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Capital of Great Britain

London is the capital city of the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in southeastern England, 80 km upstream from its estuary with the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the first century Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 2.9 km² and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. London is a leading global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transportation. London, the fourth fastest-growing city, is 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centers and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP. It is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games.

Geographical type: Metropolis

Latitude: 51.51° N — Longitude: 0.13° W

Area: 8,382 km²

Birthplace of

Jeremy Bentham, in Spitalfields, on 15 Feb 1748
William Blackstone, on 10 Jul 1723
Peter Finch, in South Kensington, on 28 Sep 1916
Antony Flew, Antony Garrard Newton Flew, on 11 Feb 1923
William Harold Hutt, on 3 Aug 1899
Israel Kirzner, Yisroel Mayer Kirzner, on 13 Feb 1930
John Stuart Mill, John Stuart Mill, in Pentonville, on 20 May 1806
John Milton, in Cheapside, on 9 Dec 1608
David Ricardo, on 18 Apr 1772

Events of Interest

The Wealth of Nations, published, on 9 Mar 1776

Deathplace of

Peter Thomas Bauer, on 2 May 2002
Jeremy Bentham, on 6 Jun 1832
John Bunyan, on 31 Aug 1688
Richard Cantillon, in Mayfair, on 14 May 1734
Richard Cobden, in Suffolk Street, on 2 Apr 1865
Paul Johnson, on 12 Jan 2023
Bernard Mandeville, on 21 Jan 1733
Karl Marx, on 14 Mar 1883
James Mill, on 23 Jun 1836
John Milton, on 8 Nov 1674
George Orwell, on 21 Jan 1950
Karl Popper, on 17 Sep 1994
Lionel Robbins, on 15 May 1984
Peter Sellers, on 24 Jul 1980
Nassau William Senior, in Kensington, on 4 Jun 1864
Algernon Sidney, on 7 Dec 1683

Articles

Fixing Airport Security, by Robert W. Poole, Jr., Intellectual Ammunition, 1 Nov 2001
Published shortly before the establishment of the Transportation Security Administration, recommends that U.S. airport security be handled the way it has been done in Europe, and Heathrow in particular, by turning airports into business enterprises
London's airports, especially Heathrow, have long been extremely sensitive to the terrorist threat. Security there is first-rate. Airport owner/operator BAA employs all the passenger screening people itself, and pays them decent wages. Turnover is but a fraction of what is typical of U.S. airports. Some of these employees eventually move up to other positions within the company. At the London airports, every single bag is X-rayed ... and there is positive matching of bags with passengers ... London typifies a large-scale trend in Europe toward a more professional model of airport management.
My Time in the Tower of London, by James Bovard, Freedom Daily, Dec 2006
Relates a visit to the Tower of London and then compares the torture of centuries past in the Tower, as described in particular in Shakespeare's Richard III, with the 2006 legalization of similar practices in the United States
I visited the Tower of London in May on an overcast, dreary Friday afternoon. The home of so many famous executions and king-approved murders is kept in spiffy shape. The tour guide — ... wearing a large "Beefeater"-style hat — regaled listeners with tales of beheadings gone wrong, drunks with axes hacking away at half-dead corpses, never quite getting a clean cut ... The tour guide pointed to Traitor's Gate — where he said the most notorious criminals were brought directly from the Thames River into the Tower. The Traitor's Gate was an easy way to secretly bring detainees into the Tower, unseen by anyone nearby.
Roads, Cars, and Responsibility, by Scott McPherson, 7 Apr 2004

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "London" as of 8 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.