Lusitania

Lusitania (/ˌluːsɪˈteɪniə/, Portuguese: Lusitânia, Spanish: Lusitania) or Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca). It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people (an Indo-European people). Its capital was Emerita Augusta (currently Mérida, Spain), and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the Roman Empire. Romans first came to the territory around the mid 2nd century BC. A war with Lusitanian tribes followed, from 155 to 139 BC. In 27 BC, the province was created.

Origin of the name

The etymology of the name of the Lusitani (who gave the Roman province their name) remains unclear. Popular etymology connected the name to a supposed Roman demigod Lusus, whereas some early-modern scholars suggested that Lus was a form of the Celtic Lugus followed by another (unattested) root *tan-, supposed to mean "tribe", while others derived the name from Lucis, an ancient people mentioned in Avienus' Ora Maritima (4th century CE) and from tan (-stan in Iranian), or from tain, meaning "a region" or implying "a country of waters", a root word that formerly meant a prince or sovereign governor of a region.

RMS Lusitania

RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner, holder of the Blue Riband, and briefly the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her running mate Mauretania. She was launched by the Cunard Line in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. On 7 May 1915, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew. She had made a total of 202 trans-Atlantic crossings.

German shipping lines were aggressive competitors in the transatlantic trade, and Cunard responded by trying to outdo them in speed, capacity and luxury. Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with revolutionary new turbine engines, able to maintain a service speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). Equipped with lifts, wireless telegraph and electric light, they provided 50% more passenger space than any other ship, and the first class decks were noted for their sumptuous furnishings.

When RMS Lusitania left New York for Liverpool on what would be her final voyage on 1 May 1915, submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic. Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed a newspaper advertisement warning people of the dangers of sailing on Lusitania. On the afternoon of 7 May, Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared "zone of war". A second internal explosion sent her to the bottom in 18 minutes.

List of Ender's Game series planets

This is a list of planets from the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card:

Albion

A planet that is briefly mentioned in the short story "Investment Counselor". It is home to a woman named Jane whom Ender briefly thought may have created the computer program Jane. Albion is a name for Ancient Britain.

Baía

A Brazilian catholic world. The nearest world to Lusitania with population pressure. They applied to Starways Congress to colonize Lusitania and did so in the year 1886 SC. In Xenocide, Grego mentions that if he had access to faster than light travel then he could go to university on Baía.

Descoladores' home planet

The homeworld to the descoladores, discovered in Children of the Mind. Observing it from afar in an "Outside"-capable ship, the ship's riders begin to believe the inhabitants to be varelse; however, due to the Peter Clone's attack on them, they realize they need to take more time in studying the descoladores. This planet is rumored to be the subject of Card's next book, Shadows Alive.