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History of Baseball

Baseball is a sport played internationally but mostly in the US and Canada between two teams of nine players over nine innings. At any one time one team will be on field with one of the players designated pitcher while the remainder field, and the opposing team rotates a player to bat. Baseball is similar to other bat and ball sports such as cricket, but differs in having four bases the hitter needs to negotiate before scoring unless a home run is hit.

Despite the US dominance in Baseball, the game was not in fact invented in North America, and owes it origins to medieval games that also developed into cricket, the bat and ball game that is generally more popular outside North America, Japan, and Cuba, and a small number of other countries. Medieval bat and ball games from England are the most likely parent of modern baseball, although games played in Russia (Lapta) and Romania (Oina) during the 14^th century that were similar to all of the English variants suggests that games played with a bat and ball may have collectively originated earlier in history, perhaps as early as Celtic times.

English medieval bat and ball games included Stoolball, rounders, dog and cat, and perhaps cricket as well. Stoolball seems to predate all of the other bat and ball games being mentioned in texts around 1070 and was played by milkmaids using a milkstool as the wicket, with a ball thrown and the batter being required to hit the ball with their hand or a small bat to prevent it hitting the stool. The amount of physical activity was limited to throwing and hitting and was unlikely to have required a great deal of space so could be played in small courtyards.

Many historians believe stoolball may have been adopted by men in medieval towns and villages and become the precursor to cricket since by the 1500s running between the wickets was an integral part of scoring runs, but curiously the ball was thrown on the full in the same style as modern baseball. Rounders, a game primarily played in Ireland today also originated in England, but is more similar to modern baseball than Stoolball.

In Rounders two opposing teams field and bat similarly to baseball, and the hitter needs to pass four bases before scoring a point for his team. The modern version of rounders sees the ball thrower bowl underhand to a batsmen who must bat one handed and is required to run whether he hits or misses the ball, but in older times before rules were written each locality was free to create its own rules, some of whom are believed to have come very close to modern baseball.

In the US, a game known as Town Ball, which appears to have been brought to the Americas by English and Irish immigrants, was very similar to rounders, but every region in which it was played had their own rules. Town Ball is known to have been played as long ago as the 1740s, but perhaps earlier, and in some parts of the US was known as base, base ball, ball, or round ball. The name base ball has long been considered to have been coined in the US, even to the extent of Albert Spalding, the founder of the Spalding Sports Equipment inventing a history that included a man by the name of Abner Doubleday supposedly the game independently of its true origins in England.

The earliest known reference to baseball comes from 1791, from a bylaw of the Pittsfield town hall barring the playing of baseball within 80 yards of the town meeting house. But the first recorded rules of the game of Baseball come from 1845 when Alexander Cartwright, a New York firefighter gathered together a group of men and created the Knickerbocker Club and at the same time formulating a set of rules to administer the club and adjudicate play. Their first game under Cartwright’s rules (also known as the Knickerbocker Rules) took place at Elysian Fields on June 18^th 1846 against the New York Nine. Despite having written the rules, the Knickerbocker Club lost the game 23-1.

Enthusiasm for Baseball at club level and amongst spectators was responsible for several new clubs forming during the following years, so much that in 1858 it was possible to bring 25 clubs together and create the National Association of Base Ball Players. In 1869 the very first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings started a national recruitment drive followed by a tour of the East Coast and winning all but 6 matches. The NABPP, and its successor the National Association were less successful at encouraging growth in teams and competitive play, so in 1876 the National League was formed which continues to this day.

Originally the National League was made up of 12 professional teams, but declining ticket sales forced the league to downsize to 8 teams in 1900, a decision the minor Western League had been waiting for so that they could quickly expand into cities dropped by the National League. The expanded Western League renamed itself the American League, leading to competition between the two leagues and a World Series competition held every year between the winning team of the National League against the winning team of the American League.

The differences between the two major leagues are very small, both operating under essentially the same rules with the exception of the designated hitter rule adopted by the American League in 1973 allowing teams to nominate a player who bats in the place of the pitcher allowing pitchers to concentrate their training on throwing and hitters to concentrate on batting. The National League by contrast does not endorse this rule and requires all pitchers do their own batting. There has been some speculation the rule has contributed to the overall wins by American League teams in the World Series Championships.

In the history of baseball some great players have inspired fans and players alike and have become celebrities from their humble beginnings, many of them transcending sport and gaining immortality in songs, movies, even in politics. Players like Babe Ruth, Joe Di Maggio, Lou Gehrig, or Mickey Mantle lending their names. Sadly a number of America’s best players were never allowed to play the major leagues due to color. The lack of integration in Baseball between the 1870s and late 1940s meant that many great players were restricted to playing in negro leagues that whilst popular, meant these players could never be compared directly with their white counterparts.

Baseball started to integrate from 1945, many club owners and major league executives were not in good conscience able to continue to deny black players their chance in the majors after the contribution African-Americans made to the war effort. Some of America’s greatest players Joshua Gibson (the black Babe Ruth), Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard, Martin Dihigo, Judy Johnson, players who made it in the negro leagues were never able to play the major leagues. In the late 1960s a movement began to have these players recognized by the Baseball Hall of Fame, an event that finally occurred in 1971 with the induction of Satchel Paige.

In the 1990s Major League Baseball was hit with a players strike in 1994, and the Steroids scandals of the 1990s and early millennium years. Declining ticket sales and audience cynicism resulting from the big money of the league that often seems to work against minor league players being called up have had their impact forcing the MLB to tighten up anti drug policies and go into damage control to protect the spirit of the game. Their efforts upto 2006, including the consolidation of media management into a single corporation, and in 2000 the Commissioners Blue Ribbon Panel report on revenue and payroll differences between clubs finally showed signs of paying off with attendance numbers higher than the previous high in 1993.

Successful changes to the structure of major league baseball and club finances have been credited with several minor clubs in the MLB winning the World Series in recent years, including the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001), Anaheim Angels (2002), florida Marlins (2003), and the Chicago White Sox (2005).

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History of Philippine Literature

The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia bordering the Philippine Sea, the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea, and the Celebes Sea. People from the Philippines speak a language that formed within the island group known as Tagalog, although from the early 1500s the islands were a Spanish colony, and in the first half of the 20^th century the islands were controlled by the United States of America. The Philippines is the 11^th most populous country in the world.

In common with other aboriginal societies the Philippine islands have a rich oral history of legends, fables, and poetry that dates from antiquity, although sadly much has been forgotten amongst urban dwellers and is in most cases only retained by older generations who are the subject of a frantic project by universities and cultural awareness groups to put into writing or other recorded media their memories and stories told to them by their own parents and grand-parents.

Being of Austronesian origins many of the ancient literature of the Philippines stems from ancestral worship and legends brought with the first settlers from Taiwan, the first homeland of the Austronesian people. These ancient stories about the gods and heroes are shared in the most part with stories that are common to people from the pacific islands, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Madagascar however the Philippine islands have been settled for much longer allowing home-grown versions to develop. A favorite fable with Philippine children is the story of the Monkey and the Turtle.

“A monkey and a turtle were good friends and lived close by to each other. One day the turtle suggested he and the monkey should go for a walk, and a little while later they happened across a banana plant. Deciding to keep the plant they cut it into two pieces and planted them in their gardens, but the monkey’s piece was from the bottom of the plant and didn’t grow. Turtle had more luck with the top of the plant which grew straight and strong. A few weeks later the turtle went to visit the monkey, and seeing him looking sad asked why. After the monkey had explained his loss the turtle suggested the monkey help him pick the fruit of his own banana plant.

The monkey readily agreed but on reaching the fruit at the top of the tree proceeded to eat it all. Turtle pleaded with his friend for some of the fruit but the monkey only threw the empty peel to turtle. Wanting to teach his friend a lesson the turtle placed large thorns around the base of the tree and bid his friend goodnight. When monkey descended to go home his belly was too full and he fell directly onto the thorns. Angry at this the monkey set out the following morning to find the turtle and punish him.

Near the river monkey found the turtle and holding him the air told turtle he was to be roasted over the fire and made into turtle soup. The turtle being cunning agreed that this was a fitting punishment, and was much preferable to being thrown in the river. The monkey sensing a worse punishment for the turtle immediately threw him into the river not knowing that turtles are good swimmers. A while later the turtle surfaced holding a large fish in his jaws and exclaiming at how wonderful the taste was. The monkey asked his friend to share the fish with him but turtle retorted instead that the monkey was just too lazy to get his own. Not to be outdone the monkey jumped into the river and drowned.”

The moral of the story is that one should always share everything with one’s friends, a defining nature of Filipino people.

Written literature existed prior to the beginning of the Spanish colonial period however Spain was in the grip of the inquisition and church doctrine decreed that existing Philippine written records be destroyed, including the uniquely Philippine alphabet, all of which was to be replaced by Catholic teachings in Spanish only. The passion of Christ was forced on indigenous communities and those who were to become part of the colonial ruling elite were taught latin script.

The only surviving documents written in the ancient Tagalog alphabet, known as Baybayin are not works of literature, for example the Lagune Copperplate Inscription from 900AD which is a receipt for payment of a debt, and the Doctrina Christiana of 1593. In fact literature in the Philippines in written form is only known from times well into the colonial period. Many of the works written in the early colonial period were religious in nature extolling the virtues of Christianity to a population that had previously followed local polytheism.

Chants and poems that could be read or memorized for use in church or in local festivities were actively encouraged, the “Memorial de la vida cristiana en lengua tagala” by Fernando Bagonbanta in 1605 contained many lyrics that could be sung. In 1640 an ancient epic, Biag ni Lam-ang was published by Pedro Buceneg, a blind Filipino poet who related the ancient fable to a monk from his local parish. 1705 saw Gaspar Aquino de Belen write a series of quintillas that were more subdued and serious in nature than those of his predecessor Bagonbanta, emphasizing the solemnity of the life of Christ. These are still in use in the Philippines today.

Until this time, and thru the first half of the 20^th century most Philippine poetry and literature was written in Spanish, Tagalog being frowned upon as a base language not worthy of great works of writing. One of the Philippines greatest writers of any era francisco Balagtas, a man likened with William Shakespeare for the prolific and profound nature of his works, refused to write in Spanish for which he was persecuted during his lifetime. His greatest work, Florante at Laura, also written in Tagalog tells the story of a man and a woman in the time of the Greek Empire.

The Philippine national hero, José Rizal is considered the father of indigenous Philippine literature even though his works were written and published in Spanish. He was also the first to look outside of church doctrine for his inspiration, although his works “Noli me Tangere”, and “El filibusterismo” published in 1887 and 1891 respectively do deal with the corruption of the priests and lack of equality of Philippine people. José Rizal wasn’t just a revolutionary, he was also a very intelligent man who considered Philippine independence to be essential for the survival of the Tagalog language and the continuing development of the islands which he considered were being systemically mismanaged at the expense of the majority Tagalogs who were considered second class citizens.

Jozé Rizal thru his life inspired a great many Filipinos not just in literature, but also as a model for civilized living. Rizal himself had studied Medicine and Philosophy earning multiple degrees from several European universities. He also spoke at least 22 languages. Sadly his works of literature were limited to just two novels, the second of which is a sequel owing to his execution by firing squad in 1896 at the age of 35 after being convicted of fermenting revolutionary ideas.

Following Rizal’s death the Philippines came under US control, initially as a colony and then later as a Commonwealth associated with the US, a period that saw the revolutionary struggle continue unabated. Spanish became the chosen language of early 20^th century writers and poets as a simple act of defiance against the US, with notable authors such as Epifanio de los Reyes, Claro Recto, Vicente Sotto, Teodoro Kalaw amongst them.

By the beginning of World War 2 English had become the preferred language of literature. The Japanese invasion and occupation saw a brief flirtation with writing in Tagalog since Japanese forces were suspicious that Philippine spies would use English to pass secret messages to US forces. Whilst writing in Tagalog has always been considered true Philippine literature and poetry it has always been seen as somehow local, and not intended for foreign audiences.

By way of contrast, writing in English has allowed Philippine authors to expand their horizons and have their writing published in a global market, in which many have excelled, to the extent that short story writing and poetry is a major cultural export from the Philippines. Whilst professional writing in the Philippines is nowhere near as advanced as other English speaking nations, several awards are offered annually that recognize excellence, including the Republic Cultural Heritage Awards, the Pro Patris Awards for Literature, and the National Artist Awards.

Contemporary and late 20^th century writers who have gained critical acclaim include Resil Mojares, Alfred Yuson, Jose Dalisay, Ian Casocot, Cirilo Bautista, Marjorie Evasco.

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History of the Gemini Constellation

The Gemini constellation, one of 88 defined by the Astronomical Union, is a group of stars and galaxies that are visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres during autumn and winter. The Gemini constellation is made up of two long spurs joined at one end by the stars Castor and Pollux, and at their other ends splitting again into four shorter spurs. There are four main stars within the constellation that are visible to the naked eye, Castor, Pollux, Alhena, and Wasat.

The name of the Gemini constellation is Greek in origin, although other cultures of the near east and further afield in the Indian subcontinent also identified the stars forming Gemini as a constellation under names and symbols that were different yet similar. It cannot be said that the ancient Greeks were any more knowledgeable of the stars and their positions, all that can really be said with confidence is that in modern times we continue to use Greek names for the constellations.

As long ago as 6000 years ago the Indian historical and religious text, the Rigveda, mentions the two primary stars of the Gemini constellation as being the twin horseman who appeared at dawn, part of the Ashvins, they were known as Nakula and Sahadeva. Around that time the two stars would have been visible only at dawn during spring, leading to the idea of them being twins and associated with the spring equinox. The twin horseman corresponded to the two stars we know as Castor and Pollux and the Sanskrit name Mithuna which means the twins correspond almost exactly to the modern Gemini constellation.

From India the constellations spread westwards to the ancient near east civilizations and by 5000 years ago ancient Babylonian people had adopted the constellations for their own astronomy which they also used to track the seasons and for navigation. To the ancient Babylonians Gemini was known as Mastabba Galgal, which we believe translates as the great twins, heroes whose names were Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and who battled the gods in a series of epic adventures on his quest for immortality.

Ancient Egyptians also adopted the twin stars as an important part of their astronomy, and using two goats to symbolize the two stars which were mentioned in the Ramissede Hour Tables, a method of determining the time at any point during the night by knowing which stars followed each other. The two stars of the Gemini constellation were known to rise at dawn.

By the 1^st millennium BC ancient Greek society was in its ascendency but many of the ideas advanced by Greek astronomers were not unique, the history of the Gemini constellation amongst them. Most of the Greek constellations came directly from Babylonian astronomy, though the legends surrounding the origin of the constellations were taken from Greek mythology. The Gemini constellation in particular was believed to be the immortal twins Castor and Polydeuces.

Castor and Polydeuces (known as Pollux in Roman times) were twin boys born to Queen Leda of Sparta. who was married to King Tyndareus. The Greeks believed that Castor and Polydeuces were conceived on the same night along with their two sisters Helen and Clytaemnestra. Castor and Clytaemnestra were the offspring of Tyndareus an were mortal, whilst Polydeuces and Helen were the offspring of Zeus and therefore immortal tho not gods. Despite different fathers, the twins Castor and Polydeuces were inseparable.

Castor and Polydeuces had many adventures together where there different talents would be tested, Castor with horsemanship and archery, and Polydeuces with his strength and boxing skills. The twins became famous throughout known world when they joined Jason on his quest to find the Golden Fleece. The real story of how they came to form the Gemini constellation relates however to the tragedy of their love for two women who were already promised to other men.

Phoebe and Hilaeira were the daughters of Leucippus, an uncle of Castor and Polydeuces who had an agreement with Aphareus of that his sons Lynceus and Idas would marry the daughters. Legend doesn’t tell if Aphareus’s daughters were in love with Castor and Polydeuces but in any event they found themselves in Sparta, married to Castor and Polydeuces and giving birth to sons. Of course in all great Greek tragedies the hapless sons of Aphareus could not let this slight go unchallenged.

Idas ambushed Castor on his return from a cattle raid and killed him with his spear, but was then felled by a thunderbolt hurled by Zeus in anger at Castors death. Lynceus was killed in a fit of rage by the immortal Polydeuces who then pleaded with his father Zeus to let Castor live. Zeus gave Polydeuces a choice, return to Olympus or share his immortality with Castor between Hades and Olympus. The Gemini constellation is the embodiment of Castor and Polydeuces in the heavens.

Roman legends changed the name of Polydeuces to Pollux, and all subsequent civilizations including the golden age of the Arab caliphate retained the Roman name for Pollux. The Gemini constellation has since taken on a single personality, and owing to a legend that Castor and Pollux will protect sailors and the ships they sail on and manifest themselves as St Elmo’s fire. Sailors in the ancient world would call out “By Gemini” to invoke their assistance, today corrupted to “By Jiminy”

The brightest star in the Gemini constellation is Pollux, known in astronomical terms as beta Geminorum. In 1993 it was announced that Pollux, which is a little over 33 light years from our solar system, has an extrasolar planet that is believed to be about 2.3 times the size of Jupiter and takes 590 days to orbit Pollux. By 2006 astronomers were also anticipating that further advances in telescopes and the hunt for earth sized planets will likely confirm a rocky water covered planet further away from the star and outside the habitable zone.

Castor also known as alpha Geminorum, is located around 51.6 light years away is a unique star in that it is actually made up of 6 stars that are in close gravitational union. In 1678 Giovanni Domenico Cassini first discovered that Castor is a visual binary star but the truth of this enigma wasn’t known until the the 20^th century when spectroscopy advancements allowed astronomers to identify each star as a binary. These two sets of binary stars orbit each other fairly close together taking 350 years to do so, whilst a third binary system orbits the four main stars from a slightly greater distance yet taking 10,000 years to complete.

Check out the complete history of the zodiac signs.

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History of Hong Kong

Hong Kong has become one of the most successful islands in the world. Its growth as a financial center has blossomed over the last century and today, its future seems as bright as ever. While it became a dependent territory of the United Kingdom in 1842, since 1997, it has once again been brought back in the fold of China. Today, Hong Kong continues to enjoy growth and prosperity under China’s one country, two systems policy.

The Island of Hong Kong

The island of Hong Kong is officially known as: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong is located in the southern part of China and is found in the South China Sea. While the island of Hong Kong is small (a land mass of about 427 square miles), the population is quite high, with the island inhabitants reaching over 7 million. This gives Hong Kong one of the highest population densities in the world. Hong Kong is known as one of Asia’s preeminent financial markets and it ranks as one of the most successful and important financial, cultural and communications hubs in the world. While Chinese inhabitants make up the vast majority of those living on Hong Kong, there are quite a few expatriates of all nationalities living in Hong Kong as well. In fact, Hong Kong is known for its cosmopolitan ambiance.

The Fragrant Harbor

Hong Kong comes from the Cantonese word Hakka which means fragrant harbor. The original harbor of Hong Kong is now known as Aberdeen Harbor. While the Chinese has settled the island of Hong Kong for millennia, in Europe, the first mention of Hong Kong was recorded by the Portuguese explorer Jorge Alvares who arrived in 1513. The name Hong Kong was used officially for the first time in 1842, when China and Britain signed the treaty of Nanking.

An Important Trading Post of Britain

In the mid 1800′s Hong Kong was used by the British to an extent for trading opium among other commodities. In 1839, the Qing Dynasty’s refusal to no longer import Opium- a dangerous narcotic that had immense social and financial affects on China’s population led China and Britain into the First Opium War. In 1842, Hong Kong became occupied by Britain and under the Treaty of Nanking, the British established a Crown Colony and the founding of Victoria City. In the coming years and during the Second Opium War, Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island was also ceded to Britain and in 1898, Britain obtained a 99 year lease of Hong Kong, at that time known as the New Territories. For this 99 year period leading up to 1997, Hong Kong remained in the control of the United Kingdom

Hong Kong During World War II

During the early part of the 20^th century Hong Kong played a major role in Asia as a center of trade and it grew in leaps and bounds financially and culturally. However, during World War II, the Empire of Japan was able to drive the British off the island in the Battle of Hong Kong and took control of Hong Kong as a colony on December 25, 1941.

During the initial invasion and following occupation of Hong Kong, the civilians of the island suffered enormously. Food shortages were wide spread and hyper inflation was experienced by all since all currency needed to be converted to military notes. In fact conditions were so bad that from 1971 to 1945 when the control of Hong Kong returned back to the British after Japan surrendered, almost half the population of civilians who lived in Hong Kong died.

Hong Kong Recovers After World War II

After World War II, the population of Hong Kong quickly recovered due to an influx of migrants from the mainland of China- mainly due to the Chinese Civil War and then the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China. In addition, due to the communist take over of the mainland, many companies shifted their operations to Hong Kong. Over the years, industry such as textiles and manufacturing grew. Not only was labor fairly cheap, but Hong Kong being mostly built on a capitalist philosophy made it easy for businesses and entrepreneurs to operate. And while Hong Kong grew economically, China became more isolated, pretty much leaving Hong Kong as the only link between the world and the Mainland. Today, Hong Kong is known less for its manufacturing and more for its service based industry- specifically in finance and banking sectors.

The United Kingdom Hands Over Control to China

The change over from British to China’s control took place on midnight on July 1, 1997. However, both the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China were planning the transition close to 20 years before then. In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was agreed upon. This document stipulated that Hong Kong would be governed as a special administrative region for at least the next 50 years beginning in 1997. It would retain its laws and to a large extent its autonomy. This agreement was instrumental in making sure that Hong Kong would continue to succeed and wouldn’t face severe disruptions when the transition took place.

One Country, Two Systems

Today, Hong Kong is ruled by the principle of one country, two systems. Based upon the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong continues to enjoy a wide degree of autonomy except in matters of defense and foreign affairs and is ruled by Basic Law, which is outlined in Hong Kong’s constitution. Under Basic Law, the people of Hong Kong continue to enjoy an economic system based on capitalism, a guarantee of human rights and freedoms and a government with a large representation of democratically elected officials.

Hong Kong continues to be a powerhouse economically and culturally in Asia and for many the future of Hong Kong is bright.

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History of DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is one of America’s oldest stock market indexes and lists 30 companies that together are held representative of the health of the industrial stocks, and allows investors to chart the progress of individual stocks or groupings of stocks against a weighted average. The DJIA is assessed regularly and defunct or unrepresentative companies replaced with new entrants.

The DJIA owes its conception to Charles Henry Dow, who along with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones and Company, the parent company of the DJIA. Charles Dow founded the Wall Street Journal, a daily broadsheet published in New York from 1882. By 1884 Dow Jones was publishing a list of twelve railroad stocks and averaging their closing prices to indicate the overall health of the sector. That index is today known as the Dow Jones Transportation Index and is the direct predecessor of the DJIA.

By 1896 Charles Dow had recognized a need for industrial stocks to be listed, despite a general lack of faith in industrial stocks at the time. It was a bold move, not well understood by the market since most investors of the day were more interested in bonds from major railroad companies, the transport sector being seen as the engine of American economic growth. Industrial companies often struggled to raise funds so the creation of the DJIA was a welcome development for owners of industrial stock.

Dow’s original DJIA consisted of only 12 stocks, of which only one, General Electric, has survived the 110 years the DJIA has been published to remain in the index. The other eleven companies in the original DJIA included American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling and Cattle Feeding, Laclede Gas, National Lead, Tennessee Coal and Iron, North American, U.S. Leather, and U.S. Rubber. Of these eleven, only Laclede Gas is still in business under its original name.

May 26^th 1896 was the first date of publishing the DJIA by Dow Jones & Co, with the first average being rated at $40.94. A couple of months later the DJIA had dropped to just $28.48, its lowest result ever in the history of the DJIA. To the end of 1896 the Dow Jones Industrial Average maintained a fairly consistent average of $35-$36, although not as high as it opening average, this was still considered a good start to the DJIA since it reflected the general state of industrial stocks. Transportation however remained the darling of the stock market with the Dow Jone Transportation Average reaching $50 by years end, a disappointing result given the index contained 20 of America’s railroads.

It took ten years for the DJIA to reach its first milestone, closing at $100.25 on January 12^th 1906, but it was nearly 20 years until $200 was reached. Between 1896 and 1916 several changes occurred with regular frequency to the DJIA, and by October 1916 very few of the original 12 stocks were left in the index, at the same time industrial stocks were more popular than transport stocks or bonds and it was time to revamp the index.

The published index on October 4^th included 20 stocks, all of which were common stocks, and included new industrials such as American Telephone and Telegraph, Goodrich, Studebaker, Westinghouse, and Western Union. American Sugar, General Electric, and U.S. Rubber were the only companies still listed of the original 12 in the revamped index of 20 industrials.

In 1928, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was once again increased in the number of stocks covered, this time to 30, a number that has been maintained upto the present time. The 1920s were time of great development, often called the ‘roaring twenties’, a time when the index climbed to nealry $400 between 1927 and 1929, and sadly a time that resulted in the great crash of 1929, followed by the recession years of the 1930s. The DJIA closed at its second lowest point ever on July 8^th 1932 at just $41.22, not far from the opening price in 1896, and a fall of nearly 90% from since the previous high of $381.17 back on September 3^rd 1929.

A criticism of the DJIA has been the lack of relevance despite being the most visible stock market index, with commentators observing that the dependence on stock prices takes no account of the relative sizes or market capitalization of companies represented in the index. The DJIA is often compared with S&P 500, an index that is adjusted by market value rather than simply price weighted.

Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Index has never been seen to represent highs or lows in popular culture, with Kennedy’s assassination, the Arab Oil embargo, and the first Iraq war seeing bullish rallying of the index, and by contrast the moon landing coming in the midst of a bear market and another record drop in the DJIA. Significant closing milestones of the period also saw great celebrations in the NYSE and at Dow Jones with the index reaching 1,000 on November 14^th 1972, and then 2,000 on January 8^th 1987. By October 19^th of 1987, a day known as Black Monday, the DJIa experienced its worst drop ever, falling 22.6 percent.

By July 2007 the DJIA hit 14,000 on two decades of economic growth and financial market bullishness, but by 2008-2009, in the midst of the global financial crisis this had fallen to a little over 8000, with many analysts expecting the index to find a new equilibrium below 8,000 by mid 2009.

As an interesting aside, Ford Motor Co has never been listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, whereas General Motors and Chrysler have been, and in 2009 Ford was the only one of the big three American motor companies expected to survive the economic crisis whilst GM and Chrysler were both expected to file bankruptcy proceedings despite multi-billion dollar stimulus from the US government.

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History of Serena Williams

Serena Williams is a female American tennis player, the sister of Venus Williams, and also a top ranked player who has been ranked number one in the world several times, and holds the record for holding all four grand slam titles consecutively. Serena Williams has represented the US at the Olympic Games, and is one of the world’s highest earning sport celebrities. Ms Williams is a long time philanthropist, having established a school in Kenya, and offering her support to breast cancer clinics. She is considered a positive role model in the world of sport.

Serena Jameka Williams was born in Saginaw Michigan on the 26^th September 1981, to Richard and Brandy Williams. She is the youngest of five girls and while still an infant moved with her family to Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles in California. The family never felt safe living in Compton and Serena’s father was determined his two youngest daughters would have the chance for a better life so started teaching them tennis at a very young age in the public tennis courts around Compton.

Serena started playing tennis at the age of four, her parents home schooled Serena and coached her in tennis, the family having bought numerous books and videos on coaching and playing tennis. At the age of four and a half Serena competed in her first competition, by all accounts winning 46 from 49 junior United States Tennis Association (USTA) tournaments and being ranked number one in the under ten age group nationally in 1990. In 1991 Serena’s parents withdrew her and Venus from competitive tennis to concentrate on their school studies and give the sisters a grounding outside of competitive tennis.

Around the same time Richard Williams asked Rick Macci, a well known tennis coach from Florida to travel to California to see his daughters playing. Macci had previously coached Mary Pierce and Jennifer Capriati, and immediately suggested the family move to Florida so Serena and Venus could attend his tennis academy. By this time Serena and Venus had earned enough in endorsements to allow the family to buy a home in Palm Beach Garden close to Macci’s academy.

From 1991 till 1995 Serena Williams undertook intensive training with Macci, developing her style of play and learning about game strategy. In 1995 the Williams family parted ways from Rick Macci with Richard Williams taking on responsibility for the continuing coaching of both Serena, and her sister Venus. In the same year Serena turned pro and played her first professional game at the age of 14 in the Bell Challenge, Quebec City.

Turning pro at 14, two years younger than the WTA allowed for professional players meant that Serena was only able to play in non-WTA events, yet despite lack of contact with other WTA players Serena became known once again for being a formidable player. In 1997, shortly after her 16^th birthday, Serena joined the WTA pro tour. Her first major wins came at the Ameritech Cup in Chicago where Serena beat seventh ranked Mary Pierce in the second round, followed by fourth ranked Monica Seles in the quarterfinals, and finally falling to Lyndsey Davenport in the semis.

1998 was a pivotal year for Serena Williams who started the year ranked 99^th in women’s tennis yet finished the year in the top 20 after bruising encounters with the top female players that saw her win doubles and mixed doubles tournaments, winning Wimbledon and the US Open mixed doubles with her playing partner Max Mirnyi, and the women’s doubles at the Grand Slam with sister Venus.

Serena played her first professional match against Venus, losing to her during the second round of the Australian Open, a match both described as challenging since Venus had always looked out for her sister, whilst Serena had always looked up to Venus. Both sisters have regularly played each other in tournaments, and observers have commented they seem to play each other without their usual zeal and enthusiasm leading to accusations outside the sport and amongst some players that Richard Williams decides in advance which of the sisters will win the match.

Serena’s first professional win in the WTA was at the 1999 Paris Indoor tournament against Amélie Mauresmo, but later that year she went on to win the 1999 US Open, beating three of the top four ranked WTA players, Monica Seles, Lyndsay Davenport, and Martina Hingis, and also becoming the first African-American to win a major Grand Slam title since Althea Gibson, another African-American player who won Wimbledon and the US Championship in 1958, and a moment Serena has described as a career highlight despite winning several majors since.

In WTA rankings Serena finished 1999 ranked 4^th, but dropped to 6^th in 2000, and it wasn’t until the Australian Open in 2002 that Serena Williams finally won the coveted 1^st ranking, beating her sister Venus at the Australian Open who had been the previous number one, and the first time in WTA history that a player had dethroned her own sister for the rank. By 2003 Serena lost her number one to Kim Clijsters after 57 weeks at number one, a tough year for the Williams sisters after a shooting in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton that killed their older sister Yetunde.

Between 2004 and 2007 Serena Williams suffered a recurring left knee injury that kept her from playing at top form and was the cause of many frustrating losses including a drop in rank out of the top ten. The Australian Open was her only major win in 2005, whilst 2006 saw Serena withdraw from many tournaments or only enter as a wildcard entrant. Despite problems with her knee Serena did manage to reach the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters and the JP Morgan Chase Open, but missing out on a chance in the US Open being beaten in the fourth round.

Returning to WTA events in 2007 after taking a short break for recuperation Serena stunned the tennis world with a spectacular win in the Australian Open against Maria Sharapova before going onto win the Sony Ericsson Open against Justine Henin. 2008 saw Serena continue to do well, winning the Hopman Cup, the Bangalore Open, the Family Circle Cup, and the US Open, and returning her to number one ranking in the WTA, a position she lost by the end of the year but holding onto the number two rank.

2009 started positively for Serena, winning the Australia Open for the fourth time, but a thigh injury forced her to withdraw from defending her crown at the Family Circle Cup, and also saw her lose the Sony Ericsson final to Victoria Azarenka, also seeing a loss in the Andalucía Tennis Experience in the first round. Despite injury, Serena Williams has consistently demonstrated a desire to get back on court, earning her awards for Most Favourite Female Sports Star (2008), WTA Player of the year (2002, 2008), Avon Foundation Celebrity Role Model Award (2003), and the Family Circle Player Who Makes a Difference Award (2004).

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History of Ratatouille

Ratatouille is stewed vegetable dish, with the main ingredients being tomato, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers, mixed with Mediterranean herbs, and stewed in olive oil. Although a thick gravy is present, ratatouille is not a soup. The word ratatouille is pronounced rat-a-tooey and is a French word, but the full name of ratatouille is ratatouille niçoise referring to the Nice region of France where ratatouille is most often associated with.

Food historians differ on the exact origins of ratatouille, was the dish French, perhaps Catalonian, or could it have been a Basque dish that made its way into the kitchens of Southern France, Northern Spain, and the Balearic islands. Could the dish be pre-Roman peoples, although if this was the case then it would have most certainly been made with other ingredients since tomatoes and zucchini were only introduced to Europe from the Americas whilst eggplant is native to India, none of which were known in Europe until at least the 1600s and possibly later.

In fact, Basque people have been making a stew with potatoes and mutton since before written records in Roman times. The basques landscape is rugged, with plenty of hills and mountains, completely unsuitable for growing extensive fields of crops so sheep farming, fishing, and growing potatoes were the main industry. The basque stew of potato and mutton would be thickened with stale bread and seasoned with salt or whatever herbs grew locally.

The modern ratatouille dish is claimed by the people of Nice and the Provence region of France, located in the South East bordering Italy who are known for a cosmopolitan culinary style that is at once typically Mediterranean, yet also quite French, so it isn’t hard to imagine Nice being the home of ratatouille. Throughout the Mediterranean, any dish made with vegetables and stewed in olive oil will be given the name ratatouille even if the resulting dish isn’t true to the traditional recipe, so it fair to say that ratatouille is more of a style of preparing a vegetable stew than a particular recipe.

Politically, the provence region and most of the French south coast along with the north western coast of Italy and the north eastern coast of Spain have always been close, and from 1720 till 1860 Nice was part of the Kingdom of Savoy which also included Savoy in France, and Sardinia, Piedmont and Liguria in present day Italy. It was during this time that some local historians believe the ratatouille dish was first created, and then quickly spread to other parts of the kingdom.

Modern interpretation suggests in fact that ratatouille may have only inherited its name from Nice owing to a particular recipe that became popular, and that ratatouille was in fact first created elsewhere in the Kingdom of Savoy. A definitive cookbook published in the late 1900s, La cuisiniére Provençale by J. B. Reboul which provides an exhaustive list over 1100 traditional Provencal dishes, and significantly, ratatouille is not listed.

The Catalans of Northern Spain, whose capital city Barcelona has been in important trading city and center of power for hundreds of years claim that people from Southern France adopted their samfaina recipe which is strikingly similar to ratatouille and is often prepared with fish pieces. Both ratatouille and samfaina are usually served with bread for dipping in the sauce left in the bowl after the larger vegetable chunks have been eaten. In Malta, another of the Mediterranean countries, a dish known as Kapunata, and also made with eggplant, garlic, and tomato is a local favorite, adding fuel to speculation that ratatouille as a dish is prepared throughout the Mediterranean.

Whilst ratatouille, or local variants are made throughout the Mediterranean, a true ratatouille from Provence will be made with just eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and onions, then simmered in olive oil, and seasoned with herbes de provence, a particular mixture of herbs that grew traditionally in the region, these being rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme, serpolet, and savory. Chefs from the Provence region of France will scoff at any other recipe claiming the name ratatouille niçoise if any other combination of vegetables or herbs are used.

During the 20^th century ratatouille has spread with French cuisine to almost every corner of the globe and the word has entered the English language. Ratatouille, traditionally peasant food, or at least made from cheap and possibly over ripe ingredients, is now a culinary dish served in the top restaurants and many top chefs have their own special recipe that regularly receive acclaim from critics.

In 2007, Disney Pixar produced an animated film based on the story of a rat who loved nothing better than to cook up a storm in the kitchen. The title of the film was a play on the lead character being a rat, and went onto win best Best Animated Feature Film in the 2008 Academy Awards, and a Golden Globe as well. The success of the film encouraged many family oriented restaurants to offer ratatouille as a menu item for children, although historians doubt the dish’s new found popularity will prove sustainable.

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History of Electronic Money

Electronic money is a fairly recent invention in the history of money and commerce, and typically means that currency with real value, and which can be exchanged for traditional cash, is instead entirely digital (or virtual). Electronic money only exists in digital format, and can be primarily based on the Internet or on smart cards that maintain a record of their stored value. Transactions carried out electronically are also known as electronic money. Other names for electronic money include e-money, digital cash, digital money, digital currency, or electronic cash.

The age of he computer has made possible the creation of electronic money, and began back in the 1960s when IBM and American Airlines jointly created a system kown as SABRE (Semi-Automatic Busines Research Environment) which allowed offices of American Airlines to be fitted with terminals connected to telephone lines that would allow agencies to directly check flight times, seat availability, and then electronically make reservations that could be paid for using a system of credits.

By the 1970s banks in the US and Europe had started using mainframe computers to track transactions between branches and other banks, a system that proved particularly successful across international boundaries when currency exchange was needed. Initially, any transactions that had been initiated but not cleared were effectively in limbo, and as computer use spread within corporations, tracking funds that were processed electronically became an important financial consideration.

Consumer uptake of electronic money first started to be noticed in France with the introduction of the Minitel service in 1982 that operated in a similar way to pre-Internet bulletin boards. Countries like the UK and the US had developed basic teletext services that allowed televisions to display text such as program guides, weather, game show results, or news directly onto the television screen, with users keying in page numbers on their TV remote control to access pages. The teletext system was a simple one way service, and whilst it was useful, it didn’t allow users to query data.

The French Minitel service by contrast used a dumb terminal with built in modem and since the service operated over standard telephone lines and the terminals were equipped with full AZERTY keyboards, it was possible for subscribers to type messages, or search queries, a fundamental difference from teletext services. The French Minitel terminals were given away free to over 9 million households encouraging French business entrepreneurs to offer Minitel shops such as travel agencies, flower delivery, As Seen on TV, music catalogs and more. Payment could be made using credit card or charged to the telephone account, marking the first use of electronic money in the consumer market.

A slightly similar service had been launched in the UK in 1979 named Prestel but supported equipment was expensive and a Prestel based retail service didn’t develop with the exception of package tour travel agencies who would provide quotes but still required customers to call and arrange payment over the phone. In 1983, a service known as Homelink started withthe support of the Bank of Scotland and Nottingham Building Society where account holders could subscribe to a special Prestel service that allowed online banking, and marks the first recorded use of electronic money.

In the US, similar services to the French Minitel and the UK Prestel existed, but without dedicated hardware, users would own their own micro-computers and modems and pay to dial into a local bulletin board service such as Compuserve or TheSource, however transactions for products and services were not offered until 1989 when US grocery delivery company Peapod was founded in Evanston, Illinois and sold a dial-up disk with software allowing customers to order and pay for groceries that the company would later deliver.

1991 saw the introduction of the Internet in the consumer market with the disbanding of the Arpanet network, and the creation of the NSFNET backbone formed by IBM, MCI, and Merit. CERN also released Tim Berners-Lee’s HTML specification that allowed easier display of Internet data. It wasn’t long until America Online took advantage of the new Internet and then in 1992, started offering retail services directly to their subscribers who could pay using a credit card, and firmly ushering in the era of electronic money. 1-800-Flowers was one of the first AOL retail partners.

In 1994, and taking a lind leap of faith that the Internet would help their business, Pizza Hut adopted the same model used by Peapod, and thus allowing online pizza ordering, with a choice of payments, credit card vie he Internet, or in person on delivery. The same year J.C. Penney start their first website offering a department store on the Internet, sales are slow but company shareholders are happy to see the corporation taking the initiative.

The late 1990s were a pivotal moment for electronic money as Amazon.com is launched in 1995, and then in 1998 PayPal is formed to make it easy for consumers to spend money online without risk of their credit card number being stolen. PayPal’s innovation was to offer a virtual account for consumers that could be topped up using a credit card or wire transfer, and then an email address used to send and receive funds. The services offered by PayPal marked the true beginning of electronic money as being distrinctly different from traditional over the phone and online credit card processing.

Further developments in the electronic money industry saw PayPal’s model copied by other providers, along with new ideas for securing customer funds using the gold standard or silver, platinum, or palladium, yet still offering the flexibility of sending and receiving payments with an email address. Virtual currency backed by precious metals can be exchanged for any supported currency, but is typically tracked as direct comparison of the price the precious metal is fetching in the international precious metal markets. Webmoney, e-gold, and eLibertyReserve have become the biggest gold backed electronic money providers.

Electronic money virtual wallets provided by major corporations such as Verisign started to become available, encouraging an explosive growth in ecommerce. The first years of the new millenium saw the creation a number of cryptographic techniques for the prevention of personal data, and strong growth in the use of electronic money as a primary medium for payments and transactions. In the US, most banks began offering online banking facilities connected to payments options that allowed utilities and credit cards to be paid using any public computer.

Private currencies also proliferated around the same time, originally spurred by the demand for some form or marketplace within networked games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. Private currencies are sometimes redeemable for real world currencies at a fixed rate pegged to the dollar or other major currency. Since those times, private currencies have developed in many forums and webmaster services as a means of offering advertising amongst members, the most famous of these perhaps being Entrecard, a service where users visit other blogs and are paid in Entrecard Credits, which become redeemable for cash once a reserve level has been met.

In the offline world, perhaps the most successful electronic money has been facilitated with stored value cards that are denominated in local currency. The United States Military designed a stored value card known as Eagle Cash that provided an advance on a soldier’s earnings and could be used in base shops and canteens by simply presenting the chip side of the card for swiping. In Hong Kong, a stored value card originally designed to make subway ticket purchases quicker has become a defacto cash card now accepted by a majority of retailers and utilities in the city.

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History of Sock Puppets

Puppetry is an expressive art form involving manufactured characters, which in the case of sock puppets, are made from socks embellished with faces, hair, and accessories such as hats, cigars, mustaches, eye glasses etc. Sock puppets are a form of puppet that can be manipulated with only one hand, allowing the puppeteer to use the other hand for a second puppet or to control stage items. Typically a sock puppet stage will be the size of a table, and may involve as many as nine or ten puppets on stage at any one time.

As long ago as the 11^th century BC puppets were being used in India, quickly spreading to other parts of Asia, and were used as devices to give morality stories a visual impact that words alone couldn’t convey. Puppets have throughout history been used to represent good, evil, jealousy, and greed without running the risk of identifying individuals who might exact revenge against the storyteller. In ancient India puppets were constructed from carved sticks, and were often elaborately decorated, whilst in China and Japan in the middle of the first millennium BC puppets were being intricately carved from wood.

Socks, whilst having been identified as being a form of footwear for thousands of years, initially started as matted animal hair shaped to fit inside a shoe or around the foot and ankle in a similar way to felting wool. The ancient Greeks were known to have used this technique as far back as 750 BC, whilst the Romans innovated with thick fabrics that were wrapped around the legs to form a shaped sock. The Roman sock wasn’t a terribly brilliant innovation but continued to be eveloped after the collapse of the Roman empire and in the 5^th century AD became known as a puttee, a roll of thick white fabric men of the church wore to symbolize their purity.

Knitting was invented by in Egypt during the 12^th century AD by nomadic sheep herders who would create fabric through the simple use of knotting the wool yarn using straight twigs. The technique had very real advantages over traditional weaving and allowed any shepherd and his wife to produce a more valuable product instead of just selling their wool. the practice quickly spread from Egypt throughout the Middle East and into Europe.

Almost immediately, Muslim knitters in Spain started developing a variety of knitting stitches that allowed them to create shaped fabrics, the sock being one of the first knitted items of clothing to be produced, though we have no evidence to suggest medieval shepherds or knitters would have used socks to create puppets. Certainly, historians know that patterned socks were being made as far back as the 1200s, and were decorate with complex chevrons and Arabic verses. We can speculate that sock puppets may have been invented around the same time.

Knitted socks until the Renaissance era were the almost exclusive preserve of the wealthy who could afford to buy them, yet in 1589, William Lee of Calverton in England invented the first knitting machine which overnight transformed knitted garments into something almost everyone could afford to purchase. Knitting is credited with transforming the textile industry and being the precursor to the industrial age. A few years after Shakespeare’s death, the puritan movement in England was gaining momentum, and traditional puppetry was banned along with all other forms of theater.

During these dark years in England and France, radicals who yearned for the freedoms they had known before the rise of the puritans would organize secret theater shows, but were often forced to use puppets since these were easier to transport and conceal than sets, costumes and large bands of actors. Even then, some were still arrested and imprisoned or tortured. Socks and very basic stages made of suspended fabric hung behind a table became a popular way of getting around the ban, and led to the first recorded sock puppet shows.

It was around this time that the puppet character Punch was created, though many believe the traditional Punch and Judy shows were created much later. These puppets were originally brought to life as sock puppets, it being too dangerous to display a full sized puppet. Revolutionary puppets have a long history from those puritan times right through to Napoleonic times, with puppet shows often banned because the puppeteer was an itinerant who would attract homeless and revolutionary audiences into respectable public squares.

After the return of the monarchy and the end of puritan times Punch and Judy puppets became more commonly associated with glove or hand puppets, though amongst children the ease of using a discarded sock that could be decorated to mimic a hand puppet ensured that sock puppets continued to be popular, though restricted to amateur performances in the family home or playground.

In contemporary popular culture sock puppets have been extensively used in television shows, possibly the most famous character being Lamb Chop, a sock puppet invented by Shari Lewis for a WNBC show ‘Hi Mom’ which screened in 1957. Over a 40 year career, Lamb Chop went from local character to national syndication, and then to her own PBS show “Lamb Chop’s Play Along”. In 1997 MTV broadcast a show entitled The Sifl and Olly show which despite attracting a loyal fan base was cancelled in 1999.

The term sock puppet is also used to describe a fictitious identity used online to promote a particular point of view or defend a person who is seen as controversial. Often a sock puppet in this context is used to attack the author’s own opinion or a set of principles in the hope that other moderate users will come to their defense. Sock puppets are widely seen as undesirable and on major community based sites such as Wikipedia, Wikimapia, and other high profile forums actively hunt down and ban sock puppets along with all other accounts of their creator.

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History of Orange Fruit

The orange is a type of citrus fruit that is very closely related to lemons, limes, tangerines, and grapefruit. Typically an orange of any variety will have a stringy core that contains the seeds, followed by a series of segments that contain the fleshy fruit, and then a thick orange colored skin protecting the fruit and seed from damage. Oranges are the most popular of all citrus fruits, and behind apples are also one of the most popular fruits grown and consumed globally. Many Americans start their morning with a glass of orange juice, and orange flavored treats are increasingly popular.

Orange trees originate in in India, with some varieties being found in the south east of the country and possibly the island of Ceylon, whilst other smaller varieties may have originated in forests of the north east of the country or Bangladesh. The varieties of the north east were used as long ago as 7,000 years ago in traditional dishes, and were known to the Aryan people who were responsible for the Vedic scripts of ancient India. Apart from desserts, orange peel and juice has also been used in Indian savory dishes for thousands of years, sometimes to flavor rice, or add an orange tang to certain vegetable dishes.

Archeologists and historians believe that by the beginning of the first millennium Chinese farmers were setting aside land for orchards and growing oranges, apples, figs and a variety of other tree hanging fruit. Certainly at the height of the Zhou dynasty, and in the times after when the states were warring against each other, many of China’s greatest administrators were writing about the virtues of keeping orchards rather than relying foraging for fruit. Oranges and apples in particular were very popular amongst the nobility and orchardists were known to compete with each other for the pleasure of their lord by growing ever larger, sweeter, or more perfectly rounded fruit.

The first time an orange was seen in Europe can be traced to the Roman Empire, probably around the time of the first century when Roman traders were in regular contact the Persians, and the Axum Kingdom in present day Ethiopia, whose sailors were known use the monsoon winds to trade with Southern India and Ceylon from around 150 BC till the Kingdom’s collapse around 700 AD. Oranges from the seafaring Tamil kingdoms of Southern India were exported to the Roman Kingdom, and became popular amongst the noble and military classes who could afford these luxuries.

The first orchards planted with oranges in the western world occurred in North Africa, from Libya to Morocco from the 1^st century AD, and were initially owned by Roman settlers, and tended by slaves, and much of the fruit from these orchards found its way across the Mediterranean, though the best produce was still shipped from India for wealthy people in Rome. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 6^th century, and the growth of the Islamic Caliphate from the 7^th century these trading routes closed and orchards in North Africa, which were now controlled by Islamic lords reoriented their trading routes toward Baghdad, and the lands of the Middle East. The few Roman orchards that grew oranges in the European territories fell into disrepair as the medieval era took hold.

During the golden years of the Islamic caliphate in North Africa and Southern Spain around the 11^th century, oranges were once again imported into Europe, and seeds from Persia planted in orchards throughout Al-Andaluz, which in those times included most of Southern Spain, Southern Portugal, and parts of Northern Morocco. These oranges contained more pectin, and a thicker skin than previously known varieties, and are an excellent orange for liquers, marmalades, compotes, and can be made into essential oil for perfumes. The name Seville Orange is reserved for these varieties.

Sweet oranges, in contrast to the bitter oranges previously mentioned, weren’t imported into Europe until the 16^th century when Portuguese traders finally discovered a trading route around the Cape of Good Hope to India. Sadly we have no record of who first brought Indian oranges back to Europe from the Tamil kingdoms, though we do know that these sweeter varieties quickly became established in orchards all over the Southern European countries from Portugal to Georgia. In fact in most Mediterranean languages the sweet orange is known as the Portugal orange.

Within just a few years of their introduction to Europe, those same sweet oranges were also being exported to the Americas by Spanish explorers and conquistadors. Orchards were established in Hispaniola in 1493, and in Florida by Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish discoverer of La Florida (todays US state of Florida), and records indicate the orange trees were planted in 1513, the year of Ponce de Leon’s first sailing to Florida so that future sailors would be able to protect themselves from scurvy. To this day the State of Florida is the second most productive orange growing area in the world.

Brazil claims the honor of producing the most oranges, accounting for about half of all the world’s oranges, most of which are grown in the state of São Paulo. Portuguese explorers first arrived in South America at the end of the 15^th century, but oranges are not believed to have been imported and planted in orchards until the beginning of the 16^th century on an island of the São Paulo coast known as Cananéia, which these days is a small coastal city heavily dependent on agriculture such as oranges.

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