House of Representatives Wim Aantjes resigned of a World War II controversy, Lubbers succeed him as Parliamentary leader, he served from November 7, 1978 until November 4, 1982. When the Christian Democratic Appeal Party leader and sitting Prime Minister Dries van Agt announced his retirement, Lubbers was chosen to succeed him. Lubbers became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, leading the Cabinets Lubbers I, II and III. Lubbers was regarded by many during his time in office as an ideological heir to Margaret Thatcher. One of his campaign slogans was: "meer markt, minder overheid" (more market, less government).
wn.com/Ruud_Lubbers -
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup, later referred to as the 17 July Revolution, that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunnis, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
wn.com/Saddam_Hussein -
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget (1965–66) or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun (1967–70); in the 1970s, for Sybil (1976), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Norma Rae (1979); in the 1980s, for Absence of Malice (1981), Places in the Heart (1984) and Steel Magnolias (1989); in the 1990s, for Not Without My Daughter (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Forrest Gump (1994) and Eye for an Eye (1996); and in the 2000s, on the TV shows ER and Brothers & Sisters (2006–11). She has also performed in numerous other roles.
Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role on two occasions, Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984). Field's professional achievements also include winning three Emmy Awards: for her role in the TV film Sybil (1976); her guest-starring role on ER in 2000; and for her starring role as Nora Holden Walker on ABC's series Brothers & Sisters in 2007. She has also won two Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also won the Best Female Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, for Norma Rae (1979).
wn.com/Sally_Field -
Salvadoran Civil War
The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) was a conflict in El Salvador between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or 'umbrella organization' of five left-wing guerrilla groups. Significant tensions and violence already existed in the 1970s, before the full-fledged official outbreak of the civil war—which lasted for twelve years. El Salvador's Civil War was the second longest civil war in Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War.
The conflict ended in the early 1990s. An unknown number of people disappeared, and more than 75,000 were killed.
wn.com/Salvadoran_Civil_War -
Salvadoran civil war
The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) was a conflict in El Salvador between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or 'umbrella organization' of five left-wing guerrilla groups. Significant tensions and violence already existed in the 1970s, before the full-fledged official outbreak of the civil war—which lasted for twelve years. El Salvador's Civil War was the second longest civil war in Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War.
The conflict ended in the early 1990s. An unknown number of people disappeared, and more than 75,000 were killed.
wn.com/Salvadoran_civil_war -
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi (October 23, 1959) is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror/comedy films the Evil Dead series, the action/superhero film Darkman, crime thriller A Simple Plan and supernatural horror Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Legend of the Seeker (also the creator) and Spartacus: Blood and Sand. He is also the founder of Renaissance Pictures.
Raimi, the fourth of five children, was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan. He was raised in Conservative Judaism; his ancestors immigrated from Russia and Hungary. Raimi attended Groves High School, and Michigan State University and majored in English, leaving after three semesters to film The Evil Dead. He is Ted Raimi's older brother.
wn.com/Sam_Raimi -
Samantha Fox
Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox (born 15 April 1966) is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her topless modelling career on Page Three of The Sun, and went on to become a popular pin-up girl. In 1986, she launched her pop music career with her debut single "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", which became a Number 1 hit in 17 countries. She has since sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Fox has also appeared in a number of films and reality television shows, and has occasionally worked as a television presenter.[citation needed]
The eldest daughter of the late John Patrick Fox and Carole Ann Wilken, Samantha Karen Fox comes from a family of market traders from Chapel Market, Islington, London. She has a sister, Vanessa, who is six years younger, a half-sister, Frederica, and a half brother, Frankie, from her father's second marriage.[citation needed]
Fox attended St Thomas More RC School, Haringey and took an interest in the theatre from an early age. She first appeared on a theatre stage at the age of three, and was enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School from the age of 5. Her first television appearance came in 1976, at the age of 10, in a BBC play entitled No Way Out.[citation needed] Following on from this, she started at the Mountview Theatre School, near her home in Haringey, at the age of 11.[citation needed]
wn.com/Samantha_Fox -
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel (September 29, 1933 – October 19, 1986) was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique. Machel led the country from independence in 1975 until his death in 1986, when his presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain where the borders of Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa converge.
wn.com/Samora_Machel -
Sandra (singer)
Sandra Ann Lauer, stage name Sandra (born 18 May 1962) is a German pop singer, who dominated European charts with eighteen top 20 hits during the 1980s and early 1990s, with the help of her then-husband and musical partner, Michael Cretu. During a brief height of popularity, she even outsold Madonna in a number of countries around the world. At the start of her career, from 1979 to 1984, she was the lead singer of the female disco/dance trio Arabesque, which had a massive following in Japan and Russia. Subsequently a solo performer, she had her first international #1 hit-single "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" in 1985, followed by "In the Heat of the Night". In 1986 it was "Hi! Hi! Hi!", then "Everlasting Love" in 1987, "Heaven Can Wait" in 1988 and "Hiroshima" in 1990. Her top-rated albums are 1988's Into a Secret Land and 1992's Close to Seven. Between 1990 and 2001, she provided vocals on album releases of the very successful group Enigma, which had top 10 hits in America and Britain. With a unique high-pitched singing style, she has topped the charts from as far afield as Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Japan and Brazil, as well as closer to home in Sweden and France. A cult star with a devoted fan base, she remains one of the most popular singers of the 1980s in Continental Europe. With sales in excess of 30 million records worldwide, Sandra has established her position as the most successful German pop female vocalist.
wn.com/Sandra_(singer) -
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his left-wing political and social activism (including humanitarian work). He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008), as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.
Penn began his acting career in television with a brief appearance in a 1974 episode of Little House on the Prairie, directed by his father Leo Penn. Following his film debut in 1981's Taps and a diverse range of film roles in the 1980s, Penn emerged as a prominent leading actor with the 1995 drama film Dead Man Walking, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Penn received another two Oscar nominations for Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and I Am Sam (2001), before winning his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 for Mystic River and a second one in 2008 for Milk. He has also won a Best Actor Award of the Cannes Film Festival for She's So Lovely (1997), and two Best Actor Awards at the Venice Film Festival for Hurlyburly (1998) and 21 Grams (2003).
wn.com/Sean_Penn -
Sebastian Coe
Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, KBE (born 29 September 1956), often known as Seb Coe, is an English former athlete and politician. As a middle distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle distance track events (and also participated in a world record relay). His rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s.
Following his retirement from athletics he served as a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party from 1992–97, and became a life peer in 2000. He was the head of the London bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, and, after the International Olympic Committee awarded the games to London, became the chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. In 2007, he was also elected a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations. On 25 August 2011, he was re-elected for another four year term.
wn.com/Sebastian_Coe -
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself. Set predominantly in an apartment block on Manhattan's Upper West Side (but shot in Los Angeles), the show features a host of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, in particular best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes, and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer.
Seinfeld was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment in association with Columbia Pictures Television in syndication the series was distributed by Columbia Pictures Television and Columbia TriStar Television; Sony Pictures Television has distributed the series since 2002. It was largely co-written by David and Seinfeld with input from numerous script writers, including Larry Charles, Peter Mehlman, Gregg Kavet, Andy Robin, Carol Leifer, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Steve Koren, Jennifer Crittenden, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Charlie Rubin, Marjorie Gross, Alec Berg, Elaine Pope, and Spike Feresten.
wn.com/Seinfeld -
Seve Ballesteros
Severiano "Seve" Ballesteros Sota (Spanish pronunciation: [seβeˈɾjano βaʎesˈteɾos]; 9 April 1957 – 7 May 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. He gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at the age of 19 he finished second at the The Open Championship (British Open). A member of a gifted golfing family, Ballesteros won five major championships between 1979 and 1988: the Open Championship three times, and the Masters Tournament twice. He was also successful in the Ryder Cup, helping the European team to five wins both as a player and captain, and won the World Match Play Championship a record-tying five times. He is best known for his great short game, and his erratic driving of the golf ball. He is generally regarded as the greatest Spanish golfer of all time.
Because of back-related injuries, Ballesteros struggled with form during the 1990s. In spite of this, he continued to be involved in the game of golf, creating the Seve Trophy and running a golf course design business. Ballesteros eventually retired from competitive golf in 2007 because of continued poor form, and in 2008 was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. After reports that he would make a return to the spotlight at the 2010 Open Championship, he did not travel to St. Andrews following the advice of doctors.
wn.com/Seve_Ballesteros -
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (help·info) GCMG (Hebrew: שמעון פרס, born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923) is the ninth and current President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President.
He held several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after Israel's War of Independence. His first high-level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and Director-General in 1953 through 1959. During his career, he has represented five political parties in the Knesset: Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labor and Kadima, and has led Alignment and Labour. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords.
wn.com/Shimon_Peres -
Shlomo Argov
Shlomo Argov (14 December 1929, Jerusalem – 23 February 2003) was a prominent Israeli diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom whose attempted assassination led to the 1982 Lebanon War.
On 3 June 1982, three men, Hussein Ghassan Said, Marwan al-Banna, and Nawaf al-Rosan approached Argov as he got into his car after a banquet at the Dorchester Hotel, in Park Lane, London. Said shot Argov in the head. Though not killed, he remained in a coma for three months. The events left him permanently paralysed and in need of constant medical assistance, which he received at the Hadassah Hospital, in Jerusalem.
The attempted assassins were members of Abu Nidal's organization, a Palestinian terrorist splinter group from the PLO. The attack was ordered by the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Al-Banna was Abu Nidal's cousin, Said a Jordanian and the third of Argov's would-be assassins, Al-Rosan, was a Baghdad intelligence colonel. The gunman, Said, was shot by the bodyguard and also sustained serious head injuries and, like Argov, survived. The two uninjured assassins fled the scene but were arrested shortly afterwards in a London flat. It appeared that they were next planning to kill Nabil Ramlawi, the PLO representative in London.
wn.com/Shlomo_Argov -
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver; October 8, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for her role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition.
Other notable roles include Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and its sequel Ghostbusters II, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, Working Girl, Death and the Maiden, The Ice Storm, Galaxy Quest, Snow Cake, Prayers for Bobby and Grace Augustine in Avatar.
Weaver has been nominated for three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards (one win), two Emmy Awards, six Saturn Awards (two wins) and six Golden Globe Awards, winning two in 1988 for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the first person ever to have won two acting Golden Globe Awards in the same year. She was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award.
Her 1986 Academy Award nomination for Aliens is considered as a landmark in the recognition of science fiction, action, and horror genres, as well as a major step in challenging the gender role in cinema. Weaver progressively received notoriety for her numerous contributions to the science fiction film history (including minor roles in successful works such as Futurama, WALL-E and Paul) and gained the nickname of "The Sci-Fi Queen".
wn.com/Sigourney_Weaver -
Sitiveni Rabuka
Major-General Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, OBE, MSD, OStJ, (born 13 September 1948) is best known as the instigator of two military coups that shook Fiji in 1987. He was later democratically elected the third Prime Minister, serving from 1992 to 1999. He later served as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, and is currently Chairman of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council, a position he has held since 24 May 2001. He was re-elected to this position for another three-year term on 13 April 2005.
The son of Kolinio Epeli Vanuacicila Rabuka and Salote Lomaloma Rabuka, he comes from the village of Drekeniwai on Vanua Levu, one of Fiji's two major islands. He was educated at Queen Victoria School, where he became the head boy in his final year. Rabuka was trained initially in New Zealand army schools, from which he graduated in 1973, and later did postgraduate work at the Indian Defence Services Staff College in 1979, and at the Australian Joint Services Staff College in 1982. He was a senior operation plans manager for UNIFIL peacekeeping troops in Lebanon in 1980 and 1981. On his return home, he was appointed Army Chief of Staff. From 1982 to 1987, he was an operations and training officer for the Fijian army, except for a two-year absence (1983–1985) when he commanded the Fiji Battalion as part of the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping force in the Sinai and Montevideo
wn.com/Sitiveni_Rabuka -
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (sometimes transliterated as Miloshevich[citation needed]; Serbian pronunciation: [slɔbɔ̌dan milɔ̌ːʃɛʋitɕ] ( listen); Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was the President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of the Socialist Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He also led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990. His presidency was marked by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the subsequent Yugoslav Wars. In the midst of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Milošević was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Milošević resigned the Yugoslav presidency amid demonstrations, following the disputed presidential election of 24 September 2000. He was arrested by Yugoslav federal authorities on Saturday, 31 March 2001, on suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement. The initial investigation into Milošević faltered for lack of evidence, prompting the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić to send him to The Hague to stand trial for charges of war crimes instead. Milošević conducted his own defense in the five-year long trial, which ended without a verdict when he died on 11 March 2006 in his prison cell in The Hague. Milošević, who suffered from heart ailments and high blood pressure, died of a heart attack. The Tribunal denies any responsibility for Milošević's death. They claim that he refused to take prescribed medicines and medicated himself instead.
wn.com/Slobodan_Milošević -
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor. He is regarded as having been one of America's greatest filmmakers. His films, typically adaptations of novels or short stories, were noted for their "dazzling" and unique cinematography, attention to details to achieve realism and an inspired use of music scores. Kubrick's films covered a variety of genres, including war, black comedy, horror and science fiction. Kubrick was also noted for being a perfectionist, using painstaking care with scene staging and working closely with his actors.
Starting out as a photographer in New York City, he taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating high school. His earliest films were made on a shoestring budget, followed by one Hollywood blockbuster, after which he spent most of the rest of his career living and filming in England. His home became his workplace where he did his writing, research, editing and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete artistic control, but with the rare advantage of having financial support from major Hollywood studios.
wn.com/Stanley_Kubrick -
Steve Guttenberg
Steve Guttenberg (born August 24, 1958) is an American actor and comedian. He became well known during the 1980s after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit.
Steven Robert Guttenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Ann Iris (née Newman), and Jerome Stanley Guttenberg, an electrical engineer. He has two sisters. He had a Jewish upbringing in North Massapequa, New York, where he graduated from Plainedge High School in 1976 (according to some sources, he transferred to New York City's High School of Performing Arts two years before graduating). During high school, he attended a summer program at the Juilliard School where he studied under John Houseman, and he won a role in an off-Broadway production of The Lion in Winter. After his high school graduation, he moved to California to pursue an acting career.
Guttenberg has starred in three film franchises: Police Academy (1984), Cocoon (1985), and Three Men and a Baby (1987). He has also appeared in such renowned films as Diner (1982), The Bedroom Window (1987), The Boys from Brazil (1978), and Short Circuit (1986).
wn.com/Steve_Guttenberg -
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, author, playwright, producer, musician and composer. Martin came to public notice as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.
Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as an author, playwright, pianist, and banjo player, eventually earning Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards, among other honors.
wn.com/Steve_Martin -
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio.
Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.0 billion.
wn.com/Steven_Spielberg -
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums. She has been noted for her ethereal visual style and symbolic lyrics. Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac on December 31, 1974, along with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four US Top 10 singles (including Nicks's song "Dreams", which was the band's first and only US number one) and remained at No.1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth best-selling album of all time.
Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the 8 million selling album Bella Donna, and she has produced six more solo studio albums to date. Her seventh solo studio album entitled In Your Dreams, and her first in ten years, was produced largely by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame and Glen Ballard and was released on May 3, 2011. After the release of her first solo album, Rolling Stone deemed her "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". Having overcome cocaine addiction, and dependency on tranquilizers, Nicks remains a popular solo performer. As a solo artist, she has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations and, with Fleetwood Mac, a further five, of which one was the 1978 award for Album of the Year for Rumours, which they won. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Nicks is known for her distintive voice, mystical visual style and symbolic lyrics as well as the famous (sometimes tense) chemistry between herself and former boyfriend and guitarist/vocalist in Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham.
wn.com/Stevie_Nicks -
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.
wn.com/Stevie_Wonder -
Sting (musician)
Gordon Matthew Thomas SumnerCBE (born October 2, 1951), known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist, born on 2 October 1951. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the New Wave band The Police.
Sting has varied his musical style throughout his career, incorporating distinct elements of jazz, reggae, classical, New Age, and worldbeat into his music. As a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has received sixteen Grammy Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981, three Brit Awards — winning Best British Male in 1994, a Golden Globe, an Emmy Award, and several Oscar nominations for Best Original Song. He is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Sting was born in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the eldest of four children born to Audrey (née Cowell), a hairdresser, and Ernest Matthew Sumner, a milkman and engineer. His siblings were Philip, Angela and Anita. Young Gordon would often assist his father with the early-morning milk-delivery rounds, and by age 10 he became obsessed with an old Spanish guitar that had been left behind by an emigrating friend of his father.
wn.com/Sting_(musician) -
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956) is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles. Leonard was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions and defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Wilfred Benítez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was named "Boxer of the Decade" for the 1980s.
Leonard, the fifth of seven children, was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to Cicero and Getha Leonard. He grew up in Wilmington, N.C. When he was three, the family moved to Washington, D.C. When he was ten, they settled permanently in Palmer Park, Maryland. His father worked as a supermarket night manager, his mother was a nurse.
Leonard was a shy child, and aside from the time he nearly drowned in a creek during a Seat Pleasant flood, his childhood was uneventful. He stayed home a lot, reading comic books and playing with his dog. "He never did talk too much," his mother said. "We never could tell what he was thinking. But I never had any problems with him. I never had to go to school once because of him."
wn.com/Sugar_Ray_Leonard -
Suharto
Suharto (help·info) (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was the second President of Indonesia, having held the office for 31 years from 1967 following Sukarno's removal until his resignation in 1998.
Suharto was born in a small village, Kemusuk, in the Godean area near Yogyakarta, during the Dutch colonial era. He grew up in humble circumstances. His Javanese peasant parents divorced not long after his birth, and he was passed between foster parents for much of his childhood. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Suharto served in Japanese-organised Indonesian security forces. Indonesia's independence struggle saw him joining the newly formed Indonesian army. Suharto rose to the rank of Major General following Indonesian independence. An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 was countered by Suharto-led troops and was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party. The army subsequently led an anti-communist purge, and Suharto wrested power from Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno. He was appointed acting president in 1967 and President the following year. Support for Suharto's presidency was strong throughout the 1970s and 1980s but eroded following a severe financial crisis that led to widespread unrest and his resignation in May 1998. Suharto died in 2008.
wn.com/Suharto -
Swing Out Sister
Swing Out Sister are a British "sophisti-pop" group best known worldwide for their 1986 song "Breakout". Other hits include "Surrender", "Twilight World", "Waiting Game" and a remake of "Am I the Same Girl?" Though album sales in the U.S. and Europe have levelled off since the early 1990s, the group continues to attract a loyal fanbase. The group is also very popular in Japan.
Although Swing Out Sister is currently a duo, they began as a trio in the UK. The group were formed by Andy Connell (keyboards) and Martin Jackson (drums), and were later joined by Corinne Drewery (vocals). The name came from a 1945 movie starring Arthur Treacher, called Swing Out, Sister, and they claim they chose the name because it was the only thing the band could agree on, in that they all hated it. Both Connell and Jackson had been playing in other bands prior to forming SOS, while Drewery was actually a fashion designer and model before she became the band's lead vocalist.
Together with their producer, Paul Staveley O'Duffy, they signed with Mercury Records. Prior to their first album, they released the single "Blue Mood" in the UK in November 1985. However, it did not chart.
wn.com/Swing_Out_Sister -
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting. He began directing television shows in the 1960s before moving to films.
Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. Some of his best known works include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Absence of Malice (1981). His 1985 film Out of Africa won him Academy Awards for directing and producing; he was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Tootsie, in the latter of which he also appeared. His later films included Havana (1990), The Firm (1993), Sabrina (1995), The Interpreter (2005), and as producer for and actor in Michael Clayton (2007).
Sydney Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, the son of Rebecca (née Miller) and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist. The family relocated to South Bend and his parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic with emotional problems, died at the age of 37 while Pollack was a student.
wn.com/Sydney_Pollack -
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (/stəˈloʊn/; born July 6, 1946), commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed are boxer Rocky Balboa and soldier John Rambo. The Rocky and Rambo franchises, along with several other films, strengthened his reputation as an actor and his box office earnings.
Stallone's film Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. Stallone's use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Philadelphia has a statue of his Rocky character placed permanently near the museum, on the right side before the steps. It was announced on December 7, 2010 that Stallone was voted into boxing's Hall of Fame.
Sylvester Stallone was born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone in New York City, the elder son of Frank Stallone, Sr., a hairdresser, and Jackie Stallone (born Jacqueline Labofish), an astrologer, former dancer, and promoter of women's wrestling. His younger brother is actor and musician Frank Stallone. Stallone's father was born in Gioia del Colle, Apulia, Italy, and emigrated to the United States as a child. Stallone's mother is of half Russian Jewish and half French descent.
wn.com/Sylvester_Stallone -
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge 'Ted' Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor, author and producer, well known for his role as lead character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He is currently starring in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, starred alongside Glenn Close in legal drama Damages and was a regular on the HBO comedy series Bored to Death.
In his 30-year career, Danson has been nominated for 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two; ten Golden Globe Awards nominations, winning three; one Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination; one American Comedy Award and a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. He was ranked second in TV Guide's list of the top 25 television stars. Danson has also been a longtime activist in ocean conservation. In March 2011, he published his first book, Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans And What We Can Do To Save Them, written with journalist Michael D'Orso.
wn.com/Ted_Danson -
The Cure
The Cure are an English alternative rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.
After the release of Pornography (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004. The Cure have released thirteen studio albums, 10 EPs and over thirty singles during the course of their career. Since 2010, they have been working on a fourteenth studio album.
wn.com/The_Cure -
Thompson Twins
The Thompson Twins were a British New Wave pop group that were formed in April 1977 and disbanded in May 1993. They achieved considerable popularity in the mid 1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States and around the globe.
The band was named after the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in Hergé's comic strip, The Adventures of Tintin. A predominantly synthpop trio, they were joined on stage at Live Aid by Madonna and were at the forefront of the so-called Second British Invasion.
In 1977, the original Thompson Twins line-up consisted of Tom Bailey (born 18 January 1954, Halifax, Yorkshire) on bass and vocals, Pete Dodd on guitar and vocals, John Roog on guitar, and Jon Podgorski (known as "Pod") on drums. Dodd and Roog first met when they were both 13 years old.
Arriving in London with very little money, they lived as squatters in Lillieshall Road, London. Future Thompson Twins member Alannah Currie (born 20 September 1957, Auckland, New Zealand) lived in another squat in the same street — which is how she met Bailey. It was in this ramshackle and run-down house that they found an illegal way of "borrowing" electricity from the house next door. Bailey described themselves (laughingly) as spongers (meaning that they were on the dole—unemployed) back then, as they were living on very little and scavenging everything they could lay their hands on. He even said that the only instruments they had were bought, or had been stolen or borrowed. Dodd managed to get a council flat not far away. Their roadie at that time was John Hade, who lived in the same house, and who later became their manager.
wn.com/Thompson_Twins -
Tiffany (singer)
Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971), known popularly as Tiffany, is an American singer and former teen icon. She is most notable for her 1987 remake of "I Think We're Alone Now", originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967. Released as the second single from her eponymous album, Tiffany, the song quickly became a teen anthem. Thanks to an original mall tour, "The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87", Tiffany became a pop sensation; both the single and the album peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts, respectively. The singles, "Could've Been" and "I Saw Him Standing There", a feminine cover version of The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There", followed soon after, with the former also claiming the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100.
Although Tiffany's second album, Hold an Old Friend's Hand managed to chart in 1988, it failed to replicate the success of her debut album. The 1990s saw two additional releases, 1990's New Inside and the Asia-exclusive Dreams Never Die, both of which failed to rekindle substantial interest. Tiffany returned in 2001 with her first album in six years, The Color of Silence. While the album received some minor critical success, it failed to achieve any significant standing. Since then, Tiffany recorded four additional full-length albums, including an album of 80s cover songs, focusing on a variety of genres including country and dance, and she continues to tour. Outside of music, Tiffany posed nude in Playboy and guest-starred in several television shows, including Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, Celebrity Fit Club and Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling, and the movies Necrosis and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, the latter co-starring fellow 80s teen idol and musical rival, Debbie Gibson.
wn.com/Tiffany_(singer) -
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Dark Shadows and for blockbusters such as Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, which was the second highest-grossing film of 2010, and the tenth highest-grossing film of all time.
Burton is known for using recurring collaborators on his works; among them are Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of Burton since their first film together; musician Danny Elfman, who has composed for all but five of the films Burton has directed or produced; and domestic partner Helena Bonham Carter. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997, and a compilation of his drawings, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009. Burton has directed 16 films and produced 12, as of 2012. His latest films are an adaptation of the soap opera Dark Shadows, released on May 10, 2012, and a remake of his 1984 short, Frankenweenie, scheduled to be released on October 5, 2012.
wn.com/Tim_Burton -
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Bobby Darin, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, The Four Tops, and Robert Plant; his song "Reason to Believe" has been covered by by many artists, including Rod Stewart (who had a chart hit with the song). Hardin is also known for his own recording career.
Hardin was born in Eugene, Oregon and attended South Eugene High School. He dropped out of high school at age 18 to join the Marine Corps. He spent part of 1959 in Vietnam as a military advisor.[citation needed] Hardin is said to have discovered heroin in Vietnam.
After his discharge he moved to New York City in 1961, where he briefly attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was dismissed because of truancy and began to focus on his musical career by performing around Greenwich Village, mostly in a blues style.
After moving to Boston in 1963 he was discovered by the record producer Erik Jacobsen (later the producer for The Lovin' Spoonful), who arranged a meeting with Columbia Records. In 1964 he moved back to Greenwich Village to record for his contract with Columbia. The resulting recordings were not released and Columbia terminated Hardin's recording contract.
wn.com/Tim_Hardin -
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards. Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.
Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.
wn.com/Tina_Turner -
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV ( /ˈtɒməs ˈkruːz ˈmeɪpɒθər/; born July 3, 1962), widely known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards for the same movies: Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996), Magnolia (1999). He started his career with the movie Endless Love. Cruise's first appearance in a major film was in 1981's Taps. His first leading role was in the film Risky Business, released in August 1983. Cruise played the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and successful 1986 film Top Gun, and also secret agent Ethan Hunt in the series of Mission: Impossible action films.
He has starred in a variety of other successful films, including: Rain Man (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), and War of the Worlds (2005).
Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio, with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.
wn.com/Tom_Cruise -
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.
Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.
Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook. His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain. Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)[citation needed], Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.[citation needed]
wn.com/Tom_Hanks -
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Muddy Wilbury.
He has recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, many of which remain heavily played on adult contemporary and classic rock radio. His music, and notably his hits, have become popular among younger generations as he continues to host sold-out shows. Throughout his career, Petty and his collaborators have sold 60 million albums.
Tom Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, and attended Gainesville High School. His interest in rock and roll music began at age 10 when he met Elvis Presley. In the summer of 1961, his uncle was working on the set of Presley's film Follow That Dream in nearby Ocala, Florida and invited Petty to come down and watch the shoot. He instantly became an Elvis Presley fan and soon traded his Wham-O slingshot for a box of Elvis 45s. In a 2006 interview on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air, Petty said that he knew he wanted to be in a band the moment he saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. One of his first guitar teachers was Don Felder, a fellow Gainesville resident, who would later join the Eagles. As a young man, Petty worked briefly on the grounds crew for the University of Florida, but never attended as a student. An Ogeechee lime tree that he planted while employed at the University is now called the Tom Petty tree.
wn.com/Tom_Petty -
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck (born January 29, 1945) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as the private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. (1980s), which was based in Hawaii. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B. Parker novels. Since 2010 he has appeared as the NYPD Police Commissioner Frank Reagan in the drama Blue Bloods on CBS-TV.
Selleck has acted in many TV roles, including Dr. Richard Burke on Friends and A.J. Cooper on Las Vegas. In addition to his series work, Selleck has appeared in more than fifty made for TV and general-release movies, including Mr. Baseball, Quigley Down Under, Lassiter and his most successful movie release Three Men and a Baby, which was the highest grossing movie in 1987.
Selleck, born in Detroit, Michigan, is the son of Martha S. (née Jagger), a homemaker; and Robert Dean Selleck, an executive and real estate investor. The family moved to Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California when Selleck was growing up. His siblings include brothers Robert (born 1944) and Daniel (born 1954) and sister Martha. Selleck graduated from Grant High School in 1962.
wn.com/Tom_Selleck -
Tone Lōc
Anthony Terrell Smith (born March 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Tone Lōc, is an American rapper and actor.
He was born in Los Angeles, California, and is best known for his deep, gravelly voice and his million-selling hit singles, "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina". Tone Lōc is also a voice actor, having voiced characters in several cartoon series. He also voiced Fud Wrapper, the host of the animatronic show Food Rocks, which played at Epcot from 1994 to 2004. In this latter role, he sang the song "Always Read the Wrapper", a parody of his own song "Funky Cold Medina". His song "Ace Is In The House" features in the films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Ace Ventura Jr: Pet Detective (2009).
He provided vocals for FeFe Dobson for a track called "Rock It 'Til You Drop It" on her first album, 2003's Fefe Dobson.
Tone Loc has two sons, Bijan Smith and Anthony James Smith. Anthony was named for his father, and his middle name comes from his grandfather James Smith.
In December 2010, Loc was arrested for DUI. He was released on bail claiming a medical condition caused a seizure.
wn.com/Tone_Lōc -
Toto (band)
Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1976. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams (lead vocals), David Paich (keyboards), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Steve Lukather (guitars, vocals), Mike Porcaro (bass), and Simon Phillips (drums). Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard rock, R&B and jazz. They are regularly associated with the soft rock genre.
David Paich and Jeff Porcaro had played together as session musicians on several albums and decided to form a band. David Hungate, Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro and Bobby Kimball were recruited before their first album release. The band enjoyed great commercial success in the late 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the band's self-titled debut released in 1978. With the release of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Toto IV (1982), Toto became one of the best-selling music groups of their era. They are best known for the Top 5 hits "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", "Africa" and "Georgy Porgy". Although their popularity in the United States diminished in the 1990s and 2000s, they remained popular internationally, playing only a small number of shows in the USA. Several changes to the lineup have been made over the years. In 2008, Lukather announced his departure from the band, and the remaining band members later went their separate ways. In the summer of 2010, Toto reformed and went on a short European tour, with a new lineup, to benefit Mike Porcaro, who had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
wn.com/Toto_(band) -
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (Finnish pronunciation: [urhɔ kɑlɛʋɑ kekːɔnɛn] ( listen); 3 September 1900 - 31 August 1986), was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland (1950–1953, 1954–1956) and later as the eighth and longest-serving President of Finland (1956–1982). Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen line”. Under it, Finland retained its independence while being able to trade with both NATO members and those of the Warsaw Pact.
The son of Juho Kekkonen and Emilia Pylvänäinen, Kekkonen was born in Pielavesi, in the Savo region of Finland and spent his childhood in Kainuu. His family were farmers (though not poor tenant farmers, as some of his supporters later claimed). His father was originally a farm-hand and forestry worker who rose to become a forestry manager and stock agent at Halla Ltd. Claims made that Kekkonen's family had lived in a rudimentary farmhouse with no chimney were later proved to be false—a photograph of Kekkonen's childhood home had been retouched to remove the chimney. His school years did not go smoothly. During the Finnish Civil War, Kekkonen fought for the White Guard (Kajaani chapter), fighting in Kuopio, Varkaus, Mouhu and Viipuri, and taking part in mop-up operations, including leading a firing squad in Hamina. He later admitted to having killed a man in battle, but wrote in his memoirs that he was randomly selected by his company commander to follow a squad escorting ten prisoners, where the squad turned out to be a firing squad, and then to give the actual order to aim and fire.
wn.com/Urho_Kekkonen -
Vladimir Artemov
Vladimir Nikolaevich Artemov (Russian: Владимир Николаевич Артемов, born December 7, 1964) is a former Russian gymnast, Olympic champion and world champion who competed for the Soviet Union.
He was born in Vladimir.
Artemov competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul where he received gold medals in horizontal bar, parallel bars, all-around individual and team combined exercises.
Artemov won a gold medal in parallel bars at the 1983 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Budapest, and again at the 1987 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam. He has received five silver medals and two bronze medals at the World Gymnastics Championships. He participated on the Soviet teams which won the team final in 1985, 1987 and 1989, and finished second in 1983.
Artemov was listed among the USSR top ten athletes of the year in 1988.
Artemov defected to the United States in 1990, settling in Pennsylvania. However, he has mistakenly been identified as the father of current US gymnast Alexander (Sasha) Artemev. The two men are not related. Artemov currently lives in San Antonio, TX where he runs a gym with his wife.
wn.com/Vladimir_Artemov -
Waqar Younis
Waqar Younis Maitla (Punjabi: وقار یونس, born 16 November 1971) is a former Pakistani right arm fast bowler in cricket and widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. As of 2012, he holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days). He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day Internationals (ODIs) matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from1989 to 2003.
Younis' trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed. He took 373 Test wickets and 416 One Day International wickets during his career. Together with bowling partner Wasim Akram, he formed one of the subcontinent's most feared bowling attacks. He is considered to be the best exponent of the swing bowling delivery. Younis has the best strike rate for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets. He worked as a bowling coach with the national side from 2006 to 2007. Waqar was appointed as the coach of the Pakistan cricket team on 3 March 2010. He resigned as Pakistan's Cricket Coach on 19 August 2011 citing personal reasons.
wn.com/Waqar_Younis -
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty ( /ˈbeɪti/ BAY-tee; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including winning the Best Director Award and its highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Award. He has been nominated for 16 Golden Globe Awards and won six, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which he received in 2007. Only Beatty and Orson Welles have been nominated for producer, director, writer and actor in the same film. Welles did it once (for Citizen Kane), Beatty did it twice (for Heaven Can Wait and Reds).
Beatty was born Henry Warren Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a Nova Scotia-born teacher, and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a Ph.D. of educational psychology, a public school administrator, and dealt in real estate. Beatty's grandparents were also educators. The family was Baptist. In 1945, the family moved from Richmond to Arlington, Virginia. Beatty's sister is the multi-award winning actress and writer Shirley MacLaine.
wn.com/Warren_Beatty -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (1955–1991), more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty between eight communist states of Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The founding treaty was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union and signed on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the communist states of Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was a Soviet military response to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955, per the Paris Pacts of 1954.
In the West, the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact military alliance; abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Elsewhere, in the former member states, the Warsaw Treaty is known as:
The Warsaw Treaty’s organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Furthermore, the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the head of the Warsaw Treaty Combined Staff also was a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces.
wn.com/Warsaw_Pact -
Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram (Punjabi: وسیم اکرم; born 3 June 1966) is a former Pakistani cricketer. He is a left arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International (ODI) matches.
Akram is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in the history of cricket. He holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket with 881 and is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets with 502. He is considered to be one of the founders and perhaps the finest exponent of reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002 Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glen McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim has taken 23 4-wicket hauls in ODI in 356 matches he played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He is the current bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.
wn.com/Wasim_Akram -
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC (/ˈɡrɛtski/; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading point-scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player has points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. In addition to being its greatest scorer, Gretzky was the most gentlemanly superstar in the modern history of the NHL. He won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, and he often spoke out against fighting in hockey.
wn.com/Wayne_Gretzky -
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (born August 2, 1939) is an American film director, writer, producer, actor, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and he also co-wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors with Bruce Wagner, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character and has directed the entire Scream series, featuring Ghostface. Some of his other films include, The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn, Red Eye, and My Soul to Take.
Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Caroline (née Miller) and Paul Craven. He had a strict Baptist upbringing. Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois, and a masters degree in Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to landing his first job in the film industry as a sound editor for a post-production company in New York City, Craven briefly taught English at Westminster College and was a humanities professor at Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University) in Potsdam, New York. He left the academic world for the more lucrative role of pornographic film director. In the documentary Inside Deep Throat, Craven says on camera he made "many X-rated films" under pseudonyms, learning his directing craft. While his role in Deep Throat is undisclosed, most of his early known work involved writing, film editing or both. In 1972 Wes Craven directed his first feature film The Last House on the Left.
wn.com/Wes_Craven -
White Lion
White Lion is an American/Danish hard rock/heavy metal band that was formed in New York City in 1983 by Danish vocalist Mike Tramp and American guitarist Vito Bratta. Mainly active in the 1980s and early 1990s, releasing their debut album Fight to Survive in 1985. The band achieved success with their #8 hit "Wait" and #3 hit "When the Children Cry" from their second album, the double platinum selling Pride. The band continued their success with their third album, Big Game which achieved Gold status and their fourth album Mane Attraction which included a supporting tour. White Lion disbanded in 1992 and not long after their first compilation album, The Best of White Lion was released.
Tramp reformed White Lion with all new musicians in 1999 and again following a failed attempt to reform the original line up and several legal issues in 2004. The new White Lion released a live album in 2005 and a brand new studio album Return of the Pride in 2008.
After moving from Denmark to Spain and to New York in 1983, vocalist Mike Tramp (formerly of the bands Mabel and Studs) met Staten Island guitarist Vito Bratta (formerly of Dreamer) and decided to form a band. The two recruited drummer Nicki Capozzi and bassist Felix Robinson (formerly of Angel) and named the group White Lion.
wn.com/White_Lion -
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
wn.com/Whitney_Houston -
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg ( /ˈhwʊpi/, born Caryn Elaine Johnson; November 13, 1955) is an American comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.
Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985) playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she starred as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) find his killer in the blockbuster film Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Notable later films include Sister Act and Sister Act 2, The Lion King, Made in America, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted and Rat Race. She is also acclaimed for her roles as the bartender Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Terry Doolittle in Jumpin' Jack Flash. More recently, she had performed the voice of Stretch in Toy Story 3 and made an appearance in Glee as Carmen Tibideaux.
wn.com/Whoopi_Goldberg -
Winger (band)
Winger is an American hard rock band formed in New York City that gained popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's two platinum albums, Winger and In the Heart of the Young, along with charting singles "Seventeen", "Headed for a Heartbreak" and "Miles Away", put the band on the top of the charts by the early 1990s. In 1990, the band was nominated for an American Music Award for "Best New Heavy Metal Band." As the music scene changed in the early to mid-1990s due to the popularity of grunge, the band faded after their third release Pull.
The band broke up in 1994, but reunited in 2001 for several successful tours. In 2006, the band's 1993 touring line-up (minus Paul Taylor but including John Roth) reunited to record the band's first studio album in over 13 years, IV. The band has toured in support of the album into 2008. In 2009, the band released their fifth album, Karma.
The debut album, Winger, was released on August 10, 1988 on Atlantic Records. The record was a success, achieving platinum status in the United States, and gold status in Japan and Canada. On February 11, 1989, the album peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200, and since then, was in various places on the chart for 63 weeks.Radio and MTV hits from the album included "Madalaine", "Seventeen", "Headed for a Heartbreak" and "Hungry." In 1990, the band was nominated for an American Music Award for "Best New Heavy Metal Band".
wn.com/Winger_(band) -
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (pronounced [ˈvɔi̯t͡ɕɛx jaruˈzɛlskʲi] ( listen); born 6 July 1923) is a retired Polish military officer and Communist politician. He was the last Communist leader of Poland from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army (LWP). He resigned from power after the Polish Round Table Agreement in 1989 led to democratic elections in Poland.
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923 in Kurów, into a family of gentry. He was raised on the family estate near Wysokie (in the vicinity of Białystok). He was educated in a Catholic school during the 1930s.
On 1 September 1939, the September Campaign started when Poland was invaded by Germany, with the latter country aided by another invasion begun sixteen days later by the Soviet Union. The invasions resulted in the defeat of Poland by the following month, and its partition between Soviet and German control. Jaruzelski and his family fled to Lithuania and stayed with some friends there. However, a few months later, after Lithuania and the other Baltic states were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski and his family were captured by the army of the Soviet Union, and deported to Siberia. In 1940 at the age of sixteen, Jaruzelski was sent to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, where he performed forced labour in the Karaganda coal mines. During his labour work, having experienced snow blindness, developed permanent damage to his eyes and back. The damage to his eyes forced him to wear dark sunglasses most of the time, which became his trademark.
wn.com/Wojciech_Jaruzelski -
Woody Allen
Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an award-winning American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, and playwright, whose career spans over half a century.
He began as a comedy writer in the 1950s, penning jokes and scripts for television and also publishing several books of short humor pieces. In the early 1960s, Allen started performing as a stand-up comic, emphasizing monologues rather than traditional jokes. As a comic, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he insists is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics, while a UK survey ranked Allen as the third greatest comedian.
By the mid-1960s Allen was writing and directing films, first specializing in slapstick comedies before moving into more dramatic material influenced by European art films during the 1970s. He is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late '70s. Allen often stars in his own films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup. The best-known of his over 40 films include the Academy Award-winners Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Midnight in Paris (2011); and the Golden Globe-winning The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Critic Roger Ebert has described Allen as "a treasure of the cinema."
wn.com/Woody_Allen -
Yngwie Malmsteen
Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (/ˈɪŋveɪ ˈmɑːlmstiːn/ ING-vay MAHLM-steen; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on 30 June 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became known for his neo-classical playing style in heavy metal. Steve Huey of Allmusic stated that, "Yngwie Malmsteen is arguably the most technically accomplished hard rock guitarist to emerge during the '80s."
Malmsteen was born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden, as the second child of a musically-talented family. At age seven, he saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix, an event which had a profound impact on his musical path. Malmsteen, however, has stated that Hendrix had no musical impact on him, but on 18 September 1970 he saw a TV special of Hendrix, where he smashed and burned his guitar, and Malmsteen thought: "this is really cool". To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born".
At the age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicised his third given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Malmsteen created his first band "Track On Earth" at the age of 10, consisting of himself and a friend from school on drums (Armin). Malmsteen was a teenager when he first encountered the music of the 19th century violinist composer Niccolò Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical music influence. Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth are also cited as being significant influences, as is Brian May of Queen.
wn.com/Yngwie_Malmsteen -
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Russian: Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов, tr. Yuriy Vladimirovich Andropov; IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ɐnˈdropəf]; 15 June [O.S. 2 June] 1914 – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.
Andropov was the son of a railway official Vladimir Konstantinovich Andropov, who was a member of a Don Cossack noble family. His mother was Yevgenia Karlovna Fleckenstein, a daughter of a wealthy Moscow businessman, Karl Franzovich Fleckenstein, a German Russian from Vyborg. Andropov was educated at the Rybinsk Water Transport Technical College.
Andropov joined the Komsomol in 1930. He became a member of the Communist Party in 1939 and was First Secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol in the Soviet Karelo-Finnish Republic from 1940 to 1944.
During World War II, Andropov took part in partisan guerrilla activities in Finland. From 1944 onwards, he left Komsomol for Communist Party work. In 1947, he was elected Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
wn.com/Yuri_Andropov
Send this Playlist by SMS
Email this Page
1980's Megamix
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 59:59
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Track Listing : 1) A-ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV 2) Chaka Khan - I Feel for You 4:26 3) Narada Michael Warden - Is It Really Love 8:20 4) Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) 12:27 5) Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakley - Electric Dreams 15:16 6) Billy Ocean - When the Going Gets Tough 18:29 7) Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have To 22:30 8) Bros - I Owe You Nothing 26:38 9) Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams 30:01 10) Ollie & Jerry - There's No Stopping Us 33:19 11) Alexander O'Neal - Criticize 37:53 12) Steve Winwood - Valerie 41:01 13) Rick Astley - Whenever You Need Somebody 44:47 14) Billy Idol - White Wedding 48:03 15) Jane Wieldin - Rush Hour 52:12 16) Starship - We Built This City 55:50 FYI : Track 3 is the music in the club scene in Inner Space =) one of my favs!
http://wn.com/1980's_Megamix
Track Listing : 1) A-ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV 2) Chaka Khan - I Feel for You 4:26 3) Narada Michael Warden - Is It Really Love 8:20 4) Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) 12:27 5) Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakley - Electric Dreams 15:16 6) Billy Ocean - When the Going Gets Tough 18:29 7) Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have To 22:30 8) Bros - I Owe You Nothing 26:38 9) Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams 30:01 10) Ollie & Jerry - There's No Stopping Us 33:19 11) Alexander O'Neal - Criticize 37:53 12) Steve Winwood - Valerie 41:01 13) Rick Astley - Whenever You Need Somebody 44:47 14) Billy Idol - White Wedding 48:03 15) Jane Wieldin - Rush Hour 52:12 16) Starship - We Built This City 55:50 FYI : Track 3 is the music in the club scene in Inner Space =) one of my favs!
Trip through the 80s - A Video Compilation
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:00
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Song List: bit.ly ---- iMix on iTunes: bit.ly For more great 80s videos visit www.thegreat80s.com .............. Video Description A selection of video clips starting in 1980 and going on through 1989. All of the songs in this collection were on the Billboard end of year top 20 for their respective year. You can also download the songs from iTunes using the iMix list located on the song list page.
http://wn.com/Trip_through_the_80s_A_Video_Compilation
Song List: bit.ly ---- iMix on iTunes: bit.ly For more great 80s videos visit www.thegreat80s.com .............. Video Description A selection of video clips starting in 1980 and going on through 1989. All of the songs in this collection were on the Billboard end of year top 20 for their respective year. You can also download the songs from iTunes using the iMix list located on the song list page.
- published: 26 Mar 2007
- views: 11125751
- author: meliberty
Dirt Nasty - "1980"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:55
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Directed by Nicholaus Goossen. Featuring Mickey Avalon, Andre Legacy, Cisco Adler, Shwayze, DJ AM, Evidence, and ALF.
http://wn.com/Dirt_Nasty_1980
Directed by Nicholaus Goossen. Featuring Mickey Avalon, Andre Legacy, Cisco Adler, Shwayze, DJ AM, Evidence, and ALF.
- published: 16 Oct 2007
- views: 7225270
- author: NickGoossen
Kids of Today vs 1980's Technology (HD)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:35
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Kids of today meet the toys of yesterday. Can today's Kids figure out the Technology of the 1980's? Edited by Jeremy Auten PS This was a fun story about the differences between the Past and Present. Please be kind with your comments. It was just for fun. I hope it makes you smile or laugh. Enjoy.
http://wn.com/Kids_of_Today_vs_1980's_Technology_HD
Kids of today meet the toys of yesterday. Can today's Kids figure out the Technology of the 1980's? Edited by Jeremy Auten PS This was a fun story about the differences between the Past and Present. Please be kind with your comments. It was just for fun. I hope it makes you smile or laugh. Enjoy.
- published: 10 Mar 2011
- views: 1015243
- author: JeremySeanA
1980s Music Video Mash Remix
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:43
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
50+ Videos from the 80's all in one megamix.
http://wn.com/1980s_Music_Video_Mash_Remix
Split Enz - I Got You (1980)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:55
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Music from Australia & New Zealand in the year 1980: Split Enz's promo-video for the hit single 'I Got You' (March, 1980) taken from the 1980 album 'True Colours'. Band Origin: Auckland, New Zealand Track: I Got You Album: True Colours Composed By: Neil Finn Produced By: David Tickle Label: Mushroom Chart Position: # 1 (Australia) -- # 1 (New Zealand) -- # 13 (United Kingdom) -- # 53 (United States) -- # 12 (Canada) -- also charted successfully in other countries, such as Iraq. Release Date: 21 January 1980 Footage Information: A Chris Lofven Production Links: - en.wikipedia.org - www.frenz.com - www.myspace.com Line-up: Tim Finn - Vocals, Guitar [ Split Ends (1972-1974) -- Split Enz (1975-1984) -- solo (1983-present) -- Crowded House (1990-1992) -- Enzo (1966) -- Finn (1996) -- Alt (mid-late 1990s) ] Neil Finn - Guitar, Vocals [ Split Enz (1977-1985) -- Crowded House (1985-1996) -- Finn (1996) -- solo (1998-2004) -- Crowded House reformed (2007-present) Eddie Rayner - Piano, Keyboards [ Split Enz (1974-1984) -- session (notably Paul McCartney) -- Crowded House tour keyboardist -- The Makers (1990) -- Split Enz reunions ] Noel Crombie - Percussion, Drums [ Split Enz (1972-1984) -- Schnell Fenster (1986-1992) -- The Makers (1990) -- Split Enz reunions ] Nigel Griggs -- Bass [ Octopus (1968-1970) -- Carmen -- Steve Hillage's Khan -- Split Enz (1977-1984) -- Schnell Fenster (1986-1992) ] Malcolm Green -- Drums [ Love Affair -- The Honeycombs -- Octopus -- Split Enz (1976 ...
http://wn.com/Split_Enz_I_Got_You_1980
Music from Australia & New Zealand in the year 1980: Split Enz's promo-video for the hit single 'I Got You' (March, 1980) taken from the 1980 album 'True Colours'. Band Origin: Auckland, New Zealand Track: I Got You Album: True Colours Composed By: Neil Finn Produced By: David Tickle Label: Mushroom Chart Position: # 1 (Australia) -- # 1 (New Zealand) -- # 13 (United Kingdom) -- # 53 (United States) -- # 12 (Canada) -- also charted successfully in other countries, such as Iraq. Release Date: 21 January 1980 Footage Information: A Chris Lofven Production Links: - en.wikipedia.org - www.frenz.com - www.myspace.com Line-up: Tim Finn - Vocals, Guitar [ Split Ends (1972-1974) -- Split Enz (1975-1984) -- solo (1983-present) -- Crowded House (1990-1992) -- Enzo (1966) -- Finn (1996) -- Alt (mid-late 1990s) ] Neil Finn - Guitar, Vocals [ Split Enz (1977-1985) -- Crowded House (1985-1996) -- Finn (1996) -- solo (1998-2004) -- Crowded House reformed (2007-present) Eddie Rayner - Piano, Keyboards [ Split Enz (1974-1984) -- session (notably Paul McCartney) -- Crowded House tour keyboardist -- The Makers (1990) -- Split Enz reunions ] Noel Crombie - Percussion, Drums [ Split Enz (1972-1984) -- Schnell Fenster (1986-1992) -- The Makers (1990) -- Split Enz reunions ] Nigel Griggs -- Bass [ Octopus (1968-1970) -- Carmen -- Steve Hillage's Khan -- Split Enz (1977-1984) -- Schnell Fenster (1986-1992) ] Malcolm Green -- Drums [ Love Affair -- The Honeycombs -- Octopus -- Split Enz (1976 ...
- published: 08 Sep 2008
- views: 472531
- author: nzoz1980
Fashion in the 1980's
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:00
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
The 80s were a time when nearly all of the fashion trends that people love to hate were created. Hair was teased and permed to get that classy Afro style, make up was more like face paint and unplucked eyebrows were trendy. The time that fashion forgot is a phrase suited to the 80s, as nearly all common laws of fashion were broken & torn into minuscule pieces. MTV was a major influence for 80s fashion, as well as TV shows such as 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas'... vintage-threads.com Hope you enjoyed the video! Although most people seem to have an intense hate for anything 80's-style, I'm secretly a bit of a fan ;)
http://wn.com/Fashion_in_the_1980's
The 80s were a time when nearly all of the fashion trends that people love to hate were created. Hair was teased and permed to get that classy Afro style, make up was more like face paint and unplucked eyebrows were trendy. The time that fashion forgot is a phrase suited to the 80s, as nearly all common laws of fashion were broken & torn into minuscule pieces. MTV was a major influence for 80s fashion, as well as TV shows such as 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas'... vintage-threads.com Hope you enjoyed the video! Although most people seem to have an intense hate for anything 80's-style, I'm secretly a bit of a fan ;)
- published: 21 May 2010
- views: 92597
- author: TheVintageThreads
Harlem 1980s
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:58
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
Images of Harlem in the 1980's, taken by Camilo Vargera from his website, invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu
http://wn.com/Harlem_1980s
Images of Harlem in the 1980's, taken by Camilo Vargera from his website, invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu
- published: 30 Aug 2008
- views: 171841
- author: dtoronto
Top 10 Kids Movies of the 1980s - part 1 (#10-8)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:32
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
The first of a trilogy of top 10 lists I did revolving around films of the 1980s. I had to break this up into three segments due to youtube's limitations. Part 2 is here: www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Top_10_Kids_Movies_of_the_1980s_part_1_10-8
The first of a trilogy of top 10 lists I did revolving around films of the 1980s. I had to break this up into three segments due to youtube's limitations. Part 2 is here: www.youtube.com
- published: 04 Dec 2009
- views: 216889
- author: dinkyflix
MTV Classics: Memories of the 1980s (How We Talked)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:36
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
In this third segment of memories from the classic MTV days, here was a piece put together that examined how we talked in the 1980s. Rock on dude.
http://wn.com/MTV_Classics_Memories_of_the_1980s_How_We_Talked
In this third segment of memories from the classic MTV days, here was a piece put together that examined how we talked in the 1980s. Rock on dude.
- published: 27 Jan 2009
- views: 69515
- author: fireice1971
1980's Commercials
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:17
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
a collection of commercials of commercials of the 1980's. Part 004
http://wn.com/1980's_Commercials
a collection of commercials of commercials of the 1980's. Part 004
- published: 21 Nov 2007
- views: 153395
- author: Carson Smith
The South Bronx of The 1980's PART 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:46
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
LIKE THE PAGE ON Facebook www.facebook.com Bonus: Money Makin' Manhattan www.facebook.com the south bronx of the 1980s. here to refresh your memories and have your kids realize that you been through a rougher and funner life and they got theirs easier and boring. this is the real ghetto. the real boogey down. you will spot just a tad bit of queens and manhattan in this video, to show the spread of the Hip Hop movement. all clips are copyrighted by their respective owners. NO INFRIGMENT INTENDED. clips were from: Beat street (1984) Wild Style (1983) Beat This (1984) 1990: Bronx Warriors (1984) Fort Apache: The Bronx (1981) Wolfen (1981) style wars (1983) HOT 97 aircheck (198x) songs: kurtis blow - if i ruled the world Wuf Ticket - The Key
http://wn.com/The_South_Bronx_of_The_1980's_PART_1
LIKE THE PAGE ON Facebook www.facebook.com Bonus: Money Makin' Manhattan www.facebook.com the south bronx of the 1980s. here to refresh your memories and have your kids realize that you been through a rougher and funner life and they got theirs easier and boring. this is the real ghetto. the real boogey down. you will spot just a tad bit of queens and manhattan in this video, to show the spread of the Hip Hop movement. all clips are copyrighted by their respective owners. NO INFRIGMENT INTENDED. clips were from: Beat street (1984) Wild Style (1983) Beat This (1984) 1990: Bronx Warriors (1984) Fort Apache: The Bronx (1981) Wolfen (1981) style wars (1983) HOT 97 aircheck (198x) songs: kurtis blow - if i ruled the world Wuf Ticket - The Key
- published: 28 Mar 2010
- views: 238560
- author: STBNY
Top 10 Television Sitcoms of the 1980's
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:43
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
It was a decade filled with lovable characters, insane situations and outrageous laughs. Join www.WatchMojo.com as we count down the Top 10 Sitcoms of the 1980's.
http://wn.com/Top_10_Television_Sitcoms_of_the_1980's
It was a decade filled with lovable characters, insane situations and outrageous laughs. Join www.WatchMojo.com as we count down the Top 10 Sitcoms of the 1980's.
- published: 20 Apr 2011
- views: 52584
- author: WatchMojo
Robocop Fried Chicken Commercial 1980's
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:33
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Robocop Fried Chicken Commercial in korea 1980's
http://wn.com/Robocop_Fried_Chicken_Commercial_1980's
Robocop Fried Chicken Commercial in korea 1980's
- published: 21 Sep 2008
- views: 1334869
- author: m35a2
Top 10 Teen Movies of the 1980s - part 2 (#5-1)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:59
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
The third of a trilogy of top 10 lists I did revolving around films of the 1980s. I had to break this up into two segments due to youtube's limitations. This is part 2.
http://wn.com/Top_10_Teen_Movies_of_the_1980s_part_2_5-1
The third of a trilogy of top 10 lists I did revolving around films of the 1980s. I had to break this up into two segments due to youtube's limitations. This is part 2.
- published: 20 Feb 2010
- views: 162098
- author: dinkyflix
1980s Supercar Powertest - Top Gear - BBC
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:56
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Richard Hammond achieves a boyhood dream by testing two 1980s supercar icons, the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40. Go to www.youtube.com tosee a full list of all high quality videos available on the Top Gear YouTube channel and don't forget to visit www.topgear.com for all the latest news and car reviews.
http://wn.com/1980s_Supercar_Powertest_Top_Gear_BBC
Richard Hammond achieves a boyhood dream by testing two 1980s supercar icons, the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40. Go to www.youtube.com tosee a full list of all high quality videos available on the Top Gear YouTube channel and don't forget to visit www.topgear.com for all the latest news and car reviews.
- published: 20 Jul 2011
- views: 714995
- author: TopGear
Times Square of the 1980's: A Short Documentary
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:57
- Updated: 12 Dec 2012
A Film by Steve Siegel. Pre-Disneyfied Times Square at night -- as it existed in the 1980s. As seen from a teenager's point of view. Includes voice-over interviews of teenagers. Music by Von Cello. Contact: www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Times_Square_of_the_1980's_A_Short_Documentary
A Film by Steve Siegel. Pre-Disneyfied Times Square at night -- as it existed in the 1980s. As seen from a teenager's point of view. Includes voice-over interviews of teenagers. Music by Von Cello. Contact: www.youtube.com
- published: 11 Apr 2009
- views: 58890
- author: stevensiegel260
80s Video Dating Montage
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:23
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Before eHarmony
http://wn.com/80s_Video_Dating_Montage
1980s Motorola DynaTAC Promotional Video
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:05
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
A promotional video put together by Motorola itself back in the day. According to it, only a few thousand cellular phones are in use in the US today.
http://wn.com/1980s_Motorola_DynaTAC_Promotional_Video
A promotional video put together by Motorola itself back in the day. According to it, only a few thousand cellular phones are in use in the US today.
- published: 04 Apr 2010
- views: 171532
- author: DetSonnyCrockett
1980's wendys training video.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:08
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Dug this up on Filecabi.net for eevryone to enjoy.
http://wn.com/1980's_wendys_training_video
Dug this up on Filecabi.net for eevryone to enjoy.
- published: 20 Jun 2007
- views: 355938
- author: noobthatpwns
Top 10 Teen Movies of the 1980s - part 1 (#10-6)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:50
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
The third of a trilogy of top 10 lists I did revolving around films of the 1980s. I had to break this up into two segments due to youtube's limitations. This is part 1.
http://wn.com/Top_10_Teen_Movies_of_the_1980s_part_1_10-6
The third of a trilogy of top 10 lists I did revolving around films of the 1980s. I had to break this up into two segments due to youtube's limitations. This is part 1.
- published: 12 Feb 2010
- views: 218648
- author: dinkyflix
Doctor Who Theme Tune 1980-1985 by Peter Howell
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:56
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Doctor Who Theme Tune 1980-1985 by Peter Howell
http://wn.com/Doctor_Who_Theme_Tune_1980-1985_by_Peter_Howell
Doctor Who Theme Tune 1980-1985 by Peter Howell
- published: 30 Dec 2007
- views: 349306
- author: moonraker79
the films of the 1980s
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:26
- Updated: 01 Dec 2012
bennettmedia.blogspot.com
http://wn.com/the_films_of_the_1980s
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
16 Dec 2012
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage committed suicide as first responders closed in, the governor said Sunday, raising the specter that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre and was stopped short. Lanza blasted his way into the building and used a high-power rifle to kill 20 children and six adults, including the principal who tried to stop him, authorities said ... Among the questions ... H ... The Rev....(size: 8.8Kb)
photo: AP / Nick Ut
14 Dec 2012
Former President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, meet 55-year-old Martha Sellers. For the past nine years, Sellers has worked as a Walmart cashier in Paramount, California ... More than 10,000 community members joined more than 30 striking employees who walked off the job to demand better working conditions. . "It was wonderful ... That's not too much to ask for." ... 1698 ... ....(size: 23.6Kb)
photo: AP / Khalil Hamra
16 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Fundamentalism is good for protest, good for revolution, and good for war, but not so good for development.". After a century of being persecuted and driven underground, mainly for their vibrant nationalism and their anti-imperialist and pro-Palestinian views, Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood has finally taken center-state ... Such actions will have to be avoided....(size: 6.9Kb)
photo: AP / Newtown Bee, Shannon Hicks
15 Dec 2012
Newtown, Conn. Twenty schoolchildren were slaughtered by a heavily armed gunman who opened fire at a suburban elementary school in Connecticut on Friday, ultimately killing at least 27 people including himself in the one of the worst mass shootings in US history ... Authorities found 18 children and seven adults, including the gunman, dead at the school, and two children were pronounced dead later after being taken to a hospital ... Reuters ....(size: 7.5Kb)
photo: AP / Manu Brabo
14 Dec 2012
One of Syria's key allies has admitted for the first time the Assad regime is losing the 20-month ground war. Russia’s deputy foreign minister’s comments are significant because Russia has blocked action to stem the violence, supplied weapons to the Assad regime, and vetoed three UN resolutions -- even as other countries called for Assad to step down. The comments are expected to put new pressure on the Syrian leader ... Reporter ... ... ....(size: 6.6Kb)
Indian Express
17 Dec 2012
"An old mine left over from the time of the jihad (against Soviet troops in the 1980s) exploded, killing 10 girls and wounding two others," he said ... the 1980s war against the Russians, the 1990s civil war and during fighting between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban before they ......(size: 1.4Kb)
Jakarta Post
17 Dec 2012
Paper Edition . Page. 2. Rocking the jungle of Jakarta ... The group, which rose to fame in the late 1980s and late 1990s with hits including “Don’t Cry”, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “November Rain”, still has thousands of hardcore fans in Indonesia. (JP/P.J ... Guns N’ Roses were at its height during the 1980s to late 1990s, which was why most of the audience seemed to be at least in their early 30s ... “They are awesome ... ....(size: 4.1Kb)
Joy Online
17 Dec 2012
Christian Esquino, 50, who runs the business and has a long and checkered legal past, told The Associated Press on Friday that the DEA has been investigating him since the 1980s around the time he sold a plane in Florida to a major trafficker who later used it as part of a massive smuggling operation ... Esquino's legal woes date back to the late 1980s, and he says it's all part of an aimless witch hunt by the U.S ... ....(size: 5.3Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
17 Dec 2012
Afghans collect wood and animal feed near Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan Photo. AP ... "An old mine left over from the time of the jihad (against Soviet troops in the 1980s) exploded, killing 10 girls and wounding two others," he said ... the 1980s war against the Russians, the 1990s civil war and during fighting between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban before they was ousted from power in 2001 ... Source. AFP ... ....(size: 10.1Kb)
Sydney Morning Herald
17 Dec 2012
Sydney Morning Herald
17 Dec 2012
Sydney Morning Herald
17 Dec 2012
Deccan Chronicle
17 Dec 2012
All Africa
17 Dec 2012
Daily Press
17 Dec 2012
NEWPORT NEWS — The Visitor Information Center at Newport News Park will soon receive a $180,000 facelift, officials said ... The monitor would feature a touch-screen map that tourists can use to find local attractions, lodging and restaurants.. Parks director Michael Poplawski said some elements of the visitor information center haven't been updated since the 1980s ... ....(size: 3.9Kb)
DNA India
17 Dec 2012
This has much to do with the recent change in the policing system that has led policemen to chase the culprits rather than gun them down ... Police encounters with gangsters actually attracted attention in the 1980s, when the activities of underworld gangsters appeared to be getting out of control ... Sometime during the 1980s, the Mumbai police started killing gangsters in encounters, slowly and steadily wiping out the culprits one by one ... ....(size: 7.5Kb)
noodls
17 Dec 2012
(Source. Cincinnati Reds). By Joey Nowak / MLB.com . 12/16/12 4.13 PM ET. Mason Felt, the Reds' fifth-round pick in the 2012 Draft, was critically injured in a one-car accident on Saturday morning outside of Ozona, Texas ... His father, Roger, played five seasons with the Dodgers organization in the 1980s, according to the report....(size: 2.4Kb)
Newsday
17 Dec 2012
Photos ... Negotiators for the government and the , known as the , kibbutz about the latest soccer results and tease the unofficial timekeeper of the talks when it's time for a break ... This is the fourth attempt since the 1980s to bring peace to Colombia, which has been at war even since before the rebels took up arms in 1964 ... After a political wing of the FARC laid down its arms in the 1980s, 5,000 partisans were hunted down and killed....(size: 9.2Kb)
"Eighties" redirects here. For the song by Killing Joke, see Eighties (song).
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1950s 1960s 1970s – 1980s – 1990s 2000s 2010s |
| Years: | 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 |
| Categories: | Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments |
The 1980s, spoken as "the Nineteen Eighties" or abbreviated as "The Eighties" or "the '80s", was the decade that began on Tuesday January 1, 1980, and ended on Sunday December 31, 1989. This was the ninth decade of the 20th century.
The time period saw great social, economic, and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies. As economic liberalization increased in the developed world, multiple multinational corporations associated with the manufacturing industry relocated into Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Japan and West Germany are the most notable developed countries that continued to enjoy rapid economic growth during the decade while other developed nations, particularly the United States and United Kingdom, re-adopted laissez-faire economic policies.
Developing countries across the world faced economic and social difficulties as they suffered from multiple debt crises in the 1980s, requiring many of these countries to apply for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Ethiopia witnessed widespread famine in the mid-1980s, resulting in the country having to depend on foreign aid to provide food to its population and worldwide efforts to address and raise money to help Ethiopians, such as the famous Live Aid concert in 1985.
Major civil discontent and violence occurred in the Middle East, including the Iran-Iraq War, the ongoing Soviet-Afghan War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Bombing of Libya in 1986, and the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In the eastern world, hostility to authoritarianism and the failing command economies of communist states resulted in a wave of reformist policies by communist regimes such as the policies of perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union, along with the overthrows and attempted overthrows of a number of communist regimes, such as in Hungary, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in China, the Czechoslovak "Velvet Revolution", Poland and the overthrow of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime in Romania and other communist Warsaw Pact states in Central and Eastern Europe including the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It came to be called the late 1980s' "purple passage of the autumn of nations". By 1989, with the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union announced the abandonment of political hostility toward the western world and, thus, the Cold War ended. These changes continued to be felt in the 1990s and into the 21st century.
Contents |
Politics and wars[link]
Terrorist attacks[link]
Main article: List of terrorist incidents#1970s–2000s
File:Sikh man surrounded 1984 pogroms.jpg
Sikh man being beaten to death by Hindu militants
The most notable terrorist attacks of the decade include:
- El Mozote massacre in El Salvador on December 11, 1981 against civilians, committed by government forces supported by the United States during their anti-guerilla campaign against Marxist-Leninist rebels.
- The Rome and Vienna airport attacks take place on December 27, 1985 against the Israeli El Al airline. The attack was done by militants loyal to Abu Nidal, backed by the government of Libya.
- The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing - during the Lebanese Civil War two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces killing 299 American and French servicemen. The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.
- 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India, committed by Hindu militants against Sikhs in response to the assassination of Indian President Indira Gandhi by a Sikh militant. Thousands of people are killed and tens of thousands of Sikhs became displaced persons.
- Air India Flight 182 was destroyed on June 23, 1985 by Sikh-Canadian militants. It was the biggest mass murder involving Canadians in Canada's history.
- The Lockerbie Disaster on 21 December 1988, when a Boeing 747-121 was blown up over the village of Lockerbie, Scotland while enroute from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's JFK. The bombing killed all 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground, totaling 270 fatalities who were citizens of 21 nationalities. The bombing was and remains the worst terrorist attack on UK soil.
Wars[link]
Main article: List of wars 1945–1989#1980–1989
The most prominent armed conflicts of the decade include:
International wars[link]
The most notable wars of the decade include:
- The Cold War (1945–1991)
- Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989) - a war fought between the Soviet Union and the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance in Afghanistan. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (see Operation Cyclone), as well as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other Muslim nations through the context of the Cold War and the regional India-Pakistan conflict.
- Invasion of Grenada (1983) - a 1983 U.S.-led invasion of Grenada, triggered by a military coup which ousted a brief revolutionary government. The successful invasion led to a change of government but was controversial due to charges of American imperialism, Cold War politics, the involvement of Cuba, the unstable state of the Grenadian government, and Grenada's status as a Commonwealth realm.
- Salvadoran Civil War 1980-1992, part of the cold war conflicts, reached its peak in the 1980s, 70,000 salvadorans died.
- Arab–Israeli conflict (Early 20th century-present)
- 1982 Lebanon War - The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the terrorist organizations which resided in Lebanon. After attacking the PLO, as well as Syrian, leftist and Muslim Lebanese forces, Israel occupied southern Lebanon and eventually surrounded the PLO in west Beirut and subjected to heavy bombardment, they negotiated passage from Lebanon.
- The Iran-Iraq war took place from 1980 to 1988. Iraq was accused of using illegal chemical weapons to kill Iranian forces and against its own dissident Kurdish populations. Both sides suffered enormous casualties, but the poorly equipped Iranian armies suffered worse for it, being forced to use soldiers as young as 15 in human-wave attacks. Iran finally agreed to an armistice in 1988.
- Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas, as they are known in Spanish-speaking countries), sparking the Falklands War. It occurred from 2 April 1982–14 July 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina as British forces fought to recover the islands. Britain emerged victorious and its stance in international affairs and its long decaying reputation as a colonial power received an unexpected boost. The military junta of Argentina, on the other hand, was left humiliated by the defeat; and its leader Leopoldo Galtieri was deposed three days after the end of the war. A military investigation known as the Rattenbach report even recommended his execution.
- The United States launched an aerial bombardment of Libya in 1986 in retaliation for Libyan support of terrorism and attacks on US personnel in Germany and Turkey.
- The South African Border War between South Africa and the alliance of Angola, Namibia, and Zambia ended in 1989, ending over thirty years of conflict.
- The United States engaged in significant direct and indirect conflict in the decade via alliances with various groups in a number of Central and South American countries claiming that the U.S. was acting to oppose the spread of communism and end illicit drug trade. The U.S. government supported the government of Colombia's attempts to destroy its large illicit cocaine-trafficking industry and provided support for right-wing military government in the Salvadoran civil war which became controversial after the El Mozote massacre on December 11, 1981 in which U.S.-trained Salvadoran paramilitaries killed 1000 Salvadoran civilians. The United States, along with members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, invaded Grenada in 1983. The Iran-Contra affair erupted which involved U.S. interventionism in Nicaragua, resulting in members of the U.S. government being indicted in 1986. U.S. military action began against Panama in December 1989 to overthrow its president, Manuel Noriega.
- Battle of Cuito Cuanavale took place as part of the Angolan civil war and South African Border War from 1987 to 1988. The battle involved the largest fighting in Africa since World War II between military forces from Angola, Cuba (expeditionary forces), and Namibia versus military forces from South Africa and the dissident Angolan UNITA organization.
- The Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and the Armenia started in 1988 and lasted six years.
Civil wars and guerrilla wars[link]
The most notable Internal conflicts of the decade include:
- The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 occurred in the People's Republic of China in 1989, in which pro-democracy protestors demanded political reform. The protests were crushed by the People's Liberation Army.
- The First Intifada (First Uprising) in the Gaza Strip and West Bank began in 1987 when Palestinian Arabs mounted large-scale protests against the Israeli military presence in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as their own. The Intifada soon became violent as the Israeli army and Palestinian militants fought for control over the disputed territories. The First Intifada would continue until peace negotiations began between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993.
- Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) - Throughout the decade, Lebanon was engulfed in civil war between Islamic and Christian factions.
- The Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front began a violent campaign for independence in New Caledonia.
- Greenpeace's attempts to monitor French nuclear testing on Mururoa were halted by the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.
- The Second Sudanese Civil War erupts in 1983 between the Muslim government of Sudan in the north and non-Muslim rebel secessionists in Southern Sudan. The conflict continues through the present day Darfur genocide.
- Internal conflict in Peru: The communist Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement starts its fight against the Peruvian state in 1980, that would continue until the end of the 1990s.
- Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was overthrown by a popular uprising on February 6, 1986.
Coups[link]
Main article: List of coups d'état and coup attempts#1980 - 1989
The most prominent coups d'état of the decade include:
- Nigeria suffered multiple military coups in 1983 and 1985.
- Sitiveni Rabuka staged two military coups in Fiji in 1987, and declared the country a republic the same year.
- The "Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution" - a series of interconnected coups d'états - take place in Yugoslavia from 1988 to 1989 through mass protests organized and committed by supporters of Serbian politician Slobodan Milošević overthrow the governments of Serbia's autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina, and the government of Montenegro, and finally the main government of Serbia with Milošević becoming President of Serbia.
Nuclear threats[link]
- Operation Opera - a 1981 surprise Israeli air strike that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor being constructed in Osirak. Israeli military intelligence assumed this was for the purpose of plutonium production to further an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Israeli intelligence also believed that the summer of 1981 would be the last chance to destroy the reactor before it would be loaded with nuclear fuel.
- President Reagan's decision to station intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe provoked mass protests involving more than one million people.
Decolonization and independence[link]
- Canada gained official independence from the United Kingdom with a new Constitution on 17 April 1982, authorized by the signature by Elizabeth II. This act severed all political dependencies of the United Kingdom in Canada (although the Queen remained the titular head of state).
- In 1986, Australia and the United Kingdom fully separated Australia's governments from the influence of the British Parliament, resulting in Australia's full independence that had been granted a century before.
- In 1986, New Zealand and the United Kingdom fully separated New Zealand's governments from the influence of the British Parliament, resulting in New Zealand's full independence with the Constitution Act 1986 which also reorganised the government of New Zealand.
- Independence was granted to Vanuatu from the British/French condonimum (1980), Kiribati from joint US-British government (1981) and Palau from the United States (1986).
- Zimbabwe becomes independent from official colonial rule of the United Kingdom in 1980.
- Independence was awarded to Antigua and Barbuda, Belize (both 1981), and Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983) of the Caribbean; and Brunei of Southeast Asia in 1984
Prominent political events[link]
Americas
- Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. President in 1980. In international affairs, Reagan pursued a hardline policy towards preventing the spread of communism, initiating a considerable buildup of U.S. military power to challenge the Soviet Union. He further directly challenges the Iron Curtain by demanding that the Soviet Union dismantle the Berlin Wall.
- The Reagan Administration accelerated the War on Drugs, publicized through anti-drug campaigns including the Just Say No campaign of First Lady Nancy Reagan. Drugs became a serious problem in the '80s. Cocaine was popular among celebrities and the young, sophisticated "yuppies", while crack, a cheaper and more potent offshoot of the drug, turned the inner cities into war zones.
- Political unrest in the province of Quebec, which, due to the many differences between the dominant francophone population and the anglophone minority, and also to francophone rights in the predominantly English-speaking Canada, came to a head in 1980 when the provincial government called a public referendum on partial separation from the rest of Canada. The referendum ended with the "no" side winning majority (59.56% no, 40.44% yes).
- Military dictatorships give way to democracy in Argentina (1983), Uruguay (1984–5), Brazil (1985–8) and Chile (1988–9).
Europe
- The European Community's enlargement continued with the accession of Greece in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986.
- Significant political reforms occurred in a number of communist countries in eastern Europe as the populations of these countries grew increasingly hostile and politically active in opposing communist governments. These reforms included attempts to increase individual liberties and market liberalization, and promises of democratic renewal. The collapse of communism in eastern Europe was generally peaceful, the exception being Romania, who's leader Nicolae Ceaucescu tried to keep the people isolated from the events happening outside the country. While making a speech in Bucharest in December 1989, he was booed and shouted down by the crowd, and then tried to flee the city with his wife Elena. Two days later, they were captured, charged with genocide, and shot on Christmas.
- In Yugoslavia, following the death of communist leader Josip Broz Tito in May 1980, the trend of political reform of the communist system occurred along with a trend towards ethnic nationalism and inter-ethnic hostility, especially in Serbia, beginning with the 1986 Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts followed by the agenda of Serbian communist leader Slobodan Milošević who aggressively pushed for increased political influence of Serbs in the late 1980s, condemning non-Serb Yugoslav politicians who challenged his agenda as being enemies of Serbs.
- There was continuing civil strife in Northern Ireland, including the adoption of hunger strikes by Irish Republican Army prisoners seeking the reintroduction of political status.
- Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, and initiated major reforms to the Soviet Union's government through increasing the rights of expressing political dissent and allowing some democratic elections (though maintaining Communist dominance). Gorbachev pursued negotiation with the United States to decrease tensions and eventually end the Cold War.
- At the end of the decade, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 would be followed in 1990 by the German reunification. During the course of 1989, most of the communist governments in Eastern Europe collapsed.
- The United Kingdom was governed by the Conservative Party under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the first female leader of a western country. Under her Premiership, the party introduced widespread economic reforms including the privatisation of industries and the de-regulation of stock markets echoing similar reforms of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. She was also a staunch opponent of communism earning her the nickname 'The Iron Lady'.
- In November 1982, Leonid Brezhnev, who had led the Soviet Union since 1964, died. He was followed in quick succession by Yuri Andropov, the former KGB chief, and Konstantin Chernenko, both of whom were in poor health during their short tenures in office.
Asia
- South Korean president Chun Doo Hwan came to power at the end of 1979 and ruled as a dictator until his presidential term expired in 1987. He was responsible for the Kwangju Massacre in May 1980 when police and soldiers battled armed protesters. Relations with North Korea showed little sign of improvement during the 1980s. In 1983, when Chun was in Burma, a bomb apparently planted by North Korean agents killed a number of South Korean government officials. After leaving office, he was succeeded by Roh Tae Woo, the first democratic ruler of the country, which saw its international prestige greatly rise with hosting the Olympics in 1988. Roh pursued a policy of normalizing relations with China and the Soviet Union, but had to face militant left-wing student groups who demanded reunification with North Korea and the withdrawal of US troops.
- In the Philippines, after almost 20 years of dictatorship, Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos left the presidency and was replaced by Corazon Aquino through the "People Power Revolution" from February 22 to 26, 1986. This has been considered by some a peaceful revolution despite the fact that the Armed Forces of the Philippines issued an order to disperse the crowds on EDSA (the main thoroughfare in Metro Manila).
Disasters[link]
Natural disasters[link]
- Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington, U.S. on May 18, 1980, killing 57 people.
- On October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area during Game 3 of the 1989 World Series, gaining worldwide attention. Sixty-five people were killed and thousands injured, with major structural damage on freeways and buildings and broken gas-line fires in San Francisco, California. The cost of the damage totaled $13 billion (1989 USD).
- The US Drought of 1988 decimated the US with many parts of the country affected. This was the worst drought to hit the United States in many years. The drought caused $60 billion in damage (between $80 billion and $120 billion for 2008 USD). The concurrent heat waves killed 5,800 to 17,000 people in the United States.
- Hurricane Allen (1980), Hurricane Alicia (1983), Hurricane Gilbert (1988), Hurricane Joan (1988), and Hurricane Hugo (1989) were some notably destructive Atlantic hurricanes of the 1980s.
- Other natural disasters of the 1980s include the 1982–1983 El Niño which brought destructive weather to most of the world; the 1985 Mexico earthquake, which registered 8.1 on the Richter scale and devastated Mexico City and other areas throughout central Mexico; the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz lahar in Colombia; the 1986 Lake Nyos limnic eruption in Cameroon; and the 1988 Armenian earthquake, which rocked the Caucasus region of the USSR.
Non-natural disasters[link]
- In 1984, the Bhopal disaster resulted from a toxic MIC gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 3,000 immediately and ultimately claiming 15,000–20,000 lives.
- On September 1, 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which was carrying 269 people.
- Japan Air Lines Flight 123, carrying 524 people, crashed on August 12, 1985 while on a flight from Tokyo to Osaka killing 520 of the people on board. This was the worst ever single-plane crash.
- On January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch, killing all of the crew onboard. This was the first disaster involving the destruction of a NASA space shuttle. A faulty O-ring was the cause of the accident.
- On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl disaster, a large-scale nuclear meltdown in the Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, spread a large amount of radioactive material across Europe, killing 47 people, dooming countless others to future radiation-related cancer, and causing the displacement of 300,000 people.
- On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound spilling an estimated equivalent of 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. Although not among the largest oil spills in history, its remote and sensitive location made it one of the most devastating ecological disasters ever. The after effects of the spill continue to be felt to this day.
Assaults[link]
The 1980s were marked by several notable assassinations and assassination attempts:
- Musician and former member of The Beatles John Lennon was assassinated in New York City on December 8, 1980.
- Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated at a military parade in Cairo on October 6, 1981.
- Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981 by John Hinckley, a mentally disturbed young man who also stalked actress Jodie Foster. Reagan's press secretary James Brady was also shot, along with a police officer and a U.S. Secret Service agent. The latter two recovered, along with Reagan himself, but Brady used a wheelchair as a result of brain damage thereafter and would become an advocate of gun control.
- Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by her own bodyguards in response to the Indian Army's attack on Golden Temple to destroy Sikh Militant stronghold in Amritsar earlier in the decade.
- American singer-songwriter and musician Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father at his home in Los Angeles on April 1, 1984.
- In 1984, there was an assassination attempt on the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Government by the IRA.
- Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in February 1986. The assassin has never been identified.
- In May 1981, there was an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square. The assassin was a Turkish man named Mehmet Ali Agca, who was subsequently sentenced to life in prison, but would be pardoned in 2000. At the time, it was widely believed that he was an agent of the Soviet Union or Bulgaria, due to the Pope's vocal anti-communist stance. Agca himself told dozens of conflicting stories over the years, and his motive remains unclear.
Technology[link]
Electronics and computers[link]
Arcade games and video games had been growing in popularity since the late 1970s, and by 1982 were a major industry. But a variety of factors, including a glut of low-quality games and the rise of home computers, caused a tremendous crash in late 1983. For the next three years, the video game market practically ceased to exist in the US. But in the second half of the decade, it would be revived by Nintendo, whose Famicom console had been enjoying considerable success in Japan since 1983. Renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System, it would claim 90% of the American video game market by 1989.
Personal computers experienced explosive growth in the '80s, going from being a toy for electronics hobbyists to a full-fledged industry. The IBM PC, launched in 1981, become the dominant computer for professional users. Commodore created the most popular home computers of both 8-bit and 16-bit generations. MSX standard was the dominant computer platform in Japan. Apple was committed to resisting the tide of IBM PC clones, while introducing the first Macintosh computer in 1984. It was the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface and mouse,[1] which started to become general features in computers after the middle of the decade.
-
Commodore 64, with sales estimated at more than 17 million units in 1982–1994 became the best-selling computer model of all time.
-
The Macintosh 128K, the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface, was introduced to the public in 1984.[2]
Walkman and Boomboxs, introduced during the late 1970s, became very popular and had a profound impact on the Music industry and youth culture. Consumer VCRs and video rental stores became commonplace as vhs won out over the competing betamax standard. In addition, in the early 1980s various companies began selling compact, modestly priced synthesizers to the public. This, along with the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), made it easier to integrate and synchronize synthesizers and other electronic instruments, like drum machines, for use in musical composition
-
Walkman WM-D6C Pro (1984)
-
1980s Boombox
-
1980s Synthesizer (Yamaha DX7)
Space exploration[link]
American interplanetary probes continued in the '80s, the Voyager duo being the most famous. After making a flyby of Jupiter in 1979, they visited Saturn in 1980–1981. Voyager 2 reached Uranus in 1986 (just a few days before the Challenger disaster), and Neptune in 1989 before the probes exited the solar system.
No American probes were launched to Mars in the 1980s, and the Viking probes, launched there in 1975, completed their operations by 1982. The Soviets launched two Mars probes in 1988, but they failed ignominiously.
The arrival of Halley's Comet in 1986 was met by a series of American, Soviet, Japanese, and ESA probes.
After a five-year hiatus, manned American space flights resumed with the launch of the space shuttle Columbia in April 1981. The shuttle program progressed smoothly from there, with three more orbiters entering service in 1983–1985. But that all came to an end with the tragic loss of the Challenger on January 28, 1986, taking with it seven astronauts, including Christia McAuliffe, who was to have been the first teacher in space. In full view of the world, a faulty O-ring on the right solid rocket booster burned through the external fuel tank and caused it to explode, destroying the shuttle in the process. Extensive efforts were made to improve NASA's increasingly careless management practices, and to make the shuttle safer. Flights resumed with the launch of Discovery in September 1988.
The Soviet manned program went well during the decade, experiencing only minor setbacks. The Salyut 6 space station, launched in 1977, was replaced by Salyut 7 in 1982. Then came Mir in 1986, which ended up operating for more than a decade, and was destined to be the last in the line of Soviet space stations that had begun in 1971. One of the Soviet Union's last "superprojects" was the Buran space shuttle; it was only used once, in 1988.
Automobiles[link]
The American auto industry began the 1980s in a thoroughly grim situation, faced with poor quality control, rising import competition, and a severe economic downturn. Chrysler and American Motors (AMC) were near bankruptcy, and Ford was little better off. Only GM continued with business as usual. But the auto makers recovered with the economy by 1983, and in 1985 auto sales in the United States hit a new record. However, the Japanese were now a major presence, and would begin manufacturing cars in the US to get around tariffs. In 1986, Hyundai became the first Korean auto maker to enter the American market. In the same year, the Yugoslavian-built Yugo was brought to the US, but the car was so small and cheap, that it became the subject of countless jokes. It was sold up to 1991, when economic sanctions against Yugoslavia forced its withdrawal from the American market.
As the decade progressed, cars became smaller and more efficient in design. In 1983, Ford design teams began revolutionizing existing automobiles with a new philosophy which was called "Aero". The idea was to design cars to incorporate pro-aerodynamic round styling to increase airflow and decrease drag while in motion. The Thunderbird was one of the first cars to receive these design changes and it was an instant hit. Later, in 1985, Ford released the Taurus which was considered a dramatic step in automobile design and its aerodynamic style was so popular and revolutionary at the time that other manufacturers scrambled to emulate it which eventually caused a design revolution which is still evident to the present day which increasingly round and aerodynamic designed being implemented by many companies worldwide.
GM began suffering significant losses in the late-1980s, partially the result of chairman Roger Smith's restructuring attempts, and partially because of increasingly stale and unappealing cars. For example, "yuppies" increasingly favored European luxury cars to Cadillac. In 1985, GM started Saturn (the first new American make since the Edsel), with the goal of producing high-quality import fighters. Production would not begin until 1990, however.
Chrysler introduced its new compact, front-wheel drive K-cars in 1981. Under the leadership of Lee Iacocca, the company turned a profit again the following year, and by 1983 paid off its government loans. A seemingly endless succession of K-cars followed. But the biggest success was the arrival of the minivans in 1984. These proved a huge hit, and despite competition, they would dominate the van market for more than a decade. And in 1987, Chrysler purchased the Italian makes of Lamborghini and Maserati. In the same year, Chrysler bought AMC from Renault laying to rest the last significant independent U.S. automaker, but acquiring the hugely profitable Jeep line and continuing the Eagle brand until the late 1990s.
The DeLorean DMC-12 was the brainchild of John DeLorean, a flamboyant former GM executive. Production of the gull-winged sports car began in Northern Ireland in 1981. John DeLorean was arrested in October 1982 in a sting operation where he was attempting to sell cocaine to save his struggling company. He was acquitted of all charges in 1984, but too late for the DeLorean Motor Company, which closed down in 1983. The DMC-12 gained renewed fame afterward as the time machine in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy.
Porsche introduced the 959 sports car in 1986, the fastest car in the world back then, which had the ability to reach a top speed of more than 200 mph (320 km/h). Never before car manufacturers managed to exceed the 200 mph barrier. Just one year later, Porsche's rival Ferrari startled the world introducing the F40, at that point the fastest car in the world, even faster than the 959 from Porsche.
The imposition of CAFE fuel-mileage standards in 1979 spelled the end of big-block engines, but performance cars and convertibles reemerged in the 1980s. Turbochargers were widely used to boost the performance of small cars, and technology from fuel injection began to take over from the widely used application of carburetors by the late 1980s. Front-wheel drive also became dominant.
The eighties marked the decline of European brands in North America by the end of the decade. Renault, Citroen, and Peugeot ceased importation by the end of the decade. Alfa Romeo would continue until 1993. Fiat also ceased imports to North America in the eighties.
Economics[link]
- The early 1980s marked a severe global economic recession that affected much of the developed world.
- International debt crisis in developing countries, reliance of these countries on aid from the International Monetary Fund.
- Spread of neoliberal economics in developed world.
- Mexico suffers from a debt crisis starting in 1982. Economic problems worsened in 1985 by resignation of most officials of the Mexican government after a failed response of emergency aid in the Mexico City earthquake (September 19) just after the 175th anniversary of Independence holiday (September 16). In 1988, Carlos Salinas de Gortari won a controversial presidential election amid charges of voter fraud, bribery, corruption and other abuses of power.
- Enactment of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in 1989 to further establish a strong economic bond between the two prosperous neighbor countries of North America.
- Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China embarked on extensive reforms in the 1980s, introducing market economics and downgrading ideology.
- The Solidarity movement began in Poland in 1980, involving workers demanding political liberalization and democracy in Poland. Attempts by the communist government to crush the Solidarity movement failed and negotiations between the movement and the government took place. Solidarity would be instrumental in encouraging people in other communist states to demand political reform.
- The 1980s saw a revival of capitalism and laissez-faire economics. Consumers became more sophisticated in their tastes (a trend begun in the 1960s), and things such as European cars and designer clothing became fashionable in the US.
- The financial world and the stock market were glamorized in a way they had not been since the 1920s, and figures like Donald Trump and Michael Milken were widely seen as symbols of the decade. Widespread fear of Japanese economic strength would grip the United States in the '80s.
- During the 1980s, for the first time in world history, transpacific trade (with East Asia, such as China, and Latin America, primarily with Mexico) equaled that of transatlantic trade (with Western Europe or with neighboring Canada).,[3] solidifying American economic power.[4]
Society[link]
The 1980s was also an era of tremendous population growth around the world, surpassing even the 1970s and 1990s, thus arguably being the largest in human history. Population growth was particularly rapid in a number of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian countries during this decade, with rates of natural increase close to or exceeding 4% annually.
Additional significant world-wide events[link]
Worldwide
- Beginning of the AIDS pandemic.
- There were numerous protests demanding that the US government[clarification needed] take action against AIDS, which were fuelled by the AIDS-related deaths of celebrities such as Rock Hudson and Liberace, and by the case of Ryan White, a child who became infected by HIV through contaminated blood supplies.
- National safety campaigns raised awareness of seat belt usage to save lives in car accidents, helping to make the measure mandatory in most parts of the world by 1990. Similar efforts arose to push child safety seats and bike helmet use, already mandatory in a number of regions.
- Rejection of smoking based on health concerns increased throughout the western world.
- Political correctness in the 1980s and increasingly in the following 1990s, was a trend of behaviour, in western societies, designed to fit the mores of those opposed to forms of prejudice against certain minority groups .
- The role of women in the workplace increased greatly. Continuing the 1970s' trend, more women[quantify] in the English-speaking world took to calling themselves "Ms.", rather than "Mrs." or "Miss." A similar change occurred in Germany, with women choosing "Frau" instead of "Fräulein" in an effort to disassociate marital status from title. In most western countries, women began[citation needed] to exercise the option of keeping their maiden names after marriage; in Canada, legislation was enacted to end the practice of automatically changing a woman's last name upon marriage.
- Opposition to nuclear power plants grew, especially after the catastrophic 1986 Chernobyl accident.
- Environmental concerns intensified. In the United Kingdom, environmentally friendly domestic products surged in popularity. Western European countries adopted "greener" policies to cut back on oil use, recycle most of their nations' waste, and increase focus on water and energy conservation efforts. Similar "eco-activist" trends appeared in the US in the late 1980s.
- Increased awareness and opposition to white-minority apartheid rule in South Africa occurred in the western world.[dubious – discuss]
- Counterculture in the eastern world revolved around "pro-democracy" stances in opposition to multiple communist states perceived as authoritarian.
- Gay rights became more widely accepted in the Western world.[citation needed]
- Militancy against communist governments in Europe and Asia, collapse of the Warsaw Pact precipitated the end of the Cold War.
- A joint American-French expedition discovers the wreck of the RMS Titanic on 1 September 1985 at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 km) at 41°43′55″N 49°56′45″W / 41.73194°N 49.94583°W / 41.73194; -49.94583.
Africa
- Opposition against Apartheid in South Africa and worldwide grows to a mass international condemnation of racial segregation policies comes to a peak by December 1989 in the Springbok summit when SA President de Klerk grants clemency to imprisoned ANC activist Nelson Mandela who was released in February 1990.
- The 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia occurred, resulting in international efforts to help the Ethiopian people, including the famous Live Aid concert in July 1985.
Americas
- Ten thousand Cubans stormed the Peruvian embassy in Havana seeking political asylum on 6 April 1980. On 7 April the Cuban government granted permission for the emigration of Cubans seeking refuge in the Peruvian embassy.
- The 1986 World's Fair, Expo 86, was held in Vancouver, Canada. It was the last fair held in North America and was considered a great success in comparison to the then-recent American Expositions.[citation needed]
- In 1984 crack cocaine reached American cities and the marked the start of the crack epidemic.
Asia
- Vietnam continued to occupy Cambodia and battle the Khmer Rouge throughout the entire decade. Relations with China remained hostile, and there were frequent border skirmishes, although none were comparable to the 1979 conflict. The country remained one of Asia's poorest and was totally dependent on Soviet economic assistance. Mikhail Gorbachev began reducing foreign aid to the communist bloc in the late 1980s, and this combined with the deaths of elderly Vietnamese leaders such as Le Duan brought about the gradual adoption of a relatively free market system similar to that of China.
- Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, husband of the first female president of the Philippines was shot dead at the Manila International Airport on 21 August 1983. The killers were never identified.
- In China, increasing demands for political freedom culminated in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in June 1989, when tanks and troops of the People's Liberation Army crushed student protesters who were camped in the square, killing or injuring 3000 or more people. Hardliners took over the government afterwards, and China ended the '80s as an international pariah.
Popular culture[link]
The most prominent events and trends in popular culture of the decade include:
Music[link]
In the United States, MTV was launched and music videos began to have a larger effect on the record industry. Pop artists such as Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Prince, Madonna, and Queen mastered the format and helped turn this new product into a profitable business. New Wave and Synthpop were developed by many British and American artists, and became popular phenomena throughout the decade, especially in the early and mid eighties.
Michael Jackson was a popular entertainer of the 1980s and his leather jacket, glove and Moonwalk dance were often imitated. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as somewhere between 65 and 110 million copies worldwide.
Madonna was regarded as the most ground breaking female artist of the decade; she was also noted for her many fashion incarnations. The keyboard synthesizer and drum machine were among the most popular in music in the 1980s, especially in New Wave music. After the 1980s electronic instruments were no longer popular in rock but continued to be the main component of mainstream pop.
By 1989, the hip hop scene had evolved, gaining recognition and exhibiting a stronger influence on the music industry. This time period is also considered part of the golden age of hip hop. The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Boogie Down Productions, N.W.A, LL Cool J, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice-T, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, 2 Live Crew, Tone Lōc, Biz Markie, the Jungle Brothers and others experienced success in this genre.
The Techno style of electronic dance music emerged in Detroit, Michigan during the mid to late 1980s. The House music style, another form of electronic dance music, emerged in Chicago, Illinois in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino and gay communities, first in Chicago, then in New York City and Detroit. It eventually reached Europe before becoming infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.
Hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal became some of the most dominant music genres of the decade, peaking with the arrival of such bands as Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, Europe, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Mötley Crüe, and virtuoso guitarists such as Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen. The scene also helped 1970s hard rock artists such as AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, KISS, Ronnie James Dio, and Judas Priest reach a new generation of fans.
Punk rock continued to make strides in the musical community; it gave birth to many sub-genres like hardcore, which has continued to be moderately successful, giving birth in turn to a few counterculture movements, most notably the Straight Edge movement which began in the early era of this decade. College rock caught on in the underground scene of the 1980s in a nationwide movement with a distinct D.I.Y approach. Bands like the Pixies, R.E.M., The Replacements, Sonic Youth, XTC, The Smiths, etc. experienced success in this genre. The 1980s also saw the birth of the grunge genre, with the arrival of such bands as Soundgarden, Green River, Melvins, Screaming Trees, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, The U-Men, Blood Circus, Nirvana, Tad, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone and Alice in Chains (who formed in 1987, but did not release their first album until three years later).
Several notable music artists died of unnatural causes in the 1980s. Bon Scott, at the time lead singer of rock band AC/DC died of acute alcohol poisoning on February 19, 1980. John Lennon was shot outside of his home in New York City on the night of December 8, 1980. Tim Hardin died of a heroin overdose on December 29, 1980. Bob Marley died from a lentiginous skin melanoma on May 11, 1981. Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father at his home in Los Angeles on April 1, 1984, one day before what would have been his 45th birthday. Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Randy Rhoads died in an airplane crash on March 19, 1982. Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was killed in a bus accident in Sweden on September 27, 1986. Andy Gibb died in 1988 as a result of myocarditis.
1985's Live Aid concert, featuring many artists, promoted attention and action to send food aid to Ethiopia whose people were suffering from a major famine.
Film[link]
Main article: 1980s in film
- Oscar winners: Ordinary People (1980), Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), Amadeus (1984), Out of Africa (1985), Platoon (1986), The Last Emperor (1987), Rain Man (1988), Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
- The 15 highest-grossing films of the decade are (in order from highest to lowest domestic grossing): E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, Rain Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Top Gun, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Back to the Future Part II, Crocodile Dundee, Fatal Attraction and Beverly Hills Cop.[5]
This was the period when the 'high concept' films were introduced. The movies were supposed to be easily marketable and understandable, and, therefore, they had short cinematic plots that could be summarized in one or two sentences. The modern Hollywood blockbuster is the most popular film format from the 1980s. Producer Don Simpson[6] is usually credited with the creation of the high-concept picture of the modern Hollywood blockbuster.
The 80s also spawned the Brat Pack films, many of which were directed by John Hughes. Films such as Class (film), The Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mannequin (1987 film) , Porky's, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles, St. Elmo's Fire (film), Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science and Valley Girl were popular teen comedies of the era and launched the careers of several major celebrities such as: Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage. Other popular films included About Last Night..., Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Dirty Dancing, Flashdance, Footloose, Raging Bull and St. Elmo's Fire which also launched the careers of high profile celebrities like Demi Moore, Joe Pesci, Keanu Reeves, Kevin Bacon, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze.
Horror films were a popular genre during the decade, with several notable horror franchises being born during the 1980s. Among the most popular were the A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser and Poltergeist (Film Series) franchises. Aside from these films, the concept of the B horror film gave rise to a plethora of horror films that went on to earn a cult status. An example of such is the 1981 film The Evil Dead, which marked the directorial debut of Sam Raimi.
Several action film franchises were also launched during the 1980s. The most popular of these were the Beverly Hills Cop, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Rambo franchises. Other action films from the decade which are of notable status include The Terminator and Predator. These films propelled the careers of modern celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone to international recognition.
Television[link]
Main article: 1980s in television
MTV was launched in the United States in 1981 and had a profound impact on the music industry and popular culture further ahead, especially during its early run in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Some of the most popular TV series which premiered during the 1980s include: Alf, Airwolf, The A-Team, Dynasty, Dallas, Knight Rider, MacGyver, Magnum, P.I., Miami Vice, Diff'rent Strokes, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, The Cosby Show, Murder, She Wrote, 21 Jump Street, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Night Court, Who's the Boss?, Family Matters, Quantum Leap, Saved by the Bell, Roseanne, Full House, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Seinfeld, The Simpsons and Married... with Children.
The 1980s was the decade of transformation in television. Cable television became more accessible and therefore, more popular. By the middle of the decade, almost 70% of the American population had cable television and over 85% were paying for cable services such as HBO or Showtime.[7]
The 1980s was also the heyday of nighttime soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty.
TV talk shows expanded in popularity; The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson remained popular into its third decade, and some of the most viewed newer shows were hosted by Geraldo Rivera, Arsenio Hall and David Letterman.[8]
The 1980s also was prominent for spawning several popular children's cartoons such as The Smurfs, ThunderCats, Voltron, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Inspector Gadget, Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DuckTales and Garfield and Friends.
Sports[link]
- The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow were disrupted by a boycott led by the United States and 64 other countries in protest of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
- The 1980 Winter Olympics are remembered for the Miracle on Ice, where a young United States hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Red Army team and went on to win the gold medal.
- The New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup for 4 straight years in 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983. The Islanders also became the second NHL expansion team after the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Cup. Since their last Cup win in 1983, they are currently the only team of the four major North American sports leagues (NHL, NFL, NBA, & MLB) to win 4 consecutive championships, and hold the NHL record for most consecutive playoff series' wins at 19(1980 Playoffs - 1984 Playoffs).
- The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were boycotted by the Soviet Union and most of the communist world (China, Romania, and Yugoslavia participated in the games) in retaliation for the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
- The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina). Yugoslavia becomes the second communist country to host the Olympic Games, but unlike the Soviet Union in 1980, there were no boycotts of the Games by western countries.
- The Jamaica national bobsled team received major media attention and stunned the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada for its unexpected good performance. It overcame the stereotype that northern countries were the only efficient competitors in winter Olympic Games due to their experiencing an actual winter. The events surrounding the Jamaica bobsled team in 1988 would lead to the creation of the Disney movie Cool Runnings five years later which was based on Jamaica's 1988 bobsled team.
- The 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea. Attempts to include North Korea in the games were unsuccessful, and it boycotted along with six other countries, but with 160 nations participating, it had the highest attendance of any Olympics to date.
- FIA bans Group B rallying after a series of deaths and injuries take place in the 1986 season.
- Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky's rise to fame in the NHL would coincide with the Edmonton Oilers' first 4 Stanley Cup championships (1984, 1985, 1987, & 1988) and becoming the second NHL dynasty team of the 1980s.
- On August 9, 1988, in what became the biggest trade in NHL history (also known as "The Trade Of The Century"), Wayne Gretzky was traded along with teammates Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski from Edmonton to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Martin Gelinas, Jimmy Carson, three first round draft picks, and $15 million cash (approximately $18 million CAD in 1988).
- American basketball player Michael Jordan bursts onto the scene in the NBA during the 1980s, bringing a surge in popularity for the sport and becoming one of the most beloved sports icons in the United States.
- On November 26, 1986 Mike Tyson became the youngest boxing Heavyweight Champion of the World at age 20.
- On March 25, 1985 The WWF Presented The First WrestleMania At Madison Square Garden In New York City With An Attendance Of 19, 121
- On March 29, 1987 WrestleMania III had a record attendance of 93,173; the largest recorded attendance for a live indoor sporting event in North America until 2010.
- West Germany won UEFA championship 1980 in Italy.
- Italy won FIFA world cup 1982 in Spain.
- France hosted and won the UEFA football championship in 1984.
- Argentina won FIFA world cup 1986 in Mexico.
- Netherlands won UEFA football championship in 1988.
- Liverpool FC were the most successful club side of the era, becoming English champions on six occasions (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1988) and winning two European Cups (1981, 1984). They also won the FA Cup in 1986, completing the first double in their history, and four consecutive League Cup titles from 1981 to 1984.
- Other highly successful club sides of the 1980s include Juventus (7 major honours won), Real Madrid (10 major honors won), Bayern Munich (9 titles won) and PSV Eindhoven (4 times Dutch champions and European Cup winners in 1988).
- The San Francisco 49ers won four Super Bowls ('81,'84,'88, and '89), led by Joe Montana.
- Magic Johnson and Larry Bird face against each other in three NBA Finals': '84,'85, and '87.
Video gaming[link]
See also: 1980s in video gaming
- Popular video games include: Turrican, Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Digger, Tetris and Golden Axe.
- Pac-Man (1980) was the first game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream culture and the first game character to be popular in his own right.
- Handheld electronic LCD games introduced into the youth market segment.
- North American video game crash of 1983
- The primary gaming computers of the 1980s emerged in 1982: the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
- Nintendo finally decided in 1985 to release its Famicom (released in 1983 in Japan) in the United States under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was bundled with Super Mario Bros. and it suddenly became a success. The NES dominated the American and Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the early 1990s, causing some to call this time the Nintendo era.
- Sega released its 16-bit console, Mega Drive/Genesis, in 1988 in Japan and in 1989 in North America.
- In 1989 Nintendo released the Game Boy, a monochrome handheld console.
Toys[link]
During the 1980s, there were many toys that became very popular among children that are to this day still associated with the decade. Some of the toys that were popular were:
- My Little Pony
- Star Wars
- Cabbage Patch Dolls
- Masters of the Universe
- Rainbow Bright
- Micro Machines
- Fashion Star Fillies
- Pogo Balls
- Pound Puppies
- Teddy Ruxpin
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Care Bears
- Barbie
- Jem Doll
Fashion[link]
Main article: 1980s in fashion
The beginning of the decade was marked by the New Romantic movement and later by fashion inspired by heavy metal bands, including teased hair, ripped jeans and neon clothing. Some clothing and mens hairstyles had influences from the 1950s, especially in the first part of the decade.
Significant hairstyle trends of the 1980s include the Perm (started popularity in the late 1970s), the Mullet (evolved from the 1970s to a cleaner look using hair gel), the Jheri curl, the Flattop, the Hi-top fade and Big hair.
Significant clothing trends of the 1980s include Shoulder pads, Jean jackets, Leather pants, Aviator jackets, Jumpsuits, Diane von Fürstenberg Wrap Dress, Members Only Jackets, Skin-tight acid-washed jeans, Miniskirts, Leggings and Leg warmers (popularized in the film "Flashdance"), Off-the-Shoulder Shirts and Cut Sweatshirts (popularized in the film "Flashdance").
Additional significant trends of the 1980s include Headbands, Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses (popularized in the film "Top Gun"), Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses (popularized in the films "Risky Business" and "The Blues Brothers"), Swatch watches, Slap bracelets (popular fad among children, pre-teens and teenagers in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was available in a wide variety of patterns and colors), and the Rubik's Cube (became a popular fad throughout the decade).
People[link]
World leaders[link]
- General Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentina)
- President Raúl Alfonsín (Argentina)
- Chancellor Bruno Kreisky (Austria)
- Chancellor Fred Sinowatz (Austria)
- Chancellor Franz Vranitzky (Austria)
- Prime Minister Bob Hawke (Australia)
- Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (Australia)
- President João Figueiredo (Brazil)
- President José Sarney (Brazil)
- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Canada)
- Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (Canada)
- General Augusto Pinochet (Chile)
- Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Ching-kuo (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- President Julio César Turbay Ayala (Colombia)
- President Belisario Betancur Cuartas(Colombia)
- President Virgilio Barco Vargas (Colombia)
- Prime Minister Poul Schlüter (Denmark)
- Erich Honecker (East Germany)
- President Anwar Sadat (Egypt) - until 1981
- President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
- President Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua)
- President Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia)
- President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)
- President Mauno Koivisto (Finland)
- President François Mitterrand (France)
- Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou (Greece)
- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
- Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (India)
- President Suharto (Indonesia)
- Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran)
- President Abulhassan Banisadr (Iran)
- President Mohammad-Ali Rajai (Iran)
- President Ali Khamenei (Iran)
- Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (Iran) - from 1989
- President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Iran) - from 1989
- President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
- President Patrick Hillery (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Charles Haughey (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald (Ireland)
- Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel)
- Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone (Japan)
- Emir Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah (Kuwait)
- President Muammar Gaddafi (Libya)
- Pope John Paul II
- President Hastings Kamuzu Banda (Malawi)
- Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia)
- Prime Minister Dom Mintoff (Malta)
- Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (Malta)
- Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami (Malta)
- President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (Mexico)
- President Samora Machel (Mozambique)
- Prime Minister Robert Muldoon (New Zealand)
- Prime Minister David Lange (New Zealand)
- Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer (New Zealand)
- Queen Beatrix (Netherlands)
- Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers (Netherlands)
- General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Pakistan)
- General Manuel Noriega (Panama)
- President Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines)
- President Corazon Aquino (Philippines)
- President Wojciech Jaruzelski (Poland)
- President Nicolae Ceauşescu (Romania)
- Head of State Malietoa Tanumafili II (Samoa)
- King Khaled (Saudi Arabia)
- King Fahd (Saudi Arabia)
- Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
- President and Prime Minister P.W. Botha (South Africa)
- President Chun Doo-hwan (South Korea)
- General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
- General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)
- King Juan Carlos (Spain)
- President Felipe González (Spain)
- Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- Prime Minister Olof Palme (Sweden)
- President Hafiz Al-Asad (Syria)
- Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda (Thailand)
- Prime Minister Turgut Ozal (Turkey)
- Elizabeth II (United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms)
- Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom)
- President Jimmy Carter (United States) - until 1981
- President Ronald Reagan (United States)
- President George H.W. Bush (United States) - from 1989
- Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (West Germany)
- Chancellor Helmut Kohl (West Germany)
- President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)
- President Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire)
- President Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
- Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, David Lange, (New Zealand)
Entertainers[link]
- Michael J. Fox
- Woody Allen
- Eddie Murphy
- Christopher Lloyd
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Sylvester Stallone
- Chuck Norris
- Tom Cruise
- Sigourney Weaver
- Linda Hamilton
- Jennifer Grey
- Patrick Swayze
- Charlie Sheen
- David Hasselhoff
- Steve Guttenberg
- Debra Winger
- Cher
- Kurt Russell
- John Candy
- Brooke Shields
- Matthew Broderick
- Michael Keaton
- Prince
- Christopher Reeve
- Harrison Ford
- Mark Hamill
- John Travolta
- John Belushi
- Warren Beatty
- Dustin Hoffman
- Robert De Niro
- Al Pacino
- Chevy Chase
- Dan Aykroyd
- Bill Murray
- Richard Gere
- Kevin Bacon
- Tom Hanks
- Meryl Streep
- Michael Douglas
- Jessica Lange
- Patrick Stewart
- Hulk Hogan
- Alan Alda
- John Ritter
- Ted Danson
- Tom Selleck
- Don Johnson
- Bruce Willis
- Richard Dean Anderson
- Bill Cosby
- Kathleen Turner
- Mel Gibson
- Clint Eastwood
- Danny DeVito
- Daryl Hannah
- Sally Field
- Sean Penn
- Steve Martin
- Kim Basinger
- Jamie Lee Curtis
- Michelle Pfeiffer
Musicians[link]
- A-ha
- AC/DC
- Aerosmith
- Alabama
- Anthrax
- Axl Rose
- Kenny Loggins
- The B-52's
- Bad Religion
- The Bangles
- Belinda Carlisle
- Billy Idol
- Billy Joel
- Black Flag
- Bobby Brown
- Bob Marley
- Bon Jovi
- Bonham
- Boy George
- Bryan Adams
- Bryan Ferry
- Bruce Springsteen
- The Cars
- Cher
- Chris de Burgh
- The Cure
- Culture Club
- Wang Chung
- Cyndi Lauper
- R.E.M.
- David Bowie
- Debbie Gibson
- Def Leppard
- Depeche Mode
- Dire Straits
- Duran Duran
- Talking Heads
- Devo
- Eddie Van Halen
- Elvis Costello
- Five Star
- Freddie Mercury
- GWAR
- George Harrison
- George Michael
- George Strait
- Guns N' Roses
- Huey Lewis and the News
- Iggy Pop
- Iron Maiden
- Irene Cara
- Janet Jackson
- Jason Donovan
- Jefferson Starship
- Joan Jett
- John Lennon
- Journey
- Joy
- Judas Priest
- Thomas Dolby
- Kajagoogoo
- Kim Carnes
- Kim Wilde
- Kiss
- Kylie Minogue
- Laura Branigan
- Limahl
- Lionel Richie
- Madonna
- Megadeth
- Metallica
- Motley Crue
- Michael Jackson
- Nick Kamen
- Paul Simon
- Peter Cetera
- Peter Gabriel
- Pet Shop Boys
- Phil Collins
- Philip Oakey
- Pointer Sisters
- Poison
- Tears for Fears
- Prince
- Ratt
- Reba McEntire
- Richard Marx
- Rick Astley
- Roy Orbison
- The Smiths
- Samantha Fox
- Sandra
- Skid Row (American band)
- Slash (Saul Hudson)
- Slayer
- Stevie Nicks
- Stevie Wonder
- Sting
- Swing Out Sister
- Tiffany
- Tina Turner
- Tom Petty
- Toto
- Twisted Sister
- Whitney Houston
- Winger (band)
- Thompson Twins
- The Clash
- U2
- Van Halen
- W.A.S.P
- White Lion
- Whitesnake
- Weird Al Yankovic
- Yngwie Malmsteen
Sports figures[link]
- Boris Becker
- Steffi Graf
- Diego Maradona
- Roberto Duran
- Eric Heiden
- Carl Lewis
- Sergey Bubka
- Greg LeMond
- Wayne Gretzky
- Magic Johnson
- Larry Bird
- Michael Jordan
- Sugar Ray Leonard
- Joe Montana
- Hulk Hogan
- Andre The Giant
- Ric Flair
- Ian Botham
- Julio Cesar Chavez
- Jack Nicklaus
- Jimmy Connors
- Seve Ballesteros
- Martina Navratilova
- Sebastian Coe
- Nikos Galis
- Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- Michel Platini
- Gary Lineker
- Bo Jackson
- Marco van Basten
- Franco Baresi
- Ruud Gullit
- Zico
- Karch Kiraly
- Ayrton Senna
- Alain Prost
- Alberto Tomba
- Mike Tyson
- Matt Biondi
- Greg Luganis
- Freddie Spencer
- Eddie Lawson
- Vladimir Artemov
- Imran Khan
- Wasim Akram
- Waqar Younis
- Naas Botha
- Mario Lemieux
Film makers[link]
- Steven Spielberg
- George Lucas
- Tim Burton
- James Cameron
- Stanley Kubrick
- Brian De Palma
- Ridley Scott
- John Hughes
- David Cronenberg
- Wes Craven
- Oliver Stone
- John Carpenter
- David Lynch
- Jonathan Demme
- Rob Reiner
- Adrian Lyne
- Sydney Pollack
- Ivan Reitman
- Richard Donner
- Ron Howard
- Walter Hill
- Alan Parker
- Robert Zemeckis
- John Landis
- Lawrence Kasdan
- Tony Scott
- Barry Levinson
- Joe Dante
- John Badham
See also[link]
- 1980s in music
- 1980s in fashion
- 1980s in television
- 1980s in video gaming
- 1980s in literature
- Andy McSmith. No Such Thing as Society: A History of Britain in the 1980s. Constable, 2010. ISBN 978-1-84901-009-2
Timeline[link]
The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:
1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989
References[link]
- ^ Polsson, Ken (2009-07-29). "Chronology of Apple Computer Personal Computers". http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/applehis/appl1984.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-27. See May 3, 1984.
- ^ Linzmayer, Owen W. (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0. No Starch Press. p. 113. ISBN 1-59327-010-0. http://www.owenink.com.
- ^ "The Next Hundred Years", George Friedman, 2009, pg 4
- ^ "The Next Hundred Years", George Friedman, 2009, pg 45
- ^ All-Time Worldwide Box Office
- ^ Fleming, Charles (1998). High concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood culture of excess. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-48694-1.
- ^ The Politics and Pop Culture of the 1980s The Eighties Club. Retrieved on 2010-03-08
- ^ An overview on 80s Television Retrieved on 2010-03-08
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1980s |
- Memories of the toys, games, TV, movies and music of the 1980s
- The UK in the 1980s
- Australia in the 1980s
- 80s Culture, Fashion, Movies, TV, and Music
- 80sMemories.com Music, TV, Movies and everything 80s
- 80s Nostalgia - a nostalgic look back at our favourite decade.
- '80s Actual - 1980s pop culture and news - the decade as it was lived in the UK.
- KajaFax - The No.1 Fan community for 80s pop band KajaGooGoo, Limahl and all band member projects
http://wn.com/1980s
Related pages:
http://de.wn.com/1980er
http://es.wn.com/Años 1980
http://ru.wn.com/1980-е годы
http://cs.wn.com/1980-1989
http://pt.wn.com/Década de 1980
http://pl.wn.com/Lata 80. XX wieku
http://it.wn.com/Anni 1980
http://id.wn.com/1980-an
http://nl.wn.com/1980-1989
http://fr.wn.com/Années 1980
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
"Dirt Nasty" redirects here. For the album, see Dirt Nasty (album).
 |
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. (September 2009) |
| Simon Rex | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Simon Rex Cutright (1974-07-20) July 20, 1974 (age 37) San Francisco, California |
| Occupation | Actor, Comedian, TV host, Recording Artist, Rapper |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Website | |
| www.dirtnastymusic.com | |
Simon Rex (born July 20, 1974)[1] is an American actor, comedian, television host and recording artist. He is known for starring as Jeff Campbell in What I Like About You, during the first season.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Rex was born Simon Rex Cutright in San Francisco, California, and is the only child of Paul and Zoe Cutright, a relationship coach and an environmental consultant.[citation needed]
Career[link]
Adult Films[link]
In 1993, at age 19, he appeared solo in scenes for three masturbation porn films, Young, Hard & Solo II; Young, Hard & Solo III; and Hot Sessions III.[2]
Acting[link]
In 1995, MTV hired Rex to work as a VJ and kept him on the air for over two years.[3] After being let go by MTV during an update to its VJ line-up, and after his adult video work became more widely known, his notability and popularity increased.
He was once featured on an episode of MTV Cribs.
Rex began to pursue mainstream acting and in 1999 was cast in the television show Jack & Jill, which ran for two seasons. He appeared as "Eli" in the TV show Felicity and television guest appearances followed including Baywatch, Everwood, and Summerland. In 2002, the pilot for the show What I Like About You was picked up by The WB, which now has become The CW. Rex starred in the first season. He later appeared on the Lifetime show, Monarch Cove which ran for 11 episodes in 2006. He also co-produced a pilot for a show called Rex, with supporting roles performed by Paris Hilton, Lance Bass and Jaime Pressley.
Rex has appeared in The Forsaken, Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4 and The Karate Dog. He also starred in National Lampoon's Pledge This! with Paris Hilton.
Music[link]
Rex entered the music industry as a rap artist after becoming friends with Mickey Avalon. Rex adopted the stage name "Dirt Nasty" and formed the rap group, Dyslexic Speedreaders, along with Mickey Avalon, Andre Legacy, and Beardo. Rex often toured with the group and collaborated to create the Shoot To Kill mixtape. The group ended abruptly, as Mickey Avalon left due to personal problems involving Rex and Andre Legacy. Rex still remains close to Andre Legacy and Beardo. He also collaborates with other artists such as Andy Milonakis and Rich Hil. In 2007, he released his self titled debut album. Rex appeared on Paris Hilton's My New BFF in his "Dirt Nasty" persona and in Kesha's video for her song "Tik Tok". He appeared in the LMFAO music video for "Yes" and "Sexy and I Know It" . He rapped at the conclusion of Charlie Sheen's "Torpedo of Truth" show in Detroit but did not perform at the show's second presentation in Chicago the next day.[4]
In 2011, Rex performed at The Piano Room, a Kings Cross nightclub in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Rex was involved in a minor incident at the nightclub, jointly owned by John Ibrahim and investors, including Kyle Sandilands, where a customer allegedly took a microphone from Rex and assaulted him. It was alleged that Rex, in self-defense, punched the man, and was defended by associates of the Bra Boys.[5] In November 2011 Rex performed as Dirt Nasty with KC rapper Mac Lethal at the Mosaic night club in KCMO entertainment district.
Currently, he is a member of the rap trio Three Loco, along with Andy Milonakis, previously known for The Andy Milonakis Show, and Riff Raff of MTV's From G's to Gents fame. He is credited under his Dirt Nasty persona.[6]
Business ventures[link]
Rex was a co-owner of the NYC nightclub Plumm with partners Noel Ashman, Samantha Ronson, Chris Noth, and others. However, Plumm is now closed. [7]
Filmography[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Young, Hard & Solo #2 | Sebastian | Adult film |
| Young, Hard & Solo #3 | Sebastian | Brad Posey's | |
| 1994 | Hot Sessions 3 | Sebastian | 97 AVN Awards Winner |
| 1996 | Baywatch | Himself | TV series - 1 episode |
| 1998 | Snapped | Himself | |
| 1999 | Katie Joplin | Tiger French | TV series |
| Felicity | Eli | TV series - 4 episodes | |
| Jack & Jill | Michael 'Mikey' Russo | TV series - 32 episodes | |
| 2000 | Hot Sessions 11 | Sebastian | Adult film - archive footage |
| Hot Sessions 12 | Sebastian | Adult film - archive footage | |
| Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth | Slab O'Beef | ||
| 2001 | Drum Solo | Blondie | |
| Going Greek | Thompson | ||
| The Forsaken | Pen | ||
| 2002 | What I Like About You | Jeff Campbell | 1 season - 22 episodes |
| 2003 | Scary Movie 3 | George Logan | Lead Role |
| 2004 | The Karate Dog | Det. Peter Fowler | |
| Summerland | Sun | TV series - 2 episodes | |
| She Wants to Move | Hot Guy | Music video by N*E*R*D | |
| 2005 | Cuts | Harrison | TV series - 2 episodes |
| Everwood | Cliff Fenton | TV series - 1 episode | |
| 2006 | Mindy and Brenda | Josh | TV movie |
| Scary Movie 4 | George Logan | Cameo | |
| Pledge This! | Derek | ||
| Monarch Cove | Eddie Lucas | TV series - 14 episodes | |
| Rise: Blood Hunter | Hank | ||
| 2008 | Hotel California | Pete | |
| Superhero Movie | Human Torch | ||
| 2009 | 2 Dudes and a Dream | Dirt Nasty | |
| Silver Street | John | ||
| Rex | Simon | TV movie | |
| The Truth About Angels | Kane Connor | ||
| Sonny Dreamweaver | Hunter | ||
| TiK ToK | Barry | Music video by Kesha | |
| 2010 | Slightly Single in L.A. | J.P. Cipoletti | post-production |
| Boy Toy | Clive | post-production | |
| King of the Avenue | Taz | post-production | |
| Yes | Dirt Nasty | Music Video by LMFAO | |
| Nick Swardson's Pretend Time | Brian | TV Series - 1 episode | |
| 2011 | Sexy and I Know It | Bicycle Man | Music Video by LMFAO |
Discography[link]
- Catching Up to Wilt (with Mickey Avalon, Andre Legacy, and Beardo) (2004)
- Dirt Nasty (2007)
- Shoot to Kill (with Mickey Avalon, Andre Legacy, and Beardo) (2008)
- The White Album (2010)
- Nasty As I Wanna Be (2011)
- Three Loco (with Andy Milonakis and RiFF RAFF) (2012)
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Rex Chandler One on One |
AVN Awards for Best Gay Solo Video for Hot Sessions 3 1997 |
Succeeded by Titan Men–Alone in the Backwoods |
References[link]
- ^ "Simon Rex - Overview". Allmovie. http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:285098~T0. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
- ^ NY Daily: "REX FLEXED PECS FOR SKIN PICS"[dead link]
- ^ "Simon Rex". TV.com. CBS Interactive. unk. http://www.tv.com/simon-rex/person/10163/biography.html. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- ^ Posted by: Michael K (2011-04-04). "Dlisted: "Charlie Sheen Did This In Chicago Last Night"". Mobile.dlisted.com. http://mobile.dlisted.com/node/41451. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
- ^ "Classic fracas - Ibrahim bar bra brawl". The Daily Telegraph (News Limited). 14 May 2011. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/classic-fracas-ibrahim-bar-bra-brawl/story-e6frewz0-1226055598615. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
- ^ "Three Loco's Facebook page". Facebook.com. https://www.facebook.com/ThreeLoco. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
- ^ Ehrich, Kathy (2006-05-24). "The Plumm is the new place in NYC". Usatoday.Com. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-05-24-plumm_x.htm. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
External links[link]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Rex, Simon |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American actor and musician |
| Date of birth | 1974-07-20 |
| Place of birth | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Simon_Rex
Related pages:
http://ru.wn.com/Рекс, Саймон
http://fr.wn.com/Simon Rex
http://nl.wn.com/Simon Rex
http://pt.wn.com/Simon Rex
http://de.wn.com/Simon Rex
http://it.wn.com/Simon Rex
http://pl.wn.com/Simon Rex
http://es.wn.com/Simon Rex
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Rex
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For the actor, see Peter Howell (actor). For the academic, see Peter Howell (academic).
 |
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2009) |
Peter Howell (born circa 1948) is a musician and composer. He is best known for his work on Doctor Who as a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Howell's musical career began in the late 1960s working with John Ferdinando in various psych folk bands including Agincourt and Ithaca. His psych folk work also included a musical version of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and a comedy musical entitled Tomorrow Come Someday. Howell and Ferdinando recorded five albums before Howell became a member of the Radiophonic Workshop. In 1970 he became a studio manager at the BBC and in 1974 he joined the Radiophonic Workshop with which he would associated until 1997.
Contents |
[edit] Doctor Who
His work on Doctor Who began in 1975 when he provided some accompanying incidental music for Revenge of the Cybermen and special sound for Planet of Evil. When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated and commissioned Howell to provide a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme to accompany a new title sequence. Whereas the original arrangement of the theme (written by Ron Grainer) had been realised by Delia Derbyshire using musique concrète techniques, Howell arranged Grainer's theme on analogue synthesisers.
Howell's new arrangement first appeared in 1980 on The Leisure Hive, for which Howell had also recorded the incidental score, and was used throughout Tom Baker's final season on the programme as well as Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor. For Colin Baker's first season in 1984, however there was a problem in transferring the music so the theme was slightly lower in pitch. This version continued to be used until Colin Baker's 1985 story, Revelation of the Daleks. Between 1980 and 1985 Howell also provided incidental music for ten stories of Doctor Who. In 1986, Nathan-Turner commissioned a new theme arrangement by Dominic Glynn which ended Howell's association with Doctor Who on television, although he did provide music for the radio series The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space as well as a new version of his theme for use in the Big Finish audio dramas.
Other work[link]
Aside from Doctor Who, Howell's Radiophonic Workshop work includes an album of original recordings in 1978 entitled Through A Glass Darkly (credited to Peter Howell & The Radiophonic Workshop) and "Greenwich Chorus", a piece which accompanied an episode of Jonathan Miller's popular The Body in Question which was controversial at the time for its use of the vocoder. Howell composed the theme tunes to The Machine that Changed the World (1992), a 5-part television series on the history of the electronic digital computer, to Robert Hughes' 1979-80 8-part series on Modern art (The Shock of the New), and to the Badger Girl and Spywatch series of the long-running BBC schools' programme, Look and Read. Howell was responsible for the BBC Video logo's music in 1985.
Most recently[link]
In recent years Howell's incidental music for the Doctor Who stories The Leisure Hive and Meglos has appeared on volumes 3 and 4 of the Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop compilation albums and much of his early folk material with John Ferdinando has also been re-released on CD.
External links[link]
- Peter Howell's Official Site
- Peter Howell at the Internet Movie Database
- Site about Howell's pre-Radiophonic work
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Howell, Peter |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Peter_Howell
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Howell
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
