Vietnam is a country in South East Asia, on the South China Sea, bounded north by China and west by Cambodia and Laos.
HISTORY
Vietnam was founded in 2879 BC following the political union of many tribes of the northern Red River Valley.
Under direct Chinese rule between 111 BC to 939 BC, Vietnam was thereafter at times nominally subject to China.
Triệu Thị Trinh was a 3rd-century female warrior who led Vietnam's army against the Chinese—legends claim she was 9 feet tall and rode an elephant.
Folk art depiction of Lady Trieu
The nation enjoyed a golden era under the Trần dynasty between 1225 and 1400. Vietnam annexed land to the south and defeated the forces of Kublai Khan in 1288.
After 175 years of rule, the Trần dynasty of Vietnam was deposed by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official on March 23, 1400.
From the 10th-20th century, Vietnam issued round coins with a square hole in the middle.
Gia Long conquered Hanoi and unified modern-day Vietnam in 1802, He succeeded in reuniting Vietnam after centuries of feudal warfare with a greater landmass than ever before, stretching from China down to the Gulf of Siam.
Vietnam's kingdom independence was eroded by France which was aided by the Spanish and large Catholic militias in a series of military conquests from 1858. On February 17, 1859 the French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Vietnam.
By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, joining Cambodia, Laos, and Annam as the French colonial possessions of Indochina.
Between 1940 and 1945, the Japanese Empire was allowed to station its troops in French Indochina while permitting the pro-Vichy French colonial administration to continue.
Hanoi in the 1940s.
Ho Chi Minh, who had built up the Vietminh (Independence) league, overthrew the Japanese supported regime of Boa Dai, the former emperor of Annam in September 1945. Vietnam declared its independence on September 2, 1945, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The flag of Vietnam was designed in 1940. Red symbolizes the goals of social revolution behind the Vietnamese national uprising. The star represents the five main classes in Vietnamese society—intellectuals, farmers, workers, business people and military personnel. When Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnam independent in 1945 he adopted the flag as the flag of the North Vietnam. The red flag of North Vietnam was later adopted as the flag of the unified Vietnam in 1976.
French attempts to regain control and restore Boa Dai led to bitter fighting between 1946 and 1954 and final defeat at Dien Bien Phu.
The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was established at the Geneva Conference in 1954, partitioning Vietnam along the 17th parallel north into two zones: communist North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and pro-western South Vietnam under Ngô Đinh Diệm (the former premier to Bao Dai) and with its capital at Saigon.
The State of Vietnam referendum held on October 23, 1955 determined the future form of government of the State of Vietnam, the nation that was to become South Vietnam. It was contested by Prime Minister Ngô Đinh Diệm, who proposed a republic, and former emperor Bảo Đại, the head of state.
Diệm won the election, which was widely marred by electoral fraud, with 98.2% of the vote. In the capital Saigon, Diệm was credited with more than 600,000 votes, although only 450,000 people were on the electoral roll. He accumulated tallies in excess of 90% of the registered voters, even in rural regions where opposition groups prevented voting.
Ho Chi Minh died on Vietnam's National Day, September 2, 1969. His death was not announced until 48 hours later to avoid spoiling National Day festivities.
Ho Chi Minh's body is displayed for nine months a year at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi. It goes annually to Moscow for "maintenance".
Hồ Chí Minh
The Vietnam War lasted from November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975, It was fought between the Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF), a South Vietnamese communist force helped by the North and the anti-communist forces in the South, The People's Army of Vietnam (also known as the North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times putting large forces to battle.
On April 30, 1975, the National Liberation Front with the help of the N.V.A. overtook Sàigòn and quickly renamed it Hồ Chí Minh City, which is the capital of Vietnam. The nation was fully reunified as Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.
Reunification parade following the fall of Saigon
Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, the prime minister of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1967, moved to Orange County, California, after the war, where he opened and ran a liquor store.
More than a year after the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam officially united under communist rule in 1976 to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on July 2, 1976 and a program to integrate the south was launched. The new Republic encountered considerable problems. The economy was in ruins and the new communist administration faced opposition from the intelligentsia (many of whom were imprisoned) and from rural groups, who was used to cooperate in the drive to collectivize southern agriculture.
In December 1978 Vietnam was at war again, toppling the pro-Chinese Khmer Rouge government in Kampuchea led by Pol Pot and installing a puppet administration led by Heng Samson.
A year later, in response to accusations of maltreatment of ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam, China mounted a brief but largely unsuccessful punitive invasion of North Vietnam between February and March 1979. These actions, coupled with the contemporary campaigns against private businesses in the south, induced the flight of about 700,000 Chinese and middle class Vietnamese from the country between 1978 to 79, often by sea (the boat people). Economic and diplomatic relations with China was severed as Vietnam became closer to the Soviet Union.
In 1986, the government launched a number of economic and political reforms that began Vietnam's path to integration into the world economy.
East Germany invested the machinery, housing, farm training, and infrastructure necessary to increase the coffee production in Vietnam, in exchange for 50% of the Vietnamese coffee harvest for 20 years. The first usable harvest occurred in 1990, one year after the Berlin Wall fell.
By 2000, Vietnam had established diplomatic relations with all nations.
Since 2000, Vietnam's economic growth has been among the highest in the world.
FUN VIETNAM FACTS
Vietnam extends across two climatic zones, with a moderate climate in the North, and a tropical climate in the South.
As of 2016, the population of Vietnam stood at approximately 94.6 million people.
The majority of Vietnamese people have the last names Nguyen (38%) or Tran (13%). Nguyen is pronounced as “win”.
For hundreds of years, Vietnamese was written in Nôm, which looks like Chinese, but few people today can read this script.
Vietnam is the world's second largest exporter of coffee, producing 16 %, a figure exceeded only by Brazil.
A popular dish in Vietnam is tiet canh, a sort of soup made from congealed duckblood.
Snake wine. ByDeror Avi
Vietnam is home to more ducks than any other country, an estimated 27 per cent of the world's duck population.
In 2011, police in Vietnam were banned from conversing with each other, smoking, putting their hands in their pockets or wearing black sunglasses on duty.
There are around 37 million motorcycles in Vietnam and only two million cars.
Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria. It lies on the River Danube at the foot of the Vienna Woods.
Pixabay
HISTORY
The history of Vienna goes back to the Celts who settled the site on the Danube River.
In 15 BC the Romans started a military camp on the site called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north. The Romans stayed until the 5th century.
By 1437, Vienna had grown to become the de facto capital of the Holy Roman Empire and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine.
Depiction of Vienna in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493
In 1529 Suleiman the Magnificent's Ottoman Turks, who had swept through Eastern Europe, had a border only 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Vienna and were besieging the city. At the start of the siege Suleiman, was so sure of his victory that he boasted that he would be having breakfast in Vienna cathedral within 14 days. 14 days later, the Austrians sent him a letter, telling him his breakfast was getting cold.
The Siege of Vienna ended on October 15, 1529 as the Austrians repelled the Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
The failure of the siege marked the beginning of 150 years of bitter military tension and reciprocal attacks.. The Christian counter-offensive began in 1683 when a 70,000 strong Christian Polish and German army defeated a vast Turkish army at the gates of Vienna in 1683, thus warding off a threat to Christendom in central Europe.
Vienna's old city walls were replaced by a wide street, the Ringstraße between the 1860s to 1890s,. The circular grand boulevard serves as a ring road around the historic Old Town district of Vienna.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants.
Vienna Ringstraße and State Opera around 1870
During the early 1910s Adolf Hitler worked as a struggling painter in Vienna, copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists.
When World War 1 broke out, Vladimir Lenin was captured and imprisoned. He might have been shot as a Russian spy by the Austrians if the Socialist mayor of Vienna, hadn’t believed the Bolshevik was a greater danger to the Russians than he was to the Austrians.
In 1913, Hitler, Freud, Tito, Stalin, and Trotsky all lived within two square miles of each other in Vienna. At that time, Vienna was a hub of intellectual and cultural activity, and it attracted a diverse range of people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Adolf Hitler was an aspiring artist who had been rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, while Leon Trotsky was a revolutionary socialist who had been exiled from Russia. Joseph Tito was a young man working odd jobs and trying to find his place in the world, while Sigmund Freud was a renowned psychoanalyst who had already made significant contributions to the field of psychology. Joseph Stalin was also living in Vienna at the time, working as an organizer for the Bolshevik party.
During World War II 20% of Vienna's buildings were destroyed, After the war, the city was divided into US, British, French, and Soviet zones. The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955.
In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
MUSIC
Vienna is regarded as the City of Music, because of its musical legacy. It is associated with Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss waltzes, and the development of atonal music.
The waltz became fashionable in Vienna around the 1780s, spreading to many other countries in the years to follow.
Mozart had 14 different places of residence in Vienna including nine moves in one year. He spent the year 1786 in Vienna in an apartment which may be visited today at Domgasse 5 behind St. Stephen's Cathedral; it was here that Mozart composed The Marriage of Figaro.
Schubert lived in Vienna for most of his life. He occupied 17 residences in the Austrian city including the first five years of his life in a one room apartment of a house called The Red Crayfish, now a museum at Nussdorf Erstrasse 54 Vienna.
Every year, more than 450 balls take place in Vienna—which means there's about 2000 hours of ball dancing annually.
FUN VIENNA FACTS
Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria, with a population of about 1.9 million (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of Austria's population),
Vienna is further north than Munich. While Vienna has a latitude of 48.2, Munich just beats it with a latitude of 48.1. Vienna is also further to the east than Prague.
The city is known for its high quality of life. In a 2018 study of world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Vienna in the number one spot in a list of the world's most liveable cities.
Vienna has much Renaissance and baroque architecture including, the Hofburg (the former Imperial Palace which is now the residence of the President of the Republic of Austria) and Schönbrunn Palace (the summer palace of the Habsburg emperors), which has 1,440 rooms.
Schönbrunn. Pixiebay
Vienna was home to the world's first psychoanalyst – Sigmund Freud. His apartment at Berggasse 19 near the Innere Stadt or historical quarter of Vienna is now a museum.
The zoo at Schönbrunn was founded in 1752. In 1765 it became the world's first zoo to open to the public – but only if the visitors were dressed properly.
A video recorder is a device that, when linked to a television set, can be used for recording on and playing videotapes.
Video-cassette player model LG-C240M
Video recording dates back to 1927, when John Logie Baird used wax discs.
Bing Crosby was heavily involved in the initial development of both audio and videotape recording in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He funded an electronics lab, to develop audio and video recording primarily for use on his own television and radio projects.
The first video recorder was demonstrated at Bing Crosby Enterprises in Beverly Hills, California in 1952.
Ampex introduced the Quadruplex videotape professional broadcast standard format with its Ampex VRX-1000 in 1956. It was the size of a large freezer.
The Ampex VRX-100 became the world's first commercially successful videotape recorder using two-inch (5.1 cm) wide tape. it quickly obscuring Crosby's early videotape format
Ampex VRX-1000 - the first video tape
The half-inch tape Sony model CV-2000, first marketed in 1965, was their first Videotape recorder intended for home use.
In 1970, Philips developed a home video cassette format which was made available on the consumer market in 1972. Philips named this format "Video Cassette Recording". It used square cassettes and half-inch (1.3 cm) tape, mounted on coaxial reels, giving a recording time of one hour.
Philips' first mass-market video cassette recorder, available in the United Kingdom in 1972 cost nearly £600.
June 7th is Betamax Day, marking Sony's introduction of their first videocassette recorder on this date in 1975. It sold for $995.
The VHS (Video Home System) was created in 1976 by the Victor Company of Japan (also called JVC).
In the 1980s, VHS was involved in a format war with Sony's Betamax. Betamax's smaller-sized cassettes were not able to contain as much magnetic tape as VHS cassettes. This meant that Sony had to slow the tape speed down to 0.787 ips (Beta II) in order to reach two hours of video recording in the same cassette size. This meant that the television picture produced by a Betamax tape was worse than VHS when comparing two-hour recordings, so consumers preferred the VHS-format VCRs. Sony eventually released a longer Betamax cassette called Beta III which allowed NTSC Betamax to record more than two hours, but by then VHS had already won the format war.
Videocassette recorders at first were mainly used to record programs from television broadcasts. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many people used VCRs to record their favorite television shows to watch them later.
In 1975 Marion Stokes, a Philadelphia woman got a Betamax magnetic videotape recorder and began recording bits of sitcoms, science documentaries, and politicalnews coverage. From the outset of the Iran Hostage Crisis on November 4, 1979, she began taping whatever was on television and didn't stop until her death in 2012. The 71,000 VHS and Betamax tapes she made are the most complete collection preserving this era of TV.
In the early 1980s film companies tried to make it illegal due to the possibility of recording copyrighted material, in a case which reached the Supreme Court. The head of the MPAA compared the effect of the VCR on television to that of the Boston Strangler on women.
In 1984 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that using a home video recorder to tape movies and television shows for non-commercial purposes did not violate federal copyright law. The decision paved the way for an explosion of the technology in American homes.
By the mid-1980s, VCRs had become a very popular way for people to watch movies on their home television. Video rental stores opened up offering a large selection of films recorded on VHS tapes that customers could rent.
The first Blockbuster video-rental store opened, in Dallas, Texas on October 19, 1985 and by 1989, a new blockbuster store was opening in the United States every 17 hours.
A Blockbuster store in Durham, North Carolina By Ildar Sagdejev (Specious)
By 1995, the Blockbuster video rental chain had more than 4,500 stores. The company made $785 million in profits on $2.4 billion in revenues: a profit margin of over 30 percent. Much of this profit came from "late fees" on overdue rentals.
At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide and had 9,094 stores in total, with more than 4,500 of these in the US.
Blockbuster began to lose significant revenue during the 2000s, and the company filed for bankruptcy on September 23, 2010. On April 6, 2011, Blockbuster and its remaining 1,700 stores were bought by the satellite television company Dish Network. The stores remained open until Dish closed all company-owned locations in 2013.
Family Video still operates over 500 stores in Canada and the USA. They own the real estate where their stores are located and they own all of the media they rent out so they keep all of the profits. This is why they were able to outlast other video rental businesses like Blockbuster.
In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, the DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) player replaced the VCR as the most common way to watch movies on a home television. The DVD and Blu-ray became more popular as they are easier to use, the quality is higher, they last longer, and the discs and players are cheaper to make.
2006 marked the end of the VHS era with the release of A History of Violence, the last VHS release for a major Hollywood film.
Consumer digital video recorders ReplayTV and TiVo were launched at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In contrast to VCRs, hard-disk based digital video recorders make "time shifting" more convenient and also allow for functions such as pausing live television, instant replay, viewing a recording before it has been completed and skipping over advertising during playback.
The world's last VHS player was made in June 2016 by Japan's Funai Electric.
American physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann were awarded a patent on December 14, 1948 for their "Cathode-ray tube amusement device," an oscilloscope featuring a set of knobs and switches. It was the first interactive electronic game.
In 1962, University of Utah engineering student Nolan Bushnell received his first exposure to video games, playing Spacewar! on the University's mainframe computer. Bushnell spent the next seven years trying to reproduce Spacewar! on a smaller, less expensive computer. When it was finally completed in 1971, Bushnell's Spacewar variation (dubbed "Computer Space") was not a success as people found it too complicated.
Screenshot of a PDP-1 computer running Spacewar Adambro
When the first microprocessor chip became available in 1972, Bushnell quit his job at Ampex, and founded Atari. Bushnell originally wanted to name the company Syzygy, but the name was already taken by a roofing company.
The word "Atari" comes from the ancient board gameGo and means "to hit the target" in Japanese.
Using the small profits from Computer Space, Bushnell constructed Pong which could be linked to a television set, and started the video game explosion.
Pong was commercially released by Atari, on November 29, 1972. The first commercially successful video game, Pong was based on table tennis. Nolan Bushnell said it was a game ‘so simple that any drunk in any bar could play’.
Pong Pixabay
The Magnavox Odyssey was the first commercial home video game console. First demonstrated in April 1972, it was released that August, predating the Atari Pong home consoles by three years. The system could be powered by either six C batteries or an optional AC power supply. Games used "game cards" inserted into a slot similar to a ROM cartridge slot. The system lacked sound capability. By 1974 more than 350,000 had been sold.
Magnavox had a game similar to Pong, and they later sued Atari (successfully) for "copying" it.
When the gaming industry was in its infancy during the mid 1970s, consoles were hard-wired to play one or two crude games such as Pong. Atari changed that in 1977 with the 2600, the first console to take an unlimited number of games cartridges, heralding the age of the PlayStation, Wii and the Xbox.
Back in the 1980's people were able to download video games from a radio broadcast by recording the sounds onto a cassette tape that they could then play on their computers.
Between 1983-85, there was a huge crash in the video games industry. Market saturation was a factor, with too many competing consoles and games. Revenues went from $3.2 billion to $100 million, a 97% drop. The crash ended the 80’s generation of console gaming in the US.
The 8-bit handheld video game Game Boy device was developed and manufactured by Nintendo and first released in 1989. The inventor of the Nintendo Gameboy, Gunpei Yokoi, was originally hired by Nintendo in 1965 to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture its Hanafuda cards.
FIRSTS
The world's first coin-operated video game, Galaxy Game, cost US$20,000 to make in 1971. It charged players 10 cents per game or 25 cents for three,
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, a platform video game originally released for the Atari 2600 by Activision in 1984, was the very first video game with a full music score.
The Legend of Zelda is a fantasy action-adventure video game franchise created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and first released on February 21, 1986. It was the first console game with a save function that enabled players to stop playing and then resume later.
The Legend of Zelda on the NES. Wikipedia
In the summer of 1986 Nintendo released Metroid, the first of many successful games in the franchise. Players took on the role of Samus Aran, an ex-soldier of the Galactic Federation who became a galactic bounty hunter. Metroid was the first ever video game to feature a female protagonist.
Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr A. Serebrov packed a Nintendo Game Boy and his personal copy of Tetris for his 1993 mission aboard the Mir space station. On January 8, 1993, he became the first person to ever play a video game in space.
When in 1998, Bruce Willis participated in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse, he became the first actor to ever "act" in a video game. No one before had ever done voice work along with having their movements digitally added to the game.
"Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin is the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy award. Tin originally composed the piece for the 2005 game Civilization IV with lyrics from the Swahili translation of The Lord's Prayer. Four years later, Tin released a recording of "Baba Yetu" featuring Ron Ragin and the Soweto Gospel Choir that won a Grammy for best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalists.
FAMOUS VIDEO GAMES
Pac-Man, an arcade game that became an icon of 1980s popular culture, made its debut in Japan in 1980. Pac-Man's name was inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeia "pakku-pakku," which sounds like someone opening and closing their mouth.
Tetris is the best-selling video game to date. A tile-matching puzzle video game originally released for the Electronika 60 in 1984. It was then popularised upon its Game Boy release in 1989 and has sold more than 170 million copies worldwide.
Super Mario Bros is the best selling computer game series of all time, clocking over 200 million sales. The first title in the series, Super Mario Bros., released in 1985, established gameplay concepts and elements prevalent in nearly every Super Mario game since.
Final Fantasy is a Japanese science fantasy media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square). The first game in the series was released on December 18, 1987. The original Final Fantasy game got its title because Square thought it would go bankrupt and the title would be its final game. It ended up saving the company from bankruptcy.
The Light Warriors battle Lich, Fiend of Earth. in Final Fantasy Wikipedia
Solitaire is without a doubt the most popular video game in history, mostly because it was offered pre-installed in Microsoft's Windows operating system. It was created by Wes Cherry, a Microsoft intern that was working for the company in 1988, who wasn't paid for the game. Bill Gates liked the idea but complained it was too difficult to win at this game. The original version also included a fake Excel spreadsheet to hide the game from your boss.
"Solitaire" actually refers to any tabletop game you can play by yourself, not just the famous playing card game that was included on Windows. The card game simply called "Solitaire" on Windows is actually named "Klondike".
SimCity is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, SimCity, was published by Maxis in 1989. The inspiration for creating SimCity came when Wright was developing a helicopter shoot'em up and found that he enjoyed messing around with the tool that creates the landscape maps more than the game itself.
The first instalment of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series was first released on June 23, 1991, transforming Sega into a leading game company. Sonic the Hedgehog's full name is actually Ogilvie Maurice Hedgehog.
Sonic Hedgehog A screenshot, taken from the first level, Green Hill Zone. Wikipedia
Sonic the Hedgehog's power sneakers were based on Michael Jackson's boots from the Bad album sleeve.
Sonic the Hedgehog would have to consume 686 chili dogs to run through a full game stage at supersonic speed.
Despite being one of the best-selling fighting games of all time, the original Mortal Kombat game was created in 1991-92 by a five-man team in eight months.
Doom is a groundbreaking first-person shooter game developed by id Software and released on December 10, 1993. It was immediately successful, selling over 10 million copies. Doom is considered to be one of the most influential games of all time, and it helped to popularize the first-person shooter genre.
Within hours of its release in 1993 Doom was banned from numerous university networks as a rush of players overwhelmed their systems with death matches.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the world's most successful video games, was released on November 20, 1998.
On its initial Nintendo 64 release, the review aggregator website Metacritic ranked the original Nintendo 64 version of Ocarina of Time as the highest reviewed game of all time, with average scores of 99/100.
When the game's producer Shigeru Miyamoto was a child, he didn't have any toys or television, so he would spend his time roaming the countryside unsupervised. One day, he found a deep dark hole. Intrigued, he grabbed a lantern and discovered a miniature cave system. This experience formed the spiritual basis of The Legend of Zelda.
North American box art
Will Wright was inspired to create The Sims by the 1991 Oakland firestorm. He lost his home in the fire, and wanted to create a game that emulated his experience of rebuilding his life in the aftermath. The game was first released on February 4, 2000.
The game Myst, released in 1993, was the best-selling computer game until The Sims took it out in 2002.
The controversial video game Grand Theft Auto III was first released to critical acclaim on October 21, 2001, and went on to popularise open world and adult-content games.
Grand Theft Auto III Wikipedia
Halo is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game that was first released on November 15, 2001. Halo was originally a Mac game that Steve Jobs was going to use to prove that Macintosh computers were viable for gaming.
In 2007, when Halo 3 released it broke records on video game sales, making $170 million on the first day. Movie executives blamed Halo for a 27% drop in the box office for that week.
A small group of developers behind Medal of Honor broke away from that series due to the increasing control of its publisher EA. They instead created a new game and called it Call of Duty, which was released on October 29, 2003.
Grand Theft Auto V cost $265 million to produce, making it the most expensive video game of all time.
The highest-grossing entertainment launch of all time was in September 2013. That launch was for the video game Grand Theft Auto V, which grossed more than $1bn during its opening 72 hours on sale.
Grand Theft Auto is the highest grossing video game of all time, having made 6 billion dollars whereas Avatar, the highest grossing movie, has made only 2.7 billion dollars.
FUN VIDEO GAME FACTS
Quaker Oats briefly owned a video game company from 1982 to 1983 that made Atari games. They released 14 of them, but nothing was even close to a hit, and they shut down the division.
Karateka is a martial arts action game, which was originally programmed in 1984 for the Apple II, then widely ported. As a joke, the Apple II release of Karateka had a full version of the game on the reverse side of the disk that rendered the game upside down prompting users to call support and ask why the game was upside down. They were told to "take the disk out, insert it right-side up, and reboot."
Michael Jackson composed the music for Sonic 3 in 1993 but chose to remain uncredited because he was unhappy with the sound capabilities of the Sega Genesis.
Game designer Sid Meier (Civilization) has a 33/33/33 rule of sequel design, 33% of the game should keep established systems, 33% should feature improved systems, 33% brand-new mechanics.
In 2011, South Korea passed a law called "Cinderella Law" prohibiting children under 16 from playing online video games between 12 am to 6 am.
In 2013, a father in China hired gamers to kill his son in video games so the son would start looking for a job and get a life.
Disney had planned on making films based on the video games Mega Man and The Sims, but canceled those plans after Assassin's Creed flopped at the box office.
In 1985, Takahashi Meijin (real name Takahashi Toshiyuki) became a celebrity in Japan when he managed the feat of pressing a button on a video game controller 16 times in one second on television. It's still a world record.
Adult women represent a larger percentage (33%) of video game players than boys under 18 (17%).
As of 2024, the gaming industry is considered bigger than both the movies and music industries combined.
In 2023, the global gaming market was valued at around $396.2 billion, according to Newzoo.
Box office revenue for music worldwide reached $283.5 billion in 2023, as reported by The Business Research Company.
The global music industry generated around $31.2 billion in 2022, according to Statista.
Queen Victoria was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London.
Photograph by Alexander Bassano, 1882
Queen Victoria was the only child of Edward, the Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III. He was a sadistic psychopathic man.
Princess Victoria's father died of pneumonia eight months after she was born. Her grandfather, George III, died blind and insane less than a week later. Princess Victoria's uncle, the Prince of Wales, inherited the Crown, becoming King George IV.
Her mother was Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a German princess, who later became Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, .
CHILDHOOD
Victoria was only her second name: her first name was Alexandrina. Because of this first name, she was known as 'Drina' when she was young.
Victoria was a plain serious child. In her teenage years she was a dutiful and self-possessed girl who loved dancing.
Princess Victoria was good at languages, but was not a great speller and was a messy writer.
Though she occupied a high position in the line of succession, Victoria was taught only German, the first language of both her mother and her governess, during her early years. After she became three years old however, she was schooled in English.
She began her education at the age of 4, and studied in private lessons at Kensington Palace. Princess Victoria's educator was the Reverend George Davys and her governess was Louise Lehzen.
Portrait of Victoria aged four by Stephen Poyntz Denning, 1823
By the age of 16 Victoria spoke fluent French and German plus some Italian and Latin. She also had an advanced knowledge of astronomy, business, history and the major poets. Victoria enjoyed a thorough grasp of world affairs and had an astonishing retentive memory.
Victoria was eleven when she realised she would be next in line for the throne. When the implication sank in she had a good cry. Then she controlled herself and said solemnly to her Governess. "I will be good."
REIGN
Queen Victoria succeeded her uncle William IV on the English throne on June 20, 1837, She wrote in her diary, "I was awoke at 6 o'clock by Mamma, who told me the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here and wished to see me. I got out of bed and went into my sitting-room (only in my dressing gown) and alone, and saw them. Lord Conyngham then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past 2 this morning, and consequently that I am Queen."
On Victoria's succession to the throne Hanover became separated from England as female succession was not allowed in the German state.
After her first Privy Council meeting officials presented documents naming her Alexandrina Victoria. She told them to cross out the Alexandrina.
Victoria's coronation took place on June 28, 1838 at Westminster Abbey. Over 400,000 visitors came to London for the celebrations.
Coronation portrait by George Hayter
After her coronation Victoria endeared herself to the public when she sprung from her throne to help an elderly noble man who had stumbled on approaching her to pay his respects.
It was difficult for prime ministers when dealing with Victoria over affairs of state. In May 1839 Lord Melbourne's Whig ministry resigned and Robert Peel formed a Tory one. He intimidated that he should expect the Whig ladies of the bedchamber to be replaced by Tories but when Victoria objected to this she gained her point.
Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to travel by train. On June 13, 1842 the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Prince Albert accompanied her on the inaugural royal train journey, from Slough (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop's Bridge (near Paddington). The first royal train trip lasted only 25 minutes.
She always pulled her carriage curtains when passing through rougher areas to avoid the distressing sight of a working class tenement.
On August 16, 1858 Queen Victoria cabled President James Buchanan over the first transatlantic cable. Her message was "The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the successful completion of this great international work, in which The Queen has taken the deepest interest. The Queen is convinced that the President will join her in fervently hoping that the electric cable, which now connects great Britain with the United States, will prove an additional link between the nations, whose friendship is founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem. The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of the United States."
The States of Victoria and Queensland in Australia were named after Queen Victoria, who signed the order creating the latter's Statehood in 1859. The Victoria colony was officially established in 1851 and achieved self government in 1855.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British East India Company, which had ruled much of India, was dissolved, and Britain's possessions and protectorates on the Indian subcontinent were formally incorporated into the British Empire. Victoria took the title "Empress of India" from May 1, 1876.
There were seven attempts to assassinate the Queen; three of them occurred in 1842. The first one on June 10, 1840 occurred during Victoria's first pregnancy, when eighteen-year old Edward Oxford attempted to kill the Queen whilst she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. Many suggested that a Chartist conspiracy was behind the assassination attempt; others attributed the plot to supporters of the heir-presumptive, the King of Hanover. These conspiracy theories afflicted Britain with a wave of patriotism and loyalty.
Edward Oxford shooting at Queen Victoria By G. H> Miles, 1840
On hearing of Abraham Lincoln's assassination Victoria commented "these American news are most dreadful and awful! One never heard of such a thing! "
The widow of Windsor’s withdrawal from public life in her later years meant a fall in Republican popularity for a time but the Golden then Diamond Jubilee celebrations helped the British public fall in love with her again.
The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on June 20, 1887 when she was 68-years-old. The Queen celebrated her golden jubilee over two days. She began the first day with breakfast under the trees at Frogmore, the resting place of her husband, Prince Albert, near Windsor Castle, before a banquet at Buckingham Palace. On the second day, she led a procession and, in the evening, put on a gown embroidered with silver roses, thistles and shamrocks for a banquet and was then wheeled into the garden to watch the fireworks.
On September 23, 1896, Victoria surpassed her grandfather George III as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II surpassed her on September 9, 2015.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee procession on June 22, 1897 followed a route six miles long through London and included troops from all over the empire.
Victoria described Lord Salisbury as her most outstanding prime minister.
MARRIAGE
The idea of a marriage between Victoria and her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had always been cherished by their uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium, as well as Victoria's mother (Leopold's sister), Victoria, Duchess of Kent. In May 1836 the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his two sons paid a visit to Kensington Palace, where Princess Victoria of Kent lived, for the purpose of meeting her.
The visit did not by any means suit Victoria's uncle, King William IV, who disapproved of the match with his heir, and favoured Prince Alexander of Orange. But Princess Victoria knew of Leopold's plan, and William's objections went for naught.
In her diary Princess Victoria noted that she was attracted by his intellect and also by his "exquisite nose and delicate moustachios." The parties undertook no formal engagement, but privately understood the situation as one which would naturally develop in time.
After Victoria came to the throne, her letters show her interest in Albert's being educated for the part he would have to play.
Victoria summoned Albert one afternoon and with characteristic directness proposed marriage herself as she was sure Albert would never have taken such a liberty as to propose to the Queen of England.
They became definitely engaged on October 15, 1839 and the Queen made a formal declaration of her intention to marry to the Privy Council on November 23.
They were married in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace on February 10, 1840 and had a two day honeymoon at Windsor Castle.
Marriage of Victoria and Albert, painted by George Hayter
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's wedding cake was 9 feet around, weighed 300 pounds and was 14 inches high. It was served at the wedding breakfast.
A giant wheel of Cheddar cheese was given to Queen Victoria for a wedding gift. It weighed 1,200 lbs and two Somerset villages combined to make it.
Despite not being the reigning monarch, Albert was the decision-maker of the family.
Many scholars have suggested that Prince Albert was not in love with young Victoria, and that he entered into a relationship with her in order to gain social status (he was a minor German prince) and out of a sense of duty (his family desired the match). Whatever Albert's original reasons for marrying Victoria may have been, theirs proved to be an extremely happy marriage.
Albert was not only the Queen's companion, but also an important political advisor, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant figure in her life. Having found a partner, Victoria no longer relied on the Whig ladies at her court for companionship.
Prince Albert died of typhoid fever in 1862. Following the death of her husband, Queen Victoria struggled with her grief. On one particular occasion when feeling suicidal she heard a voice saying, "For his sake, no, still endure". As a consequence the queen adopted the words "still endure" as a motto.
Every day for 40 years after Albert's death, Victoria ordered that Albert's clothes be laid afresh on his bed in his suite at Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria never really recovered from his death and was in continual mourning. The Albert memorial is a shrine to his memory at Windsor Castle.
CHILDREN
The first child of the royal couple, named Victoria, was born on November 21, 1840. Eight more children would be born during the exceptionally happy marriage between Victoria and Prince Albert (four sons and five daughters).
Victoria's family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalte
Felix Mendelssohn’s famous "Wedding March" was played for the first time in 1858 when Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter married the Crown Prince of Prussia.
Edward (later Edward VII (1841 – 1910)) was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince. He was born at 10:48 in the morning on November 9, 1841 in Buckingham Palace. Edward was known as Bertie to the family throughout his life. Victoria was not impressed at her son's liking for actresses.
RELATIONSHIPS
After Albert's death, a highlander called John Brown was appointed as Victoria's personal attendant. He addressed her as "Wumman" which she found refreshingly direct.
A romantic connection and even a secret marriage between Victoria and John Brown has been alleged. One recently discovered diary records a supposed deathbed confession by the Queen's private chaplain in which he admitted to a politician that he had presided over a clandestine marriage between Victoria and John Brown. Not all historians trust the reliability of the diary. However, when Victoria's corpse was laid in its coffin, two sets of mementos were placed with her, at her request. By her side was placed one of Albert's dressing gowns while in her left hand was placed a piece of Brown's hair, along with a picture of him. The rumors of an affair and marriage earned Victoria the nickname "Mrs Brown".
Victoria and John Brown at Balmoral, 1863. Photograph by G. W. Wilson.
On June 23, 1887, Victoria engaged two Indian Muslims as waiters, one of whom was Abdul Karim. He served her during the final fourteen years of her reign, gaining her maternal affection over that time and teaching her Urdu. In Victoria's last years, the impassive Abdul was the servant who pushed the infirm queen around her homes in her wheelchair.
APPEARANCE
Queen Victoria was 5ft (152 cm) exactly, the shortest English monarch ever. "I am rather short for a Queen" she once said.
When first Queen, Victoria had little blue pop eyes, a centre parting, cupid bow mouth, tiny hands and feet and a good figure. Plump, in her later years she was nearly 12 stone 976 kgs) and her girth grew to within ten inches (25 cms) of her height. “She is not fat, but very small and not at all pretty, with I am sorry to say, a rather red nose.” Richard Wagner said of her.
Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1843
Queen Victoria had a 66 inch (167cm) bust towards the end of her life — nearly double the average chest size of a British woman today — though she was only 59 inches (150cm) tall.
The English monarch's crown was a mass of precious stones. The headband was surmounted by fleur-de-lis and crosses pattée and by four half hoops in the form of branches of oak leaves in diamonds and pearlacorns supporting a mound and cross pattée.
Queen Victoria's insistence on continuing to wear wearing mourning clothes years after the death of her beloved Albert encouraged black sombre clothing to be the fashion. She also adopted a small white cap to cover her head.
She had a handkerchief embroidered with teardrops for use in mourning and refused to wear any other colorgloves than black.
CHARACTER
Victoria had a clear melodious and attractive voice.
Her first language was German not English and she was never able to speak English perfectly. (Her mother had spoken German in their home).
Victoria was shy and would give a little nervous laugh on meeting someone for the first time.
She wasn't interested in small talk and was only talkative amongst close family.
Victoria adopted her famous steely glare to hide her true feelings.
You were lucky if you got one smile per hour out of her. Strong willed and emotional, Victoria was often cross with quite a temper.
Despite being giggly when younger as Victoria got older her reaction to a joke or piece of silliness was "We are not amused."
She laughed most at other people's accidents such as when Napoleon III upset his coffee over his cocked hat or when the Duke of Argyll dropped one of her crowns and squashed it almost flat.
She had a spiritual yearning to be good. She wrote in her journal on New Year's Day 1881: "I feel how sadly deficient I am and how over sensitive and irritable and how uncontrollable my temper is when annoyed and hurt. But I am so overdone, so vexed and in such distress about my country, that must be my excuse. I will daily pray for God's help to improve."
HOMES AND TRAVEL
Victoria's birthplace and early home was at Kensington Palace, now the London Museum. She spent her childhood in rooms overlooking gardens at Kensington Palace. Until the age of 18 she slept in her mother's room.
Victoria's first act after her coronation was to remove her bed from her mother's room who had dominated her until her coronation.
Queen Victoria was the first monarch to live at the 602-roomed Buckingham Palace. She moved there on July 13, 1837.
Victoria and Albert loved the Highlands of Scotland and brought Balmoral Castle there. Albert resigned it in Scottish baronial style. She spent so much time at Balmoral that at one time a "vacant" sign was jokingly hung on the gates of Buckingham Palace.
Balmoral Castle Pixiebay
Victoria's happiest times were spent at Balmoral or Osborne House in the Isle of Wight with Albert. Victoria said of Balmoral "Every year my heart becomes more fixed in this dear paradise."
In the 40 years after Albert's death Victoria only spent 20 nights at Buckingham Palace. She was called "The Widow at Windsor" as after death of Albert Victoria continually mourned his death and spent most of her remaining 39 years locked away at Windsor.
Osbourne House was her home at the time of her death.
Queen Victoria loved the French Riviera. Her first trip was to Menton, the last hilltop stop before Italy and she made nine journeys to the wintering resort in total, helping to bring its international reputation.
The telephone was demonstrated to Queen Victoria at Osborne House by Alexander Graham Bell in January 1878. She immediately commissioned installations throughout the British royal residences.
When Queen Victoria installed a telephone at Osborne House, it was one of only two phones in Britain. The only person who could possibly ring her was a member of her household staff.
FOOD AND DRINK
Queen Victoria had an excessive liking for beef marrow, which she ate on toast for tea every day. She also enjoyed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding followed by mind numbingly cold ice cream.
Queen Victoria decreed that only roast beef of mutton, followed by milk puddings are suitable fare for her children and grandchildren.
A great advocate of fresh air, Victoria loved picnics. After a gentle ramble around her Balmoral estate, she headed for a spot under the trees where an army of footmen and maids set out the provisions on fine china, all on a white linen tablecloth.
Queen Victoria and family outdoor picnic 1860s.
Queen Victoria would eat her food so fast that she could eat a seven course dinner in 30 minutes. Her dinner guest were always told to eat a dinner before arriving because they would not be able to keep up with her majesty's pace; as when she had finished each course, the plates would have to be taken away whether you had finished yours or not.
Queen Victoria poured scotch into her claret, which combined with eating too quickly caused persistent flatulence.
Queen Victoria, sketch of new Balmoral Castle, 1852
A great fan of Mendelssohn, Victoria and Albert loved to pass musical afternoons in Mendelssohn's company playing the composer's "Songs Without Words" and singing selections from his oratorios.
"The Day thy Gavest" by John Ellerton was Victoria's favourite hymn. She chose this hymn to be sung at the 60th anniversary of her reign in 1897.
She wasn't widely read but read the classics. Victoria liked Alfred Tennyson's poetry and sentimental novels.
Queen Victoria wrote an average 2,500 words per day, and her personal diaries grew to a total of 122 volumes.
Victoria wrote with her left hand and was a good writer going by her diary.
After Albert's death she spent a lot of time at Balmoral. As a result she was a prolific letter writer. She was a better communicator by pen than by speech.
She collected dead flowers taken from the graves of deceased royals. Victoria began her collection with some that grew on Albert’s last resting place and it took off from there.
Despite her dislike for it, she was one of the most photographed people of the nineteenth century.
Earliest known photograph of Victoria, here with her eldest daughter, c. 1845
In her last ten years Victoria grew to be a lover of movies especially films about children. Her favorite was thought to be The Pillow Fight about four naughty girls having a pillow fight.
PETS
Queen Victoria owned a total of 88 pets during her lifetime and lent royal approval to the RSPCA She especially loved lap dogs.
The Princess was 13 when she was given a King Charles Spaniel whom she named Dash, and as Victoria was raised largely isolated from other children, her pet soon became a much loved companion.
Portrait of Victoria with her spaniel Dash by George Hayter, 1833
Dash remained with Victoria after her accession as queen in 1837. Following her coronation, the Duke of Wellington reminded the newly crowned queen that it was Dash's bath night, so Victoria returned to Buckingham Palace and ran up to her rooms to give her beloved pet his usual bath.
In 1860 Queen Victoria fell in love with the Rough Coated Collie. On a holiday at Balmoral Castle and on her return to London several of the breed accompanied her.
Queen Victoria was the first western person to own a Pekingese dog. A fawn and white bitch, she named it Looty.
Queen Victoria loved Pomeranians so much that she owned 35 of the little dogs over the last 13 years of her life. She won six prizes at Crufts in 1891 for her Pomeranian dogs.
In her old age Victoria had a black and white Persian cat called White Feather, upon her death it became the pet of Edward VII.
At one time, Victoria had a pet African grey parrot called Coco who greeted her every day by screeching "God save the Queen".
The Prince of Wales with a parrot by Queen Victoria
BELIEFS
The English Queen did not believe in hell, in fact she was disgusted by the idea, and she had doubts of the Trinity and a horror of evangelical religion. However Victoria took her position of head of the Church of England seriously and she mandated that an Anglican church should be within five miles of every British Isles citizen.
Victoria often fell to sleep during sermons. She preferred short, simple services, and personally considered herself more aligned with the presbyterian Church of Scotland than the episcopal Church of England.
Following Albert's death, Victoria started reading a number of theological works to find out about eternal life as she hoped to meet her beloved husband again. She especially found comfort in a book, New Philosophy. All About the Future, which challenged Christian teaching on the afterlife. Connected with this was her interest in spiritual mediums.
By 1887 when Queen Victoria celebrated her fiftieth anniversary on the throne, she had a simple faith believing in the reuniting with loved ones after death including herself with Albert and God working out everything for the best here on Earth.
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS
Queen Victoria was the first known carrier of a hereditary illness later dubbed the "royal disease," now known as hemophilia, a blood clotting disorder.
In September 1835 when preparing to embark on a "Royal Tour", the young Princess complained of sickness. The tour went on but soon she was seriously ill and nearly lost her life.
Chloroform became an established means of anaesthesia after Queen Victoria allowed herself to be chloroformed by Dr John Snow to diminish the pains during the birth of her eighth child, Prince Leopold in 1853. This quietened the religious objections based on the third chapter of Genesis where Eve was told "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children."
Victoria had an operation for a somewhat undignified abscess in the area of her royal armpit in 1871. Unfortunately the carbolic acid disinfectant was accidentally squirted into the still awake royal highnesses' face.
The 1897 St Paul's Cathedral service for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria had to be held outside the building as the queen was too infirm to climb the stairs.
Queen Victoria aged 80, 1899
During the last two decades of Queen Victoria's life her medical advisors felt she was being a hypochondriac as she was summoning her doctor up to six times daily. It was only when the Queen's body was being prepared after she'd died that it was discovered she had a badly prolapsed uterus and a hernia. This prognosis had been delayed as no doctor was allowed to see her majesty with her clothes off.
LAST YEARS AND DEATH
Queen Victoria's last words were a reference to the Boer War were "Oh that peace may come."
Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, at 18.30, at the age of 81. Her son and successor, King Edward VII, and her eldest grandson, Emperor Wilhelm II, were at her deathbed.
Victoria was the first British Royal to have a State Funeral rather than a quiet burial at night. "Will she be happy in Heaven?" wondered a member of the royal household. "I don't know" replied her son, Edward VII "She will have to walk behind the angels and she won't like that!"
Victoria was buried alongside Prince Albert at Frogmore, Berkshire.
Queen Victoria was buried in a white dress and her wedding veil, alongside many mementos. Prince Albert's dressing gown and a plaster cast of his hand was placed beside her, and a lock of her favorite servant John Brown's hair along with his photo was placed in her left hand.
HG Wells wrote that Queen Victoria sat on England like a giant paperweight and after her death things blew all over the place.
