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, with a population of over 69 million in 2024. 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). It shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea, while maintaining sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London; Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Britain has been inhabited since the Neolithic. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began. The Roman departure between 383 and 410 was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement beginning around 450. In 1066 the Normans conquered England. After the Wars of the Roses, the Kingdom of England began to flourish, resulting in the 16th-century annexation of Wales and the establishment of the British Empire. Over 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 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 in the Second World War damaged Britain's economic power, and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (Full article...)
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The Siege of Malakand was the 26 July – 2 August 1897 siege of the British garrison in the Malakand region of modern day Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. The British faced a force of Pashtun tribesmen whose tribal lands had been dissected by the Durand Line, the 1,519 mile (2,445 km) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan drawn up at the end of the Anglo-Afghan wars to help hold the Russian Empire's spread of influence towards British India. The unrest caused by this division of the Pashtun lands led to the rise of Saidullah, a Pashtun Fakir who led an army of at least 10,000 against the British garrison in Malakand. Although the British forces were divided amongst a number of poorly defended positions, the small garrison at the camp of Malakand South and the small fort at Chakdara were both able to hold out for six days against the much larger Pashtun army. The siege was lifted when a relief column dispatched from British positions to the south was sent to assist General William Hope Meiklejohn, commander of the British forces at Malakand South. Accompanying this relief force was second lieutenant Winston S. Churchill, who later published his account as The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War. (Full article...)
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J. R. R. Tolkien was a British writer and university professor and is best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford University from 1925 to 1945, and of English language and literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was a strongly committed Roman Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, with whom he shared membership in the literary discussion group the Inklings. In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes The Silmarillion and other posthumously published books about what he called a legendarium, a connected body of tales, fictional histories, invented languages, and other literary essays about an imagined world called Arda (Middle-earth), and Middle-earth. Most of these works were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Tolkien. The enduring popularity and influence of Tolkien's works have established him as the "father of modern fantasy literature". Tolkien's other published fiction includes stories not directly related to the legendarium, some of them originally told to his children. (Full article...)
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Did you know -

- ... that former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said that she would swim in Loch Ness naked if the SNP won more than 50 seats at the 2019 United Kingdom general election?
- ... that Dublin property developer Harry Crosbie received an OBE from the British ambassador to Ireland, partly for entertaining Elizabeth II with his showbiz contacts?
- ... that before Fred Thomas became an MP, he was the Royal Marines' light heavyweight boxing champion?
- ... that despite being an independent candidate, Leanne Mohamad came within 528 votes of defeating shadow health secretary Wes Streeting in the 2024 UK general election?
- ... that Sting wrote "We Work the Black Seam" because he felt that "the case for coal was never put to the nation" during the 1984–85 British miners' strike, which began 40 years ago today?
- ... that the size of the entrance hall at the British legation in Uruguay was increased after a diplomat complained that there was not enough room to hold dances?
In the news
- 16 December 2025 – 2025 Liverpool parade incident
- The Liverpool Crown Court convicts Paul Doyle, the perpetrator who injured 130 people after ramming his car into a crowd in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom, of charges of dangerous driving and maliciously causing grievous bodily harm, and sentences him to 21 years in prison. (DW)
- 6 December 2025 –
- Four protesters from Take Back Power are arrested after they threw custard on a display case containing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London in England. (DW)
- 4 December 2025 – Russia–United Kingdom relations
- Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
- The United Kingdom imposes sanctions against Russia's GRU and several military intelligence officers after a public inquiry concludes that Russian operatives carried out the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, under orders from President Vladimir Putin. The UK also summons Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin. (Reuters)
- 2 December 2025 –
- The Winter Egg, one of the few Fabergé eggs remaining in private hands, sells at Christie's in London, England, United Kingdom, for £22.9 million (US$30.2 million), setting a new auction record for a work by the House of Fabergé. (CNN)
- 1 December 2025 – Trial of Sheikh Hasina
- A Bangladeshi court sentences former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and British MP Tulip Siddiq to five years and two years in prison, respectively, for corruption involving a government land project. (AP)
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