The Treaty of Dunkirk was signed by France and the United Kingdom on 4 March 1947, during the aftermath of World War II and the start of the Cold War, as a Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance in the event of possible attacks by Germany or the Soviet Union. In March 1948, this alliance was expanded in the Treaty of Brussels to include the Benelux countries, forming the Brussels Treaty Organization, commonly known as the Western Union. Talks for a wider military alliance, which could include North America, also began that month in the United States, where their foreign policy under the Truman Doctrine promoted international solidarity against actions they saw as communist aggression, such as the February 1948 coup d'état in Czechoslovakia. These talks resulted in the signature of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949 by the member states of the Western Union plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson was a key author and drafter of the treaty.
The North Atlantic Treaty was largely dormant until the Korean War initiated the establishment of NATO to implement it with an integrated military structure. This included the formation of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in 1951, which adopted many of the Western Union's military structures and plans, including their agreements on standardizing equipment and agreements on stationing foreign military forces in European countries. In 1952, the post of Secretary General of NATO was established as the organization's chief civilian. That year also saw the first major NATO maritime exercises, Exercise Mainbrace and the accession of Greece and Turkey to the organization. Following the London and Paris Conferences, West Germany was permitted to rearm militarily, as they joined NATO in May 1955, which was, in turn, a major factor in the creation of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact, delineating the two opposing sides of the Cold War.
The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 marked a height in Cold War tensions, when 400,000 US troops were stationed in Europe. Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defence against a prospective Soviet invasion – doubts that led to the development of the independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of France from NATO's military structure in 1966. In 1982, the newly democratic Spain joined the alliance.
The Revolutions of 1989 in Europe led to a strategic re-evaluation of NATO's purpose, nature, tasks, and focus on that continent. In October 1990, East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the alliance, and in November 1990, the alliance signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) in Paris with the Soviet Union. It mandated specific military reductions across the continent, which continued after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in February 1991 and dissolution of the Soviet Union in that December, which removed the de facto main adversaries of NATO. This began a draw-down of military spending and equipment in Europe. The CFE treaty allowed signatories to remove 52,000 pieces of conventional armaments in the following sixteen years, and allowed military spending by NATO's European members to decline by 28 percent from 1990 to 2015. In 1990 assurances were given by several Western leaders to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand further east, as revealed by memoranda of private conversations. However, the final text of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, signed later that year, contained no mention of the issue of eastward expansion.
In the 1990s, the organization extended its activities into political and humanitarian situations that had not formerly been NATO concerns. During the Breakup of Yugoslavia, the organization conducted its first military interventions in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 and later Yugoslavia in 1999. These conflicts motivated a major post-Cold War military restructuring. NATO's military structure was cut back and reorganized, with new forces such as the Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps established. The changes brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union on the military balance in Europe since the CFE treaty were recognized in the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, which was signed at the 1999 Istanbul summit.
Politically, the organization sought better relations with the newly autonomous Central and Eastern European nations, and diplomatic forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbours were set up during this post-Cold War period, including the Partnership for Peace and the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative in 1994, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997, and the NATO–Russia Permanent Joint Council in 1998. At the 1999 Washington summit, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic officially joined NATO, and the organization also issued new guidelines for membership with individualized "Membership Action Plans". These plans governed the addition of new alliance members: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020. The election of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 led to a major reform of France's military position, culminating with the return to full membership on 4 April 2009, which also included France rejoining the NATO Military Command Structure, while maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty, requiring member states to come to the aid of any member state subject to an armed attack, was invoked for the first and only time after the September 11 attacks, after which troops were deployed to Afghanistan under the NATO-led ISAF. The organization has operated a range of additional roles since then, including sending trainers to Iraq, assisting in counter-piracy operations, and in 2011 enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
Russia's annexation of Crimea led to strong condemnation by NATO nations, and was one of the seven times that Article 4, which calls for consultation among NATO members, has been invoked. Prior times included during the Iraq War and Syrian Civil War. At the 2014 Wales summit, the leaders of NATO's member states formally committed for the first time to spend the equivalent of at least two percent of their gross domestic products on defence by 2024, which had previously been only an informal guideline. At the 2016 Warsaw summit, NATO countries agreed on the creation of NATO Enhanced Forward Presence, which deployed four multinational battalion-sized battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent ground troops, warships and fighter aircraft to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank, and multiple countries again invoked Article 4. In March 2022, NATO leaders met at Brussels for an extraordinary summit which also involved Group of Seven and European Union leaders. NATO member states agreed to establish four additional battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, and elements of the NATO Response Force were activated for the first time in NATO's history.
As of June 2022, NATO had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500-kilometres-long Eastern flank to deter Russian aggression. More than half of this number have been deployed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland, which five countries muster a considerable combined ex-NATO force of 259,000 troops. To supplement Bulgaria's Air Force, Spain sent Eurofighter Typhoons, the Netherlands sent eight F-35 attack aircraft, and additional French and US attack aircraft would arrive soon as well.


In an effort to stop Slobodan Milošević's Serbian-led crackdown on KLA separatists and Albanian civilians in Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1199 on 23 September 1998 to demand a ceasefire. Negotiations under US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke broke down on 23 March 1999, and he handed the matter to NATO, which started a 78-day bombing campaign on 24 March 1999. Operation Allied Force targeted the military capabilities of what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the crisis, NATO also deployed one of its international reaction forces, the ACE Mobile Force (Land), to Albania as the Albania Force (AFOR), to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees from Kosovo.
Though the campaign was criticized for high civilian casualties, including bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Milošević finally accepted the terms of an international peace plan on 3 June 1999, ending the Kosovo War. On 11 June, Milošević further accepted UN resolution 1244, under the mandate of which NATO then helped establish the KFOR peacekeeping force. Nearly one million refugees had fled Kosovo, and part of KFOR's mandate was to protect the humanitarian missions, in addition to deterring violence. In August–September 2001, the alliance also mounted Operation Essential Harvest, a mission disarming ethnic Albanian militias in the Republic of Macedonia. As of 1 December 2013, 4,882 KFOR soldiers, representing 31 countries, continue to operate in the area.
The US, the UK, and most other NATO countries opposed efforts to require the UN Security Council to approve NATO military strikes, such as the action against Serbia in 1999, while France and some others claimed that the alliance needed UN approval. The US/UK side claimed that this would undermine the authority of the alliance, and they noted that Russia and China would have exercised their Security Council vetoes to block the strike on Yugoslavia, and could do the same in future conflicts where NATO intervention was required, thus nullifying the entire potency and purpose of the organization. Recognizing the post-Cold War military environment, NATO adopted the Alliance Strategic Concept during its Washington summit in April 1999 that emphasized conflict prevention and crisis management.


The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, /ˈneɪtoʊ/; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the perceived threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.
NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium, while NATO's military headquarters are near Mons, Belgium. The alliance has targeted deployments of their NATO Response Force in Eastern Europe, and the combined militaries of all NATO members include around 3.5 million soldiers and personnel. Their combined military spending as of 2020 constituted over 57 percent of the global nominal total. Members have agreed that their aim is to reach or maintain the target defence spending of at least two percent of their GDP by 2024.
NATO formed with twelve founding members, and has added new members eight times, most recently when North Macedonia joined the alliance in March 2020. Following the acceptance of their applications for membership in June 2022, Finland and Sweden are anticipated to become the 31st and 32nd members, with their Accession Protocols to the North Atlantic Treaty now in the process of being ratified by the existing members. NATO currently also recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members. Enlargement has led to tensions with non-member Russia, which is one of the twenty additional countries that participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace programme. Another nineteen countries are involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes with NATO.


The September 11 attacks in the United States caused NATO to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time in the organization's history. The Article states that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack on all. The invocation was confirmed on 4 October 2001 when NATO determined that the attacks were indeed eligible under the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty. The eight official actions taken by NATO in response to the attacks included Operation Eagle Assist and Operation Active Endeavour, a naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, and to enhance the security of shipping in general, which began on 4 October 2001.
The alliance showed unity: on 16 April 2003, NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which included troops from 42 countries. The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two nations leading ISAF at the time of the agreement, and all nineteen NATO ambassadors approved it unanimously. The handover of control to NATO took place on 11 August, and marked the first time in NATO's history that it took charge of a mission outside the north Atlantic area.
ISAF was initially charged with securing Kabul and surrounding areas from the Taliban, al Qaeda and factional warlords, so as to allow for the establishment of the Afghan Transitional Administration headed by Hamid Karzai. In October 2003, the UN Security Council authorized the expansion of the ISAF mission throughout Afghanistan, and ISAF subsequently expanded the mission in four main stages over the whole of the country.
On 31 July 2006, the ISAF additionally took over military operations in the south of Afghanistan from a US-led anti-terrorism coalition. Due to the intensity of the fighting in the south, in 2011 France allowed a squadron of Mirage 2000 fighter/attack aircraft to be moved into the area, to Kandahar, in order to reinforce the alliance's efforts. During its 2012 Chicago Summit, NATO endorsed a plan to end the Afghanistan war and to remove the NATO-led ISAF Forces by the end of December 2014. ISAF was disestablished in December 2014 and replaced by the follow-on training Resolute Support Mission.
On 14 April 2021, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance had agreed to start withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan by May 1. Soon after the withdrawal of NATO troops started, the Taliban launched an offensive against the Afghan government, quickly advancing in front of collapsing Afghan Armed Forces. By 15 August 2021, Taliban militants controlled the vast majority of Afghanistan and had encircled the capital city of Kabul. Some politicians in NATO member states have described the chaotic withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan and the collapse of the Afghan government as the greatest debacle that NATO has suffered since its founding.


In August 2004, during the Iraq War, NATO formed the NATO Training Mission – Iraq, a training mission to assist the Iraqi security forces in conjunction with the US-led MNF-I. The NATO Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I) was established at the request of the Iraqi Interim Government under the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546. The aim of NTM-I was to assist in the development of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions so that Iraq can build an effective and sustainable capability that addresses the needs of the nation. NTM-I was not a combat mission but is a distinct mission, under the political control of the North Atlantic Council. Its operational emphasis was on training and mentoring. The activities of the mission were coordinated with Iraqi authorities and the US-led Deputy Commanding General Advising and Training, who was also dual-hatted as the Commander of NTM-I. The mission officially concluded on 17 December 2011.
Turkey invoked the first Article 4 meetings in 2003 at the start of the Iraq War. Turkey also invoked this article twice in 2012 during the Syrian Civil War, after the downing of an unarmed Turkish F-4 reconnaissance jet, and after a mortar was fired at Turkey from Syria, and again in 2015 after threats by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to its territorial integrity.


The date of May 1 (an ancient European folk holiday known as May Day) emerged in 1886 as an alternative holiday for the celebration of labor, later becoming known as International Workers' Day. The date had its origins at the 1885 convention of the American Federation of Labor, which passed a resolution calling for adoption of the eight-hour day effective May 1, 1886. While negotiation was envisioned for achievement of the shortened work day, use of the strike to enforce this demand was recognized, with May 1 advocated as a date for coordinated strike action. The proximity of the date to the bloody Haymarket affair of May 4, 1886, further accentuated May First's radical reputation.
There was disagreement among labor unions at this time about when a holiday celebrating workers should be, with some advocating for continued emphasis of the September march-and-picnic date while others sought the designation of the more politically charged date of May 1. Conservative Democratic President Grover Cleveland was one of those concerned that a labor holiday on May 1 would tend to become a commemoration of the Haymarket affair and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe. In 1887, he publicly supported the September Labor Day holiday as a less inflammatory alternative, formally adopting the date as a United States federal holiday through a law that he signed in 1894.
Since the mid-1950s, the United States has celebrated Loyalty Day and Law Day on May 1. Unlike Labor Day, neither are legal public holidays (in that government agencies and most businesses do not shut down to celebrate them) and therefore have remained relatively obscure.  Loyalty Day is formally celebrated in a few cities, while some bar associations hold Law Day events to celebrate the rule of law.


In 1488, Stuttgart officially became the de facto residence of the Count himself as opposed to the location of his home, the Old Castle. Eberhard I, then Count Eberhard V, became the first Duke of Württemberg in 1495, and made Stuttgart the seat of the Duchy of Württemberg in addition to the County thereof. All this would be lost to the Württembergs during the reign of his son, Ulrich. Though Ulrich initially made territorial gains as a result of his decision to fight alongside the Emperor Maximilian I, he was no friend of the powerful Swabian League nor of his own subjects, who launched the Poor Conrad rebellion of 1514. Despite this and his rivalry with the Swabian League, his undoing would actually come in the form of his unhappy marriage to Sabina of Bavaria. In 1515, Ulrich killed an imperial knight and lover of Sabina's by the name of Hans von Hutten, obliging her to flee to the court of her brother, William IV, Duke of Bavaria, who successfully had Ulrich placed under Imperial ban twice. When the Emperor died in 1519, Ulrich struck, seizing the Free Imperial City of Reutlingen, prompting the League to intervene. That same year, Ulrich was soundly defeated and he was driven into exile in France and Switzerland following the League's conquest of Württemberg. Württemberg was then sold by the League to Emperor Charles V, who then granted it to his brother, Ferdinand I, thus beginning the 12 year ownership of the county by the Habsburgs. When the peasants Ulrich had crushed before rose once again in the German Peasants' War, Stuttgart was occupied by the peasant armies for a few days in the Spring of 1525. Ulrich, with the help of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, seized the chance to restore himself to power (albeit as an Austrian vassal) in the turmoil of the Reformation and War with the Turks and invited Erhard Schnepf to bring the Reformation to Stuttgart. He accepted, was named Court Preacher in Stuttgart, and worked in concert with Ambrosius Blarer until his dismissal following his resistance to the Augsburg Interim by the Duke in 1548. Duke Ulrich himself died two years later, and was succeeded by his son, Christoph. He had grown up in a Württemberg in turmoil, and wished to rebuild its image. To this end, he once again began a construction boom all over the Duchy under the direction of Court Architect Aberlin Tretsch; knowing full well that the time of the Reisekönigtum was over, Christoph and Tretsch rebuilt and remodeled the Old Castle into a Renaissance palace, and from 1542 to 1544, what is today the Schillerplatz was built as a town square. Duke Christoph also responded to the increasing made for drinking water by embarking upon a massive hydraulic engineering project in the form of a 2,810 ft (860 m) tunnel to Pffaf Lake, the Glems, and the Nesenbach from 1566 to 1575. In 1575, Georg Beer was also appointed Court Architect, and he built the Lusthaus. But it was architect Heinrich Schickhardt who would carry Tretsch's torch further; Schickhardt constructed the Stammheim Castle in the suburb of Stammheim, rebuilt the Fruchtkasten in the today's Schillerplatz, and expanded the Prinzebau.
The Thirty Years' War devastated the city, and it would slowly decline for a period of time from then on. After the catastrophic defeat of the Protestant Heilbronn League by the Habsburgs at Nörlingen in 1634, Duke Eberhard III and his court fled in exile to Strasbourg, abandoning the Duchy to looting by pro-Habsburg forces. The Habsburgs once again had full reign of the city for another four years, and in that time Stuttgart had to carry the burden of billeting the pro-Habsburg armies in Swabia. Ferdinand III, King of the Romans, entered the city in 1634 and, two years later in 1636, once again attempted to re-Catholicize Württemberg. The next year, the Bubonic plague struck and devastated the population. The Duke returned in 1638 to a realm somewhat partitioned to Catholic factions in the region, and entirely ravaged by the war. In the Duchy itself, battle, famine, plague and war reduced the Duchy's population of 350,000 in 1618 to 120,000 in 1648 – about 57% of the population of Württemberg. Recovery would be slow for the next several decades, but began nonetheless with the city's first bookstore in 1650 and high school in 1686. This progress was almost entirely undone when French soldiers under Ezéchiel du Mas appeared outside the city's walls in 1688 during the Nine Years' War, but the city was saved from another sack due to the diplomatic ability of Magdalena Sibylla, reigning over Württemberg as regent for her son, Eberhard Ludwig.
For the first time in centuries, Duke Eberhard Ludwig moved the seat of the Duchy out of the declining city of Stuttgart in 1718 to Ludwigsburg, founded in 1704, while the namesake Baroque palace, known as the "Versailles of Swabia", was still under construction. When Eberhard Ludwig died, his nephew Charles Alexander, ascended to the throne. Charles Alexander himself died in 1737, meaning his son Charles Eugene became the premature Duke (and later King) at the age of nine. When he came of age and returned from his tutoring at the court of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, Charles desired to move the capital back to Stuttgart. He commissioned the construction of the New Castle in 1746, Castle Solitude in 1763, Castle Hohenheim in 1785, and the Karlsschule in 1770. The rule of Charles Eugene also saw the tutoring and origins of Friedrich Schiller in Stuttgart, who studied medicine and completed The Robbers here. Stuttgart, at the end of the 18th century, remained a very provincial town of 20,000 residents, narrow alleys, and agriculture and livestock. Despite being the capital and seat of the Duchy, the general staff of the Army of Württemberg was not present in the city. In 1794, Duke Charles dissolved the Karlsschule to prevent the spreading of revolutionary ideas.
Stuttgart was proclaimed capital once more when Württemberg became an electorate in 1803, and was yet again named as capital when the Kingdom of Württemberg was formed in 1805 by the Peace of Pressburg.


In 700, Duke Gotfrid mentions a "Chan Stada" in a document regarding property. Archaeological evidence shows that later Merovingian era Frankish farmers continued to till the same land the Romans did.
Cannstatt is mentioned in the Abbey of St. Gall's archives as "Canstat ad Neccarum" (German: Cannstatt-on-Neckar) in 708. The etymology of the name "Cannstatt" is not clear, but as the site is mentioned as condistat in the Annals of Metz (9th century), it is mostly derived from the Latin word condita ("foundation"), suggesting that the name of the Roman settlement might have had the prefix "Condi-." Alternatively, Sommer (1992) suggested that the Roman site corresponds to the Civitas Aurelia G attested to in an inscription found near Öhringen. There have also been attempts at a derivation from a Gaulish *kondâti- "confluence".
In AD 950, Duke Liudolf of Swabia, son of the current Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, decided to establish a stud farm for his cavalry during the Hungarian invasions of Europe on a widened area of the Nesenbach river valley 5 km (3.1 mi) south of the old Roman castrum. The land and title of Duke of Swabia remained in Liudolf's hands until his rebellion was quashed by his father four years later. In 1089, Bruno of Calw built the precursor building to the Old Castle.
Stuttgart's viticulture, first documented in the Holy Roman Empire in the year AD 1108, kept people in the area of that stud farm for some time, but the area was still largely overshadowed by nearby Cannstatt because of its role as a local crossroad for many major European trade routes. Nevertheless, the existence of a settlement here (despite the terrain being more suited for that original stud farm) during the High Middle Ages is provided by a gift registry from Hirsau Abbey dated to around 1160 that mentions a "Hugo de Stuokarten". A settlement at this locale was again mentioned in 1229, but this time by Pope Gregory IX. In AD 1219, Stuttgart (then Stuotgarten) became a possession of Herman V, Margrave of Baden. In addition to Backnang, Pforzheim, and Besigheim, Hermann would also found the Stuttgart we know today in c. 1220. In 1251, the city passed to the Ulrich I von Württemberg as part of Mechthild von Baden's dowry. His son, Eberhard I "the Illustrious", would be the first to begin the many major expansions of Stuttgart under the House of Württemberg.
Eberhard desired to expand the realm his father had built through military action with the aid of the anti-king Henry Raspe IV, Landgrave of Thuringia, but was thwarted by the action of Emperor Rudolph I. Further resistance by Eberhard I against the Emperor's created Vogts and Bailiwicks as well as the newly appointed Duke of Swabia Rudolf II, Duke of Austria, eventually led to armed conflict and initial successes upon Emperor Rudolph I's death in 1291 against the Emperor's men. After initially defeating his regional rivals, Henry VII, newly elected as Emperor, decided to take action against Eberhard I in 1311 during his war with the Free imperial city of Esslingen by ordering his Vogt, Konrad IV von Weinberg, to declare war on Eberhard I. Eberhard I, defeated on the battlefield, lost Stuttgart and his castle (razed in 1311) to Esslingen and the city was thus managed by the city state from 1312 to 1315. Total destruction of the county was prevented by Henry VII's death on 24 August 1313 and the elections of Louis IV as King of the Germans and Frederick III as anti-king. Eberhard seized the opportunity granted to him by the political chaos, and recaptured his hometown and birthplace in 1316, and made much territorial gain. With peace restored at last, Eberhard began repairs and expansion to Stuttgart beginning with the reconstruction of Wirtemberg Castle, ancestral home to the House of Württemberg, in 1317 and then began expansion of the city's defenses. The early 1320s were important years for Stuttgart: Eberhard I moved the seat of the county to the city to a new and expanded castle, the collegiate church in Beutelsbach, where previous members of the Württemberg dynasty had been buried prior to its destruction in 1311, moved to its current location in Stuttgart in 1320, and the town's Stiftkirche was expanded into an abbey, and the control of the Martinskirche by the Bishopric of Constance was broken by Papal order in 1321. A year after the city became the principal seat of the Counts of Württemberg in 1320, the city was granted status as a city and given civic rights. At the end of the 14th century, new suburbs sprang up around Leonhard Church and near the city's fortifications as well. Towards the end of the 15th century, Count Ulrich V began construction of a new suburb on the northeastern edge of the city around the Dominican monastery Hospitalkirche. In the 1457, the first Landtag of the Estates of Württemberg was established in Stuttgart and a similar institution was established in Leonberg. After the temporary partitions of the County of Württemberg by the Treaties of Nürtingen, Münsingen, and Esslingen, Stuttgart was once again declared the capital of the county in 1483.


At the end of the First World War, November revolutionaries stormed the Wilhelmpalais on 30 November 1918 to force King Wilhelm II to abdicate, but failed halfway. Under pressure from the revolutionaries, Wilhelm II refused the crown, but also refused to abdicate the throne. When he did eventually abdicate, the Free State of Württemberg was established as a part of the Weimar Republic, and Stuttgart was declared its capital. On 26 April 1919, a new constitution was devised, and the final draft was approved and ratified on 25 September 1919 by the Constituent Assembly. In 1920, Stuttgart temporarily became the seat of the German National Government when the administration fled from Berlin from the Kapp Putsch. Also in 1920, Erwin Rommel became the company commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment based in Stuttgart and would remain as such for the next nine years.


Due to the Nazi Party's practice of Gleichschaltung, Stuttgart's political importance as state capital became totally nonexistent, though it remained the cultural and economic centre of the central Neckar region. Stuttgart, one of the cities bestowed an honorary title by the Nazi regime, was given the moniker "City of the Abroad Germans" in 1936. The first prototypes of the Volkswagen Beetle were manufactured in Stuttgart, according to designs by Ferdinand Porsche, by a design team including Erwin Komenda and Karl Rabe.
The Hotel Silber (English: Silver), previously occupied by other forms of political police, was occupied by the Gestapo in 1933 to detain and torture political dissidents. The hotel was used for the transit of Nazi prisoners of conscience including Eugen Bolz, Kurt Schumacher, and Lilo Herrmann to concentration camps. The nearby court at Archive Street (German: Archivstraße) 12A was also used as a central location for executions in Southwest Germany, as the headstone located in its atrium dedicated to the 419 lives lost there recalls. Participants of the Kristallnacht burned the Old Synagogue to the ground along with the relics contained within and also destroyed its Jewish cemetery. The next year the Nazi regime began the arrests and deportation of Stuttgart's Jewish inhabitants, beginning with the entire male Jewish population of Stuttgart, to the police-run prison camp at Welzheim or directly to Dachau. Other Jews from around Württemberg were brought to Stuttgart and housed in the ghetto on the former Trade Fair grounds in Killesberg. As the Memorial at Stuttgart North records, between 1941 (the first train arrived 1 December 1941, and took around 1,000 men to Riga) and 1945, more than 2,000 Jews from all over Württemberg were deported to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and the ghettos at Riga and Izbica. Of them, only 180 held in Internment survived the Shoah.
Stuttgart, like many of Germany's major cities, was ravaged throughout the war by Allied air raids. For the first four years of the war, successful air raids on the city were rare because of the capable defence of the city by Wehrmacht ground forces, the Luftwaffe, and artificial fog. Despite opinions among some Royal Air Force members that day-time air raids on the city were suicidal, substantial damage to the city's industrial capacity still occurred, such as the 25 August bombing of the Daimler AG plant in 1940 that killed five people. With the war increasingly turning against the Third Reich, more and more troops were pulled from the defence of the city in 1943 to fight on the Eastern Front. In 1944, the city centre was entirely in ruins due to Allied bombing raids that could now more easily attack the city. The heaviest raid took place on 12 September 1944, when the Royal Air Force, dropping over 184,000 bombs – including 75 blockbusters – levelled Stuttgart's city centre, killing 957 people in the resulting firestorm. In totality, Stuttgart was subjected to 53 bombing raids, resulting in the destruction of 57.7% of all buildings in the city, the deaths of 4,477 inhabitants, the disappearance of 85 citizens, and the injury of 8,908 more people. The Allies lost 300 aircraft and seven to ten enlisted men. To commemorate the city citizens who died during the war, the rubble was assembled and used to create the Birkenkopf.


Originally, the most important location in the Neckar river valley was the hilly rim of the Stuttgart basin at what is today Bad Cannstatt. Thus, the first settlement of Stuttgart was a massive Roman Castra stativa (Cannstatt Castrum) built c. 90 AD to protect the Villas and vineyards blanketing the landscape and the road from Mogontiacum (Mainz) to Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg). As with many military installations, a settlement sprang up nearby and remained there even after the limes moved further east. When they did, the town was left in the capable hands of a local brickworks that produced sophisticated architectural ceramics and pottery. When the Romans were driven back past the Rhine and Danube rivers in the third century by the Alamanni, the settlement temporarily vanished from history until the seventh century.


In 1642, the Battle of Powick Bridge was the first major skirmish of the English Civil War. The county suffered from being on the Royalist front line, as it was subject to heavy taxation and the pressing of men into the Royalist army, which also reduced its productive capacity. The northern part of the county, which was already a centre of iron production, was important for military supplies. Parliamentarian raids and Royalist requisitioning both placed a great strain on the county.
There were tensions from the participation of prominent Catholic recusants in the military and civilian organisation of the county. Combined with the opposition to requisitioning from both sides, bands of Clubmen formed to keep the war away from their localities.
The Battle of Worcester in 1651 effectively ended the third civil war. There was little enthusiasm or local participation in the mostly Scottish Royalist army, whose defeat was widely welcomed. Nevertheless, Parliamentarian forces ransacked the city of Worcester, causing heavy damage, looting and destruction of property. Around 10,000 mostly Scottish prisoners were sent into forced labour in the New World or fen drainage schemes. The small bands of Scots that fled into Worcestershire's countryside were attacked by local forces and killed.


Ramsbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire. The village is in the Kennet Valley near the Berkshire boundary. The nearest towns are Hungerford about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) east and Marlborough about 5.5 miles (8.9 km) west. The much larger town of Swindon is about 12 miles (19 km) to the north.
The civil parish includes the hamlet of Axford about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Ramsbury, and three smaller hamlets: New Town, close to Ramsbury to the southeast, and Knighton and Whittonditch, both about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 1,989.


The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a large settlement of 156 households at Ramesberie.
Littlecote Roman Villa is in the parish. The earliest written history of Ramsbury can be traced from the Saxon era when the bishopric of Ramsbury was created in 909 AD.
Between 1942 and 1946, during World War II, there was a Royal Air Force airfield known as RAF Ramsbury on a ridge of high ground to the south of the village.


The parish has two Grade I listed buildings in addition to Holy Cross church. Ramsbury Manor was built in the 1680s by Robert Hooke for Sir William Jones, lawyer, Attorney General and member of Parliament. The house has two storeys and an attic, with nine bays at the front; to the south is a courtyard of servants' cottages. It stands in parkland to the west of the village, on the north bank of the Kennet, which has been dammed to form a lake. At the park's main entrance are Grade II* listed gates and lodges.
Also Grade I listed is Axford Farmhouse, built in the 17th century and altered in the 19th, with an attached 13th-century chapel.
There are three Grade II* listed houses: Riverside House, Axford (16th and 17th centuries, part timber-framed); Parliament Piece, Ramsbury (five bays, 17th century, extended 19th); and Crowood House, north of Ramsbury (also five bays, late 17th and early 19th).


In Saxon times, Ramsbury was an important location for the Church, and several of its early bishops went on to become Archbishops of Canterbury. The episcopal see of Ramsbury was created in AD 909 when Wiltshire and Berkshire were taken from the bishopric of Winchester to form the new diocese of Ramsbury. It was occasionally referred to as the bishopric of Ramsbury and Sonning. In 1058 it was joined with the bishopric of Sherborne to form the diocese of Sarum (Salisbury), and the see was translated to Old Sarum in 1075.
Although no longer a diocesan see, the bishopric of Ramsbury is now an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Salisbury (see Bishop of Ramsbury), and is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.


All of the county is drained by the Thames. Berkshire divides into two topological (and associated geological) sections: east and west of Reading. North-east Berkshire has the low calciferous (limestone) m-shaped bends of the Thames south of which is a broader, clayey, gravelly former watery plain or belt from Earley to Windsor and beyond, south, are parcels and belts of uneroded higher sands, flints, shingles and lightly acid soil and in the north of the Bagshot Formation, north of Surrey and Hampshire. Swinley Forest (also known as Bracknell Forest), Windsor Great Park, Crowthorne and Stratfield Saye Woods have many pine, silver birch, and other lightly acid-soil trees. East of the grassy and wooded bends a large minority of East Berkshire's land mirrors the clay belt, being of low elevation and on the left (north) bank of the Thames: Slough, Eton, Eton Wick, Wraysbury, Horton, and Datchet. In the heart of the county Reading's northern suburb Caversham is also on that bank, but rises steeply into the Chiltern Hills.
Two main tributaries skirt past Reading, the Loddon and its sub-tributary the Blackwater draining parts of two counties south, and the Kennet draining part of upland Wiltshire in the west. Heading west the reduced, but equally large, part of the county extends further from the Thames which flows from the north-north-west before the Goring Gap; West Berkshire hosts the varying-width plain of the River Kennet rising to high chalk hills by way of and lower clay slopes and rises. To the south, the land crests along the boundary with Hampshire; the highest parts of South-East and Eastern England taken together are here. The highest is Walbury Hill at 297 m (974 ft). To the north of the Kennet are the Berkshire Downs. This is hilly country, with smaller and well-wooded valleys: those of the Lambourn, Pang, and their Thames sub-tributaries. The open upland areas vie with Newmarket, Suffolk for horse racing training and breeding centres and have good fields of barley, wheat, and other cereal crops.


Since the last general election in 2017, six of the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) have been Conservative and two (Slough and Reading East) have been Labour. The prime minister between July 2016 and July 2019, Theresa May represents Maidenhead, the geographically larger seat west of Slough.


The Kolb Studio is a historic structure situated on the edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon Village within Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It was operated from 1904 until 1976 as the photographic studio of brothers Ellsworth and Emery Kolb.


In 1902, Emery C. Kolb (1881–1976) and Ellsworth L. Kolb (1876–1960) first arrived at the  south rim of the Grand Canyon. In 1911, they successfully navigated the Colorado River, filming their journey. Built between from 1904 to 1926, the building which they constructed was both a family home and photographic studio for the pioneering Kolb brothers. The building has evolved through two major additions and countless minor changes during its century of existence at Grand Canyon.
After the death of Emery Kolb in 1976, the National Park Service acquired the historic studio. During the 1990s, the Grand Canyon Association renovated the building and converted it to its current state. The Grand Canyon Association now operates an art gallery, bookstore and information inside the building.  The bookstore's proceeds go to support the building, and the store features a tribute to the Kolbs’ photographs of mule riders at Grand Canyon. The start of the Bright Angel Trail is to the west of the Kolb Studio.


During 2013 and 2014, the Grand Canyon Association was in the process of restoring and rehabilitating this significant building. Work includes addressing the structural degradation of Kolb Studio.
a) rectifying drainage problems from public sidewalks and corresponding retaining walls,
b) stabilizing the concrete entranceway to assure safe continuing access to the facility
c) repairing and replacing exterior building features (e.g. log and shingle siding, structural beams, gutters, wooden porches) in order to assure long-term structural integrity of the building and
d) protecting restored exterior surfaces with paints, sealants and other coatings.


William C Suran  (1991) The Kolb Brothers of Grand Canyon (Gem Guides Book Company) ISBN 9780938216384


Ultimately, the term "warren" was generalized to include wild burrows. According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
The word thus became used of a piece of ground preserved for these beasts of warren. It is now applied loosely to any piece of ground, whether preserved or not, where rabbits breed.
The use is further extended to any system of burrows, e.g., "prairie dog warren".  By 1649, the term was applied to inferior, crowded human accommodations and meant "cluster of densely populated living spaces" (OED).  Contemporarily, the leading use seems to be in the stock phrase "warren of cubicles" in the workplace.


In 1960, Lévesque entered politics as a star candidate and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec in the 1960 election as a Liberal Party member in the riding of Montréal-Laurier. In the government of Jean Lesage, he served as minister of hydroelectric resources and public works from 1960 to 1961, and minister of natural resources from 1961 to 1965. While in office, he played a pivotal role in the nationalization of hydroelectric companies, greatly expanding Hydro-Québec, one of the reforms that was part of the Quiet Revolution.
From 1965 to 1966, he served as minister of family and welfare. Lévesque, with friend the minister of health, Eric Kierans, was heavily involved in negotiations with the Government of Canada to fund both Quebec and federal mandates for social programs.
In a surprise, the Liberals lost the 1966 election to the Union Nationale but Lévesque retained his own seat of Laurier. Believing that the Canadian federation was doomed to fail, Lévesque began to openly champion separation from Canada as part of the Liberal platform at the upcoming party conference. Kierans, who had been elected party president, led the movement against the motion, with future premier Robert Bourassa attempting to mediate the dispute before siding with Kierans. The resolution was handily defeated, and Lévesque walked out with his followers.


On February 6, 1977, Lévesque's car fatally struck Edgar Trottier, a homeless man who had been lying on the road. Trottier had in the past repeatedly used the maneuver to secure a hospital bed for the night. Police officers at the scene did not administer the breathalyzer test to Lévesque, because they did not suspect that he was impaired. Levesque was later fined $25 for failing to wear his glasses while driving a car on the night in question. The incident gained further notoriety when it was revealed that the female companion in the vehicle was not his wife, but his longtime secretary, Corinne Côté. Lévesque's marriage ended in divorce soon thereafter (the couple had already been estranged for some time), and in April 1979, he married Côté.
Lévesque's government completed the nationalization of hydroelectricity through Hydro-Québec. He also created the Quebec Charter of the French Language, the political party financing law, and the Parti Québécois itself. His government was the first in Canada to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the province's Charte des droits de la personne in 1977. He also continued the work of the Lesage government in improving social services, in which social needs were taken care of by the state, instead of the Catholic Church (as in the Duplessis era) or the individual. Lévesque is still regarded by many as a symbol of democracy and tolerance.
The PQ government's response to the recession of the early 1980s by cutting the provincial budget to reduce growing deficits that resulted from the recession angered labour union members, a core part of the constituency of the PQ and the sovereignty movement.
Lévesque's Act to govern the financing of political parties banned corporate donations and limited individual contributions to political parties to $3,000. This key legislation was meant to prevent wealthy citizens and organizations from having a disproportionate influence on the electoral process. A Referendum Act was passed to allow for a province-wide vote on issues presented in a referendum, giving a "yes" and "no" side equal funding and legal footing.


René Lévesque GOQ ([ʁœne leˈvaɪ̯k] (listen); August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Québécois politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to attempt, through a referendum, to negotiate the political independence of Quebec. Starting his career as a reporter, and radio and television host, he later became known for his eminent role in Quebec's nationalization of hydro, and as an ardent defender of Quebec sovereignty. He was the founder of the Parti Québécois, and before that, a Liberal minister in the Lesage government from 1960 to 1966.


Corregidor (Tagalog: Pulo ng Corregidor, locally [kɔˈɾɛhidɔr]) is an island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines. Due to this location, Corregidor has historically been fortified with coastal artillery batteries to defend the entrance of Manila Bay and Manila itself from attacks by enemy warships. Located 48 kilometres (30 mi) inland, Manila is the largest city and the most important seaport in the Philippines for centuries, from the colonial rule of Spain, Japan, and the United States, up until the establishment of the Third Philippine Republic in 1946.
Corregidor (Fort Mills) is the largest of the islands that formed the harbor defenses of Manila Bay, together with El Fraile Island (Fort Drum), Caballo Island (Fort Hughes), and Carabao Island (Fort Frank), which were all fortified during the American colonial period. The island was also the site of a small military airfield, as part of the defense.
During World War II, Corregidor played an important role during the invasion and liberation of the Philippines from the Imperial Japanese Army. The island was heavily bombarded during the later part of the war, where the ruins serve as a military memorial to American, Filipino, and Japanese soldiers who served and lost their lives on the battlefield. Corregidor is one of the most important historic and tourist sites in the country.


The Tailside or Tail End is the remaining portion of the island where different memorials, shrines and the island's airstrip are located. Kindley Field was constructed in the early 1920s and named in honor of an early hero of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The airfield was operated then by the army, and the navy had a seaplane base. The short runway, cramped and hilly terrain had limited its use.


The island came under Spanish sovereignty on May 19, 1570, when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and his forces arrived in Manila Bay.  Legazpi was authorized by the Spanish Crown to establish the capital of the Philippines in Manila, and convert the Muslims in Luzon and Mindanao to Christianity. Corregidor was used as a support site for the nine Spanish galleons used during the campaign.
Under Spanish rule, Corregidor served not only as a fortress of defense, a penal institution, and a station for Customs inspection, but also as a signal outpost to warn Manila of the approach of hostile ships. Corregidor comes from the Spanish word corregir, meaning "to correct." One story states that the island was called Isla del Corregidor (literally, Island of the Corrector) due to the Spanish customs system, wherein all ships entering Manila Bay were required to stop and have their documents checked and "corrected". Another version claims that the island was used as a penitentiary or correctional institution by the Spanish government, and thus came to be called El Corregidor. Corregidor is also a specific position of authority within the former Spanish administrative structure, who is the head of the territorial unit known as Corregimiento. The institution of administrative districts called Corregimientos (with the chief, "El Corregidor") was in use throughout Spanish America and the Philippines. Just as an example, in the Philippines had "corregidores" in charge of Bataan and Zambales, among others. "Isla del Corregidor", the old name of the place, literally means "Corregidor's island".
On November 23, 1574, the Chinese pirate Limahong and his 65 vessel fleet with 3,000 men anchored between Corregidor and Mariveles. From that site he launched two successive attacks against Manila, commanded either by Limahong himself or the Japanese Sioco. Both of them failed their purpose before a fierce battle defense led by the governor Juan de Salcedo.
In November and December 1600, the surroundings of Corregidor Island were used as an anchorage by the Dutchman Olivier van Noort. His ships Mauritius and Eendracht were engaged in piratical activities on the sailing route to and from Manila. This situation was dealt with after the naval combat of Fortune Island on December 14, 1600. As a result, Spain lost its ship San Diego but captured the Dutch sailing boat Eendracht and Olivier van Noort retreated from the Philippines.
As a consequence of these events, and also to prevent sudden attack by the Muslims from Mindanao, a watch vessel was posted at Corregidor to control the entrance to the bay. According to data from 1637, this vessel had a crew of twenty men, who were paid 540 pesos a year for this task.
Corregidor Island was taken over by the Dutch in June 1647 and from there they launched an offensive against Cavite which was repelled by the Spanish garrison, under the command of Andre Lopez de Azalduigui. However, the Dutchmen would remain in the island for seven more months as it served them well as an operations base from which to intercept Chinese merchant traffic in the vicinity of Luzon and Cebu. Finally they withdrew with little of their expectations fulfilled.
During the invasion of Manila and Cavite in October 1762 by the Royal Navy and the British Army under Admiral Cornish and General Draper, Corregidor was used as an anchorage for warships, particularly HMS Panther and the captured warship, the Spanish galleon Santisima Trinidad, during November 1762.
The arrival of the Spanish fleet, led by General Ignacio Mario de Alava, with the mission to place the Philippine Islands on alert, did not affect the fortunes of Corregidor Island. He limited his activity to the setting up of a naval station at Cavite.
On January 18, 1853, the Corregidor Island Lighthouse was first lit on the highest part of the island to mark the entrance of Manila Bay to vessels coming in from the South China Sea.  The Spanish government built the Second-Order light, which is situated 639 feet (195 m) above sea level and visible for 20 miles (32 km).


The Japanese losses from January 1 – April 30 and from the initial assault landings on May 5/6, were about 900 dead and 1,200 wounded, while the defenders suffered 800 dead and 1,000 wounded.
Corregidor's defeat marked the fall of the Philippines and Asia, but Imperial Japan's timetable for the conquest of Australia and the rest of the Pacific was severely upset. Its advance was ultimately checked at the battle for New Guinea, and at Guadalcanal, the turning point in the Pacific War.
About 4,000 of the 11,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from Corregidor were marched through the streets of Manila to incarceration at Fort Santiago and Bilibid Prison, criminal detention centers turned POW camps. US Army and Navy nurses (the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor") continued to work on Corregidor for several weeks, and were then sent to Santo Tomas. The rest were sent off in trains to various Japanese prison camps. General Wainwright was incarcerated in Manchuria. Over the course of the war, thousands were shipped to the Japanese home islands as slave labor. Some were eventually freed at the Raid at Cabanatuan and during the battle for Manila's liberation. While most of the Allied forces on Corregidor surrendered, many individuals continued fighting as guerrillas.
General Masaharu Homma, who conquered the Philippines in five months instead of the projected two, ended up being relieved of his command.


On May 5, Japanese forces led by Maj. Gen. Kureo Taniguchi boarded landing craft and barges and headed for the final assault on Corregidor. Shortly before midnight, intense shelling struck the beaches between North Point and Cavalry Point. The initial landing of 790 Japanese soldiers quickly bogged down due to surprisingly fierce resistance from the American and Filipino defenders, whose 37 mm artillery exacted a heavy toll on the invasion fleet. It was a bloodbath. Observers at Cabcaben described the scene as "a spectacle that confounded the imagination, surpassing in grim horror anything we had ever seen before."
The Japanese landing was difficult because of the strong sea currents between Bataan and Corregidor, as well as the layers of oil that covered the beaches from ships sunk earlier in the siege. They had considerable trouble landing personnel and equipment. However, the sheer numbers of the Japanese infantry, equipped with 50 mm grenade launchers ("knee mortars"), eventually forced the defenders to pull back from the beach.
The second battalion of 785 Japanese soldiers was not as successful. They landed east of North Point, where the defensive positions held by the 4th Marines Regiment were stronger. Most of the Japanese officers were quickly killed, and the huddled survivors were hit with hand grenades, machine guns, and rifle fire. Nevertheless, some of the landing managed to unite with the first invasion force, and together they moved inland and had captured the Denver Battery by 01:30 on May 6.
The Americans launched a counterattack to eject the Japanese from the Denver Battery, and this saw the heaviest fighting between the opposing forces, virtually hand to hand. A few reinforcements made their way to the 4th Marines, but the battle became a duel with old World War I style grenades against deadly accurate Japanese knee mortars. Unless reinforced, the battle would soon go against the Marines.
By 04:30, Colonel Howard had committed his last reserves, consisting of about 500 Marines, a few sailors, and the soldiers of the 4th Battalion. These reinforcement tried to join the battle as quickly as possible, but Japanese snipers had slipped behind the front lines and any movement was very costly. To make matters worse, another 880 Japanese reinforcements arrived at 05:30. The 4th Marines held their positions, but the Americans were losing ground in other areas. The Japanese had a problem of their own: several ammunition crates never made the landing. As a result, several Japanese attacks and counterattacks were made using bayonets.
The defenders' final blow came at 09:30, when three Japanese tanks were landed and immediately went into action. The men of Denver Battery withdrew to the ruins of a concrete trench a few yards from the entrance to Malinta tunnel. At the same moment, Japanese artillery delivered a heavy barrage. Aware of the consequences if the Japanese captured the tunnel, where about 1,000 helpless wounded men lay, and realizing the Malinta tunnel could not hold out much longer, Wainright knew that more Japanese would be landed at night. He decided to sacrifice one more day of freedom in exchange for several thousand lives.
In a radio message to President Franklin Roosevelt, Wainwright said, "There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed." Colonel Howard burned the 4th Marine Regiment's flag as well as the national colors to prevent their capture. Wainwright surrendered the Corregidor garrison at about 1:30 p.m. on May 6, 1942, with two officers sent forward with a white flag to carry his surrender message to the Japanese.


The Battle of Corregidor (Filipino: Labanan sa Corregidor; Japanese: コレヒドールの戦い), fought on May 5–6, 1942, was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II.
The fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, ended all organized opposition by the U.S. Army Forces Far East to the invading Japanese forces on Luzon, in the northern Philippines. The island bastion of Corregidor, with its network of tunnels and formidable array of defensive armaments, along with the fortifications across the entrance to Manila Bay, was the remaining obstacle to the 14th Japanese Imperial Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma. Homma had to take Corregidor, since as long as the island remained in American hands, the Japanese would be denied the use of Manila Bay, the finest natural harbor in the Far East.
The U.S. Army, however, then successfully recaptured the island in 1945.


1669 (MDCLXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1669th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 669th  year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th  year of the 17th century, and the  10th  and last year of the 1660s decade. As of the start of 1669, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


1641 (MDCXLI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1641st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 641st  year of the 2nd millennium, the 41st  year of the 17th century, and the  2nd   year of the 1640s decade. As of the start of 1641, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


A patio (/ˈpætioʊ/, from Spanish: patio [ˈpatjo]; "courtyard", "forecourt", "yard", "little garden") is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a structure and is typically paved. In Australia the term is expanded to include roofed structures such as a veranda, which provides protection from sun and rain.


The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341 AD – 1204 AD), the Empire of Trebizond (1204 AD – 1461 AD), and the independent Principality of Theodoro (ended 1475 AD). In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince was baptised at Sevastopol starting the Christianization of Kievan Rus'.


In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca making the Tatars of the Crimea politically independent. Catherine the Great's incorporation of the Crimea in 1783 into the Russian Empire increased Russia's power in the Black Sea area
From 1853 to 1856, the strategic position of the peninsula in controlling the Black Sea meant that it was the site of the principal engagements of the Crimean War, where Russia lost to a French led alliance.


The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula begins around the 5th century BC when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north.  The Tauri gave the name the Tauric Peninsula which Crimea was called into the early modern period. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome from 63 BC to 341 AD.


1581 (MDLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) in the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.


Rapid detection of Leptospira can be done by quantifying the IgM antibodies using ELISA. Typically, L. biflexa antigen is used to detect the IgM antibodies. This test can quickly determine the diagnosis and help in early treatment. However, the test specificity depends upon the type of antigen used and the presence of antibodies from previous infections. The presence of other diseases such as Epstein-Barr virus infection, viral hepatitis, and cytomegalovirus infection can cause false-positive results. Other rapid screening tests have been developed such as dipsticks, latex and slide agglutination tests.
The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) is the reference test for the diagnosis of leptospirosis. MAT is a test where serial dilutions of patient sera are mixed with different serovars of Leptospira. The mixture is then examined under a dark field microscope to look for agglutination. The highest dilution where 50% agglutination occurs is the result. MAT titres of 1:100 to 1:800 are diagnostic of leptospirosis. A fourfold or greater rise in titre of two sera taken at symptoms' onset and three to 10 days of disease onset confirms the diagnosis. During the acute phase of the disease, MAT is not specific in detecting a serotype of Leptospira because of cross-reactivity between the serovars. In the convalescent phase, MAT is more specific in detecting the serovar types. MAT requires a panel of live antigens and requires laborious work.


For those who are infected, a complete blood count may show a high white cell count and a low platelet count. When a low haemoglobin count is present together with a low white cell count and thrombocytopenia, bone marrow suppression should be considered. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein may also be elevated.
The kidneys are commonly involved in leptospirosis. Blood urea and creatinine levels will be elevated. Leptospirosis increases potassium excretion in urine, which leads to a low potassium level and a low sodium level in the blood. Urinalysis may reveal the presence of protein, white blood cells, and microscopic haematuria. Because the bacteria settle in the kidneys, urine cultures will be positive for leptospirosis starting after the second week of illness until 30 days of infection.
For those with liver involvement, transaminases and direct bilirubin are elevated in liver function tests. The Icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup is associated with jaundice and elevated bilirubin levels. Hemolytic anemia contributes to jaundice. A feature of leptospirosis is acute haemolytic anaemia and conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, especially in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Abnormal serum amylase and lipase levels (associated with pancreatitis) are found in those who are admitted to hospital due to leptospirosis. Impaired kidney function with creatinine clearance less than 50 ml/min is associated with elevated pancreatic enzymes.
For those with severe headache who show signs of meningitis, a lumbar puncture can be attempted. If infected, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination shows lymphocytic predominance with a cell count of about 500/mm³, protein between 50 and 100 mg/ml and normal glucose levels. These findings are consistent with aseptic meningitis.


The symptoms of leptospirosis usually appear one to two weeks after infection, but the incubation period can be as long as a month. The illness is biphasic in a majority of symptomatic cases. Symptoms of the first phase (acute or leptospiremic phase) last five to seven days. In the second phase (immune phase), the symptoms resolve as antibodies against the bacteria are produced. Additional symptoms develop in the second phase. The phases of illness may not be distinct, especially in patients with severe illness. 90% of those infected experience mild symptoms while 10% experience severe leptospirosis.
Leptospiral infection in humans causes a range of symptoms, though some infected persons may have none. The disease begins suddenly with fever accompanied by chills, intense headache, severe muscle aches and abdominal pain. A headache brought on by leptospirosis causes throbbing pain and is characteristically located at the head's bilateral temporal or frontal regions. The person could also have pain behind the eyes and a sensitivity to light. Muscle pain usually involves the calf muscle and the lower back. The most characteristic feature of leptospirosis is the conjunctival suffusion (conjunctivitis without exudate) which is rarely found in other febrile illnesses. Other characteristic findings on the eye include subconjunctival bleeding and jaundice. A rash is rarely found in leptospirosis. When one is found alternative diagnoses such as dengue fever and chikungunya fever should be considered. Dry cough is observed in 20–57% of people with leptospirosis. Thus, this clinical feature can mislead a doctor to diagnose the disease as a respiratory illness. Additionally, gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea frequently occur. Vomiting and diarrhea may contribute to dehydration. The abdominal pain can be due to acalculous cholecystitis or inflammation of the pancreas. Rarely, the lymph nodes, liver, and spleen may be enlarged and palpable.
There will be a resolution of symptoms for one to three days. The immune phase starts after this and can last from four to 30 days and can be anything from brain to kidney complications. The hallmark of the second phase is inflammation of the membranes covering the brain. Signs and symptoms of meningitis include severe headache and neck stiffness. Kidney involvement is associated with reduced or absent urine output.
The classic form of severe leptospirosis, known as Weil's disease, is characterised by liver damage (causing jaundice), kidney failure, and bleeding, which happens in 5–10% of those infected. Lung and brain damage can also occur. For those with signs of inflammation of membranes covering the brain and the brain itself, altered level of consciousness can happen. A variety of neurological problems such as paralysis of half of the body, complete inflammation of a whole horizontal section of spinal cord, and muscle weakness due to immune damage of the nerves supplying the muscles are the complications. Signs of bleeding such as non-traumatic bruises at 1 mm (0.039 in), non-traumatic bruises more than 1 cm (0.39 in), nose bleeding, blackish stools due to bleeding in the stomach, vomiting blood and bleeding from the lungs can also be found. Prolongation of prothrombin time in coagulation testing is associated with severe bleeding manifestation. However, low platelet count is not associated with severe bleeding. Pulmonary haemorrhage is alveolar haemorrhage (bleeding into the alveoli of the lungs) leading to massive coughing up of blood, and causing acute respiratory distress syndrome, where the risk of death is more than 50%. Rarely, inflammation of the heart muscles, inflammation of membranes covering the heart, abnormalities in the heart's natural pacemaker and abnormal heart rhythms may occur.


In those who have lung involvement, a chest X-ray may demonstrate diffuse alveolar opacities.


The bacteria can be found in ponds, rivers, puddles, sewers, agricultural fields and moist soil. Pathogenic Leptospira have been found in the form of aquatic biofilms, which may aid survival in the environment.
The number of cases of leptospirosis is directly related to the amount of rainfall, making the disease seasonal in temperate climates and year-round in tropical climates. The risk of contracting leptospirosis depends upon the risk of disease carriage in the community and the frequency of exposure. In rural areas, farming and animal husbandry are the major risk factors for contracting leptospirosis. Poor housing and inadequate sanitation also increase the risk of infection. In tropical and semi-tropical areas, the disease often becomes widespread after heavy rains or after flooding.
Leptospira are found mostly in mammals. However, reptiles and cold-blooded animals such as frogs, snakes, turtles, and toads have been shown to have the infection. Whether there are reservoirs of human infection  is unknown. Rats, mice, and moles are important primary hosts, but other mammals including dogs, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, cows, sheep, swine, raccoons, opossums, and skunks can also carry the disease. In Africa, a number of wildlife hosts have been identified as carriers, including the banded mongoose, Egyptian fox, Rusa deer, and shrews. There are various mechanisms whereby animals can infect each other. Dogs may lick the urine of an infected animal off the grass or soil, or drink from an infected puddle. House-bound domestic dogs have contracted leptospirosis, apparently from licking the urine of infected mice in the house. Leptospirosis can also be transmitted via the semen of infected animals. The duration of bacteria being consistently present in animal urine may persist for years.
Humans are the accidental host of Leptospira. Humans become infected through contact with water or moist soil that contains urine from infected animals. The bacteria enter through cuts, abrasions, ingestion of contaminated food, or contact with mucous membrane of the body (e.g. mouth, nose, and eyes). Occupations at risk of contracting leptospirosis include farmers, fishermen, garbage collectors and sewage workers. The disease is also related to adventure tourism and recreational activities. It is common among water-sports enthusiasts in specific areas, including triathlons, water rafting, canoeing and swimming, as prolonged immersion in water promotes the entry of the bacteria. However, Leptospira are unlikely to penetrate intact skin. The disease is not known to spread between humans, and bacterial dissemination in recovery period is extremely rare in humans. Once humans are infected, bacterial shedding from the kidneys usually persists for up to 60 days.
Rarely, leptospirosis can be transmitted through an organ transplant. Infection through the placenta during pregnancy is also possible. It can cause miscarriage and infection in infants. Leptospirosis transmission through eating raw meat of wildlife animals have also been reported (e.g. psychiatric patients with allotriophagy).


The following types of months are mainly of significance in astronomy, most of them (but not the distinction between sidereal and tropical months) first recognized in Babylonian lunar astronomy.
The sidereal month is defined as the Moon's orbital period in a non-rotating frame of reference (which on average is equal to its rotation period in the same frame). It is about 27.32166 days (27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 11.6 seconds). It is closely equal to the time it takes the Moon to pass twice a "fixed" star (different stars give different results because all have a very small proper motion and are not really fixed in position).
A synodic month is the most familiar lunar cycle, defined as the time interval between two consecutive occurrences of a particular phase (such as new moon or full moon) as seen by an observer on Earth. The mean length of the synodic month is 29.53059 days (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.8 seconds). Due to the eccentricity of the lunar orbit around Earth (and to a lesser degree, the Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun), the length of a synodic month can vary by up to seven hours.
The tropical month is the average time for the Moon to pass twice through the same equinox point of the sky. It is 27.32158 days, very slightly shorter than the sidereal month (27.32166) days, because of precession of the equinoxes.
An anomalistic month is the average time the Moon takes to go from perigee to perigee—the point in the Moon's orbit when it is closest to Earth. An anomalistic month is about 27.55455 days on average.
The draconic month, draconitic month, or nodal month is the period in which the Moon returns to the same node of its orbit; the nodes are the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the plane of the Earth's orbit. Its duration is about 27.21222 days on average.
A synodic month is longer than a sidereal month because the Earth-Moon system is orbiting the Sun in the same direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth. The Sun moves eastward with respect to the stars (as does the Moon) and it takes about 2.2 days longer for the Moon to return to the same apparent position with respect to the Sun.
An anomalistic month is longer than a sidereal month because the perigee moves in the same direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth, one revolution in nine years. Therefore, the Moon takes a little longer to return to perigee than to return to the same star.
A draconic month is shorter than a sidereal month because the nodes move in the opposite direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth, one revolution in 18.6 years. Therefore, the Moon returns to the same node slightly earlier than it returns to the same star.


January 13 – Borommarachathirat V becomes King of Siam (now Thailand) upon the death of King Sanphet IX.
January 27 – George Frideric Handel's classic opera, Orlando is performed for the first time, making its debut at the King's Theatre in London.
February 12 –  British colonist James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, Georgia.
March 21 –  The Molasses Act is passed by British House of Commons, which reinforces the negative opinions of the British by American colonists.  The Act then goes to the House of Lords, which consents to it on May 4 and it receives royal assent on May 17.
March 25 – English replaces Latin and Law French as the official language of English and Scottish courts following the enforcement of the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730.


October 5 – The election of Augustus III, to succeed his father as King of Poland, sparks the War of the Polish Succession.
October 10 – France declares war on Austria and Saxony .
October 24 – The Battle of Kirkuk starts which will lead to the defeat of the Ottoman army under general Topal Osman Pasha.
November 23 – The 1733 slave insurrection on St. John begins: Slaves from Akwamu rebel against their owners in the Danish West Indies.
December 19 – Unsuccessful in capturing Baghdad from the Ottoman Empire, Persia's ruler Nader Shah signs the Treaty of Baghdad with the Ottoman Governor, Ahmad Khan Pasha, with the Turks and the Iranians agreeing to restore the boundary between the two empires to the lines before the 1732 Ottoman invasion of Iran.
December 25 – The Molasses Act goes into full effect.


1733 (MDCCXXXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar, the 1733rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 733rd  year of the 2nd millennium, the 33rd  year of the 18th century, and the  4th   year of the 1730s decade. As of the start of 1733, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.


July 15 – A hurricane off of the coast of the Florida Keys wrecks at least 17 Spanish ships.
July 30 – The first Freemasons lodge opens in what will become the United States of America.
August 19 – In Warsaw as Stanislas Leszczynski appears to be on the verge of being elected King of Poland, Russia, Austria and Saxony sign Löwenwolde's Treaty (named for Russian diplomat Karl Gustav von Löwenwolde), pledging to go to war to place Frederick Augustus, son of the late King Augustus II, on the throne.
September 12 – Stanislas Leszczynski, who had been King of Poland from 1704 to 1709 until being driven from the throne by King Augustus II, is returned to office by the vote of the Sejm.  Russia and Austria protest the election, since King Stanislaus is backed by France and Sweden.
September 26 – The Treaty of Turin is signed in Turin as a secret agreement between King Louis XV of France and King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia.


April 6 –
After British Prime Minister Robert Walpole's proposed excise tax bill results in rioting over the imposition of additional taxes and the use of government agents to collect them, Walpole informs the House of Commons that he will withdraw the legislation.
Royal Colony of North Carolina Commissioners John Watson, Joshua Grainger, Michael Higgins and James Wimble begin selling lots for the town of New Carthage (which is later renamed and is now Wilmington, North Carolina), on the east side of the Cape Fear River.
May 1 – The canton system is first introduced in Prussia.
May 17 – The Molasses Act receives royal assent and begins to go into effect on June 24.
May 29 – The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld at Quebec.
June 12 – In Berlin, Prince Frederick of Prussia, the 21-year-old heir to the throne reluctantly marries Duchess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern in order to avoid prosecution for desertion from the Prussian Army and to be guaranteed the throne.  Despite the unhappy marriage Frederick and Elisabeth later reign as King and Queen Consort of Prussia.
June 15 – The Danish West India Company buys the island of Saint Croix from France for 750,000 livres.


Trentino is a mountainous region. The Adige River flows through the central Trentino in a valley named after the river. The principal towns of Trentino lie in the Adige Valley, which has been a historical passage connecting Italy with Northern Europe. Among other important valleys are Non Valley, known for its apple production, Sole Valley, Giudicarie, which has been historically connected by Trento and Brescia, Fiemme and Fassa, Lagarina, Mocheni, Sugana Valley and many others.
The province has an area of 6,214 km² (2,399 sq mi), and a total population of 524,826 (2010). There are 217 comuni (singular: comune), in the province.
The Marmolada, at 3,343 m (10,968 ft) above sea level, is the highest mountain in the Dolomites. The glacier on the Marmolada is also a landmark. Other high mountains include the Monte Baldo, Carè Alto, Cermis, Crozzon di Brenta, Hintere Eggenspitze, Latemar, Paganella, Piz Boè, Presanella, Punta San Matteo and Vezzana.


The Trentino province is crossed by the main road and rail connections between Italy and Germany. These include the Brenner A22 motorway and road which passes through the Etsch/Adige Valley. A regional project of switching much of the road traffic to railways is currently under consideration.
The province has two more railways: the Valsugana Line, connecting Trento to Venice and the Trento-Malè-Marilleva railway between Trento and Malè.


The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 20.5 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 1.2% of Italy's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 37,900 euros or 126% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 119% of the EU average.
Despite the overwhelmingly mountainous nature of the territory, agriculture remains important. Farms often join to form larger cooperatives. The most important produce comprises apples (50% of national production, together with South Tyrol) and other fruit, vegetables (primarily in the Val di Gresta), and grapes. Important especially for their quality, the latter are used for the production of dry and sparkling wines.
In January 2008, the Edmund Mach Foundation was established to promote research, training and services in the agricultural, agri-food and environmental fields.
The primary industries, often small and medium-sized, are concentrated in Valsugana, Vallagarina and the Adige Valleys. Sectors include textiles, mechanics, wood and paper productions. Also important is the production of hydro-electric energy.
Tourism is the mainstay of the provincial economy. The main resorts include: Madonna di Campiglio, San Martino di Castrozza, Fiera di Primiero, Canazei, Moena, Cavalese, Folgaria, Folgarida-Marilleva, Riva del Garda and Levico Terme, Comano Terme and Roncegno, these last three being renowned thermal stations.
The unemployment rate stood at 5.3% in 2020.


Trentino (Ladin: Trentin) officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region under the constitution. The province is composed of 177 comuni (municipalities). Its capital is the city of Trento (Trent). The province covers an area of more than 6,000 km² (2,300 sq mi), with a total population of 541,098 in 2019. Trentino is renowned for its mountains, such as the Dolomites, which are part of the Alps.


Sylvia Daoust, CM, CQ, RCA (24 May 1902 – July 19, 2004), born in Montreal, was one of the first female sculptors in Quebec. She studied at the Council of Arts & Manufactures and the École des Beaux-Arts, with Charles Maillard and Maurice Feliz, and later with Edwin Holgate at the Art Association of Montreal.
She won many notable prizes for her work, which has been exhibited in institutions in the United States, Italy, and Canada. She is known for her portrait sculptures, and for revitalizing the traditions of liturgical art. Daoust was also one of the original members of the organization Le Retable d’Art Sacre, a group that helped transform the state of Roman Catholic churches in French Canada. Daoust died in Montreal in 2004 at the age of 102.


The majority of Daoust's works are religious in content and form. They have been described as a combination of the formal characteristics of modernism with the austerity of sculpture of the Middle Ages.
While she did extensive work in the classroom, 1948 marked the beginning her career in modernist art alongside fellow artist and peer, Paul-Émile Borduas. During the early 1940s movement of sacred art, she became acquainted with Dom Bello, the architect of Saint Benedict Abbey in Saint-Benoit-du-Lac, Québec. She put aside her pursuit of modernist art and delved into scared art. Dom Bellot was in charge of Saint Joseph's Oratory and she worked with his guidance there and in collaboration with Henri Charlier. Her transition into sacred art was marked by the production of approximately thirty wooden statues to which she added colour accents and experimented with different materials such as aluminum and leather. She participated in over twenty exhibits and collectives, although much of her work was not displayed in art galleries.
Daoust was one of the original founding members of Le Retable d’Art Sacre, an organization that advocated and promoted the standards of religious art within the Roman Catholic churches in Québec. She continued to sculpt into her 90s, and her last works were for the chapel of the Holy Cross Fathers in Montreal.


The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 (MDCI), to December 31, 1700 (MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the latter part of the Spanish Golden Age, the Dutch Golden Age, the French Grand Siècle dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, the world's first public company and megacorporation known as the Dutch East India Company, and according to some historians, the General Crisis.
From the mid-17th century, European politics were increasingly dominated by the Kingdom of France of Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde. The semi-feudal territorial French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an absolute monarchy through the reinvention of the Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison, in which a greatly expanded royal court could be more easily kept under surveillance. With domestic peace assured, Louis XIV caused the borders of France to be expanded. It was during this century that the English monarch became a symbolic figurehead and Parliament was the dominant force in government – a contrast to most of Europe, in particular France.
By the end of the century, Europeans were aware of logarithms, electricity, the telescope and microscope, calculus, universal gravitation, Newton's Laws of Motion, air pressure and calculating machines due to the work of the first scientists of the Scientific Revolution, including Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Pierre Fermat, Blaise Pascal, Robert Boyle, Christiaan Huygens, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It was also a period of development of culture in general (especially theater, music, visual arts and philosophy).
It was during this period that the European colonization of the Americas began in earnest, including the exploitation of the silver deposits, which resulted in bouts of inflation as wealth was drawn into Europe. Also during this period, there would be a more intense European presence in Southeast Asia and East Asia (such as the colonization of Taiwan). These foreign elements would contribute to a revolution in Ayutthaya. While the Mataram Sultanate and the Aceh Sultanate would be the major powers of the region, especially during the first half of the century.

In the Islamic world, the gunpowder empires – the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal – grew in strength. Especially in the Indian subcontinent, Mughal architecture, culture and art reached its zenith, while the empire itself, during the reign of Emperor Aurangzeb, is believed to have had the world's largest economy, bigger than the entirety of Western Europe and worth 25% of global GDP, and its wealthiest province, the Bengal Subah, signaled the period of proto-industrialization. The southern half of India would see the decline of the Deccan Sultanates and extinction of the Vijayanagara Empire. The Dutch would colonize Ceylon and endure hostilities with Kandy.
In Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the century, beginning the Edo period; the isolationist Sakoku policy began in the 1630s and lasted until the 19th century. In China, the collapsing Ming dynasty was challenged by a series of conquests led by the Manchu warlord Nurhaci, which were consolidated by his son Hong Taiji and finally consummated by his grandson, the Shunzhi Emperor, founder of the Qing dynasty.
The greatest military conflicts of the century were the Thirty Years' War, Dutch–Portuguese War, the Great Turkish War, the Nine Years' War, Mughal–Safavid Wars, and the Qing annexation of the Ming.


Year 1529 (MDXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.


January 8 – John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony (d. 1595)
January 13 – Ebba Månsdotter, Swedish noble (d. 1609)
February 14 – Markus Fugger, German businessman (d. 1597)
February 23 – Onofrio Panvinio, Augustinian historian (d. 1568)
April 3 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and historian (d. 1581)
April 25 – Francesco Patrizi, Italian philosopher and scientist (d. 1597)
May 12 – Sabina of Brandenburg-Ansbach, German princess (d. 1575)
June 7 – Étienne Pasquier, French lawyer, poet and author (d. 1615)
June 14 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, regent of Tyrol and Further Austria (d. 1595)
July 16 – Petrus Peckius the Elder, Dutch jurist, writer on international maritime law (d. 1589)
July 20 – Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland (d. 1586)
July 24 – Charles II, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (d. 1577)
August 10 – Ernst Vögelin, German publisher (d. 1589)
September 1 – Taddeo Zuccari, Italian painter (d. 1566)
September 25 – Günther XLI, Count of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt (d. 1583)
October 26 – Anna of Hesse, Countess Palatine of Zweibrücken (d. 1591)
December 11 – Fulvio Orsini, Italian humanist historian (d. 1600)
December 16 – Laurent Joubert, French physician (d. 1582)
date unknown
Titu Cusi, Inca ruler of Vilcabamba (d. 1571)
Giambologna, Italian sculptor (d. 1608)
Michał Wiśniowiecki, Ruthenian prince at Wiśniowiec (d. 1584)
George Puttenham, English critic (d. 1590)


Olomouc is said to occupy the site of a Roman fort founded in the imperial period, the original name of which, Iuliomontium (Mount Julius), would be gradually changed to the present form. Although this account is not documented except as oral history, archaeological excavations close to the city have revealed the remains of a Roman military camp dating from the time of the Marcomannic Wars of the late 2nd century.


During the 6th century, Slavs migrated into the area. As early as the 7th century, a centre of political power developed in the present-day quarter of Povel (in lowland, south of the city centre). Around 810 the local Slavonic ruler was defeated by troops of Great Moravian rulers and the settlement in Olomouc-Povel was destroyed.
A new centre, where the Great Moravian governor resided, developed at the gord at Předhradí, a quarter of the inner city (the eastern, smaller part of the medieval centre). This settlement survived the defeat of the Great Moravia (c. 907) and gradually became the capital of the province of Moravia.
Around 981–990, the Polish Duke Mieszko I took the Moravian Gate and Olomouc as an important place at the intersection of trade routes. Olomouc probably was mentioned in the Dagome iudex document (ca 991) as Alemura. All of Moravia was part of Poland between 1003 and 1031 during the reign of Bolesław I the Brave and partly Mieszko II Lambert. The first certain mention of the city dates back to 1017. Moravia was under Bohemian rule since 1031 (according to some Czech historians, since 1019 or 1021).
The bishopric of Olomouc was founded in 1063. It was possibly re-founded because there are some unclear references to bishops of Moravia in the 10th century—if they were not only missionary bishops, but representatives of some remains of regular church organization, then it is very likely that these bishops had their seat in Olomouc. Centuries later in 1777, it was raised to the rank of an archbishopric. The bishopric was moved from the church of St. Peter (since destroyed) to the church of Saint Wenceslas in 1141 (the date is still disputed, other suggestions are 1131, 1134) under bishop Jindřich Zdík. The bishop's palace was built in the Romanesque architectural style. The bishopric acquired large tracts of land, especially in northern Moravia, and was one of the richest in the area.
Olomouc became one of the most important settlements in Moravia and a seat of the Přemyslid government and one of the appanage princes. In 1306 King Wenceslas III stopped here on his way to Poland. He was going to fight Władysław I the Elbow-high to claim his rights to the Polish crown and was assassinated.  With his death, the whole Přemyslid dynasty died out.
The city was officially founded in the mid-13th century and became one of the most important trade and power centres in the region. In the Middle Ages, it was the biggest town in Moravia and competed with Brno for the position of capital. Olomouc finally lost after the Swedes took the city and held it for eight years (1642–1650).
In 1235, the Mongols launched an invasion of Europe. After the Battle of Legnica in Poland, the Mongols carried their raids into Moravia, but were defensively defeated at the fortified town of Olomouc. The Mongols subsequently invaded and defeated Hungary.
In 1454 the city expelled its Jewish population as part of a wave of anti-Semitism, also seen in Spain and Portugal. The second half of the 15th century is considered the start of Olomouc's golden age. It hosted several royal meetings, and Matthias Corvinus was elected here as King of Bohemia (in fact anti-king) by the estates in 1469. In 1479 two kings of Bohemia (Vladislaus II and Matthias Corvinus) met here and concluded an agreement (Peace of Olomouc of 1479) for splitting the country.


Public transport in Olomouc is provided by trams and buses. Local railway services from Olomouc main railway station to Senice na Hané and Prostějov make stops around the city.
The first train arrived in Olomouc on 17 October 1841 from Vienna. In 1845, the first omnibuses connected the railway station and the center of Olomouc. In 1899, omnibuses were replaced with trams.
The main railway station in Olomouc (Olomouc hlavní nádraží, or Olomouc hl.n) is an important railway junction. The city is connected with Prague, Ostrava, Brno, Zlín and Břeclav. The main train station in Olomouc is quite busy; passenger trains of all categories operated by České dráhy, RegioJet and LEO Express make stops there.


The conclusion of the events of the film Kagemusha by Akira Kurosawa takes place in this year.


Year 1575 (MDLXXV)  was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.


Mali fell under the control of France during the late 19th century. By 1905, most of the area was under firm French control as a part of French Sudan. On 24 November 1958, French Sudan (which changed its name to the Sudanese Republic) became an autonomous republic within the French Community. In January 1959, Mali and Senegal united to become the Mali Federation. The Mali Federation gained independence from France on 20 June 1960.
Senegal withdrew from the federation in August 1960, which allowed the Sudanese Republic to become the independent Republic of Mali on 22 September 1960, and that date is now the country's Independence Day. Modibo Keïta was elected the first president. Keïta quickly established a one-party state, adopted an independent African and socialist orientation with close ties to the East, and implemented extensive nationalization of economic resources. In 1960, the population of Mali was reported to be about 4.1 million.


Year 766 (DCCLXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 766 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.


Baghdad nears completion as up to 100,000 labourers create a circular city about 1 or 2 km in diameter (depending on the source). In the center of the "Round City" is a palace built for Caliph al-Mansur. The capital is ringed by three lines of walls (approximate date).