Early life.

Her father, František Menčík, was born in Bystra nad Jizerou, Bohemia, while her mother, Olga Illingworth (c. 1885–1944), was English. He was the manager of several estates owned by the nobility in Russia, and his wife was a governess of the children of the estate owner.  Vera Menchik was born in Moscow in 1906. Her sister Olga Menchik was born in 1907.  When she was nine years old her father gave her a chess set and taught her how to play. When she was 15 her school club organised a chess tournament and she came second.  After the Revolution her father lost a mill he owned and eventually also the big house where the family lived. The marriage broke down; her father returned to Bohemia, and in the autumn of 1921 Olga and her daughters went to Hastings, England, to live with Olga's mother.  As Vera spoke only Russian she hesitated to go to the local chess club, but at last on 18 March 1923 she joined the Hastings Chess Club and began to take lessons from John Drewitt. Then she became a pupil of the grandmaster Géza Maróczy. During 1923 she played in several team matches.  In December 1923 she played in her first Hastings Congress and got a draw against Edith Price, the then British ladies' champion.  In the next Hastings Christmas Chess Congress 1924/25 she played again in Group A, first class, and finished second with five points out of seven. She met Miss Price in the last round of the Group of the Winners and again drew.  In 1925 she contested two matches against Edith Price, winning both of them, and she was considered the strongest lady player in the country; as she was not British she could not enter the national competition.  In January 1926 she won the first Girls' Open Championship at the Imperial Club in London with her sister Olga coming third. In 1927 she retained this title and Olga came second. Next year Vera was too old to play, and Olga again came second.

Women's World Championships.

She won the first Women's World Championship in 1927 and successfully defended her title six times in every other championship held during her lifetime, losing only one game, while winning 78 and drawing four games.  She also won two matches against Sonja Graf for the Women's World Champion title; (+3−1=0) at Rotterdam 1934, and (+9−2=5) at Semmering 1937.

International tournament results.

Starting in 1929, she participated in a number of Hastings Congress tournaments.  A list of her results in Hastings, year by year;  The biggest and strongest tournament Menchik played in was the Moscow tournament of 1935, which featured World Champions Botvinnik, Capablanca, and Lasker, as well as a host of elite players and future GMs like Flohr, Ragozin, Spielmann, Levenfish, Lilenthal, etc. Here, Menchik finished in last place, 20th out of 20 competitors, with a score of (+0−16=3).  Other major international tournaments include Karlsbad in 1929, where she finished last, 22nd out of 22 players, with a score of (+2−17=2), and Lodz in 1938, where she finished 15th out of 16, with a score of (+1−9=5).  Menchik's best results at international tournaments came at Ramsgate 1929. This was a Scheveningen system match, with 7 players from one team competing against 7 from another. Menchik finished with an unbeaten score of (+3−0=4). In 1934 she finished in 3rd place out of 9 players at Maribor, behind Lajos Steiner and Vasja Pirc, but ahead of the likes of Rudolph Spielmann and Milan Vidmar, with a score of (+3−1=4). In 1942 she won a match against Jacques Mieses (+4−1=5). It should, however, be noted that Mieses was 77 years old at the time, and no longer an active tournament participant.

The "Vera Menchik Club".

When in 1929, Menchik entered the Carlsbad 1929 chess tournament, Viennese master Albert Becker ridiculed her entry by proposing that any player whom Menchik defeated in tournament play should be granted membership into the "Vera Menchik Club". In the same tournament, Becker himself became the first member of the "club". In addition to Becker, the "club" eventually included Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, Abraham Baratz, Eero Böök, Edgard Colle, Max Euwe, Harry Golombek, Mir Sultan Khan, Frederic Lazard, Jacques Mieses, Stuart Milner-Barry, Karel Opočenský, Brian Reilly, Samuel Reshevsky, Friedrich Sämisch, Lajos Steiner, George Alan Thomas, William Winter, and Frederick Yates.

Late life and death.

In 1937, at the age of 31, Vera Menchik married Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson (1878–1943), twenty-eight years her senior, who was subscriptions editor of "British Chess Magazine", a member of the West London Chess Club, and later honorary secretary of the British Chess Federation.  In 1944 Britain was nearing its sixth year in World War II, and 38-year-old Vera, who was widowed the previous year, still held the title of women's world champion. On 26 June she, her sister Olga, and their mother were killed in a V-1 flying bomb attack which destroyed their home at 47 Gauden Road in the Clapham area of South London. All three were cremated at the Streatham Park Crematorium on 4 July 1944.  The trophy for the winning team in the Women's Chess Olympiad is known as the "Vera Menchik Cup".

Legacy.

Vera Menchik is the longest-reigning women's world chess champion in history, having held the title for 17 years. Her dominance over her contemporaries can be seen in her matches against Sonja Graf. Graf was the second strongest women's player in the world at the time and had been coached by the legendary Siegbert Tarrasch, but looking at both the games and the final result, their playing levels were completely different. In the two matches, Menchik won twelve games to three, with five draws. The fourth world champion, Alekhine, wrote after one of her victories against Sonja Graf in 1939 that "it is totally unfair to persuade a player of an acknowledged superclass like Miss Menchik to defend her title year after year in tournaments composed of very inferior players", the specific tournament in question being the seventh Women's World Chess Championship. However, against the very best male players, Menchik did not fare well. She lost to Jose Raul Capablanca (9-0), Alexander Alekhine (7-0), Mikhail Botvinnik (2-0), Paul Keres (2-0), Reuben Fine (2-0) and Emanuel Lasker (1-0).  She was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2011.

Vera Frantsevna Menchik (; ; 16 February 1906 – 26 June 1944) was a British-Czechoslovak-Russian chess player who became the world's first women's chess champion. She also competed in chess tournaments with some of the world's leading male chess masters, with occasional successes including two wins over future world champion Max Euwe.


Description.

Looks.

The Ibizan Hound is an elegant and agile breed, with an athletic and attractive outline and a ground-covering springy trot. Though graceful in appearance, it has good bone girth and is a rugged/hardy breed. Its large upright ears - a hallmark of the breed - are broad at the base and frame a long and elegant headpiece. The neck is long and lean. It has a unique front assembly with well laid-back shoulders and relatively straight upper arm. Coming in both smooth and wire-coated varieties, their coat is a combination of red and white with the nose, ears, eye rims, and pads of feet being a light tan color. Its eyes are a striking amber color and have an alert and intelligent expression. The Ibizan may range in height, depending on which Standard you follow, from and weigh from, males being larger than females.

Temperament.

Ibizan Hounds are intelligent, active, and engaging by nature. They rank 53rd in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs, being of average working/obedience intelligence, but many Ibizan owners will enjoy recounting a multitude of examples of their problem-solving abilities. They are true "clowns" of the dog world, delighting in entertaining their people with their antics. Though somewhat independent and stubborn at times, they do take well to training if positive methods are used, but will balk at punitive training methods. They are generally quiet, but will alarm bark if necessary, so they make good watch dogs. They are sensitive hounds, and very good around children and other dogs alike. They generally make good house dogs, but are active and athletic, therefore need a lot of daily exercise. They do not make good kennel dogs. Ibizan hounds are sweet, but they are very stubborn and independent.  Ibizan Hounds are "escapologists": they are able to jump incredible heights from a standstill, so they need very tall fences. They also have been known to climb, and many can escape from crates, open baby gates and even locks. They have a strong prey drive, therefore they cannot be trusted off leash unless in a safely enclosed area. Once off the leash, they might not come back for a long time. A hound that knows where its home is and the surrounding area will usually return unscathed.

Health.

The Ibizan Hound is typical of the Hound Group in that it rarely suffers from hereditary illness. Minor health concerns for the breed include seizures and allergies; very rarely, one will see axonal dystrophy, cataract, retinal dysplasia and deafness in the breed. Ibizan Hound owners should have their dogs' eyes tested by a veterinarian before breeding. CERF and BAER testing is recommended for the breed. Ibizan Hounds are sensitive to barbiturate anesthesia, and typically live between 12 and 14 years.

History and use.

This breed originates in the island of Eivissa and has been traditionally used in the Catalan-speaking areas of Spain, and France where it was known under the name of "le charnigue", to hunt rabbits and other small game. The Ibizan Hound is a fast dog that can hunt on all types of terrain, working by scent, sound and sight. Hunters run these dogs in mostly female packs, with perhaps a male or two, as the female is considered the better hunter.  Traditionally a farmer may have one dog and a very well off farmer two dogs to catch rabbits for food. However, in the last twenty years it is seen as a sport where between five and fifteen dogs can be seen in the chase of one rabbit.  The Ibizan Hound authority Miquel Rosselló has provided a detailed description of a working trial which characterises their typical hunting technique and action, strikingly illustrated with action photos by Charles Camberoque which demonstrate hunt behaviour and typical hunt terrain. While local hunters will at times use one dog or a brace, and frequently packs of six to eight or as many as fifteen, the working trial requires an evaluation of one or two braces. A brace is called a "colla". The couples should be tested on at least two to five rabbits (not hares), without the use of any other hunting aid. An inspection and evaluation of the exterior, fitness, character and obedience of the dogs is recommended prior to the hunt. The trial is qualified as having 5 parts. The dogs should show: (1) careful tracking and scenting of the rabbit, without being distracted in the least, 0-30 points; (2) correct signalling of the game, patient stand, strong jump into the air, obedience 0-10 points; (3) chase, giving tongue, speed, sureness, anticipation 0-30 points; (4) putting the game to cover at close quarters, listening, waiting, obedience, correct attack 0-10 point; and (5) good catch, or correct indication of the game's location, retrieval, obedience 0-20 points.  Individual dogs are expected to show a great degree of discipline, obedience and co-operation. They should be extremely agile, have good speed and a powerful vertical jump from a stationary position in rough and often heavily covered ground. They should have excellent scent-tracking abilities, give tongue at the right time when approaching the game closely, and otherwise be silent so that they can locate the game by sound.  The Ibizan Hound is similar in function and type to several breeds, such as the Pharaoh Hound, the Cirneco dell'Etna, the Portuguese Podengo, and the Podenco Canario. The Ibizan Hound is the largest of these breeds, classified by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale as primitive types.  It is believed the Ibizan Hound evolves from the "tesem", the ancient Egyptian hunting dog. Representations of this dog on the walls of ancient tombs show a striking similarity to the modern Ibizan Hound. These dogs would have been brought to the island of Eivissa by the Phoenicians, who founded settlements there as early as the 8th century BC. A recent DNA analysis found that the breed was formed recently from other breeds. A more recent article argues that continued trait selective breeding may be behind this lack of support.  In the United States, the Ibizan Hound is frequently competed in lure coursing through the AKC and ASFA, and also competes in LGRA straight racing and NOTRA oval track racing. Some parts of the country also use them for coursing live prey, generally jackrabbits.  The Ibizan Hound breed is recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, Continental Kennel Club, American Kennel Club, United Kennel Club, Kennel Club of Great Britain, Canadian Kennel Club, National Kennel Club, New Zealand Kennel Club, Australian National Kennel Council, America's Pet Registry, and American Canine Registry. It was fully recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1979.

In folk culture.

According to journalist Norman Lewis, when an owner no longer wants to own one of these dogs (having too much of an appetite, for instance), it is considered very bad luck to kill the dog. Instead, they release the dog on the other side of the island, so that someone else might 'adopt' the animal.

The Ibizan Hound (, ) is a lean, agile dog of the hound family. There are two hair types of the breed: smooth and wire. The more commonly seen type is the smooth. Some consider there to be a third type, long, but the longhair is most likely a variation of the wire.


Height.

Cho Oyu's height was originally measured at and at the time of the first ascent it was considered the seventh highest mountain on earth, after Dhaulagiri at (Manaslu, now, was also estimated lower at ). A 1984 estimate of made it move up to sixth place. New measurements made in 1996 by the Government of Nepal Survey Department and the Finnish Meteorological Institute in preparation for the Nepal Topographic Maps put the height at 8,188 m, one remarkably similar to the used by Edmund Hillary in his 1955 book "High Adventure".

Climbing history.

Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by Eric Shipton and included Edmund Hillary, Tom Bourdillon and George Lowe. A foray by Hillary and Lowe was stopped due to technical difficulties and avalanche danger at an ice cliff above and a report of Chinese troops a short distance across the border influenced Shipton to retreat from the mountain rather than continue to attempt to summit.  The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954, via the north-west ridge by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an Austrian expedition. Cho Oyu was the fifth 8000 metre peak to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950, Mount Everest in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 and K2 in July 1954. Until the ascent of Mount Everest by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler in 1978, this was the highest peak climbed without supplemental oxygen.  Cho Oyu is considered the easiest eight-thousander, with the lowest death-summit ratio (th of Annapurna's). It is the second most climbed eight-thousander after Everest (whose height makes it the most popular), and has over four times the ascents of the third most popular eight-thousander, Gasherbrum II. It is marketed as a "trekking peak", achievable for climbers with high fitness, but low mountaineering experience. It has a broadly flat summit plateau with no cairn (the traditional prayer flags on Cho Oyu's summit plateau do not mark the "technical" summit), which can be a source of confusion, and debate, amongst climbers (see Elizabeth Hawley).

Cho Oyu (Nepali: चोयु; ) is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the "Khumbu" sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of Mount Everest. The mountain stands on the ChinaNepal border.


History.

The first confrontation between the Left Opposition and the "triumvirate" occurred from October 1923 to January 1924 over industrialization policies. The "triumvirate" won decisively at the XIII Party Conference in January 1924. Following Lenin's death in January 1924, the confrontation between the Left Opposition and the "triumvirate" expanded more openly into a dispute over Trotsky's policies, with the "triumvirate" accusing Trotsky's policies of being "anti-Leninist". At the XIIIth Communist Party Congress in May 1924, the "triumvirate's" position was further strengthened at the Left Opposition's expense. Another confrontation took place from October to December 1924, during the so-called "Literary Discussion" and criticism of Trotsky's permanent revolution policy as Stalin proposed socialism in one country. This resulted in the removal of Trotsky from his ministerial post on 6 January 1925, although Stalin opposed Zinoviev's demand that Trotsky be expelled from the Communist Party.  With Trotsky largely marginalized, Zinoviev and Kamenev had a falling out with Stalin at the XIVth Communist Party Conference in April 1925 over Stalin's October 1924 proposal of "Socialism in One Country", which Zinoviev and Kamenev now openly opposed. By this time, the Right Opposition leader, Bukharin, had elaborated on Stalin's socialism in one country policy, giving it a theoretical justification. This solidified the Right Opposition as Stalin's main allies, as the "triumvirate" of Stalin-Zinoviev-Kamenev from recent years broke up. Soon after the April 1925 Conference, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed the New Opposition, but they were defeated by Stalin, who was again supported by Bukharin and Rykov, at the XIVth Party Congress in December 1925. Soon after their defeat at the Congress, Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Trotsky's Left Opposition in early 1926, in what became known as the United Opposition. From July to October 1926, the United Opposition lost out to Stalin, and its leaders were expelled from the ruling Politburo.  In October 1927, soon after catastrophic events regarding the Chinese Revolution of 1925-27, which confirmed the United Opposition's critical analysis of the Communist Party's support for the nationalist Kuomintang, the last United Opposition members were expelled from the Communist Party Central Committee; and in November 1927, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party itself. In December 1927, the XVth Party Congress declared Left Opposition and Trotskyist views to be incompatible with Communist Party membership and expelled all leading Left Opposition supporters from the Party.  After their expulsion by the XVth Congress, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters immediately surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were readmitted to the Communist Party in 1928, although they never regained their former influence and eventually perished in the Great Purge. Trotsky and his supporters, on the other hand, refused to capitulate to Stalin and were exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union in early 1928. Trotsky was eventually expelled from the country in February 1929, sent into exile in Turkey. Trotsky's supporters remained in exile, but their resolve began to waver in 1929 as Stalin turned against Bukharin and Rykov and adopted the policy of collectivization, which appeared to be close to the policies that the Left Opposition had advocated earlier. The Left Opposition attempted to field opposition candidates against the official Communist Party candidates in the 1929 elections, but to no avail. Most (but not all) prominent Left Opposition members recanted between 1929 and 1934, but they nearly all perished during the Great Purge of the mid-late 1930s along with the Oppositionists who remained unrepentant.  In the meantime, Trotsky founded the International Left Opposition in 1930. It was meant to be an opposition group within the Comintern, but members of the Comintern were immediately expelled as soon as they joined (or were suspected of joining) the ILO. The ILO therefore concluded that opposing Stalinism from within the communist organizations controlled by Stalin's supporters had become impossible, so new organizations had to be formed. In 1933, the ILO was renamed the International Communist League (ICL), which formed the basis of the Fourth International, founded in Paris in 1938.

The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927 headed "de facto" by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January 1924. Originally, the battle lines were drawn between Trotsky and his supporters who signed The Declaration of 46 in October 1923 on the one hand and a triumvirate (also known by its Russian name "troika") of Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev, Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin and Politburo chairman Lev Kamenev on the other hand.


Development.

The Blackburn Ripon was designed to replace the single-seat Dart torpedo bomber. In accordance with Air Ministry Specification 21/23, it was also required to be used for long-range reconnaissance, for which a two-man crew was demanded. The first prototype flew on 17 April 1926 as a landplane, with the second prototype following on 26 August first flying as a seaplane. Initial trials against its competitors, the Handley Page Harrow and the Avro Buffalo, showed that none of the competitors were adequate, so the Ripon was redesigned with an improved engine installation, an enlarged rudder and increased sweepback on the wings. Thus improved, the Ripon was declared the winner and ordered for service.  Four prototypes and 90 production aircraft were manufactured by Blackburn for use by the Fleet Air Arm. The Baffin was a development of the Ripon, which replaced it in service with the Fleet Air Arm, with 68 Ripons converted to Baffins.

Service.

The Ripon entered service with the Fleet Air Arm in 1929, six joining No 462 (Fleet Torpedo Bomber) Flight aboard in January of that year. The Ripon was normally used as a carrier-based landplane by the Fleet Air Arm, and although capable of being converted to a seaplane, was rarely fitted with floats. The Ripon continued in service with Torpedo Bomber flights until 1933, when the Fleet Air Arm was reorganised into three larger squadrons, No. 810, No. 811 and No. 812. The last Ripons were retired from service in January 1935 when 811 Naval Air Squadron re-equipped with Blackburn Baffins.  The Blackburn Ripon was also ordered for use by the Finnish Air Force, with one example for Finland being built by Blackburn, before 25 were produced under licence at the Finnish Aircraft Factory. These were powered with a number of different radial engines; the pattern aircraft had a 530 hp (400 kW) Bristol Jupiter VII, the next seven had 480 hp (360 kW) Gnome Rhone Jupiter VI, followed by eight with 535 hp (399 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Panther engines and the final ten with 580 hp (430 kW) Bristol Pegasus engines. The Finnish Air Force used Ripons as reconnaissance aircraft against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War. After losing an aircraft to Soviet fighters in 1939, the Ripon was limited to night missions. The last missions were flown in 1944.  One Ripon coded RI-140 was stored and has been reassembled and put on display in the Päijänne Tavastia Aviation Museum recently. It is the only preserved example.

The Blackburn T.5 Ripon was a British carrier-based torpedo bomber and reconnaissance biplane which first flew in 1926. It was used by the Fleet Air Arm as a torpedo bomber from 1930 until 1935. Ripons were also sold to Finland, where they continued to be used in action in the Winter War and the Continuation War until 1944.


Early life.

After attending a gymnasium in Braunschweig, Koldewey moved with his family to Altona in 1869 where he attended the Christianeum, achieving his abitur in 1875.  Koldewey was a self-trained archaeological historian of the classical area. Although he studied architecture and art history in Berlin and Vienna, he left both those universities without an advanced degree. In 1882 he was signed on as a participant to the excavation of ancient Assus in Turkey, where Koldewey learned several excavation methods and how best to draw ancient remains.

Archaeology.

Francis H. Bacon (an advisor to Heinrich Schliemann) introduced Koldewey to archaeology at the excavation of Assos in 1882–1883. Koldewey went on to conduct digs for the German Archaeological Institute, at Hellenic sites including Lesbos (1885–1886) and Mesopotamian sites such as Lagash (1887). In 1890–1891 and 1894, he worked with Felix von Luschan on the excavation of a Hellenic city in Sicily.

Excavation of Babylon.

With support from the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (German Oriental Society), Koldewey directed the excavation of Babylon from 1899 through 1914, using comparatively modern archaeological techniques. (The site had been identified a century earlier by Claudius James Rich.) More than 200 people worked daily, year round, for fifteen years.  When the team unearthed Babylon's central Processional street in 1899, the modern world had its first look at the site of this much-storied ancient city. The expedition also found the outer walls, inner walls, and foundation of Etemenanki, a temple sometimes identified as the "Tower of Babel". It also unearthed Nebuchadnezzar's palaces.  Walter Andrae, a participant in the expedition, later created models of Babylon for the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin. The excavations at the famous city of Babylon were considered prestigious for Germany, and were consequently well-sponsored and well-publicized.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were a previously unconfirmed legend about a beautiful man-made mountain full of green plants and trees that reportedly were built by King Nebuchadnezzar (ruled 605 BC – 563 BC) for his homesick wife, Amyitis, who was daughter of the king of the Medes.  While excavating the Southern Citadel, Robert Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings. Ancient texts showed that only two locations in the city had used stone, the north wall of the Northern Citadel, and the Hanging Gardens. The north wall of the Northern Citadel had already been found. This made it seem likely that Koldewey had found the cellar of the gardens.  He continued exploring the area and discovered many of the features reported by the ancient Greek historian Diodorus. While Koldewey was convinced that he had found the gardens, some modern archaeologists have called his discovery into question. While the location of the site that Koldewey excavated was well known and recognised as where Babylon had been situated, they argue that the dig site was too far from the Euphrates River to have been irrigated with the amount of water required for a green garden, and the ancient Greek historian Strabo stated that the Hanging Gardens were located right next to the river. The complex of arched rooms that Koldewey discovered was most likely a storeroom, as cuneiform tablets with lists of supplies and rations were later found in the ruins.

Robert Johann Koldewey (10 September 1855 – 4 February 1925) was a German archaeologist, famous for his in-depth excavation of the ancient city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. He was born in Blankenburg am Harz in Germany, the duchy of Brunswick, and died in Berlin at the age of 69.


Origins.

Up until the end of the 20th century, it was theorized that the Talaiotic Culture arose out of interaction between new peoples from the eastern Mediterranean and local island culture, in the form of an aggressive invasion, or perhaps as a peaceful assimilation. The Talaiotic Culture arose at the same time that the crisis caused by the Sea Peoples was occurring, which had revolutionized societies in this part of the Mediterranean until the 13th century BC. These theories were based mainly on architectonic remains that exist in abundance on Majorca and Menorca. The Talaiotic people were considered a warlike race due to the abundance of talaiots or defensive towers and the existence of walled towns. In addition, the talaiots were similar in many respects to the nuraghes of Sardinia, which lends credence to the theory that the Talaiotic people were of Sardinian origin.  However, archaeological excavations conducted at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries have established that the talaiots were built much later –at the beginning of the first millennium BC, which means that they were not built during the time of the Sea Peoples and the Sardinian nuraghes. In addition, there is more and more proof that what was considered a sudden transition from a Pre-Talaiotic Culture during the Bronze Age to the Talaiotic Culture was actually a slow evolution lasting several centuries, and actually caused by a localized crisis on the Balearic Islands. However, external influences on the Talaiotic Culture cannot be completely discounted, since the existence of bronze alloys on the island (which requires tin, not available on the Balearic Islands) indicates that frequent contacts with the outside world existed.

History.

The first evidence indicating the development of this culture appeared at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, when island society was threatened by population increases, inefficient food production, and limited living space. Agricultural techniques that the first inhabitants had brought with them a millennium before in the Copper Age consisted of planting in newly-broken ground by burning forests and plowing the newly cleared ground. This technique resulted in a rapid deterioration of fertile land, and may be the main cause for the almost completely meat-based diet of the islanders towards the end of the Bronze Age.

The Talaiotic Period in Majorca.

The first great monuments on Majorca from this period are the Layered Tumuli ("Túmulos Escalonados"), which had a funerary purpose. The date of their construction dates from the end of the second millennium BC to the beginnings of the first millennium BC, and many of the Tumuli are associated with hypogea from the Bronze Age. In sum, the society of this era is called "Proto-Talaiotic," since many features of the subsequent Talaiotic society begin to appear at this time. These features include the clustering of the population into towns. It has been confirmed that in some of these Talaiotic towns naviform structures were dismantled in order to use the building material to build ordinary dwellings.  At the beginning of the first millennium BC, talaiots began to proliferate on Majorca, either appearing in isolated fashion as a territorial boundary stone, or in towns, but mostly grouped together in ceremonial centers. In Majorca, these ceremonial centers were as abundant as the towns themselves. Some of them consisted of small groups of stone structures (talaiots, tumuli), scattered across the island, and frequently serving as boundary stones between the towns. Some of these ceremonial centers consisted of a line of up to seven stone structures across a distance of more than half a kilometer. The abundance of these centers serves as evidence of their importance: most likely they were where frequent disputes were resolved, and where various festivities were celebrated. The centers also served as a seasonal and economic calendar (economic activities such as sowing, harvests, hunting), in which the young of various towns could meet (thus guaranteeing sexual outbreeding). Sanctuaries also existed on the island, recognizable because their two rear corners are rounded. Sanctuaries situated within the towns were small, and their interiors had only a single column, which was more or less centered. The sanctuaries in the countryside were much bigger (10–15 m.) and tended to have many pairs of columns. The funerary monuments of Majorca were varied, a characteristic similar to the previous age: burials were made in natural caves and in hypogea. The Talaiotic hypogea were much bigger than those from the Bronze Age, sometimes with column excavated from the surrounding rock, and the enlargement of these columns provided a reason for enlarging the hypogea themselves. A large cemetery was also built, the Necropolis of Son Real, unique to Majorca and Menorca. The Necropolis served as a cemetery in which the tombs were similar to small talaiots, and were either circular or square-shaped. Small "navetas" can also be found in the Necropolis. Despite the Talaiotic preference for burials to occur in hypogea, during the time of the Talaiotic Culture a novelty was introduced: the burial of a body with lime.  A 3,200-year-old well-preserved Bronze Age sword was discovered by archaeologists under the leadership of Jaume Deya and Pablo Galera on the Mallorca Island in the Puigpunyent from the stone megaliths site Talaiot. Specialists assumed that the weapon was made when the Talaiotic culture was in critical comedown. The sword will be on display at the nearby Majorca Museum.

The Talaiotic Period in Menorca.

The reorganization of Menorcan society into chieftainships and towns occurred on similar lines to societal changes on Mallorca, although some Menorcan towns were much larger than Majorcan ones, indicating, perhaps, the existence of stronger social changes or tensions. The variety of monuments on Menorca (besides talaiots) constructed from the end of the Bronze Age and throughout the Iron Age, surpasses that found on Mallorca. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, there appeared tombs known as “navetas.” They were built with Talaiotic techniques, but were also drawn from a very ancient tradition that contains many similarities to the tradition of the construction of dolmens going back a previous millennium. The construction known as the Taula is considered the most emblematic ceremonial monument of Menorca. It served as a sanctuary, and its enclosure had a horseshoe form, similar to those found on Mallorca but unlike the Majorcan variety, had a great central structure resembling a table (“taula” means “table” in the Catalan language). The exact construction date of these sanctuaries is not known, although the enclosures could have existed throughout the Talaiotic, and the central monuments could belong to any date throughout the first millennium.  The first author who wrote about the Talayotic monuments of Menorca was Joan Ramis in his book Celtic antiques on the island of Menorca, which was edited 1818, being the first book in Spanish language entirely devoted to Prehistory.

The end of the Talaiotic Period.

The very factors that gave rise to the Talaiotic Period spelled its doom. Construction of talaiots ceased, and many of them were destroyed or converted for different uses. The nearby Punic center of Ebusus, present-day Ibiza, increased its commercial influence to include the Gymnesian Islands; this economic extension in effect transformed itself into an actual Punic colonization of the Gymnesian Islands. The Mediterranean subsequently became dominated by the Roman and Carthaginian Empires. The Punic Wars would erupt between these two powers, and the islands of Mallorca and Menorca would be forcibly dragged into what is called the Post-Talaiotic Period (also known as the Balearic Culture or Post-Talaiotic Culture).

The Talaiotic Culture or Talaiotic Period is the name used to describe the society that existed on the Gymnesian Islands (the easternmost Balearic Islands) during the Iron Age. Its origins date from the end of the second millennium BC, when the inaccurately named Pre-Talaiotic Culture underwent a crisis and evolved into the Talaiotic Culture. Its name is derived from the talaiots, which are the most abundant and emblematic structures from the prehistoric period of the Balearic Islands.


History.

Paris aristocratic district.

In 1240, the Order of the Temple built its fortified church just outside the walls of Paris, in the northern part of the Marais. The Temple turned this district into an attractive area, which became known as the Temple Quarter, and many religious institutions were built nearby: the des Blancs-Manteaux, de Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie and des Carmes-Billettes convents, as well as the church of Sainte-Catherine-du-Val-des-Écoliers.  During the mid-13th century, Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily, and brother of King Louis IX of France built his residence near the current n°7 rue de Sévigné. In 1361 the King Charles V built a mansion known as the Hôtel Saint-Pol in which the Royal Court settled during his reign as well as his son's.  From that time to the 17th century and especially after the Royal Square ("Place Royale", current "place des Vosges") was designed under King Henri IV of France in 1605, the Marais was the French nobility's favorite place of residence. French nobles built their urban mansions there—hôtels particuliers, in French—such as the Hôtel de Sens, the Hôtel de Sully, the Hôtel de Beauvais, the Hôtel Carnavalet, the Hôtel de Guénégaud and the Hôtel de Soubise, as well as many other hôtels particuliers, found all over the district.  During the late 18th century, the district was no longer the "most" fashionable district for the nobility, yet it still kept its reputation of being an aristocratic area. By that time, only minor nobles and a few more powerful nobles, such as the Prince de Soubise, lived there. The Place des Vosges remained a place for nobles to meet. The district fell into despair after the French Revolution, and was therefore abandoned by the nobility completely, and would remain so until the present day.

Jewish community.

People.

After the French Revolution, the district was no longer the aristocratic district it had been during the 17th and 18th centuries. Because of this, the district became a popular and active commercial area, hosting one of Paris' main Jewish communities. At the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th, the district around the rue des Rosiers, referred to as the "Pletzl", welcomed many Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazi) who reinforced the district's clothing specialization. During World War II the Jewish community was targeted by the Nazis who were occupying France. As of today the rue des Rosiers remains a major centre of the Paris Jewish community, which has made a comeback since the 1990s. Public notices announce Jewish events, bookshops specialize in Jewish books, and numerous restaurants and other outlets sell kosher food.

Institutions.

The synagogue on 10 rue Pavée is adjacent to the rue des Rosiers. It was designed in 1913 by Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard, who designed several Paris Metro stations. Le Marais houses the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. The museum conveys the rich history and culture of Jews in Europe and North Africa from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.

Historic events.

In 1982, Palestinian terrorists murdered 6 people and injured 22 at a Jewish restaurant in Le Marais, Chez Jo Goldenberg, an attack which evidence ties to the Abu Nidal Organization.

Post-war rehabilitation.

By the 1950s, the district had become a working-class area and most of its architectural masterpieces were in a bad state of repair. In 1964, General de Gaulle's Culture Minister Andre Malraux made the Marais the first "secteur sauvegardé" (literally "safeguarded sector"). These were meant to protect and conserve places of special cultural significance. In the following decades the government and the Parisian municipality led an active restoration and Rehabilitation Policy.  The main Hôtels particuliers have been restored and turned into museums: the Hôtel Salé hosts the Picasso Museum, the Hôtel Carnavalet hosts the Paris Historical Museum, the Hôtel Donon hosts the Cognacq-Jay Museum, the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan hosts the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme. The site of Beaubourg, the western part of Marais, was chosen for the Centre Georges Pompidou, France's national Museum of Modern Art and one of the world's most important cultural institutions. The building was completed in 1977 with revolutionary architecture by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

Today's Marais.

The Marais is now one of Paris' main localities for art galleries. Following its rehabilitation, the Marais has become a fashionable district, home to many trendy restaurants, fashion houses, and hip galleries.  The Marais is also known for the Chinese community it hosts. The community began to appear during World War I. At that time, France needed workers to replace its at-war soldiers and China decided to send a few thousand of its citizens on the condition that they would not take part in the war. After the 1918 victory, some of them decided to stay in Paris, specifically living around the current rue au Maire. Today, most work in jewellery and leather-related products. The Marais' Chinese community has settled in the north of the district, particularly in the surrounding of Place de la République. Next to it, on the Rue du Temple, is the Chinese Church of Paris.  Other features of the neighbourhood include the Musée Picasso, the house of Nicolas Flamel, the Musée Cognacq-Jay, and the Musée Carnavalet.

LGBT culture.

Le Marais became a centre of LGBT culture, beginning in the 1980s. As of today, 40% of the LGBT businesses in Paris are in Le Marais. Florence Tamagne, author of "Paris: 'Resting on its Laurels'?", wrote that Le Marais "is less a 'village' where one lives and works than an entrance to a pleasure area" and that this differentiates it from Anglo-American gay villages. Tamagne added that like U.S. gay villages, Le Marais has "an emphasis on 'commercialism, gay pride and coming-out of the closet'"."Le Dépôt", one of the largest cruising bars in Europe as of 2014 (per Tamagne), is in the Le Marais area.

Notable residents.

According to sources, the following are people of note:

Places and monuments of note.

According to sources, the following are places and monuments of note:

Le Marais (; "The Marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Long the aristocratic district of Paris, it hosts many outstanding buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements in Paris (on the Rive Droite, or Right Bank, of the Seine). Once shabby, the district has been rehabilitated and now sports trendy shopping and restaurants in streets such as Rue des Francs-Bourgeois and Rue des Rosiers.


History.

In 2013 Victoria Espinel resigned from the office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) of the Office of Management and Budget and joined the staff of the BSA as its president.

Campaigns.

Play It Cybersafe.

"Play It Cyber Safe" campaign features an anti-piracy ferret for a mascot. Objectives of the campaign include:

Bust Your Boss!

Among the more provocative approaches BSA has taken is the "Bust Your Boss!" campaign that has appeared on billboards, printed publications and on the Internet with the following suggestion: ""Is your current or former employer using pirated software in their office? Hit 'em where it really hurts - report their illegal software use today.""

Public policy.

BSA | The Software Alliance has put forward submissions to the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (Australia) in their Review of the Innovation Patent System.

Members.

Membership includes the following: Official Member List  Members no longer listed as members :

Criticism.

The BSA's enforcement practices against small to medium-sized businesses have been the subject of numerous articles. About 2006, the BSA came under fire for offering reward money up to $200,000 USD to disgruntled employees that report current or former employers for alleged violations of BSA member software licenses.  According to an article in Mother Jones magazine, the BSA discovered in 1995 that Antel, the Uruguayan national telephone company, had copied $100,000 worth of Microsoft, Novell, and Symantec software. The BSA's lawyers in Uruguay quickly filed suit, but dropped the suit in 1997 when Antel signed a "special agreement" with Microsoft to replace all of its software with Microsoft products. This has led to accusations that the BSA is a front for Microsoft, with its other members being enlisted purely to disguise Microsoft's dominant role.  The BSA supported the highly controversial US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This has led to calls from various online communities that BSA members should be boycotted as a result of their perceived attack on the Internet's underlying structure. Kaspersky Lab has left the BSA over this.

BSA annual software piracy study.

BSA has been heavily criticized about the yearly study it publishes about copyright infringement of software. This study, produced in collaboration with the International Data Corporation, tries to estimate the level of copyright infringement of software in different countries, as well as the resulting losses for the software industry. The methodology consists in estimating the number of computers shipped in a given country, as well as the average quantity of software installed on these machines. Separately, an estimation of the quantity of legitimate software sold in the country is produced, and the difference between the total amount of software estimated to be in use in the country and the estimation of software sold is used as an indicator of the rate of unauthorized copying. An estimation of the total amount lost is produced by multiplying the estimator number of unauthorized copies by the price of the original software.  These estimates have been criticized as being exaggerated and many flaws of the methodology have been pointed out; some of the figures seem to be guesses rather than solid data, and some data may not be representative. The calculation of the losses, in particular, assumes that each piece of copied software represents a direct loss of sale for software companies, a very contested assumption. The study's assumptions have been described as erroneous in a way "that would get a first year student of statistics into trouble".  These criticisms have been aggravated by the use of the BSA study to lobby for new, stricter copyright laws and to seek tougher penalties for people convicted of copyright infringement on software. In Britain, a judge cited the data provided by the BSA to justify a lengthy prison sentence for two people convicted of copyright infringement.  Another study claiming that software patents are of the same importance to small and medium enterprises and large companies, has been described as misleading and as using a flawed methodology, but the results have nevertheless been quoted by politicians.

The Software Alliance, also known as BSA, is a trade group established by Microsoft in 1988 to represent commercial software makers. It is a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance. Its principal activity is trying to stop copyright infringement of software produced by its members. Founded as the Business Software Alliance, it dropped "Business" from its name in October 2012, and styles itself "BSA | The Software Alliance".


Childhood and youth.

Jannings was born in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of Emil Janenz, an American businessman from St. Louis, and his wife Margarethe ("née" Schwabe), originally from Germany. Jannings held German citizenship; while he was still young the family moved to Leipzig in the German Empire and further to Görlitz after the early death of his father.  Jannings ran away from school and went to sea. When he returned to Görlitz, his mother finally allowed him to begin a traineeship at the town state theatre, where Jannings started his stage career. From 1901 onwards he worked with several theatre companies in Bremen, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Königsberg, and Glogau before joining the Deutsches Theater ensemble under director Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Permanently employed since 1915, Jannings met with playwright Karl Vollmöller, fellow actor Ernst Lubitsch, and photographer Frieda Riess, who after World War I all were at the heart of the Weimar Culture in 1920s Berlin. Jannings made his breakthrough in 1918 with his role as Judge Adam in Kleist's "Broken Jug" at the Schauspielhaus.

Career.

Jannings was a theater actor who went into films, though he remained dissatisfied with the limited expressive possibilities in the silent era. Having signed a contract with the UFA production company, he starred in "Die Augen der Mumie Ma" ("The Eyes of the Mummy", 1918) and "Madame DuBarry" (1919), both with Pola Negri in the main female part. He also performed in the 1922 film version of "Othello" and in F. W. Murnau's 1924 film "The Last Laugh" ("Der Letzte Mann"), as a proud but aged hotel doorman who is demoted to a restroom attendant. Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films; playing the title character in "Tartuffe" ("Herr Tartüff", 1925), and as Mephistopheles in "Faust" (1926).

America.

His increasing popularity enabled Jannings to sign an agreement with Paramount Pictures and eventually follow his acting colleagues Lubitsch and Negri to Hollywood. He started his career in 1927 with "The Way of All Flesh" directed by Victor Fleming (now lost) and in the following year performed in Josef von Sternberg's "The Last Command". In 1929, Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for his work in both films. He and Sternberg also cooperated in "Street of Sin" (1928), though they actually differed about Jannings' acting in front of the camera.  His Hollywood career came to an end with the advent of talkies as his thick German accent was difficult to understand. His dialogue was initially dubbed by another actor in the part-talkie "The Patriot" (1928) directed by Ernst Lubitsch, although Jannings' own voice was restored after he objected. Returning to Europe, he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film "The Blue Angel", which was filmed simultaneously in English with its German version "Der blaue Engel".  According to Susan Orlean, author of "Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend", Jannings was not actually the winner of the first best actor vote, but the runner-up. While researching her book, Orlean thought she discovered that it was in fact Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog, one of the biggest movie stars of his time, who won the vote. The Academy, however, worried about not being taken seriously if they gave the first Oscar to a dog, chose to award the Oscar to the human runner-up.  In 1960, Jannings was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1630 Vine Street for his contribution to motion pictures.

Nazi Germany.

After the Nazi "Machtergreifung" in 1933, Jannings continued his career in the service of Nazi cinema. During the Third Reich, he starred in several films which were intended to promote Nazism, particularly the "Führerprinzip" by presenting unyielding historical characters, such as "Der alte und der junge König" ("The Old and the Young King" 1934), "Der Herrscher" ("The Ruler" 1937) directed by Veit Harlan, "Robert Koch" (1939), "Ohm Krüger" ("Uncle Kruger", 1941) and "Die Entlassung" ("Bismarck's Dismissal", 1942). He also performed in his famed role in "The Broken Jug" directed by Gustav Ucicky. Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels named Jannings an "Artist of the State" ("Staatsschauspieler")  The shooting of his last film "Wo ist Herr Belling?" was aborted when troops of the Allied Powers entered Germany in Spring 1945. Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette with him as proof of his former association with Hollywood. However, his active role in Nazi propaganda meant that he was subject to denazification, effectively ending his career.  Ironically, in the same period Dietrich became a US citizen and an influential anti-Nazi activist, spending much of the war entertaining troops on the front lines and broadcasting on behalf of the OSS. Dietrich particularly loathed Jannings for his Nazi ties, and would later refer to her former co-star as a "ham".

Death.

Jannings retired to Strobl near Salzburg, Austria, and became an Austrian citizen in 1947. He died in 1950, aged 65, from liver cancer. He is buried in the St. Wolfgang cemetery. His Best Actor Oscar is now on display at the Berlin Filmmuseum.

Marriages.

Jannings was married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce, his last with his death. His last three marriages were to German stage and film actresses, Hanna Ralph, Lucie Höflich, and Gussy Holl. He had a daughter, Ruth-Maria, although some sources say Ruth-Maria was actually his stepdaughter, and that her real father was Conrad Veidt, Holl's first husband.

Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first Oscar recipient, honored with the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 1929 ceremony for his roles in the films "The Last Command" and "The Way of All Flesh". Jannings is the only German ever to have won that award.


Biography.

Early years.

Wilhelm Christian Weitling was born in Magdeburg, Prussia, the son of Christiane Weitling and Guilliaume Terijon. Weitling's father was a young French officer who was billeted in occupied Prussia, who met and fell in love with Weitling's mother, a household maid. His parents never married, with his father dying in the ill-fated 1812 French invasion of Russia.  Weitling was raised in dire poverty, frequently in the care of others while his mother eked out a meager living as a maid and cook. His formal education was minimal, limited to elementary study in the public school of Magdeburg and such reading as he was able to do on his own at the local library. He was raised as a Roman Catholic through the age of 12, and read the Bible attentively, retaining an ability to quote scripture throughout his life. In keeping with the dual nationality of his birth, Weitling was bilingual in French and German, learning English as well as the basics of Italian later in his life.  Weitling was apprenticed to a tailor at an early age, living with his master and learning the skill of tailoring garments for women and men thoroughly. He became a journeyman at the age of 18, leaving his hometown to travel across the German states in search of employment. He landed in the city of Leipzig in 1830, where he began to take an interest in politics and to try his hand at the writing of satirical poetry. He made his way to Dresden in the fall of 1832 and from there to Vienna in 1834, where he worked fabricating artificial flowers and decorations for women's clothing.  In the fall of 1837 Weitling emigrated to Paris, a city which he had briefly visited two years before. He would remain there for four years, becoming deeply involved in the radical political ideas of the day, in particular the writings of Fourier, Owen and Cabet.

Political activity.

After joining the League of the Just in 1837, Weitling joined Parisian workers in protests and street battles in 1839. Tristram Hunt called his doctrine "a highly emotional mix of Babouvist communism, chiliastic Christianity, and millenarian populism": In conformity with the work of the Christian radical Felicité de Lamennais, Weitling urged installing communism by physical force with the help of a 40,000-strong army of ex-convicts. A prelapsarian community of goods, fellowship, and societal harmony would then ensue, directed by Weitling himself. While Marx and Engels struggled with the intricacies of industrial capitalism and modern modes of production, Weitling revived the apocalyptic politics of the sixteenth-century Münster Anabaptists and their gory attempts to usher in the Second Coming. Much to Marx and Engels's annoyance, Weitling's giddy blend of evangelism and protocommunism attracted thousands of dedicated disciples across the Continent.  In 1838, he published his first work, "Die Menschheit, wie sie ist und wie sie sein sollte" (The human race as it is, and as it should be), which was translated into Hungarian and other languages.  In 1841, after the abortive rebellion of the Blanquists, he went to Switzerland, visiting Geneva, Vevey and Langenthal in the Canton of Berne, and finally settling in Zurich in 1843. At all these places, he promoted the doctrines of communism with his preaching and publications, including the 1842 work "Garantien der Harmonie und Freiheit" (Guarantees of harmony and freedom).  Weitling's work "Das Evangelium eines armen Sünders" (The poor sinner's gospel) came out in 1845, but by this time the attention of the Swiss authorities had been attracted. He was arrested and prosecuted for revolutionary agitation, including blasphemy on account of having published a text which depicted Jesus Christ as both a communist and the illegitimate child of Mary. Found guilty, he was given a six-month sentence.  On his release, he was deported back to Prussia. He resided for a time in Hamburg, but then left on a journey which took him to London, Treves, Brussels and New York City.  In Weitling's 1847 book "Gospel of Poor Sinners," he traced communism back to early Christianity.  Upon the outbreak of the revolutions of 1848 in Germany, Weitling returned to Germany, preaching his communism to little effect. When the revolutions failed in 1849, he returned to New York thus becoming one of the Forty-Eighters.  His book "Guarantees of Harmony and Freedom" was praised by Bruno Bauer, Ludwig Feuerbach and Mikhail Bakunin, the latter of whom Weitling was to meet in Zürich in 1843. Karl Marx, in an article from 1844, referred to Weitling's work as the "vehement and brilliant literary debut of the German workers," Although John Spargo suggested that "what won from Marx this high-sounding praise was simply the fact that Weitling's appeals were addressed to the workers as a class", Marx himself emphasized Weitling's theoretical and philosophical "brilliance," which compared favorably to the more "economically" inclined English workers and the more practical "politically" oriented French workers.

American years.

Weitling continued his activism on behalf of communism in the United States. In January 1850, he began the publication of a monthly journal, "Die Republik der Arbeiter". By the end of the year, it had a circulation of 4,000. Toward the end of his life he turned from activism to technological and astronomical studies. For seven years, he was register at Castle Garden. He received nine patents for improvements to sewing machines, among which were double stitch, button hole and embroidery attachments. He received a patent for a dress-trimming crimper which he had worked on for 17 years, and on his death left several unfinished machines.  He participated with the experimental German-American settlement of Communia, Iowa. Weitling died in New York City. A widow and six children survived him.

Wilhelm Christian Weitling (October 5, 1808 – January 25, 1871) was a German-born tailor, inventor, and radical political activist. Weitling gained fame in Europe as a social theorist before emigrating to the United States.


Early career.

Born in Plovdiv, Kostadinova went to a specialist sports school, but was only introduced to high jump in a Year Six (12-13 year olds) athletics meet in Sofia, on a day she is quoted as saying she would never forget (on TransWorldSport interview in 2012). She jumped 1.66m (5 ft 4)and was informed that it was a world record for her age group; equivalent to the adult female world record in 1941: See Women's high jump world record progression

Career.

Kostadinova is the reigning world record holder in the women's high jump at 2.09 m, which she jumped during the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome. Her world record is one of the oldest in modern athletics. Altogether Kostadinova set seven world records - three outdoors and four indoors. She also holds the distinction of having jumped over 2.00 m 197 times.  Kostadinova won the gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, setting an Olympic record of 2.05 m. She also won a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Kostadinova won the outdoor World Championships in 1987 and 1995. She won the World Indoor Championship five times between 1985 and 1997. Kostadinova also won gold in all European Championships in Athletics in which she competed. She was a European outdoor champion in Stuttgart in 1986 and a four-time European indoor champion in 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1994.  Kostadinova was voted Sportsperson of the Year in Bulgaria four times (1985, 1987, 1995 and 1996).

Personal life.

In 1995 Kostadinova gave birth to her son, Nikolay, just several months before winning gold in the 1995 World Championships in Athletics. In 1999 she divorced her long-standing husband and coach, Nikolay Petrov. The same year she officially put an end to her athletic career, though she had actually not participated in any major sports competition since the World Indoors Championship in 1997. In 2007 Kostadinova married her companion of some nine years, a businessman in the construction industry, Nikolai Popvasilev.

Sports administration career.

After retiring Kostadinova started a career in sports administration. She has served as vice president of the Bulgarian Athletic Federation, vice president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee and was deputy sports minister of Bulgaria from 2003 through 2005.  On November 11, 2005 Kostadinova was elected president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee. She replaced Ivan Slavkov, who was expelled by the International Olympic Committee for violating its standards in ethics.

Stefka Georgieva Kostadinova (; born March 25, 1965) is a Bulgarian retired athlete who competed in the high jump. Her world record of 2.09 metres has stood since 1987. She was the 1996 Olympic champion, a twice World champion and five-times a World Indoor champion. She has been the president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee since 2005.


Subdivisions.

"Prunus serotina" has the following subspecies and varieties:

Description.

"Prunus serotina" is a medium-sized, fast-growing forest tree growing to a height of. Leaves are long, ovate-lanceolate in shape, with finely toothed margins. Fall leaf color is yellow to red. Flowers are small, white and 5-petalled, in racemes long which contain several dozen flowers. The flowers give rise to reddish-black "berries" (drupes) fed on by birds, in diameter.  For about its first decade the bark of a black cherry tree is thin, smooth, and banded, resembling a birch. A mature tree has very broken, dark grey to black bark. The leaves are long and shiny, resembling a sourwood’s. An almond-like odor is released when a young twig is scratched and held close to the nose, revealing minute amounts of cyanide compounds produced and stored by the plant as a defense mechanism against herbivores.

Ecology and cultivation.

"Prunus serotina" is a pioneer species. In the Midwest, it is seen growing mostly in old fields with other sunlight-loving species, such as black walnut, black locust, and hackberry. Gleason and Cronquist (1991) describe "P. serotina" as "[f]ormerly a forest tree, now abundant as a weed-tree of roadsides, waste land, and forest-margins". It is a moderately long-lived tree, with ages of up to 258 years known, though it is prone to storm damage, with branches breaking easily; any decay resulting, however, only progresses slowly. Seed production begins around 10 years of age, but does not become heavy until 30 years and continues up to 100 years or more. Germination rates are high, and the seeds are widely dispersed by birds and bears who eat the fruit and then excrete them. Some seeds however may remain in the soil bank and not germinate for as long as three years. All "Prunus" species have hard seeds that benefit from scarification to germinate (which in nature is produced by passing through an animal's digestive tract).  "Prunus serotina" was widely introduced into Western and Central Europe as an ornamental tree in the mid 20th century, where it has become locally naturalized. It has acted as an invasive species there, negatively affecting forest community biodiversity and regeneration.  "Prunus serotina" subsp. "capuli" was cultivated in Central and South America well before European contact.  Deer browse the foliage.

Biochemistry.

Like apricots and apples, the seeds of black cherries contain cyanogenic glycosides, compounds that can be converted into cyanide, such as amygdalin. These compounds release hydrogen cyanide when the seed is ground or minced, which releases enzymes that break down the compounds. These enzymes include amygdalin beta-glucosidase, prunasin beta-glucosidase and mandelonitrile lyase. In contrast, although the flesh of cherries also contains these compounds, it does not contain the enzymes needed to produce cyanide, so the flesh is safe to eat.  The foliage, particularly when wilted, also contains cyanogenic glycosides, which convert to hydrogen cyanide if eaten by animals. Farmers are recommended to remove any trees that fall in a field containing livestock, because the wilted leaves could poison the animals. Removal is not always practical, though, because they often grow in very large numbers on farms, taking advantage of the light brought about by mowing and grazing. Entire fencerows can be lined with this poisonous tree, making it difficult to monitor all the branches falling into the grazing area. Black cherry is a leading cause of livestock illness, and grazing animals' access to it should be limited.

Pests and diseases.

"P. serotina" is a host of caterpillars of various Lepidoptera (see List of Lepidoptera which feed on "Prunus"). The eastern tent caterpillar defoliates entire groves some springs.

Uses.

Known as capolcuahuitl in Nahuatl (the source of the "capuli" epithet), it was an important food in pre-Columbian Mexico. Native Americans ate the berries.  The wood of "Prunus serotina" is also used as a spice in foods, as it imparts a unique flavor.  "Prunus serotina" timber is valuable; perhaps the premier cabinetry timber of the U.S., traded as "cherry". High quality cherry timber is known for its strong orange hues and high price. Low-quality wood, as well as the sap wood, can be more tan. Its density when dried is around.  "Prunus serotina" trees are sometimes planted as ornamentals.

Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub belonging to the genus "Prunus". The species is widespread and common in North America and South America.


Background.

In 1195, Alfonso VIII of Castile was defeated by the Almohads in the Disaster of Alarcos. After this victory the Almohads took several important cities: Trujillo, Plasencia, Talavera, Cuenca, and Uclés. Then, in 1211, Muhammad al-Nasir crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with a powerful army, invaded Christian territory, and captured Salvatierra Castle, the stronghold of the knights of the Order of Calatrava. The threat to the Hispanic Christian kingdoms was so great that Pope Innocent III called Christian knights to a crusade.

Battle.

Alfonso crossed the mountain range that defended the Almohad camp, sneaking through the Despeñaperros Pass, led by Martín Alhaja, a local shepherd who knew the area. The Christian coalition caught the Moorish army at camp by surprise, and Alhaja was granted the hereditary title Cabeza de Vaca for his assistance to Alfonso VIII. According to legend, the Caliph had his tent surrounded with a bodyguard of slave-warriors. Though it was once claimed that these men were chained together to prevent flight, it is considered more likely that this results from a mistranslation of the word "serried", meaning a densely packed formation. The Navarrese force led by their king Sancho VII broke through this bodyguard. The Caliph escaped, but the Moors were routed, leaving heavy casualties on the battlefield. The victorious Christians seized several prizes of war; Miramamolín's tent and standard were delivered to Pope Innocent III.  Christian losses were far fewer, only about 2,000 men (though not as few as legend had it). The losses were particularly heavy among the Orders. Those killed included Pedro Gómez de Acevedo (bannerman of the Order of Calatrava), Alvaro Fernández de Valladares ("comendator" of the Order of Santiago), Pedro Arias (master of the Order of Santiago, died of wounds on 3 August) and Gomes Ramires (Portuguese master of the Knights Templar and simultaneously master of Leon, Castile and Portugal). Ruy Díaz (master of the Order of Calatrava) was so grievously wounded that he had to resign his command.  Muhammad al-Nasir died in Marrakech shortly afterwards.

Aftermath.

The crushing defeat of the Almohads significantly hastened their decline both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Maghreb a decade later. That gave further impulse to the Christian Reconquest and sharply reduced the already declining power of the Moors in Iberia. Shortly after the battle, the Castilians took Baeza and then Úbeda, major fortified cities near the battlefield and gateways to invade Andalusia. According to a letter from Alfonso VIII of Castile to Pope Innocent III, Baeza was evacuated and its people moved to Úbeda; Alfonso laid siege, killing 60,000 Muslims and enslaving many more. According to the "Latin Chronicle of Kings of Castile" the number given is almost 100,000 Saracens, including children and women, who were captured.  Thereafter, Alfonso VIII's grandson Ferdinand III of Castile took Cordova in 1236, Jaén in 1246, and Seville in 1248; then he took Arcos, Medina-Sidonia, Jerez, and Cádiz. In 1252, Ferdinand was preparing his fleet and army for invasion of the Almohad lands in Africa. But he died in Seville on 30 May 1252, during an outbreak of plague in southern Hispania. Only Ferdinand's death prevented the Castilians from taking the war to the Almohad on the Mediterranean coast, James I of Aragon conquered the Balearic Islands (from 1228 over the following four years) and Valencia (the city capitulated on 28 September 1238).  By 1252 the Almohad empire was almost finished, at the mercy of another emerging African power. In 1269 a new association of African tribes, the Marinids, took control of the Maghreb, and most of the former Almohad empire was under their rule. Later, the Marinids tried to recover the former Almohad territories in Iberia, but they were definitively defeated by Alfonso XI of Castile and Afonso IV of Portugal in the Battle of Río Salado, the last major military encounter between large Christian and Muslim armies in Hispania.

Moorish Granada.

In 1292 Sancho IV took Tarifa, key to the control of the Strait of Gibraltar. Granada, Almería, and Málaga were the only major Muslim cities remaining in the Iberian peninsula. These three cities were the core of the Emirate of Granada, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. Granada was a vassal state of Castile, until finally taken by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.

In fiction.

Harry Harrison's 1972 alternate history/science fiction novel "Tunnel Through the Deeps" depicts a history where the Moors won at Las Navas de Tolosa and retained part of Spain into the 20th century.

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, known in Arab history as the Battle of Al-Uqab (), took place on 16 July 1212 and was an important turning point in the "Reconquista" and in the medieval history of Spain. The Christian forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile were joined by the armies of his rivals, Sancho VII of Navarre and Peter II of Aragon, in battle against the Almohad Muslim rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. The al-Nasir ("Miramamolín" in the Spanish chronicles) led the Almohad army, made up of people from all over the Almohad Caliphate.


Early life.

Güler was born in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1928 to Armenian parents. He studied at the local Getronagan Armenian High School. Owner of a pharmacy on Istiklal Avenue, his father had a wide circle of friends from the art world of the period. Ara Güler's early contact with this world inspired him to embark on a career in cinema. During his high school years, he jobbed in movie studios and attended drama courses held by Muhsin Ertuğrul, the founder of modern Turkish theater. However, he abandoned cinema in favor of journalism, joining the staff of the newspaper "Yeni Istanbul" as photojournalist in 1950 and studying economics at the University of Istanbul at the same time. He then transferred to another newspaper, "Hürriyet". (Güler is not related to the royal Guleria family.)

Photography career.

In 1958, the American magazine company "Time–Life" opened a branch in Turkey, and Güler became its first correspondent for the Near East. Soon he received commissions from "Paris Match, Stern," and "The Sunday Times in London." After completing his military service in 1961, Güler was employed by the Turkish magazine "Hayat" as head of its photographic department.  About this time, he met Henri Cartier-Bresson and Marc Riboud, who recruited him for the Magnum Photos agency, which he joined (though later withdrew from). He was presented in the British "1961 Photography Yearbook." Also in that year, he was accepted as the only Turkish member to the American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP) (today called the American Society of Media Photographers). The Swiss magazine "Camera" honored him with a special issue.  In the 1960s, Güler's photographs were used to illustrate books by notable authors and were displayed at various exhibitions throughout the world. His works were exhibited in 1968 in "10 Masters of Color Photography" at the New York Museum of Modern Art and at Photokina Fair in Cologne, Germany. His book "Türkei" was published in Germany in 1970. His photos on art and art history were used in "Time," "Life," "Horizon" and "Newsweek" and publications of Skira of Switzerland.  Güler traveled on assignment to Iran, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Kenya, New Guinea, Borneo, as well as all parts of Turkey. In the 1970s he photographed politicians and artists such as Indira Gandhi, Maria Callas, John Berger, Bertrand Russell, Willy Brandt, Alfred Hitchcock, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso. Some critics consider his most renowned photographs to be his melancholic black and white pictures taken mostly with a Leica camera in Istanbul, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s.  He has exhibited frequently since then, and also had his work published in special supplements. International publishers have featured his photographs.  Güler's work is collected by the National Library of France in Paris; the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery; Museum Ludwig Köln, and Das imaginäre Photo-Museum, Köln.  In the 1970s, Güler worked in film, directing the documentary "The End of the Hero" (1975). It was based on a fictional account of the dismantling of the World War I veteran battlecruiser "TCG Yavuz."  Güler's archive contains some 800,000 photographic slides.

Güler's 'philosophy' of photography.

Güler attached the greatest importance to human presence in his photographs and described himself as a "visual historian". ""When I'm taking a picture of Aya Sofia, what counts is the person passing by who stands for life"", he said. He believed that photography should provide a memory of people, of their lives and especially their suffering. While he considers that art lies, he believes that photography can only reflect reality. He embraced the identity of a photojournalist because he did not attach much value to photography as an artistic pursuit, which to him would have little value. He did not consider photography to be an art.

Death.

Güler died of a heart attack on 17 October 2018. He had been suffering from kidney failure and was being treated with dialysis.

Ara Güler (16 August 1928 – 17 October 2018) was an Armenian-Turkish photojournalist, nicknamed "the Eye of Istanbul" or "the Photographer of Istanbul". He was "one of Turkey's few internationally known photographers".


History.

In the Treaty of Paris in 1814 the Austrians had confirmed their claims to the territories of the former Lombard Duchy of Milan, which had been ruled by the Habsburg Monarchy since 1714 and together with the adjacent Duchy of Mantua by the Austrian branch of the dynasty from 1708 to 1796, and of the former Republic of Venice, which had been under Austrian rule intermittently upon the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio.  The Congress of Vienna combined these lands into a single kingdom, ruled in personal union by the Habsburg Emperor of Austria; as distinct of the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio as well as the Duchy of Parma, which remained independent entities under Habsburg rule. The Austrian emperor was represented day-to-day by viceroys appointed by the Imperial Court in Vienna and resident in Milan and Venice.  The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was first ruled by Emperor Francis I from 1815 to his death in 1835. His son Ferdinand I ruled from 1835 to 1848. In Milan on 6 September 1838, he became the last king to be crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. The crown was subsequently brought to Vienna after the loss of Lombardy in 1859 but was restored to Italy after the loss of Venetia in 1866.  Though the local administration was Italian in language and staff, the Austrian authorities had to cope with the Italian unification ("Risorgimento") movement. After a popular revolution on 22 March 1848, known as the "Five Days of Milan", the Austrians fled from Milan, which became the capital city of a "Governo Provvisorio della Lombardia" (Lombardy Provisional Government). The next day, Venice also rose against the Austrian rule, forming the "Governo Provvisorio di Venezia" (Venice Provisional Government). The Austrian forces under Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky, after defeating the Sardinian troops at the Battle of Custoza (24–25 July 1848), entered Milan (6 August) and Venice (24 August 1849), and once again restored Austrian rule.  Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria ruled over the Kingdom for the rest of its existence. The office of Viceroy was abolished and replaced by a Governor-General. The office was initially assumed by Field Marshal Radetzky, upon his retirement in 1857 it passed it to Franz Joseph's younger brother Maximilian (who later became Emperor of Mexico), who served as Governor-General in Milan from 1857 to 1859.

End of the Kingdom.

After the Second Italian War of Independence and the defeat in the Battle of Solferino in 1859, Austria by the Treaty of Zurich had to cede Lombardy up to the Mincio River, except for the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera, to the French Emperor Napoleon III, who immediately passed it to the Kingdom of Sardinia and the embryonic Italian state. Maximilian retired to Miramare Castle near Trieste, while the capital was relocated to Venice. However, remaining Venetia and Mantua likewise fell to the Kingdom of Italy in the aftermath of the Third Italian War of Independence, by the 1866 Peace of Prague. The territory of Venetia and Mantua was formally transferred from Austria to France, and then handed over to Italy on 19 October 1866, for diplomatic reasons; a plebiscite marked the Italian annexation on 21–22 October 1866.

Administration.

Administratively the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia comprised two independent governments ("Gubernien") in its two parts, which officially were declared separate crown lands in 1851. Each part was further subdivided in several provinces, roughly corresponding with the "départements" of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.  Lombardy included the provinces of Milan, Como, Bergamo, Brescia, Pavia, Cremona, Mantua, Lodi-Crema, and Sondrio. Venetia included the provinces of Venice, Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, Rovigo, Belluno, and Udine.  According to the Ethnographic map of Karl von Czoernig-Czernhausen, issued by the Imperial and Royal Administration of Statistics in 1855, the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia then had a population of 5,024,117 people, consisting of the following ethnic groups: 4,625,746 Italians; 351,805 Friulians; 12,084 Germans (Cimbrians in Venetia); 26,676 Slovenians and 7,806 Jews.  For the first time since 1428, Lombardy reappeared as an entity, the first time in history that term "Lombardy" was officially used to call specifically this entity and not for the whole Northern Italy  The administration used Italian as its language in its internal and external communications and documents, and the language's dominant position in politics, finance or jurisdiction was not questioned by the Austrian officials. The Italian-language "Gazzetta di Milano" was the official newspaper of the Kingdom. Civil servants employed in the administration were predominately Italian, with only about 10 per cent of them being recruited from other regions of the Austrian Empire. Some bilingual Italian-German-speaking civil servants came from the neighboring County of Tyrol. The German language, however, was the command language of the military, and top police officials were native German-speakers from other parts of the Empire. The highest governorships were also reserved for Austrian aristocrats.  Austrian general Karl von Schönhals wrote in his memoirs that the Austrian administration enjoyed the support of the rural population and the middle class educated at the universities of Pavia and Padua, who were able to pursue careers in the administration.  Von Schönhals further noted that the Austrians mistrusted and refused the local aristocrats from high government offices, as they traditionally had rejected university education and were in the past able to gain leadership positions because of their family background. Consequently, the aristocrats saw themselves deprived of the possibility of establishing themselves in the management of society and supported the wars of independence against the Austrians.

The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (), commonly called the "Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom" (, ), was a constituent land (crown land) of the Austrian Empire. It was created in 1815 by resolution of the Congress of Vienna in recognition of the Austrian House of Habsburg-Lorraine's rights to Lombardy and the former Republic of Venice after the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed in 1805, had collapsed. It was finally dissolved in 1866 when its remaining territory was incorporated into the recently proclaimed Kingdom of Italy.


Genera.

The following 27 extant genera are recognized in the family Oleaceae. "Linociera" is not included, even though some authors continue to recognize it. "Linociera" is not easy to distinguish from "Chionanthus", mostly because the latter is polyphyletic and not clearly defined.

Overview.

The type genus for Oleaceae is "Olea", the olives. Recent classifications recognize no subfamilies, but the family is divided into five tribes. The distinctiveness of each tribe has been strongly supported in molecular phylogenetic studies, but the relationships among the tribes were not clarified until 2014. The phylogenetic tree for Oleaceae is a 5-grade that can be represented as {Myxopyreae [Forsythieae (Fontanesieae <Jasmineae + Oleeae>)]}.  The major centers of diversity for Oleaceae are in Southeast Asia and Australia. There are also a significant number of species in Africa, China, and North America. In the tropics the family is represented in a variety of habitats, from low-lying dry forest to montane cloud forest. In Oleaceae, the seed dispersal is almost entirely by wind or animals. In the case that the fruit is a berry, the species is mostly dispersed by birds. The wind-dispersed fruits are samaras.  Some of the older works have recognized as many as 29 genera in Oleaceae. Today, most authors recognize at least 25, but this number will change because some of these genera have recently been shown to be polyphyletic.  Estimates of the number of species in Oleaceae have ranged from 600 to 900. Most of the species number discrepancy is due to the genus "Jasminum" in which as few as 200 or as many as 450 species have been accepted.  In spite of the sparsity of the fossil record, and the inaccuracy of molecular-clock dating, it is clear that Oleaceae is an ancient family that became widely distributed early in its history. Some of the genera are believed to be relictual populations that remained unchanged over long periods because of isolation imposed by geographical barriers like the low-elevation areas that separate mountain peaks.

Description.

Members of the family Oleaceae are woody plants, mostly trees and shrubs; a few are lianas. Some of the shrubs are, climbing by scrambling into other vegetation.  Leaves without stipules; simple or pinnately or ternately compound. The family is characterized by opposite leaves. Alternate or whorled arrangements are rarely observed, with some "Jasminum" species presenting a spiral configuration. The laminas are pinnately veined and can be serrate, dentate or entire at the margin. Domatia are observed in certain taxa. The leaves may be either deciduous or evergreen, with evergreen species predominating in warm temperate and tropical regions, and deciduous species predominating in colder regions.  The flowers are most often bisexual and actinomorphic, occurring in racemes or panicles, and often fragrant. The calyx and corolla, when present, are gamosepalous and gamopetalous, respectively, their lobes connate, at least at the base. The androecium has 2 stamens. These are inserted on the corolla tube and alternate with the corolla lobes. The stigmas are two-lobed. The gynoecium consists of a compound pistil with two carpels. The ovary is superior with two locules. The placentation is axile. Ovules usually 2 per locule; sometimes 4, rarely many. Nectary disk, when present, encircling the base of the ovary. The plants are most often hermaphrodite but sometimes polygamomonoecious.  The fruit can be a berry, drupe, capsule or samaras.  The obvious feature that distinguishes Oleaceae and its sister family, Carlemanniaceae, from all others, is the fact that while the flowers are actinomorphic, the number of stamens is reduced to two.  Many members of the family are economically significant. The olive ("Olea europaea") is important for its fruit and for the olive oil extracted from it. The ashes ("Fraxinus") are valued for their tough wood. Forsythias, lilacs, jasmines, osmanthuses, privets, and fringe trees are valued as ornamental plants in gardens and landscaping. At least two species of jasmine are the source of an essential oil. Their flowers are often added to tea.

History.

Carl Linnaeus named eight of the genera of Oleaceae in 1753 in his Species Plantarum. He did not designate what we now know as plant families, but placed his genera in artificial groups for purposes of identification. After the work of Linnaeus, names for groups that included the genera of Oleaceae were used, but none of them was a valid publication of the family name Oleaceae. For example, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, in his "Genera Plantarum" in 1789, placed them in an order which he called "Jasmineae". In 1809, in a flora of Portugal, Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg and Johann H.F. Link described at the taxonomic rank of family a group which they called "Oleinae". Their description is now regarded as the establishment of what we now know as Oleaceae.  The last revision of Oleaceae was published in 2004 in a series entitled "The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants". Since that time, molecular phylogenetic work has shown that the next revision of Oleaceae must include substantial changes to the circumscription of genera.

Classification.

Oleaceae is most closely related to the small Indo-Malesian family Carlemanniaceae. These two families form the second most basal clade in the order Lamiales, after Plocospermataceae. The families Plocospermataceae, Carlemanniaceae, Oleaceae, and Tetrachondraceae form a polyphyletic group known as the "basal Lamiales", which is in contrast to the monophyletic "core Lamiales".

Taxonomy.

Oleaceae is one of only a few major plant families for which no well-sampled molecular phylogenetic study has ever been conducted. The only DNA sequence study of the entire family sampled 76 species for two noncoding chloroplast loci, "rps16" and "trnL–F". Little was determined in this study, largely because the mutation rate in the chloroplast genome of Oleaceae is very low compared to that of most other angiosperm families.  Also, the family is notorious for incongruence between phylogenies based on plastid and nuclear DNA. The most likely cause of this incongruence is reticulate evolution resulting from rampant hybridization.  The delimitation of genera in Oleaceae has always been especially problematic. Some recent studies of small groups of related genera have shown that some of the genera are not monophyletic. For example, "Olea" section "Tetrapilus" is separate from the rest of "Olea". It is a distinct group of 23 species and had been named as a genus, "Tetrapilus", by João de Loureiro in 1790.  The genus "Ligustrum" has long been suspected of having originated from within "Syringa", and this was confirmed in a cladistic comparison of selected chloroplast genes.  "Osmanthus" consists of at least three lineages whose closest relatives are not other lineages of "Osmanthus".  "Chionanthus" is highly polyphyletic, with its species scattered across the phylogenetic tree of the subtribe Oleinae. Its African species are closer to "Noronhia" than to its type species, the North American "Chionanthus virginicus". Its Madagascan species are phylogenetically within "Noronhia" and will be formally transferred to it in a forthcoming paper.  The monophyly of "Nestegis" is in considerable doubt, but few of its closest relatives have been sampled in phylogenetic studies.

The Oleaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales. It presently comprises 28 genera, one of which is recently extinct. The extant genera includes "Cartrema", which was resurrected in 2012. The number of species in the Oleaceae is variously estimated in a wide range around 700. The Oleaceae consist of shrubs, trees, and a few lianas. The flowers are often numerous and highly odoriferous. The family has a subcosmopolitan distribution, ranging from the subarctic to the southernmost parts of Africa, Australia, and South America. Notable members of the Oleaceae include olive, ash, jasmine, and several popular ornamental plants including privet, forsythia, fringetrees, and lilac.


History.

Following Freddie Mercury's death on 24 November 1991 from bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS, the remaining members of Queen (John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor) came together with their manager Jim Beach to organize a concert to celebrate the life and legacy of Mercury, and to raise money for AIDS research and spread awareness about the disease. In February 1992, at the annual BRIT Awards ceremony, May and Taylor announced plans for the concert. When tickets finally went on sale, all 72,000 tickets sold out in just three hours, even though no performers were announced apart from remaining members of Queen.

Concert.

The concert opened with a message from the three remaining members of Queen in tribute to Mercury. The music then commenced with short sets from artists that were influenced by the music of Queen, including Metallica, Extreme (playing a Queen medley), Def Leppard (who brought Brian May onstage for a version of "Now I'm Here"), and Guns N' Roses. Between bands, several video clips honouring Freddie Mercury were shown while roadies changed the stage for the following act's performance. Elizabeth Taylor then gave an AIDS prevention speech, which was followed by a compilation of Mercury's various interactions with audiences.  The second half of the concert featured the three remaining Queen members – John Deacon (on bass), Brian May (on guitar) and Roger Taylor (on drums) – along with guest singers and guitarists, including Elton John, Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), David Bowie, Mick Ronson (of Spiders from Mars), James Hetfield (of Metallica), George Michael, Seal, Paul Young, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield, Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin), Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard), Axl Rose and Slash (of Guns N' Roses), Liza Minnelli, and others. Via satellite from Sacramento, California, U2 dedicated a live performance of "Until the End of the World" to Mercury.

Home releases.

The concert was originally released in VHS form (usually in two tape releases worldwide), but due to time limitations, "Love of My Life" and "More Than Words" by Extreme, "Animal" and "Let's Get Rocked" by Def Leppard, Spinal Tap's "The Majesty of Rock", U2's "Until The End of the World", Mango Groove's "Special Star" and Robert Plant's version of "Innuendo" were removed in the original release. The US release also omitted Bob Geldof's performance of "Too Late God", and Zucchero Fornaciari's performance of "Las Palabras de Amor".  In April 2002, for the 10th anniversary of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the second half of the concert featuring the performances by the surviving members of Queen was released on DVD and entered the UK charts at number 1. "Innuendo" was not included on the DVD, at the request of Robert Plant. In addition, the original 4:3 footage had been cropped down to widescreen.  On 24 June 2013, Queen announced on their Facebook page that a new remastered version of the concert would be released in late 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD and Blu-ray was released on 2 September 2013. Like the earlier, VHS release, this version excludes Extreme's "Love of My Life" and "More Than Words", Def Leppard's "Animal" and "Let's Get Rocked", Spinal Tap, U2 and Mango Groove from the opening acts segment of the show, and Robert Plant's "Innuendo" from the Queen+ segment of the show.  Clips of rehearsals and of Metallica's set (as well as James Hetfield's performance of Stone Cold Crazy with Queen and Tony Iommi) were featured in the 1992 documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica.  In May 2020, Queen announced that they will be premiering the concert on YouTube to raise money for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. It will be available for 48 hours.  Several songs from the concert have also been released in audio-only format:

Performances.

Backing musicians.

Queen were backed by the following musicians:

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was a benefit concert held on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992 at Wembley Stadium in London, England for an audience of 72,000. The concert was produced for television by Ray Burdis, directed by David Mallet and broadcast live on television and radio to 76 countries around the world, with an audience of up to one billion. The concert was a tribute to Queen's lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS on 24 November 1991. The show marked bassist John Deacon's final full-length concert with Queen (save a short live appearance with Brian May, Roger Taylor and Elton John in 1997). The profits from the concert were used to launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity organisation.