Portal:United Kingdom
The United Kingdom Portal
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, a total area of 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The country had an estimated population of 67,596,281 people in 2022. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London, whose wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively.
The lands of the UK have been inhabited continuously since the Neolithic. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began; the Roman departure was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement. In 1066, the Normans conquered England. With the end of the Wars of the Roses the English state stabilised and began to grow in power, resulting by the 16th century in the annexation of Wales, the domination of Scotland, and the establishment of the British Empire. Over the course of the 17th century, the role of the British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War. In 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The UK became the first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the "Pax Britannica" between 1815 and 1914. At its height in the 1920s, the British Empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the largest empire in history. However, its involvement in the First World War and the Second World War damaged Britain's economic power and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (Full article...)
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The Sunderland Echo is an evening provincial newspaper serving the Sunderland, South Tyneside and East Durham areas of North East England. The newspaper was founded by Samuel Storey, Edward Backhouse, Edward Temperley Gourley, Charles Palmer, Richard Ruddock, Thomas Glaholm and Thomas Scott Turnbull in 1873, as the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Designed to provide a platform for the Radical views held by Storey and his partners, it was also Sunderland's first local daily paper. The inaugural edition of the Echo was printed in Press Lane, Sunderland on 22 December 1873; 1,000 copies were produced and sold for a halfpenny each. The Echo survived intense competition in its early years, as well as the depression of the 1930s and two World Wars. Sunderland was heavily bombed in the Second World War and, although the Echo building was undamaged, it was forced to print its competitor's paper under wartime rules. It was during this time that the paper's format changed, from a broadsheet to its current tabloid layout, because of national newsprint shortages. (Full article...)
Featured biography
Ronald Niel Stuart (1886–1954) was a British Merchant Navy commodore and Royal Navy captain who was highly commended following extensive and distinguished service at sea over a period of more than 35 years. During World War I he received the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, the French Croix de Guerre avec Palmes and the United States' Navy Cross for a series of daring operations he conducted while serving in the Royal Navy during the First Battle of the Atlantic. Stuart's Victoria Cross was awarded following a ballot by the men under his command. This unusual method of selection was used after the Admiralty Board was unable to choose which members of the crew deserved the honour after a desperate engagement between a Q-ship and a German submarine off the Irish coast. His later career included command of the liner RMS Empress of Britain and the management of the London office of a major transatlantic shipping company. Following his retirement in 1951, Stuart moved into his sister's cottage in Kent and died three years later. A sometimes irascible man, he was reportedly embarrassed by any fuss surrounding his celebrity and was known to exclaim "Mush!" at any demonstration of strong emotion. (Full article...)
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Did you know -
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Nuvola_apps_filetypes.svg/47px-Nuvola_apps_filetypes.svg.png)
- ... that Phil Fletcher as Hacker T. Dog caused Lauren Layfield to make the "most famous snort" in the United Kingdom in 2016?
- ... that before Fred Thomas became an MP, he was the Royal Marines' light heavyweight boxing champion?
- ... that Surinder Singh Bakhshi led the successful containment of smallpox in the community during Birmingham's smallpox outbreak in 1978?
- ... that the London Forum, a British far-right organization, was described by an anti-fascist magazine as "[bridging] the fascist and Tory right"?
- ... that even though Australian citizens are no longer British subjects, they can still vote in elections and stand for parliament in the United Kingdom?
- ... that a 2007 European Court of Human Rights case ruled that European automobile owners do not have the right to remain silent when asked who was speeding in their vehicle?
In the news
- 23 August 2024 – 2024 United Kingdom riots
- The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommends that the United Kingdom implement bans and auditing of hate speech, xenophobia, and far-right rhetoric by politicians, in addition to prohibiting the strip-searching of children and addressing the over-policing of schools, following widespread destructive anti-immigration protests exacerbated by remarks made by public figures and politicians. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
- 21 August 2024 – 2023–2024 mpox epidemic
- Several suspected cases of mpox clade 1b are reported in Somerset, England, United Kingdom. (Devon Live)
- 21 August 2024 –
- Four people, including three children, are killed in a house fire in Bradford, England, United Kingdom. Police say that the fire was started deliberately and that a suspect has been arrested under suspicion of murder. (BBC News)
- 19 August 2024 –
- One person is killed and fifteen others are rescued when the United Kingdom-flagged superyacht Bayesian sinks near Palermo, Italy, due to a waterspout. Six others remain missing, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch. (AP)
- A rocket engine for Rocket Factory Augsburg's launch vehicle RFA One explodes during a test launch at the SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland, United Kingdom. (BBC News)
- 15 August 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The United Kingdom says that Ukraine can use British weaponry, including Challenger 2 tanks, for its military operations inside Russia. (Sky News)
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