Tom Hanks's Biography

Hanks was born in Concord, California 9 July 1956. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California on March 4, 1924 – died in Alameda, California on January 31, 1992), was a distant relative of President Abraham Lincoln, through Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks. His mother, Portuguese-American Janet Marylyn Frager (born in Alameda County, California on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker; the two divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra, (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer), Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, Ph.D., an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California. Afterwards, both parents remarried. The first stepmother for Sandra, Larry, and Tom came to the marriage with five children of her own. Hanks once told Rolling Stone: "Everybody in my family likes each other. But there were always about 50 people at the house. I didn't exactly feel like an outsider, but I was sort of outside it." That marriage ended in divorce after just two years.

The Movies
• Angels & Demons (2009) as Robert Langdon
• The Great Buck Howard (2008) as Mr. Gable
• Charlie Wilson's War (2007) as Charlie Wilson
• The Da Vinci Code (2006) as Dr. Robert Langdon
• Cars (2006) (voice) as Woody Car
• Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (2005) (voice) as Narrator
• The Polar Express (2004)
• Elvis Has Left the Building (2004) as Mailbox Elvis
• The Terminal (2004) as Viktor Navorski
• The Ladykillers (2004) as Professor G.H. Dorr
• Catch Me If You Can (2002) as Carl Hanratty
• Road to Perdition (2002) as Michael Sullivan
• "Band of Brothers" (2001)
• Cast Away (2000) as Chuck Noland
• The Green Mile (1999) as Paul Edgecomb
• Toy Story 2 (1999) (voice) as Woody
• You've Got Mail (1998) as Joe Fox
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) as Capt. John H. Miller
• "From the Earth to the Moon" (1 episode, 1998) as Jean-Luc Despont
• That Thing You Do! (1996) as Mr. White
• Toy Story (1995) (voice) as Woody
• Apollo 13 (1995) as Jim Lovell
• Forrest Gump (1994) as Forrest Gump
• Vault of Horror I (1994) (TV)
• Philadelphia (1993) as Andrew Beckett
• "Fallen Angels" as Trouble Boy #1
• Sleepless in Seattle (1993) as Sam Baldwin
• A League of Their Own (1992) as Jimmy Dugan
• "Tales from the Crypt" as Baxter
• Radio Flyer (1992) as Older Mike
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) as Sherman McCoy
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) as Joe Banks
• Turner & Hooch (1989) as Det. Scott Turner
• The 'burbs (1989) as Ray Peterson
• Punchline (1988) as Steven Gold
• Big (1988) as Josh Baskin
• Dragnet (1987) as Pep Streebeck
• Every Time We Say Goodbye (1986) as David Bradley
• Nothing in Common (1986) as David Basner
• The Money Pit (1986) as Walter Fielding, Jr.
• Volunteers (1985) as Lawrence Whatley Bourne III
• The Man with One Red Shoe (1985) as Richard Harlan Drew
• Bachelor Party (1984) as Rick Gassko
• Splash (1984) as Allen Bauer
• "Family Ties" (3 episodes, 1983-1984) as Ned Donnelly
• "Happy Days" (1 episode, 1982) as Dr. Dwayne Twitchell
• "Taxi" (1 episode, 1982) as Gordon
• "Bosom Buddies" (37 episodes, 1980-1982) as Buffy Wilson
• "The Love Boat" (1 episode, 1980) as Rick Martin
• He Knows You're Alone (1980) as Elliot

History of Rockman X

The Rockman X (Megaman X in English) series was the second Rockman franchise released by Capcom. It debuted December 17, 1993 in Japan (February 1994 in North America) on the Super Famicom/Super NES. It is the first continuation in plot of the series, preceded by the classic Rockman series. The first six games in the series are currently available in the anthology collection Rockman X Collection.

Plot description
Rockman X (often referred to as simply "X") was created by Dr. Thomas Light around 30 years after the original series. Unlike the original Rockman, X was a new breed of robot with the ability to make his own decisions instead of simply following programming. After completing the creation of X, Light realized that there was a possibility X might choose to turn against humankind. He also feared that even if X chose a beneficent path in life with regard to human welfare, people would inexorably be unable to accept him, and that X would be viewed as a technological anomaly at best and an abomination at worst. Both would result in X's neutralization not so much as a robot, but as the cogent thinking machine Light originally intended to be. Fearing that his life's work and magnum opus would be destroyed by fear-driven human beings, Light sealed X away in a diagnostic capsule for thirty years of testing to make sure he would not choose an evil path in life. It is unknown what happened to him during these 30 years, but Dr. Light presumably died and left his diagnostic experiments unfinished. X's capsule was eventually uncovered by an archaeologist named Dr. Cain almost 100 years after X's creation. With X's help, Cain and X created a legion of new robots replicated from X's ability of free-will— these robots were called "Reploids". For a time, everything seemed calm and peaceful.
However, a virus began spreading that caused Reploids to turn against humans. This was due to the fact that Dr. Cain couldn't perfectly duplicate X's circuitry since he couldn't completely understand exactly what Dr. Light did. These Reploids were dubbed Mavericks (Irregulars in Japan), and a force called the Maverick Hunters (Irregular Hunters) was formed to combat them. The Maverick Hunters were originally led by Sigma until he too became a Maverick. Because of his betrayal and eventual declaration of war against the humans, X took it upon himself to join the Maverick Hunters and current leader Zero, another powerful robot, on a mission to save Earth from Sigma.
Throughout the series, X and Zero battle against Sigma and his Maverick followers to stop their many diabolical plots to destroy the human race.

Series history
Capcom released Rockman X for the Super NES to give a new image to the Mega Man game series. There are a total of 11 games in the Rockman X series: Rockman X, X2, and X3 on the Super NES (with ports of X and X3 to the PC, and a Japan/Europe only port of X3 to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn), Rockman X4, X5, and X6 on the PlayStation (X4 also being on the Sega Saturn, as well as X4 and X5 being ported to the PC), Rockman X7 and X8 on the PlayStation 2, the RPG Rockman X: Command Mission on the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and Rockman X: CyberMission and Rockman X2: Soul Eraser on the Game Boy Color. The original Rockman X was remade on the PlayStation Portable as Rockman Maverick Hunter X.

The Great Wall

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during various successive dynasties. Since the 5th century BC, several walls have been built that were referred to as the Great Wall. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; it lay farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty. The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total; a more recent archaeological survey using advanced technologies points out that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km (5,500.3 mi). At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

History of Coldplay

Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in London, England in 1998. The group comprises:

• Chris Martin (lead vocals, keyboards, guitar),
• Jonny Buckland (lead guitar),
• Guy Berryman (bass guitar), and
• Will Champion (drums, backing vocals, other instruments).

Coldplay achieved worldwide fame with the release of their single "Yellow", followed by their debut album;
• Parachutes (2000), which was nominated for the Mercury Prize.
• A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), won multiple awards, including NME's Album of the Year.

• X&Y (2005), received a slightly less enthusiastic yet still generally positive reception.

• Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), was produced by Brian Eno and released again to largely favourable reviews, earning several Grammy nominations and wins. Coldplay have sold over 50 million albums.

Coldplay's early material was compared to acts such as Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, U2, and Travis. Since the release of Parachutes, Coldplay have drawn influence from other sources, including Echo and the Bunnymen, Kate Bush and George Harrison on A Rush of Blood to the Head, Johnny Cash and Kraftwerk for X&Y and Blur, Arcade Fire and My Bloody Valentine on Viva la Vida. Coldplay have been an active supporter of various social and political causes, such as Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign and Amnesty International. The groups have also performed at various charity projects such as Band Aid 20, Live 8, Sound Relief, and the Teenage Cancer Trust.