Portal:United Kingdom
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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, covering 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 UK maintains sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories, which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The United Kingdom had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London. The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively.
The UK has 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, 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. In the Georgian era, the office of prime minister became established. 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. The British Empire was the leading economic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported by its agricultural prosperity, its role as a dominant trading nation, a massive industrial capacity, significant technological achievements, and the rise of 19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. 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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Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, probably written between 1599 and 1601. Set in Denmark, the play tells how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle for murdering the previous king, Hamlet's father. Hamlet's uncle has since stolen the throne and taken Hamlet's mother, the dead king's widow, as his wife. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, incest, and moral corruption. Despite much literary detective work, the exact year of writing remains in dispute. Three different early versions of the play survived, which are known as the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, and the First Folio. Each has lines, and even scenes, that are missing from the others. Shakespeare probably based Hamlet on an Indo-European legend—preserved by a 13th-century chronicler, and retold by a 16th-century scholar—and a lost Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet. The play's dramatic structure and Shakespeare's depth of characterisation mean that Hamlet can be analysed and interpreted—and argued about—from many perspectives. Hamlet is by far Shakespeare's longest play, and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language. The title role was almost certainly created for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time; in the four hundred years since, it has been played by the greatest actors, and sometimes actresses, of each successive age. (Full article...)
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Elizabeth Needham was an English procuress and brothel-keeper of 18th-century London, who has been identified as the bawd greeting Moll Hackabout in the first plate of William Hogarth's series of satirical etchings, A Harlot's Progress. Although Needham was notorious in London at the time, little is recorded of her life, and no genuine portraits of her survive. Her house was the most exclusive in London and her customers came from the highest strata of fashionable society, but she eventually fell foul of the moral reformers of the day and died as a result of the severe treatment she received after being sentenced to stand in the pillory. Nothing is known of her early life, but by the time she was middle-aged she was renowned in London as the keeper of a brothel in Park Place, St. James. Her house was regarded as superior to those of Covent Garden, even to that of the other notorious bawd of the time, Mother Wisebourne. (Full article...)
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Did you know -

- ... that Ruth Northway is the United Kingdom's first professor of learning disability nursing?
- ... that David P. Davies was the chief test pilot for the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority for 33 years?
- ... that before Fred Thomas became an MP, he was the Royal Marines' light heavyweight boxing champion?
- ... that in 1943, Bhicoo Batlivala led a group of Indian women to the House of Commons to request the release of Gandhi from prison?
- ... that a £142 wine fridge was smuggled into Downing Street on 11 December 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom?
- ... that the 2023 United Kingdom student protests were organised on TikTok and Snapchat?
In the news
- 4 May 2025 –
- Five people, including four Iranian citizens, are arrested for planning to carry out a terrorist attack at a single location in London, United Kingdom. Separately, three other Iranian men are arrested in London on suspicion of a national security offense as part of an unrelated investigation. (CTV News)
- 1 May 2025 –
- The world's oldest person, Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, dies at the age of 116 years and 326 days. The new oldest living person is British supercentenarian Ethel Caterham, who is the last person born in the 1900s decade, the last living subject of King Edward VII, and the oldest British person ever. (BBC News) (The Telegraph)
- 1 May 2025 – 2025 United Kingdom local elections
- The United Kingdom holds local elections, as well as a parliamentary by-election in the Runcorn and Helsby constituency. (BBC News)
- 16 April 2025 –
- The United Kingdom suspends the import of cheese and meat products from the European Union to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. (BBC News)
- 16 April 2025 – Transgender rights in the United Kingdom, For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers
- The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rules that legal gender is based upon biological sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. (BBC News)
- 15 April 2025 – Sudanese civil war, Foreign aid to Sudan
- The European Union and its member states pledge €522 million (US$590 million) and the United Kingdom pledges £120 million (US$141 million) in humanitarian aid to Sudan to deliver food and supplies to over 650,000 internally displaced Sudanese people affected by the fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces. The two groups also call for an immediate ceasefire to end the war. (DW) (AP)
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