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Álfheimr
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Grímnismál
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Grímnismál
The Eddic poem Grímnismál describes twelve divine dwellings beginning the stanza 5 with:
Old Norse text Bellows translationYdalir call they the place where Ull
A hall for himself hath set;
And Alfheim the gods to Freyr once gave
As a tooth-gift in ancient times.
A tooth-gift is a gift given to an infant on the cutting of the first tooth.
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Álfheimr
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Gylfaginning
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Gylfaginning
In the 12th century Eddic prose Gylfaginning, Snorri Sturluson relates it in the stanza 17 as the first of a series of abodes in heaven:
Old Norse text Brodeur translationMany places are there, and glorious. That which is called Álfheimr is one, where dwell the peoples called Light-Elves; but the Dark-Elves dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike in appearance, but by far more unlike in nature. The Light-Elves are fairer to look upon than the sun, but the Dark-Elves are blacker than pitch.
Later in the section, in speaking of a hall in the Highest Heaven called Gimlé that shall survive when heaven and earth have died, explains:
Old Norse text Brodeur translationIt is said that another heaven is to the southward and upward of this one, and it is called Andlangr; but the third heaven is yet above that, and it is called Vídbláinn, and in that heaven we think this abode is. But we believe that none but Light-Elves inhabit these mansions now.
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Álfheimr
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See also
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See also
Álfheimr (region)
Alfheimbjerg
Fairyland, a folkloric location sometimes referred to as Elfame
Svartálfaheimr
Svartálfar (black elves)
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Álfheimr
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Citations
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Citations
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Álfheimr
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Álfheimr
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Primary
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Primary
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Álfheimr
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External links
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External links
Category:Locations in Norse mythology
Category:Saga locations
Category:Elves
Category:Freyr
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Álfheimr
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Table of Content
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short description, Attestations, Grímnismál, Gylfaginning, See also, Citations, Bibliography, Primary, External links
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Ask and Embla
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Short description
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thumb|300px|upright|"Hœnir, Lóðurr and Odin create Askr and Embla" (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.
In Norse mythology, Ask and Embla ()—man and woman respectively—were the first two humans, created by the gods. The pair are attested in both the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, composed in the 13th century. In both sources, three gods, one of whom is Odin, find Ask and Embla and bestow upon them various corporeal and spiritual gifts. A number of theories have been proposed to explain the two figures, and there are occasional references to them in popular culture.
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Ask and Embla
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Etymology
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Etymology
thumb|upright|A depiction of Ask and Embla (1919) by Robert Engels.
Old Norse literally means "ash tree" but the etymology of embla is uncertain, and two possibilities of the meaning of embla are generally proposed. The first meaning, "elm tree", is problematic, and is reached by deriving *Elm-la from *Almilōn and subsequently to ('elm'). The second suggestion is "vine", which is reached through *Ambilō, which may be related to the Greek term (), itself meaning "vine, liana". The latter etymology has resulted in a number of theories.
Linguist Gunlög Josefsson claims that the name Embla comes from the roots + which would mean 'firemaker' or 'smokebringer' inflected for either gender. She connects this to the ancient practice of creating fire through a fire plough which was considered a magical and holy way of fire making in folk belief in Scandinavia long into modern times. She identifies the emergence of fire through the plowing symbolically to the moment of orgasm and hence fertilization and reproduction.
According to Benjamin Thorpe, "Grimm says the word embla, emla, signifies a busy woman, from amr, ambr, aml, ambl, assiduous labour; the same relation as Meshia and Meshiane, the ancient Persian names of the first man and woman, who were also formed from trees."Thorpe (1907:337).
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Ask and Embla
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Attestations
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Attestations
In stanza 17 of the Poetic Edda poem , the seeress reciting the poem states that Hœnir, Lóðurr and Odin once found Ask and Embla on land. The seeress says that the two were capable of very little, lacking in and says that they were given three gifts by the three gods:
Old Norse:
Dronke (1997:11).Benjamin Thorpe translation:
Spirit they possessed not, sense they had not,
blood nor motive powers, nor goodly colour.
Spirit gave Odin, sense gave Hœnir,
blood gave Lodur, and goodly colour.Thorpe (1866:5).Henry Adams Bellows translation:
Soul they had not, sense they had not,
Heat nor motion, nor goodly hue;
Soul gave Othin, sense gave Hönir,
Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue.Bellows (1936:8).
The meaning of these gifts has been a matter of scholarly disagreement and translations therefore vary.Schach (1985:93).
According to chapter 9 of the Prose Edda book , the three brothers Vili, Vé, and Odin, are the creators of the first man and woman. The brothers were once walking along a beach and found two trees there. They took the wood and from it created the first human beings; Ask and Embla. One of the three gave them the breath of life, the second gave them movement and intelligence, and the third gave them shape, speech, hearing and sight. Further, the three gods gave them clothing and names. Ask and Embla go on to become the progenitors of all humanity and were given a home within the walls of Midgard.Byock (2006:18).
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Ask and Embla
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Theories
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Theories
thumb|upright|"Ask och Embla" (1948) by Stig Blomberg
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Ask and Embla
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Indo-European origins
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Indo-European origins
A Proto-Indo-European basis has been theorized for the duo based on the etymology of embla meaning "vine." In Indo-European societies, an analogy is derived from the drilling of fire and sexual intercourse. Vines were used as a flammable wood, where they were placed beneath a drill made of harder wood, resulting in fire. Further evidence of ritual making of fire in Scandinavia has been theorized from a depiction on a stone plate on a Bronze Age grave in Kivik, Scania, Sweden.Simek (2007:74).
Jaan Puhvel comments that "ancient myths teem with trite 'first couples' similar to the type of Adam and his by-product Eve. In Indo-European tradition, these range from the Vedic Yama and Yamī and the Iranian Mašya and Mašyānag to the Icelandic Askr and Embla, with trees or rocks as preferred raw material, and dragon's teeth or other bony substance occasionally thrown in for good measure".Puhvel (1989 [1987]:284).
In his study of the comparative evidence for an origin of mankind from trees in Indo-European society, Anders Hultgård observes that "myths of the origin of mankind from trees or wood seem to be particularly connected with ancient Europe and Indo-Europe and Indo-European-speaking peoples of Asia Minor and Iran. By contrast the cultures of the Near East show almost exclusively the type of anthropogonic stories that derive man's origin from clay, earth or blood by means of a divine creation act".Hultgård (2006:62).
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Ask and Embla
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Other potential Germanic analogues
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Other potential Germanic analogues
Two wooden figures—the Braak Bog Figures—of "more than human height" were unearthed from a peat bog at Braak in Schleswig, Germany. The figures depict a nude man and a nude woman. Hilda Ellis Davidson comments that these figures may represent a "Lord and Lady" of the Vanir, a group of Norse gods, and that "another memory of [these wooden deities] may survive in the tradition of the creation of Ask and Embla, the man and woman who founded the human race, created by the gods from trees on the seashore".Davidson (1975:88—89).
A figure named Æsc (Old English "ash tree") appears as the son of Hengest in the Anglo-Saxon genealogy for the kings of Kent. This has resulted in a number of theories that the figures may have had an earlier basis in pre-Norse Germanic mythology.Orchard (1997:8).
Connections have been proposed between Ask and Embla and the Vandal kings Assi and Ambri, attested in Paul the Deacon's 7th century AD work Origo Gentis Langobardorum. There, the two ask the god Godan (Odin) for victory. The name Ambri, like Embla, likely derives from *Ambilō.
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Ask and Embla
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Catalog of dwarfs
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Catalog of dwarfs
A stanza preceding the account of the creation of Ask and Embla in Völuspá provides a catalog of dwarfs, and stanza 10 has been considered as describing the creation of human forms from the earth. This may potentially mean that dwarfs formed humans, and that the three gods gave them life.Lindow (2001:62—63). Carolyne Larrington theorizes that humans are metaphorically designated as trees in Old Norse works (examples include "trees of jewellery" for women and "trees of battle" for men) due to the origin of humankind stemming from trees; Ask and Embla.Larrington (1999:279).
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Ask and Embla
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Modern depictions
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Modern depictions
Ask and Embla have been the subject of a number of references and artistic depictions.
A sculpture depicting the two, created by Stig Blomberg in 1948, stands in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden.
Ask and Embla are depicted on two of the sixteen wooden panels by Dagfin Werenskiold on Oslo City Hall.
Ask to Embla is the title of a poem, parts of which are quoted, by R. H. Ash, one of the protagonists in A. S. Byatt's novel Possession: A Romance, which won the Booker prize in 1990.
In the video game Fire Emblem Heroes, the two main warring kingdoms are Askr and Embla, which is where the Summoner, the player, finds themselves in, as the kingdom has been at war with the Emblian Empire when the game starts. It is later revealed both kingdoms are named after a pair of Ancient Dragons; with Askr being male and Embla female.
In the videogame Valheim, the developers named an armor set after Embla, as stated in their development blog entry on November 21, 2023: "we have named this set after one of the two first humans in Norse mythology: Embla".
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Ask and Embla
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See also
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See also
Líf and Lífþrasir
Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology
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Ask and Embla
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Ask and Embla
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Notes
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Notes
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Ask and Embla
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References
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References
Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1936). The Poetic Edda. Princeton University Press. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Byock, Jesse (Trans.) (2006). The Prose Edda. Penguin Classics.
Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1975). Scandinavian Mythology. Paul Hamlyn.
Hultgård, Anders (2006). "The Askr and Embla Myth in a Comparative Perspective". In Andrén, Anders; Jennbert, Kristina; Raudvere, Catharina (editors).Old Norse Religion in Long-term Perspectives. Nordic Academic Press.
Dronke, Ursula (Trans.) (1997). The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems. Oxford University Press.
Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). The Poetic Edda. Oxford World's Classics.
Lindow, John (2001). Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press.
Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell.
Puhvel, Jaan (1989 [1987]). Comparative Mythology. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schach, Paul (1985). "Some Thoughts on Völuspá" as collected in Glendinning, R. J. Bessason, Heraldur (Editors). Edda: a Collection of Essays. University of Manitoba Press.
Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.
Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866). Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned. Part I. London: Trübner & Co.
Category:Legendary progenitors
Category:Mythological first humans
Category:People in Norse mythology
Category:Mythological duos
Category:Fraxinus excelsior
Category:Mythological lovers
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Ask and Embla
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Table of Content
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Short description, Etymology, Attestations, Theories, Indo-European origins, Other potential Germanic analogues, Catalog of dwarfs, Modern depictions, See also, Bibliography, Notes, References
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Alabama River
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short description
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The Alabama River, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about north of Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka.
Over a course of approximately , the river meanders west towards Selma, then southwest until, about from Mobile, it unites with the Tombigbee, forming the Mobile and Tensaw rivers, which discharge into Mobile Bay.
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Alabama River
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Description
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Description
The run of the Alabama is highly meandering. Its width varies from , and its depth from . Its length as measured by the United States Geological Survey is ,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map , accessed April 27, 2011 and by steamboat measurement, .
The river crosses the richest agricultural and timber districts of the state. Railways connect it with the mineral regions of north-central Alabama.
After the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, the principal tributary of the Alabama is the Cahaba River, which is about long and joins the Alabama River about below Selma. The Alabama River's main tributary, the Coosa River, crosses the mineral region of Alabama and is navigable for light-draft boats from Rome, Georgia, to about above Wetumpka (about below Rome and below Greensport), and from Wetumpka to its junction with the Tallapoosa. The channel of the river has been considerably improved by the federal government.
The navigation of the Tallapoosa River – which has its source in Paulding County, Georgia, and is about long – is prevented by shoals and a fall at Tallassee, a few miles north of its junction with the Coosa. The Alabama is navigable throughout the year.
The river played an important role in the growth of the economy in the region during the 19th century as a source of transportation of goods, which included slaves. The river is still used for transportation of farming produce; however, it is not as important as it once was due to the construction of roads and railways.
Documented by Europeans first in 1701, the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa rivers were central to the homeland of the Creek Indians before their removal by United States forces to the Indian Territory in the 1830s.
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Alabama River
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Lock and dams
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Lock and dams
The Alabama River has three lock and dams between Montgomery and the Mobile River. The Robert F. Henry Lock & Dam is located at river mile 236.2, the Millers Ferry Lock & Dam is located at river mile 133.0, and the Claiborne Lock & Dam is located at river mile 72.5.Courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District These dams create R.E. "Bob" Woodruff Lake, William Dannely Reservoir, and Claiborne Lake respectively.
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Alabama River
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Gallery
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Gallery
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Alabama River
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See also
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See also
List of Alabama rivers
Tallapoosa River
Coosa River
Mobile River
South Atlantic-Gulf Water Resource Region
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Alabama River
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References
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References
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Alabama River
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External links
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External links
Allrefer.com
Category:Alabama placenames of Native American origin
Category:Rivers of Autauga County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Monroe County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Montgomery County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Wilcox County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Dallas County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Mobile County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Elmore County, Alabama
Category:Rivers of Alabama
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Alabama River
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Table of Content
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short description, Description, Lock and dams, Gallery, See also, References, External links
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Alain de Lille
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short description
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Alain de Lille (Alan of Lille; Latin: Alanus ab Insulis; 11281202/1203) was a FrenchAlain de Lille WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica theologian and poet. He was born in Lille some time before 1128. His exact date of death remains unclear as well, with most research pointing toward it being between 14 April 1202 and 5 April 1203. He is known for writing a number of works based upon the teachings of the liberal arts, with one of his most renowned poems, De planctu Naturae ("The Complaint of Nature"), focusing on sexual conduct among humans. Although Alain was widely known during his lifetime, little is known about his personal life.Wetherbee, Winthrop. "Alan of Lille, De planctu Naturae: The Fall of Nature and the Survival of Poetry". The Journal of Medieval Latin 21 (2011): 223–51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45019679/
As a theologian, Alain de Lille opposed scholasticism in the second half of the 12th century. His philosophy is characterized by rationalism and mysticism. Alain claimed that reason, guided by prudence, could discover most truths about the physical order without help; but in order to understand religious truth and to know God, the wise must be believers.
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Alain de Lille
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Life
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Life
Little is known of his life. Alain entered the schools no earlier than the late 1140s; first attending the school at Paris, and then at Chartres. He probably studied under masters such as Peter Abelard, Gilbert of Poitiers, and Thierry of Chartres. This is known through the writings of John of Salisbury, who is thought to have been a contemporary student of Alain of Lille. Alain's earliest writings were probably written in the 1150s, and probably in Paris. He spent many years as a professor of theology at the University of Paris and he attended the Lateran Council in 1179. Though the only accounts of his lectures seem to show a sort of eccentric style and approach, he was said to have been good friends with many other masters at the school in Paris, and taught there, as well as some time in southern France, into his old age. He afterwards inhabited Montpellier (he is sometimes called Alanus de Montepessulano), lived for a time outside the walls of any cloister, and finally retired to Cîteaux, where he died in 1202.
He had a very widespread reputation during his lifetime, and his knowledge caused him to be called Doctor Universalis. Many of Alain's writings cannot be exactly dated, and the circumstances surrounding his writing are often unknown as well. It does seem clear that his first notable work, Summa Quoniam Homines, was completed between 1155 and 1165, with the most conclusive date being 1160, and was probably developed through his lectures at the school in Paris. Among his numerous works two poems entitle him to a distinguished place in the Latin literature of the Middle Ages; one of these, the De planctu Naturae, is an ingenious satire on the vices of humanity. He created the allegory of grammatical "conjugation" which was to have its successors throughout the Middle Ages. The Anticlaudianus, a treatise on morals as allegory, the form of which recalls the pamphlet of Claudian against Rufinus, is agreeably versified and relatively pure in its latinity.
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Alain de Lille
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Theology and philosophy
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Theology and philosophy
As a theologian Alain de Lille shared in the mystic reaction of the second half of the 12th century against the scholastic philosophy. His mysticism, however, is far from being as absolute as that of the Victorines. In the Anticlaudianus he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alain even ventures an immediate application of this principle, and tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Christian creed. This bold attempt is entirely factitious and verbal, and it is only his employment of various terms not generally used in such a connection (axiom, theorem, corollary, etc.) that gives his treatise its apparent originality.
Alan's philosophy was a sort of mixture of Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic philosophy. The Platonist seemed to outweigh the Aristotelian in Alan, but he felt strongly that the divine is all intelligibility and argued this notion through much Aristotelian logic combined with Pythagorean mathematics.
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Alain de Lille
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Works and attributions
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Works and attributions
One of Alain's most notable works was one he modeled after Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, to which he gave the title De planctu Naturae, or The Plaint of Nature, and which was most likely written in the late 1160s. In this work, Alan uses prose and verse to illustrate the way in which nature defines its own position as inferior to that of God. He also attempts to illustrate the way in which humanity, through sexual perversion and specifically homosexuality, has defiled itself from nature and God. In Anticlaudianus, another of his notable works, Alan uses a poetical dialogue to illustrate the way in which nature comes to the realization of her failure in producing the perfect man. She has only the ability to create a soulless body, and thus she is "persuaded to undertake the journey to heaven to ask for a soul," and "the Seven Liberal Arts produce a chariot for her... the Five Senses are the horses". The Anticlaudianus was translated into French and German in the following century, and toward 1280 was re-worked into a musical anthology by Adam de la Bassée.A. J. Creighton, Anticlaudien: A Thirteenth-Century French Adaptation (Washington: 1944).Andrew Hughes, "The Ludus super Anticlaudianum of Adam de la Bassée". Journal of the American Musicological Society 23"1 (1970), 1–25. One of Alan's most popular and widely distributed works is his manual on preaching, Ars Praedicandi, or The Art of Preaching. This work shows how Alan saw theological education as being a fundamental preliminary step in preaching and strove to give clergyman a manuscript to be "used as a practical manual" when it came to the formation of sermons and art of preaching.
Alain wrote three very large theological textbooks, one being his first work, Summa Quoniam Homines. Another of his theological textbooks that strove to be more minute in its focus, is his De Fide Catholica, dated somewhere between 1185 and 1200, Alan sets out to refute heretical views, specifically that of the Waldensians and Cathars. In his third theological textbook, Regulae Caelestis Iuris, he presents a set of what seems to be theological rules; this was typical of the followers of Gilbert of Poitiers, of which Alan could be associated. Other than these theological textbooks, and the aforementioned works of the mixture of prose and poetry, Alan of Lille had numerous other works on numerous subjects, primarily including Speculative Theology, Theoretical Moral Theology, Practical Moral Theology, and various collections of poems.
Alain de Lille has often been confounded with other persons named Alain, in particular with another Alanus (Alain, bishop of Auxerre), Alan, abbot of Tewkesbury, Alain de Podio, etc. Certain facts of their lives have been attributed to him, as well as some of their works: thus the Life of St Bernard should be ascribed to Alain of Auxerre and the Commentary upon Merlin to Alan of Tewkesbury. Alan of Lille was not the author of a Memoriale rerum difficilium, published under his name, nor of Moralium dogma philosophorum, nor of the satirical Apocalypse of Golias once attributed to him; and it is exceedingly doubtful whether the Dicta Alani de lapide philosophico really issued from his pen. On the other hand, it now seems practically demonstrated that Alain de Lille was the author of the Ars catholicae fidei and the treatise Contra haereticos.
In his sermons on capital sins, Alain argued that sodomy and homicide are the most serious sins, since they call forth the wrath of God, which led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. His chief work on penance, the Liber poenitenitalis dedicated to Henry de Sully, exercised great influence on the many manuals of penance produced as a result of the Fourth Lateran Council. Alain's identification of the sins against nature included bestiality, masturbation, oral and anal intercourse, incest, adultery and rape. In addition to his battle against moral decay, Alan wrote a work against Islam, Judaism and Christian heretics dedicated to William VIII of Montpellier.
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Alain de Lille
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List of known works
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List of known works
Anticlaudianus
Rhythmus de Incarnatione et de Septem Artibus
De Miseria Mundi
Quaestiones Alani Textes
Summa Quoniam Homines
Regulae Theologicae
Hierarchia Alani
De Fide Catholica: Contra Haereticos, Valdenses, Iudaeos et Paganos
De Virtutibus, de Vitiis, de Donis Spiritus Sancti
Liber Parabolarum
Distinctiones Dictionum Theologicalium
Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum
Glosatura super Cantica
Expositio of the Pater Noster
Expositiones of the Nicene and Apostolic Creeds
Expositio Prosae de Angelis
Quod non-est celebrandum bis in die
Liber Poenitentialis
De Sex Alis Cherubim
Ars Praedicandi
Sermones
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Alain de Lille
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References
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References
Attribution:
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Alain de Lille
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Translations
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Translations
Alan of Lille, A Concise Explanation of the Song of Songs in Praise of the Virgin Mary, trans Denys Turner, in Denys Turner, Eros and Allegory: Medieval Exegesis of the Song of Songs, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995), 291–308
The Plaint of Nature, translated by James J Sheridan, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980)
Anticlaudian: Prologue, Argument and Nine Books, edited by W. H. Cornog, (Philadelphia, 1935)
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Alain de Lille
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Further reading
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Further reading
Alain de Lille: De planctu Naturae, ed. Nikolaus M. Häring, Studi Medievali 19 (1978), 797–879. Latin edition of the De planctu Naturae.
Dynes, Wayne R. 'Alan of Lille.' in Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, Garland Publishing, 1990. p. 32.
Alanus de insulis, Anticlaudianus, a c. di . M. Sannelli, La Finestra editrice, Lavis, 2004.
Evans, G. R. (1983), Alan of Lille: The Frontiers of Theology in the Later Twelfth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge. .
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Alain de Lille
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External links
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External links
(Latin) Alanus ab Insulis, Anticlaudianus sive De officiis viri boni et perfecti
(Latin) [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/alanus/alanus1.html Alanus ab Insulis, Liber de planctu Naturae]
(Latin) Alanus ab Insulis, Omnis mundi creatura
(Latin) Alanus ab Insulis, Distinctiones dictionum theologicalium
(English) Alain of Lille, The Complaint of Nature. Translation of Liber de planctu Naturae''
Category:1110s births
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:1200s deaths
Category:Year of death uncertain
Category:Writers from Lille
Category:12th-century writers in Latin
Category:12th-century Christian mystics
Category:Scholastic philosophers
Category:Roman Catholic mystics
Category:12th-century French Catholic theologians
Category:Medieval Latin-language poets
Category:12th-century French poets
Category:12th-century French philosophers
Category:University of Paris alumni
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Alain de Lille
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Table of Content
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short description, Life, Theology and philosophy, Works and attributions, List of known works, References, Translations, Further reading, External links
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Alemanni
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Short description
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thumb|upright=1.6|Area settled by the Alemanni, and sites of Roman–Alemannic battles, third to sixth centuries
The Alemanni or AlamanniThe spelling with "e" is used in Encyc. Brit. 9th. ed., (c. 1880), Everyman's Encyc. 1967, Everyman's Smaller Classical Dictionary, 1910. The current edition of Britannica spells with "e", as does Columbia and Edward Gibbon, Vol. 3, Chapter XXXVIII. The Latinized spelling with a is current in older literature (so in the 1911 Britannica), but remains in use e.g. in Wood (2003), Drinkwater (2007).The Alemanni were alternatively known as Suebi from about the fifth century, and that name became prevalent in the high medieval period, eponymous of the Duchy of Swabia. The name is taken from that of the Suebi mentioned by Julius Caesar, and although these older Suebi did likely contribute to the ethnogenesis of the Alemanni, there is no direct connection to the contemporary Kingdom of the Suebi in Galicia. were a confederation of Germanic tribes
on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into present-day Alsace and northern Switzerland, leading to the establishment of the Old High German language in those regions, which by the eighth century were collectively referred to as Alamannia.in pago Almanniae 762, in pago Alemannorum 797, urbs Constantia in ducatu Alemanniae 797; in ducatu Alemannico, in pago Linzgowe 873. From the ninth century, Alamannia is increasingly used of the Alsace specifically, while the Alamannic territory in general is increasingly called Suebia; by the 12th century, the name Suebia had mostly replaced Alamannia.
S. Hirzel, Forschungen zur Deutschen Landeskunde 6 (1888), p. 299.
In 496, the Alemanni were conquered by the Frankish leader Clovis and incorporated into his dominions. Mentioned as still pagan allies of the Christian Franks, the Alemanni were gradually Christianized during the seventh century. The is a record of their customary law during this period. Until the eighth century, Frankish suzerainty over Alemannia was mostly nominal. After an uprising by Theudebald, Duke of Alamannia, however, Carloman executed the Alamannic nobility and installed Frankish dukes.
During the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire, the Alemannic counts became almost independent, and a struggle for supremacy took place between them and the Bishopric of Constance. The chief family in Alamannia was that of the counts of , who were sometimes called margraves, and one of whom, Burchard II, established the Duchy of Swabia, which was recognized by Henry the Fowler in 919 and became a stem duchy of the Holy Roman Empire.
The area settled by the Alemanni corresponds roughly to the area where Alemannic German dialects remain spoken, including German Swabia and Baden, French Alsace, German-speaking Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg. The French-language name of Germany, , is derived from their name, from Old French aleman(t),recorded as aleman in c. 1100, and with final dental, alemant or alemand, from c. 1160. Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé s.v. allemand. and from French was loaned into a number of other languages, including Middle English, which commonly used the term Almains for Germans.F.C. and J. Rivington, T. Payne, Wilkie and Robinson: The Chronicle of Iohn Hardyng, 1812, p. 99.H. Kurath: Middle English Dictionary, part 14, University of Michigan Press, 1952, 1345. Likewise, the Arabic name for Germany is (Almanya), the Turkish is Almanya, the Spanish is Alemania, the Portuguese is Alemanha, the Welsh is Yr Almaen and the Persian is (Alman).
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Alemanni
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Name
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Name
According to Gaius Asinius Quadratus (quoted in the mid-sixth century by Byzantine historian Agathias), the name Alamanni (Ἀλαμανοι) means "all men". It indicates that they were a conglomeration drawn from various Germanic tribes. The Romans and the Greeks called them as such (Alamanni, all men, in the sense of a group composed of men of all groups in the region). This derivation was accepted by Edward Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and by the anonymous contributor of notes assembled from the papers of Nicolas Fréret, published in 1753.Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, avec les Mémoires de Littérature tirés des Registres de cette Académie, depuis l'année MDCCXLIV jusques et compris l'année MDCCXLVI, vol. XVIII, (Paris 1753) pp. 49–71. Excerpts are on-line at ELIOHS.
This etymology has remained the standard derivation of the name.It is cited in most etymological dictionaries, such as the American Heritage Dictionary (large edition) under the root, *man- .
An alternative suggestion proposes derivation from *alah "sanctuary"."the name is possibly Alahmannen, 'men of the sanctuary'" Inglis Palgrave (ed.), The Collected Historical Works of Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H. (1919), p. 443 (citing: "Bury's ed. of Gibbon (Methuen), vol. I [1902], p. 278 note; H. M. Chadwick, Origin of the English Nation [1907]").
Walafrid Strabo in the ninth century remarked, in discussing the people of Switzerland and the surrounding regions, that only foreigners called them the Alemanni, but that they gave themselves the name of Suebi.Igitur quia mixti Alamannis Suevi, partem Germaniae ultra Danubium, partem Raetiae inter Alpes et Histrum, partemque Galliae circa Ararim obsederunt; antiquorum vocabulorum veritate servata, ab incolis nomen patriae derivemus, et Alamanniam vel Sueviam nominemus. Nam cum duo sint vocabula unam gentem significantia, priori nomine nos appellant circumpositae gentes, quae Latinum habent sermonem; sequenti, usus nos nuncupat barbarorum. Walafrid Strabo, Proleg. ad Vit. S. Galli (833/4) ed. Migne (1852); Thomas Greenwood, The First Book of the History of the Germans: Barbaric Period (1836), p. 498.
The Suebi are given the alternative name of Ziuwari (as Cyuuari) in an Old High German gloss, interpreted by Jacob Grimm as Martem colentes ("worshippers of Mars").Rudolf Much, Der germanische Himmelsgott (1898), p. 192. Annio da Viterbo a scholar and historian of the 15th century claimed the Alemanni had their name from the Hebrew language, as in Hebrew the river Rhine was translated into Mannum and the people who live at its shores were called Alemannus. This was refuted by Beatus Rhenanus, a humanist of the 16th century. Rhenanus argued the term Alemanni was meant for the whole Germanic people only in late antiquity and before it was only meant to designate the population of an island in the North Sea.
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Alemanni
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First appearance in historical record
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First appearance in historical record
thumb|Alamannia is shown beyond Silva Marciana (the Black Forest) in the Tabula Peutingeriana. Suevia is indicated separately, further downstream of the Rhine, beyond Silva Vosagus.
Early Roman writers did not mention the Alemanni, and it is likely that they had not yet come to exist. In his Germania Tacitus (AD 90) does not mention the Alemanni. He uses the term Agri Decumates to describe the region between the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers. He says that it had once been the home of the Helvetians, who had moved westwards into Gaul in the time of Julius Caesar. The people living there in Caesar's time are not Germanic. Instead, "Reckless adventurers from Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier having been advanced, and our military positions pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of our empire and a part of a Roman province."Tac. Ger. 29.
thumb|Alemannic belt mountings, from a seventh-century grave in the grave field at Weingarten
The Alemanni were first mentioned by Cassius Dio describing the campaign of Caracalla in 213. At that time, they apparently dwelt in the basin of the Main, to the south of the Chatti.
Cassius Dio portrays the Alemanni as victims of this treacherous emperor. They had asked for his help, according to Dio, but instead he colonized their country, changed their place names, and executed their warriors under a pretext of coming to their aid. When he became ill, the Alemanni claimed to have put a hex on him. Caracalla, it was claimed, tried to counter this influence by invoking his ancestral spirits.
In retribution, Caracalla then led the Legio II Traiana Fortis against the Alemanni, who lost and were pacified for a time. The legion was as a result honoured with the name Germanica. The fourth-century fictional Historia Augusta, Life of Antoninus Caracalla, relates (10.5) that Caracalla then assumed the name Alemannicus, at which Helvius Pertinax jested that he should really be called Geticus Maximus, because in the year before he had murdered his brother, Geta.
Through much of his short reign, Caracalla was known for unpredictable and arbitrary operations launched by surprise after a pretext of peace negotiations. If he had any reasons of state for such actions, they remained unknown to his contemporaries. Whether or not the Alemanni had been previously neutral, they were certainly further influenced by Caracalla to become thereafter notoriously implacable enemies of Rome.
This mutually antagonistic relationship is perhaps the reason why the Roman writers persisted in calling the Alemanni "barbari," meaning "savages." The archaeology, however, shows that they were largely Romanized, lived in Roman-style houses and used Roman artefacts, the Alemannic women having adopted the Roman fashion of the tunica even earlier than the men.
Most of the Alemanni were probably at the time, in fact, resident in or close to the borders of Germania Superior. Although Dio is the earliest writer to mention them, Ammianus Marcellinus used the name to refer to Germans on the Limes Germanicus in the time of Trajan's governorship of the province shortly after it was formed, around 98–99 AD. At that time, the entire frontier was being fortified for the first time. Trees from the earliest fortifications found in Germania Inferior are dated by dendrochronology to 99–100 AD.
Ammianus relates (xvii.1.11) that much later the Emperor Julian undertook a punitive expedition against the Alemanni, who by then were in Alsace, and crossed the Main (Latin Menus), entering the forest, where the trails were blocked by felled trees. As winter was upon them, they reoccupied a
"fortification which was founded on the soil of the Alemanni that Trajan wished to be called with his own name".munimentum quod in Alamannorum solo conditum Traianus suo nomine voluit appellari.
In this context, the use of Alemanni is possibly an anachronism, but it reveals that Ammianus believed they were the same people, which is consistent with the location of the Alemanni of Caracalla's campaigns.
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Alemanni
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Conflicts with the Roman Empire
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Conflicts with the Roman Empire
thumb|upright=1.6|The Limes Germanicus 83 to 260 CE
The Alemanni were continually engaged in conflicts with the Roman Empire in the third and fourth centuries. They launched a major invasion of Gaul and northern Italy in 268 when the Romans were forced to denude much of their German frontier of troops in response to a massive invasion of the Goths from the east. Their raids throughout the three parts of Gaul were traumatic: Gregory of Tours (died ca 594) mentions their destructive force at the time of Valerian and Gallienus (253–260), when the Alemanni assembled under their "king", whom he calls Chrocus, who acted "by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother, and overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations all the temples which had been built in ancient times. And coming to Clermont he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they call Vasso Galatae in the Gallic tongue," martyring many Christians (Historia Francorum Book I.32–34). Thus sixth-century Gallo-Romans of Gregory's class, surrounded by the ruins of Roman temples and public buildings, attributed the destruction they saw to the plundering raids of the Alemanni.
In the early summer of 268, the Emperor Gallienus halted their advance into Italy but then had to deal with the Goths. When the Gothic campaign ended in Roman victory at the Battle of Naissus in September, Gallienus' successor Claudius Gothicus turned north to deal with the Alemanni, who were swarming over all Italy north of the Po River.
After efforts to secure a peaceful withdrawal failed, Claudius forced the Alemanni to battle at the Battle of Lake Benacus in November. The Alemanni were routed, forced back into Germany, and did not threaten Roman territory for many years afterwards.
Their most famous battle against Rome took place in Argentoratum (Strasbourg), in 357, where they were defeated by Julian, later Emperor of Rome, and their king Chnodomarius was taken prisoner to Rome.
On January 2, 366, the Alemanni yet again crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers, to invade the Gallic provinces, this time being defeated by Valentinian (see Battle of Solicinium). In the great mixed invasion of 406, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine river a final time, conquering and then settling what is today Alsace and a large part of the Swiss Plateau. The crossing is described in Wallace Breem's historical novel Eagle in the Snow. The Chronicle of Fredegar gives the account. At Alba Augusta (Alba-la-Romaine) the devastation was so complete, that the Christian bishop retired to Viviers, but in Gregory's account at Mende in Lozère, also deep in the heart of Gaul, bishop Privatus was forced to sacrifice to idols in the very cave where he was later venerated. It is thought this detail may be a generic literary ploy to epitomize the horrors of barbarian violence.
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Alemanni
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List of battles between Romans and Alemanni
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List of battles between Romans and Alemanni
thumb|upright=1.6|Europe at the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD
259, Battle of MediolanumEmperor Gallienus defeats the Alemanni to rescue Rome
268, Battle of Lake BenacusRomans under Emperor Claudius II defeat the Alemanni.
271
Battle of PlacentiaEmperor Aurelian is defeated by the Alemanni forces invading Italy
Battle of FanoAurelian defeats the Alemanni, who begin to retreat from Italy
Battle of PaviaAurelian destroys the retreating Alemanni army.
298
Battle of LingonesCaesar Constantius Chlorus defeats the Alemanni
Battle of VindonissaConstantius defeats the Alemanni.
356, Battle of ReimsCaesar Julian is defeated by the Alemanni
357, Battle of StrasbourgJulian expels the Alemanni from the Rhineland
368, Battle of SoliciniumRomans under Emperor Valentinian I defeat an Alemanni incursion.
378, Battle of ArgentovariaWestern Emperor Gratianus is victorious over the Alemanni.
451, Battle of the Catalaunian FieldsRoman General Aetius and his army of Romans and barbarian allies defeat Attila's army of Huns and other Germanic allies, including the Alemanni.
457, Battle of Campi CanniniAlemanni invade Italy and are defeated near Lake Maggiore by Majorian
554, Battle of the VolturnusByzantine General Narses defeats a combined force of Franks and Alemanni in southern Italy.
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Alemanni
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Subjugation by the Franks
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Subjugation by the Franks
thumb|upright=1.15|Alemannia (yellow) and Upper Burgundy (green) around 1000
The kingdom of Alamannia between Strasbourg and Augsburg lasted until 496, when the Alemanni were conquered by Clovis I at the Battle of Tolbiac. The war of Clovis with the Alemanni forms the setting for the conversion of Clovis, briefly treated by Gregory of Tours. (Book II.31) After their defeat in 496, the Alemanni bucked the Frankish yoke and put themselves under the protection of Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths but after his death they were again subjugated by the Franks under Theudebert I in 536. Subsequently, the Alemanni formed part of the Frankish dominions and were governed by a Frankish duke.
In 746, Carloman ended an uprising by summarily executing all Alemannic nobility at the blood court at Cannstatt, and for the following century, Alemannia was ruled by Frankish dukes. Following the treaty of Verdun of 843, Alemannia became a province of the eastern kingdom of Louis the German, the precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. The duchy persisted until 1268.
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Alemanni
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Culture
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Culture
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Alemanni
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Language
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Language
thumb|The traditional distribution area of Western Upper German (Alemannic) dialect features in the 19th and 20th centuries
The German spoken today over the range of the former Alemanni is termed Alemannic German, and is recognised among the subgroups of the High German languages. Alemannic runic inscriptions such as those on the Pforzen buckle are among the earliest testimonies of Old High German. The High German consonant shift is thought to have originated around the fifth century either in Alemannia or among the Lombards; before that, the dialect spoken by Alemannic tribes was little different from that of other West Germanic peoples.
Alemannia lost its distinct jurisdictional identity when Charles Martel absorbed it into the Frankish empire, early in the eighth century. Today, Alemannic is a linguistic term, referring to Alemannic German, encompassing the dialects of the southern two-thirds of Baden-Württemberg (German State), in western Bavaria (German State), in Vorarlberg (Austrian State), Swiss German in Switzerland and the Alsatian language of the Alsace (France).
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Alemanni
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Political organization
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Political organization
The Alemanni established a series of territorially defined pagi (cantons) on the east bank of the Rhine. The exact number and extent of these pagi is unclear and probably changed over time.
Pagi, usually pairs of pagi combined, formed kingdoms (regna) which, it is generally believed, were permanent and hereditary. Ammianus describes Alemanni rulers with various terms: reges excelsiores ante alios ("paramount kings"), reges proximi ("neighbouring kings"), reguli ("petty kings") and regales ("princes"). This may be a formal hierarchy, or they may be vague, overlapping terms, or a combination of both.Drinkwater (2007) 118, 120 In 357, there appear to have been two paramount kings (Chnodomar and Westralp) who probably acted as presidents of the confederation and seven other kings (reges). Their territories were small and mostly strung along the Rhine (although a few were in the hinterland).Drinkwater (2007) 223 (map) It is possible that the reguli were the rulers of the two pagi in each kingdom. Underneath the royal class were the nobles (called optimates by the Romans) and warriors (called armati by the Romans). The warriors consisted of professional warbands and levies of free men.Speidel (2004) Each nobleman could raise an average of c. 50 warriors.Drinkwater (2007) 120
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Alemanni
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Religion
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Religion
thumb|The gold bracteate of Pliezhausen (sixth or seventh century) shows typical iconography of the pagan period. The bracteate depicts the "horse-stabber underhoof" scene, a supine warrior stabbing a horse while it runs over him. The scene is adapted from Roman era gravestones of the region.Michael Speidel, Ancient Germanic warriors: warrior styles from Trajan's column to Icelandic sagas, Routledge, 2004, , p. 162.
Harald Kleinschmidt, People on the move: attitudes toward and perceptions of migration in medieval and modern Europe, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003,
, p. 66.
thumb|The seventh-century Gutenstein scabbard, found near Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, is a late testimony of pagan ritual in Alemannia, showing a warrior in ritual wolf costume, holding a ring-spatha.
The Christianization of the Alemanni took place during Merovingian times (sixth to eighth centuries). We know that in the sixth century, the Alemanni were predominantly pagan, and in the eighth century, they were predominantly Christian. The intervening seventh century was a period of genuine syncretism during which Christian symbolism and doctrine gradually grew in influence.
Some scholars have speculated that members of the Alemannic elite such as king Gibuld due to Visigothic influence may have been converted to Arianism even in the later fifth century.Schubert, Hans (1909). Das älteste germanische Christentum oder der Sogenannte "Arianismus" der Germanen. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr. p. 32. Cf. also Bossert, G. "Alemanni" in: Jackson, S.M. (Ed.). New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 1, p. 114: "[the Alamannic] prince, Gibuld, was an Arian, probably converted by Goths".
In the mid-6th century, the Byzantine historian Agathias records, in the context of the wars of the Goths and Franks against Byzantium, that the Alemanni fighting among the troops of Frankish king Theudebald were like the Franks in all respects except religion, since
He also spoke of the particular ruthlessness of the Alemanni in destroying Christian sanctuaries and plundering churches while the genuine Franks were respectful towards those sanctuaries. Agathias expresses his hope that the Alemanni would assume better manners through prolonged contact with the Franks, which is by all appearances, in a manner of speaking, what eventually happened.R. Keydell, Agathiae Myrinaei historiarum libri quinque Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Series Berolinensis 2. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1967, p. 18f.
Apostles of the Alemanni were Columbanus and his disciple Saint Gall. Jonas of Bobbio records that Columbanus was active in Bregenz, where he disrupted a beer sacrifice to Wodan. Despite these activities, for some time, the Alemanni seem to have continued their pagan cult activities, with only superficial or syncretistic Christian elements. In particular, there was no change in burial practice, and tumulus warrior graves continued to be erected throughout Merovingian times. Syncretism of traditional Germanic animal style with Christian symbolism is also present in artwork, but Christian symbolism became more and more prevalent during the seventh century. Unlike the later Christianization of the Saxons and of the Slavs, the Alemanni seem to have adopted Christianity gradually, and voluntarily, spread in emulation of the Merovingian elite.
From c. the 520s to the 620s, there was a surge of Alemannic Elder Futhark inscriptions. About 70 specimens have survived, roughly half of them on fibulae, others on belt buckles (see Pforzen buckle, Bülach fibula) and other jewellery and weapon parts. The use of runes subsides with the advance of Christianity.
The Nordendorf fibula (early seventh century) clearly records pagan theonyms, logaþorewodanwigiþonar read as "Wodan and Donar are magicians/sorcerers", but this may be interpreted as either a pagan invocation of the powers of these deities, or a Christian protective charm against them.
A runic inscription on a fibula found at Bad Ems reflects Christian pious sentiment (and is also explicitly marked with a Christian cross), reading god fura dih deofile ᛭ ("God for/before you, Theophilus!", or alternatively "God before you, Devil!"). Dated to between AD 660 and 690, it marks the end of the native Alemannic tradition of runic literacy. Bad Ems is in Rhineland-Palatinate, on the northwestern boundary of Alemannic settlement, where Frankish influence would have been strongest.Wolfgang Jungandreas, 'God fura dih, deofile †' in: Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 101, 1972, pp. 84–85.
The establishment of the bishopric of Konstanz cannot be dated exactly and was possibly undertaken by Columbanus himself (before 612). In any case, it existed by 635, when Gunzo appointed John of Grab bishop. Constance was a missionary bishopric in newly converted lands, and did not look back on late Roman church history unlike the Raetian bishopric of Chur (established 451) and Basel (an episcopal seat from 740, and which continued the line of Bishops of Augusta Raurica, see Bishop of Basel). The establishment of the church as an institution recognized by worldly rulers is also visible in legal history. In the early seventh century Pactus Alamannorum hardly ever mentions the special privileges of the church, while Lantfrid's Lex Alamannorum of 720 has an entire chapter reserved for ecclesial matters alone.
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Alemanni
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Genetics
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Genetics
A genetic study published in Science Advances in September 2018 examined the remains of eight individuals buried at a seventh-century Alemannic graveyard in Niederstotzingen, Germany. This is the richest and most complete Alemannic graveyard ever found. The highest-ranking individual at the graveyard was a male with Frankish grave goods. Four males were found to be closely related to him. They were all carriers of types of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b. A sixth male was a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1b1a2a1a1c2b2b1a1 and the maternal haplogroup U5a1a1. Along with the five closely related individuals, he displayed close genetic links to northern and eastern Europe, particularly Lithuania and Iceland. Two individuals buried at the cemetery were found to be genetically different from both the others and each other, displaying genetic links to Southern Europe, particularly northern Italy and Spain. Along with the sixth male, they might have been adoptees or slaves.
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Alemanni
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See also
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See also
Annales Alamannici
List of rulers of Alamannia
List of confederations of Germanic tribes
Armalausi
Varisci
Helvetii
Charietto
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Alemanni
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References
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References
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Alemanni
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Sources
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Sources
Ammianus Marcellinus, passim
O. Bremer in H. Paul, Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (2nd ed., Strassburg, 1900), vol. iii. pp. 930 ff.
Dio Cassius lxvii. ff.
Ian Wood (ed.), Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective (Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology), Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2003, .
Melchior Goldast, Rerum Alamannicarum scriptores (1606, 2nd ed. Senckenburg 1730)
Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, book ii.
C. Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme (Munich, 1837), pp. 303 ff.
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Alemanni
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External links
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External links
The Agri Decumates
The Alemanni (archived)
The Military Orientation of the Roman Emperors Septimius Severus to Gallienus (146–268 C.E.) (archived)
Brauchtum und Masken Alemannic Fastnacht
Category:Early Germanic peoples
Category:Germanic tribal confederacies
Category:History of Swabia
Category:History of Alsace
Category:Medieval history of Switzerland
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Alemanni
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Table of Content
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Short description, Name, First appearance in historical record, Conflicts with the Roman Empire, List of battles between Romans and Alemanni, Subjugation by the Franks, Culture, Language, Political organization, Religion, Genetics, See also, References, Sources, External links
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NYSE American
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Short description
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NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was known as the New York Curb Exchange.
NYSE Euronext acquired AMEX on October 1, 2008, with AMEX integrated with the Alternext European small-cap exchange and renamed the NYSE Alternext U.S. In March 2009, NYSE Alternext U.S. was changed to NYSE Amex Equities. On May 10, 2012, NYSE Amex Equities changed its name to NYSE MKT LLC.
Following the SEC approval of competing stock exchange IEX in 2016, NYSE MKT rebranded as NYSE American and introduced a 350-microsecond delay in trading, referred to as a "speed bump", which is also present on the IEX.
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NYSE American
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History
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History
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NYSE American
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The Curb market
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The Curb market
thumb|350px|Curb brokers in Wall Street, New York City, 1920, a year before the trading was moved indoors. That year, journalist Edwin C. Hill described the curb trading on lower Broad Street as "a roaring, swirling whirlpool... like nothing else under the astonishing sky that is its only roof."
The exchange grew out of the loosely organized curb market of curbstone brokers on Broad Street in Manhattan. Efforts to organize and standardize the market started early in the 20th century under Emanuel S. Mendels and Carl H. Pforzheimer. The curb brokers had been kicked out of the Mills Building front by 1907, and had moved to the pavement outside the Blair Building where cabbies lined up. There they were given a "little domain of asphalt" fenced off by the police on Broad Street between Exchange Place and Beaver Street. As of 1907, the curb market operated starting at 10 AM, each day except Sundays, until a gong at 3 PM. Orders for the purchase and sale of securities were shouted down from the windows of nearby brokerages, with the execution of the sale then shouted back up to the brokerage.
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NYSE American
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Organizing and 'Curb list'
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Organizing and 'Curb list'
As of 1907, E. S. Mendels gave the brokers rules "by right of seniority", but the curb brokers intentionally avoided organizing. According to the Times, this came from a general belief that if a curb exchange was organized, the exchange authorities would force members to sell their other exchange memberships. However, in 1908 the New York Curb Market Agency was established, which developed appropriate trading rules for curbstone brokers, organized by Mendels. The informal Curb Association formed in 1910 to weed out undesirables. The curb exchange was for years at odds with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), or "Big Board", operating several buildings away. Explained the New York Times in 1910, the Big Board looked at the curb as "a trading place for 'cats and dogs.'" On April 1, 1910, however, when the NYSE abolished its unlisted department, the NYSE stocks "made homeless by the abolition" were "refused domicile" by the curb brokers on Broad Street until they had complied with the "Curb list" of requirements. In 1911, Mendels and his advisers drew up a constitution and formed the New York Curb Market Association, which can be considered the first formal constitution of American Stock Exchange.http://abcnewspapers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11281 New York Curb Market Association
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NYSE American
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1920s-1940s: Move indoors
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1920s-1940s: Move indoors
thumb|American Stock Exchange Building, constructed in 1921
In 1920, journalist Edwin C. Hill wrote that the curb exchange on lower Broad Street was a "roaring, swirling whirlpool" that "tears control of a gold-mine from an unlucky operator, and pauses to auction a puppy-dog. It is like nothing else under the astonished sky that is its only roof." After a group of Curb brokers formed a real estate company to design a building, Starrett & Van Vleck designed the new exchange building on Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan between Thames and Rector, at 86 Trinity Place. It opened in 1921, and the curbstone brokers moved indoors on June 27, 1921. In 1929, the New York Curb Market changed its name to the New York Curb Exchange. The Curb Exchange soon became the leading international stock market, and according to historian Robert Sobel, "had more individual foreign issues on its list than [...] all other American securities markets combined."
Edward Reid McCormick was the first president of the New York Curb Market Association and is credited with moving the market indoors. George Rea was approached about the position of president of the New York Curb Exchange in 1939. He was unanimously elected as the first paid president in the history of the Curb Exchange. He was paid $25,000 per year (equivalent to $ today) and held the position for three years before offering his resignation in 1942. He left the position having "done such a good job that there is virtually no need for a full-time successor."
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NYSE American
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Modernization as the American Stock Exchange
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Modernization as the American Stock Exchange
In 1953, the Curb Exchange was renamed the American Stock Exchange. The exchange was shaken by a scandal in 1961, and in 1962 began a reorganization. Its reputation recently damaged by charges of mismanagement, in 1962, the American Stock Exchange named Edwin Etherington its president. Writes CNN, he and executive vice president Paul Kolton were "tapped in 1962 to clean up and reinvigorate the scandal-plagued American Stock Exchange."
As of 1971, it was the second largest stock exchange in the United States. Paul Kolton succeeded Ralph S. Saul as AMEX president on June 17, 1971, making him the first person to be selected from within the exchange to serve as its leader, succeeding Ralph S. Saul, who announced his resignation in March 1971.Rustin, Richard E. (May 14, 1971). "American Board Panel Seen Recommending Kolton, No. 2 Man, as Successor to Saul". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 30, 2010. Kaplan, Thomas (October 29, 2010). "Paul Kolton, Who Led the American Stock Exchange, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2010. In November 1972, Kolton was named as the exchange's first chief executive officer and its first salaried top executive.Staff (November 3, 1972). "Amex Formally Elects Paul Kolton as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 30, 2010. As chairman, Kolton oversaw the introduction of options trading. Kolton opposed the idea of a merger with the New York Stock Exchange while he headed the exchange saying that "two independent, viable exchanges are much more likely to be responsive to new pressures and public needs than a single institution". Kolton announced in July 1977 that he would be leaving his position at the American Exchange in November of that year.Staff (July 17, 1977). "Paul Kolton Leaving Amex". (via Dow Jones Service) (The Pittsburgh Press (via Google News)). Retrieved July 18, 2012.
In 1977, Thomas Peterffy purchased a seat on the American Stock Exchange. Peterffy created a major stir among traders by introducing handheld computers onto the trading floor in the early 1980s.
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NYSE American
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Introducing ETFs
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Introducing ETFs
ETFs or exchange-traded funds had their genesis in 1989 with Index Participation Shares, an S&P 500 proxy that traded on the American Stock Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. This product was short-lived after a lawsuit by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was successful in stopping sales in the United States.
In 1990, a similar product, Toronto Index Participation Shares, which tracked the TSE 35 and later the TSE 100 indices, started trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) in 1990. The popularity of these products led the American Stock Exchange to try to develop something that would satisfy regulations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nathan Most and Steven Bloom, under the direction of Ivers Riley, designed and developed Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts (NYSE Arca: SPY), which were introduced in January 1993. Known as SPDRs or "Spiders", the fund became the largest ETF in the world. In May 1995, State Street Global Advisors introduced the S&P 400 MidCap SPDRs (NYSE Arca: MDY).
Barclays, in conjunction with MSCI and Funds Distributor Inc., entered the market in 1996 with World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS), which became iShares MSCI Index Fund Shares. WEBS originally tracked 17 MSCI country indices managed by the funds' index provider, Morgan Stanley. WEBS were particularly innovative because they gave casual investors easy access to foreign markets. While SPDRs were organized as unit investment trusts, WEBS were set up as a mutual fund, the first of their kind.
In 1998, State Street Global Advisors introduced "Sector Spiders", separate ETFs for each of the sectors of the S&P 500 Index. Also in 1998, the "Dow Diamonds" (NYSE Arca: DIA) were introduced, tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 1999, the influential "cubes" (Nasdaq: QQQ), were launched, with the goal of replicate the price movement of the NASDAQ-100.
The iShares line was launched in early 2000. By 2005, it had a 44% market share of ETF assets under management. Barclays Global Investors was sold to BlackRock in 2009.
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NYSE American
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NYSE merger
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NYSE merger
As of 2003, AMEX was the only U.S. stock market to permit the transmission of buy and sell orders through hand signals.Larry Harris, Trading and Exchanges, Oxford University Press US: 2003, page 104, ,
In October 2008 NYSE Euronext completed acquisition of the AMEX for $260 million in stock. Before the closing of the acquisition, NYSE Euronext announced that the AMEX would be integrated with the Alternext European small-cap exchange and renamed the NYSE Alternext U.S. The American Stock Exchange merged with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE Euronext) on October 1, 2008. Post merger, the Amex equities business was branded "NYSE Alternext US". As part of the re-branding exercise, NYSE Alternext US was re-branded as NYSE Amex Equities. On December 1, 2008, the Curb Exchange building at 86 Trinity Place was closed, and the Amex Equities trading floor was moved to the NYSE Trading floor at 11 Wall Street. 90 years after its 1921 opening, the old New York Curb Market building was empty but remained standing. In March 2009, NYSE Alternext U.S. was changed to NYSE Amex Equities. On May 10, 2012, NYSE Amex Equities changed its name to NYSE MKT LLC.
In June 2016, a competing stock exchange IEX (which operated with a 350-microsecond delay in trading), gained approval from the SEC, despite lobbying protests by the NYSE and other exchanges and trading firms.
On July 24, 2017, the NYSE renamed NYSE MKT to NYSE American, and announced plans to introduce its own 350-microsecond "speed bump" in trading on the small and mid-cap company exchange.
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NYSE American
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Products
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Products
Intellidex
Stocks
Options
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
Structured Products
Warrants
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NYSE American
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Management
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Management
Past presidents of the American Stock Exchange include:
John L. McCormack (1911–1914)
Edward R. McCormick (1914–1923)
John W. Curtis (1923–1925)
David U. Page (1925–1928)
William S. Muller (1928–1932)
Howard C. Sykes (1932–1934)
E. Burd Grubb (1934–1935)
Fred C. Moffatt (1935–1939; 1942–1945)
George P. Rea (1939–1942)
Edwin Posner (1945–1947; January–September, 1962)
Edward C. Werle (February–March, 1947)
Francis Adams Truslow (1947–1951)
Edward T. McCormick (1951–1961)
Joseph F. Reilly (1961–1962)
Edwin D. Etherington (1962–1966)
Ralph S. Saul (1966–1971)
Paul Kolton (1971–1973)
Richard M. Burdge (1973–1977)
Robert J. Birnbaum (1977–1986)
Kenneth R. Leibler (1986–1990)
Past chairmen of the American Stock Exchange include:
Clarence A. Bettman (1939–1941)
Fred C. Moffatt (1941–1945)
Edwin Posner (1945–1947; 1962–1965)
Edward C. Werle (1947–1950)
Mortimer Landsberg (1950–1951)
John J. Mann (1951–1956)
James R. Dyer (1956–1960)
Joseph E. Reilly (1960–1962)
David S. Jackson (1965–1968)
Macrae Sykes (1968–1969)
Frank C. Graham Jr. (1969–1973)
Paul Kolton (1973–1978)
Arthur Levitt Jr. (1978–1989)
James R. Jones (1989–1993)
Salvatore F. Sodano (1999–2005)
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NYSE American
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Gallery
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Gallery
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NYSE American
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See also
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See also
NYSE Arca Major Market Index
Microcap stock
Economy of New York City
List of stock exchanges in the Americas
List of stock exchange mergers in the Americas
Consolidated Tape System
Hal S. Scott
Michael J. Meehan
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NYSE American
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References
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References
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NYSE American
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Further reading
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Further reading
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NYSE American
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External links
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External links
NYSE American
Category:Financial services companies established in 1908
Category:Intercontinental Exchange
Category:Self-regulatory organizations in the United States
Category:Stock exchanges in the United States
Category:2008 mergers and acquisitions
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NYSE American
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Table of Content
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Short description, History, The Curb market, Organizing and 'Curb list', 1920s-1940s: Move indoors, Modernization as the American Stock Exchange, Introducing ETFs, NYSE merger, Products, Management, Gallery, See also, References, Further reading, External links
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August 12
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pp-pc1
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August 12
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Events
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Events
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August 12
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Pre-1600
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Pre-1600
1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1121 – Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1323 – The Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod Republic is signed, regulating the border between the two countries for the first time.
1492 – Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
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August 12
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1601–1900
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1601–1900
1624 – Charles de La Vieuville is arrested and replaced by Cardinal Richelieu as the French king's chief advisor.
1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.
1765 – Treaty of Allahabad is signed. The Treaty marks the political and constitutional involvement and the beginning of Company rule in India.
1788 – The Anjala conspiracy is signed.Anjalan liitto – Anjala-seura (in Finnish)
1793 – The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.
1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.
1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1865 – Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performs the first antiseptic surgery.
1883 – The last quagga dies at the Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States where it is formally recognized as Hawaii.
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August 12
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1901–present
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1901–present
1914 – World War I: The United Kingdom and the British Empire declare war on Austria-Hungary.
1914 – World War I: The Battle of Halen a.k.a. Battle of the Silver Helmets a clash between large Belgian and German cavalry formations at Halen, Belgium.
1944 – Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people are killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.
1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
1948 – Between 15 and 150 unarmed members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement are killed by Pakistani police.
1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre: Seventy-five American POWs are massacred by the North Korean Army.
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
1953 – First thermonuclear bomb test: The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4) using a "layered" scheme.
1953 – The 7.2 Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 445 and 800 people are killed.
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War.
1977 – The first free flight of the .
1977 – The Sri Lanka Riots: Targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1984 – An infamous brawl takes place at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium between the Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres.
1985 – Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike, eventually forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
2000 – The Russian Navy submarine explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew.
2015 – At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China.
2016 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the city of Manbij from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
2017 - The Unite the Right rally occurs in Charlottesville, Virginia, leading to the deaths of 3 and injuring nearly 50 more.
2018 – Thirty-nine civilians, including a dozen children, are killed in an explosion at a weapons depot in Sarmada, Syria.
2021 – Six people, five victims and the perpetrator are killed in Keyham, Plymouth in the worst mass shooting in the UK since 2010.
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August 12
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Births
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Births
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August 12
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Pre-1600
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Pre-1600
1452 – Abraham Zacuto, Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian (d. 1515)
1503 – Christian III of Denmark (d. 1559)
1506 – Franciscus Sonnius, Dutch counter-Reformation theologian (d. 1576)
1591 – Louise de Marillac, co-founder of the Daughters of Charity (d. 1660)
1599 – Sir William Curtius FRS, German magistrate, English baronet (d. 1678)
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August 12
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1601–1900
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1601–1900
1604 – Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1651)
1626 – Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (d. 1690)
1629 – Archduchess Isabella Clara of Austria, Austrian archduchess (d. 1685)
1644 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Bohemian-Austrian violinist and composer (d. 1704)
1686 – John Balguy, English philosopher and author (d. 1748)
1696 – Maurice Greene, English organist and composer (d. 1755)
1762 – George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1830)
1773 – Karl Faber, Prussian historian and academic (d. 1853)
1774 – Robert Southey, English poet and author (d. 1843)
1831 – Helena Blavatsky, Russian theosophist and scholar (d. 1891)
1852 – Michael J. McGivney, American priest and founder of the Knights of Columbus (d. 1890)
1856 – Diamond Jim Brady, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1917)
1857 – Ernestine von Kirchsberg, Austrian painter and educator (d. 1924)
1859 – Katharine Lee Bates, American poet and author (d. 1929)
1860 – Klara Hitler, Austrian mother of Adolf Hitler (d. 1907)
1866 – Jacinto Benavente, Spanish playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
1866 – Henrik Sillem, Dutch target shooter, mountaineer, and jurist (d. 1907)
1867 – Edith Hamilton, German-American author and educator (d. 1963)
1870 – Henry Reuterdahl, Swedish-American artist (d. 1925)
1871 – Gustavs Zemgals, Latvian politician, 2nd President of Latvia (d. 1939)
1876 – Mary Roberts Rinehart, American author and playwright (d. 1958)
1877 – Albert Bartha, Hungarian general and politician, Hungarian Minister of Defence (d. 1960)
1880 – Radclyffe Hall, English poet, author, and activist (d. 1943)
1880 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player and manager (d. 1925)
1881 – Cecil B. DeMille, American director and producer (d. 1959)
1883 – Martha Hedman, Swedish-American actress and playwright (d. 1974)
1883 – Marion Lorne, American actress (d. 1968)
1885 – Jean Cabannes, French physicist and academic (d. 1959)
1885 – Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist (d. 1952)
1885 – Juhan Simm, Estonian composer and conductor (d. 1959)
1887 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
1889 – Zerna Sharp, American author and educator (d. 1981)
1891 – C. E. M. Joad, English philosopher and academic (d. 1953)
1891 – John McDermott, American golfer (d. 1971)
1892 – Alfred Lunt, American actor and director (d. 1977)
1897 – Maurice Fernandes, Guyanese cricketer (d. 1981)
1899 – Ben Sealey, Trinidadian cricketer (d. 1963)
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August 12
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1901–present
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1901–present
1902 – Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian statesman, 1st Vice President of Indonesia (d. 1980)
1904 – Idel Jakobson, Latvian-Estonian NKVD officer (d. 1997)
1904 – Tamás Lossonczy, Hungarian painter (d. 2009)
1904 – Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia (d. 1918)
1906 – Harry Hopman, Australian tennis player and coach (d. 1985)
1906 – Tedd Pierce, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1972)
1907 – Gladys Bentley, American blues singer (d. 1960)
1907 – Joe Besser, American actor (d. 1988)
1907 – Boy Charlton, Australian swimmer (d. 1975)
1907 – Benjamin Sheares, Singaporean physician and politician, 2nd President of Singapore (d. 1981)
1909 – Bruce Matthews, Canadian general and businessman (d. 1991)
1910 – Yusof bin Ishak, Singaporean journalist and politician, 1st President of Singapore (d. 1970)
1910 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (d. 2006)
1911 – Cantinflas, Mexican actor, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1993)
1912 – Samuel Fuller, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1913 – Richard L. Bare, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1914 – Gerd Buchdahl, German-English philosopher and author (d. 2001)
1914 – Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and songwriter (d. 1981)
1915 – Michael Kidd, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2007)
1916 – Ioan Dicezare, Romanian general and pilot (d. 2012)
1916 – Edward Pinkowski, American writer, journalist and Polonia historian (d. 2020)
1917 – Oliver Crawford, American screenwriter and author (d. 2008)
1917 – Ebba Haslund, Norwegian writer (d. 2009)
1918 – Sid Bernstein, American record producer (d. 2013)
1918 – Guy Gibson, Anglo-Indian commander and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1944)
1919 – Margaret Burbidge, English-American astrophysicist and academic (d. 2020)
1919 – Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist and academic (d. 1971)
1920 – Charles Gibson, American ethnohistorian (d. 1985)
1920 – Percy Mayfield, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
1922 – Fulton Mackay, Scottish actor and playwright (d. 1987)
1922 – Miloš Jakeš, Czech communist politician (d. 2020)
1923 – John Holt, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1997)
1924 – Derek Shackleton, English cricketer, coach, and umpire (d. 2007)
1924 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician, 6th President of Pakistan (d. 1988)
1925 – Dale Bumpers, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 38th Governor of Arkansas (d. 2016)
1925 – Guillermo Cano Isaza, Colombian journalist (d. 1986)
1925 – Donald Justice, American poet and writing teacher (d. 2004)
1925 – Norris McWhirter, Scottish publisher and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (d. 2004)
1925 – Ross McWhirter, Scottish publisher and activist, co-founded the Guinness World Records (d. 1975)
1925 – George Wetherill, American physicist and academic (d. 2006)
1926 – Douglas Croft, American child actor (d. 1963)
1926 – John Derek, American actor, director, and cinematographer (d. 1998)
1926 – Joe Jones, American R&B singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2005)
1927 – Porter Wagoner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2007)
1928 – Charles Blackman, Australian painter and illustrator (d. 2018)
1928 – Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
1928 – Dan Curtis, American director and producer (d. 2006)
1929 – Buck Owens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
1930 – George Soros, Hungarian-American businessman and investor, founded the Soros Fund Management
1930 – Kanagaratnam Sriskandan, Sri Lankan engineer and civil servant (d. 2010)
1930 – Jacques Tits, Belgian-French mathematician and academic (d. 2021)
1931 – William Goldman, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1932 – Dallin H. Oaks, American lawyer, jurist, and religious leader
1932 – Charlie O'Donnell, American radio and television announcer (d. 2010)
1932 – Sirikit, Queen mother of Thailand
1933 – Parnelli Jones, American race car driver and businessman (d. 2024)
1933 – Frederic Lindsay, Scottish author and educator (d. 2013)
1934 – Robin Nicholson, English metallurgist and academic
1935 – John Cazale, American actor (d. 1978)
1936 – Kjell Grede, Swedish director and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1937 – Walter Dean Myers, American author and poet (d. 2014)
1938 – Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian journalist and politician, 38th Mayor of Quebec City (d. 2016)
1939 – George Hamilton, American actor
1939 – David Jacobs, American television writer and producer (d. 2023)
1939 – S. Jayakumar, Singaporean politician, 4th Senior Minister of Singapore
1939 – Pam Kilborn, Australian track and field athlete
1939 – David King, South African chemist and academic
1939 – Sushil Koirala, Nepalese politician, 37th Prime Minister of Nepal (d. 2016)
1939 – Roy Romanow, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Premier of Saskatchewan
1940 – Eddie Barlow, South African cricketer and coach (d. 2005)
1940 – John Waller, English historical European martial arts (HEMA) revival pioneer and fight director (d. 2018)
1941 – L. M. Kit Carson, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1941 – Réjean Ducharme, Canadian author and playwright (d. 2017)
1941 – Dana Ivey, American actress
1942 – Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, German physician and author
1943 – Javeed Alam, Indian academician (d. 2016)
1945 – Dorothy E. Denning, American computer scientist and academic
1945 – Ron Mael, American keyboard player and songwriter
1946 – Terry Nutkins, English television host and author (d. 2012)
1947 – John Nathan-Turner, English author and television director, producer, and writer (d. 2002)
1948 – Siddaramaiah, Indian lawyer and politician, 22nd Chief Minister of Karnataka
1948 – Graham J. Zellick, English academic and jurist
1949 – Panagiotis Chinofotis, Greek admiral and politician
1949 – Mark Knopfler, Scottish-English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1949 – Lou Martin, Northern Irish pianist, songwriter, and producer (d. 2012)
1949 – Alex Naumik, Lithuanian-Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1949 – Rick Ridgeway, American mountaineer and photographer
1950 – Jim Beaver, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1950 – August "Kid Creole" Darnell, American musician, bandleader, singer-songwriter, and record producer
1950 – George McGinnis, American basketball player (d. 2023)
1951 – Klaus Toppmöller, German football manager and former player
1952 – Daniel Biles, American associate justice of the Kansas Supreme Court
1952 – Sitaram Yechury, Indian politician and leader of CPI(M) (d. 2024)
1954 – Rob Borbidge, Australian politician, 35th Premier of Queensland
1954 – Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong businessman and politician, 3rd Chief Executive of Hong Kong
1954 – Ibolya Dávid, Hungarian lawyer and politician, Minister of Justice of Hungary
1954 – François Hollande, French lawyer and politician, 24th President of France
1954 – Sam J. Jones, American actor
1954 – Pat Metheny, American jazz guitarist and composer
1956 – Lee Freedman, Australian horse trainer
1956 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor and producer
1956 – Sidath Wettimuny, Sri Lankan cricketer
1957 – Friedhelm Schütte, German footballer
1957 – Amanda Redman, English actress
1958 – Jürgen Dehmel, German bass player and songwriter
1959 – Kerry Boustead, Australian rugby league player
1960 – Laurent Fignon, French cyclist and sportscaster (d. 2010)
1960 – Greg Thomas, Welsh-English cricketer
1961 – Roy Hay, English guitarist, keyboard player, and composer
1961 – Mark Priest, New Zealand cricketer
1963 – Kōji Kitao, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 60th Yokozuna (d. 2019)
1963 – Campbell Newman, Australian politician, 38th Premier of Queensland
1963 – Sir Mix-a-Lot, American rapper, producer, and actor
1964 – Txiki Begiristain, Spanish footballer
1964 – Michael Hagan, Australian rugby league player and coach
1965 – Peter Krause, American actor
1966 – Tobias Ellwood, American-English captain and politician
1967 – Andy Hui, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor
1967 – Andrey Plotnikov, Russian race walker
1967 – Regilio Tuur, Dutch boxer
1968 – Thorsten Boer, German footballer and manager
1969 – Aga Muhlach, Filipino actor and politician
1969 – Stuart Williams, Nevisian cricketer
1969 – Tanita Tikaram, British pop/folk singer-songwriter
1970 – Aleksandar Đurić, Bosnian footballer
1970 – Charles Mesure, English-Australian actor and screenwriter
1970 – Toby Perkins, English businessman and politician
1970 – Jim Schlossnagle, American baseball player and coach
1970 – Anthony Swofford, American soldier and author
1971 – Michael Ian Black, American comedian, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1971 – Yvette Nicole Brown, American actress, comedian, and talk show host
1971 – Rebecca Gayheart, American actress
1971 – Pete Sampras, American tennis player
1972 – Demir Demirkan, Turkish singer-songwriter and producer
1972 – Mark Kinsella, Irish footballer and manager
1972 – Takanohana Kōji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 65th Yokozuna
1972 – Gyanendra Pandey, Indian cricketer
1972 – Del the Funky Homosapien, American rapper
1973 – Jonathan Coachman, American sportscaster and wrestler
1973 – Mark Iuliano, Italian footballer and manager
1973 – Todd Marchant, American ice hockey player and coach
1974 – Matt Clement, American baseball player and coach
1974 – Karl Stefanovic, Australian television host
1975 – Casey Affleck, American actor
1976 – Pedro Collins, Barbadian cricketer
1976 – Mikko Lindström, Finnish guitarist
1976 – Henry Tuilagi, Samoan rugby player
1976 – Antoine Walker, American basketball player
1977 – Plaxico Burress, American football player
1977 – Jesper Grønkjær, Danish footballer
1977 – Park Yong-ha, South Korean actor (d. 2010)
1978 – Chris Chambers, American football player
1978 – Hayley Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – D. J. Houlton, American baseball player
1979 – Ian Hutchinson, English motorcycle racer
1979 – Cindy Klassen, Canadian speed skater
1979 – Austra Skujytė, Lithuanian pentathlete
1980 – Javier Chevantón, Uruguayan footballer
1980 – Maggie Lawson, American actress
1980 – Dominique Swain, American actress
1980 – Matt Thiessen, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1981 – Tony Capaldi, Norwegian–Northern Irish footballer
1981 – Djibril Cissé, French footballer
1982 – Boban Grnčarov, Macedonian footballer
1982 – Alexandros Tzorvas, Greek footballer
1983 – Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dutch footballer
1983 – Kléber Giacomance de Souza Freitas, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Manoa Vosawai, Italian rugby player
1984 – Bryan Pata, American football player (d. 2006)
1985 – Danny Graham, English footballer
1985 – Franck Moutsinga, German rugby player
1986 – Andrei Agius, Maltese footballer
1986 – Kyle Arrington, American football player
1987 – Vanessa Watts, West Indian cricketer
1988 – Tyson Fury, English boxer
1988 – Matt Gillett, Australian rugby league player
1989 – Tom Cleverley, English footballer
1989 – Hong Jeong-ho, South Korean footballer
1989 – Sunye, South Korean singer
1990 – Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer
1990 – Marvin Zeegelaar, Dutch footballer
1990 – Martin Zurawsky, German footballer
1991 – Jesinta Campbell, Australian model
1991 – Sam Hoare, Australian rugby league player
1991 – Khris Middleton, American basketball player
1991 – LaKeith Stanfield, American actor and musician
1992 – Cara Delevingne, English model and actress
1992 – Jacob Loko, Australian rugby player
1992 – Teo Gheorghiu, Swiss pianist and actor
1993 – Ewa Farna, Czech singer-songwriter
1993 – Luna, South Korean singer, actress and presenter
1994 – Ian Happ, American baseball player
1996 – Choi Yu-jin, South Korean singer and actress
1996 – Julio Urías, Mexican baseball player
1996 – Arthur Melo, Brazilian footballer
1996 – Samuel Moutoussamy, Congolese footballer
1998 – Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greek tennis player
1999 – Matthijs de Ligt, Dutch footballer
1999 – Dream, American YouTuber
1999 – Jule Niemeier, German tennis player
2000 – Tristan Charpentier, French racing driver
2001 – Dixie D'Amelio, American social media personality and singer
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August 12
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Deaths
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Deaths
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August 12
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Pre-1600
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Pre-1600
30 BC – Cleopatra, Egyptian queen (b. 69 BC)
792 – Jænberht, archbishop of Canterbury
875 – Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 825)
960 – Li Gu, chancellor of Later Zhou (b. 903)
961 – Yuan Zong, emperor of Southern Tang (b. 916)
1222 – Vladislaus III, duke of Bohemia
1295 – Charles Martel, king of Hungary (b. 1271)
1319 – Rudolf I, duke of Bavaria (b. 1274)
1315 – Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick, English nobleman
1335 – Prince Moriyoshi, Japanese shōgun (b. 1308)
1399 – Demetrius I Starshy, Prince of Trubczewsk (in battle) (b. 1327)
1424 – Yongle, emperor of the Ming Empire (b. 1360)
1484 – Sixtus IV, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1414)
1546 – Francisco de Vitoria, Spanish theologian (b. 1492)
1577 – Thomas Smith, English scholar and diplomat (b. 1513)
1588 – Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder, Italian-English composer (b. 1543)
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August 12
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1601–1900
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1601–1900
1602 – Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, Mughal vizier and historian (b. 1551)
1612 – Giovanni Gabrieli, Italian organist and composer (b. 1557)
1638 – Johannes Althusius, German jurist and philosopher (b. 1557)
1674 – Philippe de Champaigne, Belgian-French painter and educator (b. 1602)
1689 – Pope Innocent XI (b. 1611)
1778 – Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire (b. 1714)
1809 – Mikhail Kamensky, Russian field marshal (b. 1738)
1810 – Étienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (b. 1725)
1822 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Irish-English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (b. 1769)
1827 – William Blake, English poet and painter (b. 1757)
1829 – Charles Sapinaud de La Rairie, French general (b. 1760)
1848 – George Stephenson, English engineer and academic (b. 1781)
1849 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, and politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1761)
1861 – Eliphalet Remington, American inventor and businessman, founded Remington Arms (b. 1793)
1864 – Sakuma Shōzan, Japanese scholar and politician (b. 1811)
1865 – William Jackson Hooker, English botanist and academic (b. 1785)
1891 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and critic (b. 1819)
1896 – Thomas Chamberlain, American colonel (b. 1841)
1900 – Wilhelm Steinitz, Austrian chess player and theoretician (b. 1836)
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August 12
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1901–present
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1901–present
1901 – Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish botanist, geologist, mineralogist, and explorer (b. 1832)
1904 – William Renshaw, English tennis player (b. 1861)
1914 – John Philip Holland, Irish engineer, designed (b. 1840)
1918 – William Thompson, American archer (b. 1848)
1921 – Pyotr Boborykin, Russian playwright and journalist (b. 1836)
1922 – Arthur Griffith, Irish journalist and politician, 3rd President of Dáil Éireann (b. 1871)
1924 – Sándor Bródy, Hungarian journalist and author (b. 1863)
1928 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer and educator (b. 1854)
1934 – Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect, designed the Beurs van Berlage (b. 1856)
1935 – Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician and academic (b. 1851)
1940 – Nikolai Triik, Estonian painter, illustrator, and academic (b. 1884)
1941 – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, English soldier and politician, 56th Governor General of Canada (b. 1866)
1941 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer and umpire (b. 1857)
1943 – Vittorio Sella, Italian photographer and mountaineer (b. 1859)
1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., American lieutenant and pilot (b. 1915)
1944 – Jacques Pellegrin, French zoologist (b. 1873)KMAE Journal Bull. Fr. Piscic. (1944) 135 : 94–96 DOI: 10.1051/kmae:1944004
1952 – David Bergelson, Ukrainian author and playwright (b. 1884)
1955 – Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
1955 – James B. Sumner, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
1959 – Mike O'Neill, Irish-American baseball player and manager (b. 1877)
1964 – Ian Fleming, English spy, journalist, and author (b. 1908)
1966 – Artur Alliksaar, Estonian poet and author (b. 1923)
1967 – Esther Forbes, American historian and author (b. 1891)
1973 – Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
1973 – Karl Ziegler, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
1976 – Tom Driberg, British politician/journalist (b. 1905)
1978 – John Williams, English motorcycle racer (b. 1946)
1979 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-Irish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
1982 – Henry Fonda, American actor (b. 1905)
1982 – Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer (b. 1959)
1983 – Theodor Burchardi, German admiral (b. 1892)
1984 – Ladi Kwali, Nigerian potter (b. 1925)
1985 – Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
1985 – Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)
1986 – Evaline Ness, American author and illustrator (b. 1911)
1988 – Jean-Michel Basquiat, American painter (b. 1960)
1989 – Aimo Koivunen, Finnish soldier and corporal (b. 1917)
1989 – William Shockley, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
1990 – Dorothy Mackaill, English-American actress (b. 1903)
1992 – John Cage, American composer and theorist (b. 1912)
1996 – Victor Ambartsumian, Georgian-Armenian astrophysicist and academic (b. 1908)
1996 – Mark Gruenwald, American author and illustrator (b. 1953)
1997 – Jack Delano, American photographer and composer (b. 1914)
1999 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Montreal (b. 1916)
2000 – Gennady Lyachin, Russian captain (b. 1955)
2000 – Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
2002 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player and manager (b. 1916)
2004 – Godfrey Hounsfield, English biophysicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
2005 – John Loder, English sound engineer and producer, founded Southern Studios (b. 1946)
2006 – Victoria Gray Adams, American civil rights activist (b. 1926)
2007 – Merv Griffin, American actor, singer, and producer, created Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (b. 1925)
2007 – Mike Wieringo, American author and illustrator (b. 1963)
2008 – Christie Allen, English-Australian singer (b. 1954)
2008 – Helge Hagerup, Norwegian playwright, poet and novelist (b. 1933)
2009 – Les Paul, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1915)
2010 – Isaac Bonewits, American Druid, author, and activist; founded Ár nDraíocht Féin (b. 1949)
2010 – Guido de Marco, Maltese lawyer and politician, 6th President of Malta (b. 1931)
2010 – Richie Hayward, American drummer and songwriter (b. 1946)
2010 – André Kim, South Korean fashion designer (b. 1935)
2011 – Robert Robinson, English journalist and author (b. 1927)
2012 – Jimmy Carr, American football player and coach (b. 1933)
2012 – Jerry Grant, American race car driver (b. 1935)
2012 – Joe Kubert, Polish-American illustrator, founded The Kubert School (b. 1926)
2012 – Édgar Morales Pérez, Mexican engineer and politician
2012 – Alf Morris, English politician and activist (b. 1928)
2013 – Tereza de Arriaga, Portuguese painter (b. 1915)
2013 – Hans-Ekkehard Bob, German soldier and pilot (b. 1917)
2013 – Pauline Maier, American historian and academic (b. 1938)
2013 – David McLetchie, Scottish lawyer and politician (b. 1952)
2013 – Vasiliy Mihaylovich Peskov, Russian ecologist and journalist (b. 1930)
2014 – Lauren Bacall, American model, actress, and singer (b. 1924)
2014 – Futatsuryū Jun'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1950)
2014 – Kongō Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1948)
2015 – Jaakko Hintikka, Finnish philosopher and academic (b. 1929)
2015 – Stephen Lewis, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1926)
2015 – Meshulim Feish Lowy, Hungarian-Canadian rabbi and author (b. 1921)
2015 – John Scott, English organist and conductor (b. 1956)
2016 – Juan Pedro de Miguel, Spanish handball player (b. 1958)
2017 – Bryan Murray, Canadian ice hockey coach (b. 1942)
2019 – DJ Arafat, Ivorian DJ and singer (b. 1986)
2020 – Bill Yeoman, American college football player and coach (b. 1927)
2021 – Una Stubbs, English actress, TV personality, and dancer (b. 1937)
2024 – Kim Kahana, American actor and stunt performer (b. 1929)
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August 12
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Holidays and observances
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Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Euplius
Eusebius of Milan
Herculanus of Brescia
Pope Innocent XI
Jænberht
Jane Frances de Chantal
Muiredach (or Murtagh)
Porcarius II
August 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Glorious Twelfth (United Kingdom)
HM the Queen Mother's Birthday and National Mother's Day (Thailand)
International Youth Day (United Nations)
Russian Air Force Day (Russia)
Russian Railway Troops Day (Russia)
Sea Org Day (Scientology)
World Elephant Day (International)
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August 12
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References
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References
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August 12
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External links
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External links
Category:Days of August
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August 12
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Table of Content
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pp-pc1, Events, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Births, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Deaths, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Holidays and observances, References, External links
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Short description
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Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 paper on the subject was published that year alongside extracts from Charles Darwin's earlier writings on the topic. It spurred Darwin to set aside the "big species book" he was drafting and to quickly write an abstract of it, which was published in 1859 as On the Origin of Species.
Wallace did extensive fieldwork, starting in the Amazon River basin. He then did fieldwork in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the faunal divide now termed the Wallace Line, which separates the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts: a western portion in which the animals are largely of Asian origin, and an eastern portion where the fauna reflect Australasia. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species, and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography", or more specifically of zoogeography.
Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century, working on warning coloration in animals and reinforcement (sometimes known as the Wallace effect), a way that natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridisation. Wallace's 1904 book Man's Place in the Universe was the first serious attempt by a biologist to evaluate the likelihood of life on other planets. He was one of the first scientists to write a serious exploration of whether there was life on Mars.
Aside from scientific work, he was a social activist, critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. His advocacy of spiritualism and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with other scientists. He was one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity. He wrote prolifically on both scientific and social issues; his account of his adventures and observations during his explorations in Southeast Asia, The Malay Archipelago, was first published in 1869. It continues to be both popular and highly regarded.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Biography
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Biography
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Early life
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Early life
Alfred Russel Wallace was born on 8 January 1823 in Llanbadoc, Monmouthshire. He was the eighth of nine children born to Mary Anne Wallace () and Thomas Vere Wallace. His mother was English, while his father was of Scottish ancestry. His family claimed a connection to William Wallace, a leader of Scottish forces during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th century.
Wallace's father graduated in law but never practised it. He owned some income-generating property, but bad investments and failed business ventures resulted in a steady deterioration of the family's financial position. Wallace's mother was from a middle-class family of Hertford, to which place his family moved when Wallace was five years old. He attended Hertford Grammar School until 1837, when he reached the age of 14, the normal leaving age for a pupil not going on to university.
thumb|left|upright|A photograph from Wallace's autobiography shows the building Wallace and his brother John designed and built for the Neath Mechanics' Institute.|alt=a building designed by Wallace and his brother
Wallace then moved to London to board with his older brother John, a 19-year-old apprentice builder. This was a stopgap measure until William, his oldest brother, was ready to take him on as an apprentice surveyor. While in London, Alfred attended lectures and read books at the London Mechanics Institute. Here he was exposed to the radical political ideas of the Welsh social reformer Robert Owen and of the English-born political theorist Thomas Paine. He left London in 1837 to live with William and work as his apprentice for six years. They moved repeatedly to different places in Mid-Wales. Then at the end of 1839, they moved to Kington, Herefordshire, near the Welsh border, before eventually settling at Neath in Wales. Between 1840 and 1843, Wallace worked as a land surveyor in the countryside of the west of England and Wales. The natural history of his surroundings aroused his interest; from 1841 he collected flowers and plants as an amateur botanist.
One result of Wallace's early travels is a modern controversy about his nationality. Since he was born in Monmouthshire, some sources have considered him to be Welsh. Other historians have questioned this because neither of his parents were Welsh, his family only briefly lived in Monmouthshire, the Welsh people Wallace knew in his childhood considered him to be English, and because he consistently referred to himself as English rather than Welsh. One Wallace scholar has stated that the most reasonable interpretation is therefore that he was an Englishman born in Wales.
In 1843 Wallace's father died, and a decline in demand for surveying meant William's business no longer had work available. For a short time Wallace was unemployed, then early in 1844 he was engaged by the Collegiate School in Leicester to teach drawing, mapmaking, and surveying. He had already read George Combe's The Constitution of Man, and after Spencer Hall lectured on mesmerism, Wallace as well as some of the older pupils tried it out. Wallace spent many hours at the town library in Leicester; he read An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Robert Malthus, Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative, Darwin's Journal (The Voyage of the Beagle), and Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. One evening Wallace met the entomologist Henry Bates, who was 19 years old, and had published an 1843 paper on beetles in the journal Zoologist. He befriended Wallace and started him collecting insects.
When Wallace's brother William died in March 1845, Wallace left his teaching position to assume control of his brother's firm in Neath, but his brother John and he were unable to make the business work. After a few months, he found work as a civil engineer for a nearby firm that was working on a survey for a proposed railway in the Vale of Neath. Wallace's work on the survey was largely outdoors in the countryside, allowing him to indulge his new passion for collecting insects. Wallace persuaded his brother John to join him in starting another architecture and civil engineering firm. It carried out projects including the design of a building for the Neath Mechanics' Institute, founded in 1843. During this period, he exchanged letters with Bates about books. By the end of 1845, Wallace was convinced by Robert Chambers's anonymously published treatise on progressive development, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, but he found Bates was more critical. Wallace re-read Darwin's Journal, and on 11 April 1846 wrote "As the Journal of a scientific traveller, it is second only to Humboldt's 'Personal Narrative'—as a work of general interest, perhaps superior to it."
William Jevons, the founder of the Neath institute, was impressed by Wallace and persuaded him to give lectures there on science and engineering. In the autumn of 1846, Wallace and his brother John purchased a cottage near Neath, where they lived with their mother and sister Fanny.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Exploration and study of the natural world
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Exploration and study of the natural world
Inspired by the chronicles of earlier and contemporary travelling naturalists, Wallace decided to travel abroad. He later wrote that Darwin's Journal and Humboldt's Personal Narrative were "the two works to whose inspiration I owe my determination to visit the tropics as a collector." After reading A Voyage up the River Amazon by William Henry Edwards, Wallace and Bates estimated that by collecting and selling natural history specimens such as birds and insects they could meet their costs, with the prospect of good profits. They therefore engaged as their agent Samuel Stevens who would advertise and arrange sales to institutions and private collectors, for a commission of 20% on sales plus 5% on despatching freight and remittances of money.
In 1848, Wallace and Bates left for Brazil aboard the Mischief. They intended to collect insects and other animal specimens in the Amazon Rainforest for their private collections, selling the duplicates to museums and collectors back in Britain to fund the trip. Wallace hoped to gather evidence of the transmutation of species. Bates and he spent most of their first year collecting near Belém, then explored inland separately, occasionally meeting to discuss their findings. In 1849, they were briefly joined by another young explorer, the botanist Richard Spruce, along with Wallace's younger brother Herbert. Herbert soon left (dying two years later from yellow fever), but Spruce, like Bates, would spend over ten years collecting in South America. Wallace spent four years charting the Rio Negro, collecting specimens and making notes on the peoples and languages he encountered as well as the geography, flora, and fauna.
On 12 July 1852, Wallace embarked for the UK on the brig Helen. After 25 days at sea, the ship's cargo caught fire, and the crew was forced to abandon ship. All the specimens Wallace had on the ship, mostly collected during the last, and most interesting, two years of his trip, were lost. He managed to save a few notes and pencil sketches, but little else. Wallace and the crew spent ten days in an open boat before being picked up by the brig Jordeson, which was sailing from Cuba to London. The Jordeson provisions were strained by the unexpected passengers, but after a difficult passage on short rations, the ship reached its destination on 1 October 1852.
The lost collection had been insured for £200 by Stevens. After his return to Britain, Wallace spent 18 months in London living on the insurance payment, and selling a few specimens that had been shipped home. During this period, despite having lost almost all the notes from his South American expedition, he wrote six academic papers (including "On the Monkeys of the Amazon") and two books, Palm Trees of the Amazon and Their Uses and Travels on the Amazon. At the same time, he made connections with several other British naturalists.
thumb|upright=1.5|A map from The Malay Archipelago shows the physical geography of the archipelago and Wallace's travels around the area. The thin black lines indicate where Wallace travelled; the red lines indicate chains of volcanoes.|alt=Map of Wallace's travels in the Malay Archipelago
Bates and others were collecting in the Amazon area, Wallace was more interested in new opportunities in the Malay Archipelago as demonstrated by the travel writings of Ida Laura Pfeiffer, and valuable insect specimens she collected which Stevens sold as her agent. In March 1853 Wallace wrote to Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, who was then in London, and who arranged assistance in Sarawak for Wallace. In June Wallace wrote to Murchison at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) for support, proposing to again fund his exploring entirely from sale of duplicate collections. He later recalled that, while researching in the insect-room of the British Museum, he was introduced to Darwin and they "had a few minutes' conversation." After presenting a paper and a large map of the Rio Negro to the RGS, Wallace was elected a Fellow of the society on 27 February 1854. Free passage arranged on Royal Navy ships was stalled by the Crimean War, but eventually the RGS funded first class travel by P&O steamships. Wallace and a young assistant, Charles Allen, embarked at Southampton on 4 March 1854. After the overland journey to Suez and another change of ship at Ceylon they disembarked at Singapore on 19 April 1854.
From 1854 to 1862, Wallace travelled around the islands of the Malay Archipelago or East Indies (now Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia). His main objective "was to obtain specimens of natural history, both for my private collection and to supply duplicates to museums and amateurs". In addition to Allen, he "generally employed one or two, and sometimes three Malay servants" as assistants, and paid large numbers of local people at various places to bring specimens. His total was 125,660 specimens, most of which were insects including more than 83,000 beetles, pdf at Darwin Online Several thousand of the specimens represented species new to science, Overall, more than thirty men worked for him at some stage as full-time paid collectors. He also hired guides, porters, cooks and boat crews, so well over 100 individuals worked for him.
thumb|Mount Santubong around 1855, watercolour by missionary Harriette McDougall
After collecting expeditions to Bukit Timah Hill in Singapore, and to Malacca, Wallace and Allen reached Sarawak in October 1854, and were welcomed at Kuching by Sir James Brooke's (then) heir Captain John Brooke. Wallace hired a Malay named Ali as a general servant and cook, and spent the early 1855 wet season in a small Dyak house at the foot of Mount Santubong, overlooking a branch outlet of the Sarawak River. He read about species distribution, notes on Pictets's Palaeontology, and wrote his "Sarawak Paper". In March he moved to the Simunjon coal-works, operated by the Borneo Company under Ludvig Verner Helms, and supplemented collecting by paying workers a cent for each insect. A specimen of the previously unknown gliding tree frog Rhacophorus nigropalmatus (now called Wallace's flying frog) came from a Chinese workman who told Wallace that it glided down. Local people also assisted with shooting orangutans. They spent time with Sir James, then in February 1856 Allen chose to stay on with the missionaries at Kuching. pdf at Darwin Online
On reaching Singapore in May 1856, Wallace hired a bird-skinner. With Ali as cook, they collected for two days on Bali, then from 17 June to 30 August on Lombok. In December 1856, Darwin had written to contacts worldwide to get specimens for his continuing research into variation under domestication. At Lombok's port city, Ampanam, Wallace wrote telling his agent, Stevens, about specimens shipped, including a domestic duck variety "for Mr. Darwin & he would perhaps also like the jungle cock, which is often domesticated here & is doubtless one of the originals of the domestic breed of poultry."
In the same letter, Wallace said birds from Bali and Lombok, divided by a narrow strait, "belong to two quite distinct zoological provinces, of which they form the extreme limits", Java, Borneo, Sumatra and Malacca, and Australia and the Moluccas. Stevens arranged publication of relevant paragraphs in the January 1857 issue of The Zoologist. After further investigation, the zoogeographical boundary eventually became known as the Wallace Line., also Proceedings of Natural-History Collectors in Foreign Countries, by Alfred Russel Wallace
Ali became Wallace's most trusted assistant, a skilled collector and researcher. Wallace collected and preserved the delicate insect specimens, while most of the birds were collected and prepared by his assistants; of those, Ali collected and prepared around 5000. pdf at Darwin Online
While exploring the archipelago, Wallace refined his thoughts about evolution, and had his famous insight on natural selection. In 1858 he sent an article outlining his theory to Darwin; it was published, along with a description of Darwin's theory, that same year.
Accounts of Wallace's studies and adventures were eventually published in 1869 as The Malay Archipelago. This became one of the most popular books of scientific exploration of the 19th century, and has never been out of print. It was praised by scientists such as Darwin (to whom the book was dedicated), by Lyell, and by non-scientists such as the novelist Joseph Conrad. Conrad called the book his "favorite bedside companion" and used information from it for several of his novels, especially Lord Jim.
A set of 80 bird skeletons Wallace collected in Indonesia are held in the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology, and described as of exceptional historical significance.
+ Specimens and illustrations
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Return to Britain, marriage and children
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Return to Britain, marriage and children
thumb|upright|A photograph of Wallace taken in Singapore in 1862|alt=portrait photograph of Wallace
In 1862, Wallace returned to Britain, where he moved in with his sister Fanny Sims and her husband Thomas. While recovering from his travels, Wallace organised his collections and gave numerous lectures about his adventures and discoveries to scientific societies such as the Zoological Society of London. Later that year, he visited Darwin at Down House, and became friendly with both Lyell and the philosopher Herbert Spencer. During the 1860s, Wallace wrote papers and gave lectures defending natural selection. He corresponded with Darwin about topics including sexual selection, warning coloration, and the possible effect of natural selection on hybridisation and the divergence of species. In 1865, he began investigating spiritualism.
After a year of courtship, Wallace became engaged in 1864 to a young woman whom, in his autobiography, he would only identify as Miss L. Miss L. was the daughter of Lewis Leslie who played chess with Wallace, but to Wallace's great dismay, she broke off the engagement. In 1866, Wallace married Annie Mitten. Wallace had been introduced to Mitten through the botanist Richard Spruce, who had befriended Wallace in Brazil and who was a friend of Annie Mitten's father, William Mitten, an expert on mosses. In 1872, Wallace built the Dell, a house of concrete, on land he leased in Grays in Essex, where he lived until 1876. The Wallaces had three children: Herbert (1867–1874), Violet (1869–1945), and William (1871–1951).
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Financial struggles
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Financial struggles
In the late 1860s and 1870s, Wallace was very concerned about the financial security of his family. While he was in the Malay Archipelago, the sale of specimens had brought in a considerable amount of money, which had been carefully invested by the agent who sold the specimens for Wallace. On his return to the UK, Wallace made a series of bad investments in railways and mines that squandered most of the money, and he found himself badly in need of the proceeds from the publication of The Malay Archipelago.
Despite assistance from his friends, he was never able to secure a permanent salaried position such as a curatorship in a museum. To remain financially solvent, Wallace worked grading government examinations, wrote 25 papers for publication between 1872 and 1876 for various modest sums, and was paid by Lyell and Darwin to help edit some of their works.
In 1876, Wallace needed a £500 advance from the publisher of The Geographical Distribution of Animals to avoid having to sell some of his personal property. Darwin was very aware of Wallace's financial difficulties and lobbied long and hard to get Wallace awarded a government pension for his lifetime contributions to science. When the £200 annual pension was awarded in 1881, it helped to stabilise Wallace's financial position by supplementing the income from his writings.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Social activism
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Social activism
thumb|Article written by Professor Wallace, published in the report of the proceedings of the International Worker's Congress
In 1881, Wallace was elected as the first president of the newly formed Land Nationalisation Society. In the next year, he published a book, Land Nationalisation; Its Necessity and Its Aims, on the subject. He criticised the UK's free trade policies for the negative impact they had on working-class people. In 1889, Wallace read Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy and declared himself a socialist, despite his earlier foray as a speculative investor. After reading Progress and Poverty, the bestselling book by the progressive land reformist Henry George, Wallace described it as "Undoubtedly the most remarkable and important book of the present century."
Wallace opposed eugenics, an idea supported by other prominent 19th-century evolutionary thinkers, on the grounds that contemporary society was too corrupt and unjust to allow any reasonable determination of who was fit or unfit. In his 1890 article "Human Selection" he wrote, "Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent ..." He said, "The world does not want the eugenicist to set it straight," "Give the people good conditions, improve their environment, and all will tend towards the highest type. Eugenics is simply the meddlesome interference of an arrogant, scientific priestcraft."
In 1898, Wallace wrote a paper advocating a pure paper money system, not backed by silver or gold, which impressed the economist Irving Fisher so much that he dedicated his 1920 book Stabilizing the Dollar to Wallace.
Wallace wrote on other social and political topics, including in support of women's suffrage and repeatedly on the dangers and wastefulness of militarism. In an 1899 essay, he called for popular opinion to be rallied against warfare by showing people "that all modern wars are dynastic; that they are caused by the ambition, the interests, the jealousies, and the insatiable greed of power of their rulers, or of the great mercantile and financial classes which have power and influence over their rulers; and that the results of war are never good for the people, who yet bear all its burthens (burdens)". In a letter published by the Daily Mail in 1909, with aviation in its infancy, he advocated an international treaty to ban the military use of aircraft, arguing against the idea "that this new horror is 'inevitable', and that all we can do is to be sure and be in the front rank of the aerial assassins—for surely no other term can so fitly describe the dropping of, say, ten thousand bombs at midnight into an enemy's capital from an invisible flight of airships."
In 1898, Wallace published The Wonderful Century: Its Successes and Its Failures, about developments in the 19th century. The first part of the book covered the major scientific and technical advances of the century; the second part covered what Wallace considered to be its social failures including the destruction and waste of wars and arms races, the rise of the urban poor and the dangerous conditions in which they lived and worked, a harsh criminal justice system that failed to reform criminals, abuses in a mental health system based on privately owned sanatoriums, the environmental damage caused by capitalism, and the evils of European colonialism. Wallace continued his social activism for the rest of his life, publishing the book The Revolt of Democracy just weeks before his death.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Further scientific work
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Further scientific work
In 1880, he published Island Life as a sequel to The Geographic Distribution of Animals. In November 1886, Wallace began a ten-month trip to the United States to give a series of popular lectures. Most of the lectures were on Darwinism (evolution through natural selection), but he also gave speeches on biogeography, spiritualism, and socio-economic reform. During the trip, he was reunited with his brother John who had emigrated to California years before. He spent a week in Colorado, with the American botanist Alice Eastwood as his guide, exploring the flora of the Rocky Mountains and gathering evidence that would lead him to a theory on how glaciation might explain certain commonalities between the mountain flora of Europe, Asia and North America, which he published in 1891 in the paper "English and American Flowers". He met many other prominent American naturalists and viewed their collections. His 1889 book Darwinism used information he collected on his American trip and information he had compiled for the lectures.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Death
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Death
thumb|upright|Wallace's grave in Broadstone Cemetery, Dorset, restored by the A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund in 2000. It features a fossil tree trunk 7 feet (2.1 m) tall from Portland, mounted on a block of Purbeck limestone.|alt=photograph of Wallace's grave
On 7 November 1913, Wallace died at home, aged 90, in the country house he called Old Orchard, which he had built a decade earlier. His death was widely reported in the press. The New York Times called him "the last of the giants [belonging] to that wonderful group of intellectuals composed of Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Lyell, Owen, and other scientists, whose daring investigations revolutionized and evolutionized the thought of the century". Another commentator in the same edition said: "No apology need be made for the few literary or scientific follies of the author of that great book on the 'Malay Archipelago'." (Vol.1, Vol.2)
Some of Wallace's friends suggested that he be buried in Westminster Abbey, but his wife followed his wishes and had him buried in the small cemetery at Broadstone, Dorset. Several prominent British scientists formed a committee to have a medallion of Wallace placed in Westminster Abbey near where Darwin had been buried. The medallion was unveiled on 1 November 1915.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Theory of evolution
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Theory of evolution
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Early evolutionary thinking
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Early evolutionary thinking
Wallace began his career as a travelling naturalist who already believed in the transmutation of species. The concept had been advocated by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Erasmus Darwin, and Robert Grant, among others. It was widely discussed, but not generally accepted by leading naturalists, and was considered to have radical, even revolutionary connotations. Prominent anatomists and geologists such as Georges Cuvier, Richard Owen, Adam Sedgwick, and Lyell attacked transmutation vigorously. It has been suggested that Wallace accepted the idea of the transmutation of species in part because he was always inclined to favour radical ideas in politics, religion and science, and because he was unusually open to marginal, even fringe, ideas in science.
Wallace was profoundly influenced by Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, a controversial work of popular science published anonymously in 1844. It advocated an evolutionary origin for the Solar System, the Earth, and living things. Wallace wrote to Henry Bates in 1845 describing it as "an ingenious hypothesis strongly supported by some striking facts and analogies, but which remains to be proven by ... more research". In 1847, he wrote to Bates that he would "like to take some one family [of beetles] to study thoroughly, ... with a view to the theory of the origin of species."Wallace Family Archive, 11 October 1847, quoted in .
Wallace planned fieldwork to test the evolutionary hypothesis that closely related species should inhabit neighbouring territories. During his work in the Amazon basin, he came to realise that geographical barriers—such as the Amazon and its major tributaries—often separated the ranges of closely allied species. He included these observations in his 1853 paper "On the Monkeys of the Amazon". Near the end of the paper he asked the question, "Are very closely allied species ever separated by a wide interval of country?"
In February 1855, while working in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, Wallace wrote "On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species". The paper was published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History in September 1855. In this paper, he discussed observations of the geographic and geologic distribution of both living and fossil species, a field that became biogeography. His conclusion that "Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a closely allied species" has come to be known as the "Sarawak Law", answering his own question in his paper on the monkeys of the Amazon basin. Although it does not mention possible mechanisms for evolution, this paper foreshadowed the momentous paper he would write three years later.
The paper challenged Lyell's belief that species were immutable. Although Darwin had written to him in 1842 expressing support for transmutation, Lyell had continued to be strongly opposed to the idea. Around the start of 1856, he told Darwin about Wallace's paper, as did Edward Blyth who thought it "Good! Upon the whole! ... Wallace has, I think put the matter well; and according to his theory the various domestic races of animals have been fairly developed into species." Despite this hint, Darwin mistook Wallace's conclusion for the progressive creationism of the time, writing that it was "nothing very new ... Uses my simile of tree [but] it seems all creation with him." Lyell was more impressed, and opened a notebook on species in which he grappled with the consequences, particularly for human ancestry. Darwin had already shown his theory to their mutual friend Joseph Hooker and now, for the first time spelt out the full details of natural selection to Lyell. Although Lyell could not agree, he urged Darwin to publish to establish priority. Darwin demurred at first, but began writing up a species sketch of his continuing work in May 1856.
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Alfred Russel Wallace
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Natural selection and Darwin
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Natural selection and Darwin
By February 1858, Wallace had been convinced by his biogeographical research in the Malay Archipelago that evolution was real. He later wrote in his autobiography that the problem was of how species change from one well-marked form to another. He stated that it was while he was in bed with a fever that he thought about Malthus's idea of positive checks on human population, and had the idea of natural selection. His autobiography says that he was on the island of Ternate at the time; but the evidence of his journal suggests that he was in fact on the island of Gilolo. From 1858 to 1861, he rented a house on Ternate from the Dutchman Maarten Dirk van Renesse van Duivenbode, which he used as a base for expeditions to other islands such as Gilolo.
Wallace describes how he discovered natural selection as follows:
thumb|upright|The Darwin–Wallace Medal was issued by the Linnean Society on the 50th anniversary of the reading of Darwin and Wallace's papers on natural selection. Wallace received the only gold example.|alt=photograph of the Darwin-Wallace medal
Wallace had once briefly met Darwin, and was one of the correspondents whose observations Darwin used to support his own theories. Although Wallace's first letter to Darwin has been lost, Wallace carefully kept the letters he received. In the first letter, dated 1 May 1857, Darwin commented that Wallace's letter of 10 October which he had recently received, as well as Wallace's paper "On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species" of 1855, showed that they thought alike, with similar conclusions, and said that he was preparing his own work for publication in about two years time. The second letter, dated 22 December 1857, said how glad he was that Wallace was theorising about distribution, adding that "without speculation there is no good and original observation" but commented that "I believe I go much further than you". Wallace believed this and sent Darwin his February 1858 essay, "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type", asking Darwin to review it and pass it to Charles Lyell if he thought it worthwhile. Although Wallace had sent several articles for journal publication during his travels through the Malay archipelago, the Ternate essay was in a private letter. Darwin received the essay on 18 June 1858. Although the essay did not use Darwin's term "natural selection", it did outline the mechanics of an evolutionary divergence of species from similar ones due to environmental pressures. In this sense, it was very similar to the theory that Darwin had worked on for 20 years, but had yet to publish. Darwin sent the manuscript to Charles Lyell with a letter saying "he could not have made a better short abstract! Even his terms now stand as heads of my chapters ... he does not say he wishes me to publish, but I shall, of course, at once write and offer to send to any journal." Distraught about the illness of his baby son, Darwin put the problem to Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker, who decided to publish the essay in a joint presentation together with unpublished writings which highlighted Darwin's priority. Wallace's essay was presented to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858, along with excerpts from an essay which Darwin had disclosed privately to Hooker in 1847 and a letter Darwin had written to Asa Gray in 1857.
Communication with Wallace in the far-off Malay Archipelago involved months of delay, so he was not part of this rapid publication. Wallace accepted the arrangement after the fact, happy that he had been included at all, and never expressed bitterness in public or in private. Darwin's social and scientific status was far greater than Wallace's, and it was unlikely that, without Darwin, Wallace's views on evolution would have been taken seriously. Lyell and Hooker's arrangement relegated Wallace to the position of co-discoverer, and he was not the social equal of Darwin or the other prominent British natural scientists. All the same, the joint reading of their papers on natural selection associated Wallace with the more famous Darwin. This, combined with Darwin's (as well as Hooker's and Lyell's) advocacy on his behalf, would give Wallace greater access to the highest levels of the scientific community. The reaction to the reading was muted, with the president of the Linnean Society remarking in May 1859 that the year had not been marked by any striking discoveries; but, with Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species later in 1859, its significance became apparent. When Wallace returned to the UK, he met Darwin. Although some of Wallace's opinions in the ensuing years would test Darwin's patience, they remained on friendly terms for the rest of Darwin's life.
Over the years, a few people have questioned this version of events. In the early 1980s, two books, one by Arnold Brackman and another by John Langdon Brooks, suggested not only that there had been a conspiracy to rob Wallace of his proper credit, but that Darwin had actually stolen a key idea from Wallace to finish his own theory. These claims have been examined and found unconvincing by a number of scholars. Shipping schedules show that, contrary to these accusations, Wallace's letter could not have been delivered earlier than the date shown in Darwin's letter to Lyell.
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