لوتريامون
من ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة

بالفرنسية: Comte deLautréamont‏) وهو اللقب الذي كان يكتب باسمه ايزيدور دوكاس (Isidore LucienDucasse). شاعر فرنسي (٤ أبريل 1846م مونتفيديو، الأورغواي - ۲٤ نوفمبر ۱۸٧۰م في الرابعة والعشرين من العمر)، يعتبر لوتريامون أول من كتب قصيدة النثر وذلك في كتابه (أناشيد مالدورو) ۱۸٦٧

سليم هاربو
من ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة

سليم هاربو (Slim Harpo) اسمه الحقيقي جامس موري (11 يناير1924 في لويزيانا - 31 يناير1970 في باتون روج، لويزيانا) كان موسيقي بلوزأمريكي وموهوب في الهارمونيكا.
اشتغل سليم هاربو باكرا في أعمال صعبة بسبب اليتم، بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية بدأ مسيرته في أحد النوادي في باتون روج، في عام 1957 قام بأول تسجيلاته.
توفي عام 1970 إثر نوبة قلبية.

شيخة ريميتي
من ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة

شيخة ريميتي (8 مايو1923 في سيدي بلعباس - 15 مايو2006 في باريس). اسمها الحقيقي باضيف سعدية، كانت مغنية راي جزائرية.
نشأتها
ولدت الشيخة ريميتي (سعدية باضيف) في 8 ماي 1923 في مدينة سيدي بلعباس التي تعد في وقتنا الحاضر ولاية قائمت بذاتها يرجع الجميع اصل ونسب الشيخة الريميتي إلى مدينة غليزان منطقة " عمي موسى" ولدت الشيخة الريمتي لعائلة جد فقيرة عانت الويلات من شر الاملاق كما طرقت عالم اليتم وهي في سن جد مبكرة وحسب بعض الروات ممن عايشوا الشيخة فقد هربت من منزلها وهي فتاة لم تبلغ العشريين على يد الشيخ الضب وهو مغني راي يكبرها سنا لتهوم في حانات العاصمة ناشرة الفن المحظور حينها كما اشتهرت بقدرتها الفائقة على شؤب الكحول منذ صغر سنها.
المغنية المحبوبة الممنوعة
أغلب العائلات الجزائرية المحافظة ترفض سماع هذا النوع الغنائي، وكان الناس يسمعونها بعيدا عن بيوتهم أو سرا. ولا زال الكثير من أغانيها لا يمرر في وسائل الأعلام لأنة يعتبر من الفنون الماجنة. بدأت الشيخة ريميتي مسيرتها بالعمل مع المغنيين الجوالين قبل ستين عامًا حيث رافقتهم وهي صغيرة من مدينة لأخرى ومن ملهى لآخر، لم تكن تربح الكثير، لا ننسى أنها كانت حقبة الاستعمار الفرنسي
مع الوقت تفرض وجودها بين فناني ذلك الوقت، زغم أنه لم يرد لها أن تمثل أحد أوجه الثقافة الجزائرية رغم شعبيتها ضلت تاصل نشاطها في الملاهي الليلية، والاحتفالات الريفية، وأصبحت فيما بعد مغنية المهاجرين في فرنسا وبلاد المهجر ككل.
منع بث أغانيها في الاذاعة بعد استقلال الجزائر بيومٍ واحد، ولم تتلقى ولا دعوة واحدة في التلفزيون الجزائري حتى مماتها.
هاجرت إلى فرنسا في السبعينيات، لكنها حافظت موسيقاها وفنها وكانت تعود سنويًا لفتراتٍ طويلةٍ إلى الجزائر. كما سعت طوال حياتها للحصول على التقدير الذي لم تحظى به حتى بعد مماتها، إذ لم تنشر الصحافة الجزائرية الرسمية سوى خبرًا قصيرًا ينوه لوفاتها.
راي الريميتي
مما نستنتجه في أغنيات الريميتي بكلماتها من دون حدود وصوتها القوي الناصح وايقاع موسيقتها اللامعتاد الجرئ، يرمي بالحشمة جانبًا، ويكسر التصورات النمطية، يعطيك تصورا لإمرأة عربية جريئة لا صامته، متحررة لا محافظة، في المحتوى النصي لغنائها لا يدعو للتمرد لكنه يحكي قصصا واقعية، وأشياء واقعة في المجتمع، وفن الراى هو الفن الوحيد الذي يعبر عن الرأي الشخصي، والريميتي أجادت فبرعت وتميزت ولا نجد امرأتا تماثلها بهذا القدر.
استعار الكثير من فناني الراي اغانيها رجالا ونساءا، رغم كبر سنها ضلت في الريادة وتنافس الشبان والشابات من المغنيين في فن الراي بتجديدها الباهر والفريد.
في التسعينيات: مع روبرت فريب Robert Fripp ومع عازف الباص في فرقة رد هوت تشيلي بيبرز Red Hot Chili Peppers، حيث زاوجت في اسطوانتها الأخيرة "انت قدامي" آلات موسيقية بدوية مثل النايوالربابة مع الموسيقى الالكترونية.
تقول الريميتي في فناني الراي : "لقد استفادوا مني لنشر موسيقى الراي، لكن موسيقاهم ليست أصيلة. قلت لنفسي، لأنكم تستغلونني سوف أرد عليكم بأسلحتكم، بالموسيقى الأمريكية. وهكذا تخطيتهم بأميال".
أصل كنيتها
دعيت ريميتي بهذا اللقب عندما وزعت المشروبات على المعجبين بها في أحد الحانات حيث طلبت من النادلة أن تقوم بذلك قائلةً لها: «remettez»، أي دورة أخرى، وتحولت مع الوقت إلى ريميتي بالعامية العربية.
وفاتها
ماتت الريميتي في 15 مايو 2006

خيزوري محمد
شهيد

المولد والنشأة
ولد الشهيد خيزوري محمد في سنة 1933 ببوشقوف ولاية قالمة ترعرع الشهيد بين والديه وإخوته وكان هو أكبرهم وبوفاة أبيه سنة 1947 عرف الشهيد اليتم وهو لم يتعدى 14 سنة فبقي مع أمه واخوته في العيش مع عمه عمار بشارع أول نوفمبر 1954 حاليا وكان الشهيد مسؤولا عن عائلته لأنه كان أكبر إخوته رغم أن عمه عمار خيزوري قد تكفل بامه وإخوته. فكان يعمل ككل الجزائريين في ذلك الوقت في الفلاحة رفقة أبناء عمه الطيب وإبراهيم وأخيه لحوسين
نضاله واستشهاده:
عند إنطلاق الثورة التحريرية المظفرة في 01 نوفمبر 1954 إلتحق الشهيد خيزوري محمد بجبل بني صالح بوشقوف في سنة 1956 وشارك في عدة معارك إلى أن قام الشهيد خيزوري محمد مع رفاقه في الجهاد في إدخال كبيرة من الاسلحة التي دخلت من الحدود التونسية وفي طريقهم للعودة بها وتوزيعها وصلت الاخبار عند المستعمر الفرنسي فحاصر المكان الذي كانوا فيه عائدين من سوق اهراس فقصف جيش العدو بالطائرات المجاهدين فاستشهد الشهيد أثناء قصف المكثف لجيش العدو الغاشم وسقط الشهيد في ميدان الشرف في سنة 1957 ولنكن خير خلف لخير سلف. المجد والخلود لشهدائنا الابراز

محمد السهلاوي
من ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة

محمد السهلاوي (من مواليد 1988 في الهفوف), لاعب نادي النصرالسعودي والمنتقل من نادي القادسية السعودي بأعلى صفقة انتقال لاعب سعودي في تاريخ الكرة السعودية والتي بلغت اثنين وثلاثين مليونا ريال سعودي,
السهلاوي والكرة
لم يكن الطفل محمد السهلاوي يدري بأن القدر كان يخبئ له بأن يكون في يوم من الأيام أغلى لاعب في تاريخ الرياضةالسعودية، وهوالذي أبصر الحياة يتيما، إذ ما كاد يتلمس طريقها إلا وقد سمع نحيب أسرته يهز أركان منزلهم الصغير في مدينة الهفوف بالأحساء حزنا على وفاة والدهم إبراهيم السهلاوي. ظلام اليتم كان كافيا لأن يضيع الطفل محمد في دهاليز الحياة، لولا أن قيض الله له أما عطوفا حملت على عاتقها بأن تتمثل دور الأم والأبفي آن حتى تستطيع أن تعوض رحيل زوجها الصعب، فكان لها ما أرادت حيث نجحت في هذا الدور بامتياز.

نجاح (أم فهد) تلمسه بسهولة في مسيرة ابنائها (فهد ومحمد وماهر) لاسيما محمد الذي سجل نفسه بين أقرانه كواحد من أكثر أبناء (حي المطار) حيث تقطن الأسرة أدبا وموهبة وفطنة، فبقدر ما كان السهلاوي الصغير يشار إليه بالبنان في حسن الخلق، فقد جمع إلى ذلك نجاحا ملموسا في دراسته، وموهبة فذة في مداعبة كرة القدم. في الحي كان محمد السهلاوي مضرب المثل في الأخلاق، وفي المدرسة كان اسمه لا يفارق لوحة الطلاب المثاليين، أما في الحارة فيكفي أنه كان نجم فريق (الفيصلي) بلا منازع قبل أن ينتقل لفريق (التعاون) الأكثر شهرة في الهفوف. في التعاون ذاع صيت السهلاوي وهو لم يتجاوز الخامسة عشرة من عمره، إذ كانت مهاراته العالية وقدرته الفائقة على هز الشباك سببا في لفت الأنظار إليه، ما دعا غير ناد من أندية الأحساء للتسابق على خطب وده، بيد أن رغبة أسرته في تفرغه للدراسة حال دون تسجيله في أي منها، لكن ذلك لم يمنعه من مواصلة حضوره اللافت في دورات الحواري التي تشتهر بها محافظة الأحساء، وهو ما كان سببا في إقناعه بالذهاب لخوض تجربة مع شباب الهلال عام 2002عن طريق المدرب راشد صالح المري، حيث أمضى هناك أسبوعا كاملا اقنع خلاله كل من شاهد مستواه وفي مقدمتهم الأمير بندر بن محمد، بيد أن مدرب الفريق اليوغسلافي نوبوشيا كان له رأي آخر، ليعود السهلاوي منكسرا حزينا للأحساء إذ شعر أن أحلامه قد تبددت.
الانضمام إلى القادسية
بعد ذلك بعام كان محمد السهلاوي قد بلغ عامه السابع عشرة عشر، وفيه بدأت موهبته يكتمل نضوجها، وهو ما بدا واضحا خلال مشاركته في دورة "كاركيز" لفرق حواري الأحساء ما جعل إداري كرة اليد بنادي القادسية آنذاك عادل بودي يأخذ على عاتقه ضرورة تسجيله في نادي القادسية خشية أن يصطاده ناد آخر.

السهلاوي يعيد القادسية للاضواء
بعد هبوط القادسية ورحيل أغلب نجوم الفريق بطريقة أقرب لمسمى (الهروب) لم يتبقى بالنادي من نجوم سوا محمد السهلاوي. وقد تم اعارته لمدة 5 مباريات للمشاركة مع الفتح في دوري الدرجة الأولى وبعد انتهاء فترة اعارته قدمت اندية الممتاز عروض بطرق ملتوية للاعب الذي كان يملك حق الخروج من القادسية بدون اذن القادسية وذلك لأن اعارته من القادسية جائت بطريقة التنسيق من الكشوفات و رغم العروض بالملايين التزم اللاعب بكلمته وعاد بالنهاية للقادسية وقطع عهد على نفسه ببذل كل مالديه من اجل اعادة القادسية وقد صارح بذلك جمهور النادي عبر حوار في احد المنتديات القدساوية فقدم موسم مميز بدوري الدرجة الأولى سجل خلاله 18 هدف .
الانتقال الى النصر واغلى صفقة في تاريخ اللاعبين السعوديين
انتقل إلى نادي النصر عام 2009 بصفقة تعد أعلى صفقه في تاريخ اللاعبين السعوديين حيث انها بلغت اثنين وثلاثين مليونا،
مشواره مع النصر
قدم اللاعب محمد السهلاوي بداية ممتازة في اول موسم له مع النصر حيث وصل عن طريقه للمنتخب وقد سجل السهلاوي قرابة العشرين هدف الاى الآن مع ناديه النصر وهي على النحو التآلي:
11 هدف في الدوري بعد محمد الشلهوب 12 وتياجو نيفز 11 و 8 اهداف في كأس الامير فيصل بن فهدويعتبر من هدافي الب\ولة. وهدف في كأس خادم الحرمين الشريفين للأبطال وهدفين في كأس الاندية الخليجية للأبطال. كما حصل على جائزة افضل لاعب واعدوهي المقدمه من شركة الإتصالات السعودية

سليمان الموسى 1919 – 9 يونيو 2008، مؤرخ ومؤلف وكاتب أردني. ولد في قرية الرفيد إلى الشمال من مدينة اربد. تلقى علومه الأولى في كُتّاب القرية ومدرستها، ثم التحق في مدرسة الحصن، وعاش حياة القرية والريف الأردني.

Suleiman Mousa was born in Al Rafeed (الرفيد), a village located 20 km north of the city Irbid overlookingYarmouk River, Jordan in 1919.

The death of his father, an unwealthy, modest man, who had a passion for reading and writing, came as a shock to him, his mother and sister while he was a mere six years of age.Leaving them nothing but a basket of cane rods containing several books, his mother took up the task of securing the family's needs. Being part of a village that was dependent mainly on agriculture for its survival, they lived a simple and spontaneous life.

Works
· History of Jordan in the twentieth century – Part I.
· History of Jordan in the twentieth century - Part II.
· Days Unforgotten: Jordan in the 1948 war.
· The Arab Movement.
· Historical Correspondence from 1914 to 1918.
· Historical Correspondence - Volume II, 1919.
· Historical Correspondence - the third volume from 1920 to 1923.
· Characters of Jordan - Wasfi, Hazaa, Al-Nabulsi.
· Characters of Jordan – Al-Rai Library, Abu Al-Huda and Mufti.
· Western Views.
· O Jerusalem.
· T.E Lawrence: An Arab View - was translated and published in English 1966, French 1973, Japanese 1989
· The Great Arab Revolt - The war in Hijaz from 1916 to 1918.
· Monuments of Jordan.
· Faces and Features – Part I.
· Faces and Features - Part II.
· Westerners in Arab Countries.
· Jordan and Palestine – Part I.
· Jordan and Palestine - Part II.
· Throughout Jordan.
· The Great Arab Revolt - and the documents and arguments.
· The Establishment of the Emirate of Jordan - 1921-1925, First Edition 1971.
· Notes, Prince Zeid - the war in Jordan, the first edition 1976.
· Images of the championship, the first edition 1968.
· Folded pages.
· Jordan contemporary political history of 1967-1995, the date of publication of the Commission of Jordan.
· Studies in Jordan's modern history - Book of the month.
· Al-Hussein Bin Ali and the Arab Revolt - a series of reading books, first edition 1957.
· East of the Emirate of Jordan 1921-1946
· The Other Side.
· The Days Notes.
· That Unknown Soldier.
· The Perfect Wife.
· Eighty: An Autobiography
· Steps on the Road.
· Jordan's capital Amman.
· Of our modern history - a book in the history of Jordan
o Arab Revolt - the causes and the principles and objectives.
o East of Jordan - before the founding of the emirate.
· Memories of the scenes.
· Pages of Jordan's modern history.
· For the Sake of Freedom.
· Al-Hussein Bin Ali.
· The Great Arab Revolt.
In English
· Cameos: Jordan and Arab Nationalism
· Land and People: Jordan, a Historical Sketch, 1921-1973

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the 7th president of the United States (1829–1837).

Early life and career
Jackson was born to Presbyterian Scotch – Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, on March 15, 1767, two years after they had emigrated from Irland. Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in Ireland around 1738.He married Elizabeth, sold his land and emigrated to America in 1765. The Jacksons probably landed in Pennsylvania and made their way overland to the Scotch-Irish community in the waxhaws region, straddling the border between North and south carolina. Jackson had two brothers, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764).

Jackson's father died in an accident in February 1767, at the age of 29, three weeks before Jackson was born.

The house that Jackson's parents lived in is now preserved as the Andrew Jackson Centre and is open to the public.

Jackson was born in the Waxhaws area, but his exact birth site was the subject of conflicting lore in the area. He claimed to have been born in a cabin just inside South Carolina. Controversies about Jackson's birthplace went far beyond the dispute between North and South Carolina. Because of his heroic stature and humble origins, there was much speculation.

وُلد هوفر لعائلة من الكويكر تتحدر من أصول ألمانيةوسويسرية في ويست برانش بولاية آيوا، فكان أول رئيس أمريكي يولد غرب نهر الميسيسيبي.


توفي كلا والديه بينما كان صغيراً، إذ توفي والده جيسي هوفر في 1880 ووالدته هلدا ماينثورن في 1884.

في 1885 ذهب بيرت هوفر ابن الحادية عشرة إلى نيوبرغ في ولاية أوريغون ليصبح تحت وصاية خاله جون ماينثورن وهو طبيب وصاحب عقارات يتذكره هوفر كـ "رجل قاسٍ في ظاهر الأمر، لكن ككل الكويكرز لطيف في العمق".
في سن مبكرة كان هوفر معتمداً وطموحاً. "طموح صباي كان أن أكون قادراً على كسب عيشي بنفسي بدون مساعدة من أي كان." كما قال مرة.
كصبي موظف شركة خاله للأراضي أتقن مسك الدفاتر والطباعة بينما ذهب إلى مدرسة أعمال أيضاً في المساء. وبفضل معلمة مدرسة هي الآنسة جين غراي انفتحت عينا الصبي على روايات تشارلز ديكنزوسير والتر سكوت. ديفيد كوبرفيلد قصة صبي آخر يتيم قدم إلى العالم ليعيش بمواهبه الخاصة بقيت المفضلة لدى الصبي طوال حياته.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st Preseindet of the United Sates (1929–1933).

Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the USAsecretary in the 1920s under PresidentsWarren G. Harding andCalvin Cooledge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. To date, Hoover is the last cabinet secretary to be directly elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with Willam Howard) to have been elected President without electoral experience or high military rank.

Benito Juárez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benito Juárez (Spanish ; (March 21, 1806 - July 18, 1872)[ born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a mexican Lawyer and Politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as President of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872.

Benito Juárez was the first Mexican leader who did not have a military background, and also the first full-blooded indigenous national ever to serve as President of Mexico and to lead a country in the Western Hemisphere.

He resisted the French Occupation, overthrew the Empire, restored the Republic, and used liberal efforts to modernize the country.


Early life
Juárez was born in the village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca on March 21, 1806, located in the mountain range now known as the "Sierra Juárez".

His parents, Marcelino Juárez and Brígida García, were peasants who both died when he was three years old. Shortly after, his grandparents died as well, and his uncle then raised him.

He described his parents as "indios de la raza primitiva del país," that is, "Indians of the original race of the country." He worked in the corn fields and as a shepherd until the age of 12, when he walked to the city of Oaxaca to attend school. At the time, he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec.

Political career
Benito Juárez with his sister Nela (left) and his wife Margarita (right), 1843
Juárez became a lawyer in 1834 and a judge in 1841. He was governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1852; in 1853, he went into exile because of his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna.He spent his exile in New Orleans, Louisiana, working in a cigar factory. In 1854 he helped draft the Plan of Ayutla as the basis for a liberal revolution in Mexico.
Faced with growing opposition, Santa Anna resigned in 1855 and Juárez returned to Mexico. The winning party, the liberales (liberals) formed a provisional government under General Juan Álvarez, inaugurating the period known as La Reforma. The Reform laws sponsored by the puro (pure) wing of the Liberal Party curtailed the power of the Catholic Church and the military, while trying to create a modern civil society and capitalist economy based on the U.S. model. The Ley Juárez (Juárez's Law) of 1855, for example, abolished special clerical and military privileges, and declared all citizens equal before the law. All the efforts ended on the promulgation of the new federalist constitution. Juárez became Chief Justice, under moderado (moderate) president Ignacio Comonfort.

Edward Langworthy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Langworthy (1738–1802) was an American teacher who was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Georgia. He signed the Articles of Confederation.

Edward was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1738. Nothing is known of his ancestors since he was a foundling.

He was raised in the Bethesda Orphan House at Savannah, and educated in the school there.

He later taught in that same school. Since he was born only five years after James Oglethorpe shipped the first colonists to Georgia, it is likely that his parents were included with those recruited from debtors' prisons or poorhouses.

Langworthy began working with Georgia's Committee of Safety, and was their secretary when they became a revolutionary Council of Safety on December 11, 1775. The Georgia assembly sent him to the Continental Congress in 1777, and he arrived just in time to sign the Articles of Confederation. He served in the Congress until 1779.
Edward moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1785. He married a young lady named Wright, and the couple had four children. He also bought a part interest in a newspaper The Maryland Journal & Baltimore Advertiser and became its editor.

In 1787 he sold his interest, and became an instructor at the Baltimore Academy.
In 1795 Langworthy was made the clerk of customs for Baltimore, a post he held until his death.

He died of Yellow fever on November 2, 1802 and was buried at the Old Episcopal Church.

James E. West (Scouting)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. James E. West (May 16, 1876 – May 15, 1948) was a lawyer and an advocate of children's rights, who became the first professional Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), serving from 1911–1943. Upon his retirement from the BSA, West was given the title of Chief Scout.

Personal life
His father died around the time of his birth in Washington, D.C.His mother was hospitalized with tuberculosis in 1882 and young Jimmie was placed in the Washington City Orphan Home; his mother died later that year. In 1883, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and by 1885 he was crippled, with one leg shorter than the other. At the orphanage, Jimmie was put to work with the girls, sewing and caning chairs. He became a voracious reader and took charge of the orphanage library. After convincing the staff that he could continue his chores (stoking the furnace and caring for chickens) he entered public school at the fifth grade. In 1895, he graduated with honors from Business High School, where he had edited the school newspaper, was business manager of the football team and had acted as a substitute math teacher.
In late 1896,

West was out of the orphanage and working as a tutor and as a bicycle mechanic. He attended National Law School while working as the assistant to the general secretary of the YMCA, and during the Spanish–American War, he acted as general secretary. He later worked as a clerk in the War Office. He received his Bachelor of Laws in 1900 and Master of Laws in 1901 and was admitted to the Washington, D.C. bar. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the Board of Pension Appeals in the Department of the Interior in 1902. He was instrumental in establishing the juvenile court system, pushing a bill through Congress.
West was a Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Sunday school superintendent for the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church. In the early 1900s, he was the finance chairman for the Boys' Brigade and the secretary of the Washington Playground Association, later the Playground Association of America. He later served as secretary of the National Child Rescue League, responsible for placing orphaned children into homes. West was then the secretary of the White House Conference on Dependent Children, pushing for reforms in the management of orphanages.
In 1910, West was looking to open a private law office. Meanwhile, John M. Alexander was serving as Managing Secretary from May to October, under the general auspices of Edgar M. Robinson, who had set up BSA's original one-room national office and recruited Alexander to run it. Neither Robinson nor Alexander wanted to run BSA permanently, so Colin H. Livingstone, the president of the BSA put out inquiries. Ernest Bicknell of the American Red Cross wrote to Luther Gulick, president of the Playground Association of America and recommended West for the position. After much persuasion West finally accepted the position temporarily for six months, and moved to New York City, while Robinson returned to the YMCA and turned BSA's reigns over to West.[2] The Russell Sage Foundation provided the initial funding for West to become the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America. The position was supposed to last no longer than 6 months, but West held the position for 32 years.[3]
West married Marion Speaks on June 19, 1907. Their children were: James "Jimmie" Ellis West (December 25, 1909–1916), Arthur (born 1912), Marion (born 1915), Helen (born 1916), and Bob (born 1917). Young Jimmie died of pneumonia in 1916 while Marion West was pregnant with Helen. Their daughter Marion West Higgins would go on to serve as the first female Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly.[4]

ادوارد البي

Edward Albee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Edward Franklin Albee III (pronounced born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright who is best known for the zoo story (1958), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966) and Three Tall Women (1994). His works are considered well-crafted, often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. Younger American playwrights, such as Paula Vogel, credit Albee's daring mix of theatricalism and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent the post-war American theatre in the early 1960s. Albee continues to experiment in new works, such as The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia? (2002).

According to Magill's Survey of American Literature (2007), Edward Albee was born somewhere in Virginia (the popular belief is that

he was born in Washington, D.C.). He was adopted two weeks later and taken to Larchmont, New York in Westchester County, where he grew up. Albee's adoptive father, Reed A. Albee, the wealthy son of vaudeville magnate Edward Franklin Albee II, owned several theaters.

Here the young Edward first gained familiarity with the theatre as a child. His adoptive mother, Reed's third wife, Frances tried to raise Albee to fit into their social circles.

Albee attended the Clinton High School, then the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, from which he was expelled. He then was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he was dismissed in less than a year. He enrolled at The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, graduating in 1946. His formal education continued at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was expelled in 1947 for skipping classes and refusing to attend compulsory chapel. In response to his expulsion, Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is believed to be based on his experiences at Trinity College.

Albee left home for good when he was in his late teens. In a later interview, he said: "I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents.
I probably didn't know how to be a son, either." More recently, he told interviewer Charlie Rose that he was "thrown out" because his parents wanted him to become a "corporate gangsta" and didn't approve of his aspirations to become a writer.

Albee moved into New York's Greenwich Village, where he supported himself with odd jobs while learning to write plays. His first play, The Zoo Story, was first staged in Berlin. The less than diligent student later dedicated much of his time to promoting American university theatre. He currently is a distinguished professor at the University of Houston, where he teaches an exclusive playwriting course. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service[3] and Samuel French, Inc..

.
Plays
· The Zoo Story (1958)
· The Death of Bessie Smith (1959)
· The Sandbox (1959)
· Fam and Yam (1959)
· The American Dream (1960)
· Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961–1962)
· The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1963) (adapted from the novella by Carson McCullers)
· Tiny Alice (1964)
· Malcolm (1965) (adapted from the novel by James Purdy)
· A Delicate Balance (1966)
· Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966)
· Everything in the Garden (1967)
· Box (1968)
· All Over (1971)
· Seascape (1974)
· Listening (1975)
· Counting the Ways (1976)
· The Lady From Dubuque (1977–1979)
· Lolita (adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov) (1981)
· The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981)
· Finding the Sun (1982)
· Marriage Play (1986–1987)
· Three Tall Women (1990–1991)
· The Lorca Play (1992)
· Fragments (1993)
· The Play About the Baby (1996)
· Occupant (2001)
· The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (2002)
· Knock! Knock! Who's There!? (2003)
· Peter & Jerry retitled in 2009 as At Home at the Zoo (Act One: Homelife. Act Two: The Zoo Story) (2004)
· Me, Myself and I (2007)
· At Home At The Zoo (2009)

Andy McNab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andy McNab DCMMM (born 28 December 1959) is the pseudonymof an Englishnovelist and former SAS operative and soldier.

McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed Special Air Service (SAS) patrol, Bravo Two Zero for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1991.[2] He had previously received the Military Medal in 1980, awarded for an action whilst serving with the Royal Green Jackets in Northern Ireland during 1979.[3]
In addition to Bravo Two Zero he has written two other autobiographies and a number of fiction books.

Early life
McNab was born on 28 December 1959. Found abandoned on the steps of Guy's Hospital in Southwark, he was brought up in Peckham, with his adoptive family.

He did not do well in school and started just doing odd jobs, usually for friends and relatives, and was partly inspired to join the British Army because of his brother's time in the army.
He was involved in petty criminality until being arrested for burglary. In 1976, shortly after his arrest, he aspired to a career as an army pilot, but failed the entry test. In the same year, he enlisted with the Royal Green Jackets at the age of sixteen.[4]

Military career
After McNab enlisted in the Royal Green Jackets he was posted to Kent for his basic training, and boxed for his regimental team. After his basic training, he was posted to the Rifle Depot, in Winchester. In 1977, McNab spent time in Gibraltar as part of his first operational posting, while with 2RGJ.
Post military career
While writing Bravo Two Zero, McNab assumed his pseudonym. When he appears on television to promote his books or to act as a special services expert, his face is shadowed to prevent identification. As Larry King put it when McNab appeared on the Larry King Live show on CNN: "We have Andy in shadows. He's wanted by terrorist groups."

Fiction writing
McNab is the author of a number of action thrillers.
A series of thirteen successful books are based on Nick Stone - an ex-SAS soldier working on deniable operations for British intelligence. The series draws extensively on McNabs experiences and knowledge of Special Forces soldiering. He has been officially registered by Nielsen BookScan as a bestselling British thriller writer.[8] The Boy Soldier Series was written with the cooperation of Robert Rigby and follows a boy named Danny Watts and his grandfather Fergus, apparently a rogue ex-SAS soldier.
Andy McNab has also written two books for Quick Reads, a charity that supports World Book day, "The Grey Man" and "Last Night Another Soldier". BBC raw words offers exclusive audio versions of the latest Quick Reads by Andy McNab Last Night Another Soldier read by Rupert Degas

James A. Michener
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Albert Michener February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating historical facts into the stories. Michener was known for the meticulous research behind his work.
Michener's major books include Tales of the South Pacific (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948), Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, and Poland. His nonfiction works include the 1968 Iberia about his travels in Spain and Portugal, his 1992 memoir The World Is My Home, and Sports in America. Return to Paradise combines fictional short stories with Michener's factual descriptions of the Pacific areas where they take place.


Biography
Michener wrote that he did not know who his parents were or exactly when or where he was born. He was raised a Quaker by an adoptive mother, Mabel Michener, in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.


After graduating Phi Beta Kappa[3] and summa cum laude in 1929 from Swarthmore College in English and psychology, he traveled and studied in Europe for two years. Michener then took a job as a high school English teacher at Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. From 1933 to 1936 he taught English at George School, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, then attended Colorado State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado), earned his master's degree, and taught there for several years. The library at the University of Northern Colorado is named for him. In 1935 Michener married Patti Koon. He went to Harvard for a one-year teaching stint from 1939 to 1940 and left teaching to join Macmillan Publishers as their social studies education editor.
Michener was called to active duty during World War II in the United States Navy. He traveled throughout the South Pacific on various missions that were assigned to him because his base commanders thought he was the son of Admiral Marc Mitscher.[4] His travels became the setting for his breakout work Tales of the South Pacific.
In 1960, Michener was chairman of the Bucks County committee to elect John F. Kennedy. In 1962, he unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic candidate for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, a decision he later considered a misstep. "My mistake was to run in 1962 as a Democratic candidate for Congress. [My wife] kept saying, 'Don't do it, don't do it.' I lost and went back to writing books." Michener was later Secretary for the 1967–68 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention.

Education
Michener graduated from Doylestown High School in 1925. He attended Swarthmore College, where he played basketball, and joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He graduated with highest honors. He attended Colorado State Teachers College (now named the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado), and earned his master's degree.

Writing career

Michener's typewriter at the Michener Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Michener's writing career began during World War II, when as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he was assigned to the South Pacific Ocean as a naval historian; he later turned his notes and impressions into Tales of the South Pacific, his first book, published when he was 40 and the basis for the Broadway and film musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein.[5] It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948.
In the late 1950s, Michener began working as a roving editor for Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. He gave up that work in 1970.
Michener was a popular writer during his lifetime; his novels sold an estimated 75 million copies worldwide.[6] His novel Hawaii (published in 1959) was based on extensive research. Nearly all of his subsequent novels were based on detailed historical, cultural, and even geological research. Centennial, which documented several generations of families in the West, was made into a popular twelve-part television miniseries of the same name and aired on NBC from October 1978 through February 1979.
In 1996, State House Press published James A. Michener: A Bibliography, compiled by David A. Groseclose. Its more than 2,500 entries from 1923 to 1995 include magazine articles, forewords, and other works.
Michener's prodigious output made for lengthy novels, several of which run more than 1,000 pages. The author states in My Lost Mexico that at times he would spend 12 to 15 hours per day at his typewriter for weeks on end, and that he used so much paper his filing system had trouble keeping up.
.

Dale Wasserman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Dale Wasserman (November 2, 1914 – December 21, 2008) was an Americanplaywright.


Early life
Dale Wasserman was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and was orphaned at the age of nine. He lived in a state orphanage and with an older brother in South Dakota before he "hit the rails". He later said:
“
I'm a self-educated hobo. My entire adolescence was spent as a hobo, riding the rails and alternately living on top of buildings on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. I regret never having received a formal education. But I did get a real education about human nature.[2]

Career
Wasserman worked in various aspects of theatre from the age of 19. His formal education ended after one year of high school in Los Angeles. It was there that he started as a self-taught lighting designer, director and producer, starting with musical impresario Sol Hurok as stage manager and lighting design and for the Katherine Dunham Company, where he invented lighting patterns imitated later in other dance companies. In addition to U.S. cities, he produced and directed abroad in places such as London and Paris.
In the middle of directing a Broadway musical; which he later refused to name; he abruptly walked out, later saying he "couldn't possibly write worse than the stuff [he] was directing", and left his previous occupations to become a writer. "Every other function was interpretive; only the writer was primary."
Matinee Theatre, the television anthology which presented his first play, Elisha and the Long Knives, received a collective Emmy for the plays it produced in 1955, the year that Elisha and the Long Knives was telecast on that series (it had originally been shown in 1954, on Kraft Television Theatre, another anthology). Wasserman wrote some 30 more television dramas, making him one of the better known writers in the Golden Age of Television. "Man of La Mancha," which first appeared as a straight play on TV,is frequently and erroneously called "an adaptation" of "Don Quixote": It is not. It is a completely original work that uses scenes from "Don Quixote" to illuminate Miguel Cervantes' life. Don Quixote was Cervantes' Man of La Mancha; it was Cervantes himself who was Dale Wasserman's Man of La Mancha. Man of La Mancha ran for five years on Broadway and continues worldwide in more than 30 languages.
Dale Wasserman adapted Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest into a play also titled One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which ran for six years in San Francisco and has had extensive engagements in Chicago, New York, Boston and other U.S. cities. Foreign productions have appeared in Paris, Mexico, Sweden, Argentina, Belgium, and Japan. Kesey is said to have told Dale that but for the play, the novel would have been forgotten.
Dale Wasserman was a founding member and trustee of The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and was the artistic Director of the Midwest Playwrights Laboratory, which encompasses 12 states in its program and awards fellowships and production to 10 playwrights yearly.[citation needed]
Recently, research by Howard Mancing, a Miguel Cervantes scholar and Professor of Spanish Literature at Purdue University, uncovered an earlier use of the line "To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe," which were made famous in Wasserman's Man of La Mancha. The lines were actually invented for publicity matter that accompanied an earlier stage adaptation of Don Quixote by the American playwright Paul Kester, first performed in 1908. The phrase "To each his Dulcinea", featured in Wasserman's play, was also first used in the Kester play.
At the time of his death, Dale Wasserman had, arguably, some fine and thought-provoking work ready to be produced: "Players in the Game", set in 1316 Prague, poses the question: Is fiery, incorruptible zealotry necessarily to be preferred to benign corruption. The operative word here being "benign"? ; "Montmartre,"' is a musical set in early 20th century Paris, the two main protagonists are Kiki, the most sought-after model of her day (an actual person), and a cynnical mature man being confronted by his idealistic younger self.
Personal life
Reclusive by nature, Wasserman and his wife, Martha Nelly Garza, made their home in Arizona ("because it's the one State which refuses to adopt Daylight Saving Time"). Dale's first marriage, to actress Ramsay Ames ended in divorce, He married Martha Nelly in 1984. She survires him, is his executrix/executor and holds the rights to all his work.
Wasserman died of heart failure on December 21, 2008 in Arizona, aged 94. [3][4]
Works
Plays
· 1963 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was based on a 1962 novel byKen Kesey. In 1975 it was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Wasserman and star Jack Nicholson have contrasting remembrances of the original production. Although Wasserman adapted Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the American stage in 1963, his playscript was not used as the basis for the film, and Wasserman did not write the movie screenplay.
· 2001 How I Saved the Whole Damn World — A sailor on a drunken spree welds items from a junkyard into the mast of his ship. A plane flying overhead explodes, creating an all-powerful weapon and, indirectly, world peace.
· Boy On Blacktop Road — An investigation takes place related to the arrival and subsequent disappearance of a young boy.
The latter two plays comprise the World Premiere of Open Secrets which opened In June 2006 at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, California.
Musical theatre
· 1966 Man of La Mancha (music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion) won multiple Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and is among the longest-running Broadway musicals of all time. Originally written for television as a non-musical titled I, Don Quixote.

Arthur E. Andersen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur E. Andersen (May 30, 1885 – January 10, 1947) was a founder of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP.


Biography
Arthur Edward Andersen was born in Plano, Illinois. John William and Mary Aabye Andersen, Arthur Andersen’s parents, had immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1881.

Andersen was left on his own at the age of 16 after the death of his parents.

In 1917, after attending courses at night while working full time, he graduated from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in business.
He worked during the day as a mailboy and attended school at night. Eventually he was hired as the assistant to the controller of Allis-Chalmers in Chicago where he became intrigued with the work of independent public accountants. He became a Certified Public Accountant in Illinois in 1908, and was then the youngest CPA in the state. In 1913, with Clarence Delaney, he bought out a firm named The Audit Company of Illinois to form Andersen, Delaney & Co which became Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1918.
While practicing accounting, he was also associated with Northwestern University as lecturer (1909-12), assistant professor (1912-15), and professor (1915-22). He also served as head of the accounting department from 1912 to 1922, when he resigned to devote full time to his professional accounting practice.
Honorary Doctor of Laws degrees were conferred upon him by Luther College in 1938, and by Northwestern University, Grinnell College and St. Olaf College in 1941. Among other awards, in 1940 he was awarded the Norwegian Knight Commander's Cross of the Royal Order of St. Olav. Arthur E. Andersen also served as Treasurer of the Norwegian-American Historical Association (1936-42) and was a director of the State Bank & Trust Co. (Evanston, Illinois).

At the time of his death, Arthur Andersen was one of the largest accounting firms in the world. Arthur Andersen's mother had schooled him in a Scandinavian axiom--"Think straight, talk straight". His brand of stern independence carried on through Leonard Spacek, who succeeded Andersen after the founder's death in 1947. He was named to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1953. Northwestern University dedicated Arthur Andersen Hall at the Evanston Campus in 1979 to commemorate Northwestern alumnus, faculty member, and trustee Arthur Andersen.
Selected works
· Complete Accounting Course (1917)
· Financial and Industrial Investigations (1924)
· The Major Problem Created by the Machine Age (1931)
· Duties and Responsibilities of the Comptroller (1934)
· The Future of our Economic System (1934)
· Present Day Problems Affecting the Presentation and Interpretation of Financial Statements (1935)
· A Layman Speaks (1941)

Percy Spencer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Percy LeBaron Spencer (9 July, 1894 – 8 September, 1970) was an Americanengineer and inventor. He became known as the inventor of the microwave oven.
Spencer was born in Howland, Maine.

His father died in 1897, and his mother left him a short time later. He lived with his aunt and uncle after that.

He never graduated from grammar school, but went to work in a mill as an apprentice at age 12, before joining the U.S. Navy in 1912 to learn wireless telegraphy. He joined the Raytheon Company in the 1920s.

In 1941, magnetrons, which were used to generate the microwave radio signals that are the core mechanism of radar, were being made at the rate of 17 per day at Raytheon. While working there, Spencer developed a more efficient way to manufacture them, by punching out and soldering together magnetron parts, rather than using machined parts. His improvements were among those that increased magnetron production to 2,600 per day. For his work he was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award by the US Navy.

In 1945, while standing in front of an operating magnetron, a chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He then tested popcorn in front of the magnetron (surely turning up the power and standing out of the beam), and it quickly popped all over the room. Development of the microwave oven grew out of these observations, and by 1947 a commercial oven was being sold by Raytheon. (Note: He received US patent 2,495,429 out of his invention of the microwave oven.)
He became Senior Vice President and a senior member of the Board of Directors at Raytheon. He received 300 patents during his career at Raytheon; a building there is named after him. Spencer was married and had three children, James, John, and George.

(American businessman)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.

David "Dave" Thomas (July 2, 1932 – January 8, 2002) was an American restaurant owner and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for appearing in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002–more than any other person in television history.

Biography
Dave Thomas was born on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a young unmarried woman he never knew. He was adopted at 6 weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas and as an adult would become a well-known advocate for adoption, founding the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

After his adoptive mother's death when he was 5, his father moved around the country seeking work. Dave spent time in Michigan with his grandmother Minnie Sinclair whom he credited with teaching him the importance of service and treating others well and with respect, lessons that helped him in his future business life.

At 12 he got his first job at The Regas, a restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee, then lost it in a dispute with his boss. However, there is currently a large autographed poster-photo of Thomas just inside the entrance of The Regas. He vowed never to lose another job. Moving with his father, by 15 he was working in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Hobby House Restaurant owned by the Clauss family. When his father prepared to move again, Dave decided to stay in Fort Wayne, dropping out of high school to work full time at the restaurant. Thomas, who considered ending his schooling the greatest mistake of his life, did not graduate from high school until 1993 when he obtained a GED Dave Thomas became an education advocate and founded the Dave Thomas Education Center in Coconut Creek, Florida, which offers GED classes to young adults.
U.S. Army
At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, rather than waiting for the draft, he volunteered for the U.S. Army to have some choice in assignments. Having food production and service experience, Thomas requested the Cook's and Baker's School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was sent overseas to Germany as a mess sergeant and was responsible for the daily meals of 2000 soldiers, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. After his discharge in 1953, Thomas returned to Fort Wayne and the Hobby House.

Kentucky Fried Chicken
In the mid-1950s, Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders came to Fort Wayne to find restaurateurs with established businesses in order to try to sell KFC franchises to them. At first, Thomas, who was the head cook at the restaurant, and the Clausses declined Sanders' offer, but the Colonel persisted and the Clauss family franchised their restaurant with KFC and later also owned many other KFC franchises in the Midwest. During this time, Thomas worked with Sanders on many projects to make KFC more profitable and to give it brand recognition. Among other things Thomas suggested to Sanders that were implemented; reduce the number of items on the menu, focus on a signature dish, and introduce the trademark sign featuring a revolving red-striped bucket of chicken. Thomas also suggested Sanders make commercials that he appear in himself. Thomas was sent by the Clauss family in the mid-1960s to help turn around four ailing KFC stores they owned in Columbus, Ohio. By 1968 he had increased sales in the four fried chicken restaurants so much that he sold his share in them back to Sanders for more than $1.5 million.[4] This experience would prove invaluable to Thomas when he began Wendy's about a year

جميس بورك

James A. Burke (March 3, 1890 – September 12, 1965) was a Democratic politician from Queens, New York City and served as its borough president for eight years.
Burke was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1890>
but was orphaned when he was 8 years old.

After high school he took night classes at New York University while he worked. In 1914 he moved to Queens, where he became active in many civic organizations.[1] During the first World War he worked as a civilian at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, eventually becoming superintendent of stock in charge of $60 million worth of supplies.[1][2]
After the war, he had various jobs in purchasing and accounting. He had leadership positions in two Queens civic organizations. In 1930, he won his first political office, being elected to the New York State Assembly. While there, he championed Queens issues, including the construction of the Grand Central Parkway.[2] In 1934, he was elected to the city's Board of Alderman.
In 1941, he won election as borough president of Queens, beating Republican incumbent George U. Harvey. While in office, he focused on transportation and taxes in the borough.[3] He won two terms to the office, and resigned in 1949. He did not seek any further political offices.
He died in his Little Neck home in 1965.

Margaret Haughery (1813–1882) was a philanthropist known as "the mother of the orphans".
She opened up four orphanages in the New Orleans area in the 19th century. Many years later in the 20th and 21st centuries several of the asylums Margaret originally founded as places of shelter for orphans and widows evolved into homes for the elderly.
Margaret Gaffney Haughery (pronounced as HAW -a- ree) was a beloved historical figure in New Orleans, Louisiana the 1880s. Widely known as “Our Margaret,” “The Bread Woman of New Orleans" and “Mother of Orphans,” Margaret devoted her life’s work to the care and feeding of the poor and hungry, and to fund and build orphanages throughout the city. The poor called her "Saint Margaret."
An Irish immigrant widow woman of many titles, Margaret was also commonly referred to as the “Angel of the Delta,” “Mother Margaret,” “Margaret of New Orleans,” the “Celebrated Margaret” and “Margaret of Tully.” A Catholic, she worked closely with New Orleans Sisters of Charity, associated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans (the second-oldest diocese in the present-day United States).
A woman of unsurpassed charity, Margaret became famed for her lifelong championing of the destitute. Countless thousands of all creeds considered her a living saint worthy of canonization.
Born into poverty and orphaned at a young age, she began her adult life as a washwoman and a peddler — yet she died an epic businesswoman and philanthropist who received a state funeral.

Margaret was born into poverty in Ireland in 1813, as the fifth child of William and Margaret O'Rourke Gaffney. Margaret was birthed in a stone cottage, as were her siblings. Margaret’s parents were from Tully South, in the parish of Carrigallen. Her father William was a small farmer and possibly a tailor, who owned a small shop.
Based on Irish parochial, baptismal and newspaper records,the Gaffney family lived in Tully, Carrigallen County Leitrim.

In 1822 Margaret became an orphan when both parents died of disease. Margaret, now nine, was homeless and soon alone as her older brother Kevin disappeared and was never heard from again.
The same woman of Welsh extraction who made the overseas crossing with the Gaffney family heard of Margaret’s plight. The woman with the surname Richards, who lost her own husband to yellow fever, took Margaret in. She sheltered and cared for little orphan Margaret in her home.
There Margaret remained for some years, where she worked for her keep. In fact she may have been little more than a servant. Margaret received no formal education. Margaret never learned to read or write.
When old enough, Margaret went into domestic service, which was the norm for Irishwomen in Baltimore at that time. She worked as a hungstress”

As immigrant young widow woman in New Orleans, Margaret first found work in the laundry of the St. Charles Hotel.
From those humble beginnings she went on to establish herself as a remarkable businesswoman and "angel of mercy" who merged her hard work, business talents and philanthropic goals.
In the beginning, all day, from morning until evening, she ironed clothes in a laundry. Every day, as she worked by the window she saw motherless children from the orphan asylum near by, working and playing about. After a while, great plagues of sickness fell upon the city, and so many mothers and fathers died that there were more orphans than the asylum could care for. Margaret stepped in.
While still working as a laundress, she went to Sisters of Charity who ran the asylum and told them she was giving them part of her wages, and she intended to work for them, besides. Early on she became acquainted with worked closely with a nun named Sister Regis.
At that time in New Orleans, the Sisters of Charity under the guidance of Sister Regis managed the Poydras Orphan Asylum (established by Julien de Lallande Poydras). Margaret was deeply moved by the plight of the orphan children offered her assistance. Margaret eventually left her position at the hotel in order to help with the orphans. She became employed in the orphan asylum and when the orphans were without food she bought it for them from her earnings. Her first job was the collection of food from any available source.
Margaret an effective and resourceful money raiser in soliciting funds for the orphans. She was so successful that several other facilities were opened. She was rewarded for her efforts with a position in the administration of the orphanages.
Margaret and the nuns worked together for many years helping neglected orphans and widows in the city. Although a Catholic, Margaret made certain that all her charity work was opened to people of all religions and backgrounds.

Some of the New Orleans orphanages Margaret the “Mother of Orphans” built were St. Elizabeth Orphan Asylum on Napoleon Ave., the Louise Home on Clio Street for girls, St. Vincent Infant Asylum (at Race and Magazine Streets), and an asylum and church on Erato Street that became St. Teresa of Avila Church. She donated to the Protestant Episcopal Home as well and gave to Jewish charities in New Orleans. In her will she gave to the Seventh Street Protestant Orphan Asylum, the German Protestant Orphan Asylum, the German Orphan Catholic Asylum, the Widows and Orphans of Jews Asylum, and to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and many others.
The Sisters of Charity withdrew from Poydras Street at the end of 1836 and moved to a new location in New Levée Street, to what was considered a haunted house. It was vacant for many years and in a very poor state of repair. According to records, this was the first Catholic orphan asylum in New Orleans. It was Margaret's intention just to help the sisters get established. However it was here that she found her true calling. She showed great energy and business acumen and was made manager of the institution. She confounded everybody by proving this location habitable, none more so than the landlord who promptly put the building up for sale. So, within two years, they were again seeking a home.
Margaret knew of a house on a deserted plantation not far away and managed to persuade the owner to give it rent-free. She succeeded in fulfilling her ambition to get the children out of the city and into the Louisiana countryside. They were taught to read and write, but also to sew; they were given general preparation for entering the outside world.
It was Margaret's great ambition to provide a permanent home for the orphans and in 1840 work on the St. Theresa's Asylum on Camp Street commenced. The site was donated by F. Saulet. Largely Margaret herself funded the project, but with help from a few others who gave donations as a result of her persuasion. Nevertheless it took ten years to clear the debt and Margaret still supported the orphan asylum at the plantation at this time.
Around the mid-19th century, yellow fever was again rampant. The yellow scourge swept New Orleans. The epidemic of 1853 rendered thousands of children homeless. Margaret visited the homes of the sick Protestants, Catholics and Jews, negroes and whites alike, the Louisiana Creole people, New Orleanian "Americans" and immigrants. Such were the numbers of orphans she encountered that she embarked on a new project in the form of (as she called it) a baby house. All her profits were channeled into this new endeavor, which soon took form in the shape of the imposing St. Vincent Infant Asylum at Race and Magazine streets, which opened in 1862. It took sixteen years to clear the debt, a burden shouldered mainly by Margaret.
Other homes opened in the 1850s and 1860s included the Louise Home for working girls at 1404 Clio Street and the St. Elizabeth House of Industry at 1314 Napoleon Street. During the yellow fever epidemics in New Orleans, she visited the homes of the sick and dying, without regard to race or creed or religion, aiding the victims and consoling the dying mothers with the pledge to care for their children.
It is estimated that the amount Margaret gave to charity in one form or another was in the region of $600,000.
Renewed interest in Margaret
An Ireland-based Group called the "Margaret of New Orleans Tully Committee" is reconstructing Margaret's Irish birthplace cottage, using original stone. The group is dedicated to raising awareness about Margaret and her life's work. A full-length documentary film about Irish-born American heroine Margaret has been made, Who is Margaret Haughery? And why don't you know who she is?
In 2009 the Leitrim Youth Theatre Company, Carrigallen, Ireland, mounted the first known live-theatre production of Margaret's life story. The stage performance "Our Story of Margaret of New Orleans" featured original music and songs.
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art obtained a Jacques Amans original portrait of Margaret.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Tredegar Query Club was started by friends including Aneurin Bevan and Walter Conway. Conway is in the middle of the picture. Aneurin is second from right on the back row and his brother Billy is second right on the front row.[1]

Walter Conway (1873-1933) was the distinguished Secretary of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in South Wales. This society contributed the model which established the British National Health Service.[2]

Walter Conway had a deprived childhood. Upon being orphaned at an early age he was placed in Bedwellty Workhouse,
where he lived for 2 or 3 years. As he was to describe himself, he was a 'workhouse boy'. For two reasons his stay in the workhouse was useful. From the Master he learnt the lesson 'to do everything well' and while there he acquired a 'great love for books', which he later described as being his best friends.[3]
Conway was a miner and an enthusiastic member of the Independent Labour Party.[4] In 1915, the Medical Aid Society which had been formed to develop the older idea of a "Doctor and School Fund" appointed Conway as its secretary. The development of this society's work is attributed to the energy and commitment of Conway who served as its secretary from 1915.[5]
It was Conway who became a mentor and teacher to the teenage Aneurin Bevan and he assisted Bevan in ridding himself of a disabling stammer.[4] The Medical Society was already employing doctors under its Medical Supertendant, but it went on to open offices and a dentists and a central surgery.[5]

By the time of Conway's death, the Society was supplying the medical needs of 95% of the population. In theory there was a committee of thirty who controlled the society, but it was Conway who ensured that decisions were made and implemented. The society employed five doctors, two dentists with a mechanic each, pharmacy dispensers and assistants and a nurse. Not only did the society see to the medical expenses but it also supplied good wages and conditions for its staff. The doctors were allowed some private work which again was a model followed within the National Health Service when it was established just over a decade after Conway died.[7]
Conway is commemorated by having a street named after him in Tredegar.[8] He died in February 1933 and he never saw himself portrayed as "Owen" in the 1938 film "The Citadel" based on Cronin's novel.[9]

Charles Fernley Fawcett (2 December 1915 – 3 February 2008) was a wrestler, resistance worker, soldier, airman, film star, film maker, and co-founder of the International Medical Corps. He was a recipient of the FrenchCroix de Guerre and the American Eisenhower medal.

Charles Fernley Fawcett was born in Waleska, Georgia, where his mother had been caught in a snow storm and died when he was six.[1][2] His family was of old Virginian stock, whose family tree included Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.[3] Having been orphaned at an early age, Fawcett and his younger brother and two sisters grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, in the care of their aunt.[1]Here he attended Greenville high school for three years where he learned to wrestle and play American football.[4]
Aged 15, Fawcett became involved in an affair with his best friend's mother. He remarked "If that's child molestation, I would wish this curse on every young boy." The end of the affair made Fawcett contemplate suicide, and he left the United States to travel to the far East, working his passage on a number of steamships.[1]
By 1937 he had returned to America, and Fawcett stayed for a time in New York, before making his way to Washington D. C., where he was taken in by his cousin, who happened to be an assistant United States Postmaster General.[1] Here he ended up wrestling to make a living. Then in 1937 he boarded a ship outside Montreal bound for France, where he worked as an artist’s model and again as a wrestler.

After the outbreak of World War II he tried to join US Intelligence but his services were declined, so he briefly joined the Section Volontaire des Américains - the ambulance corps.[1] He was on his way to North Africa to join the Free French when he heard about Varian Fry, who would go on to rescue over 2,000 Jews from Vichy France with the help of a handful of people, Fawcett among them. Among the most famous people they rescued were Franz Werfel, Marc Chagall, Heinrich Mann and Hannah Arendt.
“I went to see him and he wasn’t very interested until I told him I’d been a professional wrestler. He said, ‘Maybe we could use you to sort of keep order. Anybody who’s not supposed to be there, you can get rid of them’,” Fawcett recalled in an interview with Dr Stephen D Smith in 1998. “Fry was perhaps one of the most idealistic men I had ever known and certainly the most unassuming. We got rid in a hurry of his little bow-tie and striped suit. Out of place completely in Marseilles. Maybe one of the reasons he got away with a lot was because he looked so innocent.”
Towards the end of the war, Fawcett married six Jewish women in three months. This enabled the women, who had formerly been imprisoned in concentration camps, to leave France with an American visa.[2]
Eventually, he had to flee France at several hours’ notice after a tip-off that the Gestapo was coming to arrest him. Having left France, he flew in the RAF and later fought with the French Foreign Legion.

After the war, he pursued a cinematic career, in which he performed in over 100 films, working with such stars as Errol Flynn, Alan Ladd, and Robert Taylor.[3] He combined this with smuggling refugees to safety from civil conflict, organizing earthquake relief teams, fighting in several wars, and co-founding the International Medical Corps.
Fawcett's first wife, with whom he had a daughter, died in 1956. In 1991, he married again, when after a 30 year engagement he married April Ducksbury, a British model agency executive, and settled in London.[1][3]
In 1979 he went to assist in training the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, who were fighting the Soviet Union. Film footage he shot whilst in Afghanistan was critical in securing American aid to the Mujahideen.[2]
He spent the rest of his life in Chelsea, London with his wife April Ducksbury. Here he acquired a taste for music, and wrote songs. In 2006, Fawcett was nominated for recognition as Righteous Among the Nations at the annual British Holocaust commemoration.[5]
Charles Fawcett died on February 3, 2008 in London, England at the age of 92.[1]

Esther Hobart Morris (August 8, 1814 – April 2, 1902), a Tioga County, New York native, distinguished herself as the first female Justice of the Peace in the United States. A mother of three boys, she began her tenure as justice in South Pass City, Wyoming, on February 14, 1870, and served a term of less than nine months. The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners appointed Morris as justice of the peace after the previous justice, R. S. Barr, resigned in protest of Wyoming Territory's passage of the women's suffrage amendment in December 1869.[1][2]
Popular stories and historical accounts, buttressed by state and federal public monuments, point to Morris as a leader in the passage of Wyoming's suffrage amendment. However, Morris' leadership role in the legislation is disputed.[3][4][5]
Morris' life after South Pass City included participating in local and national women's organizations. She received but ultimately rejected an 1873 nomination by the Woman's Party of Wyoming as a candidate to the Wyoming Territorial Legislature. Morris served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1876.
Esther Morris died in Cheyenne, Wyoming, April 2, 1902.

Esther Hobart McQuigg was born in Tioga County, New York on August 6, 1814.
Orphaned at an early age, she apprenticed to a seamstress and ran a successful millinery business out of her grandparents' home, "making hats
Moreover, Morris agitated as a young woman against slavery, reportedly during one incident countering efforts of slavery advocates who threatened to destroy a church that supported abolition.[6] Eight years into her millinery business, Morris married Artemus Slack in 1841. Three years later, just short of her 30th birthday, her husband died. Morris subsequently moved to Illinois, where her late husband, a civil engineer, had acquired property. She encountered legal roadblocks, however, in settling her husband's affairs because women were not allowed to own or inherit property.[6] Thereafter she moved to Peru, Illinois, where in 1842 she married a local merchant, John Morris. In the spring of 1868 her husband, along with Esther's son from her previous marriage, Edward Archibald "Archy" Slack, moved to a gold rush community at South Pass City, Wyoming Territory to open a saloon.[6]
In 1869, Morris and her two eighteen-year-old twin sons, Robert and Edward, ventured west to rejoin the rest of their family. They first traveled by train to a waystation on the newly-completed transcontinental railroad at Point of Rocks 25 miles east of present-day Rock Springs, Wyoming. From there, Morris and her boys continued north by stagecoach. They crossed the Red Desert and the Killpecker Sand Dunes before ascending a gradual mountain pass to the Sweetwater Mining District.
The dry, rocky landscape that confronted fifty-five-year-old Morris as she stepped off the stage at South Pass City appeared startlingly different from the fertile landscape she had known in Illinois and New York. Instead, her new home at 7,500 feet (2,300 m) in elevation meant scratching out a living in a barren gulch at the mouth of canyon near the Continental Divide. The Morrises settled into a 24 feet by 26 feet (7 × 9 m) log cabin with a sod roof that Esther's oldest son had purchased.[6] Only the summer flow of nearby Willow Creek and occasional bushes along with a few lone trees tempered South Pass City's sharp-edged terrain. Winters were brutal. South Pass area residents, whose population swelled to as many as 4,000 residents, according to one estimate,[7] either left the camp for the winter or faced extreme isolation during the long winters. Those who stayed on the mountain pass, like the Morrises, battled sub-zero temperatures, high winds, and deep snow which might not retreat until June.
Both John Morris and Archy purchased interest in mining properties soon after their arrival, including the Mountain Jack, Grand Turk, Golden State, and Nellie Morgan lodes, according to historian Michael A. Massie.[8] Initially prospects looked good in the midst of the gold rush, where the mines and adjoining businesses of South Pass City spurred employment for 2,000 workers during 1868 and 1869, according to a Stanford University study.[6] But then came the bust. By 1870 most miners had left, leaving as few as 460 residents. By 1875 less than 100 remained.[6]

William F. Packer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Fisher Packer (April 2, 1807 – September 27, 1870) was the 14th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1858 to 1861. His father was James Packer from Chester County, Pennsylvania and his mother was Charity Packer. His ancestry was primarily Quakers from Philadelphia.

When William was seven years old, his father died, leaving him and his four siblings to help run the house.
At the age of 13, he began work as a printer's apprentice at the Sunbury Public Inquirer and later at the Bellefonte Patriot. He also worked as a journeyman at Simon Cameron's newspaper the Pennsylvania Intelligencer in Harrisburg.[1]
Packer studied law in Williamsport, Pennsylvania under future member of Congress Joseph Biles Anthony but did not practice, choosing instead to stay in the newspaper business.[1] In 1827, he purchased a controlling share in the Lycoming Gazette which he published until 1836. While working at the Lycoming Gazette, he began an early foray into politics as a major supporter of the construction of the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal. The state legislators in Philadelphia had opposed funding the construction and Packer penned an address to Philadelphia to raise public support for the project. The campaign worked and the Philadelphia delegation reversed their position to support the canal.[1]

Entry into politics
Packer's support for the canal did not go unnoticed and in 1832, he was appointed by the Canal Commission to serve as Superintendent of the canals.[1] The position was abolished in 1835 and Packer spent most of that year working for the re-election of Governor George Wolf and running for the Pennsylvania State Senate.[1] A schism in the Democratic Party cost Wolf re-election and Packer a Senate seat.
In 1836, Packer co-founded The Keystone, a Democratic newspaper published in Harrisburg. Packer, through the Keystone, was a supporter of David R. Porter for Governor against Joseph Ritner in the election of 1838. His support of Porter's successful bid helped him earn an appointment to the Board of Canal Commissioners, a powerful post at the time.[1] After he was re-elected, Porter appointed Packer to the post of Pennsylvania Auditor General in 1842.[1]
After an unsuccessful bid for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1845, Packer won a seat in Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1847, rising to the post of Speaker of the House. Packer won re-election in 1848 and then successfully ran for the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1849, defeating Andrew Gregg Curtin.[1]
In the State Senate, Packer was an ardent supporter of railroad development in Central Pennsylvania, working towards the establishment of the Susquehanna Railroad.[1] At the time, state policy was to restrain railroad development in southern Pennsylvania which would benefit Baltimore rather than Philadelphia. The act to authorize the railroad connected the York and Cumberland Railroad to cities like Williamsport and Sunbury and increased their access to regional trade. In 1852, Packer became the first President of the Susquehanna, stepping aside after the line was consolidated into the Northern Central Railway.[1]
During the 1856 Presidential Election, friend and fellow Pennsylvanian James Buchanan ran for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen Douglas. Packer worked hard for his nomination and election.[2] Buchanan won the nomination at the 1856 Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio and went on to win the Presidency over Republican John C. Frémont and Know Nothing candidate and former President Millard Fillmore.

Governor
In 1857, Packer was nominated as the Democratic Party Candidate for Governor. He was opposed by David Wilmot, author of the Wilmot Proviso which aimed to ban the expansion of slavery to territories acquired from Mexico, and Isaac Hazlehurst of the Native American Party.[3] The Panic of 1857 had crippled the nation's economy, including the Pennsylvania iron industry. With strong support for tariffs in more normal times, the Panic increased Pennsylvania's support for high tariffs, a stance which hurt the pro-free trade Wilmot.[3] The question of the day, however, remained the issue of slavery in Kansas. Packer forwarded a letter to his friend, President Buchanan, supporting the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but opposing an expansion of slavery in that state without a free and open process.[1] The split of the Republicans and Know Nothings made it difficult to defeat the united Democrats and Packer swept into office.[3]
In dealing with the economic crisis caused by the Panic, Packer vehemently blamed banks and the free issue of paper money over gold and silver coinage.[2] As part of a recovery plan, the Governor approved legislation to requiring state banks to limit the issue of paper currency to amounts covered by real security deposited with the state.[2]
In 1859, Packer sought to end the state's involvement in construction and management of canals and railroads, selling off the state's investments to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad.[2]
Governor Packer was a proponent of public schools and supported the new public school system with funds for teacher training. Packer also used his veto power to stop attacks on the new public education system by forces in the legislature.[2]
As his term came to an end, southern states had begun seceding from the union. Packer recommended that the nation's differences be addressed in a national convention.[2] He opposed secession and, in his final address to the General Assembly, he stated, "It is therefore clear, that there is no Constitutional right of secession. Secession is only another form of nullification. Either, when attempted to be carried out by force, is rebellion, and should be treated as such, by those whose sworn duty it is to maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States."[1]
Packer retired from public life after the end of his term and died September 27, 1870 in Williamsport.

Quotes by William Packer
On repealing a $300 tax exemption
"I would not permit the covetous and hard-hearted creditor to drive his unfortunate debtor, naked and penniless, out upon the cold charities of an inhospitable world. The laws that authorize such a procedure should be blotted from the pages of the statute books of every State in this Union. They are repugnant to the spirit of the age, and revolting to humanity. Like -the laws sanctioning imprisonment for debt, they should be repudiated by every philanthropic legislator; they should exist but in the history of the past—an obsolete idea. It has been truly said, Mr. Speaker, that he who sells out the last little property of a wife and family of small children of a rash, heedless, or perhaps intemperate husband and father, and afterwards, with a cheerful countenance, goes home to dine, goes home to feast on human hearts. Sir, money thus obtained has a damning curse upon it.
In a letter to President Buchanan regarding the Kansas issue:
If slavery should be instituted by, or under a slave-holding Executive, and Kansas should claim admission as a slave State, it does not require a prophet to foretell the consequences north of Mason and Dixon's line. The Democratic party, which has stood by the Constitution and the rights of the South with such unflinching fidelity, would be stricken down in the few remaining States where it is yet in the ascendancy; the balance of power would be lost; and Black Republicans would rule this nation, or civil war and disunion would inevitably follow.
On Pennsylvania and the fugitive slave acts:
Every attempt upon the part of individuals, or of organized societies, to lead the people away from their government, to induce them to violate any of the provisions of the constitution, or to incite insurrections in any of the States of this Union, ought to be prohibited by law as crimes of a treasonable nature. It is of the first importance to the perpetuity of this great Union that the hearts of the people and the action of their constituted authorities should be in unison in giving a faithful support to the constitution of the United States. The people of Pennsylvania are devoted to the Union. They will follow its stars and stripes through every peril. But, before assuming the high responsibilities now dimly foreshadowed, it is their solemn duty to remove even- just cause of complaint against themselves, so that they may stand before High Heaven and the civilized world without fear and without reproach, ready to devote their lives and their fortunes to the support of the best form of government that has ever been de\:ised by the wisdom of man.

Masten Gregory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Masten Gregory (February 29, 1932 – November 8, 1985) was a racing driver from the United States. He raced in Formula One between 1957 and 1965, participating in 43 World Championship races, and numerous non-Championship races.[1]
Known as the "Kansas City Flash", Masten Gregory was born in Kansas City, Missouri as the youngest of three children (brother Riddelle L. Gregory Jr, sister Nancy James) and heir to an insurance company fortune. Gregory was well known for his youngish looks and thick eyeglasses, due to his "terrible" eyesight. Although he attended the Pembroke-Country Day School in Kansas City, he left school before completing his senior year, and married Luella Hewitt at the age of 19.

His father died when he was 3 years old, and Gregory used his inheritance to buy a Mercury-powered Allard, which he drove in his first race, the 50-mile (80 km) SCCA race in Caddo Mills, Texas in November 1952. He retired from that race due to head gasket failure, but installed a new engine in his car to race at Sebring in 1953, where he again retired, this time due to a rear suspension failure. Gregory's first win came in just his third race, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Changing to a Jaguar, Gregory won several races in America, including the Guardsmans Trophy in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco and a race at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. At the end of 1953, Gregory was invited to his first international sports car race - the 1000 km Buenos Aires in Argentina, which he finished in 14th due to water pump problems.
Throughout 1954 and 1955, Gregory competed in European races, including the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (although his co-driver Mike Sparken retired before Gregory got a chance to drive). Moving back to America in 1956, Gregory entered several SCCA races, often winning. In 1957, he had another attempt at the Argentine 1000 km race, this time winning. This performance got him a drive with Mimo Dei's Scuderia Centro Sud, a privateer Formula One team using the Maserati 250F. His first race was the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix, where he scored an impressive 3rd place finish, the first podium for an American in an F1 Grand Prix. He followed this with a string of good results, coming 8th in the German Grand Prix, and 4th in both the Pescara and Italian Grands Prix. Despite only competing in half of the races, Gregory ended the 1957 season in 6th place in the championship.
Gregory only competed in four Grands Prix in the 1958 season, due to injuries sustained through one of his trademark bailouts when his car was set to crash, this time in a sports car race at Silverstone in England. He did manage a 4th place at the Italian Grand Prix, and a 6th in the last race of the year, this Moroccan Grand Prix. Moving to Cooper-Climax for the 1959 season alongside Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren, he scored two podium finishes - a 3rd place at the Dutch Grand Prix, and a career-best 2nd at the Portuguese Grand Prix. However, he missed the final two races of the season, again due to injuries sustained jumping from a car moments before it crashed. He finished 8th in the Championship, and with teammate Brabham winning the World Championship, Cooper won their first Constructor's Championship. Gregory scored a pole position and set a course record at the non-Championship race at Aintree, but his contract with Cooper was not renewed for the following year.
Gregory continued in Formula One until 1965, but mainly with uncompetitive independent teams. He was unable to reproduce the results he obtained early in his career, his best being a 6th at the 1962 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen with the UDT Laystall team, in a Lotus 24. Running 4th, just behind eventual winner Dan Gurney at the French Grand Prix, Gregory retired with ignition problems, losing possibly his best chance at a maiden Grand Prix victory. Gregory did manage a win in the non-Championship Kannonloppet race at Karlskoga in Sweden, but this race only featured six drivers (only four of whom finished), and no top teams.
After his release from Cooper, Gregory also went back to competing in sports car races, setting the overall fastest lap at the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans. He won the 1961 1000 km Nürburgring, driving alongside Lloyd "Lucky" Casner in a Maserati Tipo 61 for the America Camoradi Racing Team. In the same year, Gregory finished 5th in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche RS61 Spyder. 1962 saw Gregory win the Canadian Grand Prix sports car race at Mosport Park in a Lotus 19-Climax. In 1964, Gregory again competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this time in a Ford GT40. He retired from the race in the 5th hour due to gearbox difficulties. The following year, Gregory teamed up with 1970 Formula One World Champion, AustrianJochen Rindt, and the pair won the race in a North American Racing TeamFerrari 250 LM. 1965 was also the year in which Gregory raced in the Indianapolis 500, starting from the back of the grid and working his way up to 5th before being forced to retire due to an engine problem.
Gregory then began to wind down his motor racing career, continuing to compete in international sports car races with some good results including a second-place finish at the 1966 1000 km race at Monza alongside John Whitmore. Following his good friend Jo Bonnier's death at the 1972 Le Mans race, Gregory stopped racing, and retired to Amsterdam, where he worked as a diamond merchant before operating a glassware business. On November 8, 1985, Gregory died in his sleep of a heart attack at his winter home in Porto Ercole, Italy. He had four children, Masten Jr., Debbie, Scott and Michael. Gregory was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Kansas City C.A.R.B. (Central Auto Racing Boosters) Hall of Fame in 2007.

James Scott Skinner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Scott Skinner's gravestone, Allanvale Cemetery
James Scott Skinner (August 5, 1843 - March 17, 1927) was a Scottish dancing master, violinist and fiddler.
Skinner was born in Banchory, near Aberdeen. His father was a dancing master on Deeside.

James was only eighteen months old when his father died. When James was seven, his elder brother, Sandy, gave him lessons in violin and cello.

Soon the pair of them were playing at local dances. In 1852 he attended Connell's School in Princes Street, Aberdeen.
Three years later he left to joined "Dr Mark's Little Men", a travelling orchestra. This involved spending six years intensive training at their headquarters in Manchester. It also involved touring round the UK. The orchestra gave a command performance before Queen Victoria at Buckingham on February 10, 1858. JSS attributed his own later success to meeting Charles Rougier in Manchester, who taught him to play Beethoven and other classical masters. Finally he took a year's dancing tuition from William Scott. JSS could now earn his living as a dancing master for the district around Aberdeen.
In 1862 he won a sword-dance competition in Ireland. The following year he won a strathspey and reel competition in Inverness. Gradually he broadened his district of clients until Queen Victoria learned of his reputation. She requested him to teach callisthenics and dancing to the royal household at Balmoral. In 1868 he had 125 pupils there. In the same year his first collection of compositions was published. By 1870 he had married and was soon living in Elgin. For twelve years he continued as a dancing master and violinist. He gave virtuoso concerts, with his adopted daughter joining him as a pianist. In 1881 his wife became seriously ill and died a couple of years later. For the ten years he spend little time in any one place. The 1880s did see three more collections of tunes published. In 1893 he toured the USA with Willie MacLennan, the celebrated bagpiper and dancer.
After returning to Scotland he virtually gave up dancing and concentrated on the fiddle. In 1897 he re-married and wrote some of his best work. In 1899 he made his first cylinder recordings. In 1903, he wrote Hector the Hero, a lament for a friend who had committed suicide. In 1904, he published The Harp & Claymore Collection, his biggest collection of music, edited by Gavin Greig.[1]
In the period 1906 to 1909 he lived a settled life in Monikie but had so little money that he could not afford to publish his work. He sent manuscripts to friends who copied them out and played them to create a market. Those precious scraps of paper, the backs of envelopes and hand-bills are now in museums. JSS frequently used the word "genius" to describe himself. This might explain the fact that in 1909 his wife "resigned" and moved to Rhodesia. He threw himself into another round of concert tours. Several of his 1910 recordings for Columbia in London are available on a CD on the Temple label. These include traditional tunes as well as his own works. This is a unique window into early twentieth century fiddle playing and probably looks back to the 1850s.
In 1925 he was still top of the bill on five tours of the UK. Skinner entered a reel and jig competition in the USA in 1926. He immediately had musical differences with the pianist and strode off stage without completing his test pieces. He died on March 17, 1927 without giving another public performance.
Over 600 of his compositions were published. The best known is "The Bonnie Lass of Bon Accord". He made over 80 recordings. His marble memorial gravestone in Aberdeen was unveiled by Sir Harry Lauder.

Emperor Ping of Han
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emperor Ping (9 BC – February 3, AD 6) was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 1 BC to AD 5. After Emperor Ai died childless, the throne was passed to his cousin Emperor Ping—then a child of nine years old. Wang Mang was appointed regent by the Grand Empress Dowager Wang. Dissatisfied with his father's dictatorial regency, in AD 3, Wang's son Wang Yu (王宇) conspired with Emperor Ping's maternal uncles of the Wei clan against Wang, but after they were discovered, Wang had not only Wang Yu and the Weis (except Consort Wei) put to death, but also used this opportunity to accuse many actual or potential political enemies as being part of the conspiracy and to execute or exile them. From here onwards, the Han Dynasty existed only in name. Furthermore, Wang Mang also designated his daughter as the empress consort to Emperor Ping to codify his legitimacy to power. Emperor Ping was allegedly poisoned by Wang Mang after reigning less than six years, because Wang was concerned that he would avenge his uncles, and his successor, the toddler Emperor Ruzi, would be chosen by none other than Wang Mang himself.


Family background and life as imperial prince
Then-Liu Jizi was born in 9 BC. His father Liu Xing was the youngest son of Emperor Yuan and the younger brother of Emperor Cheng. His mother was one of Prince Xing's consorts, Consort Wei (衛姬). Prince Jizi had three sisters (whose names are not recorded in history) but no brother. He was born with a heart ailment, which, when affliciting him, causes him to have circulation problems, manifesting itself outwardly as having his lips and appendages turn blue. He was raised by his paternal grandmother Consort Feng Yuan, a concubine of Emperor Yuan, who then had the title princess dowager in Prince Xing's principality.
Around the time of Prince Jizi's birth, Prince Xing was considered a potential imperial heir, because Emperor Cheng had no heirs, but eventually Emperor Cheng chose his nephew (Prince Jizi's cousin) Liu Xin (劉欣), because Emperor Cheng considered Prince Xin to be more capable than Prince Xing, and also wanted to adopt Prince Xin and make him his own son. When Emperor Cheng died in 7 BC, Prince Xin took the throne as Emperor Ai.
Also in 7 BC, when Prince Jizi was just 2, Prince Xing died, and Prince Jizi inherited his principality as the Prince of Zhongshan (roughly modern Baoding, Hebei). He continued to be periodically afflicted with his heart disorder. As a result, his grandmother Princess Dowager Feng hired many physicians and often prayed to the gods. In 6 BC, Emperor Ai, hearing about his cousin's illness, sent imperial physicians along with his attendant Zhang You (張由) to go to Zhongshan to treat Prince Jizi. This, however, would have dire consequences of Princess Dowager Feng.
The imperial attendant Zhang was himself afflicted with a psychiatric condition (probably bipolar disorder), and when he got to Zhongshan, he suddenly, in a rage, left there and returned to the capital Chang'an. Once he did and was ordered to explain his conduct, he made up a false reason—that he had discovered that Princess Dowager Feng was using witchcraft to curse Emperor Ai and his grandmother, Empress Dowager Fu. Empress Dowager Fu and Princess Dowager Feng were romantic rivals when they were both consorts to Emperor Yuan, and Empress Dowager Fu decided to use this opportunity to strike at Princess Dowager Feng. She sent a eunuch, Shi Li (史立), to serve as investigator, and Shi tortured a good number of Princess Dowager Feng's relations (including her sister Feng Xi (馮習) and her sister-in-law Junzhi (君之)), some to death, but still could not build a solid case against Princess Dowager Feng. Shi Li decided to show Princess Dowager Feng who was actually behind the investigation, by referring to an incident in which then-Consort Feng defended Emperor Yuan against a bear which had broken loose. Princess Dowager Feng, realizing that Empress Dowager Fu was behind the investigation, went back to her palace and committed suicide. In total, 17 members of the Feng clan died as a result of the investigations. Prince Jizi, then still a toddler, was spared. (Princess Dowager Feng's reputation would be restored, and her accusers severely punished, in 1 BC, after the deaths of Emperor Ai and Empress Dowager Fu.)
In 1 BC, Emperor Ai died without an heir. His stepgrandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Wang, quickly seized power back from Emperor Ai's male favorite (and probable lover) Dong Xian, and recalled her nephew Wang Mang as regent. Wang Mang quickly carried out a wave of retaliation against Dong Xian and Emperor Ai's Fu and Ding (relatives of his mother Consort Ding) relations, purging them from government, and at the same time purging many actual or potential political enemies, while at the same time pretending to Grand Empress Dowager Wang to be faithful to Han. Prince Jizi, as the only surviving male descendant of Emperor Yuan (both Emperors Cheng and Ai having died without issue), was considered the logical successor, and he was welcomed to Chang'an to succeed his cousin.

جون ج. ماكولوه

John G. McCullough


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Griffith McCullough (September 16, 1835 - May 29, 1915) was an Americanbusinessperson and attorney. He was Attorney General of California during the Civil War, and the 49thGovernor of Vermont from 1902 to 1904.

Early life
John G. McCullough was born on September 6, 1835, in Newark, Delaware, to Albert and Rebecca (Griffith) McCullough. His father was Scotch-Irish, and his mother Welsh.An ancestor on his mother's side had fought in Oliver Cromwell's army.
His father died when he was three years old, and his mother four years later.

Relatives and family friends took him in, and provided him with a private school education.[3]
He attended Delaware College, and graduated first in his class after just two years of schooling.[1][2][3] He clerked in the law firm of St. George Tucker Campbell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while attending law school at the University of Pennsylvania.[1][2][3] He graduated with an LL.B. in 1858,[1][3] and was admitted to the bar of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.[3] After a heart attack he was advised to seek a warmer climate.[2][3] He sailed to California, where he took up the practice of law in Mariposa, California.[1][2][3] He was admitted to the bar of the California Supreme Court.

A. M. Rajah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Aemala Manmatharaju Rajah (July 1, 1929 – April 7, 1989) was a South Indian playback singer-music composer popular in the 1950s and the early 1960s in the South Indian film world.He was popularly known as A. M. Rajah or Rajah (Telugu: ఏ. ఎం. రాజా,Tamil: ஏ. எம். ராஜா, Malayalam: എ.എം.രാജ).His songs were featured in numerous Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films in the 1950s, early 60's and early 70's. He also composed music for several films.

Early life
M. Rajah was born on 1 July 1929 in Ramachandrapuram, Chittoor District in present day Andhra Pradesh to Manmadharaju and Lakshmamma.

His father died when he was three years old and then the family moved to Madras (Chennai).

His tertiary education was at Pachaiyappa's College from where he graduated with a B.A. Degree. By this time, Rajah was an accomplished piano player and had won several prizes in singing competitions. He was well versed with Carnatic Music and Western music. He was also highly influenced by the Hindi and Gazal music and was the only answer from the South to North Indian singers like Talat Mehmood, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi and Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay.

David Halton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Halton (born Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, 1940) is a Canadian reporter. Until his retirement in June 2005, he was the senior correspondent in Washington for CBC News.
Halton was born in Beaconsfield, England in 1940.

His father Matthew Halton, was a war correspondent for the CBC Radio during World War II and died when David was 16 years old on December 3, 1956.
The senior Halton had a big influence in David's career choice. His sister Kathleen Tynan was the second wife and biographer of the English theatre critic Ken Tynan.
David Halton joined CBC in 1965, and has spent time as a foreign affairs correspondent in:
· Paris correspondent 1965-1968
· Moscow correspondent 1968-1969
· London
· Quebec
· Middle East
· Vietnam 1970s
· Ottawa 1978-1991
· Washington, D.C. 1991-2005
Before moving to Washington, Halton was the chief political correspondent in Ottawa for the CBC. He retired in June 2005, although he still acts as a special contributor on CBC, and is currently working on a book.
Halton is fluent in French and Russian. He married his Russian wife, Zoya, while on assignment in Moscow.
His Son Daniel now works as a reporter for the CBC.

Charles R. Floyd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Richard Floyd (1881–1945) a Democrat, was elected to three four-year terms to the Texas Senate, serving a total of twelve years as a senator, from 1917 to 1929. In 1944, he re-entered the political landscape, elected to the office of State Representative of the 38th District, representing Lamar and Fannin counties.
Charles Richard Floyd was born April 25, 1881, in Boxelder, Red River County, Texas. The third son of Lorenzo Dow and Isabelle “Belle” Peek Floyd,

his father died at the plow when Charles was only three years old.

He attended Boxelder schools, Detroit Normal School, and also studied in nearby Paris, Texas. He earned a teaching certificate and taught in the English community in Red River County for four years, which greatly influenced his later efforts in the legislature on behalf of the public school system. He also attended the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to being a state senator from 1917 to 1929 and state representative in 1945 until his death, he ran numerous businesses during his lifetime. He was owner of the Annona Cash Store; Editor of the Clarksville Times; Owner and Editor of the Annona News Weekly; and District Manager for the Dallas Morning News for Northeast Texas. He was also a member of the Annona School Board.
Floyd married Mary Etta Moore, also of Red River County, and had four children: Morris (who died at age four); William Lorenzo; Louise Floyd Meyers; and Leone Floyd Popp; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After being elected to the Senate, Floyd moved the family to Paris, Texas. Upon the his death during the legislative session of 1945, his daughter Louise ran for his seat in a special election, but was narrowly defeated at a time when there were only four women serving in the House and none in the Senate.[1]
On February 17, 1945, after serving only six weeks in the House of Representatives, Charles Floyd suffered a stroke and heart attack during a legislative session in Austin and died in Brackenridge Hospital. He is buried in Boxelder Cemetery, Red River County, Texas.
Floyd was inducted into the Red River County Hall of Fame by the Historic Red River County Chamber of Commerce in 2006.

Mariano Fortuny

(designer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo,(May 11, 1871–May 3, 1949), son of the painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, was a Spanish fashion designer who opened his couture house in 1906 and continued until 1946.

Mrs. Condé Nast wearing one of the famous Fortuny tea gowns. This one has no tunic but is finely pleated, in the Fortuny manner, and falls in long lines, closely following the figure, to the floor."
Fortuny was born to an artistic family in Granada, Spain.

His father, a genre painter, died when Fortuny was three years old and his mother,

daughter of another famous painter, Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta, moved the family to Paris, France. It became apparent at a young age that Fortuny was a talented artist, as he, too, showed a talent for painting. The family moved again in 1889 to Venice. As a young man, Fortuny traveled throughout Europe seeking out artists he admired, among them the German composer Richard Wagner. Fortuny became quite varied in his talents, some of them including painting, photography, sculpting, architecture, etching and even theatrical stage lighting. In 1897, he met the woman he would marry, Henriette Negrin, in Paris.
He died in his home in Venice and was buried in the Campo Verano in Rome. His work was a source of inspiration to the French novelist Marcel Proust.[1],[2]
The life of the Fortuny saga has been depicted in Pere Gimferrer's novel "Fortuny".

Joseph Parrocel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Parrocel (Brignoles, 3 October 1646 – Paris, 1 March 1704) was a French Baroque painter, best known for his paintings and drawings of battle scenes.

He was born in an artistic family that produced fourteen painters over six generations. His grandfather Georges Parrocel (1540- ca. 1614) (no surviving works) and his father Barthélemy Parrocel (1595–1660) were both painters. One badly restored painting of Bathélemy survives in the church of Saint-Sauveur in Brignoles, France. His brothers Jean Barthélemy Parrocel (1631–1653) (no surviving works) and Louis Parrocel (1634–1694) also became painters. He was soon noticed

He was only thirteen years old when his father died in 1660.

His elder brother Louis, who was already established as a painter in the Languedoc, took him under his care and gave him a training as painter. Three years later he ran away from his brother's house to Marseilles. His talent as a painter became soon noticed and he got a commission for a number of paintings with scenes of the life of Saint Anthony of Padua for the church Saint-Martin. But he only executed two of them. it is also possible that he painted them during his second stay in the Provence.
He left for Paris and stayed there for four years, perfecting his skills. He then returned to the Provence and continued his journey to Italy, where he would stay for eight years. In Rome he became the pupil of Jacques Courtois, a famous painter of battle scenes who was also known als "le Bourguignon" or "il Borgognone". He also studied the works of Salvator Rosa, an unorthodox proto-Romantic painter. Joseph Parrocel worked with him in his workshop and was thoroughly influenced by him, even if he gave his style later a more French touch.

Alexander the Great defeats King Darius in the battle of Arbelles (ca. 1687)
Parrocel then started a journey through Italy and finally arrived in Venice. He was planning to settle in this town but after eight brigands had attempted to murder him on the Rialto Bridge, he left Italy in disgust.
He settled in Paris in 1675 and earned himself a reputation. He was accepted as an elected member at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture on 29 February 1676 and he became an academician on 14 November 1676 with his admission piece "Siege of Maastricht". In 1703 he became a councillor at the Academy. As a member of the Academy, he would obtain royal commissions. However, Charles Le Brun, who headed the Academy, refused his cooperation in the paintings of scenes of the campaigns of king Louis XIV, designed to become tapestries in the Gobelins manufactory. However the French Secretary of State for War, the Marquis de Louvois recognized the talent of Parrocel and gave him the commission to paint one of the dining halls of Les Invalides in Paris with scenes of conquest by Louis XIV. This was appreciated and led to further prestigious commissions to decorate the Château de Marly and the Palace of Versailles.

When Louvois died in 1691, Mansart became the chief architect of the king. Because Parrocel had not been paid for several paintings, he had obtained a warrant against Mansart, who was arrested in his coach. Through this action, he fell out of favour with Mansart, who sought vengeance for this affront at the first occasion. When Parrocel had finished the painting "Crossing of the Rhine" for the Palace of Versailles, Mansart wanted to remove it. However, the king was so pleased with this painting that he ordered it to be placed in the "Grand Salon du Conseil" in Versailles.
During his lifetime, Joseph Parrocel participated in only one exhibition, the Salon of 1699, with twelve paintings.
He is best known for his heroic battle scenes but painted also landscapes, historical pieces and religious works, such as "The temptation of St. Peter in the desert" (1694). He also produced paintings for the church "Notre-Dame des Victoires", the Hôtel de Soubise and the Hôtel de Toulouse, all in Paris. In 1700 he painted "The Fair at Bezons", a precursor of the fêtes galantes of Antoine Watteau. He was also one of the first to paint hunting scenes.
His differed from his contemporary academician Adam Frans van der Meulen by being more original and vivid in his execution. He applied broad, nervous layers with dazzling movements, using intense colours.
During his lifetime he has produced more than 90 prints engravings, many of which are in the Louvre, Paris. His works are exhibited in many French museums, but also abroad in Hannover and in Quebec (Laval University).
Joseph Parrocel apprenticed his two sons Jean Joseph (1690–1774), who became a draughtsman and engineer, and Charles (1688–1752), who also became a painter and engraver, his nephews Jacques-Ignace (1667–1722) and Pierre (1670–1739), who both became painters and engravers.
A number of his paintings are now suggested to be early works of his nephew Jacques-Ignace Parrocel (1667–1722)[1]

Beaumont Hotham

3rd Baron Hotham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beaumont Hotham, 3rd Baron Hotham (9 August 1794 - 12 December 1870), was a British soldier, peer and long-standing ConservativeMember of Parliament.
Hotham was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Beaumont Hotham and Philadelphia Dyke.

His father died when he was five years old.

Hotham fought at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and later achieved the rank of General. In 1814 he had succeeded his grandfather as third Baron Hotham, but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords. He was instead elected to the House of Commons for Leominster in 1820, a seat he held, with a brief exception for a few months in 1831, until 1841, and then represented the East Riding of Yorkshire between 1841 and 1868. By the time he retired from the House of Commons he was one of the longest-serving Members of Parliament.
Lord Hotham died in December 1870, aged 76. He never married and was succeeded in his titles by his nephew Charles

Raymond II Trencavel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raymond II Trencavel (also spelled Raimond; 1207 – 1263/1267) was the last ruler of the branch of the Trencavelviscounts of Béziers. His entire life was occupied by efforts to reverse the downfall the Trencavel had experienced during the Albigensian Crusade, but he ultimately failed.

Raymond was only two years old when his father, Raymond Roger, died in prison on 10 November 1209.

He would have automatically inherited the viscounties of Béziers, Carcassonne, Albi, and Razès, but Carcassone was granted to Simon de Montfort immediately after Raymond Roger's death and Albi was granted to him in June 1210.[1] On 25 November 1209, Agnes, Raymond's mother and guardian, relinquished her dowry in the Pézenas and Tourbes, which would have gone to Raymond, to Simon in exchange for a pension of 3,000 solidi annually and compensation of 25,000 solidi for her dowry, to be made in four annual payments. When Raymond was only three, his mother negotiated the surrender of all his remaining lands and titles at the siege of Minerve on 11 June 1210.[1] The surrender was made in the presence of Arnaud Amalric, Fulk of Toulouse, and Berengar of Barcelona and confirmed by the Council of Narbonne in January 1211. Until the formal act of the council, the overlord of the Trencavel viscounties, Peter III of Aragon, had refused to recognise Simon's takeover.
Raymond's youth after his surrender of his hereditary offices and lands was spent in the care of Raymond Roger of Foix and his successor, Roger Bernard II of Foix.[2] In 1224, when after a general rebellion Amaury VI of Montfort ceded his rights over Raymond's former lands to the Crown, Carcassonne was reconquered by Roger Bernard and Raymond VII of Toulouse, who bestowed it (and Béziers according to one charter) on Raymond Trencavel, now of age.[3] During the next two years as viscount, Raymond removed Guy des Vaux-de-Cernay from the diocese of Carcassonne and replaced him with Berengar Raymond, and he restored the abbot Alet, Boso, who had been deposed by a papal legation in 1222. Raymond's attitude towards the Church in the Carcassès is indicative of the Crusaders' disdain for the local clergy and the way in which the local nobility persecuted by the Crusade came to the support of the persecuted clergy.[4] Raymond could not hold the town against King Louis VIII in 1226, however, and he was again dispossessed.[3] His loss was less formal the second time and he continued to employ his title and act in his capacity as viscount into 1227.[5] At that time he had achieved his majority and was even granting property to his former guardian, the count of Foix.
Raymond continued to rule Limoux as a vassal of the count of Foix until the Treaty of Paris of 12 April 1229, when all formerly Trencavel lands were surrendered to the French crown. After that he went into exile, probably to either the court of Foix, Aragon, or Catalonia.[6] In 1240 he made an attack on Carcassonne in an attempt to retake it. But though he had the help of Olivier de Termes and besieged the city from 17 September until 11 October, a royal army forced him to relent and flee to Montréal, where he was himself besieged. He escaped and went into exile again until 1247, when he finally surrendered to Louis IX and symbolically broke his vicecomital seals. Raymond was allowed to continue to rule Limoux, where he was in power as late as 1263. He took part in the Seventh Crusade in 1248. He left a wife and two sons, Roger and Raymond Roger, who succeeded him, but their history and that of all subsequent Trencavels is obscure in the extreme.[6] Raymond was dead by 1267, when his son is first recorded as "of Béziers", the family name.
Throughout his life and career after his surrender in 1210, Raymond always called himself simply "Trencavel" in his own charters, a practice not thitherto common in his family. The name Trencavel had been reserved for members named Raymond and it appears that Raymond II preferred it to his given name, or desired to assert his familial connexions through its preeminence.

Yeshayah Steiner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grand Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir (1851 - 1925), was the founder of the Kerestirer Hasidic dynasty.
He was born on Iyar 3, 1851 in the town of Zbarav, Hungary.

When he was 3 years old, his father died. At the age of 12, his mother sent him to study with to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Liska, Hungary, the author of Ach Pri Tevua.

When he died and his son-in-law Rabbi Chaim Friedlander author of Tal Chaim succeeded him, Yeshaya started travelling to Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz. After the passing of Rabbi Chaim of Sanz, he became a disciple of Rabbi Mordechai of Nadvorna. The Nadvorner Rebbe suggested that he move to the town of Kerestir, in Hungary,
In Kerestir he became a famous Hasidic Rebbe and became known as a miracle worker. In 1925 he was succeeded by his son Avraham.
His image is used as an amulet by Jews who believe that it wards away mice and offers protection against misfortune.
The dynasty continues to this day with his descendants who have strong connections to Satmar:
· Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rubin, Grand Rabbi of Kerestir in Borough Park, Brooklyn
· Rabbi Naftali Grosz (1901–1987) Grand Rabbi of Kerestir-Berbesht,Son-in-Law of Rabbi Avraham Stiner. Brooklyn New York, Israel, Miami Beach.
Rabbi Yeshaya Gross oldest son of Rabbi Naftali Grosz, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Grand Rabbi of Kerestir-Berbesht, Brooklyn NY, Desert Hot Springs California,
Rabbi Yoikel Grosz was the founder of the Monsey NY, and Miami Beach branch of the Kerestirer dynasty house's of worship (1944-)Miami Beach, Florida.
· Rabbi Refael Gross (1928–2007) of Miami Beach, Florida. Also known as Rabbi Armin Grosz was the Rabbi of the current Miami beach . continues to be maintained in Miami. A Federal law suit against the Miami Beach Beis Medrash was successfully defended by Samuel Burstyn esq. and continues to be maintained by Rabbi Refoel's son

John Savio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


John Andreas Savio (January 28, 1902 – April 13, 1938[1] ) was a Norwegian artist, known for his woodcuts, of Sami and Kven descent. He is thought to have been autodidact as artist.[2]
Savio was born in Bugøyfjord in Sør-Varanger in Finnmark, Norway.

His parents died when he was 3 years old, first his mother from tuberculosis, then his father from drowning on the Varangerfjord while he was sailing to Vadsø to buy a coffin for his wife. This left John Savio to be brought up by his grandparents on his mother's side. His grandparents were fairly rich by the standards in Finnmark at the time, and they had the means to give the child a good upbringing and education. He was sent to school in Vardø, where he received tutoring in drawing by Isak Saba.[1] After Vardø he spent the year 1918-1919 at Kvæfjord Private Middelskole in Borkenes, Kvæfjord in Troms. Then he went on to Bodø Gymnas in Bodø, Nordland, but he only stayed there for a short time before he went to Oslo to study at Ranga Nielsens skole in 1920. In Oslo he also took courses at Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole that year, but he became ill with tuberculosis and had to quit school. He had to get a lung removed, and he was hospitalised for months. He just barely recovered, and the poor health hampered him for the rest of his life. After recovering he went back to Oslo for a short time, before he went back north to Finnmark to try to obtain his inheritance from his now dead grandfather. He found that much of the money had been lost, but he still received some money. The next years he travelled around in Finnmark, making prints, drawings and paintings. In the early 1930's he travelled in Western Norway and Northern Norway, he also made some trips outside Norway. During his life he had only a few exhibitions, two in Tromsø, and one in Paris. He spent much time knocking on doors trying to find buyers for his art. He sold his prints very cheaply, just to get by. At the end of his life he moved to Oslo again, where he lived in poverty. During the spring of 1938 he got very ill with tuberculosis again and he died at Ullevål sykehus on April 13 1938, at the age of 36. He was buried at Vestre gravlund.

Ángel Ramos

(industrialist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Angel Ramos (December 3, 1902 – September 1, 1960) was the founder of Telemundo, the second largest Spanish-language television network in the United States.


Early years
Ramos was born into a poor family in the northern town of Manati, Puerto Rico. He was the only son born to Juan Ramón Ramos Vélez and Braulia Torres Giliberty, and only 3 years old when his father died.

He was raised by his mother and an aunt, He finished his primary education, however in 1917, when he was 15 years old, he felt that in Manati he didn't have a future and left his home; he then moved to San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico.[1]
While living in San Juan, he went to school at the Central High School and found a job in "El Mundo", a recently founded newspaper. He started as a typesetter, and upon finishing high school, he quickly worked his way up in the company. In 1924, when he was 22 years old, he was promoted to the position of administrator.

Legacy
On September 1, 1960, Angel Ramos died in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage. His wife Argentina became the head of El Mundo Enterprises. She established the Angel Ramos Foundation, which is now the largest private philanthropic foundation in Puerto Rico.[4] In 1963, Argentina remarried and moved to Miami, Florida. On April 14, 1983, Telemundo was sold to John Blair and Co. and on October 1987 it passed to the hands of Reliance, Inc; finally, in 2001, Telemundo became part of NBC Universal and Telemundo is now the second largest Spanish speaking television network in the United States and, through its international channel, is also seen in most of Latin-America.[5]
The Angel Ramos Foundation provided a matching grant of one half the construction cost of the Arecibo Observatory's visitor center which was named after Mr. Ramos.

Sir William Gull

1st Baronet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet of Brook Street (31 December 1816 – 29 January 1890) was a prominent 19th century Englishphysician and Governor of Guy's Hospital, London, who served as one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to HM Queen Victoria. He is remembered for a number of significant contributions to medical science, including advancing the understanding of myxoedema, Bright's disease, paraplegia and anorexia nervosa (for which he first established the name).
Since the 1970s, he has been named in a number of notable works of fiction and non-fiction linking him to the Jack the Ripper case, several of which depict him as the actual perpetrator of the murders.[1] None of these theories has been established as historical truth.


Childhood and early life
William Withey Gull was born on 31 December 1816 at Colchester, Essex. His father, John Gull, was a barge owner and wharfinger and was thirty-eight years old at the time of William's birth. William was born aboard his barge The Dove, then moored at St Osyth Mill in the parish of Saint Leonards.

His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Chilver and she was forty years old when William was born. William's middle name, Withey, came from his godfather, Captain Withey, a friend and employer of his father and also a local barge owner. He was the youngest of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Of William’s surviving five siblings, two were brothers (John and Joseph) and three were sisters (Elizabeth, Mary and Maria).
When William was about four years old the family moved to Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex.

His father died of cholera in London in 1827, when William was ten years old, and was buried at Thorpe-le-Soken. After her husband's death, Elizabeth Gull devoted herself to her children’s upbringing on very slender means.
She was a woman of character, instilling in her children the proverb “whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.” William Gull often said that his real education had been given him by his mother. Elizabeth Gull was devoutly religious - on Fridays the children had fish and rice pudding for dinner; in Lent she wore black, and the Saints' days were carefully observed.
As a young boy, William Gull attended a local day school with his elder sisters. Later, he attended another school in the same parish, kept by the local clergyman. William was a day-boy at this school until he was fifteen, at which age he became a boarder for two years. It was at this time that he first began to study Latin. The clergyman’s teaching, however, seems to have been very limited; and at seventeen William announced that he would not go any longer.
William now became a pupil-teacher in a school kept by a Mr. Abbott at Lewes, Sussex. He lived with the schoolmaster and his family, studying and teaching Latin and Greek. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Joseph Woods, the botanist, and formed an interest in looking for unusual plant life that would remain a lifelong pastime. His mother, meanwhile, had in 1832 moved her home to the parish of Beaumont, adjacent to Thorpe-le-Soken. After two years at Lewes, at the age of nineteen, William became restless and started to consider other careers, including working at sea.
The local rector took an interest in William and proposed that he should resume his classical and other studies on alternate days at the rectory. This, for a year, he did. On his days at home he and his sisters would row down the estuary to the sea, watching the fishermen, and collecting wildlife specimens from the nets of the coastal dredgers. William would study and catalogue the specimens thus obtained, which he would study using whatever books as he could then procure. This seems to have awoken in him an interest in biological research that would serve him well in his later career in medicine. The wish to study medicine now became the fixed desire of his life.
At about this time the local rector’s uncle, Benjamin Harrison, the Treasurer of Guy's Hospital, was introduced to Gull and was impressed by his ability. He invited him to go to Guy’s Hospital under his patronage and, in September, 1837, the autumn before he was twenty-one, William Gull left his home and entered upon his life's work.
It was usual for students of medicine to conduct their studies at the hospital as " apprentices." The Treasurer's patronage provided Gull with two rooms in the hospital with an annual allowance of £50 a year.
Gull, encouraged by Harrison, determined to make the most of his opportunity, and resolved to try for every prize for which he could compete in the hospital in the course of that year. He succeeded in gaining every one. During the first year of his residence at Guy's, together with his other studies he carried on his own education in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, and in 1838 he matriculated at the recently founded University of London. In 1841 he took his M.B. degree, and gained honours in Physiology, Comparative Anatomy, Medicine, and Surgery

Benny Benson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



John Ben "Benny" Benson, Jr. (1913–1972) was the Aleut boy who designed the flag of Alaska. Benny was 13 when he won in a contest in 1927 to design the flag for the territory of Alaska, which became a state in 1959.

Benny Benson Memorial at Milepost 1.4 of the Seward Highway in Seward, Alaska
Benny Benson was born in Chignik, Alaska, to a Swedish father and Aleut-Russian mother.

When he was 3 years old, his mother died, forcing his father to send him and his brother Carl to an orphanage, as Benny's father could not take care of them.

Benny grew up at the Jesse Lee Children's Home in Unalaska and later in Seward.
After graduating high school in 1932, Benny left the Jesse Lee Home. He returned to the Aleutian Islands to work with his father at a fox farm at Ugaiushak Island. The rate for furs began to decline, so Benny moved to Seattle in 1936. He used his prize money of $1,000 to enroll in the Hemphill Diesel Engineering School for diesel engine repair. In 1938, Benson married Betty Van Hise. The couple's first child, Anna May, was born in October 1938. Their second daughter, Charlotte Abbot, was born in June 1940. Benson divorced in 1950 and moved with his daughters to Kodiak where he became an airplane mechanic for Kodiak Airways.
Benny met his sister in the mid 1950s, 30 years after their separation. His sister died soon after. His brother Carl also died in 1965. Benson's right leg had to be amputated in 1969 due to an injury. Shortly after that, he met and married a former Jesse Lee Home resident, Anna Sophie Jenks in 1972. Benson had several stepchildren and grandchildren. He died of a heart attack in Kodiak at the age of 58.[2]
The Benny Benson Memorial is located at Mile 1.4 of the Seward Highway in Seward, Alaska.

More than 30 years before Alaska was to become a state, the Alaska Department of the American Legion sponsored a territorial contest for Alaskan children in grades seven through twelve.[3] Benny's design was chosen to represent the future of the Alaska Territory. Up to that time, Alaskans had flown only the U.S. flag since the territory was purchased from Russia in 1867. His design was chosen over roughly 700 other submissions from schoolchildren territory-wide in grades 7–12. Most other entries featured variations on the territorial seal, the midnight sun, the northern lights, polar bears, and/or gold pans. To celebrate his achievement, Benny was awarded $1,000 and an engraved watch.
Benny looked to the sky for the symbols he included in his design. Choosing the familiar constellation he looked for every night before going to sleep at the orphanage, submitted this description with it:
“
The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear—symbolizing strength.