Belfast

Belfast is a Northern Irish seaport on the Lagan River, at the head of Belfast Lough (an inlet of the North Channel of the Irish Sea). 

The name Belfast is derived from the Irish Béal Feirsde. The word béal means "mouth" or "rivermouth" while feirsde is the genitive singular of fearsaid and refers to a sandbar or tidal ford across a river's mouth. The name would thus translate literally as "(river) mouth of the sandbar."

The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills.

Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century after being established as a town by Sir Arthur Chichester. It was initially settled by Protestant English and Scottish migrants at the time of the Plantation of Ulster.

Belfast

French Huguenot refugees arrived in the late 17th century and developed the linen industry.

Belfast played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Ireland, becoming briefly the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname "Linenopolis".

John Dunlop was a flourishing veterinary surgeon near Belfast, when in 1888 he obtained patents on a pneumatic tyre (invented in 1845 by Robert William Thomson) for bicycles. His company, formed in 1889, became known as the Dunlop Rubber Co in 1900.

From 1905 aged 6 to 1918 C. S. Lewis lived at Little Lea, a 3-storey house with an acre and half of garden on the outskirts of Belfast, which cost £800 in 1904. A hand carved wardrobe in one of the upstairs rooms became the inspiration for The Lion the Witch & The Wardrobe.

The Harland and Wolff shipbuilding firm was created in 1861 in Belfast. By the time the Titanic was built there in 1912, it had become the largest shipyard in the world.

The rise of mass-produced and cotton clothing following World War I were some of the factors which led to the decline of Belfast's international linen trade.. 

Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1921 following the Government of Ireland Act 1920.

Belfast saw the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with nearly half of the total deaths in the conflict occurring in the city. The highest death toll from a single incident during the conflict was on December 4, 1971 when the Ulster Volunteer Force bombed the Catholic-owned McGurk’s Bar in Belfast killing 15 civilians and wounding 17. 

The interactive museum Titanic Belfast opened in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking, it has nine galleries and features full-scale reconstructions and special effects. Four years later, it was crowned Best Tourist Attraction at a ceremony for the World Travel Awards in the Maldives. 

Belarus

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered on the northwest by Lithuania and Latvia, on the east by Russia, on the south by Ukraine, and on the west by Poland. Its area is about 207,600 square km (about 80,200 square mi). 

Belarus, topographic map

A Belorussian state developed in the Middle Ages around the city of Polotsk. From the 13th century it became incorporated within the Slavonic Grand Duchy of Lithuania and from 1569 there was union with Poland.

Belarus served as a battleground between the 16th and 18th centuries as wars were waged between Poland and Russia. 

With the partitioning of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Russia acquired present-day Belarus, then known as White Russia. 

In the Napoleonic wars, after the invasion by the French in 1812, the land was laid waste by retreating Russians. 

After the occupation of Poland by Germany in 1939, the USSR annexed the part of Belorussia that it had lost to Poland in 1921 to the White Russian SSR, thereby nearly doubling the area of the republic. 

In June 1941, during World War II, the Germans again invaded Belorussia; they were expelled in 1944. 

Except for certain small areas allocated to Poland, the 1939 boundaries of the Belorussian SSR were confirmed by the terms of the treaty between Poland and the USSR in 1945. 

25% of the Belarusian population was killed in World War II.

The nuclear Chernobyl disaster in 1986 contaminated 20% of the country with radiation, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and mutating thousands of new born. Its far reaching effects mean even today the people of the country having a high rate of cancer and birth defects. 

20% of Belarus' annual budget is currently spent on costs associated with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

On July 27, 1990 Belarus declared its right to self-governance, and The Republic of Belarus, emerged from behind the Iron Curtain on March 15, 1994.

Belarus sacked two top generals after a Swedish advertising agency illegally flew an airplane into Belarus in July 2012 that dropped hundreds of teddy bears carrying pro-democracy messages.

President Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected on Sunday, August 9, 2020 to a sixth term in office (with about 80% of all votes in his favor according to official results), having won every presidential election since 1994. The election was marred by allegations of widespread electoral fraud and tens of thousands of demonstrators turned out in Minsk the following Sunday to protest. The gathering appeared to be the largest protest in the country’s history.

Belarus is the only country in Europe that still has the death penalty on its statute book. Its last executions were in 2014.

Over forty percent of Belarus is forested.

Most of Belarus's population of 9.41million reside in the urban areas surrounding its capital city Minsk and other regional capitals.

Over 84.9% of Belarus's population are ethnic Belarusians, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians.

Since a controversial 1995 referendum, Russian has been an official language alongside Belarusian.

Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. It is also the country's chief seaport on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains, near Tripoli. 

Beirut at sunset

A Phoenician city in ancient times called Berytus, it's name first appeared in the Tell el-Amarna tablets as early as the 14th century BC. 

The city was destroyed in 551 AD by an earthquake, which triggered a devastating tsunami. Overall large numbers of people were reported killed, with one estimate of 30,000 by Antoninus of Piacenza.

In 1110 Beirut was captured by the Crusaders under Baldwin I, and despite a siege in 1187 by Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, Beirut remained in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem until it fell in 1291 to the Muslims.

After 1517 the region became part of the Ottoman Empire, and the Druses, a Muslim sect, controlled the city. 

The Russian occupations of Beirut in 1772 and 1773 marked the first period in over 250 years that Beirut was ruled by a power other than the Ottoman Empire.

On October 8, 1918, during World War I, Beirut was occupied by the Allies, marking the end of Ottoman rule in the region. Afterward, it became part of the French mandate of Lebanon, which began in 1920. During this period, Beirut served as the capital of the state of Greater Lebanon, which included the areas of modern-day Lebanon and parts of Syria.

Lebanon gained independence from the French mandate on November 22, 1943. Following independence, Beirut remained the capital of independent Lebanon, and it continues to serve as the capital of the country to this day.

Beirut was devastated by civil war in the 1970s and 1980s and by the conflict between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli forces.

With the restoration of civil government in the early 1990s, a major reconstruction project was launched. The Beirut stock exchange reopened in January 1996 after a suspension of trading for nearly 13 years

On the afternoon of August 4, 2020, two explosions occurred at Beirut's port. The second blast was extremely powerful and caused at least 218 deaths, $15 billion in property damage, and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless. It was heard in Cyprus, over 250 km (160 mi) away. The event was linked to about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been confiscated by the Lebanese government from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus and then stored in the port without proper safety measures for six years.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab of Lebanon, and his cabinet, resigned in the wake of the explosions a week later. 

Keanu Reeves, star of The Matrix, was born in Beirut.

Beirut was named the top place to visit by The New York Times in 2009.

No population census has been taken in Lebanon since 1932, and estimates of Beirut's population range from as low as 938 to as high as 2, 200,000.

Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia

Beijing

The State of Yan named Beijing its capital during the Warring States period of 475 to 221 BC. These early incarnations of the city served as trading posts for northern peoples like Mongols and Koreans.

Under Genghis Khan, Beijing was besieged for seven years until it finally fell to the Mongols in 1215 AD.

Beijing was developed substantially by the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Known as Dadu, he established it as the political center for all of China. 

During the Ming dynasty the capital was moved to Nanjing for 35 years. Beijing was only reinstalled as China’s capital on October 28, 1420, the same year that the Forbidden City, the seat of government, was completed.

The Wanggongchang Explosion was an unexplained catastrophic explosion that occurred on May 30, 1626, during the late reign of Tianqi Emperor, at Beijing. The sky turned dark, and everything within the 2 km or 1.2 miles vicinity and a 4 km2 or 1.5 mi2 area was utterly obliterated, with around 20,000 people killed. One of the largest and most lethal explosions ever it was about equal to the Hiroshima bombing. The exact cause hasn't yet been determined. 

Beijing became the largest city by population in the world in 1710 with 770,000 people. The position had been held for seven decades by Constantinople.

Beijing's Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan, was destroyed by British troops occupying the city on October 18, 1860.

Beijing was formerly known in English as Peking or Peiking. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the government adopted the Pinyin method of conveying Mandarin in the Roman alphabet and used it to write proper names using the Latin alphabet. In 1979 Peking became Beijing, when the Pinyin method was adopted as an international standard.

During the cultural revolution, the red guard movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of Mao Zedong's first purges. By the fall of 1966, all city schools were shut down.

Beijing opened its subway system in 1971.

Underneath Beijing there is a city spanning 33 square miles called Dixia Cheng. It was built in the 1970's due to rising tensions between China and the Soviet Union.

The pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests ended on June 4, 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing by the government and the shooting of several hundred, or possibly thousands, of civilians by soldiers. Official figures of the dead range from 200 to 300. 

The many sights that represent the Chinese city of Beijing were built by foreigners: the Forbidden City (see below) was built by the Mongols, the Temple of Heaven by the Manchurians.

Currently there are 21,893,095 people residing in Beijing. Most residents are of Han ethnicity.

Beijing has long been well known for the number of bicycles on its streets and is considered to be the bicycle capital of the world. It has many parking lots dedicated to bikes alone.

Beijing’s main shopping street is called Wangfujing. It contains a plethora of shops and food stalls.

The 2008 Summer Olympics were held in Beijing from August 8 to August 24, 2008. The opening ceremony was held on August 8 at 8:00 pm China Standard Time (UTC+8), which is why it is often referred to as the "08/08/08" Olympics. The number eight is considered a lucky number in China and many parts of the Far East.

The 2008 Summer Olympics were a major success for Beijing, and they helped to showcase China to the world. The opening ceremony was particularly well-received, and it is considered to be one of the greatest opening ceremonies in Olympic history.

A scene from the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. By papparazzi..Wikipedia 

Due to the deforestation of the forests in North China, over one million tons of sands blows into Beijing from the Gobi desert. It sometimes causes the sky to turn yellow.

Some districts in Beijing are sinking by as much as 11 centimeters (4.33 inches) per year due to groundwater depletion.

Breathing the air in Beijing has the same health risks as smoking 21 cigarettes a day.

Over a million people live in underground nuclear bunkers beneath the streets of Beijing. 

With 6,800 public toilets, Beijing claims to have more than any other capital city. 

Begonia

Begonia is a genus of perennial flowering plants that contains 1,484 different plant species. It is the sixth largest flowering plant genus.

The genus name Begonia, coined by Charles Plumier, a French patron of botany, and adopted by Linnaeus in 1753, honors Michel Bégon, a former governor of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti).

Although most begonias are perennial herbs with watery stems, there is great natural diversity in the habit of the plants: Stems may be creeping, erect, or underground; some plants are climbers and others are shrubs or even small trees. The shape, size, and coloration of the leaves, flowers, and inflorescences (flower clusters) also vary greatly.

Begonias are found in moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are often grown indoors as houseplants.

A potted angel wing begonia (Begonia aconitifolia × B. coccinea)By Khalid Mahmood - Wikipedia 

The begonia produces one of the smallest types of seeds in the world, which resemble dust. One ounce of begonia seed is enough for the production of three million seedlings, which start to germinate two or three weeks after planting.

Most begonias are sour to the taste, and some varieties – there are more than 1,000 – have been used for food. This is safe in small amounts but potentially toxic in large quantities due to the prevalence of oxalic acid in the tissues.

Indonesians use begonias to make a sauce over fish dishes while Brazilians scatter the flower in salads.

Begonias are rich in vitamin C and have been used to prevent scurvy when citrus fruits were not available.

Display of (tuberous) begonias, Hampton Court Flower Show

Begonias have been used in Chinese medicine to disinfect wounds and ease the symptoms of a cold.

In some areas of China, the sap was used to stop toothache or cure kidney ailments.

When North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il died in 2011, a special variety of the flower called Kimjongilia was bred to adorn his corpse for public display.

Sources Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia,  Daily Mail June 17, 2016

Beggar

Lambert le Bègue, (d c1187) a Flemish priest, was deeply perturbed by the pitiful sight of the many destitute wives and children of crusaders who had been killed. He made it his special mission to assist such homeless widows and orphans. To house them, he established refuges all over the area. It did not take long for them to be called after the priest who had done so much for them, to be referred to as a Bèghard.  That is how the word “beggar” came into the world.

From the mid-1700s until the 1970s, countries and individual cities had unsightly beggar ordinances known colloquially as ugly laws. These laws deemed it illegal for "any person, who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or deformed in any way, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, to expose himself to public view.

The first American ordinance pertaining to preventing people with disabilities from appearing in public was one passed in 1867 in San Francisco, California. It is noted that people who were perhaps in need of money traveled to California to “strike it rich” during the California Gold Rush. When they did not find themselves wealthy, they remained in California. Letters and documents from the period just after the California Gold Rush note the large number of “insane” people wandering the streets.

Louis Dewis, "The Old Beggar", Bordeaux, France, 1916

The Leatherman (ca. 1839–1889) was a particular vagabond, who traveled a 365-mile (587 kms) circuit between the Connecticut River and the Hudson River, roughly from 1857 to 1889. He wore a handmade leather coat, scarf and hat and although he frequently stopped in towns along his route, he never told anyone his name. His identity remains unknown.

A beggar was caught outside a mosque in Kuwait telling worshipers that he badly needed cash and that he had no home. Since it is illegal, he was arrested and police discovered he had over 500,000 Kuwaiti Dinars in his bank account ($1,650,000)

The luck changed for beggar Billy Ray Harris one day in February 2013 when the usual tinkling of coins being dropped into his beggar’s cup on a plaza in Kansas City was punctuated by a slightly heavier clunk. A few minutes later he looked inside and spied a $4,000 woman’s engagement ring. He never sold it. Two days later the woman came back for her ring and Harris gave it to her. In thanks, she set up a fund that raised over $185,000 for him.

Bulgarian ascetic Dobri Dobrev, also known as Grandpa Dobri, spent his life begging for money and donated all the cash he collected to charities, orphanages, churches and monasteries. He walked over 20 kilometers (12 mi) each day to sit or stand in front of the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky in Sofia. Dobrev died on February 13, 2018, at Kremikovtsi Monastery, at the age of 103.

Dobri Dobrev in 2006

Beetroot

The red beetroot was considered by the Ancient Greeks to be medicinal, whilst its juice was used as a hair dye. 

The ancient Romans considered beetroot to be an aphrodisiac and The Lupanare, the official brothel of Pompeii, had its walls decorated with pictures of the vegetable.

From the Middle Ages, beetroot was used as a treatment for a variety of conditions, especially illnesses relating to digestion and the blood.

The 17th century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper said that beetroot juice is good for headaches and afflictions of the brain.

The beetroot we eat now is Beta vulgaris, which evolved as a cultivated version of the sea beet, Beta maritima.

Raw beetroot is 88% water, 10% carbohydrates, 2% protein, and less than 1% fat.

In studies conducted by the Exeter University, scientists found cyclists who drank a half-liter of beetroot juice several hours before setting off were able to ride up to 20% longer than those who drank a placebo blackcurrant juice.

Betanin, obtained from the roots, is used industrially as red food colorants, e.g. to improve the color and flavor of tomato paste, sauces, desserts, jams and jellies, ice cream, sweets and breakfast cereals.

In other forms betain is used to help treat depression. It’s also an amino acid, trytophan, that helps improve mood, memory and reduces stress. And finally it’s the feel good chemical in chocolate.

The green, leafy portion of the beet is also edible. It is most commonly served boiled or steamed, in which case it has a taste and texture similar to spinach.

If you boil beetroots in water and then massage the water into your scalp each night, it works as an effective cure for dandruff.

The world’s heaviest beetroot was grown in Cwmbran, Gwent, Wales by Jamie Courtney-Fortey, Gareth Fortey, Marjorie Fortey and Kevin Fortey. Its weight of 23.995 kg (52 lb 14 oz), was verified on May 23, 2019. 

Source Wikipedia, Daily Express