uk history presentation

United Kingdom

Located off the northwest coast of Europe, the United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The biggest part of the United Kingdom (also called the U.K.) is the island of Great Britain, which is made up of England, Wales, and Scotland. The U.K. also includes Northern Ireland, which is on another island. (South of Northern Ireland is the separate country of Ireland , which gained its independence from the U.K. in 1937.) Northern Ireland is just 12 miles from the island of Great Britain, across the North Channel of the Irish Sea.

Scotland and Wales are the most mountainous parts of the U.K. and are covered in knife-edged mountain ridges separated by deep valleys. This terrain was shaped some 20,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, when thick glaciers covered the land. When the Ice Age glaciers melted in northwest Scotland, they left behind thousands of lakes, called lochs (pronounced LOCKS). Long and narrow, some of the lochs are very deep. (Legends say that a giant monster called Nessie lives in Loch Ness in this region, also called the Scottish Highlands.)

The largest freshwater lake by surface area in the U.K., Lough Neagh (pronounced LOCK NEE), is in Northern Ireland. It stretches 20 miles long and nine miles wide. Rolling hills and plains dot the countryside of both Northern Ireland and England.

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

Government and economy.

The U.K.’s system of government has developed over many centuries. As early as the ninth century, kings and queens ruled with advice from a council of religious leaders and nobles. 

Today, the country is a constitutional monarchy, which means the reigning king or queen is the head of state but doesn’t have any real political power.

The old council of advisers eventually expanded into a government body called Parliament. That’s why today, the United Kingdom’s system of governing is called a parliamentary democracy.

Members of Parliament now pass all the country's laws from two chambers: the House of Commons, made up of officials elected by the people, and the House of Lords, in which members are appointed, usually by the reigning king or queen based on recommendations by an independent group called the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

The head of the government is the prime minister, who is usually the leader of the political party in charge of Parliament.

Oil, iron, and steel products are some of the United Kingdom’s main exports, or goods sold to other countries. The country also exports electrical equipment, and parts for automobiles and aircrafts. Its main crops produced include barley, wheat, and potatoes.

Over the centuries, the United Kingdom has accumulated wealth from foreign lands the country colonized, or took control over. Some estimates say the U.K. earned as much as $45 trillion in today’s dollars just from its former colony of India, when trade from goods that India produced went to the U.K’s economy. Other former colonies include Australia , Canada , and South Africa .

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North america, south america, more to explore, u.s. states and territories facts and photos, destination world.

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British History

Oct 10, 2014

360 likes | 839 Views

British History. British History- A History of Invasion. Before the first century AD Britain was made up of many tribal Kingdoms of Celtic people . Roman Invasion 43AD The Anglo-Saxons 446-871. The Vikings and Danish Invasions410 - 1065 Norman Invaders-The Battle of Hastings 1066

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Presentation Transcript

British History- A History of Invasion • Before the first century AD Britain was made up of many tribal Kingdoms of Celtic people. • Roman Invasion 43AD • The Anglo-Saxons 446-871

The Vikings and Danish Invasions410 - 1065 • Norman Invaders-The Battle of Hastings 1066 • A process of joining together the various parts of the British Isles-British identity

King Arthur - History and Legend c.520 • Arthur, the legendary British king is possibly based on a real character that has been given more than one identity throughout history. The earliest references suggest that he was a Romano-British leader against Saxon invaders, who in the early sixth century led the Britons to defeat the 'English' army at the battle of Mount Badon.

Arthur’s Tintagel castle

Arthur’s Excalibur

Arthur’s Palace

Arthur and his Knights

KING ALFRED THE GREAT

William the Conqueror • King of England and Duke of Normandy • An innovator in government. He built a strong centralized administration staffed with his Norman supporters. He was also not about to put up with any backtalk from the newly conquered English.

William the Conqueror

The Battle of Hastings • October 14, 1066 • Battle, East Sussex • Saxons under Harold, King of England vs. Norman French under Duke William of Normandy

The cause of Battle of Hastings • When Edward the Confessor died he left no direct heir, and the throne of England passed to Harold. However, William of Normandy claimed that Edward had promised the crown to him, and indeed that Harold himself had sworn a sacred oath to relinquish his claim in William's favour.

The influence of The Battle • Although there were sporadic outbreaks of Saxon resistance to Norman rule after the Battle of Hastings - notably in East Anglia under Hereward the Wake, and in the north of England - from this point on England was effectively ruled by the Normans.

Shaping of the Nation(1066-1381) 1. The establishment of Feudalism .William the conqueror established a strong monarchy in England.

William the Conqueror’s centralized monarchy • Early Castles.One of the ways he insured that he held it was to build castles everywhere. The castles were given to Norman barons to hold for the king. In theory every inch of English land belonged to the crown and William's vassals had to swear oath of allegiance directly to the crown. William was making loyalty to the nation, in the form of the crown, supercede loyalty to the individual person of a lord.

Henry II’s Reforms • All land held in feudal tenure was brought under royal jurisdiction. • “Common Law” • “Assize of Arms” • Relationship between church and the state.

Henry II is perhaps known for his quarrels with his family and the tragic episode of his one-time friend Becket--- Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Dispute between Henry II and Becket • 'Everyone, Henry included, expected Becket to be a yes-man for the King.' • What no one realized was that Becket would take his new role quite so seriously. • At its heart lies a personal dispute between Henry II, who felt betrayed by his friend, and Becket, who mistrusted the motives of the king. This bad blood between friends is what made the dispute so bitter.

Becket arguing with Henry II

3. The Great Charter(Magna Carta)

Three sets of provisions of the Great Charter • The king was not to extract extra payments from the feudal vassals without their consent. • Laws were not to be modified by the arbitrary action of the king. • Should the king attempt to free himself from the law, the vassals had the right to force the king to obey it, by civil war or by otherwise.

The significance of Magna Carta • Magna Carta is often thought of as the corner-stone of liberty and the chief defence against arbitrary and unjust rule in England.

In fact it contains few sweeping statements of principle, but is a series of concessions wrung from the unwilling King John by his rebellious barons in 1215. However, Magna Carta established for the first time a very significant constitutional principle, namely that the power of the king could be limited by a written grant.

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The History of the United Kingdom - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The History of the United Kingdom

Title: the history of united kingdom author: kasutaja4 last modified by: kasutaja4 created date: 6/12/2002 5:19:09 am document presentation format – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• by Ave Arak and Epp Jürisson
• Supervisors T.Pukk and M.Maasen
• Viljandi 2002
• The British Isles have a rich history going back thousands of years.
• The history of the United Kingdom includes also the history of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• The history is full of invaders, wars, rulers.
• Until 1603 the English and Scottish Crowns were separated.
• Following the Accession of King James VI of Scotland (I of England) to the English Throne.
•  From the end of the 17th century, monarchs lost executive power and they became subject to Parliament, resulting in today's constitutional Monarchy.
• Elizabeth gave the name to a golden age of poets, statesmen and adventurers.
• Known as the Virgin Queen, or Gloriana.
• Claims to the throne of France led to the Hundred Years' War
• and the loss of almost all the large English territory in France.
• When King James VI of Scotland ascended to the English throne, thereby becoming James I of England, the national flags of England and Scotland on land continued to be.
• The Union Jack/Flag includes the Cross of St. George (England), the Cross of St. Andrew (Scotland) and the Cross of St. Patrick (Ireland).
• Here we can see all the countries of United Kingdom
• The Hundred Years War 1336-1565
• Wars of the Roses 1455-1487
• Civil War 1642-1645
• Boer War 1901-1902
• World War I 1914-1918
• World War II 1939-1945
• a Celtic land of mountains and coal
• It is clear today that the Irish problem has not been solved.
• Northern Protestants feel they have a right to determine their own future democratically.
• Northern Catholics feel they have the right to be part of a united Ireland.
• An English army arrived to relieve the Scots siege of Stirling.
• Bruce defeated the English army under Edward II, who was lucky to escape with his life.
• The Scots victory at the Battle of Bannockburn secured complete Scots independence.
• England has always played an important role in the worlds economy and business.
• the name of a very remarkable ancient monument in England
• It consists of a great collection of stones
• Big Ben is one of London's best-known landmarks.
• It houses the House of Parliament.
• The history has efected our lives for centuries and will continue to do the same in future.
• We think that England has always been rich of kings and queens who has changed the world.

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Astro Bot rescues Sony’s State Of Play and arrives on PS5 in September

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The easy standout of Sony’s latest presentation is a brand new Astro Bot game, which boasts plenty of nods to PlayStation history.

While rumours of a new Astro Bot game have circulated since February, the official confirmation came as sweet, colourful relief during Sony’s State Of Play presentation on Thursday.

Developer Team Asobi’s first entry in the series, Astro Bot Rescue Mission , was criminally overlooked back in 2018 because it was trapped on VR. The follow-up Astro’s Playroom meanwhile, while great, was very short and served primarily as an introduction to the PS5 console.

This new game, simply titled Astro Bot, however looks like an expansive reset for what could become one of PlayStation’s major flagship titles.

As seen in the trailer below, it looks like it’s sticking fairly closely to the formula in Astro’s Playroom, albeit with far more creativity on display – between flying levels riding the PS5 DualSense controller, pet dog companions and boss fights against giant cobras.

Like Astro’s Playroom, there’s also plenty of robots dressed as classic PlayStation characters, from Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, PaRappa the Rapper, to Kratos from God Of War.

A PlayStation blog post from the developers hints that these characters will play a bigger role this time around, although it’s unclear if they’ll simply help Astro Bot or if they’ll be playable themselves.

Astro Bot is also described as the biggest game in the franchise to date, with six galaxies to explore and over 80 levels.

There will also be 15 new abilities at your disposal, which will take advantage of the DualSense controller, haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Some of these abilities are shown in the trailer, like Twin-Frog Gloves which allows you to punch at long range and swing, while a giant sponge lets you suck up water so you can inflate to a massive size.

The developers are promising more enemy variety too, with over 70 new types including ‘massive bosses’ at the end of each galaxy. They also tease ‘die and retry levels to test your reflexes’, which suggests there will be an option for some harder challenges.

We don’t have long to wait either, as Astro Bot is scheduled to be released on PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2024.

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Nvidia, Powered by A.I. Boom, Reports Soaring Revenue and Profits

The Silicon Valley company was again lifted by sales of its artificial intelligence chips, but it faces growing competition and heightened expectations.

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By Don Clark

Reporting from San Francisco

Nvidia, which makes microchips that power most artificial intelligence applications, began an extraordinary run a year ago.

Fueled by an explosion of interest in A.I., the Silicon Valley company said last May that it expected its chip sales to go through the roof. They did — and the fervor didn’t stop, with Nvidia raising its revenue projections every few months. Its stock soared, driving the company to a more than $2 trillion market capitalization that makes it more valuable than Alphabet, the parent of Google.

On Wednesday, Nvidia again reported soaring revenue and profits that underscored how it remains a dominant winner of the A.I. boom, even as it grapples with outsize expectations and rising competition.

Revenue was $26 billion for the three months that ended in April, surpassing its $24 billion estimate in February and tripling sales from a year earlier for the third consecutive quarter. Net income surged sevenfold to $5.98 billion.

Nvidia also projected revenue of $28 billion for the current quarter, which ends in July, more than double the amount from a year ago and higher than Wall Street estimates.

“We are fundamentally changing how computing works and what computers can do,” Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, said in a conference call with analysts. “The next industrial revolution has begun.”

Nvidia’s shares, which are up more than 90 percent this year, rose in after-hours trading after the results were released. The company also announced a 10-for-1 stock split.

Nvidia, which originally sold chips for rendering images in video games, has benefited after making an early, costly bet on adapting its graphics processing units, or GPUs, to take on other computing tasks. When A.I. researchers began using those chips more than a decade ago to accelerate tasks like recognizing objects in photos, Mr. Huang jumped on the opportunity. He augmented Nvidia’s chips for A.I. tasks and developed software to aid developments in the field.

The company’s flagship processor, the H100, has enjoyed feverish demand to power A.I. chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While most high-end standard processors cost a few thousand dollars, H100s have sold for anywhere from $15,000 to $40,000 each, depending on volume and other factors, analysts said.

Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer, said on Wednesday that it had worked in recent months with more than 100 customers that were building new data centers — which Mr. Huang calls A.I. factories — ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of GPUs, with some reaching 100,000. Tesla, for example, is using 35,000 H100 chips to help train models for autonomous driving, she said.

Nvidia will soon begin to ship a powerful successor to the H100, code-named Blackwell, which was announced in March. Demand for the new chips already appears to be strong, raising the possibility that some customers may wait for the speedier models rather than buy the H100. But there was little sign of such a pause in Nvidia’s latest results.

Ms. Kress said demand for Blackwell was well ahead of supply of the chip, and “we expect demand may exceed supply well into next year.” Mr. Huang added that the new chips should be operating in data centers late this year and that “we will see a lot of Blackwell revenue this year.”

The comments may ease fears of a slowdown in Nvidia’s momentum.

“Lingering concerns investors had in the short term regarding an ‘air bubble’ for GPU demand seem to have vanished,” Lucas Keh, an analyst at the research firm Third Bridge, said in an email.

Wall Street analysts are also looking for signs that some richly funded rivals could grab a noticeable share of Nvidia’s business. Microsoft, Meta, Google and Amazon have all developed their own chips that can be tailored for A.I. jobs, though they have also said they are boosting purchases of Nvidia chips.

Traditional rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices and Intel have also made optimistic predictions about their A.I. chips. AMD has said it expects to sell $4 billion worth of a new A.I. processor, the MI300, this year.

Mr. Huang frequently points to what he has said is a sustainable advantage: Only Nvidia’s GPUs are offered by all the major cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, so customers don’t have to worry about getting locked into using one of the services because of its exclusive chip technology.

Nvidia also remains popular among computer makers that have long used its chips in their systems. One is Dell Technologies, which on Monday hosted a Las Vegas event that featured an appearance by Mr. Huang.

Michael Dell, Dell’s chief executive and founder, said his company would offer new data center systems that packed 72 of the new Blackwell chips in a computer rack, standard structures that stand a bit taller than a refrigerator.

“Don’t seduce me with talk like that,” Mr. Huang joked. “That gets me superexcited.”

Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence

News  and Analysis

OpenAI said that it has begun training a new flagship A.I. model  that would succeed the GPT-4 technology that drives its popular online chatbot, ChatGPT.

Elon Musk’s A.I. company, xAI, said that it had raised $6 billion , helping to close the funding gap with OpenAI, Anthropic and other rivals.

Google’s A.I. capabilities that answer people’s questions have generated a litany of untruths and errors  — including recommending glue as part of a pizza recipe and the ingesting of rocks for nutrients — causing a furor online.

The Age of A.I.

After some trying years during which Mark Zuckerberg could do little right, many developers and technologists have embraced the Meta chief  as their champion of “open-source” A.I.

D’Youville University in Buffalo had an A.I. robot speak at its commencement . Not everyone was happy about it.

A new program, backed by Cornell Tech, M.I.T. and U.C.L.A., helps prepare lower-income, Latina and Black female computing majors  for A.I. careers.

Publishers have long worried that A.I.-generated answers on Google would drive readers away from their sites. They’re about to find out if those fears are warranted, our tech columnist writes .

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What is Memorial Day? The true meaning of why we celebrate the federal holiday

For many Americans, Memorial Day is more than a long weekend and an unofficial start to the summer season. The real meaning of the holiday is meant to honor all U.S. soldiers who have died serving their country.

Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day's history goes back to the Civil War. It was was declared a national holiday by Congress in 1971, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Although Veterans Day in November also honors military service members, Memorial Day differs by honoring all military members who have died while serving in U.S. forces in any current or previous wars.

The late-May holiday has also evolved into an opportunity for Americans to head to the beach or lake , travel to see friends and family , or even catch a Memorial Day parade .

Here's what to know about the history and the reason behind why we observe Memorial Day.

Memorial Day weather: Severe storms could hamper your travel, outdoor plans for Memorial Day weekend

When is Memorial Day?

One of 11 federal holidays recognized in the U.S., Memorial Day is always observed on the last Monday of May. This year, the holiday falls on Monday, May 27.

Why do we celebrate Memorial Day?  

The origins of the holiday can be traced back to local observances for soldiers with neglected gravesites during the Civil War.

The first observance of what would become Memorial Day, some historians think, took place in Charleston, South Carolina at the site of a horse racing track that Confederates had turned into a prison holding Union prisoners. Blacks in the city organized a burial of deceased Union prisoners and built a fence around the site, Yale historian David Blight wrote in  The New York Times  in 2011.

Then on May 1, 1865, they held an event there including a parade – Blacks who fought in the Civil War participated – spiritual readings and songs, and picnicking. A commemorative marker was erected there in 2010.

One of the first Decoration Days was held in Columbus, Mississippi, on April 25, 1866 by women who decorated graves of Confederate soldiers who perished in the battle at Shiloh with flowers. On May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, the tradition of placing flowers on veterans’ graves was continued by the establishment of Decoration Day by an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic. 

General Ulysses S. Grant presided over the first large observance, a crowd of about 5,000 people, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on May 30, 1873.

This tradition continues to thrive in cemeteries of all sizes across the country. 

Until World War I, Civil War soldiers were solely honored on this holiday. Now, all Americans who’ve served are observed. 

At least 25 places in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Some states that claim ownership of the origins include Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, according to Veterans Affairs.

Despite conflicting claims, the U.S. Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, New York, as the “birthplace” of Memorial Day on May 30, 1966, after Governor Nelson Rockefeller's declaration that same year. The New York community formally honored local veterans May 5, 1866 by closing businesses and lowering flags at half-staff. 

Why is Memorial Day in May? 

The day that we celebrate Memorial Day is believed to be influenced by Illinois U.S. Representative John A. Logan, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in November 1858, and served as an officer during the Mexican War.

It is said that Logan, a staunch defender of the Union, believed Memorial Day should occur when flowers are in full bloom across the country, according to the  National Museum of the U.S. Army.

Congress passed an act making May 30 a holiday in the District of Columbia in 1888,  according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

In 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance Act – which created the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance and encourages all to pause at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence – was signed into law by Congress and the President.

What is the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

Memorial Day and Veterans Day both honor the sacrifices made by U.S. veterans, but the holidays serve different purposes.

Veterans Day, originally called “Armistice Day,” is a younger holiday established in 1926 as a way to commemorate all those who had served in the U.S. armed forces during World War I.

Memorial Day honors all those who have died.

75 books we’re most excited to read this summer

W hether you love fiction, nonfiction, mystery, or romance, we’ve got you covered! The Globe’s annual summer reading preview features 75 books coming out this summer that we think you’ll want to slip into that beach bag, backpack, or picnic basket.

Carole V. Bell is a Jamaican-born critic and communication researcher exploring media, culture, and politics.

Leland Cheuk is the author of three books, most recently “No Good Very Bad Asian.”

Lauren LeBlanc is a board member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Daneet Steffens is a book critic and journalist.

Kate Tuttle edits the Globe’s books section.

Chris Vognar , a freelance writer, was the 2009 Nieman Arts and Culture Fellow at Harvard University.

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