Calvin Rutstrum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Calvin Rutstrum (1895-1982) was an author who wrote fifteen books, most relating to wilderness camping experiences and techniques. Most of his books were written at his cabin on Cloud Bay, Ontario.[1] Rutstrum was born in 1895 and died February 5, 1982 in Osceola, Wisconsin.
"His wilderness experiences begin just before WWI and span the modern era including the environmental movement of the late 60's and 70's. He published his books starting in 1946 and continued to publish right up to near his death in 1982. His father died when he was three and he dropped out of school in the 7th grade and soon after began his working and adventuring life. Throughout his life he lived many experiences and held several jobs.....his writing skills were primarily self-taught from reading....Many of these jobs he held just long enough to set himself up for some time in the wilderness. Many of his wilderness years were spent wandering the Canadian Shield or the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota on long canoe, walking, or sledding trips. Over the course of his life he also maintained or built several residences-Canadian and Minnesota cabins, a Marine-on-St. Croix home and a New Mexico ranch home."[2]
Life
Rutstrum was born in Hobart, Indiana on October 26, 1895, a son of Swedish immigrants. Within 3 years they had moved to Chicago, and then St. Paul, Minnesota.

His father died of pneumonia when he was about three years old.

Though his mother remarried, the family had little money and Rutstrum worked at a wide range of odd jobs, some of them entrepreneurial, at a very young age. At the same you age also sought to maximize his time exploring and playing in his neighborhood's hardwood forest. [3]
Rutstrum was also drawn to the Mississippi. Before the age of 12 he had spent weeks traveling on it with his friends, often riding log booms. [3] As he wrote later, there we was:
"a healthy young animal with less than a dozen years from birth, alive the the[clarification needed] early summer sunshine, barefooted, youthfully entranced, eager as spring for life, as intrinsically a part of the river. I believed, as the waterthrush that foraged at the mouth of Minnehaha Creek, where the rippling current joined the mighty Mississippi...To be free as a wild creature, not having to shoulder human cares, able to climb, run, jump. swim, lie on an embankment in the sunshine--these gave a release to the young spirit that may be perhaps described as primitive, but nevertheless exquisite in the most elemental sense.[3]
Rutstrum dropped out of school at age 13.[3] At age 16, after acquiring his 30-30 carbine, .22, fishing tackle, ammunition, tent, bedroll, axe, knife, cook kit, and $25, he spent $24 of that for passage to Montana when he worked at a ranch riding fence in the summers and spent winters in an abandoned log cabin in the mountains.[3] At age 18, Rutstrum began his first long canoe trip, a 100 day trip in the wilderness in northern Minnesota.
He served in WWI as a Navy medical corpsman, and as a criminal bank investigator for 10 years, and as a camp instructor and guide. Later he made money by buying and selling land. [2] In the early 1920's Rutstrum bought, subdivided and sold three 40 Acre tracts on the Northwest shore of Lake Superior. This, combined with his limited lifestyle requirements provided a significant large step towards financial independence, where jobs became superfluous [3] His first book was New Way of the Wilderness illustrated by Led Kouba. It taught readers how to live well in the wilderness, including in cold weather, and traveling by canoe.
As recreational use of wilderness areas began to rapidly grow, Rutstrum's writings were in the middle of it. The book Wilderness Visionaries said "In a sense, he became a high priest of an emerging camping cult." [3] His books captured both the "how to" and the pleasure of longer term wilderness travel and camping. Rutstrum and Bradford Angier were the two most prominent writers with this combination at the time.
His first book Way of the Wilderness started as a wilderness manual written for Camp Lincoln, where he worked for 10 years. He then rewrote it for Macmillan publishing company who published it as a hardcover because they suspected it would be successful. The Outdoor Book Club immediately ordered 52,000 copies. As he later recalled, he then said "this beats working".[3] His next book The New Way of the Wilderness (illustrated by Les Kouba) expertly covered how to equip and dress for winter, canoe camping, and how to eat well while wilderness camping. After that The Wilderness Cabin described how to build log cabins and fireplaces.[3] North American Canoe Country covered wilderness canoe travel, including many specialized topics. Wilderness Route Finder focused on such using traditional methods.
Paradise Below Zero covered long term sub zero (Fahrenheit) wilderness camping and travel. Notable it both "how to" and inspirational and philosophical content in line with the title. The era of the book (1968) preceded the prevalence of newer camping products and materials, yet to this day points out the unsuitability of many current winter camping techniques (even with high tech equipment) when applied to prolonged camping at temperatures below zero Fahrenheit. He wrote his autobiography Challenge of the Wilderness which was published in 1970. It was reprinted in 1979 as A Wilderness Autobiography.
Rutstrum died on February 5th, 1982. Four years before, in Chips from a Wilderness log Rutstrum wrote: "If you want to do something for me after I'm gone, live so as to not defile the precious earth". [4]

Works
Rutstrum's 15 books described his enchantment of the wilderness and instructed readers on preparing for and conducting canoe trips into remote areas. He made frequent and extensive journeys into the Canadian wilderness.[1]
His first book, The Way of the Wilderness, was published in 1946 and is considered the bible of serious canoeists. Other books include Back Country, The Wilderness Route Finder, Paradise Below Zero, Challenge of the Wilderness, The Wilderness Cabin and Chips from a Wilderness Log. [1] Similarly, Paradise Below Zero is considered to be a bible for extended sub-zero camping without the use of modern equipment.

Books Written by Calvin Rutstrum
Rutstrum's published works include: [2]
· Way of the Wilderness (1952)
· Memoranda for Canoe Country (1953)
· The New Way of the Wilderness (1958)
· The Wilderness Cabin (1961)
· North American Canoe Country (1964)
· Wilderness Route Finder (1967)
· Paradise Below

Bill Haywood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Dudley Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928), better known as Big Bill Haywood, was a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, he was involved in several important labor battles, including the Colorado Labor Wars, the Lawrence textile strike, and other textile strikes in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Haywood was an advocate of industrial unionism,[1] a labor philosophy that favors organizing all workers in an industry under one union, regardless of the specific trade or skill level; this was in contrast to the craft unions that were prevalent at the time, such as the AFL.[2] His belief that workers of all ethnicities should be united also clashed with many unions.[3] His strong preference for direct action over political tactics alienated him from the Socialist Party, and contributed to his dismissal in 1912.[4]
Never one to shy from violent conflicts,[4] Haywood was frequently the target of prosecutors. His trial for the murder of Frank Steunenberg in 1907 (of which he was acquitted) drew national attention; in 1918, he was one of 101 IWW members convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 during the First Red Scare. While out of prison during an appeal of his conviction, Haywood fled to the Russian Soviet Republic, where he spent the remaining years of his life.[5]


Biography
Early life
William D. Haywood was born in 1869 in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.

His father, a Pony Express rider, died of pneumonia when Haywood was three years old.

At age nine, he injured his right eye while whittling a slingshot with a knife, permanently blinding him. Haywood never had his damaged eye replaced with a glass eye; when photographed, he would turn his head to show his left profile. Also at age nine, he began working in the mines; he never received much formal education. After brief stints as a cowboy and a homesteader, he returned to mining in 1896.[1] High-profile events such as the destruction of the Molly Maguires,[7] the Haymarket Riot in 1886 and the Pullman Strike in 1894 fostered Haywood's interest in the labor movement.[6]
[edit] Western Federation of Miners involvement
In 1896, Ed Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners, spoke at the Idaho silver mine where Haywood was working.[6] Inspired by his speech, Haywood signed up as a WFM member, thus formally beginning his involvement in America's labor movement.
Haywood immediately became active in the WFM, and by 1900 he had become a member of the national union's General Executive Board. In 1902, he became secretary-treasurer of the WFM, the number two position after President Charles Moyer. That year, the WFM became involved in the Colorado Labor Wars, a struggle centered in the Cripple Creek mining district that lasted for several years and took the lives of 33 union and non-union workers.[6] The WFM initiated a series of strikes designed to extend the benefits of the union to other workers, who suffered from brutal working conditions and starvation wages. The defeat of these strikes led to Haywood's belief in "One Big Union" organized along industrial lines to bring broader working class support for labour struggles.[1]

Foundation of the Industrial Workers of the World
Late in 1904, several prominent labor radicals met in Chicago, Illinois to lay down plans for a new revolutionary union.[8] A manifesto was written and sent around the country. Unionists who agreed with the manifesto were invited to attend a convention to found the new union which was to become the Industrial Workers of the World.
At 10 A.M. on June 27, 1905, Haywood addressed the crowd assembled at Brand's Hall in Chicago.[9] In the audience were two hundred delegates from organizations all over the country representing socialists, anarchists, miners, industrial unionists and rebel workers. Haywood opened the First Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World with the following speech:[9]
Fellow Workers, this is the Continental Congress of the working-class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working-class from the slave bondage of capitalism. The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working-class in possession of the economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution, without regard to capitalist masters.
Other speakers at the convention included Eugene Debs, leader of the Socialist Party of America, and Mother Mary Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America.[9] After its foundation, the IWW would become aggressively involved in the labor movement.

Murder trial

1907 photo of defendants Charles Moyer, Bill Haywood, and George Pettibone
On December 30, 1905, Frank Steunenberg was killed by an explosion in front of his Caldwell, Idaho home. A former governor of Idaho, Steunenberg had clashed with the WFM in previous strikes. Harry Orchard, a former WFM member who had once acted as WFM President Charles Moyer's bodyguard[10] was arrested for the crime, and evidence was found in his hotel room.[11] Famed Pinkerton detective James McParland, who had infiltrated and helped to destroy the Molly Maguires, was placed in charge of the investigation.[12]
Before any trial had occurred, McParland ordered that Orchard be placed on death row in the Boise penitentiary, with restricted food rations and under constant surveillance. After McParland had prepared his investigation, he met with Orchard over a "sumptuous lunch" followed by cigars.[13] The Pinkerton detective told Orchard that he could escape immediate hanging only if he implicated the leaders of the WFM.[14] In addition to using the threat of hanging, McParland promised food, cigars, better treatment, possible freedom, and even a possible financial reward if Orchard cooperated.[15] The detective obtained a 64-page confession from Orchard in which the suspect took responsibility for a string of crimes and at least seventeen murders.[16]
McParland then used perjured extradition papers, which falsely stated that WFM leaders had been at the

Malang Jan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Malang Jan (Pashto: ملنګ جان - b:1914, d:1957) was a prominent poet of Pashto language[1]


Early life & education
Malang Jan was born as Mohammad Amin in Bihsud District of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

When he was only 3 years old, his father, Abdul Shakoor died. He was 15 years old when he along with his family moved to Kama District in search of work. Few years later he went to Jalalabad to serve his 2 years military service. After completing his term in the military, he moved back to his home village to earn a living. While he was in his early twenties, his first poem was published in Etihade Mashraqi magazine. From there on he found fame and became one of the renowned poet of his time.[1]

Work and adult life
In 1945, he was invited to Kabul by Mohammad Daud Khan and in 1950 Prime Minister Shah Mahmud Khan allocated him 600 Afghanis as yearly pension. In 1953 he was re-invited to Kabul and appointed him as the manager of Pashto Music at Kabul Radio. Since he was illiterate, Daud Khan appointed him a personal teacher for six days. Within those 6 days he learned enough so he could write and read his own poetry.[1]
While traveling back to his home village in 1957, he and his only son, Daud Jan died in a bus accident.

Poetry collections
· "Khwagay Naghmay"
· "De Watan De Meenay Kajkol"

Alphonso Hart
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Alphonso Hart (July 4, 1830 - December 23, 1910) was a Republican politician from the U.S. State of Ohio who was a U.S. Representative, in the Ohio State Senate, and Ohio Lieutenant Governor.
Hart was born in Vienna, Ohio.

His father died when he was age twelve, and he was bound out to a farmer for three years. After seven months he started out alone.

Hart attended the common schools and Grand River Institute, Austinburg, Ohio, and studied law in Warren, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar August 12, 1851. He moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, remained two years, and was then elected Assistant Clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives. He purchased the Democratic newspaper "Portage Sentinel" in Ravenna, Ohio, which he edited until he sold it in 1857. He also practiced in Ravenna.[1] He served as prosecuting attorney for Portage County from 1861 to 1864, when he resigned. He served as member of the Ohio Senate 1865, 1872, and 1873, and was the 11th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio 1873-1875. In 1874 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1878 to Hillsboro, Ohio. In 1880 he was nominated for the Forty-seventh Congress in the seventh district but lost to John P. Leedom.

Hart was elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth Congress in the 12th district (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1885). He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Forty-ninth Congress. He served as Solicitor of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department from 1888 to 1892. He resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., and died there December 23, 1910. He was interred in Maple Grove Cemetery, Ravenna, Ohio

كلاس هانسون بجلكنستجيرنا

Klas Hansson Bjelkenstjerna
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Baron Klas Hansson Bjelkenstjerna (also Claës Hansson Bjelkenstjerna or Bielkenstjerna) (24 April 1615 – 30 July 1662) was a Swedishnaval officer and civil servant.
HIs father, Hans Klasson Bjelkenstjerna, who also was a high ranking naval officer, died when his son was only 5 years old leaving him to be raised by relatives.

Young Bjelkenstjerna soon grew up and followed in his father's footsteps, joining the Swedish navy.
He rose in rank within the navy, being appointed skeppsmajor in 1641. He married baroness Barbro Åkesdotter Natt och Dag in 1643. He participated in the sea campaigns against the Danish and Dutch fleets, in particular Battle of Colberger Heide (1644), and the escape from the Kiel Fjord where the Danish fleet tried to trap the Swedish squadrons. Due to his achievements in battle he was rewarded with a promotion to Admiral-Löjtnant.
Years of relative peace followed, with Bjelkenstjerna entering civil service. In 1650, he was appointed to överhovmästare (tutor) for the crown prince Carl Gustav. Queen Christina I granted him the barony of Pyhäjoki in the Northern Ostrobothnia region of Finland. This occurred in the year 1652. The following year Bjelkenstjerna became a member of the Privy Council.

Trivia
· At his deathbed the Swedish king Carl X Gustav called upon his former tutor Admiral Bjelkenstjerna and supposedly bid him farewell with the words: »Farväl, min hederlige Bjelkenstjerna! Tack för hvar dag vi varit tillsammans!» which translates to English as "Farewell, my honourable Bjelkenstjerna! I'm thankful for each day that we spent together!"[1]

Ernst Ludwig II

Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernst Ludwig II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (b. Coburg, 8 August 1709 - d. Meiningen, 24 February 1729), was a duke of Saxe-Meiningen.
He was the third but second surviving son of Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen and his first wife, Dorothea Marie of Saxe-Gotha.

The death of his older brother Josef Bernhard (22 March 1724) made him the heir to the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. When his father died seven months later (24 November 1724), Ernst Ludwig - fifteen years old- inherited the duchy along with his younger brother Karl Frederick.

Because the two princes were under age when their father died, their uncles Frederik Wilhelm and Anton Ulrich served as their guardians until 1733.

Ernst Ludwig died after reigning five years, only twenty years old and unmarried. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Karl Frederick

ايمناويل شلتز

Emanuel Shultz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Shultz (July 25, 1819 – November 5, 1912) was a shoemaker, merchant, manufacturer, banker and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio.

Emanuel Shultz was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the son of George and Mary (Vinyard) Shultz. He attended the public schools until he was eleven years old when his father died. He was compelled to leave school and depend on diligent self-study and was soon apprenticed to the trade of shoemaking. In 1838, he removed to Miamisburg, Ohio, where he engaged five to fifteen journeymen to make boots and shoes.

Emanuel Shultz married Sarah Beck, of Miamisburg, on July 23, 1840. They had three daughters. Shultz was initiated a charter member of the Marion Lodge the Masons in 1844, a royal arch Mason and a Knight Templar. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.

Around 1846, he became a trader in general produce, and became one of the largest and most successful commercial operators in the Miami Valley. One success built upon another and he soon was a leader in all the prominent enterprises of Miamisburg. Emanuel Shultz was also a leading tobacco leaf dealer since 1853, Montgomery and Butler Counties being major tobacco producing and manufacturing centers in Ohio and the United States throughout the last half of the 19th century. In 1865, he was one of the founders of the private bank of H. Groby & Co., and a principal in the Miami Valley Paper Company, which he organized in 1871.
Emanuel Shultz began his political affiliation with the Whigs, but since the formation of the Republican party was a steadfast Republican. He served in most of the local minor offices and then in 1859 as Montgomery County Commissioner until 1862.
In 1873, he was a delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention that revised the Ohio Constitution. The citizens, however, declined to adopt it in the subsequent referendum. In 1875, Shultz was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, serving one term but was not a candidate for re-election. In 1878, he ran in Ohio's 3rd congressional district against DemocratJohn A. McMahon, but was defeated. In 1880 after redistricting, Emanuel Shultz again faced McMahon, but was narrowly elected to the Forty-seventh United States Congress from Ohio's 4th congressional district. In 1882, he was redistricted back into the third district and was narrowly defeated by Democrat Robert Maynard Murray.
Emanuel Shultz returned to Miamisburg and again engaged in paper manufacturing. In 1881, he was one of the organizers and stockholders of the Lima Car Works, which built railroad freight cars and was later a part of Lima Locomotive Works, and also served as Vice President of the company until he sold his interest about 1889. He was appointed by President Benjamin Harrisonpostmaster of Miamisburg in 1889, serving about five years.
Emanuel Shultz died at the age of 93 in Miamisburg; he was interred in Hill Grove Cemetery.

Benjamin Aaron
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benjamin Aaron (September 2, 1915 – August 25, 2007) was an Americanattorney, labor law scholar and civil servant. He is known for his work as an arbitrator and mediator, and for helping to advance the development of the field of comparative labor law in the United States.


Early life
Aaron was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Henry and Rose (Weinstein) Aaron, and he was the youngest of five children.[1][2] His mother died of tuberculosis when he was five years old, and his father died soon thereafter of multiple sclerosis. Aaron was brought up by an aunt and uncle.

He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1937.[1][2] Aaron later said he became a lawyer because his father and two uncles had also been attorneys. He decided on practicing labor law after taking a class on the subject in his third year.[2] Aaron received his law degree from Harvard University in 1940. He married the former Eleanor Opsahl, and the couple had two daughters.[1]

Federal service
Aaron served as a mediator with the War Labor Board (WLB) early in World War II.[3]PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt appointed Aaron executive director of the WLB, and he served until the end of 1946.[4][5]
In the immediate post-war period, Aaron served as a conciliator with the United States Conciliation Service and helped settle a number of labor disputes—particularly in California's aircraft industry during the post-war wave of strikes.[4][6] President Harry S. Truman appointed him to be a public member of the Wage Stabilization Board on July 5, 1951.[5][7] He was a strong critic of the Board's case-by-case method of awarding pay increases.[8] During the 1952 steel strike, he played a role as a go-between for the United Steelworkers of America and the Board.[9] President Truman appointed him vice chairman of the Board on May 29, 1952.[10] Aaron was deeply critical of congressional efforts to cut the Board's budget, and declared that Congress should either fully fund the Board's activities or have the courage to legislate the Board out of existence.[11]
Post-war career
Aaron joined UCLA's Institute of Industrial Relations in 1946.[12] He was appointed the Institute's director in 1960 and served until 1975.[1]
In 1960, Aaron was elected a vice president of the National Academy of Arbitrators.[13] He was elected president of the organization in 1962.[1]
Throughout the 1960s, Aaron helped mediate a large number of labor disagreements, including disputes between workers and employers in the transit, railroad transportation, longshore, aerospace, health care, airline and agricultural industries.[2][14] He helped negotiate the first contract between a county and a public employee union in California history in 1968.[15] He later assisted the County of Los Angeles in drafting a public employee collective bargaining ordinance, and served as the mediator during the first contract negotiations between the county and its public employee unions.[16]
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Aaron to the National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress in 1965.[17] As a member of the commission, Aaron studied the effect automation, computer technology and robotics had on patterns of employment, job training and unemployment. The commission's 1966 report called for higher funding of the Job Corps' vocational training programs and concluded that the disruptions caused by technological change would not be as serious as many feared.[18]
The same year, Secretary of LaborW. Willard Wirtz appointed Aaron to a national panel to study the need for reinstating the Bracero Program in order to ease a national agricultural labor shortage. Although the panel recommended relaxation of immigration rules to permit larger numbers of guest workers and Wirtz accepted the plan, Attorney GeneralNicholas Katzenbach overruled Wirtz just a month later and shut the bracero program down.[19]
In 1970, Aaron mediated an end to a five-week strike by 14,000 members of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, AFT, against the Los Angeles Unified School District. Aaron's efforts helped end what is still (as of 2007) the longest teachers' strike in the history of California.[2][20]
At the age of 68, Aaron helped mediate an end to a strike by pilots at Continental Airlines in 1983.[21]
Legal contributions
In 1966, Aaron helped form the Comparative Labor Law Group. Aaron invited prominent labor law scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Germany and Italy to discuss each country's unique approach to labor and industrial relations. Over the next 12 years, the Comparative Labor Law Group produced three books and helped establish the legal discipline of comparative labor law in the United States.[1] Due to his work in the field, Aaron became editor of the Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal. Despite his advanced age, at the time of his death Aaron still served as Senior Editor of the publication.
Aaron was also a strong critic of American labor law. He contended that most judges lack experience in how the modern workplace functions and the specialized nature of labor law, and advocated the creation of "labor courts" to adjudicate employer-union legal disputes. He also argued that the Taft-Hartley Act was deeply flawed, although union members' rights needed additional protection not offered under the National Labor Relations Act, Taft-Hartley, or the Landrum-Griffin Act.[22] In an aricle in the Comparative Labor Law Journal in 1979, Aaron argued that the National Labor Relations Act failed to protect the rights of the vast majority of unorganized workers and advocated major reform of the act.[1][23]

Death
Aaron continued to teach and write into his 90s. He died on August 25, 2007, at UCLA Medical Center from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered in fall.[1][2]

جياكومي بوتشيني

Giacomo Puccini
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini , 22 December 1858 – 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Some of his arias, such as "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi, "Che gelida manina" from La bohème, and "Nessun dorma" from Turandot, have become part of popular culture.

Early life

Puccini was born in Lucca in Tuscany, into a family with five generations of musical history behind them, including composer Domenico Pucccini.

His father died when Giacomo was five years old, and he was sent to study with his uncle Fortunato Magi, who considered him to be a poor and undisciplined student.

Magi may have been prejudiced against his nephew because his contract as choir master stipulated that he would hand over the position to Puccini "as soon as the said Signore Giacomo be old enough to discharge such duties." Puccini took the position of church organist and choir master in Lucca, but it was not until he saw a performance of Verdi's Aida that he became inspired to be an opera composer. He and his brother, Michele, walked 18.5 mi (30 km) to see the performance in Pisa.

In 1880, with the help of a relative and a grant, Puccini enrolled in the Milan Conservatory to study composition with Stefano Ronchetti-Monteviti, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Antonio Bazzini. In the same year, at the age of 21, he composed the Messa, which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca. Although Puccini himself correctly titled the work a Messa, referring to a setting of the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass, today the work is popularly known as his Messa di Gloria, a name that technically refers to a setting of only the first two prayers of the Ordinary, the Kyrie and the Gloria, while omitting the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei.
The work anticipates Puccini's career as an operatic composer by offering glimpses of the dramatic power that he would soon bring forth onto the stage; the powerful "arias" for tenor and bass soloists are certainly more operatic than is usual in church music and, in its orchestration and dramatic power, the Messa compares interestingly with Verdi's Requiem.
While studying at the Conservatory, Puccini obtained a libretto from Ferdinando Fontana and entered a competition for a one-act opera in 1882. Although he did not win, Le Villi was later staged in 1884 at the Teatro Dal Verme and it caught the attention of Giulio Ricordi, head of G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers, who commissioned a second opera, Edgar, in 1889. Edgar failed: it was a bad story and Fontana's libretto was poor. This may have had an effect on Puccini's thinking because when he began his next opera, Manon Lescaut, he announced that he would write his own libretto so that "no fool of a librettist"could spoil it. Ricordi persuaded him to accept Leoncavallo as his librettist, but Puccini soon asked Ricordi to remove him from the project. Four other librettists were then involved with the opera, due mainly to Puccini constantly changing his mind about the structure of the piece. It was almost by accident that the final two, Illica and Giacosa, came together to complete the opera. They remained with Puccini for his next three operas and probably his greatest successes: La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly.
It may well have been the failure of Edgar that made Puccini so apt to change his mind. Edgar nearly cost him his career. Puccini had eloped with the married Elvira Gemignani and Ricordi's associates were willing to turn a blind eye to his life style as long as he was successful. When Edgar failed, they suggested to Ricordi that he should drop Puccini, but Ricordi said that he would stay with him and made him an allowance from his own pocket until his next opera. Manon Lescaut was a great success and Puccini went on to become the leading operatic composer of his day.

Raja Mummtaz Hussain Rathore
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Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore was the 3rd Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir. His tenure as a Prime Minister start from 29 June 1990 to 5 July 1991. He was from the village Pullangi (Dhara Rajgan) Tehsil and District Hevali,(Kahutta) AJK. His father was a landlord.

His father died when Mumtaz Rathore was only five years old.
His mother was a wise lady and provide full support to his son for his basic training and growth. He got his early education from his home town school Plangi and Government Boys High School Soli (Bangharbani) Hevali. Later on he got higher education from various cities Colleges and University of Pakistan i.e. Mirpur, Lahore and Karachi.
He belongs to the Rathore Family of Poonch, which migrated from Indian (Jodhpur) in the 15th century.
He started his political career during his student life by establishing Jammu & Kashmir National Student Federation first time and he was the founder Chairman of the Organization. After completion of his education, he started practice as a lawyer from Abbaspur (Hevali) and later on he was contested election 1970 first time and was elected as AJK Assembly member from Upper Hevali which was comprising from some part of Hajeera, Abbaspur and Upper Hevali on the Ticket of Mumlim Conference. When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto established PPP in Pakistan and met with Raja Mumtaz Husssain Rathore from Kashmiri side. Bhutto sahib invited Mumtaz Hussain Rathore to join PPP immediately and establish PPP in AJK. On Bhutto Sahib request and desire Mumtaz Hussain Rathore Joined PPP and he was the founder member of PPP AJK Chapter. Col. Mansha Khan, Pir Ali Jan Shah and Raja Azad was the friends of Mumtaz Hussain Rathore of that time. Actually Rathore was also very much impressed from the personality of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and agenda of PPP because he was also believe on Democratic set up in Pakistan.
In 1975 election, Mumtaz Rathore was again elected on the ticket of PPP and became the Senior Minister of Khan Abdhul Hameed Khan PPP led Government. Number of other Ministries portfolio held including Finance, Forest, Revenue Minister in addition to his own assignment of Senior Minister in AJK Government. Since, 1970 he was continuously elected as Assembly member of AJK and always remain unbeaten. He was elected as Assembly member 6 times and never been defeated. He served as Prime Minister, Acting President, Speaker, Senior Minister of the state of Azad Jummu and Kashmir assembly. He was a democratic leader and followers of Zulfiqar Ali Bhuto Shaheed. He was never compromised on principles. He served the people of the Kashmir devotedly and with great sincerity. He was a great speaker and people listen his speeches with great desires. Kashmir independent struggle was started during his tenure of Prime ministership 1990-1991. He loved with Kashmiri and wants Kashmir freedom.He always raised his voice for the peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute according to the wishes and aspiration of the people of Kashmir. He highlighted Indian atrocities on Kashmiris during his address to UN and other international forum many times.
He remained President of PPP AJK Chapter and Member CEC of PPP. During Benazir Bhutto leadership, one time, his name was proposed/considered as Centreal Secretary General of PPP Pakistan due to his impressive personality and contribution for PPP. Number of times he has addressed in United Nation by presenting Kashmiri nation.
He was better contributed for the betterment of the depressed people of Kashmir. He gave respect to all segments of society. He was treating all human beings equally and never been nepotised and during his premiership, his door of PM House and Sectt. were always remain open for all public. For this reason the opponent of Rathore also praising Mumtaz Rathore and still praying for him. He was very honest politician of Kashmir. When he died there was no bank balance and other properties found for his family.
He left five sons and five daughters. Their names are Raja Masood Mumtaz Rathore, Raja Mahmood Mumtaz Rathore, Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, Raja Haroon Mumtaz Rathore, Raja Daniyal Mumtaz Rathore. Masood Mumtaz Rathore the eldest son was once elected Assembly member of AJK after the death of Mumtaz Rathore from his native constituency (Hevali AJK. He is still working in PPP AJK. The younger son Raja Faisial Rathore is also actively working for the betterment of the people of Kashmir in order to continue coordination and friendship of his late father.
One first ever details book on the life of prominent Kashmiri leader Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore is also published by Raja Mukhtar Ahmed Rathore (writer) which comprises 500 pages and cover all Rathore family backgrounds/ achievements and services of Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore for the people of Kashmir. One coloured photographs chapter is also included which show the beauty of Rathore personality. Above 50 veteran politician of Pakistan including Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed,Mian Nawaz Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Raja Pervez Ashraf Federal

Roger Mortimer

4th Earl of March
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger de Mortimer, 4th Earl of March and 6th Earl of Ulster (11 April 1374 – 20 July 1398) was the heir presumptive to Richard II of England between 1385 and 1398.
Mortimer was son of the powerful Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, and Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster, Countess of March and Ulster.[2] His mother was the only issue of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault[3]. Thus, Roger Mortimer was Richard II's heir presumptive.
Mortimer's mother died quite early and his father on 27 December 1381, so Mortimer succeeded to his title and estates when only seven years old.

His hereditary influence and position caused him to be appointed to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland on 24 January 1382 His uncle Sir Thomas Mortimer acted as his deputy. This experiment did not work well and Mortimer was replaced by Philip de Courtenay the next year.
Being a ward of the Crown, his guardian was Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, half-brother to Richard II. The Earl of Kent also purchased the rights to choose Mortimer's bride, and on 7 October 1388 married him to his daughter Alianore (Eleanor).[3]
The importance which he owed to his hereditary influence and possessions, and especially to his descent from Edward III, was immensely increased when Richard II publicly acknowledged him as heir presumptive to the crown in 1385[3].

Conflict in Ireland
In 1394 he accompanied Richard II to Ireland, but notwithstanding a commission from the King as lieutenant of the districts over which he exercised nominal authority by hereditary right, he made little headway against the native Irish chieftains. Nevertheless the following year Mortimer was given broader authority as lieutenant of Ireland.
March enjoyed great popularity in England, though he took no active part in opposing the despotic measures of the King.
On 20 July 1398, he was killed at Kells in a fight with an Irish clan, and was buried in Wigmore Abbey.
His titles and the designation of heir presumptive passed to his young son, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.
Children
By his wife Alianore Holland he had four children[4]:
· Anne de Mortimer, married Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge
· Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
· Roger Mortimer (died young c. 1409)
· Eleanor (d. 1418), married Edward de Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon and had no children

Paul Harvey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.
Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009),[1] better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radiobroadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at its peak, at 24 million people a week.[2] Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations and 300 newspapers. His broadcasts and newspaper columns have been reprinted in the Congressional Record more than those of any other commentator.[3]
The most noticeable features of Harvey's folksy delivery were his dramatic pauses and quirky intonations.
His success with sponsors stemmed from the seamlessness with which he segued from his monologue into reading commercial messages. He explained his relationship with them, saying "I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is.


Career
Early years
The son of a policeman,[5] Harvey made radio receivers as a young boy. He attended Tulsa Central High School where a teacher, Isabelle Ronan, was "impressed by his voice." On her recommendation, he started working at KVOO in Tulsa in 1933, when he was 14. His first job was helping clean up. Eventually he was allowed to fill in on the air, reading commercials and the news.[6][7][8]
While attending the University of Tulsa, he continued working at KVOO, first as an announcer, and later as a program director. Harvey spent three years as a station manager for KSAL, a local station in Salina, Kansas. From there, he moved to a newscasting job at KOMA in Oklahoma City, and then to KXOK, in St. Louis, where he was Director of Special Events and a roving reporter.
Harvey then moved to Hawaii to cover the United States Navy as it concentrated its fleet in the Pacific. He was returning to the mainland from assignment when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He eventually enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces but served only from December 1943 to March 1944. His critics[specify] claimed he was given a psychiatric discharge for deliberately injuring himself in the heel. Harvey angrily denied the accusation, but was vague about details: "There was a little training accident...a minor cut on the obstacle course...I don't recall seeing anyone I knew who was a psychiatrist...I cannot tell you the exact wording on my discharge."[9]

Family
Paul Harvey was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Harry Harrison Aurandt (1873–1921) and Anna Dagmar (née Christensen) Aurandt (1883–1960). His father was born in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania; his mother was a native of Denmark. He had one sibling, an older sister Frances Harrietta (née Aurandt) Price (1908–1988).
In 1921, when Harvey was three years old, his father was murdered. He and a friend—a Tulsa police detective—were rabbit hunting while off-duty when approached by four armed men who attempted to rob them. Aurandt was shot and died two days later of his wounds. The four robbers were identified by the surviving detective, and arrested the day after Aurandt died. A lynch mob of 1,500 people formed at the jail, but all four were smuggled out, tried, convicted, and received life terms.[32]
In 1940, Harvey married Lynne Cooper of St. Louis. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Washington University in St. Louis[33] and a former schoolteacher.[34] Harvey himself was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri. They met when Harvey was working at KXOK and Cooper came to the station for a school news program. Harvey invited her to dinner, proposed to her after a few minutes of conversation and from then on called her "Angel," even on his radio show. A year later she said yes. The couple moved to Chicago in 1944.[33]
On May 17, 2007, Harvey told his radio audience that Angel had developed leukemia. Her death, at the age of 92, was announced by ABC radio on May 3, 2008.[35] When she died at their River Forest home, the Chicago Sun-Times described her as, "More than his astute business partner and producer, she also was a pioneer for women in radio and an influential figure in her own right for decades." According to the founder of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Bruce DuMont, "She was to Paul Harvey what Colonel Parker was to Elvis Presley. She really put him on track to have the phenomenal career that his career has been."[36]
Lynne Harvey was the first producer ever inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and had developed some of her husband's best-known features, such as "The Rest of the Story."[33] While working on her husband's radio show, she established 10 p.m. as the hour in which news is broadcast. She was the first woman to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago chapter of American Women in Radio and Television.[35] She worked in television also, and created a television show called Dilemma which is acknowledged as the prototype of the modern talk show genre. While working at CBS, she was among the first women to produce an entire newscast. In later years, she was best known as a philanthropist.[37]
They had one son, Paul Aurandt, Jr., who goes by the name Paul Harvey, Jr. He assisted his father at News and Comment and The Rest of the Story. Paul, Jr., whose voice announced the bumpers into and out of each News and Comment episode, filled in for his father during broadcasts and broadcast the morning editions after the passing of his mother.
Death and tributes
Harvey died on February 28, 2009, at the age of 90 after being taken to a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. He died while surrounded by family and friends.

In May 2009, Regnery Publishing issued a full-length biography of Harvey entitled Good Day! The Paul Harvey Story.[27]
Books
· Autumn of Liberty. Garden City, New York: Hanover House, 1954.
· The Rest of the Story. Garden City, New York: Hanover House, 1956.
· Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor. Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1975.
· Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. ISBN 0-385-12768-5
· More of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. New York: William Morrow, 1980, ISBN 0-688-03669-4
· Destiny: From Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. New York: William Morrow, 1983, ISBN 0-688-02205-7
· Paul Harvey's For What It's Worth. New York: Bantam Books, 1991

Ernest Renan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Ernest Renan (28 February 1823 – 2 October 1892) was a French philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany. He is best known for his influential historical works on early Christianity and his political theories.

Life
Birth and Family
He was born at Tréguier in Brittany to a family of fishermen. His grandfather, having made a small fortune with his fishing-shack, bought a house at Tréguier and settled there, and his father, captain of a small cutter and an ardent republican, married the daughter of a Royalist tradesman from the neighbouring town of Lannion. All his life, Renan felt a conflict between his father's and his mother's political beliefs.

He was five years old when his father died, and his sister, Henriette, twelve years his senior, became the moral head of the household. Having in vain attempted to keep a school for girls at Tréguier, she departed and went to Paris as teacher in a young ladies' boarding-school.

Education
Ernest, meanwhile, was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of his native town. His school reports describe him as "docile, patient, diligent, painstaking, thorough". While the priests taught him mathematics and Latin, his mother completed his education. Renan's mother was half Breton. Her paternal ancestors came from Bordeaux, and Renan used to say that in his own nature the Gascon and the Breton were constantly at odds.
During the summer of 1838, Renan won all the prizes at the college of Tréguier. His sister told the doctor of the school in Paris where she taught about her brother, and he informed FAP Dupanloup, who was involved in organizing the ecclesiastical college of St Nicholas du Chardonnet, a school in which the young Catholic nobility and the most talented pupils of the Catholic seminaries were to be educated together, with the idea of creating friendships between the aristocracy and the priesthood. Dupanloup sent for Renan, who was only fifteen years old and had never been outside Brittany. "I learned with stupor that knowledge was not a privilege of the church ... I awoke to the meaning of the words talent, fame, celebrity." Religion seemed to him wholly different in Tréguier and in Paris. The superficial, brilliant, pseudo-scientific Catholicism[citation needed] of the capital did not satisfy Renan, who had accepted the austere faith of his Breton masters.

Study at Issy-les Moulineaux
During 1840, Renan left St Nicholas to study philosophy at the seminary of Issy-les-Moulineaux. He entered with a passion for Catholic scholasticism. The rhetoric of St Nicholas had wearied him, and his serious intelligence hoped to satisfy itself with the vast and solid material of Catholic theology. Thomas Reid and Nicolas Malebranche first attracted him among the philosophers, and, after these, he turned to GWF Hegel, Immanuel Kant and JG Herder. Renan began to see an essential contradiction between the metaphysics which he studied and the faith he professed, but an appetite for truths that can be verified restrained his scepticism. "Philosophy excites and only half satisfies the appetite for truth; I am eager for mathematics", he wrote to Henriette. Henriette had accepted in the family of Count Zamoyski an engagement more lucrative than her former job. She exercised the strongest influence over her brother.

Study at college of St Sulpice
It was not mathematics but philology which was to settle Renan's gathering doubts. His course completed at Issy, he entered the college of St Sulpice in order to take his degree in philology prior to entering the church, and, here, he began the study of Hebrew. He realized that the second part of Isaiah differs from the first not only in style but in date, that the grammar and the history of the Pentateuch are later than the time of Moses, and that the Book of Daniel is clearly written centuries after the time in which it is set. Secretly, Renan felt himself denied the communion of saints, yet desired to live the life of a Catholic priest. The struggle between vocation and conviction was won by conviction. During October 1845, Renan left St Sulpice for Stanislas, a lay college of the Oratorians. Still feeling too much under the domination of the church, he reluctantly ended the last of his associations with religious life and entered M. Crouzet's school for boys as a teacher.

Scholarly career
Ernest Renan by René de Saint-Marceaux
Renan, educated by priests, was to accept the scientific ideal with an extraordinary expansion of all his faculties. He became ravished by the splendour of the cosmos. At the end of his life, he wrote of Amiel, "The man who has time to keep a private diary has never understood the immensity of the universe." The certitudes of physical and natural science were revealed to Renan during 1846 by the chemist Marcellin Berthelot, then a boy of eighteen, his pupil at M. Crouzet's school. To the day of Renan's death, their friendship continued. Renan was occupied as usher only during evenings. During the daytime, he continued his researches in Semitic philology. During 1847, he obtained the Volney prize, one of the principal distinctions awarded by the Academy of Inscriptions, for the manuscript of his "General History of Semitic Languages." During 1847, he took his degree as Agrégé de Philosophie - that is to say, fellow of the university - and was offered a job as master in the lycée Vendôme.
In 1856, Ernest Renan married in Paris Cornélie Scheffer, daughter of Henry Scheffer and niece of Ary Scheffer, both French painters from Dutch descent. They had two children, Ary Renan, b. in 1858, who became a painter, and Noémi, b. in 1862, who eventually married Jean Psichari.

M. D. Tahir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Muhammad Din Tahir (1942–2008) known as M.D. Tahir was born in 1942 in the small village Takoli, in the district of Ambala.

His mother died a few months after his family's migration to Sargodha in Pakistan in 1947. His father also died when he was only 7-years-old, leaving Tahir and his sister Hashmat as orphans. After the death of their parents, neither orphans had any means of earning money. He started studying under the street lights and sold milk and ice which was useful to earn a little money.

Under these circumstances, Tahir continued his study and graduated from Zamindara College in Gujrat, Punjab, and thereafter attempted for LLB, the law degree in which he succeeded and became a lawyer after passing the LLB exams from Punjab University. He started his practice as a lawyer in 1972 and soon became a prominent lawyer in Pakistan. He was appointed special commissioner to record the statement of the Chief Martial Law Administrator of Pakistan, Yahya Khan, after the end of his regime. Mr. Tahir was the first Pakistani lawyer who moved countless writ petitions in the Lahore High Court Lahore as well as in the Supreme Court of Pakistan for sake of poor people rights. He also moved submissions to the International Court of Justice against cruelties of the war in Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, and around the world. He died on 20 April 2008 of cardiac arrest on Sunday night at the age of 65 in Lahore and buried in the side area of a mosque for which he trusted his land and funded that mosque to be built.

Adolphe Clément-Bayard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustave Adolphe Clément-Bayard, (Gustave Adolphe Clément, Gustavus Adolphus Clément, Gustavus Adolphus Clément-Bayard), (22 September 1855 - 1928) was a French entrepreneur. An orphan who became a blacksmith and a Compagnon du Tour de France, he went on to manufacture bicycles, pneumatic tyres, motorcycles, automobiles, aeroplanes and airships.
In 1894 he was a passenger in the winning vehicle in the world's first motor race. George Lemaitre's Peugot was judged to be the winner of the Paris-Rouen Competition for Horeseless Carriages (Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux).[6][7]
He changed his name to Clément-Bayard five years after the successful launch of the Clément-Bayard automobile brand. It honoured the ChevalierPierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières from an Imperial army during the Siege of Mézières in 1521.[2][8]
Clément-Bayard was appointed a Commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1912.


Personal life
Early life
Adolphe Clément, the son of a grocer, was born at rue du Bourg, Pierrefonds, Oise. He was the second of five children of Leopold Adolphus Clement and Julie Alexandrine Rousselle.

His mother died when he was seven years old and although his father remarried he also died 2 years later when Adolphe was nine years old. For the next seven years he was raised by his stepmother who had remarried a school teacher.

Adolphe studied at the primary school in Pierrefonds and then at the College of Villers-Cotterêts. He worked in the family business by delivering groceries, and at 13 chose to be apprenticed to a farrier/blacksmith.
During the winter of 1871-1872, the 16 year old Adolphe left Pierrefonds to travel around France as a Compagnon du Tour de France, an organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages. He had saved 30 francs (circa 100 Euros in 2006) by doing multiple jobs for three years. He subsisted in each city by working in forges owned by the Compagnons du Tour de France, shoeing horses, repairing metal and doing any kind of work. He reached Paris in 1872 followed by Orléans and Tours where he encountered 'Truffault cycles'. This led him to acquire 2 wooden cart wheels and build an iron bicycle frame.
Cycle racing had begun in 1869 (Paris–Rouen), so in 1873 Truffaut lent the 18 year old Clement an iron bicycle with solid rubber tires to race in Angers. He finished 6th and was exhilarated to read his name in the newspapers.

Motorised cycle manufacture
Clément and Gladiator
From 1895 Clément cycles started to focus on motorized vehicles. In 1895 it introduced its first internal combustion, a naphtha powered tricycle.[6] In 1902 they offered a motorized bicycle with a 142 cc engine that had an automatic inlet valve, an overhead exhaust valve and an external flywheel. The combined oil and petrol tank was behind the saddle and the batteries were stored in a leather case strapped to the horizontal frame tube. This 'motorisation adaptation' was sold on both Clément and Gladiator cycles.[5]
Clément-Garrard
In Britain these popular motorised cycles were known as Clément-Garrards.[5]
Tyre manufacture
In 1889 Clément saw a Dunloppneumatic tyre in London and acquired the French manufacturing rights for 50,000 francs. This success lead to his millionaire status.[5] The company he formed with a capital of 700,000 francs paid 100 per cent dividend in its first year of operation

Rickey Henderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rickey Henley Henderson (born Rickey Nelson Henley, December 25, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former Major League Baseballleft fielder who played for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four stints with his original team, the Oakland Athletics. Nicknamed The Man of Steal, he is widely regarded as the sport's greatest leadoff hitter and baserunner. He holds the major league records for career stolen bases, runs scored, unintentional walks and leadoff home runs. At the time of his last major league game in 2003, the ten-time American League (AL) All-Star ranked among the sport's top 100 all-time home run hitters and was its all-time leader in bases on balls. In 2009, he was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In addition to the career steals record, Henderson also holds the single-season record for stolen bases (130 in 1982) and is the only player in AL history to steal 100 bases in a season, having done so three times. His 1,406 career steals is 50% higher than the previous record of 938 by Lou Brock. Henderson holds the all-time stolen base record for two separate franchises, the Oakland A's and New York Yankees, and was among the league's top ten base stealers in 21 different seasons.
Henderson was named the AL's Most Valuable Player in 1990, and he was the leadoff hitter for two World Series champions: the 1989 Oakland A's and the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. A 12-time stolen base champion, Henderson led the league in runs five times. His 25-year career elevated Henderson to the top ten in several other categories, including career at bats, games, and outfield putouts and total chances. His high on-base percentage, power hitting, and stolen base and run totals made him one of the most dynamic players of his era. He was further known for his unquenchable passion for playing baseball and a buoyant, eccentric and quotable personality that both perplexed and entertained fans.
Once asked if he thought Henderson was a future Hall of Famer, statistician Bill James replied, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers."[5]


Early years
Henderson was born Rickey Nelson Henley, named after singer-actor Ricky Nelson, to John L. and Bobbie Henley on Christmas Day, 1958, in Chicago, in the back seat of an Oldsmobile on the way to the hospital. Henderson later joked, "I was already fast. I couldn't wait. When he was two years old, his father left home, and his family moved to Oakland, California when he was seven. His father died in an automobile accident ten years after leaving home. His mother married Paul Henderson in Rickey Henley's junior high school year and the family adopted the Henderson surname. As a child learning to play baseball in Oakland, Henderson developed the ability to bat right-handed although he was a naturally left-handed thrower — a rare combination for baseball players, especially non-pitchers. In the entire history of Major League Baseball through the 2008 season, only 57 non-pitchers are known to have batted right and thrown left, and Henderson is easily the most successful player in this exclusive group. Henderson later said, "All my friends were right-handed and swung from the right side, so I thought that's the way it was supposed to be done.
In 1976, Henderson graduated from Oakland Technical High School, where he played baseball, basketball and football, and was an All-Americanrunning back with a pair of 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He also ran track, but did not stay with the team as the schedule conflicted with baseball. Henderson received over a dozen scholarship offers to play football, but turned them down on the advice of his mother, who argued that football players had shorter careers. Henderson married his high-school sweetheart, Pamela. They have three children: Angela, Alexis, and Adriann.

John Mytton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Mytton (30 September 1796 - 29 March 1834) was a notable Britisheccentric and Regencyrake.

John "Mad Jack" Mytton was born to a family of Shropshiresquires with a lineage stretching back some 500 years earlier than his day. The surname may have originated as 'Mutton' or be associated with the placename of the village of Mytton near Forton Heath just a few miles to the west of Shrewsbury, upstream on the River Severn. In common with many of his ancestors and his peers in class and privilege, Jack was privately educated but only after expulsion from both Westminster and Harrow. Mytton attempted to serve in both parliament and a cavalry regiment, the 7th Hussars.

His father (also John) died young, at 30, when Jack was but two years of age.
Being the heir he therefore inherited (at age 21) the family seat at Halston Hall, Whittington near Oswestry in Shropshire, worth £60,000 (£4.3 million today [2006]) and an annual income of £10,000 per annum (over £716,000 today [2006]) from rental and agricultural income.

Education
As a young boy, Jack was sent to be educated at Westminster School, but after only one year was expelled for fighting a master. He was then sent to Harrow school but only lasted three days there before being expelled. He was subsequently educated by a disparate series of private tutors whom he tormented with practical jokes including leaving a horse in one tutor's bedroom.
Despite limited educational attainments he was granted a place at Cambridge University, where he arrived with 2,000 bottles of port to sustain him during his studies but left without graduating, finding university life boring. He then embarked on The Grand Tour around Europe's major capital cities and ancient sites.

The Army
On his return from the Grand Tour he was commissioned into the army, joining the 7th Hussars. Their uniform was particularly elaborate and ornate even by the standards of the time. As a young officer, a Cornet, he spent a year with the regiment in France, as part of the occupation army after Napoleon's defeat, gambling and drinking before resigning his commission. He returned to his country seat and the duties and obligations of a country squire in preparation for coming into his full inheritance at 21 years. Once he had inherited he set about spending his inheritance at an unsustainable rate.

Rodolfo Biazon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rodolfo "Pong" Gaspar Biazon (born April 14, 1935) is a politician in the Philippines. He is a former Senator. He was elected Senator in the 1992 election for a term of 3 years. He was elected to his first six-year term in the 1998 election, and was re-elected in the 2004 election. He is now the representative for the lone district of Muntinlupa City.


Early life and career
Biazon was born on April 14, 1935 in Batac City, Ilocos Norte. His father Rufino Biazon, was a doughmaker then, while his mother Juliana Gaspar, was a clotheswasher.

His father died and left him along with his mother and three younger sisters when he was seven years old. At a young age of eight, he and his sisters had already experienced hardship, especially during the Japanese regime. Living in a makeshift shanty in Cavite, they had to peddle food, collected bottles and newspapers, which were later sold in order to earn a living for the family. In spite of their condition, it did not stop him from obtaining his education.
He enrolled as a Grade One student at the age of eleven, in 1946. In order to support his education, and at the same time look for ways to earn money, so he went to school in the morning and worked in the afternoon. He would collect seashells in Manila Bay which were in turn sold at the market. He studied in Jose Rizal Elementary School, Pasay City, for his primary education where he graduated salutatorian. He continued working, washing clothes for other people in order to sustain his high school education at the Jose Abad Santos High School located at the Arellano University, Pasay City in 1955. He also graduated from this school with honors. He stopped doing laundry and instead worked as a laborer in then Highway 54 now known as EDSA, this time to sustain his college education in FEATI where he took mechanical engineering.
He also attended other trainings or schooling which include the TOP Management Program at the Asian Institute of Management; Command and General Staff Course in Quantico, Virginia, U.S.; Crisis Program in California, U.S.; Allied Combat Intelligence Course in Okinawa, Japan; Senior Officer Maintenance Course in Kentucky, U.S.; Amphibious Warfare Course in Quantico, Virginia, U.S. and, Military Instructors in Norfolk, Virginia, United States.[1]
Congressional Career
Senate
He became Senator in the Ninth Congress from 1992 up to 1995. Paul Aquino, the brother of the late SenatorBenigno Aquino, Jr. was the one who convinced him to run for office.
House of Representatives
Biazon ran for the open seat of his son, Ruffy in the lone district in 2010 as he was term-limited. Ruffy also term-limited ran instead for the Senate but lost at fourteenth place. He faced former broadcaster Dong Puno. He was elected with 46% of the vote. His term started on June 30, 2010.

John I. Beggs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Irvin Beggs (September 17, 1847 – October 17, 1925) was an American entrepreneur, industrialist and financier associated closely with the electric utility boom under Thomas Edison. He was also associated with Milwaukee, St. Louis, Missouri and other regional rail and interurbantrolley systems. Beggs is also known for developing modern depreciation techniques for business accounting and for being one of the early directors of what became General Electric.

Youth
John Irvin Beggs was born in Philadelphia on September 17, 1847, the son of James and Mary Irvin Beggs. Both of his parents were of Scottish descent but had emigrated to the United States from Northern Ireland.
His early life was spent around Philadelphia. After his father died when he was seven years old, Beggs worked to support of his mother in a brickyard, as a cattleman, and butcher.
Education
As a young man Beggs taught accounting and handwriting in the Bryant & Stratton Business College in Philadelphia. He went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the age of 21 to work for Mitchell & Haggerty Coal Company as an accountant. He then worked selling real estate and fire insurance in Harrisburg. Beggs joined the Masonic fraternities at Harrisburg and maintained his membership in them until his death.
Electric light industry
When the electric light industry was in its infancy, Beggs assisted organization of the Harrisburg Electric Light Co. He built and managed its plant which was "the first commercially successful electric light plant in the United States". Beggs’ interest in electric lighting arose because he was head of the building committee of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married in Harrisburg to Sue Elizabeth Charles, who died March 14, 1902. the had one child, Mary Grace Beggs.
On account of his success in Harrisburg as an electric plant manager, he was called by J.P. Morgan to New York in 1887 as manager of the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of that city. He remained in New York for about five years during which time he built the Pearl Street Station and 26th Street Station. Pearl Street provided electricity for the first time to Wall Street's stockbrokers. He worked closely with Thomas A. Edison and consequently became one of that small group known as Edison Pioneers. Beggs was one of the Illuminating Company Directors at the meeting when Henry Ford first met Edison and presented his idea for the automobile.
Career
From New York he went to Chicago as Western Manager of Edison Company where he remained until the Edison Company was merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form what is now the General Electric Company.

Director and Officer
At the time of his death, Beggs was an active director or officer of 53 companies, including:
1. North American Edison Company, Director (Now General Electric)
2. The North American Company, Director, Member of Executive Committee
3. Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company, Director, President, Member of Executive Committees
4. Wisconsin Gas & Electric Company, Director, Vice-President
5. Briggs & Stratton Corporation, Director, Chairman Executive Committee
6. St. Louis Car Company, Director, Chairman of Board
7. J. I. Case Plow Works Company, Inc., Director
8. Southern Improvement Company, Director, President
9. First Wisconsin National Bank, Milwaukee, Director, Member of Executive and Finance Committees
10. First Wisconsin Company, Milwaukee, Director
11. Grand & Sixth National Bank, Milwaukee, Director, Member of Executive and Finance Committees
12. First National Bank in St. Louis, Director
13. Milwaukee Northern Railway Company, Director, President
14. Wisconsin Traction, Light, Heat & Power Company, Director, President
15. Peninsular Power Company, Director
16. North American

Bill Sackter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Sackter (April 13, 1913 – June 16, 1983) was a mentally disabled man whose fame as the subject of two television movies helped change national attitudes on persons with disabilities.


Early life
Bill Sackter was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1913, the son of Sam and Mary Sackter, Russian immigrants who ran a grocery store.

When Sackter was 7 years old, his father died from complications of the Spanish Flu. It was 1920, and Bill was having difficulty learning in school, and after taking a mandatory intelligence test, he was classified as "subnormal". The State of Minnesota determined that he would be a "burden on society" so he was placed in the Faribault State School for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic. Sackter never saw his mother or two sisters again, remaining there for the next 44 years. He was diagnosed as mentally retarded, although diagnoses performed decades later would prove his intelligence was near normal. He was never taught to read or write or even how to use a telephone.

Recognition
Sackter was named Handicapped Iowan of the Year in 1976, attending a ceremony in Washington, D.C. President Jimmy Carter gave him special recognition in 1979. Sackter's story was told in two television movies. Bill was presented in December 1981, with Sackter portrayed by Mickey Rooney in a role that brought him an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe. The movie also won an Emmy as outstanding drama special. A sequel, Bill: On His Own, costarring Helen Hunt, was released two years later. Sackter's story is also told in the book The Unlikely Celebrity: Bill Sackter's Triumph Over Disability by Thomas Walz. Sackter died in his sleep in 1983.
A new feature-length documentary, A Friend Indeed - The Bill Sackter Story, was completed in June 2008.[1] Created by filmmaker Lane Wyrick, the documentary explores the life of Sackter using historic photographs, film and video footage, along with interviews with those closest to Bill. Much of the archival footage was taken by Barry Morrow as early as 1972, with Wyrick filming new interviews and recreations and editing the production. A full-orchestral music score was created by composer Peter Bloesch and was recorded by Seattle Music.
The documentary shows how Sackter was allowed to develop as an individual and with the help and attention of many caring individuals, and become an important member of the Iowa City community as proprietor of Wild Bill's Coffee Shop. It also follows his rise in becoming an important national leader that helped forever change society's perception of people with disabilities.
The documentary has been voted the "#1 Audience Favorite" in five film festivals already: The Kansas International Film Festival, Hardacre Film Festival, Omaha Film Festival, Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, and the New Strand Film Festival. It was also screened at the Arc's National Convention in Albuquerque, NM.
The Deluxe Edition DVD was completed in June 2009, with the addition of 2 hours of extra footage, including new footage of Bill Sackter, behind the scenes at the orchestra recording, scenes from the world rremiere, etc. It has also been made available for public screenings so that organizations can be hosts of screening events. There is more information at the BillSackter.com website.

John de Warenne

, 8th Earl of Surrey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


John de Warenne (30 June 1286 – June 1347), 8th Earl of Surrey or Warenne, was the last Warenne earl of Surrey.
He was the son of William de Warenne, the only son of John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey. His mother was Joan, daughter of Robert de Vere, 5th Earl of Oxford.
Warenne was only six months old when his father died, and was 8 years old when his mother died. He succeeded his grandfather as earl when he was 19.
He was one of the great nobles offended by the rise of Edward II's favorite Piers Gaveston, and helped secure Gaveston's 1308 banishment. The two were somewhat reconciled after Gaveston's return the next year, but in 1311 Warenne was one of the nobles who captured Gaveston. He was however unhappy about Gaveston's execution at the behest of the earl of Warwick, which pushed him back into the king's camp.
The baronial opposition was led by the king's cousin Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and he and Warenne became bitter enemies. Private war erupted between the two, and over the new few years Warenne lost a good part of his estates to Lancaster.
Warenne was one of the four earls who captured the two Roger Mortimers, and in 1322 he was one of the nobles who condemned to death the earl of Lancaster.
Warenne and his brother-in-law Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel were the last two earls to remain loyal to Edward II after the rise to power of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. After Arundel's execution he went over to the queen's side, urging Edward II's abdication in 1327.
He was the guardian of his cousin Edward Balliol, and after Balliol lay claim to the Scottish throne, accompanied him on his campaign in Lothian. Balliol created Warenne earl of Strathern, but this was in name only for the properties of the earldom were held by another claimant.
Warenne died in 1347 and is buried at the monastery of Lewes. He was succeeded as earl by his nephew Richard Fitzalan, who was also earl of Arundel.
Family
On 25 May 1306 Warenne married Joan of Bar, daughter of count Henry III of Bar and Eleanor of England, eldest daughter of king Edward I of England. The two were soon estranged and live apart, and had no children, though the marriage was never dissolved.
Warenne instead took up with Matilda de Nerford, by whom he had several illegitimate children, and later with Isabella Holland, sister of Thomas Holland, later earl of Kent.

Heonjong of Joseon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heonjong of Joseon (1827-1849, r. 1834-1849) was the 24th king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. He was the grandson of Sunjo, and his mother was Queen Sinjeong of the Pungyang Jo clan. His father was Prince Munjo, posthumously named Ikjong, who died at the age of 21 before becoming king. Heonjong was born three-years before Ikjong's death. At the age of eight, he rose to the throne, but not to power. The kingdom remained in the hands of the Andong Kims, the family of his grandmother Queen Sunwon. In 1840, power passed to his mother's family, following the anti-Catholic Gihae persecution of 1839.
Heonjong died in 1849 without an heir. He was buried at the Gyeongneung tomb.
As was customary with the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the chronicle of Heonjong's reign was compiled after his death, in 1851. The compilation of the 16-volume chronicle was supervised by Jo In-yeong.


Family
· Father: Crown Prince Hyomyoung(왕세자, 1809-1830)[1]
· Mother: Queen Sinjeong of the Pungyang Jo clan (신정왕후조씨, 1808-1890)[2]
· Consorts:
1. Queen Hyohyeon of the Andong Kim clan (효현왕후김씨)[3][4]
2. Queen Myeongheon of the Hong clan (명헌왕후홍씨)[5]
3. Royal Noble Consrot Gyeong of the Kim clan (경빈김씨)
4. Kim Suk-ui (숙의김씨)
· Issue:
1. A Daughter of Queen

David Alexander Brown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Alexander Brown was a geologist who played an important role in developing the study of Geology in Australia. He was born on 8 February 1916 in Scotland.

His father fought and died at Gallipoli in World War I. His mother took him to New Zealand when he was four years old.

He studied at the University of New Zealand and graduated in 1937 with a Master of Science degree. In 1936 he started work in a field geologist job at the New Zealand Geological Survey. In 1938 he changed jobs, working for the New Zealand Petroleum Exploration Group.
When World War II broke out he first joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and then later the Royal Navy. He took up flying aircraft from aircraft carriers, in the Fleet Air Arm. He was posted to the Barents Sea and North Sea. His highlight was to bomb the German battleship Tirpitz in April 1944 in Altenfjord a Norwegian fjord while flying a Fairey Barracudatorpedo bomber in Operation Tungsten.
He found his wife Patrica in the Women's Royal Naval Service. After the war they lived in London.
Brown was given a post graduate scholarship to study Bryozoa (or Polyzoans) from the Tertiary period in New Zealand. His jobs were at the Imperial College of Science and Technology and the British Museum of Natural History. In 1948 he graduated with a PhD and a DIC, and an award of the Lyell Fund from the Geological Society of London in 1953.[3] He became a world expert on polyzoa, and a good taxonomist.
After this he migrated back to New Zealand and rejoined the New Zealand Geological Survey. The Otago University recruited him as a lecturer in 1950. In 1959 he accepted at job at the Canberra University College as the chair of geology. He set up the geology department, not specialising but employing people with a range of specialities. At various times he was the dean of science, dean of students, and he ensured the library had a good range of journals.
Brown was the president of the Geological Society of Australia. He was skilled at translating Russian to English and wrote a Russian to English dictionary for geoscience.
A Bryzoan species from the Schizoporellidae was named after him, Dakaria dabrowni. A mollusc Mauidrillia browni is named after him.
He had three children and nine grandchildren. He died 3 November 2009 in Sydney.

Publications
· The Tertiary Cheilostomatous Polyzoa of New Zealand published Rudolph William Sabbot January 1952, ISBN 0565000640
· Ore Deposits Of Ussr, Vol. 3 ISBN-13 9780273010395
· The geological evolution of Australia & New Zealand 1968
· Fossil Bryozoa from drill holes on Eniwetok Atoll 1964
· On the polyzoan genus Crepidacantha Levinsen 1954
· Proceedings of Specialists' Meeting held at Canberra, 25-31 May 1968
· The Facies of regional metamorphism at high pressures 1975[1]
· Dannevirke Subdivision maps and bulletin 1953, Montague Ongley, Albert Mathieson Quennell, David Alexander Brown and Arnold Robert Lillie (mapping from 1936 to 1941)
· Te Aute Subdivision, central Hawkes Bay maps and bulletin Jacobus Theodorus Kingma and David Alexander Brown pub 1971
· Fossil cheilostomatous polyzoa from south-west Victoria Melbourne Department of Mines, 1957
· Deep-seated inclusions in kimberlites and the problem of the composition of the upper mantle / by N. V. Sobolev, translation
· A Russian - English Geosciences Dictionary РУССКО – АНГЛИЙСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ: НАУК О ЗЕМЛЕ 2001 Canberra

George Calvert

1st Baron Baltimore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, 8th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland (1579 – 15 April 1632) was an Englishpolitician and coloniser. He achieved domestic political success as a Member of Parliament and later Secretary of State under King James I, though he lost much of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance between Prince Charles and the Spanish royal family. Rather than continue in politics, he resigned all of his political offices in 1625 except for his position on the Privy Council and declared his Catholicism publicly. He was granted the title of 1st Baron Baltimore in the Irish peerage upon his resignation.
Calvert took an interest in the colonisation of the New World, at first for commercial reasons and later to create a refuge for English Catholics. He became the proprietor of Avalon, the first sustained English settlement on the island of Newfoundland. Discouraged by the climate and the sufferings of the settlers there, Calvert looked for a more suitable spot further south and sought a new royal charter to settle the region that was to become the state of Maryland. Calvert died five weeks before the new charter was sealed, leaving the settlement of the Maryland colony to his son Cecilius. His son Leonard Calvert was the first colonial governor of Maryland. Historians have long recognized George Calvert as the founder of Maryland, in spirit if not in fact.


Family and early life
Little is known of the extraction of the Yorkshire Calverts, although at George Calvert's knighting it was claimed that his family originally came from Flanders.[1] Calvert's father, Leonard, was a country gentleman who had achieved some prominence as a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton,[2] and was wealthy enough to marry a gentlewoman, Alicia or Alice Crossland, and establish his family on the estate of Kiplin, near Catterick in Richmondshire, North Yorkshire.[3] George Calvert was born at Kiplin in late 1579.

His mother died on 28 November 1587, when he was eight years old. His father then married Grace Crossland, Alicia's first cousin.

A decade before George was born, Sir Thomas Gargrave had described Richmondshire as a territory where all gentlemen were "evil in religion", by which he meant Roman Catholic; it appears Leonard Calvert was no exception. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the royal government over the church and of compulsory religious uniformity were enacted by parliament and enforced through penal laws.[4] The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity of 1559 included an oath of allegiance to the queen and an implicit denial of the Pope's authority over the church. This oath was required of any common citizen who wished to hold high office, attend university, or take advantage of opportunities controlled by the state.[5]
The Calvert household was not spared the intrusion of the Elizabethan penal laws. From the year of George's birth onwards, Leonard Calvert was subjected to repeated harassment by the Yorkshire authorities, who in 1580 extracted a promise of conformity from him, compelling his attendance at church.[6] In 1592, when George was twelve, the authorities denounced one of his tutors for teaching "from a popish primer" and instructed Leonard and Grace to send George and his brother Christopher to a Protestant tutor, and, if necessary, to present the children before the commission “once a month to see how they perfect in learning”.[6] As a result, the boys were sent to a Protestant tutor called Mr Fowberry at Bilton. Once again, Leonard was obliged to give a bond of conformity; he was also banned from employing Catholic servants and forced to purchase an English Bible, which was to "ly open in his house for everyone to read".
To what extent Leonard's conformity was genuine cannot be determined; but in 1593, records show that Grace Calvert was committed to the custody of a "pursuivant", an official responsible for identifying and persecuting Catholics, and in 1604, she was described as the "wife of Leonard Calvert of Kipling, non-communicant at Easter last". George Calvert went up to Trinity College, Oxford, matriculating in 1593/94, where he studied foreign languages and received a bachelor’s degree in 1597.[3] As the oath of allegiance was compulsory there after the age of sixteen, he would almost certainly have pledged conformity while at Oxford.
The same pattern of conformity, whether pretended or sincere, continued through Calvert’s early life. After Oxford, he moved to London in 1598, where he studied municipal law at Lincoln’s Inn for three years. In November 1604, he married Anne Mynne (or Mayne) in a Protestant ceremony at St Peter’s, Cornhill, where his address was registered as St Martin in the Fields. His children, including his heir, Cæcilius, who was born in the winter of 1605–6, were all baptized as Protestants, and when Anne died on 8 August 1622, she was buried at Calvert’s local Protestant church, St Martin in the Fields.

Political success
Calvert named his son Cecilius for Sir Robert Cecil,[9][10] spymaster to Queen Elizabeth, whom Calvert had met during an extended trip to Europe between 1601 and 1603,[3] after which he became known as a specialist in foreign affairs. Calvert carried a packet for Cecil from Paris, and so entered the service of the principal engineer of James VI of Scotland’s succession to the English throne in 1603.[7] James was keen to reward Cecil, whom he made a privy councillor and secretary of state, earl of Salisbury in 1605, and in 1608 Lord High Treasurer, making him the most powerful man at the royal court.[7] And as Cecil rose, Calvert rose with him. Calvert’s foreign languages, legal training, and discretion made him an invaluable aide to Cecil, who, no lover of Catholics,[8] seems to have accepted Calvert’s conformity as beyond question. Working at the centre of court politics, Calvert exploited his influence by selling favours, an accepted practice for the times.[11] One by one, Calvert accumulated a number of small offices, honours, and sinecures. In August 1605, he attended the king at Oxford, and received an honorary master-of-arts degree in an elaborate ceremony at which the Duke of Lennox, the Earls of Oxford and Northumberland, and Cecil received degrees.[12] Given the prestige of the other graduates, Calvert's was the last awarded, but his presence in such company signalled his growing stature.

Louis Bettcher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louis A. Bettcher, Jr. (May 7, 1914 – December 14, 1999) was an inventor and pioneering manufacturer of handheld powered circular knives used in the meat processing industry. He was the founder and president of Bettcher Industries, Inc., a worldwide manufacturer of precision cutting and trimming tools for meat processing and industrial applications.



Early years
Louis Andrew Bettcher, Jr. was born May 7, 1914 in Electra, Texas.

His father, Louis A. Bettcher, Sr., who died when Louis was 8 years old, was a Church of Christ preacher who had studied engineering before switching to the ministry.
His mother, Cora Lee Hall Bettcher, who lived to the age of 93, was a school teacher and lecturer. From the age of eight through his high school years, he was raised in the town of Elyria, Ohio.
He worked on truck farms doing general farming, butchering and blacksmithing until he graduated from high school in 1931. In 1932, Bettcher hitchhiked to the state of Arizona where he worked as a cowboy. He was also a woodcutter, a hard rock miner, and a laborer building mule trains used at the Grand Canyon.
Returning to Elyria in 1936, Bettcher was employed as an apprentice tool and die maker. He also started taking night courses at Fenn College (now Cleveland State University). During 12 years of night school, he studied machine tool design, metallurgy and business. Throughout his life, he had a fascination with how things work and how they could work better, which led him to design, engineer and manufacture machinery and tools that became commercial successes. In a 1988 newspaper interview, Bettcher stated, “Even as a child, everyone called me an inventor.” [2]
First years in business
At the age of 29, Bettcher established Bettcher Dieweld Company with a starting capital investment of $800. Founded in 1944, the business was a small machine shop located in the meatpacking district on Cleveland’s West Side. The company’s first products were jigs, fixtures, tools, dies and special machinery. “I made $883 profit my first week, but there were also tough times. I believed in myself, so I didn’t give up when times got rough,” he would later recall.[3]
During World War II, it was nearly impossible for the meat processing plants operating in the area to purchase new equipment. Because the company was located near several meat processing plants, Bettcher Dieweld was called upon to keep the old machinery running through repairs and maintenance.
During one of these repair visits, Bettcher was told that if just a few ounces of meat on a carcass could be saved instead of lost to scrap, it could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of increased yield and profits each year. With this knowledge as his inspiration, Bettcher invented and began to manufacture new machinery as World War II ended. One such tool was the Bettcher Carcass Splitter, a highly efficient band saw.
Invention of handheld powered meat trimmers
In 1954, Bettcher invented a handheld powered circular knife and introduced it to meat processing plants. Originally called the “Dumbutcher,” this name was quickly dropped in favor of the more appealing “Whizard®” brand name. Today there are thousands of Whizard® trimmers in use throughout the world, and the company, today named Bettcher Industries, Inc., is a leading worldwide manufacturer of precision cutting and trimming tools for the meat processing industry and industrial applications.
Bettcher’s inquisitive mind and innovative approach to precision equipment design resulted in more than 400 patents to his name.[4]
Later years
Bettcher led Bettcher Industries until 1986 and retired as chairman of the board in 1987. He remained on the company’s board of directors until his death in 1999. In addition to his business activities, he was involved in the community. He was an active supporter of the Boy Scouts and received the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award in 1988. He and his family also endowed the Bettcher Convocation Center at Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgeville, Ohio, established as a center for educators, religious leaders and philosophers to study complex ethical and moral issues.
In a 1969 newspaper interview, Bettcher spoke of how his own father had advised him “not to work or try to create things solely for the love of money. Do it with the thought in mind of how much good you can do for the most people. This opens up the creative channels.” [5]
Louis Bettcher died on December 14, 1999 at the age of 85

Thomas Kayalackakom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


J Thomas Kayalackakom (1884–1968) was a politician and public figure of the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin State of pre-independent India (which became part of Kerala after India's independence). He was an elected member of the Sree Moolam Popular Assembly, one of the earliest popularly-elected legislatures on the Indian sub-continent.

He was born on April 8, 1888 in Palai, a small town in the central part of Travancore. His father died when he was nine years old, and after that he grew up under the guardianship of his paternal uncle Augusti Mathai. He was also inspired and guided by his elder brother Joseph Augusti.

He started political and social activities at a young age. In 1913, he started a literary magazine by name "Vijnaana Rathnaakaram", with Mahakavi (Great Poet) Kattakayam Cherian Mappillai as Editor, the second literary magazine of Travancore, and one of the early such publications in Malayalam language.
In 1922, he was elected a member of 50-member Sree Moolam Popular Assembly. The Assembly had 28 elected members and 22 nominated members. He served the Assembly for 3 terms. He was also the first chairman of the local Village Union, the forerunner of Panchayat & Municipality. In 1927, he was instrumental in holding in Palai the first all Kerala catholic conference, as part of organising on a state-wide basis, the All Kerala Catholic Congress, which was formed in 1918.
In the early 1930s, he set up of one of the first brick-making units of central Travancore, and also pioneered backwater-farming by reclaiming land, in the backwaters near Vaikom. He was in the fore-front developing large plantations in Mangulam, Vaalakom, Nellappara, Mannamkandom etc. In 1943, together with his elder brother, he oversaw the public-issue of the 2,800-acre (11 km2) Mysore Plantations Limited, the State’s first plantation-public-issue. In 1946, he along with two of his cousins started "Kayalackakom Company" Cochin, the first stock & share brokers' firm in the state.
He was very popular and influential in political and social circles. He donated land from his property to the Kadappattoor Temple in Palai for building a foot bridge over the Meenachil River for the benefit of devotees. He died on February 27, 1972.

John Woodcock Graves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Woodcock Graves (9 February 1795 – 17 August 1886) was a composer and author of "D'ye ken John Peel".
Graves was born in Wigton, Cumberland, England, the son of Joseph Graves, a plumber, glazier and ironmonger and his wife Ann, née Matthews.

His father died when he was nine years old and he had comparatively little education. At 14 he began to work for an uncle in Cockermouth who was a house, sign, and coach painter, but he learnt little from him.

He owed more to an old bachelor, Joseph Falder, a friend of John Dalton the scientist. Graves afterwards said of Falder "he fixed in me a love of truth, and bent my purpose to pursue it". Graves did some drawing, and at one time wished to study art, but his circumstances did not allow of this, and he became a woollen miller at Caldbeck. There he was friendly with John Peel (1776-1854), with whom he hunted. He was sitting in his parlour one evening with Peel when Graves's little daughter came in and said, "Father what do they say to what granny sings?" "Granny was singing to sleep my eldest son with a very old rant called 'Bonnie (or Cannie) Annie'. The pen and ink being on the table, the idea of writing a song to this old air forced itself upon me, and thus was produced, impromptu, 'D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so grey'. . . . I well remember saying in a joking style, 'By jove, Peel you'll be sung when we're both run to earth'."[1][2]
Graves neglected his woollen mills and lost a court case concerning it. Graves left for Tasmania, and arrived at Hobart in 1833 with his wife and four children, and about £10 in his pocket. Except for a short period at Sydney he remained in Tasmania for the rest of his life. Graves was inventive and "brought to considerable perfection several machines--especially one for preparing the New Zealand flax". His fortunes varied but he was able to give his children a good education. His eldest son, his namesake, became a well-known Hobart barrister but died before his father, and another son in business in Hobart looked after him in his last days. Graves died at Hobart. He was married twice: firstly to Jane Atkinson and secondly to Abigail Porthouse. There were eight children of the second marriage, of whom at least one son and a daughter survived him. In 1958 a memorial to him was erected in St David's Park. Sidney Gilpin's The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland includes six poems by Graves]

Pir Ilahi Bux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Pir Ilahi Bux or Pir Ilahi Buksh (Urdu: پیر الہی بخش ) was born at Pir Jo Goth near Bhansyedabad in 1890 in a spiritual family of Dadu District, Sindh, Pakistan. He was only 9 years of age when his father Pir Nawaz Ali Shah died. He was brought up by his maternal uncle Pir Lal Muhammad. His family was a descendant of Makhdoom Moosa, 5th son of Hazrat Makhdoom Sarwar Nooh.



Education
Pir Sahib got his primary education from the Government Primary School Bhansyedabad and did his matriculation from Naz High School, Khairpur (Mirs). Thereafter, he went to Aligarh Muslim University for his higher education. He was the first member of his family who received higher education. Deeply moved by the Khilafat Movement, led by Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar, he soon left Aligarh Muslim University and joined Jamia Millia Islamia headed by Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar and did his B.A. from there. But this Degree was not recognised by the British Government. He was so deeply motivated by the Khilafat Movement and the struggle for the freedom of the MuslimUmmah that he left his studies and returned to Sindh as a leader of Khilafat Movement.
On the suppression of the Khilafat Movement by the British Government, Pir Sahib was advised by Late Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, the then President, District Local Board, Larkana to go back to Aligarh for completing his studies. He also awarded him scholarship of the District Board for pursuing his educational career.
Pir Sahib acceded to the advice of Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto and proceeded to Aligarh Muslim University from where he did his M.A. in History and thereafter obtained his degree in Bachelor of Law. Pir Sahib soon returned to Larkana and started his legal practice there as Dadu was part of Larkana district in those times.
Politics
After finishing his education he started taking part in politics, He was elected member of Sindh Legislative Assembly in 1937 in the election held under the 1935 Act. He got elected again by defeating influential landlords and Zamindars of that time.
Pir Ilahi Bux founded the Sindh United Front which aimed at separating Sindh from Bombay Presidency which ultimately contributed significantly toward the establishment of Sindh as a separate province.
Pir Ilahi Bux was inducted in Sindh Cabinet headed by late Khan Bahadur Allah Bux Soomro and was given the portfolio of Education besides other Departments. Pir Ilahi Bux remained Education Minister for ten years.
Pir Ilahi Bux having been deeply inspired by Quaid-e-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah, soon joined Muslim League and became one of his most trusted Lieutenants. He was an indefatigable fighter for education in Sindh and strived hard to introduce adult education and compulsory primary education in every nook and corner of the province.
Having been deeply committed to the cause of education, he steered Sindh University Act in the Sindh Assembly and got it through. Quaid-e-Azam was deeply moved by this act of Pir Illahi Bux and personally donated Rs. 150,00OI-towards the University at that time.
Pir Ilahi Bux was one of the pioneers of S.M. College and remained as the President of Sindh Madressah Board for years together.
In 1948, he was nominated the Chief Minister of Sindh province by Quaid-e-AzamMuhammad All Jinnah. Pir Sahib was always proud to have been nominated as the Chief Minister of Sindh by no less than the Quaid-e-Azam himself. He was also the founder of Sindh University and was the prime mover of the establishment of Urdu College, Karachi.
Pir Ilahi Bux was deeply perturbed over the mass influx of Muslim refugees from India during the early period of the independence of Pakistan and initiated a number of moves for the settlement of refugees in Sindh. He established the famous Pir Ilahi Buksh Colony in Karachi towards the end in 1948.
He was also instrumental in inviting eminent educationists from Aligarh Muslim University, his alma mater, to serve the Muslims of Pakistan by appointing them in the Sindh University. One of such personalities was Professor A. B. A. Haleem from the Aligarh Muslim University, who was appointed by him as the first Vice Chancellor of Sindh University.
Pir Ilahi Bux died on October 8, 1975 leaving behind him 5 sons and 2 daughters. The names of the sons are Pir Muhammad Nawaz, Pir Shahnawaz, Pir Abdul Majeed, Pir Abdul Hameed and Pir Abdul Rasheed. His grandson Pir Mazhar Ul Haq Shahnawaz Advocate succeeded him in Pplitics and remained member of the Provincial assembly of Sindh and remained Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs in Sindh.
His great grand daughter Ms Marvi Mazhar is currently the member of the Sindh Legislative Assembly from the same constantuency in Dadu, The first ever directly elected woman from the district, His great grandson Barrister Mujeeb-Ul-Haq Pir is practising Law in his chambers at PIB Law Associates in Dadu.
Books
· Pioneers of Freedom (1997)
See also
· Pakistan
· Politics of Pakistan
· Chief Minister of Sindh
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Cardinal Richelieu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu (French pronunciation: [ʁiʃəljø]; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642) was a Frenchclergyman, noble, and statesman.
Consecrated as a bishop in 1608, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a Cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, whose career he fostered.
The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister" or "First Minister." As a result, he is considered to be the world's first Prime Minister, in the modern sense of the term. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-SpanishHabsburg dynasty, and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years War. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.
Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; most notably, he founded the Académie Française, the learned society responsible for matters pertaining to the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet l'Éminence rouge ("the Red Eminence"), from the red shade of a cardinal's clerical dress and the style "eminence" as a cardinal.
As an advocate for Samuel de Champlain and of the retention of Quebec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and saw the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye return Quebec City to French rule under Champlain, after the settlement had been captured by the Kirkes in 1629. This in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of Francophone culture in North America.
He is also a leading character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père and its subsequent film adaptations, portrayed as a main antagonist, and a powerful ruler, even more powerful than the King himself, though events like the Day of the Dupes show that in fact he very much depended on the King's confidence to keep this power.


Early life
Born in Paris, Armand du Plessis was the fourth of five children and the last of three sons: he was delicate from childhood, and suffered frequent bouts of ill-health throughout his life. His family, although belonging only to the lesser nobility of Poitou,[1] was somewhat prominent: his father, François du Plessis, seigneur de Richelieu, was a soldier and courtier, who served as the Grand Provost of France; his mother, Susanne de La Porte, was the daughter of a famous jurist.
When he was five years old, his father died fighting in the French Wars of Religion, leaving the family in debt; with the aid of royal grants, however, the family was able to avoid financial difficulties. At the age of nine, young Richelieu was sent to the College of Navarre in Paris to study philosophy.[5] Thereafter, he began to train for a military career.[6] His private life seems to have been typical of a young officer of the era: in 1605, aged twenty, he was treated by Theodore de Mayerne for gonorrhea.[7]
King Henry III had rewarded Richelieu's father for his participation in the Wars of Religion by granting his family the bishopric of Luçon.[8] The family appropriated most of the revenues of the bishopric for private use; they were, however, challenged by clergymen, who desired the funds for ecclesiastical purposes. In order to protect the important source of revenue, Richelieu's mother proposed to make her second son, Alphonse, the bishop of Luçon.[9] Alphonse, who had no desire to become a bishop, became instead a Carthusian monk.[10] Thus, it became necessary that the younger Richelieu join the clergy. He had strong academic interests, and threw himself into studying for his new post.
In 1606 King Henry IV nominated Richelieu to become Bishop of Luçon.[11] As Richelieu had not yet reached the official minimum age, it was necessary he journey to Rome for a special dispensation from the Pope. This secured, Richelieu was consecrated bishop in April, 1607. Soon after he returned to his diocese in 1608, Richelieu was heralded as a reformer.[12] He became the first bishop in France to implement the institutional reforms prescribed by the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563.[13]
At about this time, Richelieu became a friend of François Leclerc du Tremblay (better known as "Père Joseph" or "Father Joseph"), a Capuchin friar, who would later become a close confidant. Because of his closeness to Richelieu, and the grey colour of his robes, Father Joseph was also nicknamed l'Éminence grise ("the Grey Eminence"). Later, Richelieu often used him as an agent during diplomatic negotiations.[14]

Rise to power

The young King Louis XIII was only a figurehead during his early reign; power actually rested with his mother, Marie de Médicis.
In 1614, the clergymen of Poitou demanded Richelieu to be one of their representatives to the States-General.[15] There, he was a vigorous advocate of the Church, arguing that it should be exempt from taxes and that bishops should have more political power. He was the most prominent clergyman to support the adoption of the decrees of the Council of Trent throughout France;[16] the Third Estate (commoners) was his chief opponent in this endeavour. At the end of the assembly, the First Estate (the clergy) chose him to deliver the address enumerating its petitions and decisions.[17] Soon after the dissolution of the Estates-General, Richelieu entered the service of King Louis XIII's wife, Anne of Austria, as her almoner.[18]
Richelieu advanced politically by faithfully serving the Queen's favourite, Concino Concini, the most powerful minister in the kingdom.[19] In 1616, Richelieu was made Secretary of State, and was given responsibility for foreign affairs.[20] Like Concini, the Bishop was one of the closest advisors of Louis XIII's mother, Marie de Médicis. The Queen had become Regent of France when the nine-year old Louis ascended the throne; although her son reached the legal age of majority in 1614, she remained the effective ruler of the realm.[21] However, her policies, and those of Concini, proved unpopular with many in France. As a result, both Marie and Concini became the targets of intrigues at court; their most powerful enemy was Charles de Luynes.[22] In April 1617, in a plot arranged by Luynes, King Louis XIII ordered that Concini be arrested, and killed should he resist; Concini was consequently assassinated, and Marie de Médicis overthrown.[23] His patron having died, Richelieu also lost power; he was dismissed as Secretary of State, and was removed from the court.[24] In 1618, the King, still suspicious of the Bishop of Luçon, banished him to Avignon. There, Richelieu spent most of his time writing; he composed a catechism entitled L'Instruction du chrétien.[25]
In 1619, Marie de Médicis escaped from her confinement in the Château de Blois, becoming the titular leader of an aristocratic rebellion. The King and the duc de Luynes recalled Richelieu, believing that he would be able to reason with the Queen. Richelieu was successful in this endeavour, mediating between her and her son.[26] Complex negotiations bore fruit when the Treaty of Angoulême was ratified; Marie de Médicis was given complete freedom, but would remain at peace with the King. The Queen was also restored to the royal council.
After the death of the King's favourite, the duc de Luynes, in 1621, Richelieu began to rise to power quickly. Next year, the King nominated Richelieu for a cardinalate, which Pope Gregory XV accordingly granted on 19 April 1622.[27] Crises in France, including a rebellion of the Huguenots, rendered Richelieu

Reek da Villian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tariek Williams (Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, United States), better known as Reek da Villian, is an Americanrapper and former member of the rap group Flipmode Squad.[1][2]


Early life
Tariek Williams was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York. He was the third born of four siblings. As a kid he found his pleasure in music, dancing and sports. Williams started rapping at 7 years old after watching and listening to his older cousins.
His father died while he was incarcerated when Williams was only 9 years old. While growing up, he idolized his older brother and cousins. That’s where he first encountered with rapping.
Williams first started recording music at 15 years of age in his cousin's studio in Freeport, New York. His first song ever recorded was called "Bodies On The Tongue" where he talks about verbally murdering MC’s. After proving his skills to his older cousin Ike T & Belly Val (of I.G.T.) who had a record deal under Steve Rifkind’s Loud Records in 1999, they chose to make Reek an understudy of the group. Williams stated;
I Remember being in I.G.T.’s first studio session at the legendary Chung King Studio In Manhattan, New York. I freestyled for A&R’s Scott Free, Matty C, and Shawn C currently of Grind Music Productions. After rapping for them for hours, they all fell in love with my flow and spoke of signing me.
Due to bad management, nothing ever went through. In 2002, Williams founded C.O.E. (Cash Out Entertainment) with Brian Gilmore and Ike T. In 2003, he was incarcerated for possession of a loaded firearm, where he spent the next year in Nassau County Correctional Facility (NCCF).
Flipmode Entertainment
After serving his year, Tariek Williams was released in 2004 where he got back in the studio. He recorded for the next two years until he ran into his big break in 2006, where he met rapper Busta Rhymes at a mixtape/clothing store called Central Station in Uniondale, New York (Now Baldwin, New York). Williams explained:
I had just came back from Jamaica Ave and I stopped at Central Station to get a T-shirt. I seen Belly Val of I.G.T. talking to Busta and he called me over to rap for him. After rhyming for 5 Minutes straight, Busta stop me from rhyming and asked for my number. Two days later he called me and told me that I was Flipmode if anybody asked me, and it been on ever since.
Reek continued to release a serie of mixtapes, but his first big look was on the official remix of Busta Rhymes' "Don't Touch Me (Throw da Water on 'em)". Soon after he appeared on BET’s Rap City with The Game, Busta Rhymes, Tre Beatz and DJ Sratchator. Then a week later, he made an appearance on 106 & Park to perform with Flipmode Squad. Williams affirmed:
Coming out to perform in front of all those fans, and to have the ladies react the way they did was overwhelming. Furthermore, it put a stamp on my stardom and showed just how far I’ve come. Now my dreams are reality so look forward to hearing a whole lot of Reek da Villian in the near future.
. Williams left Flipmode in February 2009, because of business reasons.

In late 2010, Williams (Reek da Villian) once again reappeared back on the Hip hop scene. Collaborating with Busta Rhymes and Swizz Beats for the Song/Music Video titled: Mechanics.

Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552) was a pioneering Roman Catholicmissionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who dedicated themselves to the service of God at Montmartre in 1534.[1] He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India.

Early life
The castle of the Xavier family was later acquired by the Company of Jesus and reconstructed.
Francis Xavier was born in the family castle of Xavier, Spain (Xabier, toponymic name whose origin comes from "etxaberri" meaning "new house" in Basque) in the Kingdom of Navarre on 7 April 1506 according to a family register. He was born to an aristocratic family of Navarre, the youngest son of Juan de Jaso, privy counsellor to King John III of Navarre (Jean d'Albret), and Doña Maria de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families. He was thus related to the great theologian and philosopher Martín de Azpilcueta. Following the Basque surname custom of the time, he was named after his toponym[citation needed]; his name is written Francisco de Xavier (Latin Xaverius) in the Spanish literary tradition. Notwithstanding different interpretations on his first language, no evidence suggests that Xavier's mother tongue was other than Basque, as stated by himself and confirmed by the sociolinguistic environment of the time, while he may have got in touch with Romance early due to the social status of his family, close to the royalty.
Joint Castilian and Aragonese troops commanded by Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, second Duke of Alba conquered the Kingdom of Navarre in 1512. After a failed French-Navarrese attempt to reconquer the kingdom in (1516), in which Saint Francis' brothers had taken part, the outer wall, the gates and two towers of the family castle were demolished, the moat was filled, the height of the keep was reduced in half, and land was confiscated. Only the family residence inside the castle was left.
Francis' father died in 1515 when he was only nine years old.
In 1525 Francis Xavier went to study at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris. There he met Ignatius of Loyola, who became his faithful companion, and Pierre Favre. While at the time he seemed destined for academic success in the line of his noble family, Xavier turned to a life of Catholic missionary service. Together with Loyola and five others, he founded the Society of Jesus: on the 15 August 1534, in a small chapel in Montmartre, they made a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience, and also vowed to convert the Muslims in the Middle East (or, failing this, carry out the wishes of the Pope). Francis Xavier went, with the rest of the members of the newly papal-approved Jesuit order, to Venice, Italy, to be ordained to the priesthood, which took place on 24 June 1537. Towards the end of October, the seven companions reached Bologna, where they worked in the local hospital. After that, he served for a brief period in Rome as Ignatius' secretary.
Missionary work
Francis Xavier devoted much of his life to missions in foreign countries. In 1540, after successive appeals to the Pope asking for missionaries for the Portuguese East Indies under the Padroado agreement, King John III of Portugal named Francis Xavier to take charge as Apostolic Nuncio. He had been enthusiastically endorsed by Diogo de Gouveia, who was his teacher at the Collège Sainte-Barbe and advised the king to draw the youngsters of the newly formed Society of Jesus. He left Lisbon on 7 April 1541 along with two other Jesuits and the new ViceroyMartim Afonso de Sousa, on board the Santiago. From August of that year until March, 1542, he remained in Mozambique then reached Goa, the capital of the then Portuguese Indian colonies on May 6, 1542, where the King believed that Christian values were eroding among the colonists. There he spent the following three years.
On 20 September 1543, he left for his first missionary activity among the Paravas, pearl-fishers along the east coast of southern India, North of Cape Comorin (or Sup Santaz). He lived in a sea cave in Manapad, intensively catechizing Paravar children for three months in 1544. He then focused on converting the king of Travancore to Christianity and also visited Ceylon (now named Sri Lanka). Dissatisfied with the results of his activity, he set his sights eastward in 1545 and planned a missionary journey to Makassar on the island of Celebes (today's Indonesia).
As the first Jesuit in India, Francis had difficulty procuring success for his missionary trips. Instead of trying to approach Christianity through the traditions of the local religion and creating a nativised church as the Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, did in China, he was eager for change[citation needed]. His successors, such as de Nobili, Ricci, and Beschi, attempted to convert the noblemen first as a means to influence more people, while Francis had initially interacted most with the lower classes (later though, in Japan, Francis changed tack by paying tribute to the Emperor and seeking an audience with him).[7] However Francis' mission was primarily, as ordered by King John III, to restore Christianity among the Portuguese settlers. Many of the Portuguese sailors had had illegitimate relationships with Indian women; Francis struggled to restore moral relations, and catechized many illegitimate children.[citation needed]
After arriving in Portuguese Malacca in October of that year and waiting three months in vain for a ship to Makassar, he gave up the goal of his voyage and left Malacca on 1 January 1546, for Ambon Island where he stayed until mid-June. He then visited other Maluku Islands including Ternate and Morotai. Shortly after Easter, 1546, he returned to Ambon Island and later Malacca.
Voyages of St. Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier's work initiated permanent change in eastern Indonesia, and he was known as the 'Apostle of the Indies' where in 1546-1547 he worked in the Maluku Islands among the people of Ambon, Ternate, and Morotai (or Moro), and laid the foundations for a permanent mission. After he left the Maluku Islands, others carried on his work and by the 1560s there were 10,000 Catholics in the area, mostly on Ambon. By the 1590s there were 50,000 to 60,000.[8]
In Malacca in December, 1547, Francis Xavier met a Japanese from Kagoshima named Anjiro. Anjiro had heard from Francis in 1545 and had travelled from Kagoshima to Malacca with the purpose of meeting with him. Having been charged with murder, Anjiro had fled Japan. He told Francis extensively about his former life and the customs and culture of his beloved homeland. Anjiro helped Xavier as a mediator and translator for the mission to Japan that now seemed much more possible. "I asked [Anjiro] whether the Japanese would become Christians if I went with him to this country, and he replied that they would not do so immediately, but would first ask me many questions and see what I knew. Above all, they would want to see whether my life corresponded with my teaching."[citation needed]
He returned to India in January 1548. The next 15 months were occupied with various journeys and administrative measures in India. Then, due to displeasure at what he considered un-Christian life and manners on the part of the Portuguese which impeded missionary work, he travelled from the South into East Asia. He left Goa on 15 April 1549, stopped at Malacca and visited Canton. He was accompanied by Anjiro, two other Japanese men, the father Cosme de Torrès and Brother João Fernandes. He had taken with him presents for the "King of Japan" since he was intending to introduce

John Woodcock Graves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Woodcock Graves (9 February 1795 – 17 August 1886) was a composer and author of "D'ye ken John Peel".
Graves was born in Wigton, Cumberland, England, the son of Joseph Graves, a plumber, glazier and ironmonger and his wife Ann, née Matthews.
His father died when he was nine years old and he had comparatively little education.
At 14 he began to work for an uncle in Cockermouth who was a house, sign, and coach painter, but he learnt little from him. He owed more to an old bachelor, Joseph Falder, a friend of John Dalton the scientist. Graves afterwards said of Falder "he fixed in me a love of truth, and bent my purpose to pursue it". Graves did some drawing, and at one time wished to study art, but his circumstances did not allow of this, and he became a woollen miller at Caldbeck. There he was friendly with John Peel (1776-1854), with whom he hunted. He was sitting in his parlour one evening with Peel when Graves's little daughter came in and said, "Father what do they say to what granny sings?" "Granny was singing to sleep my eldest son with a very old rant called 'Bonnie (or Cannie) Annie'. The pen and ink being on the table, the idea of writing a song to this old air forced itself upon me, and thus was produced, impromptu, 'D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so grey'. . . . I well remember saying in a joking style, 'By jove, Peel you'll be sung when we're both run to earth'."[1][2]
Graves neglected his woollen mills and lost a court case concerning it. Graves left for Tasmania, and arrived at Hobart in 1833 with his wife and four children, and about £10 in his pocket. Except for a short period at Sydney he remained in Tasmania for the rest of his life. Graves was inventive and "brought to considerable perfection several machines--especially one for preparing the New Zealand flax". His fortunes varied but he was able to give his children a good education. His eldest son, his namesake, became a well-known Hobart barrister but died before his father, and another son in business in Hobart looked after him in his last days. Graves died at Hobart. He was married twice: firstly to Jane Atkinson and secondly to Abigail Porthouse. There were eight children of the second marriage, of whom at least one son and a daughter survived him. In 1958 a memorial to him was erected in St David's Park. Sidney Gilpin's The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland includes six poems by Graves.[1][2]

Henry Dalzell
8th Earl of Carnwath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Dalzell, 8th Earl of Carnwath was born 12 April 1858 in Baden-Wurttemberg, the only child of Thomas Henry Dalzell, 7th Earl of Carnwath and Isabella Eliza Wilmot. He succeeded to his father's title upon the latter's death in 1867. In January 1873, it was reported that fourteen years of age Carnwath was the youngest Earl in Britain.
He died 13 March 1873 of measles at Harrow where he was a student.
He was succeeded by his father's younger brother Arthur Alexander Dalzell, 9th Earl of Carnwath

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.

Rodolphe Wytsman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rodolphe Paul Marie Wytsman (born Dendermonde, March 11, 1860 - died Linkebeek, November 2, 1927) was a BelgianImpressionist painter.[1]
He trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he was one of the founding members of Les XX.


Origin
Rodolphe Wytsman was the son of Klemens Wytsman (Dendermonde, 1825–1870), a man of Austrian origin who was notary and ships in his hometown, and Emma-Maria Cockuyt (Ghent, c. 1838). Wytsman married in 1886 Juliëtte Trullemans (Juliëtte Wytsman) (Brussels, 1866 Elsene, 1925), also painter. They lived successively in the 1922 Education Street (c. 1881), Van Dyck Street, 1914 (1884), Neuchâtelstraat, 1917 (1885), Priëelstraat, 6 (1888) and later in the Keyenveldstraat 26, 1939, in Brussels.
Early life
He grew up in a cultured environment: his father was - apart from the care of his notary - a meritorious numismatist, historian, composer and urbanist. Among his friends were the Flemish composers François Auguste Gevaert, Peter Benoit, but also the French literary figure, Victor Hugo.
Wytsman father died prematurely in 1870, when Rodolphe only 9 to 10 years old.
Wytsman's mother shortly thereafter moved to Dendermonde, Ghent, her hometown. In 1873 Rodolphe Wytsman took courses at the Academy in Ghent from Jean Capeinick (1838–1890), a painter who specialized in still lifes and rich, colorful floral arrangements. Capeinick, a true professional, was the teacher who had accompanied young Theo Van Rysselberghe. Wytsman's studies were interrupted by a lucrative job in a yarn shop. After three years, and against the wishes of his mother, he stopped with his eyes deadening and oppressive occupation, and resumed his studies at the Academy. His teachers were then Théodore-Joseph Canneel and Julius De Keghel. Wytsman became friends with Theo Van Rysselberghe, Gustave Vanaise and Armand Heins. With the latter he became a friend for life. As a painter Wytsman opted for the landscape. His early works - this time from the Ghent - were realistic. In the following years he developed gradually into a still more conventional pre-impressionist style. But Wytsman already lived in Brussels, where the pulse of modernist painting was the best feeling.
Brussels
Wytsman mother settled with her family in Brussels, where Rodolphe in the same year continued his studies at the Academy. He studied with Jean Portaels, Joseph Stallaert and Joseph Van Severendonck. Among his fellow students included Eugene Broerman in Brussels, Francois Halkett, Frantz Charlet and again Theo Van Rysselberghe. Also James Ensor and Guillaume Van Strydonck studied at that time. At the Brussels Academy, he came into contact with the artists group "L'Essor". "L'Essor" was founded on March 4, 1876 by some students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, namely L. Cambier, Julien Dillen, Leon Herbo, Henri Permeke, L. Pion, F. Seghers and François Taelemans. Vela others joined Albert Baertsoen, Frantz Charlet, Jean Degreef, Henry De Groux, Jacques Lalang, Jean Delville, James Ensor, Leon Frederic, Frank Leemputten and others. Even before his academy training in 1881, finally closing said Rodolphe Wytsman already exhibited in the Salon of Ghent in 1880 with "The night".
Italian Travel
Financially supported by a friend of his late father, he went in 1882, on an Italian-journey, to Rome and surrounding areas, but the Neapolitan coast, made an unforgettable impression on him. Works dating from that era such as "Fountain in the Villa Borghese in Roma" and "Rocks on Capri". In Italy, he had friendly contacts with other Belgian artists who lived there then: Gustave Vanaise, Jef Lambeaux, Leon Philippet, Eugene Broerman, Alexandre Marcet. In May 1883, Rodolphe Wytsman was back in Belgium; together with Vanaise he exhibited in that year still in the "Cercle Artistique in Ghent. From 1883 on he was to be found annually in Knokke. As developed in the summer, a small but important artists colony where many advanced landscape painters from Ghent and Brussels came down, such as Alfred Verwee, Willy Schlobach, Paul Parmentier, Theo Van Rysselberghe, Omer Coppens, Anna Boch, Félicien Rops, also James Ensor, Willy Finch & Camille Pisarro even came along. Wytsman painted the dunes, the beach, the polders, the Zwin.
Les XX
In 1883, Wytsman was a founding member of "Les XX", the famous avant-garde group in Brussels, inspired by the figure of Octave Maus, and founded by Frantz Charlet, Jean Delvin, Dario Regoyos, Paul Dubois, James Ensor, Willy Finch, Charles Goethals, Fernand Khnopff, Pericles Pantazis, Frans Simons, and Théodore Verstraete. Until 1887, Wytsman sent to work in the annual Salons of Les XX.
The following year, he and Isidore Verheyden resigned from that group and would not exhibit, even if "invited". He resigned without a clear reason , and apparently without hassles, what else is more came binnen "Les XX". In his resignation letter he wrote:
... J'espère que tout en n'etant Vingiste plus, nous conserverons nos bons rapports et le plaisir que j'aurai the vous recevoir souvent à l'atelier ...
In the Salons of Les XX "Wytsman was present with the following titles:
· 1884: "La Ferme du Moulin (Flandre)," "Les Fleurs (West-Flandre)" & "La mare (the dunes Knocke)
· 1885: "Le Moulin de Knocke," "La Neige", "A Melle. Fin d'automne", "A Boitsfort" & "La Prairie '
· 1886: "La Neige", "Pavot et coquelicots. Crepuscule

Henry Rawdon-Hastings
4th Marquess of Hastings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Weysford Charles Plantagenet, 4th Marquess of Hastings (22 July 1842 – 10 November 1868), styled Lord Henry Rawdon-Hastings from birth until 1851, was a British peer.
Rawdon-Hastings was the second son of George Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Marquess of Hastings and his wife Barbara née Yelverton, 20th Baroness Grey de Ruthyn.
His father died when Henry was only two years old, and Henry succeeded to his father's titles upon the early death of his older brother Paulyn seven years later, at the age of nine. Later, in 1858, Henry inherited his mother's barony at the age of sixteen.
In 1860, The Times noted that Rawdon-Hastings was one of only three to hold peerages in all three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland (as Earl of Moira).[1]
In 1862 Lord Hastings became engaged to Alice March Phillipps de Lisle, but they never married (she later married the Hon. Arthur Strutt, younger son of Lord Belper). On 16 July 1864 he married Lady Florence Paget, daughter of Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey. The marriage created a scandal as the bride had been engaged to Henry Chaplin. He died in 1868, aged only 26, with no children. The Marquessate of Hastings became extinct, while the Earldom of Loudoun passed to his eldest sister Lady Edith and his English baronies fell into abeyance between Lady Edith and their three other sisters (all would go to Edith save their mother's, which passed to the second sister Lady Bertha). Florence, Marchioness of Hastings would later remarry Sir George Chetwynd, 4th Baronet.

Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Serge Raynaud de la Ferrière (18 January 1916 – 27 December 1962) was a French religious philosopher.
He was born in Paris, France, the son of Georges Constantine Louis Raynaud, who was an engineer, and Virginie Marie Billet.[citation needed]
His parents moved to Brussels, Belgium when he was two years old, and his mother died there when he was only five years of age.
He studied at several lower schools, and attended the Université Catholique de Louvain where he graduated as a mining engineer in the footsteps of his father and grandfather [sorry, the Université Catholique of Louvain has denied he was a student there]. (There is some question, however, about the actual educational attainments of de la Ferrière (Spanish)). Although he grew up and studied in Belgium he would return to his native France in his early twenties. [he returned to France when he was released from the army, in 1940. This data is registered in the military files.In 1941, he met Louise Baudin to whom he was married in 1944, and with whom he travelled to America, in 1947].
He founded the Universal Great Brotherhood in 1948 in Caracas, Venezuela. It is an organization devoted to merging science, art, and religion.[2].


The Life and Education
At an early age, Serge engaged in para-scientific investigations[citation needed]. He demonstrated an interest in psychology, and began investigating man's relationship with the universe, ancient cultures, linguistics, philosophy, medicine, theology, parapsychology, esoterism and metaphysical studies.[citation needed]
During World War II, he returned to France and worked as a psychologist and began his research into the sciences of astronomy and astrology.

Dick Zimmer
(New Jersey politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard Alan "Dick" Zimmer (born August 16, 1944) is an AmericanRepublican Partypolitician from New Jersey, who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and in the United States House of Representatives. He was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey in 1996 and 2008. In March 2010, he was appointed by Governor Chris Christie to head the New Jersey Privatization Task Force.

Early life and career
Zimmer was born on August 16, 1944 in Newark, New Jersey to William and Evelyn Zimmer, the second of two children. In his early years he was raised in Hillside, New Jersey.
His father, a physician, died of a heart attack when he was 3 years old. After his father's death, his mother moved from Hillside to Bloomfield, New Jersey, where she supported the family by working as a clerk at the Sunshine Biscuits warehouse.
They lived in a Bloomfield garden apartment, which Zimmer has referred to as "the New Jersey equivalent of a log cabin."
When Zimmer was 12 years old, his mother married Howard Rubin, a Korean War veteran with three children of his own. The newly combined family moved to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and Rubin worked at the post office there. Zimmer attended Glen Ridge High School, where he was selected as the class speaker for his graduation ceremony. His mother, suffering from lymphoma, required paramedics to take her from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital to the school auditorium on a stretcher to hear the address. She died several days later. Zimmer attended Yale University on a full academic scholarship and majored in political science, graduating in 1966. In the summer of 1965, he worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Republican U.S. SenatorClifford P. Case, after which time he became active in Republican politics. He attended Yale Law School, where he was an editor the Yale Law Journal. After receiving his LL.B. in 1969 he worked as an attorney in New York and New Jersey for several years, first for Cravath, Swaine & Moore and then for Johnson & Johnson.[3]
From 1974 to 1977, he served as chairman of New Jersey Common Cause, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy group and think tank with the mission to make political institutions more open and accountable. As chairman he successfully lobbied for New Jersey's Sunshine Law, which made government meetings open to the public. He also championed campaign finance reform, working closely with Thomas H. Kean, then a member of the New Jersey General Assembly. Zimmer then served as treasurer for Kean's reelection campaign.[3]
New Jersey Legislature
After moving to Delaware Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, he was elected to the General Assembly in 1981, serving until 1987. He was the prime Assembly sponsor of New Jersey’s first farmland preservation law, resulting in the permanent preservation of 1,222 farms in the state. Zimmer also sponsored the legislation creating the state’s radon detection and remediation program, which became a national model. He was chairman of the Assembly State Government Committee from 1986 to 1987. In 1987, following the death of State Senator Walter E. Foran, Zimmer won a special election to replace him in the New Jersey Senate. He was later elected to a full term.[3] In the Senate he served on the Revenue, Finance and Appropriations Committee.[4]
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1990, Zimmer ran for the United States House of Representatives for the 12th District, then encompassing parts of Hunterdon, Mercer, Somerset, Morris and Warren counties. The seat was open after Jim Courter decided not seek another term after unsuccessfully running for Governor of New Jersey the previous year. In the Republican primary, Zimmer defeated Rodney Frelinghuysen, the early favorite, and Phil McConkey, former wide receiver for the New York Giants.[5] In the general election he defeated Marguerite Chandler, a businesswoman from Somerset County, by a margin of 66 to 34 percent.
Zimmer served three terms in the House, winning reelection in 1992 and 1994. As a Congressman, Zimmer is best known[citation needed] for writing Megan's Law (U.S. Public Law 104-145), which requires notification when a convicted sex offender moves into a residential area. It was named after Megan Kanka, a New Jersey resident who was raped and murdered by convicted sex offender Jesse Timmendequas. He also introduced "no-frills" prison legislation, requiring the elimination of luxurious prison conditions.
As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, he sought the elimination of wasteful spending and undue taxation. He was ranked the most fiscally conservative member of the United States Congress three times by the National Taxpayers Union and was designated a Taxpayer Hero by Citizens Against Government Waste every year he was in office.
Zimmer was also a member of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and the Committee on Government Operations. As a member of the Environment Subcommittee, he introduced environmental risk-assessment legislation later incorporated in the 1996 amendments to the Clean Water Act.
1996 U.S. Senate Campaign
In 1995, Zimmer lined up support to run in the following year's United States Senate elections, becoming the front-runner among Republicans seeking to face Democratic incumbent Bill Bradley. On August 16, 1995, Bradley announced that he would not seek reelection. Zimmer formally announced his candidacy on

William Milne
(missionary)
William Milne (1785 – June 2, 1822) was the second Protestantmissionary to China, after his colleague, Robert Morrison[1].


Scottish roots
Milne was born near Huntly, in the rural parish of Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
His father died when he was only six years old, and his mother taught him at home. While he was still very young, he worked on a farm for a period of time before being apprenticed to a carpenter.
While excelling at carpentry, he also was reported to have distinguished himself by his profanity. But, at the age of sixteen, he was converted to Christianity. In 1804 he was received as a member of the Congregational church at Huntly.
Missionary career
About 1809, he applied to the London Missionary Society. After conferring with a group of minsters at Aberdeen, he was sent to Gosport, where he studied under David Bogue for three years. Ordained as a missionary to China in July, 1812, he proposed
“
to go from house to house, from village to village, from town to town, and from country to country, where access may be gained, in order to preach the Gospel to all who will not turn away their ear from it.[2]

Milne was married soon after his ordination to Rachel Cowie, the daughter of Charles Cowie, Esq. of Aberdeen. They soon departed for China, leaving about August 1812. Due to delays, they didn't arrive in Macau until July 4, 1813. Milne, with his wife and infant son were expelled by the Roman Catholic priests there after three days, and he left for Guangzhou, where he was able to begin study of the Chinese language. His quote regarding the difficulty of an English-speaker acquiring the Chinese tongue has been frequently repeated:[3]
“
[Learning the Chinese language requires] bodies of iron, lungs of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah.

After six months with Robert Morrison as his first and only help that had come to join the work from England, he took Morrison's advice to visit Java and the Chinese settlements in the Indonesian archipelago. Milne agreed and traveled south, distributing tracts and books, finally returning to Guangzhou on September 5 to spend the winter of 1813-1814 there.
Milne spent most of his missionary career in the British Straits Settlements of Malacca, beginning in the Spring of 1815. He set up a printing press and school, continuing to preach the Gospel to the local Chinese.
In January 1816, Milne visited Penang, and established a printing press there also.
Milnee was also the first Principal of The Anglo Chinese College at Malacca. He collaborated more with Morrison to produce the second complete Chinese version of the Bible, translating the books of Deuteronomy through Job.
Liang Fa, converted to Christianity in 1815 and baptized by Milne, became the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. Liang Fa later became renowned as the author of the Christian literature that inspired Hong Xiuquan and the Taiping Rebellion.
In 1819 he published a tract "The Two Friends", which became the most widely used Chinese Christian tract until the early twentieth century. Milne was remarkably prolific for one who came to literary work so late in life, and twenty-one Chinese works are attributed to him. Several were of substantial length; one was the Chinese Monthly Magazine (察世俗每月統記傳 Chashisu Meiyue Tongjizhuan), the first Chinese language magazine in the modern sense of the word; that ran from 1815 to 1822 and totaled several hundred pages. In addition, he produced two substantial books and a Malacca periodical

Shamsuddeen Usman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Shamsuddeen Usman (born 18 September 1949 in Garangamawa area of Kano, Nigeria) is the Minister of National Planning, Chairman of the Steering Committee on Nigeria Vision 2020 and immediate past Finance Minister of Nigeria. He is an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and a Member of the Federal Executive Council, National Economic Council and the Economic Management Team.
Dr Usman was the first Nigerian Minister to publicly declare his assets before assuming office as a public officer, an act considered as a sign of accountability and transparency in a country noted for its high levels of corruption.


Education & Personal Life
Shamsuddeen Usman was born to a family living in Warure Quarters of Kano State.
His Father, an Islamic scholar, died when he was about six years old.
He began his education at Dandago Primary School. After a secondary school education at the prestigious Government College Keffi and King's College, Lagos, he gained a BSc. in Economics from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. He later won a National scholarship to study for his MSc. and PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science[1] between 1977-1980. During his first two years at the London School of Economics[2], he served as a teaching assistant for the final year class in Public Finance.
Work Life
From 1974-1976, Usman worked as the Planning Officer for the Kano State Ministry of Economic Planning. He taught Economic Analysis and Public Finance to students in Ahmadu Bello University, Bayero University Kano and University of Jos between 1976-1981. He was a Controller at the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) and then served as the Director of Budget/ Special Economic Adviser to the Kano State Government between 1981-1985. Usman was then appointed the General Manager of NAL Merchant Bank (currently Sterling Bank).
Impact of Privatisation and Commercialisation (Phase I) on Nigerian Economy
From 1989-1991 Usman served as the pioneer Director General of The Technical Committee of Privatisation and Commercialisation, now the Bureau of Public Enterprises and was responsible for the Phase I programme with the task to reform public enterprises, as an integral and critical component of the IMF led Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which was started in 1986.
Under his supervision, about 88 public enterprises were either fully or partially privatised without any foreign technical assistance. The programme succeeded in relieving the government of the huge and growing burden of financing public enterprises, minimised the overstretching of government’s managerial capacity through a redefinition of the role of the supervising ministries, created a large body of shareholders and deepened and broadened the Nigerian Capital Market to the position of being the most developed in black Africa. The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) through which the shares were sold has grown from N8.9 billion in 1987 (before privatisation) to N65.5 billion in 1994 (after the Phase-I). The catalytic effect of the volume of shares released into the market via the privatisation exercise cannot be over empahsised.[1]
The TCPC transformed to the current Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in 1993