Last to post wins

[Creeperopolis]

Operation Grandslam was an offensive undertaken by United Nations peacekeeping forces from 28 December 1962 to 15 January 1963 against the forces of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state rebelling against the Republic of the Congo in central Africa. The Katangese forces were decisively defeated and Katanga was forcibly reintegrated into the Congo.

The United Nations had tried several times to reconcile the government of the Congo with the State of Katanga, which had declared independence under Moïse Tshombe with Belgian support in 1960. Though initially limiting its actions, the United Nations Operation in the Congo became increasingly impatient towards Katanga and Tshombe, drawing up plans to resolve the situation through force. Tshombe continuously violated agreements he had made with the United Nations and the Congolese government by building up his forces and bringing foreign mercenaries into the conflict. The situation reached a breaking point in December 1962 when Katangese gendarmes attacked peacekeeping forces in Katanga. United Nations Secretary-General U Thant authorised a retaliatory offensive to eliminate secessionist opposition.

Reinforced by aircraft from Sweden, United Nations peacekeepers completed the first phase of the operation, securing the Katangese capital, Élisabethville and destroying much of the Katangese Air Force by the end of the year. In early January, the United Nations forces turned their attention towards remaining strongholds in southern Katanga. Indian peacekeepers exceeded their orders and crossed the Lufira River ahead of schedule, generating panic behind the Katangese lines and embarrassing the United Nations leadership. Tshombe, realising that his position was untenable, approached Thant for peace. On 17 January 1963, he signed an instrument of surrender and declared the Katangese secession to be over. The central government reorganised the provincial administration of Katanga to weaken its political structure. Tshombe initially participated but feared his arrest and fled to Europe. Many Katangese gendarmes and their mercenary leaders took refuge in Angola to reorganise, acting under orders from Tshombe. In 1964, Tshombe was welcomed back to the Congo and made Prime Minister. He immediately called on his forces to suppress communist revolts in the east and centre of the country. This they accomplished but Tshombe was dismissed from his post in 1965, ultimately losing all contact with them following his imprisonment in Algeria in 1967. Relations between the new central government and the gendarmes soured and, after a mutiny was repressed, they returned to Angola. An insurgency for Katangese secession continues to the present day.

---

The Battle of Van Buren was fought at Van Buren, Arkansas, on December 28, 1862, during the American Civil War. After defeating Confederate forces led by Major General Thomas C. Hindman at the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862, Union forces under Brigadier Generals James G. Blunt and Francis J. Herron prepared for a raid against the Confederate positions at Van Buren and Fort Smith. Disease, lack of supplies, and desertion had previously forced Hindman to begin withdrawing most of his force from the area. Setting out on December 27, the Union troops struck an outlying Confederate cavalry unit near Drippings Spring, north of Van Buren, on the morning of December 28. The Confederate cavalry fled to Van Buren, which was then overrun by Union troops.

The Union pursued and captured three steamboats on the Arkansas River, and captured some Confederate troops and many supplies in Van Buren. Across the river in Fort Smith, the Confederates destroyed supplies and also burned two steamboats trapped upriver. An artillery duel took place at Van Buren, and after nightfall a minor skirmish was fought downriver at Strain's Landing. After the battle, Hindman withdrew his men to Little Rock and the Union force returned from the raid, unable to maintain a supply line to Van Buren across the Boston Mountains. The battles of Prairie Grove and Van Buren broke Confederate strength in the region.

[Creeperopolis]

John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 – July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also a biographer, and wrote poetry and other literature throughout much of his life.

Born in Indiana to an anti-slavery family that moved to Warsaw, Illinois when he was young, Hay showed great potential, and his family sent him to Brown University. After graduation in 1858, Hay read law in his uncle's office in Springfield, Illinois, adjacent to that of Lincoln. Hay worked for Lincoln's successful presidential campaign and became one of his private secretaries at the White House. Throughout the American Civil War, Hay was close to Lincoln and stood by his deathbed after the President was shot at Ford's Theatre. In addition to his other literary works, Hay co-authored with John George Nicolay a multi-volume biography of Lincoln that helped shape the assassinated president's historical image.

After Lincoln's death, Hay spent several years at diplomatic posts in Europe, then worked for the New-York Tribune under Horace Greeley and Whitelaw Reid. Hay remained active in politics, and from 1879 to 1881 served as Assistant Secretary of State. Afterward, he remained in the private sector, until President McKinley, for whom he had been a major backer, made him Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1897. Hay became Secretary of State the following year.

Hay served for nearly seven years as Secretary of State, under President McKinley, and after McKinley's assassination, under Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was responsible for negotiating the Open Door Policy, which kept China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis, with international powers. By negotiating the Hay–Pauncefote Treaty with the United Kingdom, the (ultimately unratified) Hay–Herrán Treaty with Colombia, and finally the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the newly independent Republic of Panama, Hay also cleared the way for the building of the Panama Canal.

[Creeperopolis]

U.S. Highway 8 (US 8) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs primarily east–west for 280 miles (451 km), mostly within the state of Wisconsin. It connects Interstate 35 (I-35) in Forest Lake, Minnesota, to US 2 at Norway in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan near the border with Wisconsin. Except for the short freeway segment near Forest Lake, and sections near the St. Croix River bridge and Rhinelander, Wisconsin, it is mostly an undivided surface road. As a state highway in the three states, US 8 is maintained by the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan departments of transportation (MnDOT, WisDOT, and MDOT, respectively).

The highway was originally commissioned on November 11, 1926, with the rest of the original U.S. Highway System. At the time, it ran between Forest Lake, Minnesota, and Pembine, Wisconsin, with a planned continuation to Powers, Michigan. Several changes have been made to the routing of the highway since then. The western end was extended south to Minneapolis before it was truncated back to Forest Lake. Other changes on the east end have moved that terminus from the originally planned end location at Powers to the current location in Norway. Internal Wisconsin and Michigan DOT map files at various times have shown plans to reroute the highway to connect to the original 1926 terminus. US 8's course through the three states has also been shifted to follow different alignments over the years.

WisDOT built a bypass around the city of Rhinelander in the 1990s and created a business loop along the old highway through the town. This loop was a locally maintained route through the central business district in Rhinelander. The signage for the loop was removed in 2005.

[Svedonia]

I like amogus

Jammy, spode, neo and quebec have access to my 240 jiggabites, I won’t say any more

[JackEmpire]

die die die die

[Creeperopolis]

The history of timekeeping devices dates back to when ancient civilizations first observed astronomical bodies as they moved across the sky. Devices and methods for keeping time have since then improved through a long series of new inventions and ideas. Sundials and water clocks originated from ancient Egypt, and were later used by the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Chinese; medieval Islamic water clocks were unrivalled in their sophistication until the mid-14th century. Incense clocks, which may have been invented in India, were being used in China by the 6th century. The hourglass, one of the few reliable methods of measuring time at sea, was a European invention and does not seem to have been used in China before the mid-16th century.

In medieval Europe, purely mechanical clocks were developed after the invention of the bell-striking alarm, used to warn a man to toll the monastic bell. The weight-driven mechanical clock, controlled by the action of a verge and foliot, was a synthesis of earlier ideas derived from European and Islamic science, and one of the most important inventions in the history of timekeeping. The most famous mechanical clock was designed and built by Henry de Vick in c.1360—for the next 300 years, all the improvements in timekeeping were essentially developments based on it. The invention of the mainspring in the early 15th century allowed small clocks to be built for the first time.

From the 17th century, the discovery that clocks could be controlled by harmonic oscillators led to the most productive era in the history of timekeeping. Leonardo da Vinci had produced the earliest known drawings of a pendulum in 1493–1494, and in 1582 Galileo Galilei had investigated the regular swing of the pendulum, discovering that frequency was only dependent on length. The pendulum clock, designed and built by Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens in 1656, was so much more accurate than other kinds of mechanical timekeepers that few clocks have survived with their verge and foliot mechanisms intact. Other innovations in timekeeping during this period include inventions for striking clocks, the repeating clock and the deadbeat escapement. Errors in early pendulum clocks were eclipsed by those caused by temperature variation, a problem tackled during the 18th century by the English clockmakers John Harrison and George Graham; only the invention of invar in 1895 eliminated the need for such innovations.

From the 18th century, a succession of innovations and inventions led to timekeeping devices becoming increasingly accurate. Following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707, after which governments offered a prize to anyone who could discover a way to determine longitude, Harrison built a succession of accurate timepieces. The electric clock, invented in 1840, was used to control the most accurate pendulum clocks until the 1940s, when quartz timers became the basis for the precise measurement of time and frequency. The wristwatch, which had been recognised as a valuable military tool during the Boer War, became a symbol of masculinity and bravado after World War I. During the 20th century the non-magnetic wristwatch, battery-driven watches, the quartz wristwatch, and transistors and plastic parts were all invented. The most accurate timekeeping devices in practical use today are atomic clocks, which can be accurate to within a few billionths of a second per year. They are used to calibrate other clocks and timekeeping instruments.

[JackEmpire]

Ocala (/oʊˈkælə/ oh-KAL-ə) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States.[3] As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.[4]

Ocala, Florida
City
Top, left to right: Downtown Ocala, horse on a farm, Marion Hotel, Marion Theatre
Top, left to right: Downtown Ocala, horse on a farm, Marion Hotel, Marion Theatre
Official seal of Ocala, Florida
Seal
Nickname: Horse Capital of the World
Motto: "God Be With Us"
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Interactive map of Ocala
Coordinates: 29°11′16″N 82°7′50″W
Country
United States
State
Florida
County
Marion
Settled
1849
Incorporated (town)
February 4, 1869
Incorporated (city)
January 28, 1885
Government
• Type
Council-manager
• City Council
Justin Grabelle, Brent Malever, Jay Musleh, Ire J. Bethea Sr., Matthew Wardell
• Mayor
Kent Guinn
• City Manager
Sandra Wilson
Area[1]
• City
47.26 sq mi (122.41 km2)
• Land
47.26 sq mi (122.39 km2)
• Water
0.01 sq mi (0.01 km2)
Elevation
104 ft (32 m)
Population (2020)
• City
63,591
• Rank
US: 638th
• Density
1,345.64/sq mi (519.56/km2)
• Urban
156,909 (US: 211th)
• Metro
354,353 (US: 149th)
Time zone
UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)
UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP codes
34470-34483
Area code
352
FIPS code
12-50750
GNIS feature ID
0288030[2]
Website
OcalaFL.org
Home to over 400 thoroughbred farms and training centers, Ocala was officially named the Horse Capital of the World in 2007.[5] Notable attractions include the Ocala National Forest, Silver Springs State Park, Rainbow Springs State Park, and the College of Central Florida.

Ocala is the principal city of the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2017 population of 354,353.[6]

[Hunterpro34]

if you dont shut up i will unban velabruck from terraconserva

[Svedonia]

IP. 92.28.211.256 N: 43.0283 W: 12.2743 SS Number: 6979191519182016 IPv6: fe80::5dcd::eg69::fb22::d9888%12 UPNP: Enabled DMZ: 10.112.42.15 MAC: 5A:78:3E:7E:00 ISP: Ucom Universal DNS: 8.8.8.8 ALT DNS: 1.1.1.8.1 DNS SUFFIX: Dlink WAN: 100.23.10.15 GATEWAY: 192.168.0.1 SUBNET MASK: 255.255.0.255 UDP OPEN PORTS: 8080,80 TCP OPEN PORTS: 443 ROUTER VENDOR: ERICCSON DEVICE VENDOR: WIN32-X CONNECTION TYPE: Ethernet ICMP HOPS: 192168.0.1 192168.1.1 100.73.43.4 host-132.12.32.167.ucom.com host-66.120.12.111.ucom.com 36.134.67.189 216.239.78.111 sof02s32-in-f14.1e100.net TOTAL HOPS: 8 ACTIVE SERVICES: [HTTP] 192.168.3.1:80=>92.28.211.234:80 [HTTP] 192.168.3.1:443=>92.28.211.234:443 [UDP] 192.168.0.1:788=>192.168.1:6557 [TCP] 192.168.1.1:67891=>92.28.211.234:345 [TCP] 192.168.52.43:7777=>192.168.1.1:7778 [TCP] 192.168.78.12:898=>192.168.89.9:667 EXTERNAL MAC: 6U:78:89:ER:O4 MODEM JUMPS: 64

[Creeperopolis]

Ai-Khanoum (/aɪ ˈhɑːnjuːm/, meaning Lady Moon;[2] Uzbek: Oyxonim) is the archaeological site of a Hellenistic city in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The city, whose original name is unknown,[a] was probably founded by an early ruler of the Seleucid Empire and served as a military and economic centre for the rulers of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom until its destruction c. 145 BC. Rediscovered in 1961, the ruins of the city were excavated by a French team of archaeologists until the outbreak of conflict in Afghanistan in the late 1970s.

The city was probably founded between 300 and 285 BC by an official acting on the orders of Seleucus I Nicator or his son Antiochus I Soter, the first two rulers of the Seleucid dynasty. It was originally thought to have been founded by Alexander the Great, quite possibly as Alexandria Oxiana, but this theory is now considered unlikely. There is a possibility that the site was known to the earlier Achaemenid Empire, who established a small fort nearby. Located at the confluence of the Amu Darya (a.k.a. Oxus) and Kokcha rivers, surrounded by well-irrigated farmland, Ai-Khanoum itself was divided between a lower town and a 60-metre-high (200 ft) acropolis. Although not situated on a major trade route, Ai-Khanoum controlled access to both mining in the Hindu Kush and strategically important choke points. Extensive fortifications, which were continuously maintained, upgraded, and rebuilt, surrounded the city.

Ai-Khanoum, which may have initially grown in population because of royal patronage and the presence of a mint in the city, lost some importance through the secession of the Greco-Bactrians under Diodotus I (c. 250 BC). Seleucid construction programmes were halted, and the city probably became primarily military in function; it may have been a conflict zone during the invasion of Antiochus III (c. 209 – c. 205 BC). Ai-Khanoum began to grow once more under Euthydemus I and his successor Demetrius I, who began to assert control over the northwest Indian subcontinent. Many of the present ruins date from the time of Eucratides I, who substantially redeveloped the city and who may have renamed it Eucratideia, after himself. Soon after his death c. 145 BC, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom collapsed—Ai-Khanoum was captured by Saka invaders and was generally abandoned, although parts of the city were sporadically occupied until the 2nd century AD. Hellenistic culture in the region would persist longer only in the Indo-Greek kingdoms.

While on a hunting trip in 1961, the King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, rediscovered the city. An archaeological delegation, led by Paul Bernard, subsequently investigated the site. Bernard and his team unearthed the remains of a huge palace in the lower town, along with a large gymnasium, a theatre capable of holding 6,000 spectators, an arsenal, and two sanctuaries. Several inscriptions were found, along with coins, artefacts, and ceramics. The onset of the Soviet-Afghan War in the late 1970s halted scholarly progress, and during the following conflicts in Afghanistan, the site was extensively looted.