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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Masten Gregory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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

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

James Scott Skinner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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

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

Emperor Ping of Han
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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


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

جون ج. ماكولوه

John G. McCullough


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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

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

A. M. Rajah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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

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

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

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

David Halton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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